CH 84

Villainous Master (6)

After being in seclusion for two weeks, Ning Jing Yu emerged, and Song Xu Yi noticed that she appeared unhappy and in low spirits, though she wasn’t sure if it was just her perception.

Could there be an issue with Ning Jing Yu’s cultivation method?

“I missed you so much while you were in seclusion, Master,” said Song Xu Yi, feeling concerned but unable to assist Ning Jing Yu at the moment.

Instead, she attempted to ease Ning Jing Yu’s tension by cooking a scrumptious meal and engaging in lively conversation at the table.

The little girl’s smile appeared sweet and genuine, and her attentive gaze caught Ning Jing Yu’s attention.

Ning Jing Yu, thinking that Song Xu Yi had forgotten about the humiliating experience from the rainy night half a month ago, was beginning to relax. She was about to mention that she planned to take a longer break before her next seclusion when Song Xu Yi interrupted and said, “You know, I might have missed you too much because I even dreamt about you!”

Ning Jing Yu’s lips that had just started to relax tightened again, as she processed Song Xu Yi’s unexpected comment.

Song Xu Yi was oblivious to the subtle shift in Ning Jing Yu’s demeanor and kept laughing, saying, “The dream was bizarre! You were dressed up as a ghost, trying to scare me.”

Embarrassed, Ning Jing Yu lowered her head and blushed.

She took a sip of water and coughed to conceal her reaction. She then attempted to steer the conversation in a different direction, asking, “Did you have that dream because you’re scared of ghosts?”

“I’m not scared of ghosts,” replied Song Xu Yi, shaking her head seriously as she gazed at Ning Jing Yu, who looked as beautiful as a painting. She continued with her flattering words, saying, “I know that with Master nearby, I’m safe from any harm.”

Although Ning Jing Yu was aware of her disciple’s tendency to sweet-talk and lie, she couldn’t help but feel pleased by Song Xu Yi’s words, causing the corners of her lips to curl up in a slight smile.

However, her expression quickly returned to its usual stoicism as she replied, “That’s not necessarily true. I’m not all-powerful either.” Her long eyelashes lowered as she spoke.

Ning Jing Yu made a polite comment out of habit, but was taken aback when Song Xu Yi nodded seriously in response, saying, “You’re right, Master. As the number one sword practitioner in the Three Realms, you should be even more diligent…”

Ning Jing Yu quickly comprehended her disciple’s intention. Was Song Xu Yi trying to persuade her to enter seclusion once again?

She gave her little disciple a profound look, unable to fathom what was going on in her mind.

Ning Jing Yu had no intention of entering seclusion again anytime soon.

She had always found excuses to avoid unnecessary engagements and did not want to deal with mundane matters.

As she looked at the delectable spread of food on the table, an idea sparked in Ning Jing Yu’s mind.

Although Ning Jing Yu wasn’t particularly concerned about her own appetite, she couldn’t help but eat more of the food since it was prepared by Song Xu Yi.

Ning Jing Yu knew that her disciple was making rapid progress in her cultivation, and her body required a considerable amount of spiritual energy to sustain it. However, traditional cooking methods tended to cause a significant loss of spiritual energy.

To prevent herself from needing to enter seclusion and to hasten Song Xu Yi’s advancement in a shorter period, Ning Jing Yu decided to learn how to cook food in a way that would retain more spiritual energy.

In the beginning, Ning Jing Yu struggled to control the amount of food she cooked, resulting in meals that were unappetizing, but with practice, her cooking skills improved. Each time she cooked, the dishes became more delicious and filled with spiritual energy.

Although Song Xu Yi’s vegetable bed was well-tended, it lacked the necessary knowledge of the plants in the Immortal World, resulting in low yield and spiritual energy content of fruits and vegetables.

To address this, Ning Jing Yu took over the care of the vegetable bed and flower garden. As a result, the flowers bloomed beautifully, and the vegetables were full of spiritual energy and thrived.

Ning Jing Yu found herself surprisingly satisfied with the situation. Strangely enough, she used to find the world uninteresting and couldn’t take an interest in anything. But now that she had tried it, she suddenly discovered that the work she had previously considered trivial and complicated had its own unique charm.

In contrast, Song Xu Yi’s feelings were very different from those of Ning Jing Yu.

As she watched her Master become absorbed in growing vegetables and flowers, she felt anxious.

Song Xu Yi is concerned that Ning Jing Yu, who is the top sword cultivator in the world and a key figure in the future battle against the Demon Race, is wasting her valuable time on gardening. In Song Xu Yi’s opinion, this is a waste, especially considering that the original plot summary reveals that Ning Jing Yu dies at the hands of the Demon Lord.

Song Xu Yi believes that by focusing on cultivation, Ning Jing Yu can increase her chances of survival in the future.

