La cúspide del mundo de las artes marciales

Capítulo 7

I hurriedly turned my face away, touched my cheek, and forced a smile, saying, "It's...it's Su Xie! Su Xie blushes when he sees nice people! He can't control himself..."

The boy nodded and said "Oh." Afraid that he would press me further and bring up the embarrassing story of my engagement being broken off, I quickly asked, "How is he now?"

The boy's eyes lit up instantly, and he eagerly pulled back the quilt covering the leader to show me. "He has many wounds on his body, on his back, and on his thighs..." He tried to pull it down further, but I quickly stopped him and covered the leader back up with the quilt, my face involuntarily burning red...

The leader has a really good figure...

“He must have offended a lot of bad people,” the boy concluded. “But he shouldn’t be dead now. I gave him a Rejuvenation Pill. Pharmacist Shen said that as long as a dead person takes one pill, he can come back to life.”

Isn't that sharp-tongued Pharmacist Shen the old leader's personal pharmacist? Or is he available to everyone in the Demonic Sect?

I reached out and touched the leader's forehead. It wasn't hot, so he should be fine.

"Oh, right," the boy remembered and asked, "You just said you had something to ask me, what was it?"

Business comes first!

I suddenly remembered the important matter I needed to attend to, so I pulled the boy into the outer room and asked, "I saw the old cult leader."

He gave an "oh," sounding somewhat downcast.

I didn't pay attention and continued, "He told me to assist my little darling and something about 'life and death are intertwined,' what is that?"

"Through life and death..." The boy knew exactly what I meant. He pointed to my right arm, "It's that thing on your arm."

I rolled up my sleeve, and there was a thin, long red mark under the skin on the inside of my right arm, like a thread running through my veins, going up from my palm all the way up.

"It reaches your chest," the boy reminded me.

I turned around and pulled it open, and sure enough, it reached my chest. I hadn't noticed it before. "What... is this thing?"

"Bound by life and death."

"nonsense……"

The boy smiled with narrowed eyes and said, "Life and death are bound together by a kind of mother-child Gu..." Seeing my face turn pale, he quickly explained, "This kind of Gu is generally harmless to the body."

“Under normal circumstances…” I took a deep breath, trying to control my emotions, “But what about extraordinary circumstances…”

"The Gu worms will devour your internal organs, and you will die," the boy explained with a smile. I swayed involuntarily, and he quickly helped me sit down. "Is Su Su alright?"

I waved my hand.

He comforted me, saying, "The one inside your body is the mother Gu, don't be nervous." He poured me a cup of hot tea and handed it to me. "As long as the offspring Gu doesn't die, the mother Gu in your body won't devour the host. As long as you go to Pharmacist Shen every year to get the Qingxin Pill, one pill can make the mother Gu sleep for a year, and there won't be any problems."

With a heavy heart, I asked him, "Where is that Gu worm?"

“It’s inside the young master’s body.” The boy smiled shyly. “Because the offspring Gu relies on the host’s bloodline for survival, once the host dies, it will wither and die within an hour, and the mother Gu will also devour the host’s internal organs and die within an hour…”

"So it's called 'Life and Death United'...right?" I crushed the teacup in my hand, unable to suppress the turmoil in my heart. "What a fucking romantic monkey's ass!"

No wonder Pharmacist Shen said I wouldn't protect my little darling unless I was courting death...

No wonder the old cult leader was in tears, saying he was forced into this situation...

Your son forced you to do this! To make Su Xie wholeheartedly protect your son, you used such a vicious Gu poison! Now you've implicated me!

How can I escape the Demonic Sect?! I have to come back every year to collect elixirs! If I dare to disobey, they can kill me at any time! The old sect leader is dead, and I still have to desperately protect my little darling from being played to death by that bitch Yan Shu!

My darling is going to become the leader of the Demonic Sect! He'll be the target of everyone's wrath! So many people want to kill him! How can I protect him! How can I protect him!

I slumped onto the table, utterly despondent, when the boy suddenly asked, "Azure Dragon Token? Have you begun the final test?"

I looked up at him listlessly, "You really know a lot..."

The boy lowered his head shyly and smiled, then asked, "What was the last mission? It must have been very difficult."

"I don't know." I took the envelope out of my pocket and gave it to him. "I didn't read it. Anyway, I don't plan to be any kind of right protector. I just want to save my life."

The boy frowned slightly as he looked at me. "To survive, you must become the Right Protector. That's the rule."

"I'll hide." I propped my head up and asked, "Can't I let Ye Baizhi go to complete the mission alone when the time comes, and then reappear after she becomes a protector?"

