You Su stared at the somewhat dilapidated ceiling for a long time before coming back to her senses.
At the junction of the beams, there was a tangled spider web, resembling an eerie painting.
A hapless flying insect was stuck to a spider web, struggling futilely in despair. The spider, lurking somewhere, was watching, waiting for the insect to give up completely before leisurely enjoying its meal.
You Su turned over, and his eyes told him that he was lying on his bed in his own room.
But his consciousness told him that he had just been fighting a bloody battle and should now be at the bottom of that well, where no one knew where it led. He had to wake up quickly and take his junior sister away.
Even after realizing this, the scene before me remained unchanged.
He walked out the door.
There was no mist in the familiar courtyard, and the loquat tree I planted with my own hands still stood tall and graceful.
However, the strangely-looking junior sister and Mistress were nowhere to be found.
Thinking about it this way, it really had been quite a long time since he had entered this dream world containing the consciousness of his junior sister and Mistress.
He had always suspected that this was the reason his monster junior sister had fallen into a deep sleep; did entering again now mean she had awakened?
Was it because the main consciousness sensed it and awakened it?
You Su felt extremely guilty; he hadn't fulfilled his responsibilities. He had failed to protect his junior sister and Mistress, allowing those self-righteous outsiders to expose their unspoken secret.
Judging from the current situation, although You Su is extremely unwilling to admit it, his Mistress has probably been controlled by evil spirits, which is why she secretly left to do something. Only his junior sister has not been completely corrupted.
He couldn't stay there wallowing in self-pity any longer. His junior sister was still in grave danger, and he had to rush out to rescue her, or he wouldn't even have a chance to make amends.
With this in mind, You Su ran to Ji Lingruo's door, intending to have the monster junior sister send her consciousness out as before.
"Junior sister?"
You Su knocked on the door, but no one answered for a long time.
You Su was somewhat anxious. He had never been to his junior sister's room before, but he couldn't afford to be impolite now.
He kicked the door open with a sudden burst of speed.
There was no light in the junior sister's room; you could barely see anything after opening the door. You Su immediately began searching for the monster junior sister.
He found it. Right next to the huge wardrobe, in the farthest corner of the room, in a pitch-black place where not even a glimmer of light could penetrate, six round fish eyes were staring right at him.
It's my junior sister! It really woke up!
Just as You Su was about to call out to it in surprise, a dizzying sensation immediately struck him. The colors in front of him began to distort and gradually become murky. A strong sense of weightlessness first disoriented him, then brought him back to his senses.
The first thing I felt upon regaining consciousness was a piercing pain that felt like my whole body was being shattered, followed by a soft, yielding sensation at the back of my neck.
"Waaah, Senior Brother..."
"Senior brother, please don't die! Waaah..."
"I'll never be willful again, please wake up, let's run away together, sob sob..."
Is... my junior sister crying?
You Su struggled to half-open her eyes, and through the faint shadows of her eyelashes, she saw the girl's two pert breasts.
It's alright, you can still see their faces...
I'd only caught fleeting glimpses of my junior sister's face before. The first time was on the morning after I killed True Man Ling; I'd seen her from afar. But in that situation, would anyone really pay attention to her face...?
Furthermore, he hadn't had a chance to look at her properly while carrying his junior sister around.
This was the first time You Su had ever looked at Ji Lingruo's face so closely. Even from this unflattering angle, even with her face so dirty, she could still see how beautiful she truly was.
Her eyes are upturned at the corners, and her eyebrows and eyes are sharp, making her features appear delicate yet also somewhat edgy. If you ignore the childishness on her face, she has the appearance of a snake-like beauty with a strong sense of world-weariness.
At this moment, she was crying with tears streaming down her face, wiping away the tears that kept rolling down her cheeks with both hands. Unfortunately, wiping away the tears only made them flow more freely.
"Junior sister..."
You Su murmured aloud.
Ji Lingruo woke up and looked down at You Su, who was half-closing his eyes. At this moment, You Su's eyes were dark and there was no white in them. She showed no fear or disgust.
Two "thud" sounds.
Two unwiped tears rolled down the girl's chin and landed on You Su's lips.
Ji Lingruo a little embarrassed and was about to wipe away You Su's tears You Su slowly stuck out her tongue and licked the corner of her lips that were wet with tears.
After licking it, he forced an ugly smile.
"You!"
Ji Lingruo was extremely ashamed and angry, and she managed to stop her tears. She took a deep breath and asked coldly:
"You're fully recovered, aren't you?"
You Su's smile froze, and before he could answer, he turned his head and coughed violently. Ji Lingruo disappeared, and she carefully patted You Su's back until You Su coughed up a mouthful of black blood, at which point the coughing stopped.
