Chapter 16: Punishing the Scum (First update)

Lu Hui had a certain psychological shadow regarding Yan Zhao.

Although the other worlds she had been through were brutal, none were as harmful as the emotionless, heartless male lead in this one.

Yan Zhao’s knife-like actions, one after another, still made her break out in cold sweat when she thought about them.

Looking at his frosty white hair, Lu Hui remained silent for a long while. The trick of pretending not to recognize him surely wouldn’t work now, so she stood quietly, her face expressionless, waiting for him to speak first.

Yan Zhao raised his eyes, his cold gaze fixed on her face.

“I’ve found you.”

He sighed lightly, his voice distant, almost as if he was straining to control his emotions.

Lu Hui felt a chill run down her spine when she heard his voice. She couldn’t figure out what his words meant.

If he was deliberately seeking her out, there had to be a reason.

It couldn’t possibly be because he loved her.

Yan Zhao practiced the Way of Emotionlessness, and after years of being together, she still couldn’t make him develop any feelings for her.

Lu Hui thought about how to respond. “Long time no see? What do you want? Got something to say?”

After thinking for a while, she decided against it.

She really didn’t feel like engaging in small talk with Yan Zhao.

“You’re blocking my way.” Lu Hui figured that since Yan Zhao shouldn’t dare make a move against her here, she said, “Please move.”

Two minutes passed. Yan Zhao stood motionless, his feet firmly planted in place.

The wind blew through the setting sun, casting warm golden light on the man’s profile as he calmly stood before her.

Yan Zhao said, “Lu Hui.”

Lu Hui rolled her eyes. “I’m not.”

Tomorrow, she’d change her name.

Yan Zhao remained silent.

It was like they were engaged in a wordless stand-off.

Lu Hui realized she couldn’t leave now. She laughed a few times, her words neither malicious nor kind.

“Nice hair color. Did you dye it to follow the trend after coming here?”

Her question was laced with mockery.

Yan Zhao kept a serious, composed expression, speaking deliberately, “No.”

In just one night, his hair had turned completely white.

Yan Zhao thought he didn’t love her, that the Way of Emotionlessness meant he wasn’t burdened by mundane feelings.

Even though they had grown up together, and even though she was his fiancée, human emotions couldn’t bind him.

He had devoted himself to the Way of Emotionlessness, with the goal of ascending one day.

His feelings for Cong Lu were ones of sibling care, not romantic love.

Cong Lu was a kind-hearted girl who had endured many hardships in her quest to cultivate immortality. Yan Zhao cherished her in a way that was different from how he treated others.

But this kind and innocent girl was in poor health, and if he didn’t help her, she would have no future.

Yan Zhao had made the decision to cut open Lu Hui’s heart to save Cong Lu, and he had only thought about it for one night.

One was a person he had never loved, the other was someone who had touched his heart.

It was obvious which one mattered more.

Yan Zhao, it seemed, had no capacity for empathy. Killing someone never caused him any pain.

Half a month before their wedding, after finishing his sword practice, he walked through the cold and snow to Lu Hui.

He looked at her, emotionless, without hesitation, and said, “I want to save her.”

Lu Hui, her eyes red from crying, held back her tears. Her face was confused, “Alright, I won’t stop you.”

Yan Zhao didn’t give her the chance to avoid him, forcing her to meet his gaze. “You understand what I mean.”

A long time later, she said, “We’re about to get married.”

“Cancel it.”

“So you’re going to kill me, is that it?”

“Yes.”

He admitted it. After all, it was the truth—if you cut someone’s heart out, that person would die.

When Yan Zhao took her heart, he only frowned slightly. He sheathed his sword and left, her body lying in the cold snow. The blood staining her red clothes darkened the color. Her death was calm and peaceful.

Yan Zhao indeed saved Cong Lu, and after this, he returned to Luoxue Peak to enter seclusion and continue his cultivation.

Years passed.

Decades passed.

Centuries passed.

His cultivation level hadn’t broken through, and he remained stuck in the Spirit Transformation stage. He frowned, unsure where the problem lay.

Yan Zhao believed his heart was like grass and wood, and that nothing from the mortal world could move him.

He had deliberately locked away the memory of killing his fiancée in the deepest part of his mind. It had been centuries since he last thought of it.

