42: To become a demon in one's heart

While Jiang Xun was unconscious, Sang Linger figured something out.

It was the day after she had been saved by her Revered Master's shuang hua sword.

Qin Lin, that Senior Brother who was always stern-faced, had uncharacteristically mentioned the name "Jiang Xun" several times.

"That Mortal is quite interesting," Qin Lin had said at the time.

Sang Linger found it strange. "Just because he saved you?"

Qin Lin shook his head and asked her in return, "Think about it carefully. Since meeting Jiang Xun, have you ever seen him kneel to anyone?"

Sang Linger was stunned.

She actually gave it some thought.

In a place like Yunshan Town, whenever Cultivators were stationed there, Mortals would bow and kowtow upon seeing them, treating them like gods.

But when facing them, Jiang Xun would at most bow at the waist; he never knelt. Even if he didn't know their identities.

But it was the same even when facing Xue Sheng.

At first, she thought this bumpkin was just ignorant and didn't understand the weight of a Cultivator.

Sang Linger said to Qin Lin, "I suppose it's because he's never witnessed the great power of a Cultivator that he doesn't care."

At the time, Qin Lin only said, "Maybe, but not everyone has the courage to choose to take risks."

Thinking about it carefully now.

It wasn't that Jiang Xun didn't understand; it was that in his very bones... he didn't take Cultivators seriously at all.

That was not a mindset a Mortal should have.

He was too arrogant.

Arrogant as if it were only natural, arrogant in a quiet, subtle way.

So when she ran into Jiang Xun by the spiritual spring today, Sang Linger's first thought was, "Could this person be a spy for the Demonic Path?"

This thought circled in her mind a few times, but she didn't say it aloud.

After she knocked Jiang Xun unconscious, she approached him to "check" on him... "Hey." Sang Linger pulled back her thoughts and looked at Jiang Xun. "Call me Senior Sister one more time."

Jiang Xun was watching the darkening sky in the distance. Hearing this, he turned to look at her. "Are you addicted to hearing it?"

"Are you going to say it or not?"

"Then if you call me 'Daddy' once, I'll call you 'Senior Sister' once."

Jiang Xun laughed.

It was the first time Sang Linger had heard the word 'Daddy,' and it felt a bit strange; she had never heard of it before.

But seeing the mischievous smirk on Jiang Xun's face, she figured it definitely wasn't a good word. She turned her head away. "I'm not saying it."

Jiang Xun looked at her.

The afterglow of the setting sun fell on her face, plating those bright eyes with a layer of warm light.

"Forget it."

"I can call you that," Jiang Xun spoke up, "but you have to answer one question for me."

"Sure," Sang Linger agreed readily. "Ask away."

"How did you become Yan Qingning's disciple?"

Sang Linger's expression stiffened. "What do you mean? Do you think I'm not worthy?"

"Just curious," Jiang Xun's tone was calm.

Sang Linger stared at him for a few seconds, and after confirming he wasn't being sarcastic, she snorted. "That's because Revered Master owes my father a favor."

"What favor?"

"It's not really a secret." Sang Linger casually brushed aside a lock of hair blown messy by the wind. "It's just that my father agreed to help Revered Master move the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect from the Eastern Region to the Southern Region."

Jiang Xun was silent for a few breaths.

"...Your father wouldn't happen to be the Sect Master, would he?"

???

Sang Linger looked surprised. "How did you know?"

"I never mentioned it to you!"

Jiang Xun looked at her "you're so amazing to have guessed that" expression and was momentarily speechless.

Could such a major matter as relocating a Sect be decided by an ordinary Elder?

"Just a guess." He didn't bother to explain, only replying with those three words.

Sang Linger puffed out her cheeks.

"Then you should call me now."

Jiang Xun ignored her... Jiang Xun had always treated the game's plot as a resource to be mined.

But he had always overlooked that this was not a game.

He had been thinking.

Was the one Yan Qingning liked Dao Xun? Or was it Jiang Xun?

The night grew deep.

Sang Linger had long since left in a huff, and the Jade Void Grotto-Heaven returned to silence.

Jiang Xun lay on the bed in his room, closing his eyes, but his mind was in a mess.

He took out the half-piece of the hongmeng fish pendant and examined it.

There are some things that won't just go away just because you avoid them.

The image of Yan Qingning with tears in her eyes kept flickering before him.

Those eyes that were always cold, the reddened rims, the scalding tears... A thousand-year-old Cultivator shouldn't be like this.

His consciousness gradually blurred.

In a half-asleep, half-awake state, he felt a weight on his body.

It felt as if something icy had pressed down on him.

Jiang Xun opened his eyes.

It was Yan Qingning.

She was lying on top of him, her hair disheveled, her collar slightly open, revealing a section of snow-white collarbone.

The cold Qi around her was so thick it had almost solidified, causing the temperature in the room to plummet; tiny ice crystals even formed on the edge of the bed curtains.

"Yan Qingning?" Jiang Xun's voice tightened. "You are..."

