Chapter 43.3

“If the people of Fengyue City had just explained things clearly to me, told me that they were being haunted by these spirits, I could have covered each one of them with a barrier just like this and saved their lives,” Chi Lu said as she stepped out of the shadows, adopting a fierce expression to scare away the lurking small creatures.

“Was there really a need to push things so far, resorting to live sacrifices of their own kin, only to end up isolated and without support?” she added, unable to suppress a sigh.

She reached out to take the lantern from Jing Shuxing’s hand, but the lantern wobbled slightly, avoiding her fingertips.

“If the Young Sect Leader touches it, it will vanish immediately. Don’t you remember?” Jing Shuxing lifted his gaze slightly, his calm tone causing Chi Lu a bit of discomfort.

A smile spread across Chi Lu’s face. “I forgot. What are you doing sitting here?”

Jing Shuxing curled his fingers into a fist and covered his mouth as he coughed a few times, his brow furrowing. He didn’t answer her question directly. “When vengeful spirits seek revenge, they follow the bloodline to determine the order of their attacks. The aura of Fengyue City can never be completely isolated. The barrier you set for me, Young Sect Leader, only delays the order in which I will be attacked.”

The members of the Jing family in Fengyue City were all close relatives of the Jing lineage. That’s why when the vengeful spirits broke loose, they spread throughout the city, attacking no one outside the family.

If Chi Lu had acted according to her thoughts, perhaps some distant descendant of the Jing family—someone whose surname might not even contain the character “Jing”—would still have suffered. Or perhaps the vengeful spirits would have penetrated the barrier and continued to attack the cultivators in Fengyue City.

It was an impossible dilemma, with no solution other than trapping the vengeful spirits in the Soul Transformation Abyss to prevent their escape.

Chi Lu’s expression grew complicated, and she let out a heavy sigh. Hearing Jing Shuxing’s faint cough, she recalled the scenes from her dream and bent down to ask, “Are you cold?”

Jing Shuxing looked at Chi Lu, a complex emotion flickering in his eyes.

Chi Lu’s attitude remained unchanged, just as it had been before; it was his own thoughts that had begun to waver.

Ever since he noticed the Symbiotic Ring on her wrist, every time she spoke, his gaze would uncontrollably drift towards the bracelet on her hand.

Jing Shuxing wasn’t angry, nor was he annoyed.

Instead, he felt honored.

Everyone with a discerning eye viewed him as nothing more than a fragile skeleton on the verge of collapse. Yet, the Young Sect Leader had the insight to place her hopes for longevity on him.

In exchange for his own lifespan, he had received a gentleness he had never before experienced.

Chi Lu busied herself, gathering quite a few dry branches. The spiritual energy in the vein was overwhelmingly abundant, so she feared that lighting a fire might cause a spiritual fluctuation that could harm Jing Shuxing. To avoid this, she carefully extracted all the spiritual energy from the branches before igniting them.

The flames flickered, their warm, red glow dancing in Jing Shuxing’s eyes.

Chi Lu tugged on his hand, saying, “Don’t be so tense. You’re my benefactor and my guest; you should be treated well.”

She pulled both of his hands and almost forcibly placed him near the fire, making him warm his hands. The warmth spread from his fingertips to the rest of his body, the heat reflecting in his eyes, burning with a relentless intensity.

Jing Shuxing felt an immense sense of relief—relief that Chi Lu had chosen him. Yet, despite his deep gratitude, he couldn’t shake a lingering sense of melancholy as he continued to search for the answer to why the Young Sect Leader was so kind to him.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by Chi Lu’s startled cry, “Your hands! They’re too close to the fire!”

Only then did Jing Shuxing realize that both of his hands had slipped into the flames, allowing the fire to lick at his skin. Fortunately, Chi Lu noticed quickly and covered the fire, preventing any blisters from forming on his hands.

He raised his hand to cover his face and let out a sudden laugh.

“Young Sect Leader, you don’t need to go to such lengths,” he said. His eyes were bright, like dying embers burning fiercely despite everything.

“If you just want to keep someone alive, there’s no need to expend so much effort.”

He traced a line in the air with his fingers, seemingly unaware of the terrifying nature of what he was describing. “You could sever a person’s limbs, strip away their five senses, and place them in a sealed chamber. Linghua Sect has many secret treasures—so long as you maintain their life force, they could be kept alive for hundreds of years, until their lifespan naturally runs out…”

Chi Lu cut him off before he could finish.

She covered his mouth, her eyes filled with shock. “What are you talking about?”

Jing Shuxing gently pulled her hand away and looked at her quietly, and speaking slowly, “Young Sect Leader, you’re too kind. Allowing others to move freely is far from a sure way to extend their lifespan, isn’t it?”

