The Young Lady Only Wants to Cultivate Immortality Chapter 81

“I only wish to form a Soulmate Pact with you to become Dao Companions.”
“By my soul I vow, by my spirit I pledge.”
“For this life and all lives to come, may our souls be undying, and the pact’s mark never fade.”
The heavy snow danced wildly in the night wind. The spiritual energy barrier A’Ling conjured blocked the encroaching wind and snow, yet it couldn’t seem to block out the words that ceaselessly lingered in her ears.
It was the first time she had seen Shi Qingqian speak with such a solemn expression, and the first time she had heard a voice that seemed to be imbued with spiritual energy, so profound it felt as if it would engrave itself onto her very soul.
Even now, the howling wind in her ears couldn’t blow away those words that should have long since dissipated.
A’Ling didn’t even dare to look back. After she had just rejected Shi Qingqian, her gaze—those pupils that seemed to be fractured by ice and snow, the hurt in those dark eyes—all of it made A’Ling feel flustered.
It was too sudden. She hadn’t expected to hear such words in the middle of a sudden blizzard under the night sky, amidst the fleeting clouds—words that should have been spoken by lovers promising eternity.
What kind of lovers were Shi Qingqian and her?
At most, they were rivals who had just buried the hatchet.
“I think she’s lost her mind!” A’Ling nodded to herself, defining Shi Qingqian.
Gu Jingyang heard the sudden words behind her, and slightly turned her head to glance behind her: “A’Ling, what’s wrong?”
“Don’t ask, can you fly your sword faster?” A’Ling reached out and forcefully twisted Gu Jingyang’s head back, then unconsciously sighed, “Good thing you came.”
Gu Jingyang raised an eyebrow. After she and Heng Qingyi had reported back to Venerable Huanzhou and received approval, she came to Winter Snow Peak with her token.
As a result, she saw A’Ling and Shi Qingqian in mid-air. The two didn’t know what they were doing, having stopped in mid-air. From a distance, Gu Jingyang had thought they were leisurely enjoying the snowy scenery.
She had just flown her sword to their side, before she could even ask a question, A’Ling jumped onto her sword and told her to run quickly.
Gu Jingyang thought something had happened. After quickly flying away on her sword, she traveled for a while but found no pursuers behind them, but A’Ling was still urging her to go faster.
“What happened? Is someone chasing you?” Gu Jingyang asked loudly.
A’Ling glanced back. The white figure was already almost out of sight, only vaguely seeming to still be in the distance: “Faster, faster, faster, a bit more!”
Gu Jingyang didn’t understand why, but hearing the tension in A’Ling’s words, she still channeled her spiritual energy and accelerated further, almost using the fastest speed for escaping with one’s life.
Mystic Crane Mountain had snowfall tonight, and many disciples with leisure left their cave dwellings to observe.
Snowy scenery was common, happening every year, but this year there was a strange sight.
Amidst the heavy wind and snow, a lightning-fast sword silhouette cut through the fluffy, scattered snowflakes, carrying two girls whose robes fluttered, streaked across the night sky like a shooting star.
Gu Jingyang used all her strength to bring A’Ling back to her cave dwelling. The moment she dismounted from her Moonfall Sword, she caught A’Ling, panting heavily, and demanded to know what had just happened.
Along the way, she had heard many exclamations, and some who were dazzled mistook her for a meteor. Just now, upon entering Mount Warm Tower, her speed was so great that she nearly collided with fellow disciples returning to their cave dwellings.
Dodging left and right, soaring up and down, she even heard applause the moment she landed. Gu Jingyang felt like she had been put on display like a monkey today.
If A’Ling couldn’t explain it, she would make her go through the same experience herself.
“Tell me, what happened, why did you make me fly your sword so fast?”
After Gu Jingyang entered A’Ling’s cave dwelling and put away her Moonfall Sword, she followed A’Ling further inside, asking as she walked.
After A’Ling entered her own cave dwelling, she still seemed as if someone was chasing her from behind, her robes fluttering as she moved, like rippling waves.
