Her speed was too fast; no one had expected her to make a move right in front of everyone.
Even with the elders and the Sect Master present, there was no time to stop her!
Su Liuyun’s expression of shock and incomprehension froze on his face. The gentle and virtuous façade he had maintained for so long seemed to be pierced through by this single sword strike.
A gurgling sound rose from his throat, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. His eyes held undisguised astonishment. “Sui…”
He had always liked to scheme against the hearts of others, yet he had never imagined that the person before him was no longer the Young Sect Master who considered everything for the sect—but Chao Jinsui, who had died with ten thousand arrows piercing her heart and come back to life.
She applied a slight force, and the sword in her hand slowly turned in a circle.
Blood gushed out like a spring.
She said softly:
“What devoted affection.”
“Since you like me so much, wouldn’t it be better to die for me?”
She released her grip, and he fell straight to his knees before her.
A tide of shocked cries surged up, chaos breaking out all around.
She saw Chao Xiaotu rush forward, saw Chao Taichu utterly stunned as he forcibly sealed Su Liuyun’s heart meridians, roaring, “Quick! Take him to the medical hall! What are you standing there for?!”
She gave a light laugh, yet she had never felt so relaxed—like a heavy stone had been lifted from her heart.
Meeting Chao Taichu’s furious eyes and the surrounding gazes of shock, she casually loosened her grip and tossed the sword aside.
—Not her own sword. No wonder it didn’t feel very handy.
She adjusted her sleeves and said gently, “Harming a fellow disciple—thirty lashes, three months at Siguo Cliff.”
“Father, you said it yourself. I’ll go on my own.”
She lifted her foot and walked away, leaving everyone behind her.
✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦
The Kunlun Sword Sect had six mountain peaks, each performing its own duties. The Hall of Punishment stood apart, located at the foot of a nearby mountain, looking both grim and imposing.
Under the disciples’ shocked gazes, she strolled in unhurriedly.
This was a necessary procedure if she did not yet want to become an enemy of all Kunlun immediately.
The system spoke promptly: “Host, I can block your sense of pain!”
Before Chao Jinsui could answer the system, she suddenly felt her finger bitten hard.
She looked down and saw a small bluish-black snake poking out its head, with two familiar horns on top.
It had followed her all the way here, but because Jiaos had extremely poor eyesight, it had gotten lost for quite a while. After hurriedly crawling back, it caught only the latter half:
What, thirty lashes?
If this human got beaten to death under its watch, it guaranteed that when it went back, the Demon Venerable would turn it into snake meat stew. So it notified its master at lightning speed.
—A natal spirit beast and its master shared a connection deep within their souls.
The little snake noticed her gaze. When it opened its mouth, however, a different voice came out—irritable yet pleasant to the ear:
“Idiot!”
She stopped and looked at the little snake, suddenly possessed by the Demon Lord, yet she did not argue back.
The Demon Lord said in a cold, sinister tone, “Your life is mine.”
“Before I kill you, you’d better not ruin yourself to death.”
The air fell silent for a moment.
“It can help you.”
She remained silent for a long time.
Far away, thousands of miles distant, the young man of the demon race clenched his palm tightly, a sneer creeping onto his lips.
He understood her. In the past, she had been punished countless times; even when left covered in wounds, she had never uttered a sound.
Simply because she wished to lead by example, she never allowed herself to evade punishment.
Overwhelming disappointment drowned him, making even the little snake he possessed appear extremely cold and grim.
He almost forced the word out from between clenched teeth: “Ingrate.”
His divine sense was about to leave the little snake—
But then he saw her reach out, touch the little snake’s demon horns that resembled his, and then gently poke its head back down with one finger.
She said, “Alright.”
He froze.
She thought for a moment. “But leave some superficial wounds, otherwise it’ll be hard to explain.”
He was stunned for quite a while, his expression strange as he fell silent for a moment, before saying coldly, “You are… ordering me to do things?”
She replied patiently, “No, I’m asking you.”
