A Consequence of Opposing the Heroine’s Halo (GL) - Chapter 32

She intended to rely on practicing the dangerous Wood-Devouring Sacred Scroll to protect Bai Tong.

The moment this thought surfaced, Liu Sanye startled herself. She never expected that a selfish person like her would one day make such a grand sacrifice for someone else.

Liu Sanye felt as though she had changed, yet she couldn’t pinpoint exactly how. Her thoughts were a tangled mess, and she was forced to stop her contemplation. She pinched her own cheeks and walked out of the room.

While squeezing her face, she stared at the cold pond in the courtyard and sighed repeatedly. Her face, still holding onto its baby fat, seemed to age three years in an instant.

Seeing Sanye step over the threshold, Bai Tong followed her out. She pressed from behind, “Sanye, what are you still thinking about?”

Pacing through the courtyard, Sanye eventually crouched by the edge of the pond. she traced circles on the water’s surface with her index finger and rested her chin on her knees.

Liu Sanye gazed deeply at the water, the shimmering reflections dancing in her eyes. “I’m thinking about how to avoid the dangers of practicing this technique.”

She spoke aimlessly. The ripples on the water overlapped one after another, and the sparse sound of wind blowing through the bamboo forest echoed in her ears. Everything seemed peaceful—if not for her messy hair sticking up in all directions…

Liu Sanye’s mind was completely unsettled, and the same was true for Bai Tong. Bai Tong crouched down and suddenly grabbed Liu Sanye’s wrist, her pale eyes vacant and dull. “You still want to practice this technique? Why?”

Liu Sanye’s thoughts were too chaotic to come up with a good reason on the spot. She just stared blankly at Bai Tong. Seeing this, Bai Tong’s heart went cold.

Bai Tong’s outstretched hand stiffened slightly. She asked softly, “Is it because of me?”

Bai Tong’s voice was gentle, like a feather brushing against the tip of Liu Sanye’s nose. Liu Sanye suddenly snapped out of it and laughed immediately. Her laugh was incredibly awkward. “How is that possible? Bai Tong, how can you be so narcissistic? How could I possibly practice this technique because of you? I find this technique very easy to handle, and its power is exceptionally great. Look, I only practiced for a few days and I could already crush Ma Shi. I crave power, so of course I’m reluctant to let it go! Besides, how is this technique dangerous? I haven’t felt anything at all. Don’t listen to Elder Xun and the others talking nonsense; they just like to be paranoid.”

Liu Sanye rattled off a long string of words without pausing for breath. After finishing, she stole a glance at Bai Tong, but Bai Tong remained somber, her expression unchanged.

Even after being together for so long, Liu Sanye still couldn’t see through Bai Tong. She sighed, her raised hand slumping dejectedly. She muttered, “Anyway, just don’t worry about it…”

Bai Tong looked down at the water. She didn’t know how to persuade Liu Sanye. After a long silence, she finally squeezed out a threat: “If you insist on practicing the Wood-Devouring Sacred Scroll…”

Bai Tong frowned and clenched her fists. “I will be angry.”

Bai Tong was angry. She stared at the water with a furrowed brow, not even sparing a glance for Liu Sanye.

Liu Sanye had never seen Bai Tong truly angry with her. She tentatively reached out and waved her hand in front of Bai Tong’s face, but Bai Tong didn’t even blink, completely ignoring her.

She’s really angry?

Liu Sanye quickly withdrew her hand. She asked cautiously, “Why do you have to be angry?”

Bai Tong replied, “Do you know what the danger I spoke of actually is?”

“What is it?”

Bai Tong turned her head and gazed intently at Liu Sanye. “Continuing to practice this technique will lead to demonic possession. Sanye, do you know what it means to fall into the demonic path?”

Liu Sanye broke into a cold sweat under Bai Tong’s stare. For some reason, her heart felt uneasy.

Bai Tong continued, “Once you fall, your mind will be controlled by demonic obstacles. You will no longer be yourself. You will lose your original heart and lose the ability to distinguish right from wrong. You will use any means necessary just to increase your cultivation.”

Having said that, Bai Tong looked at her quietly. “Even so, do you still want to practice this technique?”

Liu Sanye’s uneasiness gradually turned into alarm. She looked down, clutching her chest as her brain worked rapidly. She only wanted to practice the Wood-Devouring Sacred Scroll to protect Bai Tong, but she hadn’t expected that the side effect of demonic possession would cause such a strong reaction from her.

Bai Tong hated demonic cultivators. She should have known—otherwise, the original Liu Sanye wouldn’t have had her throat slit by Bai Tong’s sword. Demonic cultivation was an untouchable bottom line in Bai Tong’s heart.

However, if she didn’t follow the original plot, as a Wood-root cultivator without the protagonist’s aura, it was impossible for her to achieve a high level of cultivation.

She didn’t want to become a burden to Bai Tong later on…

A massive internal struggle took place in Liu Sanye’s heart. After a long while, she came up with a compromise. She swore she had never been this determined, not even during her college entrance exams: “Don’t worry, I absolutely, absolutely will not fall into the demonic path.”

Bai Tong looked at Liu Sanye in disbelief. “Even so, you still choose this technique?”

Liu Sanye nodded solemnly.

Bai Tong was silent for a long time. Finally, she said in a raspy voice, “I remember I once told you that I loathe demonic cultivators.”

