Qin Yunxi suddenly let out a muffled grunt. When he lifted his head, his lower lips were bitten, gushing out bright red blood. “Qingyin, can’t you really recognize me?” He laughed bitterly. “I am Wei Liang!”
He leaned in and kissed her again. Liu Qingyin, utterly shocked by the revelation, seemed too stunned to react, allowing him to kiss her deeply without any resistance.
But Mushroom Lin Jiu was equally shocked, her roots standing on end—‘He’s Wei Liang?! If Qin Yunxi is actually Wei Liang, then who is the person I married?!’
Above the mushroom cap, the man pressed upon the woman with crazed forbearance, kissing her lips so thoroughly. By the time Qin Yunxi released Liu Qingyin, her delicate face was already streaked with tears. “No! My Master would never call me that, and he would never do such a thing to me! Qin Yunxi, I hate you! You’re despicable! It wasn’t enough that you tried to imitate him in every way, now you’re using such a despicable way to take advantage of me! Do you think you can replace his position in my heart? Let me tell you—it’s impossible! It will never happen!”
Qin Yunxi let out a bitter laugh and released her. “Qingyin…” He covered his face with one hand, his voice heavy with vicissitudes. “To you, it might feel like our relationship never even began, but to me, it had already blossomed and reached its peak. We spent a lifetime together, but when we ascended… something went wrong, and I was sent back a hundred years, forced to live it all over again.”
“I don’t believe you,” Liu Qingyin retorted. “Impossible! Even if he rejects me, I would never choose to be with you, Qin Yunxi. If I did, I’d lose any chance of ever being with him.”
“Why can’t you understand?” Qin Yunxi sounded exasperated. “I’m not Qin Yunxi, I am Wei Liang! You and I were a couple of a lifetime. We went through so much, and in the end, we ascended together.”
“Then why do you look like Eldest Senior Brother? And that person—who is him, if not my Master?” Liu Qingyin clearly didn’t believe him and simply brushed off his words.
“I…” Qin Yunxi hesitated, then spoke reluctantly. “My primordial spirit was severely damaged. As a result, the Devil Lord took over my body. I was left without a body, but with Yunxi’s primordial spirit gone, I take over his body to return to life.”
Lin Jiu’s heart skipped a beat.
Liu Qingyin’s eyes widened slowly. “Is that true?!”
“Of course!” Qin Yunxi gritted his teeth and nodded firmly. “If you don’t believe me, I can tell you some things that only the two of us know—like how you used the gorse to retaliate against Xing Tianxi. Or how, on the night I agreed to marry Lin Qiu, I stood outside your abode and listened as you cursed me all night.”
Liu Qingyin gasped, staring at him in shock.
“Qingyin,” Qin Yunxi grasped her shoulders firmly, “do you understand our situation now? The Devil Lord has taken over my body and is using Wei Liang’s name and identity. I’m trapped, tormented, yet powerless. If he suspects anything, he could kill me at any moment. I can’t tell anyone, and even if I did, no one would believe me. Worse, those with ulterior motives might even seize the chance to bring down the thousand-year foundation of the Wanjiangui Sect… Qingyin, I never wanted to drag you into this dangerous mess, but I can’t just stand by and watch you sink deeper. He is not Wei Liang—he is the Devil Lord!”
Liu Qingyin shook her head slowly. “I still don’t believe you. I’ll go ask him myself! These are just things he’s instructed you to tell me, aren’t they? He’s trying to trick me into giving up on him!”
Qin Yunxi was so anxious that he lost all his composure, “Qingyin! Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgment! Only you and I can stop the Devil Lord—don’t you understand?!”
Liu Qingyin shook her head again. “Stop talking. I’ll figure it out on my own. Senior Brother, even if what you say is true, I feel absolutely nothing for you. Do you understand?”
