Chapter 184: Protagonist 22

A spirit vessel bearing the Gongxi Family crest sailed toward the Twelve Cities on the border of the Demon Realm.

Wen Xunzhen sat at the bow, clutching a transmission talisman that flickered unpredictably in her palm.

This special locator talisman, once activated, was almost impossible to conceal. Even if Wen Xunzhen was unwilling, they were already drawing closer to Xiao Shou’s path.

“What exactly is your grudge against Xiao Shou? It’s not just because of your sister, is it?” Wen Xunzhen asked.

Gongxi Yue sat nearby, cultivating. She responded with just seven words:

“A blood feud. Irreconcilable.”

Wen Xunzhen pressed her lips together and asked again, “Do you absolutely have to kill him?”

“Before the time comes, even if he wants to die, I won’t let him.” The implication was clear: once the time arrived, death was inevitable.

Her tone was as cold and detached as always. Coupled with the undisguised killing intent, it was chilling to the bone.

Their conversation was interrupted by a shrill cry that grew nearer. Qian burst out of her cabin like an excited little pup, clambering onto the railing between them.

She grabbed the railing and bounced up and down, leaning most of her body over the edge, pointing furiously at the mountains and rivers below, chattering to the two icy beauties locked in their tense silence.

“Look! The mountain looks like a finger!”

“And the sea! A tiny sea!”

As she tugged at herself and shouted, “I can fly! I want to fly!” Gongxi Yue unceremoniously stuffed her into Wen Xunzhen’s arms.

“You two go play somewhere else. Don’t bother me.”

Wen Xunzhen, cold and grim as ever, struggled to keep her composure.

If she remembered correctly, hadn’t they already torn all pretenses with each other? Why was she still babysitting? Was Gongxi Yue really this comfortable letting her daughter get close to her?

Wen Xunzhen didn’t understand. She pulled Qian away from the railing, turned her back on Gongxi Yue, and suddenly lowered her voice to threaten, “I know how to make many poisons. One bite and you’ll die. Aren’t you scared of me?”

Qian froze for a second, then burst out laughing with a crackling, toothy grin, burying her head into Wen Xunzhen’s fragrant embrace.

Wen Xunzhen nudged her forehead away gently. “We’re not that close. Don’t burrow into my arms again.”

The child tilted her head up and bit her hand, gnawing away, and like a cannonball, stubbornly wriggled back into her embrace.

“I’m not playing with you.”

“Ha ha ha! Crackle crackle!”

After much push and pull, in the end, the little one got her way, nestling contentedly against her. Holding the soft, warm bundle in her arms, Wen Xunzhen was both furious and helpless.

Seeing her daughter’s thick-skinned clinginess from the other side, Gongxi Yue curled her lips with disdain.

This brat—give her food and she’ll call you mother. Wen Xunzhen plays with her and feeds her, so naturally, she’d get attached.

But that was fine. Judging by the growing energy pulse from the System, half her plan was already working.

Deliberately letting the two get closer wasn’t just about making Wen Xunzhen drop her guard and reveal Xiao Shou’s location. It was also about building their emotional connection.

No matter how high Gongxi Yue’s cultivation, no matter how many times stronger she was than Xiao Shou, the power struggle between the two Systems was entirely dependent on the target character’s feelings.

Her sister had been influenced, yes, but she had a natural fondness for her niece. Long-term contact could shift the balance.

Mu Yiling of Snowfall Palace had been interrupted in time before full capture—there was still hope of salvaging that situation.

But Wen Xunzhen… she was already deeply poisoned. This was going to be troublesome.

Gongxi Yue glanced again at her daughter, now biting Wen Xunzhen’s sleeve and whining for sweet-and-sour pills.

This little fatty didn’t even know what a “capture target” was. All she cared about was eating, drinking, and having fun. And yet, by sheer accident, she’d wormed her way into Wen Xunzhen’s heart, putting the two Systems in a precarious stalemate.

Another surge of Medicinal Qi surged through her body, stabbing with a dull ache. Gongxi Yue swallowed a mouthful of blood, coppery and sweet, without batting an eye.

Suppressing Wen Xunzhen’s poison completely… wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d hoped.

Fortunately, the spirit vessel still had a few days left to travel. Time enough to recover.

The Twelve Cities where Xiao Shou had been teleported to were a complicated place.

Ten thousand years ago, when everything west of the Drowning River was designated as the Demon Realm—a territory for the Demonic Race and the human cultivators who had fallen into demonic cultivation—the Twelve Cities on the border became a jointly governed zone between the Cultivation World and the Demon Realm.

Over the years, the Demonic Race had launched multiple invasions into the Cultivation World, at one point fully occupying the areas around the Twelve Cities, only to be driven back time and again.

