The Young Lady Only Wants to Cultivate Immortality Chapter 21

A’Ling quickly observed the room, all the while remaining wary of Shi Qingqian.
It was a quiet room, filled with the scent of fragrant candles. Though not large, it had all the necessary furnishings. The wood didn’t appear to be precious, but the craftsmanship was exquisite.
They sat by the window, sunlight streaming in through the clear glazed panes. The entire room exuded a warmth, making the small space feel even cozier.
For some reason, A’Ling found the room very familiar, yet she was certain she had never lived in such a warm and comforting place.
“Where is this?” A’Ling picked up a blank talisman and aimed it at Shi Qingqian. The current situation was too bizarre.
Though she knew she couldn’t win, it offered some psychological comfort. “Why did you bring me here?”
Shi Qingqian’s brows furrowed slightly when she saw A’Ling take out the talisman. She easily snatched the blank talisman with a raised hand, holding it and glancing at it.
The talisman paper was the most common kind found in the academy.
“Just now in the Demon-Binding Cave, what talisman did you draw?”
A’Ling glanced at the talisman paper already in Shi Qingqian’s hand and sneered inwardly. As expected, it was about the recent trial.
Shi Qingqian, this insidious person, lost the competition and now she’s coming to find trouble with me.
“Lost and can’t accept it? Why should I tell you? Are you out of your mind? Where is this? Let me out now!”
Shi Qingqian furrowed her brows, watching A’Ling who seemed oblivious to the danger. She tightened her grip on the Cosmos Pearl in her hand.
“That wasn’t a Star-Chasing Moon-Pursuing Talisman. Where did you learn that spell?”
A’Ling’s heart tightened. A terrible thought flashed through her mind: Did Shi Qingqian see it?
No, that shouldn’t be possible.
“I don’t know what nonsense you’re talking about. What I used was the Star-Chasing Moon-Pursuing Talisman.” A’Ling felt Shi Qingqian might be trying to trick her.
“For the Star-Chasing Moon-Pursuing Talisman, you reversed the order of the last star and moon, and your brushwork defied convention. It only looked like the Star-Chasing Moon-Pursuing Talisman, but it was something else entirely.”
Shi Qingqian spoke clearly and with conviction; it was obviously not a baseless accusation.
A’Ling’s face stiffened slightly, and a wave of panic surged in her heart. Shi Qingqian really saw it, and she even figured out the secret. What was she going to do?
A’Ling quickly racked her brain for a countermeasure.
Before she could come up with an explanation, Shi Qingqian spoke again.
“This kind of reversal spell is a method commonly used by demon cultivators. How did you learn it?”
A’Ling’s heart clenched even tighter.
“Speak!”
Shi Qingqian’s voice suddenly rose, sharply tugging at a taut string in A’Ling’s mind. With a ‘thump,’ it snapped.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about! What reversal? What demon cultivator? You lost the competition, so you want to frame me like this? Let me tell you, no way! What I drew was the Star-Chasing Moon-Pursuing Talisman!”
A’Ling suddenly realized that no one else had discovered this. If it was just Shi Qingqian, she only needed to deny it.
She was about to continue fabricating a few more sentences, but Shi Qingqian suddenly moved.
It was so fast that A’Ling didn’t even have time to react before Shi Qingqian clasped her hands.
“You—”
Just as A’Ling was about to question what the other person was doing, her body suddenly went numb, and a sharp pain shot straight to the crown of her head.
She looked down at the source of the pain: clusters of flames ignited one after another on all ten of A’Ling’s fingers.
But it was only for an instant. Before she could think of a way to extinguish them, the red flames were doused as if by a basin of water, instantly leaving behind only rising wisps of white smoke.
A’Ling looked down at her intact hands. The pain and the scene she had just witnessed felt like an illusion. After that wisp of smoke dissipated, her fingertips, aside from being a bit redder, showed no other change.
But A’Ling’s heartbeat suddenly doubled. She incredulously raised her gaze to Shi Qingqian. How could this be?
