La cúspide del mundo de las artes marciales

Capítulo 54

I held his hand and placed it on my neck. "Kill me, Yan Shu. Don't make me wish I were dead."

"You really want to die that badly?" Yan Shu frowned, but instead of being angry, he asked me dejectedly, "Su Xie, you... you really don't want to stay by my side?"

"Yes," I answered softly and firmly. "I hate you so much I could skin you alive. Every moment I'm by your side increases my hatred."

He just stared at me, stared at me, and suddenly laughed. He pushed my hand away, leaned down and looked at me with a smile, saying, "Su Xie, you can hate me for the rest of your life. It's just an antidote, right? We'll go back to the sect to find Shen Qing at dawn. If he doesn't have it, we'll find Ye Baizhi and the Medicine King. Even if there's only one in the world in Ruan Bicheng's body, I'll dig out his heart and find it."

He said, enunciating each word clearly, "You can't die without my permission!"

"Really?" I looked at him and asked, "What if I were to die tomorrow?"

He suddenly frowned and fell silent. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and asked, "Su Xie! Do you only feel happy when you're so confrontational?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but I spat out a mouthful of blood. My mind exploded with a bang. After a moment of silence, it felt as if hundreds of insects were surging from my limbs and bones into my brain, making a rustling sound. My fingers, which were gripping the tiger skin, convulsed for a moment, and I couldn't help but scream out, reaching out to grab my hair tightly.

"Su Xie!" Yan Shu grabbed my wrist, his face pale and unable to speak, only calling my name repeatedly, "Su Xie... Su Xie... What can I do to make you feel better?"

"Kill me, Yan Shu!" I opened my eyes, and suddenly felt I couldn't see clearly. I couldn't tell if my eyes were filled with tears or sweat; they were all blurry and filled with dark shadows. I couldn't see him clearly, and I heard my own voice trembling as I said, "Yan Shu, please kill me..."

Something warm fell onto my face and between my brows. Yan Shu leaned down and hugged me tightly, then suddenly burst into tears, “Su Xie, Su Xie… I don’t know how to treat you. I love you, I love you so much I don’t know what to do…”

Those tears burned my neck. When I was young, I also loved someone, loved them to the point of being at a loss.

But they're all dead—Lu Ning, who simply chased after and looked up to someone, and me.

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I drifted off to sleep, and when I woke up, the morning light was streaming in through the window, filtering through the windowpanes and illuminating Yan Shu's face as he slept by the bedside.

He was still holding my hand. The slightest movement from me startled him awake. He sat up abruptly and looked at me. "You're awake? How are you feeling? Are you still uncomfortable?"

My lips were terribly dry, and I was both hungry and thirsty. I pulled my hand back and said to him, "I'm hungry."

I saw his eyes light up instantly, and his smile was undisguised. "It's good that you're hungry, it's good that you're hungry." He put my hand back under the covers and said, "I'll go see if there's anything to eat. You can sleep a little longer, I'll be back in a bit."

I nodded and watched him excitedly go out and rummage through drawers and cupboards in another small kitchen.

"Su Xie, we only have eggs and rice. How about we make porridge?" he asked me from the kitchen.

I didn't answer. After a moment, he asked me again, "Su Xie, should we put the rice in first?" He peeked out from outside the door and smiled at me, his face flushed in the morning light. "I've never cooked rice before... should we put the eggs in too?"

I looked at him somewhat dazedly and said with difficulty, "Just go and hunt a pheasant or a rabbit..."

“I know how to do that!” He went into the house, took down the bow and arrows hanging on the wall, turned around and left, but turned back at the door, saying softly, “I’ll seal your acupoints first, and I’ll be back in a bit.”

As I raised my hand to strike, I grabbed his fingers and said in a hoarse voice, "It will be very painful for me if I can't move... Just lock the door and leave, do you think I can run away?"

His fingers stiffened for a moment before he withdrew them. He leaned down and kissed my forehead very lightly, saying, "Then I won't go far. Don't move around. Be a good girl and wait for me to come back."

Author's Note: Who hasn't loved someone in their youth, feeling lost and confused? Rise from the ashes, young girl!

It's freezing... I don't even want to stick my fingers out, but I'm writing this melodramatic and tragic love story between the priestess and the female protagonist with extra adrenaline == I can't wait to write it all out! The next chapter will probably be the last bit of torture, after which it's time for the slutty girl to turn the tables!

P.S.: Actually, the priest is a complete idiot who can't take care of himself... He joined the Demonic Cult at six, and the old leader still treated him very well, feeding him and doing everything for him. He's a total failure in life.

Sixty-four

The click of the lock.

I waited on the couch until he was far away, then I got up, went barefoot to the window, and pushed it open. The cold mountain wind swirled with fine snow.

