The Light of the Righteous Path Has Gone Offline - Chapter 4

“Dual cultivation?”

Ming Jing stiffened for a moment, almost convinced she had misheard.

Otherwise, how could anyone propose such an… such an absurd condition for an exchange?

She abruptly raised her head and met Murong Chi’s half-smiling gaze. Darkness and delight flickered in the woman’s eyes.

“Yes. You heard correctly.”

Murong Chi kicked aside the chains near her feet, bent down, and crouched beside Ming Jing once more. Her warm breath brushed across Ming Jing’s face.

“I mean dual cultivation.”

“I will save your life and allow you to continue living. I can even repair your meridians so that you can cultivate and grow stronger again.”

“In exchange, you must dual-cultivate with me and use the sword aura remaining within your body to help me break this seal.”

Survive.

Cultivate.

Grow stronger.

Any one of those promises alone would have been enough for Ming Jing to abandon everything else.

Let alone all three together.

The cavern dwelling was silent.

Murong Chi’s cool, pine-scented fragrance filled Ming Jing’s nose, while blood dripped steadily onto the floor.

Ming Jing gasped for breath and heard her heartbeat pounding more heavily with every beat inside her chest.

It was called temptation.

“Ming Jing, you absolutely cannot agree to her!”

“Murong Chi is a character in the wife-chasing crematorium script. The only person who can dual-cultivate with her is the script’s protagonist—the Dao Venerable of the Wanxiang Dao Sect.”

“Quickly! Reject her with righteous indignation, then sever your heart meridians and die in front of her!”

For the first time, the voice sounded utterly frantic and panicked.

Murong Chi’s face, beautiful enough to bewitch all living beings, moved directly in front of Ming Jing’s.

Her breath was fragrant, and the crimson mark at the corner of her brow made her appear as bewitching, dazzling, and soul-stealing as blood itself.

“Ming Jing, do you agree?”

Amid the voice’s endless, clamorous protests, Ming Jing’s face remained deathly pale.

Then her bloodstained lips curved into a smile.

She smiled with genuine happiness.

“All right.”

“I agree.”

The moment those words left her mouth, the familiar sensation of heavy dizziness surged over her again.

It dragged at her limbs and devoured her consciousness, trying to pull her down with it into a boundless hell.

The cool aura before her moved even closer, carrying a faint medicinal fragrance.

Something cold pressed against her lips.

Fresh air flowed into her lungs, and her heartbeat quickened from slow to rapid.

Ming Jing’s eyes widened.

She stared at Murong Chi’s pale skin, exquisite features, and indifferent expression as her mind stopped functioning entirely.

She remained frozen while the woman before her wrapped an arm around her waist, supported the back of her head, and bent down to kiss her deeply.

When Murong Chi finally drew away, her lips were stained dark red.

“This is the first step toward breaking the seal.”

Murong Chi looked at Ming Jing’s dazed expression and curved her lips.

From the corner of her eye, she glanced at the faint light flowing across the cavern walls, and an indescribable pleasure filled her heart.

She picked up Ming Jing’s bloodstained right hand.

Then she brought two fingers of her left hand together and drew them across the palm of her own snow-white right hand.

Dark-red blood flowed from the cut.

Murong Chi spread open her right palm and pressed it against Ming Jing’s.

Their blood mingled and streamed between their joined hands.

She closed her eyes and began chanting beneath her breath.

A fierce current of air swept through the cavern.

This cavern dwelling, hidden deep within the cave, had originally been dim and lightless.

It was so thoroughly cut off from the outside world that even the burning rays of the sun could not penetrate it.

Yet in the next moment, brilliant white starlight rose around them.

The starlight came from their joined palms.

“This is…”

Ming Jing’s pupils contracted. She murmured helplessly, unable to find the words.

Murong Chi opened her eyes.

With the fingertips of her left hand, she traced through the air and drew the shape of a star.

She held it before Ming Jing and spoke leisurely.

“The choice is before you.”

Ming Jing’s gaze flickered as she met a pair of cool, smiling eyes.

Murong Chi was clearly smiling, yet there was no emotion in her gaze at all.

She remained cold and indifferent, as though she were merely carrying out the most ordinary action imaginable.

This was a transaction.

A transaction between her and Murong Chi.

Ming Jing silently repeated those two words.

The emotions stirring within her heart gradually sank back into stillness.

She raised her still-bleeding left hand.

Curling her fingertip, she drew out a stream of blood and let it fall onto the star.

The starlight shattered.

For a brief moment, a white glow scattered over Ming Jing and Murong Chi like a dazzling curtain of flowing stars.

Warmth spread from their joined palms.

In an instant, it surged through Ming Jing’s entire body.

The trembling left behind by the cold pool’s undercurrent vanished.

Though she remained within the deep cavern dwelling, Ming Jing felt as though warm sunlight were shining over her.

“This is a life-and-death contract,” Murong Chi said close beside her ear.

Ming Jing raised her eyes.

The red-robed woman was extremely close.

Blood still flowed from the wound in Murong Chi’s right palm.

