Volume 3, Chapter 283

TN: There is no mistake with the title.

“The smell of a dead person?” Lu Zhuxin frowned. “What does that mean? I don’t smell anything.”

There was indeed some kind of treasure on this fake Song Shixuan that was concealing her aura.

Because of it, Lu Zhuxin couldn’t accurately read the imposter’s presence.

She would have to use her Eighth Realm spiritual consciousness to forcibly tear through the concealment.

But even without doing that, Lu Zhuxin could still sense the life force radiating from Song Shixuan.

Her presence was dense and vigorous, brimming with vitality. No matter how she looked at him, there was nothing that could be connected to the dead.

Bu Lianshuang caught the confusion in Lu Zhuxin’s eyes. She thought for a moment, then leaned close and explained patiently. “I’m not sure how to describe it either. The smell coming off him, at first whiff, doesn’t seem any different from a regular human. But if you take a moment to really sense it, there’s something hollow and empty about it.”

Bu Lianshuang raised her hands, gesturing as she spoke. “Here’s an example. A living, breathing human is like a stream. The water flowing through it is full of life and vitality, so it can nourish water plants and fish and shrimp.”

“But stagnant water is completely different. Even if it flows along with the terrain, water without life or vitality cannot sustain any living thing. Wherever it passes, things only grow more withered and desolate.”

“That’s the feeling that person gives me. Like a walking corpse; no vitality, no life force at all.”

Lu Zhuxin was quiet for a moment. “Thank you for the explanation. You have completely lost me.”

“Ugh…” Bu Lianshuang’s pretty face fell instantly.

Though she hadn’t taken her beast form, Lu Zhuxin could practically see her ears and tail drooping in dejection.

This little she-wolf really did wear every single emotion on her face, completely transparent at a glance.

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Say one harsh word and she’d look ready to cry. Give her a piece of candy and she’d be beaming again in an instant.

It was hard to imagine how the fierce, proud prairie princess from the original novel had ended up like this.

She was completely romance-brained. The hopeless, incurable kind at that.

If the prairie princess in the original story had been like this, I probably would have sent her off to dig wild vegetables for eighteen years first.

Lu Zhuxin grumbled to herself for a moment, then turned back to Bu Lianshuang. “In short… the smell coming from Song Shixuan isn’t normal, right?”

“Yes, yes!” Bu Lianshuang nodded vigorously. “That’s one way to put it.”

Lu Zhuxin looked toward Song Shixuan, sinking into thought.

The wolf clan’s sense of smell is sharp. Certainly sharper than mine, half-baked fox demon that I am. And Bu Lianshuang wouldn’t lie about something like this.

So what exactly was going on with this Song Shixuan standing before her?

Going by Lu Zhuxin’s understanding of web novels, there were actually quite a few possibilities that fit Bu Lianshuang’s description.

Puppet arts, corpse-driving techniques from necromancer sects…

Mannequins, zombies, vampires…

But none of those had any connection to the Song Shixuan from the original novel. Among the young members of the Song family, no one matched those characteristics either.

Tch … I thought I was getting close to the answer, but now it feels like I’m moving further and further away.

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The more she thought, the more Lu Zhuxin felt a headache coming on.

This fake Song Shixuan was meant to be a key piece in her plan. If she couldn’t determine the imposter’s true identity, there was no telling what unpredictable variables might emerge.

So Lu Zhuxin had to figure out who she really was.

Lu Zhuxin furrowed her brows and asked Bu Lianshuang, “Shuang’er, do you think you could beat him?”

“Huh?” Confusion showed in Bu Lianshuang’s eyes. “Miss, what are you planning?”

Lu Zhuxin said, “Well, he’s my sister’s fiancé. Naturally, as the younger sister, I should test the goods on my sister’s behalf first.”

“Fiancé?” Bu Lianshuang’s eyes went wide. She looked toward Song Shixuan. “But… isn’t he a girl?”

That wolf nose really is something. Intelligence I worked hard to piece together, and she sniffed it out in an instant.

