Chapter 104: The Price of Possession

She had personally killed the person who used to lie lazily on the rooftop, drinking and uttering the most incisive truths with an infuriatingly smug tone. Yet, she felt no regret.

A healer’s duty was to save lives and heal injuries.

Hadn’t she saved her life?

As for the soul… that was merely a tiny, insignificant cost, an incidental casualty.

Yes, it was a cost. It was a price she had been forced to pay to protect her.

Bai Zhileng affirmed this conviction to herself, her resolve unwavering.

She rose and walked to a nearby wardrobe. Inside, countless pristine, pure white gauze dresses hung, each meticulously hand-sewn by her to fit Shen Zhaoqing’s exact measurements.

She had begun preparing these items the very moment she decided to bring this person back to Penglai.

She took down the softest cloud-patterned gauze dress and returned to the bed, gently untying the fox fur and inner garments on Shen Zhaoqing’s body, which were utterly ruined by blood and grime.

The young woman’s body was thus laid bare before Bai Zhileng, completely defenseless.

Her skin was as pale as snow, seemingly fragile enough to shatter at a touch.

On her right shoulder, a faint scar, left by a brush with sword qi, marked the presence of Gu Chang’an.

On the inside of her left wrist, a faint golden demonic tattoo flickered into and out of existence—Yuange’s mark.

Over her heart, a faint rose-shaped demonic mark was slowly fading—the imprint of Ling Shuangjue’s demonic heart.

A cold glint flickered in Bai Zhileng’s eyes.

She extended a fingertip, pure Penglai spiritual energy swirling around its tip, and swept it over each of those foreign imprints.

With every pass, an imprint dimmed, until they completely vanished, leaving not a trace behind.

Only after completing this did she smile in satisfaction.

She began to dress this ‘doll’ in new clothes, her movements light, filled with patience and reverence, as if she were completing a sacred work of art.

The pure white gauze dress slipped onto the warm body.

Bai Zhileng nodded contentedly. She smoothed Shen Zhaoqing’s slightly disheveled black hair, then took a shattered jade bone hairpin from her own hair and gently fastened it onto Shen Zhaoqing’s.

It was the only relatively clean old item she had found on Shen Zhaoqing’s person. ‘Consider it a remembrance for the Shen Zhaoqing who has already died,’ Bai Zhileng thought.

Finally, she retrieved an exquisite, silver-glowing anklet from her storage ring. The anklet was intricately carved with countless tiny runes designed to suppress spiritual power.

She lifted Shen Zhaoqing’s ankle, as delicate and beautiful as a work of art. The skin there was fine and cool. She then gently fastened the cold anklet onto it.

“Click.”

With a soft sound, the clasp closed.

From this moment onward, this bird with broken wings would never fly again.

This peerless treasure would forever be imprisoned within this most magnificent cage.

****

Bai Zhileng had finally completed all her ‘arrangements.’

In the mirror, a woman with hair as white as snow, her face haggard but bearing a morbid satisfaction, embraced a stunningly beautiful ‘doll’ with ink-black hair, delicate features, and vacant eyes.

One black, one white; one still, one moving—they formed a bizarre yet harmonious tableau.

“So beautiful…”

Bai Zhileng gazed at the doll in the mirror, praising it with a rapt, almost dazed expression.

She lowered her head and pressed a soft, utterly devoid of warmth, kiss onto those cool, thin lips.

“From now on, you only need to look at me,” she whispered against her lips, her voice barely audible to anyone but them. “This is enough. This way, you can only belong to me.”

The doll in the mirror remained quietly staring forward, its vacant eyes reflecting neither the embrace of its captor’s obsession nor its own imprisoned state.

It simply existed in silence.

****

The world fell into a deathly silence.

The Soul-Devouring Plague that had swept across Qingzhou, striking terror into countless cultivators, vanished without a trace the moment Shen Zhaoqing and Bai Zhileng escaped, as if wiped away by an invisible hand.

The sky cleared, the earth ceased its mournful cries, as if the apocalyptic catastrophe had been nothing more than a grotesque nightmare.

However, for the few top powerhouses present, the true nightmare had only just begun.

Ling Shuangjue’s crimson eyes lost their focus for the first time.

She had battled for tens of thousands of years, slaughtering countless beings, yet she had never felt like this. Her demonic heart’s imprint was gradually losing sensation, and Ling Shuangjue knew all too well what that implied.