“Of course not.” The boy said worriedly, “The mission rules state that as long as someone is alive, we have to start over until only one person is left to be selected as the protector. Miss Ye will definitely go to great lengths to find you and get rid of you, just like Su Su eliminated those eight candidates. The law of the jungle does not allow for deserters.”

A perverted cult! Perverted rules!

I asked with some curiosity, "How did Su Xie get rid of those eight girls back then? She was only a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl."

“Su Su is fifteen years old,” the boy reminded me, “a few months older than me.”

"And then? Please show me the process and methods!"

Chapter 9 Eight

You won't know how dark and perverse the evil cult is until you hear it!

Before hearing it, I had a little bit of sympathy for Su Xie. After all, it was extremely difficult for a fifteen-year-old girl to survive in the Demonic Sect. Moreover, I was able to be resurrected only because I had her body. But after hearing it, I realized that surviving in Su Xie's hands was simply unbelievable!

Su Xie's death in bed can only be described in two words: retribution!

There were originally twelve candidate girls in this garden, the youngest being just eleven years old and the oldest no more than fifteen. Most of them were clever and promising girls from the church, or were selected and recommended by various branch altars.

Su Xie was an orphan who grew up with the old sect leader and was selected along with him. Relying on the old sect leader's support, he was arrogant and domineering, but he was also very clever and insightful, and Yan Shu did not catch him in the slightest.

She spent more than half a year training and disciplining eleven girls in the garden, and another half a year testing and selection. In more than a year, she kept more than thirty male concubines and killed eight competing girls.

The first three disappeared mysteriously in the middle of the night, and their remains were found in the Snow Sculpture Mountain the next day. Someone saw Su Xie go out in the middle of the night, and she readily admitted that she was the one who did it.

The fourth was lured away by Su Xie as bait during the test and was dismembered.

The fifth person was disfigured because Su Xie gouged out his eyes after Yan Shu praised his beautiful eyes, and then committed suicide.

The sixth and seventh were both used and killed by Su Xie during testing.

The last one was the most tragic. She fell in love with one of Su Xie's male favorites and was secretly kidnapped by Su Xie, who tortured her for a whole night. It is said that he touched her hand and stomped his finger, looked into her eyes and gouged out her eyeballs, and cut off her tongue when she spoke... In short, he tortured her to the point of being neither human nor ghost, and she was only released after being tortured to the point of wishing she were dead.

Despite his wickedness, Su Xie still argued with Yan Shu and the Left Protector, saying that the law of the jungle is the rule of survival, and that they could kill him if they wanted. He claimed that killing one person makes one a bandit, and killing ten thousand makes one a king. He said that if they couldn't even handle him, how could they support the young master and bring glory to the Demonic Sect?

It was these words that made the old cult leader value him even more, and I estimate that the 'life and death bond' poison was administered at that time.

If all of this can be attributed to survival, then I truly cannot find any words to describe the methods she used to deal with her male lovers.

Anything she sets her sights on, she will get it by any means necessary. She is ruthless and will stop at nothing. No matter how tough a man is, he will become completely submissive in her hands.

Take, for example, the male slave who, along with Yan Shu, killed Su Xie. He was originally a scion of a prominent family in the Central Plains. For some reason, Su Xie took a liking to him and soon wiped out his entire family. He captured him and his mother's teenage sister, who was about ten years old, and brought them into the Demonic Cult. Su Xie threatened that if they disobeyed, he would whip his mother to death and give his sister to a group of lower-ranking followers.

She's just a little girl, only ten years old!

Moreover, Su Xie had a habit of killing male slaves she was tired of and feeding them to snow eagles, because she would rather destroy anything she had touched than let others touch it.

Among them, Chang Huan was the one who saved her the most and suffered the least. Chang Huan was a young master of the Central Plains martial arts world. Because his father offended the Demonic Sect, his family was wiped out by the old sect leader, and all the female relatives were captured and enslaved. Su Xie coveted Chang Huan's beauty, so she asked the old sect leader for her. In order to protect his mother, Chang Huan always treated Su Xie with great respect. He was also good-natured and did everything just right. He didn't talk much, didn't look too much, and didn't have any ulterior motives. He was law-abiding and followed Su Xie for several years.

These brutal recounting events left me speechless, completely dumbfounded. No wonder I was so afraid of dying when I told Chang Huan not to serve him…

I couldn't help but scratch the table and say, "This Su Xie is... utterly outrageous!"

The boy frowned, holding the teacup in both hands, and said, "Su Su is very good to me... She is indeed very bad, but she never hides her shortcomings, and she is open about her love and hate... I don't know if that's good or bad."

