Volume 3, Chapter 324 – How Did You Purify Her?

“Miss Lan, are you alright?”

Wei Qingyu kept her eyes on Bu Lianshuang and continued to close the distance.

“You look quite pale. Is something wrong?”

“I know a thing or two about treating injuries. Shall I examine you?”

Watching Wei Qingyu draw nearer and nearer, a deep chill filled Bu Lianshuang’s eyes.

Wei Qingyu’s breezy, probing words made her skin crawl.

She could not let this woman keep coming closer.

Wei Qingyu was an inspector of the Demon Suppression Bureau. She likely carried methods for detecting demon qi.

This woman was far too dangerous. If she kept letting herself be led around by the nose, there was no telling what handle she might give her.

“Inspector Wei.”

Bu Lianshuang stepped back one pace and gave Wei Qingyu a slight bow.

“I thank the inspector for her concern. This servant does indeed carry an injury.”

“It is an internal wound that I sustained some time ago, when cultivation went wrong upon first arriving at the Chi residence.”

“First Young Miss is aware of this as well.”

“That day, First Young Miss even had me rest for a full day to recover.”

Wei Qingyu was visibly surprised. She turned to Chi Xiyan. “Is that so?”

Chi Xiyan looked at Bu Lianshuang with an unreadable expression.

Bu Lianshuang did not dare raise her head.

But beneath her sleeves, her muscles had gone taut.

Chi Xiyan’s gaze did not linger on Bu Lianshuang for long. It shifted away quickly.

Chi Xiyan gave Wei Qingyu a nod. “It is true. That day I also had someone bring medicine from the pill dispensary. The dispensary’s records should still have Lan Shuang’s name in them.”

A flicker of surprise moved through Wei Qingyu’s eyes.

She had not expected Chi Xiyan to be the one stepping in again.

Chi Xiyan truly watched over these two handmaids of hers.

Wei Qingyu smiled to herself inwardly, then said, “A martial artist’s cultivation runs through qi and blood. I would not have thought such a person prone to qi deviation the way a spirit cultivator might be.”

Chi Xiyan answered, “I examined her myself at the time.”

“Reversed blood flow, damaged organs. An internal injury like that takes considerable time to heal fully.”

Lu Zhuxin was no martial artist and understood nothing of that cultivation system.

But just listening to Chi Xiyan’s description, she felt a twinge of pity for Bu Lianshuang.

Old wounds not yet healed, and fresh ones added on top.

Physical wounds and wounds of the heart both at once.

Poor thing.

If Bu Lianshuang had not brought it up herself, Lu Zhuxin would have forgotten entirely about the earlier internal injury.

A quiet sigh moved through her.

This is why people should not let their hearts rule their heads.

Otherwise you end up battered from every direction.

Lu Zhuxin kept her head low and exhaled softly.

“I see.” Wei Qingyu said. “A martial artist’s path is one of tempering the body. Internal injuries are no small matter. If not handled properly, they can damage the foundation of one’s cultivation. You should take good care to rest.”

Bu Lianshuang replied with neither servility nor defiance, “I thank the inspector for her concern. This Lan Shuang will take care.”

Chi Jingwen said nothing.

From the look of Wei Qingyu’s attitude, the matter of the injury seemed to have been smoothed over.

Even so, a lingering unease stirred in Bu Lianshuang’s chest.

If she had not injured her own organs internally beforehand, just to maintain the cover story, today would not have been so easy to get through.

And more importantly, Chi Xiyan had been standing on their side.

Without Chi Xiyan, Wei Qingyu would not have let it go so simply.

That thought brought a fresh ache into Bu Lianshuang’s chest.

Chi Xiyan was her enemy.

Chi Jingwen studied Chi Xiyan for a moment with a thoughtful look, making no comment on what she had said.

But in the next instant, that sharp gaze swung back to Bu Lianshuang.

“With that said, Lan Shuang. You abandoned your mistress in order to fetch a remedy, and because of that she nearly came to harm?”

The slight ease that had come over Bu Lianshuang’s expression froze in an instant.

She felt a chill settle over her again.

She clenched her fists. Words of defense would not come.

The fox lady was the one who had sent her away.

She had left because the fox lady had given her a task to carry out.

But from where anyone else stood, she was a personal handmaid who had abandoned her post.

Fox lady…

Bu Lianshuang stole a glance at Lu Zhuxin from the corner of her eye.

Lu Zhuxin was looking at the floor, her head slightly bowed. She was not looking at her.

With so many powerful cultivators in the room, she did not dare use spiritual consciousness to transmit her voice. Before eyes like these, such a transmission would be far too easy to detect.

