Chapter 7 is off-limits, but I kind of want to touch it.
As they ascended the mountain steps of the Purple Sun Immortal Abode, Su You followed behind Jing Qianheng.
He walked very slowly, and many people ran past him, all excitedly heading towards their bright futures. Everyone's face was radiant, and the constant laughter annoyed him.
When he finally stepped into the mountain gate, he looked around blankly. A plump and handsome young man with four or five servants bumped into him without thinking. He staggered a few times and almost lost his balance.
The young master didn't even glance at him, and walked forward surrounded by four or five servants. Su You chased after him angrily, shouting, "How dare you! Do you know who you bumped into?"
Jing Qianheng closed his eyes, feeling irritated. He turned around, and a pink ribbon flashed before his eyes. A soft, sweet thing snuggled into his arms, his waist tightening around her. The person, dressed in a light blue mist-like dress, pressed her face against his chest, nuzzling him and whispering, "Ying Xue? Why is your chest so flat..."
She tilted her head back, her eyes blindfolded by a pink headband, which made her skin appear rosy. To confirm who she was holding, she unconsciously tiptoed forward. A warm, faint fragrance, almost imperceptible, unexpectedly entered his heart as she drew near, sending a shiver of tingling pleasure through him, which terrified him.
He shoved her away abruptly.
"Ah..." Jiang Zhishui landed on her bottom with a thud. After removing the hairband from her eyes, she saw Su You rushing back, shouting, "How dare you be so disrespectful to His Highness..."
She appeared without warning, dazzling and radiant, making everyone feel inferior.
——
In the woods, Jiang Zhishui lowered her head, waiting to be scolded.
Jing Qianheng said calmly, "Let's go."
Jiang Zhishui took off to catch up, keeping a distance of three steps.
The two arrived at a cliff, where several vine demons were dragging Taihua Sect disciples toward the cave entrance.
Jiang Zhishui saw Zhong Ziqing and the others, who were unconscious and wrapped in green vines, being dragged into the cave like cargo.
Unformed demons like vine spirits possess weak demonic power and are easily hunted by other, more powerful demons. They adhere to the principle of symbiotic coexistence and generally do not act alone.
Once they set out, they will travel in large groups, relying on sheer numbers to win.
Taihua Sect is no small sect, and Zhong Ziqing is the son of the sect leader. The disciples who came with him are also not ordinary people. How could all five of them be arrested together?
Without a second thought, the two prepared to enter the cave to rescue the people, but there were probably quite a few vine demons inside. Jiang Zhishui couldn't help but glance at Jing Qianheng; he was staring straight ahead, his eyes slightly lowered.
Jiang Zhishui stared confidently, thinking to herself how wonderful it would be if Jing Qianheng would lend her his hand.
These vine demons are blind, yet they can still sense the presence of others and launch attacks, possibly by distinguishing between spiritual energy and demonic energy.
Jing Qianheng inherited the bloodline of the demon race, but the power within him was suppressed because of his human body, which is why his cultivation was always so difficult.
In his current unawakened state, he is indeed no different from an ordinary person in the eyes of Jiang Zhishui and other fellow cultivators. But in the eyes of the demon race, he is probably a different person altogether.
Jiang Zhishui only thought about it; she would never dare to touch him again.
As she looked away from his hand, Jing Qianheng's other hand began to move. She was puzzled, but following the direction of his hand's movement, she slowly raised her eyes.
When her eyes met Jing Qianheng's, he used his spiritual power to create a blade and made a small cut on his finger, then suddenly reached out and poked her forehead hard.
It poked her so hard she leaned back and shook her head violently.
Jiang Zhishui's forehead was stained red with his blood. She stared at him blankly. He didn't say anything, got up and walked away, running towards the cave entrance.
"Wait for me." Jiang Zhishui snapped out of her daze and hurriedly chased after him.
Inside the cave, vines intertwined on the walls, and the corpses of many villagers hung high up, creating a gruesome and horrific scene. The further in you went, the more shriveled the corpses became; some were just skin and bones, presumably the first to have their nutrients absorbed.
