My Lady Always Lacks Ambition

Chapter 1283 - 1205: Biting Back, Underestimating Her

Mu Jin took the lifelike Paper Crane Qin Liuxi handed over, feeling a bit dazed for a moment, as if she couldn’t understand.

Qin Liuxi didn’t explain much. She could see Mu Jin’s determination to die and didn’t try to persuade her further. She only took out a Detoxification Pill from the Qiankun Bag, put it into a Jade Bottle, and handed it over as well.

"I don’t really understand, but I can somewhat empathize with the thoughts of those who tremble and scrape by under the crushing weight of imperial power. I know that among the great clans, there are always people who sacrifice themselves for the family, to fulfill the greater whole—whether it’s the Family Head, or a woman married out, there are always such people, because their lives are not their own to choose." Qin Liuxi said, "Just as seeking fortune and avoiding calamity is instinct, so too is the pursuit of gain human nature. How you choose is up to you. This Detoxification Pill can neutralize a hundred poisons. If you wish to live, as long as you swallow it, that poison will not take your life."

Mu Jin’s eyes reddened. Since she knew what "not having a choice" meant, she also knew she actually had very little choice.

"As for this Paper Crane—so long as you wish to live, you can live, but you’ll have to abandon everything and change the way you live." Qin Liuxi said, "The choice lies with you."

Mu Jin sniffed and said, "Why is the temple master so compassionate to me?"

Qin Liuxi was silent for a moment. "Because of cause and effect."

Mu Jin was stunned.

Qin Liuxi fed her an Elixir Pill and said, "Though the poisonous insect is gone, remnants of the poisonous insect venom are still there. I’ll give you a round of acupuncture. With Qi Qian not here, the inner residence losing its mistress and the child losing its mother is not a good thing."

The words of refusal that Mu Jin wanted to say stuck in her throat. She let Qin Liuxi needle her body. Warmth traveled through her limbs, and she actually fell asleep.

Qin Liuxi chanted the Heart-clearing and Calming Spell over her, then wrote a prescription and handed it to Nanny Wang before slipping away quietly.

When Mu Jin woke up, the hall was brightly lit. That person was already gone. Only the Paper Crane and the Jade Bottle sat safely by her pillow, proving she had been there.

She sat up, held the Paper Crane and stared at it in a daze for a while, tears streaming down.

Snowflakes were swirling in the air.

Qin Liuxi quietly appeared in Prince Zhao Mansion, found Prince Zhao, who was drunk into a pile of mud and completely unkempt, didn’t even bother with the sack this time, directly cast a silence spell and started beating him.

The dull thud of her fists landed on him one after another. He couldn’t even utter a grunt. There wasn’t the slightest wound on his face, but the bones in his body felt as if they’d been crushed over and over. The pain twisted his features into something ferocious. His mouth opened in a soundless howl, only for him to realize in terror that he couldn’t make a sound—and the person he saw had no face.

A ghost, there’s a ghost!

Prince Zhao panicked and was terrified, until the bones of his right thigh and right arm gave a sharp crack as she snapped them. His eyes rolled back, and he completely passed out.

Qin Liuxi gave a cold snort, then felt along the broken bones and, with a couple of cracks, set them back in place. Only, after being reconnected, they were shorter by a section, yet somehow no one would be able to tell at a glance.

Infinite Heavenly Venerate, I’m not killing him, just venting a bit with my fists.

After beating Prince Zhao, Qin Liuxi went to look for Yu Linglan. If it weren’t for the ideas of this adviser, how would Mu Jin have suffered that torment?

So he, too, was due for a beating.

Yu Linglan was poring over a scroll when his body suddenly stiffened. He looked toward the person who’d appeared out of thin air.

Qin Liuxi’s eyes narrowed slightly. That shouldn’t be. A mere mortal could perceive her arrival so keenly? There was something off.

Without thinking, she launched an attack at Yu Linglan.

With a boom.

Half the room was blown apart. The commotion immediately drew countless guards.

Yu Linglan took the opportunity to vanish into the night sky.

Sure enough, something was wrong.

Qin Liuxi’s figure blurred as she gave chase, hurling a Spell at him at the same time.

