After the Villainess Awakens

Leng Tianyin held her sword and said to Leng Mu Shi and Xiao Mian, "It must be the Night Weeping Spirit!"

She then prepared to rush downstairs.

Leng Mu Shi and Xiao Mian exchanged a quick glance, a silent understanding passing between them.

In the next moment, Leng Mu Shi swiftly stepped forward and grabbed Leng Tianyin, pulling her back into the room. The few low-level disciples following behind them turned their heads, only to see Xiao Mian already closing the door.

"Sister? What's wrong?" Leng Tianyin was anxious to save people, but she was not annoyed at being pulled back by Leng Mu Shi. Instead, she asked in a low voice.

After closing the door, Xiao Mian set up a soundproof barrier and nodded to Leng Mu Shi. Only then did Leng Mu Shi take off the Soul Gathering Pouch from her waist and open it in front of Leng Tianyin.

"Look." Leng Mu Shi said.

"This is…" Leng Tianyin looked down at the pouch and came face to face with the safe, albeit distorted, small face of the Night Weeping Spirit.

Leng Tianyin gasped. Leng Mu Shi quickly closed the pouch and continued, "The Night Weeping Spirit, we just caught it. It wasn't the one hurting the disciples. This town is pitch black at night, with no lights at all. Even the shopkeepers are acting strange."

Leng Tianyin said in shock, "How is that possible? How did you catch it, Sister? If it's caught, then what is hurting the disciples…?"

"We don't know yet," Leng Mu Shi said, "Xiao Mian and I will go to the barren mountains outside the city, but we have an important task for you."

"The Night Weeping Spirit doesn't hurt people and isn't afraid of light. It can find its way in whether the windows are open or not. It's formed from resentment but still carries the life force of a living person."

Leng Mu Shi continued, "So the shopkeeper and the waiter are lying. I need you to take the disciples who listen to you and stay here to keep the shopkeeper and the waiter under control. No matter how normal they act, don't let them go until we return."

Never before had Leng Mu Shi spoken to Leng Tianyin so seriously, holding her shoulders with such solemnity.

Although Leng Tianyin was an illegitimate daughter born to a concubine, she had truly adored Leng Mu Shi from the first time she saw her as a child.

It was just the grudges and hatred of the older generation that stood between them, preventing them from being close sisters in this life.

Leng Tianyin remembered Leng Mu Shi's many life-saving graces and felt indebted to her. No matter the time or place, as long as Leng Mu Shi asked, even if it meant jumping off a cliff, she would not hesitate.

Therefore, without even understanding the reason, she agreed readily, "I'll listen to Sister. There are a few new disciples and two senior sisters who get along well with me. I'm confident I can persuade them to stay with me!"

Leng Mu Shi thought she would have to spend a lot of effort persuading or even forcing her to obey. She didn't expect Leng Tianyin to agree without even asking why.

Leng Mu Shi was stunned for a moment, then let out a sigh of relief. She released Leng Tianyin's shoulders and said, "Go then."

Leng Tianyin nodded, walked to the door, and then paused. She looked back at Xiao Mian, clearly hesitant to speak.

Leng Mu Shi blinked, only then realizing that these two were the true destined couple. In all the stories since ancient times, when the hero and heroine faced danger, they would always say a few intimate words, and maybe even share a kiss.

So Leng Mu Shi very thoughtfully walked out the door first, leaving space for the two to talk.

After Leng Mu Shi went downstairs, the Law in her storage pouch spoke, "You're already giving up without me even telling you to? You don't want to claim Xiao Mian in this situation?! How can you let them talk alone? Where's your evil female supporting character spirit?!"

Leng Mu Shi felt that the Law was like a neurotic patient, "Why would I claim him? Isn't he destined to be my sister's man?"

The Law was speechless for a while, then said, "Yes, he is your sister's. You must be angry. Such a good Immortal Monarch, you may never have him. This is your lonely star's fate!"

