The Ice-Cold Beauty Senior Sister Keeps Falling for Her Own Theories - Chapter 4

“Demonic cultivators are causing trouble, the demonic cultivators are here!”…

Feng Jie only noticed she had shattered the other’s teacup when she caught Tang Liang’s startled gaze.

Apologizing, “Sorry, it was an accident,” she bent down to pick up the porcelain shards from the floor.

“It’s fine, this humble one will have a servant clean it up.”

Seeing that Feng Jie seemed distracted and didn’t respond, Tang Liang called out again.

“Immortal?”

What was she to do? Her original body hadn’t left behind any demonic friends for her to inherit. Where could she find a demonic clansman on such short notice? And she needed them to willingly help.

Feng Jie was inwardly frantic.

The book mentioned that demonic cultivators often blended in with the crowds. Maybe she should try her luck in the town, perhaps she’d run into some disguised demonic clansmen.

“Immortal?”

“Ah?” Feng Jie looked up at Tang Liang, momentarily distracted, and “Ouch!” her finger was immediately cut by a sharp edge, leaving a sizable gash.

Ignoring the pain, she tore a strip of gauze from the hem of her skirt and hastily wrapped it around her finger without even looking.

“Supervisor Tang, have there been any sightings of demonic clansmen in the town recently?”

Tang Liang thought for a moment. “There have been rumors lately of a demonic protector in the area, but the specifics… this humble one doesn’t know.”

“Thank you. In that case, I’ll trouble you to expedite the Memory Pearl for me. I’ll return to collect it in two hours.”

Feng Jie turned to leave.

“Of course, this humble one will prioritize it for you, Immortal.”

He hesitated, glancing at her carelessly wrapped finger, and asked, “Um, Immortal, wouldn’t you like to tend to that wound before you go?”

“No need.”

Feng Jie was already at the door.

Tang Liang sighed helplessly and went to gather the shards from the floor.

Noting the blood droplets on the ground and the bloodstains on the sharp edges of the porcelain, he realized the young immortal’s cut was quite deep.

Picking up the tea tray, he carried the fragments to the back hall. Calculating the time, the young master should have arrived by then, and he needed to hurry to greet him.

…

Feng Jie wandered around the town, but with her limited knowledge of this world, she couldn’t spot anyone suspicious.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted from the crowd in an alley ahead.

“Demonic cultivators are causing trouble, the demonic cultivators are here!”

“Ah, demons, demonic clansmen!”

“Help…”

Opportunity knocks but once.

Feng Jie quickly stopped a fleeing young beggar nearby and asked, “What’s happening up ahead? Are there demonic cultivators?”

“You-” The beggar was about to curse but, upon seeing Feng Jie’s ethereal white daoist robes, changed his tone. “Daoist, up ahead, up ahead, there’s a demon killing people and drinking their blood. He even overturned the butcher’s stall, blood everywhere. He… he’s wielding a blade, ready to slaughter everyone. Immortal… can you handle him? If not, you’d better run too.”

As the beggar tried to break free, she tightened her grip.

Nonsense, she had to go, even if she couldn’t win.

“Thanks.”

With that, Feng Jie snatched the hemp belt from his waist, pulled a hairpin from her own hair, and stuffed it into the beggar’s arms before darting toward the scene.

“Ah!” The beggar hurriedly grabbed his pants to keep them from falling, and the hairpin clattered to the ground with a “clang.”

“What kind of lousy immortal is she, even wilder than me…” he grumbled, picking up the hairpin and clamping it between his teeth as he hoisted his pants and fled for his life.

She cast a cleansing spell with a wave of her hand and then covered her eyes with the black burlap cloth.

With the burlap shielding her vision, she wouldn’t faint directly at the sight of blood this time.

By the time Feng Jie arrived, the demon was no longer at the scene.

All that remained was the chaotic mess of a butcher’s stall.

She tilted her head and glanced at the dark stains on the ground. The air was thick with the smell of blood, mixed unmistakably with the pungent odor of pigs, clearly, a bucket of pig’s blood had been overturned.