Why would Shi Qingqian know this technique? This was a method only high-level demon cultivators would know to detect if someone possessed demonic energy.
And why would Shi Qingqian think her demonic energy would be hidden in her fingertips? A’Ling’s eyes flickered. In her previous life, after she cultivated to the Divine Demon Realm and could conceal her demonic energy, she had hidden it in the pad of her left index finger.
Shi Qingqian lowered her gaze to A’Ling’s empty palms and let out a sigh of relief. A strand of dark hair slipped from her shoulder, falling into A’Ling’s open palm.
A’Ling’s palm suddenly felt itchy.
Shi Qingqian gazed at the strand of her own dark hair in A’Ling’s palm, and her eyes seemed to burn, as if her own palm were scorching. She released her grip, took a step back, and looked up at A’Ling.
A’Ling’s expression was stunned. After her hands were freed, her elbows remained bent, her palms open and facing upwards.
There was nothing there now, only emptiness.
“What were you doing…?” A’Ling lightly closed her hands, her eyes flickering with an indescribable hope, as if she yearned for an answer.
Shi Qingqian lowered her gaze, recovering from her earlier discomfort. Hearing A’Ling’s question, her face slowly tightened.
A’Ling’s words sounded like a question, but her tone betrayed that she wasn’t truly confused about what Shi Qingqian was doing. She actually knew Shi Qingqian was detecting her demonic energy.
“You know what I was doing. Why do you know?”
A’Ling thought, This is bad. I was stupid. How could I, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, know the method high-level demon cultivators use to detect demonic energy? My question was too foolish.
But now, none of that mattered. Shi Qingqian was only a Core Formation cultivator; she shouldn’t know this method either. And not only did she know it, she could do it!
She actually could!
A’Ling stared at Shi Qingqian in shock. “Who are you?”
Shi Qingqian furrowed her brows. What kind of question is that? Who am I? Who else could I be?
She didn’t answer the question, instead asking A’Ling.
“You don’t have demonic energy, and you haven’t cultivated as a demon. Where did you learn demon cultivation techniques?”
Before, A’Ling had always felt it was bad luck to even glance at Shi Qingqian, but this time, she truly didn’t dare miss a single expression on Shi Qingqian’s face.
Seeing her serious question, A’Ling’s heart felt heavy, though she couldn’t tell if it was disappointment or relief.
Shi Qingqian had not been reborn.
She had just lost her composure in a panic. If Shi Qingqian had also been reborn, she would naturally know why A’Ling possessed such knowledge.
Since Shi Qingqian hadn’t been reborn, she should currently only be an outer disciple. So why would she know so much, even understanding the method high-level demon cultivators use to detect demonic energy?
Even in the Demon Realm, only demon cultivators above the Profound Demon Realm would know this, and they could only detect demon cultivators of a lower rank than themselves.
“Who exactly are you?” A’Ling gazed seriously at the person before her. She felt as if she had overlooked many important things.
In her previous life, she had been brought back to the Huo family by Jin Siliu. When she heard Jin Siliu speak of the swapped children, her heart and eyes were filled only with the pain of Jin Siliu’s deception.
Later, she had blamed Shi Qingqian for all of it, simply assuming Shi Qingqian was unwilling to live a hard life and didn’t want to lose the comfortable life of the Huo family, thus stubbornly clinging to them.
And because everyone around them liked Shi Qingqian and ignored her, her heart lost its balance, and she often caused trouble for Shi Qingqian.
She seemed to have never once thought about Shi Qingqian’s background.
Shi Qingqian turned her head away, her expression somewhat unusual, and her breathing deepened.
A’Ling gazed at her profile. Her face was very thin, its contours sharp, as if drawn with a single stroke without any softness. A few wisps of hair scattered around her ears and neck. Her head was bowed, the bone at the back of her neck protruding abruptly.
From this angle, the prominent curve seemed a bit solitary and stark, yet also unyielding, as if indestructible, but also as if it could snap at any moment.
