After the Villainess Awakens

Xiao Mian hurried to You Zishu's side and asked, "What? I didn't hear you call me."

Xiao Mian's heart skipped a beat. He quickly looked towards Leng Mushi, only to find both her and the Shadow Sect cultivator gone.

Panic surged through him. He searched frantically for a while before finally spotting Leng Mushi standing alone on a cliff edge.

Her own robe, which she had been wearing earlier, lay scattered on the ground at her feet. The mountain wind had blown half of it over the cliff, and a part of it was still caught on Leng Mushi's foot, making it look as if she was about to be dragged down the cliff by the garment.

Xiao Mian's heart pounded like a drum, his fear stemming from her precarious situation.

The trees in this area had been ravaged by the Five-Tailed Dragon's tail. The spot where Leng Mushi stood was far too close to the edge, making it incredibly dangerous.

Xiao Mian rushed over in a panic, grabbed Leng Mushi, who was staring blankly at the cliff edge, and pulled her back to safety. He picked up the robe that was about to fall off the cliff and draped it over her, covering the not-fully-healed wound on her lower back. Only then did he ask urgently, "What are you doing here? Did that Shadow cultivator bring you here? What does he want?"

Xiao Mian's voice was unusually loud, and his grip on Leng Mushi's shoulders was firm. Leng Mushi clutched her hands together inside her sleeves, her palms pressing against a small, crimson disc.

This was given to her by the Shadow cultivator just now. This object was called the Kunlun Disc. On the disc were drawn different runes representing various races. According to Yin Yi, it was an ancient tool for identifying demons and monsters, even more accurate than the Demon Revealing Formation. It could even identify humans.

In front of each rune representing a race were ten scales. There were five thin, hair-like red needles. Any person, beast, or even an object with a certain scent could be identified using it. It didn't require spiritual energy to activate; simply holding it close was enough. The scale in front of each red needle indicated the strength of the bloodline of the species you were trying to identify.

The runes represented humans, ghosts, demons, devils, and cultivators who possessed spiritual power.

When facing a human, only the red needle representing humans would move, while the others remained still. The same applied to identifying other races. When facing someone with both demon and devil bloodlines, both the demon and devil needles would move. Leng Mushi had already tested it on herself and other demon beasts.

Now, she pressed the Kunlun Disc in her hand and slowly moved it closer to Xiao Mian.

She sensed the red needle moving, but she didn't look down immediately. Instead, she raised her eyes to meet Xiao Mian's, which were filled with panic and worry, causing an ominous blood-red color to spread across them.

"Did he hurt you?" Xiao Mian was convinced that the Shadow cultivator, who had shrouded himself as if he couldn't be seen, had kidnapped Leng Mushi with ill intentions.

People are always like this. When facing someone they truly love, they become exceptionally tolerant and trust without logic.

Leng Mushi looked into Xiao Mian's eyes, her grip on the Kunlun Disc tightening. Even without looking down, she could tell something was wrong with him.

Seeing that if she didn't speak, Xiao Mian would go and duel that Shadow cultivator, she chuckled softly and said, "Xiao Gege, you look like you've caught me cheating. You're scaring me."

Xiao Mian choked. Leng Mushi's slightest bit of gentleness and soft words would always make him dizzy, let alone calling him Xiao Gege.

Leng Mushi continued, "Who could kidnap me? That Shadow Sect cultivator was hurt worse than me. He's the leader of the Shadow Sect's trial this time. We can get out now."

Gathering the leaders of the four sects could open the secret realm. They no longer needed to wait for rescue. With so many puppet beasts escorting them, there shouldn't be any danger.

"But he deliberately sent me away. Senior Brother didn't call me at all," Xiao Mian said. "What did he do to you?"

Xiao Mian trusted Leng Mushi completely. Hearing her say this, his tense expression relaxed, and the ominous red marks in his eyes receded from the corners.

He pulled Leng Mushi's robe tightly around her and whispered, "Phantom Life Pills are so difficult to refine, why give him two…"

Leng Mushi's heart, which had been feeling heavy, softened like cotton wool when she heard his childish grumbling.

