Transmigrated as the Villainous Love Rival of the Abusive Novel's Heroine [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Hugging and Holding

“A-Xue, the human heart is hidden behind skin; one-sided words are the least to be believed.” An elderly mother, nearing her end, gazed toward the distant sails where the sky met the sea, her eyes dim.

“Especially those immortals. The deceptions they refine over thousands or tens of thousands of years are things we mortals cannot see through or guess.”

A mere mortal is buried at a hundred years old; a single pause in this journey accounts for half a lifetime. Time spares no one; what does a human have to offer to accompany those immortals on stage to perform a play?

“Remember, do not give your heart to the immortals, and do not open your heart to others. It is quite fine to be selfish for a lifetime.”

Yun Qianxue, kneeling before the old woman, was a stream of tears. She tightly held her mother’s dry, withered hands, weeping and pleading: “Mother, don’t go. I’ll promise you everything, just don’t go…”

The old woman’s eyes, heavy with the aura of death, seemed to flash with a spark. She suddenly gripped her only daughter’s hand and scolded sharply: “No crying! Remember, if one day you step onto the Immortal Path, you may shed blood but never tears!”

Yun Qianxue was startled, dazed and unsure of what to do.

“Remember! You must remember!” The old woman propped up her upper body in a final burst of lucidity, her hair disheveled and her voice hysterical.

In her life as a lady of an official family, her mistake was a single tear that provoked someone she shouldn’t have. Pregnant out of wedlock, giving birth alone, too ashamed to return home.

Even after death, being buried in the ground, she feared she would go to hell and never see her parents again!

“Remember!” Just those three words caused her to cough up blood, her voice a hoarse roar.

The old woman’s distorted face froze right in front of Yun Qianxue.

“Ah!!” Yun Qianxue let out a loud cry and sat up abruptly. Her white shift was soaked through, and sweat covered her forehead and face.

She looked around in panic, her rapid breathing pulling at her chest until her heart ached.

Lotus River Dock, a red sandalwood bed—this was not her dilapidated home.

It was a dream…

Yun Qianxue closed her eyes and lowered her head, biting her pale, trembling lip. Her slender arms wrapped tightly around herself as if this could bring warmth and strength.

The woman in red guarding the outside of the Lotus River Dock heard the movement inside. She waited a moment before putting down the lotus seed pod in her hand and entering.

“You’re awake?” With snowy hair cascading over her shoulders and a lotus mark blooming on her forehead, Jiameng rolled up her sleeves and handed over a cup of warm water.

“Are you alright?”

Yun Qianxue looked at the glamorous woman before her with vigilance, making no move to take the water.

Jiameng tilted her head and gave a puzzled, light laugh. “What? Afraid I’ve poisoned it?”

Yun Qianxue pursed her lips. The cold sweat from her forehead slid into her eye, making her blink.

That stinging pain did not make her shed a tear.

“No.” One must bow when under another’s roof; Yun Qianxue knew she had no ability to escape the Zhoutian Pavilion.

“Then drink.” Jiameng brushed a strand of white hair, winding it around her finger to play with. She turned back with an innocent look and said, “I have no desire to force-feed you; that would dirty my hands.”

If not for the obvious malice in her words, Yun Qianxue would have almost believed the clarity and purity in her eyes.

“After you finish the water, go to the salt lake to carry salt.” Jiameng pulled away the bedding Yun Qianxue was using, preparing to throw it away.

Once it had touched someone else’s body, it was dirty. Things that were dirty should be destroyed.

“Salt lake?” Yun Qianxue had prepared herself for torture and misery, but she never expected she would simply be made to carry salt.

“You don’t think that’s a good thing, do you?” Jiameng sneered. “The Exalted One is not that kind.”

The Lord of Zhoutian Pavilion was a female demon who crawled out of the Northern Abyss hell, whose Tiangang Sword could sever seas and move continents.

She had forcibly challenged the entire Northern Abyss demon den and captured one hundred and seven great demons to serve as gate lords; those who obeyed lived, and those who rebelled died.

She never repeated her words. This little girl, from who knows where, was truly piteously stupid.

Yun Qianxue, however, shook her head upon hearing this. Recalling that Yin Shaoqing had indeed kept her promise to give the pill to her Senior Brother and had not killed her yet.

