The Villainess Always Tries to Seduce Me - Chapter 49

Ling Shui stood frozen in shock, utterly bewildered. Blackie, overwhelmed with grief, suddenly disintegrated into dozens of spirit stones, which rolled mournfully across the ground.

The scene descended into chaos. Bai Fenghuo’s long lashes trembled, the fury that had gripped her moments before completely vanished. She slipped her arm beneath the girl’s knees, effortlessly lifting her into a horizontal carry, and strode swiftly toward the main hall.

Seeing that Bai Fenghuo had no intention of truly killing Yun Chuanzhi, Ling Shui, who had been paralyzed with fear, finally regained her composure and hurried after him.

The babbling old woman remained bound in the center of the hall. Bai Fenghuo carried Yun Chuanzhi through a side door into an empty side chamber, gently laid her down, and focused spiritual energy into her palm, slowly pressing it against her chest.

“Sect Leader, Yun Chuanzhi, she…”

“Quiet,” Bai Fenghuo interrupted, releasing her spiritual energy to probe Yun Chuanzhi’s body. The energy surged through her meridians at lightning speed, lifting her seaweed-like hair into the air as if she were submerged in an endless sea.

Sweat streamed down her forehead, shimmering like shattered glass.

Her pulse was faint, her Spirit Platform chaotic. The more Bai Fenghuo probed, the more her heart raced with panic. Overwhelmed by helplessness, she clenched her free hand into a fist, the silver beads on her sleeve digging into her trembling, bloodless fingers.

She hadn’t meant to kill her.

Bai Fenghuo simply extended both hands, channeling all her spiritual energy into Yun Chuanzhi’s Spirit Platform. The overwhelming energy radiated through the cramped room, spilling out through cracks in the windows and door, until the entire courtyard glowed with a soft, ethereal light.

Under this massive influx of spiritual energy, color finally returned to Yun Chuanzhi’s face. Her erratic pulse gradually stabilized, and her heart began to beat strongly again.

Only when Yun Chuanzhi’s fingertip twitched did Bai Fenghuo finally awaken from her trance, curling her palm slightly and cutting off the flow of spiritual energy.

Without a word, she lowered her hands, turned, and stepped out of the room.

“Yun Chuanzhi!” Ling Shui rushed to the bedside, her fingertips probing Yun Chuanzhi’s pulse. Blackie, meanwhile, rolled in from the doorway, its puppet body leaping and bounding as it desperately clung to Yun Chuanzhi’s arm.

Yun Chuanzhi opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Blackie’s pale face, then she turned her head to see Ling Shui’s tear-streaked face.

She blinked, confused. “Why are you crying? Did someone die?”

She turned her head again and realized she was lying in bed. She sat up abruptly, felt her neck, and, finding her head still attached, let out a long sigh of relief.

“You were the one who fainted,” Ling Shui said, relieved, as she placed a soft pillow behind Yun Chuanzhi. “I’ve never seen the Sect Leader so anxious, even channeling her spiritual energy into you.”

“Looking at her expression, I almost thought you wouldn’t make it,” Ling Shui sighed, her eyes weary with worry. “Thank goodness you’re alright.”

“Bai Fenghuo choked me unconscious?” Yun Chuanzhi blinked in surprise. She hadn’t felt much force. Though Bai Fenghuo had acted fiercely, she had clearly restrained herself. How could it have been enough to make her faint?

Yet her limbs were weak, and she remembered a period of unconsciousness, like falling asleep. She must have fainted after all.

Strange, Yun Chuanzhi thought. Could it be because I was too close to the Great Demon? My cultivation isn’t strong enough to steady my mind, so I was overwhelmed, just like those villagers whose minds were devoured?

“Where’s the Sect Leader?” Yun Chuanzhi suddenly remembered Bai Fenghuo and asked.

Though her limbs felt slightly sore, she could move freely. Thanks to Bai Fenghuo’s spiritual energy, her strength was gradually returning. Yun Chuanzhi quickly got out of bed.

She instructed Ling Shui to watch over the delirious old man, then tucked Blackie away and headed toward the courtyard, where the sky was already darkening.

