Chapter 2

◎What are you doing?◎

A delicate palm was placed on Jing Shuxing’s face, slender fingers traced his cheek, the fingertips hooked up a droplet of water, a slightly cool handkerchief brushed past his neck, and moved downwards.

Jing Shuxing suddenly grabbed Chi Lu’s wrist, and asked sternly, “What are you doing?”

His face and neck, either out of embarrassment or anger, were flushed with a large patch of red.

He hadn’t spoken harshly for a long time, and was quite embarrassed and annoyed. His face changed slightly, and he turned his head and started coughing violently again.

Chi Lu stood by, took out a handkerchief to wipe her fingers, and prepared to wait for him to calm down before explaining.

However, the more she listened, the more something seemed wrong. It seemed that she could hear the buzzing sound of the spiritual body decaying at a high speed and the spiritual power draining away.

Jing Shuxing coughed urgently, stretched out his hand to cover his mouth tightly.

A shocking crimson overflowed from between his fingers.

“You’re coughing up blood?” Chi Lu was startled, and quickly handed over the handkerchief.

Seeing that Jing Shuxing had no reaction, she simply forcibly pried open his fingers and stuffed it into his palm.

Like a drowning person encountering the last straw, Jing Shuxing’s palm suddenly had a physical object, and he involuntarily exerted all his strength on it.

In a moment, the handkerchief was full of fresh blood.

A wave of nausea surged in Jing Shuxing’s heart. He despised his powerless body at this moment, despised the hypocritical and flattering talker, and despised that gentle tone full of concern.

He mobilized his remaining spiritual power, spread out his divine consciousness, and went to find his immortal sword hidden in the corner. As early as when he was under house arrest in the courtyard, Jing Shuxing had decided that if he encountered a hypocritical and kind cultivator, he would slash with a sword.

Just as he found the immortal sword, a cup of water was handed to his lips.

Jing Shuxing thought she was pretending again, and squeezed a laugh from his throat: “May I ask, what is in this?”

Chi Lu: “I dissolved a Solid Spirit Pill in the water, which has the effect of combing the meridians and calming the spirit to relieve pain. Drinking it will make you feel much better.”

What?

Solid Spirit Pill?

Jing Shuxing knew this medicine, a unique treasure of the Linghua Sect, often used on cultivators who are experiencing cultivation deviation^[1]走火入魔 (zǒu huǒ rù mó) = Cultivation deviation. It generally refers to a situation where a cultivator’s practice goes wrong, leading to a loss of control, which can manifest as madness, … Continue reading or have disordered spiritual veins. It’s not something sinister and harmful.

He suspected that there was a fraud in it, and closed his eyes and ignored it.

Who knew that person became anxious, reached out to pull his arm: “What you drank was a strong and fierce medicine, your body is fundamentally poor, if you don’t take medicine to adjust, it will only add fuel to the fire.”

“If you keep enduring like this, there’s a risk of death.”

Chi Lu almost forgot what she came to do, she just instinctively felt that she couldn’t just watch someone die in front of her.

But why is he so stubborn? The medicine isn’t poisonous.

Jing Shuxing laughed.

He was already certain that the water was poisoned. He admired the Linghua Sect more than Fengyue City in his heart, they were very patient in persuading people, even he was almost convinced.

Jing Shuxing slowly lowered his head, because Chi Lu kept talking, he immediately found her position.

Following the sound, he held the teacup, and his fingertips lightly touched hers. Jing Shuxing’s eyebrows slightly furrowed, and he took the cup without a word.

“I’ll drink it myself.”

“Good.” Chi Lu breathed a sigh of relief.

She found a corner on the bed, sat next to Jing Shuxing, and stared at him intently as he finished the water in the cup.

In the meantime, she kindly reminded, “There’s still some left, the pills have all dissolved in it, don’t waste it.”

Jing Shuxing’s eyebrows furrowed deeper.

He drained the water in the cup in one gulp, placed the cup beside him, and waited for the poison to take effect with a cold face.

He waited and waited, but the anticipated pain did not come. He could only feel the turbulent spiritual power in his body gradually calming down.

