When a Yandere Cannon Fodder Meets a Dark, Twisted Villain - Chapter 46

The final words were spoken with extreme softness, yet they struck heavily against the center of Shi Yining’s heart.

The sense of possessiveness in those words was so distinct it was almost overbearing; however, listening to them, she felt no resistance. Instead, she felt her heart fill with a warm current. She snuggled quietly into the embrace, no longer struggling.

After a long time, Shi Yining thought of the great enemy looming over the Demon Realm. Knowing that the road ahead was uncertain, her worries resurfaced. She rested her cheek gently against Shu Mo’s shoulder, her voice sounding muffled and tinged with lingering self-reproach and heartache. “Mo’er… tell me… what must I do to return your cultivation to you?”

Hearing this, Shu Mo held her even tighter, as if trying to knead her beloved into her very blood and bone.

“There is no need to return it. If the cultivation is gone, I can simply start over from the beginning.” She paused, her voice filled with an undeniable sense of cherishing. “As long as Ning’er stays safely by my side, it is, to me, a stroke of immense luck. Compared to this, cultivation is not worth mentioning.”

“But…”

Shi Yining’s chest felt stifled. The cultivation contained within that Nine-Revolution True Profound Pill was achieved only after Mo’er had spent countless years of painstaking effort. How could it be dismissed so easily with a phrase like “starting over”?

“Let us speak of this no more.”

Shu Mo’s eyes lowered slightly. By the faint light filtering through the window, she saw her beloved’s furrowed brow. She slowly reached out, her movements incredibly gentle, smoothing the frown line by line. “Does Ning’er have no confidence in me? Do you believe that without my cultivation, I will sink into despair and become a useless person?”

“Of course not!” Shi Yining countered immediately. She looked up at her urgently, her eyes filled with total trust. “I naturally believe in Mo’er.”

She bit her lip, slowly articulating her deeper anxieties. “It’s just… starting cultivation anew is not the work of a single day or night. With my current strength, I can only maintain this Taixuan Dao Realm for half a month at most. I worry… that when the time comes for us to leave this place and return to the outside world, if we encounter the Demon Lord again…”

Shu Mo already understood the unspoken words. Yet, there was no fear in her eyes; instead, a tender smile rippled through them.

“Does Ning’er know the origin of that Demon Lord?”

Shi Yining shook her head slowly. “Even if I knew, what could be done? Could it be… that her origin is her weakness?”

Shu Mo bowed her head slightly. Her warm breath brushed against the side of her beloved’s neck. Like a kitten, she used the tip of her delicate nose to nuzzle that slightly sensitive skin, carrying an unspoken intimacy and attachment.

“Ning’er is very clever to have guessed the gist of it…”

Feeling the phantom touch at her neck, Shi Yining couldn’t help but tremble slightly, her skin quietly flushing a faint red. She bit her lip and gave a light, chiding look. “Since Mo’er knows, why not speak plainly?”

Shu Mo pressed her cheek even closer. “The Demon Lord is neither human, nor immortal, nor ghost, nor demon. She is a manifestation of a single thread of evil thought produced by the Heavenly Dao of the Canglan Realm, influenced by the Mirror of Nine Serenity Reincarnation. Every time she strikes, that evil thought weakens to a certain degree, as does her strength; she requires a long time to recover. When the Demon Lord used her magic to shatter space that day, I struck her with a sword. Combined with her original energy depletion, her current strength should be inferior to yours, Ning’er.”

Hearing this, Shi Yining was stunned for a moment. When she came to her senses, her eyes were filled with astonishment. “So that’s how it is… The Mirror of Nine Serenity Reincarnation?”

She repeated the name in a low voice, her brow furrowed. “This name… why does it sound so familiar?”

“Has Ning’er forgotten?” Shu Mo’s voice was extremely light. “It is the guardian treasure of the Nether Ghost Realm. In your previous life… after your passing… your soul went to the Netherworld. You should have seen this object.”

Shi Yining’s gaze lost focus, as if following Mo’er’s words back into distant memories.

It was in a desolate and deathly silent place, on the mandatory path to the Naihe Bridge. An ancient mirror as large as a mountain hung quietly in the void. Countless dark runes entwined around the mirror’s edge. Back then, she had glanced at it subconsciously, sensing only that the aura emitted by the ancient mirror was vast and awe-inspiring, seemingly enveloping the entirety of the Nine Serenities and the Yellow Springs. However, upon closer inspection, a sense of desolation had spontaneously arisen in her heart.

“I remember now…” The vacancy in Shi Yining’s eyes was gradually replaced by doubt. “The Mirror of Nine Serenity Reincarnation is on the road to the Naihe Bridge… but this treasure is supposed to only govern matters of reincarnation. The Heavenly Dao of the Canglan Realm operates by its own rules and laws; why would it be influenced by a treasure of the Netherworld?”

Shu Mo listened quietly. Once she finished speaking, Shu Mo spoke slowly, her tone frank and without any concealment.

“The reason for this is currently indiscernible. It is only known that it has some connection to the struggle between Immortals and Demons. As for the specific reasons, perhaps we will only truly uncover them when we ascend in the future to the Immortal Realm and look back from a higher vantage point.”

At this point, a bright and determined light flashed in her eyes. She gently took her beloved’s jade-like hand.