She took off her storage bag and handed it to Xiao Mian. "I won't give him any. They're all for you."

Xiao Mian paused, realizing he was being childish. He felt his ears heat up. Leng Mushi smiled and curled her lip at him. "From now on, any good stuff I refine will be for Xiao Gege. That Shadow cultivator deserves some credit for dealing with the dragon, so I gave him two pills to play with. Isn't everything I have yours, Xiao Gege?"

Leng Mushi's casual words stunned Xiao Mian, who had been feeling shy. He quickly moved his lips. He hadn't dared to have such wishful thinking, but he couldn't help but ask, "Everything… is mine?"

"Tianyin, Tianyin, what's wrong?!" Yi Tu suddenly shouted from a distance. Leng Tianyin's whole body was convulsing. Yi Tu and Xing Zhou held her down as the other disciples gathered around.

Leng Mushi and Xiao Mian looked over and met Yin Yi's gaze. Yin Yi gestured to her, and Leng Mushi nodded slightly.

Xiao Mian, despite his jade-like appearance, was a kind-hearted person. Leng Tianyin was, after all, his junior sister. Seeing this, he quickly took Leng Mushi's hand to check on her.

He also said, "The disciples are ready to depart. We have puppet beasts to escort us, so we'll definitely get out safely this time."

Xiao Mian reached for Leng Mushi's hand, but she shook him off. "I'm not going. You go ahead."

Xiao Mian knew that Leng Mushi actually cared about Leng Tianyin and had helped her secretly and openly. He was surprised that Leng Mushi refused to go.

He hesitated slightly, unsure of what Leng Mushi was planning. Leng Mushi smiled and gave him a push. "Go ahead. I'll be right behind you."

Xiao Mian didn't doubt her. Before leaving, he even found a comfortable place for Leng Mushi to sit, guessing that her injuries were hurting. Then he turned and ran towards Leng Tianyin, where the disciples were gathered.

However, Leng Mushi didn't sit where Xiao Mian had arranged. Instead, she took out the Law from her storage bag and said, "The plot can't wait five days. Everyone is about to head towards the exit of the legacy realm. There's no cliff for me to jump off there, so I'll just jump here."

The Law paused, then finally agreed.

"Don't forget what you promised me. Once this plot is over, you'll teach me how to suppress my other spiritual roots," Leng Mushi added.

The Law agreed, but its tone made Leng Mushi feel inexplicably down.

Ignoring it, she saw Xiao Mian obediently running towards Leng Tianyin. Leng Mushi got up and walked to the edge of the cliff. She quickly began to recite the plot in a low voice, "Xiao Gege, if you go see her again, I'll jump from here!"

The Law couldn't help but blurt out, "He can't even hear you!"

Leng Mushi retorted, "The plot doesn't say the male lead has to hear it!"

With that, she jumped off the cliff without hesitation. She was still wearing Xiao Mian's robe. As she fell, the mountain wind caught the long robe and blew it back up onto the cliff, like a butterfly making a desperate attempt to fly in a storm.

Xiao Mian had run halfway towards Leng Tianyin when he turned back to look at Leng Mushi, worried. He froze as he witnessed her leaping from the cliff.

In an instant, the blood in his body surged, threatening to burst his heart. He cried out, his voice filled with anguish, "Nianci!"

Without hesitation, he turned and flew towards Leng Mushi, his feet propelled by spiritual energy. But Leng Mushi had already jumped. All he could do was reach out to the robe that the mountain wind blew into his face.

As Leng Mushi jumped, she had carefully observed the cliff's terrain, ensuring that even without the Law, even if it was tricking her into dying, she wouldn't die from this fall.

She even held onto a sliver of hope that the Law wasn't real, that it was just some sealed demon trying to cause trouble, that this world wasn't some storybook, and that she could disregard everything.

But she never expected that before she even reached the bottom, Xiao Mian would follow her like a dumpling falling into a pot.

