The Husky and His White Cat Shizun

Chapter 297 - The Butterfly-Boned Beauty's Seat at the Peak of Life and Death

On the sixth day, the temple doors creaked open.

The downpour outside persisted. Someone had put away their dripping oil paper umbrella, flicking aside their soaking wet garment as they stepped into the hall.

"Master."

The newcomer was dressed in a pale lilac robe with a simple headband, his almond-shaped eyes tilted upward with a hint of affection, though there was a faint shadow beneath them. This was the first time Shi Mo had come to the Wu Mountain Palace to find him since the battle at the Tower of Heaven.

"I had wanted to visit you earlier, but I was preoccupied. Today is the first time I've had a bit of free time. For coming late, I hope Master won't hold it against me."

Chu Wanning only gave him a glance before turning away.

Shi Mo didn't seem to mind at all. He sat down in front of Chu Wanning. Perhaps because everything had been going smoothly, he seemed in a good mood, with a bright sheen in his eyes.

"Are you still angry?"

"…"

"The gates of the Demon Realm are about to open. Don't you have anything else you want to ask me, Master?"

Chu Wanning remained silent, still gazing out the window at the rain. His vulnerability and confusion were only revealed before the one he loved deeply. Shi Mingjing had drained his warmth, turning him into an unyielding stone that no amount of obsession could melt.

Shi Mo sighed. "I came to have a heart-to-heart with you. Can't you spare me a word?"

Finally, Chu Wanning gave him a single syllable. "Scram."

Unlike the agitation before the great battle, as he neared success, Shi Mo's demeanor grew increasingly calm. He didn't fly into a rage at Chu Wanning's coldness; instead, he smiled. "Well, you did acknowledge me after all."

Raindrops pattered against the already soaked windowsill. The Door of Time, Space, Life, and Death had blurred the boundaries between two mortal worlds. Any strange occurrence was now considered normal. Chu Wanning even felt that this downpour might never end, continuously pouring down until both timelines were submerged.

Shi Mo didn't seem to mind. Rising to his feet, he poured two cups of tea, handing one to Chu Wanning. "Since you're ignoring me, I'll just say these words to you myself. I'm not one for explanations, but I don't want too many misunderstandings between you and me, Master."

The tea was still warm, and he blew away the green leaves before lowering his lashes and sipping it slowly.

"How should I put this? Throughout my life, I've committed many wicked deeds and told few truths. But I genuinely don't wish to unjustly take innocent lives."

Chu Wanning's hands clenched involuntarily, the veins on the back of his pale skin bulging.

"Master saw that Path of Martyrdom, didn't you? Initially, I only intended to fill it with those who are worse than beasts. They're not worth mourning anyway," Shi Mo explained. "But then I discovered how long it was, so long that it required the corpses of two mortals from the mortal world to fill it up." He added, "It weighed heavily on my heart too."

Silence.

"I don't enjoy the taste of blood on my hands, so I rarely kill people myself. I'm not lying to you."

"You aren't lying to me," Chu Wanning suddenly spoke. "I believe you haven't killed many people with your own hands."

Shi Mo's eyebrows lifted slightly, seemingly surprised.

Chu Wanning turned his head, his gaze as cold as ice. "You're kind and compassionate. You refuse to unjustly take innocent lives, and you dislike blood on your hands. So you never do these things yourself. You created Heaven-Stepping Lord, and since then, the madman slaughtering the Confucian Wind Sect and the tyrant with blood-stained hands have been him — he does everything you must do but don't wish to. Clever of you."

"Your words, Master, are unfair," Shi Mo sighed. "I never intended to massacre the Confucian Wind Sect. That was his personal vendetta."

"But without the Eight Sorrows and Endless Hatred, he wouldn't have committed such heinous crimes."

"Without the Eight Sorrows and Endless Hatred, would he have still committed such atrocities?"

Chu Wanning stared into Shi Mo's eyes. "He wouldn't have."

Shi Mo merely chuckled softly and waved his hand, indicating that he didn't wish to dwell on the matter further. He said, "Forget it. There's no point in arguing. Anyway, I once told Xu Shuanglin that I hoped for a world where ordinary people could live peacefully, while the wicked would serve as slaves, and good deeds would be rewarded. Those were sincere words; I didn't lie." He paused and continued, "But for the Butterfly Bone Clan, showing kindness to others means sealing our own fate. Our path back home must be paved with blood. I have no other choice."

Chu Wanning closed his eyes.

As Shi Mo spoke, he refilled his empty teacup and sighed. "Master might not understand why I'm willing to sacrifice almost all lives across two timelines for the Butterfly Bone Clan to return to the Realm of Demons. Actually, it's not hard to comprehend..."

He gazed at the swirling steam rising from his cup.

The room was quiet, filled only by Shi Mo's calm and steady voice.

