Volume 1, Chapter 72 – Can We Use Her as Bait?

Hearing this, even someone as composed as Xu Mei was thoroughly frightened, leaping back in panic.

The other fairies were even more terrified, their souls nearly fleeing their bodies, as they hastily drew their swords.

“Y-You… what did you say? I… I’m the real Cheng Hongling?”

Only Qi Huang stood frozen, dumbly pointing at herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to run—her mind had simply short-circuited.

“Sh-She’s Cheng Hongling… then y-you are…?”

Xu Mei asked warily, as if facing a great enemy. She wondered inwardly—had her Cat’s Tears really malfunctioned? Had they expired?

“She is Cheng Hongling, and so am I.”

Cheng Hongling’s voice was calm, like still water.

Hearing this, Qi Huang couldn’t help but doubt Fairy Hongling’s judgment. “If I’m not Cheng Hongling, wouldn’t I know it myself?”

“What in the world is going on?”

Xu Mei remained on guard, cautiously pressing for answers.

“Master, you should know—I’ve long wanted to leave the Honghua Sect. I mentioned it to you before.”

Cheng Hongling’s cherry lips parted slightly.

Xu Mei nodded subconsciously. “I know. You planned to seek opportunities in another sect first and return to develop the Honghua Sect once you grew stronger.”

“So that’s how it is!”

Qi Huang suddenly understood. She had initially thought Fairy Hongling was an ungrateful person, but it turned out she had only wanted to explore opportunities elsewhere temporarily.

“The reason I stayed was because I couldn’t bear to leave everything behind. The Honghua Sect is entangled in too much karma—if word got out that I had joined another sect, evil forces would surely unite to attack us. And as later events proved, my fears were justified.”

Cheng Hongling began recounting slowly, her voice clear and melodious like a flowing stream.

“After much deliberation, I thought of a solution—an external avatar, what mortals call a ‘doppelgänger’. If I could cultivate an avatar and have her remain in the Honghua Sect, it would stabilize the situation.”

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“That’s a good idea, but… aren’t you only at the Unity Realm? Avatars can only be cultivated at the Incarnation Realm!”

Xu Mei looked puzzled.

“Indeed. But as you know, I was running out of time, so I decided to take the risk.”

Cheng Hongling took a light step forward, her fragrance wafting through the air. “Yet, just as you said, avatars can only be formed at the Incarnation Realm. I couldn’t control it, so something went wrong during the process.”

“As everyone knows, a person’s life soul consists of three ethereal souls and seven corporeal souls. The three ethereal souls are the Heavenly Soul ¹ 天魂, tiān hún , Earthly ² 地魂, dì hún Soul, and Human Soul ³ 人魂, rén hún , while the seven corporeal souls are Strength ⁴ 力, lì , Qi ⁵ 气, qì , Essence ⁶ 精 , jīng , Vigor ⁷ 英, yīng , Central Core ⁸ 中枢, zhōng shū , Heavenly Surge ⁹ 天冲, tiān chōng , and Spiritual Wisdom ¹⁰ 灵慧, líng huì .”

“An external avatar is essentially the separation of one soul or one corporeal soul, which is then given a physical body. That’s what I attempted. But my soul’s strength couldn’t sustain the process. After separating the Spiritual Wisdom soul, I only had time to give it a face before collapsing. When I awoke, both the soul and the face were gone.”

Cheng Hongling explained the entire sequence in detail.

The group exchanged uneasy glances, their expressions flickering between shock and doubt.

Yet, most of the mystery in Qi Huang’s heart had been solved. If her guess was correct, the Human Skin Mask she had picked up must have been the face Cheng Hongling had separated, and the feminine soul inside her body was likely the Spiritual Wisdom soul.

‘But wait—if that’s the case, then from the inside out, I should’ve been completely assimilated by the mask. So why has my original consciousness as Huang Qi remained?’

A new puzzle formed in Qi Huang’s mind. Though she sometimes struggled to distinguish dreams from reality, she was still very clear about who she was—at least for now.

‘And why did that mask turn me into a woman? Do all avatars have that effect?’

One mystery led to another.

“If everything was fine, why did it suddenly disappear? Was it stolen?”

Ruan Lingyu frowned, her willow-leaf brows knitting together.

“Impossible. After thinking it over, I’m certain the soul attached itself to the face and escaped on its own.”

Cheng Hongling let out a cold snort, her beautiful eyes sweeping over Qi Huang with an aggressive glint.

