Shen Qianyue’s Secret Exposed

“Love…?”

Upon hearing the word “love” spill from her sister Shen Xianyue’s lips, the silver-haired immortal named Shen Bingyue furrowed her delicate brows in visible confusion and melancholy, as though she genuinely could not comprehend what “love” was.

Even that troubled expression looked unnatural on her, as if she were deliberately forcing her face to show something she didn’t feel.

As Shen Xianyue’s younger sister by three years, Shen Bingyue’s beauty was in no way inferior to her elder sister’s.

In fact, if one only looked at appearance, Shen Bingyue seemed more like the “elder sister.”

Skin of ice and bones of jade, face fair as the moon, features exquisite and refined.

The classic image of an ancient beauty: emotionless violet phoenix eyes, snowy brows and hair, even her eyelashes were silver-white.

She wore a dark ink-black Song-style hanfu embroidered with silver-white flowers, a sword hanging at her waist, the very picture of a righteous heroine who had cut her hair to slay demons.

If Shen Bingyue walked outside and didn’t reveal any magic, no one would ever suspect she was a demonic cultivator. She looked far more like an orthodox righteous disciple than most righteous disciples did.

Her aura was utterly frigid, not because of her looks, but because that was truly who she was.

Though sisters, their appearances were different, yet the identical teardrop mole beneath the left eye (Shen Xianyue’s was under the right) and the same violet eyes clearly showed their blood relation.

“What is that?”

There was almost no emotion in Shen Bingyue’s voice. If Shen Xianyue weren’t long accustomed to it, anyone else would find it impossible to talk to her; it was like conversing with a block of ice.

“…”

Seeing her sister like this, the previously excited Shen Xianyue frowned, gently stroking Shen Bingyue’s cheek with heartache.

“You are my, Shen Xianyue’s, little sister. You don’t need to pretend to understand just to fit in.”

“Even without me, with your supreme-grade Heavenly Spirit Root and peak Golden Core great-circle cultivation, no one would dare question you.”

“Mm…”

Shen Bingyue nodded as if she half-understood.

She had no emotions, but after so many years she could roughly recognize that this was her sister feeling sorry for her, a kind of sadness.

“Good girl.”

Seeing how obedient her sister was only made Shen Xianyue’s heart ache more.

This was exactly the reason she had sighed that day after slaying the fox demon. The “she” she had lamented back then was the very girl in front of her now, her younger sister, three years her junior.

This girl was a genius among geniuses. Three years younger than her, yet already half a step into Nascent Soul.

But… her cultivation should have been far, far higher.

In truth, she had reached the great circle of Golden Core three years ago.

With her talent and diligence, she should have broken through to Nascent Soul long ago.

Yet because she had lost the ability to feel emotions, she could not define her personal Dao, and remained stuck at this bottleneck, unable to advance a single step further.

It was all their parents’ fault.

Originally, both sisters had been perfectly normal, aside from Shen Xianyue being born liking girls.

Their parents had been demonic cultivators, but when Shen Bingyue was three, they lost control while cultivating demonic qi due to unstable hearts and turned into puppets of desire.

Because of their parents, the two sisters had absorbed large amounts of that berserk “evil qi” when they were young.

For Shen Xianyue, the evil qi turned her into an emotional lunatic who couldn’t control herself.

For Shen Bingyue, it completely stripped away her capacity to understand emotions.

She had been too young to remember anything, so even now, she didn’t know what the most basic joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness felt like.

Even though she cultivated the Path of Passionate Attachment, she had no emotional trigger at all.

Originally, she had the same violet hair as her sister, but after being tainted by the evil qi, it transformed into pure white, along with every other hair on her body.

And because of the evil qi’s influence in childhood, neither sister could ever cultivate orthodox spiritual qi again; they could only walk the extremely risky demonic path.

If they tried to live as ordinary mortals without cultivating demonic qi, the residual evil qi in their bodies would erode them until body and soul both perished.

Fortunately, the evil qi had also made them naturally suited to demonic cultivation.

One was emotionless and desireless, completely unaffected by demonic corruption.

The other indulged freely in emotion and desire, born already half-mad with demonic qi.

“One day, big sister will definitely make you whole again.”

“Mm. Thank you, sister.”

Shen Bingyue gazed at her sister’s resolute expression with those same icy, emotionless eyes, trying her best to make her voice sound normal.

But it was futile.

No matter how much she imitated others, she always came off strange, like a poor mimicry.

“It probably won’t take too long, actually. The person I’ve been longing for all this time is quite special.”

“Maybe the moment you meet her, you’ll feel something.”

After two full years, Shen Xianyue had finally stabilized everything in the demonic sect.

