Chapter 14: This is Love

Inside a room in the ship’s cabin.

Mu Qinghan slowly opened her eyes.

The cold glint in them seemed to lower the temperature in the room by several degrees.

‘What does he mean… “I’m behind you”?’

‘Is there something invisible in front of me?’

Without a moment’s hesitation, she formed a sword finger and swept it across her front.

The sharp sword qi shredded the air within three meters to pieces.

‘Nothing there…’

‘Was he doing it on purpose, or was he careless?’

‘Could it be that he already knows about that night?’

‘Is the Imperial Court starting to suspect me?’

Shortly after Lin An used Observe Like and Dislike to discover her identity, she also deduced who the later-arriving spy was through the artifact in her heart.

Thirty years ago, just a few days after she joined the Demon Suppression Bureau, she was sent by the Imperial Court to the Heaven Origin Sect as a spy, a dead pawn.

A dead pawn has only one mission: to lie in wait, the deepest kind of infiltration.

To completely become a part of the Heaven Origin Sect, and then, when awakened one day, to deliver a fatal blow from the most unexpected quarter.

She had not only done it but done it extremely well.

She had truly become a member of the Heaven Origin Sect, even rising to Sword Chess Pavilion Chief and Bright Moon Immortal’s senior disciple.

But… in the midst of fully immersing herself in the role, she gradually lost her way.

‘Who am I?’

When stepping into the Spiritual Martial Realm, during the Heart Questioning Tribulation, she pondered for a long time.

She was born in a small mountain village.

When she was young, the village was attacked by the Demon Race.

If the people from the Imperial Court’s Demon Suppression Bureau had arrived one step later, she would have perished in the demon’s belly like her parents.

After that, she was taken in by the Imperial Court’s orphanage and raised as a reserve agent of the Demon Suppression Bureau, until that order came down.

The Imperial Court had saved her life and raised her, but… the purpose may not have been good.

But it didn’t matter.

At least she had survived, and she had won the ability to keep living.

Then came the long years as a spy.

The day she met Lu Mingyue, she had already been in the Heaven Origin Sect for a while.

The weather that day was wonderful.

She had just returned from an outside mission and happened to run into Lu Mingyue, who was returning to the sect.

She had never forgotten how she felt that day.

Yearning, admiration—she wanted to become someone like that, a strong person who could control her own destiny.

So she chose to become Lu Mingyue’s disciple, even though she was only an Outer Sect disciple, even though she wasn’t qualified.

After the trial ended, the last image she saw before fainting was Lu Mingyue walking toward her with a hint of approval on her face.

She knew she had won.

She had won a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for herself.

At the end of the Heart Questioning Tribulation, she found her answer: ‘I am the Sword Chess Pavilion Chief of the Heaven Origin Sect, the senior disciple of my master.’

The complete shift in her mindset came ten years ago, during a coup in the Imperial Court.

She realized it was an opportunity.

Taking advantage of an outing, she intentionally went to the emergency contact point only to find it abandoned.

In the following years, she also secretly investigated matters of the Imperial Court, and the conclusion was always the same.

The dead pawn was truly dead; no one would contact her anymore.

She was free.

She could be at ease as her master’s disciple, until…

Lin An arrived!

Among the people on the ship now, he is the only one who joined the Heaven Origin Sect recently.

Within the artifact’s effective range, even a fool would know who this newcomer is.

‘Damn it… why, why are you still coming after me? I’m already dead, why can’t you just let me go!’

The coldness on Mu Qinghan’s face grew stronger.

She pressed her hands hard against her knees.

After a long while, she let out a long sigh and slowly calmed down.

‘No, I can’t. I need to figure out what this person is thinking. I can’t act impulsively like last time.’

‘If—if his situation is similar to mine, then maybe I can… turn him?’

At that thought, the corners of her lips curled up slightly, with an indescribably wicked quality.

‘Mm, that’s settled.’

‘First, I need to understand what he meant by his words. What does “I’m behind you” mean? Who is behind you?’

With that in mind, Mu Qinghan slowly stood up, intending to go see what this junior was up to.

At this moment, Lin An had no idea that Mu Qinghan was planning to confront him directly.

He had a more troublesome matter to deal with.

“Qu… Qu Senior Sister, what are you doing?”

He had just followed Qu Hongling to her room, and the moment they entered, she bowed deeply to him.

She knelt on one knee, her attitude extremely respectful, white mist emanating from her body.

“Holy Son, I was formerly the Left Protector of the Demon Soul Sect, and I am now a spy hidden within the Heaven Origin Sect. I am speaking frankly with you now only because I have no choice. I hope you will not take offense.”

