Take the Villain’s Path and Push the Villain off the Cliff
Ye—Shu—sheng—
Ye Shusheng! What are you doing, Ye Shusheng?!
Weren’t you supposed to be studying at Shaolin Temple—no, Thousand Lantern Temple?! How did you somehow end up in the Demon Lord’s bedchamber?!
Of course, Shu Fu believed that he was steadfast and unyielding, brave and resolute, and would never offer himself up as a pillow like Xiao Hanyi or Mink Gu. The only reason Ye Shusheng had become “Lady Ye” was surely that he had been forced into the palace by Demon Lord Ninglu.
…Damn, that sounded like the plot of a danmei or female-dominance novel.
Stop! This absolutely did not belong in the romance section!
Probably not!
After all, she had been transmigrated for so many years that she no longer had a clear idea of what counted as the romance section these days!
One moment Shu Fu was worrying about Ye Shusheng, and the next she could not help thinking back to that tourmaline that had shaken her father for a hundred years. She felt as though she were lying on a bed of needles, wishing she could jump up at once and ram her head through the canopy bed.
Jiang Xuesheng noticed that she was getting restless. His arm tightened, locking her securely against him, while his chin rested atop her head and allowed her not the slightest room to move.
[Fu’er, don’t act rashly. If you get hurt, how will you face Ling Fengqing on the arena stage?]
For some reason, although the signal had clearly been sent, Liu Ruyi still did not respond.
This underground palace had been left behind by demonic cultivators from a thousand years ago. Could he have discovered some clue while exploring it alone? Or perhaps he had wandered into a maze formation and lost contact with the outside world?
Demon Lord Ninglu was no pushover. He was not like He Xiuwen, who had padded his cultivation with pills and was nothing but a waterlogged Nascent Soul. If he wanted to keep Shu Fu and Ye Shusheng completely unharmed, he had to identify her weakness and could not act rashly.
Who knew where Liu Ruyi had gone? For now, Jiang Xuesheng decided to stew a big goose in his imagination.
If Liu Ruyi had run into some other trouble, he could always fish him out of the pot later.
Jiang Xuesheng did indeed care for his disciples and the descendants of the dragon and phoenix clans. But people like Liu Ruyi and Wu Yao, who could establish their own sects if tossed outside, hardly needed his concern.
As for Shu Fu, the sheer amount of information crammed into that one minute had been too much. Her soul had practically left her body. She had a mouthful of blood caught in her throat, neither able to spit it out nor swallow it, and was suffering miserably.
Jiang Xuesheng’s divine incarnation was as large as an oversized action figure. He had swept her into his arms, and she was completely enveloped in the cool, clean fragrance of moon orchids. But she had no time to feel her heart fluttering. She was focused entirely on Ye Shusheng’s chastity.
—Ye Shusheng, hold yourself together!
As for Master Huaigu’s token of love… could it be…? Sigh. She would think about that later. In any case, it was not her house that was going to collapse.
If Demon Lord Ninglu wanted to fool around with her male companion, Shu Fu could stand by and do nothing. But an innocent, respectable young man had been dragged into the affair. Perhaps he had even gone to Thousand Lantern Temple for an exchange and learned some body-cultivation technique for guarding his essential yang from the monks. If she did nothing, her conscience would feel uneasy.
[Sir, loosen your grip a little. You’re holding me too tightly.]
Shu Fu pressed one hand against Jiang Xuesheng’s chest and struggled to poke half her face out of his embrace. She tried to look over his shoulder through the gap beneath the bed.
From this angle, she happened to have a clear view of Mink Gu rolling and writhing on the floor. One of his forepaws had swollen into an enormous pig’s trotter, and his screams sounded exactly like a pig being butchered halfway through the process.
He was a vain mink, and it would hardly be surprising if someone skinned him one day. Even so, seeing him in such a state made him seem rather pitiful.
“Little Gu, this is where you went wrong.”
Demon Lord Ninglu moved with dainty, graceful steps, letting out a string of round, sweet giggles as melodious as wind chimes tinkling merrily in summer. “Just because I’ve grown tired of the old and taken a liking to the new, you had to steal my jewelry and run away? You’re still young and inexperienced, child. You really are too impatient.”
Her voice was so sweet it could have been dipped in honey. It was soft and lilting, like a young girl’s coquettish complaint. To Mink Gu’s ears, however, it struck like thunder from a clear sky.
