Chapter 46: Possession – Bo Xuenong Feigns Kindness Toward Wu Qingshu, Shen Yanting… Part 1

Bo Xuenong wanted to pretend kindness toward Wu Qingshu, but Shen Yanting did not expose her.

She played along with Bo Xuenong and hinted that she should stop taking action: “They cannot escape Aunt Shu’s methods.”

They certainly could not escape Wu Qingshu’s methods, but if Wu Qingshu killed them, she could not, and… what about her points?

Right.

She was precisely worried about the points.

She did not want to kill anyone at all; she merely wanted the points.

Bo Xuenong secretly defended herself in her heart. Her eyes fixed firmly on those people as she reluctantly retreated to Feng Jin’s side. Feng Jin had yet to realize she had missed a chance to gain points and remained immersed in her daze. When she sensed Bo Xuenong’s presence, she immediately grabbed Bo Xuenong’s sleeve: “Se… Senior Sister, I killed someone!”

Feng Jin’s little face paled in fright. Fine beads of sweat rolled down from her forehead. Panic filled those almond eyes, and her entire body trembled uncontrollably. Intense guilt wrapped around her like a sudden tsunami, plunging her into an endless dark vortex from which she could not break free.

She saw Bo Xuenong as her lifesaver and gripped that sleeve ever harder, nearly tearing the cuff.

Bo Xuenong looked at Feng Jin before her and could not help but wonder how this girl had managed to act so arrogant and rampant all these years.

Her courage was far too small, and her temperament excessively timid.

Bo Xuenong nudged her cheek, trying to make this face appear gentler. Just as she prepared to offer a few comforting words, a surge of spiritual power lifted them upward onto the fox’s back.

Wu Qingshu and the others had arrived.

With the arrival of the talisman paper’s master, those advance talisman papers instantly exploded. The people who had been so arrogant moments before scattered in flight, but they seemed fixed in place, unable to move, and could only await the explosions.

The cultivators around Bo Xuenong died cleanly in an instant, their bodies blasted into fragments.

Wu Qingshu did not wait for the explosions to cease. She urged the fox to carry them through the blasts toward the village’s end.

As they shuttled through the explosions, each boom made Feng Jin shrink in terror.

She could no longer even hold onto Bo Xuenong’s cuff, and her slender frame swayed unsteadily.

Bo Xuenong hurriedly reached out to grab her, but her fingertips merely brushed Feng Jin’s hem and failed to catch hold.

Feng Jin collapsed onto the fox’s back. She raised her hands to cover her ears and murmured softly: “I… I killed someone.”

If only it had truly been Feng Jin who killed him.

That man who grabbed her was a demonic cultivator. Without checking the system panel, Bo Xuenong knew he was a gold label peerless evil person.

If Feng Jin had killed him, she could have claimed two hundred points!

Wu Qingshu’s kill yielded zero.

Bo Xuenong felt some regret over the points that had slipped away from Feng Jin’s grasp, and she pitied Shen Yanting a little for Feng Jin’s frightened, foolish state.

“Little Jin.” She had just crouched down and had yet to fully adopt the demeanor of a gentle eldest senior sister when the white porcelain doll in her arms spoke first, her soft voice carrying a soothing tone: “Little Jin, you did not kill anyone.”

Feng Jin, deep in her panic, did not even hear Shen Yanting’s words clearly.

She had become like a wooden puppet, her eyes vacant and lifeless as she repeated the same phrase over and over.

That day, Shen Yanting had refused to let Feng Yingbo join them at the Heavenly Feast Sect and left Feng Jin behind to protect Fu Aoqing and the others precisely because she suspected something was off with Feng Jin’s golden core cultivation. How could she not guess that Feng Jin’s years of arrogance and ferocity were all an act? Though she did not fully understand the reason, she knew Feng Jin was suffering greatly at this moment.

Those falling teardrops brimmed with fear and self-reflection. Her slender, frail body trembled like chaff, making her appear all the more pitiable.

Shen Yanting reached out toward Feng Jin, wanting to wipe away her tears, but the porcelain doll’s body was too small to reach.

Bo Xuenong understood Shen Yanting’s intent.