The cave had many branching entrances, and Jiang Zhishui followed behind Jing Qianheng. On the cave wall, several fingers of the corpses, entwined by green vines and sucking nutrients, twitched, turning their heads toward the two people walking past them.
The green vines swayed, and several corpses were put down and walked towards Jiang Zhishui and the others.
Jiang Zhishui looked at the figure in front of her, feeling a little conflicted.
The Jing Qianheng in this life seems quite different from the Jing Qianheng she knew in her previous life.
In their past life, whenever the two met, many unpleasant things would happen, causing Jiang Zhishui to have a headache whenever she saw him, and he never gave her a kind look.
At that time, Jiang Zhishui hadn't thought much about Jing Qianheng; she just thought he was a rich young master with a bad temper and difficult to please.
Jiang Zhishui didn't know if she had made a big mistake for him, but her mindset had changed, and she found Jing Qianheng much more pleasing to the eye than in her previous life.
Jiang Zhishui was lost in thought when a hand emerged from the darkness and suddenly grabbed her shoulder. She froze. To her side, a vine demon with hollowed-out eyes stared at her, and from behind, a bloody vine sprouted from the demon's arm and lifted her hair.
The two vine spirits tilted their heads, making no further move, seemingly puzzled. Several more vine spirits strolled over from behind them. Jiang Zhishui dared not move. Several green vines circled around her face, paused near her forehead, and then withdrew. The hands on Jiang Zhishui's shoulders loosened, and the vine spirits walked back, only to be hooked by the green vines again, pulled back to the cave wall, and hung there, reverting to their original corpse state.
The blood Jing Qianheng dabbed on her forehead really did ward off evil.
She fell behind Jing Qianheng by a few steps. When Jing Qianheng turned around to look for her, she hurriedly chased after him. They bumped into each other at a corner. Jiang Zhishui couldn't stop in time and crashed headfirst into Jing Qianheng's chest. She covered her forehead, not daring to cry out in pain, and silently distanced herself.
Jiang Zhishui thought he was probably afraid that she would suddenly make a move on him again, so after seeing through her thoughts, he directly put his blood on her forehead.
This will solve the problem once and for all, saving us the trouble of constantly having to be on guard against her.
Although a semi-peaceful cooperative relationship has been achieved, the previous issues can never be resolved so easily. Jing Qianheng felt disgusted by her touch, and she could understand him perfectly.
He had no other choice but to compromise for the time being. Jiang Zhishui herself was forgetful and kept mistakenly believing that she and he were still just ordinary fellow disciples.
She's getting too cocky; her current behavior is downright arrogant in Jing Qianheng's eyes.
Jiang Zhishui was frantically reflecting on her actions, while Jing Qianheng, who had been violently bumped, didn't say anything and turned to continue forward.
Deep within the cave, there is a tall vine with green tendrils hanging from its branches. In the center is a green, round, fruit-like object with veins that faintly glow with blue light. Several tendrils are connected to its roots. Some tendrils wither and fall off, and then a new green vine will reconnect to the fruit, continuing to supply nutrients.
The Taihua Sect members were tied to the tree trunk. Zhong Ziqing had regained consciousness. His hands were bound by green vines, and the roots of the vines were inserted into his legs, absorbing his spiritual energy. He looked pained.
Jiang Zhishui rushed forward with her sword, cutting off the green vines covering the group. Zhong Ziqing exclaimed with delight, "Jiang Zhishui!"
The others from Taihua Sect woke up groggily, asking, "What happened?"
"What the hell is this thing?!"
The light on the surface of the fruit dimmed, and in an instant, countless green vines shot out from the tree, closing in on the group.
Having just had their spiritual energy drained, Zhong Ziqing and the others were exhausted and couldn't run far before being entangled by the green vines and dragged back. Jiang Zhishui dodged the pursuit of dozens of green vines, running and leaping swiftly. She looked up at the top, and at that moment, a figure flashed behind the huge fruit. Jing Qianheng swung his sword and cut it in half.