Bai Fenghuo stood there, the hem of her robe fluttering in the breeze. For the first time, her tall, slender figure exuded an air of loneliness as she gazed up at the courtyard. The sky remained a dull gray, utterly empty, not even a single bird flying across it.

Yun Chuanzhi stood beneath the eaves, nervously touching her neck. Gathering her courage, she stepped forward and called out, “Sect Leader.”

Hearing her voice, Bai Fenghuo’s shoulders stiffened momentarily. She lowered her head, neither looking at Yun Chuanzhi nor speaking.

“What are you looking at?” Yun Chuanzhi asked with a smile, tilting her head to gaze upward as well. “It’s getting dark. Are we staying here tonight?”

He deliberately pretended nothing had happened. The Great Demon was still lurking in the shadows, Cheng Jinshu and the other Immortal Cultivators remained missing, and an entire city had been turned into corpses… But somehow, they had to move past this.

“No,” Bai Fenghuo finally replied, her voice much softer than usual. “Later, This Seat will inspect the houses of the dead. Perhaps we can find clues about the mist.”

“Alright,” Yun Chuanzhi nodded. “I’ll come with you.”

“I nearly killed you just now. Aren’t you afraid?” Bai Fenghuo asked, her back straight as she stared at the moss clinging to the nearby wall, her voice low and heavy.

“You didn’t actually kill me,” Yun Chuanzhi said, touching her neck. “I just fainted on my own.”

Bai Fenghuo remained silent. Yun Chuanzhi had no choice but to step in front of her, blocking her gaze with her own face. Bai Fenghuo turned her head away, avoiding her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Bai Fenghuo suddenly said.

“What?” Yun Chuanzhi froze, wondering if she had misheard. Bai Fenghuo, whose pride was higher than the heavens, was actually apologizing to him?

“This Seat said, I’m sorry,” Bai Fenghuo repeated softly.

The moment the girl closed her eyes in her palm, she had truly felt fear—a fear that still lingered in her heart, refusing to dissipate.

Under the darkening twilight, a faint blush rose on Bai Fenghuo’s cheeks. She took a step forward, nudged Yun Chuanzhi aside with her shoulder, unlatched the locked door, and stepped into the evening wind swirling with sand.

Yun Chuanzhi stood frozen for a long moment, savoring the apology over and over. Then, a smile curving her lips, she strode after her.

At dusk, Jade Gathering City felt even more desolate and sinister than during the day. The dilapidated houses lining the streets resembled rows of tombstones, a heavy deathly aura permeating the city. Even the sound of falling leaves seemed like the tolling of a death knell, sending shivers down one’s spine.

The two tacitly avoided mentioning what had just happened. Bai Fenghuo regained her usual composure, her gaze sweeping over the restless shadows lurking behind the windows and doors.

“They seem terrified,” Yun Chuanzhi remarked, glancing around. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something might burst out from those dark windows. “They’re already dead. What could they possibly be afraid of?”

“The same things they feared in life,” Bai Fenghuo replied flatly. She suddenly stopped before a relatively intact house. Behind it, a fenced sheepfold stood empty, save for a pile of bleached bones.

Firecracker debris was embedded in the doorstep, suggesting a recent celebration. Yun Chuanzhi rummaged through the weeds and unearthed a torn tiger-head shoe.

The fragment was embroidered with auspicious patterns in gold thread, clearly the work of a loving mother.

Bai Fenghuo glanced at the shoe and waved her hand lightly. The wooden planks nailed over the windows and doors splintered apart, and the door itself fell off its hinges. Simultaneously, two ashen hands with claw-like nails shot out from the pitch-black doorway, aiming straight for Bai Fenghuo’s face.

Bai Fenghuo didn’t even flinch. Two silken ribbons, whipped by the sleeve’s wind, coiled around the wrists, yanking the hands out of the doorway with a whoosh. A withered corpse was dragged into the sunlight, crashing to the ground with a piercing shriek.

As the screams continued, the body began to crumble. The desiccated flesh rotted from the eyeballs outward, until the entire corpse had turned to dust, its stench carried away by the wind.

Bai Fenghuo pinched her nose with her fingertips, her dark brows furrowing slightly. Yun Chuanzhi swiftly offered her a handkerchief scented with essential oils. Bai Fenghuo gracefully accepted it, pressing it to her nose until her expression returned to normal.

