Jiao Liqiao 1
A new life began, but her head was full of distracting thoughts.
In her previous life, she had been an ordinary fisherman's daughter, living an ordinary life of daily necessities. The only unusual thing was that, unlike others, she had remained single her entire life, contrary to the prevailing views of the time.
She had also been the Ethereal Immortal, the world's number one expert, whose place between good and evil was hard to discern. When she encountered someone she disliked, she simply cut them down with a single stroke. Because she had concealed her true identity, the Ethereal Immortal came and went without a trace in the martial world and had no weaknesses, so naturally she lived with the utmost freedom.
Unfortunately, retribution had come for her in this life. The body she had newly transmigrated into carried powerful obsessions. Even though its soul had already departed, and Wen Qiushui's State of Mind was much calmer after entering the body, she was still nearly overwhelmed by its intensely powerful desires.
This body cared about only two things. Most important was her beauty. Second was a man: her master.
She had countless schemes and toyed with a great many men in the palm of her hand, yet in the end, it had all been to help her master, Di Feisheng, achieve his wish.
Wen Qiushui heaved a long sigh. Who would have thought that Jiao Liqiao, who looked like a lunatic, was actually a love-brain?
Yes, in this life Wen Qiushui had become Jiao Liqiao, who had once been jealous of Wen Qiushui's version of Qiao Wanmian and had been slain by Qiao Wanmian, whom Wen Qiushui had transmigrated into.
And now this soul who had once perished beneath her sword had become her. This business of transmigration, with its cycle of cause and effect, was truly mysterious and unfathomable.
And the trouble this body brought her was not limited to those powerful obsessions. There was also the cultivation method she practiced, Painted Skin. Even Wen Qiushui, a witch who had practiced a Devil Cultivation Method, frowned at the sight of it.
How was this a Devil Cultivation Method? It was downright evil.
The world had yin and yang, and the Dao and the devil were separate. The devil stood opposed to the Dao. Daoist arts sought understanding through the heart and drew spiritual power into the body; they were the path of cultivation, a magnificent great road. Devil Cultivation Methods sought quick results and immediate gains. They were powerful and advanced quickly, but the mixed Devil Qi could easily turn on the practitioner, causing Qi Deviation and endless harm.
Yet these were simply two paths of cultivation. Even someone who practiced a Devil Cultivation Method could reach the pinnacle if they withstood the trials of their State of Mind. Evil arts were different. They relied on shortcuts and trickery, stealing and deceiving the workings of heaven, following crooked paths and wicked ways, with karmic sin coiling around the practitioner.
Generally speaking, those who practiced evil arts and were steeped in karmic sin rarely attained true fruition. The Painted Skin Art Jiao Liqiao practiced was one such evil art, and by now she was covered in karmic sin.
Wen Qiushui did not care what became of Jiao Liqiao's soul, laden with karmic sin, but now she had become Jiao Liqiao. Even though most of the karmic sin had departed with Jiao Liqiao's soul, the cycle of cause and effect had left quite a bit of it on her.
This karmic sin was not something one acquired by killing one or two people. One would only be tainted by it after killing a saint of great merit, or slaughtering an entire clan and wiping out its bloodline.
She had no idea what Jiao Liqiao had done to become tainted with so much karmic sin while possessing the body of an ordinary mortal.
For cultivators of the true path, karmic sin was the most terrifying thing. It brought bad luck and slowed progress in cultivation. The most important thing now was to dissolve the Painted Skin Art in her body, then perform more meritorious deeds.
Wen Qiushui, now called Jiao Liqiao, pressed a hand helplessly to her forehead. During her previous transmigrations, even when there had been difficulties, she had been able to resolve them easily. Karmic sin alone was extremely troublesome to deal with. It seemed that in this life she could not do as she pleased and kill whenever she wanted. Instead, she would have to do good deeds that benefited the country and its people.
After ordering Xue Gong and Xue Po to guard the entrance and keep anyone from disturbing her, Jiao Liqiao carefully recalled the body's memories. Only then did she understand why it bore so much karmic sin.
