[Quick Transmigration] The Stunning Villain Trains His Dog Online - Chapter 7

A red figure came to a stop beside Xie Linfeng, and scorching demonic energy swirled around them, melting the thin layer of ice on the ground beneath him.

His stiffened fingers gradually regained their sensation, and Xie Linfeng raised his head in a daze, vaguely catching sight of an exquisite face as a sudden, inexplicable sense of grievance welled up in his heart.

Unable to help himself, he spoke in a hoarse voice: “I am so cold.”

Shen Zaixin raised his right hand slightly, and the man eagerly reached out to grasp it, rubbing his cheek gently against the smooth back of the hand. The heart that had been invaded by extreme cold was finally revived.

“How pitiful.” With his left hand gently soothing the top of the man’s head, warm spiritual energy wrapped around his ice-sealed meridians, and Shen Zaixin chuckled softly: “If one day you were to leave this seat, what would you do?”

“There will never be such a day,” Xie Linfeng murmured with his eyes closed.

Even without this Heavenly Dao oath, he was already incapable of leaving.

Just moments before, although his limbs had been numb, he had still overheard the conversation outside the door.

It sounded laughable, but he had actually felt a surge of elation at the word vessel. In that single instant, he disregarded the biting chill and even felt a sense of gratitude for this very congenital spiritual marrow that had brought him such disaster and plunder.

Seeing the jealousy of those others, his heart held only triumph and exhilaration.

It seemed that from the very moment he understood his own feelings, something long-suppressed within the depths of his soul had poured forth, as if he had fallen in love with this person a very long time ago.

Seeing that his consciousness had recovered, Shen Zaixin withdrew his hand, turned, and walked toward the exit. Sweeping a glance at the two dogs standing motionlessly outside the corridor staring eagerly at him, he withdrew his gaze as if they were nothing and headed straight back to the bedchamber.

Xie Linfeng watched the person leave with lingering reluctance. Before he could even manage to stand up from the ground, a powerful wave of spiritual energy suddenly struck him. Being merely at the Golden Core stage, he had no way to resist at all, crashing wretchedly to the floor as a mouthful of blood surged up his throat.

“How does it feel to be backlashed by a Heavenly Dao oath?” Xiao Fang walked slowly toward him, his brows and eyes filled with undisguised, gloomy murderous intent.

If he had known today would turn out like this, he should have gotten rid of Xie Linfeng while the Lord was in closed-door cultivation! Even being subjected to arbitrary venting and torture by that person would have been better than this all-consuming jealousy and hatred burning like ten thousand ants.

Casually wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Xie Linfeng raised an eyebrow, his tone ambiguous and filled with provocation: “Not even one-ten-thousandth of His Lordship’s…”

As those words fell, the jealousy and hatred in Xiao Fang’s eyes nearly materialized. If looks could kill, he would have died a million times over already.

Just as terrifying spiritual pressure surged right toward his face, he remained completely unfearful.

In the blink of an eye, another figure radiating an icy aura stepped in front of him, completely neutralizing the spiritual shockwave.

“Step aside.” Xiao Fang glared at the person blocking his path, his voice harsh.

Yun Shi’s heterochromatic eyes resembled inorganic glass beads. He looked at Xiao Fang as if gazing at a dead object, his voice cold and devoid of fluctuation: “The Lord will be angry.”

The Lord had waited for Xie Linfeng to recover his injuries and brought him here precisely to enter the secret realm and obtain the Rebirth Lotus. If something happened to him now, the Lord would definitely be displeased.

Rule number one of the Soul Refining Pavilion: everything must prioritize the Lord’s happiness.

“He is the Lord’s vessel! With him around, the Lord will never look at you!”

Unmoved, Yun Shi replied indifferently, “As the Lord’s Protector, one should prioritize the Lord in all things. Xiao Fang, you are not worthy of this position of Right Protector.”

Their locked gazes sparked with invisible fire. Xie Linfeng, serving as the catalyst, was completely ignored by them. To avoid disturbing the person inside the bedchamber, the two of them reached a tacit understanding, activated a spatial array together, and vanished. The kitchen quickly returned to absolute silence.