Frowning, she took a few steps forward and scanned the surroundings. No one appeared to be injured or corrupted by demonic energy. The only person lying on the ground was the butcher, whose chest rose and fell steadily, he had merely fainted.

What kind of trick was this demon playing?

Well, whatever it was, she had to catch him.

The lingering demonic energy in the air hadn’t dissipated. Following its trail, she soon spotted the demon’s figure.

She chased him into a dense forest, where he abruptly stopped and turned to face her.

Beneath the green-faced, fanged mask, Xie Zhi’s lips curled into a slight smile. The fish had taken the bait.

“You’re here about that incident at the butcher’s stall, aren’t you, Fairy? I was just playing a little joke, who knew they’d be so easily frightened?” Xie Zhi spread his hands and grinned mischievously. “You’ve been chasing me for so long, could it be that you’ve taken a liking to me? But with your eyes covered like that, you can’t fully appreciate my dashing figure.”

No sooner had he spoken than Feng Jie’s vision suddenly brightened. The demon moved so swiftly she had no time to react, the burlap strip covering her eyes was untied in an instant.

“You-!”

Xie Zhi returned to his previous position, studying Feng Jie carefully. His gaze swept over her slightly blood-crusted fingertips, and understanding dawned on him.

He brought the burlap cloth to his nose and took a deep sniff, his eyebrows lifting slightly.

“You smell so lovely, Fairy…” Xie Zhi drawled with a laugh, a sly glint flashing in his fox-like eyes.

That scent, that aura, it was undoubtedly her.

Seeing his mischievous grin, Feng Jie immediately hurled an explosion spell at him.

“Lovely, my foot!”

“Just because I like to have a little fun, you want to kill me like those hypocritical, self-righteous Taoists?”

Xie Zhi didn’t even bother to dodge. He clutched his chest, preparing to wail in agony, but before he could even start, the glowing sphere fizzled out mid-air, dispersing into nothing.

Xie Zhi glanced at the spot where the spell had vanished, then turned back to Feng Jie, blinking his innocent, wide eyes seven times in a single second.

Feng Jie’s expression stiffened momentarily. She was still new to this world and hadn’t yet mastered these spells.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed aside her embarrassment, her main priority now was the Memory Pearl.

“I want to make a deal with you.”

“Oh? You want to make a deal with me, or rather, a demon?”

“Yes. What are your conditions?”

Seeing Feng Jie’s serious and solemn expression, Xie Zhi understood her intent but still spread his hands in a show of helplessness. “Conditions? But I lack nothing.”

Feng Jie shot him a glance. Was he trying to drive a hard bargain?

She emphasized again, “As long as you help me activate the Memory Pearl and extract the memories from my mind, I’ll agree to any condition.”

Xie Zhi smiled without replying. It seemed the fairy didn’t believe he truly lacked nothing.

Noticing Feng Jie’s furrowed brow as she pondered how to persuade him, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

An unresolved mystery, wasn’t that a form of desire, a kind of lack in itself?

“Since you say you’ll agree to any condition, how about letting me stab you with a sword?”

“What? Stab me?”

“Right. Demons have always been ruthless, with a penchant for bloodshed and violence. If you-” Xie Zhi thought that if she refused, he’d just stab her first, finish what he had to do, and then decide whether to help her depending on his mood.

Feng Jie cut him off directly, summoning a nearby branch and transforming it into a sword before handing it to him.

“Just don’t kill me.”

Seeing how readily she agreed, a flicker of admiration crossed Xie Zhi’s eyes. He took the sword and, without hesitation, thrust it into her.

“Ugh!” Feng Jie let out a muffled groan, tears instantly streaming down her face. She had secretly numbed her acupoints before handing over the sword, but it still hurt this much.

Though Xie Zhi had only raised his hand for a single strike, the force was considerable, the blade had already sunk half an inch into Feng Jie’s left shoulder. Blood dripped from the sword onto the ground, trailing several long, dark crimson lines.

