Haven't Been a Senior Sister for Many Years - Chapter 35
Chapter 35: Heart Bl00d
A wind picked up.
The damp wind blew across Chu Zhiqin’s cheek, leaving a subtle hint of moisture. The puppy, squatting on the ground and pawing at small pebbles, sneezed from the gust.
This sudden wind was truly odd. Chu Zhiqin picked up the oblivious puppy, her expression solemn as she gazed at the sky.
The puppy still wanted to play, whimpering to be put down. Its two chubby paws flailed in the air before being held by Chu Zhiqin’s hand, unable to break free.
“Woof! Woof!”
The puppy realized its two paws weren’t enough, so it started wiggling its two back legs. In response, Chu Zhiqin gave its backside a smack.
“Laicai, stop fooling around.”
“Whine…”
Having its bottom slapped and not being allowed down, Laicai sulkily curled up in Chu Zhiqin’s arms, dejected.
Chu Zhiqin stroked Laicai’s head to soothe it.
…
Three days had passed since Leng Junzhu took the spiritual herb. During these three days, Chu Zhiqin went out to buy groceries as usual, occasionally chatting with Grandma Lin, and incidentally asking Grandma Lin about vegetable farming methods.
Leng Junzhu had planted a vegetable patch.
Life in the small courtyard was truly dull and monotonous. Besides playing with the dog and reading storybooks every day, there were no other leisure activities.
Out of boredom, Leng Junzhu ordered Chu Zhiqin to clear a small plot in a corner of the courtyard for her to grow vegetables.
Fearing that Laicai would chew on her vegetables, Leng Junzhu specifically instructed Chu Zhiqin to build a brick fence around the vegetable patch to keep Laicai away.
The vegetable seeds were given by Grandma Lin. On the first day after planting, Leng Junzhu excitedly carried a small wooden bucket to water the plot.
By the second day, Leng Junzhu couldn’t get out of bed and was too lazy to fetch water, so Chu Zhiqin became the one watering the plants.
As for the person who said she wanted to grow vegetables, she was still sound asleep in bed. When she woke up, she just sat on a stool and watched Chu Zhiqin busily moving around.
Now, the planted seeds had sprouted, but the person who declared she would stir-fry a dish with her own grown vegetables was still lying in bed, not yet awake.
…
The sky darkened, and the moisture in the air became thicker.
It was going to rain.
Chu Zhiqin carried Laicai into the house, told it to behave, and then went alone into the courtyard to take down the clothes that had been washed that morning and hung on the line.
Laicai lay on the doorstep, staring eagerly at her.
Chu Zhiqin bent down as she passed and patted its head. Laicai wagged its tail happily, panting.
Clang.
The window in the house was blown shut by the wind, making a loud noise.
Laicai was startled, its ears perked up, and its dark eyes widened.
Chu Zhiqin chuckled softly, placed the collected clothes on the soft couch, and then closed the windows in the house one by one.
Looking at the sky, it seemed likely a heavy rain was coming.
After closing the last window, Chu Zhiqin suddenly remembered the newly sprouted seeds in the courtyard. So, she took out several prepared animal skins from her Qiankun Ring and went to the courtyard, setting up a few sturdy sticks over the vegetable patch to create a simple rain shelter.
With the rain shelter, the sprouted vegetable seedlings were considerably safer.
After setting up the rain shelter, Chu Zhiqin moved a stool and sat under the eaves. Laicai fetched a bone from somewhere and lay at her feet, happily gnawing on it.
One person, one dog, silently watched the scene.
…
Boom—
Blue-violet lightning tore through the sky, and the huge roar startled Laicai, making it stop gnawing its bone. It looked up, its two ears alertly perked, gazing around.
Lightning flashed and thunder roared. Pedestrians on the street hurried to find shelter from the rain, but before they could reach it, a torrential downpour followed, and the dense rain instantly submerged the entire town, creating a misty expanse.
Laicai, realizing the thunder couldn’t hit it, buried its head again and vigorously gnawed its bone.
The rain grew heavier, crashing on the eaves, sliding down the tiles, and splashing tiny droplets on the bluestone slabs.