In the past few centuries, the Demon Realm and the Cultivation World had signed a ceasefire agreement, promising not to cross beyond the Twelve Cities. But in recent years, the Demon Realm had grown restless again, frequently stirring up trouble.

Given the circumstances, disorder within these mixed-inhabitant Twelve Cities was inevitable.

As the spirit vessel approached the outskirts of the Twelve Cities, Gongxi Yue felt her disciple token burn hot against her skin.

It was a call for help from a fellow sect member nearby. Within a certain range, all disciples could sense it.

Gongxi Yue put away the vessel, summoned her spirit sword, grabbed the other two passengers, and flew straight toward a wild forest near the Twelve Cities.

This forest had been largely abandoned for over a decade, ever since a notorious Demonic cultivator had slaughtered and refined corpses here. Now, seven disciples of the Yunyin Immortal Sect had ventured inside, searching for a missing Aunt-Master.

But instead of finding him, they themselves had become trapped.

All seven were stationed in the Twelve Cities for training—none of them weak. But they had underestimated the Demonic cultivator lurking here.

It turned out to be none other than the Skin-Painting Demon, infamous throughout the Demon Realm.

She excelled at crafting puppets and wielded an extraordinary “Skin-Painting Art.” When the Yunyin disciples first entered the forest, they encountered their missing Aunt-Master Xue.

Letting down their guard in relief, they were caught off-guard and heavily injured by him. Only after subduing him with great effort did they realize it was merely a Skin-Painting Puppet, leading them to deduce the true enemy behind the scenes.

By then, it was already too late.

They’d been ambushed by Skin-Painting Puppets, surrounded by swarms of these eerie constructs—each wearing the face of their own teachers, friends, and fellow disciples from the Yunyin Immortal Sect.

They couldn’t kill them all, couldn’t break out, couldn’t even send a message for help. Several had suffered severe injuries. Only three, with lighter wounds, were still holding on, despair creeping into their hearts.

It was at this desperate moment that Gongxi Yue appeared before them.

The barrier cutting off spiritual power above the forest shattered under her hand. The swarm of Skin-Painting Puppets that had been attacking the disciples suddenly froze and collapsed.

The few disciples, numb from endless killing, lit up at the sight of the white-clad figure appearing before them.

The leading disciple, his face set with grim determination, instantly recognized her and called out in ecstatic relief:

“Venerable Master Bai!”

The disciples, who had almost slipped into a daze, quickly began calling out to their Shibo, but only the smallest among them—struggling to support two severely injured Senior Disciples—blurted out, wide-eyed, “What if this is just another Skin-Painting Demon trick?”

The others froze.

It had happened more than once. The Skin-Painting Demon delighted in toying with them, sending out Skin-Painting Puppets wearing the faces of their fellow disciples, pretending to come to their rescue—only to strike them down the moment they let down their guard.

In the brief silence that followed, Gongxi Yue said nothing. She simply pushed Wen Xunzhen and Qian toward the two disciples still standing.

“Watch over them.”

The Falling Frost Wind surged without warning, howling through the air as frost spread rapidly from beneath her feet, sealing the ashen ground and the surrounding mutated trees under thick ice.

Even the fallen Skin-Painting Puppets littering the ground froze solid where they lay.

“That’s the Venerable Master’s Nine Frost-Cold Forms! It’s really her!” Several disciples could no longer harbor doubt.

They looked around, eyes shining with awe, as the world turned silvery white. Even the barely visible puppet threads drifting like cobwebs in the air froze and turned visible under a layer of hoarfrost.

In Wen Xunzhen’s arms, Qian sneezed from the cold wind, immediately drawing the bright-eyed gazes of several disciples.

“Ah! It’s the Venerable Master’s daughter!”

One of the severely injured Senior Disciples, who had been supported by others just moments before, suddenly stood up, her face lighting up as she rushed forward.

“Junior Sister, you’re standing?! Be careful! We’re not out of danger yet!”

Wiping the blood from her face, the Junior Sister grinned fiercely. “What’s there to fear? Venerable Master’s here!”

The Senior Disciple: Fair point.

Gongxi Yue gathered her Spiritual Energy into a giant sword, encircling herself and the disciples behind her. Following the guidance of the Falling Frost Wind, she drove the sword deep into the earth around them.

The instant the sword struck, the frozen puppets and the surrounding stiffened trees shattered, exploding into clouds of glittering ice shards.

“Bang! Bang! Bang—”

One after another, the puppet threads snapped with sharp pops. Amid the swirling spray of ice, a voice laughed.

“No wonder they call you the Lonely Moon Sword Monarch… What a grand entrance.”

Just beyond them, hidden behind a patch of twisted trees, the Skin-Painting Demon directed her human-carried sedan chair to retreat further back.