Liu Sanye took a deep breath. “I remember. You told me.” When Old Demon Qiu fought Chu Danxue, Bai Tong’s words—”I loathe demonic cultivators”—had remained etched in her memory. Demonic cultivators had slaughtered Bai Tong’s entire family. Whether in the book or in reality, Bai Tong’s hatred for them had not diminished one bit; exterminating all demonic cultivators in the world had always been her obsession.

The corners of Bai Tong’s eyes were red, as if she were struggling to control some unspeakable emotion. “No matter what your reason is for insisting on this path, if you truly fall into the demonic path because of it, I…”

Liu Sanye smiled and took Bai Tong’s hand. “What will you do? Will you kill me?”

Bai Tong didn’t answer, but Liu Sanye guessed the answer. She felt a bit sad, but on the surface, she pretended not to care. “Relax, I won’t let that happen. You have to trust me.”

“Besides…” Liu Sanye’s spirited eyes darted around, and she finally pouted playfully. “A righteous, kind, helpful, selfless, innocent, and cute… youth like me could never be associated with the word ‘demonic’!”

Liu Sanye deliberately widened her eyes at Bai Tong. “And! Look at my face, it’s so harmless! I’m one step away from taking a pen and writing ‘Honest’ on my forehead! From head to toe, inside and out, I don’t look like the kind of demonic cultivator who kills without blinking. How could someone as excellent as me fall to the dark side~?”

As she spoke, Liu Sanye pouted aggrievedly. She stole a look at Bai Tong from the corner of her eye. “I think you’ve been spooked by Elder Xun’s alarmist talk. Since the Wood-Devouring Sacred Scroll is in the Hegui Sect’s library, there shouldn’t be a major problem. I’m telling you, Elder Xun is a bit of a phoney. You shouldn’t believe more than half of what she says.”

Bai Tong didn’t become happy because of Liu Sanye’s teasing. She only looked down and said, “I won’t let you stray from the path.”

Then she added, “Those words weren’t from Elder Xun. They were from Senior Brother Yiqing of Green Wood Peak.”

Liu Sanye scratched her head awkwardly. “Sorry, I remembered wrong. But then again, how do you know what that Senior Brother Yiqing says is necessarily true?”

At this point, a spark of inspiration hit Liu Sanye: This is the perfect opportunity to speak ill of Jun Yiqing, create a rift between him and Bai Tong, and mess up her harem!

Thus, Liu Sanye shamelessly began to badmouth Jun Yiqing.

She glanced around nervously, then whispered cryptically into Bai Tong’s ear, “I’m telling you, back in the Yellow Class, the Elder told us that getting too close to Jun Yiqing brings terrible luck!”

Basing her nonsense on the book’s content, Liu Sanye spoke with a straight face: “Jun Yiqing is the head disciple of Feng Zhu from Green Wood Peak. He looks like a gentleman on the outside, but inside, he’s a total philanderer! He’s provoked people everywhere: the Dragon King’s Palace in the East Sea, Cloud City of Guanlin, the Tianshui tribe in Qiuyi, the barbarian kingdoms of the Western Desert, and he won’t even let the ferocious Great Demons in the Cretaceous Mountains of the South alone! Except for the demonic cultivators of the Northern Snowy Plains, he’s basically flirted with cultivators across the entire world! His admirers are countless; it’s truly insane! Think about it—if so many people like him, he’s definitely not a decent man! A total flirt, a fickle flower!”

In the original book, many girls indeed liked Jun Yiqing because his character was that of a “Saint.” Whenever he went out for trials, he saved everyone he met, resulting in admirers all over the world. Later, when it was revealed that Jun Yiqing liked Bai Tong, she was pushed into the eye of the storm, becoming the enemy of all female cultivators in the world. It was a miserable situation. So, Liu Sanye badmouthing him was actually for Bai Tong’s own good.

Finally, Liu Sanye concluded, “In short, you must stay far away from him, the further the better. Likewise, you can’t believe a word he says. A man’s mouth is a lying ghost.”

Liu Sanye’s tall tales were so elaborate that Bai Tong was left dazed. She didn’t speak for a long time.

Seeing Bai Tong’s silence, Liu Sanye grew incredibly nervous, fearing she wasn’t believed. She quickly added evidence for herself: “I can prove it! You can go ask Elder Xun if there are a lot of girls in the Hegui Sect who like Jun Yiqing.”

The anxious Liu Sanye waved her hand in front of Bai Tong’s eyes. Bai Tong watched the little hand moving back and forth, then grabbed it. Then, Bai Tong reached out her other hand and gave Sanye’s nose a punitive flick. “Sanye, Senior Brother Yiqing is your savior. You shouldn’t speak ill of him.”

Unlike what she imagined, Bai Tong didn’t believe her lies and even punished her. Liu Sanye felt her character assassination plan had failed, and her heart went cold.

Liu Sanye’s face turned a bit red; after all, speaking ill of someone behind their back wasn’t exactly honorable—and the key was that she had been seen through!

She muttered dejectedly, “Fine, I won’t say it anymore.”

Bai Tong stroked Liu Sanye’s head and said with a smile, “Good.”

Liu Sanye wrinkled her nose, even more unhappy.

For some reason, she suddenly disliked that Jun Yiqing. Because she felt Bai Tong had a good impression of him, and that made her feel irritable.