After the Villainess Awakens

Xiao Mian caressed her smooth cheek, leaning forward slightly, and gently touched the side of her face where the scar no longer existed.

Leng Mu Shi: “!”

“Are those things you said… all true?” Xiao Mian asked, his nose almost touching hers.

Leng Mu Shi couldn't form a sentence: “Wha, what, what did I say?”

“I’m in so much pain,” Xiao Mian said again.

Leng Mu Shi was about to be driven mad by him. Just as she was about to get up, Xiao Mian pressed on the back of her neck and sealed her lips with his own without warning.

He lingered for a moment, biting her lower lip slightly in retaliation.

Leng Mu Shi's mind buzzed. After a moment of reaction, she finally realized what was going on--

Xiao Mian's hot breath and trembling lips, every turn and linger, made Leng Mu Shi acutely aware that things were out of control!

He even tried to hook her tongue.

Leng Mu Shi felt as if she had been stabbed. She pushed his head away, broke free from his arms, scrambled to her feet, grabbed the Laws and Handbook from the grass, and ran towards the Cangsheng Courtyard.

“It’s no use biting me because you're in pain, go bite the grass!”

Leng Mu Shi ran faster than a dog being chased, but for some reason, her knees became softer and softer as she ran, as if her kneecaps had disappeared and were replaced with two balls of cotton.

She was about to kneel on the ground, dizzy and breathless, clutching the Laws and staggering on the stone steps.

Seeing that the gate of Cangsheng Courtyard was close at hand, she took out her jade pendant and sent it to the barrier. The barrier opened… and she finally couldn't hold on any longer, collapsing at the entrance of Cangsheng Courtyard.

The world spun before her eyes. Leng Mu Shi pinched her thigh hard to keep herself awake, extremely puzzled. It was just a kiss from Xiao Mian, why was she like this?

Could it be a special effect of the new pill? Could it even affect those close to her?

“Ah… so dizzy,” she mumbled in a small voice, regretting in her heart that she shouldn't have left without Fen Lian today because she found her noisy…

She closed her eyes and saw the Red Snake opening its mouth wide towards her head, lowering its head--

Leng Mu Shi couldn't even move a finger. She thought to herself, this is it. This time, she would definitely be swallowed by the Red Snake. This beast had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. Xiao Mian was really a jinx…

She didn't know that after she ran away, Xiao Mian, the jinx, got up in pain and clarity, stumbled and panicked to chase after her, but couldn't find her. She ran too fast, and because of the effects of the pill, he was in so much pain that he gritted his teeth and returned to his own courtyard.

The Red Snake bit Leng Mu Shi's shoulder and dragged her into the Cangsheng Courtyard. However, it didn't swallow her, nor did it spit venom at her. Instead, it coiled around her on the spot.

This was a protective posture. The Red Snake usually chased her, but tonight it shielded her from the vengeful Venomous Blaze Beast, whose blood essence had been taken, and the retaliating Demon Spiders.

The Red Snake was a cold-blooded demon snake, but it was also grateful that Leng Mu Shi had once stopped Hua Yanyue from taking its gallbladder. That day, Leng Mu Shi had used a thin bamboo tube to pierce the Red Snake's body, which was immobilized by medicine, and only took a small amount of its bile. It was painful, but it saved its life.

In this world, kindness might not be reciprocated with equal returns, but it would always bring unexpected rewards.

When Leng Mu Shi woke up again, she was on the small bed in the cellar of Cangsheng Courtyard. Hua Yanyue was not refining pills for once, but looking at her with a solemn face, slowly channeling spiritual energy into her body.

“Did Master cut me out of the Red Snake’s stomach…” Leng Mu Shi guessed based on her last memory, and said weakly, “Thank you, Master…”

“No, it dragged you out from under its belly. That beast is grateful to you for saving its life and is protecting you.”

Hua Yanyue paused, withdrew her hand that was channeling spiritual energy to Leng Mu Shi, turned around and went to the top of the pill shelf, and took out another Rejuvenation Pill.

“That beast is just like your Xiao Gege, grateful for your life-saving grace, protecting you,” Hua Yanyue said. “That Rejuvenation Pill entered your stomach, but you didn’t hurry back and were still wandering outside. Last night, if it weren’t for the Red Snake protecting you, you would have been eaten by the Venomous Blaze Beast or strangled to death by the Demon Spiders, or at the very least, your eyeballs would have been pecked out by the Thousand-Eyed Demon Hawk.”

Leng Mu Shi was confused: “I didn’t take the Rejuvenation Pill, last night I…”

She suddenly stopped speaking, remembering the pastry Xiao Mian had fed her.

Why?

Be…

Leng Mu Shi thought of Xiao Mian’s unusual behavior last night, her face pale with shock.

Hua Yanyue frowned. She was already not very approachable, and now with such a sharp expression, she looked even more frightening: “You were drugged and you didn’t know? Have I been teaching you all this time in vain?!”

Leng Mu Shi narrowed her eyes at her roar. If it were any other time, she would have run away. Hua Yanyue never gave any warning before hitting someone. But now she was lying in bed, feeling so dizzy that even blinking made her dizzy. She couldn't move at all and could only grit her teeth and endure it.

It was her fault for not being wary of Xiao Mian at all. She always thought he was stupid.

But the point now was not that, but something else.

In the end, Hua Yanyue didn’t hit her, she just gestured to scare her.

Leng Mu Shi asked Hua Yanyue: “Master, are you sure that the Venomous Blaze Beast doesn’t have any aphrodisiac effects?”

