Chapter 6: The Madwoman’s Demand and a Month’s Reprieve

Su Qin, utterly panicked, knew he was no match for Bai Zhenye in her prime, especially with his body weakened and an arm severed.

As his clothes grew scant, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him, revealing a potential solution.

At last, just as Bai Zhenye finished preparing the ‘ingredients’ with an utterly expressionless face, the cold-blooded berserker paused her relentless assault.

A puzzled expression flickered across Bai Zhenye’s face.

“How could it be… absent?”

Su Qin let out a long, shuddering breath, quickly pulling his clothes back on.

Setting everything else aside, judging by her menacing posture, he had a chilling premonition that he might very well be killed.

‘No, seriously, I’ve got a broken arm and my spiritual body is on the verge of collapse, yet this woman still wanted to go through with it? I’d absolutely be ruined.’

What’s more, excessive intimacy could easily expose his abnormalities. When it came to women, he knew better than to trifle with those he couldn’t control.

Su Qin shrugged, a helpless expression on his face.

“There’s nothing for it,” he explained. “It’s the price of being a Blood Roaming Zombie (TL Note: A type of undead creature in cultivation novels). I’m currently a unique life form, existing somewhere between a mineral and a biological entity.”

It was precisely this mineral characteristic that allowed him to transfer ‘that thing’ elsewhere.

Bai Zhenye’s eyes dimmed, and her lips trembled faintly, as though she had suffered a devastating blow, as she repeatedly mumbled a few words.

“How could it be…”

Su Qin was utterly bewildered.

This woman was a true master who killed without batting an eye; in the original story, when her entire sect was massacred and she fought a bloody war against the righteous path, she hadn’t shed a single tear.

Yet now, she was on the verge of collapse over such a trivial issue.

“Tell me, why are you acting this way today?”

“Because aren’t you about to disappear…?”

“This has nothing to do with wanting a child, does it?”

Bai Zhenye shyly lowered her head, her hand gently caressing her soft, rounded belly.

“It’s just that… the thought of never seeing you again makes me incredibly sad,” she confessed.

“I thought, if I had a child with you, then by looking at our child, I would feel as though you were still by my side. If you’re not within my sight, I simply couldn’t go on living.”

Could it be?

A confession, this is a confession!

Su Qin’s heart pounded wildly, and a blissful smile curved the corners of his lips.

‘Wanting to have a child because of overwhelming longing—now that made sense! This was love! This was how the story was supposed to unfold!’

Bai Zhenye’s delicate brows furrowed slightly as she pondered for a long moment before finally answering, her voice a flat, emotionless statement.

“No, I don’t like you. I hate you. I want to chop you to death with a sword.”

Su Qin’s expression froze on his face.

‘What? No, no, this plot twist is completely wrong; something strange has definitely been mixed in.’

“It’s just… I often get this urge to chop people,” she explained. “It’s that feeling, you know, where if I don’t chop someone for a few days, I feel excruciating pain. Do you understand?”

Su Qin shook his head, thinking to himself, ‘How on earth could I possibly understand that?’

Bai Zhenye, however, continued her explanation.

“Such complete beings as humans, they are born to be severed, aren’t they? It’s truly this process of severing nature’s masterpieces… This feeling utterly fascinates me.

Harboring such sentiments, I joined the Demonic Sect, but reality did not align with my desires. The Demonic Sect failed to satisfy me; the periods of calm after each mission grew increasingly brief, and my mood after each ‘chopping’ session was always complex.

“Guilt, exhaustion, and most crucially, an overwhelming emptiness. I even began to question the very meaning of ‘chopping’ people.”

Su Qin pursed his lips. Reflecting on her mistakes? If you know you’re wrong, why not just stop?’

“I’m going mad,” she continued. “Strange thoughts constantly flood my mind; I even started fantasizing about ‘chopping’ everyone around me.”

‘No wonder she was so proficient just now; she’s been rehearsing it all in her mind! What an absolute lunatic.’

Su Qin secretly cursed, attempting to shift his body sideways, hoping to distance himself from the madwoman.

Yet, Bai Zhenye pulled him back, her fingers gently stroking his cheek, her eyes brimming with waves of blissful tenderness.

“But then, at that very moment, fate delivered you into my hands.”

Su Qin’s entire body stiffened, and his eyes widened in alarm. ‘How did I get dragged into this?’ he wondered.

