Shen Weilan threw back the brocade quilt.
Her tattered inner garment hung loosely from her shoulders. A vivid bite mark lay completely exposed to the cold air.
Yan Qingxiao turned his head, avoiding that glaring red mark.
“How could you just now…”
His voice caught in his throat. Just now, beneath the quilts… he had even become more excessive while Lu Yao was speaking.
“Shameless.”
He forced the four words out.
Rather than retreating, Shen Weilan advanced. She moved forward half a step on her knees.
“Yes. I am shameless.”
Her voice was exceedingly soft, yet every word was articulated with unusual clarity. Tears burst from her eyes and fell onto the jade bed.
“When I heard Junior Sister Lu asking after your health outside, and you responding to her so gently, I was so jealous I nearly went mad!”
Yan Qingxiao’s back went rigid. In his six hundred years of life, he had never seen anyone who had committed such an outrageous offense dare to be so brazenly justified.
Shen Weilan gripped the corner of her clothing with both hands.
“My aptitude is mediocre. I can’t compare to Junior Sister Lu, who is so lovable. But last night was clearly… clearly the two of us…”
“For a moment, I lost my senses. I coveted your warmth, and that was why I overstepped the bounds. If you find me disgusting, then kill me with your sword right now!”
She was utterly unreasonable, stubborn to the extreme.
Yan Qingxiao was rendered speechless by her words, and a surge of blood and qi churned violently in his chest.
He wanted to rebuke her furiously, but when those admonishing words touched upon the marks on her body, they all jammed in his throat.
He knew that this eldest disciple was deep-minded. He had always thought she was merely spoiled, but he had never expected her to harbor such a sick possessiveness toward him—so much so that she would even sacrifice her own chastity.
The cave abode sank into complete silence.
She simply lay there against the jade bed, crying until her entire body trembled.
Yan Qingxiao raised his hand, wanting to wipe the tears from her face.
As reason returned, his fingers stopped stiffly in midair. He clenched all five fingers, then pulled his hand back behind him.
“Enough.”
Yan Qingxiao’s voice was filled with extreme weariness and hoarseness. He closed his eyes and no longer looked at her.
“Leave.”
Shen Weilan stopped crying and lifted her head to look at him.
“Everything that happened today is all smoke and mist. As for everything that happened last night, consider it nothing more than a nightmare.”
Every word Yan Qingxiao spoke was icy cold. “You are still my personal disciple. This is the last bit of dignity I am leaving you, so that you will not be ruined and condemned by everyone.”
He paused, and his tone suddenly grew harsher.
“From now on, you and I have severed all ties. Never again harbor such delusions that defy human morality. If you dare entangle or scheme against me even in the slightest, I will show you no mercy.”
Shen Weilan lay against the edge of the jade bed, her shoulders trembling even more violently.
“Master… don’t you want Weilan anymore?”
Yan Qingxiao remained silent.
Shen Weilan lowered her head, her long hair veiling half her face.
She straightened and heavily knocked her head against the ground three times.
Her forehead struck the rough stone surface and split open. Bright red blood imprinted itself upon the cold jade, an alarmingly stark sight.
“This disciple… thanks Master for sparing my life.”
She rose and stumbled out of the cave abode.
The heavy stone door opened, then closed.
The cave abode was empty. Only scraps of torn cloth and traces of blood remained beside the jade bed.
Yan Qingxiao stood where he was. He lowered his head and looked at the hand he had stopped in midair just now. His fingertips had touched nothing, yet that lingering warmth refused to fade.
He had practiced the Heartless Dao for six hundred years. His state of mind should have long since been as still as dead water. Yet at this moment, the Dao heart within his chest was beating without the slightest rhythm. An intensely restless qi surged straight toward the crown of his head.
They had severed all ties.
When those four words had left his mouth, was he cutting off her delusions, or concealing his own panic? He could not tell.
……
Shen Weilan ran all the way back to her own cave abode. She pushed the stone door shut and activated every defensive restriction.
The woman whose face had been filled with grief a moment ago now raised her hand and wiped away her tears. She twisted her aching neck and walked into the inner chamber.
“Old fossil…” Shen Weilan muttered a curse.
“His mouth says we’ve severed all ties, but in his heart, he still couldn’t bear to kill me.” She lay down on the smooth bed. “Let him slowly torment himself over it.”
“System, come out and get to work.” She issued the command in her mind.
“Explain that destiny-plundering system you mentioned just now in detail.”
A crisp electronic voice rang out in her mind.
【Host, the system attached to Lu Yao is an inferior, defective product that cannot stand the light of day. It relies entirely on raising the male supporting characters’ favorability to steal the destiny of this world’s Chosen Daughter and use it to nourish itself.】
Shen Weilan tapped her knee.