She didn’t even pay attention to the person following her, walking straight to her bed, and without a word, burrowed into the blankets.
“I’m tired, let’s talk about it tomorrow.” A’Ling huddled under the blankets, a muffled voice coming from within.
Gu Jingyang’s curiosity was now like water bubbling in a half-open kettle, gurgling with bubbles, and certainly not something a single sentence could extinguish.
“No, just tell me briefly what happened. When I arrived just now, why was it only you and Qingqian? Weren’t you going to Winter Snow Peak? What happened? Did Venerable Cai Yun make things difficult for you? And why were we running just now, who was chasing us?”
Gu Jingyang asked all her questions in one breath, and as she spoke, she pulled A’Ling out from under the blankets.
A’Ling couldn’t struggle free, and after poking her head out, she pressed her hands together in a pleading gesture towards Gu Jingyang: “Please, have mercy, I’m really tired, my mind is a mess right now. Tomorrow, is tomorrow okay? I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”
Gu Jingyang looked at A’Ling suspiciously. What happened today was truly bizarre, but seeing A’Ling’s pitiable, pleading look, and how genuinely exhausted she seemed, her heart softened for a moment.
“Fine, today was indeed quite eventful.”
They had just returned to Mystic Crane Mountain when they were taken for questioning. After finally resolving that, A’Ling was summoned to Winter Snow Peak again. She was actually tired too.
Today, not only did she go to find Heng Qingyi to report about the matter of Zhuoling Mountain, she also went to Spring Water Peak for help, and then just had an extreme escape-like sword flight.
“You rest well. I’ll come find you early tomorrow morning. By then, you’d better tell me everything that happened today in detail.”
“Alright, alright, alright, tomorrow, I’ll definitely tell you. Help me close the door when you leave. I’m going to sleep now.”
A’Ling didn’t wait for Gu Jingyang’s reply, and immediately pulled her head back into the blankets, as if a turtle retreating into its shell had found a bit of security.
After hearing Gu Jingyang walk away, A’Ling finally crawled out from under the blankets and got up to set up a barrier around her cave dwelling.
Staring at the barrier, A’Ling uncontrollably thought of Shi Qingqian again, recalling the Life Soul Barrier Shi Qingqian had wordlessly placed on her at Winter Snow Peak.
This person truly left her speechless.
A’Ling burrowed into the blankets in vexation, trying hard not to think about what had just happened, not to think about Shi Qingqian’s words.
This person was truly hateful, suddenly pulling such a stunt, making her heart beat wildly, completely out of rhythm.
A’Ling silently recited a cultivation mental technique, calming her mind and spirit to bring her erratic heartbeat back to its proper rhythm.
After much effort, she finally drifted into sleep. The moment she saw Shi Qingqian’s face, A’Ling knew that all the mental techniques she had recited were in vain.
“Let, let go of me!”
A’Ling tilted her head, looking at her tightly clasped wrist. Another hand, not hers, was there. The prominent veins on the pale, slender back of that hand were faintly tinged with red.
A’Ling tried to pull her hand back with force, but found that the hand gripping her was like bronze skin and iron chains, immovable by even an inch.
She turned to look at the person whose head was buried in her neck. She saw half of her face revealed, the red birthmark at the corner of her eye was dazzlingly demonic, like a bead of congealed blood.
Each red line was like a living blood vessel, spreading past the corner of her eye and disappearing into her temples.
What was going on? Why did Shi Qingqian’s face develop these demon-like markings after taking this medicine?
A’Ling even sensed a faint demonic aura that didn’t belong to her in the stuffy air, so faint that it seemed to vanish and reappear within a few breaths, as if it were her illusion.
This is not good, A’Ling thought. Could this medicine have side effects? Did that fox demon trick her?
She hadn’t even thought to make the fox demon test the medicine’s effects beforehand.
A’Ling struggled to sit upright, using her free hand to forcefully push away Shi Qingqian’s head buried in her neck, pulling their tightly pressed bodies apart slightly.
