Chapter 12

◎Secret◎

Why does he have the right to order her to leave?

Chi Lu couldn’t help but frown.

She spoke in a tone of annoyance, placing her hand on Jing Shuxing’s shoulder: “Wait for me to explain my thoughts to you, and I will leave immediately.”

“Although I wrote to you, asking you not to refuse the invitation of the Young sect leader of Linghua Sect, I absolutely had no intention of bullying or humiliating you. You must not misunderstand.”

Jing Shuxing tried his best to cover his entire face, and shaking off Chi Lu’s hand on his shoulder.

“…I didn’t mean that.”

“I was noticed by the Young sect leader of Linghua Sect. To avoid offending Linghua Sect, the people of Fengyue City will surely keep a strict watch on me. They will check my situation at any time. If you don’t leave now, I’m afraid you will run into the cultivator responsible for the inspection.”

Reminded by him, Chi Lu realized that she had almost exposed her identity, so she withdrew her hand and stood up.

“I never intended to harm you. The reason why I let you follow the Young sect leader of Linghua Sect…” She was still planning to add something.

Jing Shuxing took a deep breath, trying hard not to let his tone sound strange. His Adam’s apple rolled up and down, his voice was hoarse, and forced himself to slowly say: “I have never held a grudge against you for this.”

“That’s great!” A crisp reply sounded immediately.

Upon receiving a reply, Chi Lu breathed a sigh of relief, nodding her head cheerfully: “Then I won’t worry. Since you want me to leave, I will leave.”

Saying this, she stepped lightly and opened the door to leave.

A look of astonishment emerged from the bottom of Jing Shuxing’s heart.

The next moment, his facial expression froze, his eyebrows twitched, and a painful expression surged like a tide.

Only by clenching his teeth and holding his throat did he prevent a groan from spilling out between his lips and teeth.

After leaving the room, Chi Lu casually closed the wooden door, and her gaze drifted towards the guard. She suddenly raised her eyebrows, and a light smile crossed her lips.

The original guard in the courtyard was still sound asleep, lying haphazardly all over the place.

Chi Lu raised her hand to draw a symbol, condensing an invisible ornament, and hanged it on the waist of one of the guards.

As the Young sect leader of Linghua Sect, she easily turned the spiritual power in the air into a physical object like carving insects on wood. What Chi Lu created was a sound transmission stone tied to the guard. She could at least know Jing Shuxing’s daily movements. If there is an opportunity to complete the mission in the future, she can come over at the first time.

In order to ensure successful eavesdropping, Chi Lu pinched several spells in succession, all applied to the invisible sound transmission stone. After doing all this, she lifted the sleep spell, got up and walked out of the courtyard, heading towards the side hall.

From the moment Chi Lu left, to the long time she stayed in the courtyard, and finally left, she was always within Jing Shuxing’s perception range.

He didn’t want her to stay and see what was going to happen next.

It wasn’t until Chi Lu completely left the courtyard that Jing Shuxing withdrew his consciousness. As soon as he shifted his thoughts, he couldn’t help but let out an extremely faint groan.

After his spiritual power was drained, he felt a sense of emptiness, and his whole body was in pain as if it had been bitten by ants. The pain started from his forehead and spread to his face and neck, following his meridians all the way down.

His ears were like exploding firecrackers, with continuous crackling sounds mixed with indescribable whining noises, almost tearing his consciousness apart.

Jing Shuxing was even unable to control his body movements. He struggled to prop up his body, trying to get out of the basin. His eyes, which could not see anything, suddenly burst into a brilliant crimson, and two lines of blood tears fell from his eyes.

The strength was instantly drained from his body, and Jing Shuxing lost his balance, and fell to the ground.

He was tremblingly moving his hand away from his face, to wipe away the blood beads.

Even if he couldn’t see, he could guess what was about to happen.

Starting from his forehead, deep black curse mark spread all over his body, like dense thorns, rooting into his skin, piercing into his meridians, and into his spiritual platform.

And this was just the beginning. The curse marks would then drag him into an illusion, grinding him into dust bit by bit, over and over again.

As long as he had the thought of leaving Fengyue City, the curse mark planted in his forehead would activate. Jing Shuxing had always hidden this thought very well, so well that he even deceived his own heart.

He didn’t want to, but when his thoughts were incoherent due to the heat of someone’s words awakened a deep desire within him.

