“Save you, so you can bite me back again?” Su Zhuyi glanced sideways at the willow tree and sneered.

You tried to kill me and failed, and now that you’ve fallen into my hands, you want me to save you?

Hehe, this was her kind of demonic behavior. If Su Zhuyi had accidentally fallen once back in the day, she would have acted pitiful to gain sympathy, too. She was beautiful and knew a bit of charm magic, and there were several times she had truly managed to confuse people, turn danger into safety, and save her life.

Back then, she seemed to have used this very reason to successfully escape from Qin Jianglan’s hands once.

Zhang Enning and his old willow tree really had the style of her previous life, but their skill wasn’t enough yet, or perhaps they were unlucky to encounter her, this iron-hearted Heart-Eating Demoness.

The willow tree was speechless after being choked by her words. It wasn’t very good at talking to begin with, and now it just stood there silently with a drooping head. After a long while, it said, “Soaking here seems to have a little effect.”

Zhang Enning had too much fierce, baleful energy in his body. Although it had been cultivated for so many years, it was originally just an ordinary old tree that had gained spiritual energy and weak intelligence by chance. Even if it had originally been as benevolent as a mountain and river spirit, under ten years of fierce, baleful energy influence, the changes in it were considerable. Moreover, it had acknowledged Zhang Enning as its master through soul connection, so it couldn’t disobey its master’s commands. When Zhang Enning ordered it to attack Su Zhuyi earlier, it had no choice.

However, now those fierce baleful energies seemed to have restrained considerably, and it felt much better. Crouching by the cesspit, the willow tree quietly extended its roots into it. Since it was a tree, it wasn’t particularly repulsed by such things. In the past, villagers had poured manure water on their feet, and many wild dogs had urinated on it – it was used to all that.

Now with its little feet deeply inserted, it even felt its entire body had become much more relaxed.

Su Zhuyi: “…”

While she was talking with the willow tree, Zhang Enning in the cesspit struggled desperately. The scene of that sea of filth churning was truly unbearable to watch, but she couldn’t not watch. This method of dispelling evil would have little effect in a short time. After all, Qinghe had voluntarily soaked and stayed submerged quietly once he sank in, while this guy was desperately resisting, making everything disgustingly messy. And although there was some effect, it was too weak – her spiritual energy barrier was about to be broken through. This wasn’t a solution.

But how exactly should this boy be dealt with appropriately?

Killing him directly, she worried about the Heavenly Dao causing trouble. Moreover, Qinghe, as a backup, was quite reliable. Having spent so much time with him, she didn’t want Qinghe to walk the old path again. Both Qinghe and Luo Ying had changed because of her. She had already been struck by lightning several times, so she deserved it. If they truly returned to square one, she would feel she had been struck for nothing.

Ignoring him? This boy wanted to kill her and hated her to the point of gnashing teeth. Releasing a tiger back to the mountain would leave future troubles. This wasn’t her style of doing things.

She turned to ask the willow tree, pointing at Zhang Enning, “Why does he hate me so much? We had a master-disciple relationship after all. If I hadn’t taught him to guide energy into his body back then, wouldn’t he have died long ago?”

The willow tree answered somewhat hesitantly, “His mother died.”

“I didn’t kill her.” Su Zhuyi pouted. Kill whoever killed your mother. The Xueluo Sect did it, so go slaughter the entire Xueluo Sect. Even if you don’t spare the cats and dogs the sect raised and wipe them all out, that’s fine. Why does trouble come to me?

Su Zhuyi had also killed people like cutting grass before, but she would always find a reason, even if she found you unpleasing or thought you were ugly – that could count as a reason. Later, to repair the Liuguang Mirror, she had also killed many living beings. She could kill people at will, but this kind of hatred without reason was somewhat incredible. If killing is because of hatred, then go find the source of that hatred. Why hate her?

It was like how she hated her father, so she could exterminate the entire Su family of Yongan Town. But at that time, she hadn’t touched a single other resident of Yongan Town.

“You told me back then that in a year and a half, there would be evil people…” The willow tree’s voice became even lower when it reached this point.

“Oh, so you’re the one who sold me out.” Su Zhuyi chuckled, “Do you know that revealing heavenly secrets will bring divine thunder punishment?”

“Mm, in mortal terms, revealing heavenly secrets and defying fate to change destiny will shorten one’s lifespan.”

“If not for me, you wouldn’t have survived.” She turned to look at Zhang Enning, “You wouldn’t even have had the chance to avenge your mother, because you had no way to cultivate. You couldn’t have subdued the old tree, couldn’t have avoided disaster, and would have died there together with your mother.”

