After the Villainess Awakens

This day and night of sinking was the warmest and happiest time Leng Mushi had experienced since her mother's death.

The person she loved was within reach, and they could embrace each other. For them, this was even more intoxicating than the act of being together itself.

When they were wrapped in blankets and fast asleep, it was pitch black outside, just like inside the blankets, without a single ray of light.

Only after Xiao Mian fell asleep did Leng Mushi quietly check on his condition. Seeing the demonic energy lying dormant beneath the spiritual energy flowing slowly in his meridians, she was slightly relieved.

She looked out the window through the gap in the blanket, hoping that dawn would never come.

But no matter what happened, the sun would always rise as usual. When Leng Mushi was woken up by the sunlight in the morning, she turned to find that Xiao Mian was no longer by her side.

She quickly got dressed and went to the backyard, where she found Xiao Mian squatting in front of the stove in Cang Sheng Courtyard, seemingly preparing food.

After almost a full day and night of crazy activities, Leng Mushi was indeed starving.

She smiled and walked behind Xiao Mian, squatting down and hugging his waist. An indescribable intimacy filled her heart. She leaned her head close to Xiao Mian's back and sniffed lightly. Even the faint scent made her heart throb.

"Brother, why don't you sleep a little longer?" Leng Mushi asked, hanging onto Xiao Mian. The joy in her heart briefly overshadowed her worries. But Xiao Mian didn't answer. She smelled the burnt porridge in the pot and looked up in confusion, patting Xiao Mian's shoulder. "Brother?"

Leng Mushi realized that Xiao Mian was trembling. She quickly got up and moved to face him. Seeing his bloodshot eyes, her heart skipped a beat. She immediately circulated her spiritual energy, pouring it into Xiao Mian's meridians to disperse the surging demonic energy.

However, her skilled actions revealed the fact that her spiritual energy had been lingering in Xiao Mian's body for too long.

Last night, while Xiao Mian was lost in their passion, she had secretly used the remaining strands of her soul to build a spiritual energy vortex around the Heavenly Demon Pill. Now, it was almost completely destroyed by the demonic energy.

Leng Mushi couldn't care less. She barely managed to suppress this wave of Xiao Mian's demonic energy. Due to the excessive consumption of her cultivation, her meridians were torn, her face was pale, and her realm showed signs of regressing.

She was still unwilling to give up, even if it meant keeping Xiao Mian for a few more days.

She knew that if she offered to use her spiritual energy to nourish Xiao Mian's core, he would rather die than agree. So she could only use their intimate moments to distract him, making him unable to pay attention to or distinguish the source of the spiritual energy in his body, whether it was due to their closeness.

But now it seemed that this method was also futile. Xiao Mian would find out sooner or later.

Watching the ominous blood color in Xiao Mian's left eye gradually recede, Leng Mushi quickly got up and walked towards the house, heading straight for the cellar. She needed to repair her meridians and take healing pills to calm her internal energy.

Xiao Mian gradually regained consciousness. Looking at the burnt porridge in the pot, he didn't turn to look at Leng Mushi who had entered the house, but he understood why she had been so gentle and clingy yesterday, insisting on being with him until the very end.

He had noticed this morning that his core hadn't shattered as expected and even showed signs of recovery. He knew something was wrong.

He had cooked a pot of porridge with paralyzing mushrooms, intending to drink it himself. He had estimated that he wouldn't be able to hold on today.

But the slowing down of his core's cracking left him unsure of the reason. He even had a glimmer of hope, perhaps… perhaps the Heavenly Demon wasn't as irreversible as the legends said. Perhaps the immortals far away in the Blood Demon Mountain had reinforced the seal in time, causing the Heavenly Demon within him to fall dormant again.

But just now, he had heard Leng Mushi's footsteps and deliberately channeled a bit of demonic energy to cover his eyes. As expected, he found the source of his core's delayed breakdown.

Her spiritual energy brushed past his meridians, as if it had always belonged within him, surging towards his core, clearing away the surrounding demonic energy, and then wrapping around it layer by layer. She did all this with such familiarity.

Xiao Mian's vision blurred. He had been too reckless and unrestrained yesterday. He had treated their intimacy as the sweetest memory of his life, letting her soothe the demonic energy that arose from his turbulent emotions time and time again. Little did he know that it was like using mushrooms or even demonic beasts that grew in the wild - the more vibrant the color, the more potent the poison.

She was never one to indulge in lust. Why would he think that her sudden tenderness and softness were due to their impending separation?

She was clearly the kind of person who could endure the torture of pills to the point of bleeding from her seven orifices and still get up to record their properties. Xiao Mian would always be misled by her delicate appearance, thinking that she was as fragile as other women.

He had thought that this morning, after he ate the porridge with paralyzing effects, even if he turned into a demon, he wouldn't have the strength to hurt her. Coupled with the guarantee of the blood slave contract, Xiao Mian had planned to surrender. At least if Leng Mushi captured him after he had lost his human consciousness, she could still give an explanation to the sect.

