Chapter 83: Affectionate

It wasn’t just Xie Bai’s footsteps that were glowing, at that moment, the shoes of both Gu Baiyi and Ji Rong were also shimmering with golden light.

Along with them, several objects within the room were lit up: the cinnabar stone sculpture placed in the center, the ancestral lineage scroll on the north wall, and the Buddha statues positioned to the east and west.

As everyone in the cultivation world knew, cultivators could use objects or spirit stones as placeholders. Combined with spiritual energy, they could form formations.

The positions of the two people and the four glowing items just happened to make up six stars of the Big Dipper Formation.

Xie Bai’s arrival had unknowingly completed the final position—Yaoguang.

Earlier, Ji Rong had been distracted by Xie Bai’s sudden entrance and didn’t notice the glowing spot ahead of her.

It wasn’t until Xie Bai set his foot down that Gu Baiyi and Ji Rong realized what was happening.

But it was already too late. The seven-star positions erupted in a blinding light, the beams connecting into a winding line.

Ji Rong didn’t even have time to curse Xie Bai for his usual ability to ruin everything before a powerful, irresistible force sucked her into the wall.

When she opened her eyes again, everything was pitch black.

She couldn’t see where she was, nor could she make out any figures. The only thing she could feel was a cold, ice-like hand gripping her tightly.

Though she was standing still, that freezing grip showed no signs of letting go.

Ji Rong felt a little numb. She raised her free hand and gathered a ball of spiritual energy in her palm.

The white flame burned pure and bright, illuminating Gu Baiyi’s face.

Well… it was indeed very pale.

After what had just happened, Gu Baiyi looked visibly shaken.

This kind of event hadn’t happened in her past life. It was too sudden, she had only managed to grab Ji Rong’s hand in time.

Even as the force dragged and twisted her, she had stubbornly resisted it with spiritual power, unwilling to let go.

Yet Xie Bai, standing nearby, noticed nothing unusual about Gu Baiyi. Instead, he was yelling in surprise, “Where is this place? How did I suddenly end up here?”

Ji Rong couldn’t help but sneer. No one else could cause a disaster and still sound so delighted about it.

Expressionless, she said, “Isn’t it thanks to you, Junior Brother Xie?”

Xie Bai replied carelessly, “Senior Sister flatters me. How could I possibly bestow anything upon you?”

He was still cracking jokes when a sword shadow swept toward his face.

Under normal circumstances, Xie Bai would never have been able to dodge Gu Baiyi’s sword.

Yet to Ji Rong’s surprise, he actually twisted his body and avoided the cold glint of the Hanshui Sword.

Gu Baiyi frowned slightly, disbelief flickering in her eyes.

That strike should have been impossible to evade. Even if it didn’t kill, it should’ve injured him.

Even more stunned than she was, Xie Bai cried out, “Oh? Not only am I not dead, I’m not even hurt?”

What a noisy and irritating man.

Ji Rong massaged her temples and said, “This must be a domain. Our spiritual power is being limited to the Heart-Seeking stage.”

How did she know? Because the spiritual energy in her hand was no more or less than what she could muster when she first arrived in this world.

She’d only guessed it based on experience, yet before she could process it further, a mechanical voice echoed in her mind:

[Ding! Unknown character’s favorability +10]

Ji Rong was stunned, not because of the random favorability increase, but because…

Wasn’t her system supposed to crash the moment she entered a domain? Why was it still functioning, and even chirpy?

[Dear, you do not have permission to access this feature~]

Ji Rong: “…”

Why did that sound strangely familiar?

Whatever. This stupid system must be trying to get her killed.

Just then, a voice echoed from the void: “Not bad. You realized this is a domain.”

The speaker was a woman. Her voice was as clear as a stone striking water, pleasant and melodious.

Ji Rong looked around, but the surroundings remained pitch black, so dark she couldn’t see her own hand.

Gu Baiyi also heard the voice, but her expression remained grim.

That was because in her past life, when she entered the Mountains and Rivers Chessboard, she had never been trapped in a domain, nor had this woman ever appeared.

She didn’t know when the divergence had begun. Perhaps it was Ji Rong’s presence, maybe that painting, or possibly even Xie Bai.

In any case, nothing was going according to her previous knowledge.

Then the voice rang out again, calm and teasing: “Since you’ve guessed you’re in my domain, little girl, why not try guessing, who am I?”

