Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Chapter 11 – Escape by feigning death

When reading the book, Wenren È had felt that Baili Qingmiao’s awareness wasn’t consistent and had an obvious bias. Toward Hè Wenzhao, her fellow disciples, or some of the female rivals, she acted like a fool and believed everything she heard. But whenever Hè Wenzhao had any suspicious contact with another woman, Baili Qingmiao became unusually perceptive, able to notice something was wrong in an instant. When she was with Hè Wenzhao, she could always tell when her love rivals were making advances toward him.

If Baili Qingmiao hadn’t been sent off by Wenren È, to leave and travel for six months, there was no way Hè Wenzhao could’ve messed around all day with Shu Yanyan. It would’ve taken only one or two times for Baili Qingmiao to notice.

And indeed, she figured out something was wrong right upon returning. The entire way down the mountain, Hè Wenzhao tried to obstruct Baili Qingmiao, but wasn’t able to. He could only watch as his shimei leapt onto the Moonlit Frost Silk and burst through Shu Yanyan’s window without warning. Shu Yanyan was currently taking off her earrings in a mirror.

She leapt up, hearing the window fly open, and saw a furious Baili Qingmiao, and Hè Wenzhao rushing in after her, while winking furiously at Shu Yanyan.

Shu Yanyan pretended to not see Hè Wenzhao, freezing up the moment she laid eyes on Baili Qingmiao. Tears instantly rolled down her cheeks. Her legs wobbled, and she fell to her knees.

Miss Shu was always a considerate person. Hè Wenzhao had originally wanted to hint at her to not say anything while Baili Qingmiao was distracted questioning her, but it turned out Miss Shu didn’t even see him, already too terrified by Baili Qingmiao.

“Miss Shu, you don’t have to be so polite even if you’re grateful to me,” Hè Wenzhao hurriedly said.

“You shut your mouth!” Baili Qingmiao said, shooting a glare at Hè Wenzhao.

She walked over to Shu Yanyan and said coldly, “Why are you kneeling to me?”

Shu Yanyan said nothing. She was sobbing so hard she couldn’t take a breath, and with a soft cry, she fainted on the floor.

Baili Qingmiao scooped up that little white flower Shu Yanyan with one arm and pinched the space between her nose and lips hard, waking her. She set her on a chair and said coldly, “Miss Shu, you’re a civilian. I wouldn’t harm you however angry I was. You don’t need to cry.”

Despite those words, Shu Yanyan started crying again. “Miss Baili,” she sobbed, “you’re the one who saved my life. I—I cannot face you.”

Hè Wenzhao paled, hearing Shu Yanyan’s words. He clenched a fist, and were Baili Qingmiao not there, he didn’t know what he might’ve done.

Shu Yanyan glanced at Hè Wenzhao’s expression from the corner of her eye and chuckled inwardly.

They had known each other for six months. Shu Yanyan had known countless men, and figured out Hè Wenzhao’s true nature at a glance.

Hè Wenzhao really did love Baili Qingmiao and would always love her more than anyone. The two were childhood sweethearts who no one else could easily get between. But Hè Wenzhao felt there was a clear distinction between his body and his heart. He thought that since he only loved Baili Qingmiao, his heart was pure, and he had done nothing wrong toward Baili Qingmiao. Shu Yanyan was just a temporary mix-up and a way to boost his cultivation. With his shimei gone, Hè Wenzhao would say all the sweet words in the world to lure Shu Yanyan to his side, but now that shimei was back, Shu Yanyan was dirty laundry he had to cover up at all costs, and he had no feelings to spare for her.

When secretly seeking pleasure, it was only pleasurable if you could keep it hidden. Otherwise it was nothing but trouble.

“Why can’t you face me?” Baili Qingmiao turned to give Hè Wenzhao a look, then turned her gaze back to Shu Yanyan.

“I…” Shu Yanyan said hesitantly, then stopped.

“Miss Shu, I will use a truth spell. The truth spell has no effect on someone of a higher level or stronger spiritual cognition than me, but against an ordinary person, I can get anything I want answered,” Baili Qingmiao said.

Hè Wenzhao, hearing this, continued winking madly at Shu Yanyan. He made a hand seal, trying his best to tell Shu Yanyan that his level was higher than his shimei’s, and he could break the truth spell. Shu Yanyan could say any lie she liked. If anything happened, he would take responsibility.

In Hè Wenzhao’s mind, Miss Shu had always been a nice and obedient girl, and she knew she wasn’t worthy of Hè Wenzhao. She wouldn’t try to compete with Baili Qingmiao for him. At this time, she wouldn’t be willing to or have the guts to speak the truth.

Unfortunately, Shu Yanyan failed to see him again, only staring at Baili Qingmiao with watery eyes. “Miss Baili,” she said softly, “I’m a little thirsty. Will you let me have a few sips of tea before I start talking?”

