The Young Lady Only Wants to Cultivate Immortality Chapter 33

Night wind whistled, the bright moon shone.
Late at night, A’Ling didn’t know where to find that grim-faced Shi Qingqian. She actually didn’t want to see that annoying face in the middle of the night either. Thinking about it, the matter wasn’t so urgent that she had to find her tonight. That being said, thinking of Jin Siliu’s single-minded brain and her occasional muddled nature, A’Ling tossed and turned. She wasn’t worried that Jin Siliu wouldn’t be well, she was just afraid that she would follow Shi Qingqian’s instructions and do something dangerous.
Early the next morning, A’Ling woke up and remembered that it was Hongjian Academy’s weekly holiday today. The academy wouldn’t be open, so Shi Qingqian wouldn’t be there. A’Ling also didn’t know where Shi Qingqian had gone after leaving the Huo family. Where could she find her?
While eating breakfast, A’Ling glanced at Sun Juhao, who was diligently serving her food, and tentatively asked, “Aunt Sun, do you know Shi Qingqian’s current address after she left the Huo family?”
“Yes, I do,” Sun Juhao said, placing a crystal shrimp dumpling into the vinegar dish in front of A’Ling. She smiled and said, “Qingqian gave it to me when she left, telling me I could find her if I needed anything.” As she spoke, Sun Juhao’s face was full of relief. Qingqian was a good child too. But she quickly became nervous, looking at A’Ling with an alert expression. “A’Ling, Qingqian has already left the Huo family, so please don’t go looking for trouble with her, alright?” By the end, Sun Juhao’s voice even carried a hint of pleading.
This made A’Ling laugh out of anger. Was she bored out of her mind? Chasing someone down just to cause trouble? “No, I have something important to discuss with her. Something serious.” A’Ling emphasized the last few words. This made Sun Juhao straighten her back, her head snapped up, and her eyes widened as she stared at A’Ling. What she said sounded like this time it wasn’t a small squabble, but something big.
Sun Juhao put down her chopsticks and clutched her grey apron, steeling herself. She thought that since she was no longer a servant of the Huo family, it should be fine to speak of some things. But years of habit in the Huo family meant she dared not comment much on her masters’ affairs. She thought for a moment and only spoke of what she knew.
“A’Ling, you returned to the Huo family late, there are many things you don’t know.” She said, tremblingly raising her gaze to A’Ling. Seeing that A’Ling didn’t stop her, she took a breath and continued, “Qingqian didn’t have a good time in the Huo family when she was little.” A’Ling rolled her eyes. Here we go again. She picked up a rolled pastry and took a big bite. Alright, she’d listen to how difficult her life was.
Seeing A’Ling’s tacit approval, Sun Juhao continued, “I’ve been in the Huo family for over twenty years. The year you were born, I was still doing odd jobs in the main kitchen, so I didn’t know much about the affairs of the inner residence. But even a small kitchen helper like me knew that the master and madam didn’t like the young miss who had just been born.”
“Later, it was said that the master invited a fate diviner who determined the young miss’s fate was ill-omened. So the master locked the child, who was barely a month old, in the Embroidery Tower.” “They said publicly that the child’s fate made her susceptible to evil spirits, and she could only grow up healthy if she didn’t see outsiders. What a sin, such a tiny child. And she was locked away for five years.”
“Cough, cough.” The bean-paste pastry in A’Ling’s mouth suddenly got stuck; she couldn’t swallow it or spit it out. She quickly drank a bowl of pigeon egg soup to wash it down. “What did you say? Huo Zhen locked Shi Qingqian up for five years? All that time?” A’Ling was extremely shocked. She had heard from Gu Jingyang about seeing Shi Qingqian when she was little, how she seemed to have jumped down from the locked Embroidery Tower and met Gu Jingyang. She thought Shi Qingqian had done something or angered Huo Zhen, which led to her being locked up for a while. How could it be five years? From one month old until five years old?!
