Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Lu Shi Qing: Favorability Plummets

Before this, Shen Sang Ruo and Bai Mu Mu did not get along, but they both kept up a polite front. Bai Mu Mu had never struck so openly; her tricks were always sneaky. She must have believed this time she could land a fatal blow, so she dropped the act. After all, who could survive falling into roaring lava?

Immortal Lord Chang Li warned in a calm voice: “Be more careful of her in the future; she is not friendly to you.”

Shen Sang Ruo nodded.

But since the other side had already acted first, she could not just swallow the anger. She asked softly: “May I ask Immortal Lord Chang Li for help?”

He asked lazily: “Help you with what?”

She lifted the corner of her mouth and said: “Since she loves drawing the Fire Phoenix’s hate so much, it would be reasonable for the Fire Phoenix to chase her all the way, right?”

Before she had been swept up by the Fire Phoenix, the formation was already in place. Most likely, they had escaped safely and were out of the Fire Phoenix’s range. She would not let them have it easy.

The voice inside Blazing Heart spoke with lazy mischief: “My Fire Phoenix has a big temper lately. The ones who provoked it and even tore down its nest cannot be let off lightly.”

The two of them hit it off at once, their tempers oddly well matched.

He said with assurance: “Focus on your cultivation; leave this matter to this Immortal Lord.”

Shen Sang Ruo felt a stir in her chest and answered yes.

A few kilometers from the volcano, on a flat stretch of ground, Wen Xuan handed Bai Mu Mu a vial and said in a low mood: “This is a simple soothing potion I made from Fire-Scale Vine.”

He added quietly: “After you drink it, the heat here won’t affect you for a while.”

“Thank you, Second Senior Brother,” Bai Mu Mu said sweetly, then added in a small voice, “but…” She glanced helplessly at her bandaged arm.

Both her hands had been burned to different degrees. Wen Xuan tipped the vial to her lips and fed her the medicine.

“Senior Brothers are so good to me. Meeting you is truly my blessing,” she said, her eyes bright as she looked at the three of them.

The three only gave her tight smiles, even bitter ones, and the air went quiet again. They turned, almost without thinking, to stare at the volcano, their gazes heavy with grief.

Six days had passed since Shen Sang Ruo fell into the magma. Their eyes had gone from holding a thin thread of hope to a numb despair. In their hearts, they had to accept she was not coming back. Each time they looked at that volcano, their eyes stung and their chests went tight.

Wen Xuan spoke with a catch in his voice: “If we had been more careful and not rushed to take the Fire-Scale Vine, Little Ruo might not have ended like this.”

Feng He Yun said dully: “We were holding the Fire Phoenix in place so well. Why did it suddenly turn and fly toward Junior Sister?”

“I… I don’t know,” Bai Mu Mu answered in a small voice. “I did what Second Senior Brother said and hid behind a rock. Then the Fire Phoenix just came over.”

These days, they had asked her a hundred times what happened. She had prepared a perfect story in advance. Even the details were flawless.

Feng He Yun could not help pressing: “Then why did you run toward Fifth Senior Sister?”

“I panicked and didn’t see Fifth Senior Sister was there. I tried really hard to push her away, but Fifth Senior Sister was so focused on the formation that she didn’t react…” Bai Mu Mu looked more and more wronged. She bit her lip, her voice going teary.

Wen Xuan forced himself to say, steady but hurting inside: “Enough. It was an accident. It’s not her fault. Eldest Senior Brother, don’t question her anymore, and Junior Sister was hurt trying to save Little Ruo. She did her best.”

Little Ruo was gone. Their only Junior Sister now was Bai Mu Mu. Thinking that Shen Sang Ruo had left while still at odds with them made Wen Xuan’s head throb. He must not let a new conflict grow with Bai Mu Mu.

He thought bleakly: [If I hadn’t gone to gather Fire-Scale Vine and had stayed with Bai Mu Mu, maybe she wouldn’t have panicked, and the ending wouldn’t be like this. Or if we had never come for the Fire-Scale Vine at all…]

He did not know why such thoughts came. Bai Mu Mu could finally live like a normal person again. He should have been glad. Yet the price was Shen Sang Ruo’s life. He could not say he didn’t regret it.

“Alas,” Feng He Yun sighed at last, saying nothing more.

Bai Mu Mu suddenly broke down, unable to bear the pressure, and cried with guilt: “It’s all my fault. Going to pick the Fire-Scale Vine startled the Fire Phoenix. It was my carelessness that drew it toward Fifth Senior Sister. I harmed Fifth Senior Sister. It’s all my fault.”

The more she acted like this, the more Wen Xuan and the others ached for her, and they comforted her, saying it was not her fault, that they didn’t blame her. She was a victim too. At least on the surface, this had nothing to do with her. She had accidentally harmed her Senior Sister; of course she felt bad.

This tactic of retreating to advance had never failed her. And now that Wen Xuan and the others had mostly accepted Shen Sang Ruo’s death, she should pull their feelings back and keep pushing her plan.

She sobbed louder: “It’s all my fault… all my fault… sob…”

“It is your fault,” Lu Shi Qing said coldly.

[See, I knew it…]

Bai Mu Mu suddenly froze. What did Lu Shi Qing just say? The “Third Senior Brother, you don’t need to comfort me” she had prepared stuck in her throat.

Seeing her stop, Lu Shi Qing repeated, each word like a stone: “It really is all your fault.”

Bai Mu Mu realized she had not misheard. Had Lu Shi Qing lost his mind?

“Yes, you didn’t do it on purpose,” he said, eyes burning, “but like you said, you caused all of this. Shen Sang Ruo’s death is tied to you. Shen Sang Ruo was killed by you.”

Lu Shi Qing, who had never said a harsh word to Bai Mu Mu, glared at her and forced the words out through his teeth.

She had felt Lu Shi Qing’s growing coldness toward her these days, but she had not expected that, because of Shen Sang Ruo’s death, he would grow a trace of hatred toward her even with favorability so high.

[Warning! Warning!]

[Target Lu Shi Qing’s emotions toward host are extreme. Favorability dropping fast!]

[Ding: Lu Shi Qing favorability -10, current favorability 78.]

[Ding: Lu Shi Qing favorability -15, current favorability 63.]

[Ding: Lu Shi Qing favorability -20, current favorability 43.]

The System’s alarms filled Bai Mu Mu’s head. Lu Shi Qing’s favorability fell and fell, stopping only at 43. In one swoop, she had lost 45 points. Every capture target started at 30 favorability. She had spent two years to raise Lu Shi Qing a total of 58 points. Now, in a blink, only one fifth remained. How was that any different from two years of work gone to waste?

Bai Mu Mu roared at the System in her heart: “Wasn’t Lu Shi Qing the one who hated Shen Sang Ruo the most? Then why drop so much? Why!”

“Aaaah! Why?!”

Even when she first became a captor, no target had ever lost so many points at once. Why was this happening?!

“Feng He Yun and Wen Xuan didn’t react like this. Lu Shi Qing always hated Shen Sang Ruo the most!”