Stepping in for the Heroine to Crush the Protagonist Group [Transmigration] - Chapter 49

The Gloomy Bamboo Bell chimed for the third time, ejecting everyone from the Bamboo Forest Maze.

Gu Sheng clutched her shoulder wound, collapsing to the ground. A metallic sweetness welled up in her throat, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

Hu Li stood just ten steps away. When she saw Gu Sheng’s condition, her breath caught in her throat. Reacting instantly, she closed the distance in three swift strides, pulling Gu Sheng into her arms.

“What happened? What’s wrong? Why are you like this?” Hu Li frantically channeled Spiritual Power into Gu Sheng, her words tumbling over each other in panic.

She had been below the high platform and hadn’t witnessed the events near the Gloomy Bamboo Bell. Seeing Gu Sheng in such a state, she was utterly distraught.

Gu Sheng leaned against Hu Li’s shoulder, struggling to raise a hand and point at Chen Yidong, who knelt before them. Her voice came out slurred, “It… it was her.”

As she spoke, another trickle of blood escaped her lips. Her hand fell limply to her side, her eyes closing as she lost consciousness.

Following Gu Sheng’s gesture, Hu Li’s gaze snapped to Chen Yidong, her eyes instantly burning with murderous intent.

“Did you hurt her?” Hu Li demanded.

Chen Yidong snapped out of her daze, meeting Hu Li’s gaze. Her entire body trembled uncontrollably.

She wanted to explain, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out. She could only lower her head helplessly, tacitly admitting her guilt.

*******

Hu Li sneered, her teeth clenched. In the next instant, a longsword flew up from her feet, hurtling toward Chen Yidong with lightning speed.

This time, Hu Li truly intended to kill. She poured all her strength into the strike, aiming to end Chen Yidong’s life with a single blow, avenging Gu Sheng.

But just as the sword was about to pierce Chen Yidong’s neck, a barrier materialized, blocking Hu Li’s attack.

Hu Yingying appeared, gripping the sword’s hilt, shielding Chen Yidong.

“What, you want to kill her?” Hu Yingying turned, tossing the sword back to Hu Li’s feet. Her gaze was cold and distant, her eyes reflecting the two figures on the ground.

Hu Li met Hu Yingying’s gaze, suppressing her fear. Steadying her voice, she said, “Chen Yidong tried to take a life. Why shouldn’t I retaliate?”

“Tried to take a life?” Hu Yingying raised an eyebrow, glancing at Chen Yidong. “What did you do?”

Chen Yidong remained bowed, but this time she managed to open her mouth.

“I injured the Young Highness with a Bone-Eroding Spike,” she confessed.

“A Bone-Eroding Spike?!” Hu Yingying nearly lost her composure. “You fool! Is that how you’re supposed to use it?!”

With that, she immediately summoned the Clan Physician, who took Gu Sheng and Hu Li away. Hu Yingying grabbed Chen Yidong by the collar and dragged her back to their quarters.

*******

Inside the Bamboo House, the Clan Physician had already removed the Bone-Eroding Spike from Gu Sheng’s shoulder.

Wiping a bead of sweat, she tossed the spike into a porcelain bowl in her medicine chest and said to Hu Li, “Fairy, there’s no need to worry. The Dharma Protector controlled his strength perfectly; the Young Highness’s internal organs are unharmed. With about half a month of rest, her injury should heal completely.”

Following Hu Yingying’s instructions, the Clan Physician delivered this fabricated explanation verbatim to Hu Li, never daring to reveal the spike’s soul-damaging properties.

Hu Li accepted the explanation without suspicion, thanked the Clan Physician, and saw her off.

Inside the house, Hu Si took the medicine left by the Clan Physician to the small kitchen to brew it. The vast space was now occupied only by Hu Li and Gu Sheng.

Hu Li sat on the edge of the bed, her gaze fixed on Gu Sheng for a long moment before she suddenly said, “You let Chen Yidong hurt you on purpose, didn’t you?”

