Living Up to You

Chapter 32

“Which demon dared to be presumptuous at my Cangjia?” Cang Yu shouted in a deep voice. A white light whirled around him and he rose on spot.

Ling Xi smelled the blood and rotten flesh when she opened the box. She almost vomited. Others chanted spells and looked around.

“Haha…” A series of sharp and rampant laughter was heard but no figure could be seen. “Haha…master, this disciple came to wish you happy birthday!”

Cang Yu’s face suddenly paled and his lips were in a thin line. He looked at the sky in the direction of the source of the sound. The murderous aura on his body lessened a bit. Qing Kui had pulled Ling Xi behind him to protect. When he heard this sentence, the hand holding Ling Xi tightened and it trembled slightly. Ling Xi glanced at Qing Kui’s face. it was even worse than Cang Yu’s. When she looked at Qing Lian and Qing Nian, they were frowning and their expressions were not good.

“Qing Feng?” Cang Yu frowned slightly and asked.

“It must’ve been hard for you to still remember my name!”

That sharp female voice continued to hover in the sky and laughed. Cang Yu didn’t make a move. The others also didn’t move. Their eyes moved vigilantly to the source of the voice.

“Qing Feng, come down.” Cang Yu said while he also stared at the sky.

Qing Feng was obedient. A silver light appeared in the blue sky. After the sudden dazzling light, a woman who sat on a cloud floated down. Her slender body was wrapped in a white long dress. The black hair outlined her beautiful figure.

For a moment, Ling Xi was stunned. This woman didn’t look as arrogant as her laughter. She had a pair of clear eyes on her deadly pale face. People wouldn’t be able to help themselves from loving her upon seeing her.

“No! Master!”

Ling Xi was still looking at that woman when she heard Qing Nian’s shout. She looked anxiously over. She saw a light emerged on Cang Yu’s hand and he attacked the woman named Qing Feng. Qing Nian flashed quickly and intercepted the murderous blow. Ling Xi looked again. In a blink of an eye, the cloud that was under the woman got in her hands. With a light pinch, the cloud turned into a human form.

It was actually Xue Ran.

In another blink of an eye, the palm of Cang Yu turned into a fist and pulled backwards. The light mass disappeared into thin air. Qing Nian turned and confronted the woman in white.

Xue Ran was in a panic state when she was held in the front of Qing Feng. Her black hair fluttered and was indistinguishable from Qing Feng’s.

Qing Nian seemed to be trying his best to stay calm. His expression was resolute. His lips were almost in a thin line. After half a while, he said, “Senior sister, let go of Xue Ran.”

The chaotic information in Ling Xi’s head was being organized. This woman was called Qing Feng. She called Cang Yu master and Qing Nian called her senior sister. It wouldn’t be wrong that she was once Cangjia’s disciple…

“Don’t call me senior sister!” The pitiful appearance of the woman disappeared. Her black eyes were bloodshot. Even her pale lips became red. She glared full of hate at Cang Yu and said, “Didn’t you see just now? He wanted to kill me?”

While she talked, the fingers holding Xue Ran’s neck deepened a bit more. Immediately, the lapel was stained with blood.

Cang Yu frowned deeply, “Qing Feng, let Xue Ran go. In remembrance that you were once my disciple, I will show you some mercy and send you in the circle of reincarnation.”

“Haha…” Qing Feng laughed out loud. She said with a disdainful face, “I have once gone in it three hundred years ago! Unfortunately, I reincarnated into the demonic ways! Actually, master, shouldn’t you be a bit proud? Your former disciple is now the demon king who can call the wind and summon the rain in the demon realm!”

- Call the wind and summon the rain: do whatever one wishes

As soon as this remark fell, only the sound of the water could be heard on Shuimai Peak. There was a series of breath being drawn. Someone couldn’t hold back and whispered, “Bone-eating demon!”

Bone-eating demon?

The memory in Ling Xi’s mind gradually surfaced. Two years ago, she and Xue Ran had been spotted by the bone-eating demon on the way to Donghua Mountain. At that time, the outcome of the discussion was that the bone-eating demon came for Ling Xi.