Ji Lingruo then lifted You Su's head further towards the fullest part of her thighs, trying to make her more comfortable with her lap as a pillow. Then she took out a slightly dirty handkerchief and wiped the blood from the corner of You Su's mouth.
You Su could do nothing but watch Ji Lingruo silently do all this, his heart feeling like a broken riverbed being gradually nourished by a gentle stream.
After spitting out the blood, he felt a little better and tried to speak. Ji Lingruo, keenly sensed this and placed her soft hand on his lips, commanding:
"Don't speak, get some rest first."
You Su blinked, and could only obediently do as she was told.
Ji Lingruo said gently, "I know what you want to ask. When I woke up, it was pitch black all around. I guessed that you must have led me somewhere to escape. I was afraid that those bad people would chase after me, so I carried you on my back and groped around in the dark until I was almost exhausted before I found this only place with a little light."
You Su then began to look around at the surroundings. It was a small grotto, with thin beams of light shining in through the gaps between the piles of stones and clods of earth. The air was filled with the smell of damp earth.
You Su glanced at Ji Lingruo again, his eyes still dark and unreadable, Ji Lingruo understood and said:
"What... what could possibly happen to me? Mind your own business first."
After speaking You Su did not look away, continuing to stare at Ji Lingruo Ji Lingruo, who felt somewhat uncomfortable under his gaze.
"Oh, I'm really fine. You already knew anyway..."
The girl's voice trailed off as she spoke, her head bowed and her voice choked with sobs:
"Senior brother, I'm so sorry... It's all my fault. It's all my fault they treated us like this, sob sob. I'm the one who caused this to happen to you. You shouldn't have cared about me. Why am I possessed...? I didn't do anything wrong, why, why! Sob sob..."
Ji Lingruo seemed to be questioning her own fate. Overwhelmed by guilt and resentment, she could no longer hold back and burst into tears.
Seeing his junior sister crying her heart out, You Su felt even more pain herself.
He wanted to say something to comfort her, but Ji Lingruo's hand was still covering his mouth. He couldn't move, so he could only touch the girl's palm with the tip of his tongue.
The girl felt as if she had been bitten by a snake that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere; she quickly pulled her hand back while crying.
She rubbed her palms against You Su's clothes, and cried even harder.
"Ugh, you're so disgusting..."
You Su was somewhat embarrassed, but this was truly a last resort. He swallowed twice and said:
"Junior sister... this is not your fault."
"You tell me... it's clearly the fault of this ugly thing on my body!"
Ji Lingruo's tears flowed like a burst dam, unstoppable.
You Su had no choice but to shut up. When a girl really wants to cry, you can't persuade her to stop. It's better to let her vent her pent-up emotions, and You Su can also get some quiet rest.
Ji Lingruo's sobs subsided only when she could shed no more tears, and the cave fell into silence, with only the girl's intermittent sobs echoing incessantly.
"Senior brother... when did you find out?"
"The day you celebrated my birthday."
Ji Lingruo's face was streaked with tears, some black and some white. She asked, puzzled:
"So how did you find out?"
You Su was taken aback. The fact that his junior sister would ask this question meant that the part of his consciousness hidden in his mind had not yet returned. She was still in a stage where she was somewhat aware of the problem but was not yet certain.
In that case, there's still a chance to salvage the situation!
"That day, I met an old Daoist priest on my way down the mountain. He said I was tainted by Evil Qi."
"And then?" Ji Lingruo raised her delicate eyebrows.
"He said he would save me, but I didn't believe him. So he gave me a stone, the same stone that the servant gave you for testing, called the Evil Warding Token. If you infuse it with your Mystic Qi, it will turn black and hot if there are evil spirits around."
"But... I've been hiding at home every day, who would have thought I'm possessed?"
You Su frowned as well. He couldn't understand why Qi Daodong would suddenly come to test Ji Lingruo secretly. How did he figure it out?
Is it simply because I was the last person to have seen Uncle-Master He?
You Su didn't speak directly, but he told Ji Lingruo about the enormous crisis facing Chuyun City at the moment. As for the test, it was something the city lord had asked everyone to do. He regretted not returning sooner; otherwise, he would have definitely been able to find a way to stop that person.
Ji Lingruo nodded, indicating that she believed You Su's explanation, and then asked You Su about the old Daoist priest.
"That old Daoist priest is no good person; he's an Evil Cultivator. He sees that our sect is all isolated and wants to use me to personally turn us all into evil beings. The evil spirits on you are very likely released by him."
"What!" Ji Lingruo's beautiful eyes widened in surprise. "How could there be such a wicked person!"
"It's alright, my senior brother used a clever plan and killed him. It's just a pity we didn't find a way to remove the possessing evil spirit."