Although Murong Chi had not previously been injured, her aura now seemed slightly weaker than before.

A trace of crimson stained her lips.

Blood.

Murong Chi separated their palms, wrapped an arm around Ming Jing’s shoulders, and asked gently, “What do you want to say?”

Her final syllable rose with a breathy quality.

Perhaps she found crouching for so long tiring, because she sat down directly in front of Ming Jing, allowing the hem of her robes to become stained with the blood and dust covering the floor.

“Why…”

Ming Jing found it difficult to adjust to Murong Chi’s profound gaze and intimate posture.

Still habitually gasping for breath, she asked, “Why is it a life-and-death contract?”

A life-and-death contract used the power of heaven and earth to establish a bond connecting the lives and deaths of two people.

They would live and die together and share one another’s injuries.

That was the source of the blood at Murong Chi’s lips.

The grave injuries within Ming Jing’s body had been reduced by half the moment the starlight shattered.

It was as though a heavy mountain had been lifted from her chest, allowing her to continue breathing and remain alive.

“Your injuries were too severe. Other than forming a life-and-death contract, I had no other way to save you.”

Murong Chi pressed her lips together.

The blood spread evenly across them, making her appear even more decadently beautiful and vividly alluring.

“After the seal is broken, I will dissolve the contract.”

Murong Chi lowered her head and leaned closer.

Her gentle gaze rested on Ming Jing’s lips, and her smile was overflowing with charm.

“I saved your life.”

“Ming Jing, while the life-and-death contract remains in effect, you must obey me.”

She lifted her increasingly bloodstained right palm and stroked Ming Jing’s cheek.

“If you behave, I will suppress the Black Lotus Mark for you and help you cultivate again.”

Ming Jing lowered her eyes.

She looked at the faint trembling in Murong Chi’s palm and her fine, dense eyelashes.

Her body had stiffened like stone.

Only after a long time did she manage to form a complete sentence.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Dual-cultivate.”

Murong Chi smiled coolly.

Then she leaned forward and captured Ming Jing’s lips.

She pried open her teeth and pressed deeper without hesitation, showing no concern for the taste of blood filling both their mouths.

It was as though she were merely declaring something.

Crystal-clear light flowed across the cavern wall.

Ming Jing sat leaning back, using Murong Chi’s arm to steady herself.

When she lowered her gaze, she could see the dim light flickering within the woman’s eyes.

Murong Chi’s breath fell against her neck.

Crimson blood and flushed color mingled together, creating an atmosphere both languid and intimate.

Murong Chi was clearly kissing her, yet there was not the slightest hint of emotion or desire in it.

Her eyes were colder than the undercurrent of the thousand-year-old cold pool.

Her body was colder than profound ice that had remained frozen for ten thousand years.

Yet her name burned fiercer than fire, and the splendor of her moving red robes overwhelmed the surrounding darkness.

Ming Jing could not understand her.

Nor did she need to.

She did not care about any of this.

Obeying Murong Chi, doing whatever she asked, going wherever she ordered—none of it mattered.

As long as she could survive, cultivate, and grow stronger, that was enough.

The voice had said she was cannon fodder.

It had said the Dao Venerable was the protagonist.

It had said falling from the cliff and dying was her predetermined fate.

Then the fact that she remained alive now meant she had already escaped that fate.

The voice claimed that the script’s developments did not require a reason.

But Ming Jing was determined to demand one.

After her thoughts wandered chaotically for some time, Ming Jing suddenly found it difficult to breathe.

Murong Chi was still leaning over her.

Sensing how hard Ming Jing was gasping, she licked her lips and finally released her.

However, she remained extremely close.

Her voice was low and hoarse when she spoke.

“That was the ceremonial kiss for establishing the contract.”

She raised her right palm and curled it into a fist.

Watching crimson blood drip between her fingers, she lifted her brows.

Her left hand formed a hand seal.

A hazy white glow appeared, and the small wound in her palm healed at a visible speed.

An itching sensation spread from deep within Ming Jing’s heart throughout her entire body.

Ming Jing lowered her head and pulled aside her tattered, blood-soaked robes.

The wounds covering her body were healing at the same speed.

Sword wounds.

Saber wounds.

Arrow wounds.

Even the marks left by the claws of that great demon.

Every injury vanished.

In mere moments, her body seemed reborn.

This vitality had arisen because of Murong Chi’s hand seal.

It was also the result of the life-and-death contract they had formed.

As the price, Murong Chi’s lips grew several shades paler, and blood seeped between her clenched teeth.

Deathly white and vivid crimson.

The same colors as Ming Jing.

For a moment, Ming Jing’s emotions became complicated.

Murong Chi opened her eyes, her gaze indifferent.

With her left hand, she grasped the chains hanging loosely from Ming Jing’s wrists and said with a smile, “This does not suit you.”

Then she brought two fingers together and crushed them.

Dust scattered across the ground.

Ming Jing stared in stunned disbelief.

She knew Murong Chi was powerful, but she had never imagined she would be this invincible.