When Leng Mushi heard him call her name, she turned her head. In that instant, Xiao Mian had already jumped off the cliff without hesitation.

This truly shocked her. What was Xiao Mian doing?!

The two didn't collide in mid-air. Soon, Leng Mushi felt the mountain wind disappear, and she slammed into something. It felt soft and elastic, but she couldn't see anything and instantly lost consciousness.

Xiao Mian watched in horror as Leng Mushi disappeared before his eyes. His eyes were wide with terror, and the blood lines under his eyes began to thrash wildly until he, too, crashed into something and vanished into the vastness of the cliff.

The disciples who rushed over peered down from the cliff edge, but they couldn't find any bodies.

Leng Tianyin's convulsions suddenly stopped. Hearing that her sister and Xiao Mian had fallen off the cliff, she ran over frantically, only to find nothing but Xiao Mian's disciple robe lying on the edge.

Everyone was shocked and speechless. The plan to have the puppet beasts escort them to the exit of the Demon legacy realm had to be postponed. You Zishu personally rode a puppet eagle to the bottom of the cliff to investigate, but there was no trace of them, not even a drop of blood.

Most of the disciples had been helped by Leng Mushi and Xiao Mian. They refused to leave, searching the bottom of the cliff over and over again, but to no avail.

Until nightfall, You Zishu discussed the situation with the leaders of the other three sects. They decided to search for one more night and leave the secret realm the next morning.

He comforted the disciples, rationally analyzing, "Without their bodies, we can't confirm their deaths. We also haven't sensed their Life-Bound Belts breaking. They might have been taken away by some flying beast. The puppet beasts are already searching."

"I've sent a message back to the sect using a spirit bird. The rescue disciples will enter the secret realm to help us search. Our priority now is to get out. It's not suitable for low-level disciples to stay in this secret realm for too long."

You Zishu's tone was flat and emotionless, but the disciples understood. Staying here wouldn't help. Their cultivation levels were too low; they couldn't even descend the cliff. Although they had puppet beasts protecting them now, if they encountered another powerful demon beast like the Five-Tailed Dragon, they might not be so lucky to survive.

So, at dawn the next day, the disciples packed up and set off, escorted by the puppet beasts, towards the exit of the Demon legacy realm.

Meanwhile, Leng Mushi and Xiao Mian had just groggily woken up. They didn't know where they were. Everything was gray and hazy. It wasn't that they couldn't see, but they couldn't tell day from night. The first thing they tried to do upon waking was to get out, but they couldn't.

They didn't know what this thing was. Their spiritual energy had been depleted, and this place completely isolated them from spiritual energy. They were surrounded by thick, fleshy walls. They had been swallowed by some kind of demon.

As for why they knew it was a demon, it was because Leng Mushi had tested it with the Kunlun Disc.

Xiao Mian had slashed at the fleshy walls several times with his Water Cloud Sword, but the walls were incredibly thick. The sword would pierce through, but the wound would heal instantly, and the demon showed no signs of pain. They could feel it moving, but very slowly, and they didn't know where it was headed.

Trapped inside, they weren't in immediate danger, but they were arguing.

Or rather, it was Leng Mushi who was doing all the arguing. "Are you stupid? Why did you jump after me?"

Leng Mushi tried to summon the Law in her mind, but it was playing dead. According to the "storybooks" she had read, she should have only suffered minor injuries from the fall. But now, she had jumped straight into some demon's mouth!

She couldn't get out. She could have argued with the Law and fought for her rights, but perhaps because of Xiao Mian's presence, the Law remained silent.

Leng Mushi could only vent her frustration at Xiao Mian. She couldn't understand. "You didn't even think and just jumped." She was about to get a headache from his recklessness. But she couldn't bring herself to say anything harsher. She couldn't deny that beneath her anger, her heart was filled with a soft ache.

She was afraid of crying, so she masked it with anger. She had never met such a fool as Xiao Mian, who would actually jump off a cliff after her.

