Villainous Junior Chapter 43
Translated by Sylver (ko-fi)
Chapter 43: Outcome
The first time Bai Bi saw Zhongli Jing, she was still an unmarried young girl.
The Bai family was a great cultivator clan. She was the only daughter of the family, treasured like a pearl in the palm since childhood, loved and protected dearly. From a young age, she had no interest in immortal cultivation, always practicing lazily and casually. Her parents doted on her so much they hardly had time for anything else, and never made any demands on her path of cultivation.
Until one time, when she went out to play and encountered a group of demonic cultivators. Just as she was about to be captured, she was saved by a passing immortal lord in white robes.
When her parents rushed over, thanking the immortal lord profusely and showing great respect, she learned that the person who had saved her was Zhongli Jing, a renowned Mahayana Realm cultivator in the immortal world.
From that day on, under her parents' astonished gaze, she practiced cultivation day and night without rest. Her diligence combined with her talent allowed her to grow rapidly day by day, until she finally fulfilled her wish and entered the Taixuan Sect.
She thought she had finally caught up a little to that person's pace, finally shortened the distance between them. But when she mustered up the courage to try to get closer to him, she learned that the path he cultivated was actually the Heartless Dao.
Years of effort and infatuation turned into nothing but fleeting illusions overnight. She, who had always gotten whatever she wanted since childhood, finally understood that some things were destined to be beyond her reach.
But following his silhouette had already become a habit ingrained in her bones. She couldn't change it, nor did she want to change it. So she stayed in the Taixuan Sect, cultivating from a mere Golden Core stage to the admired Refining Void Realm, from an ordinary disciple to an elder in charge of her own peak. Her gaze always followed him, watching him climb all the way to the pinnacle of the Mahayana Realm, single-mindedly pursuing the supreme Dao, never stopping or staying for anyone.
She watched his gaze, more indifferent than plants and trees, often feeling desperate and desolate in her heart, yet also feeling a hint of contentment and comfort in her bitterness.
This was fine too. Although her image was not in his eyes, neither would anyone else's be there.
Moreover, someone like him - there was no one in the world worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with him anyway.
Later on, he took on a few disciples.
At first, she didn't pay much attention, because she knew this was at the request of the sect leader to nurture talent. Tianji Peak became a bit more lively with a few more people, but he wasn't affected by this liveliness at all. He wasn't any closer to his own disciples than to strangers, just routinely guiding their cultivation, fulfilling his responsibilities and nothing more.
That was what she had always thought.
Until one spring day, coinciding with the mortal world's "Hundred Flowers Festival," many disciples of the sect secretly snuck down the mountain to participate in the gathering. The female disciples of Cuixia Peak also went to Xiushui Mountain to pick flowers blooming in spring, weaving them into garlands and laughing as they wore them on their heads. Infected by this joyous atmosphere, she had a sudden thought. She also picked a few newly bloomed peach blossoms, wanting to give them to him as decoration for his study.
She came to Tianji Peak carrying the peach blossom branches, seeming to return to her girlhood years of shy admiration, her heart full of secret nervousness and joy. She thought about how to organize her words when she saw him, whether he would accept these few branches of peach blossoms, and what she should say after he accepted them...
Then, she saw Zhongli Jing in a small pavilion on the Tianji Cliff.
He was not alone. Sitting across from him was a young man in white robes, with clear features and bright eyes - it was his second disciple, Meng Chen.
The two were drinking together, with two empty bottles of peach blossom wine already placed between them. Meng Chen seemed unsatisfied and brought out a large jug, a mischievous glint in his eyes unique to young people, as if he was holding back a belly full of tricks, sincerely wanting to get his master drunk.
Unfortunately, in the end, it was the young man who got completely drunk, collapsed on the stone table unconscious. The immortal lord in white robes remained clear-eyed, quietly looking at the young man across from him for a while, then called out. "Meng Chen."
The young man was sleeping so deeply he couldn't hear a thing.
Zhongli Jing paused, then stood up and helped the young man up.
He had indeed drunk quite a lot, his cheeks flushed red, eyes tightly closed, his long eyelashes like resting butterfly wings, peaceful and serene. Zhongli Jing looked at him silently for a moment, then reached out and gently tucked a loose strand of black hair behind his ear, then rubbed his forehead which had turned red from sleeping face down.
