My Shijie Seems Intent on Destroying the World – Chapter 18
by Little PandaQuestioning the Heart
Shijie Had Been Following Behind Her All Along
Qi Zhi stared blankly at Mu Qingshi’s back. Powang radiated a bone-piercing cold from her hand.
The figure that had once been most familiar to her was, in this moment, so alien that all their shared memories seemed like some colossal mistake.
Yet she still shielded her…
As if sensing the bewildered gaze behind her, Mu Qingshi’s sword hand trembled slightly. After a moment of silence, she said softly, “If you’re afraid, don’t look.”
Qi Zhi snapped back to herself. The hands that had been covering her mouth shifted upward, instantly clamping over her eyes.
Then, as if that weren’t enough, she buried her face in her knees.
Everything around them fell silent in that instant.
Qi Zhi heard no more sounds. She only felt a current of spiritual energy swirling around her like a spring breeze.
When the energy dissipated, she hesitantly opened her eyes.
The black mist had cleared. The demonic sword was gone without a trace. Only Chunsheng remained on the ground.
The man-eating great demon had reverted to its true form, lying in a pool of blood, devoid of life.
Mu Qingshi stood quietly before her, looking down with eyes full of helpless resignation.
After a long silence, Mu Qingshi walked to Qi Zhi’s side and sat down.
In a calm voice, she began to tell a story.
“Yue Jinzhu was once the Left Protector at the Spirit Venerable’s side. With her noble nine-tailed bloodline and her position as Protector of Muxue Valley, she had always been imperious and untouchable.”
“Then she encountered a human cultivator who had come to Muxue Valley seeking spiritual medicine. Somehow, she lost her mind over him. She betrayed the Spirit Venerable, stole the medicine for him, and left Muxue Valley at his side.”
“The cultivator returned to his sect with the medicine, completed his mission, and earned his master’s approval. He thought he would never again have to live in his shixiong’s shadow. But his triumph was short-lived. Soon, the whispers began.”
“Those same martial siblings who used to say he was inferior to his shixiong in every way now said he was weak-willed, that he consorted with demons, that he was ensnared by infatuation and had brought back a fox from Muxue Valley.”
“To prove his loyalty to the sect, he turned his blade on Yue Jinzhu…”
Qi Zhi pressed her lips together, glancing involuntarily at the blood cocoons suspended around them.
Mu Qingshi looked at her and continued the story.
“Yue Jinzhu was drowning in that cultivator’s tenderness, deaf to the harsh voices around her—until a sword pierced through her defenseless body.”
“Her cultivation was not low. She struggled and fled a great distance, but no matter where she hid, immortal sect cultivators tracked her. Because the man she had loved so blindly, to kill her without provoking controversy, had pinned countless baseless crimes upon her.”
“Battered with wounds, she could find no safe haven in the mortal realm, nor could she return to Muxue Valley. Born to nobility, the first time she fell from her perch, she landed in the mire—consumed by hatred until she nearly lost her mind.”
“And then?” Qi Zhi couldn’t help asking in a small voice.
“Then she met someone.”
“Who?”
“Fu Qingsong of Tiandao Sect.” Mu Qingshi spoke plainly. “The very shixiong that Yue Jinzhu’s betrayer had spent his life trying to surpass.”
Qi Zhi’s eyes flew wide open.
Mu Qingshi said that at the time, Fu Qingsong was not yet the Sect Master of Tiandao Sect, much less the revered Daoist Venerable. He secretly sought out Yue Jinzhu and offered her a choice that was hardly a choice at all.
That choice was to cultivate the Demon Race Forbidden Arts and secretly refine pills for Tiandao Sect.
So long as Yue Jinzhu agreed, he would hand his shidi over to her personally, and Tiandao Sect would become her patron thereafter.
For the alchemy, he had only two requirements.
No harming ordinary civilians. No drawing undue attention.
Yue Jinzhu did not hesitate for a moment. She agreed to Fu Qingsong’s terms and got her wish—she saw that human cultivator once more.
Mu Qingshi paused here for a long while before saying softly, “She killed him with her own hands—devouring his heart and drinking his blood, consumed by hatred.”
Qi Zhi: “…”
“From that point on, Yue Jinzhu entrenched herself near Tiandao Sect, using the forbidden arts to refine living humans into pills, trading them for Fu Qingsong’s protection.” Mu Qingshi gave a soft scoff. “This arrangement lasted eight hundred years.”
“Eight hundred years. Some rose meteorically to glory. Others were eroded by the forbidden arts in their three souls and seven spirits1, growing ever more bloodthirsty through repeated hunts, unable to turn back.”
“But none of them ever believed they were in the wrong.”
“In their final moments, they only resented others for interfering—and hated themselves for not being strong enough.”
Mu Qingshi said no more.
Qi Zhi bit her lip, lowered her gaze, and unconsciously drew her knees tighter to her chest.
A faint scent of blood lingered in the silence.
After an indeterminate time, she heard a soft sigh.
“shimei.” Mu Qingshi asked gently, “Do you truly believe that no matter where you go, it would be safer than by my side?”
Qi Zhi opened her mouth but couldn’t find words.
“Do you know that beyond Mount Qiongju, every meal, every roof, every step of the way costs money?”
