Fall In Love With A Substitute – The Puppet’s Little Master, Chapter 154
The female demon cultivator’s jade-white arms were cushioned on the lakeshore, her head tilted and resting on her arm as she slept. From Song Pianxian’s perspective, she could only see a head of dark hair, with a few strands of graying hair hanging on her arm.
The reason Song Pianxian could confirm that it was a female demon cultivator was that the cultivator had gathered all her dark hair in front, revealing her slender neck and round shoulders.
Following the beautiful shoulders downward, Song Pianxian could see the slender figure cinched at the waist. Just before it narrowed to its thinnest point, the allure below was hidden in the lake, no more visible.
The thin clothes draped loosely from her shoulders downward, hanging loosely on the female cultivator’s body, soaked and softened by the lake’s demonic energy, dyed gray by the demonic aura, making it impossible to see the original color or pattern.
One side of the clothes was soaked in water, clinging to her shoulder, while the other floated on the water, gently swaying. In the middle, a curve held the beautiful spine, as white as jade.
As Song Pianxian’s gaze drifted to her butterfly bones, it skimmed over like a dragonfly touching the water.
Song Pianxian frowned slightly.
Since coming to this world, she hadn’t encountered many female cultivators. However, this half-exposed back seemed familiar, as if she had seen it several times before…
Unable to recall, Song Pianxian didn’t dwell on it. She gently dispersed the dense demonic energy with her spiritual power and looked towards the deeper part of the mountain—
The bottom of the mountain was pitch black, but upon closer inspection, it was all scorched earth.
As Song Pianxian concentrated and looked again, she realized it wasn’t scorched earth but a ground littered with dry, blackened bones, like the withered vines in the garden she had come from, full of lifelessness, entangled and stacked, with pale, hollow skulls on the vines.
The question lingering in Song Pianxian’s mind was answered. Why were demon cultivators flocking to this palace like pilgrims, and why hadn’t she encountered any after entering? Now, it seemed all the demon cultivators were at the bottom of this mountain.
At that moment, the female cultivator moved.
Without seeing the situation clearly, Song Pianxian cautiously chose to hold her breath.
The female cultivator raised her upper body, her movements lazy, and her clothes behind her moved with her. She extended her left arm and cupped the extremely clear water.
The water flowed down from her fingers, trickling down her wrist, splashing gently on the water’s surface, right beside her chest and abdomen, lightly.
After the water fell, the female cultivator raised her head, waved her hand, and then, immediately, from the pile of demon cultivator bones at the bottom of the mountain, little purple lights floated up, swaying lightly like fireflies, as if following a nonexistent misty wind, drifting towards the female cultivator.
Those purple lights attached themselves to the female cultivator’s side, and the dark purple glow made her already fair body shine like a pearl, dazzling to the eyes. But in a blink of an eye, the lights obediently merged into the female cultivator’s body under Song Pianxian’s gaze.
These were all demonic energy, and Song Pianxian now fully understood. The cultivation of those demon cultivators at the bottom of the mountain had been completely swallowed by this female demon cultivator.
This female cultivator was like a charming flower branch growing from the black soil, absorbing all the nutrients from the ground, and becoming more and more beautiful— and her strength became even stronger.
No, Song Pianxian couldn’t just stand by and watch. She almost made a decision in an instant. The Seven Star Twin Phoenix Blade flew out from her storage ring and landed in her hand. She grasped the handle tightly, infused the spiritual energy into the blade, and was about to—
Not good!
Song Pianxian twisted her body to dodge, and the grass flew under her feet.
Almost at the moment when spiritual energy was infused into the Seven Star Twin Phoenix Blade, the surging demonic mist at the foot of the mountain suddenly rose up, condensing into several black ropes, flying towards her like venomous snakes.
This method wasn’t particularly clever, but the demonic energy within was extremely abundant, causing Song Pianxian’s expression to turn cold. This was the first demon cultivator she had encountered who could fight her on equal footing.
Behind these chains was naturally the female cultivator at the foot of the mountain, but she had yet to reveal herself, only using these demonic chains to entangle with Song Pianxian. Song Pianxian intended to bypass the chains and explore the true body of the female cultivator, but she kept being intercepted, momentarily unable to find a way through. Even her divine sense couldn’t penetrate the mist.