“Yes, only one old woman looked after the Embroidery Tower. All food and daily necessities were delivered by servants, and that old woman was not allowed to leave without permission. It was probably because of this that she harbored resentment. Back then, our servants’ courtyard was right next to the Embroidery Tower. Day and night, we often heard that old woman’s curses and the child’s cries. After two or three years, the crying from the Embroidery Tower gradually disappeared.”
A’Ling was speechless for a moment, stunned for a long while. “This, how could this be…” Sun Juhao wiped tears from the corners of her eyes. “Why would I lie to you? In the past, I couldn’t speak in the Huo family, and that child Qingqian was always tight-lipped.” “Later, when the young master was born, for some reason, the master suddenly opened the Embroidery Tower’s door and let Qingqian out.”
A’Ling’s brow twitched. The timing matched what Gu Jingyang had told her. “When Qingqian came out of the Embroidery Tower, I saw her once from afar. She was as thin as a monkey, truly unlike a five-year-old child, and she couldn’t speak.” A’Ling was startled. “But I clearly saw Huo Zhen and the others always being kind and affectionate towards her…” As A’Ling spoke, she faintly began to guess. And Aunt Sun’s words directly confirmed her suspicions.
“That was all after Qingqian turned ten. At that time, Qingqian was tested and found to have some incredible physique, said to be a rare genius seen only once in a hundred years. The master and madam suddenly changed their demeanor, wasn’t it because they felt Qingqian was useful?” Sun Juhao said, cautiously glancing around. Although she was no longer in the Huo family, she still feared being overheard by Huo family members. She lowered her voice and said, “I heard it was for the young master. Qingqian seems to be able to extend his lifespan.”
A’Ling frowned. This meant they wanted Shi Qingqian to transfer her internal energy to that good-for-nothing Huo Changsheng. She remembered, this had happened in her previous life too. Huo Zhen wanted to send her to the Inner Sect to find Shi Qingqian, and one of the things he wanted her to do was to extend Huo Changsheng’s life, saying it was Shi Qingqian’s duty. She hadn’t relayed those messages at the time. It was better for everyone if that bully and scoundrel Huo Changsheng died earlier. But back then, she also thought Shi Qingqian deserved it. After receiving so many benefits from the Huo family, Shi Qingqian vanished into the Inner Sect without a word, showing no gratitude. She was a complete ingrate.
But she never expected such a thing. Back then, no one had ever told her about it. Also, at that time, she was always in the Huo family’s small house, and those who knew were in the main Huo family mansion. If Aunt Sun wanted to keep her job in the Huo family, she wouldn’t have said anything either.
No, she just couldn’t understand what kind of rotten stuff was in Huo Zhen’s pig-headed brain. His own child, not some sworn enemy. No, even if it were a sworn enemy, wouldn’t a quick death be better? He actually managed to lock a newborn child in a tiny Embroidery Tower for five years! Were Huo Zhen and Lin Nianli even human?! How dared they?! And Huo Changsheng, who acted so subservient towards Shi Qingqian and caused her trouble multiple times for Shi Qingqian’s sake, so that was his true intention. He wasn’t willing to endure the hardships of cultivation himself, so he wanted others to provide internal energy to help him establish his foundation and extend his life. He truly had no shame whatsoever.
This family, it was hard to describe them in words. A pile of garbage gathered together, more putrid than a rotten corpse forest. The thought of Huo Zhen and Lin Nianli being her biological parents made A’Ling sick. It would have been cleaner to randomly pick up a cluster of foul air in the rotten corpse forest and call it parents.
A’Ling suddenly remembered various events after she returned to the Huo family. She thought they disliked her because of Shi Qingqian and targeted Shi Qingqian in various ways. Now, looking back, she was just a joke. She had thought Shi Qingqian had a privileged life in the Huo family, with loving parents, and felt that life should have been hers. If she hadn’t been swapped back then, she would have been the one locked in the Embroidery Tower. She would have gone crazy…
A’Ling imagined herself being locked up for five years. Suddenly, she felt that although Jin Siliu had initially wanted her to die in Shi Qingqian’s place, she had risked her life to protect her during their escape. Even though it was difficult to bring her along, she never thought of locking her up. Although she gave her some strange concoction out of fear that she would cry, which led to her inability to cry now, if it had been Huo Zhen, he probably would have simply poisoned her to silence her.