She had carefully replayed every detail of their encounter in the Bamboo Forest Maze, piecing together the truth.

Gu Sheng remained unresponsive.

Hu Li continued, “When the Clan Physician was examining your wound earlier, I noticed you were awake.”

Gu Sheng remained silent. Then, just as Hu Li leaned in, her face about to touch Gu Sheng’s, Gu Sheng’s eyes snapped open.

“How did you figure it out?” Gu Sheng asked, pushing Hu Li away and sitting up despite the discomfort radiating from her soul.

Hu Li straightened her posture, her thin lips curving into an awkward smile. “I didn’t actually know. I was just testing you. I didn’t expect you were really faking sleep.”

Gu Sheng stared at Hu Li’s smug expression, pursed her lips, closed her eyes again, and ignored her.

Seeing this, Hu Li realized she’d provoked Gu Sheng again and quickly tried to recover. “But I did guess that you deliberately got injured. That wasn’t a test.”

“Oh, really?” Gu Sheng murmured.

Hu Li nodded, explaining her reasoning. “First, knowing your personality, when Chen Yidong provoked you into entering the Bamboo Forest Maze, your first reaction should have been to give her a disdainful glare and walk away. But you—”

Gu Sheng interrupted, “Get to the point.”

[Sheng Shengzi: I didn’t realize she thought of me that way. Good. She’s not getting in bed tonight.]

[Li Li: A disdainful glare and then walking away—Li Li really understands Sheng Sheng.]

[Li Li is so blunt, she doesn’t even bother with euphemisms.]

[Fox Spirit, you deserve to never win your wife back.]

[Actually, Li Li’s description is pretty accurate, objective, and spot-on.]

[Gu Sheng really does act like that, but she refuses to admit it.]

Gu Sheng: …

Her gaze shifted coldly from the comments to Hu Li, and she said with a forced smile, “Keep talking. Ignore them.”

Hu Li’s right eye twitched as she avoided Gu Sheng’s predatory glare. In a low voice, she said, “Actually, I guessed it when Chen Yidong broke free from your Immobilization Array.”

Hu Li knew perfectly well how powerful Gu Sheng’s spells were. Forget Chen Yidong—if Gu Sheng wanted, she could trap Hu Yingying in an array for life, never letting her escape.

But Chen Yidong had broken free from Gu Sheng’s Immobilization Array. Even if Hu Li were the densest person alive, she should have figured something out.

Gu Sheng pondered this, genuinely surprised that Hu Li had guessed the truth.

After all, in her mind, Hu Li was just a naive, clueless girl with no hidden depths.

*******

A long silence hung in the air. Gu Sheng threw back the thin blanket covering her and said to Hu Li, “Since you’ve guessed it, come with me to a place.”

As she spoke, she put on her shoes and socks, then retrieved her black dress from the screen and slipped it on.

Her gaze swept over Hu Li’s striking red dress. Gu Sheng rummaged through her Storage Bag and pulled out another black dress, tossing it to Hu Li. “Wear this.”

Hu Li caught the dress, puzzled. “Where are we going? You’re still injured.”

Gu Sheng casually grabbed a black hair ribbon from the dressing table and tied her hair into a neat ponytail. “That’s precisely why we need to be injured—it’ll give us a plausible excuse to deceive people.”

With that, she glanced at Hu Li, who still hadn’t moved, but didn’t urge her. Instead, Gu Sheng swung half her leg out the window, then twisted her body and vanished in a flash.

Seeing this, Hu Li knew she couldn’t hesitate any longer. She quickly changed into the black dress and hurried after Gu Sheng, exiting the Bamboo House.

After leaving the Bamboo House, Hu Li followed Gu Sheng to Hu Yingying’s three-story bamboo tower.

Outside the tower, the guards were drowsy and oblivious, completely unaware of the two black shadows that flew up to the third floor.