A’Ling looked at her pale skin, which almost seemed translucent in the brightly lit room. For some reason, A’Ling thought of her previous life.
At that time, she had entered Mystic Crane Mountain ten years late. At the inner disciple selection ceremony on the Twelve Peaks, she saw Shi Qingqian above the cloud ladder.
At that time, Shi Qingqian had already taken residence in Winter Snow Peak. Among a group of immortals with spiritual grace, she was still the most prominent, dressed in plain white, her skin so pale it was almost transparent, as if she could ascend to immortality at any moment.
Yet A’Ling only wanted to drag that person down from the cloud ladder and stomp on her fiercely.
At that time, she felt that someone like Shi Qingqian didn’t deserve to become an immortal; everything Shi Qingqian possessed should have originally been hers. A’Ling attributed her loss to Shi Qingqian to her tumultuous childhood, not having enjoyed the spiritual materials the Huo family had found for Shi Qingqian.
Now, A’Ling suddenly realized something felt off.
Shi Qingqian’s abilities were more terrifying than A’Ling had imagined; she might even harbor some astonishing secrets.
A’Ling had cultivated as a demon for nearly a century, and there was one principle she had always deeply believed:
The more you know, the faster you die.
A’Ling absolutely did not want to know Shi Qingqian’s secrets. She had now truly experienced Shi Qingqian’s capabilities: a mere Core Formation cultivator of the righteous path actually knew techniques from the Profound Demon Realm of the demonic path.
So heaven-defying, and yet she managed to remain undiscovered by everyone. What was A’Ling compared to that?
A’Ling decisively gave up the idea of ever confronting Shi Qingqian again.
She didn’t want to be reborn again, only to die carelessly at Shi Qingqian’s hands.
Thinking of this, she suddenly remembered something else.
In her previous life, she had ultimately chosen Shi Qingqian because she heard Shi Qingqian was in the Demon Realm. A’Ling wanted to find someone for dual cultivation, and someone nearby was naturally the first choice.
Originally, she had thought Shi Qingqian went to the Demon Realm to eliminate some great demon. At that time, A’Ling was already one of the highest-ranking demon cultivators in the Demon Realm. Aside from the Demon Lord who had disappeared for a millennium, the Divine Demon Realm was the highest cultivation level in the entire Demon Realm.
If A’Ling could break through further, she could become a Lord, ruling the entire Demon Realm.
Unfortunately, she fell just short.
Now, thinking back, it was truly suspicious that Shi Qingqian wasn’t staying on Winter Snow Peak but appeared alone in the Demon Realm.
However, A’Ling thought, no matter where Shi Qingqian was, or where A’Ling encountered her, nothing good ever came of it.
Fine, she conceded defeat.
If you can’t beat them, you can only hide. A’Ling secretly made up her mind: she would definitely avoid Shi Qingqian in the future.
Having understood all this, A’Ling no longer bothered herself with who Shi Qingqian was.
“No matter who you are, it has nothing to do with me. Shi Qingqian, let’s be clear today: from now on, I won’t bother you anymore, and please don’t meddle in my affairs.”
Shi Qingqian turned her head, looking directly at A’Ling, her eyes flickering.
“As for what happened today, I truly don’t know what you’re talking about, nor do I know what you just did. Let’s just drop it.”
A’Ling would not admit there was a problem with the talisman she drew. Who knew if the formation Shi Qingqian set up could transmit sound? She couldn’t leave any evidence.
As for what Shi Qingqian said, only Shi Qingqian had witnessed it. A’Ling could simply deny it to her dying breath; Shi Qingqian had no proof.
Seeing A’Ling no longer press the question of who she was, Shi Qingqian couldn’t tell if she felt more relief or disappointment.
She wanted to tell her.
But that would be dangerous.
“No matter where you learned it, don’t use it anymore. Demonic cultivation techniques will affect your mental state and corrupt your mind—”
“Who are you calling corrupt?! What’s wrong with demon cultivators? There are good demon cultivators too! Techniques have no good or bad; it depends on the user!”