A’Ling’s heart skipped a beat, her throat felt as if it were clogged with sand. She couldn’t speak, not even swallow. Sun Juhao was still rambling on about how difficult Shi Qingqian’s life had been all these years, how she managed to grow into who she was today despite it all, what a good child she was, and earnestly pleading with A’Ling not to cause Shi Qingqian any more trouble. “A’Ling, I know you’ve had it tough too, but none of this was caused by Qingqian. Please just let her go.”
A’Ling, whose heart had been heavy, felt even more disheartened now. Was she some kind of inhuman demon lord? Knowing all this, would she still go cause trouble for Shi Qingqian? She now wished she could never see her again. What if Shi Qingqian suddenly decided to seek revenge one day, remembered that A’Ling was Huo Zhen’s daughter, and decided to massacre the entire Huo family, including her?
Wait, no, massacre the entire family… In her previous life, when the Huo family was threatened with complete annihilation, they went to Shi Qingqian for help. At that time, she had already cut ties with the Huo family and would have been happy to see it happen. In the end, the entire Huo family died, leaving only her. And then she died too, because of Shi Qingqian. So, was Shi Qingqian doing it on purpose? A’Ling had only guessed before, but now she felt somewhat certain: Shi Qingqian had done it on purpose.
She felt a chill. The memory of her body exploding in pain rushed back, and her brows knitted tightly together. No, she had to avoid Shi Qingqian. She couldn’t keep flaunting herself in front of her. What if she decided to kill her again? At her current level, she couldn’t possibly defeat Shi Qingqian. Then this precious life, which she had so painstakingly gotten a second chance at, would be over.
But she couldn’t pretend not to know about Jin Siliu’s matter. Moreover, perhaps because Huo Zhen and Lin Nianli were so outrageous, she now felt that Jin Siliu was actually a decent person. And that Shi Qingqian, after experiencing all that, how could she still be at peace with Huo Zhen? Could she be planning something big? She had heard the story of ‘sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall,’ and it was true: silent dogs bite the hardest.
As A’Ling left after getting the address, her heart was still very uneasy. In her mind now, Shi Qingqian’s image had completely changed. From a smug, arrogant ingrate, she had directly evolved into a dark, vindictive mad dog who swallowed her bitter past, only to bite off her opponents’ necks one day. A petty person could be taught a lesson, but a mad dog was a different matter. Who knew when her eyes might turn red and she’d bite A’Ling?
After giving the address, Aunt Sun had earnestly exhorted her not to cause trouble with Qingqian. But now, it wasn’t about whether she could ‘get over it.’ A’Ling carefully weighed her options and felt that so far, she hadn’t truly harmed Shi Qingqian; after all, her current strength didn’t allow it. In her previous life, she had caused some trouble, but that was only after entering the Inner Sect. In this life, as long as she didn’t keep clinging to Shi Qingqian, she probably wouldn’t insist on killing her. If they stayed far apart in the future and didn’t see each other, perhaps Shi Qingqian would even forget about her. Yes, that’s right. A’Ling felt that thinking this way wasn’t so bad. Let the past remain in the past, and just avoid seeing each other in the future.
While deep in thought, suddenly, a shout echoed into the carriage. “Jin Siliu, where are you running?!” A’Ling’s face changed. She violently threw open the carriage curtain and poked her head out, just in time to see two figures flash past.
Two figures, one in front and one behind. The one in front, judging by her figure, attire, and the low bun of silver hair at the back of her head, looked like Jin Siliu. Behind her was a man wearing a bamboo hat, his appearance obscured, dressed entirely in black, chasing her closely. The man was holding a large cleaver. As A’Ling looked on, she saw him swing the cleaver forward. Her heart immediately leaped into her throat. Fortunately, that strike missed.