"How... how did you kill him?"
You Su smiled and blinked, "I'm possessed too. How could I let my junior sister be possessed alone? When I fought with that City Lord Qi, he stabbed me in the stomach. Look, because I'm possessed, the bleeding has stopped on its own."
You Su tilted his head slightly, wanting to show Ji Lingruo his pierced abdomen. Ji Lingruo, however, didn't turn her head, staring intently into You Su's eyes, which showed no whites, and asked in a tearful voice:
"Then why didn't you tell me sooner? You just thought I would only make things worse!"
The more lies you fabricate, the harder they become. In her haste to deny them, You Su made a bit too much of a movement, accidentally aggravating her abdominal injury and gasping for breath in pain.
Ji Lingruo turned pale, looking helplessly at You Su's blood-stained wounds. She asked with concern, "Are you alright?"
You Su endured the excruciating pain and hissed:
"I was too cowardly and arrogant, still deluding myself into thinking that if we didn't expose this secret, we could live like before. I was foolish enough to try and take on everything. Junior sister, I'm sorry... Ouch!"
"Stop talking! I'm not angry!" Ji Lingruo said urgently.
His junior sister trusted him too easily, so much so that You Su felt extremely guilty every time he acted out a lie to her.
He slowly relaxed his facial expressions, which had been contorted in feigned pain. "I won't do this again, junior sister. From now on, we'll face whatever comes our way together."
"Hmm..." Ji Lingruo lowered her head.
"By the way, junior sister, do you know where your Mistress went?" You Su couldn't wait to change the subject.
Ji Lingruo shook her head, "I don't know either. She even told me she was possessed. She also said..."
"Say what?"
"He also told me to stay hidden within the sect with you and not wander off."
When did you tell me this?
"That... that night after you and Wu Cheng finished your match."
Upon hearing this, You Su was filled with doubts. The outside world was fraught with danger, yet his Mistress seemed to have a premonition and told them to hide well. It was likely that Gu Yao's death, the evil spirits, and the mystery of the fog were all related to his Mistress.
You Su sighed inwardly. There were too many things she couldn't understand, so she simply stopped thinking about them. The most important thing now was to determine if this place was safe and to recover her strength as soon as possible so that she would have the confidence to face the crisis that was about to unfold.
"Help me lean against the wall."
Ji Lingruo blushed and asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"
"It feels so good." If he could, no one would want to leave the girl's soft, fragrant thighs. "But now is not the time to be comfortable. I have important things I need you to do."
"Oh." Ji Lingruo she was told and helped You Su up, leaning her against the stone wall next to her.
Their shoulders rested together, and feeling each other's warmth seemed to make them feel even warmer.
You Su barely raised his hand. Since things had come to this point, there was no need to hide the existence of the Universe Bag any longer. He took out a candle and a tinderbox from it and handed them to Ji Lingruo.
Ji Lingruo looked shocked. You Su explained, "It's a relic of that Evil Dao, a kind of storage Law Artifact."
"So you weren't going to teach those people a lesson that night at all, right?" Ji Lingruo said, taking the candle and lighting it. The entire cave was immediately brighter, and the shadows of the two of them swayed on the stone wall.
"Hmm." You Su nodded, then took out a roll of jet-black silk thread and said, "Junior sister, take this candle and try to find the way you came. I'll hold this end, and you hold the other end and wrap several strands of silk thread around the way you came."
Ji Lingruo and, without hesitation, got up and felt her way out of the cave through the stone wall.
"Junior sister, be careful."
"Um."
Before long, Ji Lingruo completing her mission. She continued to snuggle up to You Su, even closer than before.
Seemingly feeling that this wasn't enough, she quietly tilted her head and leaned on You Su's shoulder. You Su inhaled the fragrance and felt a warmth in his heart.
Both of them fell silent. Even though they had a thousand words to say, they were too tired to speak. Only the orange candlelight kept them company.
"Junior sister, are you hungry?"
"A little."
You Su then took out a box of mung bean cakes from his Universe Bag and handed it to Ji Lingruo expectantly.
Ji Lingruo smiled sweetly, opened the package, fed half a bite to You Su first, and then held the remaining half herself, eating it in small bites as if afraid of finishing it all.
"It seems my junior sister is really hungry, even though she never used to touch mung bean cakes..."
Ji Lingruo paused, stopping her pursing of her lips, her fine eyelashes obscuring her eyes:
"If there's nothing to eat, we definitely have to eat... We can't starve to death, can we?"
You Su did not respond; she looked at You Su by the candlelight.
The boy's jawline was clearly sculpted by light and shadow; his eyes were closed, and he was already asleep.