“Mhm, she is indeed a girl,” Lu Zhuxin said. “She’s come to the Song family disguised as a man. I have no idea what she’s scheming… and I certainly don’t want my dear sister getting tricked into marrying some woman with suspicious motives.”

“I see…” Bu Lianshuang added, “Still. Aside from that hollow, lifeless dead-air about her, there’s a faint trace of clean energy around her. I don’t sense any malice.”

Lu Zhuxin got the feeling this little she-wolf found the whole thing rather underwhelming.

Her gaze shifted, and something came to mind. She stroked her chin. “I just remembered something. The marriage alliance between the Song and Chi families only specifies that Song Shixuan is to wed a young miss from the Chi family’s main bloodline. It doesn’t say which young miss from the Song family’s main bloodline it has to be.”

“What if she suddenly takes a liking to me?”

“Should I accept?”

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“Hey, Shuang’er. Do you think that Song Shixuan, whatever she really looks like, is actually very beautiful?”

At those words, Bu Lianshuang’s gaze sharpened immediately.

That Song Shixuan might end up marrying the little fox miss?! Absolutely not!

“She won’t be, Miss.” Bu Lianshuang stared at Song Shixuan. “Dead people can’t be good-looking.”

And no matter what she looks like, I’ll beat her face into a pig’s head!

Song Shixuan, who was still in the middle of explaining the way of the sword to the Chi family’s young disciples, suddenly tilted his head ever so slightly. He thought he had felt a fierce wave of hostility sweep across him.

But it came and went in an instant.

He couldn’t pin down its source. What he did see, however, was a completely unexpected figure.

“Second Miss Chi.”

At Song Shixuan’s words, the young students around her finally noticed Lu Zhuxin and Bu Lianshuang’s arrival.

“That’s Second Miss? She’s so beautiful…honestly on par with Eldest Miss!”

“I heard she went to have her spiritual roots tested earlier. I wonder how it went.”

“Don’t even ask. My little brother was there when Second Miss got tested, but no matter how much I pressed him, he wouldn’t say a word about what her spiritual root turned out to be. Said it was a family secret.”

News of Lu Zhuxin’s spiritual root test had not spread internally within the Chi family. Chi Xiyan had ordered a lid put on it. Only a small number of people knew.

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Song Shixuan happened to be one of them.

“What brings Second Miss to the study hall?”

Song Shixuan was mildly puzzled. By convention among great families, a prodigy of Chi Muxue’s caliber would immediately be hidden away and protected, with all available resources poured into cultivating her in secret.

It was unusual for someone like Chi Muxue to be wandering freely around the estate like this.

“Brother Shixuan.” Lu Zhuxin walked over, smiling sweetly. “Muxue was studying a sword manual this morning, but couldn’t grasp the meaning no matter how long she spent on it. It was only just now, hearing Brother Shixuan’s explanation, that something clicked.”

“But we are talking about the way of the sword. If one relies only on written techniques and theoretical discourse, it will always remain just words on paper, never reaching the true essence.”

“It occurred to Muxue just now that Brother Shixuan is a genius from Lingxiao Sword Sect, a direct disciple of Immortal Venerable Qingzhi. Your understanding of the sword path is incomparably deeper than any of the sword cultivator elders in the Chi family’s employ.”

“So Muxue has a small, shameless request.”

“Would it be possible for Muxue to witness the true form of Lingxiao Sword Sect’s finest. In actual combat?”

“Would that be alright? Brother Shixuan?”

Surprise crossed Song Shixuan’s eyes. He looked Lu Zhuxin up and down, considering. “You haven’t even formed your qi yet, and you want to spar with me? If I don’t hold back, you’ll get hurt.”

“Brother Shixuan misunderstands. Muxue doesn’t have that kind of ability.” Lu Zhuxin waved her hands quickly. “Muxue was hoping that Brother Shixuan could spar with Shuang’er instead.”

‘Little brat. If an Eighth Realm fox demon threw a strike at you, one poke of a finger would be enough to finish you off.’