“Demon Lord, Demon Lord, please spare me!”
Mink Gu valued his life even more than his money. He hurriedly rolled over, reverted to his true form, and flattened himself against the floor, all four paws scrabbling at the ground. He tried to win her pity with his glossy, well-groomed fur.
“I was confused! I was possessed! I was ungrateful and shameless, deserving of ten thousand deaths! I’ll never dare do it again! Your Excellency is magnanimous and broad-minded—please spare me just this once!”
Ye Shusheng did not know what had happened. Thinking that Mink Gu was another innocent man who had been forcibly abducted, he could not help speaking up.
“He’s only a mink. Why make things so difficult for him? As the saying goes, Heaven has a love of life. Every blade of grass and every tree possesses a spirit. Even ants cling to life, let alone a mink as plump as he is. He must have worked especially hard and endured countless hardships…”
Shu Fu: […Why do I feel like he’s starting to sound a little like Tang Sanzang?]
She paused, then added an explanation:
[By “Tang Sanzang,” I mean a lofty monk, a holy monk, a great Buddhist master who is compassionate to all. The sort who is especially fond of lecturing.]
Jiang Xuesheng: [Indeed. I recall that he has been at Thousand Lantern Temple for only a little over a month. He may not have learned much else, but he picked up that particular trait remarkably quickly.]
[Oh no. He hasn’t already shaved his head and taken vows, has he?]
Shu Fu was suddenly alarmed.
[I was planning to help him look into things at Qingqiu once this was over and find his fox girl. Qingqiu doesn’t welcome outsiders, but I did deal with Xiao Hanyi. I should be able to have a pleasant conversation with their queen, right?]
When the time came, she would pay them a visit with Xiao Hanyi’s shattered greatsword as her token of allegiance. According to Jiang Xuesheng, if it had not been for that thin-as-paper blood connection—and the pleas of their elders—Xiao Tieyi would have crushed his greatsword long ago.
For now, however, the danger facing Ye Shusheng was more urgent than the distant matter of Qingqiu.
[All right, sir. Relax a little. You don’t need to hold me that tightly. Don’t worry—I absolutely won’t act recklessly.]
Shu Fu raised her hand and tapped Jiang Xuesheng twice on the shoulder, signaling him to loosen his hold. Once both her hands were free to move, she reached into the storage pouch at her waist and pulled out a bright red cord. She waved it triumphantly in front of him.
[Sir, do you remember this?]
—I remember every single thing you’ve given me.
The words circled once in Jiang Xuesheng’s heart, but in the end, they did not rise to his lips.
He changed his answer.
[Naturally. This is the red cord I refined for you during your entrance trial.]
At that moment, he truly loathed Demon Lord Ninglu. If she had not been there, and if he had not been afraid of distracting Shu Fu, why would he have needed to swallow all those suggestive words?
Ever since he had been reborn in another body and returned to the mortal world, Jiang Xuesheng had changed his appearance, cast off all his burdens, and completely let himself go. It had been more than a hundred years since he had experienced the suffocating feeling of having to weigh every word, unable to say whatever shameless things he pleased.
Shu Fu knew nothing of his frustration. She weighed the bundle of red cord in her hand and gave him a crafty little wink.
[Sir, just watch.]
…
While Shu Fu was being wrapped up as tightly as a snake by Jiang Xuesheng, Demon Lord Ninglu was likewise coiling herself around Ye Shusheng like a water snake.
In terms of age and seniority, if she had been living in the mortal world, she would have been old enough to serve as Ye Shusheng’s great-great-great…-grandmother. In the cultivation world, most people would have to address her as “Senior.” Yet her appearance was fresh and radiant, like that of an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old girl.
She possessed an utterly captivating, seductive beauty: slender phoenix eyes, luscious red lips, and skin so delicate, soft, and elastic that it looked as though a pinch would squeeze out a handful of collagen.
Naturally, there was a reason for that.
In the West, there was a legend of the “Blood Countess.” Demon Lord Ninglu was much the same. She not only enjoyed all sorts of novel games, but also liked to drain the handsome men she had grown tired of before eating them clean. The blood of demon beasts and human cultivators, brimming with spiritual energy, nourished her youthful beauty.