She respectfully lifted Shen Yanting out and casually tore off a tiny scrap of cloth from her own clothing, placing it in Shen Yanting’s hand. Then she held Shen Yanting toward Feng Jin’s face.

Shen Yanting used the small cloth to wipe Feng Jin’s tears. Gazing at the corners of Feng Jin’s eyes, reddened thickly like rouged, she gently patted her head: “Little Jin, he wanted to kill you. You killing him would have been justified.”

Bo Xuenong watched Shen Yanting while freeing one hand to also wipe Feng Jin’s tears: “Listen, he was a bad person. Not only did you not kill him, even if you had, it would have been justified.”

Her actions appeared entirely natural, without the slightest pretense, which precisely touched Shen Yanting’s heart.

Shen Yanting had always fretted over Bo Xuenong’s bloodline and watched for her fake smiles and false gentleness. After she stopped deliberately acting cold and distant, she spent most of her time wondering how her disciple had been raised into this straightforward, somewhat silly, beast-like state. Occasionally, she would notice that Bo Xuenong’s heart was actually quite delicate.

In truth, Bo Xuenong did have a delicate side, but that side belonged only to Shen Yanting.

Shen Yanting was no fool; her mind was even rather sharp.

Her task had always been to nurture and supervise Bo Xuenong, so observing her had become habit from the start. Thus, she noticed all of Bo Xuenong’s changes.

It seemed that ever since she had deliberately praised Feng Jin and the others in Bo Xuenong’s presence, Bo Xuenong had dropped some of her falseness toward them. She no longer clung to fake smiles when facing them as before. Even the tone of her recent words seemed to imitate Shen Yanting deliberately, especially that “listen.”

Shen Yanting herself felt a sense of disorientation upon hearing it.

Bo Xuenong lacked patience and sympathy, but… Bo Xuenong seemed to be trying to replicate her emotions, her attitudes toward others.

She had developed feelings for Bo Xuenong that she should not have. Those feelings were not too deep, merely a thought that would not advance further. Yet now, that heart was pushed half a step forward. No one disliked being favored. When Mo Tingshu had recently taken Gong Wenyan and You Jingyi as disciples, Shen Yanting had said nothing aloud, but a faint sourness had stirred in her heart.

Shen Yanting had confined herself within a box called morality, but she did not cultivate the Heartless Dao. With emotions came desires.

Morality demanded that she not monopolize her master, not harm her junior sisters and brothers, and strive to be a good senior sister praised by all. But this did not mean she had never yearned for more. She could harbor great love for all beings and the world, yet she could not escape the entanglements of petty affections.

Bo Xuenong saw that Feng Jin was still crying. She placed her palm on Feng Jin’s head and rubbed it gently: “There, there, Little Jin is a good child. Even if you killed someone, it would be fine, and besides, you did not kill anyone at all.”

Her patience in comforting Feng Jin was average at best. As she spoke, she even annoyed herself. The force of her rubbing grew slightly heavier.

Feng Jin snapped back to awareness in fright. Her misty eyes blinked, and she struggled her little head free from Bo Xuenong’s palm. She mumbled: “Eldest Senior Sister, why do you say the exact same things as Elder Shen? The way you just praised me even looked exactly like Elder Shen.”

The irritation from her secret escapade settled back in. Bo Xuenong asked in delighted surprise: “Really? Do I really resemble Master that much?”

Feng Jin nodded: “Just now, a little.”

Bo Xuenong’s entire face brimmed with rich joy. Her lips curved upward uncontrollably, revealing a few jade-white teeth: “Little Jin, I am Master’s disciple, so of course I should resemble Master. But I am nowhere near as wonderful as Master. You went a bit overboard with that. Next time… next time, do not say such things.”

That face and those words did not match at all. Shen Yanting detected something odd: “Xuenong.”

At Shen Yanting’s call, Bo Xuenong immediately lowered her head.

She withdrew the hand from Feng Jin’s head and held Shen Yanting up before Feng Jin’s eyes, awaiting instructions: “Master, I am here!”

The eagerness in Bo Xuenong’s eyes nearly overflowed. Shen Yanting clearly felt that heart, not yet steadied, tilt once more toward the direction she resisted.

