After many twists and turns

The moment the girl finished her sentence, a pleasant chime echoed in Chang Wan’s ears.

[Ding! Side Mission: Night Cherry Blossoms of Yujun complete! Reward: Behind-the-Scenes Plot Summary unlocked! √]

So the mission was simply… to hear the girl say those words?

Perhaps considering the urgency of the scene, the System didn’t bother with fancy ancient scrolls this time. It transmitted the data directly into Chang Wan’s mind.

Chang Wan quickly pieced together the cause and effect.

The girl’s name was Chang Ying, Chang Wan’s younger sister. The original Chang Wan had been a devoted elder sister, a literal “sister-con” who doted on her. Both possessed exceptionally gifted Wind Spiritual Roots. However, during a demonic uprising, a demonic cultivator had used a secret technique to forcibly strip Chang Ying of her spiritual root. The “Favored Child of Heaven” had plummeted into the mud, becoming a cripple more fragile than a common mortal.

Initially, the Chang family remained respectful to the second miss. But over time, while they didn’t dare abuse her openly, they began to withhold her basic needs in secret. The original Chang Wan protected her fiercely, yet she was kept in the dark—until one day, while passing the study, she overheard her father planning to marry Chang Ying off to a lecherous mortal playboy.

Chang Wan had heard rumors of that man’s depravity and his penchant for defiling young girls; countless young women had perished at his hands. She had a massive row with her parents on the spot, only for her father to tell her coldly: a person without a spiritual root has only three years to live. Sacrificing one daughter for the family’s interests was nothing.

The original soul was stubborn and extreme; she exploded. Since the engagement was set and couldn’t be easily broken, she simply took her sister and defected from the clan. They wandered as fugitives. Blessed with natural talent, she broke through to the Spirit Solitude stage during the family’s pursuit. Later, hearing that Elder Xia of the Qingfeng Sect was a master of both poison and medicine who might be able to save her sister, she finally settled here.

‘So that means… the original soul stayed here because her sister’s life is being sustained by Elder Xia…’

Chang Wan pondered this, but then something felt off.

If her precious sister was in Elder Xia’s hands, why was the original soul constantly at odds with him? Even for her sister’s safety, shouldn’t she have at least feigned compliance on the surface? When she first transmigrated, Elder Xia’s hostility was practically tangible—if the original soul hadn’t been fighting him, he wouldn’t have targeted her so relentlessly.

And Elder Xia had used her sister to threaten her before.

“Sister?”

Seeing that Chang Wan remained silent, Chang Ying looked at her, her glass-like gaze filled with tenderness.

Chang Wan snapped back to reality and whispered, “I understand.”

Chang Ying smiled, her eyes curving. Her pale face was more beautiful than the moonlight. She brought up the past: “I still remember when we were little, Sister often told me that I should become the most upright and kind person in the world.”

Looking into Chang Ying’s pale eyes, Chang Wan seemed to understand something.

“I heard from Elder Qiu that Sister has done many things…” Chang Ying’s gaze was soft. “Seeing Sister living according to her own heart makes me very happy.”

As Chang Wan looked at Chang Ying, a warm sensation bubbled up from her chest. It was a physical instinct—a natural trust and a gentle willingness to sacrifice everything for this person.

It was just like the body’s hatred for Chu Changqing and the demonic sects.

Real and sharp.

So that was it.

Because the demonic cultivators had destroyed Chang Wan’s sister, she had developed a burning hatred for evil. Seeing Chu Changqing, she naturally wanted nothing more than to kill him.

Setting Chu Changqing aside for a moment—since she had taken over this body, she naturally had to take care of the sister.

Chang Wan fell silent for a moment, then asked softly, “Has Elder Xia…?”

She weighed her words, but Chang Ying seemed to know what she wanted to ask. She tilted her head slightly, her pale cheeks carrying a young girl’s innocence. “Elder Xia treats me very well. Sister, do not worry.”

“My body cannot handle the sun, so I can only come out occasionally at night…” She looked up slightly at the drifting cherry blossoms. “The blossoms here are beautiful. I like them very much.”