Before long, the standing water on the ground submerged the bluestone slabs, gradually creeping up to the doorstep.
…
This rain, both inside and out, exuded an eerie aura. Chu Zhiqin reached out to catch the rainwater. The cold rain passed through her fingers, some sliding down the back of her palm to her wrist, leaving a thin trail of water. Others dripped to the ground, creating watermarks, and when there were many, they converged into a small puddle.
She missed her senior sister.
Shaking the water from her hand, Chu Zhiqin stood up and returned to the house.
Her senior sister had been asleep for three days; it was time for her to wake up.
Just then, an ice-cold demonic energy surged from inside the house, shooting straight into the sky. Fortunately, a barrier blocked it; otherwise, it wouldn’t be long before this small courtyard would be surrounded by cultivators who had come to investigate.
Laicai, who was gnawing on a bone, was caught off guard and sent flying by this surge of demonic energy. Fortunately, Chu Zhiqin reached out in time and caught it; otherwise, Laicai would have become a kite with a broken string in the rain.
“Woof! Woof!” Laicai was startled, its fur bristling, making it look like a fluffy ball.
“Don’t be afraid, Laicai. You’ll be fine after a nap.” The bristling Laicai was put into the Qiankun Ring by Chu Zhiqin. Without it, Chu Zhiqin had no extra worries and struggled to walk into the room against the demonic energy.
Dense, oppressive demonic energy filled the entire room. With her eyes alone, Chu Zhiqin couldn’t see where Leng Junzhu was, nor could she gauge the current situation.
Chu Zhiqin had once envisioned that after Leng Junzhu consumed the last spiritual herb and the seal on her wrist was lifted, the demonic energy long suppressed in her body might lose control and surge out.
But she never expected Leng Junzhu to lose control to this extent. Given the current situation, Chu Zhiqin began to worry whether the barrier could hold until Leng Junzhu regained control of the demonic energy.
However, how could the Demon Lord’s demonic energy be mundane?
Just the unconsciously leaked demonic energy contained countless bone-chilling despair and bone-deep coldness. Chu Zhiqin, while searching for Leng Junzhu, had to circulate her spiritual energy throughout her body to resist the pervasive demonic energy.
The closer she got, the more the demonic energy solidified like a massive wave. Chu Zhiqin was deeply entrenched in it, unable to move a single step, unable to breathe.
The barrier above the small courtyard gradually cracked under the erosion of the demonic energy, teetering on the verge of collapse.
“Leng Junzhu!”
Chu Zhiqin shouted towards the direction of the densest demonic energy, trying to get a response, but the person wrapped in demonic energy stood motionless by the bed, as if she had lost consciousness.
She couldn’t let this continue.
Chu Zhiqin could clearly hear the crisp cracking sound of the barrier. She had to wake Leng Junzhu up or re-seal the demonic energy in Leng Junzhu’s body before the demonic energy leaked through the cracks in the barrier.
Waking Leng Junzhu was clearly not a viable option.
Chu Zhiqin called “Leng Junzhu” several times without a response. She tried calling “Senior Sister,” but unexpectedly, the demonic energy in Leng Junzhu’s body became even more uncontrollable. Chu Zhiqin was instantly pinned to the spot, unable to move.
Another crack appeared in the barrier.
Chu Zhiqin took a deep breath. Only one path remained before her: re-sealing the demonic energy in Leng Junzhu’s body.
…
She drew her Wuyou Sword, splitting open the surging demonic energy like a colossal wave before her. She passed through the gap and arrived in front of Leng Junzhu.
Leng Junzhu’s state was already on the verge of collapse.
Her golden snake eyes were completely consumed by demonic energy, and black demonic patterns writhed across her pale skin. In a trance, Chu Zhiqin thought she wasn’t seeing a person, but a blooming twin lotus in a swamp.
The lotus was divided in two by black and white; the white was sacred and translucent, the black eerie and evil. One black and one white, both righteous and evil, contradictory yet self-consistent.
A clear, cold floral fragrance mixed with a sweet, bloody scent, luring Chu Zhiqin into the swamp to become nourishment for the flower.
She stepped in. The Wuyou Sword in her hand hummed incessantly, but Chu Zhiqin ignored it and continued forward.
