Jiang Shouzhong, who was sent flying backward, crashed into the wooden tray, and his previously restrained body regained its freedom.
Struggling to get up from the shattered wood and debris, Jiang Shouzhong’s intense movents aggravated his injuries, causing him to burst into fits of coughing. It felt as though a trendous force was stirring his internal organs, threatening to displace them—a testant to the woman’s vicious strike.
"What secret technique is this?"
Luo Wanqing gently wiped the blood trace from the corner of her lip while secretly regulating her breath to tend to her injuries. She watched Jiang Shouzhong with cold and sharp eyes.
Jiang Shouzhong cursed loudly, "You woman are utterly insane! Knowing full well that hurting would also injure yourself, yet you still hit so damn hard! If you have the guts, just kill and let’s both perish together!"
"You think I don’t dare!?"
Luo Wanqing’s delicate hand spread open, fingers blossoming like a lotus, and in the blink of an eye, the blades scattered on the ground rose up at her command, shooting through the air like shooting stars. They all hovered in front of Jiang Shouzhong, just inches away from his heart.
Unfazed, Jiang Shouzhong sneered, "I’m not soone who hasn’t faced life and death before. I’m not afraid of your threats."
Jiang Shouzhong even took a step forward, allowing the knife tips to pierce his skin,
"Didn’t you want to ask if I rembered anything? I’ll tell you, I did recall—I indeed had you on the sacrificial altar among the ruins of Huailan Lake! Being with a practitioner from the Feathered Transformation Realm is worth dying for in this lifeti!"
He had expected the woman to rage upon hearing this, but her expression remained unchanged.
Because Luo Wanqing recalled the Golden Lotus within her being healed.
Could it really be because of this young man that the Golden Lotus was able to bloom?
With a fickle expression and feeling a similar stabbing pain in her chest, Luo Wanqing chuckled sarcastically, waved her hand to knock the blades away, and said indifferently, "Killing you would be letting you off too easily."
Jiang Shouzhong’s heart tightened.
He thought to himself: Surely this woman doesn’t really plan on cooking up so roasted bull’s pizzle.
Fortunately, Luo Wanqing did not reach for the tongs again. Instead, she walked up to the man and scrutinized him,
"Tell exactly what happened then, and do not omit any details. Jiang Mo, don’t think that just because we share each other’s pain, I am reluctant to tornt you. In this world, you are not the only one who is unafraid of death or torture."
With that, Luo Wanqing flicked her sleeve.
From the furnace, a red-hot charcoal flew towards her.
The woman grasped it directly in her delicate hand, letting the charcoal burn her skin, while even Jiang Shouzhong could sll the burning flesh.
Jiang Shouzhong, also feeling the pain, broke out in a cold sweat but endured without making a sound.
Truth be told, the pain was nothing compared to what Demon Venerable had inflicted on him. As long as she didn’t go mad and chop off his family jewels, what was a little skinning in comparison? As long as he was still breathing, the Taoist River Map would heal and recover.
Yet to his surprise, after the woman discarded the crushed charcoal, with the blooming of a golden lotus in her palm, the injury slowly healed.
For a high-level practitioner like her, superficial skin injuries were negligible.
Jiang Shouzhong understood that she was trying to intimidate him, but he still wanted to retort internally. He corrected his expression and said, "Actually, I don’t rember it very clearly either. I recall falling into a sacrificial altar and vaguely seeing a nine-tailed fox..."
"Nine-tailed fox?"
Luo Wanqing’s pretty face showed a change.
She was aware of the nine-tailed fox suppressed beneath Huailan Lake.
Moreover, upon hearing the man’s recollections, she too began to have a vague impression. At that ti, she had only heard so seductive, strange sounds and sensed the "Heavenly Demon Technique," yet she was too gravely injured to resist.
So it was all the work of the nine-tailed fox.
The Heavenly Demon Technique created by Ancestral Shura was one of the strongest seduction techniques in the world.
At that ti, the nine-tailed fox had used the "Enchanting lody," which no ordinary person could resist, only to be enraptured and confused.
But what about the shared pain? How did that co into play?
Jiang Shouzhong continued, "I heard a strange sound, felt my mind turn into mush, and I vaguely rembered a woman on top of , removing my clothes, then she kissed..."
"Enough, there’s no need to say more!"
Luo Wanqing’s face flushed, her tone icy.
Jiang Shouzhong looked innocently at her, "Didn’t you want the details?"
After taking a deep breath and trying to suppress the urge to kill, Luo Wanqing asked indifferently, "Tell , since our... since that incident occurred, have you been injured?"
"Yes, severely so."
Jiang Shouzhong didn’t hide anything. "Even last ti, when you appeared at the cave to take Er Liang away, I was beaten up outside the cave."
Luo Wanqing furrowed her brows.
That was strange. If the two of them could feel each other’s pain, why hadn’t she felt anything?
Could it be due to distance?
Jiang Shouzhong realized what she was thinking and guessed, "I think it might be due to the length of the distance."
No sooner had the man spoken than his wrist was firmly grasped by the woman, who lifted him up and whisked him outside the house.
It was only then that Jiang Shouzhong noticed that the surrounding area was a desolate cluster of ruined buildings. Broken walls, scorch marks – it was clear that this place had once suffered from a devastating fire, turning it into barren ruins.
He had no idea how Luo Wanqing found such a place, probably planning to torture him thoroughly without attracting attention with screams.
"Stand still and don’t move!"
Luo Wanqing’s figure flickered to a hundred steps away and with a flick of her hand, she shot a pebble at him.
