Rework

His hands were ice cold.

“If we follow your logic,” he said.

“He will die.”

When he spoke of death, his voice carried a chilling indifference.

Chang Wan was startled. She gripped the jade slip in her hand tightly and argued, “You’re just a mere Heart Movement stage cultivator, still trapped in your own inner demons—where do you get the arrogance to lecture me?”

The original owner was in the Spirit Solitude stage; although she wasn’t deeply involved and her notes were childish, her fundamental understanding couldn’t be wrong—

Chu Changqing didn’t argue with her; he just looked at her, his eyes glowing with unfathomable light.

Chang Wan steeled herself, raised her eyes to meet his—her light chestnut eyes reflecting the sunlight filtering through the paper window, “I don’t like it when you speak like that.”

As if death meant nothing.

The youth seemed interested this time, “Like what?”

“…”

Chang Wan choked, unable to say it directly.

Finally, she shoved the youth into the secret door, “Don’t come out again!”

If he were discovered, she wouldn’t be able to protect him.

Chu Changqing, however, gripped her hand.

His hand was ice-cold, yet it served to sober her up.

Chang Wan was horrified. Though the youth was in the darkness, a faint glow lit his peach blossom eyes, seemingly mocking her.

“Sinking into the abyss of inner demons is, in its own way, a way of living.”

The secret door closed silently.

Chang Wan looked at the wall that had returned to normal, feeling dazed for a moment. She looked at her own hand and suddenly remembered—

His torn wounds…

System: [I have special medicine available for purchase.]

The tightly closed secret door blocked the light.

Chu Changqing leaned against the cold door, his head aching faintly.

The Heart Movement stage demonic barrier seemed ready to strike again.

But unlike the previous bloody scenes, this time it was the young girl in the white dress, in the extremely cold snowy expanse, holding a clay flute in her hand, her brows and eyes exquisitely beautiful, reaching out a hand to him.

She said to him, “Come with me.”

Not as cold as usual, her voice was like her flute music, lingering and gentle.

He was like a lost lone wolf.

He slowly reached out a hand toward her—

When Chang Wan entered, she saw the youth with his black hair disheveled, his eyes vacant, devoid of any murderous or fervent aura. The spiritual energy around him was becoming unstable again, as if he were about to succumb to Qi deviation. His wounds were oozing blood, but he was utterly indifferent to it.

His hand was slowly raised, as if to grasp something, and his spiritual energy was dissipating bit by bit, as if intending to draw something out—

Chang Wan immediately seized his outstretched hand.

“Slap.”

The outstretched hand was instantly gripped.

In the hallucination of flying snow, the white-clad girl vanished, replaced by a faint light behind her and the young girl’s furrowed brows.

“Do you not know what pain is?”

She tore open his clothes, her movements somewhat rough.

The wound on his left chest had long since torn open, the smell of blood incredibly thick, yet he acted as if he didn’t notice, only watching her.

He really was…

He really had, within the demonic barrier of the Heart Movement stage, let his heart wander toward someone he shouldn’t love.

Chang Wan half-pulled, half-dragged him back to the secret room, pushed him onto the bed, and said with a fierce tone, “Strip yourself.”

The youth only looked up at her, candlelight shining in his peach blossom eyes, as if caught in some delusion.

Chang Wan felt a sudden ease in her heart under his gaze. Finally, she pursed her lips and helped him undo the bandages.

The youth’s muscles were well-proportioned. Despite being covered in scars, the areas without wounds were smooth and supple. Chang Wan took the special medicine purchased from the system and applied it carefully.

His wounds were deep, hideous, and terrifying, enough to show how much strength the original owner had used to torment him.

Just what kind of feud or hatred was there?

Chang Wan didn’t know.

She wrapped him in new bandages, layer by layer, then draped his clothes back over him, her voice softening slightly, “What should be done?”

Chu Changqing looked at her.

She didn’t look at him, turning her gaze slightly to the flickering candlelight, “…In your view, how can someone in the Heart Movement stage overcome their demonic barriers?”

She wasn’t the original owner; she was just an ordinary mortal. Perhaps the jade slip was correct, and she hadn’t misunderstood it, but the path of cultivation made life and death difficult to speak of, and…

—Chu Changqing never spoke without certainty.