She looked up at Xie Zhi, yanked the sword out with a sharp shing! steadied herself, and tossed it aside without a second glance.

The wound sounded gruesome, but it hadn’t hit any vital spots. For a cultivator, it was nothing serious.

Watching the tears cascade uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes, Xie Zhi couldn’t quite believe it. “You really don’t have to put on a brave face.”

“I’m not.” It was just that her tear ducts were far more active than most people’s, often beyond her control.

The crying might be exaggerated, but the pain was real.

Her face pale, she forced her voice to steady and got straight to the point.

“I’ve fulfilled your condition. Now it’s time for mine. After I regulate my breathing for a moment, please accompany me to Jianghai Pavilion.”

“Mm.”

Xie Zhi responded indifferently, his gaze fixed intently on the wound on her shoulder.

Feng Jie staggered a few steps, leaning heavily against the nearest tree trunk before sitting down to close her eyes and regulate her breathing.

The tear stains vanished into the wind, and the bloodstains were erased by her spell, leaving no trace behind.

Xie Zhi raised an eyebrow. Hah, still so stubborn.

He didn’t have to wait long, within a quarter of an hour, Feng Jie’s injury had completely healed.

It seemed his earlier suspicion was correct.

How intriguing. If this news got out, would the so-called righteous immortal sects be able to sit still?

“Phew!”

Feng Jie stood up and moved her shoulder, sure enough, it didn’t hurt anymore.

So, the novel was right! Spiritual energy healing was this effective, it completely shattered the boundaries of modern science and Marx’s materialism…

Thinking of the Memory Retention Pearls and saving Gongsun Muhan, Feng Jie didn’t dare delay any longer. As soon as she finished regulating her breath, she prepared to take Xie Zhi with her.

Unnoticed by her, as they left, Xie Zhi casually flicked his sleeve. Hidden beneath it, a swarm of red-and-black venomous spiders surged out, scrambling toward the remnants of blood nearby before vanishing without a trace.

By the time Feng Jie brought Xie Zhi back to Jianghai Pavilion, the Memory Retention Pearls had just been tallied.

After completing the exchange with Tang Liang, she asked him to find her an empty room.

Once inside and the door securely closed, she took out the pouch containing the Memory Retention Pearls. Xie Zhi stood beside her.

“Collecting so many Memory Retention Pearls, even risking the destruction of your spiritual consciousness to extract your own memories, surely it’s not to save…”

For a moment, words like cultivation partner and blood relative crossed Xie Zhi’s mind, but seeing Feng Jie completely ignore him, wholly absorbed in examining the pearls, he found it dull and finished casually, “…a person, I suppose.”

Definitely not a demon.

“It should be fine.” She took a careful look before handing it to him for confirmation. “Take a look, it’s all right, isn’t it?”

Xie Zhi let out a derisive snort. “Do you have some misunderstanding about Jianghai Pavilion? Don’t you know how excellent their reputation and service are? They would never give you something faulty.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

Feng Jie shot him a glance, thinking to herself, You’re not even from Jianghai Pavilion. Anyone who didn’t know better would think you’re in cahoots with them.

“Let’s get started then. Time is tight. Please help me find the memory of when I accidentally killed someone, around yesterday afternoon, and restore it onto this Memory Pearl.”

“Mm.” Xie Zhi pointed to the stool beside the table, signaling for her to sit.

Outwardly calm, Feng Jie was inwardly uneasy. At this critical moment, even her system, Shabi, was unresponsive no matter how many times she called.

As she sat down and saw Xie Zhi raise his hand, she couldn’t help but reveal a trace of fear.

On his pinky finger was a tattoo of a jade-brown snake, and for a fleeting moment, it seemed to flick its tongue at her, sending a chill down her spine.

“I’m just retrieving a memory… I won’t actually die, right?”

Xie Zhi paused, turned his hand over, and glanced meaningfully at his pinky before switching to his left hand with a smile.