The day he left seclusion, the wind and snow rushed towards him. The cold was biting, and the sky was covered with white snow. The entire landscape, including the mountains, was blanketed in a vast, desolate white.

Yan Zhao stood at the cliff’s edge, staring at the winter snow. It was at that moment that he suddenly remembered the sword in his hand had once killed someone very important to him.

There were many people who lost their lives at his hands, but this one, he had never truly forgotten.

After hundreds of years, he closed his eyes and could still clearly recall that scene, every word, every moment, engraved deeply in his heart.

Why could he still remember it?

Why couldn’t he forget those eyes?

Suddenly, a sharp pain struck his chest, and his brows furrowed. A mouthful of blood surged up his throat. He tried to force it back, but it was in vain.

The blood from his heart spilled out, the accumulated pain from hundreds of years exploded all at once.

That day, Yan Zhao knelt at the edge of the cliff, spending the entire night amidst the cold wind and snow.

The next day, his hair turned completely white.

No wonder he couldn’t break through the final boundary of the Heartless Path—he had already been moved by emotions long ago, and all his cultivation had fallen apart as a result.

Falling from immortality to demonhood seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.

The disciples of Loxue Peak only knew that their senior brother had gone mad. He left the sect without hesitation, and his actions after descending the mountain made people shudder.

He used the blood of eighty young boys and girls to offer a sacrifice for a demonic formation, and no one knew what he intended to do with it.

Numerous attempts were made to kill him, but none were successful.

Later, the cultivation world discovered that Yan Zhao’s madness was all in pursuit of resurrecting someone. He was reckless, unafraid of the punishment from the heavens, and seemed indifferent to the possibility of being struck by lightning when crossing the tribulation.

When it was revealed that the person he sought to resurrect was his fiancée, whom he had killed hundreds of years ago, people only thought he was even more insane.

Some younger cultivators spoke recklessly, “You killed her yourself back then! Now you want to harm others?”

The sect leader, unwilling to let innocent lives be destroyed, reluctantly stepped forward after years of seclusion, “The bitter fruit you’ve sown, you should bear the consequences yourself.”

Yan Zhao’s face remained cold. “Yes, I killed her, but I won’t trade my life to bring her back.”

He still wanted to keep his life—to find her.

One year wasn’t enough, then ten years, one hundred years, one thousand years. He would find her eventually.

Yan Zhao’s stubbornness turned into extremism. He lived like a walking corpse, unconcerned with killing, regardless of the cost. In the end, he used all his cultivation to set up a reincarnation formation.

He slit his own wrist, and the blood poured uncontrollably. Yan Zhao drained his blood, offering it as a sacrifice to the formation.

He was gambling with his own life. Fortunately, he gambled correctly.

Yan Zhao lifted his gaze, “I know you hate me.”

Lu Hui didn’t know how to respond. She hesitated, then said, “It’s fine. Those things are from a past life. I’m living well in this one.”

She added, “As long as you don’t disturb me.”

Yan Zhao gently asked, “Is that so?”

Lu Hui answered, “Yes.”

As the sky grew darker, the light slowly faded. Lu Hui wasn’t sure if Yan Zhao could still use his magic in this world. She didn’t want things to turn awkward, as she would be the one to suffer if something went wrong.

She forced a dry smile and subtly reminded, “I have to go now.”

Yan Zhao silently stepped aside, clearing the path.

Lu Hui quickened her pace, with the man silently following her behind.

His appearance and long hair were incredibly striking. Lu Hui felt as though everyone around them was watching, so she endured a bit, then stopped.

“What are you following me for?”

“Just passing by.”

“Then walk slower. Your hair is attracting too much attention. You should cut it.”

“It can’t be cut.”

“Why?”

Yan Zhao didn’t answer.

Lu Hui regretted asking him. She was out of her mind to have a conversation with him. She stopped walking. “Yan Zhao, what did you come for?”

“To marry you.”

The enemy who had once caused her death now wanted to marry her in this life? He had a nice fantasy!

If he was going to marry her, it would end up with her heart being ripped out. What a nightmare!

Lu Hui chuckled dryly, immediately replying, “I’m already married.”

She lied so smoothly, “Marriage is like what you call a wedding, but I’m very happy with my current husband. We already have two kids. You should go cause trouble for someone else.”

Yan Zhao said, “I don’t believe you.”