From the fox lady’s expression, Bu Lianshuang understood. She was being left to handle this herself.

Bu Lianshuang pressed her lips together and offered, “It was the young miss who asked this servant to go and fetch the medicine.”

Many people had witnessed the fox lady sending her away. Saying this was not a problem.

But Chi Jingwen had no intention of letting her off so easily. “So you are saying the fault lies with Muxue?”

Bu Lianshuang’s expression shifted again. “Family head, I did not mean it that way.”

“Is that so? It sounded rather like that to me.” Chi Jingwen said. “It seems to me you think that by pushing all the blame onto Muxue, you are absolved.”

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“Family head, that is not…” Bu Lianshuang repeated hurriedly.

Chi Jingwen looked at her coldly. “When you entered this household, I trust someone explained the responsibilities of a personal handmaid to you?”

Bu Lianshuang gave a slow nod.

It had been Luluo who taught her the rules of the Chi residence after she arrived.

A handmaid with cultivation was not only expected to tend to a mistress’s daily needs. She was also responsible for her mistress’s safety.

“When Muxue told you to leave, did you stop to consider whether she was in a clear state of mind? Whether she was capable of making that judgment on her own?”

Bu Lianshuang was quiet for a moment.

What state had the fox lady been in?

The wine rising to her head. Her words blurring.

Bu Lianshuang said quietly, “The young miss was… drunk.”

“And why was she drunk?”

“Chi Zhong of the branch family toasted her, under the pretense of offering an apology.”

Chi Jingwen’s gaze sharpened slightly.

“How much did she drink?”

Bu Lianshuang thought back. “Roughly one cup.”

Chi Jingwen said, “The Chi family’s private stock is not particularly strong. One cup would leave her incoherent?”

Cold sweat began to bead at Bu Lianshuang’s temples.

The fox lady’s cultivation surpasses mine. One measly cup of wine could not have brought her down.

The fox lady was not drunk at all.

Not all the guests at the engagement banquet had been cultivators. Bu Lianshuang had tasted that wine herself. It was not strong enough to lay out even an ordinary person in one cup.

The fox lady would not have left such an obvious gap in her story.

And Chi Jingwen would not have brought this up without reason.

“Family head, are you suggesting that the young miss’s drink was tampered with?”

Bu Lianshuang’s brow furrowed. “But I tasted that wine myself, and the wine…”

Bu Lianshuang cut herself off sharply.

She had just realized her mistake.

Chi Jingwen pressed immediately. “What about the wine? Were you about to say there was no poison in it?”

Bu Lianshuang bit down on the inside of her cheek.

She truly had not tasted any poison in the wine.

But that was no excuse for anything.

In truth, by now she had pieced together what had happened that night.

The fox lady had feigned the effects of the alcohol and used it as a reason to send her away.

Those people, seeing the fox lady unguarded, had seized the chance to take her somewhere.

What followed was exactly what Bu Lianshuang had seen with her own eyes.

But Bu Lianshuang knew. The drunkenness, the confusion. All of it had been a performance by the fox lady.

What did it matter whether there was poison in the wine?

The fox lady’s cultivation exceeded Bu Lianshuang’s. If Bu Lianshuang had not been brought down by the drug, the fox lady certainly would not have been either.

So the fox lady had allowed herself to be taken. Deliberately.

Sending Bu Lianshuang away had been part of the plan.

In other words, the fox lady had needed to be led away by those people on her own terms, which meant Bu Lianshuang could not have stayed by her side.

Once Bu Lianshuang understood this, she knew that any defense she offered was pointless.

Worse. Her well-meaning explanations were actively tearing apart the fox lady’s scheme.

Chi Jingwen’s reprimand was hers to bear. She had no other choice.

But what Bu Lianshuang could not understand was why the fox lady had not told her any of this.

Was it so difficult to tell her, to give her a little preparation?

Bu Lianshuang could not see even the edge of what the fox lady was planning.

She had always been kept outside of it.

Driven around like a dog with no will of its own. No thoughts of its own.

Bu Lianshuang’s grip tightened. A twisting pain moved through her chest.

She bit down and choked out, “It is this servant’s fault.”

“This servant failed to notice the young miss’s condition in time.”

“This servant tasted that wine… and believed it to be untainted.”

“It is this servant’s fault.”

“This servant failed to protect the young miss.”

Luluo had said it plainly. The duty of a personal handmaid was to protect her mistress.

The Second Young Miss had very few people around her. That made her own responsibility heavier than most.

Tasting for poison was among those duties.