Leng Mu Shi's footsteps paused, her brows furrowing. For some reason, after the Law said those words, she felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness surge within her for a moment.

This loneliness engulfed her, as if she had lived through thousands of years in that instant…

Her breath hitched, her knees weakened, and she almost knelt on the stairs.

Fortunately, her arm was grabbed in time. Xiao Mian, with an anxious look, circled around to stand in front of her, his eyes filled with concern as he asked, "What's wrong? Are you alright?"

Xiao Mian channeled his spiritual energy into Leng Mu Shi. It shouldn't have been so easy to probe another person's body with spiritual energy, as it required complete relaxation and trust. However, Xiao Mian did it as easily as mobilizing his own spiritual energy.

At that moment, Leng Mu Shi realized with astonishment that she trusted Xiao Mian to such an extent!

She looked at Xiao Mian's concerned eyes, imagining that he might have just used this concerned look to whisper intimate words to Leng Tianyin, and maybe even kissed her with those bright red lips. Leng Mu Shi suddenly felt an inexplicable surge of irritation.

She pushed Xiao Mian away. He stumbled a step back, surprised, and stopped on the step below her. The height difference was compensated by the step, so they were looking at each other eye to eye.

"I'm fine," Leng Mu Shi frowned. "I don't need your help. Have you and…"

Leng Mu Shi's words circled her tongue several times before finally tumbling out, "Have you and Junior Sister Tianyin finished talking?"

Xiao Mian had never seen her like this before. They had spent a lot of time together, and Leng Mu Shi always had a good temper. As long as she wasn't preoccupied with deciphering pill formulas, she was very tolerant of everyone around her.

Even the demonic spider that ate the food she fed it and still tried to bite her out of revenge was only ever chased away, never hurt.

Seeing her cold face and sharp tone towards him, Xiao Mian was completely taken aback.

Leng Mu Shi realized what she had just said, her brows furrowing.

She quickly turned and ran downstairs. Xiao Mian, with his sharp mind, quickly realized that Leng Mu Shi might be unconsciously jealous of him talking to Leng Tianyin alone. He felt as if he had taken two Rejuvenation Pills, his whole being floating.

He couldn't suppress the smile on his lips as he chased after Leng Mu Shi. However, Leng Mu Shi completely misunderstood. What Leng Tianyin had told him was to protect her sister at all costs.

After provoking Leng Mu Shi a few times, the Law fell silent again. The more Leng Mu Shi thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong with her, even more wrong than the life force carried by the Night Weeping Spirit. So, on the way to the barren mountains, she ignored Xiao Mian.

Xiao Mian wanted to explain, but he found her current behavior too rare and precious.

The excitement and anticipation he felt, like the joy of harvest after a season of hard work, stemmed from every inch of coldness on Leng Mu Shi's face.

She wasn't indifferent. She did care!

Just thinking about this made Xiao Mian feel that this exorcism mission was truly worthwhile!

He wanted to secretly enjoy this feeling a little longer, just a little longer, to give Leng Mu Shi enough time to understand her feelings for him.

Then, Xiao Mian was confident that she would agree to be with him.

Leng Mu Shi did think about it for a while, but before she could sort out her feelings, they arrived at the barren mountains outside the city, following the connection of the Binding Life Bands between the disciples.

The cold moonlight scattered on the pure white, spiritually woven fabric of the disciples' uniforms, creating an indescribable brilliance. However, on a hillside in the barren mountains stood a group of cultivators dressed in disciple uniforms.

This should have been a beautiful scene, but it was ruined by the fact that each disciple was holding their sword defensively, facing off against a group of commoners holding hoes and pickaxes on the opposite slope.

When Leng Mu Shi, Xiao Mian, and a few other disciples arrived, they were greeted by this tense standoff on the verge of breaking out.

"Get out of our town! You bastards!" A man who seemed to be the leader, holding a shovel, shouted at You Zishu, who stood on the hillside with a solemn expression, his Xue Ling Sword gleaming brightly.