“I look forward to that day. I look forward to standing side-by-side with Ning’er, stepping into that realm of longevity together, seeing the scenery from the highest heights, and unraveling all the mysteries. At that time, no power will ever be able to pull us apart…”

The touch from the back of her hand was warm and slightly burning. Shi Yining felt the strength of this determination, and her heart warmed in response.

However, just as this warmth arose, she remembered what Ruo Ying had once said.

She looked up at Shu Mo, her tone seeking confirmation and carrying a hint of undetectable pity. “Ruo Ying said… that the entire Canglan Realm is shrouded in an immortal spell that can reverse time… and that spell was cast by Mo’er…”

Mentioning the events of the previous life, Shu Mo’s body stiffened imperceptibly.

She lowered her eyelids, concealing the complex emotions that surged for a moment. Her grip on her beloved’s hand tightened subconsciously. She remained silent for a while before finally speaking in a low voice, heavy with deep apology. “Ning’er… I’m sorry.”

This abrupt apology startled Shi Yining, a look of confusion surfacing in her eyes. “Why does Mo’er suddenly say such things?”

Shu Mo’s voice was somewhat hoarse, each word seeming to be squeezed out from the depths of her heart with great difficulty. “In the previous life… there were too many… far too many ways I failed Ning’er…”

She did not finish her sentence, but that heavy regret and pain were clearly transmitted, as if merely mentioning it had exhausted all her strength.

Shi Yining’s heart wrenched. When the effects of the Unfeeling Pill had faded and her memories returned, she had heard Mo’er mention the matter of the Unfeeling Gu. She knew then that there were hidden details regarding their previous life that she did not yet understand. Just as she was about to speak words of comfort, she saw Mo’er use her other hand to slowly slide a simple, ancient-looking storage ring off her finger.

Shu Mo’s fingertips trembled slightly as she placed the ring gently into her beloved’s palm. She looked up slowly, the guilt in her eyes lingering, but now joined by a sincere sense of entrustment. “Now that I am devoid of spiritual power… I must trouble Ning’er to open it…”

Shi Yining stared at the storage ring in her palm, still warm from Mo’er’s skin. She looked at the mixture of guilt, anticipation, and a faint, undetectable trepidation in Mo’er’s eyes, and her mind filled with growing doubts.

What exactly… was hidden inside this storage ring?

With a heart full of confusion and a strange, inexplicable palpitation, Shi Yining released a thread of divine sense, carefully probing into the ancient jade ring in her palm.

The moment she touched the internal space of the ring, it felt as if she had pushed open a long-sealed door to the past.

She froze instantly.

The first thing she saw was a medicinal sachet with fine, dense stitching. In the center, the character (Mo) was embroidered in gold thread… This was the gift she had wanted to give Mo’er during her first visit to the Yuehua Sect, shortly after they first met.

At that time, Mo’er had not accepted it, and the sachet had been taken away by Kong Qing… She had thought it was long ago discarded in some corner, left to rot in the dust.

Beside the sachet lay a bracelet made of sea-tribe spirit shells… This was the gift she had brought on her second visit to the Yuehua Sect.

Back then, although Mo’er had accepted the bracelet, what followed was a sentence that chilled her heart even more than a rejection: “Do not come again in the future; a cultivator should prioritize the Great Dao and must not indulge in external distractions.”

Had it not been for the system’s mandatory tasks later on, perhaps their fate would have been severed from that very moment…

Next to the bracelet was a light green cloak, folded neatly without a single wrinkle… This was the gift she had spent half a month sewing by hand for her third visit to the Yuehua Sect.

Mo’er had not accepted it, and she had left, dejected and soul-shaken, carrying the cloak with her.

It had rained heavily that night, and the cloak was snatched away by a figure in black midway through her journey. At the time, she was so distracted that she failed to catch the thief…

Finally, there was a painting she had drawn herself. The scroll floated quietly in a corner of the ring’s space, perfectly preserved—it had even been carefully shielded with protective spiritual light.

The person depicted in the painting was none other than Mo’er… This was the gift she had brought on her fourth visit to the Yuehua Sect.

Later, the scroll had fallen into Yunze Lake along with her…

Except for that bracelet which had been barely accepted, every gift Shi Yining thought had been lost, destroyed, or utterly ignored now appeared one by one, perfectly intact within this storage ring. In fact, they were preserved even better and more meticulously than she remembered.

It turned out that those sentiments that seemed to have vanished like stones in the ocean, those journeys that ended in nothingness, and that bitterness and persistence she thought only she remembered… Mo’er had known all along. She had even collected them all in this silent manner.

Two lines of clear tears fell down her cheeks without warning.

The estrangement and grievances of the previous life, the history where love had turned to hatred, had once imprisoned Shi Yining’s heart like heavy shackles. Even though she and Mo’er had long since clarified their feelings in this life, there was always an indescribable cowardice and hesitation deep within her soul.

But at this moment, looking at these treasured old objects, the shackles in her heart were beginning to dissipate, bit by bit.

Her divine sense slowly withdrew from the storage ring, bringing those objects saturated with affection out onto the soft couch.

Seeing her beloved in tears, Shu Mo’s heart tightened. Almost instinctively, she raised her hand and tenderly reached for that jade-like cheek, her thumb moving slightly to wipe away the tear stains.

“Ning’er, do not cry…” Her voice remained low and raspy, carrying a heartache and apology so thick it would not dissolve. “If these things… have caused Ning’er sorrow, then it is my fault…”

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