The Cold, Aloof Senior Sister Deserves To Be Paired With A Peerless Beauty - Chapter 44

Today, she was grateful that her Junior Sister was not here.

The piercing cold wind traveled like a blade, howling as it scraped painfully against the skin. It made the leaves rustle with a treacherous, eerie aura. Amidst the dense foliage swaying in the wind, two figures were hidden.

Through the gaps in the leaves, their gaze fell upon several people in the distance who were being pushed to the brink by a furious beast. A similar look of mockery gradually surfaced in their eyes.

In the distance, the group looked terrified, their faces pale as they frantically performed hand seals, channeling spiritual power to attack the beast before them. Their combined assault caused the air to tremble momentarily, but against the massive, ferocious creature, it was like throwing eggs against a stone.

It was a Crocodile Demon. Having absorbed the abundant spiritual energy of the secret realm for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, its cultivation level was not something Golden Core cultivators should provoke, let alone this group, who had not even reached that stage. Despite their numbers, they could hardly hold their ground.

Cultivators entered the secret realm only to find artifacts. Even though a beast’s core could significantly boost one’s cultivation, ordinary people would never dare provoke them.

Chi Li shifted her gaze away from a particularly pathetic figure and looked instead at the murky stream. The water was as black as ink, tinged with a faint crimson. After watching for a long while, she finally discerned what was inside.

Beneath the water lay a smaller crocodile demon, much smaller than the one currently attacking. Its belly had been sliced open and its core removed, it was clearly dead.

Chi Li’s gaze moved back to the cultivators, finally landing on Mo Fan, whose leg was a bloody mess. She let out a cold laugh.

“Self-inflicted.”

Back then, Mo Fan had been bitten. The cultivators present judged the small crocodile’s cultivation to be negligible and killed it on the spot. Little did they expect that before they could even grasp the extracted core, they would be hunted down by the parent crocodile, enraged by the death of its child.

Beside her, Xi Yu heard Chi Li’s laughter and turned her head in confusion.

“What are you laughing at?”

Chi Li suppressed her smile but did not answer. Xi Yu stared at her for a moment, then looked back at the pathetic Mo Fan, growing more puzzled.

“That man is wearing your sect’s robes. You don’t plan on saving him?”

Xi Yu’s question was simple curiosity, she didn’t actually want Chi Li to intervene. If Chi Li acted, she would have to use spiritual power, which would cause the secret realm to detect her presence, leading to trouble.

A flash of coldness crossed Chi Li’s eyes as she spoke heartlessly.

“I actually want to kill him.”

Xi Yu was startled. The murderous intent in Chi Li’s eyes didn’t seem faked, which chilled her. However, Xi Yu quickly regained her composure. Chi Li had every right to loathe someone, and as an outsider, Xi Yu wouldn’t interfere.

Yet, the moment Chi Li spoke those words, Xi Yu felt a sudden drop in the surrounding atmospheric pressure. This pressure didn’t come from Chi Li, nor did it come from herself. That meant…

Xi Yu pursed her lips, not daring to think further.

Below, the group was struck again by the beast. Several people were barely clinging to life, half-dead as they struggled to hold on. Seeing this, the cold sneer on Chi Li’s lips turned into undisguised derision. She said something cryptic to Xi Yu.

“Do you know? Those who follow him end up either dead or injured.”

“Oh?” Xi Yu’s interest was piqued. Following Chi Li’s gaze to the wounded man, she asked thoughtfully, “Is this man cursed?”

Chi Li shook her head slightly. Her expression was heavy, her eyes dark and unreadable, save for the blatant disgust. After a long pause, she spoke in a voice so cold it made one’s heart skip a beat.

“It is far more terrifying than a curse.”

Xi Yu frowned, trying to figure out what Chi Li meant by “It.” She didn’t think Chi Li was referring to a person, a demon, or a ghost. In this world, excluding those, only one answer remained.

The thought she had been afraid to entertain resurfaced. It was like a taboo, something she wanted to cast aside but couldn’t help being curious about. Xi Yu hesitated, her gaze toward Chi Li turning strange as she whispered:

“It?”

Chi Li’s expression remained unchanged. Her voice was flat as she confirmed Xi Yu’s inner suspicion.

“Yes, It.”

Hearing the confirmation, Xi Yu’s emerald pupils suddenly contracted. A wave of horror washed over her as she looked at the woman beside her in disbelief.

She waited a long time. As the sharp wind whistled and the beast let out a massive roar, leaves scattered through the air. For a moment, Xi Yu felt dazed; even Chi Li, standing right next to her, seemed shrouded in a mist that made her difficult to see clearly.

Xi Yu looked up at her again with rare seriousness, as if trying to glimpse some different emotion in Chi Li’s face. However, she could only discern an unreserved hatred for the man below.

Where that hatred came from, she didn’t know, and Chi Li wouldn’t tell her the truth or rather, Chi Li couldn’t tell her. If the man below was indeed what she suspected, then he was like its pet. And Chi Li loathed the pet.

This hatred was undoubtedly a provocation toward “It” an extremely risky move.

“Do you realize…” Xi Yu started, but her voice faltered the moment Chi Li looked over. Her throat went dry, and it took a moment to find her voice again. “Do you realize that It won’t let you go?”