Lu Hui was sincere, “I’m not lying.”

Yan Zhao’s eyes grew cold. “Then I’ll kill them.”

Lu Hui smiled, “Too bad, murder is a crime.”

Yan Zhao still wanted to be wild in the modern world? The police and criminal law would teach him how to be a father.

She said what she needed to, then hailed a taxi. Before getting in, she shot him a mocking glance. “Don’t come find me again.”

Take your fish and get out of my world.

Yan Zhao stood in the wind, dressed in thin clothes, his fingers already numb from the cold. He felt chilled to the bone, as if he had fallen into an icy cavern. The coldness seemed to cut into his skull.

By the time the car had disappeared from sight, Yan Zhao withdrew his gaze, moving stiffly and coldly, like a living corpse.

He touched the pet in his palm and muttered to himself, “We’re late.”

She was already someone else’s.

The icy snowflakes fell onto his eyelashes. Yan Zhao’s eyes grew misty, and his clean, jade-like face, illuminated by the light, silently shed two wet trails that disappeared into the night.

“I’m in so much pain.” He furrowed his brow, murmuring softly, “Why does my heart hurt even more when I see her?”

The Kunpeng silently listened, unable to answer his master.

—

Lu Hui was exhausted from the series of changes. When she returned home, she collapsed onto the bed and tried calling the system for more than half an hour, but there was no response at all.

It seems like the trashy system couldn’t clean up the mess, so it had to leave it all to her to handle.

Lu Hui rolled out of the bed, wrapping herself in the blanket and just lying there, too lazy to move.

Lin Tong had been blowing up her phone.

When she finally picked up, her voice was weak, “If you have something to say, just say it.”

Lin Tong, suppressing his excitement, spoke with a trembling voice, “You’re going to be famous!”

“…” Lu Hui replied, “Your tone makes it sound like I’m going to die.”

“Really! The show you did today is trending on Weibo!”

“Oh.”

“It’s trending number one.”

“Oh.”

“Stop pretending, go check it out yourself, see how people are praising you.”

Lu Hui poked her head out from under the blanket, hung up, and logged onto Weibo, glancing at the trending topics.

#LuHuiCanFly# was still trending high.

“@InnocentPasserbyWhoLikesToEatMelons: I think she’s going to be famous. I can’t think of anyone who could compete with her beauty. Her features are just heaven-sent.”

“@EyeForAnEye: Ahhh, I was there in person! You have no idea how amazing it was! A hundred times more shocking than the live stream.”

“@SweetDoughnut: @LuHui, baby, make sure to eat well and rest up. I’ll go to the next show to support you!”

Of course, not all comments were praising her; the girl group fans who performed on stage with her were also strongly voicing their opinions.

“They’re just relying on the fact that our fans haven’t spoken up to buy trending spots. You didn’t see how Lu Hui bullied people backstage.”

“Heartless bitch, my sister almost cried on stage because of her. What a lowlife.”

“Spreading rumors with just a mouth, trying to take away our little HuiXiang. Fans of that group, stop being so excessive.”

“Who’s being excessive? That damn white lotus, bullying her seniors, and leaving from the back door after the show. Just a rat in the dark!”

“You group fans really have no class.”

“Trying to step on our group to get famous? Go live your life in obscurity, you trash!”

The fans’ arguments over the online rumors led to another trending topic for Lu Hui.

Passersby enjoyed watching the drama unfold, and there were even some urging group fans to provide evidence to back up their accusations.

Rumors without evidence aren’t as fun to eat.

“Are you guys done? Can you just expose Lu Hui already? Stop talking, just show the evidence.”

Lu Hui watched the chaos with amusement. She even liked the nickname “Little HuiXiang” her fans gave her.

Lin Tong was anxious about the negative trending, his excitement deflated by the fact that Lu Hui was getting suppressed just as her popularity was rising.

Lu Hui remained calm, “Don’t worry, I recorded everything she said when she tried to kick me out like I was a rat.”

Lin Tong: “What the hell.”

On the phone, his voice was filled with shock. “You have this kind of ability and strategy?”

Lu Hui: “That’s just how we heartless white lotuses are!”

If the other side hadn’t jumped out to slander her, she wouldn’t have even thought about releasing the recording.

Now, with things like this, if she didn’t fight back and turn the situation in her favor, she’d feel embarrassed.

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