Villainous Junior Chapter 48
Translated by Sylver (ko-fi)
Chapter 48: Soul Transfer
Just like in this life, in the Three Lives Mirror, he brought Meng Chen back to Taixuan Sect because he didn't believe in fate. He then became entangled, his dao heart wavered, and finally he fled in disarray, determined to cut his losses in time and sever all worldly ties through seclusion.
But what happened next was completely beyond his expectations.
He saw Meng Chen fall into a series of carefully designed traps, isolated and helpless, sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire;
He saw the once spirited youth successively lose his freedom, his cultivation, his dignity, tortured until he was emaciated, his heart as dead as ashes.
He looked at the youth's dull, lightless eyes, feeling as if his chest was being torn apart bit by bit, and closed his eyes, unable to bear it.
When he opened his eyes again, Zhongli Jing found himself inside the mirror, back on that dark, rainy night. He was frozen stiff, unable to move, watching helplessly as a white figure stumbled through the downpour, then collapsed in front of him, unable to support himself.
It was Meng Chen.
The youth was covered in wounds, his outer robe soaked through by the rain. His entire body was as thin as a withered autumn leaf, the skin exposed outside his clothes pale from long absence of sunlight, his wrists so thin the bones seemed about to protrude.
Zhongli Jing's heart ached terribly. He wanted to immediately stretch out his arms and hold the youth in his embrace, wanted to kill everyone who had harmed, deceived, and humiliated him, wanted to tell him that master was here, he had nothing to fear anymore... But he couldn't say a word, couldn't control his own actions. He could only watch as his right hand drew out the Fentian Sword, steadily placing it on the youth's neck.
The faint light that had just ignited in the youth's eyes instantly froze. Rainwater slid down his pale cheeks, like a tear. "Master, even you don't believe me?"
I believe you. Of course I believe you.
"This has nothing to do with that," Zhongli Jing spoke, but the words that came out were cold and cruel, "It's just that fate cannot be defied."
A flash of white lightning split the dark night, and Zhongli Jing's soul merged with his mirror self, instantly recalling everything from his previous life.
In his previous life, the moment he reached out to Meng Chen, he once again remembered the warning of the heavenly mechanism. He knew that everything would be determined in this instant—once these hands reached out, his dao heart, already full of cracks, would completely shatter, never to be recovered.
The great dao he had pursued single-mindedly for half his life would also be utterly destroyed.
His fingers froze in mid-air, and the next moment, he slowly drew out the Fentian Sword.
"Fate cannot be defied." He seemed to be telling Meng Chen, but also reminding himself. The Fentian Sword pointed directly at the youth's throat. Just one strike, and all hesitation, reluctance, attachment, longing, love... would have nothing to do with him.
He would once again become that self without distracting thoughts, no longer disturbed or bound by any external things, single-mindedly continuing on the path he had chosen.
Just this one strike.
The frost-covered sword tip hung steadily in the air, as if frozen by the cold winter rain, unable to advance another inch. But the youth didn't let him hesitate for long.
He made the choice for him.
"No need for you to act," a voice devoid of life or ripple reached his ears along with the sound of rain. "I'll do it myself."
Before he could comprehend what was happening, a shocking bloom of blood had silently blossomed in the dark night, occupying his entire vision.
The rain grew heavier, and that white figure slowly fell into the muddy rainwater, without another sound.
In that instant, Zhongli Jing heard something in his chest shatter completely and thoroughly.
"I don't know if what I saw in the Three Lives Mirror was true or false," Zhongli Jing wiped away the blood from the corner of Meng Chen's mouth, pain finally rippling in the depths of his eternally calm eyes. "But whether true or false, I won't let it happen again."
So, after coming out of the Three Lives Mirror, the first thing Zhongli Jing did was destroy his own emotionless dao heart in this life.
In his previous life, he had been cowardly and foolish, unable to see his true feelings clearly, to the point of forcing Meng Chen to his death by his own hand. This time, he didn't want to pursue any great dao or care about all living beings. He only wanted to make up for the mistake he had made and treat the most important person to him well.
"...Is that so." Meng Chen turned his head away from his hand, coughing lightly. "So, your change in attitude towards me is all to compensate me?"
Zhongli Jing didn't speak. He heard the sarcasm in the youth's voice.
"Master, you should know that not everything can be salvaged," Meng Chen told him. "At the moment when I needed you most, and you chose to put your sword to my throat, I lost all hope in you."
Although he already understood this in his heart, when Zhongli Jing heard the young man say these words out loud, his hand still trembled slightly.
"I'm sorry," he said softly. "Xiao Chen... I'm sorry."
Meng Chen closed his eyes briefly.
Once, when he heard Pei Yuze affectionately call him "Ah Chen", he had complained to Zhongli Jing, disliking how cold and distant he was, not only lacking a nickname for his disciple but rarely even calling him by his full name.
Now, he finally heard it.
But he no longer cared.
"I don't need an apology," Meng Chen gathered some strength and pushed Zhongli Jing away, looking directly at him and said, "I'm living well now, and I don't want to dwell on past matters. If you want to make amends, then let me go."
Zhongli Jing: "Where to?"
"It's none of your business."
Zhongli Jing was silent for a moment, then asked, "With him?"
