Chapter 50: The Fear of Being Dominated

It was said that those who could use eighteen needles could directly determine life and death.

Those who could use seventeen needles could survive as long as they still had breath.

…

Even the first injection could treat chronic ailments.

Not only that, Soul-Suppressing Eighteen Needles also recorded thousands of acupuncture methods, large and small, and even had detailed research on unconventional methods such as insect poison¹ and corpse poison².

Such an incredible ancient manual actually fell into this beautiful mute’s hands, which made Ye Wenxin even more certain that the beautiful mute in front of her was definitely Gu Aotian’s biggest opportunity.

Only the male protagonist could enjoy this kind of cheat fate.

Ye Wenxin felt a twinge of envy, but only a twinge, as she was destined to play the role of the villain boss in this world, no matter how hard she tried, it was impossible to replace the protagonist’s existence in this world.

In this case, why bother fighting, when it was better to enjoy the rest of your life?

Having confirmed her thoughts, Ye Wenxin also began to meditate, and worked hard to digest the first of the Soul-Suppressing Eighteen Needles.

Beside her, the beautiful mute’s eyes briefly opened and closed after confirming Ye Wenxin’s reaction.

Quietness returned to the cavern, and one day passed, then two days…

Five days had passed since the start of the second round, and Ye Wenxin stayed here willingly for two days. She was not a person who talked a lot, and when facing a mute, she talked even less.

Although she already knew that the beautiful mute was a leveling maniac, every time Ye Wenxin opened her eyes, she would always see the beautiful mute cultivating endlessly. She seemed to have reached a bottleneck that was impossible to break through in any way. It was probably because of this bottleneck that she fell into Qi Deviation twice in the three times they met.

“Big Sister Mute, you should take a rest. Keep going at this rate, and you may fall into Qi Deviation again.” Ye Wenxin routinely checked the beautiful mute’s physical condition. In just two days, her pulse rate became even more chaotic, and if she did not regulate herself properly, Ye Wenxin feared the third Qi Deviation would happen for sure.

The beautiful mute’s gaze remained calm, showing no signs of change from Ye Wenxin’s words. She obstinately persisted to cultivate.

Ye Wenxin felt a little angry, but she could do nothing against the beautiful mute’s stubbornness, so she simply got up and left.

Before she had taken a few steps, Ye Wenxin looked back at the beautiful mute, hoping that her anger would bring the beautiful mute’s attention to her physical condition, yet the beautiful mute was still motionless.

Her emotions were too faint, so faint that there was no joy, anger, sorrow, or amusement.

Seeing her provocation had proved useless, Ye Wenxin had no choice but to move on and walk out of the mountain gate. It was already the fifth day, she should go shopping and check on Gu Aotian and Gu Xiangsi.

As for Su Mei, this woman’s depth was unfathomable, it was too much of a waste of her brainpower to communicate with her, so Ye Wenxin intended to have less contact with her.

“Roar!”

The demonic beast soon appeared before Ye Wenxin, its eyes filled with murderous intent.

Ye Wenxin felt a little uncomfortable being ignored by the beautiful mute earlier. Looking at this demonic beast, she seemed to have found a target for her venting.

“Perfect timing, let me try this First Needle.” It took two days, and Ye Wenxin finally got familiar with the first Soul Suppressing Needle, but she had no silver needle in hand and had to use a branch as a substitute.

However, this demonic beast had rough skin and thick flesh, and the branch broke upon contact, making it impossible for Ye Wenxin to test the strength of this First Needle.

Angered by Ye Wenxin’s actions, the demonic beast had already rushed up, wanting to chomp Ye Wenxin to death.

Ye Wenxin evaded easily, pulled out the dagger from her bag of holding, and stabbed towards the same acupoint again. The dagger Ling Jue gave her was very sharp, effortlessly killing the demonic beast with a single blow, and combined with Ye Wenxin’s precise aim at the demonic beast’s acupoint, it let out a miserable cry and immediately fell to the ground.

Ye Wenxin was not idle either, using the dagger to pierce the other acupoints at lightning speed. Before the demonic beast could react, it was already lying on the ground motionless, with only its eyes wandering around.

“It turns out demonic beasts really do have acupoints. I thought this book was tricking me.” Ye Wenxin looked at the demonic beast wriggling on the ground, a smile spreading across her childish face, cruel and bloodthirsty.

The demonic beast saw that smile and was horrified to death.

“Truly worthless. Aren’t you ashamed to call yourself a demonic beast?” Ye Wenxin was speechless. She had no intention of killing this demonic beast at all, and just wanted to use it to try what she could achieve with her First Needle.

Seeing that the demonic beast had fainted, the dagger in her hand pricked several acupoints, waking it up again. Ye Wenxin continued to apply the acupuncture, after several back and forth, the demonic beast was in pain, and Ye Wenxin was dripping with sweat.

“Phew, I’m done playing. Too tired.” Ye Wenxin felt her stamina could not keep up. Compared to the mental strength required for alchemy, the conditions required for the Soul-Suppressing Eighteen Needles were even more demanding.

Seeing the pitiful appearance of the demonic beast on the ground, Ye Wenxin stabbed several acupoints lightly with the dagger. The demonic beast regained its mobility, fled away with scars all over its body, and never looked back.

Ye Wenxin could not be bothered anymore; she could not even lift her arms anymore, and simply lay down on the grass.

She did not want to think about anything, she just wanted sleep like this.

With such thoughts in mind, she shut her eyes, and a rather comfortable breeze drifted by slowly. Then, a person approached her quietly.