That her mistress had been poisoned meant she had failed in her protection. She had not caught the toxin in time.

Bu Lianshuang could only carry that.

Because she knew. The poisoning, the violation. All of it had been part of the fox lady’s plan.

“This servant has failed in her duty.”

Bu Lianshuang slowly lowered herself toward the floor.

The wolf clan’s princess, who had always held her head high, bowed it now before the humans she had never respected.

“It is this servant’s dereliction that has brought about today’s situation. This servant will accept whatever punishment is given.”

Chi Xiyan watched Bu Lianshuang lower herself to the floor like a common handmaid, and something complicated stirred in her gaze.

Others did not know Lan Shuang’s true origins. But Chi Xiyan did.

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A Fifth Realm martial artist was a formidable figure wherever you placed her. Even within the entire Chi residence, Fifth Realm martial artists were rare.

For someone so young to have reached the Fifth Realm, that kind of talent would rank her among the most gifted of her generation.

The gifted and the strong all carried their own pride.

A warrior could be killed, but not humiliated.

Chi Xiyan had known Lan Shuang cared for Chi Muxue. But she had not expected Lan Shuang to be capable of this.

Against her will, a thread of reluctance stirred inside her.

“Xiyan.” Chi Jingwen said in a cold, flat tone. “A guard who fails in her duty and leaves her mistress in danger. What is the appropriate punishment?”

Chi Xiyan let out a quiet breath. “Father. This is Lan Shuang’s first offense.”

“She has acknowledged her error sincerely.”

“The punishment can be reduced.”

“Twenty lightning strokes should suffice for a Third Realm martial artist.”

“Twenty lightning strokes?” Wei Qingyu clicked her tongue lightly. “That is no light sentence.”

Chi Jingwen agreed with Chi Xiyan’s judgment. “The offense is clear. Lan Shuang, do you accept the punishment?”

Bu Lianshuang kept her head bowed. Her fist tightened until her nails cut into her palm.

Pain in the hand. Agony in the heart.

“This servant accepts. It is no more than this servant deserves.”

Chi Jingwen looked toward the doorway. “Old Mu. Come and carry out the sentence.”

Chi Xiyan’s face filled with surprise. “Father. You intend to administer the punishment here?”

Chi Jingwen’s gaze swept across Chi Xiyan’s and Lu Zhuxin’s faces.

“Yes. Right here.”

Mu Wu walked in carrying the punishment rod, smiling genially. “Master.”

Then he looked down at Bu Lianshuang, sizing her up, an amused glint moving through his eyes.

“Miss Blue. My apologies.”

Chi Xiyan’s expression went wooden.

For a wolf clan princess to receive a caning at human hands was a profound humiliation.

Only, Bu Lianshuang did not care anymore.

To endure disgrace and suffering in this place was done for only one person.

And that person stood less than ten paces away.

Yet in this moment, Bu Lianshuang felt that ten paces was as vast as ten thousand miles.

Ha. I never got close to her from the very beginning.

Bu Lianshuang mocked herself quietly.

She let the guards bring her to the punishment frame without resistance.

“Father.” Chi Xiyan frowned. She glanced at Mu Wu standing there with the rod, then turned back to Chi Jingwen. “The lightning stroke is traditionally administered by someone of the same cultivation level as the recipient. This does not follow the rules.”

Chi Jingwen gave a small wave. “No matter. Old Mu knows his limits.”

Chi Xiyan said nothing more. She knew her adoptive father’s temperament. Once he had decided something, no one changed it.

Chi Xiyan closed her eyes and listened to the sounds around her. But the sound she most wanted to hear was not there.

A bitterness spread through her chest.

By now, all Bu Lianshuang wanted was to hear that voice before the punishment began. Just that voice, saying anything at all.

Even that, it seemed, was too much to ask.

That young woman had not spoken a single word from beginning to now, and showed no sign of looking up.

Perhaps that was for the best.

Feel the pain. Come to understand things sooner.

Mu Wu moved to stand beside the punishment frame. He swung the rod back and brought it down hard.

Lightning scattered and crackled in an instant.

A searing pain like a thunderbolt tore straight through Bu Lianshuang’s consciousness.

Her whole body went rigid. Her hands gouged claw marks into the frame.

Fury and shock flared in her eyes.

Among cultivators, the severity of a lightning punishment was calibrated to the cultivation level of the one receiving it.

But the force of this blow was clearly far beyond what a Third Realm martial artist was meant to endure.

“Father!” Chi Xiyan said urgently. “Old Mu has made a mistake!”

Chi Jingwen glanced at her with a mild, unhurried expression. “Xiyan. Where has my judgment gone wrong?”

