The Destined Daughter Qing Lingxi Turns Dark

South-Pacifying City, temporary headquarters.

Qing Lingxi sat alone in a quiet secret chamber.

The wound on her neck had healed, leaving only a faint red mark.

The pale blue and dark red Dao Seed of Fate had taken root within her. The power lingering around it let her clearly sense, at every moment, the fetters of being under another's control.

Yet her gaze was calm.

There was even... a clarity that grew sharper by the moment.

She felt the Demon Power in her body return and fill her.

She let out a long cry, and a pair of illusory azure wings abruptly spread behind her. They solidified, bringing with them a fierce pressure of wind.

She raised a hand, her five fingers forming a claw. A trace of gray mingled with the azure as wind blades gathered at her fingertips, their color deepening.

Then she dispersed the wind blades and withdrew her wings.

Memories flashed through her mind like a procession of scenes.

"Lingxi, you're the older sister. You have to protect your younger sister."

"Lingxi... you're the older sister. The same blood runs in your veins. Can't you die for the survival of the Azure Luan Clan, for your sister...?"

For as long as she could remember, her younger sister, Qing Lingyue, had always nestled in their mother's arms, showered with the love and affection of their clanspeople.

She, the Azure Luan Clan's eldest princess, was the firstborn daughter.

Yet from the moment she was born, her mother had liked her least, saying her bloodline was impure?

No, she was a calamity, a heretic.

Hadn't she nearly caused her mother to die in a difficult childbirth?

Her younger sister Qing Lingyue, on the other hand, was uniquely blessed. When she was born, strange phenomena appeared in the heavens. She possessed pure, utterly refined Wang blood, and was the daughter in the clan with the greatest hope in a thousand years of bearing the Heavenly Gang Biyun Divine Wind and inheriting the ancestral bloodline.

Everyone loved and doted on her, regarding her as the Azure Luan Clan's hope for the future and the unquestioned choice for its next clan leader.

She was made crown princess as soon as she was born.

Growing up, all the resources had been directed toward her sister. What she used was always whatever her sister had left after making her pick.

And the clan elders always looked at Qing Lingxi with regret and... a trace of barely perceptible wariness.

"My bloodline... is impure..." she murmured in the secret chamber, enunciating each word.

Bitterness surfaced on her pretty face, and a touch of madness suddenly appeared in her eyes.

"Mother favored her... Father paid me no mind... I, Qing Lingxi, had the title of princess and nothing more. I had neither the right to lead the Azure Luan Clan through prosperity and decline nor the chance to receive the ancestral blood. I could only be a pawn sacrificed to save the general..."

Her tone gradually grew calm, while bone-deep pain and resentment churned in her eyes.

"Half a month ago, the cultivators of Cangxuan broke through the boundary. The clan had planned it all long ago. Years back, they'd learned that Xie Qingying, the legitimate daughter of the Xie Household, was determined to obtain Azure Luan Wang blood.

"My sister Qing Lingyue in particular, an Azure Luan with such pure Wang blood, could be used to refine a spiritual treasure like the Heavenly Luan Nirvana Pill and improve one's immortal foundation.

"An exceptional treasure that could even help someone break through the Purple Mansion bottleneck.

"So, after discussing it, the clan leader and elders decided..."

Qing Lingxi paused there and drew a deep breath, her nails nearly digging into the flesh of her palms.

"They decided to sacrifice me, the source of calamity, and use me as bait, having me openly appear in the Southern Region to draw the Xie Clan's attention away.

"My sister, meanwhile, would be secretly sent into the Heavenly Gang Bifeng Pool in the ancestral land, the secret realm where the Azure Luan Clan's ancestral blood was passed down.

"There she could receive the inheritance and use its power to hide until the ten-year period agreed upon with Cangxuan had passed."

"How interesting..."

Ye Jinyu had entered at some unknown point, his voice indifferent.

"And then...?"

"Because I'm the older sister."

Qing Lingxi looked at Ye Jinyu, and their gazes met.

There was something in Ye Jinyu's eyes that he couldn't understand, along with a profound calm.

