The Ice-Cold Beauty Senior Sister Keeps Falling for Her Own Theories - Chapter 16

A shattered green jade pendant, stone debris scattered everywhere from a spiritual attack… and Tan Feng, a man clad in black, frozen mid-action, eyes slightly widened as he stood rooted to the spot.

This was the scene that greeted Gongsun Muhan when she arrived at the tomb chamber.

Though the jade pendant was only half intact, she had seen it almost daily in the past and immediately recognized it as Feng Jie’s identity token.

She strode over, picked up the pendant, and noticed a spray of dark red bloodstains on the ground from the corner of her eye.

She reached out and touched it, the blood was still damp and fresh.

“Wow, so fragrant, so enticing!”

“It’s the aura of Chaos spiritual power! It’s her, it’s her, it’s her!”

“Sister Su Meng, let me, let me! I’ll help you devour it all… clean it all up!”

Gongsun Muhan didn’t pay close attention to the vine demon’s ramblings, but she was once again certain that the blood belonged to Feng Jie.

She clearly remembered the vine demon mentioning earlier that Feng Jie possessed a Chaos Body. As for why Feng Jie was here, she could question the vine demon later.

The immediate priority was to determine Feng Jie’s current whereabouts.

At that moment, Tan Feng had just discovered that the light on the treasure-seeking device had gradually dimmed and extinguished after Feng Jie left. It seemed she had not only deceived him but also secretly taken the Bixin Sword!

However, there was still no sign of a divine artifact contract forming, so he still had time.

Thinking this, he couldn’t help but smirk. Unexpectedly, his senior sect leader’s mission had turned out to be a great help. He took out the unnamed token.

This was what the sect leader had given him before leaving. With the source spiritual power contained within this token, how could he fail to capture her?

Seeing Tan Feng about to leave, Gongsun Muhan quickly stepped forward to block his path.

“Who are you? Do not stand in my way, or else…”

As purple spiritual power gathered in his hand, Gongsun Muhan’s veil remained perfectly still. Her expression did not change, and there was not a trace of fear in her eyes. “Where is the girl who was in this room earlier?”

Hearing her inquire about Feng Jie, Tan Feng felt a flicker of suspicion. He silently probed her spiritual power with his consciousness but found it impenetrable, either her strength surpassed his, or it was some kind of illusion.

Could she also be after the Bixin Sword that Feng Jie possessed?

“Who are you? Why are you looking for her?”

His eyes turned sinister, anyone who tried to take the Bixin Sword from him would die!

Gongsun Muhan pondered for a moment. “An enemy.”

“Oh?”

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Several streaks of purple spiritual power shot toward her like meteors. Gongsun Muhan leaped into the air, spinning to evade them.

At the same time, another surge of spiritual power stirred up a fierce gale.

As the spiritual energy settled, Gongsun Muhan’s voice, for once, carried a hint of emotion. “What is the meaning of this?”

Tan Feng understood now. He had found it suspicious earlier when he couldn’t gauge her spiritual power. As expected, it was Gongsun Muhan. Since she had delivered herself to him, he would make her pay for every injury his nephew, Yishu, had suffered.

Instead of answering, he signaled for Gongsun Muhan to follow. “Since we share the same goal as enemies, let’s go.”

Gongsun Muhan did not follow. She hadn’t missed the implications of that fierce gale. Now that Tan Feng knew her identity, it was highly unusual that he hadn’t exposed her and was instead acting this way.

Her heart was conflicted. Feng Jie… was still in his hands.

Suddenly, the man ahead also halted his steps and turned to look at her. “I only attacked earlier to test whether you were that elusive demon in the maze. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”

Tan Feng had no idea he had already been exposed, nor did he know that Gongsun Muhan was aware of his true intentions behind the earlier strike.

He simply assumed Gongsun Muhan distrusted him because he was a stranger. Thinking this, he added, “I, too, seek revenge against that woman. Moreover, I have her identity plaque, which contains a trace of her origin spiritual power.”

Having said this much, if Gongsun Muhan still refused to leave, he would have no choice but to resort to force, even if it meant tying her up and throwing her into the demonic array.

He mentioned an identity plaque?

Gongsun Muhan’s breath hitched, as if something had struck her hard.

“Fine, I’ll go with you!”

Seeing his goal achieved, Tan Feng turned away with a soft sneer, thinking she was a fool.

