Transmigrated as the Villain’s Sword - Chapter 58

Ling Chenyan fell into a deep sleep amidst her frustration. Guan Luowei sat in a chair, appearing to rest with her eyes closed all night, but in reality, she remained vigilant of the movements around them.

However, that eerie gaze never reappeared, as if everything she had felt before was merely an illusion.

The next day, Guan Luowei opened her eyes and looked toward the bed. The girl was still fast asleep, one foot having kicked out from under the covers at some point, revealing a fair ankle. She stepped forward to cover her properly, her gaze lingering on the girl’s long eyelashes. After a moment, her eyes moved down to the girl’s crimson lips. Her gaze shifted; ultimately unable to restrain herself, Guan Luowei leaned down and placed a feather-light kiss on the girl’s forehead.

Just as she was about to pull away, two warm wrists suddenly hooked around her neck, tightening unconsciously.

Guan Luowei’s face flushed. She looked up to find the girl seemingly just waking up, opening her eyes blearily as she murmured, “You’re up so early?”

Guan Luowei’s lips curled into a slow smile. “Mm. Are you hungry?” she asked softly.

Ling Chenyan was about to nod, but after three seconds of thought, she suddenly pushed Guan Luowei away, dove under the covers, and turned her back to her. Her tone was no longer soft: “Hmph. What are you doing here?”

Caught off guard, Guan Luowei felt both startled and amused. She looked down at the girl and asked gently, “What would you like to eat?”

Before the words had even left her mouth, there was a loud bang bang bang on the door. Chen Juan’s voice drifted in from outside: “Breakfast time! Breakfast time! Get up already!”

Ling Chenyan sat up abruptly, her hair a mess. Her inner robe had slid open at the collar, revealing faint, lingering red marks. Guan Luowei’s gaze darkened slightly. She unhurriedly moved forward to fix the girl’s clothes and said, “Get dressed first. I’ll wait for you outside.”

Seeing that the door remained closed, Chen Juan’s eyes darted around. She cleared her throat to shout again, but the door opened from the inside to reveal a cold face. Chen Juan’s extended hand retracted instantly, and she chuckled awkwardly. “Ahem, well, breakfast is ready.”

Guan Luowei nodded and glanced at her. “No need to call us tomorrow morning.”

Chen Juan’s eyes lit up instantly. “Right, right, right! Of course, understood!”

Guan Luowei found her excitement somewhat inexplicable, but she simply nodded. What Guan Luowei didn’t know was that as soon as Chen Juan left, she acted like a megaphone, instructing the servants that under no circumstances were they to disturb Guan Luowei and Ling Chenyan tonight.

This led to Ling Chenyan receiving teasing glances from everyone in the Chen household the moment she stepped out. By the time she reached the dining table, she was thoroughly confused.

It wasn’t until noon, when Chen Juan prepared a table full of “restorative” foods, that Ling Chenyan looked at her with a twitching eye. “Are you… not feeling well lately?” she asked, her voice sounding pained.

“What are you talking about?” Chen Juan said while ladling a bowl of black chicken soup for Ling Chenyan. “This was all prepared for you.”

Ling Chenyan: “?”

She looked at Chen Juan in a daze, then at Master Chen’s deeply mysterious expression, and finally at the calm Guan Luowei. She blurted out, “I don’t need this.”

Chen Juan paused, looked Ling Chenyan up and down, and coughed. “Right, right. If you don’t need it, you don’t need it. Young people have good stamina. Makes sense, makes sense.”

Ling Chenyan: “?”

“Chen Juan,” she said through gritted teeth. “I am saying that my body is fine. Do you understand?”

Chen Juan nodded, still smiling in that punchable way. “Think of it as a pre-emptive supplement.”

“Pre-emptive?” Ling Chenyan felt increasingly lost, as if she had missed something vital while she was asleep. Seeing her like that, Chen Juan assumed she was just being shy; with a teasing look, she finally stopped talking. Guan Luowei, meanwhile, had no idea what riddles they were playing and remained silent throughout.

It wasn’t until dinner that Ling Chenyan realized where the problem lay. Chen Juan kept stopping her from eating too much, saying things like, “If you eat too much, you’ll throw up later.”

As she spoke, she shot a look at Guan Luowei. Guan Luowei remained calm and even nodded quite seriously. “Eating too much indeed makes one vomit.”