“Go ahead, I have time to wait,” Baili Qingmiao said, stepping back.

Shu Yanyan rose gracefully and took a tea bag out of a box, putting it in a pot. After the tea was brewed, she drank it slowly.

She looked toward Baili Qingmiao with a bleak expression and said quietly, “Ever since that meeting in the tea house half a year ago, I have not been able to forget Miss Baili’s heroism. After I fell that day, when Miss Baili carried me up to the second floor and demanded justice for me, I felt so happy.”

Seeing her in this state, Baili Qingmiao’s expression softened, and she pulled over another chair to sit in front of Shu Yanyan. Hè Wenzhao also relaxed, feeling that Miss Shu wouldn’t say anything out of place.

“Back then I thought, if I could live like Miss Baili, it would be so wonderful.” Shu Yanyan looked sadly toward Baili Qingmiao, reaching out a pale and ice-cold hand to wrap around Baili Qingmiao’s.

Baili Qingmiao didn’t pull away.

She started to think that perhaps she had misunderstood. Her shijies’ feelings for her shixiong were all written on their faces, plain at a glance, and Baili Qingmiao could see them clear as day. But Miss Shu’s eyes held no love for her shixiong, only admiration for Baili Qingmiao. And she was such a self-respecting woman; she couldn’t do something like this.

However, Shu Yanyan’s words took a turn. She shook her head and said, “But in the end I’m not Miss Baili. I’m so low, so selfish, so weak. In this world, I can’t even live without someone to depend on.”

“Shimei, I saw that too, so I helped Miss Shu buy a house,” Hè Wenzhao said, taking over. “I come check on her once in a while and try to make her life a bit more comfortable. She’s someone you saved, so as your shixiong, I can’t let your kindness amount to nothing.”

Baili Qingmiao’s thoughts were in a tangle and she actually believed these words. She looked ashamed and said, “Shixiong, I misjudged you. I’m sorry.”

Wenren È frowned, watching from the other room. He really wanted to give Baili Qingmiao a whack on the head. Things would be so much easier if she was dead.

“Protector Yin, would you believe something like this? Can love really make people so brainless?” Wenren È really didn’t get it, and couldn’t help transmitting this question to the only other person there.

“This subordinate believes anything the Venerable says, and hears not a word of anything anyone else says,” Yin Hanjiang answered.

Wenren È shook his head. He shouldn’t have asked Yin Hanjiang—there really was no point to it.

Meanwhile, Shu Yanyan watched as Baili Qingmiao and Hè Wenzhao embraced each other, all lovey-dovey again after their conflict was solved. Even while hugging Baili Qingmiao, Hè Wenzhao remembered to give Shu Yanyan an appreciative glance.

Shu Yanyan returned a beautiful but odd smile. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.

“Miss Shu!” Only after Baili Qingmiao had hugged her shixiong for a while did she realize something was wrong. She turned and got a shock to see Shu Yanyan start bleeding from the nose and mouth.

She glanced over to the pot of tea and poured it out to discover the teabag inside actually held deadly poison.

Baili Qingmiao frantically held Shu Yanyan, one hand placed against her back, trying to use spiritual energy to remove the poison from her system.

Shu Yanyan shook her head with difficulty. She lifted a hand and softly touched Baili Qingmiao’s face. “I really wanted to be you,” she said with a faint smile. “But… my life is… thin as paper. Couldn’t be you… I’m too ashamed… to live… I hope… in the next life…”

Before she could say what she hoped, her eyes closed and the life drained from her.

“Miss Shu, why did you take such a desperate way out? I didn’t want to hurt you. Even if you and shixiong really… I would’ve just backed off quietly, so why did you?” Baili Qingmiao felt Shu Yanyan’s cold fingers slide from her face, her heart freezing over.

Hè Wenzhao also couldn’t have guessed that Miss Shu would use such a method to cover up their secret. Until the end, she never spoke of her relationship with Hè Wenzhao, only her admiration toward Baili Qingmiao. She hadn’t even glanced at Hè Wenzhao.

Hè Wenzhao also knelt down and said solemnly, “Miss Shu must’ve been harmed by someone while I wasn’t around. Shimei, we need to avenge her!”

Wenren È: …

Hold on, how did Hè Wenzhao come to that judgment?

Baili Qingmiao held up the teabag she’d just fished out from the pot. “Look at this mark. This is the tea Shangqing Sect gives to disciples who can’t practice inedia yet!”

“And there’s this!” Baili Qingmiao took a purse off Shu Yanyan’s belt and opened it to reveal a strand of hair inside. “Shixiong, isn’t this your hair?”

