Bo Xuenong and the others followed the sound of voices into the room.
The sky outside was just right, with bright light.
Yet the doors and windows inside the room were uncovered, but not a single ray of light seeped in. Only the half-candle cradled in Gui Nianqin’s palm added a faint glow to the room.
Bo Xuenong borrowed that flickering candlelight to make out the situation in the room. Gui Nianqin sat at the edge of the bed at that moment. Her eyes lacked the spirit they had shown when they first met, and sorrow and numbness had added to her face. Melted wax dripped onto the back of her hand, but she showed no reaction. She still maintained a proper, upright sitting posture as she gazed at the person lying on the bed.
The empty bed had no bedding, only a wooden board left.
A girl lay on the wooden board. Dense red vines wrapped around her body. Tiny barbs on the vines pierced through her delicate skin. Fresh red blood mixed with black droplets and surged out, seeping into the wooden board. A closer look revealed that the vines binding the girl clung tightly to the board, as if they had grown right out of it.
That medicinal, incense-like aroma grew even thicker.
Bo Xuenong felt a bit dizzy from the fumes. Feng Jin, tucked in the crook of her arm, had her eyes slowly closing uncontrollably.
Bo Xuenong shook her arm and roughly flung Feng Jin twice.
Feng Jin’s drowsy eyes instantly perked up a lot, though resentment filled them more.
Shen Yanting observed even more meticulously than they did. She paid no attention to their movements. She only turned her head instinctively at the sound. Her free hand naturally fell onto Bo Xuenong’s lips.
She thought the sound came from Bo Xuenong. Only afterward did she realize that such a sound wouldn’t emerge from lips. Shen Yanting coldly withdrew her hand, pretending nothing had happened. She left Bo Xuenong behind, full of accumulated doubts she dared not voice.
A faint fragrance lingered on her lips, along with a trace of warmth.
Bo Xuenong’s eyelashes trembled. Her attention completely scattered.
She no longer paid attention to the girl on the bed. Her gaze followed Shen Yanting’s fingers and fell with them.
Shen Yanting lived up to her reputation as the most beautiful person in the entire book. It seemed there was no part of her that wasn’t beautiful. Her hands looked soft and boneless, as white and lustrous as jade fat. Merely looking at them stirred an impulse in people to protect her and follow her. Even in the dim light, that innate allure couldn’t be blocked.
Her master was flawless.
She was her master’s most loyal follower. She would guard everything about her master with her life.
Bo Xuenong swore to herself. Then her shoulder was suddenly patted by Shen Yanting.
Bo Xuenong came back to her senses and saw Shen Yanting’s finger pointing toward Gui Nianqin’s feet. She looked where Shen Yanting pointed and saw a finely made portrait. It had obvious burn marks that looked fresh. Scattered black ash lay beside it—the portrait had likely just been burned and not fully extinguished before being put out.
Though the portrait was damaged, the person on it was still discernible.
It was a girl who looked about ten years old, with soft and fine brows and eyes, and a stubborn gaze.
She looked a bit familiar.
Bo Xuenong stepped forward and examined the painting carefully several times. The more she looked, the more familiar it felt. Suddenly, that face overlapped with someone from her memories.
Though the age difference was large, this face seemed to be Fu Aoqing from childhood.
Once she confirmed the direction, it looked more and more alike—at least seventy percent similar.
Thinking back to the traces of a hung portrait outside, the burned incense offerings, and the neatly arranged spirit fruits… Could it be that what Gui Nianqin and the others had been worshiping earlier was Fu Aoqing?
Didn’t that mean they had known from the start that they came from the Imperial Serenity Sect? If so, why hadn’t they exposed it? Why pretend not to recognize Fu Aoqing?
More confusion piled up.
Bo Xuenong felt at a loss. She stared intently at Gui Nianqin.
Gui Nianqin sat rigidly motionless at the bed’s edge. The candle in her hand burned shorter and shorter, nearly reaching her skin.
