Stepping in for the Heroine to Crush the Protagonist Group [Transmigration] - Chapter 52

The Spring Birth Array activated, causing all the Fire Radiance Flowers in Xihua Pool to bloom simultaneously.

The vibrant blossoms, dripping with dew, swayed in the breeze, their fiery red petals swirling through the air like crimson snowflakes, settling before everyone present.

“Young Highness! So she’s the Young Highness!” The Fox Clan members outside the circular platform, untouched by the Spiritual Pressure, cheered excitedly.

Hu Yingying’s smile vanished instantly at the sound of their words.

Her cold gaze fixed on Hu Li, who was being cradled by vines like a goddess, enveloped in the radiant glow of the Holy Seal. A chilling murderous intent flashed in her eyes.

Years ago, she had lured the young Hu Li to the Fox Clan’s cemetery, used the Soulfall Array to shatter her soul, and seized her body.

Though she never expected Hu Li to return, this didn’t deter her from taking her life once more.

With a swift flick of her wrist, Hu Yingying sent a Bone-Eroding Spike hurtling from her sleeve, aimed directly at Hu Li’s heart.

The spike was coated in poison, designed not only to wound the soul but also to instantly corrupt the target’s meridians and bones.

Hu Yingying watched Hu Li with malevolent satisfaction, yearning for the spike to pierce her heart and witness her agonizing demise—her body destroyed, her soul extinguished.

******

Contrary to Hu Yingying’s expectations, the Bone-Eroding Spike didn’t pierce Hu Li’s heart. Instead, it halted just before touching her.

A Forehead Mark on Hu Li’s forehead flickered, then detached itself, transforming into a Fire Radiance Flower. In the blink of an eye, the flower morphed into a woman.

This woman was a faint wisp of Spiritual Sense. Her features were blurred, but even through the haze, the crowd recognized her as someone identical to the current Gu Sheng.

“Hu Zhizhi?!” Hu Yingying trembled violently, her eyes widening as she stared at Hu Zhizhi, who now controlled the Bone-Eroding Spike. Her heart plummeted into an icy abyss.

Hu Zhizhi turned to face Hu Yingying, her dark brows furrowing slightly, a hint of displeasure in her gaze. But her expression quickly returned to its usual composure as she said coldly, “Sister, you still refuse to repent.”

As her words fell, the Bone-Eroding Spike floating in her palm abruptly shifted direction, piercing Hu Yingying’s left shoulder.

The left shoulder was closest to the heart. The poison on the Bone-Eroding Spike surged into Hu Yingying’s Spiritual Meridians, rapidly invading her heart and spreading throughout her body.

Hu Yingying let out a strangled cry and collapsed to the ground.

Simultaneously, Hu Zhizhi’s final wisp of Spiritual Sense gradually faded away, dissolving like a fleeting dream.

*******

The Elders on the circular platform hadn’t even had time to react when Hu Yingying’s voice echoed from the shattered bubbles.

“Hu Zhizhi, Hu Li is dead! She’s gone!”

“Do you know how she died? She was torn apart by the Remnant Souls you guarded.”

“Those Remnant Souls were starving. As soon as I released them from the Soulfall Array, they devoured Hu Li’s soul without hesitation.”

“In the end, one Remnant Soul even seized Hu Li’s corpse, replacing her entirely. How utterly absurd!”

“But don’t worry too much. I’ll send you to join your precious daughter right now!”

The voice abruptly cut off.

The Elders held their breath, their expressions shifting as they stared at Hu Yingying collapsed on the ground.

The Fox Clan members outside the platform had also heard these words. Unlike the Elders, who still held some restraint, they immediately began to denounce Hu Yingying’s actions.

“So the King murdered the Former King!”

“King? She doesn’t deserve to be the King of our Fox Clan!”

“For millennia, our Fox Clan has been renowned for its kindness and purity. I never imagined… I never imagined…”

“It’s a tragedy for our clan to harbor such a degenerate!”

*******

The accusations rang in Hu Yingying’s ears. She glared resentfully at Hu Li, whose eyes remained tightly shut, gritting her teeth.

If Hu Zhizhi has robbed me of the Fox King’s throne, then Hu Li won’t get it either.

With that thought, Hu Yingying secretly gathered the remaining Demonic Power that hadn’t been eroded by the Bone-Eroding Spike. She condensed it into a short sword and, seizing the moment when everyone’s attention was fixed on the illusory bubble, hurled the blade. The sword’s tip aimed directly at the center of Hu Li’s forehead.

Seven inches, five inches, three inches…

The short sword hurtled closer to Hu Li. Hu Yingying watched Hu Li, her eyes closed and utterly defenseless, and a triumphant smirk curled her lips.

Let us perish together.

Hu Yingying cackled, allowing the poison from the Bone-Eroding Spike to seep into her lungs and organs, ceasing all resistance.

Gu Sheng, collapsed at Hu Li’s feet, heard Hu Yingying’s eerie laughter and her instincts screamed danger.

She looked up, her gaze colliding with the sudden appearance of the short sword. Her body froze momentarily before she snapped back to awareness. She frantically raised her hand, forming a hand seal and chanting an incantation, desperately trying to break free from the Spiritual Pressure binding her and knock the sword aside.

But to her despair, each attempt only tightened the Spiritual Pressure’s grip, rendering her utterly immobile.

********

A wave of helplessness washed over Gu Sheng, and the atmosphere instantly became tense.

Gu Sheng and the Elders on the circular platform who had spotted the dagger clenched their fists in unison.