“Shimei, don’t be suspicious of every little thing!” Hè Wenzhao said, grabbing her frantically. “I gave her the teabag. It was what I had left over from before I established my foundation. Spiritual tea is beneficial to the body. Miss Shu had fallen from the second story, and I was afraid she’d hurt her vital energies, so I gave her this tea to help her recover. I have no idea why the tea would be poisoned, or whose hair is in her purse!”

Baili Qingmiao threw off Hè Wenzhao’s embrace. Holding Shu Yanyan’s body, she shook her head, saying tearfully, “Shixiong, I don’t want to look at you right now. I’ll—I’ll go give Miss Shu a proper burial.”

She left the house with Shu Yanyan. Hè Wenzhao went after her, but she had somehow disappeared without a trace despite having just left, and he had no idea where she went.

This was due to Wenren È casting an illusion spell, preventing him from following Baili Qingmiao.

Baili Qingmiao’s heart was a tangle of emotions. She arrived at a coffin shop in the dead of night, took a coffin after tossing down a silver piece, and placed Shu Yanyan inside.

Carrying the coffin with one hand, she flew to the cemetery near the town and dug a grave with the Moonlit Frost Silk, setting the coffin carefully inside.

She stared at the coffin for a long time without covering it with dirt. A voice came from behind her. “I can teach you the soul imprisoning technique, so you can capture her soul before it enters the underworld and get to the truth of matters. A living person can lie, but a dead soul won’t dare before the soul imprisoning technique.”

Baili Qingmiao turned and saw Wenren È standing behind her. “Senior,” she said quietly.

“I’ve used an illusion to trick Hè Wenzhao, preventing him from following you,” Wenren È said. “You can ask questions without fear of him finding out.”

“Will it cause harm to Miss Shu’s soul?” Baili Qingmiao asked.

“Naturally. After the soul imprisoning technique is used, she’ll miss the emissaries of the afterlife and never be able to reincarnate,” Wenren È said, unconcerned.

“I can’t do that,” Baili Qingmiao said. “Miss Shu has had a hard life. I’ll send her soul on, hoping she’ll be born into a better family next life.”

“You don’t want to know the truth?” Wenren È said.

Baili Qingmiao wordlessly bowed her head, looking at Shu Yanyan’s coffin. She raised her hand and tossed the first handful of dirt onto it, as if she was trying to bury the doubts in her heart.

Actually, Shu Yanyan’s words and actions all that time had been telling Baili Qingmiao that she’d had relations with Hè Wenzhao. And because she respected Baili Qingmiao, she felt too ashamed and therefore chose to take her own life with poison before she could be questioned. Baili Qingmiao had guessed all this, but she didn’t want to believe it without substantial proof.

“Find out the truth, and if Hè Wenzhao really betrayed you, I’ll help you kill him.” Wenren È stood behind Baili Qingmiao, his low voice like the whispers of a demon.

A shiver ran through Baili Qingmiao and she frantically shook her head. “No no, even if shixiong really cheated on me, we only had a verbal agreement and private plans. We aren’t yet cultivation partners. At most, we’ll each go our own ways. How can I kill him? Plus, shixiong didn’t necessarily… maybe someone else really set him up. Shixiong is a gentleman—he wouldn’t take advantage of someone.”

Wenren È raised an eyebrow. He heard Shu Yanyan sigh inside the coffin. It seemed the Right Protector also thought Baili Qingmiao had mental issues.

“If you really like Hè Wenzhao, there’s another method,” Wenren È said. “Turn him into a puppet, so he’ll listen only to you and love only you, and never betray you for the rest of his life. Isn’t that better?”

Baili Qingmiao was taken aback. “Senior, how can you think like that? Love is built on both sides’ willingness, it must never be forced!”

“Then suit yourself,” Wenren È said, flashing away and leaving Baili Qingmiao to engrave a headstone for Shu Yanyan alone.

After they left the small town by Shangqing Sect, Shu Yanyan caught up shortly and they returned to Xuanyuan Sect’s main hall. Shu Yanyan rolled her eyes and said, “Baili Qingmiao sure is stubborn. What exactly is good about Hè Wenzhao? This Protector has gotten so sick of that lovey-dovey act. Now that I’m finally back, I’m going to have a feast before the Great Sect War, and taste a few dishes at once!”

Wenren È said, “You don’t get it either? This Venerable thought you would understand Baili Qingmiao’s thoughts, since you’re both women.”

“Venerable, if I professed undying love to a man, it would be because he has some value to me,” Shu Yanyan said firmly. “If I can get Shangqing Sect by flattering Hè Wenzhao, I’ll flatter him any way I can.”

As she was talking, she called over her favorite subordinate, an extraordinarily good-looking man. She held his chin and said, “Dear, tell this Protector, what do you like about me?”

