Chapter 265: Going Down the Mountain, to Watch the Show! (1)

Night wind swept over Lingshe Peak, whistling through the courtyard where ancient pines hung thick with red silk ribbons.

It sounded like a woman’s feeble murmur, intermittent, finally dissolving into the deepest darkness before dawn.

Only until the second half of the night did a figure silently emerge from the night-shrouded Lingshe Peak.

It was Jiang Ye.

At this moment, he had removed his disguise mask, and every inch of him radiated a refreshing, unobstructed vitality.

His eyes glowed with sharp golden light, like two swords poised to pierce through his body; each blink made the air before him emit a faint hiss.

“This Golden Spirit Body is even more extraordinary than I imagined...”

Jiang Ye murmured silently in his heart.

At this very moment, his dantian churned with turbulent waves.

Five Qi Condensation pills rotated slowly.

At their center hung a brilliant, piercing golden light.

The light resembled a sword compressed to its extreme, each inhalation and exhalation radiating a terrifying sharpness, as if it would pierce his dantian from within outward.

This was the Golden Spirit Body’s origin, stolen from Jiang Chuxue using the *Five Elements Soul Seizing Chaotic True Interpretation*.

Compared to the Dual Heart Spirit origin previously taken from Hua Ning, this Golden Spirit Body’s origin was far more aggressive.

The Dual Heart Spirit origin had resisted during cultivation, but that resistance was like a captured cub’s instinctive thrashing.

The Golden Spirit Body’s origin, however, was like an enraged venomous snake, born to bite.

Fortunately, his dantian’s Five Elements True Qi was sufficiently robust, or he truly could not have withstood it.

Jiang Ye glanced back at the courtyard shrouded in night, a meaningful smile curving his lips.

Never mind the arrogance Jiang Chuxue showed him that day in the Forging Hall.

Just because of his connection with Zheng Feng, he had to help this little brother vent years of accumulated bitterness.

So, he didn’t hold back at all...

Moments later, Jiang Ye sneered and withdrew his gaze, lightly tapping his foot as he shot toward Tianyun Peak.

After returning to the Tianyun Peak courtyard,

Jiang Ye wasted no time, immediately sitting cross-legged beside the Qingyan herb field, closing his eyes, and sinking his spirit into his dantian.

With experience from previously refining the Dual Heart Spirit origin, this time he was far more skilled.

With a thought, the five Qi Condensation pills trembled simultaneously.

Crimson gold, water blue, pale green, earth yellow, and golden white—five colors wove into a ceaselessly rotating Five Elements Generating Array.

It firmly trapped the golden origin at its center.

Yet the Golden Spirit Body’s origin resisted far more violently than the Dual Heart Spirit.

It was like an enraged sword, wildly crashing through his dantian; each impact rang with a shrill metallic clang, shaking his meridians into faint tremors.

Jiang Ye’s expression remained unchanged as he steadily urged the five pills to narrow the array’s range, inch by inch compressing and grinding the furious golden light.

Finally, under the continuous erosion of Five Elements power, the golden light’s resistance began to weaken.

A thread-thin strand of golden origin finally peeled away, like a drawn silk thread slowly merging into his dantian.

The Metal True Qi trembled slightly, as if tasting a long-missed spring.

Jiang Ye, eyes tightly shut, nodded inwardly.

Good.

This taste—just like Jiang Chuxue.

Seemingly sharp and intimidating, terrifying to behold...

Yet once tasted, it was unimaginably delicious.

The next morning, early.

Morning light first pierced through Lingshe Peak.

The maids had already waited outside Jiang Chuxue’s chamber, holding rouge, powder, and jeweled hairpins, ready to complete the bride’s final adornment.

Today was the day Zheng Family would send their eight-litter palanquin up the mountain to fetch the bride; no one dared show the slightest negligence.

“Miss... Miss...”

A faint, cautious call drifted from outside, hushed and tentative.

“Mmm... ah...”

Jiang Chuxue slowly opened her eyes, dazed; her piercing beauty still held a lingering haze.

Her consciousness rose slowly from a murky deep water; the calls grew clearer, the surroundings sharper.

Crimson curtains, golden tassels scattered across the floor.

Then—

Her brows snapped together.

Pain!

Unbearable pain surged from below.

Why was it so painful...

Jiang Chuxue was stunned.

“Sss...”

She involuntarily gasped, gripping the bed edge to sit up, only to find every bone in her body felt disassembled and reassembled—aching, swollen, throbbing.

Her still-dazed mind finally began to function; fragmented images surfaced from her memory like shattered mirror shards.

That face—familiar yet alien, chilling her heart.

“That damn thing wasn’t a dream...”

Jiang Chuxue’s pupils shrank violently; the fine, cold beauty of her face drained of all color.

Her body began trembling uncontrollably.

If that was a dream,

why did the pain feel so real?

If it wasn’t a dream...

Jiang Chuxue dared not think further.

Because the “dream’s” experience was too absurd, too grotesque...

Merely recalling those fragmented images made her stomach convulse violently, a wave of nausea surging to her throat.

“Gah...”

She twisted sideways, clamping her hand over her mouth, retching for a long while—yet nothing came up, only tears streaming helplessly down her cheeks.

After a long while,

her nausea gradually subsided.

Only then did she see herself in the bronze mirror.

Her long, flowing black hair hung in disarray over her shoulders—no trace remained of yesterday’s elegant splendor.

Her piercing eyes now swelled red, bloodshot as if she’d wept endlessly.

Her makeup had smudged into streaks, leaving two dark red tear trails across her face.

Worse still, her lips were swollen...

As for why her lips were swollen,

just thinking of it—

“Gah... gah...”

The suppressed nausea surged back like erupting lava.

Jiang Chuxue’s teeth clenched with a grinding sound; her swollen eyes churned with unprecedented rage and murderous intent.

At this moment, she wanted to tear Zheng Lin into a thousand pieces.

That bastard...

How dare he treat her like this?

How dare he?!

What did he think she was?!

A courtesan from a brothel?!

“These noble young masters—none of them are decent...”

Jiang Chuxue’s piercing gaze seemed ready to shatter the mirror; her nails dug deep into her palms, crimson threads seeping between her fingers.