Forcing the Aloof Master to Madness - Chapter 28.2

Its crying sound was no longer comparable to when it was a small bud. As soon as it cried, Shen Lezhi’s mind became unsettled.

Everything before her suddenly became distorted. An ominous aura emanated from the Crying Soul Strand. Her vision instantly became narrow and constricted. The sounds of insects and birds disappeared in an instant.

A cold, clammy feeling crept up from the soles of her feet. Shen Lezhi instinctively shuddered, then said: “Stop, little crybaby.”

As she spoke, she felt her own voice trembling. Only when the Crying Soul Strand completely stopped did Shen Lezhi gasp for breath.

Shen Lezhi calmed her breathing while looking sideways at the Crying Soul Strand: “Little crybaby, you really are an ominous plant, aren’t you?”

Shen Lezhi merely asked a very normal question, yet it touched the Crying Soul Strand’s core.

The originally noisy spiritual plant suddenly became quiet. Shen Lezhi vaguely sensed this. She had felt this way ever since she read the description of the Crying Soul Strand in the Spiritual Plant Cultivation Manual.

The Crying Soul Strand was recorded on the last few pages of the manual. Those pages contained plants like the “Man-Slaying Thorn,” the “Fatal Branch,” and the “Devil Grass”… The descriptions of these spiritual plants were all extremely gruesome.

Moreover, judging by the Crying Soul Strand’s method of attack, it did not seem like a cheerful, sunny flower.

“No matter what kind of spiritual plant you are, you are my little crybaby.” Shen Lezhi sensed the Crying Soul Strand’s emotions, smiled, reached out, and touched the center of the Crying Soul Strand’s flower, gently caressing its petals.

It’s just that the green color is a bit ugly.

She didn’t forget to complain in her heart.

But as the saying goes, a mother doesn’t find her daughter ugly, and she, the Master, didn’t mind either.

The Crying Soul Strand was immensely touched upon hearing these words, bending its stalk to affectionately rub Shen Lezhi’s fingers.

“Master, you can pluck my flower now. After blooming, my flower can stay off the stem for a long time,” the Crying Soul Strand had always looked forward to blooming, so it could stay with Shen Lezhi forever.

The Spiritual Plant Cultivation Manual recorded this characteristic of the Crying Soul Strand. Shen Lezhi carefully plucked the Crying Soul Strand’s flower and, while the Crying Soul Strand cheered loudly, placed the flower on her head.

Shen Lezhi sighed slightly. A green flower… wearing green on her head…

Good luck to Wang Xi, then.

But the Crying Soul Strand was ecstatic. Shen Lezhi stroked the flower on her head, listening to the Crying Soul Strand’s joyful voice, and she, too, felt happy.

Shen Lezhi stood up, tidied herself, and did not stay in the courtyard.

However, she had pushed herself too hard today, causing some damage to her meridians. At night, she sat cross-legged on the couch to meditate and regulate her energy.

Shen Lezhi felt she was increasingly discarding the habits of an ordinary person. After Foundation Establishment, she no longer needed to eat or sleep.

She was accustomed to meditating and cultivating at night. Closing her eyes, she focused entirely on her meridians. There were a few minor injuries, which Shen Lezhi slowly repaired by mobilizing her spiritual power.

During this time, she could not sense anything outside herself. She did not see the figure suddenly standing outside the window, nor the eyes staring intensely at her in the darkness.

Shen Lezhi fell into a wonderful sensation. Her whole body felt comfortable, and the damage to her meridians was healing at a visible speed.

In the past, when Shen Lezhi was injured, the medical cultivators of Herb Peak treated her. This was the first time Shen Lezhi explored this herself, the first time she saw how the internal injuries cultivators spoke of were restored.

She became absorbed in it until the Crying Soul Strand’s voice continuously rang in her ears.

Normally, she would ignore it. The Crying Soul Strand was always like this, like a child, often calling out to her unnecessarily. But at this moment, Shen Lezhi suddenly felt something was wrong.