The disciples, barely having time to catch their breath, froze once more. None of them had expected the mastermind to be so close. If not for Venerable Master clearing the area in a sweep, she wouldn’t have been forced out at all.

Standing beside the disciples, Wen Xunzhen instinctively reached out to cover Qian’s mouth, stopping her from catching snowflakes on her tongue.

Suddenly, she sensed something… a strange gaze.

Her eyes snapped up—and met the gaze of one of the puppets standing beside the Skin-Painting Demon.

With just one glance, she recognized him.

Xiao Shou!

The Skin-Painting Demon wore the skin of an enchantingly beautiful woman this time. Her sedan chair was grotesquely formed by a dozen twisted puppets, their legs and arms contorted to bear her weight.

Flanking her were several tall, masked male figures, their elegant physiques betraying their puppet nature. Clearly favored, they stood at her side, spared from the indignity of twisted limbs or the expendability of cannon fodder.

“Skin-Painting Demon. One of the Twelve Demon Generals.” Gongxi Yue’s voice cut through the air, cold and sharp. “Leaving the Demon Realm without sanction… Are you trying to break the treaty?”

As she spoke, the Falling Frost Wind gathered once more at her fingertips.

If it had been anyone else, the Skin-Painting Demon might have offered a few sly denials. But this was the Lonely Moon Sword Monarch. She wasn’t the type to listen to explanations.

When facing someone like her, there was only one tactic: Run.

Reasoning with a sword cultivator who grew colder and more ruthless by the day was pure foolishness.

So even as the Skin-Painting Demon opened her mouth to speak, she was already retreating. In the mere moments it took Gongxi Yue to utter one sentence, another giant sword was already coalescing overhead.

The Demon flicked her fingers. Dozens of corpse puppets burst from the ground.

The massive sword, formed of condensed Spiritual Energy, came slicing down—but met a dense web of puppet threads in midair. The giant blade severed countless lines, but in the end, its form frayed apart, dissipating before it could strike true.

An explosive roar followed as the impact carved a deep gash into the earth. By the time the dust and shattered puppet remains settled, the Skin-Painting Demon was gone. Only dozens of broken corpse puppets lay scattered at Gongxi Yue’s feet.

“Not good! The Skin-Painting Demon escaped!” one disciple cried. “Venerable Master, let’s give chase—”

But Gongxi Yue remained standing where she was, unmoving. Suddenly, she turned her head and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Her vision blurred to black for a moment. The carefully balanced flow of sword qi and Medicinal Qi inside her body collided in violent disarray. Leaning heavily on the Falling Frost Wind still embedded in the ground, she barely kept herself upright.

The nearby disciples gasped in alarm and rushed forward to support her.

“No need.”

Gongxi Yue glanced down and saw her daughter clutching tightly at her leg, calling out for her. It was only then that she seemed to realize something, her sharp gaze sweeping sideways.

“Where’s Wen Xunzhen?”

“Who? That girl from earlier? She was just right here…”

“Isn’t she one of the Venerable Master’s friends?”

She ran… Really took her chance.

“Venerable Master, are you alright? You’re hurt!” The disciples hesitated. “Maybe we should return to the city first. Once you’ve recovered, we can hunt the Skin-Painting Demon again.”

Gongxi Yue pressed the eager Qian against her leg, stroking the back of the child’s head as she asked, “Why were you all here? And what’s going on with the Skin-Painting Demon?”

The disciples quickly explained, “We came here looking for Shishu Xue. She disappeared a few days ago. While tracking her, we stumbled upon traces of the Skin-Painting Demon. Shishu Xue must’ve been captured by her!”

As they spoke, Gongxi Yue finally pieced together the full story.

It turned out that many cultivators in the Twelve Cities had fallen ill with a strange, malignant plague. They suspected it was the work of a Miasma Demon from the Demon Realm.

So some of the stationed disciples had secretly infiltrated the Demon Realm to investigate, while also sending word back to their sect for reinforcements.

Xue Yingying, with her wood-attribute spiritual root and skill in curing pestilence, had hurried to the region upon receiving the call. And true enough, her arrival had halted the spread of the epidemic in the city.

But shortly after, she had mysteriously vanished, leaving behind only a few scattered clues. Following those leads, the remaining disciples had tracked her here, hoping for a rescue—only to fall into the Skin-Painting Demon’s trap themselves.

When Gongxi Yue had left the sect, her Junior Sister Xue Yingying had still been safe and sound. It hadn’t even been that long… yet now she had come here and gone missing.

This same Junior Sister was also one of the future targets Gongxi Yue had seen Xiao Shou pursuing.

A missing Junior Sister… and now Wen Xunzhen slipping away right under her nose.

Everything was converging here.

Gongxi Yue guessed that Xiao Shou must be here as well.