Guess who you are from just your voice? How am I supposed to do that? Ji Rong thought irritably.

But before she could reply, a pair of shoes materialized in the darkness.

The woman wore clean white boots, exquisitely embroidered and adorned with peacock feathers.

Following the feathers upward, Ji Rong saw a snowy white, slender neck exposed beneath a high collar, resembling the elegant neck of a white peacock.

Yet on that moon-pale throat was a horrific wound.

A jagged gash split her neck open. Through the torn flesh, one could faintly glimpse crimson muscle and a severed windpipe, as if it had been slashed by something sharp.

Strangely, though her throat had been cut, the woman was not dead. Nor did blood pour from the wound.

She was breathtaking, and deeply unsettling.

Anyone else might have screamed at the sight.

But the three cultivators here reacted differently.

One was a seasoned gamer, long desensitized to bloody horror visuals.

Another was the heroine, who had strangled countless people in her past life, one more mangled throat meant nothing.

And the third? An unpredictable madman whose response defied categorization.

The trio simply stared in silence at the woman’s gaping wound. Aside from a bit of surprise, they remained unbothered.

Xie Bai even tilted his head and smiled slightly, as if trying to figure out why she wasn’t dead yet.

The woman: “…”

Do I not deserve a little dignity?

She sighed and said, “I suppose it’s been over a hundred years since I’ve seen another living person. I hadn’t realized cultivators these days were so hard to scare.”

The phrase “hard to scare” couldn’t have been more apt.

To be laughing and chatting after having one’s throat slit, if that wasn’t a ghost, what else could it be?

Gu Baiyi gave a small smile. “Even a ghost was once human. Seeing people again might unsettle you, but it shouldn’t frighten us.”

The woman touched her torn throat and laughed softly. “You make a good point, girl. But you’re still wrong about one thing.”

Gu Baiyi raised a brow. “And what’s that?”

“You say you don’t fear ghosts because they were once human. But you forget—people should fear other people most of all.”

Gu Baiyi shook her head. “I’m human too. If I feared people, wouldn’t I fear myself as well?”

The woman laughed again. “Exactly. You should fear yourself.”

Gu Baiyi let out a soft chuckle and asked, “Why should I fear myself?”

“Because in my eyes, there are only two kinds of people in this world,” the woman replied casually. “Those of deep feeling, and those of shallow mind.”

“Those with shallow minds want too much. They are often fickle and indecisive, rarely able to accomplish anything, so they are not to be feared. But those of deep feelings… they will tie their very lives to a person or an object. Such people are often mad without realizing it, and that is what makes them terrifying.”

Ji Rong’s head was spinning. What on earth was this woman even talking about?

Gu Baiyi, however, simply smiled and asked, “So, in your opinion, I am someone of deep feeling?”

The woman stared directly at Gu Baiyi, the corner of her lips curling into a strange smile.

“Of course you are.”

Gu Baiyi sighed. “But even street fortune tellers say my face shows coldness and indifference. What makes you say otherwise?”

“Being deeply affectionate doesn’t only mean how one treats a Dao companion.” The woman looked at her and said, “Hundreds of years ago, Yun Wuxin never married. He found companionship only in bamboo. That alone speaks volumes of how deeply he loved it.”

“Then there was Divine Sect Feng He. He lived a solitary life, wholly devoted to the sword, seeking nothing else. That’s why the world called him the ‘Sword Fanatic.’ His obsession with the sword was so profound it bordered on madness.”

The woman smiled faintly. “And you, young lady, are already at the mid-stage of the Stepping on the Moon Realm at such a young age. I’d wager you’re similarly obsessed with cultivation. Let me guess, you wake at dawn every day to practice a thousand sword strikes without fail?”

Ji Rong was beginning to suspect this woman had planted surveillance on Gu Baiyi.

But Gu Baiyi just smiled gently and said, “In truth, I’m not passionate about cultivation. I only pursue it to survive.”

“To survive?” The woman chuckled, revealing a glimmer of teeth. “Then tell me, if survival is your goal, why would you plant a death curse inside yourself?”

Gu Baiyi narrowed her eyes.

Ji Rong, upon hearing this, was confused.

The heroine had taken the mother gu herself. What did that have to do with a death curse?

Then, a possibility dawned on her, and she widened her eyes in shock, suddenly turning to look at Gu Baiyi.

