The Villainess Always Tries to Seduce Me - Chapter 20

That mouth of hers was harder than an iron golem’s. Yun Chuanzhi watched her retreating back and shook her head, then picked up a stray stick and buried herself in the task of digging.

The small mound of earth burying Bai Tuan had been patted smooth and round; the surface still bearing the faint impressions of a woman’s slender hands. It was clear that Bai Fenghe hadn’t used any immortal arts; she had dug the grave with her bare hands.

Normally, Bai Fenghe was incredibly fastidious about her hands, frequently applying osmanthus oil and keeping her nails elegantly groomed. Now, she had actually clawed through the dirt for the sake of a puppet.

“This version of Bai Fenghe feels a bit surreal,” Yun Chuanzhi thought as she dug.

The end of the stick soon struck something hard. Yun Chuanzhi tossed the stick aside and hauled the iron puppet out with both hands. The puppet was covered in mud; its limbs and joints were stiff and frozen like a statue of dark iron.

Beside her, Bai Fenghe wiped away her tears and leaned in. Her long skirt trailed on the ground as she squatted down to watch, wide-eyed like a child.

The faint scent of her fragrance drifted toward Yun Chuanzhi’s nose. Yun Chuanzhi didn’t dare look up, instead using her sleeve to wipe the mud off Bai Tuan.

She then untied a burlap bundle from her waist and unrolled it with a metallic clatter, revealing a row of adzes, chisels, axes, and saws.

These were tools she had spent the last few days trading blood elixirs for. They varied in size and material; some were even decaying; but fortunately, they were all functional.

In a few swift motions, Yun Chuanzhi dismantled the iron puppet into several pieces and began examining them closely.

“How is it?” Bai Fenghe asked, her voice laced with an irrepressible tension.

“Hard to say.” Yun Chuanzhi shook her head. Though she usually appeared idle and unmotivated, she became exceptionally focused when dealing with a craft she mastered; her delicate brows knitting together.

“Your Master likely didn’t put much effort into it when it was first built. The mechanics are precise, but the material is just ordinary dark iron. Now that a century has passed, the parts that were meant to rust have long since done so.”

“A puppet capable of human-like spirit needs a continuous internal source of spiritual energy to sustain it; otherwise, it’s just an empty shell. Look at the area of its spiritual platform; the spirit stone that originally provided power has gone dim.”

“Then what should we do?” Bai Fenghe didn’t even bother to take offense at Yun Chuanzhi’s irreverent tone; she only pressed for an answer.

By now, Yun Chuanzhi had opened Bai Tuan’s chest, revealing a pitch-black spirit stone. She pried it out. “It just needs to be replaced with something containing spiritual energy.”

With that, she looked up and sized Bai Fenghe up. Being stared at from head to toe, Bai Fenghe felt a surge of anger but forced herself to endure it.

“For the sake of saving Bai Tuan, I’ll tolerate this little slave for one day,” Bai Fenghe thought, her teeth clenched.

“Could you give me a few strands of your hair?” Yun Chuanzhi looked at the long hair falling over Bai Fenghe’s shoulders with an appreciative gaze. The physical essence of a powerful cultivator was more precious than any spirit stone.

“Thank you.” Without waiting for Bai Fenghe to agree, Yun Chuanzhi leaned forward and snipped a lock. She then bent back down, averting her gaze.

“Taking without asking; such audacity.” Bai Fenghe’s palms tightened repeatedly. Finally, in her irritation, she looked down, picked up a stone, and crushed it into powder.

With skillful hands, Yun Chuanzhi tied the hair into a knot and inserted it into the gap in Bai Tuan’s chest to replace the spirit stone. Then, using a wooden stick, she began sketching an array on the ground. An array to repair a puppet was several times more complex than one used to create one; it took up nearly half the space in the cave.

Once the array was formed, the thunder outside subsided, though the rain grew heavier. Looking through the curtain of rain, the wind howled fiercely, making the distant mountains look like figures bowing and swaying.

Yun Chuanzhi’s back ached with exhaustion. She straightened up, supporting her waist, and softly chanted an incantation. Her fingertips, glowing with spiritual energy, traced shimmering lines in the air.

The grooves of the array began to glow as if filled with molten silver. Light rose from the eye of the array and sank into Bai Tuan’s chest.

The originally dark strands of hair seemed to catch a silver flame, suddenly igniting with brilliance.

“Is it done?” Bai Fenghe spoke in a low voice. She stared intently at the broken puppet, her eyes full of worry. “No wonder Master was unwilling to teach me the art of smithing; it is truly exhausting for the soul.”

“The Sect Leader is mistaken,” Yun Chuanzhi smiled. “The art of smithing is vast and profound. It is indeed complex when one’s spiritual energy is weak, but if one possesses gargantuan power, there are other ways.”

Had she been her past-life self, repairing a puppet would have taken little more than a snap of her fingers.