He held onto the edge of the jade basin, trying to stand up from the ground, but another wave of pain, like being bitten by countless ants, came over him. The jade basin shook violently, and the splashed water fell on Jing Shuxing.

He fell to the ground. He pressed his left hand on his forehead, and his right hand wrapped around his shoulder, unknowingly scratching on his skin until it bled.

His soaked, disheveled clothes clung to his body, and the blood stains on his body were blurred by the medicinal water, running everywhere with the water flow.

Jing Shuxing still remembered that when the curse mark formation was activated for the first time, he was brought under the public eye by his mother.

That genius of the past, who had already become mad under various blows, even planted a formation she had developed herself on her child in order to retain her husband’s heart.

She boasted to Jing Yi: “Look, this way he can never leave Fengyue City and can always be used by you.”

And the city lord of Fengyue City, her husband, the number one power in the cultivation world, looked down at her with cold, aloof eyes. His words and actions devoid of emotion: “How is the preparation of the Soul Transformation Formation going?“

Jing Shuxing coughed continuously, propped up his body, and moved slowly.

From birth, the harm inflicted on him was unreasonable and inexplicable. He was initially extremely sad, extremely painful, but later, under the pressure of Jing Yi’s strength, he kept telling himself that he needed to endure. When he could unravel these formations and spells, he could escape from Fengyue City.

Under the despair, a question arose in his heart. Was his nearly ten years of endurance both redundant and ridiculous?

Just at this moment, with a “creak”, the wooden door was pushed open. The dazzling light shone on Jing Shuxing’s blind eyes, as if to pierce through the man full of black marks.

“Everyone, come and see, this kid actually had the thought of running away, and even the curse mark formation has appeared.” Followed by a loud laughter.

The guards in the courtyard had just awakened from their sleep, and they immediately heard a movement in the room. When they opened the door, they saw Jing Shuxing’s embarrassed appearance, and they immediately burst into laughter.

They were all cultivators of the main city, and they knew more or less about the inside story of Fengyue City, so they looked down on Jing Shuxing even more.

Even someone boldly stepped forward, stepping on Jing Shuxing’s fingers: “I tell you, Jing Shuxing, even if the Young sect leader of Linghua Sect wants you, you shouldn’t think about defying the city lord.”

“After all, whether it’s you or that Young sect leader, neither of you should think about leaving Fengyue City alive. What is Linghua Sect? Dare she challenge our Half-Step Void City Lord?”

Jing Shuxing vomited a mouthful of dirty blood, and the thorns inside his body grew wildly, tearing his flesh wantonly.

His closed eyes suddenly opened, hollowly looking at the cultivator.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but due to the intense pain and the surging spiritual power within his body, he could only let out short breaths.

This inhuman and ghostly appearance once again provoked a burst of laughter.

“What are you saying? Speak louder.”

The explosion sound in Jing Shuxing’s ears lightened a bit, just enough to hear the mockery of the guard. At the same time, it seemed that one stage of the curse mark formation was about to pass, the pain slightly eased, giving him time to catch his breath.

He kept coughing up clots of blood, so he raised his hand to wipe them away. His palm propped on the ground, with his fingertips were sticky, not knowing what they were stained with.

Finally, he managed to utter coherent words.

“I promised her that I can’t hurt the people of Fengyue City.”

“But, how would she know if I have hurt anyone?”

The guard furrowed his eyebrows: “In bits and pieces, all over the place, what do you really want to say——”

The voice abruptly stopped.

Where the guard stood, it was like a firework, a cloud of blood mist exploded, the crimson blood like a light rain, splashing in all directions, falling on Jing Shuxing and the guard’s companion’s faces.

The courtyard, which was originally lively due to Jing Shuxing’s embarrassed appearance, fell into silence for a long time.

Inside the room, it was as if a grand celebration was taking place. Everyone was erased from existence before they could make a sound, whether it was the person themselves or the splattered blood, all disappeared without a trace after a dozen breaths.

Jing Shuxing’s consciousness passed through the wooden door and entered the courtyard, counting the number of people.

His long hair was scattered, his clothes were disheveled, and he was covered in blood, lying on the ground. His expression was hollow and numb, like a ghost in the wild.

His face was half-upturned, and blood droplets fell on his eyelashes.

“As long as no one tells her, this is a secret that belongs only to us.”