Demoness's Art of Vengeance

Just as Qin Lingyu and Yu Wanrou were locked in a deeply emotional embrace, Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen had already embarked on their search for the Basilisk Fruits.

That said, the Basilisk Fruits were truly hard to come by. Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen had spent three whole days before they had managed to find a single Basilisk Fruit. Furthermore, it was not uncommon to hear of vicious spirit beasts appearing beside the Basilisk Fruits. Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen had encountered one such vicious spirit beast when the found their first Basilisk Fruit. Thus, they had no choice but to spend considerable effort overcoming that strange-looking spirit beast. After they had defeated that spirit beast, they even found a small core within the spirit beast’s body.

Spirit beasts with cores were minimally mid-tier, fifth-grade spirit beasts. If Ye Xiuwen had been alone, the fight would almost certainly have gone much worse for Ye Xiuwen. Fortunately, Jun Xiaomo had been by his side. She possessed several powerful talismans in her Interspatial Ring, it was with the use of some of these talismans that they had managed to overcome that spirit beast with fairly light injuries.

Thus, they began to grill the spirit beast’s meat for dinner that night.

“Although this spirit beast looks weird, its taste is still pretty good, huh. Its meat is pretty fragrant and tender.” Jun Xiaomo smiled radiantly as she critiqued the food.

“That’s right.” Ye Xiuwen softly responded. Even though they were in the woods right now, Ye Xiuwen never failed to carry himself in a dignified and elegant manner.

His gaze swept past the flickering flames and landed on Jun Xiaomo’s body. On the other hand, Jun Xiaomo was wholeheartedly focused on grilling meat, and she did not notice Ye Xiuwen’s gaze.

Ye Xiuwen began to ruminate on all of the little interactions that he had had with his little martial sister – not just with Jun Xiaomo, but also with Yao Mo.

His first impression of his little martial sister from ages ago had already faded deep into the back of his mind. In its place was now a much fresher and livelier image of his little martial sister.

Even if he closed his eyes now, he would be able to picture with pristine clarity the image of his little martial sister’s appearances, replete with that bright, radiant smile of hers.

Pure, spirited and beautiful – she possessed a contagious happiness that spreads joy to others wherever she went.

He knew that Jun Xiaomo’s place in his heart had only grown deeper and stronger as the days went by. Yet Ye Xiuwen had never paused to contemplate what the increasing gravity of her importance meant to him.

He neither dared to nor was he willing to delve into such things.

Ye Xiuwen thoroughly enjoyed their present interactions which were not bound by any shackles or rules. At the same time, he was afraid that they would no longer be able to return to such blissful interactions once he had broken the tacit silence on the exact definition of their relationship right now.

Let it be. Ye Xiuwen thought to himself. His pupils grew sullen for a moment, but they recovered very quickly.

“Martial brother, you were distracted for a moment earlier.” Jun Xiaomo turned her attention to Ye Xiuwen and puffed up her cheeks as she remarked.

“Is that right? Sorry about that. I was just thinking about some things.” Ye Xiuwen revealed a warm and embarrassed smile as he apologized.

“There’s no need to apologize. It’s not like we’re strangers anyway. But…I’m curious as to what martial brother was thinking of that made you look so listless?” Jun Xiaomo blinked her eyes curiously as though her eyes were yelling at Ye Xiuwen – Say it, say it! This busybody demands to know!

Ye Xiuwen’s warm and genial smile was now laced with a complicated expression. But in the darkness of the night, and with the dim glow of the fireplace, the trace amount of these expressions was hardly apparent at all.

Ye Xiuwen thought about it, and then he found an excuse for himself.

“It’s nothing much, really. I was just thinking that my cultivation seems to be showing signs of a breakthrough.” Ye Xiuwen calmly stated.

“Really?! That’s excellent! Once martial brother breaks through the twelfth level of Qi Mastery, you will be at the Foundation establishment stage of cultivation!” Jun Xiaomo cheered.

The purposes of these travels, apart from the completion of the Sect’s missions, was to achieve a breakthrough in cultivation and attain the Foundation establishment stage of cultivation. It could even be said that having a breakthrough was far more important than completing the Sect’s tasks.

“Since that’s the case, we will have to prepare some things, such as the appropriate defensive formation arrays and the like. Let me think about it for a moment.” Jun Xiaomo immediately retrieved her talisman brush and some blank sheets of paper as she began to write on them.

Breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage of cultivation carried with it some risks – at least much more than simple breakthroughs within the Qi Mastery stage of cultivation. Breaking through to the Foundation Establishment was a process that entailed immense qualitative changes to the body. Ideally, one would hope to have some medical pills within reach so that they could control and smoothen the surge of spiritual energy within one’s body. At the same time, it was also a necessity to find a safe and quiet place so that one could wholeheartedly focus on his breakthrough.

In fact, Ye Xiuwen had already prepared most of these things prior to leaving the sect. He was even carrying with him two Foundation Establishment Pills within his Interspatial Ring which had been given to him by Jun Linxuan before he left the Sect.

It was not in Ye Xiuwen’s character to come unprepared after all.

However, seeing how Jun Xiaomo was so eagerly making all these preparations for himself, Ye Xiuwen couldn’t bring himself to interrupt her train of thoughts.

Just like that, Jun Xiaomo continued to write, while he waited patiently and silently at the side as he watched her. At this moment, even Ye Xiuwen was unaware how soft and gentle his gaze had become.

“Martial brother, look! What do you think of this?” Jun Xiaomo handed the sheet of paper to Ye Xiuwen as though she were presenting him with a precious treasure.

Ye Xiuwen graciously received that sheet of paper. He had initially thought that this little lady’s written plans would likely have been all over the place, given how she had never delved into matters of Foundation Establishment to begin with.

Regardless of how bad it was, he was prepared to praise Jun Xiaomo’s preparation for him, because they had come from a place of good intentions.

But when he finally read through everything that Jun Xiaomo had written, Ye Xiuwen had to sincerely admit that Jun Xiaomo’s understanding of the Foundation Establishment process was hardly any lower than his. The list of resources set out by Jun Xiaomo in that sheet of paper was extremely thorough and complete.

“It’s very well written. Thanks, Xiaomo.” Ye Xiuwen smiled and tousled Jun Xiaomo’s hair.

Jun Xiaomo rubbed up her cheeks slightly in embarrassment. As she did so, she inadvertently rubbed some ink onto her cheeks. Her originally jade-white cheeks had momentarily become stained with streaks of black ink.

The smile on Ye Xiuwen’s lips crept further up his face. He stretched out his hand and helped Jun Xiaomo wipe off the ink-stains on her cheek.

Within moments, Jun Xiaomo felt a hot, burning sensation sweep across her cheeks, especially where Ye Xiuwen had touched her face. She reflexively broke eye contact with Ye Xiuwen and turned her gaze elsewhere.

Her gaze shifted to that piece of paper Ye Xiuwen was holding in his hands.

“Eh? Is there something else between those sheets of paper?” Jun Xiaomo was slightly stunned when she noticed an additional corner sticking out at the bottom of that sheet of paper.

Following Jun Xiaomo’s line of sight, Ye Xiuwen also discovered the anomaly on that sheet of paper he was holding. He pulled out that anomalous piece of paper between the sheets, and he noticed that there were complex scribbles on this sheet of paper.

“Ah, seems like when I pulled out these sheets of blank paper, something else got stuck in between…” Jun Xiaomo murmured to herself.

“What’s that?” Ye Xiuwen skimmed through the contents of the scribbles on that sheet of paper and discovered that it was a prescription for the refinement of a pill. The complex scribbles on it had all been names of medicines, spirit herbs and the like.

There were even some medical elements that Ye Xiuwen was rather familiar with.

Blackmoon Grass, Blisterfruit, Illusory Flower…

Ye Xiuwen’s heartstrings trembled, and he had the answer at the tip of his tongue –

As expected, Jun Xiaomo’s answer confirmed his suspicions, “This is the prescription for the medicine to cure martial brother’s scar! We’ve been through a lot lately, but the silver lining to all of that is that we’ve somehow managed to secure the rarest medicinal elements on this list. Therefore, once we leave this place, we will be able to find a pillmaster to refine the medicine for martial brother!”

Jun Xiaomo’s eyes curled up joyously as she spoke. Evidently, she had longed with anticipation to see the day when Ye Xiuwen’s scar would be cured and removed.

Ye Xiuwen sighed lightly in exasperation as he tousled Jun Xiaomo’s hair again and commented, “I never thought that Xiaomo would mind the scar on my face more than I did.”

“I don’t mind the scar at all!” Jun Xiaomo anxiously explained, fearing that Ye Xiuwen would misunderstand her, “I only don’t want others to look at martial brother with peculiar gazes any longer!” As she finished speaking, Jun Xiaomo’s voice was even filled with a trace of indignation, as though she were outraged by the injustice caused against her martial brother.