“Heh, don’t doubt it. He was willing to leave that pill for you even though he was poisoned all over. He likes you,” Hua Yanyue saw through her thoughts and clicked her tongue. “These young ones, their brains are all filled with love and whatnot…”

Xuan Zhu was the same back then, and now it was Xiao Mian.

Thinking of Xuan Zhu, the smile on Hua Yanyue’s face faded.

A moment later, amidst Leng Mu Shi’s disbelief, she stuffed another Rejuvenation Pill into her mouth. “Unbelievable, right? I was the same way back then.”

“But since he was willing to give you such a good pill, don’t waste it. Take another one and cleanse your spiritual roots while you’re at it,” Hua Yanyue said. “I originally wanted to wait for your spiritual roots to be tempered by other pills before cleansing them for you, but I didn’t expect your Xiao Gege to be in such a hurry…”

Leng Mu Shi was a little dumbfounded, but the Laws were not with her, and Fen Lian was nowhere to be found. She didn’t know who to talk to, so she could only be shocked by herself.

Xiao Mian liked her, it was true.

Although Leng Mu Shi suspected that Xiao Mian had been drugged silly by her, or that the Venomous Blaze Beast did have aphrodisiac effects… that wasn’t right either. Xiao Mian had kept the Rejuvenation Pill and specially wrapped it in a pastry to feed her, and that was before he took the modified pill.

In other words… he wasn’t affected by the medicine, he was really driven silly by her feeding him pills.

Otherwise, who would fall in love with someone after being manipulated and tortured by them?

Thinking of Xiao Mian kissing her last night… Leng Mu Shi closed her eyes with a contorted expression.

What a mess, he and Leng Tianyin were the ones who were a couple. This was just a small, controllable accident.

Leng Mu Shi took the second Rejuvenation Pill and then lay in bed for a whole day and night. She finally stopped feeling dizzy, but she was sweating so much that she felt sticky and uncomfortable. As soon as she got out of bed, she hurried to wash up.

The two master and disciple, except for alchemy, basically didn’t use spiritual energy, so they didn’t use cleansing techniques either. They both bathed in the medicinal pool that Hua Yanyue had prepared in the backyard.

She soaked in the water, only her eyes exposed, slapping away a Demon Spider that was trying to bite her. She sighed comfortably in the water… a string of bubbles floated up.

“Xiao Mian is looking for you,” Hua Yanyue’s voice suddenly rang in her ears. It was a voice transmission.

Leng Mu Shi’s ears were submerged in the water, but she could hear it clearly. She gasped and choked on a mouthful of water, then lay on the edge of the pool, coughing violently.

What to do, what to do!

Leng Mu Shi was like a donkey pushing a millstone, pacing anxiously in the pool.

“Xiao Mian is still calling for you. Hurry up and get rid of him. Stay away from me when it comes to love!” Hua Yanyue growled in a low voice.

But in this short time, Leng Mu Shi had already made up her mind.

She quickly said: “I’m not going. Master, why don’t you just cut off your connection to the barrier? He won’t be able to get in. I don’t want to see him.”

Hua Yanyue was silent for a moment, then let out an “eh” sound. “You don’t want to see him?”

“You don’t want to talk about love with him?” Hua Yanyue said. “He treats you so well, foolishly testing medicine for you. It’s no different from what mortals call ‘drinking poisoned wine with a smile’. He’s also handsome, the prized disciple of Sixth Senior Brother, with pure water spiritual roots. He might even be the next elder. Such a man is rare.”

Xuan Zhu was one back then, even if he came back now, Hua Yanyue… probably wouldn’t agree to him.

It wasn’t even because of some shocking taboo of a master-disciple relationship, but because love was inherently incompatible with her.

Leng Mu Shi thought to herself that the details were too complicated to explain. She could be with anyone in this world, except Xiao Mian.

“Well, he’s not that great either,” Leng Mu Shi said. “Master, don’t you think there’s something wrong with his brain? I’ve drugged him half to death so many times, and he still likes me. Maybe he has some ulterior motive and wants to revenge me.”

Hua Yanyue was speechless for a moment, and even felt that it made sense.

The more the two master and disciple interacted, the more they felt that they were meant to be master and disciple. After all, there was no one else in this world who could trust each other’s words like they did.

“That’s true,” Hua Yanyue said. “There’s definitely something wrong with that kid. Don’t tell me he has some special kinks. You don’t know, many cultivators in the cultivation world are quite… adventurous. I’ll tell you more about it some other time.”

“Then what about him?” Hua Yanyue finally asked.

Leng Mu Shi lay on the edge of the pool and let out a firm “mm-hmm”. She said: “Don’t worry, Master. I don’t like messy people. I’m not planning on finding a man, it’ll only distract me from my goals.”

“Why talk about love? Isn’t alchemy more fun? Men will only affect the quality of my alchemy and the speed of my furnace!”

Hua Yanyue nodded in satisfaction and said, “Then I’ll drive him away.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a fierce and sharp force poured onto the barrier. Hua Yanyue rarely used spiritual energy or techniques other than for alchemy, but as the Second Elder, she had trained her junior brothers to what they were now, so her cultivation was definitely not to be underestimated.

The explosive spiritual energy swiftly moved on the runes of the barrier like a golden dragon soaring into the sky. Hua Yanyue was like an old mother driving away a bad guy for her daughter, using the spiritual energy she usually used for alchemy.

And Xiao Mian, who was outside the barrier, was completely caught off guard. He was suddenly sent flying by the strong light that erupted from the barrier--

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