Looking at it today, that didn’t seem to be the case.

When she met Qing Kui at that time in the netherworld it was also because he chased the bone-eating demon into the netherworld. After, he followed her and Qing Lian to the Eastern Sea and the bone-eating demon was never mentioned again.

Bone-eating demon; eats the bones and retain the skin. She specialized in attacking beautiful woman of the mortal realm, swallowing their flesh and bones and leaving their beautiful skin.

Suddenly, Ling Xi’s mind cleared up. On the eve before she was imprisoned at Xuwang Cliff, Qing Kui had mentioned Qing Feng to her.

“In fact, originally master had five disciples. Three hundred years ago, I had a junior sister.”

“Junior sister was obedient and cute. She was very talented. She followed me all day long and called me senior brother Qing Kui. It happened that she liked to be beautiful. In the end, she was bewitched by the devil and entered the devilish way. Now, she fed on the mortal realm’s women’s skin all day long…”

“I was ordered to expel her devilish heart and bring her back to Cangjia Mountain, but I mishandled…”

Ling Xi sorted her thoughts. If she remembered Qing Kui’s words correctly, Qing Feng had been killed by Qing Kui and fell into the demon ways?

- Qing Feng fell from an immortal to a devil. After being killed by Qing Kui, she reincarnated and fell into the demonic ways.

“Qing Kui! Let Qing Kui come see me!” Qing Feng shouted Qing Kui’s name.

The hand that grabbed Ling Xi’s hand tightened and tightened, but there was no trace that he would stand out.

Qing Nian saw the blood flow more and more from Xue Ran, his face became almost transparent and he said hoarsely, “If you let her go first, second senior brother would naturally see you.”

Qing Lian who had been silent for a long time also shouted, “Qing Feng, why do you have to be so stubborn. You and I haven’t seen each other for a long time as sisters. That is my disciple, can you let her go?”

Qing Feng pretended not to have heard. Her eyes curved and smiled very alluring and abnormally charming. She grabbed Xue Ran’s neck with one hand and the other touched her (XR) face. Her nails ran across her (XR) cheek and said charmingly, “Tsk, tsk, truly a beautiful face. If the skin is pulled away, would I be able to use it?”

Qing Nian’s face paled more. His eyes showed that he was restraining very much.

Qing Kui let go of Ling Xi and rose on his sword.

“The one who killed you is me. If you want to take revenge, take it on me!” Qing Kui said through gritted teeth.

Qing Feng’s anger suddenly dissipated and the blood faded away from her eyes. She seemed so soft as if water could come out of her. She smiled slightly and said in a soft voice, “Senior brother Qing Kui.”

It was rare for Qing Kui to be serious. He frowned, “Let go of Xue Ran.”

If Xue Ran wasn’t held by Qing Feng, she would’ve long fallen. If Qing Feng doesn’t let go of her, she might die from blood loss.

Qing Feng still laughed softly and stared infatuated at Qing Kui. She blinked and changed her appearance, “I know that you don’t like my appearance. How about now? What do you think?”

Qing Kui froze and Qing Feng changed her appearance again, “Or do you like this one?”

Qing Feng relaxed a bit. Xue Ran slid down her (QF) body and was picked up again by Qing Feng. Qing Kui said again, “Little junior sister, let go of Xue Ran.”

Qing Feng seemed to be very happy hearing him call her “little junior sister”. Her eyes were translucent, but in the next moment, they turned dark and she said in a low voice, “No, now there is another little junior sister at your side.”

Anxiousness appeared on Qing Kui’s face. Qing Feng laughed, “You want me to let her go? I can! Where is Ling Xi? Let Ling Xi exchange for her!”

“No!” While Qing Kui spoke, he took action regardless of everything. He couldn’t use spells, so he stabbed at her with Xiangyin.

Although, Qing Feng was holding someone hostage, her movements weren’t slower than his. She dodged left and right, making the blood flow more out of Xue Ran.