She might have counted as an interesting woman, but she was also a genuine villain—an utterly shameless, overbearing, high-handed villain with not the slightest trace of a guilty conscience. She had been born to dance freely in the lowest basin of morality.
For a thoroughly natural-born evildoer like her, nothing but death could stop her.
Now that she had taken a fancy to Ye Shusheng, there were two reasons. First, she had her eye on the young man’s pure yang essence, as well as his handsome, healthy physique. Fully clothed, he was the epitome of a refined gentleman; stripped down, he had a perfect eight-pack. Second, she admired the ironclad firmness of his heart, the plum-blossom purity of his character, and the saintly monk’s detachment from worldly dust.
Luring gentlemen into breaking their vows and persuading saintly monks to return to worldly life had always been one of her favorite hobbies.
Thus, when she encountered Ye Shusheng outside Wei City, Ninglu hardly had to think before ordering one of her male companions to disguise himself as a bandit. She herself let out a few pitiful cries for help, playing the role of a helpless woman on the verge of being abducted.
Ye Shusheng, filled with righteous fervor and suspecting nothing, immediately stepped forward to save her—only to be caught neatly in a sack by Demon Lord Ninglu.
Afraid that this fiercely principled gentleman might kill himself, and worried that forcibly abducting him might accidentally injure him, she had gone to considerable trouble.
Now that Ye Shusheng’s meridians had been sealed, he could not circulate his energy. His hands and feet were weak and limp, and he could not even muster enough strength in his jaw to bite through his tongue. Only then did Ninglu finally relax. With one arm, she held the tender, delectable young man close; with the other, she ran her fingers across his face as though plucking the strings of a qin.
“Little Ye, are you feeling sorry for this mink? Getting me to let him go won’t be difficult. Serve me well, and if I’m pleased, perhaps I might…”
Ye Shusheng kept both eyes tightly shut. He truly looked like an old monk entering meditation, repeating the same set of lines over and over.
“Even if you obtain my body, you will never obtain my heart.”
“If our hearts cannot be united, physical intimacy is meaningless. What significance is there in this brief, shallow pleasure?”
“Miss, the sea of suffering is boundless. Turn back while there is still time!”
Ninglu pressed her lips together in a smile, paying no attention to Ye Shusheng’s expression of fearless martyrdom. Speaking in a soft, gentle voice, she pushed him down onto the large bed and bent over, about to proceed.
She paid great attention to atmosphere when conducting her affairs, and had absolute faith in the secrecy of her hidden stronghold. Whenever she made her move, she would close her eyes and empty her mind, devoting herself wholeheartedly to savoring the pleasures of the mortal world.
Moreover, Ye Shusheng’s expression was far too tragic, and his endless chatter far too irritating. She simply decided to shut both her eyes and her ears, focusing entirely on that “brief, shallow pleasure.”
Yet when she closed her eyes and lunged forward, she somehow missed completely. Her entire body plunged into a heap of empty bedding.
Ninglu: “Huh?”
She opened her beautiful eyes and looked over, only to find that Ye Shusheng had somehow shifted several feet to the side. He was no longer where he had been.
“…”
Ye Shusheng’s entire body was rigid, and his face was equally blank with confusion, as though he had no idea what had just happened—or why he had suddenly moved several feet sideways.
At this point, Ninglu was already drawn and ready to fire, with no time to think too deeply. She assumed he was merely making a last-ditch struggle, and gave a light laugh from the corner of her mouth.
“Little Ye, you’re such a naughty boy.”
With that, she changed direction. First, she lay down beside him, then propped up her upper body and slowly leaned over his chest.
The result?
Ye Shusheng once again shifted half a foot to the side, neatly avoiding her advance and leaving her kiss to land on the bedsheet.
Ninglu: “Huh????”
“Little Ye, you’re being terribly mischievous. Could it be that you no longer care whether this mink lives or dies?”
A dark glint flashed through her eyes. She turned her hand and sent out a flat palm strike. The mink, who had been crawling on the floor and begging for mercy, let out a shriek and was sent flying out the door. It struck something with a heavy clang, and no one could say what.
Ninglu then reached out again, seized Ye Shusheng by the shoulders, and firmly held him in front of her.
This time, she did not pretend to be bashful and close her eyes. Instead, she stared at him without blinking and slowly leaned closer.
She refused to believe the little brat could pull off another trick.
