Volume 3, Chapter 310 – A Line That Cannot Be Crossed

Chi Xiyan stared at Lu Zhuxin, frozen in place.

Chi Muxue had come back to herself?

And the first words out of her mouth when she did were those?

As an alchemist, Chi Muxue had studied all manner of pills, elixirs, and poisons, and aphrodisiacs were no exception.

The state Chi Muxue had just been in was unmistakably an aphrodisiac in full bloom.

This kind of poison burned away a victim’s reason, stoked their desires, and handed total control of their mind over to raw, animalistic instinct, reducing them entirely to a slave of their own urges.

For Chi Muxue to have forced herself to a moment of lucidity while a aphrodisiac was raging through her at full strength was not something an ordinary person could do.

This girl’s willpower was truly that formidable? What was holding her together enough to reclaim even a fraction of her senses in a moment like this?

Just to say those few words?

Chi Xiyan pressed her hand to her chest, breathing quietly.

Something she could not name stirred inside her, spreading slowly outward.

She thought back to when she had first met this girl.

That foolish, weepy creature who only knew how to cry whenever anything went wrong, who had nearly sold herself off for a few dozen silver taels.

Weak, incompetent, and naive. Beautiful, and nothing else. She had seemed to be assembled from every quality Chi Xiyan most despised.

The reason Chi Xiyan had taken her in back then was precisely because she had seemed simple and easy to manage. Keeping her close meant something to extract, a source of value that could be turned into gain. It also served as a gesture toward Chi Jingwen, a way to earn his trust.

But now, looking at this girl again, Chi Xiyan found she could no longer see her through that old lens.

Rеаd оn КatReаdіոɡCafе

Yu Lizhi was actually quite clever. Her talent was exceptional.

She had her own character, her own way of thinking about things. She did things that caught Chi Xiyan completely off guard.

Yu Lizhi was not a puppet on strings.

Chi Xiyan. Who gave you the right to look down on Yu Lizhi?

That girl you wrote off as timid and feeble, her emotions and her willpower are far stronger and more steadfast than yours have ever been.

A trace of bitterness settled at the corner of Chi Xiyan’s mouth.

As an older sister, she felt she had been truly terrible.

She stepped forward and pressed her hands gently down on Lu Zhuxin’s shoulders.

Hesitation could only last so long. No matter how tangled things felt inside her, she had to be calm. Right now.

Chi Xiyan had not forgotten what she was here to do.

These types of toxins were a peculiar category. Most of them caused nothing more than hallucinations and heat, but that did not mean they were harmless. If left untreated, some could cause unpredictable and lasting damage to a victim’s spirit and consciousness.

Chi Xiyan still had no idea which kind of aphrodisiac Chi Muxue had been given. She had not yet found the source of it, let alone begun to analyze its properties.

Without knowing the properties or the composition, she was working completely in the dark.

“Try the standard methods first.”

She murmured to herself, drawing several pills from her storage pouch.

She sat down at the edge of Chi Muxue’s bed and gently helped her upright.

Rеаԁ οn КαtReadіnɡСafe

The moment Chi Xiyan touched her, however, the girl reacted like dry wood thrown onto a fire, pressing herself instinctively toward Chi Xiyan.

Chi Xiyan drew a long, steady breath. She paid no attention to the pair of hands causing mischief and focused on cupping the girl’s face, parting her lips, and placing the pills inside her mouth.

She waited.

The pills did nothing.

There was no sign whatsoever that Chi Muxue’s symptoms were weakening.

“Try something else.”

Just as many male alchemists tended to develop an aphrodisiac as their first foray into poison-crafting, the first toxin Chi Xiyan had ever trained herself to counter was an aphrodisiac.

The Medical Immortal Valley pharmacopoeia contained records on fully eighty percent of the aphrodisiacs found throughout the cultivation world, along with their antidotes.

Chi Xiyan was far from ignorant when it came to dealing with this category of poison. The medicinal supplies she carried on her person were enough to prepare antidotes for the vast majority of them.

After finding that her standard antidote pill was useless, she immediately began working through every other method she knew.

She tried one approach after another, for a long time.

Then Chi Xiyan made a discovery that stopped her cold.

The Medical Immortal Valley pharmacopoeia, which had never failed her before, was failing her now.

The poison inside Chi Muxue did not match any aphrodisiac Chi Xiyan had ever encountered.

It did not appear in the centuries-long catalogue of aphrodisiacs recorded in the Valley’s texts.

Rеαd οո КatReadіոgСafе

‘How is this possible… whoever poisoned Muxue, what did they use?’

This was the first time Chi Xiyan had ever felt this powerless, and in the field she was most confident in.

She felt the girl in her arms breathing harder and harder. She felt the scorching heat radiating from her skin.

Bitterness filled Chi Xiyan’s chest.

She truly could not break this poison. She could not identify the composition, and she could not even work out how it was supposed to function.

‘Is there really only one option left…’

For aphrodisiacs, there was one more direct solution.

Better to guide the flood than to dam it.

An aphrodisiac stoked the wildness within a person, swelling desire beyond its natural bounds. When emotion and heat were pushed that far, they could shatter a person’s mind entirely.

But if those feelings were given an outlet, the poison’s hold could be relieved.

‘It truly is the most direct solution. The most primal.’

‘But…’

Chi Muxue was Chi Xiyan’s little sister. She could not cross that line in her heart.

Chi Xiyan had never placed any value on love or romance. She had always been a reserved, proper woman.

As the Chi family’s First Young Miss, she had understood from an early age that her marriage would be nothing more than a bargaining chip for the family’s interests. That was the fate of those born into great houses. The more capable she proved herself, the more she was worth.

So she had never allowed herself to expect anything from marriage, and had kept herself entirely removed from matters of the heart.

Reαԁ οո КatRеаⅾіnɡCαfе

What Chi Muxue had done to her finger just a short while ago had nearly shattered Chi Xiyan’s composure entirely.

That soft, warm sensation had left her heart unsteady in a way she did not know how to account for.

She had simply stopped expecting anything from love. That was not the same as knowing nothing about it.

But no matter how she looked at it, Chi Muxue was her little sister.

Chi Muxue being attracted to women was already enough to shake the world.

How could she, as an older sister, possibly…

Back when Chi Xiyan had kept testing Chi Muxue, this had been exactly what she feared.

And now, the situation in front of her was asking her to step across that line herself?

She could not do it. There was simply no way.

‘Muxue was worried about this too… that’s why she forced herself through the haze and asked me to leave…’

Chi Xiyan laughed, and the sound was hollow with bitterness.

She had been standing here, going back and forth, unable to decide. But her little sister had already decided for her.

Chi Muxue had chosen not to put her sister in a difficult position. Chosen not to bring shame on the Chi family.

‘But Little Xue’er, you don’t know…’

‘After what happened tonight, no matter what the Chi family does now, there is no face left to save.’