The Young Lady Only Wants to Cultivate Immortality Chapter 22

Dark clouds pressed down on the city. With a resounding thunderclap, lightning behind the clouds flashed on and off, as if emotions suppressed deep within were eager to burst forth.
A’Ling looked at the now empty street. The lingering sound of carriage wheels, audible moments ago, had completely faded. On the deserted street, only the whistling wind remained.
A’Ling grabbed the strands of hair blown across her face by the wind, spat out the hair in her mouth, then turned and entered the house. Fighting against the wind, she forcefully shut the main gate of the small residence and slid the wooden bolt across.
Sun Juhao emerged from the kitchen, hearing the noise. Her face was full of anticipation, but upon seeing only A’Ling, she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.
“A’Ling, did Qingqian not come back with you?”
It had already been three days. Sun Juhao couldn’t help but worry if Shi Qingqian had encountered some trouble.
“She’s dead outside, with grass growing on her grave already!”
A’Ling walked through the courtyard towards the house without looking back. Seeing the drawing of Shi Qingqian she had made on the white wall that morning, A’Ling let out an angry roar: “She’d better die out there and never come back!”
Sun Juhao was startled by the sudden roar. “This child,” she muttered, “what kind of conflict has she had with Qingqian again…”
On the street before the storm, hardly any pedestrians were seen. Carriages and horses on the road moved swiftly.
Inside the Huo family’s carriage, protective barriers were set up. Jin Siliu knelt on the floor excitedly after getting into the carriage, constantly calling out “Young Mistress.”
“Young Mistress, do you have anything you wish for me to do?” Jin Siliu’s face was full of anticipation. She dreamed of Shi Qingqian using her, just as she had served her Mistress before.
Any command, as long as she was asked to do something, she would feel useful and thus be able to repay her Mistress’s life-saving grace.
She was originally just a mass of chaotic corpse energy in the Demon Realm’s Corpse Forest, existing for thousands of years without awareness. Trapped daily in the reeking Corpse Forest, it wasn’t until she met her Mistress that she broke free from that cursed, chaotic past.
Her Mistress gave her a human form and imbued her with flesh and blood, taught her to speak, and led her out of the Demon Realm. Everything she possessed was given by her Mistress.
When signing the Demon Lord’s Eternal Covenant, she swore to be her Mistress’s servant for all lifetimes, with no second thoughts.
Shi Qingqian looked at the person on the ground, her brows furrowed. No matter how many times she said it, Jin Siliu remained like this.
“Don’t call me Young Mistress. There is no master-servant pact between us.” Shi Qingqian’s face darkened.
Jin Siliu’s eyes flickered. She seemed a little wronged and confused, and possessed an animal-like pure stubbornness. “But I signed the Demon Lord’s Eternal Covenant with the Mistress,” she insisted. “You are her child, so you are my Mistress.”
“That was your pact with her,” Shi Qingqian said, her voice turning cold. “She is already dead. A Demon Lord’s death nullifies the pact.”
Just like every previous conversation, this was like a switch that activated Jin Siliu’s emotions. After hearing about her Mistress’s death, Jin Siliu became exceptionally agitated.
“The Mistress is dead! She’s dead! Why haven’t you avenged her yet? Kill him! Kill that man!”
Shi Qingqian watched the frenzied person before her indifferently. Every time the conversation reached this point, Jin Siliu would only repeat these words, over and over, until she calmed down herself.
“The Mistress is dead! She’s dead!” Jin Siliu wailed. “Such a good person, such a good person… She died, killed by a man.” Jin Siliu’s eyes were wide open, tears streaming endlessly from the corners.
She cried like this for a while, and finally calmed down. She looked at Shi Qingqian, and once again resumed the expression she had when she first got into the carriage.
That kind of anticipation mixed with excitement, and eagerness that also contained a destined unwillingness to be disappointed. “Young Mistress,” she asked, “do you have anything you wish for me to do?”