A’Ling leaped out of the carriage, jumping forward. Without looking back, she shouted, “Chen Qiniang, you go back first, I have something to do.” Chen Qiniang was startled to see A’Ling jump out of the carriage. She hastily reined in the horses, wanting to ask A’Ling if she needed help, but the person had already disappeared. Ahead, it was even more chaotic; pedestrians scattered in all directions, and the carriage couldn’t get through at all.
Someone wielding a knife in the bustling market immediately caused an uproar. The crowd panicked like headless flies, and many roadside stalls were knocked over and scattered by the fleeing people. Because these toppled stalls hindered the panicked crowd’s escape, more people and stalls were hit. In an instant, the street descended into complete chaos.
Figures were indistinct. A’Ling could no longer clearly see Jin Siliu. She pushed hard through the surging crowd, running towards the last direction she saw Jin Siliu’s figure, chasing her all the way to the deserted outskirts, but she still couldn’t find Jin Siliu. A’Ling looked around. She had actually run to the foot of Kaiyao Mountain.
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed from Kaiyao Mountain. “Die!” A rough male voice reverberated through the mountains. A’Ling’s eyes burned with anger. Who was trying to kill Jin Siliu? She ran desperately up the mountain, reaching the place where the sound had just come from. There was no sign of Jin Siliu anywhere, nor the man from before. A’Ling didn’t know if Jin Siliu had already been killed or if they had gone somewhere else. She wanted to search around, to find her alive or at least her body. As she turned, the flat ground beneath her suddenly collapsed.
Not good!
After a sudden plunge, A’Ling conjured a talisman and activated a spell. The burning gas from the talisman abruptly propelled A’Ling upwards. The downward plunge turned into a rapid ascent. Looking at the cave ceiling, A’Ling used the last bit of talisman energy to leap upwards on her tiptoes. Just as she neared the cave entrance, a Nine Revolutions Lotus Platform Net suddenly covered the opening. A’Ling, protecting her head, touched the net with her hand and felt an intense burning sensation.
“Hiss—”
A’Ling cried out in pain and quickly pulled her hand back. With her uninjured hand, she gripped a rock on the edge of the cave entrance to steady herself, then looked down at her recently burned hand. It was already black and red, like it had been charred alive. Good! This cave must not be simple, since they even used a Nine Revolutions Lotus Platform Net. This Nine Revolutions Lotus Platform Net was specifically used in the Inner Sect to punish errant cultivators. It couldn’t be cut by knives or burned by fire. Unless one had a cultivation above Nascent Soul, it was impossible to break free. The more one struggled, the more intensely one would be scorched.
A’Ling’s face was ashen. She looked up at the net covering the cave entrance. If it were just a pit, it could be called an accident, but given the current situation, there was only one possibility. She had fallen into an ambush.
“If you have something to say, come out and say it! What’s the point of digging this gloomy hole? What do you want to do by luring me here?” A’Ling shouted loudly towards the cave entrance. After waiting for a while, there was no reply. They couldn’t possibly be like her, just digging a hole for the sake of digging a hole. A’Ling looked at the net above, thinking that there couldn’t be many people in the world as foolish as her. When she dug a pit to trap Shi Qingqian, why didn’t she think of adding such a net? However, it was unlikely this net could trap Shi Qingqian anyway.
A’Ling looked down. Since there was a net above, there must be something below. She kicked a rock from the muddy wall. As the broken rock plummeted downwards, a series of deep, booming roars suddenly echoed from below. A’Ling’s hair instantly stood on end, like grass swept by a fierce wind. What was that?
A’Ling endured the pain in her hand, took out a talisman, activated a spell, and dropped it downwards after it ignited. The orange glow was like a switch, lighting up the ‘lamps’ below, one after another. One by one, the lamps gradually lit up, emitting a green light. The color drained from A’Ling’s face.
One, two, three, four. A total of four armored beasts, eight eyes, with round pupils like lamps, staring directly at the person above who had woken them from their sleep. A’Ling instantly held her breath. The extreme fear made her completely oblivious to the burning pain in her hand. She desperately grabbed another slightly protruding rock to steady her shaking body, and then slowly let out a shallow breath.