However, since Ning Jing Yu enjoys gardening as a hobby, Song Xu Yi cannot reveal the plot or force her to stop. Instead, she tries to hint at her concerns in a subtle manner.

“Master, how much knowledge do you possess regarding the Demon Race?”

While watering the flowers, Ning Jing Yu paused and glanced over at Song Xu Yi, slightly averting her eyes. “Why are you asking about the Demon Race all of a sudden?”

“The Demon Race used to be so ferocious, but in recent years, they have suddenly ceased their activities. I cannot help but feel that they are hiding a great conspiracy behind the scenes, and I fear that the Three Realms will suffer once more…”

Ning Jing Yu trailed off and turned to continue watering the flowers. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you no matter what,” she said.

Song Xu Yi nodded, but continued with concern, “Of course I trust Master, but with a master of your calibre, you are presumably facing an important force of the Demon Race. I am worried that if you take on the Demon Lord–“

Ning Jing Yu interrupted, “Do you think I would lose?”

Ning Jing Yu stopped watering the flowers and turned to give Song Xu Yi a deep look.

Seeing the serious expression on Song Xu Yi’s face, with a slight frown, Ning Jing Yu suddenly smiled. She put down the watering can and reached out to pinch Song Xu Yi’s cheek. Meeting Song Xu Yi’s rounded eyes, Ning Jing Yu raised her chin slightly and looked proud. “That dark and ugly Demon Lord of the Demon Race is not even worthy of a single strike from my sword,” she said.

As Song Xu Yi looked at Ning Jing Yu’s expression, her apprehension only grew heavier.

At first, Song Xu Yi had believed that Ning Jing Yu might lose to the Demon Lord due to her lack of strength, but now she realized that Ning Jing Yu’s carefree and naive attitude might be the real cause of her potential defeat.

As Song Xu Yi sighed to herself, she began to feel that motivating Ning Jing Yu to train harder was a greater challenge than protecting the Song family.

Of course, Ning Jing Yu was not oblivious to Song Xu Yi’s concerns.

As she observed the distrust in her disciple’s eyes, Ning Jing Yu let out an exasperated laugh and swept her hand, summoning a cloak into the room. She nonchalantly picked up Song Xu Yi, enlarged her flying sword, draped the cloak over her, and set off towards the north.

The weather grew colder as they journeyed further, but Song Xu Yi found the overcoat to be incredibly warm. She nestled in it and ate a couple of spiritual fruits that Ning Jing Yu had pushed into her mouth. The fruits’ spiritual energy was hard to digest, and before she knew it, Song Xu Yi had drifted off to sleep.

In contrast to the peaceful and bustling atmosphere of the Immortal Realm, everything in the Demon Realm appeared wild, primitive, and pulsing with power.

In the middle of the land stood a gloomy palace, and as they approached, Song Xu Yi could feel the unsettling energy emanating from it. Ning Jing Yu headed straight for the palace on her sword.

“That’s the Demon Palace, isn’t it?!” Song Xu Yi exclaimed, instantly wide awake and frightened.

She had never imagined that Ning Jing Yu would be so reckless as to fly her straight to the Demon Palace.

The Demon Race was a looming threat to the Three Realms, and bringing herself to the Demon Palace could mean that Ning Jing Yu was risking her life. Did she not care about her own survival?

Despite her fears, Song Xu Yi didn’t want to draw attention to herself, so she could only tug on Ning Jing Yu’s sleeve and desperately signal for her to be cautious.

However, Ning Jing Yu seemed oblivious to Song Xu Yi’s hints. Instead, she pinched Song Xu Yi’s cheek again, wrapped her in the warm cloak, and cast a spell to conceal her Qi, gesturing for her to remain quiet.

Song Xu Yi’s body was numb with fear as she watched Ning Jing Yu ride her flying sword into the Demon Palace and land on its roof.

The more she was afraid of something, the more they happen. Song Xu Yi could see that a meeting was being held inside with many Demon Generals gathered below. Her heart sank as she prepared to accept her fate, already composing her last words in her mind.

However, to her surprise, an entire incense stick of time passed without any of the Demons noticing their presence.

The Demons gathered below were indeed in the midst of a discussion about attacking the Immortal World. The Demon Lord, shrouded in a black cloak, revealed only a pair of dark eyes and spoke with a hoarse and flat voice, making it difficult to discern her features.

Song Xu Yi had heard rumors about the irreconcilable blood feud between Ning Jing Yu and the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord’s husband, whom Ning Jing Yu had killed, was said to have been the previous Demon Lord.

As expected, the Demon Lord down below gnashed her teeth and spoke of Ning Jing Yu with deep animosity.