The person who fed him the medicinal water did not take the next step, just quietly waiting by his side. In the end, she reached out to touch his forehead, as if to infuse spiritual power into him.

Jing Shuxing was startled and immediately slapped her hand away, forcefully mobilizing his spiritual power without thinking.

With a “clang” sound, a bright silver long sword flew out from the corner and fell into Jing Shuxing’s palm.

He broke free from Chi Lu, his eyes were hollow, his breathing was chaotic, he clenched the immortal sword across his chest, and questioned word by word.

“Who are you really——”

As early as when he was a child, Jing Shuxing understood that he was nothing more than a used and discarded item in Fengyue City.

When he was young, he had resisted in vain, so he convinced himself that as long as he practiced diligently, he could leave Fengyue City and be reborn. He ignored all the malice from the outside world, devoted himself to cultivation, and only sought to prove the Dao with the sword.

It was not until later that he realized that he could not escape his fate. The city lord of Fengyue City was a cultivator who was half a step into the void, with strong power, his gaze circling around him like a hawk.

He found that Jing Shuxing was making rapid progress in his cultivation, about to break free from control, and took action to completely destroy him.

In the half year after his cultivation was abolished, various characters who had designs on him made their appearances. Some tried to steal his non-existent cultivation secrets, some tried to dig out his primordial infant, and more people cast wolf-like and tiger-like gazes at him.

“Living sacrifice.”

He heard this term from those people’s mouths.

“Use medicine to keep him alive until the day of the sacrifice. Regardless of the type or efficacy of the medicine, as long as he is alive, nothing else matters.”

So, he didn’t trust this unexpected guest, not one bit.

Jing Shuxing’s nerves were stretched to the limit, shadows spread in patches in his spiritless eyes. Like a lone wolf with a broken leg next to a trap, baring its fangs, ready to bite the hunter’s throat, dragging him and everyone behind him into hell.

[Warning! Warning! If either the target or the host dies, it will be considered a mission failure!]

The green bracelet on Chi Lu’s wrist turned bright red, a screen popped up, repeatedly flashing warning messages.

Chi Lu stared at Jing Shuxing with wide eyes.

“Wasn’t it me who fed you the medicine to calm your spiritual veins? Are you going to repay kindness with enmity?”

Jing Shuxing laughed coldly, “What is the purpose of strengthening my broken body, don’t you understand?”

“I advise you to give up your plan as soon as possible. The Linghua Sect has a deep background, but in terms of strength, it is far inferior to Fengyue City. Your persistence in me will only result in a loss.”

Chi Lu was shocked.

Could it be that he discovered that only if he lives, can she prolong her life? But even so, this is a win-win situation, why isn’t he willing?

“What does this have to do with Fengyue City?” She noticed that Jing Shuxing’s internal spiritual power was out of control and she prepared to step forward to soothe him.

“Don’t come over!” Jing Shuxing’s voice rose.

He was almost hoarse, unable to stop Chi Lu at all. Even though he couldn’t see, his overflowing consciousness could still outline the approaching bare hand, slender fingers like a venomous snake, pouncing at him.

He rotated his wrist, staking his last bit of spiritual power, aimed the silver-white sword tip forward, accompanied by the guidance of his divine consciousness, he stabbed towards Chi Lu’s palm. When she dodged, he pressed the sword down, like a silver snake coming out of its hole, directly attacking her vital point.

Chi Lu was so frightened that she retreated several steps, came back to her senses from the shock, didn’t have time to admire the subtlety of Jing Shuxing’s swordsmanship, and directly reached out to grab the sword.

The weight of the sword in Jing Shuxing’s hand suddenly increased, and it was forcibly pressed down. He was almost desperate, his five fingers tensed, struggling with her, but his internal spiritual power had already decayed and exhausted, how could he compete with the energetic Chi Lu.

The long sword was taken away, slipped out of his hand.

He stiffly leaned back, and his eyes, along with the corners of his eyes, hooked up a touch of gloomy crimson.

It’s over.