“Judging by the body, this was an elderly man,” Yun Chuanzhi said, squatting down as if accustomed to the task to examine the charred bones.

With Bai Fenghuo present, she no longer felt fear. She stepped into the house, the stench inside bringing tears to her eyes. She pulled out a flameless light rod and pressed the button, filling the small room with bright light.

Inside were two interconnected bedrooms. In addition to the elderly man, it appeared a couple and their infant had also lived here. But they were nowhere to be found. Even the infant’s toys—a rattle drum and a dough figurine—remained in the cradle, stark reminders of the happiness that had once filled this home.

Yun Chuanzhi and Bai Fenghuo opened several more houses in succession, finding similar scenes. The corpses were mostly those of children, single women and women, or the elderly, but couples and infants were conspicuously absent.

When Bai Fenghuo emerged from the last house, her face was already pale. She couldn’t bear the filthy environment any longer. Closing her eyes briefly, she leaned closer to Yun Chuanzhi.

The faint scent of soapberry on the young woman’s clothes helped to dispel some of her discomfort.

“Let’s go back,” Bai Fenghuo said, casually brushing her shoulder against Yun Chuanzhi’s.

The pair quickly returned to the old man’s courtyard. In this squalid city, the neatly swept yard felt as luxurious as a tavern. Entering the main hall, they found the old woman still bound in her reclining chair, while Ling Shui sat beside him, dozing with her head bowed.

“Sect Leader,” Ling Shui said, her eyes snapping open at the sound of their arrival. She straightened up.

“Has she said anything else?” Bai Fenghuo asked.

“Just the same things as before: beehive, thick fog, infants, eating… I can’t tell who’s eating whom,” Ling Shui replied softly. “But after dark, her muttering seemed to grow louder.”

Yun Chuanzhi glanced at the wide-eyed old woman and said, “I’ll get her some food. We can’t let the only living person starve to death.”

As she turned to leave, a sharp pain pierced her eardrums. Glancing back, she realized the old woman was screaming, her voice distorted into an eerie, discordant wail that made everyone in the room wince.

“It’s coming! Take me, take me…” she cried, her voice breaking into sobs. “It’s here, Yin Yin, Yin Yin…”

What’s coming? Yun Chuanzhi’s eyes widened. Bai Fenghuo, unable to bear the sound, flicked a beam of purple light toward the old man. Though it didn’t silence her directly, it seemed to encase her voice in a glass dome, muffling the piercing shriek.

Ling Shui looked up in shock. “Yin Yin… is that her missing daughter? Then ‘it’ must be…”

“The dense fog outside the city,” Yun Chuanzhi said. “It seems the fog hasn’t spared Jade Gathering City after all. Instead, it expands outward periodically.”

“This expansion isn’t about consumption, but selection,” Yun Chuanzhi continued quickly. “Those who don’t meet the criteria are killed; those who do are taken. As for who’s being taken, how they’re being taken, and what they’re being taken for… we have no way of knowing.”

At that moment, Bai Fenghuo, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke: “The fog is coming.”

Her cultivation was high, and her divine sense had already extended beyond the door, detecting the dense fog crawling like rolling black clouds.

“Sect Leader, I’ll cover your escape,” Ling Shui said, her fair face flushed with tension as she gripped her long whip tightly, her gaze fixed resolutely on the rumbling, vibrating door.

Time was running out, but Bai Fenghuo spoke languidly, “There’s no escape. The fog has already reached the door. Ling Shui, go seal the windows and doors tightly.”

Ling Shui hurried away. Perhaps because the house’s owner was a Mechanist, the gaps in the doors and windows had been sealed with rubber strips—possibly the reason the old woman had survived so long.

But after many days and nights, those seals were no longer airtight.

Yun Chuanzhi was about to help Ling Shui when a silken ribbon suddenly coiled around her waist, yanking her backward into Bai Fenghuo’s arms. A warm, soft body pressed against her back, its rich fragrance enveloping her.

Yun Chuanzhi couldn’t help but swallow hard.

“You don’t need to go,” Bai Fenghuo murmured from behind her, her voice laced with amusement, gentle yet cunning.

“Tonight, you’ll be with This Seat, playing the role of newlywed lovers for the night.”