The young man thousands of miles away narrowed his phoenix eyes, staring at her through the Jiao for a long while before letting out a cold snort.
The consciousness of the Lord of the Demon Realm withdrew from the little snake. The little snake returned to normal, bit her in displeasure, and then quieted down.
She thought, people always change.
In the past, she treated Kunlun as her home; leading by example was the foundation of establishing that home.
Now she regarded Kunlun as a dragon’s pool and tiger’s den—naturally, at such a critical moment, she was unwilling to weaken herself.
The Jiao bore most of the whipping punishment for her. For a thousand-year-old Jiao, the nine-section whip that brought bone-deep agony to cultivators was no more than a tickle when it landed on its body.
The remaining superficial wounds meant little to her. Still, at least outwardly, she looked bloodstained and utterly miserable.
Several young disciples chased after her. “Young Sect Master!”
Lingyun rushed forward, wanting to support her, but Chao Jinsui refused.
“I’m fine. Go back.”
Lingyun was full of worry, yet did not dare step forward again.
She could only watch as Chao Jinsui disappeared alone.
Lingsan asked uneasily, “The Young Sect Master will be alright, right?”
Lingyun did not answer. Their moods were all extremely heavy.
Senior Brother Su’s life or death was unknown, the Sect Master was furious— even if the Young Sect Master had reason on her side, could this matter truly end peacefully?
✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦
Chao Jinsui sat down on a large rock beneath Siguo Cliff, yet her mood was unexpectedly light.
She even poked the little snake and asked, “What’s your name?”
The little Jiao coiled itself up indifferently, ignoring her, until she prodded its snake belly with a stick. Only then did it lift its head angrily, hissing at her.
This Jiao, once the Demon Venerable’s natal spirit beast, had crossed hands with Chao Jinsui many times before and had always fantasized about one day devouring her.
In the end, not only had its master’s attitude kept changing unpredictably, it had somehow even helped her take a beating. Full of grievance, it found this piece of food extremely displeasing to look at.
The food: “No name? Then I’ll call you Xiao Yanjing (Little Eyes).”
After shrinking, the Jiao’s eyes truly were not large—only about the size of soybeans.
The little snake whipped its head around, looking utterly furious.
The food: “Help me keep watch of the surroundings. If there’s any movement, notify me.”
It grew even angrier. It was the fiercest Jiao under the Demon Venerable’s command, not some watchdog!
Did this righteous-path cultivator not fear that it would eat her?
But it remembered the countless times its master had kicked it flying, so it only dared to open its blood-filled maw in angry threat, not even daring to bite her one more time.
She, however, said politely, “Thank you for today.”
The little snake glared at her and darted away at top speed.
They said a natal spirit beast resembled its master. She smiled faintly—truly alike.
Chao Jinsui closed her eyes, her slender, pale fingers lightly tapping against the rock wall.
The system could not help but say, “Host, you were too impulsive.”
The system had expected the host would make a move, but had not expected her to be so fast.
She shook her head. “If I didn’t act today, I wouldn’t have had such a good opportunity.”
With justification on her side, and no one on guard, it was the best opening.
She had reasons she absolutely had to act.
First, the nightmare of her previous life still lingered. The three words Su Liuyun had nearly become her heart demon in her past life. She did not want this person to influence her state of mind too greatly—it would inevitably affect her cultivation.
Second, the system had once said that Su Liuyun was the male lead, the one with the greatest fortune in this world. She was extremely wary of that, especially since Su Liuyun harbored ill intentions toward her.
This time she had not been successfully schemed against, but there might be a second time, a third time. She was unwilling to keep such a grave hidden danger by her side.
Therefore, even if she caused an enormous disaster today, she had to severely injure Su Liuyun.
She even faintly hoped that Su Liuyun might truly die.
She asked, “Can you sense whether Su Liuyun is still alive?”
The system thought for a moment. “For now, not completely dead.”
