The Host Has Fallen for the Second Female Lead Again - Chapter 71

Although Xu Cu looked normal at the moment, she still sensed danger.

Xu Cu looked at Xi Ruan without speaking.

Xi Ruan took two steps back. Although she wasn’t very powerful, she could feel the presence of a barrier around them.

“I still hate you,” Xu Cu said, looking at Xi Ruan and pulling out a sword wreathed in demonic energy.

“Master will still find out,” Xi Ruan didn’t understand why this person, who had seemed so normal before, had suddenly become like this again.

Xu Cu looked at Xi Ruan with cold eyes, not saying a word. Xi Ruan also took out her own sword and a series of life-saving magical treasures.

“Master really does favor you,” Xu Cu’s eyes filled with even more intense jealousy and displeasure at the sight of the items Xi Ruan had taken out, her expression twisting slightly.

She had been thinking about Ji Mingxiao’s words for days—the words telling her to cultivate well and not to overthink things.

In the end, it was just her way of telling Xu Cu to keep her distance, that Ji Mingxiao didn’t want to be close to her.

“It’s because I’m weaker and can’t protect myself, that’s why Master gives them to me,” Xi Ruan explained.

“She never gave them to me before,” Xu Cu said.

Xi Ruan looked at Xu Cu, knowing that this was exactly the kind of thing that would lead to someone’s downfall.

“Because Master only had one disciple before and could protect you. Now she has two, she doesn’t have time to look after me, so she can only give me these items,” Xi Ruan took a deep breath, trying to reason with her.

“Yes, there was only me before, so why did you have to come along?” Xu Cu clenched her fists. “You deserve to die! You shouldn’t even exist!”

Xi Ruan: !!!

She hadn’t been afraid of dying before, after all, it was just death in a story, but now she really, really didn’t want to die.

Xi Ruan sealed herself inside her egg again.

She tried to send a message to Ji Mingxiao but found that she couldn’t.

“Hehe, junior sister, didn’t you learn this barrier?” Xu Cu sneered. “I’ve been studying this formation for months. Don’t worry, Master won’t be able to find you. Afterwards, I’ll just throw you somewhere with a lack of spiritual energy, where your cultivation will regress. But don’t worry, junior sister, you’ll probably survive for a few decades.”

Xi Ruan let out a cold laugh, “No wonder Master doesn’t like you.”

When Ji Mingxiao arrived, she found that both auras were gone.

Both Xi Ruan and Xu Cu were gone.

Ji Mingxiao’s already cold face grew even colder.

“Host, your current state is very wrong, please calm down,” the system said.

Ji Mingxiao curled her lips, “I think I’m very calm.”

She cut her finger.

She didn’t know what method Xu Cu had used to block the two auras, but there was still a way.

Ever since Xi Ruan was captured by people from the demon realm, she had made many preparations and studied many books on how to find people.

But no matter what, she really should have kept Xi Ruan by her side.

A trace of coldness flashed in Ji Mingxiao’s eyes.

She really hadn’t expected Xu Cu’s acting to be so good, that it had deceived her.

No, it wasn’t that her acting was good, it was just that they had met so infrequently recently that she couldn’t detect that something was wrong.

But no matter what, this was her fault.

The blood from Ji Mingxiao’s hand flowed out, forming a line of blood in mid-air that extended outwards, flying in one direction.

Her face grew paler inch by inch.

When Xu Cu saw the line of blood pass through the barrier, she froze for a moment, then covered her mouth and burst out laughing, squatting on the ground.

When Ji Mingxiao arrived, she saw Xi Ruan in her egg again, looking pitiful, weak, and helpless.

Xu Cu was squatting on the ground, covering her face, laughing and crying at the same time.

“You’ve fallen into the demonic path,” Ji Mingxiao’s voice was flat and without any emotion.

Xu Cu trembled. The thing she feared most was this kind of emotionless voice from Ji Mingxiao, as if nothing about her could make her feel anything.