A piercing scream, like that of a ghost, echoed through the cave. The fruit fell, and a foul-smelling green sap oozed out. A humanoid monster, wrapped in green skin, with distinct bone spurs and long arms and legs, was cleaved in two. It trembled a few times and then fell silent.
The green vines binding Zhong Ziqing and the others quickly withered, and the green vines gradually faded away.
——
In her previous life, Jiang Zhishui accompanied Lin Ye to Taihua Gate to visit Zhong Ziqing. From Zhong Ziqing's words, she learned that the vine demons in Changshui Village were not powerful demons. They were just struggling to cultivate and wanted to take a shortcut to transform into human form as soon as possible, which is why they targeted remote villages and ate people.
At first, it caught its prey one by one, but after tasting the sweetness of greatly increasing its cultivation level, it simply sowed seeds on the villagers and directly planted itself in their bodies to parasitize them.
Because Zhong Ziqing and the others had not returned for a long time, Sect Leader Zhong personally led his disciples to deal with the vine demon. When they found Zhong Ziqing and the others, three disciples were found dead in terrible condition, their bodies shriveled up. One disciple was missing, and Zhong Ziqing was unconscious, but fortunately, he was still alive.
This time was different; several disciples of the Taihua Sect were still alive. Zhong Ziqing said that after entering the village, they split up to search for traces of the demon. However, during their patrol, they were ambushed by a mysterious shadow. When they woke up, they were bound by green vines and had their spiritual energy drained.
Jiang Zhishui and the others followed Zhong Ziqing back to Taihua Gate. Sect Leader Zhong was very pleased and warmly welcomed them.
The vine demon was successfully eliminated, but Jiang Zhishui still felt that something was wrong.
Zhong Ziqing had been lying in bed for a day, and as soon as he recovered, he ran over to find Jiang Zhishui.
"Lin Ye told me that you were the one who offered to come out and find me."
Zhong Ziqing still had wounds on his legs from being pierced by green vines, making it difficult for him to walk. The two sat at a stone table in the courtyard and talked.
Jiang Zhishui also had something to ask him, so she nodded and said, "Do you think the one who ambushed you in Changshui Village was a vine demon?"
Zhong Ziqing paused, not expecting her to suddenly bring up this topic. His previously cheerful voice lowered a few decibels: "I couldn't see clearly at the time, I could only see a dark shadow, so I wasn't sure."
After they returned, they discussed it and found no trace of other monsters in that place, so the vine demon probably didn't have any other helpers.
Jiang Zhishui frowned in thought. Zhong Ziqing stared at her face and said softly, "Zhishui, there's something I've never understood before. Now that I see you again, I understand it a little better."
"What?" Jiang Zhishui thought he was talking about the shadowy figure and looked serious.
Zhong Ziqing stared at her intently, making Jiang Zhishui feel very uncomfortable. She leaned back slightly, and then heard him say, "Zhishui, I think I like you. When you came to see me this time, did you feel the same way? You never really paid attention to me, and I thought you didn't have any feelings for me at all... But you've always been thinking about me, haven't you?"
Jing Qianheng overheard several disciples of Taihua Sect teasing Zhong Ziqing and Jiang Zhishui, saying that Zhong Ziqing was in a hurry to find Jiang Zhishui as soon as he woke up. The group walked past Jing Qianheng, laughing and joking.
He stood there, stunned, thinking to himself: What business is it of his who Jiang Zhishui is with...?
"Senior Brother Zhong, are you going to just say you want to marry her?"
"Haha, that's definitely like my senior brother's personality, it's entirely possible."
"Senior Brother Zhong is handsome and accomplished in swordsmanship. Which female cultivator wouldn't want to become his Daoist partner? I reckon our Taihua Sect will be holding a wedding soon!"
The distant sound, growing ever more ethereal, reached Jing Qianheng's ears with crystal clarity. He had been walking forward in a daze, but suddenly his expression changed, and he turned and headed toward Jiang Zhishui's house.
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