Master is Also Running Away from Marriage Today (Transmigration) - Chapter 44

Mu Ling had originally planned to pretend nothing happened and make a quick escape.

 

Though she appeared calm while comforting Lin Qingge, throughout the entire exchange, she couldn’t bring herself to meet Qingge’s eyes. Stumbling over her words, she had no idea what she was even saying, her heart pounding wildly. She wasn’t sure if Qingge had noticed her panic.

 

As a master, Mu Ling knew she shouldn’t be so petty. After all, she came from a modern era of open-mindedness and tolerance. Her disciple had only kissed and embraced her because of the aphrodisiac, it wasn’t intentional. Moreover, Qingge had been extremely restrained the entire time, not even kissing her lips. The problem was, Mu Ling, a perpetually single woman who had never quite grasped the nuances of romance, had never been so intimately close to anyone before. This was far beyond her threshold for embarrassment.

 

Right now, Mu Ling desperately wanted to retreat alone and collect herself. She truly had no idea how to face Lin Qingge, she couldn’t even bring herself to look at her.

 

Unfortunately, her escape plan failed before it even began. The moment they stepped out of the hot spring area, they ran into a cultivator who had been searching for them. The man’s eyes lit up at the sight of them, visibly relieved. “Where have you two fairies been? We’ve been searching everywhere for you.”

 

“I was just—” Mu Ling parted her lips, about to excuse herself, when the cultivator continued, “You two don’t know! We’ve accidentally gathered some information about the Demon King and were just about to share it with everyone. We’ve been waiting only for you two.”

 

Information about the Demon King?

 

Mu Ling’s brow twitched. Thinking of the impending war against the demon race, the words of farewell died on her lips.

 

She didn’t notice Yan Qi’s suddenly icy gaze beside her.

 

Mu Ling and Lin Qingge returned to the banquet together. The hall was already packed. Dancers with alluring eyes twirled gracefully across the floor, barrels of fine wine were carried in one after another, and servants bearing trays of delicacies weaved through the crowd without pause. The scene of decadent revelry didn’t look at all like the eve of a great battle.

 

With such indulgence and hedonism, no wonder they would later fall into the Demon King’s trap and nearly be wiped out in one fell swoop.

 

Mu Ling frowned slightly and took a seat in a secluded corner. Immediately after, Lin Qingge sat down beside her.

 

Mu Ling’s discomfort returned in full force.

 

They were sitting too close. The faint fragrance emanating from Lin Qingge made Mu Ling involuntarily recall the earlier embrace those burning yet restrained kisses pressed against her cheeks.

 

What was Qingge thinking now? Having offended her master, she must be deeply distressed too.

 

Mu Ling’s mind was a chaotic mess, and for the first time, she truly understood the meaning of “sitting on pins and needles.”

 

Fortunately, the banquet’s host soon stepped to the center of the hall. He was an elderly man with an air of immortal grace, clutching a blood-red stone in his hand. After a round of polite remarks, he finally got to the point: “We’ve heard that immortals from across the land have gathered to discuss the campaign against the Demon Palace. We, too, wish to contribute to this cause and have gone to great lengths to gather some intelligence on the Demon King.”

 

At the mention of the Demon King, the madman who struck fear into the hearts of all in the immortal realm. The festive atmosphere in the hall instantly froze. Eyes flickered uneasily as everyone turned their attention to the old man at the center.

 

Yan Qi narrowed his eyes at the stone in the old man’s hand and slowly took a sip of wine.

 

The old man seemed quite pleased with the effect he had created. Seeing this, he stopped beating around the bush and channeled his spiritual energy into the red stone.

 

“This is a stone stained with the Demon King’s blood after she was thrown into a snake pit in her early years. It’s saturated with her spiritual energy and inner demons. Despite her meticulousness, she overlooked this flaw left behind in the world. The reason she has never dared to show herself and deliberately acted mysterious is simply because—”

 

With a crack, the cup in Lin Qingge’s hand shattered, but no one noticed her.

 

A flash of white light passed, and the stone emitted a red glow. A scene appeared on the ground before the stone.

 

A skinny, filthy little girl only her bright eyes visible was crouching under a bridge, clutching her stomach as she stared at a well-fed, glossy-coated large dog. The dog had a half-eaten chicken leg pinned under its front paw, seemingly full and just pushing the leg around like a toy.