Rumble.

Purple Thunder struck Yu Linglan squarely, knocking him from midair to crash into an alley.

The crackle of lightning sizzled. Smoke curled up from his body. Yu Linglan coughed up a mouthful of blood, his hair blasted upright, his face charred black.

One hand braced on the ground, the other wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he sneered, "A dignified Righteous Disciple, using Taoist Techniques on ordinary people? Aren’t you afraid of heavenly retribution?"

"Let’s see if it dares to punish me." Qin Liuxi arrogantly glanced up at the night sky, then looked at him. "And you—an ordinary person? You’re just some petty Evil thing. Snatch a shell and you think that makes you human?"

Yu Linglan’s gaze flickered. "What Evil? I am a son of the Hidden Clan Yu Family, Young Master Boyin."

Whoosh.

Qin Liuxi blinked across space in an instant, arriving right in front of him. Her hand closed around his throat. A faintly familiar aura seeped from his body into her palm, and she instinctively tightened her grip.

Yu Linglan’s eyes flushed red, his voice halting. "You dare kill a man?"

As he spoke, his eyes shifted rapidly—now terrified, now mocking—as if two souls were tugging back and forth inside him.

"A demonic possession ghost—what wouldn’t I dare kill?" Qin Liuxi sneered. She removed the Heavenly Pearl from her neck, looped it around his, and pulled it tight.

Yu Linglan’s eyes bulged, yet his soul still didn’t float free of his body.

Qin Liuxi formed a Spell on the Heavenly Pearl. The Heavenly Pearl emitted a dazzling golden light, transforming into an icy-cold hook. The pressure of its aura enveloped Yu Linglan entirely, and a wisp of yin soul was gradually hooked out from his spiritual platform.

It was a man about the same age as Yu Linglan, struggling ceaselessly inside the Heavenly Pearl, and on that yin soul was a trace of Divine Sense imprint she knew well.

It belonged to her old rival, Si Luo.

She had always felt something off about Yu Linglan, but the Qiankun Mirror hadn’t revealed anything. So it was because that Divine Sense imprint had been placed on this yin soul, and at that time her cultivation was far inferior to now, so she hadn’t fully detected it.

Who knew how long this yin soul had been in demonic possession? It fit Yu Linglan’s Physical Body so well that he’d never shown the slightest abnormality. Qin Liuxi reached out and seized the yin soul.

No—he had possessed this body for so long and never slipped up, even in front of her several times, yet now he had exposed himself.

A trap!

Almost at the same instant, as that strand of Divine Sense shot along her hand into her meridians, a thought flared in her heart. Karmic Fire surged up from her meridians, wrapping right around that Divine Sense.

Want to bite me? I’ll bite back!

Sin Fire like Lotus—searing and overbearing, with nowhere to hide and nowhere to flee.

The yin soul let out a shrill, piercing scream, then was reduced to ashes. That strand of Divine Sense was likewise incinerated, leaving no trace behind.

With the Divine Sense burned away, its owner Si Luo immediately suffered backlash. His Divine Mansion took unprecedented damage, his soul shuddered, nearly tearing itself forcibly away from the Physical Body he was in.

He was shocked beyond words. How could this be?

But before he could act, the soul deep within his Divine Mansion seized the chance to counterattack.

Si Luo’s hands formed a complex series of Dharma Seals and slapped them onto his spiritual platform. Around him, a whirlwind rose up, sucking in all the surrounding Spiritual Energy and channeling it into the Buddha Bone embedded in various parts of his body, then merging it into his damaged soul, forcefully suppressing the soul body that was attempting to retaliate.

The two forces wrestled within his Divine Mansion, while the wind and snow at his side spun into a vortex, spiraling ever upward. Someone happened to see it, and was dumbfounded.

A tornado or a waterspout isn’t exactly a rare sight, but what is this—tornado snow?

Si Luo stroked his spiritual platform, licked his pale lips, and let out a low chuckle. Red Lotus Karma Fire?

He had truly underestimated her!

His expression gradually hardened. His once gentle eyes turned blood-red, like an endless Blood Sea.