For a start, there was no telling how many innocent women she had harmed to practice the Painted Skin Art, or how many entire families she had wiped out over the slightest disagreement;
During the great battle between the Golden Mandarin Duck Alliance and the Sigu Sect three years ago, she had set a trap that killed quite a few Sigu Sect members. Most of them had been exceptionally good people who bore merit, so naturally she could expect no good from it.
Moreover, Jiao Liqiao's schemes had caused the Sigu Sect, which upheld justice in the martial world, to disband. Rules had finally been established and peace restored to the martial world, only for it to descend into chaos again because of Li Xiangyi's disappearance and the Sigu Sect's dissolution. Some responsibility for the innocent people who died in the ensuing chaos would also be laid at Jiao Liqiao's door.
Furthermore, Jiao Liqiao was a holy maiden of the Nanyin royal family and carried its bloodline. Had she refused to acknowledge her identity, that would have been one thing. But she had acknowledged her status as a holy maiden and profited from it, so a portion of the karmic debt for the evil deeds Nanyin committed in its efforts to restore the nation, such as conducting experiments with the Karmic Fire Parasite, would also be charged to Jiao Liqiao. After all, the other Nanyin leader had also committed plenty of evil deeds, but he did not have Nanyin blood.
Lastly, and most seriously of all, Li Xiangyi, a child of fortune, had fallen before his time because of Jiao Liqiao's schemes. Li Xiangyi, whose extraordinary talent had originally made it possible for him to surpass the limits of martial arts, shatter the void, and help the Heavenly Dao make a breakthrough, had fallen to Jiao Liqiao's honey trap. Naturally, the Heavenly Dao would look unfavorably upon Jiao Liqiao and Yun Biqiu, who had caused Li Xiangyi's fall.
They might live comfortably for a time, but the backlash of karmic sin would always come. Even if no one killed them, they would spend their lives unable to obtain what they sought and their later years in misery. Even after reincarnation, that karmic sin would continue to follow them.
Jiao Liqiao sighed helplessly once more. First, she connected with the Chaos Pearl and gathered all the merit that belonged to Wen Qiushui into it. Even if she lived a miserable life as Jiao Liqiao, she would not use the merit she had accumulated to offset Jiao Liqiao's karmic debts.
At worst, she would die a more miserable death and reincarnate again. After all, her soul was not Jiao Liqiao's. Once a person died, everything came to an end.
But if the situation could be salvaged, she still had to try.
Still, Jiao Liqiao could not help crying out in her heart, Li Xiangyi, why are you everywhere? Why are you so important? What on earth makes you so deserving?!
Though her heart was filled with countless grievances and she found Li Xiangyi increasingly disagreeable, Jiao Liqiao did not choose to reincarnate again lightly.
The Chaos Pearl was very important to her. A temporary spell of hardship was not worth sacrificing the energy accumulated in the Chaos Pearl.
Jiao Liqiao spent a year dissolving the Painted Skin Art, then practiced the Heavenly Devil Instruction to cleanse her body's essence and marrow. After breaking through to the completion of the second level, she stopped and prepared to clean up the mess left by the body's original owner.
A body burdened by obsessions and karmic sin was truly unsuited to practicing the Heavenly Devil Instruction and was more prone to Qi Deviation. But only the energy cultivated through the Heavenly Devil Instruction could nourish the Chaos Pearl in return. So, for the Chaos Pearl's sake, Jiao Liqiao practiced the Heavenly Devil Instruction in every reincarnation, regardless of the circumstances, and after the body died at the end of its natural lifespan, she used the Chaos Pearl to devour the body that had practiced it.
First, there was Li Xiangyi, the child of fortune. She would leave him alone for now. According to her memories of her previous life, the fellow who had changed his name to Li Lianhua had at least another five or six years to live. She would let him experience the hardships of the world and temper himself thoroughly first. This was also her way of doing her part to help Li Lianhua shatter the void in the future.