You Zishu had probably never encountered such unreasonable people before. They had killed five of their newly initiated disciples, simply because these five disciples had accidentally knocked over the ancestral tablets in the town's ancestral hall during the night.

"You will pay for your crimes with your lives," You Zishu said. "We will report to the authorities at dawn tomorrow."

The already agitated villagers became even more agitated. "You are the murderers! You knocked over the spirit tablets, which is the same as killing someone! A life for a life, we are just asking you to pay for your lives!"

You Zishu had the highest cultivation level among them, but he was only good at dealing with demons and beasts. He could also win in battles against other cultivators, but he didn't know how to deal with these ignorant villagers, how to point his sword at these fragile yet untouchable mortals.

Therefore, they were stuck in a dilemma, unable to advance or retreat, and could only wait for daybreak.

Cultivators were not invincible. They would still die if hacked to death. Those dead new disciples were the ones who, last night, did not listen to Xiao Mian and Xing Zhou's advice and secretly went to the barren mountains to search for the Night Weeping Spirit, using their crude artifacts to track the resentment.

As soon as Leng Mu Shi and Xiao Mian arrived, the confrontation became even more tense.

"It's useless no matter how many of you come! Tonight, you will all stay here and pay with your lives!"

The man leading the charge with the shovel was in his thirties. He was extremely agitated, and some people, following his lead, rushed towards Leng Mu Shi and the others with their tools.

The new disciples behind them were all terrified. Their cultivation was just starting, and the first rule of all sects in the cultivation world, whether it was the Tai Chu Sect or any other sect, was that they were forbidden from using immortal arts against ordinary mortals.

This was an iron law set by their ancestors, and many disciples were confused and puzzled by it. However, many high-level cultivators who had comprehended reincarnation knew the reason.

Leng Mu Shi also knew because the life force of the cultivation world, the demon world, and all living beings in this world originated from these mortals who lived and died each day.

And they were once mortals too. Therefore, under no circumstances were cultivators allowed to use immortal arts against mortals who had no power to fight back.

To put it mildly, it was a violation of sect rules. To put it more seriously, it was interfering with the cycle of karma and would incur heavenly punishment.

However, cultivators had always been special beings in the eyes of mortals. Rarely did mortals disrespect cultivators. Cultivators had protected mortals for generations, so there was no reason for mortals to turn against them with swords and knives.

But the people in this town had no fear of cultivators. The bodies of the cultivators who had been brutally murdered now lay sprawled at the entrance of the temple.

They were wearing the uniforms of the Tai Chu Sect disciples when they died, which meant that these villagers knew they were cultivators before killing them.

It was embarrassing to admit, but those adventurous disciples were not highly skilled. Even a fierce dog couldn't withstand a pack of wolves. These villagers were as ferocious as tigers and wolves, and it seemed that revealing their identities was useless.

The protective runes on the shoulders of the Tai Chu Sect disciple uniforms were supposed to activate automatically when they encountered evil spirits, but… villagers were not evil spirits.

They were beaten to death, their faces bludgeoned beyond recognition, looking as if they had been the target of a group's rage. Their bodies were mutilated.

At this moment, Leng Mu Shi looked away from the corpses of her fellow disciples, whose deaths were even more gruesome than that of the real Night Weeping Spirit, and met the eyes of the villagers who were waving their hoes and pickaxes at them.

Everyone retreated hastily or blocked the attacks with their swords, but no one used spiritual energy. Their swords were sharp, and they were afraid of hurting the villagers. For a moment, they were at a disadvantage. They had come to provide reinforcements, yet they were retreating like stray dogs.

Leng Mu Shi was shielded behind Xiao Mian. She was not good at this kind of group battle, but seeing that there were one or two hundred villagers, she knew that if they didn't fight back tonight, they might not even be able to retrieve the corpses of their fellow disciples.