It was just that single breath, and the armored beasts below began to stir, as if they had sensed a living presence. Just then, the rock A’Ling was originally gripping couldn’t withstand her strength. With a “crack,” the rock broke off from the pit wall and, along with a few surrounding pebbles, crumbled downwards. A’Ling quickly let go and grabbed another rock, preventing herself from falling with the others. Her gaze followed the falling rocks, watching them smash onto the heads of the armored beasts crouching below.
“Clang! Clang!”
It’s over! A’Ling looked down. Sure enough, red lines appeared in the lamp-like pupils of the four armored beasts. They were angry. Armored beasts were extraordinarily violent and fierce beasts, similar in size to tigers, with bodies covered in armor like refined steel and profound iron. But they had one good point: apart from necessary feeding, they would not actively attack other animals. There was only one exception: when woken from their sleep. Armored beasts preferred darkness over light and liked to dig their own holes to sleep, so it was rare for anyone to disturb their slumber. Except for A’Ling, this unlucky person who had been tricked.
A’Ling quickly pulled out the Phoenix Feather Gu Jingyang had given her and urgently sent a message. “Gu Jingyang, help! I’m on Kaiyao Mountain, come save me quickly!” If there was only one, it might be manageable, but these were four adult armored beasts. At her current level, she couldn’t handle them. Her Little Wandering couldn’t penetrate their hard armor. Those people truly conspired with all their might to put her to death.
“It’s impressive that you dark, stinky bugs could find such a good place. Just you wait. When I get out of here, I’ll find an even bigger pit and let all of you experience this thrill.” Armored beasts were creatures that lived in family groups. If she found out who was trying to harm her, she would find a prosperous armored beast family and throw all those bastards down there, to experience what it meant for a deep pit to be stained with blood, with bones as a path.
A’Ling’s shouts went unanswered. Just as A’Ling thought there was no one above and those who had harmed her had fled, several things dropped down from the Nine Revolutions Lotus Platform Net. A’Ling didn’t have time to see clearly; the stone-sized objects had already fallen to the bottom of the pit. A series of “crackling” sounds suddenly echoed in the cave—it was firecrackers! The commotion was so loud that the rocks on the cave wall fell down one after another. The soil around A’Ling’s position also crumbled down, and all the protruding rocks were shaken off.
“Not good!” A’Ling shouted, “Little Wandering!” A purple-gold light flashed from her wrist. A’Ling quickly gripped the whip hilt and swung it upwards. The Nine Revolutions Lotus Platform Net remained unchanged. A’Ling knew, of course, that the Wandering Amethyst Gold Whip could not damage the Nine Revolutions Lotus Platform Net. She only wanted Little Wandering to wrap around the net above and pull her so she wouldn’t fall further. She managed to stop her descent, but the startled armored beasts below surged upwards.
A’Ling pulled out a stack of talismans and used every spell she could, repeatedly repelling the armored beasts that tried to leap up. This only made them more furious. Not only that, but after the firecrackers at the bottom of the pit exploded, they formed clusters of sparks that gradually spread into a blaze. This time, even if the armored beasts had been somewhat wary after being repelled by A’Ling a few times, they couldn’t suppress their instinct for survival. To avoid being burned by the fire, the armored beasts scrambled to leap upwards one after another.
After A’Ling’s talismans were exhausted, the fire at the bottom of the pit had already covered the entire bottom. The armored beasts, unable to endure the burning heat, surged upwards en masse.
“Ah—”
A’Ling cried out in pain. Just now, she couldn’t dodge in time and was bitten on the calf by an armored beast. With just one bite, A’Ling heard the sound of breaking bones. She endured the piercing pain and tried to pull her leg out of the armored beast’s mouth, but the frenzied beast wouldn’t let go, completely refusing to release her. A’Ling was swinging wildly in the air with the armored beast attached to her.