Though A’Ling had just sworn not to confront Shi Qingqian again, she truly couldn’t bear to hear those words.
In her previous life, after she fell into demonic cultivation, she hadn’t done anything wrong, yet she became Demoness A’Ling, scorned by everyone in the cultivation world.
These cultivators, priding themselves on the righteous path, simply didn’t distinguish between good and bad when it came to those not of their kind; they simply lumped them all into heretical paths.
Only they were the righteous path, and their actions were justice.
To them, ‘demons and monsters’ were all evil, to be eliminated to prove the Heavenly Dao.
Truly laughable. If demon cultivators were all evil, then why would some undergo tribulation and ascend to immortality?
It’s just different paths; what good and evil is there?
Shi Qingqian was surprised by A’Ling’s indignation, but her usually calm heart was greatly stirred. So in A’Ling’s eyes, there were good demons too…?
A’Ling saw that she remained silent and simply assumed she had been refuted and had nothing to say. A’Ling didn’t want to waste another word on her.
A’Ling looked around the cozy room, searching for a breakthrough point. No matter what technique, there was always a ‘core’ or ‘weak point’.
Suddenly, A’Ling saw it: the landscape outside the window, which she had seen just now when she first opened her eyes, seemed a bit off.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling clear glazed window, a winter plum bloomed vibrantly. Although she didn’t smell the plum blossoms’ fragrance, she could sense it somewhat from the image filled with flowers.
A’Ling’s gaze shifted from the blooming stamens, looking towards a place a bit further away.
There was a lotus pond, with lotus flowers dotting the emerald green leaves.
A’Ling’s heart trembled. A flash of light seemed to pass through her mind. She remembered.
She suddenly looked into the room. The canopy bed, carved with lilies, was draped with sky-blue gauze curtains. On the tall side table by the bed, there was a clear glazed jar, inside which floated a quietly blooming water lily.
In the wicker cat bed at the foot of the bed, a small calico cat quietly lay.
The raised platform by the window, suitable for both lying and sitting, had a small table on it, laden with her favorite snacks.
Outside the window were her favorite winter plums and summer lotuses.
These should bloom in winter and summer, respectively, but now they were together as a single scene.
It was exactly the same as the dream cottage she had described in her childhood.
When she was little, she and Jin Siliu lived a life of wandering and instability. She once told Jin Siliu how much she longed to have a room of her own.
The room she described was exactly the same as what she now saw.
At that time, Jin Siliu had even laughed at her, saying that lotuses and plum blossoms couldn’t bloom together.
A’Ling understood. This wasn’t spatial transfer; it was just an illusion. From beginning to end, they had been inside the carriage.
She gazed with a pang of bitterness at everything from her past dream. This had been a luxury she yearned for in her childhood.
Now she had the ability to own such a room, but it no longer held any meaning.
Just like the room she had snatched from Shi Qingqian in the Huo family, it was as it was before and remained so now; she didn’t want to bother decorating it.
No emotional attachment meant no regret if lost.
A’Ling’s gaze gently swept across everything in the room. When she saw Shi Qingqian sitting by the window, that bitterness vanished, leaving only a wave of nausea.
In her A’Ling’s dream cottage, there would never be Shi Qingqian.
A’Ling didn’t know why Shi Qingqian would set up such an illusion. She now wanted absolutely nothing to do with Shi Qingqian’s eccentric thought process.
Knowing it was an illusion, A’Ling didn’t want to argue with Shi Qingqian anymore. She glanced at the door in the ‘cottage,’ stepped forward, and kicked it open.
The coachman startled, abruptly pulling the reins. He turned back to see A’Ling had kicked open the carriage door and cursed inwardly.
The moment A’Ling saw the coachman, she knew her guess was correct.
“I really want to bash in that annoying jerk’s head; he’s disgusting me all day.”
Thinking that her dream cottage had been seen by Shi Qingqian, she felt this dream couldn’t be kept anymore.
