I Need To Find A Way To Make Her Love Me Again - Chapter 39

The hypocritical woman, no longer bothering with her disguise, swiftly drew her sword and lunged. “You should have died long ago. How is it that I just can’t kill you?”

Yan Xingyu remained on high alert, parrying the blow with her blade. Her eyes were filled with confusion as she pressed for an answer: “Why?”

“Go join your mother in the afterlife, and then you’ll know why.” Yan Xiaoling’s expression was sinister. With a flick of her sword tip, she struck directly at Xingyu’s face.

Yan Xingyu retreated to dodge the strike. Looking down at her fallen bamboo hat, a cold light flashed in her eyes. Seeing the ruthlessness of the opponent, who clearly intended to kill her, she realized she wouldn’t get the answers she sought. Noticing the chaotic battle with ghosts still raging nearby, she didn’t want to fight here and distract Yi Rong.

She turned and ran forward.

Seeing Xingyu glance toward the arena and then try to leave, Yan Xiaoling understood her intent. Knowing that Yi Rong was currently pinned down by the ghosts, she realized this was the best time to capture her. She gave chase. “Since you’ve remembered again, I have no choice but to take you back to the Nine profound Palace.”

Recalling that Yan Rou had been killed seven times in the Nine Profound Palace, Yan Xingyu couldn’t help but demand: “Does torturing me really give you that much pleasure?”

“I’d love nothing more than to be rid of you once and for all,” Yan Xiaoling said, her brow furrowed with resentment at the thought. “If it weren’t for the ‘Heavenly Heart Curse’ my sister placed on me, do you think you’d still be breathing?”

“Always guarding against me, yet playing the ‘good older sister’ for outsiders. Why is she the saint while I’m the villain?”

“Is she the fine jade, while I am merely common stone?”

“Those old fossils cherished her like a flower but trampled me like grass. Now, every single one of them has died by my hand. Hahaha, I didn’t even leave them their roots.”

Hearing the woman behind her shamelessly confess to the massacre of the Yan clan, Yan Xingyu’s face went pale with fury. She barked, “You ungrateful, cold blooded beast! You aren’t even human.”

As if her sore spot had been touched, Yan Xiaoling’s face became even more distorted. She gathered her qi at the tip of her blade, sending a rain of silver light flying toward Xingyu like arrows from a bow.

While blocking the sword qi, Yan Xingyu listened to the woman’s crazed rambling. “What right does a little brat like you have to talk down to me?”

“If not for the Heavenly Heart Curse, I would have hacked you into ten thousand pieces.”

“But even if I can’t kill you, torturing you over and over watching you suffer is a great joy in itself! Hahahahaha!”

“In your dreams!” Yan Xingyu roared back.

She turned and swung her blade. Knowing that this person had not only impersonated Yi Rong to slaughter the Jade Ripple Palace but had also tortured the original host to death without a shred of remorse, Xingyu was consumed by uncontrollable rage.

Seeing her words provoke such a reaction, Yan Xiaoling actually began to smile. She continued reminiscing maliciously: “My sister was a world renowned beauty, and the child she bore was even more exceptional. Who would have thought she couldn’t protect her last living relative? Her own child’s spiritual veins were severed, left in a state where she could neither live nor die. Hahaha!”

“You were a stubborn child, too. You could have just dug out your heart and given it to me, then died in peace. Why did you insist on making things difficult for yourself?”

Yan Xingyu’s temples throbbed. Fragments of the dreams she had seen flashed through her mind, the agony the original host endured, and that gentle woman, “her mother.”

A cold light erupted in her eyes. Her strikes became increasingly lethal. She cursed, “A beast like you deserves to die!”

The angrier Xingyu got, the happier Yan Xiaoling became. She swung her sword, her lips curling into a mocking sneer. “Rou’er, where are your manners? I am your aunt, after all.”

“Go to hell!”

Yan Xingyu struck with both blades. Her movements were as fluid as a serpent, targeting the woman’s blind spots with treacherous precision.

Startled by the realization that Xingyu’s fighting style was completely different from before, Yan Xiaoling found herself losing ground. Alarms went off in her head. She leaped back, escaping the range of attack, and landed on a high terrace. With a look of confusion, she said, “We haven’t met in a short while, yet you seem… different.”

Seeing that the woman hadn’t realized she wasn’t actually Yan Rou, despite someone like Liu Ruoni noticing. Yan Xingyu let out a cold laugh.

“Today, I’ll make sure you experience exactly how ‘different’ I am.”

With a flick of her wrist, her twin blades transformed into a long whip. She lunged forward. The roles were reversed. Yan Xingyu was now the one relentlessly hunting her prey.

Yan Xiaoling felt that the other girl’s spiritual energy had fully recovered. Realizing the situation was sliding out of her control, she prepared to flee.

But the whip whistled through the air, strike after strike of sharp qi. Every collision created powerful shockwaves. Unable to withstand the fierce assault, Yan Xiaoling was struck by the whip and slammed violently into the ground. The smell of dust in her nose was a long-forgotten sensation of humiliation.

Yan Xiaoling looked back, her eyes full of indifference. She mocked, “What? Are you going to sacrifice family for the sake of justice now?”

“I don’t have a shred of relation to you.”

Yan Xingyu shifted the whip back into short daggers. Seeing the woman facing death without a hint of repentance, her rage boiled over. A murderous glint took over her eyes.

The woman on the ground remained composed. Noticing a figure approaching in the distance, Yan Xiaoling’s grin widened. “Rou’er is truly different. Seeing you like this, my sister’s soul in heaven would surely be comforted! Hahahahaha!”

Seeing her lack of fear, laughing and shouting for Xingyu to kill her for the sake of her mother and the clan, Yan Xingyu’s blood hit the boiling point. She gripped her silver daggers and lunged at the woman’s throat, intending to end it in one blow.

In a flash, a hand caught her wrist. Yan Xingyu turned to see Yi Rong. “Why are you here?”

Yan Xiaoling answered for her: “Rou’er won’t acknowledge me as her aunt, but Yi Rong won’t disown me. As expected of my sister’s ‘good daughter’.”

“Shut up!” Yi Rong barked, a flash of irritation in her eyes. “Leave! Now!”

Yan Xingyu thought she had misheard. Seeing Yan Xiaoling smirk triumphantly and stand up to leave, she was incensed. “Yi Rong, let me go!”

But the person beside her remained deaf to her plea, her grip so firm that Xingyu couldn’t move. Within a few breaths, the enemy had already escaped into the distance.

Yan Xingyu turned to Yi Rong, her eyes full of disbelief. “She is the one who framed you! The one who caused the fall of the Jade Ripple Palace! Why would you let her go?”

Yi Rong’s expression was complex. Though she had a thousand things to say, she only managed: “You cannot kill her.”

Seeing that Yi Rong didn’t look surprised, as if she had known all along. Yan Xingyu put the pieces together. Rage surged in her chest. She hissed, “What, are you going to tell me again that I have no right to interfere in this?”

Yi Rong’s pupils shrank. “I didn’t…”

“I think you did!” Yan Xingyu’s voice trembled with agitation. “You knew I was investigating the person who framed you and slaughtered the Jade Ripple Palace. You knew it was Yan Xiaoling, and yet you kept it from me all this time.”

“Yi Rong, is it fun to play me for a fool? Do you enjoy watching me jump around like a monkey?”

“No… it’s not that I didn’t want to tell you. I just didn’t know how,” Yi Rong explained, looking panicked and helpless as the cold words pierced her heart. “Yan Xiaoling disguised herself as me and conspired with the demons to slaughter the Yan clan, then pinned the blame on me.”

“Of course I hate her. I resent her. But everyone at the Jade Ripple Palace is dead…”

Yi Rong’s voice choked up, filled with sorrowful resignation. “No matter what she’s done, she is still Aunt Xiang’s sister. I… I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I could only try my best to stop her from causing more harm.”

Yan Xingyu let out a cold, sharp laugh. “Is that all you think she did? Do you have any idea that she tortured and killed Yan Rou seven times?”

Seeing Yi Rong’s face turn pale with shock, Yan Xingyu gritted her teeth. “She is a beast. She must die!”

Yi Rong had suspected that Yan Rou’s departure was related to Yan Xiaoling, but she never imagined the girl had been tortured to death.

Her long suppressed emotions suddenly broke through. Memories flashed through her mind, and a voice in her heart told her: Yes, Yan Xiaoling deserves to die.

But another voice countered it.

“Yi Rong, do not let her evil destroy your true self.”

For countless days and nights, she had relied on those words to keep herself from falling into madness. Looking at the person before her, eyes wide with fury and malice. Yi Rong snapped back to reality. Pushing down her own surging emotions, she said, “Xingyu, I know you’re angry, but there’s a better way to handle this. Give me some time, okay?”

“I don’t want to hear another word from you.”

Finding the explanation utterly unacceptable, Yan Xingyu’s head buzzed with anger. She shook off Yi Rong’s hand and turned to leave.

Yi Rong stepped forward, blocking her path. She looked devastated, yet she still pleaded: “Xingyu, don’t go.” Her voice cracked. “She is the only Yan family member left in this world.”

Yan Xingyu instinctively wanted to argue. Am I not a Yan? but seeing the deep sorrow in Yi Rong’s eyes, the words got stuck in her throat.

She noticed the many tears in Yi Rong’s robes. Realizing that Yi Rong had been fighting for her life against ghosts only to rush here for a piece of trash like Yan Xiaoling, she felt a mixture of extreme anger and heartbreaking sympathy.

Yan Xingyu clenched her fists, her rage finding no outlet. Seeing Yi Rong about to speak again, she suddenly lunged forward, grabbed the woman’s collar, pulled her down, and bit into those infuriating lips.

She saw Yi Rong’s eyes go wide as she froze in place. Xingyu bit down hard on those soft, cool lips, ravaging them with fierce intensity.

She forced her way past the barrier of teeth, caught the soft tongue hiding within, and bit down in punishment.