My Enemy Became My Cultivation Companion

Chapter 1279: Chapter 703: Demon Sect Saintess

Where... have I gone?

Yin Tingxue looked up, vaguely taking in her surroundings.

Darkness loomed all around, with only a few outlines visible, as if she was trapped in a confined space. She was extremely tired, her eyelids heavy, barely able to stay open.

Just now... what happened...

It felt as though she had been thrown down from a great height, her mind slightly dizzy. As she recollected, it seemed an endless darkness had rolled in, engulfing her instantly...

Thud.

Suddenly, the space around her shook, almost causing her to fall.

A hand reached out to steady her just in time. Startled, Yin Tingxue looked up abruptly, and in the darkness saw the face of a middle-aged woman.

"Saintess... the road is a bit bumpy."

S-Saintess...

Yin Tingxue was taken aback. Where had she come to? Had she returned, or...

As she looked again, the notion of returning to the real world was quickly dispelled.

Before her was the interior of a carriage. She was inside, the curtains drawn, listlessly hanging, with only a slight glimmer of light filtering in. The faces in the carriage were familiar; some meditated with eyes closed, others murmured Buddhist scriptures silently. Yet Yin Tingxue felt no sense of survival from the World of Ignorance she had left, because... these people had been dead for years.

They died years ago, the day she left the Capital City.

And now, appearing before her, meant she hadn’t left the World of Ignorance, and this sight... was merely its manifestation.

"Chen Yi... this person, where is he?"

Realizing she had unconsciously uttered his name, Yin Tingxue felt like her tongue had brushed hot water. Despite their temporary collaboration, she couldn’t and wouldn’t draw too close to him.

Even if he wasn’t the real Chen Yi, their enmity still existed, with no day of resolution.

If not deeply trapped in the World of Ignorance, Yin Tingxue would have personally killed this illusion once more.

Hatred and grudges never dissipate simply because people die, which was the first truth Yin Tingxue learned after joining the sect, and is a common understanding in the Jianghu.

Thus, killing one could mean eliminating the entire family.

The carriage rocked and jolted along the bumpy path. Yin Tingxue looked around, not wanting to linger here any longer, intending to rise when the woman beside her grabbed her.

"Saintess, where are you going?"

Yin Tingxue instinctively tried to exercise her energy to pull away, only to find her True Qi stagnant, channels blocked as if lifeless, trapped without strength.

Her pupils narrowed slightly.

Different from before...

After being overwhelmed by the waves of the World of Ignorance, her Martial Arts seemed momentarily lost. Observing closely, her limbs appeared much younger than just a moment ago.

The Vigorous True Qi cultivated through Divine Sect practice was now gone, leaving only a thin thread struggling through her meridians. To her, this feeling was all too familiar.

That year, her Longevity Bridge had just been broken.

The woman pulled Yin Tingxue back to her seat, though respectful in demeanor, wariness was hidden deep in her eyes, afraid she might just escape like this.

Helplessly, Yin Tingxue sat back down, momentarily lost in thought.

She couldn’t help but recall distant memories,

What happened on this day...?

Raindrops pattered sporadically on the roof, a sound that tired her, yet the jolting of wheels over stones startled awake anyone who was drifting off. In this shaken carriage, she seemed to revert to that fifteen-year-old girl.

Befuddled, restless.

The silence within the carriage was stifling, the collective breaths mixed together, squeezed out of the window into the stagnant air, where the sound of rain was growing louder outside.

Yin Tingxue tried to remember what happened on this day.

Yet...

She couldn’t recall.

No matter how much she tried... she couldn’t remember...

She couldn’t remember, even though she vividly recalled many things from her childhood. Today, however, was just a blur, a faint impression, seemingly like...

Yin Tingxue wracked her mind, but her head throbbed painfully. In her daze, she realized something—the World of Ignorance’s erosion... had deepened.

Realizing it, yet instinctively lacking caution in her heart.

She seemed to have become a part of the World of Ignorance, submerged in its aftermath, indistinguishably fused with her fifteen-year-old self.

Yin Tingxue looked out the window in a daze.

Where is she... going?

Gaoliang Mountain... what kind of place is that...

Was it really the Holy Mountain?

Not long ago, her Longevity Bridge was broken, and she was about to fall into the Great Prison. Now, finally rescued by people of the Demon Sect, the girl felt no relief from escaping death, only confusion and bewilderment.

Her home was gone.

Yintai Temple was far away, possibly never to return.

The carriage, though cramped, was cloaked in darkness so heavy, she couldn’t discern its boundaries, the shadows seemingly endless, leaving her alone here, in the dark.

After an unknown period of time, the carriage slowly stopped, and someone seemed to be blocking the road ahead.

The carriage was knocked on, and the sound of "tap, tap, tap" was especially clear in the rainy night, carrying an undeniable official authority.

A slightly raspy voice came from outside the carriage: "It’s curfew time, who is traveling at night? Do you have documents?"

The atmosphere inside the carriage immediately tightened.

Yin Tingxue could feel the woman beside her freeze for a moment, and the other seemingly resting followers silently placed their hands on hidden weapons, with a faint scent of blood lingering in the air.

The Execution Elder of the Demon Sect lifted a corner of the carriage curtain from the foremost carriage, poking out half of his body, with a nearly flattering smile on his face: "Master soldier, you’ve worked hard, we are Daoists from Xuandu Temple outside the city, due to urgent matters, we need to leave the city overnight, this is a special pass document, please grant us passage."