A chill ran down Chi Xiyan’s spine.

By now she could see it plainly. Chi Jingwen had long since known that Bu Lianshuang’s true cultivation was not the Third Realm.

Mu Wu was striking at the force calibrated for the Fourth Realm.

One level of difference. Yet the suffering it produced was multiplied severalfold.

Bu Lianshuang bit down, clenched her fists, and endured the blows without making a sound.

Pain to the very core of her being.

But the wolf clan, tempered and strong, had long since grown accustomed to the torment of the body.

In the midst of all this, Bu Lianshuang still waited for that person’s voice.

Fox lady.

Are you watching?

Bu Lianshuang thought: no matter what the body endures, just to hear that voice would make any pain fade.

But again, she was disappointed.

She waited. That voice, the only one that could mend every wound inside her, never came.

All that rang in her ears was the sound of the lightning rod falling.

One. Two.

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Pain through to her very spine.

The fox lady was not even watching her.

The moment Bu Lianshuang understood that, the ache inside her surpassed even the pain of the rod.

Lu Zhuxin kept her head down, eyes on the floor, and said nothing.

[Host. Detecting intense emotional turbulence in Destined Female Lead Bu Lianshuang.]

[Will you not do something?]

‘Do what?’ Lu Zhuxin answered the system inwardly.

‘What exactly do you think I can do right now besides watch?’

[She is receiving punishment on your behalf.]

[Perhaps you could try saying something to comfort her.]

[Or would you prefer to watch the favorability you worked so hard to build come crashing back to zero?]

The favorability she worked so hard to build?

Lu Zhuxin could not recall doing anything to build Bu Lianshuang’s favorability at all.

Had it not all risen on its own?

‘What’s the point,’ Lu Zhuxin said. ‘Isn’t this fine as it is?’

‘Let her see just how worthless the thing she’s chasing after really is.’

‘Her devotion earns no response.’

‘People with hearts ruled by love should come to their senses sooner rather than later.’

‘It’s better for everyone this way.’

[Contrary.]

The system offered its verdict in one word.

‘What a coincidence.’

‘Lu Zhuxin came into this world nine and a half pounds, and five pounds of that was pure stubbornness.’

Lu Zhuxin shot back without flinching.

The system was quiet for a long time.

Then, with an unhurried calm, it sent one more message.

[Host. Given that you are so full of contrary spirit, why have you been staring at the floor this entire time while Bu Lianshuang receives punishment on your behalf?]

[Should you not lift your head and savor the sight of a destined female lead twisting in pain for your sake?]

[As you once did with Song Shiyuan.]

‘You understand me very well,’ Lu Zhuxin said dryly. ‘Do you live inside my stomach?’

[I am your support system 03.]

[Host. Do not change the subject.]

[…]

[…]

[Could it be that you…]

[Do not dare look?]

‘I do not dare look?’

‘Hm…’

Lu Zhuxin’s gaze went still and dark.

‘Do you know who you are speaking to?’

‘What is there that I do not dare look at?’

‘A beauty in pain, enduring it with silent tears. That is a rare and exquisite sight. Magnificent, even.’

[Then.]

[Host. Lift your head.]

[Do not blink.]

[Appreciate, to your heart’s content, the beauty suffering and grieving for your sake.]

‘Hm!’ Lu Zhuxin let out a cold laugh.

‘You are unhinged.’

Then her tone shifted.

‘You do not actually think I have feelings for her, do you?’

[…]

[The system has no authority to interfere in the host’s personal affairs.]

[Support is the system’s only function.]

‘Ha…’ Lu Zhuxin laughed coldly to herself.

Not one of these systems ever said anything straight.

Whether it had been Ming Zhaoxi before, or System 03 now.

Just who was this System 03?

She appeared alongside Bu Lianshuang.

What was the connection between them?

And… whether or not it was her imagination, Lu Zhuxin had a creeping sense that this system seemed to enjoy pushing at anything connected to Song Shiyuan.

It had used Song Shiyuan to probe at Lu Zhuxin’s reactions more than once.

Was there something particular about Song Shiyuan?

When Lu Zhuxin had chosen to approach Song Shiyuan first, it had simply been a matter of convenience. Song Shiyuan had been the closest female lead, and the easiest to reach at the time.

That was all there was to it.

She turned it over and over in her mind and arrived at nothing.

All that filled her ears was the heavy sound of the rod falling again and again.

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Mu Wu’s hand was vicious. He had held almost nothing back.

Listening to those sounds, a heaviness settled over Lu Zhuxin.

