Succeed, or Fall into Depravity as a Witch!

Su Xiangzi appeared as if she didn’t hear the question clearly, and she stared at Jiangming in a daze. After a long pause, she began answering in a careless manner:

“Song Tianxing is a good man. He is kind, thoughtful, and makes me feel cherished. He has saved my life countless times, each time at great personal expense, like trading his flesh and bones for mine. He is the most responsible husband under the heavens, and with him behind me, I know I can live a peaceful life without worries.”

“Song Tianxing is human scum. He is fickle with love, lustful, disloyal in his affections, coveting countless beautiful women to make them his own. He sees the women in his possession as pets, daughters, human cauldrons, canaries, but never treats them as fellow cultivators equal to him.”

“Do you know why he wants you? He is about to break through to Nascent Soul, and he practices an evil arte. As long as he sucks out a woman’s entire cultivation during the attempt, it will raise the chance of him successfully breaking through. And if that girl has a special dual cultivation physique, it will even raise the grade of his Nascent Soul.”

“But the price of that is, you will be rendered an invalid, and never in this life retread the cultivator’s path.”

“He always has a way to make you all willingly agree to this.”

“There once was a girl called Xu Ling’er. Quirky, hoho, just like you. To be honest, I liked her a lot. I tried to accept her, to get along with her, treated her like an actual sister, and had an even more intimate relationship with her that went beyond what sisters should.”

“In the end, I got used to her, I accepted her, and then……she died.”

“After Song Tianxing sucked her to uselessness, she went out to play, only to run into one of those Unborn Cult maniacs butchering an entire city. Half her brain and the foetus in her belly was cut out from her, and her bloody corpse was hung from a tree.”

“Song Tianxing had been looking for that Unborn Cult bastard to take revenge all this time, but he has never dared to admit that the real murderer of our Xu Ling’er, was himself all along……”

“To fall in love with such a man, to marry such a man as his wife. Do you think I’ve had a happy life?” Su Xiangzi retorted with a question, her eyes slightly red.

“I suppose not.” Jiangming lowered his head and smiled to himself, “But if he was worse, or if he was better, then you would have had a pretty good life.”

Su Xiangzi was silent for a moment before she smiled miserably, “You are right. If he was worse, then I would have the heart to leave him. If he was better, then he could not have done what he did. Since ancient times, it is always these half-good, half-bad fake gentlemen that hurts most of all.”

“Senior sister……”

“I’ve said enough, you can weigh my words yourself.”

Su Xiangzi turned around, her back to Jiangming, not letting the other see the corners of her eyes moistening.

She murmured: “I’m saying this in advance. If you follow him, I’ll make sure you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. He’s injured, and he can’t protect you from me. If you want to live……our second brother may be a little ugly, but his character is more like that of a good guy.”

“Fake gentleman or good guy, I don’t want to choose either.” Jiangming felt his head heating up, and he impulsively rushed up behind Su Xiangzi. He lifted her chin up like a playboy prince as he roughly panted, then he sternly said: “I choose you!”

Su Xiangzi was visibly dumbfounded, but a half-second later her features twisted into rage. She pulled out the fruit-cutting knife, about to follow through her earlier promise.

However, two red lips then planted a wet mark on her cheek.

Jiangming finished his wild kiss, taking advantage of the shock of his outrageous act, his eyes burning with manic energy as he seriously spoke: “Senior sister, maybe I can accept being turned into a woman, and maybe I can also accept losing my precious thing. However, I will never accept being like a pitiful lady, conquered by some cocky, stinky man!”

“Why is it that I grew up looking a bit feminine, and have to take other boys calling me a ‘pussy’? Why is it that since I joined the sect, everyone automatically assume I would definitely fall and become female, body and soul?”

“I don’t think so! I swear, from now on, it’s not up to Song Tianxing or you to decide where I belong, but me and Song Tianxing competing for you!”

The words came out, then he flung his sleeves to add some gravitas as he finished ranting.

Watching the unruly senior sister failed to react, Jiangming immediately ran out of the residence.

Showing off and then running off, how exciting!

Unfortunately, before he could run far enough, a furious hurricane quickly caught up to him, tearing off the roof tiles and window screens on both sides of the street, yanking him back into the palace.

On the embroidered bed, Su Xiangzi grasped Jiangming by the collar, her boiling glare like a predator eyeing a piece of hateful meat.

“Good, good, good! Have the gall to play around now, don’t you! You dare play around with me???”

“This isn’t playing around! I am sincere! I love you, big sister!” Jiangming spewed nonsense.

He was sincere in wanting to one-up Song Tianxing, and his pity for this love-stricken senior sister was also seventy percent true.