She suddenly laughed, laughing until tears came out.

"Because I wasn't important enough, because my bloodline was impure, it wouldn't be a pity if I died.

"Because using a piece of trash like me in exchange for my sister's safety would let the clan preserve its purest, most untainted Wang blood.

"It was the wisest choice. I accepted it.

"The two clan elders escorting me... were supposedly there to protect me, but they were actually there to watch me. They were deathsworn carrying out the plan.

"They made absolutely certain that I would fall into the Xie Clan's hands."

She closed her eyes, two clear streams of tears sliding down her cheeks, grief and madness in her voice.

"They succeeded. The Xie Clan's people really did come. You know what happened after that."

"You can resolve to die only once. Besides, I couldn't die even when I wanted to... They wanted me alive... wanted to humiliate me in every way... Hahahahaha."

Qing Lingxi's laughter filled the secret chamber.

As Ye Jinyu listened, he took a tea set and cups from his storage ring.

Before long, the faint sound of water boiling could be heard.

Then he picked up a cup and took a sip. His voice was as indifferent as ever, though it now held the slightest inflection.

"Where is the Azure Luan Clan's Heavenly Gang Bifeng Pool, and that ancestral blood inheritance?"

"Perhaps this young master would be willing to help you..."

At that, Qing Lingxi opened her eyes. They were faintly bloodshot, without tears or sorrow, her azure pupils utterly cold.

"Beneath Azure Nether Mountain's main peak. The entrance is guarded by the Wind Luan Xun Wind Grand Formation. No one without Wang-clan blood or a specific token may enter. There, you'll find not only my clan's Wang blood inheritance altar, but also... the Heavenly Gang Bifeng Pool."

Ye Jinyu's fingertips paused slightly on his teacup. Then he fed Qing Lingxi the remaining tea.

He reached out and gently cupped Qing Lingxi's cheek, his voice soft and low, coaxing.

"Do you want revenge? Do you want to take back everything that should have been yours?"

Qing Lingxi looked into Ye Jinyu's profound eyes, which seemed to reflect her once-broken, wretched face.

Her eyes like azure glass fixed on Ye Jinyu, and she asked, word by word:

"I'm nothing but trash with an impure bloodline, aren't I?"

"Why, then, would you treat me like this?"

Ye Jinyu did not answer directly.

The hand cupping her face moved down, and his fingers gently gripped her chin and lifted it.

"Because."

His fingertips traced Qing Lingling's brows and eyes.

"I like the look in your eyes. You and this young master are bound by fate..."

"That look of wanting to destroy everything after being betrayed by the whole world."

"Somewhere in the Unseen, fate had already arranged it all..."

Qing Lingxi's pupils contracted slightly.

"You hate them, don't you?"

Ye Jinyu asked softly, like the whisper of a devil. "You hate them-your mother, your sister, those elders... the entire Azure Luan Clan included."

Qing Lingxi's breathing quickened.

"Do you want revenge?" Ye Jinyu continued. "Do you want them to taste what it's like to be abandoned, betrayed, trampled on and humiliated?"

"Do you want your sister, that Qing Lingyue, to know that everything she has should have been yours?"

Qing Lingxi's whole body began to tremble.

It wasn't fear.

It was an emotion suppressed for too long, finally finding an outlet.

"I do..."

She heard her own voice, hoarse beyond recognition. "I do."

"Good." Ye Jinyu smiled and let go.

"How about this young master makes you the Azure Luan Clan's Wang?"

Hesitation returned to Qing Lingxi's eyes, and her gaze flickered away.

"In the Azure Luan ancestral land, only the purest Wang bloodline can stir the Bifeng origin in the Heavenly Gang Pool.

"Only pure blood can cause the ancestral land to open, and that's in three months... It's too late..."

"Your sister will go in to receive the inheritance, won't she?"

Ye Jinyu said softly.

"Yes." Hatred flashed in Qing Lingxi's eyes. "She'll bathe in the Bifeng origin, awaken the Azure Luan ancestral blood, return her bloodline to its ancient state, and inherit the Azure Luan throne as is her rightful due."