Xie Linfeng looked down at the pool of blood he had spat onto the floor. The fingertips pressed against the ground turned white with exertion, and his eyes, which had once shone as bright as stars, were now dyed ink-black, bottomless.

He slowly stood up, turning his head to glance at the stove. The flames inside had long since extinguished due to the invasion of frost, leaving behind only mottled, blackened scars, much like himself: fragile and unsightly.

Three days later, the Huaxu Secret Realm opened.

Unlike ordinary secret realms meant for trial by combat, this realm contained no exceptionally ferocious demonic beasts, only insidious and indistinguishable illusions that permeated everywhere. Those with unstable states of mind were easily trapped within them, finding it nearly impossible to escape for the rest of their lives.

Perhaps due to the Heavenly Dao’s special treatment of villains, the moment Shen Zaixin stepped into the secret realm, the protagonist’s figure beside him vanished without a trace.

The surroundings were shrouded in thick, hazy fog, the precursor to the illusion activating. He walked slowly forward until a sudden wave of dizziness struck him, causing him to lose consciousness.

The Canglan Sect was situated in the water towns of Jiangnan, yet the Sword Testing Platform was covered in perpetual, unmelting ice and snow. The wind blowing upward from the bottom of the Abyssal Abyss was even colder than the snowy mountains of the far north.

The path of the sword was the most arduous of all. Today happened to coincide with the Canglan Sect’s lecture day, and the bitter cold of the Sword Testing Platform seemed somewhat dispelled by the bustling crowd.

Only the person standing alone beneath the pine tree near the distant cliff possessed an air of ethereal detachment, as if completely insulated from the surrounding hubbub.

The young man wore a white Daoist robe, tall and upright, with an ice-blue longsword hanging at his waist. The jade crown atop his head was adorned with tassels that swayed gently in the wind. Standing beneath the tree with closed eyes, his brow carried a biting frost even sharper than the cold wind. Viewed from afar, he resembled a solitary pine or green bamboo, impossible to approach.

Some young cultivators on the Sword Testing Platform finally lost their restraint, gathering their courage to step forward and ask cautiously, “Senior Brother Ning, how is it that Senior Brother Shen is nowhere to be seen today?”

Although Ning Unchen, as the peak senior disciple of Sword Peak, rarely gave lectures on the sword, Shen Changning was one of the Twin Walls of Canglan, possessing equally supreme talent and extraordinary insight into the sword path.

Of course, the main reason was simply that Senior Brother Shen’s smiles were a rare feast for the eyes. Since one only got to see them once a month, how could they not seize the opportunity?

Hearing this, Ning Unchen opened his eyes. His light-colored pupils were cold and aloof, and his voice was as chilling as floating clouds and shattered snow: “Changning accompanied the newly recruited disciples on a sect mission and has not yet returned.”

Frightened by his icy gaze, the cultivators offered awkward words of thanks and hurriedly dragged their companions away.

Remaining a moment longer might genuinely freeze them to death.

Sensing that the lecture time was approaching, Ning Unchen had not yet taken a step toward the front row of seats when an abrupt change occurred.

A dense wave of demonic energy spread from behind him, causing the blade of his Frost-Delay Sword to vibrate slightly in warning.

“Eldest Senior Brother, watch out!” “There are demons!”

“Slash!”

The Frost-Delay Sword pierced straight through his chest. Ning Unchen slowly turned around, his frozen expression suddenly stiffening the moment it caught sight of the red robes worn by the demon.

He raised his eyelids to look, just as a fierce gale from the bottom of the Abyssal Abyss blew past, ripping away the demon’s ghost mask to reveal an exquisite, striking face.

“It is Senior Brother Shen!”

The sounds around Shen Changning grew distant and muffled. It felt as though many people were anxiously surrounding him, frantically channeling spiritual energy into his body while shoving all sorts of life-saving elixirs and immortal herbs down his throat as if they were worthless.

So noisy.

He frowned and tried to push them away, only to have someone grab his hand.

“Senior Brother Shen, do not move around!” “Quickly go to Pill Peak and fetch Elder Jie! Hurry!”