I observed the boy's expression and felt that he seemed to have some affection for Su Xie, so I didn't want to speak ill of Su Xie anymore. Instead, I changed the subject and asked, "Su Xie killed eight people, including her and Ye Baizhi. What about the other two?"

The boy shook his head, and amidst the rising aroma of tea, looked up at me with bright eyes and said, "That Miss Ye is no ordinary person; you should be careful."

I was taken aback and asked, "Were those two eliminated by Ye Baizhi?"

"I don't know." The boy looked confused. "Nobody knows how those two girls disappeared without a trace. But if it wasn't Su Su who did it, then it must have been the one who is still alive."

I thought for a moment and said, "How can you be so sure it wasn't Su Xie who did it?"

"Su Su wouldn't lie to me." The boy frowned and argued with Su Xie, "What would she have to hide!"

Indeed, if all eight are killed, why would they care if the other two don't admit it?

It seems that Ye Baizhi is truly extraordinary. She eliminated two competitors without leaving a trace, and even acted like an innocent lotus flower, without arousing anyone's suspicion.

"You'd better be careful..." the boy kindly reminded me.

I grew increasingly surprised, and finally couldn't help but look up at him and ask, "Who exactly are you?"

He was taken aback at first, then pursed his lips, his two small dimples rippled slightly, and he lowered his head, his face flushed, "I...I..."

"Don't lie!" I stared at him, threatening, "A good child doesn't lie!"

His delicate face flushed even more, his cheeks rosy, and he stammered, "My surname is Ruan, and my given name is Lianhua..."

“Ruan Lianhua…” I looked at him in the flickering lamplight. His face was pale, his eyes dark, and the light shone on the soft hair behind his ears, making it appear translucent and slightly pink. I inexplicably thought of the line: “A peerless beauty dwells in a secluded valley.” I couldn’t help but laugh, “What a fine name. Only you deserve the name Lianhua.” I leaned closer to look at him. “But young man surnamed Ruan, you still haven’t told me who you are. You know far too much. I can’t convince myself that you are just an ordinary hostage.”

He looked embarrassed and ashamed under my gaze, his eyes lowered, and he whispered, "I'm afraid you'll find me repulsive if I tell you..."

As expected, your identity is extraordinary. I put on a gentle smile and coaxed, "Am I that kind of person? I swear I won't look down on you no matter what your identity is."

He raised his eyebrows to look at me, stammering, "Actually I...actually I am..." He couldn't get the rest of the sentence out.

A chill ran through me, and I said solemnly, "Could it be that you really are..."

As if I had seen through him, he nervously looked up and explained, "I didn't mean to lie to you, I was just afraid that you wouldn't want to talk to me anymore because of my position! You...you don't need to be angry..."

I sighed from the bottom of my heart, "So you really are Yan Shu's male concubine. No wonder he was so bothered by me getting close to you..." You're so handsome, and you're kept under house arrest in such a nice garden, not letting anyone get close to you. That shameless Yan Shu is really keeping a beauty hidden away!

He stared at me with wide eyes, his eyelashes fluttering like little fans, his mouth agape in astonishment.

Thank God, I patted his shoulder and comforted him, "You don't need to belittle yourself. I know you were forced to submit to Yan Shu's tyranny. I understand."

He kept blinking at me, then suddenly smiled, his eyes crinkling, and said with a shallow dimple, "Then can you take me with you?"

"Go out?" I asked, surprised. "Where to?"

He smiled sweetly and handed me the open letter, saying, "This mission takes us to the Central Plains. Could you take me with you?"

Huh? I took the letter and looked at it under the lamplight. The few lines of text sent chills down my spine, and I gasped. Did they have to be so ruthless...?

I bet Su Xie's head that this mission was definitely orchestrated by Yan Shu! No one else would be so shameless as to try and kill me!

I took a deep breath and muttered to myself, "It's true that the beast bullied me, I can't stoop to the level of a beast... Shameless!"

Ruan Lianhua leaned closer and asked, "What are you talking about?"

"It's nothing." I calmly folded the letter and tucked it into my pocket.

He then asked me ingratiatingly, "Then will you take me with you?" His watery eyes looked at me pitifully, "I've never been out before..." He pursed his lips, revealing dimples.

I have to admit I have absolutely no resistance to his docile and harmless appearance; my heart melts. But... he's Yan Shu's man. If I dared to secretly take him out, wouldn't he skin me alive?

I hesitated for a moment, and he was about to plead again when a slight cough came from inside the room. I exclaimed with delight, "He's awake!"

Just in time!

I entered the inner room first, and when I lifted the bed curtains, I saw that the Alliance Leader's pale face was covered in cold sweat, his brows were furrowed in great pain, and he slowly opened his eyes.