As Xiao Mian blocked a hoe that was swung at her, Leng Mu Shi met the turbid eyes of the old man wielding it.

The old man's hair and beard were all white, and his waist was bent. With his frail appearance, he should have been at an age where he could barely walk out to bask in the sun in the morning. Yet, he swung the hoe with surprising strength.

Leng Mu Shi was so close to Xiao Mian that she could even feel the tremor in his arm as he blocked the hoe with his sword. She could tell how strong the old man was!

Moreover, the eyes of this group of villagers were filled with an abnormal excitement. It was not the excitement of a living person fighting, but more like… the look in the eyes of a demon beast when it was hunting.

Leng Mu Shi was all too familiar with this. She had been raising demon beasts for so long and often went to the bottom of the back cliff to collect ingredients from wild demon beasts for her medicine. This was the look in their eyes when they were hunting.

These living people, who were clearly breathing normally, had the eyes of demons. As they got closer, a gust of wind blew past, and Leng Mu Shi realized she couldn't smell any life force from them.

Even the Night Weeping Spirit, which was considered an evil spirit in this town, had a life force. How could these living, breathing, and talking people be completely devoid of it?!

Leng Mu Shi and the others retreated while fighting. When she finally confirmed that she couldn't sense a single trace of life force from them, she patted Xiao Mian's arm.

"Help me set up the Trapping Beast Formation!"

Xiao Mian was like Leng Mu Shi's puppet. As soon as she finished speaking, she leaped into the air.

Xiao Mian instantly circulated his spiritual energy, channeling it into his sword. He lifted Leng Mu Shi's toes with his sword, using it as a medium to continuously transfer spiritual energy into her body.

Leng Mu Shi's body was immediately enveloped in a bright light, her robes and long hair fluttering in the air. Her hands formed seals and drew runes in the air with incredible speed, each stroke leaving only an afterimage. She muttered something under her breath—

Everyone was stunned by this sudden change. Both sides stopped fighting temporarily. The villagers retreated slightly in fear, and one of them shrieked, "Cultivators cannot use spiritual power against mortals! You have broken the taboo!"

Cultivators cannot use spiritual power against mortals, so how did the mortals know?!

Leng Mu Shi snorted coldly and raised her voice, chanting even more mysteriously, "Draw a line next to the cow to make a duckling, the duckling lays two eggs, the eggs hatch into a snake, the snake flies up and turns into a fish!"

This was her way of quickly memorizing runes. It sounded mysterious and professional when she muttered it under her breath, but when she said it out loud, it just sounded… crazy!

As her last syllable left her lips, her hand also fell. The Trapping Beast runes appeared in the air. Leng Mu Shi raised her hand, circulating her spiritual energy, and slammed the runes towards the villagers below.

At the same time, she shouted, "Trap!"

In the next instant, the shattered runes scattered in all directions, drawing countless points of light in the air. Then… they disappeared into the ground.

Leng Mu Shi landed on the ground, exhausted, from Xiao Mian's sword.

Silence fell over the scene. The villagers looked around, but there was nothing there. Thinking they had been tricked, they paused for a moment before roaring, "Damn it, they're toying with us! Charge! Kill these murderers!"

Leng Mu Shi and the others, who had come here entrusted with a task, had become murderers in the mouths of these villagers.

As soon as the man finished speaking, the villagers charged at them again.

Some disciples were so frightened that they retreated, but Leng Mu Shi stood still in front of the man who had just shouted, her hands behind her back, watching him calmly.

The man's hoe was about to split Leng Mu Shi's head open, but just as the hoe was only an arm's length away from her head, there was a buzzing sound. The points of light from the Trapping Beast Formation that Leng Mu Shi had shattered suddenly transformed into several beams of light that shot up into the sky—

The beams of light quickly connected with each other, forming runes that enveloped all the savage villagers within. An invisible pressure spread throughout the formation, reaching Leng Mu Shi, who was standing with her hands behind her back, in the blink of an eye.