Yan Shu's horse was tied to a pillar outside the door. I jumped out of the window, landed on the ground, untied the horse, went around to the main road, mounted the horse, whipped it hard, and galloped away with a long neigh.

"Thank you!"

In the deep twilight, he turned around at some point and called out to me from a great distance.

I turned back on my horse, and through the misty mountain fog, I couldn't make out his features. I only heard him shouting, "Su Xie! If you dare to escape, I will sever your tendons and make sure you can never move again!"

I laughed, and just as he lunged to catch up, I whipped my horse and galloped away.

"Su Xie! Stop right there!"

I rode my horse through the mountains, feeling light and carefree, a feeling I had never experienced as Lu Ning, nor as Su Xie.

They've escaped, they're finally going to be eliminated. There's no Ruan Bicheng, no Yan Shu, no one or anything to get involved with. Poison, antidote, the curse of life and death—to hell with all that, it doesn't matter anymore.

The mountain wind and mist enveloped my body, filling my lungs and making my heart and lungs feel like they were breathing wind. I didn't look back at Yan Shu, I just kept pushing forward. I had nowhere to go, no goal, I just wanted to escape as far away as possible, further and further away.

"Thank you!"

Without turning my head, I spurred my horse forward, but I heard the sound of hooves approaching from afar, swirling in the mountain mist. As they drew closer, I could see that it was men and horses bursting out of the mist.

It turned out to be Ruan Lianhua, who had returned to fight.

He looked at me through the fog and called out from afar, "Su Xie!" I also heard Chang Huan call me "Miss."

Yan Shu chased after her, getting closer and closer. Ruan Lianhua came towards them, and Yan Shu shouted from behind, "You can't escape, come back now!"

There's no escaping it...

I abruptly turned my horse around and galloped straight toward the misty cliff beside me. I could hear Yan Shu and Ruan Lianhua's voices on either side, but they were barely audible in the empty forest.

All that could be heard was Yan Shu saying, "Su Xie, come back!"

Changhuan called out to me anxiously. Amid the chaos, Ruan Lianhua seemed to want to say something, but she stopped abruptly as I kicked my horse and leaped toward the cliff.

The mist swept past me; in the snow-covered world, I only heard the wind whistling past my ears. Nothing else mattered; it had escaped...

I could vaguely see the mountains opposite through the mist. Just as my horse let out a long neigh and plummeted downwards, I pushed off the stirrup with my toes, leaped up, and grabbed a withered vine on the mountaintop. I watched the horse plunge down the cliff into the mist, and for a long time there was not a sound.

I struggled to climb the cliff. In the thick fog, I couldn't see Yan Shu and Ruan Lianhua on the other side. I could only vaguely hear them calling me. I didn't know if they could see me or not.

They probably saw me fall off the cliff.

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I don't know when I cut my arm, I can't feel it, but it's hot and bleeding. I walked barefoot through the mountains and forests, I don't know how long I walked, I just felt the mist in the mountains gradually dissipate, and the fine snow became heavier. My limbs were weak, so I sat down against a big tree for a while.

I was starving.

The only sensation I have now is hunger.

I sat under the tree for half a day, my clothes damp, I didn't know if it was dew or rain. Looking at the long and deep cut on my arm, I didn't feel any pain or cold, I was just very hungry.

Suddenly, I smelled charcoal in the forest, mixed with the aroma of barbecue. I could almost picture the sizzling, oily wild game. My stomach churned, and I struggled to my feet. I followed the scent, leaning on the trees, until I saw smoke in front of a dilapidated mountain god temple in the forest.

I heard people talking inside the dilapidated temple, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I was so hungry that I rushed in without thinking.

I froze on the threshold as those people turned to look at me in astonishment.

Fine snow blew in from under the eaves, and I felt extremely cold, which made me shiver. The few people sitting by the fire stared at me in astonishment.

It took me a while to confirm that it really was them: the head of the Lu family, my father, Lu Mingxiu and Lu Mingyu, and my mother next to him...

I stood frozen in the light snow, imagining a thousand different scenarios of seeing them again, but I never expected to encounter them so unexpectedly when I was at my most disheveled.

“This young lady is…” My father spoke first, standing up to look me over.

Before I could finish asking, my mother got up and rushed over, exclaiming, "Little girl, how did you get all these injuries? Come in quickly, come in quickly..." She pulled me into the temple, looked at my arms, then at my bare feet, frowned and clicked her tongue, "Your feet are blistered too, how pitiful."

I let her pull me down to sit. By the warm fire, I glanced up and suddenly saw someone lying unconscious not far away—Xiao Jiu.

How did he get here? Where's the child?

