Courage

"Me?"

She Xilu stared blankly at her somewhat frightening reflection in the mirror. She instinctively took a step back and asked in terror, "Who... who are you?"

"Who am I?" The female voice, threaded with serpentine hisses, chuckled. "Right, you don't remember anything... Of course I'm you. Haven't you been dreaming about me all these years?"

She Xilu's heart jolted, and her pupils contracted sharply. "You... you're that snake?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"You could say that."

The hissing female voice said coldly, "But it isn't just 'me.' You're that snake too."

"I'm human. H-how... could I be a snake?" She Xilu shook her head in disbelief.

"What? Have you forgotten?"

The hissing female voice laughed, though her laughter remained cold. "The snake in your dreams had two heads. You and I were always one, and neither can exist without the other. Think of me as your conjoined twin sister. Even reincarnation couldn't separate us."

"I... I was a snake in my past life?" She Xilu murmured, then asked fearfully, "You're not going to t-take over my body, are you?"

"You've written too many novels, haven't you?" The female voice scoffed. "We're two souls in one body. If you die, I die too. If I could seize control, I'd have done it long ago. Why would I wait until now?"

"How do I know whether you're telling the truth?" She Xilu couldn't help asking. "Maybe you're lying to make me let my guard down."

She had written this sort of scheming into her novels long ago.

"...You really are an idiot."

The hissing female voice said, "Our Divine Souls are connected. If I could take over your body, I'd have done it already. Would I have let you do whatever you pleased and reduce us to this?"

"Oh..." She Xilu felt a little wronged. Why was even her other self being mean to her?

"How laughable," the female voice said coldly. "In your past life, you were merely a little softhearted. How did you become such a cowardly waste after reincarnating?"

"I..."

She Xilu's lips puckered, and she felt more and more like crying. Why was her other self berating her so viciously?

The female voice couldn't help snapping, "What are you crying for? You've nearly driven me mad all these years. You don't even dare talk to people anymore? You actually lower your head when speaking to mortals. What a spineless wretch!"

She Xilu's eyes reddened, and tears streamed down her face. Feeling utterly wronged, she whispered, "P-please don't yell at me..."

"You're still crying?"

The female voice said coldly, "Just seeing you like this makes me angry. What can you do besides cry?"

"S-sorry..." She Xilu apologized through her tears.

The female voice fell silent again, seemingly taken aback.

After a while, that icy voice finally sounded in She Xilu's mind. "This is the first time you've apologized to me in all these years. To think it would happen after your reincarnation. How interesting."

She Xilu wiped her tears and timidly asked, "Then what are you planning to do from now on?"

"Cultivate first," the female voice said. "Even though reincarnation severed our connection to it completely, it still exists. We must have the power to protect ourselves. Since you're the dominant one, you need to commit yourself to cultivating properly. Understand?"

She Xilu paused. "I was a snake... a snake demon in my past life. D-do I have to cultivate and turn back into a snake demon now?"

"A snake demon?"

The female voice gave a mocking laugh before continuing, "The heavens of this age already belong to it. How could we follow our old path? We'll cultivate the path of the Dharma Body instead. We just need to avoid certain branches of it."

"Dharma Body?" She Xilu asked in confusion.

"I don't know much about it either. When we get a chance, we'll ask a Cultivator of this era," the female voice said.

"Oh..." She Xilu cautiously asked another question. "Then can cultivating... can it make us live forever without aging?"

The female voice fell silent for a moment. "Nothing in this world is eternal, but becoming an immortal or a god certainly lets you live longer than a mortal."

"Then can Lin Zhishui cultivate too?" She Xilu immediately asked.

"That mortal?" the female voice said coldly. "You want him to cultivate too? Are you hoping to enjoy a carefree, immortal life with him?"

She Xilu's face flushed, and she whispered, "He's the n-nicest person to me."

"Just bringing that up makes me furious!"

Amid serpentine hisses, the female voice sneered, "With our exalted status, even after reincarnation, we should be a star of calamity among mortals. No one should dare trouble you. Yet you let a mortal get so close and defile you?"

"B-but... Lin Zhishui really is good to me!" She Xilu couldn't help protesting.

"Good to you?" the female voice said coldly. "It's not as though I haven't seen it. He bullies you at every turn and has disciplined you so many times. Are you really so cowardly that you don't even know how to fight back?"

She Xilu immediately remembered Lin Zhishui spanking her. Her cheeks turned crimson, and she whispered, "But that... that was for my own good..."

