While her True Self, Meng Li, was elsewhere scheming, the Meng Li possessing two-thirds of the soul had already made a large circuit around the sect. She wanted to reclaim her remaining third of the soul, but found she couldn’t locate it anywhere.
“Ah, these side effects are way too obvious. My soul just runs off on its own with zero connection. How am I supposed to find it…”
Meng Li went straight under a tree, intending to just give up. A third of her soul could just go for all she cared. However, just as Meng Li sat down for a moment, a sharp, freezing Sword Qi suddenly shot past her.
“Yikes!!!”
Meng Li was so startled by this sudden attack that she practically had springs in her legs, instantly bouncing up from under the tree. She looked around alertly, thinking what kind of scumbag would ambush her.
“Unfilial Disciple!! You deserve death!!!”
“Yikes! No, wait! Sis, who are you?! And what are you pointing that sword at me for?!”
Following the direction of the voice, Meng Li saw a silver-haired woman standing not far away, a longsword in her hand gleaming with a chilling light. Meng Li felt the woman looked familiar, but couldn’t place who she was.
“Until the very last moment, I couldn’t believe you were the ultimate traitor. I want to see if your heart, Unfilial Disciple, is truly black! Prepare to die!”
Meng Li watched the woman in the distance, pointing at her with fury, mouthing something she couldn’t quite make out. She wanted to get closer to hear better. But just as she took two steps forward—
Meng Li saw the woman in the distance directly raise her longsword and charge at her. The speed was so fast it was like the space between them compressed, closing the gap instantly.
“I! AIIIEE!!!! Y-you! Stay back! Stay baaack!!!!!”
At this point, Meng Li didn’t care what identity the other party had, she directly turned and ran for her life. Fleeing the silver-haired girl’s pursuit, Meng Li was completely baffled. She was sure she’d never even met this person.
“W-wait! We’ve never met! Are you sure you have the wrong person?!”
“I’d recognize you even if you were ashes! To humiliate me so, I’ll only kill you, for this life and all to come!”
The red light in the girl’s eyes intensified. Meng Li observed her state; this was exactly the look of someone about to become Devilized in the game. Meng Li didn’t understand. She hadn’t offended her! She couldn’t figure out what she’d done to make someone hate her so much they were on the verge of Devilization.
“Shizun is usually cold all around, but who knew in bed, your body was still so warm~”
In front of her eyes, Ling Qingyue once again saw the illusion of that Unfilial Disciple. As merely an Avatar, Ling Qingyue ground her silver teeth, nearly shattering them. She had thought she’d be fine, that such strong emotions wouldn’t affect her. But she hadn’t accounted for lacking the stable mental state of her true body.
“Defiled my body and humiliated me so, treating me as your tool for venting lust. Such disgrace! I long to eat your flesh! Shatter your soul!”
“Ah, y-you! Don’t talk nonsense! I didn’t do anything! At least let me actually do something before you kill me!”
Meng Li shouted as she fled. Yet the Ling Qingyue behind her acted as if she hadn’t heard, her single-minded purpose to hack this Unfilial Disciple to death. Then, in the midst of running, a sudden realization struck Meng Li.
“Damn it, this must be the other me’s doing!”
The deeds the other party described—not only defiling her body but doing so with extremely humiliating methods—though she was unwilling to admit it, that truly seemed like something she would do.
“Fine! That True Self ran off on her own, leaving me behind, and she even went and enjoyed herself with a beautiful female disciple like this? Not only did she eat without paying, but she’s sending the bill collector my way?!”
Meng Li was instantly furious. She never expected she could be such scum, and that the one burned by her own scumminess would be herself. Seeing the pursuer still hot on her heels, Meng Li performed a sudden emergency brake and spun around.
“Y-you! Don’t come any closer! Come closer and I’ll fight back!”
“If you survive this one strike, then I have no face left to live…”
Ling Qingyue looked at Meng Li, who had stopped. Her originally restless heart calmed, but the red light gradually surfacing in her eyes still showed signs of Devilization. An aura of terror emanated from the longsword in her hand.
“S-so… strong…”
Ling Qingyue slowly raised her longsword, pointing it at the Unfilial Disciple who, in her past life, had humiliated her, marking her body over and over. The three-foot blade seemed ready to plunge straight into the other’s heart.
[Sword Art: Lake in the Mirror]
“Not good, she really intends to kill me!”
Ling Qingyue’s heart was still restless, but the moment the sword light stabilized, the sound of a water droplet echoed between them. The scene around them seemed to transform into an endless, boundless lake.
Meng Li was instantly drenched in cold sweat. The opponent hadn’t even struck yet, but from Meng Li’s perspective, the girl merely standing there gave her a powerful feeling of unfathomable, terrifying strength.
“Damn it, you forced my hand!”
Meng Li glanced at the Dharma Robe on her body. After only a moment’s hesitation, she activated one of its magic arrays. In the current situation, if she didn’t use it, she could probably take this whole set of gear into her next reincarnation.
[Spirit Art: Myriad Miles of Rivers and Mountains Painting]
[Remaining Arrays: 24]
“Hope it won’t hurt her too badly…”
As Meng Li activated the array, she was still lamenting for the girl opposite her. But when she looked up again, the girl’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’d she go?”
Meng Li was briefly puzzled. Immediately after, a silver-white silhouette appeared beside her. A bad feeling surged, and she tried to turn her head to look. But it was already too late. The opponent was so fast Meng Li didn’t even have a chance to react.
“Got you…”
Ling Qingyue’s gaze turned icy cold. Yet, for some reason, she felt as if the entire world froze at that instant. Her longsword was just an inch from the opponent’s heart. In Ling Qingyue’s eyes, that arrogant Unfilial Disciple had, at this moment, reverted to the appearance she’d had when Ling Qingyue first met her.
“If Shizun is the best under heaven, then I’ll be the second best~”
A memory that should have been forgotten surfaced in her mind. Ling Qingyue’s sword paused. And in just that instant of hesitation, a long painting scroll wrapped protectively around Meng Li’s body.
“Not good!”
The instant the painting scroll appeared around the other’s body, Ling Qingyue realized disaster was imminent. The Dharma Robe Situ Xue had created stored twenty-six arrays, each one a full-power strike from Situ Xue herself.
Right now, this Avatar of Ling Qingyue was only at the Foundation Establishment Realm. How could she shake the gap in realms? Normally she might have been able to contend against it, but in this moment, Ling Qingyue’s heart was disturbed. The cold light of her longsword dissipated. When the sword stabbed onto that painting scroll, Ling Qingyue was directly blasted away.
“I-I’m alive! I’m still alive! Ah, I’m okay, just now… just now I thought I was dead!”
With a loud bang behind her, Meng Li hurriedly checked her body. In that instant, she’d practically seen a large hole gaping in her chest where her heart was. Only after a thorough inspection did she finally feel relief.
“What the true body can’t accomplish, I foolishly thought I could… haha…”
Amidst the smoke, Ling Qingyue leaned on a nearby tree, slowly standing up. The massive impact of being blasted back had caused a trickle of blood to seep from the corner of her mouth. Ling Qingyue wiped it, looking at the blood on the back of her hand.
“Injured… how rare. To be reduced to such a state trying to kill you, Unfilial Disciple, I’ve truly shamed myself…”
Meng Li watched the distant Ling Qingyue as if muttering to herself. She didn’t understand how the other could hate her to this degree. Just as she was about to try and calmly talk things out, she saw the Ling Qingyue before her place the longsword against her own neck.
“Some things might be simpler if the true body did them…~”
…………
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