Yuange bit her lower lip fiercely. She, too, had naturally felt the changes in her own mark.

“Ha?” She let out an ambiguous sneer, her gaze sweeping past the two women and fixing on the distant East, upon the boundless Eastern Sea. “Penglai.”

She uttered only those two words.

Gu Chang’an struggled to her feet, her knuckles white as she gripped her sword hilt. “I will go.”

She paused, then added, each word squeezed through gritted teeth, “She is a disciple of my Qingyun Sect.”

This was the only respectable reason she, as the Chief of Qingyun Sect, could find.

As for the unspoken words, ‘She is mine,’ they had already been buried along with her long-shattered sword heart.

“Haha, a disciple of Qingyun Sect?” Yuange laughed as well. “Gu Chang’an, how long will you continue to deceive yourself?”

She licked the blood from the corner of her lips, a bestial glint flickering in her amber eyes.

“She is this princess’s prey! Whoever dares to touch what’s mine, I will tear them to shreds!”

She glared fiercely at Gu Chang’an and Ling Shuangjue, as if ready to pounce at any second.

“Of course, that includes both of you! I will snatch her back, sooner or later!”

However, Ling Shuangjue merely cast a fleeting glance at her. “Is there any point in saying all this now?”

“She’s in Penglai.”

Those simple words instantly extinguished all of Yuange’s blustering arrogance.

Indeed.

The person was in Penglai.

What good would their infighting do here, other than provide amusement for that white-furred fox spirit far away in the Eastern Sea?

A sense of unprecedented humiliation surged through the hearts of all three.

Thus, the most outrageous, unbelievable, and terrifying temporary alliance in history was silently forged upon these ruins, ravaged by battle and demonic energy.

The alliance’s charter was simple: a single objective—to raze Penglai and reclaim that person.

As for how they would divide her once she was recovered…

They would simply fight it out again after she was retrieved.

Ling Shuangjue curled her lips, a cruel glint flickering in her blood-red eyes. She spoke no more words, for she was a woman of action.

With a flick of her blood-colored cloak, she transformed into a streaking black and red light, tearing through space and instantly vanishing from her spot, heading west.

Yuange, watching the direction of her disappearance, snorted disdainfully, not to be outdone. “Show-off.”

She took a golden feather from her bosom and infused it with demonic energy. The feather instantly ignited, transforming into a small golden bird bathed in flames. It let out a crisp cry and soared rapidly towards the northern horizon.

That was the most urgent communication signal of the demon race’s lineage.

She not only intended to mobilize her hunting legions but also to persuade her exalted imperial father.

Human infighting was the perfect opportunity for the Myriad Demon Kingdom to expand.

And the name ‘Penglai Immortal Palace’ was a sufficient bargaining chip of immense weight.

After completing all this, she cast one last, complex look at Gu Chang’an.

“Gu Chang’an, you’d best hurry,” her voice still carried a heavy nasal tone. “If we arrive and you haven’t… then that silly girl won’t be yours.”

With that, a flash of demonic light enveloped her, and she transformed into a golden rainbow, breaking through the void in pursuit of the firebird.

In the blink of an eye, this bustling battlefield was left with only Gu Chang’an.

She stood alone in the center of the ruins, like a solitary pine tree amidst a snowy landscape.

The sky had completely cleared, and warm sunlight poured down, yet it could not dispel the bone-deep chill that permeated her being. She slowly raised her head, looking at the azure sky, as clear as if washed clean.

‘Junior Sister…’

‘You always used to say you loved to lie on the Sword Tomb’s rooftop on days like this, basking in the sun, drinking, and watching the clouds.’

‘But where are you now?’

‘Do you still remember the sky of Qingzhou?’

‘Do you still remember… me?’

She didn’t know.

Gu Chang’an closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, those almond-shaped eyes, usually as cold as distant stars, now held only the profound stillness of a deep ocean on the verge of unleashing towering waves.

She tightened her grip on the Frostbright Sword.

A storm, poised to engulf the entire cultivation world, was quietly brewing.

And at the heart of that storm lay the overseas immortal mountain, isolated from the world for tens of thousands of years.

Penglai.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Empress’s Pampering, I Secretly Hoarded Divine Weapons and Became Invincible

ComedyFantasyRomance

Read Now →
Not interested