Forcing the Aloof Master to Madness - Chapter 2

Shen Lezhi  felt terribly dizzy and initially didn’t hear what Wang Xi  said, only realizing it after quite some time.

Her heart trembled with the words.

Wang Xi’s fingertip, resting on Shen Lezhi’s heart, was like a sharp thorn piercing her skin.

Shen Lezhi lifted her eyes, her gaze hazy. She felt utterly unsuited to everything here: this body, the person before her, the surrounding vegetation. And the heart beating in her chest that did not belong to her.

“Then shall I give it back to you?” Shen Lezhi replied. She was intimidated by Wang Xi’s oppressive aura but not fearful. She gazed at Wang Xi blankly, her eyes narrowed from the dizziness in her head. “Should I take it out and return it to you?”

Shen Lezhi spoke these words as if she were truly fearless, truly indifferent to this half-heart.

Wang Xi’s eyes fixed on Shen Lezhi, her face devoid of any emotion, and then her brow grew even colder.

She lowered her eyes, pressing her five fingers on Shen Lezhi’s chest. The spiritual power gathered at her fingertips sharpened into a blade, directly slicing open Shen Lezhi’s skin. The instant Shen Lezhi felt the intense pain, the spiritual power in Wang Xi’s hand had already plunged deep, tracing Shen Lezhi’s meridians and wrapping around that half-heart.

She could effortlessly reclaim her half-heart. She could let Shen Lezhi die here immediately.

Wang Xi’s breathing became slightly shallow. Shen Lezhi’s chest was torn open, but because it was cut by Wang Xi’s spiritual power, there was almost no blood loss; a thin layer of frost formed over the wound.

Wang Xi watched Shen Lezhi’s slightly twisted expression of pain. The other girl’s lips were parted, but no sound escaped. Tears pooled in her eyes but not a single drop fell.

Nor was there the slightest resistance.

Even with such a forceful invasion of her meridians, Shen Lezhi offered not even a hint of instinctive struggle.

Wang Xi’s movement paused. A heat sensation at her waist reminded her that Shen Lezhi’s life was truly hanging by a thread.

That was Shen Lezhi’s life tablet.

Shen Lezhi had been adopted by the Sect Master of the Profound Jade Sect as an infant and placed in Wang Xi’s care. Her body, naturally deficient, could not heal even after consuming countless precious medicinal herbs. As Shen Lezhi grew older, her illness worsened, requiring rescue by the Medicine Master Sect, and the number of times she hovered between life and death increased.

Since Shen Lezhi turned 15, one of her life tablets was kept in the sect, and the other was carried by Wang Xi at all times.

Wang Xi had raised Shen Lezhi. She was naturally an aloof person, never having considered seeking a companion, nor had she ever wished to give birth to a child.

She was born with the Exquisite Heart, allowing spiritual channels to circulate without effort, and the spiritual Qi  of the world naturally gathered around her. Wang Xi was born to cultivate the Dao and become an immortal.

Until Shen Lezhi’s arrival.

The soft, tiny infant was held in her arms. Wang Xi possessed the pure Ice Spirit Root, and the spiritual Qi surrounding her carried a chill, which caused the Shen Lezhi in her embrace to cry uncomfortably. So, she began to deliberately restrain her aura.

The first word the learning-to-speak Shen Lezhi uttered was her name. The character she wrote on the Xuan paper when learning calligraphy was the ‘Xi’  from Wang Xi’s name.

Wang Xi mostly spent her time in secluded cultivation before, and even when she entered the mortal world, she never stayed long. Yet, she had genuinely stayed with Shen Lezhi as she grew up.

Although not her biological child, Wang Xi had come to regard Shen Lezhi as her daughter, until the girl betrayed her, until Shen Lezhi pierced her chest with a long sword.

Just a short time ago, after being listed as a demonic cultivator by the righteous path and being cornered and injured all over, she was ultimately pierced through the heart by her own disciple.

She died with hatred, yet she unexpectedly returned to the past.

