Ling Qianhe's words were spoken without thought.
However, his tone shifted, and he leaned closer to Lin Muci again. Lin Muci heard Ling Qianhe ask,
"But—I want to know..."
"Have you spent a lot of time with him?"
Lin Muci's heart skipped a beat. She knew how jealous Ling Qianhe could be.
And the Ling Qianhe in front of her should be similar, so Lin Muci hesitated and said vaguely,
"I with him..."
"We did grow up together as children, but..."
She could clearly feel the young man's aura turning cold. She quickly added,
"But I only see him as a brother!"
Fearing the young king wouldn't believe her, she nodded rapidly and emphasized,
"Really! I promise you, there's nothing between him and me."
Ling Qianhe pursed his lips.
"Then why did he become your enemy?"
Lin Muci considered whether to tell the truth.
After all, it was a past event from her time as the Demon God's daughter.
It was a long, long time ago from her current self.
But since Ling Qianhe had asked, she didn't want to lie to him.
She hesitated for a moment. Ling Qianhe's dark eyes were still fixed on hers, clearly waiting for an answer.
"The reason he became my enemy is because he hurt me back then... You should have heard from Xue Zhizhi that he and I were childhood sweethearts with an engagement. Because I was close to his family, we were betrothed. We grew up together, but I was naive as a child and had no romantic feelings."
"I just saw him as a brother."
Lin Muci felt she had a clear conscience when she said this.
However, she omitted the fact that this happened in the demon realm. The so-called families were simply different races like the Nine-Headed Phoenix and the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon.
When these two clans were on good terms, they would sign an engagement.
And upon hearing Lin Muci's words,
Ling Qianhe nodded. He gave a seemingly casual hum and then asked,
"And then?"
Lin Muci continued.
"Later, he fell in love with someone else. We were supposed to get engaged—but he broke off the engagement that day. I and the people of his clan naturally all heard about it. This caused a great commotion, and the engagement naturally became void."
Ling Qianhe hummed. The hall was only dimly lit by small lamps. On his face, which was stunningly beautiful, a hint of mocking laughter flickered.
"Because he broke off the engagement with you, you developed a deep hatred for him?"
Lin Muci hesitated.
"No."
"He originally... took something very important from me."
"He gave it to his beloved. This matter was very important to me, and I was very angry. I rushed over and severely hurt his beloved, injuring her."
"Then the relationship between him and me completely shattered, and our youthful affection was gone."
Lin Muci spoke this way.
Then, gathering her courage, she looked up at Ling Qianhe opposite her.
"I was very angry with him. In this lifetime, I will never forgive him."
She didn't tell him that Helian Lanyan, her former fiancé, had taken her spiritual veins from her. This was also obvious. If she told Ling Qianhe the truth, Ling Qianhe would guess that she had deliberately given him the Jade Bone Lotus.
Although this was a great opportunity to gain favor with the demon,
For some reason, Lin Muci didn't want him to know that she had sacrificed her chance to regenerate her spiritual veins.
Perhaps...
She didn't want him to feel guilty?
But would the demon feel guilty?
She just instinctively hid this fact.
Ling Qianhe looked at her. His eyelashes trembled, and just as he was about to speak, the young man's face suddenly turned pale.
He reached out—a scarlet blood mark suddenly appeared on his palm. That scarlet blood mark even carried a strange, heart-stopping glimmer, and then it began to extend towards his heart.
The scarlet blood mark appeared inch by inch. A trace of pain flashed across his expression. Then he reached out and pressed his chest.
He seemed very uncomfortable.
Lin Muci was startled. She immediately rushed forward to support his body. She heard the young man's voice suddenly become low and hoarse.
"My spiritual veins... are out of control."
Lin Muci looked at the position of his chest. The situation was critical, and she didn't know what was wrong with Ling Qianhe's body. In her haste, she directly pulled open Ling Qianhe's outer robe.
Revealing his fair chest—and there, on his chest, which should have been solid, a blood-red lotus flower suddenly appeared! This blood-red lotus flower swayed on his chest, slowly blooming to its fullest.
Lin Muci's expression turned extremely grim.
Seeing this, she naturally thought of the Jade Bone Lotus that had allowed Ling Qianhe to regenerate his spiritual veins.