The pebble struck his shoulder with pinpoint accuracy.
Jiang Shouzhong hissed in pain, clutching his shoulder and snapping, "Can’t you be a little gentler?"
Luo Wanqing, sensing the pain in her shoulder, increased the distance to two hundred steps and continued with the pebble-shooting experint.
The pain persisted.
Three hundred steps!
Five hundred steps!
As the experints continued, Luo Wanqing’s expression grew increasingly grim.
If it really was a matter of distance, they were now beyond the range that separated the two of them inside and outside the cave at that ti.
No, it wasn’t about distance at all!
Seeing the woman return to his side, Jiang Shouzhong, who was battered and bruised, hastily voiced his new speculation, "Xie, could there be a possibility that you and I cannot harm each other?"
Luo Wanqing narrowed her beautiful phoenix eyes.
Cannot harm each other?
After a mont of contemplation, the woman shook her head gently, "But before, I was hurting myself."
Jiang Shouzhong said, "But in essence, you still wanted to hurt ."
As the man spoke, it was as if a flash of spiritual light burst forth in Luo Wanqing’s heart. She suddenly thought of sothing, and her expression changed.
Could it be... karma?
She took the man back into the room and asked him to sit cross-legged on the ground while she did the sa opposite him.
Luo Wanqing extended a finger and placed it on the man’s forehead.
A strand of Yuan Qi, imbued with endless mystical power, flowed from the woman’s fingertip, as fine as silk, silently penetrating Jiang Shouzhong’s brow chakra.
In an instant, five dazzling golden lotus flowers manifested out of thin air between the two, full-bodied with clearly visible veins on the petals, as though cast from pure gold, glittering brightly.
Afterward, Luo Wanqing ford a complex and mysterious Dharma Seal.
The five golden lotuses turned into golden threads that twined around them, several of which connected Jiang Shouzhong and her.
These were the threads of karma that had ford between the two since they t.
"Karma" itself is a very mystical concept, sothing ordinary people can ignore, but cultivators regard it with the utmost caution.
These karmic threads included those of sinful ties and virtuous outcos, whether love or kinship, or enmity and entanglents... Those who had ascended in the past had all severed their karmic ties to inspect their minds and attain enlightennt, stepping into the immortal realms.
The more a person obsessed with ascension and enlightennt, the more they shunned being entangled in excessive karma.
The Crown Prince Zhou Yin cultivated the karma body, which could be said to be entangled in sinful ties, and this was also why the Demon Venerable did not dare kill him. Because once he was killed, these karmic attachnts would entwine her instead.
If they couldn’t be severed, they would beco a nightmare.
Only those who didn’t care about karma dared to kill.
But the problem is, when one’s cultivation reaches a certain realm, who wouldn’t want to attain enlightennt and immortality, and who would risk becoming entangled in sinful karma?
And of those who didn’t care, how many could match the protectors beside the Crown Prince?
It could be said that Zhou Yin endured the tornt of cultivating the karma body precisely to guard against experts like Li Guanshi, Luo Wanqing, and the Demon Venerable.
Luo Wanqing carefully observed these threads, and using the "Karma Severing Skill" unique to the South Sea Holy Sect, she waved her hand and cut them one by one.
The severed golden threads vanished.
However, there was one thread that could not be cut; it continued to connect the two of them.
"All is emptiness, except for karma."
Luo Wanqing looked up at Jiang Shouzhong, her eyes extrely complicated, filled with both shock and confusion, murmuring, "In the cycle of reincarnation, one looks into the mirror to see past lives, on the chain of karma to seek forr causes... This is the karmic thread from within the nine-tailed fox demon, sohow tied to you and . Why has it co to this?"
Jiang Shouzhong couldn’t understand a word she was saying.
But he had a feeling his guess was right.
That is, the two of them couldn’t harm each other. Even if there was the slightest thought of doing so, both would suffer the sa injury.
Luo Wanqing waved away the illusion of the golden threads and stood up, turning her back on Jiang Shouzhong, her face a tumult of emotions.
"Taoist River Map, huh?"
Luo Wanqing lightly parted her lips and suddenly spoke.
Jiang Shouzhong was startled, not expecting her to have discovered it.
"Hmph, healing from your injuries so quickly, being able to conceal your cultivation, harboring a flying sword within your acupoints, even nourishing my golden lotuses... Apart from the Taoist River Map, I can think of no other," Luo Wanqing continued, turning to look at Jiang Shouzhong with complex eyes. "I understand the general reason now. It must’ve been the nine-tailed fox demon attempting to take over your body, but for so reason, it was unsuccessful, instead leaving behind this thread of karma.
Jiang Mo, from today onwards, you and I are grasshoppers tied to the sa string. Let give you a piece of advice, cherish your life; should you die, the sinful ties between us would end, and I would suffer no loss.
But if you live, whether or not you can grasp this opportunity depends on us both."
"What do you an?"
Jiang Shouzhong didn’t quite understand.
Luo Wanqing said indifferently, "You’ll understand in ti, provided that you’re alive. I am taking Er Liang with for now, but don’t worry, I won’t harm her. You should head to Qingzhou first, and once I find out so things, I will naturally look for you. Also, the letter I gave you, the task remains, and it’s to your advantage."
"Hey, are you crazy, woman? Er Liang is my servant, not yours—"
Jiang Shouzhong wanted to protest, but the woman had already disappeared.
Luo Wanqing, leaving the room, looked up at the bright sunlight and her lips curved slightly, "Jiang Mo, I am going to make you aid my cultivation."
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