Her subordinate was at Nascent Soul stage. He wrapped his arms around Shu Yanyan and said, “Of course, that the Protector is brilliant, powerful, and beautiful without compare. This subordinate admires the Protector from the bottom of his heart.”

“Speak properly,” Wenren È said.

The man knelt down with a plop, not daring to speak a word of a lie before Wenren È. “Naturally because I have benefits, I can raise my cultivation, and the Protector is an incomparable beauty. It’s not a bad deal for me.”

Shu Yanyan didn’t mind at all, pulling up her subordinate. “I really like the way you know what’s what.”

“Why didn’t you expose your relationship with Hè Wenzhao, and make Baili Qingmiao truly give up on him?” Wenren È asked.

“For the Great Sect War, of course!” Shu Yanyan said. “This subordinate was concerned that Hè Wenzhao’s mental state would be disrupted by fighting with Baili Qingmiao, and Shangqing Sect would change their plans and not let him participate in the array. The position of each disciple in the Spirit Severing Array has to be carefully calculated, and the entire layout has to be changed if one person is changed. This subordinate can’t mess up Hè Wenzhao at this point. Without the matter exposed, he can coax Baili Qingmiao back to his side and keep his spot in the Spirit Severing Array.”

She was going to strike a major blow against the righteous sects in the great war in order to gain prestige in her sect. How could she let her plans be ruined by something so small?

Hearing her mention the Great Sect War, Wenren È said, “Inform the four Altar Masters to prepare for battle!”

Shu Yanyan didn’t have time for fun when there was work to be done. She patted her subordinate on the chest and said, “Call over a few capable people and wait for me at the energy gathering array in my cultivation grounds.”

Her subordinate left happily. Wenren È saw Shu Yanyan’s indifferent attitude and silently approved. This was the way a demonic cultivator should be.

The four Altar Masters, after receiving Wenren È’s orders, immediately gathered at the meeting hall. Before starting the meeting, Wenren È made sure to commend Shu Yanyan’s sacrifice for her mission and allowed her to cultivate for ten years in the Xuanyuan Sect’s forbidden grounds, after the Great Sect War.

Every major sect had immortal artifacts, and Xuanyuan Sect, as the number one evil sect, naturally had a demonic artifact defending it. Located in the forbidden grounds was the demonic weapon, the Burning Sky Drum. It was said that during a war in the immortal realm, the blood of countless immortals and demons, filled with spiritual energy, solidified into this drum. It held terrifying power, but no one in the Xuanyuan Sect dared to sound it, only cultivating on its surface.

Back when Wenren È dueled the old Sect Master of the Xuanyuan Sect, the Sect Master used the Burning Sky Drum in desperation and actually managed to cause Wenren È quite a bit of trouble. But before the Sect Master managed to kill Wenren È, the fighting spirit of demons and immortals that lingered inside the drum invaded his mind and, in a moment of distraction, he found himself on that ancient battleground. After he suffered qi deviation, the heavily injured Wenren È shattered his soul with one blow.

The drum was excellent to cultivate on, but if one used it, they would risk their life.

After obtaining this reward from Wenren È, Shu Yanyan giddily thanked him. She glanced over at the other Altar Masters and said, grinning, “After this period of cultivation, I might just reach Mahayana.”

“Sure, and get killed by lightning in your next heavenly tribulation,” said Altar Master Qiu Congxue.

She was the only female cultivator among the four Altar Masters and cultivated an entirely different path from Shu Yanyan. She and Shu Yanyan could never get along. Additionally, being already at Mahayana, she was stronger than Shu Yanyan.

Shu Yanyan was a bit afraid of Qiu Congxue. She cultivated the Asura path, the most difficult within the ghost path. In order to reach Mahayana, she had willingly entered the hungry ghost path[1]. Fifty years later, when she emerged, all that was left of her body was a skeleton and a perfectly undamaged head.

Qiu Congxue’s subordinates were also ghost cultivators, each and every one of them wrapped in black robes. Their heads might be normal, but who knew what their bodies looked like underneath.

Wenren È glanced over his six subordinates, each scheming against each other, all openly hostile with no sense of camaraderie, and secretly very much approved. This was how demonic cultivators should be.

Out of curiosity, he directed a question at Qiu Congxue. “Altar Master Qiu, if you had a lover, and he betrayed you for another woman, yet with his words he kept insisting that he really did love you, what would you do?”

Qiu Congxue’s face was pale and her voice ghastly. “This subordinate would never have any lovers, but if I did, I would turn him into a ghost, refine him into a magic item, and keep him in my robes.”

Shu Yanyan gulped. She knew Qiu Congxue’s robes were full of evil spirits and her bones!

Wenren È sighed inwardly. There really was no point asking these subordinates of his.