Qi Huang felt somewhat wronged, but she didn’t dare argue. She could only complain weakly in her heart:

“It wasn’t me! Why are you looking at me like that?”

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“But why would it run away?”

Ruan Lingyu found it strange.

“If you were locked in a tiny room for over a decade and suddenly gained freedom, wouldn’t you run too?”

Cheng Hongling offered an analogy.

The women exchanged glances once more, expressions of realization dawning on their faces.

“But what does that have to do with this woman here?”

Shen Yuan glanced at Qi Huang and pressed further.

“Because she is that incomplete avatar.”

Cheng Hongling’s tone was absolute.

“Ah, so that’s why she kept avoiding us—she was afraid you’d find out.”

Miao Xiang tilted her head, filling in the gaps herself.

“Little Junior Sister, it’s not that I don’t believe you, but… this is clearly a complete person. Didn’t you say you only gave her a face?”

Yun Fei, however, scrutinized Qi Huang skeptically.

“Then we’ll have to ask her—how did a single face grow into a full person?”

Cheng Hongling’s attention locked onto Qi Huang.

“I… I don’t know.”

Qi Huang told the truth—or at least, she couldn’t reveal the full truth. Doing so would expose her real identity. Even an idiot could see her current predicament—her only option was to keep pretending to be Fairy Hongling’s avatar.

Not that it was entirely pretending. After all, a large part of her body did belong to Cheng Hongling—just not all of it. If she admitted the truth, she wasn’t sure if the other party had a way to forcibly extract her original consciousness.

“You don’t know? That’s fine. I’ll make sure you remember.”

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Cheng Hongling wasn’t angry, but her tone was chilling.

Qi Huang shuddered inexplicably, unsure what the fairy had in store for her.

“So she’s your avatar? No wonder she looks so much like you and knows so much about us.”

Ruan Lingyu sighed, her gaze softening as she looked at Qi Huang, now devoid of any hostility—only tenderness remained.

“So it was all a misunderstanding.”

The other fairies shared the sentiment—except for Shen Yuan, who, as the former chief interrogator, was now drowning in guilt, unable to even look at Qi Huang.

“Luckily, Eldest Senior Sister stopped her, or else Shen Yuan would’ve killed her.”

Su Qingying, ever the sharp-tongued one, poked at the sore spot.

“I didn’t know, alright? The more intense I was, the more it shows how much I care about Junior Sister!”

Shen Yuan scratched her foot awkwardly, her face flushing red—a rare sight.

“Hongling, I still have some doubts. Even though I haven’t even reached the Unity Realm, I’ve heard rumors that avatars are supposed to be completely obedient to their original selves. Why does she have so many thoughts of her own? Even running around freely!”

Xu Mei questioned, half-convinced.

“That’s because my soul wasn’t strong enough. When I separated her, the soul tether between us snapped. Now, I can’t control her, nor can I pull her back into my consciousness space.”

Cheng Hongling explained in detail.

‘She can pull a living person into her consciousness space? Is that even possible?’

Qi Huang was both terrified and curious.

“Then what do you plan to do? If you can’t control her, the two of you will be one in name but two separate people in reality!”

Xu Mei grasped the severity of the situation.

“Master, don’t worry. I just need to re-establish the soul tether with her. Once that’s done, not only will I be able to control her, but I’ll also be able to read her memories—then I’ll know exactly what happened during this time.”

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Cheng Hongling reassured her.

‘Read my memories?!’

Qi Huang was horrified. If that happened, her true identity would be exposed.

‘There’s no way I can let her establish this soul tether.’

She began plotting silently.

“Then how do you re-establish the tether? Is there anything I can do to help?”

Xu Mei inquired carefully.

“No need. I can handle it myself.”

Cheng Hongling declined politely.

“Junior Sister, this belongs to you.”

At that moment, Ruan Lingyu returned the Tongming Comb to Cheng Hongling.

“You stole the Tongming Comb to cultivate, didn’t you? No wonder you’re so weak.”

Cheng Hongling fixed Qi Huang with a questioning gaze.

Qi Huang nodded vaguely. In truth, she had stolen it to maintain her male form—but of course, she couldn’t say that.

Ruan Lingyu hesitated before handing the strange seed back to Qi Huang, though she said nothing. After all, how was she supposed to address her? “Junior Sister’s avatar” sounded too awkward.

Qi Huang quickly tucked it into her robes—this seed was her key to growing stronger. As for the Tongming Comb, she’d have to find another way.

“By the way, since she carries the scent of Golden Fate Blossoms, can we use her as bait instead?”

Xu Mei brought up the old topic again.