Shi Qingqian watched all this indifferently, looking at this abnormal ‘person’ before her.
In the past two years, Shi Qingqian had often wondered what kind of person Jin Siliu’s ‘Mistress’ – her ‘mother’ – was.
She had asked Jin Siliu, when she seemed most lucid, but all she knew was that her ‘Mistress’ was a very good person.
She had asked Apothecary Yang Xia, who said ‘she’ was a very formidable person, the most skilled healer she had ever met.
She had asked Old Zeng, who said ‘she’ had a very good temper and he had never seen her get angry for any reason.
They had all met her, but none of them knew who she truly was. A mysterious ‘good person’, yet killed by her own ‘lover’.
Everyone hoped she could avenge ‘her’.
In this matter, Shi Qingqian seemed like an outsider, yet she was expected to participate and play a crucial role.
But was this story truly so? Shi Qingqian didn’t entirely believe it. They were all ‘demons’. Could the words of ‘demons’ be trusted?
She remembered A’Ling saying that ‘demons’ could also be good.
But that was ‘also’. Were all the ones appearing around her truly among those ‘also good’ ones?
Shi Qingqian clenched her palm, looking at Jin Siliu kneeling before her. “Don’t come looking for A’Ling anymore.”
Hearing this, Jin Siliu abruptly straightened up. Her face was bitter, as if greatly troubled. This was Young Mistress’s command, but that was A’Ling, her… child…
She knew A’Ling was still angry with her. She wanted to wait for her to calm down. She had already stored all the sugar figurines she bought in a glazed jar. As soon as A’Ling wasn’t angry anymore, she would give them to her.
She would definitely be happy.
“Your demonic energy is getting out of control,” Shi Qingqian continued. “For her sake, you should stay away from her from now on.”
Jin Siliu’s demonic energy had previously been suppressed by her Mistress. Now that her Mistress was gone, her demonic energy would soon lose its suppression.
She might even slowly revert to her original form – a mass of putrid corpse energy.
Jin Siliu’s straightened back suddenly slumped. So soon? she thought. I thought it could last longer.
“Your presence will harm her,” Shi Qingqian stated the consequence. A’Ling had only just entered Foundation Establishment, and her internal core was not yet formed. A slight mishap with demonic energy entering her body could lead to the danger of falling to the demonic path.
Jin Siliu knew how dangerous her demonic energy was. She had grown up in the utterly evil Corpse Forest and was more terrifying than ordinary demons. She had already rarely come to see A’Ling.
“I came to thank A’Ling,” Jin Siliu said, gently stroking the new shoe upper, “she just gave me shoes…” Her eyes slowly grew moist.
She once had a thought to swallow this secret and live with A’Ling in the Demon Realm.
But she couldn’t. Her Mistress was dead. Before long, perhaps twenty or thirty years, she would revert to her original form.
She couldn’t scare A’Ling.
Shi Qingqian lowered her gaze, looking at the shoes on Jin Siliu’s feet. They were neither too big nor too small, a perfect fit. Although the upper was coarse cloth, the sole was much thicker than ordinary shoes.
She sighed softly.
“Have you ever taught A’Ling the demonic cultivator’s Reversal Talisman?” When she called Jin Siliu into the carriage, besides warning her, Shi Qingqian also had this doubt that needed clarification.
Jin Siliu immediately shook her head. “No, absolutely not,” she insisted. “A’Ling doesn’t even know I’m a demon. Please, Young Mistress, keep this secret. A’Ling would be scared if she knew.”
Shi Qingqian fell silent. She had a feeling that A’Ling knew; she knew Jin Siliu was a demon.
And Shi Qingqian could now be certain that even if A’Ling knew Jin Siliu was a demon, she wouldn’t be scared. She might not even care whether Jin Siliu was a demon, a human, or a beast.
“Does she… not cry?” Shi Qingqian voiced another doubt that had puzzled her for a month.