The moment her body felt slightly empty, A’Ling wanted to summon Little Wandering, but she saw that her traitorous magic artifact was still in Shi Qingqian’s hand, its entire whip body without a single trace of light, tightly coiled into a ball, as if it could reduce its presence that way, making her unable to see its useless appearance.
A’Ling’s heart burned with anger. This little traitor, always acting so spinelessly whenever it saw Shi Qingqian, it was even worse than a hemp rope, which at least made a sound when whipped twice.
A’Ling directly gave up the idea of humiliating herself by using this useless thing again. With a wave of her hand, the Nine Heavens Immortal-Binding Rope wrapped around her wrist flew out like a flexible little snake, directly binding Shi Qingqian.
“Good job, ah—” A’Ling hadn’t finished praising her Little Nine Heavens, when suddenly, her earlobe felt hot, followed by a dull ache.
It felt as if sharp teeth were gnawing at that spot, not only dull and not quite painful, but also a distinct slight pain, along with waves of tingling numbness accompanying the gentle gnawing.
“Shi Qingqian! Let go of me! Don’t lick!”
A’Ling felt something warm burrowing into her ear, wet, delicately ticklish, warm and hot, one soft touch after another, so agile that she couldn’t predict where it would strike next.
When A’Ling realized what it was, amidst an uncontrollable shiver, with heat rushing to her face, A’Ling roared, her eyes crimson, and directly tackled the person clinging to her onto the white jade bed.
“You’re asking for death! Do you not want this tongue anymore!”
A’Ling was furious. This wretched one, does she think she’s a dog!
With a furious palm strike, she slapped the person who had fallen down but was trying to get up and rub against her back onto the bed again. She hadn’t expected Shi Qingqian, even bound like a rice dumpling, to still be so unruly.
That fox demon’s medicinal pill must have a problem, A’Ling thought. These damned cunning foxes! Once this matter is over, she must go find the fox demon who gave her that shoddy medicinal pill and settle the score!
“Don’t move, or I’ll whip you to death!”
A’Ling retrieved Little Wandering from Shi Qingqian’s hand. Seeing it still looking as if it had lost its luster and was playing dead, she let out a cold snort: “Go back.”
The words had barely left her lips, when Little Wandering immediately glowed with purple-gold light, and with a swoosh, it returned to A’Ling’s wrist, transforming into a bracelet.
Its movement was so fast, as if it feared A’Ling would regret it the next second.
Having put away her magic artifact, and seeing the person beneath her securely bound, A’Ling felt slightly relieved. Blushing, she wiped away the moisture from her earlobe, and pulled her disheveled clothes back up to her shoulders and neck.
Suddenly, in her peripheral vision, A’Ling saw about a palm’s width below her collarbone, just above where her undergarment covered, a fingernail-sized red mark, with a row of shallow teeth marks upon it.
The indented skin of the teeth marks was even somewhat glistening and damp. A’Ling’s scalp tingled from seeing it, as if the sensation from just now, that warm breath, had returned.
She shivered repeatedly, waves of faint tremors rising within the ticklish pain.
Her body’s strange reactions immediately reminded her of what Shi Qingqian had done when she trapped her just now!
Her eyes crimson, feeling both shame and anger, she forcefully straightened her undergarment that had been pushed askew. Looking at Shi Qingqian, whose eyes were hazy but gleamed with heat and immense satisfaction, A’Ling was so angry she wanted to take a bite out of her too!
To viciously bite off a piece of her flesh.
“This is outrageous!” A’Ling didn’t know whether to be angry at Shi Qingqian or at herself.
She now felt that drugging someone to steal their cultivation base was the second foolish thing she had done in her life!
The first was that she shouldn’t have agreed to Jin Siliu’s request to return to the Huo family, because then she wouldn’t have met this person before her!
This person who had caused her to gradually become like this!
“You owe me!” A’Ling didn’t know if she was saying it to Shi Qingqian or to herself, perhaps it was to find a grand excuse for her own actions.