A thick layer of wax piled up on the back of her hand. The skin beneath had long turned fully red, but she didn’t even cry out in pain. She still sat there in a daze. It was the girl on the bed who spoke first: “Mother, you don’t need to stay here with me. Seeing me like this only makes you suffer.”
Gui Nianqin turned her body slightly at the sound. The candle in her hand swayed with her, perfectly illuminating the girl’s face clearly.
Feng Jin muttered in an extremely small voice: “So beautiful!”
The faint sound didn’t reach Gui Nianqin’s ears, but Shen Yanting and Bo Xuenong both heard it clearly.
The girl was indeed very beautiful, with brows and eyes like a painting, skin like snow.
What was eerie was that the skin on her face trembled lightly. That layer of beautiful face seemed on the verge of peeling off.
Bo Xuenong was slightly surprised. She couldn’t help circulating spiritual power to send it toward her eyes. A thin layer of light mist covered her eyes, and the scene before her changed. She saw strands of blood mist drilling into the girl’s body along the blood vines.
What was that?
Even stranger, as more blood mist surged in, the girl’s skin grew even more tender and white. Her brows and eyes became more beautiful.
How strange.
Bo Xuenong wanted to step closer for a better look. She hadn’t taken two steps before Shen Yanting pulled her back.
Shen Yanting shook her head at her, so she didn’t dare move anymore.
Bo Xuenong’s curiosity wasn’t strong to begin with. When Shen Yanting didn’t want her to investigate, she could completely set aside her curiosity.
Feng Jin was different. She reached out her small hand and patted the back of Bo Xuenong’s hand, constantly leaning forward. Her eyes were full of shock—she clearly wanted very much to figure out the strangeness on the girl’s body.
Bo Xuenong glared at her, and Feng Jin stopped moving around. At the same time, her inner voice appeared again.
【Feng Jin: Ah, I actually just patted Eldest Senior Sister! Such a scary look! Dead System… how come Eldest Senior Sister and Elder Shen aren’t curious at all? That girl’s skin is moving! And it’s getting more beautiful—this is off!】
【System: According to the character’s setting in the book, though Shen Yanting is a sword cultivator, she also excels in arrays and talisman arts, and has beast tamer abilities. She probably already knows what’s going on with the girl’s changes.】
【Feng Jin: What about Eldest Senior Sister?】
【System: She listens to Shen Yanting. If Shen Yanting doesn’t let her ask, she won’t pursue her curiosity.】
…
Bo Xuenong clearly felt that listening to her master was her greatest strength. She didn’t know why, but after the system’s cold voice said it, she felt like the system wasn’t praising her.
So annoying.
Too bad the system didn’t even have a physical form. Otherwise, she definitely would have beaten it up.
Not just for this account, but also for leading revenants here.
Bo Xuenong suddenly thought of something more urgent.
Calculating the time, Feng Jin had been in this world for two hundred years.
If otherworld revenants had awakened one after another since Feng Jin arrived, how many near-death cultivators had been replaced in these two hundred years? Among those cultivators, there weren’t necessarily only disciples like Guan Caimei with mediocre talent. There might be fallen prodigies or sect elders whose lifespan had run out. It could… lead to chaos.
This system had poked a hole right through the heavens with one mistake.
Bo Xuenong wasn’t worried about how many people would die if the Cultivation World fell into chaos, but she was very worried about Shen Yanting.
Shen Yanting was the strategy target with the best appearance in the system’s settings. Were the revenants who came to this world really only having Guan Caimei target Shen Yanting?
Bo Xuenong didn’t think so.
The biggest possibility was that those revenants were smarter than Guan Caimei and didn’t dare approach Shen Yanting without absolute strength.
Her mood instantly soured completely: “Damn it.”
The extremely faint whisper reached Shen Yanting’s ears. She quickly looked over. Sensing her probing gaze, Bo Xuenong guiltily lowered her head. She quickly restrained all her killing intent, then looked up again with a smile at Shen Yanting. Shen Yanting gazed at the familiar fake smile on her face, and her eyes darkened slightly.
Shen Yanting said nothing. Her gaze returned to Gui Nianqin and the others.