“Second senior brother.” Qing Kui’s hand had been grabbed by Qing Nian.

Qing Nian’s eyes were red and he looked at Qing Kui almost pleadingly. Qing Kui’s clenched hand trembled slightly. Even in face of such a Qing Nian, he didn’t want to exchange Ling Xi for Xue Ran.

However, Qing Feng already saw where Ling Xi was. She landed steadily in front of Ling Xi and grinned creepily.

“Are you willing to exchange for her?” Her fingers touched Xue Ran’s cheek again.

Xue Ran had lost her consciousness long ago. She lay in Qing Feng’s arms paralyzed like mud.

“Alright,” Ling Xi answered without hesitation. Her cultivation was much higher than Xue Ran’s now. It was better for her to be the hostage than Xue Ran. Also, she had promised Qing Nian that she would definitely keep Xue Ran safe.

“Then, come over.”

Ling Xi glanced at Qing Nian and Qing Kui with an expression to let them not to be worried. She slowly stepped forward.

The guests had kept a distance between them and the location of Qing Feng. One didn’t know whether it was because they took Qing Feng’s skills of the demon king into consideration or that it was because she was the former disciple of Cangjia that they didn’t make a move towards her.

When Ling Xi went over, Qing Feng threw Xue Ran down and held her (LX).

Originally, Ling Xi wanted to use one hand to cast a spell, but she didn’t expect that she was so easily suppressed by Qing Feng. She couldn’t move at all.

It was her who had underestimated the demon king.

“You dare to touch her!” Qing Kui’s eyes cracked.

“Haha…” Qing Feng laughed. “Sure enough, you like her.”

Qing Kui’s anger dissipated a lot, but his face changed between red and pale repeatedly.

Qing Feng continued to laugh, “I knew it! You haven’t gone down the mountain for three hundred years. The first time you appeared was with this bitch and you tried to please her in a hundred ways!”

“We haven’t played games for many years…,” Qing Feng said slowly. “It wasn’t easy to let you come chase me. You chased me like before. You chased, I ran away. When you encountered this bitch, you forgot about me!”

Qing Kui didn’t speak. Ling Xi didn’t expect Qing Feng to say such a thing. For a moment, she also didn’t know what she was feeling in her heart.

“I searched for so many years. It turned out that you like this face.” Qing Feng’s nails crossed Ling Xi’s cheek, making a line of blood. “Senior brother Qing Kui, after I ate this face, like me, alright?”

Qing Kui’s face already have a terrified look on it. He looked back at loss at Cang Yu and the junior uncles. All of them frowned. It was obviously that they couldn’t easily make a move because Ling Xi was in Qing Feng’s hands.

“Senior sister Qing Feng, originally, senior brother Qing Kui liked you.” Ling Xi’s face hurt and the throat pierced by Qing Feng’s fingers hurts more, but she had to hold back and said hoarsely, “He told me that you were obedient, cute and talented.”

When Qing feng heard that, her expression turned a bit for the better. She murmured, “Really?”

“He…told me personally…cough, cough….”

“Really?” Qing Feng stared at Qing Kui and asked softly, “Senior brother Qing Kui, the one you like is me?”

Ling Xi kept blinking at Qing Kui. Unfortunately, he never answered Qing Feng.

Qing Feng laughed hysterically, “Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you don’t answer. It is fine as long as you keep chasing me.”

While she spoke, she captured Ling Xi. She flew in rapid speed and said mischievously, “Senior brother Qing Kui, come chase me. Come chase me quickly. Come! If you can catch me, I will return her to you. If you can’t catch me, I will eat her skin!”

With such a big movement, the fingers that were on Ling Xi’s neck went in deeper. All the strength on Ling Xi’s body was suppressed by her demonic energy. She only felt that the blood kept flowing out. As her consciousness gradually went away, she heard Qing Kui shout behind them, “Qing Feng! If you dare to touch a strand of her hair, I vow to never let you and I coexist under the same sky in this eternal life!”