“Ning Jing Yu is the biggest obstacle to our attack on the Three Realms… If we remove Ning Jing Yu, the entire Three Realms will be ours in a matter of days…”

When she heard this, Song Xu Yi subconsciously looked at Ning Jing Yu, but Ning Jing Yu still looked calm and collected, as if she was not the one the Demons hated and wanted to eat her flesh, but someone else.

It was not long before the meeting of the Demons ended.

Ning Jing Yu then flew with Song Xu Yi to the upper floor of the Demon Lord’s bedchamber, where, by some unknown method, a water mirror appeared in front of Song Xu Yi. In the reflection, the Demon Lord had removed her veil, revealing her pitted face.

Song Xu Yi’s eyes widened in shock.

“I did this,” said Ning Jing Yu, turning her head to speak without bothering to lower her voice. “She cultivated the charm technique and relied on the previous Demon Lord for sustenance. When I killed the previous Demon Lord, she was cut off from the source of her demonic energy, and her face gradually deteriorated to this state.”

Ning Jing Yu frowned as she spoke, “When she wasn’t disfigured, she had planned to seduce me,” she said with a hint of contempt. “She promised to give me the entire Demon Race,”

“As if I would need her to hand it over to me if I wanted to become a Demon Lord.”

……

The lack of awareness on the part of the Demon Lord below confirmed that Ning Jing Yu was considerably stronger than her.

This showed that Ning Jing Yu was not exaggerating earlier, and if she were in the Demon Lord’s position, she probably would not have noticed her own defeated subordinate.

This raised the question: if Ning Jing Yu was so strong, how could she end up being killed by the Demon Lord as stated in the plot summary?

Song Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling that she might have overlooked something, but since she couldn’t contact the system, she couldn’t find any clues to confirm her suspicions.

She watched the Demon Lord below closely as she changed her face in the mirror. One moment it was the face of an innocent girl, the next a beautiful young woman… Yet the Demon Lord seemed unsatisfied with all of them, throwing all the human skins to the ground, looking at her pitted face in the mirror, breaking down and cursing Ning Jing Yu as she cried out in pain.

“What did she look like before?” Song Xu Yi thought the faces the Demon Lord had replaced were already beautiful, but she didn’t expect the Demon Lord to be so unsatisfied with all of them.

With a slight frown, Ning Jing Yu produced a water mirror and revealed a stunning beauty with a provocatively exposed body and silky eyes.

“She was once the second most beautiful woman in the Three Realms,” she stated, pursing her lips.

Staring at the beautiful image in the water mirror, Song Xu Yi realized why the Demon Lord held such intense animosity towards Ning Jing Yu. The woman in the mirror was undeniably attractive, with a seductive and indolent gaze that could make anyone blush just from looking at her.

Song Xu Yi blushed, struggling to control her facial expression. She was about to steal another glance when she noticed the water mirror in Ning Jing Yu’s hand had disappeared. Ning Jing Yu’s expression had suddenly darkened, and she departed from the Demon Palace with her flying sword.

The frigid air in the sky was so cold that Song Xu Yi wrapped her cloak tightly around herself. Reflecting on the day’s events, she realized that everything had exceeded her expectations. She had never expected the Demon Lord to be so much weaker than Ning Jing Yu.

In the future, she couldn’t use the Demon Race as an excuse to push Ning Jing Yu to cultivate.

In her heart, Song Xu Yi sighed, realizing that in the future, Ning Jing Yu would be defeated by the Demon Lord, and there might be something she didn’t know about that situation. She could only stay vigilant and take things one step at a time.

Lost in thought, Song Xu Yi failed to notice the growing intensity of Ning Jing Yu’s sunken gaze beside her.

Without warning, Ning Jing Yu pinched Song Xu Yi’s cheeks with her hand once again.

Ning Jing Yu fixed her sober gaze on Song Xu Yi and addressed her by name for the first time, “Song Xu Yi, was she really that attractive?”

Song Xu Yi furrowed her brows, taking a moment to grasp what Ning Jing Yu was saying.

Ning Jing Yu’s expression then brightened into a smile.

This smile differed greatly from Ning Jing Yu’s previous ones.

Although she still wore her pure and dignified white clothes, her expression made her look like a demon girl who possessed all the charms in the world and was born to disrupt it. She no longer appeared to be a cultivator, but rather like a demon wreaking havoc on the world.

As Song Xu Yi stared at the red mole at the corner of Ning Jing Yu’s eyes, her heart rate inexplicably increased, and she found it difficult to avert her gaze. “Ma, Master?”

“Am I beautiful?” Ning Jing Yu asked, and Song Xu Yi nodded vigorously in agreement.

“In that case,” Ning Jing Yu’s smile grew more seductive, but her eyes darkened as she leaned closer to Song Xu Yi’s cheek, pinching it with force and gritting her teeth with each word. “As the number one beauty in the Three Realms, why do you keep thinking about that ugly Demon Lord, even when I am right here in front of you?”