Chen Juan’s gaze turned fervent. Ling Chenyan, finally, understood exactly what the issue was.

She grabbed Guan Luowei and pulled her to the side, demanding fiercely, “What did you say to Chen Juan today?”

Guan Luowei looked bewildered but replied, “Only this morning, I told her not to come knock on the door for breakfast tomorrow.”

Ling Chenyan finally knew where the crux of the matter was. She ground her teeth and stared at Guan Luowei. “Why did you tell her not to call me for breakfast tomorrow?!”

If she was going to say something, she should have made it clear! Giving only half the story—no wonder Chen Juan misunderstood.

Being scolded made Guan Luowei freeze for a moment. She bit her lip and said, “I was afraid you’d be woken up and wouldn’t sleep well. I was planning to buy breakfast and keep it warm with demonic energy so you could eat it whenever you woke up.”

Ling Chenyan’s words of blame died in her throat. The woman just wanted her to have a good sleep; she had no idea the sentence could be interpreted that way. Looking at the calm Guan Luowei, Ling Chenyan somehow saw a trace of “wronged” emotion in her expression. She scolded herself in her heart, but thinking of Guan Luowei’s actions the previous night, she was still frustrated.

Taking the opportunity, she asked, “Then why were you like that last night?”

To remain completely unaffected while I was right there! Too much!

Guan Luowei raised her phoenix eyes and suddenly grabbed Ling Chenyan’s hand, writing a few characters in her palm.

Ling Chenyan’s expression went from confusion to shock, and finally, she looked at Guan Luowei with guilt. As it turned out, she had been blaming her wrongly all along.

Chen Juan didn’t know what they were talking about, but after they returned, the two seemed even closer. Guan Luowei, now aware of Chen Juan’s misunderstanding, glanced at her and said, “We will have to trouble you to call us tomorrow.”

Chen Juan: “Wait, aren’t you two… ahem…”

Ling Chenyan gave a fake smile. “Nothing happened. You’re overthinking it. Her Highness just wanted me to sleep in a bit.”

“Oh,” Chen Juan said, her face full of disappointment.

Ling Chenyan wasn’t in the mood to deal with her. She asked the system: [Sys, can you detect if someone is following us?]

[I can only detect primary characters.]

[Fine. But the only primary character left should be the heroine, right? Mu Yunze has likely been thrown into the snake pit already.]

[No. The life signs for both the lead and heroine are still active.]

[…] Ling Chenyan was surprised but found it logical. He was the original male lead, after all; it would be weirder if he died that easily.

Ling Chenyan sighed. Compared to Mu Yunze, the person following them in the shadows was currently the bigger “thorn in her throat.” Over the next few days, she became more reserved, no longer lounging around disheveled to bait Guan Luowei. She slept in a defensive posture, yet the person in the dark didn’t show themselves until the night before the Winter Sacrifice.

Ling Chenyan believed Guan Luowei wouldn’t make a mistake. This meant the person’s goals were significant, given they were willing to hide for so long without acting.

After dinner, Master Chen retired to his room. Chen Juan rubbed her belly and said to the pair, “How about a stroll to help digestion?”

Ling Chenyan was hesitating when she caught a glimpse of Guan Luowei’s expression suddenly tightening. Her Highness vanished in a flash. When Ling Chenyan saw her again, Guan Luowei was standing before Master Chen’s bedroom door. With a flick of her palm, the door burst open.

As Guan Luowei stepped inside, the sounds of fighting and crashing furniture echoed out. Ling Chenyan and Chen Juan exchanged a look and immediately rushed in. Chen Juan had been wondering why Guan Luowei was suddenly fighting her father, but upon reaching the door, she saw Guan Luowei clashing with a mass of black mist. Her father was slumped over the table, his condition unknown.

“Dad!” Chen Juan ran toward Chen De. Seeing her, the black mist sent a palm strike her way. In the moment of crisis, a force suddenly pushed her out of the way. Guan Luowei, seeing the mist trying to escape, gave a sharp look and gave chase.

The sudden turn of events left everyone stunned. Once she snapped out of it, Chen Juan ran back into the room to help her father. After checking his breath, she let out a sigh of relief and shouted, “Someone, come here!”

Ling Chenyan followed her in. Seeing that the old man was merely unconscious, she too felt relieved. The Chen estate was a hive of activity. Ling Chenyan looked at Guan Luowei as she returned from the clouds. “Are you alright?”

