Chapter 217: So I’m the Protagonist After All (13)
“Are you awake?”
Sui Yihuan heard a gentle and soothing voice near her ear, like spring rain or winter sun. She opened her eyes, and in her field of vision, there was finally no piercing red light or soaring flames. Her eyelashes fluttered as she opened her eyes and saw Su Mingxiu sitting by her bed. The room also had the aroma of food, which made her stomach growl, waking up before her consciousness did, greeting the other person with a “grumble.”
She guiltily tucked the blanket over her stomach, not knowing what day it was. She was also afraid that this was just another endless nightmare. The sound of “only one of you is destined to live” still lingered in her ears, and Sui Yihuan was especially afraid that Su Mingxiu would discover her true identity in the next second and kill her.
Seeing that she hadn’t spoken for a long time, the person sitting by the bed looked puzzled. Even in the dim light of the room, where the sunlight was blocked, her beautiful face could still light up one’s eyes. Sui Yihuan watched as her face got closer and closer in her field of vision—
“You don’t have a fever.”
Su Mingxiu touched her forehead with her own, then pulled back a little. But the distance between the two was still close enough to feel each other’s breath.
Then, she took Sui Yihuan’s wrist. The overly sensitive consciousness of a cultivator transmitted the temperature of the other person’s fingertips inch by inch. The person whose wrist was held couldn’t help but shrink back.
Noticing her avoidance, Su Mingxiu was stunned for a moment. She didn’t force it and didn’t use her spiritual power to probe whether she was injured. She just asked in a gentle voice, “You haven’t eaten for a long time. I bought a pheasant nearby yesterday and made some chicken congee for you. Would you like to have some?”
She and the person in her dream were too different. She was neither the one who was filled with hatred for evil, nor the one who was mired in the mud but still struggled to get up. But compared to the righteous and awe-inspiring person she had first met, there seemed to be something more…
What was it?
Sui Yihuan stared at the small mole at the corner of her eye. Since her gaze had shifted there, she couldn’t avoid seeing her eyes. At this moment, those black eyes were gentle, but they were like a long river in the night, flowing with more emotions that she couldn’t understand.
Almost demonic, more like a demon than a righteous cultivator.
Oh right, a lotus demon, she had guessed before.
But, what kind of demon could contend with the power of a Heavenly Demon?
Sui Yihuan’s mind was in chaos, unable to figure out what kind of strength Su Mingxiu possessed. Because she was symbiotic with the Heavenly Demon, the two of them could not kill each other. Therefore, she was not intimidated by the spiritual power released by Ye Qingbai.
As for Su Mingxiu’s spiritual power—
The other party had cleverly avoided affecting her at the time, so the person who was protected in her arms still couldn’t feel it.
Sui Yihuan thought for a long time, barely able to distinguish between the nightmare and reality. She guessed that Ye Qingbai was discovered too early this time.
So her strength had not reached its peak. If she hadn’t been restrained, maybe she could have solved this trouble for the other party?
She was thinking about the scene of her uncontrollably hurting Su Mingxiu, and then she was thinking about the reason for her dream. Was it because she couldn’t stand others being so noble and virtuous, so she was eager to find a kindred spirit in her heart, imagining that someone could be as miserable as her?
While Sui Yihuan was affected by the negative emotions in her heart, the person who had been waiting for her answer finally couldn’t help it. She bent her fingers and tapped her forehead, “Why are you still in a daze? You don’t want to eat, do you want to go back to sleep?”
The force was not heavy at all, not even leaving a red mark, but it made Sui Yihuan, who had come back to her senses, blush. She didn’t know if it was because the blanket was too tight, or if it was because she was teased by the other person’s overly intimate action.
“I… Where is this?”
In the end, she pulled the blanket and could only carefully ask this question.
Perhaps it was because the way she looked like a proud sun since their reunion left too deep of an impression. Su Mingxiu couldn’t stand this little bird being so wilted, listless, like it had been bullied by the wind and rain outside and didn’t dare to soar in the sky anymore.
