After The Death Escape and Ascension, The Male Protagonist of Long Aotian Went Crazy - Chapter 12

Qin Xiyan recognized what she was lying on.

It was a piece of Millennium Profound Crystal Cold Jade.

Ancient texts had said that the jade could help people cultivate quickly. The cold energy it contained not only cleansed the marrow and purified the body of cultivators, but could also preserve the last vestiges of vitality in the dead.

The corpse before her had no breath of life, but its body still held lingering vitality.

Profound Crystal Cold Jade was extremely rare. There were only two pieces in existence—one in the Lingyuan Pavilion. This one must be the other.

“Who dares trespass here!”

A sudden shout exploded behind them, and a blast of spiritual pressure came crashing down.

Wei Shizhou and Qin Xiyan couldn’t dodge in time and were struck head-on, flung backward violently.

Hua Jinning rushed forward anxiously to shield the jade, making sure her elder sister was unharmed before she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Her eyes burned with anger as she raised her hand to punish the intruders.

“Palace Lord, wait.”

Shi Hua blocked her. She glanced at the two coughing up bl00d—thankfully, not fatally wounded.

“They are disciples of my Xuan-yin Immortal Sect. If they are to be punished, it should be by me.”

Hua Jinning’s fury didn’t abate. “You saw what they just tried to do—”

“I know,” Shi Hua cut in, her gaze steady. “Palace Lord.”

The weight of that address forced Hua Jinning to relent.

She knew the political consequences, but the fury still boiled within her, leaving her deeply unsettled.

Her eyes were cold.
“Very well. I won’t act—yet. I trust Immortal Venerable knows right from wrong.”

“Of course.”

Shi Hua stepped closer, lowering her gaze.

Qin Xiyan tried to explain, but Shi Hua’s spiritual pressure fell on her before she could speak.

Her delicate face twisted in pain.

The pressure of a true powerhouse was not something mere Foundation Establishment disciples could withstand.

Wei Shizhou cursed inwardly.
A vicious woman would always be a vicious woman—how could anyone expect her to be fair?

“Why have you come here?”

The pressure eased slightly.

Qin Xiyan swallowed down the bl00d in her throat and said, “Disciple followed a shadow along the way. Unexpectedly, it led us into a trap, and we were transported here by a formation…”

“Lies!” Hua Jinning snapped. “Within my domain, how could there be villains running rampant?”

The defenses of Ji’an City were tight, especially at the gates. Unknown people couldn’t possibly slip through.

Shi Hua turned her back toward Hua Jinning, masking her face from view, and silently mouthed words at the two disciples.

Act along.

Wei Shizhou and Qin Xiyan froze for a moment—

Then another blast of energy struck them.

“Pfft!”

Both spat out bl00d and collapsed, weak and gasping.

Shi Hua turned back. “They trespassed, and I have punished them. Palace Lord, you may rest assured. Tonight is not a good time to discuss further. We’ll speak another day.”

With that, she fed each of them a pill and led them away.

Hua Jinning’s eyes, however, lingered with obsession on Wei Shizhou’s stumbling figure.

“An immortal bone of the heavenly grade…”

From the underground palace, once they returned, Qin Xiyan immediately knelt before Shi Hua without a word. Wei Shizhou hesitated, then followed suit.

Head bowed, pale but resolute, Qin Xiyan admitted fault and tried to shoulder all the blame herself.

“Immortal Venerable, this disciple was wrong.”

Shi Hua did not scold them. She raised her hand lightly. “Rise.”

“What about that shadow you mentioned earlier?”

Qin Xiyan looked regretful. “Disciple was meditating when I noticed someone approaching. I pursued, only to run into Senior Brother Wei, who was also lured. Before we knew it, the formation beneath our feet sent us to the hidden palace.”

The hidden palace was heavily guarded by royal soldiers. In truth, the imperial palace itself was less protected than that place.

It was strange indeed.

Wei Shizhou hesitated, then said, “Reporting to Martial Aunt… when I was chasing the shadow, I sensed no trace of living aura at all…”

The shadow had moved erratically, without a shred of living breath—it didn’t seem like a real person.

No breath of life?

Shi Hua fell into thought, a certain figure coming to mind.

The matter of the Bi-xu Palace was more complicated than she had imagined.

“You must go back for now. Do not speak of this again. But remain vigilant.”

“Yes.”

Shi Hua then handed them two bottles of pills.

“Hua Palace Lord’s strike was not restrained. Take these pills to regulate your spiritual power and recover quickly.”

Both received them respectfully. “Thank you, Immortal Venerable / Martial Aunt.”

After sending them off, Shi Hua was still troubled by Wei Shizhou’s words—no breath of life.

In all the world, besides the Pavilion Master of Lingyuan Pavilion, only Yunyao Immortal Venerable could conceal their life aura so flawlessly.

She and Yunyao had known each other for years, familiar with each other’s arts.

If it truly was Yunyao, why hadn’t he contacted her directly? Why lure Wei Shizhou and Qin Xiyan there instead?

This, Shi Hua could not understand.

【Ding ding ding!】

The system came online again, buzzing with excitement. 【Immortal Venerable, I’ve successfully obtained this part of the storyline! It needs some time to load, but I’ve already pulled up the mission you must complete!】

Shi Hua had grown used to its frequent disappearances.

“What mission?”

【The events here in Bi-xu Palace are tightly tied to the male lead. You must cooperate with Hua Jinning’s schemes, pushing the male lead into her hands, and fulfill the plot point where his immortal bone is extracted.】

Shi Hua almost thought she misheard.