An exceptionally cold stream of spiritual energy poured into his body, protecting his fracturing heart veins inch by inch. Shen Changning finally found the strength to open his eyes and see the person before him. He saw the panic and fluster in Ning Unchen’s eyes, and just as he tried to offer his usual smile, a mouthful of fresh blood gushed from his throat, throwing the scene into further chaos.

“Do not speak.” Ning Unchen suppressed his confusion as to why the person would want to kill him. Those cold eyes held only remorse and urgency: “I will not let anything happen to you.”

“Ning Unchen.” Disregarding the mottled bloodstains at the corners of his lips, Shen Changning curved his lips into a brilliant smile and said intermittently, “The Great Dao is ruthless, your path has come to an end.”

With those words, he could hold on no longer. The final trace of light in his field of vision was that person’s frozen-looking face.

Having slept in the darkness for who knew how long, a few low murmurs drifted vaguely into his ears.

“With a single sword strike like that, you took half his life away.” A gentle female voice carried blame and dissatisfaction, “If it happens again, even if my master comes personally, he will not be able to save him.”

“…”

“As the person closest to him, you did not even realize when he fell into the demonic path. Could it be that your practice of the Ruthless Dao has blinded you to the person right beside you?”

“I…”

“Back then, you insisted on following your master into the Ruthless Dao. Do you regret any of it now?”

Regret?

His gaze landing on the pale, still unconscious person on the bed, Ning Unchen lowered his gaze to conceal the blankness in his eyes, his knuckles gripping the sword hilt turning white.

Jie Yuhua watched his dejected state and shook her head helplessly. Everything that needed to be said had been said, and now that Changning was out of mortal danger, she was better off keeping out of these complicated matters between senior and junior brothers.

The light footsteps faded away, leaving the room in a chilling silence. Ning Unchen gazed at the other’s delicate, striking features, finally unable to suppress the doubt in his heart.

Changning wanted to kill him. Why?

Shen Changning found the direct, piercing gaze impossible to endure any longer, so he slowly opened his eyes and shot a sidelong glance at him: “How much longer do you plan to stare?”

Ning Unchen carefully helped him up, his expression having returned to its usual cold composure. Seemingly unsurprised by his feigned sleep, he asked indifferently, “Do you feel any discomfort anywhere?”

Sweeping his gaze across the familiar surroundings, clearly the place he had lived in for over a hundred years, Shen Changning felt an unprovoked sense of alienation in his heart.

Even the name Shen Changning gave him an illusion of a lifetime apart.

Was it truly just an illusion?

As the head of the righteous sects, how could the Canglan Sect allow a deep-seated demon spy to continue living?

Was it simply because of shared martial brotherhood? How laughable, the person he wanted to kill was the future peerless swordsman of the Canglan Sect, Ning Unchen.

Fake, it was all fake.

Shen Changning’s gaze hardened. He raised his head, and the moment his eyes met the amber irises of the other person, the scenery before him blurred and receded. The rustling sound of a gentle breeze brushing against leaves vanished, leaving the world in absolute stillness.

Yet he could still clearly see morning light pouring in through the window lattice, tiny specks of dust catching golden light particles as they floated in the air before finally landing in the transparent depths of that person’s eyes.

In an instant, countless shattered fragments of memory rushed forth to break the earth within his mind. He saw his own chest pierced by the Frost-Delay sword before he resolutely leaped down the Abyssal Abyss, he saw the pale-white, agonizing despair in Ning Unchen’s typically immaculate eyes on the Sword Testing Platform, he saw his old sect companions desperately trying to stop Ning Unchen from recklessly throwing himself down the cliff after him.

This was the truth.

Everything back then was merely a play he had put on to sever ties with the Canglan Sect. If not for the lingering guilt of that sword strike leaving the man too shaken to face reality, given Ning Unchen’s stubborn temperament, the man would likely have chased him all the way into the Demon Realm just to demand an explanation for why he turned to the demonic path.

It was utterly annoying.

The surroundings suddenly reverted to normal. Noticing his abnormal expression, Ning Unchen frowned and asked, “What is wrong?”

“Nothing.” Shen Zaixin lowered his eyes and murmured softly. His hand hidden beneath the blanket materialized a dagger. So long as he killed the Ning Unchen before him, the illusion would shatter instantly.