The unique fragrance in the room could affect consciousness, gradually blurring clear minds and dulling the brain.
Gui Nianqin and the girl showed no signs of falling asleep, but their reactions were very slow, and their movements sluggish.
Only when the candle flame reached her skin did Gui Nianqin remember what to say: “Rou’er, Mother will stay here guarding you. A family came to the village today. There’s a little lady among them even more beautiful than the divine woman in the legends. If we could take her face, they should be reluctant to kill you. And her… her beau, though a man, is prettier than any young lady. Her sister is also extremely beautiful, and her daughter too…”
Bo Xuenong’s eyes grew cold.
The little lady Gui Nianqin mentioned was undoubtedly Shen Yanting.
The beautiful beau was her. The sister was Feng Yingbo.
Coveting her and Feng Yingbo was one thing, but they even wanted to steal Shen Yanting’s face!
Truly damnable!
Bo Xuenong took half a step forward. Shen Yanting yanked her hand back, pulling her body, which had just moved a bit, right back.
Her master had said not to kill good people. She wouldn’t be angry.
These people were clearly not good.
Yet Shen Yanting still blocked her.
Bo Xuenong looked at Shen Yanting with some grievance. Shen Yanting raised her free hand and placed her index finger vertically by Bo Xuenong’s lips, forbidding her to speak.
Bo Xuenong obediently swallowed all her grievance. Her lips subconsciously pressed a bit closer to Shen Yanting’s finger. She was showing how obedient she was. This scene, in Feng Jin’s eyes, was no different from Bo Xuenong kissing Shen Yanting’s finger. Because she feared someone stealing faces, the hands that had silently covered her small face slowly moved up to cover her eyes.
“Mother.” The girl’s reaction was a bit faster than Gui Nianqin’s. She interrupted her: “Don’t lie to me. That group aren’t just passersby, right? They’re cultivators from the Imperial Serenity Sect—people we can’t kill. Mother, you’d better let them go soon.”
Gui Nianqin gazed at the girl. After a long hesitation, she finally asked: “How do you know?”
The girl forced a smile. Her trembling face skin shook even more fiercely: “I overheard you talking with Third Aunt and the others… Aoqing has returned.”
They knew Fu Aoqing.
How was that possible?
Fu Aoqing had left Mistlongevity Village over seven hundred years ago. Those who knew her should have long died out. But from the girl’s tone, they clearly knew Fu Aoqing—perhaps even quite well. Her vanished curiosity surged back up. This time, Bo Xuenong didn’t move. She just perked up her ears, wanting to hear more.
Gui Nianqin said no more. She stepped on the portrait that belonged to Fu Aoqing. Her toes pressed down hard, as if trying to crush it.
The girl caught sight of Gui Nianqin’s action and gave a bitter laugh: “Mother, don’t blame Aoqing either. Their Imperial Serenity Sect is too small—they lack the power to save us.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Gui Nianqin sneered, full of sarcasm: “She pretended to be a mortal from the secular world upon returning to the village… unwilling even to reveal her identity. What were our centuries of worship for her? They must die. They have to die! Even if I can’t kill them, I’ll trap them here forever!”
Who killed whom wasn’t certain yet!
Bo Xuenong had just stirred killing intent when Shen Yanting forcibly dragged her out the next instant.
After leaving that room, the strange fragrance vanished as well.
The dazed feeling disappeared. Bo Xuenong shook her head lightly. Feng Jin shook her head along with her.
Before they fully recovered, Shen Yanting had already led them away from Gui Nianqin’s courtyard. They returned to the courtyard Gui Nianqin had arranged for them at extreme speed. Bo Xuenong still hadn’t been given permission to speak when Feng Jin asked first: “Senior Shishu, did you see anything?”
Shen Yanting frowned. Her index finger curled slightly and tapped Feng Jin’s forehead lightly: “You got the address wrong too.”
Feng Jin rubbed her forehead and muttered: “Haven’t we already been exposed…”
Before she finished, she felt Bo Xuenong’s gaze on her and immediately changed her words: “Mother, did you see anything?”
