Chapter 355

Chapter 355: Your Act Went Too Far

She still had dozens of Water Command Talismans. Maybe she couldn’t drain the whole lake, but even taking out half would let her see what lay below. Most important of all, if something dangerous really lived in the water, it wouldn’t just sit back and watch her pull a stunt like this.

Sure enough, just as she was about to use the third talisman, she felt a small ripple run through the space around her. The scene flipped-and she was suddenly standing in a wedding room.

Yu Zhi Yi stared in shock at the red-festooned bridal chamber, then looked down at herself. She was wearing a red wedding dress. It looked very familiar-exactly the dress she had worn when she married Du Zi Heng.

The door swung open, and Du Zi Heng walked in, also in bright wedding robes.

She found it absurd. [Can this illusion be a little more believable?] Then she blinked. [Wait… why am I calling it an illusion? This is my wedding night. Of course the groom would come into my room.]

“Jin’er, I finally married you,” Du Zi Heng said, eyes warm with deep affection. His refined, noble face carried the smile of a wish fulfilled as he poured out his heart: “From the first moment I saw you, I fell in love. I begged Mother to go propose-we had to be wed.”

“Jin’er, we will grow old together.”

Yu Zhi Yi still felt that something was off. Before she could think it through, Du Zi Heng said with a soft smile: “Jin’er, let’s drink our cross-cupped wine?” As he spoke, he lifted two cups from the table.

The wine was clear and richly fragrant. She didn’t like alcohol, but even she was tempted by the smell. She took the cup. Seeing the man drain his in one go, she raised hers-then in a flash shoved the rim into his mouth and, under his stunned stare, forced every last drop down his throat.

He choked and coughed: “Why?”

His features blurred, and a different, unfamiliar face came into focus-a plain-looking man in his forties with the strength of early-stage Foundation Establishment. At that moment he stared at Yu Zhi Yi in disbelief, clearly unable to understand how a woman could refuse her deepest desire. Without noticing, he let his private thought slip out as a question: “The deepest desire?”

Tilting her head, Yu Zhi Yi asked mildly: “Who told you my deepest desire is a husband?”

The man froze. He had never imagined that after all his scheming, he would lose for this reason.

“How could any woman not long for a husband who loves her?” he snapped.

She clicked her tongue: “The fact that I woke up from your illusion is the best proof I don’t.”

She’d been through two marriages. If she still hadn’t seen through things, that would be wasting the second chance heaven had given her. She added, shaking her head: “Besides… you didn’t even get my name right, yet you dared to guess my deepest desire-don’t you think that’s laughable?”

The man blinked, at a loss.

Yu Zhi Yi tossed a handful of powder. His face changed; he tried to hold his breath, but it was too late. In just an instant, some dust went up his nose and the drug took hold. He went limp and collapsed.

Interest lit Yu Zhi Yi’s eyes. Her master might be unreliable-teaching her for only three years before tossing her alone into the messy mortal world-but the things he’d left behind were excellent. This Soft-Bone Powder, for example, was made for members of the Mystic Sect. They said it could fell anyone below the Nascent Soul Realm.

“You’re the relative of the demonic cultivator who tried to kill me a few days ago, right? Here to take revenge?” she asked.

His confusion stopped. His eyes reddened: “So you really killed my son?”

Yu Zhi Yi corrected him: “Your son tried to kill me. I killed him in lawful self-defense.”

“Impossible!” the man said coldly. “My son had no feud with you. If you hadn’t provoked him, why would he attack you?”

Her anger rose at such a ridiculous denial: “You aren’t tied to your son’s belt. How could you know he wouldn’t try to kill me for no reason?” Then she pressed on, voice flat: “Since you know he died and managed to trace me, the first thing you must have learned is that he died on Mount Ming. Am I wrong?”

The man fell silent.

“I only just returned to the Jiang Clan,” Yu Zhi Yi went on. “I don’t feel much for them yet, but it’s still my home. How could I ever lead a demonic cultivator to my family and put them in danger?”

“My son is not a demonic cultivator!” he shouted.

“Oh?” Yu Zhi Yi said as she drew out several books. To call them books was generous-some were ledger-style notebooks. Their titles were simple and blunt: “Anatomy.” “Autobiography of a Great Demonic Cultivator.” There were also a few erotic journals.

The ledgers were even more direct. They listed the names of cultivators and ordinary people he had ambushed and killed over the years, along with how and why he did it. One ledger stood apart. It recorded how many women he’d captured, how he toyed with them, and how, after they gave birth, he immediately took the newborns’ heart-blood to fuel his cultivation.

The man’s eyes flew wide with shock. “N-no… impossible. How could my son do something like this?”

Yu Zhi Yi ignored his collapse and took out a letter-the demonic cultivator’s correspondence with Ji Guang Dai. Its message was simple: Ji Guang Dai told him there was a peerless beauty on Mount Ming, likely a female cultivator. The demonic cultivator let lust lead him. Without checking Yu Zhi Yi’s strength or background, he rushed up the mountain.

A female cultivator. He had seized many women, but he had never caught a female cultivator, and never made one bear him a child. A child born of a female cultivator would be far “better” than a child from an ordinary woman. Whether he took the child’s heart-blood for cultivation or kept the child to raise, it would be “useful.” In the notebook where he recorded the women he’d caught, there was even a portrait of Yu Zhi Yi, and under it, all his vile plans for her. The letter and the ledger proved each other.

The man broke down. “How… how could this be? My son was so good-he wouldn’t even kill an ant. How could he do such things?”

He stared at the letter for a long time. At last he seemed to come back to himself and sighed: “I’m sorry. I didn’t know any of this. I thought you were trying to kill and steal his treasures.” He shut his eyes hard, face twisted with pain. “I never imagined he would fall so far during this training trip.”

He stood and gave Yu Zhi Yi a deep bow: “I truly apologize. Don’t worry-when I go back, I will tell my family everything, word for word. I promise no one will come bother you over this again.”

He wiped his eyes with a rough hand, looking defeated.

Yu Zhi Yi gave a short, cold laugh: “Acting to fool me is one thing. Don’t fool yourself too.”

His face jerked: “W-what do you mean?”

She smiled: “I mean: your act went too far.”