Song Pianxian pondered and analyzed inwardly, her hands adept at dealing with the situation. Her puppet was tireless, and she wasn’t afraid if it came down to endurance. She just didn’t know if the demon cultivator below would employ any sinister tricks…
But after just a quarter of an hour, Song Pianxian found this place extremely unfavorable for herself—
This palace unexpectedly completely isolated spiritual energy from the outside, only filled with demonic energy.
And those chains, not only were they fighting with her, but every time they made contact, they would “steal” a bit of her spiritual energy.
With the accumulation over time, signs of exhaustion had begun to show.
…
On the hillside, grass seeds scattered randomly, and the sound of fighting finally ceased.
Yu Yi, somewhat unaccustomedly, used her greatly expanded divine sense to see that Song Pianxian’s spiritual energy was depleted and she had fallen into her nightmare technique. Yu Yi waved her sleeve, and the chains immediately turned into faint gray mist.
However, this time, Yu Yi didn’t let the demonic energy dissipate freely; instead, she absorbed it all into her body. This was the last trace of demonic energy here.
She took out a pure black robe and put it on, then walked slowly up the hill, barefoot, to see Song Pianxian.
Why did Big Sister come? Yu Yi felt a bit of a headache, but her mood couldn’t help but become joyful. She hadn’t seen Song Pianxian for several days, and she really missed her. But to let Song Pianxian encounter her absorbing demonic energy, especially the last bit of it, made her feel somewhat guilty.
Fortunately, the Seven Star Twin Phoenix Blade, as her magic tool, had a slight connection with her; otherwise, under Song Pianxian’s concealment, she really wouldn’t have been able to detect her.
And fortunately again, there was no spiritual energy here. Otherwise, with her just stepping into the tribulation period and having no spells, how could she control Song Pianxian?
Yu Yi knelt among the broken grass, letting Song Pianxian rest on her knee. She extended her index finger and gently outlined Song Pianxian’s eyebrows and eyes.
Song Pianxian had already fallen into her nightmare technique, and Yu Yi wove a very sweet dream for her. In reality, she chuckled softly, her tone affectionate:
“If Big Sister were to see me in my current appearance, I’m afraid… she’d be shocked speechless.”
If there were a third person on the scene, they would see what kind of scene it was.
Amidst the gentle breeze and grass, a woman in red lay quietly on the black-clad woman’s knee. The black-clad woman did not tie up her hair; her dark tresses flowed down, intertwining with the red-clad woman’s.
Most peculiarly, the woman in red was naturally enchanting and radiant, while the black-clad woman shared seventy percent similarity with her, the remaining thirty percent charming and alluring. At a glance, the two appeared like twins.
Yu Yi looked content, moving neither fast nor slow as she tidied up the person’s hair on her knee bit by bit. After wrapping the last strand of hair behind Song Pianxian’s ear, Yu Yi leaned in close to her ear and whispered:
“Like this, you look even more like Big Sister’s dear Little Sister.”
In the past, Yu Yi had only thought that changing one’s appearance for cultivating a technique was a boring and useless setting. But since her appearance became more and more like Song Pianxian’s, she had truly experienced its wonders.
Yu Yi’s fingers lingered on Song Pianxian’s warm neck, then withdrew.
She had to leave.
Crossing two major realms, she still had tribulations to undergo. She had plenty of magic tools in her storage bracelet, not to mention fear. It’s just that she needed to hide her formation completely by crossing the tribulation in the Land of Eternal Night.
Yu Yi made several arrangements and then patiently waited. When the chaotic footsteps came from the garden, Yu Yi smiled faintly and turned to leave.
“Elder Song is awake!”
“Elder Song, are you still uncomfortable?”
“Fetch some more Sanqing Accumulating Spirit Pills—”
Song Pianxian slowly opened her eyes and saw Elder Qin, Master Yu, and others surrounding her with caring expressions. She didn’t accept the Sanqing Accumulating Spirit Pill handed by Elder Qin. Her body tensed instinctively as she looked around.
“Where is this?”
