Chapter 44

“Profound.” Liuli nodded. Then she asked, “Can you let Ye Zhenzhen and Lin Mengxian go?”

“That depends on my little sister’s performance.” Nails painted bright red with balsam lightly tapped on Liuli’s lips.

Liuli sighed. “Here’s the thing. Although I really do want to perform well, the issue is… right now, I’m completely drained. I can’t control all this at the moment. Big Sister, you’ll just have to bear with it.”

Tang Shikou: “…”

The form of address had shifted from ‘Older Sister’ to ‘Big Sister.’ What, had she just given up on herself?

Liuli glanced up at her with a face full of indifference, then collected Qingmei’s body into her Storage Ring.

A person dead, without a trace of living qi—was no different from an object. Once that life was gone, nothing truly held any meaning anymore.

“I’m tired. Can’t get up.” Liuli slumped bonelessly to the ground, lazily stretching out one paw.

Tang Shikou twitched the corner of her lips and decided not to quibble with her. She grasped Liuli’s hand in return to pull her up.

Liuli once again reversed the grip and held her.

Liuli looked up at her. “Tang Shikou, there must be a lot of people who want to kill you, right?”

Tang Shikou pulled her up, then smiled. “I couldn’t possibly count them all.”

“Then if I could accomplish that lofty goal, wouldn’t that make…” Liuli sucked in a breath of cold air, “This old gal’s life totally worth it!”

She slapped her thigh, flipped her hand, and pulled out a Big Wooden Hammer. Pouring True Qi into it, she swung it at Tang Shikou’s head.

Tang Shikou frowned and swatted it away. A shock ran through her hand—she had actually been injured. With Liuli throwing everything into the attack, holding nothing back, and Tang Shikou’s own contempt for her opponent, her hand was broken by the blow.

At such close range, though, Liuli was also jolted by the backlash of her own attack. She couldn’t help but shudder, her teeth splitting the corner of her lip and a thread of blood trailing out.

Tang Shikou’s beautiful, slender hand was bent to one side. She wanted to release Liuli and set the bone back, but she discovered that Liuli was clutching her wrist as if terrified she’d escape—definitely not something easy to break free from.

She watched as Liuli puffed out her cheeks, seemed somewhat confused, put away the Big Wooden Hammer, and drew the Autumn Water Sword to stab at her.

The Autumn Water Sword couldn’t kill Tang Shikou either. Liuli put it away and switched to yet another magic treasure to attack her.

After five or six rounds of this, although it couldn’t truly cause Tang Shikou any real harm, it thoroughly annoyed her.

Tang Shikou couldn’t help but shake off Liuli’s hand. She looked at the girl who had used every ounce of her strength to no effect on her target, only succeeding in making herself utterly wretched. Liuli’s hair had come completely undone, draping messily over her body. Her clothes, from attacking relentlessly without any regard for defense, were tattered beyond recognition.

Her eyes were dull, her expression blank—the very picture of someone driven mad by extreme shock.

How much could a madwoman even register of what was said to her?

Tang Shikou’s voice went cold. She turned, preparing to break through these layers of cages and leave. “Calm yourself down.”

“I’m quite calm.”

Liuli spoke from behind her. Not only was she calm, she even felt that at this very moment, her acting skills in feigned madness had reached their peak.

“Tang Shikou, turn around and look at me.”

Tang Shikou turned her head on reflex. A Water Sword to the face washed her clean.

“Ha ha ha ha ha…”

Tang Shikou: “…”

She needed to leave. Immediately. Before she lost control and killed this little wretch!

But at that moment, Tang Shikou stopped moving.

Her voice laced with unmistakable fury, she asked, “Do you want to die?”

Liuli stepped back two paces and smiled. “I want to live.”

And it was precisely because she wanted to live that she had stayed so close, relentlessly drawing Tang Shikou’s attention—so her own True Qi, as fine as a strand of hair, could stealthily infiltrate Tang Shikou’s body.