Bo Xuenong was cold and indifferent to others but scorching and gentle toward Shen Yanting.

It was like a trap paved with honey. Even knowing a fall would mean eternal damnation, one still fantasized that a shallow taste might bring no harm.

Shen Yanting’s heart grew more chaotic. She said nothing further.

Si Xianling had never seen a cultivator as timid as Feng Jin. Once Feng Jin recovered a bit, she could not resist having Wu Qingshu bring her closer and struck up a conversation: “Hey, my mom killed that guy, not you. Besides, what’s there to fear about killing? In the Cultivation World, if you do not kill, you just wait to be killed by others. You are a golden core realm cultivator—how can you be so cowardly?”

Feng Jin shrank back and only dared speak while clutching Bo Xuenong’s sleeve: “Wha… what business is it of yours!”

Si Xianling was not so easily dismissed. She replied frankly: “I am curious.”

“I have no reason to satisfy your curiosity.” Feng Jin retreated further. She carefully sized up Si Xianling before looking up at Bo Xuenong: “Eldest Senior Sister, who is she?”

Si Xianling was a natural socializer. She grabbed Feng Jin’s hand and held it: “Hello, I am Si Xianling, Junior Sect Master of the Beast Taming Sect, daughter of the strongest talisman cultivator in the Cultivation World.”

Feng Jin’s pupils contracted sharply. With full-faced horror, she pointed at Si Xianling: “You… are you not dead?”

Feng Jin had learned the entire plot even earlier than Bo Xuenong, and since she was the system’s true host, she knew instantly whenever Bo Xuenong redeemed items from it. While Bo Xuenong had to check biographies herself, Feng Jin received them imprinted directly in her mind. Unaware of their events at the Heavenly Feast Sect, she only knew that, per the original book plot, Si Xianling should be dead.

“You are the one who died.” Si Xianling got angry enough to prepare a harsh pinch on the little girl’s cheek. But as her hand extended, Feng Jin spat out a mouthful of blood. The bright red obscured her vision and startled Si Xianling: “You… cursing this young lady like that—serves you right for the backlash.”

Feng Jin covered her mouth, but blood kept surging out, exactly like what had just happened to Bo Xuenong.

It seemed they could not only refrain from mentioning the system but also anything related to the original characters provided by it.

Did that mean she had to hide everything from Shen Yanting?

Bo Xuenong inwardly groaned. For these five hundred years, she had always pretended to be well-behaved to deceive Shen Yanting, but this was different. Previously, if Shen Yanting did not ask, it was fine. But just now, when Wu Qingshu asked how she had turned Shen Yanting into a porcelain doll, Shen Yanting’s gaze indicated she wanted to know.

Whatever Shen Yanting wanted to know, she should tell her, she should… Her thoughts halted abruptly, and a mouthful of blood spurted out uncontrollably.

Shen Yanting eyed the two suspiciously. Spotting the guilt in Bo Xuenong’s gaze, she suddenly understood the key.

She glared at Bo Xuenong: “I do not wish to know your secrets.”

Shen Yanting’s tone was firm, her expression unchanged.

Bo Xuenong sighed in relief. Her urge to confess vanished, and the bleeding stopped.

“Sister Shen, are you really not curious? I am quite curious.” The sight of Bo Xuenong and her junior sister vomiting blood together was too rare. Si Xianling pressed: “Why did you two sisters vomit blood at the same time? You even look alike doing it, as if afflicted by the same thing. Could it be that you planted Same Fate Gu on each other?”

Bo Xuenong had no intention of being honest with Si Xianling.

She stayed silent, but Feng Jin countered: “What is Same Fate Gu?”

“It is said to be a gu cultivator’s method, a special gu insect that links two people’s fates. But gu cultivators are rare in the Cultivation World now, so who knows if this gu insect is real or fake.”

Feng Jin muttered softly: “I suppose I could have some.”

Si Xianling looked at Feng Jin like she was an idiot: “You should be a sword cultivator.”

Feng Jin did not explain to Si Xianling. She merely tugged at Bo Xuenong.

Bo Xuenong naturally knew what Feng Jin meant.

Anything available in the Cultivation World, the system could redeem—effectively, they both had access.