Gongsun Muhan, slightly dazed, followed absentmindedly, not even noticing that the vine demon hadn’t caught up.

Her mind conjured Feng Jie’s tear-streaked face, at the edge of the Lixin Cliff, she had personally crushed Feng Jie’s identity plaque…

The identity plaque was created when a disciple entered the sect: a trace of their origin spiritual power was extracted and autonomously generated through the sect’s inherited formation, inscribed with their name. According to the rules of the Bixia Sect, it was then sealed in the ancestral hall under special guard. Unless a disciple seriously violated the sect’s interests, committed a grave crime, or defected to the demonic path, the plaque could not be used for any other purpose. Even for tracking or punishment, it required unanimous approval from the council of elders and a special seal.

Earlier, Chang Yuru had mentioned that Tan Feng possessed an artifact capable of tracking Feng Jie’s whereabouts, but Gongsun Muhan never imagined it would be the sect’s identity plaque. Moreover, when she first arrived, she had clearly seen that the plaque in Tan Feng’s hand was nameless, let alone bearing the special seal of the council of elders.

If the plaque stored in the ancestral hall wasn’t Feng Jie’s to begin with, then,

Feng Jie hadn’t lied to her.

But how could Feng Jie’s plaque be nameless, and how did it end up in Tan Feng’s hands?

Having pieced together the doubts, Gongsun Muhan glanced at Tan Feng, who had taken out the plaque again to scout the path ahead.

No matter what, Tan Feng couldn’t possibly be so kind as to invite her, Gongsun Muhan, along. He must have some scheme waiting for her, and she needed to be cautious.

As they walked, Gongsun Muhan’s unease grew stronger. The surroundings became increasingly oppressive, with not a trace of sunlight in sight. Withered branches and broken vines creaked in the wind, casting shadows that clawed and snarled menacingly…

At the end of the overgrown path lay a thick, indistinguishable darkness.

“Sir-” Before Gongsun Muhan could finish her question, she heard Tan Feng exclaim in surprise.

“The plaque is reacting so intensely, she must be right ahead!”

“But…”

Gongsun Muhan quickened her pace to his side and indeed saw the plaque emitting a brilliant blue light, flashing at an extremely high frequency. A stream of light, like a firefly, shot forward.

Unbeknownst to her, Tan Feng had tampered with the plaque, separating a strand of Feng Jie’s origin spiritual power and directing it toward the demonic array to create the illusion of the plaque’s spiritual power leaking.

Her heart tightened. With the plaque reacting so strongly, could it be that something had happened to Feng Jie?

“But what?”

“But this place looks truly sinister. I’m not willing to take such a risk. How about-”

Taking advantage of her distraction, Tan Feng struck with a palm. The spiritual power of a Purple-tier cultivator was indeed formidable, the talisman Gongsun Muhan hastily threw out instantly turned to smoke, utterly failing to block the attack.

“In that case, the only option is to offer blood to borrow spiritual power.” She drew a drop of heart’s blood and met his palm strike head-on.

Tan Feng sneered coldly, striking blow after blow, determined to end her life.

The gap in their strength was too vast. Gongsun Muhan gritted her teeth and borrowed spiritual power once more, yet she was still forced to retreat step by step.

Before she could even wipe the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, she suddenly saw Tan Feng halt his attacks, form hand seals, and conjure multiple streams of spiritual energy that shot toward the tree stumps and boulders around her.

Suddenly, she realized something, he had seen through her suspicions earlier and deliberately pressed her back with his strikes.

That dense, ink-like darkness at the edge of her vision…

A flicker of anger flashed in Gongsun Muhan’s eyes. She condensed a drop of blood at her fingertip and shot toward Tan Feng with lightning speed.

At the same time, a flash of light appeared, and crimson patterns suddenly emerged on the barrier’s glowing screen.

Tan Feng remained completely unaware of the drop of poisoned blood that had been driven into his waist and vanished instantly. His attention was fixed solely on Gongsun Muhan, who had fallen into his trap.

“You wretched creature, you can wait here to die in this demonic array.”

“This demonic array has existed since the founding of the Bixia Sect. It teems with countless demons, and the demonic energy here has long solidified into blades. I doubt you’ll escape the agony of being torn apart or the torment of being scorched and charred by demonic energy.”

Tan Feng cast a cold glance at Gongsun Muhan, who could barely stand. Had they been in the Bixia Sect, he would have personally inflicted punishment, repaying the injuries to his nephew Yishu a thousandfold. It was a pity that, given the circumstances, he had to settle for letting her die accompanied by demons.

