Chapter 297: [Sisheng Peak] From the Butterfly-Boned Beauty

On the sixth day, the door creaked open.

The rain outside was still pouring down. Someone had put away the wet oil-paper umbrella, and was walking into the hall with his rain-soaked clothes.

"Shizun."

The person was dressed in a funeral white robe with a headband. His peach blossom eyes were filled with emotion, but there was a tinge of green in them. This was the first time since the battle at Heaven-Piercing Tower that Shi Mei went to the Wushan Palace to look for him.

"Before, I wanted to visit Shizun, but I couldn't do so. Only until today did I finally have some free time. If you come too late, don't blame me, Shizun."

Chu Wanning only glanced at him once before turning his gaze away.

Shi Mei didn't mind this at all. He sat down in front of Chu Wanning. Perhaps it was because the paving was smooth, but he seemed to be in a good mood, and his eyes were shining brightly.

"Are you still angry?"

"…"

"The Devil Realm's gate is about to open, does Shizun have nothing else to ask me?"

Chu Wanning still did not answer, he looked out the window at the rain. His weakness and blankness were only shown in front of someone he deeply loved. Shi Mingjing had used up all of his heat, so he became a rock that no amount of persistence could melt away.

Shi Mei sighed, "I came here to have a heart-to-heart talk with you, so at least tell me something."

Chu Wanning finally threw a word at him, "Scram."

Unlike before the great battle, the closer one got to success, the calmer one's attitude became. He was not angered by Chu Wanning's coldness. Instead, he smiled and said, "You're right."

The rain was drumming on the damp windows, the Gate of Life and Death had messed up two worlds, any abnormality was normal, Chu Wanning even felt that the storm would not stop forever, it just continued to fall like this, submerging the two worlds.

Shi Mei didn't mind. He got up and poured two cups of tea. He then handed one to Chu Wanning and said, "Since you ignored me, I'll tell you some things myself. I don't like to explain myself, but I don't want to have too many misunderstandings with Shizun either."

While the tea was still warm and hot, he blew away the green leaves and slowly took a sip.

"What should I say? I've done many evil things since I was young and I've never spoken the truth, but I truly do not like to recklessly kill the innocent."

Chu Wanning unconsciously clenched his fist, the veins on the back of his pale hand bulged.

"Shizun, you see that Path of Martyrdom, right? I only wanted to add in those people that are inferior to animals in this world. In any case, that kind of person's death was not worth lamenting. But then I realized that it was so long, so long that I had to take two mortal corpses to fill it up. I don't feel too good about it either."

"…"

"I don't like the taste of blood on my hands, so I've hardly ever killed anyone with my own hands. I didn't lie to you."

"You didn't lie to me." Chu Wanning suddenly said, "I believe you never killed anyone with your own hands."

Shi Mei raised his eyebrows as if he was surprised.

Chu Wanning turned around, his eyes as cold as ice, "You're kind, you're soft-hearted, you don't want to kill innocent people, you don't like to have blood on your hands. So you never do these things yourself. You created a Taxian-Jun, you made him slaughter the Rufeng Sect, you made him into a bloodthirsty tyrant — he does all the things you don't want to do yourself. You're brilliant."

"Shizun's words are a bit unfair." Shi Mei sighed, "I never thought of killing the Rufeng Sect. That is his personal grudge."

"There is no personal grudge and hatred that would make him commit such a monstrous sin."

"Without the Eight-Sufferings-Long-Hatred, would he not have committed such heinous crimes?"

Chu Wanning looked into Shi Mei's eyes, "He wouldn't."

Shi Mei only chuckled and waved his hand, indicating that he didn't want to pester any further. He said: "Forget it. There was nothing to argue about. In short, I once told Xu Shuanglin that I hoped that this world would be able to stay alive, with mediocre people and where good and evil would be rewarded accordingly. These are all truths, I am not lying." He paused for a moment and continued, "But for the Butterfly-Boned Beauty clan, giving kindness to others is equivalent to killing themselves. Our way back to the village has to be paved with blood. I have no choice."

Chu Wanning closed his eyes.

As Shi Mei spoke, he refilled his empty tea cup and sighed, "Shizun may not understand why I am able to sacrifice almost everyone's lives in two dimensions for the sake of the Butterfly-Boned Clan's return to the Demon World. Actually, it's not that hard to understand…"

He looked at the rising steam.

The room was very quiet. The only sounds that could be heard were that of Shi Mei and the voice from before.

"Has Shizun ever seen a herd of wild cows under siege?"