“What did you say? Extract his immortal bone?”

Wei Shizhou—at Bi-xu Palace—would have his immortal bone removed?

To a cultivator, the immortal bone was everything. Once taken out, they would be crippled for life, worse than a beggar, left only to waste away in bed.

And she was supposed to ensure such a thing happened?

That was no different from walking the path of demons and heretics!

Her face darkened. “I refuse.”

【This mission still—what?!】

The system froze, baffled.

【Why refuse? It’s so simple! All you need to do is go along with Hua Jinning. You don’t have to act—just stand by, and when the system prompts “mission complete,” you’re done!】

A mission as easy as a pie falling from the sky—and she refused?! How would she handle the harder ones later?

The system couldn’t understand human emotions.

【Are you worried for the male lead’s safety? Don’t worry, Chi Qingxuan will arrive in time to save him. A “Dragon-Ao-Tian” protagonist won’t die so easily…】

It even concealed the fact that Wei Shizhou would endure unimaginable agony during the extraction.

【And don’t you long for ascension? Without following the plot, Heaven will never let you ascend.】

Ascension—she had once only guessed. Hearing it confirmed by the system felt cruelly ironic.

This was Heaven—merciless, unfeeling.

But she had no way to resist.

She could no longer remember why she wanted to ascend. It had become an obsession—an unshakable whisper in her mind telling her she must.

She could not ignore that voice.

“You’re certain my junior brother will arrive in time?”

Sensing her wavering, the system eagerly assured her: 【If you follow the plot, nothing will go wrong! The “Dragon-Ao-Tian” male lead is Heaven’s favorite—he won’t die. Every painful trial is just forging his path.】

Shi Hua’s feelings were impossible to put into words.

She no longer knew whether what she was doing was right.

“…I understand.”

Detecting her mood, the system tactfully went offline again.

Blame Heaven—it was Heaven that created such cruel storylines.

The system was only a laborer. It, too, felt helpless.

The pitch-black night gradually split open with a glimmer of light.

The horizon brightened, sunlight spilling across the land, devouring the darkness bit by bit.

A beam of dawn slanted through the window lattice.

Shi Hua opened her eyes and activated the communication mirror.

Before her appeared the shadowy image of Chi Qingxuan.

“Senior Sister, have you reached Bi-xu Palace yet?”

He glanced at the background, not recognizing it as Bi-xu Palace, and assumed she hadn’t arrived.

He opened his mouth, hesitated, then seemed at a loss for words.

“We arrived the day before yesterday.”

Shi Hua looked at his conflicted expression and knew what he wanted to ask.

“There’s no need to worry. The Palace Lord is well. The old wound on her face still needs time to heal.”

“Jinning, she…” Chi Qingxuan’s voice faltered. The past weighed on him, and he didn’t know how to continue. “Did you… see her?”

That “her” referred to Hua Jinrong, Jinning’s elder sister.

His former lover.

“I saw her. She’s the same as before.”

But in truth, she wasn’t.

Wei Shizhou and Qin Xiyan’s sudden appearance had thrown everything off.

Shi Hua hadn’t actually seen Hua Jinrong, but could guess the truth.

Nine hundred years ago, Hua Jinrong had died because of him. Hua Jinning hated him for it, and had cultivated demonic arts in order to resurrect her sister.

That cultivation nearly destroyed her life.

Only when Chi Qingxuan begged did Shi Hua intervene.

She and Yunyao together preserved Jinning’s life, though the scars carved by demonic arts remained disfiguring, unchanged even after five hundred years.

The Profound Crystal Cold Jade had also been found by Chi Qingxuan, secretly delivered to her.

He knew Hua Jinning didn’t want to see him.

Like her, he could not accept never seeing Hua Jinrong again, and so he had hoped to preserve her corpse with the jade.

But the soul was gone. It was meaningless.

Hua Jinning never thanked him.

On the contrary, she hated him all the more, convinced that if he had been stopped from loving her sister, none of the tragedy would have happened.

It was her own sin, yet the entire royal city paid the price.

Ji’an City was no longer the second greatest cultivation center it had once been.

Chi Qingxuan’s lips tightened. Guilt weighed on him. “For Rong’s sake… I wronged them both. As for Jinning’s scars, I’ll find a way…”

“Junior Brother,” Shi Hua cut him off firmly. “Do you truly believe her scars cannot be healed? Stop deceiving yourself. What happened back then was not entirely your fault.”

Hua Jinrong’s death was a knot in his heart, a shadow that would one day become his inner demon.

Shi Hua didn’t want to see him fall to that fate.

All these years, batch after batch of pills he refined had been sent to Hua Jinning. She never even looked at them, throwing them away.

She herself refused to heal her face. Doing more was pointless.

Chi Qingxuan knew this too.

Once, he had always lectured her like a little grown-up, never expecting to one day be on the receiving end.

Now he twisted at his sleeve helplessly, eyes clouded with confusion. Tears even gathered at the corners.

“Senior Sister, I just wanted to make amends… is that wrong?

I don’t know what else to do anymore. Rong… she must resent me too, doesn’t she?”

A thousand years had passed, yet looking at his restless eyes, Shi Hua felt as if she had returned to that day.

The proud youth, stripped of all arrogance, clutching the lifeless woman in his arms, clutching at her sleeve, begging her to save her.

But she could not.

Life and death were not things sheer cultivation power could change.