No matter how high a cultivator's cultivation level was, they were still afraid of blades. Before ascending, even if their aging slowed down, they could still die from illness or old age. Jumping down so recklessly, especially after being injured, was no different from seeking death.

Leng Mushi knew that Xiao Mian liked her, cared about her. He was young and passionate, and he hadn't won her over yet, so naturally, he was being extra attentive. But she never imagined that he would hesitate for even a second before jumping to his potential death. His gesture was so grand that it made her heart skip a beat.

But it wasn't completely out of character. Xiao Mian's care and protection, especially back in the Phantom Fox's lair, had already revealed his true feelings for her.

She just didn't understand why they, at such a young age in the cultivation world, had to be so deeply in love. It made her… What was she supposed to do?

"Then why did you jump?" Xiao Mian put away his Water Cloud Sword and tried to gather his spiritual energy, but failed again. He asked Leng Mushi this question for the umpteenth time.

"I told you, I was too skinny and the wind swept me off…" Even she found her own words ridiculous. Xiao Mian, who had never doubted her before, didn't believe her either. He just looked at her with an unreadable expression, a hint of helplessness in his eyes.

Leng Mushi decided not to explain anymore. She sat down cross-legged on the ground, or rather, on the fleshy wall. The inside of the demon's stomach was covered in this flesh, but it wasn't pitch black. Instead, it emitted a dim, grayish light.

It was stuffy but not suffocating. It was very strange.

Leng Mushi patted the slowly wriggling flesh wall. "What is this thing? If we're in its stomach, why isn't there any digestive fluid like other demon beasts?"

"I haven't read about this kind of demon beast in any ancient books either," Xiao Mian said as he sat down beside Leng Mushi. He sighed softly and fell silent.

They sat there in silence, their arms close to each other. The dim light and the passing time created an ambiguous atmosphere that lingered around them, making Leng Mushi's heart race.

It also caused a sharp pain in Xiao Mian's chest.

"Don't be mad at me anymore." Xiao Mian couldn't coax Leng Mushi out of her bad mood, so he resorted to his trump card. He took out a handful of white flowers from his storage bag. They looked like mushrooms, but their edges were curved and felt as hard as bone.

"This is for you," Xiao Mian said with a gentle smile, trying to appease her. "Haven't you been looking for this?"

Leng Mushi looked over and froze.

"Phantom Life Flowers, you…" Leng Mushi trailed off, her throat constricting.

Phantom Life Flowers only grew on the white bones inside a Phantom Fox's lair. They were essential ingredients for refining breakthrough and curse-breaking pills. However, Phantom Fox lairs were extremely difficult to find. Leng Mushi had indeed been wanting these for a long time.

But their encounter with the Phantom Fox had been fraught with danger. The lair had collapsed when she was advancing. Before her breakthrough, Xiao Mian had been protecting her. After her breakthrough, he had stayed by her side. He hadn't left her sight, which meant he must have gone to the white bones in the waterfall pool of the Phantom Fox's lair while it was collapsing to find these Phantom Life Flowers for her.

Looking at the flowers that grew from white bones, Leng Mushi felt her mouth go dry, and her chest tightened.

She didn't dare to meet Xiao Mian's gaze, nor did she dare to reach out and accept such a heavy, unbearable affection.

She had made a deal with the Shadow Sect, but she still wasn't confident that she could keep this strand of Xiao Mian's consciousness.

"Why… Why would you do this?" Leng Mushi was at a loss for words. Xiao Mian held the flowers out to her. She moved her fingers slightly. Countless thoughts and words to shatter those thoughts piled up in her throat, choking her.

Xiao Mian continued, as if coaxing a child throwing a tantrum, "I know it's strange to give white bone flowers as a gift for the first time. When we get back to the sect, I'll find other beautiful fairy flowers and spirit herbs for you. I know there are some in the back mountains. They're very pretty and can be used as medicine. We can record their medicinal properties together."

Leng Mushi remained silent, but she raised her hands, cupped them together, and finally accepted the Phantom Life Flowers from Xiao Mian.