The faint coldness spread from her neck to her whole body. Her body seemed to be knocked out by someone and absorbed all the coldness that didn’t belong to her. When Ling Xi regained consciousness, she didn’t feel any pain. There was also nothing that imprisoned her on her body. She only didn’t regain her consciousness. It was so cold that she curled up but still couldn’t feel the slightest warmth.

“Haha…if you all have the ability, then come in. If you can’t come in after an hour, I will remove her bones and peel her skin to make new clothes for me!”

Ling Xi summoned her energy and looked in the direction of the voice. She vaguely saw Qing Feng’s white dress that was full of blood. Her place face also had a demonic redness. Here seemed to be a cave. Qing Feng was standing at the entrance of the cave. Perhaps, it was because of a seal that she couldn’t hear what the outsiders were saying, but from Qing Feng’s words, she could guess that there were many people who came.

“Cang Hai, Cang Qu, either let Cang Yu come see me or send Qing Kui in! Do you think that I don’t know where here is?” Qing Feng burst again in a laughter that would give people goosebumps.

Ling Xi silently casted a spell which made her body gradually warm up. The wounds on her body also healed quickly.

She must’ve been thrown directly to the ground by Qing Feng. Her chest was facing down. Her face was facing Qing Feng and could see the light on the outside. Looking at the place that she was in, except for darkness, she couldn’t see anything else. Even if she could touch the ground under her hands and she could touch the broken stones, but she only saw darkness. She seemed to be wrapped in a dark fog and the bitter cold seemed to come from this black fog.

From time to time, there would be sounds impacting the seal and furious roars could be heard unclearly. Qing Feng still laughed and said something, but Ling Xi didn’t have the energy to figure it out. She only stared at Qing Feng. While she (QF) was casting a spell to strengthen the seal, she (LX) quickly chanted a spell and flew deeper into the endless dark cave.

Qing Feng gave another sharp laughter, “Ling Xi, right. It’s right to run like that. Haha…”

Ling Xi didn’t know whether she (QF) intentionally said that to delay her (LX) movements or whether she (LX) truly fell into a trap she (QF) had set. Under such circumstance, she didn’t have time to think carefully about it. If she didn’t run now, she (QF) could kill her with one pinch of a spell!

Qing Feng’s laughter was getting farther and farther away. The light that penetrated through the opening was also getting weaker and weaker. There seemed to be no end to this dark cave. She didn’t know when the gravel road under her feet had disappeared. Her feet seemed to be stepping on clouds. It felt soft. Ling Xi took out Bingling sword and flew on it. However, no matter whether she flew high or low, fast or slow, she couldn’t bump into anything.

If the dark fog at the entrance was just to cover up the original appearance of this cave, then, where she was right now seemed to be nothing but darkness.

Ling Xi’s heartbeat couldn’t help but quicken. She casted a spell. Nine lights were lit around.

The spell worked. The nine lamps were very bright, but they couldn’t light the way ahead of her clearly. Ling Xi let them light around her. She could barely see herself. Not far away was still dark.

She casted another spell. Forty-nine lamps formed the eight divinatory trigrams. Unfortunately, the black fog didn’t dissipate. Ling Xi didn’t give up and lit the lights again.

For a moment, countless of lights were lit in this dark world. It was like the starts shining in the night. Nothing more beautiful could be imagined, but they still couldn’t light up this dark night.

“Qing Feng?” Ling Xi suspected that this was a virtual realm that Qing Feng created for her and probingly called her name.

No one answered. As soon as she stopped talking, the surroundings were so quiet that it was frightening.

She bit her finger and casted a spell with blood. After she rubbed her eyes, the world seemed to be much clearer, but the darkness was still dark. It wasn’t a virtual realm given to her by someone.

Ling Xi suppressed the panic in her heart and casted a spell again. The flickering lights suddenly flew up and millions of them were burning at the same time and even turned into a sea of fire.

Ling Xi protected herself with a seal and continuously exerted force to spread this sea of fire infinitely.