But what she never could have imagined was—
Ye Shusheng, whose entire body should have been soft and powerless, suddenly moved his shoulder and threw a lightning-fast uppercut straight at her chin!
Ninglu: “！！！！！”
At last, in the instant the fist’s wind rushed toward her face, she clearly saw a fine red thread wrapped around Ye Shusheng’s wrist, its spiritual light flowing along it.
Someone was controlling his movements!
The red thread was clearly a magical treasure. Ye Shusheng’s punch contained vast spiritual power. If it struck her squarely, it would likely send every one of her pearly teeth flying in different directions.
Ninglu treasured her appearance above all else. Without time to think, she shoved Ye Shusheng away and darted backward as fast as she could.
At that very moment, a streak of sword light shot upward from below. Like a spring bamboo shoot breaking through the earth, it pierced straight through the bedboard!
Of course, this particular “bamboo shoot”—the Guguang Sword—instantly split the entire bed in two. It was more than sharp enough to shave the face Ninglu had so carefully cherished flat.
Shu Fu had yet to form her core, so her sword qi should not have been able to harm Ninglu in the slightest. But the Guguang Sword was impossibly keen, and Shu Fu’s attack was vicious and ferocious. As the sword emerged, the roar of a dragon echoed throughout the room. The sword light pressed straight toward Ninglu’s brows and lashes, stirring such alarm in her heart that it forced her back half a step.
For a brief moment, Ninglu’s eyes were dazzled by the cold, gleaming sword light. Then she heard the ringing of a qin. By the time she tried to turn and defend herself, it was already too late.
“...Urk!”
Horrifying, surging spiritual power struck directly into her lungs. It felt as though a heavy hammer had slammed into her back. Before she could even turn her head for a glance, her entire body drifted away like a fallen leaf.
“Ye Shusheng, hurry and go!”
Shu Fu sprang out from beneath the bed and grabbed Ye Shusheng by the topknot—his robes were wide open at this point, so there was nowhere else convenient to grab. She yanked him bodily into the air.
“Leave this place to Sir. We—”
Before she could finish, a palm strike carrying a sinister wind came at her. Shu Fu hurriedly twisted aside to evade it, then used the tip of her sword to hook up a porcelain vase and hurl it back.
The force of the palm skimmed dangerously past Shu Fu’s ear, severing a lock of hair that had fallen beside her face.
“What an audacious tone.”
Ninglu tilted her head to dodge the vase. Her face was deathly pale, clearly showing that she had suffered internal injuries, yet she still rose and smiled at Shu Fu.
“You trespassed into my palace and stole the man I had set my sights on. Do you really think a little girl like you can leave?”
—If this is your palace, it’s awfully shabby. Isn’t it just a renovated and refurbished ruin from the previous dynasty?
Shu Fu was just about to fire back when Jiang Xuesheng shot Ninglu a chilly glance. His hand rested on the zither strings, and he revealed an astonishingly spiteful expression.
“Demon Lord Ninglu, at your age, why pick on children? In terms of age, Little Ye and Fu’er should both be calling you ‘Great-Grandma.’ You ought to show them some maternal kindness instead of quibbling with them.”
“Utter nonsense! Jiang Tan, you’ve ruined my plans again!”
Ninglu’s expression changed dramatically. “What do you mean, Great-Grandma? I’m not even six hundred years old yet. Among demonic cultivators, I’m still considered young. Don’t think I don’t know that you and Zhao Jiuge, the foremost of the Seven Demons, are evenly matched. You’re both ancient monsters who have lived for over a thousand years, aren’t you? At an age like yours, even I couldn’t stomach you!”
Shu Fu: “…”
No. It might even be more than a thousand years.
Granted, Sir was trying to draw Ninglu’s hatred and give her and Ye Shusheng a chance to escape safely… But, sir, was it really worth taking a thousand damage to deal twenty-five thousand to yourself?
If Jiang Xuesheng’s self-sacrifice to protect her had already caught her completely off guard, then what happened next was even more unexpected.
A commotion suddenly erupted outside the door. Shouts, footsteps, and the crashing of bottles and jars rose one after another. Through the din, someone could vaguely be heard yelling:
“Stop him! Stop that mink!”
“How dare he try to escape right under the Demon Lord’s nose?!”
“That’s right!”
Immediately afterward came Mink Gu’s unrestrained, triumphant laughter. It sounded muffled and indistinct, as though separated from them by a barrier.
