The Heroine Made a Pact With Senior Sister (GL) Chapter 17

The words were soft and winding, like a warbler in an empty valley or a quiet orchid in the mountains. But sounding out at this moment, they were like a secret whisper from the King of Hell, constantly reminding Mu Yinfeng that her death was near.
“Who are you?” Although Mu Yinfeng already had a guess in her heart, she still wanted to confirm it.
“I have no name or surname. People call me Yimu. You may call me that as well.” The voice behind her was gentle.
Why had Yimu appeared now? Was she not supposed to officially appear only in the later stages? If Yimu appeared now, was that not taking Mu Yinfeng’s life?
Mu Yinfeng barely controlled her mind, not letting her emotions show and be noticed by the person behind her. “You are right. She is very important to me. But that is not important to you. What do you want?”
“I am only curious. You clearly used to dislike Huixue so much. Why do you care about her so much now? If you care about her, why did you kill her back then?”
Mu Yinfeng shuddered all over, but she still controlled her tone. “Kill who?”
“Huixue, of course. She died beneath your Changyin. You can look at this.” That person stretched her hand in front of Mu Yinfeng’s eyes.
Mu Yinfeng lifted her gaze and saw, by moonlight, what the person held. It was a snow-white peony, its petals sprinkled with blood.
A bloodstained White Snow Pagoda peony!
In the book, when she and Huixue fought their final battle, she had chosen a mountain covered with White Snow Pagoda peonies as the site. There, she killed Huixue. When Huixue died, her blood stained the White Snow Pagoda peonies beside her red. But all of this should have happened later. How did Yimu know?
Could Yimu be someone who had returned, or… someone reborn?
Was that why she wanted to come over at the first opportunity and silence Mu Yinfeng by killing her, cutting off the threat Mu Yinfeng would pose in the future?
“Are you not curious how I know these things?” Spiritual energy poured from Yimu’s fingertips. The petals of the White Snow Pagoda peony drifted down, fluttering like fresh snow in the wind. Her voice became even gentler, but there seemed to be countless blades hidden inside that gentleness, each one striking Mu Yinfeng’s heart. “Or have you already realized that your past was wrong? Do you want to make up for what you did? But do you think that just because you want to make up for it, you can?”
Seeing Mu Yinfeng remain silent, Yimu continued talking to herself. “Do you know why Huixue rarely uses Liufei? All that talk about its deep cold and heavy killing energy is nonsense. Huixue is a snow spirit born and raised by heaven and earth. How could she fear that tiny bit of cold energy from Liufei?”
An ominous feeling suddenly rose in Mu Yinfeng’s heart. “Then why, according to you?”
“Because once Liufei leaves its sheath, it must see blood. If Liufei is unsheathed and does not kill someone, then its sword master should not think of living either. Liufei is the life-bound treasured sword of the Snow God. How could controlling it come without a price? Life is the best offering to Liufei. If it cannot find a suitable sacrifice, then the master must offer herself to Liufei.” Yimu laughed darkly. “Yinfeng, could you have imagined that Senior Sister Huixue, whom you thought was chivalrous and righteous, actually holds such a vicious sword? Do you still think she is so perfect and flawless now?”
“But with the Butterfly Spirit…” Mu Yinfeng immediately thought of the Butterfly Goddess Temple. “In the Butterfly Goddess Temple, Liufei left its sheath. She did not…”
Yimu sneered. “Did she truly not?”
“…No.”
“You simply did not see it. You and she are not together every moment. But can you guarantee that it truly did not happen? No one is that perfect. No one. Even when I control spiritual energy, I have flaws. When others say I have no flaws, it only means their cultivation has not reached the level where they can discover them.” Yimu’s fingers brushed across Mu Yinfeng’s face. Her fingers were very cold, so cold that goosebumps rose across Mu Yinfeng’s body. Yet that touch carried a strange feeling, calming her heart against her will. She did not know why it was like this, but the feeling after opening her sea of consciousness had never deceived her.
“So you think Huixue has a problem?” Mu Yinfeng suddenly exerted force. A pipa note split the air and cracked stone, shaking the person behind her until her vision swam. Mu Yinfeng used the chance to pull away, then seized that person’s wrist in return. Yin energy rapidly spread around her, swallowing them both. “But even if you think she has a problem, I will not think so.”
Mu Yinfeng held the pipa in her arms tightly. Because she had plucked the pipa too fiercely just now, the strings had cut several long wounds into her fingers. Blood flowed down along the pipa strings. The icy strings reopened the wounds, sending pain deep into her heart, but the pipa music never stopped.
The dense yin energy around them changed from its previous disorder. Now it flowed around the two of them in a strict pattern, as if maintaining a certain array.
This was Mu Yinfeng’s strongest primordial yin domain. The primordial yin domain could absorb an opponent’s spiritual energy and turn it for her own use. If the opponent’s cultivation was slightly weaker, they would be drained dry almost as soon as they entered the domain. Since transmigrating, Mu Yinfeng had tried to use this domain many times, but each attempt ended with her spiritual energy failing before the domain could be released, causing her to faint. Afterward, she had stopped trying. But facing Yimu, she could only squeeze herself dry and fight to the death. Unexpectedly, through a strange twist of fate, she successfully triggered the primordial yin domain.