She was no longer the weak Ling Xi of the past. Even if she hasn’t cultivated an immortal body yet and even if she had never been in a dangerous situation alone, but she has the power of big brother, of eldest senior brother and of master on her. She wouldn’t let herself get lost in this darkness and compromise with this virtual realm.

The fiery fire burned in the darkness and engulfed the black fog. However, this realm seemed to be fearless. Even in the sea of fire, it remained abnormally quiet.

Ling Xi flew a bit higher and looked around. She finally found a place that was slightly out of the ordinary which the fire couldn’t invade.

It was a regular circle. It wasn’t big in this space of darkness. Ling Xi went to it on her sword. Before reaching it, a biting cold came at her.

It wasn’t the cold of the snow. It was a cold that constrained and crushed all temperature.

She just stepped into that place when her body felt like it had fallen into an ice cellar. Her seal disappeared. Bingling sword hung itself back on her waist. The fire was burning all around, but the light couldn’t shine in the small circle.

Ling Xi moved forward cautiously in the darkness. She was afraid that she would miss something, but when she touched something, she was inexplicably nervous.

She couldn’t see what it was. She only felt that it was cold and sturdy. Even if it was wrapped in fabric that coldness still seeped to the bottom of her heart through her fingertips.

She tried to light the lamp, but the spark disappeared before it was ignited. She continued to explore. She vaguely felt that it was a human body and it felt inexplicably familiar.

Then, the purse of tail feather on her lit up.

Faint silvery white light. It brightened and darkened.

She quickly removed the purse of tail feather and opened it. A pearl that looked like a drop of water floated out.

She suddenly remembered that this was something the little king of hell gave her in the netherworld that year to please her. She vaguely recalled that it seemed to be called, “Soul Attractor”.

She saw that the light of Soul Attractor spread and illuminated her whole body through the darkness. It seemed to have its own will and looked like someone had casted a spell on it. It floated in the air and fell in a direction on its own.

Ling Xi’s eyes had been locked on it. Naturally, she could see the thing that she had just explored through the pearl’s light.

Caught off guard, she took two steps backward. Her legs softened and knelt on the ground.

For two years, no one dared to mention that person in front her. Even she refused to think about that person and refused to touch anything that was related to him. However, how many times had she awakened from a nightmare midnight drenched in cold sweat? How many times had she wanted to hug the person next to her, but all she touched was emptiness? How many times did she wake up crying from a nightmare and shouted for him to come back and that she would never chase away or abandon him again?

She thought that even if she died, she would never see him again.

For a time, she didn’t know whether she was startled, happy, sad or feeling grief. She only stared at Soul Attractor illuminating the body.

Closed eyes, straight nose, cold thin lips and a face that was so handsome that it seemed to be a statue. The man that had been day and night with her; the man who had appeared countless of times in her dreams; the man who she had thought that she would never see again in this life, suddenly appeared in front of her.

Soul Attractor landed on the waist of the body. It gradually lost its luster. The coldness in the circle also gradually dissipated and the fire spread.

Ling Xi’s thoughts were a mess, but she already subconsciously embraced that body and protected him in her seal.

Nan Zhi.

This body, even the lines at the corners of his eyes were exactly the same as Nan Zhi’s.

Nan Zhi, is it you?

The fire illuminated his face. It was the same. The familiar face, not only the face, the black clothes on his body was also exactly the same as the former Nan Zhi. Even his cold body temperature made Ling Xi feel calm.

Ling Xi hugged him and touched his face with one hand. Tears fell unconsciously. A tear fell on his face. The tightly closed eyes shook slightly.

Although, she knew that Nan Zhi’s original body was a Chinese rose and she saw that Chinese rose disappear two years ago; as an immortal spirit, when you die, the soul would be scattered.

However, this person…

When she embraced him, she thought how great would it be if he was Nan Zhi.

If he was Nan Zhi, then, she didn’t want to be separated from him ever again.

The man in her arms suddenly moved and his eyes suddenly opened. His eyes revealed a faint chillness like a dried well that hasn’t seen a ripple in ten thousand years. He got up and easily got out of Ling Xi’s arms. He raised his eyes and looked at her.