The night was deep and the dew was heavy. Chang Ying looked as if she had much to say, but before she could speak further, her face grew even paler.

She seemed to be enduring something, finally letting out a low cough. “As expected… I still can’t stay out too long.”

Chang Wan said, “The wind is strong here. Let me take you back.”

“Sister.” Chang Ying looked at her imploringly, her eyes shimmering and fragile. “I want to stay with you just a little longer.”

“Sister seems to have… changed a little.”

Chang Ying watched the falling petals, a warm softness in her pale eyes.

Behind her, the youth in black appeared silently, watching Chang Ying. The light in his crescent eyes was full of warmth.

Chang Ying coughed softly. “Take me back.”

Though she hadn’t met Elder Qiu, Chang Wan didn’t feel it was a waste. Since the Spiritual Mountain matter was already handled, seeing him didn’t matter as much. Besides, meeting the original body’s sister and gaining so much background data was worth the trip.

Just as Chang Wan was refocusing her thoughts, the System suddenly blared a piercing warning!

[CRITICAL WARNING!! CRITICAL WARNING!! TARGET CHARACTER HAS COMMITTED THE SIN OF TAKING LIFE!! INITIATING UNLIMITED SIN VALUE! SIN VALUE +1, +2…]

The mysterious Sin Value rocketed from 0 to 99, leaving Chang Wan dumbfounded. “Sin Value?”

System: [Unlimited Sin Value. For every life taken, it increases by one.]

Killing?? Wait, does this mean… Chu Changqing killed someone?!

Chang Wan’s mind went blank for a second. She immediately rushed toward the secret room to find the teleportation array.

Why would there be people at Spiritual Mountain when she told him to recover there in peace?! Why was he killing?! The barrier wasn’t broken—did he leave the mountain and get hunted?

Chang Wan was terrified. But at the moment she was about to open the wardrobe…

The Sect Leader’s refined voice sounded from outside.

“Is Ah Wan resting?”

Chang Wan’s hand froze instantly. In that moment, her heart went cold.

…Why was he here so “conveniently”?

At the same time.

Spiritual Mountain.

“A river of blood” was no exaggeration.

The men in black had become fresh nourishment, dying miserable deaths in this spiritual mountain protected by the Beast Soul Barrier.

The youth, dressed in black, watched coldly as the spiritual beasts tore at the corpses, his eyes devoid of any emotion.

Behind him, a cold black shadow dodged a beast’s attack and aimed straight for his throat. But the moment before it could succeed, following a ferocious tiger roar and a flash of white, a snow-white tiger was suddenly drenched in blood.

Chu Changqing turned around indifferently. Looking at the gruesome state of the man on the ground, a thin, cold smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.

“Did she send you?”

The man, who was now beyond saving, naturally couldn’t answer him.

The suppression in his heart grew heavier.

Blood and fire burned in his soul as if he had fallen into the Infinite Hell, surrounded by seas of fire and mountains of blades. For a moment, it felt as though he had returned to the mortal world, yet it was a dense, lightless night.

“If you wanted my life, why go through such great pains?” Chu Changqing closed his eyes slightly, as if explaining to someone, or perhaps talking to himself.

In his mind, he couldn’t stop the image—the one he saw through the eyes of that foolish puppet he controlled. The puppet carrying a basket of fruit had seen the look on her face when she emerged from the Sect Leader’s bamboo courtyard.

In her quiet demeanor, there had seemed to be a trace of tenderness.

Chu Changqing had only heard rumors of eccentric masters who could crack the Beast Soul Barrier. And in the cultivation world, it was rumored that the Qingfeng Sect Leader, Qi Bing, was involved with such strange individuals.

And Chang Wan had emerged from Qi Bing’s place at that exact moment. And now…

Chu Changqing’s closed eyes finally opened slowly, filled with a deep, piercing coldness.

In the silence, a thick scent of blood hung in the air.

After brushing off Qi Bing with a few excuses, Chang Wan hurried to Spiritual Mountain via the teleportation array. What met her eyes was this tragic scene.