The Crying Soul Strand’s voice was short and anxious, growing more urgent. Shen Lezhi had to stop her meditation, preparing to open her eyes and see what the Crying Soul Strand was doing.

“Don’t open your eyes!”

Shen Lezhi’s eyelids moved slightly, and the Crying Soul Strand’s terrified voice urgently came through.

Shen Lezhi stopped abruptly, her heart sinking heavily along with the Crying Soul Strand’s anxious voice.

“Don’t use spiritual power, Master. Don’t do anything,” the Crying Soul Strand spoke quickly and urgently, afraid Shen Lezhi would make any unnecessary move.

Shen Lezhi did not dare to move again, her heart weighed down heavily.

It was not only because of the Crying Soul Strand’s strange warning but also because she felt that someone was right in front of her.

Someone was observing her, meticulously, very close, their gaze cold and sinister, like a venomous snake in a dark cave.

Shen Lezhi felt that the aura of the person in front of her was somewhat familiar, but she did not dare to make any movement or explore out of curiosity.

After a long while—Shen Lezhi couldn’t tell how long it was; the overwhelming unknown information made her so nervous that she lost all sense of specific time.

She desperately suppressed her body’s instinctive reactions and the urge to tremble caused by the unknown fear.

The Crying Soul Strand’s urgent warning must be because the slightest abnormality at this moment would lead to eternal doom.

Fortunately, she endured it.

The person examined her and seemed to confirm that Shen Lezhi was fine, slowly moving away from her.

But Shen Lezhi knew the person hadn’t gone far, because the person’s voice drifted into Shen Lezhi’s ear.

“That heart has been somewhat abnormal lately.”

Shen Lezhi heard this voice, and her entire body instantly went cold.

She had heard this voice before. Although she had only met this person once, Shen Lezhi’s impression of her was very deep.

It was the Sect Master of the Jade Profound Sect, Fan Tianyin.

The “that heart” Fan Tianyin spoke of was not the first time Shen Lezhi had heard such a description. Just like the person in the dark stone cave, they referred to Wang Xi this way.

“It’s time to get rid of her. That heart has suffered a drop in cultivation, and this is the best timing. If we allow her to recover, I fear it will be even harder for us to succeed.”

And the other voice, Shen Lezhi also remembered. It was the voice of one of them from the day she accidentally intruded into the stone cave and ran into Wang Xi.

“Even with a drop in cultivation, she is difficult for us to handle. We are fully aware of the power of the Exquisite Heart. If we cannot kill her with one blow, she will surely escape, and then it will be even more troublesome!”

Shen Lezhi remembered the Sect Master’s voice being gentle and intimate, entirely unlike the sinister coldness of this moment.

Her heart felt frozen. She never imagined that the person with the benevolent face was like this behind the scenes.

“We still have a chess piece, placed by her side since childhood. It’s proven useful.”

“The abnormality of that heart is likely due to her discovery of the poison we planted on Shen Lezhi. She really is a good Master, willing to sacrifice anything for her disciple. Then let the Master and disciple fight each other.”

“As long as we are not exposed, we control Shen Lezhi to restrain her.”

“Anyway, she has already chosen us.”

Every word and phrase of the two fell upon Shen Lezhi’s ears. Shen Lezhi almost failed to control her emotions. Fortunately, the Crying Soul Strand used its crying sound to confuse her in time, preventing her from exposing herself in a fit of anger.

So these were the people behind the scenes all along. The original female protagonist was also their chess piece.

Did Wang Xi, in the end, realize that the disciple she cherished was a chess piece planted by her side to harm her from the very beginning?

Shen Lezhi did not know if there was such a plot in the original book; her colleague had never mentioned it.

“Let’s place another restriction spell on Shen Lezhi, to make her quickly take care of that heart,” the Sect Master’s voice was infinitely sinister, casually declaring the fates of Wang Xi and Shen Lezhi.

Shen Lezhi’s heart suddenly jumped. The person was approaching her again.

The Crying Soul Strand continued to cry, a sound only Shen Lezhi could hear. It was only to keep Shen Lezhi half-awake and half-in-a-daze.