He raised an eyebrow at Feng Jie. “Oh? Scared? You were so ruthless when you stabbed yourself earlier, I thought you were prepared to die.”

Is being prepared the same as actually dying? Feng Jie was speechless.

Beneath his mask, Xie Zhi’s lips curled into a faint smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you die.”

A flash of light erupted, and Feng Jie felt as if her head had been struck hard, followed by an excruciating pain as if her nerves were being stretched to their limit.

“Ah!”

She clutched her head tightly, unable to remain seated, and collapsed to the ground.

Xie Zhi watched Feng Jie writhing on the floor, lost in thought.

“I have a way to ease your pain. Do you want to try it?”

“Yes, yes, ahh!”

With his left hand, Xie Zhi continued probing deeper into Feng Jie’s consciousness with the Memory Pearl, while his right hand summoned a gu spider the size of a grain of rice.

The gu spider was in its juvenile form, nearly transparent, with only the edges of its body and antennae tinged a pale pink, barely visible unless examined closely.

Gu spiders were revered as the mother of all gu insects. Even in their youth, they could share life and death with their host, naturally helping Feng Jie bear the pain. Moreover, their functions in adulthood were incredibly diverse: they could autonomously divide into twin gu, which, depending on the nutrients absorbed from the host, could become Lover’s Gu that forged life-and-death bonds, aids to accelerate cultivation, or Healing Gu with various restorative effects…

I wonder what kind of gu she’ll nurture… Definitely not a Healing Gu, that’s for sure.

Though she couldn’t hear him, Xie Zhi mused to himself, “I’m giving her such a precious treasure, can’t say I’ve taken her blood for nothing.”

Especially since that blood was merely what had splattered on the ground when she stabbed herself earlier…

Found it.

Just as Feng Jie had described, in the restored memory, she held Gongsun Muhan’s sword and ran her Third Martial Uncle through with a single thrust.

Well, well. Who would’ve thought she had it in her?

Xie Zhi was about to trace further back to find the complete version of the killing, he hadn’t forgotten she’d said it was an “accidental killing.”

But as soon as his magic delved deeper, it encountered a sudden barrier and was instantly repelled.

He frowned. Could it be that someone placed a seal? Or…

Gathering doubled concentration in his hand, he attempted to break through it.

But before he could make contact, Feng Jie let out a sharp cry of pain. The veins on her forehead and neck bulged violently, and her face took on an unnatural shade of dark red.

Seeing this, he had no choice but to withdraw all his magical energy from the inexplicable barrier.

By the time the pain on Feng Jie’s face subsided, he had already sealed the scene she intended to recreate inside the Memory Pearl.

“You woke up quite quickly,” he remarked, glancing at Feng Jie as she rose from the ground, a hint of mockery in his tone.

She lifted her hand, using her sleeve to wipe the sweat from her forehead. “How is the Memory Pearl? It worked, right?”

“When I take action, how could it fail?” he replied confidently.

“Just crush it in your palm, and that person will witness your ‘glorious feat’ of killing. But think carefully, your memories before the act couldn’t be extracted, so all that remains is the scene of you raising your sword to kill.”

“Good, thank you.”

Ignoring the deeper implications of his words, Feng Jie thought to herself that as long as it proved Gongsun Muhan’s innocence, it would suffice. Wasn’t Feng Jie considered the group’s favorite? She could always explain things later.

With that in mind, she took the storage pouch and turned to leave.

Xie Zhi followed closely behind.

Seeing this, she pulled open the door and gestured for him to go first.

“You go ahead. Our transaction is settled, and I do not associate with demons.”

“Fine,” Xie Zhi had no intention of lingering either.

“However, don’t speak too definitively.”

As his words faded, Xie Zhi’s figure dissipated into a wisp of purple smoke. Faintly, it was possible to see him gently stroking the serpent coiled around his little finger, his tone light and unable to conceal his amusement.

Feng Jie found the flamboyant and enigmatic demon too perplexing to decipher, so she stopped dwelling on his peculiarities. After leaving Jianghai Pavilion, she hurried back without delay.