Ye Jinyu leaned down and whispered in her ear:

"Then what if... you were the one who went in?"

Qing Lingxi abruptly raised her head, bitterness on her face.

"Me? That wouldn't do any good. With my bloodline... hehehe..."

"Your bloodline is far nobler than hers."

Ye Jinyu touched a fingertip to the spot between her brows. Qing Lingxi's face suddenly turned crimson, and the Dao Seed of Fate inside her grew searing hot...

"All you need to do is take my people there."

"Besides, if I don't permit it, even if she succeeds, she won't succeed. Since I've chosen you, you'll certainly be able to take back everything that belongs to you."

"What do you say?"

Qing Lingxi closed her eyes.

Countless images flashed through her mind, and even her emotions were magnified without limit.

Her sister's smug smile when she was being doted on, the elders' indifferent gazes, the pain of the soul-locking chains cutting into her flesh, the lecherous, greedy faces of those Cangxuan Rogue Cultivators...

When she opened her eyes again, the last trace of hesitation had vanished from those azure-glass eyes.

In its place was an almost obsessive madness.

"Master, Lingxi is willing," she said, word by word.

"I want Qing Lingyue dead."

"I want to watch with my own eyes as she loses everything and kneels before me, begging for mercy."

"Then... I'll kill her with my own hands."

Ye Jinyu looked at her with admiration.

The way she had turned dark to the very bone was truly... beautiful.

"Good girl."

He reached out and stroked her hair, as though she were a pet.

Qing Lingxi was even more compliant, sitting up of her own accord and placing herself in Ye Jinyu's palm.

Cold, with a distinctive, slightly cool feel.

"Before that," Ye Jinyu suddenly said.

"This young master has a little gift for you first."

He took out an azure jade dagger and pressed it into her hand.

"If I remember correctly, that Xie Yu is still kneeling there."

"Go and kill him with this dagger, one cut at a time."

His smile was gentle, but his gaze was deep and calm.

"You're mine now. Since the Xie Clan coveted what belongs to my family, he naturally has to die."

Qing Lingxi tightened her grip on the dagger.

Then she smiled too.

Her smile was bewitching, sickly, and tragically beautiful.

"As you command, Master."

Deep in a forest in the Southern Region, ancient trees towered into the sky, and blood covered the ground.

Xie Yu knelt there, eyes wide and face full of humiliation, gasping for breath.

Suddenly, a streak of azure light flew through the sky.

Xie Yu felt the Calamity Wind Soul-Locking Talisman's restriction on him vanish.

I knew it. The Ye Clan still cares about its reputation.

They wouldn't dare kill a Xie Clan member outright and offend the Xie Clan beyond reconciliation.

Hahahahaha.

The pressure vanished at once, and his mind relaxed as he imagined it.

Suddenly, he felt a shadow standing behind him.

"Who goes there, you scoundrel?"

Xie Yu shouted.

Then he turned his head, and his face instantly filled with terror.

"No... don't! Princess of the Azure Luan, spare me! I... I'm... a member of the Xie Clan..."

Qing Lingxi gave him no chance to continue, her eyes like cold stars.

The azure jade dagger in her hand flashed through the air, moving so fast it left an afterimage.

Xie Yu's body was covered in dagger wounds so deep that bone showed. His Dao foundation was shattered, and Spiritual Qi spilled out in all directions.

Though he did not die at once, he lay still in a pool of his own blood, twitching and screaming miserably.

Just as he had tormented Qing Lingxi before.

Even more viciously than that.

Wind blew through the dense forest, which reeked of blood. Suddenly, a timely rain fell and washed away the traces.

Tens of thousands of li away, beside a lake rich in Spiritual Qi, Xie Qingying was setting up a formation when she suddenly sensed something and looked up toward the Southern Region.

The azure bird on her shoulder chirped uneasily.

"Dead?" She frowned slightly, then broke into a smile.

"Useless thing... If he's dead, so be it."