Seeing her so confident, Bai Fenghe’s expression finally relaxed, regaining her usual poise. Her gaze shifted toward the focused girl.

“As far as I know, you were just a farm girl before coming to Mount Buxi. Why are you so proficient in smithing?” she asked softly.

Yun Chuanzhi pretended not to notice her searching gaze. While applying oil to Bai Tuan’s joints, she replied, “I was sold into slavery as a child. I only arrived at Mount Buxi during the last New Year.”

“I was bought and sold many times during those years. For three of them, I was a maid in a smith’s shop, where I picked up the basics.”

She knew Bai Fenghe would test her, so she offered a casual lie. It didn’t matter if there were holes in the story; Bai Fenghe wouldn’t believe her anyway.

Lying was just a formality. Sure enough, Bai Fenghe gave a soft snort and remained silent.

Bai Tuan’s internal mechanics were exquisite. Yun Chuanzhi kept her head down, adjusting and oiling each part. Amidst the clinking of her tools and the rhythmic patter of the rain, her soul began to drift far away.

It drifted back many years ago to Wujian City.

Back then, Yun Chuanzhi was also a young girl, even younger than the current “Cui Ergou.” After her stepfather died helping her steal a bun, her mother died in the jaws of evil spirits that surged out in the middle of the night.

That night, they hadn’t made it back to the temple in time, and it happened to be a lunar eclipse; a day when demons and monsters thrived. Countless shrieking spirits rushed toward them like a tide. In the moment before they were submerged, her mother used the last of her strength to hoist her onto a tree branch.

Once she gripped the branch and looked down, the empty ground held nothing but a pair of dirty embroidered shoes.

The habitually silent Yun Chuanzhi didn’t cry or scream. She hung onto that tree quietly all night and didn’t faint until sunrise.

When she woke up, she was cradled in the arms of a woman whose face was covered in scars. The woman was missing an arm and was limping through the morning mist on a long street.

“You’re awake. What is your name? Why was such a little thing lying in the wild?” the woman smiled.

“My surname is Yun,” Yun Chuanzhi said softly. “I don’t have a name.”

“I am called Guiren. I don’t have a surname. You can call me Sister Guiren from now on.” The woman had a severed hand and a ruined face, but she was still cheerful. “I don’t have long to live and can’t protect you for long. Are you willing to learn the art of smithing from me?”

The memory ended as a piece of iron dropped to the ground with a thud, jolting Yun Chuanzhi back to the present. She looked down at the puppet in her hands; its stiff limbs were smooth once more.

She chanted a few more incantations and tapped the puppet’s head three times with her knuckles. The previously lifeless Bai Tuan suddenly snapped its eyes open.

“Little immortal slave, why is it you?” Bai Tuan’s annoying voice blasted in her ear. It pushed Yun Chuanzhi aside, looked around, and went scurrying toward Bai Fenghe.

“Bai Fenghe! I’m not dead! I’m alive!” It leaped onto Bai Fenghe’s waist, grabbing her sleeves like a swing. “It’s been a few days; did you miss me?”

“I did not.” Bai Fenghe’s expression had returned to its usual coldness. Looking down at Bai Tuan, she even seemed slightly irritated. “Let go of me. You’re heavy.”

She brushed her sleeve to toss the iron puppet off, as if the person who had just spent a day and night crying was someone else entirely.

“This woman really values her pride above all else,” Yun Chuanzhi thought as she sat on the ground. She found it hilarious but didn’t expose her, lest the Sect Leader take her anger out on her again.

Her wide sleeves settled slowly as the wind died down. Bai Fenghe tucked Bai Tuan into her sleeve and looked over at the exhausted Yun Chuanzhi. She had seen the girl’s dazed expression earlier very clearly.

Her eyes had been hollow, as if remembering someone from the past.

In that moment, she hadn’t seen Cui Ergou, but a lonely, desolate soul that didn’t belong to this place.

“It’s getting dark. Are you going back?” Bai Fenghe asked. She walked over to Yun Chuanzhi with elegant steps, hesitated for a moment, then plucked a flowing ribbon from her dress and tossed it onto Yun Chuanzhi’s head. “Take it.”

“Hold on tight, lest the lightning strike you. Even I wouldn’t be able to save you then.”

A single ribbon was impossible to grip firmly. Yun Chuanzhi pursed her lips, tossed the ribbon aside, and grabbed Bai Fenghe’s sleeve instead.

The sudden weight pulled Bai Fenghe forward two steps. She quickly steadied herself and opened her mouth to scold her, but knowing she owed Yun Chuanzhi a favor, she forced herself to endure it.

Finally, she turned around and performed a wind-riding spell. As the wind brushed past their cheeks, a very faint, muffled “Thank you” drifted out.

“What did you say?” Yun Chuanzhi couldn’t hear clearly and shouted over the wind.

“I said get lost!” Bai Fenghe barked.

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