Each of them desperately wanted to save Hu Li, but the oppressive spiritual pressure left them powerless to intervene, forcing them to watch helplessly as the unconscious Hu Li drifted into mortal danger.

The dagger hovered just an inch from Hu Li’s forehead, poised to pierce through the spiritual pressure barrier surrounding her.

Everyone stared at the dagger, their hearts pounding to a standstill, instinctively believing it was over.

But in that split second, a longsword suddenly pierced through the spiritual pressure barrier, sweeping the dagger aside and sending it clattering to the ground.

The crowd’s eyebrows shot up as they followed the longsword’s trajectory to its wielder.

Chen Yidong?!

Chen Yidong was a member of the Snow Fox Clan and served as the Left Protector of the Red Fox Clan. Aside from participating in the Bamboo Forest Maze trials, she rarely attended other sacrificial ceremonies.

However, since Gu Sheng was conducting the ritual this time, she had decided to come and join the spectacle.

Little did she know that this normally serene and uneventful blessing ritual would erupt into such chaos******

Chen Yidong tightened her grip on her sword. In that moment of distraction, the overwhelming spiritual pressure surged back at her, slamming her onto the circular platform with a bone-jarring crash.

She spat out a mouthful of dark blood onto the ground. Then, Hu Li’s spiritual pressure intensified again, causing Chen Yidong’s skull to ring and she lost consciousness.

As Chen Yidong lay unconscious, the other people on the platform fared no better.

Several Elders with weaker cultivation rolled their eyes back and collapsed face-down, their bodies pressed flat against the ground.

Only Gu Sheng and a few Elders managed to remain standing, barely. They stared at Hu Li, now enveloped in a faint glow emanating from the Fire Radiance Mirror, and held their breath.

The vines that had pierced Hu Li’s shoulder blades had vanished, replaced by countless Fire Radiance Flowers.

These flowers scattered across Hu Li’s crimson robes, each blossom blooming wildly and passionately.

“Host, are you awake?” In Hu Li’s Sea of Consciousness, the System watched the memories swirling around it and cautiously asked.

Hu Li slowly opened her eyes, the chaotic memories now mostly sorted.

“I’m awake,” she replied to the System.

“Host, then—”

********

Before the System could ask Hu Li about her next move, the shattered Red Jade Hairpin floated out from her Storage Bag.

Under the sunlight, the cracks in the hairpin refracted tiny sparks of light. Upon closer inspection, these sparks were stained with Hu Li’s blood, which had seeped into the Storage Bag earlier.

Hu Li’s Soul Blood had completely fused with the Red Jade Hairpin, forging an unbreakable bond between her Soul and the hairpin.

With a mere thought, the Red Jade Hairpin transformed into a dazzling longsword, hovering before Hu Li.

She reached out and grasped the hilt. The sword trembled slightly, as if responding to her call.

On the ground, Hu Yingying, not yet dead, glared at Hu Li floating in mid-air, her voice seething with rage:

 “Why? Why are you still alive?!”

She had crushed Hu Li’s Soul, and Hu Zhizhi’s Soul, into dust. Why, then, had they reappeared? Why were they still alive?

Hu Yingying couldn’t comprehend it, only knowing that she hated them with every fiber of her being.

Hu Li lowered her gaze, her eyes sweeping past Gu Sheng, who was watching her intently, before settling on Hu Yingying. Her voice was cold as she said, “Aunt, that’s a question I should be asking you.”

The sealed memories had been completely unlocked. Hu Li remembered everything from the past.

*******

It turned out that when Hu Li fell into the Soulfall Array, a remnant of Hu Yingying’s conscience had protected Hu Li’s soul and spirit. When Hu Zhizhi entered the tomb, this remnant soul revealed the entire truth to her and entrusted Hu Li’s soul and spirit to Hu Zhizhi.

After learning what Hu Yingying had done, Hu Zhizhi first used a Fox Clan Forbidden Technique to extract a strand of her own spiritual sense and stabilize Hu Li’s soul and spirit. Then, she cast Hu Li’s soul and spirit into another world to reincarnate, allowing it to gradually merge with its scattered fragments across lifetimes.

This life was meant to be Hu Li’s final one. After this reincarnation, her soul would have been complete.

But fate, in its twisted way, brought Hu Li back to this world through the System, and then, by another twist of fate, back to the Fox Clan.

If not for the System, Hu Zhizhi’s original plan had been to seal Hu Li’s memories. Once her soul was complete, Hu Li would have been kept far from the Fox Clan’s conflicts, living peacefully in another world under a different identity.

Yet everything was destined, inescapable.

So, Hu Zhizhi used her last strand of spiritual sense to place a Restriction on Hu Li’s forehead, waiting for Hu Yingying to make her move, paving the way for her daughter’s future.

With her memories restored, Hu Li regarded Hu Yingying with cold eyes, her hatred reaching its peak.

She had never been a saint, nor had she ever believed in repaying evil with kindness. Her principles were simple: repay kindness with kindness, and repay hatred with hatred.

Hu Li’s feet touched the ground as she stepped back onto the circular platform.

Ignoring Gu Sheng and the other Elders, she walked deliberately, step by step, until she stood before Hu Yingying.

“Aunt, it’s time for you to atone,” Hu Li said coldly. Without hesitation, she raised her sword and plunged it into Hu Yingying’s body.

Hu Yingying’s eyes widened in shock as she stared at the scene, her eyes remaining open even in death.

Having completed her task, Hu Li’s body relaxed, and the spiritual pressure she had been exerting vanished.

She tilted her head back to gaze at the sky, a faint smile curving her lips. Then, darkness suddenly enveloped her vision, and she collapsed backward, falling into someone’s arms.

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