“How did you do it?” Tang Shikou pressed a hand to a spot on her arm. Beneath the skin, a tiny array formation formed of blood was quietly taking shape.

“Well, I do have a Water Spiritual Root, after all.”

There’s water in blood—an innate advantage. With just a single thread of True Qi, Liuli could instantly manipulate that blood into whatever form she desired.

This hair-thin yet exceptionally agile True Qi had been honed back when Feng Xiwu had confined her in the Cold Pool.

The only difficulty in executing such a high-risk ploy was preventing Tang Shikou from noticing that Liuli was trying to infiltrate her body. So Liuli had used other, more ferocious torrents of True Qi and attacks as cover.

Now, Liuli smoothed her hair and smiled. “I may enjoy brutal attacks—it’s satisfying—but when the situation calls for subtlety, I can be very meticulous.”

The small array formation in Tang Shikou’s arm was a Spirit Gathering Talisman. And the spiritual energy gathered by this True Qi controlled by Liuli naturally belonged to Liuli.

The array formation operated for only a few breaths before violently collapsing. The blood, clinging to Liuli’s True Qi, rampaged through Tang Shikou’s body. In the blink of an eye, tiny array formations had appeared all over her.

Including at her heart.

This time, it was a Severing Spirit Array.

The smile on Tang Shikou’s face vanished. “You think this can kill This Seat?”

Liuli dismissed the useless Water Walls and magic treasures outside. Ye Zhenzhen had already successfully escaped. That whole “I can’t control it” line had been a lie. At the Foundation Establishment Stage, Liuli had been utterly helpless against Tang Shikou. At the Golden Core Stage, things were different.

Golden Core Stage and Foundation Establishment Stage were as far apart as heaven and earth.

Of course, Nascent Soul Stage and Golden Core Stage were the same. But comparatively speaking, Golden Core Stage was still significantly stronger.

Liuli wouldn’t resign herself to fate. If she were the type to resign herself to fate, she wouldn’t have come here in the first place.

So Liuli said to Tang Shikou, “I know killing you is hard. But it doesn’t matter. I can just self-detonate my Golden Core.”

It was just a secondhand Golden Core she’d picked up anyway. What’s the big deal if it explodes?

“Besides, so many people want you dead—it’s not like I’m the only one. As long as I wound you badly, I’ll be satisfied.” And then Ye Zhenzhen would bring people to fight the Devil Woman. Heh heh heh.

That way, Tang Shikou dies, Qingmei is avenged, and Feng Xiwu is saved from calamity. Oh heavens, too perfect. Too satisfying!

Liuli was just that easily satisfied—a simple girl, hey!

Tang Shikou laughed from sheer fury. “This Seat’s patience has limits. Do you truly believe I won’t kill you?”

Liuli blinked lightly, reversed her grip on the Autumn Water Sword, and traced a light circle. Surging water spiritual energy gathered at the tip of the blade.

Raising the sword, she stabbed viciously toward Tang Shikou’s chest.

But just as the sword pierced into Tang Shikou, the woman’s snow-white skin ruptured in multiple places, blossoming into one bloody flower after another. She had forcibly destroyed those tiny Severing Spirit Arrays!

Tang Shikou turned her hand and seized Liuli’s sword, heedless of the blood streaming from her palm. Determined to teach her a more profound lesson, she channeled along the path of Liuli’s attack, counter-flooding with even vaster, more ferocious True Qi!

Liuli was suddenly enveloped in a sphere of light, forced to release her grip, and sent flying backward. “…Ha ha. How does it feel to hit yourself?”

Tang Shikou raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth. “Nearly forgot—you really do have quite a lot of these messy trinkets on you.”

“But no matter. This Seat doesn’t mind taking it slow with you.”

Tang Shikou forcibly shattered those useless magical hindrances and walked slowly toward Liuli. In a tone both suppressed and simmering with rage, she spoke slowly, “This Seat hates nothing more in life than being betrayed. Again and again, you have deceived and toyed with This Seat. Xue Liuli, This Seat will make you regret this for the rest of your life!”