She lowered her head solemnly and received them with the utmost care, as if what she was holding wasn't a handful of Phantom Life Flowers, but Xiao Mian's heart that he had dug out of his chest.

But how ridiculous. He couldn't even give her his heart. This body, even his heart, didn't belong to him.

Leng Mushi stared at the Phantom Life Flowers in her hands for a long time before opening her storage bag and putting them inside.

She had prepared so many bags when she came, wanting to fill them with treasures from the secret realm. But after everything they had been through, her bags were empty. Xiao Mian's storage bag was also leaking. Even her Soul Control Pills were mostly depleted, and she had very few Phantom Life Pills left.

Now, the only things in her storage bag were the Phantom Life Flowers that Xiao Mian had found for her.

"I actually found some other things, but I don't know where I dropped them." As Xiao Mian spoke, he rummaged through his storage bag, knelt down in front of Leng Mushi, and said with a smile, "Look, luckily your robe blocked some of the holes, and luckily I wrapped some snacks in your robe."

Xiao Mian wiped his hands on the inside of his robe. "I can't wash them now, and I can't use a cleaning spell either. Just make do with these. There's still some water in the water pouch. I didn't want to take it out before because there were so many disciples, but it doesn't matter now. Eat something."

As he spoke, Xiao Mian handed the snacks to Leng Mushi. They were all small, broken pieces, about the size of a thumb.

Leng Mushi stared at Xiao Mian, her eyes wide. She didn't dare to open her mouth, afraid that tears would fall before she could eat.

She wasn't particularly sad, nor was her heart in turmoil. But for some reason, tears welled up in her eyes. It reminded her of the first few years after her mother passed away. She could be laughing happily one moment, and then tears would stream down her face without warning.

Leng Mushi hated this feeling of losing control. Her mother wouldn't want her to be unhappy either. She even thought about refining some kind of pill to stop herself from crying, just like how she had refined pills to stop her period.

These things shouldn't exist.

But now, she was on the verge of breaking down. Xiao Mian was too much.

Xiao Mian was still chattering away like thousands of frogs in a summer pond, croaking endlessly at her.

Leng Mushi wanted to tell him to stop talking, but she couldn't move. If she did, the tears that had welled up in her eyes would definitely spill over. How could she explain that?

So, she listened as Xiao Mian continued talking to himself, "There's still a whole one here. You eat this. Give me the broken ones." Thinking that Leng Mushi was disgusted and that's why she wouldn't open her mouth, Xiao Mian stuffed a small piece into his own mouth and handed the whole one to her.

He was hungry too. Cultivators above the Moon Phase could cultivate to the point of not needing food, but Leng Mushi didn't want to cultivate, and Xiao Mian hadn't reached that level when he left the mountain. After all this time, he was both hungry and thirsty.

But taking care of Leng Mushi had become both a habit and a joy for him. He naturally wanted to prioritize her needs. After all, even without cultivating to abstain from food, cultivators could survive for ten days or half a month without eating.

Leng Mushi still didn't move, her eyes wide open, her head slightly tilted up.

Xiao Mian pried open her clenched hands and placed the larger, whole piece of pastry into her hand. "Eat it. It's sweet."

Leng Mushi mechanically lifted the pastry to her lips. As soon as she opened her mouth, tears streamed down her face.

She took a bite, but she couldn't taste anything. A sob escaped her lips.

Thinking that she was choking, Xiao Mian quickly handed her water. Leng Mushi's face contorted as she fought back tears, but she couldn't hold them back any longer. She glanced at Xiao Mian, then threw the pastry aside and grabbed his neck, kissing his lips, which were still stained with crumbs.

Xiao Mian froze like a puppet, half-kneeling on the ground. Leng Mushi cupped his face, pressed her lips against his, and choked back sobs.

URGENT: Our Google Ads account was blocked due to violations. We'd deeply appreciate your support through donations to help us continue our work. Or we won't be able to continue the translations.

ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ

Love what you read?