Alone, Beautifully – Chapter 5

Sharing a bridal chamber with you (5)

“I like you the most in this world.”

This time, things got completely out of hand.

In the Demonic Realm, where there is no sun or moon, the sky always remains dimly lit, seemingly on the verge of plunging into darkness at any moment. Xu Jiao had passed out and woken up countless times, and every time she opened her eyes, the room remained illuminated by red candles, without any change.

If one insisted on finding something different, there was indeed something.

She lowered her head and noticed that she was covered with a silk quilt. The quilt was embroidered with delicate patterns of mandarin ducks playing in water, still dazzling red in color. Her body seemed to have been cleaned up, devoid of the sticky, awful feeling from before.

—Xia Jingzhe seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

If it weren’t for the lingering pain somewhere on her body, she would have thought that the absurdity earlier was just a dream.

At this moment, the system’s voice sounded: “Detected Xia Jingzhe’s blackening value, 99.5. Host, please respond promptly.”

Xu Jiao moved slightly and realized that the chain on her hand seemed to have been lengthened. She sat up with a cool breeze, noticing that the wound on her wrist seemed to have been treated with medicine.

Normally, with her cultivation base, such minor injuries wouldn’t leave any trace after a few weeks of meditation. Applying medicine was purely unnecessary.

Feeling uncomfortable, she adjusted her position and lazily asked the system in her mind, “Why didn’t you speak up earlier? Now I’m powerless, and she’s nowhere to be found. Where am I supposed to find someone?”

The system was silent for two seconds before earnestly replying, “At that time, there was a discordant scene detected, and the system was in a blocked state.”

Xu Jiao fell silent for a moment, then slowly uttered, “Oh.”

Then she asked, “So, you didn’t witness how good my daughter, I mean, my protagonist, is?”

Silence engulfed her mind.

Xu Jiao sighed inexplicably, “It’s a pity. I was planning to discuss with you why she has so many skills when I clearly didn’t activate that aspect of her skill tree.”

“Are novel protagonists really naturally gifted in this area?”

The system emitted a puzzled sound, “This kind of discussion belongs to a non-harmonious topic, but I haven’t detected any shame-related emotions in the host…”

Xu Jiao calmly replied, “Probably because this is a false world, so I treat it as a real immersive game?”

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The system’s voice repeated flatly, “This is a real world.”

Xu Jiao: “Oh.”

The conversation with the system approached a near-autistic state. After a while of silence, it sincerely advised, “Please discuss topics that I can participate in, Host.”

Xu Jiao’s gaze wandered aimlessly on her wrist, casually saying, “Fine, let’s figure out a way to get rid of this chain now. I’ll go out to investigate what’s going on with Xia Jingzhe’s blackening… Oh no, what’s going on with this blackening value.”

She asked, “Can you break it for me?”

System: “Cannot.”

Xu Jiao: “Then help me restore my cultivation?”

System: “Cannot.”

Xu Jiao puzzled, “Then what can you do?”

System: “Cheer you on.”

Xu Jiao adopted a standard lying-down posture, crossed her hands on her stomach, looking serene, and speaking calmly, “Forget it, let’s just wait for death.”

True to her words, she lay on the jade bed motionless for a long time, until there was a commotion at the door.


Xia Jingzhe pushed the door open and entered, still dressed in that unfriendly black outfit, tight around her waist, extremely neat. If there was any difference compared to before she left, it was that the smell of blood on her body had become stronger. As soon as she pushed open the door, the heavy killing intent rushed toward her face.

“Senior sister, awake?”

Xu Jiao moved her eyes, shifting her gaze from the canopy above to Xia Jingzhe, who was coming over. The colorful features of the other party fell into her sight, and only then did Xu Jiao slowly ask.

“Did you kill someone?”

Hearing her still hoarse voice, Xia Jingzhe went to the table, picked up the jug of wine, casually performed a spell, and with a flash of white light, the liquor inside turned into spring water.

Using cultivation through her palms, the body of the jug became warm after a while.

She then poured the warm water in a cup before walking to Xu Jiao’s bedside, intending to help her up and drink some water.

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Originally, Xu Jiao didn’t intend to be served like this, reaching out to take the cup by herself. But when she heard Xia Jingzhe’s voice, asking with a slight smirk, “Senior Sister, being disobedient again?”

Her movement of raising her hand froze for a moment, allowing Xia Jingzhe to feed the water to her lips.

It seemed that this person really enjoyed the feeling of taking care of her, because all Xu Jiao felt from her actions was pleasure.

After Xu Jiao had drunk half a cup of water, Xia Jingzhe finally showed a satisfied expression, carefully wiped her lips, and answered Xu Jiao’s previous question:

“Not only did I kill someone, but I also wiped out the Kunlun Sect.”

She deliberately spoke about this matter in a relaxed tone, with a smile in her eyes scanning Xu Jiao’s face, trying to find expressions like shock, astonishment, or pain.

But…

Xu Jiao’s eyes only showed a hint of surprise, along with something else.

That surprise was like a dragonfly skimming over water, passing by without leaving a trace of color.

Little did she know.

Xu Jiao’s predominant emotion was actually one of regret. After all, the Kunlun Sect was a fairyland she had meticulously researched in the beginning. The relationships among its characters also took her three sheets of paper to untangle. Now, hearing about Xia Jingzhe’s destruction of Kunlun, her mood—

It was like painstakingly designing a game dungeon, expecting players to come in, struggle, level up, but accidentally allowing a cheater to rush in, breezing through it effortlessly, collapsing the dungeon.

Ugh, thinking about it like this was somewhat heart-wrenching.

“Senior Sister’s thoughts are forever beyond my grasp. I’ve heard that when Senior Sister was born, her entire family perished. It was the Kunlun Sect Leader who brought you back to Kunlun and taught you carefully. Judging from the Sect Leader’s affection for Senior Sister, I thought Kunlun was also Senior Sister’s second home.”

“I wonder how devastated the Sect Leader would be upon seeing Senior Sister’s current state.”

Xia Jingzhe lifted her hand to cup Xu Jiao’s chin, locking eyes with her, and said those words that pierced the heart.

But Xu Jiao completely ignored her words. Instead, she moved her wrist and asked her, “When do you plan to release this restraint?”

Xia Jingzhe smiled and replied to her in a seemingly nice tone: “Senior sister, say something nice, and I’ll release you.”

Since this iron chain was just a precaution, even if she released it, Xu Jiao’s cultivation would still be sealed, and the difference wouldn’t be significant.

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Xu Jiao lowered her gaze, calmly contemplating—

She didn’t expect Xia Jingzhe to act like one of those romantic male leads in novels, showering care and then seeking praise afterward. Had her character setting collapsed?

Moreover, what should she say… “You’re great”? “You’re amazing”? “Your hands are beautiful”?

Seeing Xu Jiao’s indifferent avoidance, Xia Jingzhe couldn’t help but speak, “As long as Senior Sister says she likes me the most, I’ll release the chain and take you out to have a look, how about that?”

Oh.

Why didn’t she say so earlier?

Xu Jiao raised her dark eyes, her profound gaze seemingly able to penetrate people’s minds. Just when Xia Jingzhe thought she was finally unable to resist teasing her, she heard Xu Jiao hesitantly utter, her voice clear and cool:

“In this world, I like you the most.”