“You didn’t see that coming, did you? I let the Demon Lord send me flying on purpose! I’d already planned my escape! This is my escape route—hahahahahaha!”
Shu Fu: “…”
I feel like I’ve heard that line somewhere before.
Seizing the opportunity, she grabbed Ye Shusheng and leaped out. With a wave of her hand, she slit the throats of several maids who rushed forward to stop them.
These maids were the Demon Lord’s personal attendants. They looked sweet and innocent, but every one of them was saturated with demonic energy. Without a doubt, they had spilled blood and taken lives, and were likely combatants prepared for the attack on Wei City. There was a chance of killing the innocent, but there was no chance of sparing the guilty.
“Looking for death!”
The Golden Core-stage female demonic cultivator leading them arrived moments later. With a sharp cry, she raised the sash in her hand and joined the fray.
She looked like a graceful senior palace maid, but the moment she attacked, her killing intent was unmistakable. The sash was supple and resilient, adept at neutralizing an opponent’s techniques, making it the perfect weapon against Shu Fu’s sharp, aggressive swordplay. Shu Fu thrust three swift strikes in succession, but the woman twisted and dodged through the narrow passageway with the agility of a fish slipping through water.
Yet when she retreated for the third step, her wrist suddenly seized up. An inconspicuous red cord had wrapped tightly around it.
“Hmph. Resorting to cheap tricks.”
The woman looked down on Shu Fu’s cultivation and naturally paid no attention to her magical weapon. She turned her palm into a blade and chopped down with clean, ruthless force.
Unexpectedly, in the very next instant, the red cord exploded like a firework. Countless strands of red wire spread out and descended over her head.
“What—?”
That brief moment of distraction was all it took. The edge of the woman’s palm erupted with pain, and blood gushed forth. It looked as though some kind of sharp weapon had sliced away an entire chunk of flesh!
“You…?!”
“My pleasure.”
Shu Fu arched an eyebrow and turned her hand over. A silvery glint of cold light flashed between her fingers. Just like the zither strings once wielded by Jiang Xuesheng and Liu Ruyi, it was a string sharp enough to cut through iron as though it were mud.
As she forced the woman back, Shu Fu also discovered Mink Gu’s escape route.
At the corner of the wall was a barely noticeable crack, no wider than a passage for a small dog. It was just large enough for the mink to squeeze through to freedom.
Unfortunately, he was accustomed to fine food and rich living, and his true form was far too plump. Half of his rear end was currently stuck in the opening, making him look rather like the legendary “cheeky-bottomed pretty boy.”
Shu Fu had intended to pretend she hadn’t seen him and head straight for the exit. But then a thought flashed through her mind.
This place was a demonic cultivator’s underground palace from a thousand years ago. Ninglu had occupied it without invitation, so there might still be secrets hidden here—or secrets she had never bothered to investigate.
What if the passage Mink Gu had discovered was precisely that secret?
And perhaps Liu Ruyi, who had vanished without a trace, was there as well.
At that thought, Shu Fu kicked the mink squarely in the rump without the slightest hesitation, sending his entire body into the opening. Then she swung her sword at the wall, where faint cracks were already visible, and hoisted Ye Shusheng up with her left hand.
“Brother, I’ve unsealed your meridians. Hurry and use your strongest Golden Bell Shield and Iron Shirt!”
“Ahhh! What?! All right!”
—BOOM!!!
There was another cavern beyond the wall. One strike from Shu Fu’s sword had already left it tottering, and Ye Shusheng’s steel-straight-man shield bash delivered the final blow. With a tremendous crash, the wall shattered and collapsed completely.
Shu Fu leaned into the opening and swept her sleeve, stowing away her sword, zither string, and red cord. Then she turned and called out to Jiang Xuesheng, who was still facing off against Demon Lord Ninglu.
“Sir!”
“…”
Through the steadily crumbling earth and stone, she saw Jiang Xuesheng turn his head and glance at her. His brows and eyes curved into what seemed to be an approving smile.
Then his figure transformed into a streak of light and landed securely inside Shu Fu’s sleeve, once again becoming a slender, pliant white snake.
With the white snake tucked in one hand and Ye Shusheng dragged along with the other, Shu Fu left Demon Lord Ninglu’s furious curses behind and leaped into the bottomless cavern beyond the wall.