“…”
“Do you know where your carefree days these past few weeks came from?”
“…”
“Do you know why I only appeared when she was about to strike?”
Qi Zhi’s eyes grew hot with tears.
She understood now.
Her shijie had been following behind her all along.
The wontons at the roadside stall, the inn where she lodged, the steamed buns, the carriage that brought her here—all of it had been quietly arranged and paid for by someone on her behalf.
Only Lady Yue’s Hot Pot was different.
That was her first lesson in survival after leaving the mountain.
Mu Qingshi wanted her to understand that the martial siblings who once bullied her would not casually take her life. But beyond Mount Qiongju, anyone could kill a low-cultivation little blade of grass like her without a second thought.
Because the weak cannot protect themselves…
Today, the one who wanted her dead was a great demon. But as a demon herself, would there come a day when she, too, would suddenly be hunted down as an evil spirit by immortal sect cultivators, just like Lady Yue?
In the world beyond the mountain, it seemed no one needed a reason to kill.
Or rather, reasons could be fabricated at will.
She did not yet have the ability to live well in this world on her own.
Mu Qingshi glanced at the pure white flower bud in Qi Zhi’s hair, smiled as if at her own foolishness, and rose to leave.
A faint tug stopped her. She looked down.
Qi Zhi stared up with tear-filled eyes, gazing at her cautiously. Her cold-reddened fingers had, at some point, seized the hem of her robe.
Mu Qingshi paused, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips, and extended her right hand—the one unstained by blood.
The pool of blood on the floor, the suspended blood cocoons, the dead fox, and that enormous spider—everything in that chamber made Qi Zhi’s legs go weak with terror.
She clung to Mu Qingshi’s right arm, practically hanging off her, and only then did her trembling, boneless body manage to shuffle out of the hidden chamber, out of the hot pot shop.
The night was deep. A crescent moon hung above, illuminating the silver-white, silent street.
Qi Zhi released Mu Qingshi’s hand and took two steps back, head bowed.
On a firethorn tree nearby, a small bird with a white head and grey back was pecking at tiny berries.
Hearing movement behind it, it fluttered down and landed on Qi Zhi’s shoulder.
Qi Zhi flinched involuntarily.
Mu Qingshi: “Ah Yun.”
“Oh!” Ah Yun chirped, flying back to Mu Qingshi’s shoulder.
Qi Zhi hesitated a moment, then looked up at it.
The little ball of fluff tilted its head and winked at her.
She blinked, startled by a sudden gust of night wind that made her shiver.
Mu Qingshi conjured a cloak and draped it gently over her shoulders.
Those slender fingers hooked the cloak’s ties, fashioning a neat, beautiful bow at her chest.
Then she smoothed the stray strands of hair from Qi Zhi’s forehead, turned, and walked ahead.
Qi Zhi pressed her lips together. After a brief hesitation, she hurried to follow.
Seeing this, Ah Yun seemed delighted. It hopped on its twig-like little feet, flew down onto Qi Zhi’s head, and began bouncing about.
“You finally figured it out, didn’t you!”
“Great! Great!”
“You have no idea—these past few days I’ve been trailing behind you, arranging and paying for everything, front and back!”
“I’m going to have to sit you down for a proper lesson later, make sure you understand—what silver is, how many wen one tael of silver exchanges for, and how much you can buy with it!”
“And also, who’s safe to approach and who isn’t—you need to learn how to tell the difference!”
The little bird was endlessly chatty, yammering away on her head. Mu Qingshi showed no intention of reining it in.
Qi Zhi kept her head down, listening for a good while. The more she heard, the more ashamed she felt, and without realizing it, the fear in her heart had dissolved entirely in the chatter.
Without noticing, she had fixed her gaze on the hem of Mu Qingshi’s skirt, dampened by snow, stepping into her footprints one after another.
She thought of the long road she had run, again and again, over the past few hundred years.
She remembered how her greatest wish had always been simply to follow behind one person, to leave Mount Qiongju, and go wherever the world would take them.
Gradually, Ah Yun’s incessant chattering above her head faded to silence, no longer reaching her ears.
Until Mu Qingshi brought her to an inn, secured an upper room for her, walked her inside, lit the candle on the stand, and turned to close the door and leave.
Qi Zhi couldn’t stop herself from rushing forward, catching the door before it shut.
“Shijie…”
Mu Qingshi looked at her, a flicker of surprise in her eyes.
Qi Zhi: “Are you still my shijie?”
Mu Qingshi: “Mn.”
Qi Zhi: “Will you always be?”
Mu Qingshi: “…Mn.”
Qi Zhi sniffled, eyes red, and pulled her lips into a small, obedient smile.
“I’ll be right next door.” Mu Qingshi gently patted her head and closed the door for her.
Qi Zhi sat back on the edge of the bed, drew her knees up, and stared into space.
Why Mu Qingshi was so good to her—she still couldn’t understand.
But there was a moment, watching the candle flame flickering on the table, listening to the faint, ordinary sounds from the room next door…
Qi Zhi suddenly felt…
Even if her shijie truly was some world-destroying demon, it seemed like life could still go on.
The author has something to say:
Qi Zhi: Scared, but it seems like life really could go on.
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