She felt the woman wasn’t that evil. “At least, she keeps her word.”

“Heh…” Jiameng covered her lips and laughed, her shoulders shaking. This girl was truly, deeply foolish.

She laughed until tears nearly came out. She leaned against the window and raised an eyebrow. “Since the age of six, I haven’t dared to think like you.”

“Why?” Jiameng’s laughter made Yun Qianxue uncomfortable; she didn’t think she was wrong.

“Why?” Jiameng suppressed her smile and repeated the words lowly.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. The room was so quiet a needle could be heard falling.

The wind stirred the curtains, and the scent of lotus lingered in the air. Jiameng’s mind drifted elsewhere until Yun Qianxue thought she wouldn’t answer.

Instead, she saw the woman wave her hand indifferently. “Because after six, one passes that age of innocence. In this entire Zhoutian Pavilion, one probably couldn’t find another fool like you.”

Jiameng shook her head, increasingly unable to understand why the Exalted One would keep such a simple girl, unweathered by the world’s storms, in this demon’s den.

“Hurry up and carry the salt. Don’t even think about slacking off.” Not wanting to say more, Jiameng was waiting for this person to start working so she could report to the Exalted One.

How many times a year did she get to see the Exalted One? She had to use this opportunity to get a good look at her.

Led out of the room by Jiameng, the wind blew, and Yun Qianxue began to cough.

Jiameng glanced at her, thinking the Exalted One was exactly right this person really was as fragile as a willow in the wind.

After passing through endless lotus leaves, they arrived at a barren area where nothing grew this was near the salt lake.

“Go on. There are wooden buckets. Use them to carry the salt to the hut over there.” Jiameng pointed to a thatched hut halfway up the mountain. There was a formation there that would transmit the salt to the various Star Gates.

Yun Qianxue looked at the pale blue salt crystals before her, unsure of what kind of salt it was.

She didn’t dare ask, and Jiameng was too lazy to speak.

She wasn’t on such friendly terms with the Righteous Path that they could chat easily.

The pale blue salt crystals were extremely hard. Yun Qianxue struck them with an iron pickaxe dozens of times until she was gasping for breath and coughing incessantly, yet the salt crystals only showed a small white mark.

In the past, Yun Qianxue had entered the path through Star Fortune, cultivating with the power of the stars; she had never refined her physical body.

She hadn’t even managed to create a crack in the salt crystals, but her hands were already bleeding.

Mixed with the dampness of the salt lake water, the pain was piercing. Dizzy and lightheaded, Yun Qianxue gritted her teeth and gripped the pickaxe to continue striking. Back when she retrieved magical treasures for her Senior Brother, she had experienced times of even greater pain and bitterness. What was this in comparison?

One strike after another, she eventually relied purely on a single breath of willpower to sustain her work.

Jiameng, who had been watching nearby, had long since run off. No one was there to help her.

“Exalted One, that girl you brought back is truly a blockhead, stubborn as a mule.” In the Kuixing Pavilion, Jiameng sprawled across Yin Shaoqing’s lap and pouted.

With a thousand points of reluctance, she said, “You should go check on her. With the way she’s striking those crystals, I’m afraid she won’t manage to train her body in the Diming Gate but will lose her life instead.”

“Ignore her.” Yin Shaoqing focused on wiping the Tiangang Sword, paying no attention.

“Tsk…” Jiameng rose in anger. Their Exalted One was just a block of wood. She was already sprawled on her knees, giving hints and temptations several times, yet this block of wood had no reaction!

The prideful Jiameng ran out of the Kuixing Pavilion without looking back.

Seeing her disappear, Yin Shaoqing stopped her wiping motion. She slowly sheathed her sword and lowered her brows, her thoughts unknown.

“Hah…” Her mouth and nose were filled with the metallic scent of blood. Yun Qianxue felt she was about to die. Her hands ached, her body ached, and her head pained even more.

“Cough, cough…” Suddenly, her vision went black. She fell backward into someone’s arms.

A faint scent of peach blossoms, a warm body… it was still her.

Jiameng, who had rushed back in a fit of pique, looked at the black-clothed woman holding Yun Qianxue, and nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.

She kicked and shattered a large chunk of salt crystal. Who said her Exalted One was a block of wood! Weren’t they hugging and holding quite happily!

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