A’Ling also knew that stealing another’s cultivation base was shameful, but she truly couldn’t stand the days where even breathing was painful.
“If you behave, I’ll take less cultivation. If you don’t cooperate, don’t blame me for being merciless!”
As she spoke, A’Ling formed a hand seal. Waves of luminous light appeared within the bed curtains, illuminating the dim canopy. A’Ling lowered her head and pressed her forehead against Shi Qingqian’s: “Let me in.”
After a whole ordeal, when Shi Qingqian’s internal energy slowly flowed into her body through her palm, A’Ling truly, for the first time, was so happy she wanted to cry. She succeeded!
She had actually succeeded in absorbing Shi Qingqian’s cultivation base. It was her first time using this cultivation absorption technique, and she hadn’t expected it to actually succeed.
Suddenly, inside the secluded secret chamber, A’Ling heard a soft chuckle. Just as she wondered if she had happily chuckled herself, she looked up and saw a pair of deep, dark, shining eyes.
Her previous ecstasy instantly turned into panic. Not good, these clear eyes were no longer hazy like before. That familiar gaze, that accustomed raised eyebrow.
Shi Qingqian was awake!
A’Ling was utterly horrified. How could Shi Qingqian have woken up so quickly? If she discovered that A’Ling was stealing her cultivation, A’Ling would surely be torn to pieces.
A’Ling frantically tried to withdraw her hand. She had to run, if she didn’t, she was dead for sure.
Just then, a hand pressed against her nape, undeniably pulling her back as she tried to escape, abruptly closing the distance, their foreheads still pressed together.
Even her lips, which hadn’t had time to beg for mercy, were pressed tightly together.
A’Ling had no time to think about what had happened. Waves of tingling numbness and a sour-itchy sensation surged over her brain like a raging tide, spreading throughout her body. She had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Her entire body felt as if it had been struck by lightning, trembling ceaselessly.
When Shi Qingqian sobered up and saw everything that was happening, it took her less than a single breath to go from initial shock to bewilderment to acceptance.
She almost instinctively did what she wanted to do. It was truly as good as she had imagined, no, even better.
It turned out that the warmth of an embrace was this scorching and comforting.
The moment she saw what A’Ling’s hand, pressed against her chest, was doing, Shi Qingqian instantly understood the little fool’s original plan.
To think of using this method to steal cultivation wasn’t entirely foolish, a soft chuckle escaped her lips.
Seeing the panic in A’Ling’s eyes after her scheme was exposed, and those eyes that trembled with panic, as well as the flush on her face that hadn’t had time to recede, Shi Qingqian’s mood improved even further.
Her heart moved, and when Shi Qingqian kissed her, she mumbled “Fool,” her fool had finally been clever for once.
Shi Qingqian lowered her eyelids, kissing A’Ling’s forehead and brow, and slowly wrapped her arms around her in gentle kisses, making the two of them stick together like two talismans, leaving not a single gap.
“A’Ling, A’Ling…” She softly called out beside her ear, her voice clinging and gentle, yet also brimming with distress.
Shi Qingqian’s eyes were reddened as she continuously kissed the person in her arms. She enveloped A’Ling’s lips, gently nipping at her tongue, feeling the repeated tensing of the person in her arms, and feeling both their body temperatures grow hotter and hotter.
In the quiet secret chamber, a breeze came from who knew where, lifting a corner of the bed curtains. A faint light from a corner of the chamber seeped into the dim bed curtains, and a fleeting shadow passed over A’Ling’s face.
A’Ling had completely lost the ability to think. She seemed awake, yet also bewildered. She seemed to hear someone calling her, but also seemed to only hear her own gulping sounds.
As the powerful internal energy continuously flowed in, she felt her body become lighter and lighter, as if she was about to ascend beyond the Nine Heavens, yet was always pulled back just as she was about to take flight. Back and forth, it melted all her rationality.
By the time she realized something was wrong, it was already too late.
