Lou Shuangzui twirled a white bandage between his fingers. It was originally meant for Ying Qi’s wounds, but it seemed unnecessary now. He watched the direction where Ying Qi had hurriedly left, a subtle smile spreading across his eyes.
The pink-haired beauty didn’t bother wiping the bloodstains from the corner of his lips. Instead, he lowered his head and gently licked it with his tongue. The mixture of the Red Embroidery Tree’s curse and Ying Qi’s spiritual power made the poison vines hidden underground sway joyfully, their purple-red patterns becoming more vivid.
“Quite a good ‘nourishment’,” he murmured softly, casually tucking the bandage into his chest. As he stood up, he even brushed off the dirt from his clothes with an elegance that made the earlier scene of him crazily sucking blood from someone’s leg seem like an illusion.
However, he hadn’t taken more than a few steps when footsteps sounded behind him. It was Li Jiyun returning. The gaze of the senior disciple from Shiyang Peak fell heavily on the corner of Lou Shuangzui’s lips. The bloodstains were gone, but a faint red mark remained. Li Jiyun glanced at the bloodstains on the ground, his tone scrutinizing, “What did Miss Wen do to Ying Qi just now? The poison on his leg…”
Lou Shuangzui looked up, his face already back to its usual timid and gentle expression, even slightly furrowing his brows as if feeling wronged or troubled. “Brother Li, you’re overthinking. It was just a mishap while using a special method to purify the poison, which startled Brother Ying.”
As he spoke, Lou Shuangzui’s eyes reddened. “I know Brother Li has never trusted me. After all, I’m not a disciple of your Shiyang Sect. It’s only natural not to be trusted. I’m just a healer you found halfway, but since we’re all here together, why must you humiliate me like this?”
Just as he finished speaking, Li Jiyun keenly sensed the whispers and sighs of disciples in the woods behind him, along with accusatory gazes piercing his back.
The disciples of Shiyang feared Ying Qi, so even with such a commotion, only Li Jiyun and that outer disciple dared to take a look. Now that Ying Qi had left, others were sneaking over to watch the drama.
They arrived just in time to hear the beautiful healer’s grievance. Although they wouldn’t resent their senior brother for it, they could still express a few words of sympathy behind his back.
Before Li Jiyun could think of a rebuttal or a way to comfort Lou Shuangzui, Li Xibai’s voice came from the side, the girl’s tone faint, “Miss Wen, my senior brother probably isn’t targeting you. He’s like this with anyone who gets close to Brother Ying. If you didn’t know better, you’d think he secretly likes him.”
Instantly, the sound of gasping from the bushes grew louder. Li Jiyun’s face darkened, his mouth twitching. “Junior sister, you really aren’t suitable, and back then…”
Before he could finish, Li Xibai interrupted him, raising her hand to stop him from continuing. She scoffed lightly, her tone indifferent, “No need to say more. I couldn’t understand back then, and I still don’t now.”
She crossed her arms, glanced at Lou Shuangzui, and then turned away coldly.
Li Jiyun hesitated for a moment but quickly followed in Li Xibai’s direction.
The events of the past weren’t complicated. Li Xibai, who had just reached the Foundation Establishment stage and was only fifteen or sixteen, was smitten by Ying Qi’s face. But Li Jiyun opposed it, believing Ying Qi was a good fellow disciple but not a suitable husband.
The opposition wasn’t the root of the conflict. The real reason Li Xibai didn’t want to deal with Li Jiyun for decades was respect. They could have talked it over, asked for her thoughts and opinions, but Li Jiyun didn’t.
Li Jiyun preferred to repeatedly create obstacles between Ying Qi and Li Xibai rather than reason with her. He even went to Ying Qi, saying things that led to Ying Qi harshly mocking Li Xibai.
But was that really the only way? Was there no better solution? If he thought Li Xibai’s choice was wrong, shouldn’t he have talked to her first? Explained his thoughts and asked for her opinion? Even if he feared she would be stubborn, he should have respected her opinion instead of making decisions on his own.
And how much of what Ying Qi said was guided by Li Jiyun to hurt Li Xibai, and how much was Ying Qi’s own arrogance? Li Xibai didn’t dare think about it for a long time, fearing she would become resentful.
But because he didn’t love enough, he could bear to hurt her intentionally.
This time, the elders of Shiyang Sect deliberately arranged for the three of them to be together in the secret realm, hoping they could break the decades-long stalemate. Both Li Jiyun and Li Xibai were aware of this.
However, Li Jiyun didn’t expect Li Xibai to recall past events because of his suspicion of Lou Shuangzui, triggering conflict at this moment.
Li Jiyun stared at the disappearing black ponytail in the distance, recalling that although Ying Qi looked unwell earlier, he didn’t show signs of being poisoned. In the end, he didn’t dwell on it, only turning back to say coldly, “This place isn’t safe for long. The miasma will be stronger at night, and the barrier might not be secure. Miss Wen should return to the temporary camp early.”
