Forcing the Aloof Master to Madness - Chapter 12 

The Weeping Soul Strand continued to cry endlessly. Its wailing was sharp and grating. Crying was its weapon, but since its sprout was still small, it lacked any real destructive power.

Shen Lezhi felt guilty for not watering it for two days and bore the noise as long as she could. Finally, under the increasingly ear-piercing sound, she could no longer endure it and slammed the gourd bottle full of Spiritual Spring Water heavily onto the wooden table.

The noise startled the Weeping Soul Strand into a sudden hiccup.

“M-Master…” The Weeping Soul Strand’s voice became tiny, truly sounding wronged this time.

However, Shen Lezhi only wanted it to stop crying; the sound was truly unbearable. She wasn’t actually mad at the Weeping Soul Strand, especially since it looked truly unwell.

The newly grown sprout was drooping, the leaf tips showed some withered yellow streaks, and the stalk even had cracks running along it.

In just two short days, the Weeping Soul Strand looked as if it had withered again. If it weren’t for it still playing the passive-aggressive victim to Shen Lezhi, Shen Lezhi would have worried the moment she saw it.

Shen Lezhi made a show of disgust but was deeply concerned. She sprinkled the Spiritual Spring Water and tried to ask about the Weeping Soul Strand’s condition.

“It’s useless, Master,” the Weeping Soul Strand said in a low voice.

“What do you mean, useless?” Shen Lezhi took a breath into her chest, sitting down on the stool to ask.

“I’ve already withered. The root system is damaged,” the Weeping Soul Strand swayed its fragile sprout, calmly explaining to Shen Lezhi. “I need the spiritual energy you released last time when you saved me, the same kind of ling (spirit) as Auntie Flower. The Spiritual Spring Water has actually never worked for me.”

But the Weeping Soul Strand had no idea what kind of spiritual energy that was, and Shen Lezhi herself didn’t understand what she had released last time. Back then, she had brought the Weeping Soul Strand to the Medicinal Herb Peak, and after watering it with Spiritual Spring Water, the Weeping Soul Strand came back to life.

From Shen Lezhi’s perspective, besides watering the plant, she hadn’t done anything else.

Looking at the Weeping Soul Strand’s droopy branches, Shen Lezhi was anxious. “I’ll take you to the Medicinal Herb Peak. The Senior Brothers and Sisters there must have a solution!”

She spoke and immediately acted, but since she was also worried about the spiritual plants in the field not having been watered for two days, she first rushed there.

Fortunately, the spiritual plants in the field seemed fine. Shen Lezhi watered them and briefly checked them before rushing towards the Medicinal Herb Peak, carrying the Weeping Soul Strand’s flowerpot.

In the past, running constantly like this would have exhausted her, but today, after having already run so far, she didn’t feel a hint of fatigue.

Her legs felt so light, as if she were walking on clouds—soft and spongy, requiring almost no effort to move forward.

Shen Lezhi found it utterly miraculous. She hadn’t noticed this when she returned from Wang Xi’s place because she was too anxious, but now she felt it clearly.

Her eyes could also see more clearly than before, and her ears and senses were much sharper.

No wonder everyone in those stories wanted to cultivate immortality. Just this small initial step felt like it could cure all ailments.

It didn’t take much time for Shen Lezhi to reach the small house. Pushing the door open, she saw the withered Weeping Soul Strand on the table at a glance.

At the same time, she heard the Weeping Soul Strand’s surprised cry.

“Master!”

“Little Crybaby, I’m sorry, I didn’t make it back in time,” Shen Lezhi rushed to the table in two steps, her tone full of apology.

“Little Crybaby” was the name she had given the Weeping Soul Strand. The Weeping Soul Strand was very happy to have a name and didn’t care about the meaning of the name Shen Lezhi had given it.

“Master, I’m going to wither wuwuwu.”

“Master, don’t miss me too much when you can’t see me anymore wuwuwu.”

“I am the first little flower to wither from lack of water wuwuwu wuwuwu. It’s my own fault for being too delicate, it’s not my Master’s fault wuwuwu.”

“Master, you must take good care of the other little flowers in the future, don’t let them end up like me wuwuwu wuwuwu wuwuwu.”

Shen Lezhi: “…”

Great. It was now playing the passive-aggressive victim.

The following text is the actual Chapter 12 content, continuing from the interruption:

Shen Lezhi ran to the woodland at the foot of the Medicinal Herb Peak. She walked this path many times every day; it led through the woods to the road up the mountain.

Occasionally, there would be small animals, or rather, spiritual beasts, in the woods. Most were gentle and harmless, with very weak fighting ability. Shen Lezhi neither disturbed them nor feared them.

But today, upon stepping into the depths of the woods, Shen Lezhi keenly sensed a faint smell of blood.

A feeling of unease subtly arose in her heart. After a moment of hesitation, Shen Lezhi still chose to walk forward, relying on past knowledge.

Perhaps it was just a result of animals fighting, causing injury or death and leaving the scent of blood. This was a completely normal phenomenon in the laws of nature.

Shen Lezhi reassured herself as she walked forward.

Until she saw a corpse.

It was the body of an animal resembling a rabbit. Shen Lezhi had seen this type of spiritual beast before. Its head looked very much like a rabbit’s, but its body length was nearly a meter, and strange scales grew on its rabbit ears, making it look very fierce and bizarre.

