Chapter 248: Chapter 248: Tenacity (2)

Seeing this, the female disciple’s eyes widened in horror.

“She’s… she’s absorbing me—?!”

Her voice broke.

Her body rapidly shriveled, her once fair skin clinging tightly to bone.

Her scream barely escaped before her throat dried out completely.

The red mist surged in one final wave—

…And silence returned.

Where once stood a beautiful, living woman—

Now only a dried husk remained.

The worm slowly crawled out from Yao Xin’s neck, now smaller, darker… and obedient.

It slithered along her collarbone and vanished beneath the skin.

For a long moment—

Nothing moved.

Then—

A sharp inhale cut through the stillness.

“Haaah…!”

Yao Xin’s chest rose violently.

Her eyes snapped open.

They were unfocused at first as fragments of memory flooded in.

Golden blades.

Overwhelming force.

….The sensation of death.

Her brows knitted slightly as she slowly sat up.

Pain coursed through her meridians and her head, as if there were a needle stuck in her brain.

Her dantian felt cracked.

Her cultivation had also plummeted drastically.

But she was alive and that what mattered the most.

She turned her head and saw the dried corpse beside her.

Recognition flickered faintly.

“…Fool.”

Her voice was hoarse.

She looked down at her palm.

Beneath her skin—

Something pulsed faintly and didn’t feel entirely like her own life… it was the other disciple’s lifeforce, currently being refined to heal her.

Her lips curved faintly, but there was no arrogance left in that smile.

“To think I would owe my life… to greed.”

She slowly pushed herself to her feet.

Then she staggered slightly, feeling insane pain in both her mind and body.

“Haha… hahaa!!! I live, dammit!!”

Yao Xin started laughing loudly toward the sky, feeling a sense of thrill unlike ever before in her twenty years of living.

If even one condition had been missing…

If that damn monster had just smashed her head—

If that fellow sister of hers had waited just a few more hours—

Then she would have truly died.

But she should praise her for acting within her expectations.

Knowing something was wrong, knowing she had been killed, and still choosing to come.

As expected of her fellow sister’s greed.

Now… Yao Xin felt as if she were reborn.

She had truly faced death and come back to life through her last-minute, stupid plan.

She finally understood what those fellow disciples meant when they talked about their life-and-death experiences.

“Ha… ha… haha…”

Yao Xin, as if she were high or broken kept laughing to herself, as if she found everything about this world laughable.

But soon, she finally came back to her senses.

Looking around at the devastated area, Yao Xin forced herself to calm down.

“Haaa… haaa…”

She staggered, still feeling weak.

Not only was her soul severely injured, but her body wasn’t in the right state yet.

She needed to find a place to lay low for now.

Once she got out of this stupid secret realm, she would ask her grandpa for some soul-healing treasures.

“…Yes, I’ve had enough of this bullshit.”

Yao Xin murmured, deciding to find a place to hide and recuperate for now.

And for the first time in her life, Yao Xin had something she truly despised and she was absolutely certain of it.

….She never want to see or touch a single puppet ever again

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Meanwhile,

Li Feng stepped out of the cave and looked at the scene in front of him with a wry smile, his gaze falling on the row of his puppets.

All of his puppets were waiting for him, but… each of them seemed to be in a rather sorry state.

And all of them were carrying strange things with them.

One of them looked completely wet, as if it had fallen into a lake.

Some weird monster fish were still biting its head and legs, yet it stood there proudly as if it had found something rare.

Another was the opposite, completely covered in mud and carrying a strange-looking root bark.

The others were in similar dirty states, each carrying weird things they had found.

Li Feng shook his head.

Through their connection, he knew their intention as they simply wanted to gift everything to him.

Then he finally looked at the one that concerned him the most…

It was naked.

Well, using the word naked was appropriate, since it was missing its cloak.

And seeing its damaged body, Li Feng couldn’t help but feel a bit heartache.

The naked puppet looked a little guilty before handing Li Feng a single blue flower.

Seeing this, Li Feng gently waved his hand and stored all the strange items the puppets carried into the Divine Brick.

The puppets seemed happy, and soon they turned and walked back into the forest.

Even the damaged one was about to go too—

But Li Feng stopped it.

“Wait. Let me fix you up first.”

At his words, the puppet stopped its steps.

Li Feng took out a simple table and told it to lie down.

Then he began preparing, taking out some simple tools.

At the same time, he asked Goldie, who had been quietly standing there,

“So, did you finish whoever did this to your sibling?”

Li Feng asked without looking back as he began repairing the puppet lying on the table.

“…”

Goldie remained silent, but through their connection, the answer seemed to be a positive one.

Knowing this, Li Feng smiled and focused on the task at hand.

Soon—

After replacing the broken and cracked parts with new Divine Wood, Li Feng finally leaned back and smiled in satisfaction.

Like a doctor, he gestured for it to stand up and try moving.

The puppet did as commanded and stood up.

It curiously looked at its newly repaired parts and moved around a bit.

Feeling that it was back to its prime, the puppet seemed quite happy.

Seeing this scene, Li Feng smiled and took out another white cloak for it, along with a scroll.

It was a scroll the puppet could show to any righteous disciple to prove its neutral origin in case it was suddenly attacked.

“Go. And I hope you learned to be more cautious this time. Find Goldie or me if you encounter someone or something you can’t handle, okay?”

The puppet nodded, put on the white cloak, and rushed off like an excited child finally released from sickness.

Seeing this, Li Feng shook his head.

“Now then… what should I do…”

He murmured.

Then he remembered he still had two beauties waiting for him on the warm bed.

A lewd smile slowly surfaced as his heart surged with desire.

“Ahem… I must be diligent and work hard on my cultivation.”

Just as he planned to go back and enjoy some fu— no, continue dual cultivation….

Rustle.

Rustle.

A nearby bush shook.

Soon, Ning Jianli’s figure stepped out, and she seemed to be carrying someone.

Li Feng frowned slightly, noticing the figure in her arms was injured and not lightly at that.

….Because both of the person’s arms were severed.

Her expression was urgent, and the moment she saw Li Feng, she hurriedly shouted,

“S-Senior Brother! Please help!”

The moment her words left her mouth, Li Feng arrived beside her with a frown.

And when he saw the figure’s face, he was slightly surprised.

Despite the countless slash marks across her face, Li Feng could recognize her.

It was Jian Ruyi, the most powerful outer sect disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep