After Rebirth, the Love-Struck Cannon Fodder Woke Up - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Jealousy

◎ Crisis of Trust, Method of Escape ◎

Shen Anlan was helpless. With a wave of her right hand, she used two fingers to clamp the sharp blade thrusting towards her, cleverly neutralizing the girl’s attack.

“Junior Sister Du, please listen to my explanation. My action just now was merely a test. A peculiar object impersonating you appeared earlier. Seeing you again, I couldn’t confirm it was you, which led to my offensive behavior.”

Hearing this, the anger on Du Lianxin’s face slightly subsided, but she still maintained her guard.

This was because, in her subconscious, someone with Senior Sister’s strength should not have fallen into the world inside the mirror.

She retreated a few steps, looked at the purple-clad woman, and asked lightly, “How will you prove that you are Senior Sister Shen?”

Shen Anlan was momentarily at a loss for words.

She had never thought that one day she would need to prove her own identity to someone.

What should she do next?

Before she could think clearly, the girl’s clear voice reached her ear again.

“With Senior Sister’s strength, you should have been able to avoid the red light cast by the bronze mirror. Moreover, since I arrived in this world inside the mirror, my spiritual power has been nonexistent. Seeing Senior Sister’s move just now, you seem not to have this problem?”

Facing the girl’s suspicious gaze, Shen Anlan weighed her words before speaking: “Although my spiritual power remains, my strength is mostly sealed. I can now only exert less than half a percent of my full power. I think this might be related to the difference in our cultivation levels. As for why I appeared here, it is only because I saw Junior Sister sucked into the world inside the mirror, so I followed to rescue you.”

These words instantly silenced Du Lianxin.

Senior Sister would actually venture into danger just to save her?

She found it hard to believe. The influence of her past life was simply too deep.

In her past life, she risked her life, using a forbidden art to treat Shen Anlan, but in the end, she only received a cold “thank you.”

In this life, she had not contributed anything to Shen Anlan, yet the other party was risking her life to enter this strange world to save her?

Was this possible?

It was not surprising that Du Lianxin was suspicious. The discrepancy between her past and present lives was too vast, giving her a sense of unreality.

For a moment, she even suspected that she had unknowingly fallen into an illusion.

With this thought, Du Lianxin became alert again.

Whether the Senior Sister in front of her was real or fake, she simply put away the Azure Steel Sword, turned around, and ran into the distance.

Regardless of whether the other party was a peculiar object in disguise, staying away would ultimately be safer.

Furthermore, if she was truly caught in an illusion, she could use this time to try and break free.

Unless the illusion was set up with extremely sophisticated means, all illusions have flaws. As long as she paid careful attention and kept her mind clear, breaking it would only be a matter of time.

Shen Anlan saw the girl turn and flee and subconsciously chased after her.

Reaching her side, she grabbed the girl’s wrist, stopping her.

She suppressed the sudden anger rising in her heart and asked in a deep voice, “Junior Sister Du, what are you doing? Do you not believe my words?”

Du Lianxin’s thoughts were a mess at the moment. She didn’t respond, only exerting all her strength to try and break free from the woman’s grasp.

However, this action directly deepened Shen Anlan’s anger.

Was she that terrifying? Even after she had explained clearly, why did she still want to escape?

Shen Anlan didn’t understand. She had risked her life to enter the world inside the mirror, all to safely bring her out.

She hadn’t expected that now that they had met, Junior Sister would be so determined to flee from her.

When facing Du Lianxin, Shen Anlan’s usual self-proclaimed rationality instantly collapsed.

Due to the excessive force in her hand, the girl struggled for a while, finally unable to hold back, and sobbed out a cry of pain.

The sound of that fragile cry momentarily brought back her reason. Shen Anlan slowly loosened her grip on the girl’s wrist.

Gaining her freedom, Du Lianxin instinctively ran into the distance.

Seeing this, the anger that Shen Anlan had just suppressed surged again.

This time, she instantly flashed and appeared directly in front of the girl’s path.

Du Lianxin didn’t react in time. When she saw the cold figure, it was too late to stop her steps, and she directly collided into the woman’s embrace.

Her cheek came into contact with a very soft spot. She realized what had happened belatedly, and her pretty face flushed crimson again, even her earlobes dyed with a deep rosy hue.

Du Lianxin stumbled back two steps. Facing Shen Anlan’s subtly angered eyes, she stammered, “Senior… Senior Sister, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

She only thought that Senior Sister was angry at her for being offensive, completely overlooking the other possibility.

Shen Anlan observed her expression and immediately knew that she had misunderstood, but out of a certain unspoken thought, she did not explain. She merely suppressed her complex emotions and spoke lightly, “Does Junior Sister still want to run?”

Du Lianxin subconsciously shook her head. “No… I won’t run anymore.”

Due to the sudden change just now, the flush on the girl’s cheeks had not yet receded, and her already plump, moist lips looked especially tempting.

Shen Anlan watched for a moment, then looked away with slight discomfort.

“Now that we are in the world inside the mirror, the immediate priority is to find a way to leave as soon as possible. If there’s no accident, that bronze mirror should be a Spatial Spiritual Treasure. As long as we find the core of the treasure and manage to destroy the spiritual restriction, we can escape.”

Upon mentioning the serious matter, Du Lianxin quickly regained her composure.

“The core of the treasure… would it be in this world inside the mirror?”

Shen Anlan confirmed: “Yes! I once consulted relevant ancient texts in the sect. Any man-made Spatial Spiritual Treasure can be broken through from its inner world. It’s just that the difficulty is quite high, and finding the flaw is very difficult.”

The Great Dao is Fifty, the Heavenly Path is Forty-Nine, leaving a sliver of life.

The reason such Spatial Spiritual Treasures have this flaw is due to the balance maintained by the Heavenly Dao.

If they couldn’t be broken from within, the person who wielded such a treasure would be, to some extent, an invincible existence, able to disregard cultivation limitations.

The Heavenly Dao is utterly impartial and would not allow such a thing to happen.

Shen Anlan explained in detail. Du Lianxin felt a little settled after hearing it.

As long as there was a chance to leave, there was still hope for the future.

Otherwise, remaining with her spiritual power sealed, like a mortal, stuck in this place, she truly didn’t know what her future would be like.

If this were her past life, being eternally trapped in the same world as the person she was infatuated with, she might have secretly rejoiced.

But in this life, such a thought had never crossed her mind.

Bringing her thoughts back, Du Lianxin cautiously asked, “Is the world inside the mirror boundless? If so, how can we find the location of the flaw?”

Shen Anlan mused, “The core of a Spiritual Treasure must be an unusual place where many divine and strange things occur. In my opinion, the current forest is unlikely to be it. We should leave this area first and then search slowly.”

Du Lianxin recalled the Ghost King who was sucked into the mirror world with her and hesitated for a moment before suggesting: “Senior Qingdai also fell into this world. We can search for her whereabouts along the way.”

Hearing this, Shen Anlan frowned slightly.

“Junior Sister, don’t forget that she was the one who brought you into the old house. It can be said that all this trouble started because of her. Junior Sister still wants to find her?”

At this point, she seemed to realize something, and her eyes turned slightly cold.

“That Ghost King is quite good-looking. Is Junior Sister interested in her? Don’t forget that humans and ghosts are fundamentally different paths. As a Daoist cultivator, being with her probably won’t have a good outcome.”

Startled by these words, Du Lianxin was first stunned, then showed an expression of disbelief.

“How could Senior Sister think that?”

Shen Anlan countered: “Does Junior Sister truly harbor no such thoughts?”

“Of course not!”

Du Lianxin was direct, stating her own thoughts: “Senior Qingdai was blinded by a wicked person, and her actions earlier were not her true intention. More importantly, in this world inside the mirror, one more helper means one more hope of getting out!”

These words made sense, but Shen Anlan’s focus was elsewhere.

“Junior Sister, earlier in the old house, when you tried to communicate with me, you mentioned that the Ghost King was deceived by someone, but you didn’t elaborate on the details. How exactly was she deceived? And what was her reason for capturing you?”

Du Lianxin hesitated. “This…”

Seeing her reaction, the coldness that had just dissipated from Shen Anlan intensified. “Is it inconvenient to say?”

Du Lianxin quickly shook her head. “…The situation is this: Senior Qingdai was cast a spell on, causing her to mistake me for her lover from the past life, which is why she captured me.”

As the words fell, she laughed at herself inwardly.

Senior Sister probably doesn’t care about this. Why am I so nervous?

In fact, Shen Anlan cared very much.

When asking those questions, she had even considered that if Qingdai had truly committed an unforgivable act against Junior Sister Du, then no matter the cost, she would ensure that this Ghost King’s soul was utterly scattered!

Shen Anlan had never been romantically involved with anyone. She simply attributed all her previous emotions to her unwillingness to see her Junior Sister bullied and did not delve deeper.

Since her first meeting with Du Lianxin, this girl had an unusual impact on her, easily stirring her emotions.

She didn’t know the reason, but a persistent intuition existed in her heart.

One day in the future, she would unravel all her confusion.

Before that, Shen Anlan did not intend to deeply analyze any emotions related to Junior Sister Du.

After Du Lianxin finished explaining the matter of Qingdai, neither of them spoke for a while.

About half an incense stick’s time later, they gradually reached the edge of the forest.

Du Lianxin gazed at the buildings of various sizes in the distance. It was sunset, and smoke curled up from the chimneys, filling the air with a long-lost atmosphere of human life.

She felt immense curiosity. “Does this world inside the mirror also have human presence?”

Shen Anlan mused, “Under normal circumstances, it should not. The independent space formed by an artifact of the Spiritual Treasure rank has incomplete laws. Humans are the spiritual essence of heaven and earth and would not appear in such a place, unless they were sucked into this mirrored space from the outside, just like us.”

Du Lianxin pondered, “If that’s the case, would these people know the identity of the Bronze Mirror’s owner?”

Shen Anlan nodded. “That possibility certainly exists.”

Du Lianxin then suggested, “Senior Sister, should we go and ask them? To find out about the situation?”

Shen Anlan did not agree with this approach.

“Junior Sister, we are essentially newcomers here, knowing nothing about this place. It is not advisable to venture rashly. If things are not as we suspect, going directly could very likely be walking straight into a trap.”