Before the world turned completely dark, A’Ling saw in those habitually cold and aloof eyes that had completely lost their usual indifference that looked down on everything, a complexity she had never seen in Shi Qingqian’s gaze before.
There was horror, astonishment, fear, regret, anger, and pain.
A’Ling suddenly woke up amidst a heart-stopping, sharp pain, and sat straight up.
She clutched her chest, frantically looking around. Shi Qingqian wasn’t there, nor was she in the demon realm. This was her cave dwelling; it had just been a dream!
After realizing it was a nightmare, A’Ling, who had been holding her breath, suddenly let out several heavy gasps.
It was too terrifying. She hugged her arms tightly, wanting to get rid of the goosebumps that had rushed out. The dream was so real that she still seemed to feel the pain from it.
She rubbed her arms, slowly trying to regulate her breathing and steady her mind. Everything in the dream was too horrifying, and in that final moment, in the darkness, she seemed to have seen a glistening drop.
She actually saw Shi Qingqian… cry?
The shock she felt was even greater than if she had seen herself cry!
Shi Qingqian cried? Cried for her?
The pain in her body gradually faded; it hadn’t really existed, it was just too real, making A’Ling feel as if she had been mistaken, having experienced the pain of self-combustion once more.
But she could now be certain that Shi Qingqian hadn’t intentionally wanted her to die…
A’Ling pulled up the slightly loose collar of her sleeping robes, when she suddenly saw the red patterned scar on her shoulder caused by the Red Lotus Hellfire. She stared at it for a while.
Just like this scar, Shi Qingqian hadn’t intentionally caused her this injury, but being with Shi Qingqian always led to all sorts of accidents.
This indelible scar, perhaps it was a reminder for her to stay far away from Shi Qingqian, that they wouldn’t have a good outcome if they were together.
“Yes, absolutely not.”
A’Ling suddenly spoke to herself, the latter half of the sentence, she emphasized to herself in her heart again, that she and Shi Qingqian absolutely could not be together.
Her breathing gradually stabilized, and the strange sensations in her body slowly dissipated. A’Ling was thinking of silently reciting another cultivation mental technique, or meditating to calm her spirit again, when suddenly, the transmission bell outside rang abruptly.
A’Ling glanced at the sky outside her window. She hadn’t noticed just now that it was already dawn.
She remembered what she had told Gu Jingyang yesterday, that she would tell her what happened yesterday this morning.
This person truly was persistent; as expected, she came knocking so early in the morning.
A’Ling casually threw on an outer robe and walked out. She thought it best not to tell Gu Jingyang what Shi Qingqian had said, feeling that if she did, there would be endless questions.
She removed the barrier and opened the door.
Last night’s fluffy heavy snow fell all night, and Mystic Crane Mountain was covered in thick white snow everywhere.
After A’Ling opened the door, she found that the snow was still falling. Outside, it was a vast expanse of white, and many snowflakes, carried by the wind, tried to drift into A’Ling’s cave dwelling.
A’Ling quickly closed her eyes, waiting for the sudden wind and snow to pass. When she opened them again, a streak of plain white suddenly appeared before her.
Shi Qingqian was as if she had materialized from the recently dispersed ice and snow itself, equally cold and aloof, equally plain white, even her pale complexion miraculously blended with this vast white world.
This also made the red birthmark at the corner of her eye even more striking.
Shi Qingqian looked at A’Ling, whose clothes were not exactly neat. Although cultivators had their internal core protecting their bodies and were not afraid of cold like mortals, at that moment, Shi Qingqian’s heart still tightened, and she took two steps forward, blocking the sudden cold wind rising behind her.
She lowered her head, gazing at the person so close to her. At a glance, she saw the red patterned scar within the slightly open collar, and the discomfort in her eyes intensified, as if the corner of her eye was tearing from the wind and snow.
After A’Ling clearly saw it was Shi Qingqian, she frowned. She quickly put on her clothes properly, and gathered her wind-blown, scattered hair back.