So her tone was encouraging and even more gentle, “In the Southern Region, Zhenhai City.”
This was a place between the Thirteen Schools and the Hundred Flower Sect. Sui Yihuan remembered that if she wanted to go from the Qiangshan Sect to the Hundred Flower Sect, she would definitely have to pass through here. But why were they here?
“Didn’t you say you wanted to apply for leave to go home? I’m accompanying you.”
The word “home” touched on the nightmare that Sui Yihuan didn’t want to recall. She trembled in shock and reflexively wanted to refuse to face that terrifying reality, “No.”
Su Mingxiu didn’t know why she had changed her mind after waking up. But thinking about how she had been controlled by Ye Qingbai before and had involuntarily attacked her, she felt that there might be a connection. So she asked, “Then where do you want to go? No matter where you want to go, get up and have some congee first. I’ve been cooking it for a long time.”
Of course, things were not as easy as Su Mingxiu said.
After bringing Sui Yihuan out of the Hundred Flower Sect, she had left. The next moment, wanted posters for the two of them had already spread from the Hundred Flower Sect to the Southern Region.
The news of the bizarre death of the Sect Leader of the Hundred Flower Sect and the reappearance of the demon race in the nine continents spread like wildfire. In just a few days, the bounty offered by the Sword Sect and other sects was enough to make any rogue cultivator’s eyes turn red.
Therefore, the inn they were staying at was actually in a small county outside Zhenhai City, a small place where even the immortal sects’ wanted posters were not distributed.
Even so, Su Mingxiu still found two cloaks that could conceal their spiritual power, and she also specially learned two or three spells that could conceal their appearance. Relying on the fact that her cultivation was higher than most cultivators in the nine continents, she didn’t bother to learn the most effective but most troublesome disguise techniques of mortals.
But Sui Yihuan didn’t know this for the time being. She didn’t want to disappoint Su Mingxiu’s kindness, so after washing up, she sat down at the table. While absentmindedly eating the chicken congee that had cooled to just the right temperature—
The delicious fragrance that melted in her mouth brought her attention back.
Sui Yihuan was still thinking about Su Mingxiu and her master’s affairs, and how heartbroken she must be by the Heavenly Demon’s identity.
And how ruthless her own attack had been. But when this warm congee flowed down her esophagus and into her stomach, filling her abdomen with warmth, all these distracting thoughts disappeared.
Then she quickly finished the bowl of congee and found that she was not full at all. She held the bowl and turned to look at the person who had walked to the window at some point, opened it, and let the sunlight in. She asked a little embarrassedly, “Is there… any more?”
“You’ve been asleep for a long time. Even though the spiritual meat of this pheasant is only mildly nourishing, you can’t eat too much right after waking up.”
Moreover, she hadn’t figured out the changes in Sui Yihuan’s body before, and she wasn’t sure if the input of spiritual power from these spirit beasts would have any adverse effects on her.
If she hadn’t slept for too long and her spirit seemed to be greatly affected, Su Mingxiu wouldn’t even have considered using spiritual ingredients in her meals.
But she was really hungry.
Sui Yihuan couldn’t help but frown, but found that there wasn’t even an extra plate of fruit or pastries on the table of this inn. Her awakened stomach was even hungrier.
Amused by her listless appearance, Su Mingxiu walked over from the window and leaned down to look at her. Her hair fell down and brushed her cheek.
“Still want to eat something delicious?”
The skin that was touched by her long hair was itchy. Sui Yihuan only then noticed that the other person’s hair, which had been tied up with a hairpin engraved with the Hundred Flower Sect’s emblem, was now gone. Now it was just tied up with an ordinary wooden hairpin.
And her clothes were no longer the ordinary green robe that shimmered with the light of a magical artifact, but a… robe that looked like someone had put a piece of wildly written calligraphy on it.