All the villagers were forced to kneel on the ground. The man who had been fiercely swinging his hoe at Leng Mu Shi was now prostrating himself before her as if an invisible force was pressing down on his back.

"It's… it's sorcery…" a villager cursed fiercely.

All the disciples were shocked by Leng Mu Shi's move. It wasn't because of anything else, but because weren't they forbidden from using spiritual power against mortals?

…Well, this was a formation. It used spiritual power to create the formation, but not to maintain it…

But… the main point was, they hadn't learned this formation before!

Even You Zishu, the leader, stared at the Trapping Beast Formation with a solemn expression.

But at least they were temporarily safe from danger. The villagers were all pinned to the ground by the formation. The disciples put away their swords and rushed towards the corpses of their fellow disciples.

"Senior Brother…"

"Junior Brother!"

"Senior Sister…"

The sound of mourning filled the air. Among fellow disciples, their bond was as strong as that of siblings.

Leng Mu Shi glanced back at Xiao Mian. He had subconsciously obeyed her words, but he had still attacked ordinary people. His eyes were filled with worry.

Instead of comforting him, Leng Mu Shi said directly, "They have no life force. You don't have to be afraid."

Others might not understand what she meant, but Xiao Mian did.

No life force? How could living people have no life force?

Unless they weren't alive!

Xiao Mian's expression immediately relaxed. Strangely enough, he felt a little embarrassed. He touched the tip of his nose.

His cultivation level was higher than Leng Mu Shi's, and he often took the time to teach her swordsmanship. He would also be the first to protect her when something happened. But strangely, when he was protecting Leng Mu Shi, he didn't feel like she was the one being protected. Instead, she felt like his support, giving him a sense of security.

He unconsciously wanted to obey her, without even thinking about the reason or whether it was right or wrong.

This was simply… Xiao Mian looked at Leng Mu Shi's back, which was obviously much smaller than his, and his heart was filled with sweetness and worry.

If she knew what he was thinking, would she think he was useless and not manly enough…

Leng Mu Shi had no idea what Xiao Mian was thinking. She walked up to the man who had shouted that immortal cultivators couldn't use spiritual power against mortals and squatted down in front of him. "How did you know that immortal cultivators cannot use spiritual power against mortals?"

"Tell me," Leng Mu Shi said as she whipped out a small dagger from her boot. It was made from a beast's tooth. She tilted her head and met the man's shifty eyes. "What's going on? How did you, a mere mortal, know about this?"

The man's face flushed red, but he was still relatively calm. Pinned to the ground by the formation, he glared at Leng Mu Shi and said defiantly, "You broke the taboo anyway!"

Leng Mu Shi shook her head. "No, I didn't use spiritual power against you. This is a formation."

Leng Mu Shi continued, "Do you think I can't do anything to you just because you're inside the formation? This is a formation I created myself, specifically to trap brainless animals like you."

As soon as she finished speaking, Leng Mu Shi effortlessly extended her bone dagger into the formation and lifted the man's chin. "Tell me, or else the matter of you killing my fellow disciples won't end so easily. My Tai Chu Sect has tens of thousands of disciples. It wouldn't take much effort for us to dig up your ancestral graves. You better come clean. Who told you that immortal cultivators cannot use spiritual power against mortals?"

The man was truly afraid. He trembled all over, his lips quivering. Leng Mu Shi added, "I forgot to tell you, I'm an alchemist. Even if you don't tell me, I have ways to make you talk. The sect rules don't say anything about not feeding mortals pills. I have plenty of Meridian Severing Bone-Breaking Pills, Ten Thousand Ants Devouring Heart Pills…"

"Oh my! Oh my god! What's going on… Ouch!" Just as Leng Mu Shi was thinking that the man was about to break, a group of people approached with torches in their hands.

