Master is Also Running Away from Marriage Today (Transmigration) - Chapter 52

When Mu Ling woke up, the first thing she saw was a white ceiling.

 

“She’s awake!”

 

“Quick, notify the family.”

 

The unfamiliar yet familiar scent of disinfectant filled her nose, and people hurried around her. Mu Ling blinked, her gaze landing on the swaying fluorescent light above her. Only then did it dawn on her. She had truly returned!

 

Her body felt sluggish, as if it no longer belonged to her. Fragmented images swirled in her mind, accompanied by a dizzying sense of weightlessness. Her chest felt hollow, and a sharp, needle-like pain surged through her in waves.

 

Mu Ling tried to focus, but Yan Qi’s face had already blurred in her memory. All that remained was the image of those lifeless, hollow eyes; eyes that had lost all hope.

 

Had it all really happened? Or had it all just been an illusion?

 

“Why is the patient crying?”

 

“Probably a physiological reaction. Poor thing, she’s been hospitalized for so long, and her family only visited once.”

 

“I heard something happened at home. It’s been hard for them.”

 

A kind nurse wiped away Mu Ling’s tears. It took her a long moment to regain her composure before she silently cooperated with the medical examinations.

 

She had to pull herself together. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how empty her chest felt, as if a gaping hole had been torn open, letting cold winds howl through her heart. She had to stand up.

 

She had fought desperately to return to the modern world. Her grandfather was still waiting for her.

 

“Congratulations.”

 

After a series of tests, the doctor looked at Mu Ling with astonishment. “You’ve been in a coma for over a year. This is nothing short of a miracle. We thought you’d never wake up.”

 

Mu Ling gave a faint smile. Even she had once believed she would never return.

 

Back in her hospital room, someone was already waiting for her.

 

It was her uncle.

 

Her uncle, in his forties or fifties, already had streaks of gray at his temples. Exhaustion weighed heavily on his face as he leaned against the window, smoking. His bloodshot eyes betrayed how long it had been since he last rested properly.

 

The moment Mu Ling saw him, her pupils contracted violently. Her heart seized as if gripped by an invisible hand, suffocating her.

 

Her uncle was dressed in a black suit with a white flower pinned to his lapel, the attire of mourning.

 

“Mu Ling,” her uncle stubbed out his cigarette and rushed to steady her as she swayed, his own eyes reddening. “It’s good you woke up now. You can still see your grandfather one last time.”

 

Mu Ling could no longer hear him.

 

A deafening buzz filled her ears. The hand clutching her heart tightened mercilessly. She gritted her teeth so hard her jaw ached, her mind screaming just one thought.

 

Had she still been too late?

 

After crossing time and space, after abandoning the first person she had ever truly loved, after exhausting every ounce of strength to return.

 

Had she still failed?

 

……

 

Mu Ling didn’t want to remember anything that came after.

 

The mountain in her heart had crumbled in that instant. There was no one left to shield her from the storms, no one whose heart had been wholly devoted to her.

 

In the funeral parlor, her grandfather lay emaciated, his form barely recognizable. Surrounded by flowers, he rested peacefully, his eyes always so full of tenderness when they looked at her now forever closed.

 

But had he truly passed in peace?

 

Beside him was a malicious caregiver who abused the elderly, while his mind was preoccupied with his granddaughter lying unconscious in a hospital bed, her fate unknown.

 

“Your grandfather was old and couldn’t handle the shock. The caregiver said some harsh words.” Mu Ling heard her uncle whisper beside her. “It was just an accident.”

 

Was it really just an accident?

 

Before this, he had endured the caregiver’s abuse to spare his family worry. A man who had spent his entire life speaking softly, never raising his voice in anger. What could have driven him to such fury that it took his life in an instant?

 

Mu Ling knelt before her grandfather’s body, shedding more tears than she ever had in her life. In that moment, she buried the old Mu Ling. The one who had always been gentle, kind, and forgiving.

 

What followed was an excruciating battle.

 

Mu Ling managed to recover the video of the caregiver abusing the elderly from her shattered phone after the accident. But that alone wasn’t enough to hold the nursing home accountable for their negligence.

 

Fortunately, while the nursing home had destroyed all surveillance footage, they couldn’t erase the memories of the other elderly residents. The caregivers’ daily cruelty had been witnessed by many.

 

“Your grandfather was a good man,” one elderly man said, tears welling in his eyes as he grasped Mu Ling’s hand. “He only argued with that wicked caregiver because she cursed you said you’d never wake up, that you’d remain a living corpse. Your grandfather suffered so much under her hands but never let us tell you, afraid you’d worry. We all know you’re a good girl. Now that you’re awake, your grandfather and all of us just want you to live happily from now on.”

 

Could she ever be happy again?