But how could this be? How could the spiritual veins regenerated by that Jade Bone Lotus have an accident? She bit her lip tightly, a wild confusion surging in her eyes, and she frantically called out to the system in her mind.
"What's wrong?"
"Come out and tell me."
The little system was clearly also guilty.
"Host... that..."
Its voice was vague, clearly trying to gloss over it.
Lin Muci wished she could drag it out and spank it!
"What's going on? Didn't you say the Jade Bone Lotus could regenerate spiritual veins?"
The little system cleared its throat.
"Perhaps there was a rejection reaction... You see, this Jade Bone Lotus was tampered with. Back then, when your spiritual veins were dug out, Helian Lanyan had mentioned to Qingque that he wanted to obtain this Jade Bone Lotus as compensation for you."
"That Qingque naturally wouldn't let you have an easy time, so she secretly contacted the elders of her clan and tampered with the Jade Bone Lotus."
"Host—don't be angry, calm down first!"
Lin Muci's face remained cold, her eyes filled with a stern chill.
Calm down...?
How could she calm down?
Something so important could be withheld?
The little system muttered.
"I couldn't help it, it was to follow the plot—呜呜呜, Host, please spare me, forgive me, I really had no choice, and it wasn't intentional..."
Its voice was stammering, sounding extremely aggrieved.
"I didn't dare to tell you..."
"If I told you, the plot would be wrong!"
Lin Muci was almost amused to the point of anger. She wanted to grab the little system and hit it again.
Learned to act on its own, did it?
"Then you can tell me now, what exactly was done to this Jade Bone Lotus?"
"Hm?"
She quickly glanced at Ling Qianhe. His face was pale, but the blood-red lotus on his chest was more vivid and striking. Although he should be in pain, this peerlessly handsome demonic youth could still smile. He reached out and grabbed Lin Muci's wrist.
Then Lin Muci heard him say,
"You... are... caring... about... me?"
"I... am... very... pleased..."
Lin Muci glared at him impatiently. He was in this state, and he was still spouting nonsense.
Her fingertips slowly caressed the blood-red lotus on his chest. The young man's skin was like snow and ice cold, yet this blood-red lotus bloomed brilliantly on his chest, giving a sense of inexplicable demonic splendor. Moreover, the area where the lotus bloomed was more than a little hotter than the surrounding areas.
But the more vibrant the blood-red lotus bloomed,
The more intense the ominous feeling in Lin Muci's heart became.
The little system spoke rapidly in Lin Muci's mind.
"It's 'Severed Love'!"
"That Jade Bone Lotus was cultivated using the 'Severed Love' agent—so it's equivalent to being tainted with the properties of 'Severed Love'. The spiritual veins cultivated using this Jade Bone Lotus, though winding through a person's body, will cause the person who grows these spiritual veins to be destined to be unable to fall in love."
"This thing... is very evil. Once one falls in love, it will begin to backfire on oneself."
"Causing one to sever love and affection. Otherwise, the spiritual veins will gradually break."
"And if the spiritual veins break a second time, this time, it won't just be becoming a cripple, but death..."
"That Qingque used the most vicious 'Severed Love' from her clan. She originally intended to deal with you!"
"Severed love and affection, she wanted to ensure you could never compete with her for Helian Lanyan. As long as you fell in love, it would be your death sentence."
The little system's voice suddenly trembled, becoming low, with a hint of heartache.
"She didn't expect that Ling Qianhe would take the Jade Bone Lotus, and the Severed Love flower would bloom on Ling Qianhe's chest. He was originally a demon, so severing love shouldn't be difficult for him... but..."
"He..."
"Has someone he likes."
"Therefore, 'Severed Love' began to act up. A lotus bloomed on his chest—he must have had an episode before, he must have coughed up blood, but Host, you just didn't see it."
Lin Muci fell silent.
Severed Love...
It was indeed a vicious, devastating scheme.
This kind of setting of severing love and affection... it was truly cliché. If it were a TV drama, she would have scoffed and laughed out loud.
But it was really happening to Ling Qianhe.
She looked at the young man's pale and listless face.
But she found.
She couldn't laugh at all.
Nor could she put on an indifferent expression and cheerfully comfort him by saying it was fine, his body was ruined, and he could become a true demon—what nonsense about a demon!