That day, when A’Ling was injured by Huo Zhen and said, ‘I won’t cry,’ Shi Qingqian felt that there was a deep sense of grievance in her words.
It wasn’t a strong emphasis on not crying, but a helpless heartache of wanting to cry but being unable to.
Jin Siliu trembled and knelt on the ground. “Young Mistress, please forgive me. It’s my fault. I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”
Seeing Jin Siliu’s reaction, Shi Qingqian knew her feeling was correct. However, this matter seemed even more complicated.
In her entire life, Jin Siliu had never done anything to defy her Mistress’s commands. This was the only exception.
Back then, her Mistress ordered her to take the child and leave, giving her three items. Two of them were to be given to the Young Mistress only when she turned sixteen. Only the Tearless Key was given to her by the Mistress at that time, said to be for the Young Mistress’s survival.
At that time, Jin Siliu was fleeing with an infant. The pursuers were pressing relentlessly. Her Mistress, worried that the child’s cries would attract the pursuers, gave her the Tearless Key.
Jin Siliu was almost caught twice. When she worried she couldn’t protect the Young Mistress, she encountered a woman unexpectedly giving birth on the road.
The situation at the time didn’t allow her to think too much. All she wanted was to hold onto the Young Mistress. So she swapped the children, then deliberately released her demonic energy to attract the pursuers. After leading the pursuers away, she suddenly remembered that the Tearless Key her Mistress gave her for survival hadn’t been given to the Young Mistress.
That item could prevent one from crying. But the Young Mistress hadn’t cried once throughout the journey, so she hadn’t used it.
After swapping the child for A’Ling, A’Ling often cried. Several times, pursuers they had already shaken off found them again because of the crying.
Jin Siliu fled for two days holding A’Ling. During those two days, the tiny A’Ling clung tightly to her, her body temperature warming Jin Siliu.
It was the first time she knew human body temperature was so warm, and human skin was so soft.
It was the first time she had defied her Mistress’s command. She fed the Tearless Key to A’Ling.
Jin Siliu knew it must be an excellent item. Her Mistress’s items were never simple, and the next dozen years also confirmed her guess was correct.
A’Ling grew up healthy and strong.
Shi Qingqian had guessed that Jin Siliu had done something, but she hadn’t expected it to be like this – that it was something meant for her…
A bolt of lightning split from the dark dome of the sky, its tail fracturing into crooked streaks. The torrential rain arrived abruptly.
The night seemed torn open with a large hole as dense drops of rain pounded onto the black tiles of the Huo family’s small residence.
All night long, the torrential rain pounding on the roof sounded as loud as falling gravel.
A’Ling tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Her heart grew anxious whenever she thought of the day’s events. Only after calming her mind and regulating her breath did she finally manage to fall asleep.
Accompanied by the sounds of thunder, wind, and rain, A’Ling had a nightmare.
In her dream, in this life, A’Ling successfully entered Mystic Crane Mountain as she wished. This time, she even successfully entered the Twelve Peaks. But just as she thought she could move forward unimpeded, Shi Qingqian stepped forward and exposed A’Ling.
Shi Qingqian claimed A’Ling had long since fallen to the demonic path. A’Ling refused to accept it, publicly refuting and defending herself.
Shi Qingqian, however, was already prepared. She forcefully crushed her arguments and cast a spell to detect her demonic energy.
No one believed her, nor did anyone help her. Everyone supported Shi Qingqian, telling her that admitting it herself would lessen the punishment.
A’Ling once again saw flames ignite on her ten fingers. This time, it wasn’t for nothing.
The feather pattern on the pad of her left index finger corroborated Shi Qingqian’s accusation.
A’Ling was utterly speechless, unable to defend herself. No one believed her.
In her dream, she was once again expelled from Mystic Crane Mountain.
The Crane Gate opened once every five years. Those who were expelled could only exit through the Heaven-Bearing Sorrowful Prison Cliff.
That was a place more terrifying than a nightmare.
In her previous life, A’Ling had fallen to the demonic path there.