Shen Lezhi had encountered it a few times and had always carefully avoided it. However, from her observations, this spiritual beast seemed to be a herbivore and not interested in meat.

But its corpse lay right before Shen Lezhi’s eyes now. Half of its head was bitten off, its four limbs were unnaturally splayed on the ground, and a large gash had been torn open in its lower abdomen. The blood had already clotted on the grass, suggesting it had been dead for some time.

This was also the reason for Shen Lezhi’s fear.

If it were a simple case of animal predation, the predator wouldn’t bite off only half of the prey’s head and then leave the corpse uneaten on the spot.

Shen Lezhi was afraid that something was lying in wait.

She hugged the Weeping Soul Strand tightly and cautiously walked sideways, wanting to bypass this area and take the longer route up the Medicinal Herb Peak from the other side.

But just as she suspected, there was certainly something tricky behind the obvious trap.

As Shen Lezhi retreated, she heard an extremely faint sound of a foot stepping on dead leaves. At first, she didn’t react, but the gust of wind rushing toward her instantly sobered Shen Lezhi.

It was an almost purely instinctive reaction, the sensing of danger closing in.

Shen Lezhi hugged the Weeping Soul Strand and suddenly retreated several steps. Before she could stand steady, a two-meter-tall fierce beast, similar to a large dog but with tiger stripes and sharp fangs, abruptly appeared before her eyes.

No, there was more than one.

Two more beasts of the same kind slowly emerged from the woods, growling at Shen Lezhi. The fur all over their bodies rippled with their panting, poised to attack, as if they would fiercely leap at Shen Lezhi in the next second.

Shen Lezhi gasped in fear, closely watched by these three fierce beasts, too terrified to even breathe deeply.

But she remained relatively calm. Her mind didn’t stop working; the human instinct for survival drove her, constantly imagining how she should escape this predicament.

Shen Lezhi wryly thought she should thank Wang Xi. The few times the other party had pressured her, even threatening her safety, allowed Shen Lezhi to remain so calm when facing real danger now.

Her fingers clenched the Weeping Soul Strand’s flowerpot. The Weeping Soul Strand had been crying since the three fierce beasts appeared, crying louder and more piercingly.

Shen Lezhi didn’t find it annoying now, because the Weeping Soul Strand’s crying could bewitch the mind; the sharp sound was its weapon.

However, the Weeping Soul Strand was currently too weak, and the power of its crying was negligible.

The three fierce beasts were only momentarily distracted, and they instantly recovered their senses a moment later.

This brief distraction was not enough for Shen Lezhi to escape, but the recovered fierce beasts seemed to feel threatened, lowering their posture even further into a state of alert. Their hind legs pressed firmly on the ground, their sharp fangs pointed at Shen Lezhi, and their eyes were fiercely bloodshot.

Shen Lezhi’s heart was pounding in her throat. She subconsciously took one step back. She shouldn’t have made such a movement at this moment, but it was a manifestation of her body’s instinctive fear.

And this subtle movement was completely exposed to the three fierce beasts staring intently at her.

Fear.

The fear of prey.

That was the signal for the hunters to attack.

Almost simultaneously, the three fierce beasts leaped up, pouncing fiercely toward Shen Lezhi’s direction.

A human who had never learned combat techniques had almost no chance of winning against three fierce beasts over two meters tall.

But fortunately, Shen Lezhi had learned to sense the trajectory of the surrounding spiritual energy from Wang Xi. This sensing was not just directed at the spiritual energy within all things.

What cultivators practiced was the expansion of their consciousness and perception by utilizing the ling inherent in all things. Controlling spiritual energy, absorbing spiritual energy, and purifying spiritual energy—these actions were all about establishing one’s connection with the myriad spirits.

In that instant, Shen Lezhi felt as if she had a premonition. Everything before her seemed to slow down.

It was the spiritual energy in the wind that gave her the warning of danger.

She quickly stepped back and dodged to the side. The strength in her legs also seemed greater than before. She had expected the beast to graze her ankle, but she managed to pull back about half a foot farther than anticipated.

However, she hadn’t had time to learn combat movement techniques. After evading the attack, she couldn’t properly dissipate the momentum, and her entire body lost balance due to unsteady footing and fell backward.

The place she fell had nothing else, and the soil wasn’t hard, so she wouldn’t be injured. But this momentary flaw meant she could no longer avoid the three beasts that were attacking again.

The three massive bodies pressed down, instantly obscuring Shen Lezhi’s vision.

The black fur was stained with dirty soil and blood. The strong smell of blood overwhelmed all of Shen Lezhi’s senses. The sharp fangs were right before her eyes.

Shen Lezhi tightly hugged the Weeping Soul Strand. Fresh red blood had already stained her eyes.

Two of the fierce beasts had brutally bitten her legs. Blood sprayed out following the pair of fangs.

The last one leaped up again, this time aiming to rip apart her neck.

She couldn’t escape.

Shen Lezhi’s consciousness clearly conveyed this signal.

Just like that moment she experienced before her death.

The scene of death played out in slow motion, frame by frame, before her eyes, but she couldn’t avoid it. She could only clearly wait for death to arrive.

The last time, she was so unwilling, thinking of her grandmother back home, the research she hadn’t completed, the professor who had always mentored her, and all the life she still had ahead of her.

But this time.

Her heart was surprisingly calm.

It turned out that all this time, she still had no lingering attachment to this world.