His gaze passed over Meng Chen, falling on the still unconscious Xue Lang not far away. Meng Chen saw that look, and his body involuntarily began to grow cold. "What do you want to do?"
"Xiao Chen," Zhongli Jing looked at him intently. "My dao heart has been destroyed."
With his heartless dao heart destroyed, as the heavenly mechanism had said, he fell from the peak of the Mahayana Realm to the early stages of Mahayana, and at the same time became an ordinary person.
An ordinary person with love, hate, and personal desires.
In this life, he had destroyed his dao heart, although it was to avoid repeating the mistakes of his previous life, there was also a hidden desire, thinking that in this life he could accompany that person in a different identity, protecting him for a lifetime.
But fate seemed to be deliberately punishing him. Meng Chen somehow also had memories of his previous life, avoiding him like a snake and scorpion from the beginning, and even focusing all his attention on another person.
How could he endure such a result, and how could he accept it?
"I can be jealous too," Zhongli Jing stated calmly. "Letting you leave with him, I can't do it."
"Then what do you want to do!?" Meng Chen suddenly raised his voice, "Do you also want to learn from your two good disciples, break my limbs again and lock me up!?"
"I won't..."
"I know you won't. But how is keeping me physically unharmed but confined by your side any different!?" Meng Chen's eyes turned red as he gritted out each word, "Zhongli Jing, you picked me up to provoke the heavenly Dao; you thought of killing me to prove your Dao; now that you think I'm important, you want to keep me here."
"From beginning to end, have you ever asked about my wishes even once?"
"When you wanted me dead, I had to die. When you want me alive, I have to live. When you say it's not allowed, I don't even have the freedom to leave."
"Am I really a person, or just a beast you keep by your side?!"
Zhongli Jing looked at the young man's blood-red eyes, his heart felt like being twisted with a knife. "I never thought of it that way. I just..."
I just wanted you by my side. Like before, like when nothing had happened...
"It's not possible anymore," Meng Chen raised his head, a tear falling from his reddened eye corner. "Master - I'll call you Master one last time. If you don't want to become the person I hate most for the rest of my life, let me and Xue Lang leave."
Zhongli Jing looked at him with complex emotions, saying softly, "What if you forgot everything?"
Meng Chen slowly widened his eyes.
"If we could go back to those early days," he said, "could we start over?"
"Zhongli Jing!!" Seeing the white light appearing at the man's fingertips, Meng Chen pushed against the ground with both hands, desperately retreating backwards, shouting in disbelief, "You've gone mad!"
He actually wanted to use a spell to erase his memories!!
"I'm sorry, Xiao Chen," Zhongli Jing's gaze held a hint of desolation. "I have no other choice left."
Even if it meant becoming the kind of person he once despised and disdained, he wanted to keep Meng Chen by his side.
Meng Chen retreated two steps before being held down by Zhongli Jing. Seeing the fingers flickering with white light about to press against his forehead, tears of fear and despair finally welled up in the young man's eyes, a hoarse and hateful cry rising from his throat.
Just then—
The situation changed dramatically!
Zhongli Jing paused, suddenly turning his head to look. He saw that Xue Lang, who had been left aside, had somehow woken up.
Meng Chen also turned to look, his gaze trembling violently the moment it met Xue Lang's.
Blood.
It was all blood.
The sword lay on the ground, and Xue Lang's wrists and neck had been cut open by the blade. Fresh blood gushed out, already drowning him in a sea of red.
"Xue Lang!" Meng Chen was shocked nearly speechless. "What are you doing—"
"Meng Chen." Excessive blood loss made Xue Lang dizzy, his body temperature rapidly cooling, but he still managed to give the young man a reassuring smile, saying gently, "In a moment, I might become very ferocious, very ugly, very... inhuman. But don't be afraid, I won't hurt you."
"Last time, I couldn't protect you. This time," the young man's eyes filled with tears as he said tremblingly, "you must live on well."
Meng Chen's mind went blank, his gaze moving stiffly from Xue Lang to the formation patterns on the ground.
"Soul Transfer Technique," Zhongli Jing said hoarsely.
The Soul Transfer Technique, a legendary and extremely evil forbidden technique. The spell itself wasn't difficult, but no one would use it.
Because it was a magic more terrifying than death.
The caster willingly offers everything to an ancient evil spirit, including their body, mind, and soul. Ordinary people can enter reincarnation after death and be reborn as humans, but those who use the Soul Transfer Technique face the fate of complete destruction of their primordial spirit, their body becoming a puppet for others to control, never able to find peace for eternity.
"Xue Lang..." Meng Chen's whole body trembled, suddenly rushing towards him like a madman, "Stop it right now!!"
But it was too late. Xue Lang's body was lifted into the air by an unknown force, wrapped layer upon layer by surging black qi from all directions, greedily sucking the blood from his body.
"I don't know what level of great demon you are, but can you defeat Zhongli Jing?" Xue Lang tried his best to ignore the intense pain coursing through his body, relaxing to let the black qi invade. "You should be able to, right? You're an evil spirit from thousands of years ago, you must be at least at the peak of the Mahayana Realm, right?"
"Use the body as you wish, I have only one request."
"Please, protect him well."
"Protect... my love."
