Transmigrated as the Little Concubine of a Paper-Thin Man - Chapter 7

Hua Shu brought several inner disciples to assist on their swords, but before they could even get close, they were intercepted by Zhou Huaibi’s subordinates. Zhou Huaibi split his attention and shouted towards Hua Shu, “What? Is the eldest miss of the Flying Immortal Sect going to assist the tyrant too?”

Hua Shu parried the enemy in front of her with a sword thrust, “You claim Yan Ling stole something from your sect. Why don’t you produce the evidence first!”

Zhou Huaibi raised his voice, “Evidence? Of course, I have evidence!” He pointed at Yan Ling, “The ceaseless bloody tears and the floating, weak spiritual energy—that is the cost of forcibly refining our sect’s secret treasure, and it is the best evidence.

“Yan Ling, oh Yan Ling, even a cultivation genius like you wouldn’t have thought of this, would you? The Ten Thousand Spirits Key is no ordinary object. Refining such a treasure, which is forbidden by heaven and earth, inevitably causes a backlash!”

“No ordinary object?” Yan Ling tilted her head, repeating his words, then suddenly asked, “Do you know what my biggest regret is?”

Zhou Huaibi was stunned, “What?”

Yan Ling, “That I actually believed the words of a fool like you.”

“What do you mean?” Zhou Huaibi reacted, his face changing drastically. “You refined the Ten Thousand Spirits Key? No, wait, could it be that even the Ten Thousand Spirits Key cannot open the ‘Dao Heart Box’?”

Yan Ling took something out from her bosom. It was a key, completely transparent and shimmering with seven-colored light. As soon as the object appeared, even Hua Shu and Zhou Huaibi’s subordinates nearby temporarily ceased fighting. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the key, unable to look away for even a moment—

The Ten Thousand Spirits Key, a legendary treasure capable of breaking through any restriction and unlocking all shackles in the world.

“Legend has it that when the previous Ten Thousand Spirits Key appeared, its owner, who was Zhou Huaibi’s ancestor, used it to open a dwelling left by a Flying Immortal great master, obtaining all the treasures inside the cave and the great master’s cultivation inheritance. That person’s cultivation subsequently advanced by leaps and bounds, becoming an Immortal Lord of their time, founding a sect with great glory.”

Huan Zhu couldn’t stop talking, pulling Shi Yunji along, chattering incessantly, “But the strange thing is, since then, the Ten Thousand Spirits Key has never reappeared. The Zhou family’s sect gradually declined, and everyone just dismissed the initial story as a self-aggrandizing script by the Zhou family and stopped believing it.”

“Ah…” Shi Yunji gasped softly.

After listening to Huan Zhu, she remembered seeing such a rumor when she first played the game. Whenever she and Yan Ling faced heavily restricted perilous lands, she had imagined having such a key to help them solve the puzzle. Back then, it was just a thought; she never expected that one day, Yan Ling would actually refine that object.

But the next second, Yan Ling softly uttered the word “Trash,” and with a loose grip, she let the key, which was emitting a seven-colored glow, drop.

Shi Yunji only felt a flash of red light before her eyes. When she regained her senses, she realized that it was Huan Zhu who had darted out like an arrow beside her. Of course, Huan Zhu was not the only one who darted out like an arrow; Hua Shu and others nearby also forgot their original purpose and flew straight towards where the key was falling.

Zhou Huaibi was obviously unable to stay put, but he had to be wary of Yan Ling in front of him. Finally, he couldn’t hold back and attacked Yan Ling with his sword, “Stop being so arrogant!”

Yan Ling sidestepped to evade. Her movements were initially very agile, but after a few exchanges, for some unknown reason, her movements suddenly paused, and then she spat out a mouthful of fresh blood out of nowhere. This, combined with the bloody tears constantly welling from her eyes, seemed to drain all vitality from her body, making her as pale and fragile as rice paper.

“A spent force!” Zhou Huaibi’s eyes flashed with malice, “I’ll say it again, hand over the ‘Dao Heart Box’! I don’t mind waiting for you to die before flipping Spirit Bell Peak upside down.”

Yan Ling clutched her chest, appearing to lack even the strength to speak.

Shi Yunji’s heart was completely tied in knots.

If she were still the omniscient player who might know the entire situation, she would definitely instruct Yan Ling to temporarily retreat and settle the score with Zhou Huaibi after recovering from her injuries. But now, she could do nothing but silently pray in her heart for Yan Ling not to lose her temper and to leave quickly.

She was not the only one thinking this.

Hua Shu temporarily gave up the struggle for the Ten Thousand Spirits Key and flew mid-air, “Zhou Huaibi, stop!” She glared angrily at Zhou Huaibi, “Young Master Zhou, are you not afraid that my father will settle accounts with you when he returns, treating my Flying Immortal Sect’s esteemed guest like this?”

