Chapter 65
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Chapter 65: Title
Four figures moved toward Si Hai City – each supporting another, pursued by awakened puppets forming an ominous dark tide.
After evacuating Yunze’s puppets, Xia Shi threw the golden seal skyward and shoved Suiyin.
Too focused on fleeing, Suiyin and Lu Ciyou couldn’t react.
When they turned, the seal’s barrier already trapped Xia Shi with all puppets.
"Xia Shi!" Suiyin’s eyes widened. She flashed to the barrier’s edge, pounding against it with reddening eyes.
The fearsome barrier turned soft as water beneath her touch, refusing harm.
"What’re you doing? Are you mad? Let me in! I’ll share spiritual power! Fight together!" Suiyin clawed uselessly at the impassable barrier.
She could’ve shattered it with Wugui – but that would injure Xia Shi. Unthinkable.
Lu Ciyou approached only to have sword energy slice her hem.
Cursing, she yelled, "Xia Shi! Stop playing hero! I won’t owe you!"
Inside the soundproof barrier, Xia Shi coldly observed snarling puppets while drawing Heartless Sword.
The frost-pale Long Sword lay dull in her grip.
Puppets circled warily.
Temperature plummeted. Frost spread rapidly from Xia Shi’s feet.
The controlled elites attacked – former star disciples retaining their sect’s deadly techniques.
Not even Xia Wuwei in her prime would’ve dared face hundreds of such skilled cultivators alone.
Xia Shi tightened her grip. After four hundred years, she’d grown bolder.
Sword spirit gone, sword heart lost – yet here she stood.
She must have gone mad.
Suddenly, the previously motionless woman moved like a phantom, evading all slashing blades as she weaved through the puppets.
Snow swirled spontaneously, billowing beneath her skirt to form a painting-like scene around her.
Xia Shi tapped spiritual power into each puppet’s forehead. By the time she completed the circle, blood stained her snowy white attire, fresh Scars glaringly vivid.
Her stamina faltered, the spiritual power in her Dantian nearly exhausted.
She murmured, "Little thing, come out."
A featherless chick scrambled up her arm to perch on her shoulder. Seeing Bai Bai Mama’s deathly pale face, a teardrop larger than the chick’s eyes plopped down.
Xia Shi had no time to soothe it. "Keep quiet later. No fire-breathing."
The sniffling creature bobbed its head obediently.
Xia Shi managed a faint smile before glancing at puppets immobilized by her sword energy.
Her current realm only permitted brief control.
No time to waste.
She’d never attempted Everything Awaits Spring on so many…
Without hesitation, Xia Shi swung her sword. She executed the sword moves etched into her memory, whipping up snow flurries around her. The display resembled an elegant dance – fluid and beautiful, devoid of murderous intent.
Her silhouette blurred within the snowstorm, becoming one with the whirling white.
Like a divine maiden dancing atop Kunlun’s peaks, merging with heaven and earth in sacred mystery.
Now!
As a piercing cry erupted, Xia Shi funneled her remaining spiritual power through the sword, linking it to the energy embedded in the puppets’ foreheads.
Everything Awaits Spring, life renewed.
Augmented by Zhuque’s purging evil.
"Break!"
Her strained shout shattered the demonic energy in the puppets’ eyes, restoring clarity.
Watching disciples regain consciousness, Xia Shi offered a feeble smile before plummeting.
Zhuque clung to her shoulder, clawing fabric while flapping naked wings, chirping frantically.
Help! Someone help Bai Bai Mama!
A streak of light pierced through the air, catching both falling figures.
Suiyin’s tear-reddened eyes glared icy as she clutched Xia Shi’s chilling form. She descended via sword flight, scouring the woods until finding a wind-sheltered cave – occupied.
Ignoring propriety, Suiyin shattered the cave’s barrier with a palm strike. Lu Ciyou followed close behind.
Inside lay no cultivator, but a skeleton blanketed in dust – trapped for untold years.
Suiyin dipped her head slightly. "Forgive our intrusion."
In the cave, there was a raised platform covered with dry grass and an animal hide.
Suiyin cast a cleansing spell before carefully laying Xia Shi down.
Xia Shi’s poison had flared up, leaving her body icy. Suiyin glimpsed a featherless little bird nearby.
An idea struck her. She scooped up the bird.
"Are you Zhuque?"
As a fire-aligned divine beast, Zhuque should counteract the cold poison.
"Remember how you burned me before?" Suiyin tapped its head, then pointed at Xia Shi’s frost-coated face. "Go warm her."
Zhuque cocked its head and patted her hand with a wing.
Suiyin let go.
The palm-sized bird hopped to Xia Shi’s lower abdomen, settling over her Dantian.
Zhuque focused its heat, channeling flames through Xia Shi’s Dantian into her meridians to suppress the cold energy inside Bai Bai Mama.
When the frost on Xia Shi’s face began melting and her pained expression eased, Suiyin finally exhaled. She sat beside Xia Shi, clasping her cold hand.
"She’s Xia Wuwei."
Lu Ciyou’s hostile voice echoed through the cavern.
Suiyin turned to see undisguised fury on her friend’s face.
She rose slowly, shielding the makeshift bed. "Yes."
Only Xia Wuwei could wield Everything Awaits Spring with such mastery. Lu Ciyou wasn’t stupid – deception was impossible.