She wanted to warn Chi Li, not wanting to see a genius fall due to recklessness.

However, Chi Li, understanding the intent, merely lowered her eyes. The dappled shadows of the leaves fell across her face, masking her shifting emotions. As the pressure in the air intensified, Xi Yu’s eyes flashed with surprise.

“I know,” Chi Li said calmly, her eyes devoid of fear.

“You cultivate immortality…”

Before Xi Yu could finish, Chi Li interrupted her.

“I cultivate immortality not to meet It.”

She cultivated for herself, and herself alone.

Xi Yu’s brow furrowed. She searched for more words of persuasion but ultimately gave up. Silence fell between them as they turned their attention back to the scene below.

The cultivators were no match for the beast. Several were heavily wounded. Mo Fan, with his back to the group who were struggling to support him, was frantically fiddling with something, a mess of black and white objects.

Xi Yu watched for a moment, a mocking smile appearing on her face.

“He’s still in the mood to play chess?”

Chi Li narrowed her eyes and said coldly, “That is an item belonging to an Elder of my Cangqing Sect. By injecting spiritual power into it, the arrangement of the chessboard becomes a formation that can trap an attacker.”

“Does he know how to use it?” Xi Yu watched the clumsy man.

“No, but he’s wounded,” Chi Li said.

“Wounded?” Xi Yu murmured, then realized. “Using blood.”

“Yes,” Chi Li replied.

Xi Yu laughed mockingly. “He doesn’t seem like anything special. Perhaps you’ve overthought it.”

Chi Li didn’t respond, and Xi Yu didn’t care.

Below, Mo Fan still couldn’t find the way to activate the chessboard. Feeling the terrifying pressure of the angry beast and hearing the constant urging of his companions, his hands shook uncontrollably, his face full of terror.

Xi Yu, who was used to seeing treasures, observed the object in Mo Fan’s hand and muttered, “Why does it look like something is missing…”

Hidden beneath her sleeve, Chi Li’s fingertips brushed against each other. Unseen by anyone, a chess piece appeared in her hand and then crumbled into fine dust.

Indeed, something was missing.

Amidst Mo Fan’s frantic panic, a chess piece fell from the board, landing perfectly in the pool of blood at his feet.

In the next instant, before anyone could react, a blinding light enveloped them. A terrifying aura overpowered the beast’s pressure, giving everyone a moment to breathe. When the light faded, the massive beast that had wounded so many was gone, along with the injured cultivators.

The survivors recovered from their shock and looked at Mo Fan with admiration and gratitude.

“Thanks to Brother Mo’s treasure, we were able to escape with our lives.”

The area became noisy again with praise for Mo Fan, as if they had forgotten who caused the disaster in the first place. Holding the chessboard, Mo Fan looked disheveled from his injuries, but he couldn’t hide the excitement and arrogance in his eyes.

“I must thank you all for buying me time.”

“A baleful array,” Xi Yu remarked.

As soon as she spoke, the people below seemed to realize something was wrong and fell into a panic again.

“Our people are missing too!”

The praise for Mo Fan vanished instantly, replaced by his own terror. He fumbled with the chessboard, trying to release the people trapped inside with the beast. However, the more he panicked, the more futile his efforts became. No matter how he fiddled with it, he couldn’t find the mechanism to open it again.

“What do we do?” someone shouted anxiously.

Mo Fan’s face was pale, but he bit his lip and said firmly, “This formation won’t harm people. Don’t worry, everyone.”

As he spoke, no one noticed the flash of guilt in his eyes.

Hearing his words, the crowd calmed down. Chi Li, with her sharp hearing, heard everything clearly even from a distance. She found it farcical, her voice icy.

“Years ago, he made the same guarantee. But when my Junior Sister came out, she was on the verge of death. Even the items I worked so hard to find to make her medicine were snatched away by him.”

Only she knew that the piece she had forcibly broken off earlier, combined with the one that just fell, formed a pair of black and white. If her breaking the first piece was meant to weaken the formation, then the one Mo Fan dropped had turned it into a “Dead End Array” a place with no return.

The Heavens must have noticed her interference. Fearing the chessboard’s power was too weak to let Mo Fan trap the beast in front of everyone, It had turned the array into a lethal one.

Under the guidance of the “Heavens,” these people would soon forget Mo Fan’s “mistake” and only remember him as their savior.

Xi Yu was surprised. “Isn’t your Junior Sister not here?”

“She isn’t,” Chi Li said.

“Then you…”

“And it’s a blessing that she isn’t,” Chi Li added. Beyond the coldness in her voice, there was a deep sense of relief.

Xi Yu began to suspect that if the person Chi Li mentioned had been there, they would be the one in danger right now. To be someone Chi Li cared for so deeply, forced into a dangerous situation while having to listen to hypocritical promises…

Xi Yu felt a chill run down her spine. If she were in that position, she might be even less calm than Chi Li.

“Then those who just went in… they probably won’t survive.”

Trapped in a confined space with a beast, they were like fish on a cutting board.

“Indeed,” Chi Li said, her voice freezing. A thin smile touched her lips, but it held no warmth.

“The people of the Yueming Sect… must not live.”