“It is only right for me to denounce Yan Ling’s theft! Even if your father returns from his travels, he won’t be able to say I’m wrong in the slightest!”

“Bah! Scoundrel!” Hua Shu was so angry she swore.

But her cultivation was insufficient, and Zhou Huaibi did not take her seriously at all. In just a few moves, Hua Shu was forced to retreat repeatedly. Finally, she took a step back and shielded Yan Ling.

“Hurry and go!” she shouted at Yan Ling, “He’s going for a killing blow, can’t you see? Hurry and leave!”

Yan Ling’s bloody tears did not stop.

Her voice was already hoarse, but she still managed to speak, “Zhou Huaibi, I’ll ask you one last time…”

Zhou Huaibi, “Hmm?”

“Is the blueprint real?”

Zhou Huaibi was momentarily stunned. After realizing what she meant, he only felt immense humiliation, “You refined the object, how can you not know if it’s real or fake?!”

“If it’s real, why couldn’t it open the box?” Yan Ling asked indifferently.

“You, I…” Zhou Huaibi was speechless for a moment.

He took a few deep breaths to calm his mind, then revealed a cruel smile, “Yan Ling, oh Yan Ling, your death is imminent, yet you are unaware. Since you have refined the key, you must have paid an unimaginable price.

“How is it? Is your spiritual energy becoming increasingly difficult to mobilize? Even if you are currently the strongest person in the cultivation world, so what? Today, I shall eliminate you, this degenerate, for the sake of the cultivation world!”

With that, he drew a complete circle in the air with his sword, then brought the sword to his chest and began to accumulate spiritual energy.

“Go—to—hell—” A moment later, with bloodshot eyes, he launched his final strike at Yan Ling with overwhelming force.

Shi Yunji’s eyes were tearing, and she almost jumped down from the tree. At the critical moment, however, Zhou Huaibi suddenly checked his attack, stopping motionless in mid-air.

The surrounding spectators held their breath, wondering what Zhou Huaibi was up to, but the next moment, a crisp bell sound suddenly rang out. Only then did everyone realize—

Zhou Huaibi was not showing mercy; he stopped his attack purely because he was restrained by an overwhelming power.

In just a few breaths, cold sweat was already beading on Zhou Huaibi’s forehead. The hand holding his sword was still raised in the air, and his entire body remained in a comical, fixed posture, unable to advance or retreat.

An idle cumulus cloud in the sky drifted over Spirit Bell Peak, blocking the sunlight. The surroundings instantly darkened, and the originally vibrant, upward-reaching flowers and plants instantly lost their spirit, drooping listlessly.

There was no wind, yet the grass and trees trembled slightly.

Yan Ling looked relaxed, her right hand gently plucking the silver bell bracelet on her left wrist from time to time. The silver bell chimed softly, letting out a string of “ding-dong” crisp sounds. It was clearly a pleasant sound, yet it caused the faces of everyone present to gradually turn pale.

Zhou Huaibi used all his strength just to speak, laboriously forcing out fragmented words, “You, why, why are you able to…”

Yan Ling tilted her head slightly. If her eyes weren’t covered at this moment, her gaze would likely be condescendingly fixed on Zhou Huaibi.

“Too useless,” she spoke, and the fresh blood dripping onto her hand seeped along her wrist, nearly covering the silver bell, “It ends here. I have an appointment to keep.”

Zhou Huaibi’s pupils constricted suddenly.

Before his perception completely vanished, the last thing he saw was Yan Ling slowly tightening her left hand, gripping the blood-stained bell, but he distinctly felt his soul being brutally stripped from his body, with pain in every part of his being.

Suddenly, Yan Ling began to ascend, flying so high that he could no longer see her. But when his body crashed heavily to the ground, he realized that it was not Yan Ling ascending, but that he could no longer maintain flight, and his entire body, like a pierced bird, plummeted straight down, shattered and broken.

Right near where he fell, his subordinates were all kneeling, their faces contorted with horror and surprise, their bodies twisted.

The bell sound continued to ring, incessantly, seemingly without end. But Zhou Huaibi could no longer hear it clearly. He closed his eyes in a daze, beginning an everlasting sleep from which he would never wake.

Mid-air, Hua Shu’s face was pale.

Although Yan Ling’s attack was not directed at her, being at the epicenter of the storm, she still felt an unprecedented pressure. Her scattered gaze slowly gathered, finally settling on the person in front of her, “Yan Ling… are, are you alright?”

Yan Ling wiped the blood from her cheek and flew away.

With the show over, Shi Yunji’s nerves slightly relaxed. She leaned back, seeking a moment of rest, but midway, her center of gravity shifted. Her whole body tilted to the side and slipped straight toward the ground. She had already closed her eyes, bracing herself for the sharp pain, but a hand supported her in mid-air. After landing steadily, she opened her eyes, but there was no one beside her.

She looked up, just in time to see the blood-stained hem of Yan Ling’s clothes brush past the green leaves at the top of the tree.

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