“What are you laughing at?”
Xuan Yin Zhenren clearly sensed something was wrong and couldn’t help asking.
“Hehehehe!”
Yijia laughed softly, her whole body trembling, laughing a bit maniacally.
“Do you want to know? Didn’t you say everything is under your control? That everything about me is within your calculations? Then take a look, what is this?”
Xuan Yin Zhenren instinctively felt uneasy and suddenly applied force with her single hand, intending to twist Yijia’s neck off. Even though the Demon Seed inside Yijia hadn’t absorbed enough despair and fear and hadn’t fully matured yet, she couldn’t care less about that now. Even if it meant reducing the success rate, she wanted to hold everything in her own hands.
However, she realized it a bit too late.
With a bang, Yijia’s heart suddenly exploded. Like a splendid firework, a burst of blood mist exploded, and blood also sprayed from her mouth. But even in such a situation, she was still laughing, laughing wildly.
“Take another look. What condition am I in now? Can you still make use of it?”
Yijia smiled and said calmly.
“Defiled Blood—who taught you this? Who taught you this?! How dare you oppose me! You have some nerve!”
Xuan Yin Zhenren almost roared these words. Even though at this moment she was only a Wooden Human Puppet, Yijia could almost see, through her flickering mechanical eyes, that master who always strategized and controlled everything, now showing a broken expression, roaring in anger and frustration.
Yijia laughed even more happily. Even though she was about to die, her heart was filled with joy. Because for the first time in her life, she had completely broken her master’s calculations and made her furious.
Having her Demon Seed tainted by Defiled Blood, she could no longer serve as a medicinal ingredient for her master, nor could she be used for alchemy. That was precisely why Xuan Yin Zhenren was so angry. And more importantly, Defiled Blood could temporarily immobilize the mechanical structure of this Wooden Human Puppet, making it unable to move for a while. That meant Xuan Yin Zhenren, who had just been stained by her blood mist, was now completely unable to move.
Yijia forcibly raised her hands, ignored Xuan Yin Zhenren’s almost flaming eyes, directly pried open the hand clutching her neck, then fell down. Only then did she limp over to You Yuelan’s side.
You Yuelan struggled to lift the blanket and looked at Yijia in disbelief.
“Senior Sister, I…”
Yijia just patted her head and smiled soothingly.
“It’s okay. I know you lost control. It’s not your fault. It’s that old hag who’s too calculating. If it weren’t for that person who helped me, I would probably be like you, not knowing until death that I was living in the script she wrote. Even if I tried my hardest to struggle, like the other senior and junior sisters, living my whole life in the script she wrote for me, the struggle itself was also within the script. But fortunately, before dying, I barely managed to break her calculations. I have no regrets. It’s just that I couldn’t save you, couldn’t let you live—that’s my failure.”
You Yuelan shook her head desperately, wanting to say something, but Yijia stopped her.
Yijia patted her head and said with a gentle smile.
“I know, you’ve always had a question. Why am I so good to you, right? Actually, it’s simple. I see you as my younger sister, a younger sister who needs my protection. When I was about five years old, I went out with my sister and encountered a tiger. At that time, I should have stepped up to protect her, but I was too scared to move. So I hid in a corner and watched as my sister was devoured by the tiger, unable to do anything. Later, although I was saved, I think the real me died in that tiger’s mouth. Whenever I close my eyes, I see that image—the image I can never forget. You know? You really look like my younger sister, exactly alike. When I first saw you, I almost thought my sister hadn’t died. Although I quickly learned the truth, in my heart, I’ve always regarded you as my real sister. So I wanted to be good to you desperately, to fill some void inside. I might be very selfish, treating you as a substitute for my sister. That’s why I never dared tell you this, afraid you might blame me. But now that I’m about to die, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
You Yuelan shook her head desperately.
“No, no, that’s not it, Senior Sister. I don’t blame you. I just didn’t know how to say it…”
Yijia’s breathing began to slow. Every word she spoke was accompanied by a cough, coughing up a lot of blood.
“If my sister were still alive, she would be about your age now. Looking at you is like looking at my sister… It’s a pity I couldn’t save you.”
With these words, Yijia’s head tilted to the side.
She was dead.
With a shattered heart and her blood infected by Defiled Blood, it was already a testament to her strong will that she held on for so long. After all, she was only a Foundation Establishment mid-stage cultivator. It was hard for her to hold on like a Foundation Establishment peak cultivator.
“Senior Sister…”
You Yuelan felt immense pain, tightly gripping Yijia’s hand. Her heart was filled with grief, but what was even harder for her to accept was that even in this situation, she still felt a strong urge to sleep.
“Damn it, don’t let me find out who it is!”
Xuan Yin Zhenren, who had just been freed from the control of Defiled Blood, slowly descended, struggling in anger.
“I will never forgive you!”
The next moment, a beam of dark light swept over, and Xuan Yin Zhenren immediately calmed down, starting to assess the situation to determine how to maximize gains.
“Yijia has lost her use. One of the two most precious medicinal ingredients is gone, halving the success rate. Now I can only try my best to nurture You Yuelan, this medicinal ingredient, to salvage some losses.”
Xuan Yin Zhenren coldly sneered and said, “You Yuelan, how does it feel to watch your senior sister die in front of you? This is the consequence of resisting. If you had obediently accepted your fate, you wouldn’t have seen this. This is all because of your own actions. Using her life to vent my anger. Remember, her death is because you refused to accept your fate. And now, I will also kill this girl who came to save you. I’m going to do it now.”
Xuan Yin Zhenren began to slowly walk toward the sleeping Lin Huanhuan. Her pace was neither fast nor slow, with the purpose of putting pressure on You Yuelan, making her fully feel despair and fear.
“I won’t let you succeed!”
“Hmm?”
Xuan Yin Zhenren’s footsteps stopped, and she turned back in disbelief. She saw that You Yuelan, who should have been struggling between pain and drowsiness, was actually…