The Villain Fox's Sickly Beauty Master - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: It Was With This Sword That I Pierced Fu Yi’s Heart.

In fact, when Jiang Jinheng stopped, she felt a damp, stuffy heat around her. Such a condition was unusual in a desert area. Now, smelling an increasingly strong stench and feeling her body sinking due to the collapse of the illusion, she guessed she was inside a snake’s belly.

Her footing was now collapsing, which also meant the illusion was collapsing. Jiang Jinheng let out a breath, enveloped herself in spiritual energy, and sat cross-legged, suspended in mid-air, quietly waiting.

She had heard that the previous Demon Venerable’s contracted beast was a Teng Snake, a master of illusion techniques. It relied on its pair of Nether Illusion Eyes (Youming Huantong) to make many cultivators lose their minds with a single glance, causing them to raise their swords against friends and family. In the end, it took the combined efforts of over ten Mahayana-stage (Dachengqi) great experts to bring about the Demon Venerable’s demise here, but no one knew where the contracted beast went.

The Teng Snake was an ancient auspicious beast. Jiang Jinheng had once asked her Master, He Yun, why this divine beast would willingly be contracted by the Demon Race. At that time, her Master had just smiled and stroked her head:

“Demon Venerable Fentian was originally a Sword Venerable of the Thousand Crags Sword Sect. That Teng Snake had a prior connection with her. As for why they both fell into demonhood, no one knows the exact reason.”

After telling the story, He Yun had left a final remark that Jiang Jinheng still remembered clearly:

“Jinheng, although many cultivators regard demons and evil beings as the same, I still want to tell you that just as there are bad people, there are naturally good demons. If you encounter something you should cherish in the future, no matter the species, do not let the tragedy of your childhood repeat itself.”

Jiang Jinheng had always kept the incident she referred to etched in her heart. However, it was rare to hear this woman, who usually maintained a stunningly gorgeous appearance, speak so earnestly. After all, in the past, she often took beautiful female cultivators out drinking, and when traveling outside without revealing her name, she would often be mistaken for a female cultivator from the Joyful Union Sect (Huanhe Zong).

He Yun reluctantly served as the Sect Master of the Azure Vast Immortal Sect for so many years. On her one-thousand-two-hundredth birthday, she finally passed the burden to Xuan Mingzi, suddenly announcing that she was going on a journey.

Jiang Jinheng was just over a hundred years old when she left the sect. Now, another century has rolled by. She wondered where her Master was now. It had been too long; she actually missed her a little.

It was because Jiang Jinheng always remembered He Yun’s words that she felt ashamed of the actions of her counterpart in the original story. Since joining the sect, Fu Yi had never done anything to harm anyone. Why would she draw that sword without hesitation?

As she closed her eyes to rest, everything around Jiang Jinheng transformed again. She seemed to be trapped in a dark, secluded cave. The sandy ground where she had stood turned into a slippery, viscous substance. Stepping on it seemed to press out a dent that sprang back.

Jiang Jinheng retracted the spiritual energy enveloping herself. She raised her hand and summoned a pale blue flame, letting it hover in the air to illuminate the surroundings, which were also stained with the same color.

Jiang Jinheng looked around and confirmed her inner suspicion, but then frowned. She was born late and only knew half-truths about the events of a thousand years ago, relying on the words of others and some documented records.

It was said that in that final battle, this Teng Snake had evolved into an eighth-rank demon beast, equivalent to a human cultivator in the mid-Mahayana stage.

Since the contract for contracted beasts was usually either a master-servant contract or a life-bond contract (the former allowing the beast to shield its master from death, and the latter sharing the life force between master and beast), after the war ended and the Demon Venerable perished, others assumed the Teng Snake also vanished. But now…

Two possibilities gradually surfaced in Jiang Jinheng’s mind: either they had dissolved the contract at the last moment, or… the Demon Venerable was still alive.

She suddenly recalled the vivid account given by the ordinary disciple before entering the Secret Realm, and a bad premonition surged in her heart. Her current cultivation was barely at the Body Integration (Heti) mid-stage, and she had already sent out a clone, which meant she could only exert the strength of the Soul Transformation (Huashén) stage. If it were a seventh-rank demon beast, she would still have the energy, but an eighth-rank demon beast…

Not to mention the possible presence of the former Demon Venerable, whose fate was unknown.

At this moment, 007’s voice, which had been silent for a while, rang out, sounding very flustered.

Host, I was just trying to apply for a higher credit limit for your points, but I haven’t received a reply yet. What should we do now?

One of the reasons for choosing Jiang Jinheng as the task-taker for this small world was her exceptional ability, assuming that no highly dangerous situations would arise during the mission’s progress. Yet, the mission had just begun, and they ran into such a huge problem.

The safety of the task-taker’s life was as important as the mission itself. If they fell into danger, the usual course of action was to rewind time. However, the timeline had just been reset. Rashly rewinding time now could lead to an explosive increase in unstable factors in the small world. Moreover, they hadn’t even figured out when, where, and why she entered the Secret Realm. Even rewinding time would be futile.

That was why 007 first asked Jiang Jinheng, to see if she had any solution.

Jiang Jinheng rarely felt such pressure, but one thing perplexed her greatly.

Generally, neither demons nor humans would cast an illusion while physically inside it, simply because the caster itself was the flaw in the technique. If the true body were struck, the illusion would naturally break.

Furthermore, this Teng Snake cast such a large illusion here, seemingly only to trap her, without doing anything to harm her.

This illogical behavior led Jiang Jinheng to wonder if she was still caught in a second layer of illusion—whether the snake’s belly she saw was also an illusion.

Unfortunately, the Teng Snake was an ancient auspicious beast. This one was at least an eighth-rank. It already possessed an indestructible body. Otherwise, Jiang Jinheng would truly want to try to cut open the snake’s belly directly to see clearly.

007, realizing Jiang Jinheng’s thoughts, suddenly recalled something and blurted out:

Compared to the entire body, the heart area should be a little weaker. Even if it has the bloodline of an auspicious beast and is at the eighth rank, that should still be a weakness, right?

Having only been active for a few days, 007 didn’t know much about the species in this world, but the current situation called for desperate measures.

007’s suggestion made Jiang Jinheng’s eyes light up. Unfortunately, all she had with her were some talismans for instant travel and a flute, neither of which was suitable for launching such an attack…

Staying like this was not a solution. Jiang Jinheng estimated the width of the snake’s belly, and combined with information from books, she relayed the estimated length of the snake’s body to 007.

“Xiao Qi, use your… computation to help me measure the approximate location. Also, do you have a way to send Chongxiao from my sleeping hall over here?”

No problem! It will just cost fifty points of Aura of Destiny.

“It’s fine, as long as it’s enough.”

As the words fell, a black iron sword carrying a chilling aura appeared horizontally in front of Jiang Jinheng. The sword was still sheathed, but the blade trembled, emitting a resonant zheng zheng sound, which only quieted when Jiang Jinheng’s hand rested on the scabbard.

Jiang Jinheng admitted that part of her initial decision not to bring it was a private one.

After all, in that story, it was with this very sword that she had pierced Fu Yi’s heart.