Chà Chà Novel

Qin Du paid no heed to the threat.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then just you wait!”

The temple on Bitter Cold Peak had only four rooms. The disciples who had arrived first each occupied one, while the young disciple had to spread dry grass in a corner of the main hall for a bed.

Having arrived even later, Qin Du had no bed either. He could only follow suit, gathering a pile of dry grass to lie on.

He did not even have a decent blanket.

The nights were harder still. The wind cut to the bone, leaving even cultivators chilled all over.

Partway through the night, faint voices woke Qin Du.

“Are you sure this will work? That poison’s been sitting around for so long. Is it still any good?”

“Of course it is! We’ll put it in his tea. Once he drinks it tomorrow, we’ll use the antidote as bait and make him lead us down.”

“Good idea! You still have the antidote?”

“Like hell I do! It’s been gone for ages! Once he’s poisoned, I doubt he’ll care about anything else. As long as we get off this mountain, who cares whether he lives or dies?”

“You have a point!”

“Shh! Keep it down. Don’t let him hear.”

“Relax. He’s dead asleep. I even heard him snoring just now!”

Qin Du could see as clearly in the dark as in daylight.

The disciples thought their secret plotting had gone entirely unnoticed. In fact, he had heard every word.

Stupid and vicious. No wonder they had been locked up here.

Only in the latter half of the night, once the others were asleep, did Qin Du rise alone and head around the back of Bitter Cold Peak.

A demon had already been waiting there for some time.

“Xiao Sha, why have you come again?”

Much had changed in Qin Du’s state of mind since their last meeting.

Ever since Xiao Sha had given him the Treatise on Immortals and Demons, his demonic instincts had gradually begun to awaken.

Looking back, he realized that the book had been Xiao Sha’s means of luring him back onto the demonic path.

“My lord! You can see for yourself—what sort of place are you living in now?! If Lin Huaiqing truly regarded you as his disciple, he would never have driven you to this freezing ruin!”

Qin Du lowered his eyes with a bitter smile.

“I chose to come here. It has nothing to do with Lin Huaiqing.”

“My lord! What’s the point of staying here any longer?! Come back to the Demon Realm with me! There’s still time!”

“I…”

“If Lin Huaiqing never comes for you, will you spend the rest of your life here? What for?!”

As they spoke, a faint sound came from nearby—the scrape of a shoe against stone.

They both turned and spotted the young disciple hiding behind a tree, eavesdropping.

Xiao Sha was a pureblood demon. In the darkness, his eyes glowed a deep red, the unmistakable mark of his bloodline.

The young disciple had gotten up to relieve himself and happened to notice that Qin Du was missing, so he had gone looking for him.

Following the footprints, he had found Qin Du secretly discussing something with an unfamiliar man.

Then Xiao Sha turned, and those two dark-red lights fixed on him like something out of a nightmare.

Terrified, he let out a scream.

His cry tore through the stillness of the night. Scared out of his wits, the young disciple scrambled away to find help.

“Help! Demons! A demon has infiltrated the Xuantian Sect! A demon! A demon!”

Qin Du was about to act, but Xiao Sha moved first.

Xiao Sha remained where he stood. With a single lift of his hand, he seized the fleeing young disciple from a distance and hoisted him into the air.

An invisible hand seemed to clamp around the disciple’s throat, cutting off his breath.

His legs kicked wildly, finding nothing to brace against, while his face turned blue and purple from suffocation.

Realizing what Xiao Sha intended, Qin Du hurried to stop him.

“Stop!”

But at that very moment, a crisp crack rang through the quiet night.

The disciple’s neck had been twisted until it snapped.

His head lolled to one side. Lifeless, he dropped to the ground.

Qin Du roared, “I told you to stop! Didn’t you hear me?!”

Xiao Sha knelt without a change of expression and replied calmly, “Please restrain your anger, my lord. He discovered my identity. Leaving him alive would have endangered you.”

Overcome with fury, Qin Du seized him by the collar.

“You killed him! What am I supposed to do now?! How am I supposed to explain this to Lin Huaiqing?!”

“If you return to the Demon Realm, my lord, why would you need to explain anything? Besides, if you have feelings for Lin Huaiqing, once you unite the cultivation world, won’t a mere Immortal Venerable have to bow beneath your imperial robes?”

The smile on Xiao Sha’s lips deepened.

Yes, this was a scheme he made no attempt to conceal. By killing someone before his master’s eyes, he had cut off every avenue of retreat.

Even if his master blamed him later, he would have no regrets.

“Wonderful… just wonderful.”

Qin Du stood dazed, finding his present predicament utterly laughable.

He had failed to become a good person. Now, even becoming an entirely wicked one seemed beyond him.

“To think that even in this life, I, Qin Du, would still be forced back onto this road of no return!”

“Your servant Xiao Sha respectfully begs you to return to the Demon Realm, my lord!”

Ever since Qin Du had gone to Bitter Cold Peak, Lin Huaiqing had been so restless he could neither sit nor stand comfortably. Unbidden, images of Qin Du shivering in the cold kept entering his mind.

At night, without a quilt, he could only hug himself and curl into a ball for warmth.

But Lin Huaiqing could tell no one about these ridiculous thoughts.

“Master… about Qin Du…”

“What happened to Qin Du?”

The moment he heard Qin Du’s name, Lin Huaiqing overreacted, questioning him at once.

“I was asking what we should do with the belongings Qin Du left behind.”

“Oh… leave them where they are for now.”

What if he came back to stay someday?

In truth, even Lin Huaiqing knew perfectly well that, with things having reached this point, Qin Du would probably never return.

“Then I’ll go and meditate, Master.”

Mu Yunting bowed and withdrew.

Whenever Mu Yunting meditated, he spent the whole day at it. Even if Lin Huaiqing slipped away, he probably would not notice.

Unable to sit still any longer, Lin Huaiqing summoned his sword and secretly headed to Bitter Cold Peak.

He would not go inside. Even possessing an animal and stealing a glimpse of Qin Du would be enough to put his mind at ease.

Flying deep into Bitter Cold Peak through the biting wind, Lin Huaiqing felt as though every bone in his body were freezing solid.

He had never imagined the Xuantian Sect contained somewhere so cold.

Already prone to feeling chilly, he could not withstand the freezing air and had to circulate his spiritual energy to keep warm.

As he approached the ruined temple, he dared go no farther.

After searching through the heavy snow for some time, he finally found a little squirrel sheltering for the winter in a hollow tree.

He attached his spiritual consciousness to it and bounded toward the temple.

A trail of tiny footprints followed him across the white snow.

Lin Huaiqing had not known there were other disciples on Bitter Cold Peak.

At that moment, they were gathered around the fire, their expressions grave.

“What do we do?! How can we contact someone down the mountain? Fifth Brother is dead! Are we next?!”

“I told you not to provoke him! Now look—he’s disappeared too! We might as well wait to die!”