 

Mu Ling lowered her head, tears falling silently. But this time, no one would anxiously comfort her. She couldn’t even allow herself to sob aloud.

 

With the testimonies of dozens of elderly residents and the video Mu Ling provided, the nursing home was finally forced to shut down. As the scandal grew, the abusive caregiver faced further accusations from others, condemning her to a lifetime behind bars.

 

“Mu Ling, I didn’t know any of this,” her uncle wept behind her after her grandfather’s body showing severe signs of malnutrition was laid to rest. “I was just so busy.”

 

Mu Ling knew her uncle was indeed busy. But…

 

She glanced at her aunt standing behind him, her expression uneasy, then turned and walked into the school. She blocked all contact with her uncle’s family.

 

The dead were at peace. She had no right to forgive on anyone’s behalf not even herself. She didn’t deserve forgiveness.

 

Mu Ling forced herself back into her studies.

 

Strangely, despite the years that had passed, she found she hadn’t forgotten her professional knowledge. Relearning came easily, as if the information had always been there.

 

Yet…

 

Mu Ling often felt detached, as if floating outside the world. Her classmates were vibrant and full of life, but she felt nothing like a ghost drifting through existence. When she searched for that novel, The Domineering Immortal’s Fierce Love, she couldn’t find a trace of it anywhere online.

 

Her memories of transmigrating into the book gradually faded. Sometimes, it all felt like a dream.

 

Only when she dreamed of those hollow, despairing eyes did she feel her heart ache again. Proof that she was still alive.

 

As if fate had already decided everything.

 

When Mu Ling jumped into the water to save the drowning child, she didn’t think of anything. The icy river water surged over her head, and her consciousness gradually faded away. Watching the child finally being pulled ashore in the distance, Mu Ling felt all her strength dissipate as she sank into a deep, dark dream.

 

It was the hundredth day after Mu Ling’s death.

 

Yan Qi had slaughtered another immortal sect.

 

Standing amidst the mountains of corpses and rivers of blood, she gazed at the carnage beneath her feet, her eyes slowly turning red.

 

“Master, look,” Yan Qi murmured, staring at her blood-stained hands. “I’ve killed so many people. Why haven’t you come to stop me?”

 

“Even in a dream would be fine.” But even in dreams, she never saw Mu Ling again.

 

She still refused to believe Mu Ling was truly dead. Mu Ling’s origins were so strange perhaps there was still a way for her to survive. But Mu Ling had indeed abandoned her, returning to a place unknown to Yan Qi.

 

During this time, Yan Qi had carefully examined the two books that had fallen from Mu Ling’s spiritual abode. One was titled The Growth Records of a Genius Girl, written in Mu Ling’s voice, cheerfully documenting their daily interactions. Reading it, Yan Qi sometimes laughed aloud, but more often, her heart ached with waves of pain.

 

The book seemed to have been written years ago. But back then, she hadn’t yet revealed her brilliance. How had her master known so early that she would grow into the “Number One in the Immortal Path”?

 

The other book was written in a script Yan Qi couldn’t understand. She had a strong intuition that it was also about her, but she couldn’t decipher the words.

 

Until she coughed up blood, collapsed, and fell into an endlessly long dream.

 

In the dream, her life was completely different. That night in the East Forest, she hadn’t encountered Mu Ling. Instead, she had followed her original plan, using snakes and poisonous insects to kill everyone in the underground passage. But after exhausting her strength, she had fallen unconscious for many days. When she awoke, she had already entered the Qingyi Sect as a lowly outer disciple.

 

She endured every torment of her cultivation, climbing up from the outer sect, suffering endless humiliation and pain. Then, just as she had originally schemed, she found three Heart-Erosion Lotus Seeds within the immortal sects and regained her memories.

 

Disgusted by the filthy, hypocritical immortal world, she disguised herself as Lin Qingge, faked her death using the same method, and lured the immortals into the Slaughter Immortal Array before the old demon palace. She watched as they panicked and revealed their ugly, desperate faces.

 

This was only her first step. Afterward, she would annihilate every immortal sect, one by one.

 

And in the dream, Mu Ling was a canary. Utterly different from the Mu Ling she knew.

 

The dream Mu Ling had nothing but a pretty face. For the sake of a man, she had lost her spiritual roots and shattered her bones, foolishly clinging to him until, in the very next moment, that same man who had just sworn undying love pushed her into the Slaughter Immortal Array to block an attack for him.

 

Even Zhao Yunshi’s personality in the dream was different; cold, unyielding, never softening. She personally led the assault on the demon palace. The dream Yan Qi had accumulated deep grudges against her and seized the chance to take Zhao Yunshi’s life.

 

……

 

Everything had changed because of Mu Ling.

 

Yan Qi had even privately interrogated Mu Ling’s elder sister, Mu Wanwan. The temperament of Mu Ling described by Mu Wanwan was completely different from the Mu Ling Yan Qi knew. The Mu Ling in Mu Wanwan’s words seemed more like the Mu Ling from her dreams.