Kunlun had great foundations and a long inheritance—if they had some heavenly treasure to preserve his life, that would not be strange.
At the very least, by tomorrow morning, she would have an answer.
Chao Jinsui sighed. “You said he’s one of great fortune, so I held back a little.”
System: ?
“I shattered his meridians.”
She recalled, “That circle I turned with the sword.”
The instant she poured sword qi into him, she shattered his meridians inch by inch.
That was the scene she had imagined countless times in her previous life—striking at Su Liuyun. She had succeeded.
She smiled. “Even if he lives, he’ll be a cripple.”
Su Liuyun was proud and arrogant, pursuing power and authority, willing to use any means to achieve his goals, believing everything was under his control. For someone like that, becoming a cripple would be far more cruel than killing him.
After all, had she not been a cripple herself for a long stretch in her previous life? She knew better than anyone how painful it was to become one.
The system immediately fell silent, suddenly no longer thinking that stabbing the male lead was such a big deal—because it felt like she could do something even more excessive.
She did not chat with the system any further. She had already closed her eyes and begun sorting through the chaotic spiritual qi within her body.
Today the sect was in turmoil, and Chao Taichu had not yet had time to deal with her. Once they reacted tomorrow, they would certainly make things difficult for her.
She had lived through many years in that dream. When she died, her cultivation had already reached the late stage of Deity Transformation, one of the top experts in the cultivation world.
Now that she had returned to the present, she had only entered the Nascent Soul stage a few months ago. She had not yet, through some great upheaval, advanced by leaps and bounds. To stand as an enemy of all Kunlun, she was still a bit short of that.
At this stage, her ability to rescue someone from Yan Xueyi’s hands had not only involved enormous risk, but also because the Fumo Sword was innately able to restrain the demon race.
Originally, she had been born with a sword bone. With the aid of the Fumo Sword, it was as if she had divine assistance. At the Golden Core stage, she could already kill ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, and the Fumo Sword’s restraint over demons was unmatched.
In the past, the Fumo Sword had been in harmony with her mind, as if it were an extension of her arm.
But after waking from that great dream, her resonance with the Fumo Sword had disappeared.
She could no longer, as in her previous life, constantly keep in mind the extermination of all evil demons in the world. Naturally, she could no longer be the master of the Fumo Sword.
She did not regret giving it away, but for a sword cultivator to lack a suitable sword was like losing an arm.
She had to find a new sword as soon as possible, one more suited to who she was now.
If she wanted to withdraw unscathed, was she to borrow someone else’s sword?
She had tried Chao Taichu’s sword today. Although it did not resist her use, she could not bring out even half of her strength with it.
At the very least, Chao Taichu was a great Nascent Soul expert, and several elders were no weaklings either. Most troublesome of all was the ancient sect-protecting grand formation… if she were not careful, it would be difficult to withdraw unscathed.
She opened her eyes and sighed.
She had already thought of this before returning.
But she had to come back. Besides killing Su Liuyun, there was another, more important reason: Chao Zhaoyue was still in Kunlun.
He was currently still in seclusion and would only emerge several days later.
So even if this place was a dragon’s pool and tiger’s den, she still had to come and venture through it.
She raised her head to look at the towering rock wall of Siguo Cliff, the narrow fissure where, through the darkness, a faint thread of daylight filtered in.
Her heart gradually calmed once more.
At least Chao Zhaoyue was still alive. Even without a sword, it was not as though she had no power to fight back.
She still had one final trump card.
—Though she did not know whether it truly counted.
Her gaze turned to the snake not far away.
It was slithering toward her, holding in its mouth a bottle of wound medicine it had stolen from who knew where.
She asked, “Can I trust you?”
She was looking at the little snake, but the one she wanted to ask was someone else.
At least, with the Lord of the Demon Realm, her life belonged to him—she did not need to worry about dying at someone else’s hands.
Having an obsessive archenemy was not entirely a bad thing.
The little snake turned its head, rolled its eyes at her, and darted off in a flash.