"Has Master seen a herd of wild oxen being hunted?"

"Their eyes turn bloodshot, and they charge blindly, wishing to pierce through anything, whether human or beast, standing in their way with their horns. It's an instinct for survival."

Chu Wanning understood his meaning: the Butterfly Bone Clan was like a herd of beasts cornered into desperation. They were surrounded by greedy faces, ready to strip them bare and tear them apart.

"For the Butterfly Bone Clan, there were only two paths left. Either we face complete annihilation, or we return to the Realm of Demons. It was a choice between life and death." Shi Mo's gaze dimmed as he spoke. "If the cultivation world hadn't treated the Butterfly Bone Clan as mere commodities, abusing us at will, if we could still survive in the mortal realm, nobody would have resorted to such horrifying actions."

He fell silent for a moment, his thoughts churning. Gradually, his expression shifted from sadness to confusion, then to coldness, and finally, madness.

"It's like the life I've lived until this day," he said, his voice quivering slightly. "Cattle don't set out to kill, but when the butcher's knife falls, one by one, their companions meet their end... Master, how can we forgive this world?"

Shi Mo's fingers clenched around his teacup, veins visible on his wrist. "The cultivation world won't write a history for the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Clan, because to them, we're nothing more than livestock or vessels for dual cultivation. But within our clan, we have always remembered—eleven years after the conflict between humans and demons ended, almost all the pure-blooded Beauty Clans were wiped out. For thousands of years since, even with all our precautions to hide our identities, we couldn't escape the greed of cultivators."

"Four thousand years ago, two thousand five hundred years ago, nine hundred years ago, seven hundred years ago—four purges. Our clan members, living among mortals, were hunted down, eaten, their blood drunk, imprisoned and raped... They would have eradicated us if they could."

Shi Mo's fingers lingered on the tea cup, the blue veins in his wrists barely visible.

"In truth, if we had truly been exterminated, it would have been over. But how could those cultivators give up such an excellent method for cultivation?"

Chu Wanning: "..."

"Master, you've read widely and should know what the Medicine Sect's Solitary Moon Night did to prevent our clan's complete annihilation." Shi Mo lifted his gaze, his peach blossom eyes now tinged with a crimson hue.

Chu Wanning was indeed familiar with this incident, which was recorded in any book detailing the history of Solitary Moon Night as a great achievement—

The Medicine Sect's Solitary Moon Night hunted down twenty young women from the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Clan, seeking out strong and virile cultivators for nightly mating, so that they would conceive offspring. The sect leader then used spirit medicines to induce premature labor, allowing infants to be born after only four months. These freshly delivered women were defiled again, forced into continued pregnancies and inductions... This cycle repeated, ensuring the continuation of the Beauty Clan's lineage.

But this continuation was akin to livestock awaiting slaughter.

No, not akin to – they truly became livestock awaiting their fate.

Boys born from these unions were immediately processed into elixirs or sold outright to influential factions like the Confucian Wind Sect. Girls were kept in captivity, bred for mating once they reached maturity, becoming breeding grounds for new generations.

"Mating."

Chu Wanning still vividly remembered the shock and disgust he felt when he first read that term in Solitary Moon Night's Emergency Formula for Immortal Elixirs.

Shi Mo smiled, but it was a pale, sorrowful smile. "They cultivated human beings like they would raise insects for a curse. And they received praise throughout the cultivation world for it."

"Living beings... all living beings. Just because they possess a trace of ancient demonic blood that can aid in cultivation, they condemn them to be treated as livestock." To hide his pain, Shi Mo lifted his hand for another cup of tea, though his fingers trembled slightly.

"The potions used to hasten fetal development take a tremendous toll on the mother. None of the 'beauty seats' raised in captivity live past thirty. But perhaps it's a blessing for them to have short lives, to escape the nightmare of nothing but 'mating' and 'breeding' sooner rather than later."

As he spoke the words 'mating' and 'breeding', a bitter sting of hatred crossed his face, as if he had been slapped. Shi Mo paused, seemingly on the verge of lashing out in anger, but in the end, he could only manage a sarcastic two-word response.

"Not bad."

Chu Wanning opened his eyes, finally fixing his gaze on Shi Mo.

This man, who had always been either indifferent or inscrutable, now appeared like any ordinary avenger, his face etched with stark resentment.

Shi Mo fell silent for a moment, as if something had just occurred to him, and he could no longer bear it. He set down his teacup, burying his face in his palms before rubbing his temples. Finally, he took a deep breath and lifted his head, his eyes rimmed with red.

In Chu Wanning's memory, Shi Mo had never displayed such raw and tangible emotions before.

"Does Master still recall how Solitary Moon Night ceased the cultivation of the Beauty Feast Clan?"

"..." Chu Wanning was unsure of his emotions at that moment. He croaked, "There's been a murder."