These black-iron chains had been forged in the Human Realm Prison using Red Lotus Karmic Fire and were specially designed to restrain prisoners.

Yet Murong Chi had reduced them to dust with a casual movement.

And this was Murong Chi while she was still trapped beneath a seal.

The astral winds beneath the cliffs of Wuchang Mountain were already terrifying, proving just how formidable the seal was.

How unimaginably powerful would Murong Chi be once it was broken?

Could she be a Tenth-Realm expert, the kind who appeared only in legends?

Murong Chi.

The calamitous great demon.

Peerless in elegance, unfathomably calculating, mysterious beyond measure.

Why had such an extraordinary existence appeared within these sealed grounds?

Ming Jing watched as Murong Chi casually crushed the remaining three lengths of chain in the same manner.

A trace of secret curiosity rose within her heart.

Her body suddenly lifted into the air.

Ming Jing instinctively flailed and grabbed the front of Murong Chi’s dazzling red robes.

Looking down, she discovered that Murong Chi had picked her up and was carrying her toward the white-jade couch.

“Dual cultivation.”

The woman’s cool voice echoed repeatedly inside Ming Jing’s mind.

Her heart rose and fell erratically.

Without realizing it, she tightened her grip on Murong Chi’s robes.

Then she heard the woman’s amused voice.

“It seems you’re quite impatient.”

Impatient for what?

Ming Jing looked at Murong Chi in complete confusion.

The woman’s brilliant red brocade robes were worn loosely.

Under Ming Jing’s desperate tugging, they slipped open slightly.

Beneath them, a thin red inner garment became faintly visible, along with an exquisitely shaped collarbone as white as snow.

Murong Chi looked down at her with a teasing smile.

The curve of her lips was almost scandalously flirtatious.

Yet she was unexpectedly beautiful.

Soul-stealing and heart-stirring.

Could her true form possibly be a fox?

Ming Jing muttered quietly inside her heart.

When she saw Murong Chi stroll past the white-jade couch with languid, careless steps, she visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she looked down and saw a small, circular pool beneath them, clear and pale as moonlight, its water gently rippling.

This was the source of the dripping and flowing water echoing throughout the cavern dwelling.

It was also where the undercurrents of the cold pool converged.

“Wash yourself clean.”

Murong Chi’s cold voice sounded above Ming Jing’s head.

The arm around her waist withdrew.

Ming Jing’s suspended body dropped and crashed into the pool, splashing Murong Chi thoroughly.

The pool water was very cold.

Ming Jing could not help hissing.

Her body instinctively curled in on itself.

Only then did she remember that her external injuries had already healed.

Stunned, she slowly stretched out her limbs.

Her fingertips lifted a crystal-clear droplet of water, and she felt as though an entire lifetime had passed.

After forming the life-and-death contract, the wounds on the outside of her body had recovered.

However, her destroyed cultivation, shattered sword bones, and severed meridians were irreversible internal injuries.

The Black Lotus Mark between her brows remained bewitching and strange.

It stirred the demonic aura surrounding her and slowly devoured her vitality.

Murong Chi had said she could suppress the demonic aura of the Black Lotus Mark.

She had said Ming Jing could cultivate again.

But right now, Ming Jing was still a cripple.

She did not even possess the strength to restrain a chicken.

The young sword cultivator who had once roamed freely across the Four Seas, the peerless genius everyone had admired, was now a useless cripple who could not even lift a sword.

And even if she could lift one, what then?

Her bonded sword had already been broken.

Her long journey along the sword path had ended here.

Ming Jing wanted to laugh, but the corners of her lips stiffened when she tried.

Behind her, Murong Chi’s sharp, cold gaze remained fixed upon her.

The woman was still waiting.

Dim light fell from the cavern ceiling, casting a long shadow.

Ming Jing clenched her fists and sank beneath the water.

When the pool covered her head, she closed her eyes.

A trace of moisture gathered at the corner of one eye, blending into the water and disappearing without a trace.

She brought her fingers together and scooped up the cold pool water, pouring it over herself.

Her bloodstained robes were torn apart and floated across the surface.

Blood spread through the water.

The once-clear pool quickly became murky and crimson.

Ming Jing washed the blood from her body again and again until Murong Chi’s cool voice sounded above her.

“That is enough.”

Ming Jing relaxed her clenched fist.

Her hand struck the surface, splashing water that blurred her vision.

Amid the drifting mist, Murong Chi’s eyes appeared faintly unfocused.

Her gaze as she looked down at Ming Jing was long and complicated.

“Change your clothes.”

Murong Chi stood beside the pool.

With a sweep of her right hand, a pile of robes appeared on the bluestone tiles near the water.

“Choose a set.”

Ming Jing did not move.

She looked down at her completely bare body beneath the water, then at Murong Chi standing only a short distance away.

The tips of her ears turned faintly red.

Murong Chi appeared not to notice.

Seeing that Ming Jing still did not move, she raised an eyebrow.

After a pause, amusement entered her voice.

“If you would rather wear nothing, that is also fine.”