The night wind blew, and the lanterns under the corridor swayed gently.
Inside the room, Ji Xuanyuan’s aura grew deeper.
Having already entered a meditative state, she completely shielded herself from everything in the outside world.
In contrast, Chu Yuan felt the cultivation draining from his body and couldn’t help but close his eyes.
This uncomfortable sensation made him feel as if he had returned to his previous life.
On that day, his Senior Sister was in seclusion to achieve a breakthrough.
Sitting cross-legged in her dwelling within the Heavenly Sword Sect, spiritual energy swirled all around her.
Just as she was about to step into a new realm, her aura suddenly became chaotic.
Thanks to a warning from the System, Chu Yuan had been waiting outside the dwelling for a long time.
Sensing that something was wrong, he did not hesitate to rush inside. There, he saw the following:
In the dwelling, his Senior Sister’s face was deathly pale, a trail of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth, and the spiritual energy within her body was like an out-of-control flood, crashing around wildly.
He lunged forward and grabbed her hand, continuously channeled his own spiritual energy into her meridians.
That was the first time he had ever touched her hand.
The coldness he felt was as bone-chilling as her Ruthless Path.
He gritted his teeth and funneled his energy into her, helping her guide the berserk spiritual power.
In an instant, he could feel his own cultivation being frantically siphoned away.
But he didn’t dare to stop.
If he stopped, his Senior Sister might die.
As time passed, his spiritual energy grew sparser, and her aura gradually stabilized.
After an unknown amount of time, the chaotic energy within her body was completely suppressed. Leveraging his Taixu Bloodline, she even managed to break through to a new realm.
As she opened her eyes and her gaze gradually cleared, she caught sight of him and actually frowned.
“Junior Brother, what are you doing here?”
As she spoke, her gaze grew even colder, looking at him as if he were a piece of trash that had rubbed against her.
He was suddenly stunned.
He wanted to say: ‘Senior Sister, I just saved you. I nearly emptied myself out.’
However, under the System’s compulsion, he could only follow the script and once again act the part of the silently devoted licking dog.
“I only came here to congratulate you on your breakthrough, Senior Sister!”
She paused, clearly noticing his weakness.
However, after a long silence, she merely knit her brows and said, “I see. Now leave!”
His Senior Sister’s reaction proceeded exactly as the System’s script had dictated, without even the slightest deviation.
Despite their years of being in the same sect, she couldn’t even bring herself to ask if he was okay.
At that moment, Chu Yuan experienced a chill more bone-deep than anything he had felt before.
He silently stood up and walked out of the dwelling.
Before leaving, he couldn’t help but steal one last glance back.
His Senior Sister had already closed her eyes again to continue her cultivation, as if he had never appeared.
From that moment on, he no longer held even a shred of affection for this woman.
[AS A LICKING DOG ANTAGONIST, YOU MUST LOVE THE FEMALE LEAD HUMBLY AND THEN BE KILLED BY HER PERSONALLY.]
Facing this rule, he had succeeded in his previous life.
When that sword pierced through his chest, Chu Yuan was finally relieved that he no longer had to be a licking dog and no longer needed to be manipulated by a bad woman.
But as his thoughts returned to the present, fate proved to be a cruel jester.
Chu Yuan opened his eyes and looked at the red-haired beauty sitting on the bed.
The candlelight reflected off her profile. Her beauty was world-toppling, nothing like that “ugly block of wood” from his previous life.
However, her cold, aloof, and impersonal posture often caused him to hallucinate his Senior Sister from his past life.
Chu Yuan gritted his teeth in frustration.
‘No! I can’t let myself be manipulated by a bad woman again!’
‘The only reason this bad woman is so brazen is because she sees me as nothing more than a Chu Clan orphan with no power, no status, and nowhere to run.’
‘But as long as I activate my bloodline, I can reclaim my identity as the Holy Son.’
In truth, Chu Yuan had already activated his bloodline.
It was only thanks to the Phantom Ethereal Dharma Robe that he hadn’t been exposed.
The reason Chu Yuan didn’t want to be exposed was entirely because of his excessively high cultivation.
How would he explain it?
If he caught the eye of that “burning” Fox Venerable, she would certainly investigate his origins thoroughly, making it inevitable that he’d be found out.
When that happened, forget about reclaiming his status as the Holy Son—his entire body would likely be turned inside out by others.
Chu Yuan stared at the top of the bed curtains, unable to sleep all night as he pondered for a solution.
***
The night passed in silence.
The next day.
Ji Xuanyuan wanted to continue siphoning his cultivation.
However, at a certain point, she felt her soul suddenly being tugged.
The sharp pain caused her phoenix eyes to snap open. With a deep frown, she immediately realized something.
If she continued to drain him like this, she would harm her Junior Brother’s foundation and violate the agreement between the two of them.
The person beneath her was not an object, after all, but her most cherished Junior Brother.
Ji Xuanyuan let out a regretful sigh of fragrance, feeling quite reluctant to leave the pleasure of her cultivation progressing by leaps and bounds.
Of course, the willpower she had forged over hundreds of years in her previous life allowed her to quickly recover.
Getting off the bed, Ji Xuanyuan walked to the table and began brewing tea with slow, deliberate movements.
As the tea poured into the cup, steam rose in curls.
She picked up the teacup, took a light sip, and spoke in a casual tone.
“I am truly grateful for Young Master Yuan’s assistance. Go back and rest well. Come back again tonight.”
Huh?
Again?
Chu Yuan sat up weakly. His originally healthy complexion had now become quite haggard.
He stared at the world-toppling figure sitting by the table, a hint of hatred in his gaze that he himself hadn’t even noticed.
“Highness, some things… don’t go too far.”
Seeing him like this, Ji Xuanyuan naturally felt heartache in secret.
Back in her previous life, on the day she was in the secret chamber for her breakthrough…
Everything had been going smoothly, but at the critical moment when her spiritual power was surging through her meridians, a vision suddenly appeared before her eyes—
Her sister had been cast into the Deep Palace and resolutely drank the poisoned wine she had bestowed.
Leaning against the bed and watching the snow falling outside the window, her sister’s thoughts seemed to return to that snowy day in their childhood. Her cherry-red lips murmured:
‘Sister… while the Grand Preceptor isn’t here, take me to play in the snow again, okay?’
Those words alone stabbed into her heart like a sharp blade.
In an instant, her spiritual power spiraled out of control, and she fell into Qi Deviation.
She thought she was going to die.