Without lingering, he vanished in a series of flashes, completely disappearing from Gongsun Muhan’s sight.

Having expended too much energy, and with the irreversible damage from the heart’s blood, Gongsun Muhan collapsed weakly onto the ground, covered in thorny vines and gravel. Her vitality drained, her internal organs shriveled, and even her skin began to crack and wither.

From a distance, she looked no different from a desiccated corpse, devoid of any semblance of life.

Except for her eyes, calm and vast as the ocean, yet still stirring with waves.

Before the demons could even catch the scent of a living being, the demonic energy had already begun to converge around Gongsun Muhan. Dark and crimson, it gathered in layers, forming a visible tide of black-red clouds.

“Wait to die?” Gongsun Muhan’s gaze drifted vaguely toward the demonic energy.

Why should this demonic array, this mass of demonic energy, take her life? Simply because she was a cultivator, and the way of heaven dictated that immortals and demons were opposed?

“Why?”

If demons sought her life, why not become a demon herself…

She bit her lip tightly, struggling bit by bit to rise. The moment she steadied herself,

A fierce gale swept in, carrying scattered bones from nearby, crashing down upon her.

“Thud!”

She fell.

“Thud! thud… thud…”

Fell, and fell again.

Behind her, a mound of bones, withered branches, and stones had piled high.

“Heh!”

It had always been like this.

She hadn’t died when she was drowned in a pond at five, hadn’t died on the pyre at seven, hadn’t died in the arena at eleven, hadn’t died when trapped in a perilous realm with her cultivation shattered…

Then now, she would not die either.

Propping herself up on her elbows, she dragged her legs, numb with pain, flesh torn and exposed, inch by inch, forward.

Sweat poured from her forehead like a waterfall, her dark hair whipping wildly in the wind, gradually intertwining with the demonic energy in the air.

…

[Malice value increased by one point. Current value: 91.]

[Demonic transformation tendency detected!]

[Evil Thought Value increased by one point. Currently at 92.]

[Evil Thought Value increased by one point. Currently at 93.]

[Demonic Transformation Tendency Intense!!!]

…

[Warning! Warning!]

Oh heavens? What’s happening now?

Feng Jie felt like crying, her heart aching and her body in pain. Tears fell like broken strings of pearls, clear and melodious as they hit a jade plate.

She had thought she had narrowly escaped disaster, only to find one calamity after another, again and again…

Earlier, thanks to the Bixin Sword, she had been rescued and brought to this tree hollow, hiding from the men in black.

But scarcely moments after she arrived, her dantian churned violently, a result of her core spiritual power being stripped and damaged. The pain pierced through her seven meridians and eight vessels, causing her tear ducts to lose control. Her tears flowed like a breached dam, unstoppable.

The Bixin Sword even mocked her, saying she never used to cry before, but now her weeping was crisp and pleasant, coming and going as it pleased…

After finally stabilizing the fluctuations of her spiritual energy, she was just about to go find Gongsun Muhan when news of her bombarded her mind…

What on earth had happened? How could she find her?

[Task Failure Warning!]

Feng Jie sighed, closed her eyes, and resigned herself to waiting for the lightning to strike, perhaps even to death…

But after waiting for a long time, nothing happened. However, the system, Shabi, finally woke up.

[What are you waiting for? It’s already reached 99. Punishing you won’t help now… Hurry up and think of a way to lower Gongsun Muhan’s Evil Thought Value!]

Shabi was utterly exasperated.

“Then send me to her side!”

“With tens of thousands of miles between you, you expect me to save the villain? What a pipe dream…”

Though her words were sharp, Feng Jie still picked up the Bixin Sword and swiftly set off to find Gongsun Muhan.

“You!”

Shabi was furious, but there was nothing he could do. He swallowed his words and silently retreated to a corner, flipping through the plot.

[Head to the Demonic Array.]

“Alright, you’re the system. I trust you…”

Even without his reminder, Feng Jie would have gone to find the Demonic Heart. She remembered from the plot book that the Demonic Heart awakens the deepest parts of a person, especially their evil thoughts and desires. It was likely that Gongsun Muhan’s skyrocketing Evil Thought Value was influenced by the Demonic Heart.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Feng Jie left the tree hollow, she encountered people from the Bixia Sect.