In the eyes of the lofty, emotionless immortal lord, a hint of different emotion finally appeared at this moment.
Cool yet gentle, restrained yet passionate.
This kind of gaze was all too familiar to her—
Because it was the gaze she had been casting towards him from afar for so many years.
It was the gaze that only someone who had loved to the extreme yet despaired to the extreme would reveal.
"If a person cultivating the Heartless Dao develops feelings, their path will surely be destroyed," Bai Bi gently raised her eyes, looking at the young man standing silently outside the prison. "He has already reached the peak of the Mahayana Realm, only one step away from Crossing Tribulation. If his cultivator's heart collapses, hundreds of years of bitter cultivation will be wasted. Since he can't bring himself to do it, I will."
She had imagined Meng Chen's reaction upon learning the truth. Shock, helplessness, resentment, bewilderment...
But there was none of that.
The young man before her seemed to have heard a story completely unrelated to himself. His expression didn't change in the slightest, he even lifted the corner of his mouth in a sneer. "Is this the reason you want to kill me?"
His attitude made a burst of anger rise inexplicably in Bai Bi's heart. Her expression, along with her voice, became increasingly cold. "What, not enough?"
"Elder Bai, as a Refining Void Realm powerhouse, while I was merely at the Nascent Soul stage before, in your eyes I was like an ant or speck of dust. Killing me would have been effortless for you," Meng Chen looked calmly at the woman in the dungeon. "Yet you used such a convoluted method, risking exposure of your identity, just to pin this grave crime on me, to make me fall from grace and be despised by all."
"You're not doing this to protect Zhongli Jing's Heartless Dao," Meng Chen said softly. "You're just acting out of jealousy, wanting to take revenge on me."
Having her true inner thoughts mercilessly exposed by the young man, Bai Bi's body stiffened. Then her blood seemed to flow backwards, and the hatred buried deep inside suddenly erupted. "Yes, you're right, I am jealous!!"
The woman's hands suddenly gripped the iron bars of the dungeon. The heavy shackles clashed against the bars, making a sharp, piercing sound. Her beautiful face became distorted with hatred and resentment, her gaze like sharp knives fiercely pinning Meng Chen, as if she wanted to cut his flesh off piece by piece.
"Why did he develop feelings for you? Why did his attitude change because of you? I followed behind him for hundreds of years, hundreds of years!!" The woman's shrill, hoarse voice echoed through the empty, dark dungeon, sorrowful and resentful like a vengeful ghost. "But he never turned back to look at me once!"
Including that day when she stumbled upon them.
With Zhongli Jing's level of cultivation, he had long detected her presence, yet from beginning to end, he never looked in her direction once. He had rubbed away the pressure mark on Meng Chen's forehead, then picked up the young man and carried him back to Qixue Residence.
He didn't care about being discovered.
He had developed feelings yet remained emotionless, willing to only let the person he wanted to see into his eyes.
"These words, you should go ask Zhongli Jing," Meng Chen remained unmoved in the face of Bai Bi's near-frantic questioning. "What does it have to do with me?"
Bai Bi stared at him in disbelief. "You—"
"You people, appearing to be deeply in love, faithful and devoted," Meng Chen coldly interrupted her, his expression gradually turning scornful, "are actually just a group of self-indulgent, selfish, and malicious lowlifes."
Bai Bi was, and so was Tong Zhong.
Why should others like you just because you like them?
Why do you unilaterally give things that others don't need, and then turn around and accuse them of not giving you the same in return?
Why did you pretend to be the victim when you were clearly the one who did something bad first?
Bai Bi's whole body trembled, seemingly unable to believe that Meng Chen dared to speak to her like this. Meng Chen, however, no longer wanted to stay here and turned to leave.
"Meng Chen!" Bai Bi called out his name shrilly from behind, "Do you think you can really stay out of this!?"
"You know what kind of person Zhongli Jing is, I think no less than I do." The woman's voice was full of malice. "You only have two outcomes: either you die, or you spend your whole life trapped in Zhongli Jing's grasp, never able to break free!"
Meng Chen's footsteps paused, and he turned his face slightly.
"What kind of outcome I have is not for Elder Bai to worry about," he said politely yet regretfully. "But I know your outcome, I'm afraid, is to be trapped in this small prison cell for the rest of your life, never to be free again."
After he finished speaking, without any lingering attachment, he strode out amidst the woman's furious screams.