On the third floor, Hu Li pushed open a window and helped Gu Sheng into a small chamber.

“Are you trying to steal Fragrant Bloom’s antidote?” Hu Li asked, holding up a fire starter, her gaze fixed on the pink porcelain bottle Gu Sheng had produced. She seemed to grasp Gu Sheng’s plan.

Gu Sheng saw no point in hiding her intentions any longer. “Yes, I’m planning to steal the antidote,” she admitted frankly.

As she spoke, she pressed two fingers together, and a wisp of demonic energy drifted from her fingertips, circling the porcelain bottle.

This was the Fox Clan’s Spirit Search Technique, a spell that could trace an object’s history by analyzing its lingering scent, revealing places it had spent significant time.

Gu Sheng had learned this spell out of sheer boredom, never imagining she’d actually need to use it.

The demonic energy completed its circuit around the bottle, transforming into a faint blue wisp that floated out of the chamber.

Gu Sheng exchanged a glance with Hu Li, then donned her long-unused Scent-Veiling Bracelet to mask their demonic auras.

With their demonic energy concealed, Hu Yingying would no longer easily detect their presence. They crept out of the chamber, following the glowing wisp down a corridor until it stopped before a seemingly ordinary wall.

Gu Sheng reached out and gently tapped the wall twice. A muffled echo reverberated from behind the wall, indicating it was hollow.

“Give me the sword,” Gu Sheng said.

Hu Li glanced at her, assuming Gu Sheng planned to use the sword to pry open a crack in the wall and pull out the bricks. She cautioned, “There’s likely a mechanism here. If we use the sword directly, the marks might alert Hu Yingying—”

Realizing something was wrong, Hu Li didn’t finish her sentence. Gu Sheng snatched the Red Jade Hairpin from her hand and, with a single strike, demolished the wall.

Demolished.

Collapsed.

Collapsed.

Hu Li: ?!

[Is Gu Sheng not afraid of being discovered? Why would she just demolish the entire wall?]

[Sheng Sheng is practically shouting for Hu Yingying to hear us!]

[She was being so careful just a moment ago! What happened to her subtlety?!]

[Where did Sheng Sheng’s cleverness go? She’s acting as recklessly as a Fox Spirit now!]

[Hu Yingying will arrive at the battlefield in three seconds!]

Gu Sheng glanced at the comments and explained succinctly, “Hu Yingying placed a Restriction on this wall. If we tried to enter, she would immediately know. The best approach is to cut through the Gordian knot.”

With that, she stepped into the hidden chamber behind the collapsed wall.

The chamber was lined with shelves, each stacked with a dizzying array of jars and bottles.

The Wisp flew straight to a shelf and hovered over an empty space.

*******

“This is it,” Gu Sheng murmured, immediately opening her Storage Bag and sweeping all the pink porcelain bottles from the shelf into it.

She stepped back, scanning the remaining bottles and jars on the shelves, her gaze finally settling on a dark red porcelain bottle.

The bottle bore a faint, floral pattern.

Hu Li followed Gu Sheng’s gaze, and as soon as she recognized the pattern, a sharp pain shot through her head.

She was certain she’d seen that floral pattern somewhere before, but she couldn’t quite place it.

Gu Sheng, focused on her task, didn’t notice Hu Li’s distress.

She opened the dark red bottle, sniffed its contents, and, confirming it was what she sought, unhesitatingly swept the remaining bottles from that shelf into her Storage Bag as well.

With her task complete, Gu Sheng reattached the Storage Bag to her waist and prepared to leave.

Suddenly, Hu Li stumbled backward, crashing into the shelf behind her.

One shelf toppled, then another, and in an instant, half the shelves in the dark room had collapsed like dominoes.

Gu Sheng gasped, rushing to help Hu Li up.

But just then, an overwhelming pressure slammed down from above, suffocating them.

Hu Yingying had arrived.

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