The leader was the town mayor, who had commissioned them to deal with the Night Weeping Spirit. He started clapping and shouting from afar. Leng Mu Shi saw that the villager, who was about to speak, immediately closed his mouth. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead, and he looked at the approaching mayor with fear in his dark eyes.

Leng Mu Shi frowned slightly. Xiao Mian quickly put away her bone dagger and helped her to her feet.

"Immortal Master, Immortal Mistress, please spare my life! Spare my life! These are just ignorant people from my town," the mayor pleaded. He must have gotten up in a hurry, as the clothes he was wearing were improperly fastened, revealing part of his undergarment. In the flickering light of the torches, one could clearly see purple-red marks on it…

It was obvious that he had just crawled out of a woman's bed.

The immortal cultivators gathered together. You Zishu collected the corpses of their fellow disciples with a special artifact. His face was as pale as a ghost, and his expression was even more ghastly.

He walked up to the mayor, and the first words he said were, "Your people killed my fellow disciples. At dawn tomorrow, these people will be handed over to the authorities. A life for a life!"

You Zishu had always been a rigid person, rarely showing any emotion. When he led teams on training expeditions in the past, he wouldn't be so affected even if disciples died at the hands of evil spirits. After all, the path of cultivation was fraught with danger, and it was normal for those who couldn't defeat demons and beasts to die.

But for cultivators to die at the hands of the mortals they had protected for generations, with the sect rules even engraved in their bones forbidding them from harming mortals… If they violated this taboo, their path of cultivation would be ruined.

Otherwise, why would he be stuck in a standoff with the villagers, unable to even collect the corpses of his fallen disciples?

If it weren't for…

He glanced at Leng Mu Shi, but he didn't see any sign of her violating the taboo. His heart was filled with surprise and a hint of complexity.

This person always acted recklessly, breaking the rules. Just now, she even tried to threaten the villager into telling her something… Could it be that Hua Yanyue's disciple was an exception, not bound by the taboo that existed in their bones since they embarked on the path of cultivation?

But this time, You Zishu didn't even reprimand her. What she did was exactly what he wanted to do but didn't dare to.

Besides, using formations was different from directly attacking with spiritual power. Maybe… when they returned to the sect, with her eloquent tongue, she might be able to escape punishment from the Disciplinary Hall.

As You Zishu secretly observed Leng Mu Shi, she was staring at the mayor and the other villagers behind him. They hadn't said a word since the beginning, and their eyes looked empty, flickering with the same light as the villagers who were pinned to the ground.

Leng Mu Shi noticed that when You Zishu said he would hand over the villagers who killed their disciples to the authorities, the mayor's face twitched for a moment. His eyes flickered with a mix of emotions, and for a split second, killing intent flashed through them in the jumping firelight.

Leng Mu Shi discreetly grabbed Xiao Mian's hand and whispered, "These villagers, none of them have a life force."

Xiao Mian was shocked, then immediately understood.

The mayor rubbed his hands, his expression returning to normal. He took two steps forward and said, "Oh my, oh my, what should we do? What happened? These are good people from my town who were just cultivating the land outside the town. How could this be…"

"Maybe it's a misunderstanding, maybe there was some conflict!" The mayor walked up to You Zishu, his wrinkled face scrunched up. "Immortal Masters, when did you arrive in our town? Why didn't you inform us in advance? I, we…"

"Weren't prepared."

You Zishu's face was as cold as ice, and the other disciples also looked at the mayor with hostility. At this moment, Leng Mu Shi paused and asked, "What would you have prepared if we had informed you in advance?"

The mayor's expression stiffened.

Just then, the Night Weeping Spirit in Leng Mu Shi's storage pouch suddenly started hitting her side hard.

It usually cried loudly, but this time, hearing the mayor's voice so close, it didn't cry. Instead, it pounded on Leng Mu Shi's side with its tiny hands, as if desperately trying to warn her about something—

Author's Note:

Leng Mu Shi: I'm… I'm not a lonely star.

ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ

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