Xiao Mian knew that once he lost his mind, Leng Mushi would never show mercy to a demon because of her attachment to his appearance.

But Xiao Mian didn't expect that, even now, she was still deceiving him, deceiving him into indulging in lust while secretly using her own spiritual energy to nourish his core.

He could already feel that she had overexerted herself and her realm was regressing.

Using spiritual energy to nourish a core that didn't belong to her was like trying to put out a fire with a cup of water. His body could no longer retain spiritual energy. No matter how frantically Leng Mushi poured it in, the spiritual energy in his body was still dissipating.

Xiao Mian was now like a leaking bamboo basket. Leng Mushi was using her own cultivation to do something futile. The final result would only be a waste of effort.

Xiao Mian fiercely wiped his tears and got up to leave, intending to use the remaining spiritual energy in his body to undo the barrier of Cang Sheng Courtyard. However, as soon as he entered the house from the backyard, he saw Leng Mushi standing there waiting for him, holding her black whip.

"Enough." Xiao Mian shook his head, his eyes red. Looking at Leng Mushi's pale face, he saw that her realm had indeed regressed… Even those pills couldn't delay it, showing how much she had sacrificed. Coupled with the loss of her vital yin, she…

Xiao Mian was now as heartbroken as he had been happy when she advanced in her cultivation.

He couldn't let Leng Mushi continue down this path of delusion. So he had to force himself to say heartless words. "Let me out of Cang Sheng Courtyard. If I go back to the formation, I can live for a few more days. Even if you give me all your cultivation, how many days can it last? Moreover, you've lost your vital yin and your realm is unstable, you…"

Before he could finish speaking, Leng Mushi had already summoned the Ink Dragon. The whip snaked through the air towards Xiao Mian, and the two began to fight in the small room.

This was the first time they had fought. How could Xiao Mian bear to hurt Leng Mushi? He was forced to retreat step by step by her ruthless moves. Moreover, he was neither a demon nor a cultivator at this moment. Even though Leng Mushi's realm had just regressed, he was no match for her when she attacked. It wasn't long before he was once again bound by her black whip.

"What else do you want to do?" Xiao Mian was dragged towards the house by Leng Mushi. This time, he was truly angry, shouting with a flushed face, "Are you done or not! Leng Mushi, are you possessed or something? You're crazy!"

"Mmm, mmm!" Leng Mushi gagged Xiao Mian with a cloth. She pushed him down onto the same chair where they had been entangled yesterday, tied him up, then pressed her hand against her own pale lips. "Shh," she whispered.

Xiao Mian glared at her, gasping for breath. Leng Mushi shook her head and chuckled. "I don't want to hear it."

"I don't want to hear anything you're saying right now." Leng Mushi said, "Xiao Mian, you should know me after all this time."

Xiao Mian frowned, his brows still furrowed with anger. But he did know Leng Mushi. What she wanted to do, she would do, never giving up until there was no other way. Even when there was no other way, she would refuse to turn back.

It was the same with alchemy, cultivation… even with loving someone.

She didn't care about the consequences at all. She didn't understand what it meant to let go.

"Let's try it," Leng Mushi said, "If we try and it really doesn't work, I'll let you go."

Xiao Mian struggled with a muffled "mmm." He struggled even more frantically than last night. His wrists were chafed by the black whip. Leng Mushi sat calmly on the floor in front of him, watching him go crazy with an impassive expression.

It was only when he had no more strength left that Leng Mushi pulled the cloth from his mouth, rubbed his cheeks, and said gently, "Brother, stop struggling. You're bleeding, it pains me to see it."

Just one sentence from her, and Xiao Mian almost went mad again.

But seeing Leng Mushi cry, even though he knew it was a ploy, knew she was deliberately crying for him to see, just looking at her like this, he felt like he couldn't breathe. He really stopped his futile struggle.

Leng Mushi bandaged his wrists, fed him healing pills, and then hugged him, forcefully pouring her spiritual energy into his meridians and core.

Xiao Mian's mouth was gagged again. For the next few days, he watched in despair as the person he loved regressed in her cultivation right before his eyes.

She watched over him day and night, accompanying him. Her appearance became haggard and her complexion pallid. She took out many kinds of pills to eat, each one able to maintain his brief comfort and lucidity.

Sunset and moonrise, dusk and dawn passed in the blink of an eye. Every time Leng Mushi removed the cloth gagging Xiao Mian, he would desperately try to persuade her, yell at her, even curse at her.

He even said things he never thought he would say to Leng Mushi, things like wanting to sever all ties with her and never loving her again.

Every time Leng Mushi listened, she would only remain silent, and then laugh uncontrollably as if she had heard some ridiculous joke.

Her face was as pale as a ghost. In just a few days, her cultivation had regressed to the middle stage of Star Condensation. Moreover, even in Xiao Mian's current half-human, half-demon state, he could sense that her soul was incomplete.

Xiao Mian couldn't help but think of the strands of spiritual energy that had been clinging to his core, and his heart skipped a beat in fear.

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