The Immortal Lord of the Path of Ruthlessness Bends for Me - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: “If I Kill, I Can Never Go Back to Her Side.”

The white blade pierced in; the bloody blade pulled out. Blood dripped from the tip, and with a sharp swing, a spray of crimson followed the sword-wind, splashing across Ling Shu’s neck like a fatal seal.

The tip of the blade grazed the tensed muscles of her throat. She tilted her head just in time, barely dodging the strike.

But she was unarmed.

And the sword followed, relentless and swift.

“Zhao Chi, I have no grudge against you!”

The sword swept horizontally with the strength of reinforced gold, shearing through the grass and aiming straight for Ling Shu’s Achilles tendons. Ling Shu kicked off the ground, jumping high. The sword pivoted mid-air, hacking upward with lethal speed.

Ling Shu had nowhere to hide.

Yet, in that leap, her hand caught hold of something hovering in the air.

The umbrella Wang Lifu had given her.

The umbrella she couldn’t budge no matter how hard she tugged while kneeling in the snow was now easily grasped with a single touch.

Clang! The ring of metal on metal echoed as Ling Shu used the umbrella to block Zhao Chi’s assault.

Fortunately, it gave her a moment to breathe. Ling Shu let out a sharp, mocking laugh. “Good sister, at least tell me who wants my life so I can be a well-informed ghost on the road to the underworld!”

Zhao Chi couldn’t stand her slippery attitude. Her strikes grew more ferocious. “Naturally, a person of high status wants you dead.”

“Who?” Ling Shu closed the umbrella, using it like a staff to parry the blade. The sharp edge hacked at the fabric dozens of times, yet the umbrella remained pristine. She thought to herself: That dog Wang Lifu is annoying, but her gear is top-notch.

“Is it Wang Lifu?”

Zhao Chi laughed with disdain. “You think you’re worthy of knowing the Great One’s name?”

“My, my, so my cheap mother doesn’t want me dead after all.” Ling Shu fought while retreating. Bitian Mountain was a mess of chaotic formations; one wrong step in the pitch-black night could land her in the Ziwu Killing Array, and then it would be game over.

“Hmph. Everyone under heaven knows Sect Leader Wang wants you dead.” Zhao Chi’s frustration grew as her repeated attacks failed to land. In a life-and-death struggle, impatience leads to flaws. Ling Shu saw the opening.

But all she had was an umbrella!

“It’s Li Qiaoyan, isn’t it?”

Seeing that Ling Shu noticed her opening but lacked a weapon to exploit it, Zhao Chi sneered with pleasure. “Is it? Isn’t it? Guess.”

“How irritating!” Ling Shu cursed.

After several rounds, Ling Shu neared the woods leading to the exit. Victory was in sight. She turned back and made a face at Zhao Chi. “Grandma’s leaving first!”

“Damn you, Ling Shu!” Zhao Chi screamed, chasing her at full tilt.

Bright light flickered ahead—magical lanterns used to light the path down the mountain. Ling Shu rushed toward them joyfully, only to have a massive net drop from the canopy, snaring her against a tree.

“Hahahaha!” Zhao Chi ran up, laughing.

Under the tree stood three figures: the same three cultivators who had dragged her to the Demon Transformation Valley.

“I knew it. I should never have believed bullies could actually repent. Let me down!” Ling Shu clawed at the net. It glowed with a faint, grey magical light—this wasn’t an Upper Clarity Sect technique. Their magic was righteous, glowing white or gold.

The three cultivators ignored her, waiting for Zhao Chi to arrive.

Zhao Chi didn’t lower the net. She leaped into the air, her sword flashing. Several muffled thuds echoed as the blade struck home.

Ling Shu turned pale. They dragged her down from the tree. As they moved, snow fell onto her wounds, the cold numbing the agony into a dull throb.

They carried her deep back into Bitian Mountain, toward that open clearing where a snow-shielding array kept the grass green even in winter.

They stripped the net off her and threw her onto the ground. Golden light flared up around her. It was so blinding that Ling Shu couldn’t tell what kind of formation it was.

“Who’s there?!” a female voice shouted from a distance. Zhao Chi and the others scattered like crabs into the forest, vanishing instantly.

Footsteps hurried across the grass. Ling Shu lay on her side, watching several figures surround her.

They wore the blue-and-white robes of the Upper Clarity Sect. Someone shouted, “Don’t get closer!”

“The Spirit-Suppressing Array has been activated! You’ll be sucked in!”

The Spirit-Suppressing Array was meant to manage the spiritual energy of a region. Because natural energy is chaotic, cultivators use these arrays to gather it for training. To keep the energy of the entire Upper Clarity Mountain stable, massive amounts had to be concentrated here.

But balance is delicate. Too much energy becomes a “violent force” that must be suppressed. Once the array is active, everyone must stay at least thirty feet away. Otherwise, the sheer pressure of the concentrated spiritual energy will crush a person’s meridians, causing them to bleed from their eyes and nose until they die.

And Ling Shu was right in the center of it.

She was covered in sword wounds; her lotus-white robes were stained a mottled red. The winter wind whistled through the holes in her clothes, turning her skin a bruised purple.

She couldn’t get up.

The umbrella opened on its own, floating slowly above her. The pressure from the spiritual energy eased significantly. Ling Shu looked at the pale purple umbrella hovering over her and let out a cynical “Heh.”

The disciples who had come to practice surrounded the array. “Wait? The Spirit-Suppressing Array? It’s only supposed to activate every two weeks. Why is it on today?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who is that?” The disciples watched from the safety of the perimeter.