“The Chosen Daughter?”
【That’s right. The original host should have been this world’s true Chosen Daughter, with heaven-defying destiny. Lu Yao appeared out of nowhere with that trash system, relying on her knowledge of the plot to forcibly interfere with the original host’s life.】
【She pretended to be weak and innocent. She constantly created conflicts to suppress the original host, stealing the opportunities and romantic prospects that belonged to her while gradually draining away the enormous destiny within her.】
【In the end, she forcibly turned the original host into a cannon-fodder character hated and attacked by everyone. Even Yan Qingxiao, the number one person in the entire cultivation world, was taken into her fish pond.】
Shen Weilan understood.
A usurper occupying another’s nest.
“So she’s a bandit after all.” She let out a cold laugh. “Multiple male leads, is it? She likes using men to deal with the original host, so I’ll take her fish pond apart one by one.”
“Since you’re called the dual-cultivation system, does that mean the more high-level cultivators I sleep with, the more I’ll gain?”
【Completely correct. As long as you engage in emotional exchange with high-quality targets, you can obtain points and exchange them for items. Sleep your way across the heavens and ascend to godhood!】
【After last night’s battle, you directly intercepted the first male-lead conquest that originally belonged to Lu Yao in the source novel. Lu Yao’s system must have issued a red-card warning by now.】
“Nicely done.”
Shen Weilan opened her palm.
“Give me the marrow-cleansing pill from the beginner’s gift pack.”
A lustrous, translucent pill appeared out of thin air in her palm, its medicinal fragrance spreading in every direction.
Without the slightest hesitation, she tilted her head back and swallowed it.
The medicinal liquid entered her throat, then burned down her esophagus into her stomach.
The violent power directly split open her withered qi sea. Spiritual energy slammed wildly in every direction, shattering her meridians inch by inch. An extreme, searing pain spread outward from her internal organs.
Shen Weilan collapsed onto the bed. Her ten fingers dug desperately into its edge.
Sweat immediately soaked through her ruined inner garment, mixing with the bloody impurities expelled from her pores.
A dull cracking sound came from deep within her bone marrow. The bones throughout her body were forcibly ground into powder by an external force, then reshaped under the impetus of the medicinal power.
This was the price of forcibly changing one’s aptitude.
The pain piled upon itself in wave after wave. Not the slightest sound could emerge from her throat. Her blocked acupoints were forcibly burst open by the violent medicinal power.
The original host’s inferior Five-Element trash spiritual root was completely stripped away under the repeated cleansing.
This was nothing less than being skinned alive.
The pain numbed her nerves. Time lost all meaning.
She did not know how long she endured it. Even the spirit-gathering formation within the stone cave was stained gray-black by the turbid qi she expelled.
The tearing sensation gradually receded. A chill traveled through all four limbs and the hundred bones.
Shen Weilan opened her eyes. An intensely pungent stench rushed straight into her nose.
A thick layer of black sludge covered the surface of her skin. It was all impurities expelled from within her body.
She pinched her nose in disgust and calmly examined herself internally.
Within her spiritual palace, the turbid trash spiritual root had vanished without a trace. In its place was a completely transparent, water-blue ice spiritual root emanating a faint, chilling aura.
At the very bottom of the spiritual root, a circle of extremely pale pink mist lingered.
【Congratulations, Host. You have reconstructed a supreme-grade ice spiritual root, with an innate seductive constitution as an added gift.】
【The ice spiritual root specializes in killing and fighting, and cultivates extremely quickly. The innate seductive constitution is a top-tier passive talent. It can increase absorption efficiency during dual cultivation and greatly enhance your charm. It is completely under your control. As long as you do not wish it to, it will never emit the slightest aura outward.】
“Fine. At least all that pain wasn’t wasted.”
Shen Weilan brought her five fingers together. Abundant spiritual energy gathered and circulated in her palm.
Her top priority now was washing off this stinking sludge.
She walked toward the natural Cold Spring at the deepest part of the cave abode. After removing her filthy clothing, she stepped barefoot into the pool.
The freezing spring water washed away the black grime. Her skin revealed its original, cold-jade-like tone. The original host had already been exceptionally beautiful; after that vicious aura and ashen pallor were washed away, her features became even more richly beautiful and dazzling. The bruises beneath her collarbones that had not yet faded added several traces of decadent allure.
The water receded. Shen Weilan had just changed into a clean white Daoist robe when—
“Bang!”
“Bang, bang, bang!”
The stone door outside the cave abode was being pounded with thunderous force. The defensive formation’s light flashed violently, as though it might shatter at any moment.
A young, irritable male voice pierced through the formation and entered the stone cave, carrying undisguised fury.
“Shen Weilan, get out here! What underhanded trick have you used against Junior Sister Lu again?”