As they did not have any murderous intent, Ye Wenxin did not bother to care about why the person came over. They said nothing and just watched Ye Wenxin lying on the ground.

Time seemed to stop, until the person finally made a move and sat next to Ye Wenxin.

A faint fragrance wafted over, somewhat familiar yet not entirely so.

Ye Wenxin was too lazy to pay attention and turned over in the opposite direction to where the person was. They still did not speak, but the moonlight crept out quietly and shone on the woman’s face.

That kind of beauty was too profound, making the moonlight and picturesque scenery pale in comparison. She just sat there, looking like an overly perfect painting.

“Aren’t you cultivating? Why did you run out?” Ye Wenxin turned around and looked up at the overly beautiful woman in front of her.

Even from this angle, the beautiful mute she saw was too perfect, but even with such a perfect woman, Ye Wenxin, who was also a woman, could not feel the slightest bit of envy in her heart.

Even she found this emotion incredulous. She even wanted to worship and kneel at this woman’s feet, just to beg her for one more glance.

The beautiful mute was indeed looking at Ye Wenxin, but her eyes remained calm without any ripples, her fingers caressing Ye Wenxin’s cheek.

Ye Wenxin felt very uncomfortable being touched, but the next second, the beautiful mute had activated her Qi, and Ye Wenxin felt the coolness on her cheeks again. Her face that was initially covered with blood became clean, as if it had been wiped off in the instance of her movement.

Only then did Ye Wenxin understand the beautiful mute’s intention, and stood up to thank her.

Ye Wenxin did not speak afterwards, and it was naturally impossible for the beautiful mute to speak. They watched the starry sky quietly. The beautiful mute, unusually, did not continue to cultivate, as if she had heeded Ye Wenxin’s advice.

“You really can’t ruin yourself like this. If you often fall into Qi Deviation, you’ll lose your mind, your control. What’s the use of being powerful? In the end, you won’t even remember who you are!” Ye Wenxin thought of her own experience as a veteran. She had been bent on killing people, addicted to it even, resulting in this lingering illness.

Killing Fairy Fengya was one of her goals, and running away was the best choice Ye Wenxin could make, as she was worried that one day, due to excessive killing, she would be unable to control herself and harm those around her.

“Are you listening, Big Sister Mute, you’ll lose someone important, just like me.” Ye Wenxin added after seeing that the beautiful mute still did not react.

She was sure that the beautiful mute was not from the Azure Wings Sect, and hence was not worried about revealing more information.

Even if the beautiful mute was an elder or a more powerful character, Ye Wenxin believed that she could fool her with eloquence.

Seemingly aware of Ye Wenxin’s seriousness, the beautiful mute finally nodded.

After getting the beautiful mute’s answer, Ye Wenxin stood up and said, “I’m hungry. Big Sister Mute, go catch some demonic beasts. Let’s have a big dinner tonight.” She remembered that the two of them had not eaten in the cavern for two days, and planned to cook a delicious meal herself tonight.

The beautiful mute nodded again and quickly vanished before her.

A few minutes passed, and just as Ye Wenxin started to light a fire, the beautiful mute had already captured several demonic beasts. A sword through the throat; these monsters did not even know how they died.

Ye Wenxin did not ask further questions and started to handle the meat clumsily. Noticing Ye Wenxin’s poor knife skills, the beautiful mute took over the job.

Her skillful and graceful way of cutting the meat made Ye Wenxin feel a bit embarrassed. As Demon Lord Gu Qingcheng, Ye Wenxin naturally had more adventurous experiences, but she had long since given up eating meat and usually consumed Fasting Pills. Additionally, due to Liu Churan’s profound fear of the kitchen, she had never made any improvements in her culinary skills.

But now, this embarrassment told Ye Wenxin that she must improve her knife skills, at least enough to not expose her lack of life experience and be regarded as a runaway young lady.

This was her shortcoming as Ye Wenxin, and it was also something that must be overcome.

After a while, the meat and bones had been separated, and Ye Wenxin took out the spices that she had prepared before. The already roasted and tender demonic beast meat exuded a savoury fragrance. Ye Wenxin carefully inspected the meat to make sure it was cooked through, and then handed it to the beautiful mute beside her.

The beautiful mute was not courteous, but she ate very delicately. Judging from her mannerisms, she was probably from a wealthy clan. As for where exactly such a fairy could be raised, Ye Wenxin was somewhat interested.

However, she thought that as a mute, the beautiful mute might not be able to answer her question in this lifetime…

After eating and drinking, Ye Wenxin’s anger subsided and she followed the beautiful mute back to the cavern.

Ye Wenxin felt a little relieved, thinking that the beautiful mute could finally relax for a few days, but she did not expect that not long after arriving in the cavern, the beautiful mute began meditating again.

Ye Wenxin felt her blood pressure rising. She was very angry, so angry that this damn little girl did not even listen to her, the elder.

But this time, Ye Wenxin calmed down quickly. She remembered that she still had two Spring Return Pills and Heart-Cleansing Pills. Since the beautiful mute did not believe in the horrors of Qi Deviation, Ye Wenxin planned to take advantage of the last two days to train the beautiful mute and make her understand the fear of being dominated by Qi Deviation.

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1. Also known as Gu Du, refers to poison or toxins created through the use of gu, a type of venomous creature or poisonous insect, often associated with ancient Chinese witchcraft or sorcery. ↩︎
2. Also known as Shi Du, refers to corpse poison or toxins derived from dead bodies, often associated with necromancy or dark magic in traditional Chinese folklore and fantasy settings. ↩︎