She felt the cold blade of a sword against her neck.

Xu Cu turned her head in disbelief, looking at Ji Mingxiao. Ji Mingxiao’s eyes held murderous intent and disgust, and nothing else.

“I thought you would have changed, but who knew you’d be the same. Having a disciple like you is a disgrace to my life,” Ji Mingxiao said, enunciating each word.

Xu Cu’s body trembled violently, her eyes wide as she looked at Ji Mingxiao, “Master…”

“Don’t call me Master anymore,” Ji Mingxiao interrupted Xu Cu. “From now on, you are no longer my disciple.”

Xu Cu froze.

This sentence, along with Ji Mingxiao’s immortal spell, was transmitted to the ears of others.

“Because of your own jealousy, you harmed a fellow disciple who did nothing wrong. This is the act of a beast.”

System A looked at Ji Mingxiao, and could only say that this host was truly ruthless.

Looking at Ji Mingxiao and then at Xu Cu, it was suddenly hard to tell which one was scarier.

This was a mission destined to fail. Ji Mingxiao took Xi Ruan away. As for Xu Cu, Ji Mingxiao directly crippled her cultivation.

She simply acted as if she didn’t see Xu Cu’s pained expression.

She wasn’t someone who was easily moved by sympathy.

“That’s too harsh,” Xi Ruan said, looking at Ji Mingxiao. “This will be bad for your reputation.”

Ji Mingxiao glanced at Xi Ruan, “We’re leaving anyway, so what’s bad about it?”

System A: …

“Host…”

“I already gave her one chance. I tried to spur her on to cultivate well and turn over a new leaf, but she didn’t,” Ji Mingxiao interrupted System A. “So you’d better be quiet.”

System A felt a little tired. How did she spur her on? It was just a few casual words.

Because Ji Mingxiao was in a bad mood, she directly defeated the Demon Lord the next day.

The Demon Lord, seeing Ji Mingxiao’s pale and bloodless face, thought he could win, but he was completely overthinking it.

Winning was absolutely impossible.

The news that Xu Cu had fallen into the demonic path and harmed a fellow disciple, and had her cultivation crippled, had already spread. The other party was directly thrown into the mortal realm.

Neither Ji Mingxiao nor Xi Ruan ever went to see Xu Cu again.

The war between the immortals and demons lasted for half a year, making it the shortest immortal-demon war in history.

For a time, Ji Mingxiao’s reputation was on par with the Heavenly Emperor’s in all six realms. However, after the immortal-demon war, Ji Mingxiao, along with her only remaining disciple Xi Ruan, disappeared.

Rumors in the immortal realm said that the two of them had gone to the mortal realm.

“Why are we still here?” Xi Ruan said with a dark expression, standing on the top of a mountain.

Ji Mingxiao sat on a nearby tree, “There’s probably still a turning point. I can probably guess what it is.”

“Hey, should we go and see the other side of the Earth?” Xi Ruan looked up at Ji Mingxiao.

“I see you’re still as impulsive as ever.”

“We can fly now anyway, so where can’t we go?” Xi Ruan continued. “I’m just so bored.”

After leaving the heavens, they had been to many places, but they only looked at the scenery and went to some entertainment venues. Since they were disguised as men, they wouldn’t be recognized, and their lives were considered comfortable compared to the others here, but she still felt uncomfortable.

The two of them had a good meal, then chose a random direction and started flying at high speed.

After all, the Earth is round, so flying in one direction was bound to work. However, when they reached a certain place, they were forced to stop.

There was a barrier in front of them. Ji Mingxiao reached out and touched it. She leaned in and found that next to the barrier was a patch of darkness.

“Because the author’s set world is only this big, and B-class worlds don’t have automatic compensation functions, you can’t see anything outside of the setting,” System A explained.

Ji Mingxiao tapped the barrier, “What will happen if I break the barrier? Don’t the people here notice this problem?”