If she were to cause a disciple’s death because of a single word or a moment of bravado.

She couldn’t bear it.

The young girl’s eyelashes were long, like butterfly wings, reflecting her light chestnut eyes without a trace of coldness.

She possessed a moving exterior.

And at this moment.

Chu Changqing seemed to see a scorching hot heart disguised beneath a venomous soul.

His voice became hoarse unconsciously.

“You must persist in your original intent.”

“Whatever you did in the past, do the same when you are in the nightmare.”

Chang Wan was slightly taken aback and looked at him, “But—”

Chu Changqing interrupted her: “The choices of the past cannot be changed. Since you have made a choice, you must have the courage to face it.”

He looked at her, his pupils as black as an abyss, “If you only think, ‘If only I hadn’t done that back then.’”

His voice carried a hint of sarcasm.

“Then why cultivate the Dao? Wouldn’t it be better to just be reborn and start over?”

Past events cannot be changed; choices made cannot be reversed.

He knew it clearly.

That’s why he had lived until now under such nightmares and torture.

Every choice from the past might be tormenting, but he did not regret them.

“I understand.”

Chang Wan nodded.

Chu Changqing looked at her, a smile of unknown meaning curving his lips, “Do you believe me?”

Chang Wan was silent for a moment, then said, “I feel that you wouldn’t lie to me.”

Chu Changqing in the original book was cunning, treacherous, and full of evil.

But Chang Wan knew that although Chu Changqing had committed every evil and was notorious, at the very least, he was clear about gratitude and grudges.

Chu Changqing smiled enigmatically: “Why wouldn’t I lie to you?”

His tone was contemptuous: “I hate your actions, so I could deceive you, making you think you said the wrong thing, then tell you a wrong method. If that disciple deviates into demonic cultivation because of your words, then—”

“…”

Chang Wan looked at him for a long time, then finished his sentence: “Then I would be ruined and regret having trusted the wrong person.”

Chu Changqing was noncommittal, his pupils cold.

“But when one person wants to believe in another.” Chang Wan placed the medicine she had on his bedside, “Even if they know they are being lied to, they will still believe them.”

She left.

The clay flute and jade slip were left on the table.

Chu Changqing lowered his eyelids slightly.

—Why did he help her.

Was it because of her beauty? Or her flute music? Or, perhaps, some casual notes in her jade slip?

Chu Changqing didn’t know.

He just subconsciously wanted her to look at him with a little more tenderness.

To believe in him, just a little more.

This tiny stir in his heart was not as intense as the burning of a raging fire, but it was far more tormenting.

= =

Chang Wan didn’t have much trouble finding the training grotto that the disciple frequented.

The Qingfeng Sect covered a vast area, with rolling mountains. Every disciple could open a grotto in a blessed land to cultivate. When Chang Wan arrived, Li Su was at a critical stage of his cultivation.

He seemed trapped by inner demons; his spiritual energy was chaotic and flowing backward into Li Su’s meridians.

He was on the verge of collapse. Chang Wan waved her hand, and a surge of true essence isolated the spiritual energy. She followed Chu Changqing’s words and shouted softly, “If inner demons entrap you—how it was before, is how it should be now!”

The illusion was terrifying, a sea of fire filling the sky. Li Su saw his mother holding his young sister, crying and telling him to run.

“Don’t come back! Don’t come back! Go as far as you can—”

The roar of beasts shook the sky; wild, frantic fire swept overhead. His mother was holding his sister, her leg already crushed by a fallen beam. She cried, “You are the only heir of the Li family—you must live!!”

His sister’s cries were tragic.

At that time, he chose to turn and flee in a sorry state.

This was the thing he had regretted most all these years.

Now—

A flame suddenly ignited in Li Su’s heart—oppression, anger. He gritted his teeth and suddenly prepared to rush in!!

“If inner demons entrap you—how it was before, is how it should be now!”

The young girl’s sharp shout entered his spiritual platform directly, making him tremble all over. Fire surrounded him. Li Su saw a massive pillar of fire tilting toward his mother and sister. In an instant, his brain went blank—

Sister.

Mother…

“Guard your original self! It’s all fake!!”

The girl’s voice sounded anxious by his ear!

He ignored everything and rushed into the raging flames!!

The people were fake; it was all fake.

But his heart, filled with regret, was real.