‘The Devil Lord? The Wei Liang who has been with me was the Devil Lord?’ Lin Jiu’s heart was racing. While the male lead had indeed been behaving quite abnormally so far, there was a major flaw in Qin Yunxi’s argument. According to the world setting of the novel, while the remnant soul of a devil could indeed possess a living being, it couldn’t exert any real influence. There was no way a mere wisp of the Devil Lord’s soul could take over Sword Monarch Wei Liang’s body, no matter how gravely injured he was.
‘In the novel, the remnant soul of the Devil Lord couldn’t even stir up a ripple, so what’s really going on here?’ Lin Jiu wracked her brain. Her intuition told her that Qin Yunxi was hiding something important! If this were truly the case, and he was so sure that the current Wei Liang was actually the Devil Lord, why go to such great lengths to test him? Injuring the Devil Lord’s beloved pet in such a manner—wasn’t that an unnecessary risk?
‘What is he hiding… What is he really trying to find out…’
“I understand,” Qin Yunxi smiled bitterly. “It’s normal that you can’t accept it all at once, and I get that. Qingyin, I’m not asking you to accept my feelings right now. You know that between life and death, seven days is the boundary. That’s where the legend of the seven-night return of the soul comes from. And seven times seven days, forty-nine days, is the divine cycle dictated by the heavenly law. Even the Devil Lord, no matter how powerful, cannot escape this law. After forty-nine days, his remnant soul will vanish without a trace. It’s already been twenty-one days since I faced him at Linxi Creek, and I will do everything I can to delay him and disrupt his plans. As long as we make it through the remaining twenty-eight days, everything will return to normal.”
Liu Qingyin didn’t know what to believe or not. She took a step back and said seriously, “Don’t force me. Let me think about it slowly. And please, don’t say again that you are Wei Liang. The more you say it, the more I feel repulsive. Don’t make me hate you, Senior Brother.”
She emphasized the words ‘Senior Brother’ with weight.
Qin Yunxi smiled sadly and lowered his head. His gaze fell on two small mushrooms swaying in the wind, and his slightly dazed eyes gradually sharpened.
Lin Jiu’s heart skipped a beat—‘No!’
“A decoy mushroom,” Qin Yunxi’s voice was icy. He lowered his hand and grabbed the mushroom cap with force.
Lin Jiu felt as if someone had stripped off her raincoat. After a rustling sound, she found herself standing under the tree, facing Qin Yunxi with a forced customer-service smile—the kind every overworked office drone wears.
“You heard everything.” A faint smile played on Qin Yunxi’s lips, and Lin Jiu could tell his murderous intent at a glance.
Lin Jiu’s hair stood on end as she tried to negotiate, “I swear I won’t say a word, okay?”
Qin Yunxi’s smile grew even warmer. “No. You’ve been with him days and nights. Even if you utter just one word, Qingyin and I would be finished. Besides, I don’t trust you.”
He slowly drew his sword. With a sharp clang, the blade hummed, its cold tip pressed heavily against Lin Jiu’s chest. Her clothing offered no resistance as it was cut open, and she felt the cold, sharp pain as the sword began to inch its way forward.
She tried her best to shrink back, her heel nudging the mushroom Doulong, quietly kicking it under the tree’s roots.
She could only hope that this stupid dog would understand her signal and go fetch help.
In the distance, a violent explosion echoed.
Qin Yunxi tilted his head slightly, his tone sounded a bit regretful. “The Wang family’s Seven Stars Sword Array. It seems ‘Wei Liang’ won’t be coming to save you.”
“Sorry,” he murmured, lowering his eyelids. “I can only apologize to you. But Lin Qiu, you weren’t a good person in your past life. Though you’ve yet to make any mistakes in this one, a person tends to repeat their old ways. This time, you’ll surely follow the same path. It’s better to end your sins before they happen. Don’t be afraid—you won’t feel any pain.”
With a slight twist of his wrist, the sword was ready to pierce Lin Jiu’s heart!
At the critical moment, Lin Jiu suddenly had a flash of inspiration—”Wait!”
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