Wolf clan bodies were powerful and durable. Tougher by far than the delicate constitutions of the fox clan.

But taking blows like these, completely unguarded. Not even the bear clan, the strongest of all the races in the demon territory, could bear this without flinching. Let alone the wolf clan.

And yet, from the moment this began until now, Lu Zhuxin had not heard Bu Lianshuang make a single sound.

The rod struck. Even from where she stood, Lu Zhuxin could feel the fine electrical sparks crackling through the air. She felt the faint numbness prickling against her cheek.

She could barely imagine what Bu Lianshuang, the one actually receiving it, was enduring.

She was a Fifth Realm martial artist, yes. But martial artists were made of flesh and blood just the same.

Lu Zhuxin let out a slow, quiet breath.

She had anticipated that the little she-wolf would suffer today.

What she had not anticipated was that Chi Jingwen would strike this hard.

On the surface, he was punishing Bu Lianshuang.

In truth, these twenty strokes of the rod were aimed directly at Lu Zhuxin herself.

That old fox.

Twenty strokes. It did not sound like much.

But the time those twenty strokes took felt like twenty centuries dragging past.

When it was finished, Mu Wu withdrew the rod and stepped aside.

Bu Lianshuang released her grip on the punishment frame.

Her face was bloodless. Cold sweat ran freely. She looked drained to the marrow, without a trace of color.

“Take her away. Lock her in the disused courtyard. Confinement for reflection.”

On Chi Jingwen’s order, several handmaids came in and half-carried Bu Lianshuang away.

“Xiyan. Stay.”

***

After everyone else had filed out, the hall held only Chi Xiyan and Chi Jingwen.

“Father.” Chi Xiyan looked at him.

Even after more than a decade together, she felt she had never truly seen through this man who had raised her.

“Xiyan.” Chi Jingwen said. “You have been covering for both of them?”

Chi Xiyan’s eyes contracted slightly. “Father. What do you mean?”

Chi Jingwen said, “Both Muxue and Lan Shuang carry secrets. One of the two powerful fighters who clashed within the estate last night was Lan Shuang.”

Chi Xiyan’s breath caught.

What Chi Jingwen had just said was not suspicion. It was certainty.

He continued. “She has concealed her cultivation. Did you know?”

Chi Xiyan lowered her head slightly. “I… knew.”

There was no point in hiding it anymore.

“Of course. You were the one who brought her into the household. Knowing your nature, you would not have brought someone home without looking into them thoroughly first.”

“And the other fighter from last night. Do you know who that was?”

Chi Xiyan blinked, slightly caught off guard. Then she shook her head.

From the way Chi Jingwen was asking, he apparently already knew who the other person was.

Before Chi Xiyan could speak to ask, she heard Chi Jingwen say, “Then again. He never showed himself in front of you. That makes sense.”

Chi Jingwen let out a quiet sigh. “That is perhaps for the best. Grudges from the older generation should not be passed down to the younger one.”

Chi Xiyan’s heart gave a sudden start.

Chi Jingwen’s words made her feel, vaguely, as though she were on the edge of something she had long been searching for.

What exactly was Chi Jingwen trying to say?

That mysterious fighter. Did he know the truth of what had happened back then?

Chi Xiyan raised her head, about to ask.

Chi Jingwen had already raised his hand. “Never mind. Those things from the past should not be brought up again.”

“Xiyan. I have always known you have your own ideas.”

“As your father, I am glad that you think for yourself. You do not have to follow my wishes in everything.”

“Young people should forge their own path.”

“What happens between you and Muxue is not something I will interfere with without reason.”

“Father.” Chi Xiyan’s eyes sharpened. “What do you mean by that?”

Chi Jingwen smiled faintly. “I have always known that you have been finding ways to act on Muxue’s behalf, ahead of me.”

“I have always known.”

“Your care for Muxue is plain for anyone to see.”

“This old man is not so blind as all that.”

Chi Jingwen let out a quiet sigh.

“Take, for example, what you did last night. Undoing the toxin on Muxue’s body.”

“You said you used a secret method from Medical Immortal Valley to clear the poison.”

“But in truth, you were never able to prepare an antidote for that poison, were you?”

Chi Xiyan’s face went pale with shock.

Chi Jingwen’s words struck like a thunderclap, leaving her mind ringing.

“Father, I…” She tried to speak, her face drained of color.

Chi Jingwen shook his head. “You do not need to explain anything. I obtained a sample of the toxin used on Muxue last night. I know full well what it is capable of.”

“As for how exactly you managed to remove it from Muxue’s body…”

“That, I will not ask about.”