 

The girl swallowed hard repeatedly, then lunged for the chicken leg when the dog’s handler wasn’t looking. Instantly, the dog’s vicious teeth sank into her shoulder.

 

Staring at the gleaming white fangs inches from her throat, the girl summoned strength from nowhere and plunged her fingers into the dog’s eyes. The commotion finally alerted the handler.

 

Later, her grandfather died in the mud in her place, and the girl’s tears mingled with the rain, soaking into the cold earth.

 

“What is this?” someone in the hall gasped.

 

The scene shifted again. Now the girl was in the underground palace of the Demon King’s lair. Her eyes, once bright, had dulled. She kept her head perpetually lowered, her face grimy, like a rat that had merged with the shadows of the underworld.

 

Countless people were imprisoned in the underground palace. The girl was so thin and small that anyone could have easily killed her. No one expected her to survive the trials of the dungeon.

 

Yet, miraculously, she did.

 

Food in the dungeon was scarce, and people gradually descended into madness, turning on each other. Some even resorted to cannibalism.

 

The girl was agile. Years of living like worthless weeds had honed her survival instincts. She hid in dark passageways, digging up roots and hunting rats, evading wave after wave of attacks.

 

Until one day, she came across an old woman on the brink of death. The woman’s face was gaunt, but her eyes held a trace of kindness as she looked at the girl. “Be a good child, let me pass in peace. Don’t eat me now, alright?”

 

The girl’s gaze wavered. Without a word, she carried the old woman to her usual hiding spot.

 

Already struggling to feed herself, the girl now had to care for an injured old woman. She scavenged even harder for roots and earthworms.

 

But what awaited her was the old woman’s knife plunged into her chest.

 

The old woman sneered as she drove the blade deeper. “Little girl, you’re starving me to death! Since you’re so kind, why not give me your kind heart to eat?”

 

The scene changed once more.

 

Now the girl stood in the shadows, draped entirely in black cloth with only her stark, dark-and-white eyes visible. An aura of bloodthirsty brutality radiated from her, chilling to the bone.

 

She fixed her gaze on the shadowy figure before her, her eyes churning with bloodlust. In a hoarse voice, she drew the blade at her side. “Was it you who killed my grandfather?”

 

She was met with the former Demon King’s ruthless attack.

 

Yet she couldn’t even withstand a hundred moves before being struck down, severely injured and unable to move.

 

Lying on the ground with her eyes open, she watched helplessly as the black hem of the Demon King’s robe brushed past her. A cruel, indifferent voice drifted lightly into her ears: “When a dog starts biting, it’s time to put it down!”

 

Then, the giant serpent in the pit slowly slithered toward the girl. The girl lifted her gaze to the sky, her eyes no longer bright and clever as they had been in childhood. Instead, they were bloodshot, filled with a lifeless emptiness.

 

The scene abruptly ended there.

 

The hall fell into silence. Later, someone broke the stillness, and soon, murmurs of conversation spread like rustling leaves.

 

“So, the Demon King was actually a madwoman!”

 

“Truly, heaven has eyes. A bloodthirsty, tyrannical lunatic like her deserves to be trampled into the deepest pits of hell.”

 

“Some people are born evil, destined to bring ruin to everyone around them.”

 

“Why didn’t that dog just kill her back then? Then we wouldn’t have all this trouble today.”

 

…

 

These cultivators pontificated loudly, declaring the Demon King’s unforgivable sins, using her pitiful and wretched past as fodder for their lofty discussions.

 

Mu Ling suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

 

She knew the Demon King didn’t deserve sympathy. She had committed too many atrocities later on, and those couldn’t be ignored. Yet it was undeniable, the Demon King was a pitiable soul.

 

Putting herself in the Demon King’s shoes, Mu Ling realized she wouldn’t have survived such a harsh environment either. The Demon King’s later descent into madness and cruelty was clearly tied to these experiences.

 

Though she knew she shouldn’t, Mu Ling sighed softly and whispered, “The Demon King was truly formidable.”

 

In a way, she had single-handedly fought against the unjust fate the entire cultivation world had forced upon her.

 

Beside her, Lin Qingge suddenly lifted her head and glanced at Mu Ling. When their eyes met, Mu Ling was startled. Lin Qingge’s gaze was dark and hollow, as if all vitality had been drained from her in an instant.

 

“Don’t you find the Demon King disgusting?” Lin Qingge asked hoarsely.

 

Such a despicable, pitiful, and filthy past.