As for love……

Su Xiangzi isn’t an idiot, and naturally she could hear that Jiangming’s love confession was devoid of any sincerity. It was purely a play, just like that vulgar kiss of his.

Nonetheless, she didn’t really intend to kill Jiangming today, so she maintained a neutral expression and deescalated, “Truly? I will relay your words in full to my husband. The next time you meet, beware of him smacking your butt.”

“What if I’m the one who smack his ass?” Jiangming smirked.

“Can you?” Su Xiangzi spoke with total contempt.

“If you help me, then I can.” Jiangming would rather die than lose a battle of words.

Su Xiangzi was stunned, and did not reply for a moment. Her eyes narrowed like a fox’s, “You want to dual cultivate with me?” She frowned.

“Ah?” Jiangming was taken aback, realising his words had caused his senior sister to misunderstand. He hurriedly corrected, “No no no, I just want your help teaching me to cultivate.”

He changed the topic swiftly, smiling coquettishly, “Think about it. Personally training up a scrappy love rival into a prodigious lover, ruthlessly slapping the face of that philandering husband. Wouldn’t that feel good?”

“I don’t like childish, frivolous boys like you.” Su Xiangzi’s tone was sub-zero.

“Liking me or not isn’t that important. What’s important is that you also want to see Song Tianxing humiliated, for once.” Jiangming changed his posture, laying down on the bed. He dragged himself closer to Su Xiangzi’s left ear, whispering devilishly: “Remember what I said before? If you help me pass the sect exams, no matter how perverted he is, your husband won’t lay a hand on another man. And that would really piss him off.”

Su Xiangzi went silent again. This time, she was seriously considering the suggestion.

While she was hesitating, she suddenly noticed Jiangming’s expression. He was smiling overtly as if he’s already won, secretly hiding his apprehension, like a gambling addict praying to the heavens before the opening bet. It inexplicably reminded her of……the seventeen-year-old Song Tianxing of the past.

[Big Brother Su, thank you very much!]

[It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ll cover for you, little Song.]

In a brief snap of fingers, flowers blossomed and wilted, the geese migrated and returned. The tender youth that once called her ‘big brother’ quickly matured, relying on his natural cunning and strength, climbed up to a position higher than they could have ever imagined. He even turned around, challenging her to a duel within that cold Miserable Hell, and became her husband.

She who was indulging in happiness on the night of the wedding could never have realised: everything was long destined by fate, and it was purely out of her control.

Su Xiangzi sighed deeply.

“I’ve given it due consideration.”

She raised her eyes, those ink-black irises hiding smoke and fire within, and spoke slowly: “As you wish, I will teach you invocations, but you have to help me do something in return.”

“What is it?”

“After the sect exam, publicly challenge Song Tianxing to a duel. Forty years later at Miserable Hell, a showdown to see who’s the man and who is not!”

“Alright, fine.”

Jiangming has no idea what Miserable Hell was, but he knew it must be one of the ‘Six Hells Heart Tribulations’. He didn’t think too much about it, fearing Su Xiangzi would renege on her promise given time to reconsider, so he agreed straight away.

One hour later.

Su Xiangzi brought out a pile of jade invocation slips she had collected, tossing them onto the bed. She introduced them to Jiangming: “Our sacred sect’s offensive artes are primarily based around mesmerising the soul. Subtle manipulation of other’s wills, distorting their cognition, and causing them to be trapped inside waking dreams. The goal is to have them fall victim to their own greed, indulgences, desires, with no way to extricate themselves.”

“The mirrored flower and the reflected moon?¹See Aizen from Bleach, Kyōka Suigetsu Oooooh! How villainously coded! Cool!”

“What the devil is ‘villainously coded’……forget it. In short, to mesmerise the soul requires a medium. Therefore, our sacred sect also specialise in techniques for formations, sounds, charms, illusions, poisons, and Gu²https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_(poison) insects as well.”

“Gu techniques? Reverend Insanity³A famous unfinished cultivation novel with a villainous protagonist? Now that's even more villainous flavoured!” 

“Stop interrupting……fool. I’m assuming you don’t want to learn charms. Apart from this, I also specialise in sound techniques and poisons. Which do you want to learn?”

Jiangming thought for a bit. Poison was too sinister and could easily screw yourself over, pass. Charms? That name itself was ringing warning bells already!

Well, there’s only……

“Sound techniques!”

“The first thing you need for sound techniques is knowing how to play an instrument. Are you proficient in any?”

Jiangming froze solid. He scratched his head in silence for a long time, before he hesitantly said: “Su……Suona⁴https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suona?”

“Hah???”

“I haven’t learned anything else. I've only ever played the suona.” He said, with a complex emotion between crying and laughing.