After triggering the primordial yin domain, she no longer worried. Inside this domain, all yin-attribute spiritual energy was hers to use. Right now was midnight, when yin energy was dense. This was completely her home field.
Inside the primordial yin domain, Mu Yinfeng saw this legendary strongest person for the first time. As rumored, Yimu wore a plain silver mask that covered her face. Long black hair hung down, making her skin look pale as if it had never seen sunlight. Her robe was dark, and dried bloodstains could faintly be seen on it. In her hand, she held a length of blood vine. She truly deserved to be the evil cultivator whose name made people flee at the first hint of trouble.
“Your hand is bleeding. Does it not hurt?” Yimu asked softly.
Mu Yinfeng did not answer. She focused on playing the pipa melody while watching Yimu warily, ready to attack at any moment.
The spiritual energy that had nearly burned dry when she released the domain all returned to Mu Yinfeng the instant the domain descended. Now, Mu Yinfeng had no doubt about the protagonist’s cheating ability. If this did not count as a cheat, what did?
“This is your domain? Very interesting.” Yimu smiled faintly. “There is no need to be this wary. No matter how powerful your primordial yin domain is, it is still too young. You cannot defeat me.”
Mu Yinfeng stared into Yimu’s eyes. “How can you be so sure?” Even if she had no chance of winning now, she could not show that in front of the other party. If she showed fear, she would turn the one-in-ten-thousand unknown possibility she had left into a known certainty that she would lose.
Yimu smiled. “You will not attack me. Huixue has been poisoned by my Dream-Transforming Bewilderment Poison. Although her power is deep, she can hold out for at most fifteen minutes. After that, she will sleep forever. Do you want to see that result?”
“So you have a way to cure it?”
“Of course.” Yimu laughed again. A small jade bottle jumped into her palm. “I laid the poison myself. Of course I can undo it, as long as you agree to one condition.”
Almost entirely by instinct, Mu Yinfeng immediately asked, “What condition?”
Because she had prepared herself to die. This primordial yin domain was her preparation before death. If there was truly no way, she would kill the ghost envoys, refuse to enter the courts of the dead, turn forever into a vengeful ghost, and never enter reincarnation. With her primordial yin body, if she fell onto the path of a vengeful ghost, very few people could do anything to her. She knew clearly that even if Yimu could spare Huixue for a time, Yimu could not let her live long. The Snow Domain still had the Snow God’s divine seat with no inheritor, and Huixue was the one among the younger generation of the Snow Domain with the greatest hope. How could Yimu allow a god to grow under her eyes?
Only if Mu Yinfeng willingly abandoned everything and became a fierce ghost would she have a chance of protecting Huixue.
Yimu smiled faintly. “You want to die?”
“I did not say that.” Of course it would be best if they could both live. Although she felt the chance of living was even smaller than the chance of defeating Yimu.
Yin energy suddenly swept toward Yimu and quickly swallowed her figure. Mu Yinfeng slashed her wrist hard with her fingernail. Bright red blood poured out and dripped onto the pipa strings. The yin energy instantly strengthened by several degrees, and at its center, it turned into a huge black phoenix. The phoenix’s cry pierced the night. A pair of sharp claws looked ready to tear apart everything it saw.
But at the same time the black phoenix formed, a red light suddenly flashed from its center. With a cry of grief, the giant black phoenix suddenly scattered. Yimu still stood in the distance, the blood vine in her hand glowing with burning red light.
“These things are useless against me. Since you do not want to die, why set up the primordial yin domain? Although the primordial yin domain can help you turn into a fierce ghost, you should know that once you enter the ghost path, you and Huixue will be separated forever by yin and yang, walking different roads. I advise you to think carefully.” Yimu raised the vine in her hand. Red light flashed, and the vine immediately split into two identical pieces, both as long as the original, only a little thinner.
What was she doing?
Mu Yinfeng soon understood. Yimu placed one vine and the jade bottle in one hand and handed them to her. “Do not use your pipa from now on. Switch to this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said.” Seeing that Mu Yinfeng was still plucking the pipa, Yimu gently tapped with her jade-like finger. A cracking note suddenly sounded. Mu Yinfeng felt emptiness beneath her fingers. Changyin’s string had snapped.
Although Mu Yinfeng had long expected Changyin’s strings to break, when they truly snapped, she still felt powerless. “What exactly are you trying to do?”
She had a sword, but she did not have the habit of carrying it with her, so she had brought only Changyin. Tianbing lay scattered to the side, limp and lifeless, and she could not take it for her own use. Facing an enemy unarmed was unquestionably dangerous.
“Use this and defeat me.” Yimu’s hand remained as before, but this time the medicine bottle had vanished, leaving only a blood vine. “But if you cannot defeat me, kneel down and call me mother, and I can agree to your request too.”