Black, white, and gray were interlaced. This light robe was much dimmer than green, but it completely eliminated the gentle and jade-like temperament of Su Mingxiu, replacing it with a much more arrogant and overbearing aura. Now it was difficult to see the temperament of the chief disciple of the Hundred Flower Sect from her.
Sui Yihuan felt a little sad and nodded absentmindedly.
Su Mingxiu suddenly reached out and held her chin, so close that the breath from her red lips was about to be eaten. Sui Yihuan was startled and came back to her senses. She reflexively reached out and grabbed the table, “Su… Daoist friend Su…”
What was she doing?
“What are you thinking about?” Su Mingxiu didn’t correct her somewhat distant form of address, she just asked persistently.
The person who was forced to look up didn’t realize how ambiguous their posture was at this moment because of her excessive guilt. The other person seemed to be about to kiss her at any moment. She thought that Su Mingxiu was unhappy because she was always absent-minded and hiding too many things since she woke up.
So she calmed down, forced herself to ignore the moist breath on her lips, lowered her eyelashes uneasily, and said softly, “I’m sorry, I… hurt you before.”
“It’s okay, I already said I didn’t mind. You didn’t mean to.”
That was what she said, but Su Mingxiu still didn’t let go, using a tough posture to break through the high wall that the other party had barely built.
Sure enough, Sui Yihuan quickly continued to say hesitantly, “But… not only that. If, if I hadn’t come to the Hundred Flower Sect, none of this would have happened.”
If she hadn’t come, the Heavenly Demon’s plan could not have been completed. Although it was unknown how long it would have been delayed, at least this disciple of the Hundred Flower Sect wouldn’t have to face this despair so soon. Her bright and beautiful path of cultivation wouldn’t have been overturned, she wouldn’t have lost her master, and she wouldn’t have known that everything she had today was only because she was chosen as a vessel back then—
Her misfortune stemmed from herself.
But Su Mingxiu’s misfortune was all brought by her.
It was Sui Yihuan who made Su Mingxiu lose her righteous identity, her master, and the protection of her sect.
This was something that made Sui Yihuan even more at a loss than when she had intruded into the spiritual garden and accidentally trampled the other person’s roses. Because this time she really didn’t know how to make amends.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “It’s all my fault.”
It was she who had not seen clearly the sins she was born with, and had mistakenly joined the wrong herd. Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, she had eaten grass for too long. When the wolves smelled the scent and disturbed the sheepfold, she was anxious and uneasy, hypocritically discovering that she was the one in the wrong.
Even her apology was so pale and weak.
“You seem to be immersed in your own emotions too deeply, so you can’t hear what I’m saying, and you don’t understand what I mean.” In her apology, Su Mingxiu was silent for a while, but only gave this sentence.
Sui Yihuan: “?”
She raised her eyes in confusion. When they were not red, these deer-like eyes were really too pure, like a woodland spirit who knew nothing of the world, reflecting all the evil and dirty emotions of human beings.
Su Mingxiu also saw her own in her eyes, but she didn’t choose to hide it. She just smiled and said, “Let me express my thoughts more succinctly, listen carefully—”
“Next time you get distracted like this while talking to me, I will kiss you until you focus your attention on me.”
“Like this…”
The breath exhaled while speaking had long since softened the thin lips that the other person had pursed because of nervousness, like a scallop being steamed, easily pried open, allowing the diner to taste the more delicious insides.
Originally still immersed in uncontrollable guilt, Sui Yihuan was suddenly pulled into another world, and she was completely stunned.
So she didn’t resist at all, until she found that she couldn’t even see the approaching person clearly when she widened her eyes. Everything became hazy, and the light shining on the table was also wrinkled by her action of tightening her grip on the tablecloth, causing the teacups to clink—
Her eyelashes trembled fiercely. Sui Yihuan was suddenly startled, finally realizing what Su Mingxiu was doing to her!
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