With the added weight of an armored beast, A’Ling was about to lose her grip on Little Wandering. Little Wandering seemed to sense her powerlessness, vibrating in A’Ling’s hand and pulling her firmly.
“Ah—”
A’Ling couldn’t help but cry out in pain again. This time, the pain directly caused her vision to go white. The armored beast on her leg had deeply torn off a piece of flesh from her calf. She looked down and saw that her previously rounded calf was missing a large chunk, bloody and raw, with bone exposed. The fresh blood stimulated the fierce beasts at the bottom of the pit, making their eyes turn red. Soon, A’Ling’s other leg was also bitten.
A’Ling’s temples throbbed even more violently. She could only use Little Wandering to dodge in the air. “Gu Jingyang, Gu Jingyang, you have to hurry!” If this continued, she wouldn’t last much longer. The monstrous beasts, realizing they couldn’t get out, were now frantically lunging at A’Ling.
Her leg, which had just had a piece of flesh torn off, was bitten again. The intense pain made her vision go black. Before she passed out from the pain, A’Ling surprisingly still had the presence of mind to mock herself. She was hanging in mid-air like a chicken used in a circus act to fight wild beasts. If she died like this, the people who orchestrated this today would probably be very pleased. Who hated her so much that they wouldn’t even give her a quick death? Thinking of this, she again felt that Shi Qingqian was good in this regard; when Shi Qingqian wanted to kill her, it was quick, so fast that she couldn’t even react.
Just before she was about to pass out from the pain, a golden light suddenly flashed in A’Ling’s hazy vision, and her body, aching all over, fell into a firm embrace. Shi Qingqian clearly saw the scene before her, and a ferocious, eerie, and chilling ruthlessness permeated her eyes and brows. She had originally been meditating in the medicine pavilion when suddenly, a surging demonic energy stirred within her. She merely thought it was a normal energy surge. As she tried to suppress it, she realized that the surging energy was demonic energy transferred from A’Ling.
Demonic energy is very special. That’s why demons use demonic energy when signing a Demon Lord’s Eternal Pact. The master can sense where the servant is, and if there’s any disloyalty, they can kill the opponent from a thousand miles away through the demonic energy. She and A’Ling had no contract, but the demonic energy within her from A’Ling allowed her to sense A’Ling’s location. When she released her demonic energy to investigate and found A’Ling on Kaiyao Mountain, Shi Qingqian knew something had gone wrong.
She quickly swallowed a Phoenix Ascension Demon Suppression Pill, suppressed the rampaging demonic energy in her body, and activated a spatial transfer spell. She never expected A’Ling to be trapped in an armored beast’s cave, with fire spreading layer by layer from the bottom of the pit.
Shi Qingqian’s eyes surged with rage. She conjured her Hundred Qi Frost Sword and activated a spell, shattering the armored beasts that were charging fiercely towards them into thousands of pieces. She looked down at the barely breathing A’Ling in her arms, closed her eyes, and forcibly suppressed the surging demonic energy. Streams of true spiritual energy flowed into A’Ling’s body from where their skin touched. Shi Qingqian looked up at the Nine Revolutions Lotus Platform Net above her head, reached out and gripped the net rope. Her palm glowed fiery red, as if she felt no heat, and she tore open a hole with her bare hands.
A’Ling, who had regained consciousness, happened to witness this scene. The shock in her eyes was no less than when she had first discovered the armored beasts. She looked at Shi Qingqian in astonishment. Wasn’t she burned? Why could she tear open that Nine Revolutions Lotus Platform Net? And how did she get here? Where was Gu Jingyang?
Soon, A’Ling couldn’t continue thinking. The pain was too immense. As Shi Qingqian moved with her, the wind felt like sharp blades cutting into her torn leg, causing excruciating pain down to her bones. When the blackness caused by the pain dissipated, a dark head blocked her vision. She couldn’t see, but she could feel it: Shi Qingqian was cradling her injured leg.
A’Ling saw her lower her body. In that instant, an electric current flashed through A’Ling’s mind, and all the blood rushed to her head. “What are you doing?!”