"You knew all along?" Flames danced in Lu Ciyou’s gaze.
"Yes." Suiyin nodded.
Lu Ciyou stepped forward. Suiyin mirrored her movement, blocking the path.
They stood locked in opposition.
Suddenly Lu Ciyou laughed. "Suiyin. Are we friends?"
"Yes." Suiyin held her stare. "But I won’t step aside."
Their friendship meant Suiyin knew Lu Ciyou’s hatred for Xia Wuwei extended to everything connected to her and Sanqing Realm – even people sharing Xia’s surname drew her ire.
"So you think I’m some heartless ingrate who can’t tell right from wrong?" Lu Ciyou slapped Suiyin’s shoulder – no spiritual power, just raw force.
Suiyin blinked in surprise.
With a cold snort, Lu Ciyou retreated to the cave wall, gently arranging A Li across her lap.
Rubbing her throbbing shoulder, Suiyin answered the earlier question: "You’re not."
"I used to think Xia Wuwei was some arrogant goddess," Lu Ciyou said, anger outweighing grief. "Choosing to undergo tribulation in Qinghu Region right before Lingyang Secret Realm opened – forcing everyone to witness her breakthrough. My brother died because of her."
"Every death anniversary, Mother stops eating. She spends whole days in his room. Nothing I do stops her tears."
"I never met him. Honestly? I don’t miss him. But Mother’s pain made me remember Xia Wuwei since childhood. I hated her. Then grew to hate all of Sanqing Realm."
"I don’t believe it." Suiyin’s voice softened. "I don’t believe she’d do that."
Xia Shi was methodical and prudent, always considering consequences. Back then, she’d already stood at the pinnacle of cultivation. Why risk countless lives for fleeting glory?
“If I didn’t know Xia Shi, if I hadn’t learned today that Xia Shi is Xia Wuwei, I might’ve kept my old assumptions.” Lu Ciyou’s expression darkened, her gaze conflicted. “But Xia Shi…”
She saw Xia Shi as a friend, nothing like the Xia Wuwei she’d imagined. Xia Shi stayed humble, steady, and genuinely kind.
“She’d never do such things.”
Lu Ciyou sighed, recalling her harsh judgments toward Xia Wuwei’s stance on Sanqing Realm. A pang of guilt rose in her heart.
“Your sister might still be alive,” Suiyin interjected.
Lu Ciyou froze. “What?”
Suiyin enunciated slowly, “Your sister Lu Qingyu may not be dead.”
“She’s not dead?” Lu Ciyou’s brows knotted. “Then why hasn’t she returned to Liujin Pavilion? Mother mourned her for years.”
When Suiyin shook her head, Lu Ciyou pressed, “How do you know this?”
“Xia Shi asked the Floating Life Palace Master if Lu Qingyu’s in the Thirteen Ghost Domains.”
Lu Ciyou’s chest tightened. Why involve the Thirteen Ghost Domains?
Before she could ask more, the woman draped over her lap stirred with a faint whimper.
“A Li?” Lu Ciyou murmured.
Beneath trembling eyelids, Yan Li’s eyes fluttered open.
Joy surged through Lu Ciyou—until Yan Li turned her face away.
“Where…?” Yan Li rasped, voice raw from disuse.
A sudden pinch on her burning earlobe made Yan Li jolt.
Her cheeks flushed crimson.
Warm breath brushed her ear as soft lips grazed her lobe—a phantom kiss.
“You felt it. I kissed you.”
“A Li, I love you.”
Yan Li’s eyes widened, overwhelmed. She tried squirming free, but Lu Ciyou clung tighter, nuzzling her ear. “Take time to decide, but don’t avoid me. Promise?”
Yan Li’s parched throat managed a croak: “…Okay.”
Across the room, Suiyin gaped before hastily looking down—straight into fathomless black eyes.
Those eyes blinked once. Closed.
Had she imagined it?
Suiyin turned to the bald Zhuque chick hopping off Xia Shi. “Did Bai Bai Mama wake earlier?”
Zhuque flapped naked wings. “Yes! Bai Bai Mama watched you!”
Suiyin smiled, leaning toward the motionless figure.
“Awake now?” she whispered, hope curling her words.
Just look if you wanted to; it wasn’t like she was stopping her. Honestly, pretending to be asleep after getting caught was really something.
Xia Shi ignored her, gritted her teeth and kept up the act.
"If you don’t wake up, I’ll kiss you," Suiyin blurted out, certain this would make Xia Shi snap her eyes open with that trademark annoyed glare.
But the woman only fluttered her lashes faintly, eyes still shut.
Now Suiyin panicked.
Xia Shi had heard.
Did Xia Shi…want to be kissed?
Her heart hammered as she stared at those slightly parted lips. Xia Shi’s skin always felt cool – would her mouth taste like winter mint?
"I’m really going to kiss you?" Suiyin whispered, trembling. She leaned closer, watching for any reaction, but those eyelids never lifted.
Their breaths mingled.
The jade bead seared her wrist as Aunt Yan’s voice hissed through her memory: "I’ll make her die before your eyes."
No!
Suiyin jerked back like she’d been burned, scrambling three steps away. She fled the cave without seeing Xia Shi finally open those dark eyes, where fleeting disappointment rippled like a stone sinking through midnight water.