It was the third day after she had forcibly cut out half of her heart to use as a medicinal primer to save Shen Lezhi.

She saw Shen Lezhi again, the same Shen Lezhi who was still feigning obedience.

Wang Xi slightly lowered her head, staring at Shen Lezhi’s face. In the past, the girl had expressed her sincerity to her in this way, too. Deliberately offering to return that half-heart, knowing she would never strike. At that time, she hadn’t doubted the girl for a moment.

Now, Wang Xi’s spiritual power was tightly gripping that half-heart. A slight move could inflict immense pain on Shen Lezhi.

She wouldn’t actually kill Shen Lezhi, at least not yet. The life tablet would project the scene of Shen Lezhi’s death, and Wang Xi still had things to investigate within the sect. Moreover, she didn’t want Shen Lezhi to die so easily.

But her spiritual power pressed down on Shen Lezhi inch by inch, slowly, yet growing heavier. Shen Lezhi nearly convulsed in her embrace and eventually passed out from the sheer pain.

Wang Xi gently laid the unconscious person down and took out the Life-and-Death Gu, watching the parasitic worm crawl into Shen Lezhi’s meridians. This was a Mother-Child Gu. The child Gu would circle the person’s ‘Gate of Life’ along the meridians. Killing the Mother Gu would instantly kill the person harboring the child Gu.

Wang Xi returned Shen Lezhi to the room. The wound, cut open by spiritual power, was rapidly healing due to the Exquisite Heart.

Wang Xi pursed her lips, gazing for a while, a cold expression hardening her lips.

She then walked out of the room.

Everything outside grew cold due to the fluctuation of her spiritual power, and the wind seemed wrapped in frost. She stood in the courtyard, empty of people. Her eyes were calm and serene. The cold wind ruffled her ink-black hair, and her pale complexion seemed to ooze a chill from her very bones.

She was not happy.

Wang Xi had already planted the Life-and-Death Gu in Shen Lezhi’s body. Once she finished investigating what she needed to know, she could instantly kill Shen Lezhi.

But she felt no joy.

The hatred in her heart was too deep to dissipate. In her past life, she had died along with Shen Lezhi, yet she still couldn’t let go.

Wang Xi lowered her eyes. She didn’t linger and left on her sword.

Shen Lezhi thought she had died but was surprised to wake up again.

She both marveled at the physical resilience of cultivators—her heart had been cut open, yet no scars remained after waking—and felt the warm currents continuously surging from her heart. She could clearly sense the flow of blood, which felt extraordinarily miraculous.

She hadn’t read the original book, only heard some of the plot from her colleague. The half Exquisite Heart in her body had saved the life of the protagonist, who should have died. Not only that, but as the Exquisite Heart slowly integrated with her body, it would nourish the protagonist, allowing her to live to a hundred years old. Although it couldn’t fully repair the protagonist’s deficient meridians to allow a breakthrough in cultivation, it would still grant her a longer lifespan than that of an ordinary mortal.

However, the original protagonist was not satisfied. She wanted the other half of Wang Xi’s heart to enable her to cultivate and ascend to immortality.

Shen Lezhi was indifferent to this so-called cultivation, and she was also indifferent to the final fate of this body. She was someone who should have died, and she didn’t cling to this stolen chance at life. This wasn’t her home.

Wang Xi had cut open her chest last time but hadn’t taken the heart back, and Shen Lezhi didn’t care to ask why.

What interested Shen Lezhi more was her accidental discovery of a small slope behind the small wooden house. Over the slope was a large patch of barren land. It had been deserted, with scarce plants and vast, weedy wasteland where the spiritual Qi was extremely thin.

She knew the Profound Jade Sect had a specific Medicine Herb Peak dedicated to cultivating spiritual plants. Her colleague had once discussed in depth whether farming in cultivation novels involved summoning wind and rain and controlling the weather. Her colleague had commented that such an ability was essentially the modern equivalent of greenhouse cultivation.

Shen Lezhi thought that since she was in this world, she might as well try planting some spiritual plants. It would be a return to her former profession, so to speak. Just to pass the time.