Guan Luowei shook her head, but her expression was solemn. “It was those evil things.”

“Dead?” Ling Chenyan asked.

Guan Luowei nodded, brushing dust off her robes with a frown of disgust. “It turned into a puddle of rot.”

“The thing that’s been spying on us?” Ling Chenyan asked.

“No,” Guan Luowei replied. If the thing spying on them was like this, she would have rooted it out instantly. The true watcher was hidden much deeper. However, while clashing with the black mist, she had sensed a flicker in that hidden presence’s aura—it vanished again in an instant.

Guan Luowei lowered her gaze. Aside from the watcher, this evil creature appearing in Baibian Town was highly suspicious. Just as she was about to use her communicator to check on the situation in the Demon Realm, a servant’s joyful voice rang out: “Master is awake!”

The two exchanged a look and a nod. Ling Chenyan entered the estate to understand the situation, while Guan Luowei remained outside to contact her clan.

Inside, Chen Juan waved to Ling Chenyan. “Is Guan Luowei back?” Ling Chenyan explained the situation and then turned to Chen De. “Can you tell us what happened?”

Chen De coughed twice and looked at Chen Juan. Once she nodded, he began to recount the scene: “I was cultivating, thinking about how I could ensure Chen Juan’s safety and family legacy if I were gone in a hundred years. I felt I should work harder to increase my cultivation and live longer. The moment that thought occurred, a voice in my head asked: ‘Do you want to become stronger?'”

“At first, I thought I was suffering from internal demons, so I tried to block it out. But the voice seemed to come from my soul-sea. No matter what mantra I recited, it remained. It told me that if I just ate one thing, my cultivation would soar. Initially, I was firm that using external objects was a heretical path, but as it kept whispering, I actually began to crave the thing it mentioned.”

“The moment that desire appeared, a black, oval object appeared on my table. I reached out uncontrollably to grab it. That was when my door was kicked open, and I fainted.”

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Ling Chenyan frowned. The appearance of this evil thing was too bizarre. Baibian Town was remote and hard to find; it was highly suspicious that it targeted Chen De so directly.

Guan Luowei entered the room after finishing her call. She asked Chen De, “Is that object still here?” Chen De didn’t even wait for a second thought; he produced the black object. “I managed to grab it in my hand.”

Guan Luowei nodded, and the object floated into her palm. Chen De frowned. “I remember a faint demonic aura in the air when it appeared. You don’t think the Demon Race is behind this, do you? How hateful!”

Master Chen didn’t know their identities, but Chen Juan did. Seeing her father insult the race of her savior right in front of her, she coughed. “Dad, they’re analyzing what it is. Don’t talk.”

Chen De fell silent and watched Guan Luowei. A moment later, the object turned to ash in her hand. Guan Luowei said flatly, “It’s not the demons. Demonic energy is rigid and domineering; it wouldn’t be this sinister.”

“Then what is it?”

Guan Luowei looked up. “Seeds.”

The others were puzzled. Guan Luowei didn’t elaborate. She had just placed a bit of the substance on her fingertip and found that it tried to take root immediately and alter her body; she had crushed it into dust instantly.

If she wasn’t mistaken, this thing was a concretion from the Evil Race. If a cultivator ate it, their power would explode in the short term, but they would turn into a half-human, half-evil monster. Even a Nascent Soul expert like Chen De almost couldn’t control the impulse; lower-level cultivators would certainly have no escape.

Guan Luowei fell into thought. The source of these things had originally started with the Lingxiao Immortal Sect. If there was an anomaly, they should have been the first to fall. Yet, news said they appeared normal. Whether that normalcy was actual or just on the surface, she didn’t know.

Coincidentally, she had been planning to return to the Lingxiao Sect to find something. Once things here were settled, she would go back once more.

Outside the town, a white-robed old man suddenly spat out blood. He snapped his eyes open. “How could it fail? He was only a mere early-stage Nascent Soul!”

His expression flickered with uncertainty. Finally, under the cover of night, he slowly began to sneak back into Baibian Town.

At the same time, similar events were happening in various remote towns. A silent disaster was slowly descending upon the edges of the cultivation world.

Author’s Note:

Guan Luowei: This Highness feels wronged, but This Highness won’t say.