“The rules of the world won’t let them get here,” System A continued to explain. “If you break the barrier, this world will collapse, and you and Xi Ruan will die here for good.”

Ji Mingxiao immediately retracted her hand and glanced at Xi Ruan.

Apparently, Xi Ruan’s system had also explained it to her, and her face wasn’t looking too good either.

Xi Ruan was a little emotional, “I thought I’d get to see the gods on the other side of the Earth.”

“Then next time you can find a Western mythology world to transmigrate into.”

“I’ll pass on that. My English isn’t good,” Xi Ruan immediately shook her head.

“Then we have something to do. I’ll teach you to speak English. French, German, and Italian are also fine,” Ji Mingxiao’s eyes lit up.

Xi Ruan stared at Ji Mingxiao and decisively shook her head, “I’m not learning.” Although technical skills wouldn’t be erased during memory cleansing, she still didn’t want to learn.

“Why are you so keen on being a teacher?” Xi Ruan didn’t understand why she was always being forced to learn this and that.

Ji Mingxiao didn’t say anything, she just looked away. She couldn’t very well say that she wanted to talk to Xi Ruan more but couldn’t find a topic.

The two of them sat down by the barrier.

Ji Mingxiao suddenly missed her work. Sure enough, it was better to be busy. Not everyone could be a slacker.

She turned her head to look at Xi Ruan, then quietly moved a little closer. Seeing that Xi Ruan wasn’t paying attention, she moved even closer. Just as she was about to lean against her, the person turned her head and glanced at Ji Mingxiao.

Ji Mingxiao was already prepared for her to tell her to move away, but to her surprise, she didn’t say anything.

She let out a sigh of relief and leaned against Xi Ruan.

Xi Ruan pursed her lips, her peripheral vision catching a glimpse of Ji Mingxiao’s face. She took a deep breath.

She wanted to say something, but she didn’t know what to say.

And leaning like this actually felt pretty good.

Although she had no memories, she knew that it had probably been a long time since she had been this close to someone.

Xi Ruan closed her eyes, yawned, and fell directly asleep.

Ji Mingxiao looked at Xi Ruan, a little speechless. She actually fell asleep just like that. In such a perfect moment for just the two of them, this person actually fell asleep.

She stared at Xi Ruan for a while, and finally couldn’t resist leaning in and kissing her hair.

System A: !!!

“Don’t tell her,” Ji Mingxiao whispered.

Although she didn’t say who she was talking to, everyone knew.

Xi Ruan’s system thought for a while, and still agreed, after all, this person was so scary.

This story, “Falling into the Demonic Path,” is a gripping narrative that explores the complex relationships and struggles of its characters. The protagonist, Ji Mingxiao, is a powerful and seemingly cold immortal master who takes in a new disciple, Xi Ruan, and already has a jealous, resentful one, Xu Cu. The story’s central conflict revolves around Xu Cu’s descent into darkness due to her deep-seated jealousy and feelings of abandonment by her master.

Ji Mingxiao’s character is a fascinating study in pragmatism and a certain ruthlessness. She values results and holds a clear-cut view of right and wrong, as seen in her decisive and brutal punishment of Xu Cu. Her lack of emotional display, which Xu Cu so fears, is both a source of her power and the very thing that drives her disciple away.

The narrative also touches on the unique relationship between the “hosts” (Ji Mingxiao and Xi Ruan) and their “systems,” highlighting the meta-fictional nature of the story, where the characters are aware of their existence within a constructed world. This element adds a layer of intrigue, as the characters navigate the rules and limitations of their B-class world.

In the end, the story leaves the characters in a state of suspended animation, with Ji Mingxiao and Xi Ruan living in a world with a literal and symbolic “barrier.” The final scene, where Ji Mingxiao quietly and tenderly kisses Xi Ruan’s hair, hints at a hidden depth of emotion beneath her cold exterior, suggesting that her tough exterior is a coping mechanism for her own internal struggles.

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