Even disciples not belonging to the Medicine Herb Peak could receive some low-grade seeds. The spiritual plants grown could be exchanged within the sect for other seeds or some low-grade medicinal pills.

Shen Lezhi even found a “Spiritual Plant Cultivation Manual” in the Archive. However, disciples not from the Medicine Herb Peak were not assigned spiritual fields. Thus, Shen Lezhi found a hoe and went straight to the wasteland to start clearing the land.

Although the back mountain was desolate, the soil was soft, unlike the hard soil she had encountered when developing land in modern times. The soil was blue-black. Shen Lezhi only cleared a small area. This body’s stamina was too poor; she was already panting after just turning over the small slope. After resting for a while, Shen Lezhi started working, but she felt exhausted again in less than fifteen minutes.

Shen Lezhi had to take long rests. After clearing a small plot of land, she decided to plant some seeds first. She was desperately eager to see the growth of spiritual plants and know how they differed from modern plants.

The seeds she received were Green Cloud Branch seeds. The “Spiritual Plant Cultivation Manual” described the Green Cloud Branch as a trumpet-shaped spiritual plant that could sprout in one day and bloom and bear fruit in three days. The white fruits were the size of a pea. One blooming Green Cloud Branch could yield three or four fruits, which were the main ingredient for low-grade wound-healing pills.

Shen Lezhi had never seen such a miraculous plant.

She only planted three seeds this time because it took her a long time to find natural fertilizer, and she only found a small amount. She finally sprinkled the fertilizer into the soil close to nightfall. The soft soil quickly absorbed the fertilizer. Shen Lezhi packed up her things, satisfied, and prepared to leave.

But just as she turned and took one step, she suddenly heard strange sounds carried on the wind. They were very faint, but in this desolate area, empty save for her, they seemed particularly abrupt.

The sound seemed like someone talking, carrying an aggressive and disgusted emotion. Shen Lezhi didn’t know how she could accurately distinguish this, but this interpretation immediately came to her mind.

Yet, when she stopped to listen closely, the sound completely disappeared.

Shen Lezhi waited for a long time, even doubting her own ears, but everything around her was just the ethereal rustling of the clear wind sweeping through the treetops.

It was almost dark, and Shen Lezhi didn’t want to delay any longer, so she left.

After she left, tiny bubbles began to continuously rise from the spiritual field where she had just sprinkled fertilizer. One after another, densely packed.

Shen Lezhi, having already left, naturally wouldn’t know.

The hoe Shen Lezhi used to clear the land was borrowed, and she was rushing to return it. The senior sister from the Talisman Peak had lent her the hoe when she saw Shen Lezhi looking for such a tool. It was said that many talismans were stacked on the hoe, allowing it to be activated with spiritual power. Shen Lezhi returned the hoe, having carefully wiped the mud clean.

Hua Man (花蔓), the senior sister from the Talisman Peak, looked at her hoe. This was actually a magical artifact she used to practice forging. The hoe shape just popped into her head when she was forging it. She couldn’t help but ask Shen Lezhi: “What did you use this thing for?”

Although Shen Lezhi had wiped it, a distinct smell of mud made Hua Man extremely curious. Did she really use it to hoe the ground?

“Clearing the land, hoeing the ground,” Shen Lezhi replied.

Hua Man: “…”

Shen Lezhi’s name was quite well-known in the Profound Jade Sect, being the sole successor of the Clear Moon Immortal Venerable. However, it was said that she was in poor health, lived in seclusion, and few people recognized her. Hua Man truly hadn’t expected the person to be like this.

“This is a Mid-Grade Magical Artifact.” A Mid-Grade Magical Artifact capable of withstanding her chaotic talisman practice and counteracting any spiritual power below the Golden Core stage.

Shen Lezhi remained silent.

She stared at the hoe in Hua Man’s hand for a long time before blinking and asking, “Then, are you selling this hoe?”

She still had a large patch of wasteland to clear and really needed it.

Hua Man gasped, subconsciously clutching the hoe tightly in her hand.