“What are you looking at? What kind of shoddy carriage are you driving? With this level of skill, you can only drive for that rotten person inside!” A’Ling recalled how the coachman had driven without warning earlier, almost making her kneel before Shi Qingqian, and it made her angry. She forcefully kicked the carriage shaft and jumped out of the carriage while the coachman was stunned.
Inside the carriage, after A’Ling kicked the door, Shi Qingqian quietly watched as the surrounding illusion slowly disappeared, returning to the appearance of a carriage.
Watching A’Ling’s angry retreating back, Shi Qingqian tilted her head slightly, a hint of perplexity flashing in her eyes. She doesn’t like it?
She thought perhaps if there was an environment A’Ling liked, she might be less wary of her, letting go of some hostility.
She hadn’t expected the place A’Ling desired for peace of mind to be such an ordinary room.
Shi Qingqian didn’t know where A’Ling had lived in such a room before, but she imagined it must have been a good memory.
Watching that slowly receding greenish figure, Shi Qingqian’s fingers tightened abruptly around the Cosmos Pearl.
The Cosmos Pearl shattered into powder, scattering silently into the air with the wind.

At Hongjian Academy’s Chengxin Courtyard, Qi Leshan waited for Elder Zeng to finish his meditation, then reported the results of today’s trial competition.
Hearing that Gu Jingyang’s team had won, Elder Zeng was a bit surprised.
“So Qingqian’s team didn’t win? Does Gu Jingyang’s team have a formidable newcomer?”
Elder Zeng thought that Shi Qingqian probably hadn’t used her full strength, and the damage she dealt was likely similar to Gu Jingyang’s. If Gu Jingyang’s team won, then the difference must lie with the newcomers of the two teams.
But among this batch of newcomers, he hadn’t found anyone particularly formidable.
“It was Huo Ling. She was the one who ultimately killed the savage beast from Gu Jingyang’s team,” Qi Leshan said, still somewhat indignant. “How could a Foundation Establishment early stage cultivator have such an ability? There must be something fishy about this.”
Even Gu Jingyang and Shi Qingqian both claimed Huo Ling did it. He didn’t know why those two would lie.
Elder Zeng was even more puzzled. “Huo family’s A’Ling? It was actually her.”
Elder Zeng asked Qi Leshan to explain the situation in detail. Hearing that A’Ling’s final blow had killed a savage beast with crimson life force in a single strike, doubt surfaced in his aged eyes.
He softly repeated ‘Huo family’s A’Ling’ to himself, as if searching for memories of this person in his mind.
Qi Leshan quickly added a hint: “It was the one you punished to go home and reflect last time when Qingqian got injured.” He didn’t mention the latter half of the story where Shi Qingqian had later changed her statement.
Elder Zeng knew who A’Ling was; he was just recalling her innate aptitude.
All children in Longyin Town, at the age of ten, would ask Elder Zeng to test their innate aptitude. If they had an immortal physique, Hongjian Academy would offer free admission. If not, they would have to rely on family connections or money.
Shi Qingqian was the one whose pure immortal physique was detected by Elder Zeng that very year.
As for A’Ling, who should have been tested, she was nowhere to be found at that time.
By the time A’Ling returned to the Huo family, she was already sixteen years old, so Elder Zeng had not tested her.
A’Ling had been sent into Hongjian Academy by Huo Zhen, using his connections.
It had been two years, and she had only just reached Foundation Establishment. Normally, she didn’t seem to possess any talent at all.
Elder Zeng had only seen Huo family’s A’Ling a month ago. Could her cultivation have changed so much in just one month?
“Go to the back mountain and bring me those two savage beasts to examine.” Elder Zeng said, taking out two Cosmos Bags and handing them to Qi Leshan.
Qi Leshan quickly took them. Although he didn’t know why Elder Zeng wanted to see the savage beasts’ corpses, he could guess that Elder Zeng also had suspicions.