“Do you know,” she continued, “the very first time I saw you, I was already lost in a fantasy. The mere thought of it almost made me collapse. How could there be such a perfectly suited ‘sword-dummy’ in this world? It felt as if you were tailor-made for me.”

“I have a premonition that if I ‘chopped’ you, it would likely satisfy my desires completely, and without an ounce of guilt.

But I also knew that if I truly ‘chopped’ you, I would lose you forever. That’s why, for all this time, I’ve only indulged in fantasies.”

Bai Zhenye’s expression grew hazy, her eyes deepening with an almost obsessive infatuation.

“Do you know,” she whispered, “during the meeting just now, when you cut yourself with that knife—even though I knew you were in great pain—I… boki-ed (TL Note: A Japanese slang term for becoming sexually aroused or having an erection).” (TL Note: Is that freaking JoJo’s reference???)

Su Qin felt a chilling sensation creep down his neck, his mind feeling as though it had been scooped out, tossed into a cement mixer, then brutally violated and reconstructed.

‘No, no, this is not love!’

“You, you, you, calm down!” Su Qin stammered. “My body is in no condition for this right now. You should really go back.”

Yet, Bai Zhenye did not retreat; instead, she fixed him with an unwavering stare, sending a shiver of dread down Su Qin’s spine.

“Since the goldfish has no ‘gold seeds’ (TL Note: A euphemism for male essence or sperm), why not let me ‘chop’ you with a sword first to quench my thirst?”

Bai Zhenye’s eyes lost all trace of reason. How could Su Qin possibly wait any longer? He immediately transformed into a blood bat, poised to flee, but she snatched his leg, dragging him back.

“Damn it, you lunatic!” Su Qin cursed.

Su Qin cursed incessantly, but Bai Zhenye paid him no mind. She brandished her Bone-Severing Ice Blade, the raw desire in her eyes now utterly unrestrained.

“Fairy, spare my life!” Su Qin cried. “There are seeds, there are! Not right now, but as soon as I transform back into a human, I’ll have them!”

“Oh, really? And how much is that?” Bai Zhenye asked, a playful smirk on her face.

“Anything you wish! As much as you want, there will be!”

“Hmph, then continue.”

Bai Zhenye pressed the blade against his chin, and Su Qin felt a wave of dizziness wash over him.

“At the quickest, one year; at the slowest, two and a half years! I swear I’ll become human again!”

“You want me to wait an entire year?” Bai Zhenye’s voice sharpened.

“Half a year! No, half a year! With good luck, even a month! I absolutely promise to transform back!”

Su Qin’s brain was in a quantum entanglement of functioning and crashing; he simply blurted out whatever came to mind, and Bai Zhenye, seemingly satisfied, retracted her blade.

“A month from now, I will come back to claim it,” she stated. “If by then you still don’t have it, or if you attempt to escape in the interim, I will simply ‘chop’ you down with a single sword stroke.”

Bai Zhenye strode away, leaving Su Qin to slowly recover his senses. He stared in the direction she had vanished, a complex expression clouding his face.

“My favorite character, how did she become a lunatic?”

‘Judging by her demeanor just now, if he couldn’t produce the ‘seeds’ in a month, he would genuinely lose his life.’

The crucial point was that with only a month remaining, his original plan to journey to the arctic to gather Frozen Hibiscus (TL Note: A rare herb) to restore his physical body was now utterly unfeasible.

The spiritual liquid from his magic treasure could only sustain him; after a month, there would be absolutely no chance of defeating her.

“Since things have come to this,” he sighed, “I might as well start by mending my body.”

With another sigh, Su Qin reopened the Fang Treasure Chest, slowly beginning to repair the cracks in his body.

***

As the third watch (TL Note: A traditional Chinese time division, roughly 11 PM to 1 AM) descended, a young girl stepped into the territory of the Silver Splendor Hall.

Immediately, tens of thousands of crimson eyes swiveled towards her, only to dim once she revealed a gleaming token.

“Master, Xiao Chen said you are near death, and thus, nothing to fear.”

The girl was petite, her hair styled in two neat buns, her eyes large and luminous, and her mouth as delicate as a freshly picked cherry.

“So, that means, Master, you’ve become weaker, right? You must have grown weaker, Master. These blood bats have become so listless; it’s clear you’ve lost your strength.”

Gu Yuhe gazed at the Silver Splendor Hall, a peculiar glint flickering in her eyes.