But Gu Baiyi’s expression remained calm, the corners of her lips gently curved in a faint smile. She said nothing.

At that moment, Ji Rong began to question everything.

Was she just overthinking it?

The woman turned to Gu Baiyi and said, “What I said earlier about your obsession with cultivation, just a ploy to test you. You truly are someone of deep feeling, though not as wise as Yun Wuxin or Feng He.”

“Bamboo and swords are lifeless. They don’t speak. They don’t betray. Those two poured their hearts into such things, and their Dao hearts remained steadfast.”

“Besides, they followed the Ruthless Way, how could they ever be hurt or betrayed? But you’ve given your heart to another. That alone has thrown your Dao heart into disarray. You live each day in anxiety, tormented by longing you cannot fulfill, suffering all for nothing.”

Gu Baiyi stared at the woman, silent for a long while.

Ji Rong, standing nearby, finally couldn’t bear it anymore.

This woman sounded perfectly reasonable, but everyone understands the reason. That doesn’t mean they can live above it.

So she said lightly, “Since you see everything so clearly, senior, why did you still end up slitting your throat?”

Xie Bai had no idea how to join a conversation like this, so he simply shook his folding fan and echoed Ji Rong, “Senior Sister’s words make perfect sense. Seems you, too, were lost in your own situation.”

The woman shook her head. “I took my own life precisely because I saw things too clearly.”

“But,” she added, “we’re getting off-topic. You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Guess, who am I?”

Her smile was gentle, but what she said next was anything but.

“I’ll only let one person guess. If you guess wrong, all of you die here.”

With that, she slowly raised a finger and pointed at Gu Baiyi and Xie Bai.

Her fingers were elegant, long and slender, with clearly defined joints.

She must have been a cultivator in life too. The pads of her fingers were calloused with a thin layer of rough skin.

With those beautiful fingers, she gently beckoned, and two thin red threads wound around Gu Baiyi’s and Xie Bai’s necks.

The threads were blood-red, almost translucent, and inscribed with strange symbols.

Gu Baiyi frowned as she looked at the thread around her neck.

Instinctively, she reached up to touch it, only for the thread to slice a gash into her skin.

The edges of the wound oozed blood tinged with black mist.

The red thread’s touch was cold as death, as if it came from the depths of the netherworld.

It was a ghostly Qi.

Gu Baiyi had already guessed as much. She lowered her hand and looked at Xie Bai, who was about to try and undo the thread. Calmly, she said, “The red thread is cursed with gu magic. The more you struggle, the tighter it binds. If you want to die, go right ahead.”

Though Xie Bai was a madman who feared nothing, that didn’t mean he had a death wish.

He paused, then flashed a grin at the woman. “Beautiful lady, you’re so kind and lovely, why wrap a thread around my neck?”

The woman toyed with the resentment-laced thread on her fingertip and replied softly, “Young master, you’ve misunderstood. I didn’t choose to bind you. My red thread only binds those who possess true emotion.”

Ji Rong: “…”

Gu Baiyi: “…”

Xie Bai: “…”

Xie Bai’s mouth twitched. “Beautiful sister, I have absolutely nothing to do with this—”

He was going to say “this demonic woman,” but one glance at Gu Baiyi’s not-so-friendly expression, and remembering his life was in her hands, made him change his tune.

“I have nothing to do with this unrivaled warrior of the demonic path,” he said instead.

After spouting all that in one breath, Xie Bai paused to catch it, then added, “Besides, anyone with eyes can see that this fearsome warrior and the stunningly beautiful immortal beside her make a perfect pair.”

“So please, don’t go mixing up couples!”

He congratulated himself on such a perfect line: flattering both women, offending neither, and maybe even currying some favor with Gu Baiyi. Truly, a win-win.

Gu Baiyi gave a slight nod of approval.

Though Xie Bai’s compliments were clichéd, the second half was, admittedly, accurate. It was important to clarify any romantic misunderstandings.

On the other hand, Ji Rong was less impressed. She just thought Xie Bai was beyond saving.

But to their surprise, the woman let out a laugh and said, “Who said you two were a couple?”

“What I meant is, you all possess the seven emotions and six desires. You are people with hearts. But she—”

The woman smiled slightly and pointed at Ji Rong. “She is incomplete in soul, born without emotion. I don’t kill people like her.”