Elder Qin’s attitude was eager yet respectful, as he explained:
“Elder, after being rushed to the corners of the Jade Cave by the demon cultivators, I and the other elders quickly gathered in one place and searched for the remaining companions together. Since we saw the bodies of the demon cultivators scattered along the way, presumably slain by you, we followed the demon cultivators to find you. Finally, we found you in that mountain hall and relied on the map in the hall to successfully come out of the Jade Cave.”
“This is a cave arranged by Master Yu, and we haven’t left the maze yet.”
Song Pianxian understood, but was also somewhat puzzled. Before she fell unconscious, there was clearly a demon cultivator still unresolved, one whose strength was unfathomable. How could they have let her go after battling with her for so long?
Song Pianxian asked, “What about the demon cultivator?”
Elder Qin bowed deeply, his tone admiring, “They were all slain by you at the foot of the mountain!”
Song Pianxian hesitated for a moment, then understood. They must have thought that she had killed all the demon cultivators at the foot of the mountain.
“I’m not talking about—”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Elder Qin interrupted, his tone perfunctory. He whispered mysteriously, “Those demon cultivators were in a terrible state when they died. It’s likely that Elder has some extraordinary power, which is bound to attract criticism and even envy.”
“We have all benefited from your kindness, so let’s just pretend we didn’t see anything.”
“…”
Elder Qin had a look of “I know you won’t admit it, but it’s okay, I understand” on his face. Behind him, Master Yu and several others stood with their hands behind their backs, lost in thought. They truly began to implement the policy of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” from now on.
In her frustration, Song Pianxian understood. They truly hadn’t seen that demon cultivator, so they naturally assumed it was her doing.
After all, they had never seen a demon cultivator undergoing tribulation, let alone thought that another demon cultivator was the one targeting the many demon cultivators—
With this in mind, even Song Pianxian felt that it made sense that she had killed those demon cultivators.
Enough of this nonsense, Song Pianxian shook her head gently, driving away the chaotic thoughts from her mind, and confirmed once again:
“Have you encountered any demon cultivators with extremely advanced cultivation in these few days?”
“Never, let alone a big demon, it’s extremely rare to even encounter a small fry— you mean, you’ve encountered one?” Elder Qin finally reacted.
Song Pianxian pondered for a moment and replied:
“It was inside that hall where I encountered her and exchanged a few moves.”
Hearing this, the Taoist cultivators all gathered around, exchanging glances. One of them speculated, “Perhaps we arrived just in time, and the demon head didn’t want to alert the enemy, so they fled?”
“That’s the only explanation.”
“Doesn’t that mean the demon cultivator had other plans?”
“They didn’t do much to us in the cave, so they probably wouldn’t wait for us to leave the cave before taking action,” Song Pianxian reasoned calmly. “If they plan to take action again, it would likely be in the future.”
At this point, she glanced at the team in front of her, remembering something more important: “Yu Yi hasn’t been found yet?”
At the mention of this, everyone fell silent.
Elder Qin was pushed forward again to answer. Faced with the absence of the master’s puppet, he explained dryly, “We initially thought that Fellow Yu was still with you… But I, Qin Lang, can vouch with my head that we searched the Jade Cave thoroughly before leaving. We didn’t see Fellow Yu, and if we had, we certainly wouldn’t have left her behind.”
“After we returned, we issued a mission to the disciples participating in the Tianfeng Meeting through the Tianliao Order, asking them to help find Fellow Yu.”
“Oh, Master Chu Feng hasn’t returned either. It’s possible… It’s possible that Master Chu Feng has already found Miss Yu and is protecting her!”
“Master Chu and Miss Yu have an extremely good relationship, so this possibility isn’t small.”
The crowd started buzzing with discussion.
Song Pianxian gave a soft “hm,” and the discussions vanished instantly, everyone falling silent.
She got up from her bed: “I’ll go look for Yu Yi.”
“Eh, but—”
Elder Qin was hesitating about whether to stop her or follow along. In the next moment, a message flashed on his Tianliao Token, and he impatiently glanced down, his face lighting up:
“A disciple says they’ve found Fellow Yu!”
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Translator: Glariosa
Editor: Ruu