Someone pointed. “I think it’s that demon girl.”

Another sighed. “She’s going to die, isn’t she?”

Most simply stood by. “Who cares if she dies?”

“She’s covered in blood!”

“Who knows who she pissed off? But her being in there is going to mess up the array. If it doesn’t run properly, it’ll affect the spiritual energy for the next two weeks. I was planning to use that energy to weave new robes. So annoying.”

“Hmph. Watching the demon girl die on Upper Clarity Mountain is like witnessing history.”

Ling Shu heard every word. She used every ounce of her strength to crawl up from the ground. She couldn’t die here. Or rather, she wouldn’t die this lonely.

“She’s getting up!” someone gasped.

Ling Shu stood in the center of the array, the golden light shining upward and casting long shadows on her face. Her hair was messy, partially covering her eyes like a ghost. Her blood-stained, tattered clothes fluttered as she stood in the radiant gold, looking like a vengeful spirit.

Pink-purple demon energy suddenly flowed from her palms into the golden array on the ground. In an instant, the purple hue swallowed the gold.

“What is she doing?”

A cultivator shrieked, “She’s using demon power to forcibly expand the array’s range!”

The pink-purple light exploded outward with lightning speed, swallowing those who were trying to flee the exit. Screams erupted everywhere.

The trapped cultivators pounded against the barrier, but it wouldn’t budge. Those who ran for the woods found the exit completely sealed off.

Ling Shu had encased the entire Bitian Mountain within the Spirit-Suppressing Array!

“Demon girl! Let us out!” The cultivators turned their swords on her, hoping to force her to stop. But with a wave of her sleeve, she sent everyone flying.

The umbrella Wang Lifu gave her suddenly shattered into pieces.

The power she was using was too massive—it wasn’t the power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Ling Shu gathered a ball of energy in her hand, feeling the weight of a thousand years of demon power. Zhao Chi’s sword hadn’t killed her; instead, the brush with death had triggered the protective power of the Thousand-Year Demon Core.

For some reason, she finally had control over it.

The feeling of absolute power was intoxicating. Killing these people felt as easy as crushing ants. “Didn’t you want to watch me die?” she threatened.

“Hahahaha,” she laughed wickedly. “It’s too lonely to die alone. With all of you as sacrifices, I’ll have some fun on the road to hell.”

The people who had insulted her began to scramble, begging for mercy.

“AAAAHHH! I never hurt you! Let me go, please!!”

“I won’t do it again! I promise!”

“Hahahaha!” Ling Shu raised the energy ball, summoning a bolt of lightning from the sky, followed by several more. “Let’s all die together! Hahahaha!”

She doesn’t accept me. Someone wants me dead. On this mountain… who is left to love me?

“Stop it! Ling Shu!” a sweet voice called out from the distance.

It was Li Chang.

Ling Shu watched as Li Chang recklessly charged into the array toward her. The falling lightning forced her to dodge clumsily. With her low cultivation, she stumbled through the crushing pressure of the array.

“Stupid,” Ling Shu cursed internally.

Li Chang fell twice, scraping her palms and face, but she didn’t stop. When she finally got close, she gave Ling Shu her usual bright, sunny smile. “Thank goodness… I’m not too late. Don’t kill them. They aren’t bad people, they just have foul mouths.”

Ling Shu smiled gloomily, as if human lives were mere insects. “Don’t be a bleeding heart. They insulted me. They deserve to die.”

“My dear girl! If you kill them, your Master won’t want you anymore!!!”

Ling Shu froze.

Zhuang Jinfu… she hadn’t actually said she was kicking her out.

Li Chang saw the hesitation. “Right? If you kill them, your Master will have no reason to keep you. She went against everyone’s wishes to keep you here; she even argued with Sect Leader Wang for your sake. If you start a massacre now, you’re slapping her in the face.”

Ling Shu’s mouth tasted of iron. She hated the metallic scent of blood. If her hands were soaked in it, she couldn’t imagine how foul she would smell.

Li Chang was right. She didn’t like blood. And she couldn’t imagine how a girl covered in such filth could ever approach that pristine, spotless Immortal again.

“I wasn’t really going to kill them,” she whispered.

Li Chang exhaled in relief. “Good! No killing!”

“Mmh.” Ling Shu retracted her power, her hands hanging lifelessly at her sides. “I don’t dare.”

“If I kill, I can never go back to her side.”

The image of that cold, ethereal figure was burned into her mind.

The purple energy receded, the array shrank, and the golden lights faded. The rescued cultivators fled in a panic, stumbling over each other to fly back to their respective sects.

As the pressure vanished, Li Chang stood there, catching her breath. Ling Shu stared at Li Chang’s sword for a long time.

“Can I borrow your sword?”

Li Chang, being simple-minded, asked, “Where’s yours?”

Do I even have a sword?

Ling Shu didn’t answer. Li Chang handed it over anyway. “What are you going to do?”

“Cut four people.”

“Wait! You said you wouldn’t kill!”

“Mmh. I won’t kill them.”

She said she wouldn’t kill, but Li Chang saw a terrifying, sharp hunger in her eyes. “Don’t just kill people randomly,” Li Chang warned.

“I know.” Ling Shu pressed her fingers together at her chest, using her demon power to extend her senses. Thousand-Mile Tracking.

With the demon core’s help, the world blurred. Her vision locked onto a figure in black—Zhao Chi’s aura was as clear as if she were standing right there.

Ling Shu took off, sprinting into the night.

Support The Immortal Lord of the Path of Ruthlessness Bends for Me