Then she wouldn't be able to stop him from becoming a demon!
Did she truly have no way to help?
Lin Muci's face was somewhat grim. She bit her tongue and asked the system.
"Are there no medicinal pills I can exchange for?"
"Is there no way to resolve 'Severed Love'?"
The little system rapidly shook its head.
"This is part of the plot now... Please follow the plot. Host, he is bound to contract 'Severed Love', and he is bound to be unable to resolve it."
"But if you want to make him feel a little better..."
Lin Muci immediately perked up.
"If I want to make him feel a little better, what can I do?"
The system seemed to find it difficult to say. After a while, it said cautiously.
"If Host wants to make him feel a little better, Host can kiss him."
Lin Muci: "..."
Doesn't this feel wrong?
"He's contracted 'Severed Love', isn't he? To prevent the poison from acting up, shouldn't I stay far away from him—if I kiss him now, won't it only stir his emotions more, make him act up more severely, make his chest pain more, and his spiritual veins shatter faster..."
The little system argued righteously.
"Host, there's a saying called 'drinking poison to quench thirst'."
"Kissing him and getting closer to him can temporarily delay the onset of his 'Severed Love'."
"Of course, the price he has to pay is that his next episode of 'Severed Love' will only be more violent and cause him more unbearable pain."
"When 'Severed Love' reaches its extreme, he will die from shattered veins..."
"Host, you decide what to do..."
Lin Muci: "..."
Was she being pushed to her death?
Was everything she had done for nothing?
If Ling Qianhe was destined to die from shattered veins—then what was she struggling for?
Moreover—as she could guess, if he died from shattered veins, he would likely hold her responsible. That Jade Bone Lotus was given by her—thinking of this, she shrank her neck, but immediately made up her mind.
No matter what, she absolutely couldn't let him shatter his veins!
So, should she stay away from him?
If so, would his 'Severed Love' not act up?
Then should she immediately pack her bags and run?
Although she had said she would stay by his side before, now she was his greatest crisis. She might as well just run and not worry about it anymore?
Lin Muci was still thinking in her mind, but the pale-faced young man opposite her suddenly looked at her.
His lips slowly brushed against her cheek—in that instant, her whole body trembled, and she felt an indescribable tingling sensation. When she looked up at him, her slightly stunned expression made a deep crimson light flicker in Ling Qianhe's eyes.
He leaned closer.
His lips touched her earlobe!
She racked her brains trying to stop him.
"You... you... calm down."
"Aren't you in a lot of pain..."
"I'll go out. I'll go out, and you'll be fine if you endure it..."
She tried to soothe his emotions, but Ling Qianhe directly kissed her.
Without giving her any room to speak.
She whimpered, his chest pressed against her body.
The part of his chest where the lotus grew was scorching hot.
His fingers traced inch by inch across her cheeks, his fingers tightening, turning slightly white, and circling her cheeks. His originally cool eyes once again flared with crimson, but with a more seductive emotion.
Lin Muci remained motionless, and four words suddenly appeared in her mind.
"Shared ecstasy..."
Bah, bah, that's wrong!
His 'Severed Love' would act up more severely. This was just drinking poison to quench thirst... She frantically pushed his chest, but she couldn't move him at all, and instead, she fell backward.
She stared blankly into his eyes.
In his eyes.
There was a brilliant galaxy.
He slowly licked her lips with his tongue.
The pain in his chest disappeared, but it became even hotter. A trace of crazy blush appeared on his face, and he was no longer pale.
He told the stunned little maid before him.
"It doesn't hurt anymore."
The little system shouted wildly.
"Host, do you want to consider pulling away and running immediately?"
Lin Muci: "..."
Easy for you to say!
In this situation, how could she run?
His fingers swept across her back. Her breathing quickened, her eyes became hazy, but she still retained a sliver of reason.
"Ling Qianhe, you can't do this... You can't fall in love..."
The demon's persona couldn't collapse!
How could a cold-hearted demon king fall for a human girl?
But his lips curved upwards.
"I haven't fallen in love."
"I just... like my Muci sister."
Lin Muci was a little dazed, but she was almost amused to the point of anger.
Isn't that the same thing!
Why the stubbornness!
Damn little brat!