With every step, the barrier gained another crack. By the time Chu Zhiqin stood before Leng Junzhu, the barrier was at its end, just a sliver away from complete collapse.
Chu Zhiqin tenderly stroked Leng Junzhu’s face. Her pale cheeks and slender neck were bulging with veins, clearly indicating that Leng Junzhu was suffering immense shock and pain at this moment.
“Don’t be afraid, it will be alright soon.”
The Wuyou Sword in Chu Zhiqin’s hand transformed into a delicate, small dagger, its tip gleaming with cold light. As their foreheads touched, the sharp dagger pierced her heart.
—Chu Zhiqin extracted a drop of her heart bl00d.
Her Qiankun Ring contained no magical artifacts capable of sealing such demonic energy. She could only take out her own heart bl00d and feed it to Leng Junzhu.
With her heart bl00d extracted, Chu Zhiqin’s face instantly turned pale. Her tongue, coated with her heart bl00d, kissed Leng Junzhu’s lips. However, the unconscious Leng Junzhu’s lips were tightly sealed. Chu Zhiqin had no choice but to carefully conceal the heart bl00d and use her tongue to pry open Leng Junzhu’s lips.
Upon tasting the familiar flavor, Leng Junzhu’s tightly clenched jaw finally loosened a bit. Taking this opportunity, Chu Zhiqin delivered the heart bl00d into her mouth.
The heart bl00d of a Deity Transformation stage cultivator was no ordinary substance; the spiritual energy contained within it was extraordinary. Leng Junzhu greedily swallowed it, then, without restraint, desired more from Chu Zhiqin.
She chased that playful little fish, intertwining, sucking, but the little fish could no longer produce such delicious food. In her anger, Leng Junzhu bit the little fish’s tail, preventing it from escaping.
A bloody taste spread in her mouth. With this bite from Leng Junzhu, Chu Zhiqin’s tongue became covered in bl00d.
The two had kissed countless times, but only this time was painful and bitter. More than a kiss, it was more appropriate to call it a fierce bite.
The swallowed heart bl00d began to take effect on Leng Junzhu. The violent demonic energy became docile, and the demonic patterns on her skin gradually faded. Chu Zhiqin seized the opportunity to knock Leng Junzhu unconscious, making her completely lose awareness.
The turbulent demonic energy quieted down. They were trapped by the barrier, unable to dissipate, and with Leng Junzhu unconscious, no one could absorb them. They could only wander within the barrier.
Chu Zhiqin held Leng Junzhu with one hand and took out a magical artifact from her Qiankun Ring with the other, preparing to first absorb all the demonic energy within the barrier, and then let Leng Junzhu refine it after she regained consciousness.
Unexpectedly, before the magical artifact could begin absorbing the demonic energy, the barrier collapsed.
It cracked from the top downwards, and the shattered barrier scattered in the air, turning into specks of light. Chu Zhiqin felt a great sense of foreboding. She could only send the magical artifact into the ground, letting it absorb the demonic energy there, while she herself summoned the Wuyou Sword and flew away, fleeing the area.
The rain was still falling.
The residents around the small courtyard only felt that the rain was too heavy and the thunder too frightening. However, the cultivators gathered in this area felt a demonic energy surge straight to their spiritual cores from the northwest of Qihe Town.
“Oh no, this demonic energy is no small matter! It might be one of the Twelve Demon Gods attacking!”
“No, no, I think it’s the Demon Lord kidnapped by Chu Zhiqin. Perhaps the two of them have fallen out and are fighting intensely.”
“Whether it’s a Demon God or the Demon Lord, we’ll know when we go. Are you all being so hesitant and unwilling to move because you’re scared?”
“You little bastard, who are you talking about? Your grandpa here has never known the meaning of fear since he was a child! Are you trying to provoke me because you’re scared yourself and don’t dare to go, trying to find someone to cover your back?”
“You—”
Such conversations were playing out in various tea houses and taverns in Qihe Town, yet no one was willing to move.
Only one person.
Less than a hundred li (about 50 km) from Qihe Town, Liu Rushuang turned back, stunned.