The Butterfly Bone Beauty's seat was, after all, not a den of beasts. Even insects used for sorcery could turn against their master, let alone living humans.

In Jiang Xi's master's generation, among the ensemble of beauties kept for their company, there was a young maiden who refused to submit and was skilled in manipulation. Unlike her predecessors, she neither sought death nor lived in a state of apathy and emptiness.

With her captivating beauty and sweet words, she ensnared a high-ranking disciple from the Heavenly Sound Pavilion who had come to Solitary Moon Night for an inspection. The disciple, himself a lover of allure, succumbed that very night and shared the bed with this irresistible beauty. The following day, she implored her newfound lover to ransom her out of Solitary Moon Night, vowing to devote her life to his service, aiding him in his cultivation journey.

The disciple of the Heavenly Sound Pavilion, momentarily captivated by her beauty, agreed to her request. However, the lady did not stay by his side for long and soon fled. From an unknown source, she obtained the seeds of the calamity fire and, under the cover of the Solitary Moon Night, returned to Linling Island. There, she set ablaze the side courtyard of the Heavenly Sound Pavilion.

That night, with her assistance, the once-imprisoned beauties managed to escape, leaving Solitary Moon Night's hundred-odd disciples either burned to death or injured by the raging fire...

Other sects watched the spectacle with cold detachment, pretending to offer comfort while secretly mocking Solitary Moon Night for being unable to protect even a woman. The Medicine Sect's reputation suffered greatly, and its leader was enraged. As a result, they decided to terminate the practice of keeping the Beauty Tables altogether—

"If you want to laugh, then don't come begging for medicine in the future. Since so many have escaped, if any of you have the capability, feel free to hunt them down yourselves."

Thus, when Jiang Xi took over as leader, Solitary Moon Night was left with only one Beauty Table—Song Qiutong—who was initially kept to serve their Supreme Ruler. However, Jiang Xi had no interest in women and found them particularly annoying. He viewed the Beauty Tables as a curse. Despite the objections from many elders within the sect, he insisted on auctioning off this woman.

Seeing that Chu Wanning could recall these past events, Shi Mo finally smiled and said, "Allow me to interject."

"…Go on," Chu Wanning replied.

"That day at the Xuanyan Pavilion, yes, the one where Miss Song was being auctioned. I was there too."

Chu Wanning was slightly taken aback.

Shi Mo continued, "I was there, seated in the first-class seat numbered 'Xuan' one. I offered three million five hundred thousand."

Upon hearing Shi Mo's account, Chu Wanning vaguely recalled the incident. At the time, Mo Ran was with him, and seeing Song Qiutong's plight, he had intended to save her life. But there was a private room upstairs with a gauze-draped partition, and the guest inside had immediately bid three million five hundred thousand. Chu Wanning had been about to ask Mo Ran for more money to outbid this person...

"It was you?"

"Yes, it was me," Shi Mo's expression gradually calmed down. He smiled. "I swore long ago to protect every Butterfly Bone Beauty I could help. Song Qiutong is from my clan, and I heard news of her situation. I wanted to ransom her. ...Of course, I also had the intention to try and lure out the evil aura within Mo Ran's body using the Unreturning. Who knew that half of your Earth Soul, which remained in his body, would protect him so fiercely, even causing a resonance with you... Forget it. Those things are in the past. There's no point in dwelling on them."

"Anyway, Master knows that Ye Wangxi was the one who ultimately bought her."

"Since she's from your clan, why did you...?"

"Why did I stand by and let her die?" Shi Mo chuckled. "There was nothing I could do. I needed to conceal my heritage. In fact, it was my order for Phoenix Mountain back then. She was just a decoy. Under different circumstances, I might have been able to save her life. But in front of Xu Shuanglin... Master knows that my spiritual energy is weak. Xu Shuanglin was my source of power at that time. He considered me a close friend, but I befriended him as Shi Mingjing from the Summit of Life and Death."

"..."

"Would he still have conspired with me if he knew I was a Butterfly Bone Beauty?" Shi Mo said calmly. "As I've said before, most cultivators see us as pigs, dogs, cows, or sheep, and Xu Shuanglin wouldn't be an exception. You can tell from his attitude towards Miss Song."

Chu Wanning's heart was heavy, and he didn't know what to say for a long time.

Shi Mo, however, seemed intent on continuing the conversation. "Let's go back to the Butterfly Bone Beauty who escaped Solitary Moon Night."

"..." Chu Wanning lowered his eyelashes, silent for a moment. Then, he looked at Shi Mo's incomparably beautiful face. From the earlier narrative and Shi Mo's demeanor, he had already guessed something. With a sigh, he said, "That was your mother, wasn't it? That girl."

Shi Mo initially froze, but then his back gradually relaxed, and his features softened subtly.

He let out a bitter smile in the end. "You always guess correctly. Yes, she is my mother."