Ye Xiuwen was moved by Jun Xiaomo’s words. He tenderly flicked Jun Xiaomo’s head as he refuted, “Then what are you being so anxious for? Martial brother isn’t even blaming you.”

Jun Xiaomo rubbed the part of her head that had been flicked by Ye Xiuwen as she mumbled softly, “I didn’t want martial brother to misunderstand me…”

Jun Xiaomo had been particularly cautious because in her previous life, Ye Xiuwen had always been incredibly sensitive about his scar.

Ye Xiuwen’s gaze softened once again as he calmly stated, “I understand.”

It was true. He understood full well that Jun Xiaomo had never minded the scar on his face. He knew that Jun Xiaomo had never looked at him peculiarly just because of the scar on his face.

Most importantly, it must have precisely been because he understood and was convicted of all these things that Jun Xiaomo would slowly creep closer and closer to the center of his heart…right?

---------------------------------------------------

On the second day, Jun Xiaomo found herself leaning on Ye Xiuwen’s shoulder as she roused from her slumber. If anyone else were around, they might perhaps have pointed out that Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen were behaving far too intimately. However, Jun Xiaomo did not think so. After all, she had already grown used to such intimacy with Ye Xiuwen ever since her interactions with him as Yao Mo.

Sometimes, habits were an incredibly powerful force.

Ye Xiuwen had awakened much earlier than Jun Xiaomo. However, he consciously decided not to wake Jun Xiaomo up, and had even allowed her to continue resting on his shoulder.

Thus, Ye Xiuwen’s arm had already grown numb by the time Jun Xiaomo woke up.

“Martial brother, why didn’t you wake me up?” Jun Xiaomo rubbed her eyes and yawned loudly as she asked.

“You must have been too tired from writing all those things last night. Therefore, I decided to let you sleep in.” Ye Xiuwen explained.

Apart from preparing the things for Ye Xiuwen’s breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage, she had even made a copy of the prescription for curing the scar on Ye Xiuwen’s face and handed it to Ye Xiuwen.

“This is just in case we lose either copy of it.” Jun Xiaomo explained as she folded up the copy of the prescription seriously and handed it to Ye Xiuwen.

Seeing Jun Xiaomo’s adult-like behaviour, Ye Xiuwen beamed and chuckled lightly as he accepted her kind little gesture.

Therefore, Ye Xiuwen couldn’t bring himself to wake Jun Xiaomo up this morning.

“We’ve still got nine Basilisk Fruits to harvest. I hope I haven’t delayed our progress too much by oversleeping.” Jun Xiaomo murmured remorsefully.

“It’s fine. These few hours don’t matter that much. Besides, it’s only when our minds are rested that we would have the spirit to deal with any exigencies, am I not right?” Ye Xiuwen patted Jun Xiaomo’s shoulder as he consoled her.

“That’s right. Then, let’s have some food before we set out on our journey, then.” As Jun Xiaomo spoke, she retrieved two red fruits from her Interspatial Ring and handed one to Ye Xiuwen.

Ye Xiuwen furrowed his brows. He had never recalled having something like this fruit before.

“I saw these fruits on a tree a few days ago, so I took the liberty to pluck some for us. I’ve eaten these fruits before. They’re high-energy fruits, and they taste rather sweet. It’s perfect for our breakfast.” Jun Xiaomo smiled radiantly as she explained.

With that, Ye Xiuwen bit into one for a taste. The sweet juices of the fruit immediately coursed through his mouth and flowed down his throat.

“Outstanding, Xiaomo! You’re really knowledgeable!” Ye Xiuwen praised.

“Of course!” Jun Xiaomo proudly lifted her chin, while a complicated gaze flickered across her eyes.

The truth of the matter was that this was all gleaned from her previous life’s experience.

Forget it. There’s no point thinking too much about the past anymore. In this life, my parents and martial brother Ye are all living and well, while the martial brothers and sisters of the Heavenly Peak are still safely at the Sect. Furthermore, the demonic energy in my body hasn’t been discovered by anyone yet.

No matter how she thought about it, her fate seemed to have taken a turn for the better.

It’s going well…right?

Jun Xiaomo consoled herself. Yet for some strange reason, a sense of uneasiness seemed to be niggling at her from the bottom of her heart.