He seemed to be injured and lay there unconscious. I grabbed my mother's hand and asked, "What happened to Xiao Jiu?"

She had just found some wound medicine to bandage my arm when I grabbed it, startling her. My father, standing beside me, tentatively asked, "Does the young lady know Xiao Jiu?"

I looked up at him, then reflexively looked down. Did he not recognize Su Xie? Or... did he not recognize her?

"Master, you're so fierce to such a young girl, are you trying to kill me?" My mother squatted down, tore open the sleeve of my arm, and while applying medicine and cleaning it, she frowned and said, "How did the young girl get hurt like this? Does it hurt?"

She was so gentle. Up close, she looked so thin, the gray hair at her temples couldn't be hidden, and fine wrinkles covered the corners of her eyes. She used to love being beautiful, but now she's aged so much.

"Would ordinary people come to this remote mountain forest?" Lu Mingyu asked me sarcastically, holding the charcoal fire, the pearl pendant on her earlobe swaying. "Isn't it strange that a young girl, seriously injured, would appear in the deep mountains?" She looked up at me and asked, "Who exactly are you?"

I looked at her without saying a word.

“I’m telling you, Mingyu, it’s not good for a young lady to be so suspicious.” My mother interjected, “Aren’t you people in the martial arts world all about robbing the rich to help the poor and helping the needy? This young girl is seriously injured, and you two are interrogating her.”

He then whispered to me, "Ignore them. They're all crazy people in the martial arts world. Come on, lift your foot so I can see the injury on the sole of your foot."

"That's just a woman's view." My father sat down and said coldly, "Now the Demonic Sect is rampant, causing the Alliance Leader to be seriously injured and poisoned, and turning Licheng upside down. If we don't act carefully, we'll suffer sooner or later."

I pulled my foot back. "Thank you, Madam." I stood up and said to Sect Leader Lu, "Hero, there's no need to worry. I was just passing by. May I say a few words to Xiao Jiu? I'll leave after that."

My mother panicked and got up to help me. She said to Master Lu, "Master! How can you let a young girl leave alone? Is she going to eat us?"

Sect Leader Lu didn't answer, but just stared at me for a long time before stepping aside and saying, "Please."

Just as I was about to go to Xiao Jiu's side, Lu Mingxiu suddenly leaned in front of me, her delicate brows furrowed as she looked me up and down, hesitantly asking, "You are..."

I stepped back and turned my head to say, "Please excuse me, young master."

"Mingxiu, do you know her?" Lu Mingyu looked at the two of us suspiciously.

I looked so disheveled that Lu Mingxiu looked at me without being sure what was going on. Just as he was about to walk past me to ask Xiao Jiu, he tentatively called out to me, "Su Xie?"

I froze, and then Lu Mingyu exclaimed in surprise, "Mingxiu, you're saying she's Su Xie? The demoness Su Xie from the Demonic Sect? Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

Lu Mingyu scratched her head and looked at me. "I only met him once in Licheng... Su Xie, you are Su Xie, right?"

Lu Mingyu drew her sword with a clang, but my mother grabbed her hand and said anxiously, "Why did you attack before you even asked what happened? What if you've mistaken someone for someone else..."

"Better to kill the innocent than let a remnant of the evil cult go free!"

Before Lu Mingyu could step forward, a sword was already pressed against my neck. Sect Leader Lu looked at me with a stern expression and asked, "Are you really the demoness Su Xie?"

I suddenly remembered what Ruan Lianhua once said: "Even if I leave the Demonic Sect, I will have nowhere to go and nowhere to escape. I will not be accepted by the world."

I watched as the sword sank deeper into my neck, blood dripping down the blade. I looked up at Sect Leader Lu and said, "I only want to say one thing to Xiao Jiu."

"The demonic woman of the cult is a woman everyone should kill. What right do you have to bargain with me?" He thrust his sword forward, ready to pierce my throat.

I reached out and grabbed him, then suddenly thrust my other hand forward and choked him by the throat.

"Stop!" my mother suddenly shouted. "Stop... Whether you're a witch or not, I just saved you, didn't I? For my sake, please release my master..."

"Shut up!" Sect Leader Lu roared at her furiously, his eyes glaring at me. "When did I, Lu Qiancheng, fall to the point of begging for my life at the hands of this demonic witch? Kill me if you want!"

"Girl!" My mother rushed over, grabbing my arm and her eyes red with worry. "Girl, why would you do such wicked things at such a young age!"

Is it morally reprehensible?

I stared blankly at my mother, who was on the verge of tears. "I just wanted to say something to Xiao Jiu." That's all. Who did I hurt? Who did I harm?

His sword blade is still embedded in my palm, warm and wet with my blood.