"Eyes red from killing, going on a rampage. They could not wait to pierce all the people and beasts in front of them with two horns. This is the instinct of survival."

Chu Wanning knew what he meant. The Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast Clan was like a group of beasts that had been forced into a desperate situation. Greedy faces surrounded them, ready to tear them apart.

"As far as the Beauty Feasts are concerned, there are only two options. Either completely exterminated or returned to the demon realm. This is a choice between life and death." As Shi Mei said this, his eyes dimmed a little. "If the cultivation world hadn't treated the Beauty Feasts as a business and wantonly humiliated them, if we were still able to survive in this world, no one would have done such a terrifying thing."

He was silent for a while, his thoughts churning, his gaze gradually changing from gloomy to confused, from chaotic to cold, and finally to crazy again.

It was like the life he had lived up to this day.

"The cattle have no intention of killing. However, once the butcher's knife fell, his companions would lose their lives one by one… Shizun, how do you want us to forgive this world?"

"The cultivation world will not create a history book for the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast, because these people will only treat us as livestock or as dual cultivation furnaces. However, our clan has always remembered that in the eleventh year of the Human-Demon War, almost all of the pure blood beauties were killed. In the next few thousand years, even though we have to be extremely careful not to reveal our identities, we are still unable to escape the greed of cultivators."

"Four thousand years ago. Two thousand five hundred years ago. Nine hundred years ago. Seven hundred years ago. The blood of a beauty who had snuck into the midst of mortals was searched out, flesh was eaten, blood was drank, and assaulted under house arrest… They wish to exterminate our entire clan."

Shi Mei's fingers gripped the teacup as veins began to appear on his wrist.

"Actually, if they really want to kill, then finish it all at once. But how could those cultivators give up on such a good cultivation formula?"

Chu Wanning: "…"

"Shizun has read many books, so you should know what Guyue'ye did as the Sect Leader in order to prevent the Beauty Clan from being completely destroyed." Shi Mei raised his eyes. A scarlet tinge could be seen in his peach blossom eyes.

Chu Wanning was indeed aware of this matter. Every book that introduced Guyue'ye would mention about it, treating it as a glorious achievement.

The Medical Sect's Guyue'ye went to search for twenty young Butterfly-Boned Beauties, and recruited cultivators with strong and robust bodies to had a day and night relationship with them, to get them pregnant. After the pregnancy, the Sect Leader used elixirs to induce labor, and within four months they would be able to give birth to a baby. The woman who had just given birth was once again tainted, and continued to be forced to conceive, to give birth… This repetition allowed the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Clan to continue.

But it goes on like a pig or a sheep to be slaughtered.

No, not like it. They indeed became the pigs and sheep to be slaughtered.

When a child was born, the boy would immediately be divided into pills, or directly sold to a rich person like the Rufeng Sect. Whereas girls were kept in captivity, and after they were of age, they became a new breeding ground.

"For mating."

Chu Wanning could still remember the shock and disgust he felt the first time he saw this phrase appear in the "Guyue'ye Immortal Pills".

Shi Mei laughed, and for the first time, his smile became somewhat miserable and green: "They used the method of refining the Gu to train in the beauties' area. He actually got praises from the cultivators."

"A living person… All alive. Just because they have mixed some of the blood of the ancient demons, which could bring benefits to their cultivation, they decided to treat the living as livestock." In order to hide his pain, Shi Mei raised his hand to drink another cup of tea, but his fingers were trembling.

"The elixir that can stimulate the growth of an embryo is extremely damaging to the mother. None of the beauties who were raised such have lived past the age of thirty. However, a short life is a good thing for them. They can quickly end their nightmare of having sex or being able to only reproduce."

When he said the words "mating" and "breeding," there was a sharp pain in his face, as if he had been slapped in the face. For a moment, he couldn't help but want to curse out loud, but in the end, his mouth moved and only two words filled with ridicule came out.

"Good."

Chu Wanning opened his eyes and his gaze fell on Shi Mei.

This man, who had always been either indifferent or unpredictable, was now like the most ordinary of avengers, his face carved with clear hatred.

Shi Mei was silent for a while, as if he had thought of something and couldn't bear it any longer. He set the teacup down and rubbed his face in his palms. Finally he took a deep breath and looked up, his eyes red.

In Chu Wanning's memory, Shi Mei's emotions had never been so real and concrete.

"Shizun, do you still remember how Guyue'ye stopped raising beauties?"

"…" Chu Wanning did not know what he was feeling at the moment. He said hoarsely, "A murder case had occurred."