Shen Lezhi felt something invade her body, flowing through her meridians and merging into her flesh and blood.

She did not know what it was, but judging from the Sect Master’s conversation just now, that thing could control her and make her do things to harm Wang Xi.

Because of the Crying Soul Strand’s presence, Shen Lezhi retained a sliver of conscious awareness. If this were the original female protagonist, she would likely have been implanted with the restriction spell without her knowledge by the Sect Master.

But they said the original female protagonist had already chosen them.

Was it a voluntary choice, or a forced one?

Regardless of the situation, Shen Lezhi would only grow angrier.

Shen Lezhi was sent back to her own residence. After the Sect Master completely left, she finally opened her eyes at the Crying Soul Strand’s reminder.

Her eyes were bloodshot, due to anger and fear.

She frantically searched for the restriction spell in her body, but no matter how hard she looked, there was no trace of it.

It must have been placed under some kind of constraint.

There was also the poison they mentioned. This made Shen Lezhi recall the day she met the Sect Master. That night, her whole body was in excruciating pain until Wang Xi rushed over.

At that time, they also couldn’t detect the situation in her body, only thinking it was due to the Exquisite Heart not being fully compatible yet.

Shen Lezhi looked up at the sky outside the window. It was pitch black. No stars could be seen here; the world was dark and without light.

Shen Lezhi got out of bed, finally calming down.

She pushed the door open and walked outside.

“Master, where are you going?” the Crying Soul Strand asked cautiously. It sensed that Shen Lezhi’s spiritual energy was restless.

“Exquisite Peak.” Unlike Shen Lezhi’s spiritual energy, her responding voice was unusually calm.

After saying this, she began to run, moving extremely fast, mobilizing almost all her spiritual power.

The Crying Soul Strand couldn’t figure out why she was going to Exquisite Peak at this moment. Was she going to tell Wang Xi?

But that restriction spell, that spell filled with ominous aura—the Crying Soul Strand became uneasy.

The Crying Soul Strand watched Shen Lezhi run wildly until she reached Wang Xi’s cave dwelling. She stood at the entrance, her back straight, her eyes shockingly cold.

“Your disciple, Shen Lezhi, requests an audience with Master.”

There was no response from inside the cave dwelling. Shen Lezhi immediately ignored the etiquette and rushed straight into Wang Xi’s cave dwelling.

Wang Xi was sitting upright on her meditation cushion. Her cold and clear eyes finally opened due to Shen Lezhi’s reckless intrusion, slowly settling on Shen Lezhi.

She did not speak, but the subtle snow fragrance on her body gently wafted over.

It inexplicably brought a sense of calm.

Shen Lezhi suddenly smiled, with no regret for what she was about to do.

“Your disciple was just intercepted by the Sect Master…”

Shen Lezhi only got this far. A mouthful of fresh blood suddenly surged from her mouth, and her entire body instantly lost the strength to stand, collapsing.

Wang Xi was shocked. In a breath, she flashed to Shen Lezhi’s side, supporting her with one hand and gathering spiritual power with the other to probe her meridians.

Shen Lezhi clung to Wang Xi, her mouth full of blood, and blood flowed from her seven orifices.

Her whole body felt as if it were being torn apart. The pain could no longer be adequately described.

It was like the first time she died—her body crushed by a boulder, completely swallowed by the earth, suffocation and fear all striking at once.

Blood surged out every time she opened her mouth, choking her throat, making it difficult for her to speak, but she didn’t care.

“Sect… Master…” she spoke word by word, the effort too difficult, even sounding unclear.

She looked at Wang Xi, and the blood from her eyes flowed down like tears.

Shen Lezhi told herself, It doesn’t matter. Death is just a release.

“Wants…”

She desperately forced the words out, desperately trying to tell Wang Xi the truth.

“…To… kill… you.”

Shen Lezhi’s vision was completely blurred. She had shed a lot of blood. The blinding red was imprinted in Wang Xi’s eyes. Everything around her was stained red.

Even Wang Xi herself.