 

What had caused Mu Ling to change?

 

Yan Qi recalled Mu Ling’s inexplicable connection with Qianji Peak in the past, as well as her seemingly clairvoyant actions over the years. Her occasional untimely remarks.

 

All these signs pointed to one conclusion: from the day Mu Ling fled the wedding, she was no longer the original Mu Ling.

 

Yet, the Mu Ling she had yearned for and humbly tried to please had ultimately abandoned her once again by fleeing the wedding.

 

How could she be so heartless?!

 

Yan Qi’s eyes once again turned blood-red.

 

The other demons, seeing Yan Qi in this state, kept their distance, not daring to approach. The Demon King had grown increasingly erratic lately. In the past, when the Demon King went mad, there was still some method to her killings. But now, she seemed to kill purely based on her whims. Whether immortal or demon, no one dared to appear before her.

 

Ignoring the fearful gazes of others, Yan Qi strode back to her demon palace, her entire being radiating hostility.

 

Upon reaching the palace, her beautiful eyes momentarily glazed over. Taking a deep breath, she cast a spell to cleanse the blood from her hands, smoothed her hair, and then pushed open the door.

 

Inside, ‘Mu Ling’ trembled at her arrival but still managed to walk shakily toward her, helping her remove her cloak and asking softly, “You’re back?”

 

Yan Qi stared fixedly at ‘Mu Ling,’ saying nothing.

 

‘Mu Ling’ bit her lip and looked up, gazing obsessively at the Demon King before her. The Demon King was so breathtakingly beautiful, powerful and fearsome. Though her moods were unpredictable and her methods cruel, the rare moments of tenderness she displayed were utterly intoxicating.

 

As if possessed, ‘Mu Ling’ reached out to touch the Demon King’s cheek.

 

“Who gave you permission to touch me?!” The Demon King erupted in fury. In an instant, ‘Mu Ling’ was flung into the air, just like every time before. Before she could even graze the Demon King’s sleeve, she was thrown aside, reverting to her true form, a nightmare beast.

 

The last nightmare beast in the world, found by her mother’s murderer, forced to take the form of the murderer’s beloved every day.

 

Cowering in the corner, the nightmare beast watched as the Demon King curled up on the grand bed, her face as pale as paper. A cruel, triumphant smile curled at the beast’s lips:

 

The Demon King could only deceive herself with illusions day after day. Yet, she was both mad and lucid. The illusions couldn’t truly hypnotize her. Watching the Demon King trapped in the cage of longing, suffering endlessly without respite, pitiful and wretched. Wasn’t this a form of revenge?

 

The next day, the Demon King’s subordinates brought forth a prisoner.

 

Bai Junhao, who had been hunted by the immortal realm for activating the Immortal-Slaying Array, had been hiding in fear for so long that he no longer resembled the handsome gentleman of the past. His cheekbones were sunken, his face pallid, but his eyes burned like ghostly flames.

 

Kneeling before Mu Ling, Bai Junhao produced an exquisite jade box. Inside lay a single lotus seed, shimmering with radiant light.

 

“This is the fourth Heart-Eroding Lotus Seed,” Bai Junhao’s expression was eerily stiff, clearly under someone’s control. His gaze fixed intently on Mu Ling as his bewitching voice conveyed the will of the mastermind: “Consume this fourth Heart-Eroding Lotus Seed, and you will reach the pinnacle of your cultivation. Once you gather 100,000 cultivators to breach the Heavenly Barrier and ascend to godhood, neither time nor space will be able to restrain you from obtaining whoever or whatever you desire.”

 

“What is there left for you to forsake?” Bai Junhao’s tone carried a hint of mockery, making his rigid face appear even more sinister. “Take this seed! Shatter the tribulation, ascend to godhood, and reclaim everything you desire.”

 

Yan Qi stared deeply at the lotus seed before her.

 

She had spent this time searching for traces of the Qingyi Sect, hoping to find the successor of Qianji Peak and uncover the truth of Mu Ling’s origins. Yet, for reasons unknown, the Qingyi Sect seemed to have vanished from the world overnight. She couldn’t find a single trace of any of them.

 

Yan Qi knew full well the consequences of consuming this seed. Those who mastered the Heavenly Crippling Art to its zenith would sever all mortal ties, forsake love and compassion, and often forget their past entirely.

 

But only by ascending to godhood could she seize that person once more.

 

Whoever was behind this had calculated her psyche with terrifying precision.

 

Would she forget her?

 

Thinking of the one she loved and hated so fiercely she wished to meld her into her very bones, Yan Qi cast a deep glance at Bai Junhao’s fanatical, twisted expression. Her eyes darkened as she picked up the lotus seed.