Lin An was clearly sitting on a chair, but he felt as if he were the one on his knees being pressured.

‘I can’t understand a word!’

‘I know every character, but when they’re strung together, they make no sense.’

‘What Holy Son? So you really aren’t a good person.’

‘Uh… no, no. She doesn’t want to kill me, so she must be good.’

‘Oh, no, no. She’s a spy from the Demon Sect, how could she be good?’

Lin An felt his head a little muddled.

But muddled as it was, it wasn’t completely unexpected.

There is no malice without reason in this world, and no kindness without reason either.

The white mist on Qu Hongling was quite thick, exactly like the inexplicable trust Li Guanshi had shown him.

‘So, they were probably in cahoots?’

‘Then what I have to do now is simple: bluff my way through.’

“Protector Qu, since you know you must not expose my identity, why do you knowingly break the rule? It seems you’ve forgotten our sect’s methods for dealing with traitors, haven’t you?”

Lin An immediately put on airs, his voice low with a hint of anger.

He might not be very strong, but his acting was top-notch, especially when he could watch the shifts in the mist on her body.

‘How could I fail when I can copy the answers? Impossible.’

Sure enough, after he said that, the bowed Qu Hongling’s delicate frame trembled, but the white mist on her body only thickened.

‘Tsk… Are you an M? That’s a bit much, Senior Sister.’

“Holy Son,” her voice trembled, and combined with her naturally seductive tone, it carried a pitiful air.

“I truly have no choice. I beg you not to blame me.”

As she spoke, she prostrated fully on the ground.

The way her childbearing hips lifted high made Lin An sneak a couple extra glances.

‘Only two glances!’

Now the situation was a bit tricky.

Lin An didn’t know what the real Demon Sect Holy Son would do.

Would he kick her aside or listen to her difficulties?

Though the first was more likely, he wasn’t the real Holy Son, so he leaned toward the second.

So he decided to stay silent and play the part of an expert.

As for Qu Hongling, who was now completely prostrate on the ground, she wasn’t as humble inside as she appeared.

She still needed one final verification of whether Lin An was the Demon Sect Holy Son.

If he was, then this behavior was perfectly fine.

If he wasn’t, then torturing him and killing him was the only option.

As for face?

She was a demon cultivator; she didn’t care about that kind of thing.

Can you eat face?

No.

Noticing that Lin An hadn’t spoken for a while, she didn’t raise her head and continued probing.

“Holy Son, I am about to enter the Spiritual Martial Realm, and for the Heart Questioning Tribulation, I need the sect’s sacred text, ‘Demon God Seven Absolutes.’”

“I dare not hope for the entire text; just the first two chapters would suffice. I beg the Holy Son to grant this to me in recognition of my hard work. I will definitely serve you faithfully, working like a horse or an ox.”

Qu Hongling truly wasn’t confident she could pass the Heart Questioning Tribulation, but she didn’t actually need the Demon God Seven Absolutes.

This was the supreme ultimate technique shared by the Three Demon Sects, and only the Sect Master and his successor could practice it.

If Lin An gave it to her, then he was a fake.

If he didn’t give it and was very angry, then he was real.

“Heh.”

A cold laugh sounded in her ear.

“Protector Qu, lift your head.”

Qu Hongling slowly raised her head, her face full of weakness.

“Mm?”

Lin An sat imposingly in the chair, his expression one of contempt mingled with mild amusement.

“I didn’t expect you to want this. How interesting.”

As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed Qu Hongling’s chin firmly, forcing her head up.

This action loosened her collar, revealing a large expanse of fair skin.

“H-Holy Son?”

She said with some difficulty.

“Mm, it’s not impossible to give it to you, but you need to do something for me.”

Qu Hongling suppressed the urge to attack.

“What?”

“Act in a play with me. If it goes smoothly, I’ll consider it.”

Lin An really didn’t know what the Demon Sect Holy Son would do, but he did need this woman to help him now.

So he could only offer an empty promise.

Hearing this, Qu Hongling became even more convinced.

‘That’s right, exactly like this. Saying “consider it” just means he’ll go back on his word after using me. I’m familiar with this routine.’

‘As expected of the Holy Son!’

‘Speaking of which, the Holy Son is a bit rough, but since he’s so good-looking… that’s okay too.’

Lin An watched as the white mist on her body thickened again and silently conjured a question mark.

‘I haven’t even done anything yet, and you’re already going? That can’t be right…’