Her title of “Demonic Saintess” was no longer in name only.

Of course, the outside world didn’t call her “Saintess.” They called her things like “Demonic Seductress,” “Mercurial Mad Goddess,” and worse.

But now she finally had the power to bring her beautiful big sister here.

Not only was her own strength considerable now, even if someone looked only at her position as Saintess, no one would dare touch Su Wanqing.

And truthfully, the position of Saintess should have gone to her far more talented, far stronger younger sister.

But because of Bingyue’s condition, she was fundamentally incapable of leading the demonic path.

So the title had fallen to the elder sister instead.

And why was Shen Xianyue so impatient?

Not only because of her longing for Su Wanqing, but because she had accidentally learned about “charm bones.”

It perfectly matched what she had observed while spending time with Su Wanqing.

So she had a rough guess what that cold exterior truly hid.

She wanted to test whether Su Wanqing’s charm bones might have any effect on Shen Bingyue.

Even the tiniest flicker of emotion would be enough.

It would mean her sister could still be saved; she just hadn’t found the right key yet.

Of course, she didn’t have high hopes.

After all, even the strongest aphrodisiacs in the world left Bingyue completely unmoved.

How could the relatively mild stimulation of charm bones possibly work?

“By the way, sister, are you planning to use the teleportation array you spent two years building in Linmeng Yun Province?”

Shen Bingyue watched her sister deep in thought and suddenly asked about the plan.

“Mm. My authority is finally secure, so it’s time the world learned my name.”

“And attacking a righteous sect is the fastest way.”

“Not only will it make me famous, it’ll let me snatch the person I’ve been dreaming of day and night. Two birds with one stone.”

“But from what I know, although Heavenly Sword Pavilion is a small sect, the sect leader is at the Spirit Severing stage, and they have at least a thousand members.”

“That array can only teleport two hundred cultivators no higher than Golden Core, and it’s one-way.”

“Two hundred Golden Cores can’t take down Heavenly Sword Pavilion.”

“And the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers is still extremely far from Linmeng Yun Province. Any large-scale movement of high-level demonic cultivators would definitely alert the Righteous Alliance…”

Shen Bingyue trailed off, but she knew her sister understood.

Yet Shen Xianyue only smiled with absolute confidence.

“That’s exactly why we have to strike immediately ♡”

“Opportunities like this don’t wait.”

“Snatching an elder from a Righteous Alliance sect, or even storming the sect and capturing her alive, that’s a massive slap in the face to the entire alliance.”

“My wanted posters will be plastered across the cultivation world. Then I can use that infamy to absorb fresh blood and new forces.”

“Two years, beautiful big sister… Yue-er can finally be with you again ♡”

Just as Shen Xianyue was lost in memories of intimate moments with Su Wanqing,

Shen Bingyue, utterly clueless about emotions, blurted out at the worst possible time:

“Is ‘love’ really that miraculous?”

“To make the bloodthirsty lunatic Saintess of the demonic path sleep every night smelling the scent on a stolen belly band?”

“?!”

Shen Xianyue’s face exploded crimson.

This was the first time she had ever panicked in front of her sister.

She stammered in mortified rage:

“Y-y-y-you knew everything?!”

“Mm. I know everything. I know big sister thought I didn’t know. I also know big sister dreams almost every night of being intimate with that beautiful big sister.”

“Your little sister is really quite curious, just how charming is this Su Wanqing, to change big sister this much?”

“…”

Watching Shen Xianyue turn speechless from embarrassment, Shen Bingyue tilted her head expressionlessly and asked with deadly seriousness:

“According to my understanding, when I see big sister this flustered, am I supposed to laugh right now?”

“Mm…”

She touched her chin, thought for a moment, then let out a series of perfectly timed, completely emotionless laughs.

But it sounded utterly bizarre, more like mockery or forced imitation than actual laughter.

“Ha… ha… ha… ha…”

“MMMMMM—!!!”

Shen Xianyue had only been embarrassed before, but seeing her sister’s terrifying attempt at laughter broke her completely.

She made a noise like a boiling kettle, steam practically rising from her head in shame.

She knew her sister meant no harm, but still!

She was furious!

She needed to start hiding things better!

And she absolutely had to teach her what should and shouldn’t be said, what should and shouldn’t be watched!

What if one day, when she and her beautiful big sister were in the heat of passion, this girl walked in?!

Bingyue wouldn’t feel awkward, but she would die!

She didn’t get angry, though.

She simply pointed at the door and commanded:

“Out!”

“Oh.”

Shen Bingyue nodded obediently; she always listened to her sister.

As she left, she silently made a note of the reaction.

So when big sister is like this, she needs private space, right?