Calling it a river of blood was no overstatement.

What’s more, several spiritual beasts she had never seen before were coldly and cruelly biting at the corpses on the ground, showing no mercy. It was the first time Chang Wan had seen so many mangled bodies. For a moment, her mind went blank, and her stomach turned.

She bit her lip hard, refusing to lose her composure. Like a sleepwalker, she tried to find Chu Changqing in the Blessed Land.

Before she could take a step, a piercing bird cry rang in her ear. Chang Wan turned and saw a thrush.

A very familiar thrush—just like the one she had seen when she was making Three-Dice Steamed Buns in that little courtyard.

They all had the same cold eyes.

“I thought you wouldn’t come.”

Before Chang Wan could react to what this meant, she heard the youth’s rambling voice, laced with an icy cruelty. She looked up and saw Chu Changqing.

He stood on a hilltop, ignoring the corpses on the ground, watching her quietly in the light of dawn.

Even though dawn was breaking, Chang Wan felt as if she had fallen into the abyss of his dark eyes, unable to climb out.

Yet, she couldn’t help but feel a tiny, lucky sense of relief.

…He didn’t look injured.

The System seemed frightened, whispering a warning in her ear.

[Blackening Value +10%]

[Sin Value: 99]

[…Host, please be careful.]

It was Chang Wan’s first time seeing such a bloody scene, and her stomach felt wretched. She tried hard to force a smile, but she couldn’t. After a long time, she could only look at him expressionlessly. “…Why wouldn’t I come?”

So uncomfortable.

She wanted to vomit.

This wasn’t physical sickness; it was a psychological reaction driving the body.

Chu Changqing walked up to her and looked down.

He was a head taller than her—she had noticed this long ago—but she had never felt such a heavy sense of pressure.

And suppression.

Like a desperate lion, suppressing its rage to make itself appear perfectly calm.

“Why?”

—Why what?

It was so painful. Her stomach… so painful.

Her body felt terrible…

Chang Wan felt she had to say something, but she found she couldn’t.

Her mind was blank. She had no idea how to explain, because she herself didn’t understand how people could have slipped into a mountain protected by the Beast Soul Barrier.

“You did it, so why come back?”

The youth’s face was expressionless and his voice was flat, yet his hand gently brushed the corner of her lip. “If you keep this up, I will kill you.”

Chang Wan’s eyes widened slightly. She felt something was wrong. She hadn’t noticed it before, but now, it suddenly felt off.

Beast eyes.

The beasts that were tearing at the corpses just moments ago had seemingly received an order. All of them stopped moving and stared at her in unison—black eagles with sharp claws, a white tiger drenched in blood, unknown birds of prey. Some even had blood dripping from their mouths.

And the aura on the youth had changed as well.

If he had looked weak and scarred before, he now possessed a hidden, formidable power.

It was an indescribable feeling.

Though he still seemed to be in the Heart Movement stage, possessing that unique aura, the sheer power was entirely different from what a Heart Movement cultivator should be able to master.

Chang Wan felt even worse. She felt like all her worry had been wasted on a dog. She gritted her teeth. “You—”

“You have to believe me, I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Chu Changqing brushed her lips, appearing as though he didn’t want to hear another word—or perhaps he was afraid she would say something irreversible. His face looked even more restrained than hers.

“If you wanted my life, I could have given it to you at any time.”

He stared at her, placing her hand over his heart. His exquisite features were cold as he spoke word by word.

“Why go through such great pains?”

He thought he had never trusted this woman, who was suspicious from head to toe.

But when truly faced with it, he felt a coldness in his heart as if pierced by ten thousand arrows.

The girl before him had lips as pale as the snow of the northwest, without a trace of red. Hearing his words, her eyes flew open like a startled bird.

Her lips looked beautiful.

In a sudden, inexplicable moment, the fury and resentment in his heart turned into an unspeakable urge—a scorching fire of desire.

He moved his hand away, leaned down, and kissed her heavily.