“Why is it you?” A’Ling asked with some displeasure: “What are you doing here?”
Shi Qingqian had slightly turned her head away when A’Ling was tidying her clothes just now. Hearing A’Ling’s displeased tone, she slowly turned her gaze back.
She didn’t say anything, only handed the items in her hand to A’Ling.
Only then did A’Ling notice that she was holding a handheld wicker basket.
“What?” A’Ling asked, raising an eyebrow.
Shi Qingqian pushed it forward a bit; the items were right at A’Ling’s hand, she could reach them with just an outstretched arm.
But A’Ling not only didn’t reach out, she even deliberately pulled her hand back a bit. “Try it, freshly made food.”
A’Ling was surprised. So early in the morning, Shi Qingqian had come through the wind and snow to bring her breakfast?
“No, no need, take it back.”
After Shi Qingqian said it was food, she removed the barrier from the wicker basket, and the aroma of the food wafted out.
A’Ling seemed to smell a rich bean aroma. Shi Qingqian couldn’t have ground beans to make soy milk, could she?
Back in the Huo family’s small residence, because it took a lot of effort, Aunt Hao would rarely make it.
She did like it, and knew it was troublesome to make, so she rarely asked Aunt Hao for it.
Shi Qingqian, this person, she couldn’t have gotten up so early just to make these, could she?
This… A’Ling was momentarily speechless…
How could she possibly feel comfortable eating something Shi Qingqian made right now? She still understood that accepting favors made one beholden.
Since they had agreed to settle their past grievances and be free of debt to each other, it was better to have less of these kinds of things that easily bred feelings.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll—”
The three words ‘go back’ hadn’t even been fully spoken, when A’Ling’s words were suddenly interrupted.
“What are you two standing at the door for? Enjoying the snow?”
A’Ling looked towards the voice. Gu Jingyang was approaching, holding an umbrella, with a smile on her face, treading through the snow.
Why was this person always a step behind!
A’Ling felt annoyed. If Gu Jingyang had arrived first just now, she wouldn’t have mistaken the person for Gu Jingyang and opened the door without asking.
Gu Jingyang walked over to the two of them, and seeing the scattered snow on Shi Qingqian’s shoulders, she smiled: “Qingqian, why didn’t you put up a protective barrier? Do you like the feeling of snow falling on your shoulders?”
Without waiting for Shi Qingqian’s answer, Gu Jingyang saw the wicker basket in her hand and smiled again: “I smelled a bean aroma from over there. Qingqian, what delicious food did you make?”
As she spoke, she pointed back at the footprints in the accumulated snow, about five or six steps away.
“Qingqian, did you make breakfast? Is there a share for me?” After Gu Jingyang had eaten Shi Qingqian’s food a few times on her way back from Zhuoling Mountain, she already felt that within Mystic Crane Mountain, there was no food that could compare.
Seeing Shi Qingqian pause slightly, she nodded.
Gu Jingyang’s mood brightened considerably. They say the early bird catches the worm, and she was extremely glad that she had woken up early today out of curiosity about yesterday’s events.
However, she hadn’t expected Shi Qingqian to be able to wake up even earlier, even having breakfast already prepared.
“Come on in, I also have something to tell you two.”
As Gu Jingyang spoke, she folded her umbrella and was about to walk inside. She turned her head to see that the two of them were still standing at the doorway, unmoving, and a doubt arose in her heart: “What’s wrong?”
A’Ling saw that while Gu Jingyang was speaking, several nearby cave dwellings had opened their doors, and people were stretching their necks, sniffing at something.
She sighed softly. It’s not good for cultivators to have overly sensitive five senses. After smelling that sweet bean aroma just now, she also unconsciously started to wonder what other foods there were.
The more she smelled, the hungrier her stomach became.
Seeing more and more movement around them, and more and more gazes turning towards Shi Qingqian, A’Ling raised her hand and formed a spell seal, sweeping away all the scattered snow from Shi Qingqian’s shoulders and hair, then sighed.
“Come in.”