In the end, the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast was not a vile creature, and the Soul Devouring Insects would still bite back, let alone living people.

In the generation of Jiang Xi's master, there was a young girl in the Butterfly-Boned Beauties' Feast area who was unwilling to give in and was extremely scheming. Unlike the older sisters, she was neither suicidal nor numb to death.

She used her beauty and sweet words to seduce a high ranking disciple of the Tianyin Pavilion who came to see the goods at Guyue'ye. That disciple was also a lecherous person, so he couldn't help but fall into this beautiful woman's bed that night. The next day, she begged her lover to rescue her from Guyue'ye, making an oath that she would be under his control for her whole life, to help him cultivate.

The Tianyin Pavilion disciple had a lustful look on his face as he agreed to her request. In the end, the girl escaped from his side within a few days, and he didn't know where he found the seed of fire. Xing Ye returned to Linling Island, burning Guyue'ye's side courtyard.

That night, the beauties who had been placed under house arrest all fled one after another with her help. Over a hundred of Guyue'ye's disciples were burned to death by the fire…

The other sects came to watch the crisis, and while they said some words of comfort, they secretly mocked Guyue'ye for not being able to stand up to a woman. Because of this, the face of the Medical Sect plummeted. The Sect Leader was furious, so he ended his support for the Butterfly-Boned Beauties.

"Since you want to laugh, then don't come ask for medicine in the future. In any case, there are so many people fleeing. If the various cultivators are capable, they might as well go hunting for themselves."

Therefore, when Jiang Xi became the Sect Leader, only Song Qiutong remained in Guyue'ye's hand. She had originally said that she would stay behind to serve the Sect Leader. However, Jiang Xi was a person who did not want to get too close to women. He was especially annoyed with women and thought that it was a disaster for them. Even though many of the elders in the sect were dissatisfied, he still decided to auction off this woman.

Seeing that Chu Wanning was able to recall these memories, Shi Mei finally smiled and said: "I want to admit something."

"… Tell me."

"That day at Xuanyuan Pavilion, yes, it was the day Miss Song was sold. I went too."

Chu Wanning was stunned.

Shi Mei said, "I went. I was in the first tier seat. and they were offering a price of thirty-five million."

Listening to Shi Mei's words, Chu Wanning had a vague impression of that day. At that time, Mo Ran was also with him. He wanted to save her life when he saw that Song Qiutong was pitiable, but upstairs, there was a box with a screen covering it, and the guest inside had bid thirty-five million. Then he had thought of asking Mo Ran to take the money to suppress this person's bid…

"It was you?"

"Mm, it was me." Shi Mei's expression gradually calmed down. He smiled and said, "I swore a long time ago that I would protect every Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast that I can help. Song Qiutong is a member of my clan, I got the news and wanted to redeem her. Of course, I also wanted to I also wanted to use Bu'gui to incite the killing intent within Mo Ran in this lifetime. In the end, who knew that the half of your soul left in his body would protect him so well that it would even resonate with you… Forget it. All of this is in the past, what's there to say?"

"Anyways, Shizun knew that it was Ye Wangxi who bought her in the end."

"Since she's one of your people, then why did you…"

"Why did I stand aside and allow her to die? There's nothing I could do about it. I needed to conceal my bloodline. Actually, all the orders to Mount Huang were issued by me at that time. She was just a pretense. Under other circumstances, I might have been able to save her life. But in front of Xu Shuanglin… Shizun also knows that my spiritual energy is weak, and Xu Shuanglin was my source of power at that time. He treats me as his best friend, but I befriended him as Shi Mingjing of Sisheng Peak."

"…"

"If he knew that I am a Butterfly-Boned Beauty, would he still be willing to conspire with me? I've already said this before. In the eyes of most cultivators, we are pigs, dogs, cows, sheep, and Xu Shuanglin is no exception. Just look at his attitude towards Miss Song."

Chu Wanning's mood was heavy, he didn't know what to say for a long time.

On the other hand, Shi Mei wanted to speak more with him, so he continued, "Let's get back to what were discussing before. We were talking about that Butterfly-Boned Beauty who escaped from Guyue'ye."

"…" Chu Wanning lowered his eyes and remained silent. After a while, he looked at Shi Mei's beautiful face. He had actually noticed something in the old narration and the Shizun's manner, and he almost sighed. "That's your mother," he said. "That girl."

Shi Mei stared blankly at first, but then his spine relaxed and his facial features softened.

He smiled wryly at last. "You can always guess correctly. That's right, she was my mother."