The female voice sneered. "Not one of the demons, gods, immortals, or Buddhas in all the heavens dared bully you. Yet a lowly mortal defiled and humiliated you like that, and you say it was for your own good? You really are spineless."

"Y-you can insult me, but you're n-not allowed to talk about Lin Zhishui like that." She Xilu bit her lip hard, tears brimming in her eyes.

"He's a mere mortal. In a hundred years, he'll be nothing but a handful of dust. What will these few years of affection amount to then?"

The female voice said icily, "That Lin Zhishui has defiled and humiliated you so much that sooner or later, he'll become your inner demon. Your first hurdle in cultivation will be to kill him."

"What did you say?" She Xilu froze.

"What? You don't want to?"

The female voice said indifferently, "It's only because you like him that I'm merely asking you to kill him and give him a chance to reincarnate. With my old temper, I would have torn out his soul and refined it in demonic flames until it was utterly destroyed!"

She Xilu took a step back and fell onto the floor. Her face pale, she said in a trembling voice, "Y-you're not me at all. Y-you must be some great fiend..."

"A great fiend? That's not wrong."

Cold, serpentine hisses rang out, and the female voice scoffed. "So I suggest you kill Lin Zhishui yourself. Even if you don't, I'll find a chance to kill him and vent my hatred."

Seeing She Xilu bite her lip tightly without speaking, she added coolly, "You may be dominant, but I'm awake now too. You have to sleep sometime, don't you? Once you're asleep, I'll be able to control your body."

She Xilu's face grew even paler. Her body shook uncontrollably, and her eyes filled with profound terror.

"You don't believe me?"

The female voice said mockingly, "Before, even when I hadn't awakened, I could influence your personality whenever your mind wandered. Why else do you think you became a different person online? Who do you think has been waking up in your place these past few days?"

She Xilu was silent for a long while. Then she drew a deep breath, bit her lip, wiped her tears, and rose to leave the room.

"Have you finally come to your senses?" the female voice asked. "If you let me kill him, I might not even leave his corpse intact. If you do it yourself, at least he'll die by your hand. That will give you something to remember him by, won't it?"

She Xilu said nothing.

She understood now. The other self within her possessed nothing but a snake's cold-blooded nature. Deep down, she thought just like a cold-blooded animal!

She silently entered the living room. A framed photograph of her and Lin Zhishui hung on the wall.

In the photograph, Lin Zhishui was trying to steal a kiss, but she had dodged him.

She Xilu stared dazedly at the photograph. As she gazed at it, her tears began to fall again.

After a long while, She Xilu took a deep breath. She gave Lin Zhishui in the photograph one last, lingering look, then picked up the fruit knife from the coffee table. Gripping its handle in both hands with the blade pointing down, she clenched her teeth. Resolve flashed in her eyes, and she drove it toward her own heart with all her strength!

"You!!" The female voice rang out in her mind, filled with terror.

The sharp tip easily pierced the clothes over She Xilu's chest and struck hard against her heart!

Clang!

Metal rang against metal. The tip failed to penetrate her skin, as though it had struck an iron wall.

She Xilu froze and looked down in disbelief. Through the slit in her clothes, she saw a layer of fine black snake scales covering the skin over her heart.

Even though she had resolved to die and used all her strength, the sharp tip had failed to pierce those scales.

"Have you gone mad?! What are you doing?!"

Amid serpentine hisses, the female voice roared in her mind, filled with shock, anger, and... fear.

"If you're going to kill him and I can't stop you, then you'll die with me."

She Xilu gritted her teeth, gripped the fruit knife in both hands, and raised it high again, ready to stab herself once more.

"Stop!" the female voice shouted angrily, then asked in disbelief, "You're willing to throw away your life for a mortal? What is wrong with you?"

"You'll never understand..."

She Xilu spoke softly, then drove the knife toward her abdomen. But another clang rang out as the knife struck a layer of snake scales, and the blade snapped.

She was silent for a moment, then tossed the handle aside and said coldly, "If I want to die, you can't stop me."

"Enough."

The female voice sounded weary, helpless, and bewildered. She mocked softly, "To think you even stopped stuttering for that mortal. How laughable. Someone as cowardly as you actually lost her fear of death because of a mortal..."

She Xilu said in a low voice, "You don't understand at all... what he means to me..."

Her other self said nothing. Only after a long while did she reply, "I give up... You and that mortal can do whatever you want. Suit yourself."

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