“Now you hate me instead?” Su Zhuyi crouched down, looking at Zhang Enning struggling constantly in the cesspit, saying word by word, “If I were you, I would have taken mother and left Changning Village long ago. After all, villagers were constantly molesting one’s mother, and even though one had gained some strength and subdued the old tree, the old tree back then was still pure, kind, and naive. With its help, going to a small sect to become a disciple would have been completely feasible. Why not take your mother and fly far away?”

Su Zhuyi chuckled twice and continued talking to herself, “Because Changning Village was remote, practicing evil and heretical techniques wouldn’t be easily discovered. Plus, many cultivator corpses were found that could be used for cultivation. Collecting spirit stones and soul pearls, one could experiment with the techniques taught in those secret manuals. After succeeding, one could even kill all the villagers who had previously insulted mother…”

She glanced sideways at the willow tree. “Am I right?”

The willow tree stood there dumbly without moving, and even Zhang Enning’s struggling in the cesspit weakened somewhat.

Su Zhuyi spat toward the cesspit, but since she had set up a spiritual energy barrier, the spit didn’t fall into the cesspit.

Zhang Enning had had opportunities to choose, but he had taken the wrong path. Perhaps the Heavenly Dao wasn’t completely irreversible either. If Zhang Enning had given up Ji Wuxin’s inheritance back then, given up refining those living corpses, and instead taken his mother away from Changning Village to other sects to learn, the outcome would have been different. After all, the old tree had acknowledged him as master – he already had other opportunities.

Zhang Enning had once had opportunities to choose, but he had been immersed in Ji Wuxin’s cultivation methods and couldn’t extricate himself.

And in her previous life, she had had one opportunity to choose as well, only that one time. After that, during her growth process, she had no more choices. It was either you die or I live.

She had chosen to let Qin Jianglan take Su Qingxun away.

She thought she still had a chance, waiting for him to come back and save her.

He had said, “Don’t be afraid, wait for me.”

But Su Zhuyi never waited for him to come save her. She waited for nothing and thus embarked on a blood-stained path. However, she didn’t particularly regret it. Her father was a thoroughly vicious person who could advance to become a flying corpse even after death. As his daughter, she was probably black-hearted by nature. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have become the sharpest blade in the Xueluo Sect in such a short time.

Thinking of this, Su Zhuyi unconsciously raised her hand to touch the jade hairpin in her hair.

Qin Jianglan, in your previous life, you told me to wait for you, but you never came.

Now, you had Little Skull relay a message telling me to wait for you to cross boundaries and come over. This time, how long do you plan to make me wait?

Are you really in the Liuguang Mirror, or somewhere else entirely?

…

Having been slightly distracted, when Su Zhuyi came back to her senses and looked at Zhang Enning, covered in yellow and white filth, she felt another headache coming.

She thought for a moment, then took out the communication talisman Qinghe had given her and asked, “Senior brother, you’re the Longquan Sword now. You know about soul stones, right?”

“Mm,” Qinghe responded quite quickly.

“I caught a sacrificial offering for the Longquan Sword. He’s eaten many soul stones, and now his aura is similar to the Longquan Sword’s.” Su Zhuyi said. Before she finished speaking, she heard Qinghe’s tone become more urgent, “Where is he?”

“I threw him in a cesspit.” Su Zhuyi said, “How should I deal with this? Should I kill him directly?”

“Don’t act. If he dies, the vengeful spirits and grievances in the soul stones will return to the Longquan Sword. I’ll meet up with you as soon as possible.”

Hearing Qinghe say this, Su Zhuyi understood. It was good that she had asked Qinghe.

Soul stones were created by the Longquan Sword to find supplements for itself. Its sword body was sealed, so it expelled grievances to make soul stones, attracting cultivators to approach and deliver themselves to be devoured, and also going out to kill people for it to consume. Now that many grievances were staying in Zhang Enning’s body, Qinghe’s pressure was much less. If Zhang Enning died, the grievances would return to Qinghe’s body. In that case, the delicate balance between Qinghe and the Longquan Sword would be broken, and Qinghe would very likely lose control.

In that case, this boy couldn’t just die casually.

So before Qinghe arrived, she could only guard by the cesspit.

After about half an hour, Zhang Enning’s struggle weakened. The expression on his face returned to normal, and his sanity gradually recovered. Seeing his situation, he said with red eyes, “Su Zhuyi, I’ll kill you!”

“Shut up!” Su Zhuyi glared at him and scolded, “Bad breath!”