Drawing closer, her smile turned exceedingly wild. “Good little sister, you want to self-detonate your Golden Core? It’s not that easy. As I said, you are truly… too weak.”

Tang Shikou reached a hand out toward Liuli, and Liuli immediately felt as if a mountain had been pressed down upon her, unable to breathe. And that pale, beautiful hand seemed like a demon’s claw reaching out from hell.

Liuli tried to force her Golden Core out, but every time it was about to emerge, a ferocious pressure drove it back in!

Only now did Liuli realize just how much Tang Shikou had been holding back before…

It’s over. With all pretenses thoroughly torn apart now, Tang Shikou probably wouldn’t hold back anymore.

Liuli closed her eyes and prepared to play dead.

“You say who is too weak?”

At that moment, a voice that made Liuli want to leap three feet into the air and tie a red sash around her waist to dance a Yangge dance in welcome rang out from above—Wait! Why was she here?! Jolting awake from her excitement and relief, Liuli’s eyes flew wide open as she looked up.

The bright, early-spring sunlight stung Liuli’s eyes. She screamed hoarsely, “Shizun!!!”

The woman in blue standing beneath the blue sky and warm sun carried a faint, barely perceptible trace of disarray and urgency. Her fingertips stirred slightly, and bone-chilling cold spread across several li in every direction!

Dazzling sunlight poured straight down, draping a veil of radiance over Feng Xiwu. Her somewhat pale skin, especially her light, thin lips, even seemed semi-transparent in the light. A living, breathing person, she truly looked as if molded from ice and snow, with flesh of jade and bones of frost.

As she watched, the surrounding chill grew too cold. Liuli: “Achoo!”

A violent shockwave erupted in midair—silent and formless. Liuli even felt that heavy, majestic blast wave penetrate her bones and give her a full-body projection.

It was just a sneeze—how could the power be this immense?! Liuli was stunned.

Immediately after, the mountain-like pressure of Tang Shikou’s presence that had been crushing her vanished. Liuli flew uncontrollably into the air.

Two streams of tears poured forth with a crash.

Liuli opened her arms and, weeping, hugged Feng Xiwu’s waist. Her tears fell like a rainstorm, but from her mouth came only sobs and broken fragments of words. “Shizun… Shi-Shizun… Shizun…”

Feng Xiwu had indeed come specifically to rescue her disciple. She had indeed steeled herself to face any of the thousand and one possible tragedies that might have befallen Liuli—especially after learning that the one who had taken her was Tang Shikou.

However, she was utterly, completely unprepared for Liuli to cry like this and throw herself into her arms seeking comfort.

Gone were the usual exaggerated antics and coy, ingratiating quips meant to wheedle affection. This was the pure, unadulterated sound of weeping—shattered by immense grief and grievance—which coalesced into a long, blunt knife slowly grinding across the heart. Hearing it was heart-wrenching and difficult to handle.

The esteemed Elder of the Heavenly Martial Sect, the Perfected One of Parasol Tree Mountain, whose full power could freeze dozens of li, renowned for her coldness, her detachment, her icy demeanor—a woman who never flinched in debate or combat—Feng Xiwu, faced with her one and only disciple’s tearful assault, panicked.

For approximately zero-point-seven seconds, Feng Xiwu’s hands fluttered up and down in distress. Then one hand found its way to Liuli’s head and patted it gently. The other hand grasped Liuli’s wrist to check her injuries.

This business of comforting someone—she performed it with extreme clumsiness.

Perhaps it was because Liuli’s crying had thrown her heart into such disarray.

So much so that it took Feng Xiwu a moment longer to realize that her precious senior disciple, who had been down the mountain for less than a month, had reached the Golden Core Stage!

“You formed a Golden Core?” Feng Xiwu was truly astonished.

Liuli sniffled, still draped over Feng Xiwu, and nodded wildly in a wronged, sniveling daze.