He handed over a document stamped with a large vermilion seal.

The captain of the soldiers examined it carefully using the dim light of the Wind Lamp hanging beside the carriage shaft and glanced at the silent carriages behind.

After carefully inspecting it, the captain found no discrepancies and waved his hand: "Eastern Factory has approved the seal.... let them pass! Be careful on the road, it’s slippery on a rainy night."

The curtain fell, isolating the cold air and the scrutinizing eyes of the soldiers outside.

Inside the carriage, a few barely audible sighs of relief were heard, tense muscles slightly relaxed, and the four or five carriages started up again, rolling over the wet earth road, slowly driving out of the towering gates of the Capital City.

Having narrowly escaped danger, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Yin Tingxue watched through the gap in the window as the familiar silhouette of the city walls grew distant and blurred in the rain until it finally vanished into the darkness. A sense of inexplicable emptiness seized her; Capital City, Xiangwang Mansion, Yintai Temple, and the maple tree aunt she often leaned on in the temple, and Sister Bodhisattva... all growing further away.

"Will we... ever come back?" she murmured softly, her voice so light it was as if she were talking to herself, yet also asking the woman beside her.

Seeing the young girl’s depression, the woman comforted her, saying once she ascended the mountain and learned martial arts, she could return, and even avenge those who had harmed her.

"Revenge?" Yin Tingxue’s delicate brows furrowed, a trace of fear appeared on her face, "It’s so terrifying..."

Her mother always recited Buddhist Scripture, often saying debts of resentment lead nowhere, only by letting go can one be free; those gentle voices still lingered in her ears, making her instinctively unfamiliar with the word "revenge."

Seeing her expression, the woman tentatively asked: "For example, do you not hate the one who broke your Longevity Bridge?"

The cold visage wearing the Flying Fish Robe suddenly squeezed into her mind, accompanied by the intense pain of the Longevity Bridge shattering, and Yin Tingxue shivered, her face turning pale.

After a long while, she slowly nodded.

Hate? Naturally, there was hate.

How could one not hate the pain that pushed her further into the abyss? Not just that person, but also those indifferent onlookers, those who hit her when she was down, even in Jingren Palace, that high-ranking Empress Dowager whose single decree caused the destruction of her family...

If revenge were to be pursued, there were indeed many to avenge.

The carriage drove through the rainy night, the sound of its wheels and the rain intertwined.

Yin Tingxue felt drowsy but couldn’t fall asleep.

The jostling carriage, the noisy rain, and the faint aggressive aura from those around her all unsettled her mind.

Everything around her felt unfamiliar; these faces of the followers claiming to rescue her and take her to the Holy Mountain, this cramped and narrow carriage, and that distant Gaoliang Mountain all seemed shrouded in mist, extremely unfamiliar.

Only the middle-aged woman beside her, whose eyes held not just respect but a kind of gentle concern similar to that of her mother, provided her with a bit of comfort.

Seeing her unease, the woman softly advised: "Saintess, rest your eyes and sleep for a while, when you wake up, we’ll almost be at Gaoliang Mountain."

"Really?" Yin Tingxue lifted her face, unaware of her own reliance, she was so tired, exhausted both physically and mentally, longing for a place where she could sleep peacefully.

The woman nodded, her voice softer: "Yes, I won’t deceive you. Everything will be fine when we reach the mountain."

As the words fell, the taut strings of Yin Tingxue’s heart relaxed slightly, having endured for so many days, she finally felt a sense of survival after a disaster, and sleepiness surged in.

She gently uttered "Hmm," closing her eyes tiredly, thinking, perhaps she could really let go of everything for a while, sleep, and once there, it would be a new life...

Whoosh!

"Alright... then I’ll sleep..."

Just as the word "sleep" had yet to land, a sharp piercing sound suddenly arose.

A sudden warmth on Yin Tingxue’s face, blood splattered.

She instinctively opened her eyes, seeing the woman who had just been kindly comforting her, now staring wide-eyed, with a gruesome blood hole in her throat gushing blood, the tip of a fine steel crossbow arrow protruding through her neck.

The woman’s body stiffened for a moment, then slowly and heavily fell backward, hitting the wall of the carriage with a muffled sound.

The curtain was pierced by the crossbow arrow, cold rain and even colder murderous intent poured in instantly.

After a brief dead silence, there was an explosion of angry shouting and the sharp friction of weapons being drawn outside the carriage:

"Enemy attack! The Jinyi Guard has betrayed us! Be careful!"

"Protect the Saintess!"

The carriage jolted like a startled beast, beginning to frantically shudder and veer, trying to dodge the impending assault.

However, more crossbow arrows rained down like a storm, the sound of "tap, tap, tap" of them embedding in the wooden boards of the carriage was incessant, occasionally mixed with stifled groans and screams.

Yin Tingxue was frozen in place, the warm blood on her face rapidly turning cold and sticky.

She stared at the woman who had lost all vitality in an instant, at those eyes which once showed concern now vacant and lifeless, her mind blank.

That tiny warmth of survival after a disaster, shattered completely by this sudden turn of events.

Blood, death... revenge...

Is this what... the Demon Sect Saintess must face day after day?

The rain poured ceaselessly over the blood,

Outside the window, a chorus of battle cries.