Chapter 113

Chapter 113: Seven Emotions Gu and Seven-colored Butterfly

Back at his own cave, Lu Shi Qing sat on the stone bench outside. One hand propped his cheek; the other was raised level with his eyes. A colorful butterfly rested on his long fingers. He had preserved it with a special method, a process no easier than refining a Seven Emotions Gu. It was a Seven-colored Butterfly, once Shen Sang Ruo’s favorite.

Lately, when he was not refining the Seven Emotions Gu, he had spent all his time making Seven-colored Butterfly specimens. This one was the most perfect.

He stared without blinking at the lifelike butterfly, holding the pose for a long time, as if he were looking through it at something else. He still remembered when Shen Sang Ruo received a Seven-colored Butterfly for the first time. She looked up at him with bright eyes, smiling as she said: “Thank you, Third Senior Brother!” She had been so happy. How could she not like him? How had it come to this, where she felt nothing for him at all?

In his memory, those bright eyes turned to disgust as she said coldly: “Lu Shi Qing, you are disgusting.”

He had also forgotten that when he put a Seven Emotions Gu on Shen Sang Ruo, he crushed the first Seven-colored Butterfly he had ever given her right in front of her.

Lu Shi Qing’s gaze trembled, his lashes quivering. The doubt lasted only a heartbeat; then stubbornness covered his face again.

Just then, the notice of Shen Sang Ruo’s expulsion spread across the sky. Lu Shi Qing clenched his hand and stood at once. [I must find her and get a clear answer.]

At the same time, Shen Sang Ruo left the Flying Cloud Sect at dusk, hurrying to bring this good news back to the Ninghua Sect. While crossing a dense forest, she heard the soft rustle of insects moving. With her current cultivation, her senses were razor sharp.

She stopped and said mildly: “Come out.”

Lu Shi Qing stepped from the darkness and stood before her. His deep black eyes locked onto her, holding back a flood of words. Shen Sang Ruo spoke first with a mocking tone: “Lu Shi Qing, you chased me all this way. Are you trying to put the Seven Emotions Gu on me again?”

Lu Shi Qing tightened his grip on the Seven Emotions Gu and kept his lips pressed shut. Even though he knew that with his current cultivation he could not force the Gu on her, he had still brought every Seven Emotions Gu he had refined.

Seeing this, Shen Sang Ruo knew she had guessed right. He had not given up. The scorn in her eyes deepened. The last time he had asked Luo Chu to put the Seven Emotions Gu on her, she had already guessed that Lu Shi Qing sensed the truth about her missing feelings. She understood exactly why he had come.

Lu Shi Qing flipped his palm. The Seven Emotions Gu vanished, and a Seven-colored Butterfly appeared in his hand. Twilight had fallen, and when he fed spiritual power into the butterfly, it glowed brilliantly in the gray woods, its half transparent wings shimmering with flowing light.

“For you,” Lu Shi Qing said. He paused, then softly called her name: “Sang Ruo.”

It had been so long since he had spoken to her so gently that his throat felt a little sore.

Shen Sang Ruo almost laughed, and then she actually did. Hearing her mocking laugh, Lu Shi Qing’s hand at his side clenched into a fist, yet his eyes stayed stubborn. He took a few steps closer and held the Seven-colored Butterfly out to her, hoping to see her take it with the same joy as before.

She let the smile fade. A red flame sprang from her fingertip and, the instant it touched the butterfly, burned it to ash. The fire dropped onto his palm and scorched it, yet he acted as if he felt no pain. Without a trace of anger, he turned his hand and produced another Seven-colored Butterfly, explaining in a low voice: “This one is not as perfect as the last.”

His stubborn motion said plainly that if she burned one, he would offer another, until she accepted.

Shen Sang Ruo did not show mercy. Her flame burned the butterfly again, and again it seared Lu Shi Qing’s hand. When he reached for yet another specimen, Shen Sang Ruo said coldly: “Enough. Even if I burn your whole hand to ash, I will not accept anything from you. You know that better than I do, so stop lying to yourself.”

Lu Shi Qing finally stopped. A shadow fell over his eyes. His calm mask tore, and he demanded in a harsh voice: “Why? You love Seven-colored Butterflies so much. Why won’t you take it?”

“Lu Shi Qing, sometimes I truly do not understand what you are thinking,” she said. “On one hand you try to put the Seven Emotions Gu on me. On the other, you offer me a Seven-colored Butterfly. Will that not split you and raise a heart devil? You did all those things to me. Do you think a single butterfly can make up for it? Is that not a joke?”

“But you love Seven-colored Butterflies so much,” he repeated, still stubborn. He could not believe she had no feelings for him. “Why did you…”

She cut him off, speaking with clear meaning: “People’s feelings change.” After a pause, she added, slow and firm: “Besides, I never had that kind of feeling for you.”

Lu Shi Qing’s nails dug into his burned palm until the flesh blurred with blood. His thin lips pressed into a hard line as he stared at her merciless face.

“I already said it that day and made it very clear,” she said. “Everything was only your own fantasy. Do you want me to repeat it again because you refuse to let go?”

She let out a cold laugh and went on: “You chased me to ask two things, did you not? What I felt for you before, and why the Seven Emotions Gu has no effect on me.”

Lu Shi Qing’s fingers curled. Faced with her cool indifference, he hesitated before the answers he already knew.

“As someone who has refined the Seven Emotions Gu many times, you understand better than I do why it does not work on me,” she said. “Yes. It is exactly what you think.”

She had no feelings left for any of them.

Her words struck like a heavy hammer, and Lu Shi Qing’s body swayed.

“So you do not need to use the Seven Emotions Gu on me anymore,” she said. “Even if you try a thousand times, it will not do anything.”

Lu Shi Qing lowered his eyes, his lashes hiding the last of his stubbornness.

“You had Luo Chu try to put the Gu on me twice,” she said. “The facts are right in front of you, yet you still refuse to believe. Lu Shi Qing, you are the same as you were back then, always living in your own world.”