He even took hold of Chi Lu’s hand, carefully tracing each line in her palm.

She forcefully pulled her hand away.

Chi Lu barely managed to control herself, resisting the urge to give Jing Shuxing a flick on the forehead. She couldn’t understand what had happened—she had only taken a nap, and yet Jing Shuxing’s mindset had undergone a drastic change.

Grabbing his shoulders, she demanded, “Who are you talking about? Killing is one thing, but unless there’s a deep-seated grudge, who would go to such lengths to torture someone?”

Chi Lu feared the Jing Shuxing from her dream, with bloodstained hands, and she was terrified that the seed of such darkness had been planted in his heart, growing roots that might lead him to inflict such horrors on those who had no quarrel with him.

The deaths of the people in Fengyue City were the result of karma, but if the situation in her dream were to come to pass, the burden of murder would eventually crush Jing Shuxing.

He wasn’t inherently evil; Fengyue City owed him. He shouldn’t become the person she had seen in her dream.

Jing Shuxing smiled and gently pressed his face against the back of Chi Lu’s hand. “Does the Young Sect Leader not want me to live?”

Chi Lu was momentarily speechless.

Is something wrong with Jing Shuxing? What kind of normal person would suggest, with a smile, that they be reduced to a limbless stump?

“You’re perfectly healthy,” Chi Lu reassured him. “Our Linghua Sect has strong connections and many powerful healers. I’m sure they can restore your spiritual platform, and you’ll be able to live well. Maybe after cultivating for another hundred years, you’ll even be able to ascend.”

“There’s no need to give up on yourself or talk about using spirit pearls to extend your life…”

She continued talking endlessly, trying to comfort Jing Shuxing.

But none of her words provided any comfort.

Jing Shuxing thought she must believe that if he could break through the void and ascend to become an immortal, his lifespan would greatly increase. What she didn’t know was that even if he lost all his cultivation, he could still live as long as the heavens.

Even when his physical body reached its limit, the heavenly way would use spiritual energy to prolong his life, keeping him trapped in a cycle between life and death.

She didn’t understand anything—neither his abilities nor his feelings. She just smiled, like a blazing sun hanging high in the sky.

Jing Shuxing sighed deeply, avoiding Chi Lu’s words. He turned his face to the side, covering his mouth with one hand as he began to cough incessantly.

Chi Lu sat beside him, growing increasingly alarmed. Ever since Ying Lianyi’s attack, she hadn’t heard Jing Shuxing cough with such agony.

Unable to listen any longer, she took out some clear water from her space bag, heated it over the fire until it was warm, and offered it to Jing Shuxing.

He intended to take the cup, but his hand betrayed him, knocking it over instead.

The intense emotional turmoil seemed to rip through his entire being, overturning him from the inside out. A metallic taste filled his mouth, and though he clenched his teeth to endure the pain, he couldn’t stop the crimson blood from trickling down the corner of his lips.

He had thought he could accept it calmly.

It was only a few years of lifespan, after all. He had believed he could give it away as easily as Chi Lu had given him gifts.

But when Chi Lu woke up and smiled at him—her smile just as it always had been—it felt as if it would shatter every bone in his body.

Whether she had ulterior motives or was truly indifferent, Jing Shuxing longed for genuine sincerity. He didn’t want that seemingly passionate and sincere smile, one that concealed layers of hidden intentions.

His wrist grew warm as Chi Lu alternated between checking his forehead and taking his pulse, channeling her spiritual energy to examine his condition.

“It’s an emotional upheaval causing your spiritual energy to become disordered,” she said, like a mother scolding a disobedient child.

She emphasized her words, “Clear your mind and take a deep breath.”

Jing Shuxing tilted his face slightly upward, staring at her with a dazed expression. His face was ashen with pain, his vision darkened, and it felt as if his body were being torn apart by sharp blades, leaving him unable to control himself.

He grasped Chi Lu’s left wrist, his fingers tracing over the bracelet she wore.

It was cold to the touch.

Even though he could extend his life, his apparent lifespan was still just a fraction of what it should be, and the main ring was supposed to appear on his wrist.

What had Chi Lu gone through to make her lifespan even shorter than that of a cultivator with a shattered spiritual platform and a rapidly deteriorating body?

Without the Symbiotic Ring, she would already be nothing more than a beautiful corpse.

She was a walking dead, a living corpse on the brink of death.

Hearing Chi Lu’s voice, Jing Shuxing took a shallow breath, his throat moving slightly before a mouthful of blood spurted onto the sleeve he had raised to cover his face.

Author’s Note:

The ultimate double standard of the author:

Xiao Jing is getting stabbed.

Ah Lu is sleeping.

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