A Cunning Pervert in the Cultivation World

Chapter 589: Chapter 589: A Shameless Man and A Coward (2)

Zi Yuanling’s lifeless crimson eyes trembled, but Li Feng did not give her the chance to hide behind another sneer.

His voice dropped, calm and cutting.

”And you are not just shameless.”

”It seems you are also... a cowardly mother.”

As if Li Feng’s words had finally hit the point, Zi Yuanling’s body softened.

The tension in her shoulders drained away.

The branches no longer needed to hold her so tightly after sensing her weakness.

She lay back against the wooden wall of the cell, crimson hair spilling loosely around her pale face, and stared up at the dark ceiling in silence.

Li Feng watched her lie back against the wooden wall, then spoke calmly.

”I have seen your memories.”

Zi Yuanling paused.

The lifeless crimson in her eyes shifted slightly, as if something behind them had finally been named.

”...So that’s why,” she murmured.

Her voice was quiet now, stripped of mockery.

”That’s why you sound so certain.”

Li Feng nodded.

”Which is why I hope you can clear a few doubts of mine.”

”...”

Zi Yuanling did not answer.

She remained lying back against the wooden wall, lifeless crimson eyes half-lidded, as if she were too tired to put the mask back on.

Li Feng did not rush her.

”First,” he said quietly.

”The Divine Descent... that thing that crawled out of the capital.”

His dark eyes stayed on her pale face.

”I want to know how much of it was you... and how much of it was them.”

Zi Yuanling was silent for a long time.

Then she answered softly.

”...Most of it was them.”

Her lifeless crimson eyes remained on the dark ceiling.

”I was only a vessel... a false one. Peng... He needed a body that could carry the blessing without breaking too early.”

Her voice stayed quiet, but it did not waver.

”I wanted the Dynasty to burn and I wanted an ending to the hidden plague, so I chose to accept it. That part was me.”

She drew in a thin breath.

”But the thing that came out of the capital... that roar, that crown, that presence...”

A faint bitterness touched her pale lips.

”That was not me.”

She finally lowered her gaze toward Li Feng.

”That was their Governor, drawn forward by the [Blessing] that Peng Jianwei had given me.”

Li Feng frowned and asked,

”What exactly is this so-called blessing?”

Zi Yuanling was quiet for a moment.

Then she gave a faint, tired shake of her head.

”I don’t know.”

Her lifeless crimson eyes drifted back toward the ceiling.

”Peng Jianwei never explained it clearly. He only said it was a gift... a fragment. Something that could rewrite a body and pull something greater toward it.”

Her voice grew vaguer, as if even she had never been allowed to understand it fully.

”To me, it felt like a mark that did not belong to this world... a permission... a thread that connected a mortal vessel to something that should never have been invited in.”

She paused.

”...That is all I know.”

Li Feng was silent for a while as he tried to remember those words.

But then he decided to move on to another question.

He looked at the pale figure lying against the wooden wall.

”...When you killed Concubine Zhao,” he asked calmly, ”did you feel anything?”

”...”

Zi Yuanling did not answer immediately.

Her lifeless crimson eyes remained on the dark ceiling, as if she were looking at something far away.

Then...

”...Yes.”

The word was quiet.

”I felt it.”

Her fingers curled faintly against the wood.

”She was a source of support when I first arrived at the palace. She always had a ready smile and treated me as an individual, not just a frail concubine waiting to disappear.”

Zi Yuanling’s voice thinned.

”When I killed her, I told myself it was mercy. That I didn’t want her to suffer what was coming.”

A faint tremor passed through her pale throat.

”But I still felt it.”

She closed her eyes.

”...I just chose to do it anyway. And now... she is gone.”

”...”

Li Feng listened without interrupting.

He did not comfort her, nor did he condemn her either.

He only sat there, letting the silence settle between them.

’So she doesn’t know about the time reversal, huh.’

Li Feng thought inwardly as he looked at the sad figure lying against the wooden wall.

He let the silence linger a little longer, then spoke.

”The plague inside the dynasty is gone.”

Zi Yuanling’s lifeless crimson eyes shifted toward him.

”But what about those outside it?” Li Feng asked calmly.

”The people beyond the borders. The ones who were never inside the dynasty when the purification happened.”

His dark gaze stayed on her.

”They weren’t... cleansed.”

Zi Yuanling was quiet for a moment.

Then she answered softly.

”...No.”

Her lifeless crimson eyes remained half-lidded, as if even this truth no longer had the strength to stir her.

”The source is gone.”

”The plague was never something that could live on its own. It needed a root... and a place to spawn.”

Her voice stayed low, almost tired.

”Now that the source has been eliminated, those beyond our borders will not instantly transform into monsters. The plague within their own fate will lose its power source, preventing them from becoming what that entity in the capital became.”

She paused, staring at the dark ceiling.

”At most...”

A faint, bitter curve touched her lips.

”They will suffer some bad luck... Illness that lingers a little longer than it should... Accidents that happen one after another... A life that feels slightly heavier than before.”

Her lifeless crimson eyes lowered.

”But it will fade.”

She closed her eyes again.

”Without the source, even that much will not last long.”

Hearing that, Li Feng let out a sigh of relief.

For a moment, the tightness in his chest loosened.

This had been one of the doubts sitting inside his mind, but it seemed to have been a needless worry.

If she was telling the truth, then the disaster had not already spread beyond saving.

And the world outside it had not been sentenced to the same ending.

He did not stand yet.

Instead, his eyes shifted back to the pale woman leaning against the wooden wall, and he posed another question.

”What about Fen Ziyan?”

Zi Yuanling’s dull crimson eyes opened a little.

”Were you going to kill her?”