“So lively,” Lou Shuangzui heard Li Jiyun’s words but didn’t pay much attention. He didn’t respond, just stood there until he seemed to sense something. Ignoring the other hiding outer disciples, he smirked and turned towards the camp. As he passed a shadowy area, he deliberately slowed his pace.
Sure enough, a figure stumbled out from behind a tree. It was the Shiyang outer disciple who had been pestering him for days. He hadn’t been in the woods earlier, so he hadn’t heard the conversation between Lou Shuangzui and Li Jiyun. The boy’s eyes were red, looking at him with a mix of grievance and confusion. “Miss Wen… Miss Wen, you and Brother Ying just now…”
Lou Shuangzui stopped, turning his face to look at him. The pink hair fell beside his cheek, making his eyes appear even more alluring, yet carrying an imperceptible coldness. “What happens between Brother Ying and me is none of your business, junior brother.”
The outer disciple was stunned by the detachment in his tone, his eyes reddening further. “I just… I just worry about you. Brother Ying has a bad temper. What if he hurts you…”
The first disciple, bearing the appearance of his sect leader, couldn’t help but laugh. His gaze lightly swept over the boy’s brows. “Just because you’re worried?”
His words were meaningful, and the outer disciple’s face turned red. He stammered, “Not… not entirely… Miss Wen…”
He lowered his head, shyly pinching the corner of his clothes. “Miss Wen, I like you.”
Lou Shuangzui coldly watched him confess—just a young boy’s infatuation. The gentle and graceful older beauty healer fulfilled all fantasies of family and romance, especially attracting younger kids.
It’s something easily understood, a touching innocence. But unfortunately, Lou Shuangzui wouldn’t be moved. He was full of lies, and love born from lies was like bubbles on the sea, existing only under a rainbow after rain.
Untrustworthy, not to be indulged.
So he paused for a moment, then quickly lifted his gaze to the outer disciple. “Junior brother, I won’t join Shiyang, so it’s hard for us to have a future.”
Lou Shuangzui was patient, considering the boy’s purity. He didn’t plan to be harsh, but getting too close wasn’t an option. Lou Shuangzui would eventually betray them. In a week, they’d reach the center of the Red Embroidery Forest. If he continued to get entangled with these disciples, they’d surely be suspected and punished for losing resources after the secret realm ended.
He’s a cold-blooded snake, but using such means to harm people, especially good people who hadn’t wronged him, was a matter of character. Lou Shuangzui disdained doing so, so he had to appear more distant.
The outer disciple’s eyes were already red, tears seemingly about to fall. He sniffed, choking as he asked Lou Shuangzui, “Why? Shiyang Sect is actually quite good to us outer disciples.”
What he didn’t understand was that no matter how good Shiyang was, it was based on Wen Yuyao truly being Wen Yuyao.
Moreover, such forced generosity, never accepted by Wen Yuyao from the start, even if it were truly Wen Yuyao here, might not be without resentment.
But how could he say such things to others? So Lou Shuangzui just remained silent for a while, then reached out to rub the boy’s head gently, saying softly, “Sorry, but I don’t like it, nor do I want to choose.”
Feeling the warmth on his head, the boy finally couldn’t hold back and burst into tears.
On the sixth day of entering the inner area, Shiyang Sect finally encountered people from other major sects. Tiandao Sect’s progress was similar to theirs, only entering the Red Embroidery Forest from a slightly different direction.
The forest was eerily quiet, suffocatingly so. Not a bird or beast, not even the sound of insects, just the stark, lonely, almost terrifying sound of footsteps.
Lou Shuangzui hadn’t been absorbing the Red Embroidery Tree’s life force these days. His power had reached a bottleneck, needing resentment instead. So wherever the vines passed, all the Red Embroidery Tree’s poison quietly disappeared.
The morning they met Tiandao Sect, Shiyang’s team had just set out, only to run into others—at first thinking it was an illusion, only confirming after a brief skirmish that it was indeed Tiandao Sect.
Tiandao Sect excelled in divination, led by the first disciple of Mingxian Peak, Zuo Fulan. He had snow-white hair and a pair of transparent, almost frightening eyes. More terrifying was that when he moved, his eyes seemed to contain a shifting galaxy, mesmerizingly beautiful.
Such eyes were blind, often referred to in later generations as Marfan syndrome.
In fact, they were indeed blind. Diviners communicated with the Heavenly Dao, observing laws, and seeing too much of these things exacted a price—blindness, white hair, even poor health were common.
But even blind, Zuo Fulan still exerted significant psychological pressure on Shiyang. The little diviner smiled, performing a peer salute, but upon rising, quickly delivered a chilling message.
“So it was Shiyang taking this path. Haven’t you all looked back these days? We saw it when we took a wrong turn a couple of days ago.”
He spoke in an empty, almost chanting tone, “The path you walked, birds and beasts dead, trees withered, as if something terrifying has been following Shiyang. Better prepare early.”
Author’s Note:
After accidentally deleting half of the draft and falling asleep while writing, I finally finished it after waking up…