Yan Qingning looked down at him.

Her gaze was very empty, as if covered by a layer of mist, or as if she were submerged in a very deep place. There was no expression on her face, only her lips were trembling slightly.

"Jiang Xun..." she spoke, her voice incredibly hoarse, "You once said... you would marry me, right?"

Jiang Xun's heart suddenly constricted.

There was indeed such an option in his memory.

In the game, at a certain key plot node, he had chosen the line: "When I can surpass Senior Sister, I will come to marry you."

He had chosen it casually back then, treating it as just a line to win her over.

But now... "I think what I said was..." Jiang Xun's Adam's apple bobbed, "If I become stronger than you..."

"But you don't like me anymore." Yan Qingning interrupted him, her voice very soft, yet like a dull knife slowly cutting through the air, "If you don't like me... can you still marry me?"

"If you don't like me anymore, you're going to find another woman to like, aren't you?"

Jiang Xun was stunned.

Could it be that being with Sang Linger today had triggered Yan Qingning?

He hadn't expected that his earlier words, "I don't like you anymore," would hit her so hard.

He looked at her hollow eyes, the thickening cold Qi around her, and her lips unconsciously repeating that same phrase.

"If you don't like me anymore, can you still marry me?"

Like a broken record, over and over again.

These few words had already become a Heart Demon.

She must have been suppressing this thing for the past few days!

It was just that today, she didn't want to suppress it anymore.

"Yan Qingning." Jiang Xun reached out, wanting to steady her shoulders, "Calm down, don't pay attention to those words, or you'll suffer Qi Deviation."

Before he could finish, as soon as his hand touched her, a bone-chilling cold instantly surged through his entire body!

It wasn't ordinary cold; it was a cold carrying spiritual power that almost froze his Meridians and marrow.

Jiang Xun's whole body stiffened, even his breathing stagnated, and a layer of white frost quickly covered the surface of his skin.

And the cold Qi on Yan Qingning's body was still overflowing.

Ice crystals condensed on the tips of her hair, frost hung from her eyelashes, and transparent ice flowers bloomed on her collar.

The entire room seemed to have instantly entered the dead of winter; the walls, floors, and furniture were all covered in a thin layer of ice.

Jiang Xun was pinned beneath her, unable to move.

The cold Qi was like countless fine needles, pricking into his pores and drilling into his bones. His teeth chattered, his blood flow grew slower and slower, and his consciousness began to blur.

Just as he was about to pass out.

His chest suddenly grew hot.

It was that half-piece of the hongmeng fish pendant.

An emerald-green light seeped out from his collar, softly yet firmly pushing open a small, warm Domain.

When the cold Qi touched the green light, it was like a tide hitting a dam, unable to advance even an inch further.

Jiang Xun could finally catch his breath.

He looked down; the fish pendant was slightly hot, its light flowing as if responding to something.

And Yan Qingning... she was still lying on him, her mouth still murmuring, "If you don't like me... can you still marry me..."

Over and over again.

Jiang Xun looked at her, at the near-desperate vacancy on her face, and at the obsession in her eyes that was so thick it couldn't be dissolved—an obsession that had been frozen for a thousand years.

He suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

It wasn't from being pinned down.

It was something else.

"Yan Qingning." He spoke, his voice very hoarse, "Listen to me—"

She didn't react.

"Yan Qingning!"

She still didn't react.

Jiang Xun gritted his teeth.

Then he took a deep breath and, using all his strength, roared into her ear:

"If I don't marry you—"

He paused, and his voice suddenly rose even higher:

"Can't you just come and marry me?!"

The room instantly fell silent.

Only the echo of those words bounced back and forth between the frozen walls.

Yan Qingning's movements stopped.

Her hollow eyes slowly, extremely slowly, focused on Jiang Xun's face.

Like waking up bit by bit from a long and cold dream.

She looked at him.

She looked for a long time.

Long enough that Jiang Xun thought she was going to fall back into that state of vacancy.

She suddenly smiled.

It was a very faint smile; the corners of her mouth pulled back just a tiny bit, but her eyes were still covered in mist.

"That's right..."

She said softly, her voice still hoarse, but with something else added to it:

"I can... come and marry you."

The moment those words fell, the cold Qi around her body suddenly retracted.

Like a receding tide, it quickly shrank back into her body. The ice crystals in the room began to melt, and water droplets fell with a pitter-patter, forming a small puddle on the floor.

The temperature rose back up.

Yan Qingning was still lying on him, but her weight felt much lighter.

She reached out, her icy fingertips gently stroking Jiang Xun's cheek.

"Jiang Xun..." she murmured, "It doesn't matter if you don't like me."

"It's enough that I like you."

She lowered her head, her forehead resting against his.

Their breaths intertwined, carrying the dampness of melting ice and snow.

"I will marry you," she said once more, her tone certain this time, "Don't even think about escaping."

Jiang Xun lay there, looking into her eyes so close to his.

He closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh.

"As you wish."