Thinking of A’Ling’s arrogant demeanor, Qi Leshan decided that if Elder Zeng found anything unusual, he would definitely make him expel her from Hongjian Academy!

A gust of wind rushed towards her, and A’Ling’s steps paused. The cold wind before the heavy rain made her shiver.
The carriage behind her continued to follow at a leisurely pace, like a cat toying with a mouse. A’Ling quickened her steps. She had already seen Huo Zhen’s large mansion, full of green glazed tiles, from afar.
After rounding Huo family’s large mansion and seeing the small house next to it with white walls and black tiles, A’Ling’s cold heart warmed a little. Although Huo Zhen was disgusting, she had lived in this house for many years in her previous life.
It could barely be considered a ‘home’.
She took two quick steps, and when she saw the figure huddled by the wall near the entrance, her heart, which had just warmed a little, felt a flutter.
Jin Siliu saw A’Ling, smiled as she walked out from the corner of the wall, and ran up to A’Ling.
“A’Ling, you’re back.”
A’Ling’s face was cold. “What are you doing here? Didn’t you say before that Huo Zhen wouldn’t allow it, so you wouldn’t visit?”
“I came to thank you. Look, the new shoes fit perfectly.”
Jin Siliu said, extending her foot and lightly tapping it twice on the ground.
A’Ling had already seen it when Jin Siliu got up. She pressed her lips together and uncomfortably looked away.
“Are you out of your mind? You ran all this way just to show me shoes? What does you having shoes have to do with me? Get out of the way!”
Jin Siliu’s smile stiffened. “A’Ling, didn’t you send these to me?”
Two days ago, Jin Siliu had suddenly heard a commotion. She opened the door to find a package in front of it. Opening it, she found ten pairs of new shoes.
“No. Get lost.” A’Ling’s face was cold as she started to walk inside.
Jin Siliu didn’t quite believe it. She blocked A’Ling, wanting to say something more, but suddenly her eyes lit up. She went around A’Ling and ran behind her.

In the carriage, Shi Qingqian knew that Apothecary Yang Xia had already disposed of the two savage beast corpses. After replying to Apothecary Yang Xia’s Phoenix Feather message and seeing that she didn’t reply again, Shi Qingqian felt relieved. She put away the Phoenix Feather and removed the barrier.
The carriage stopped just right.
Shi Qingqian stepped out of the carriage and saw A’Ling and Jin Siliu in front of the gate.
Seeing Jin Siliu blocking A’Ling’s path, Shi Qingqian felt displeased.
A’Ling also heard the carriage behind her. Seeing Jin Siliu’s happy expression, she didn’t even need to think to know who had arrived.
But she still turned her head.
Behind her, Shi Qingqian stood on the carriage shaft, her white dress fluttering in the wind. Jin Siliu, like a moth drawn to a flame, rushed towards her.
A’Ling felt she deserved it. She clutched her heart, which was once again pierced with pain, and muttered bitterly, ‘Serves me right.’
A’Ling clenched her fists, waiting to see Jin Siliu coldly dismissed by Shi Qingqian, just like before. This would offer her the foolish self-consolation of ‘Look, though I’m despicable, there’s someone even more despicable.’
But this time, things were a little different.
A’Ling watched Shi Qingqian turn and return to the carriage, and Jin Siliu get into the carriage with tears glistening in her eyes.
The ‘tears glistening in her eyes’ was A’Ling’s imagination; Jin Siliu had her back to A’Ling as she got into the carriage, so she couldn’t clearly see her expression.
But she could imagine that the most important person she held dear hadn’t driven her away for the first time, and had even allowed her into the carriage. Jin Siliu must have been overjoyed to tears.
Jin Siliu hadn’t even turned back to look at her, nor did she care anymore who had sent her the new shoes.
A’Ling watched as the carriage changed direction, gradually driving out of her sight.
She pressed her eye corners. They felt warm, but were very dry.
A’Ling suddenly laughed aloud. Fortunately, I can’t cry.
How pathetic would one have to be to shed tears at a moment like this and let others laugh?