 

Mu Ling thought carefully, then shook her head. With a complicated sigh, she murmured, “If only I had been born earlier. The Demon King as a child wasn’t entirely evil.”

 

Mu Ling imagined that if she had transmigrated into the novel during the Demon King’s childhood, she wouldn’t have let her become the unrestrained, deranged figure she later turned into. After all, in the second scene, the little girl had refused to kill and eat human flesh. She had more conscience than most.

 

…

 

Lin Qingge looked at Mu Ling once more, then lowered her head.

 

She remained silent for a long time.

 

“It’s alright.”

 

After what felt like an eternity, Yan Qi’s tightly clenched fists slowly relaxed. In a voice so soft only she could hear, she whispered, “Now that you’re here, everything will be fine.”

 

She had never wanted to admit she was Lin Qingge.

 

But the truth was, there had never been a Lin Qingge, only Yan Qi. Even after losing her memories, she was still Yan Qi.

 

Rather than refusing to acknowledge herself as Lin Qingge, it was more accurate to say she had been afraid to.

 

Unwilling to admit that the world wasn’t as filthy and sinful as she had believed, unwilling to admit that she too could live openly under the sun, and even more unwilling to admit the jealousy she harbored in her heart toward the version of herself who was Lin Qingge untainted by bloodshed and slaughter.

 

Lin Qingge, the righteous cultivator, was worthy of Mu Ling, while Yan Qi, the Demon King despised by Mu Ling, could never even touch the hem of her sleeve.

 

So she pretended to split into two selves: one, Lin Qingge, could love Mu Ling without restraint, while the other, Yan Qi, could only bury her affection and feign indifference.

 

But how can love ever be hidden?

 

As her feelings grew deeper, Yan Qi could no longer suppress her love for Mu Ling.

 

On one hand, she was overjoyed; on the other, she couldn’t help but be plagued by insecurity. After all, every moment spent with Mu Ling felt stolen. Someone as bloodstained as her didn’t deserve Mu Ling.

 

Yet when her most wretched, sordid past was abruptly laid bare before Mu Ling, her heart turned to ashes as she braced for disgust. Countless thoughts of destroying the world churned in her mind only to catch a flicker of pity in Mu Ling’s eyes.

 

In that instant, the walls around her heart crumbled to dust.

 

“You came, and everything was made right.”

 

If all the suffering of the past was meant to lead me to you today, then every hardship fate has given me, I will cherish as sweetness.

 

The Demon King’s past suffering and humiliation seemed to embolden most of the cultivators, filling them with a peculiar sense of triumphant schadenfreude. The banquet continued late into the night.

 

Mu Ling and Lin Qingge excused themselves midway and left the feast.

 

That night, the moonlight flowed like water, and a gentle breeze stirred. A perfect time for deep sleep. Yet many found themselves unable to rest.

 

Mu Ling tossed and turned on the boat, restless from her intimate encounter with Lin Qingge.

 

Meanwhile, in the dark dungeons of the demon palace not far away, Mu Wanwan’s agonized screams echoed under the torment of the demonic court’s methods.

 

After what felt like an eternity, a soft click sounded as someone entered from outside. The figure was shrouded in a black hood, and the demon torturers immediately dropped to their knees at the sight.

 

This was the Demon King’s signature attire!

 

“Please, spare me.” Mu Wanwan trembled like a leaf before the ruthless Demon King, weeping and begging for mercy. She had no idea what crime she had committed. One moment she was at the banquet, her head spinning, and the next, she woke up here, enduring unspeakable torment.

 

The Demon King’s jade-white fingers extended a memory stone. The image it projected showed a woman with a radiant smile, bright and clear eyes living a life of evident contentment.

 

Yet at the sight, Mu Wanwan’s eyes widened in disbelief: The Mu Kingdom had fallen, so why was she reduced to a concubine, suffering under the cultivators’ abuse, while Mu Ling lived free and happy?

 

“Yes, it’s her!” Fueled by the secret hope that Mu Ling might be just as wretched, Mu Wanwan cried out, “Back then, my father betrothed my sister Mu Ling to you as a concubine. But Mu Ling was ungrateful even after the marriage contract was sent to the demon palace, she fled on the eve of the wedding! You must capture her and bring her back.”

 

Mu Wanwan failed to notice how the seemingly composed Demon King’s hand, holding the memory stone, trembled violently at her words.