Chapter 404: I Want To

Lu Sangjiu fell silent for a moment, not giving a direct answer. She simply smiled self-deprecatingly. "I don’t have the power to kill you."

Cangming already knew her answer, yet he pressed on, as if he wouldn’t be satisfied without a definite reply.

"I’m not asking if you *can*. I’m asking if you *want* to."

"Gu Huang... do you want to kill me?"

’Cangming really was a tiresome man,’ Lu Sangjiu thought.

’Does he really have to force me to say it out loud?’

Her emotions at that moment were a tangled mess. Memories of her past with Cangming flashed through her mind, followed by her helpless struggle during the Ascension Thunder Tribulation. The final image to sear itself into her memory was of that day he got drunk and admitted to killing her with his own hands.

These events churned in her mind, stirring a storm of emotions deep within her.

Finally, she looked into Cangming’s eyes, unable to deceive herself as she answered, "Yes. I do."

She was no saint, able to just smile and let bygones be bygones after being betrayed and hurt.

She couldn’t even bring herself to tell a small lie when he pressed her for an answer.

Perhaps her state of mind wasn’t stable enough, but she had always been one for swift vengeance and clear conscience. If she were to lie and say she didn’t want him dead, this moment would weigh on her spirit for a long time to come, affecting her very path of cultivation.

Decisive slaughter, swift vengeance—that was her path.

Cangming had known what her answer would be, but hearing her say it aloud still caused the color to drain from his face.

He looked at Lu Sangjiu’s resolute gaze, knowing her answer came from the very bottom of her heart.

Even knowing there was a complete mismatch in their power, she wouldn’t deign to lie to him, not even for a moment.

He suddenly gave a self-deprecating laugh. "The past or the present, whether my power was greater than yours or less... You’ve never held me in any regard at all, have you?"

’Never held him in any regard?’ Lu Sangjiu found the accusation laughable.

He was one of the two people she had trusted most. If she hadn’t even taken *him* seriously, then she likely held nothing in this world in any regard.

But now that things had come to this, there was no point in debating it.

"I want to kill you. But as I’ve said, if you are willing to agree to a truce, everything that has happened between us can be written off."

"Written off? Ha... HAHAHAHAHAHA..." Cangming suddenly began to laugh, a crazed sound that abruptly cut off into a roar. "Who wants to write anything off with you!"

"Even if you hate me, even if you resent me, I will *never* write things off with you!"

"You want to kill me, don’t you? Then come and kill me! As long as you can manage it, I won’t have a single complaint!"

Lu Sangjiu felt she had overestimated Cangming’s mental state. From the looks of it, he’d likely driven himself mad over the past few hundred years.

A person lost in obsession was the most frightening thing of all.

"It seems we won’t be reaching an agreement today."

Lu Sangjiu slowly backed away. "In that case, I won’t disturb you."

Cangming stared at her without blinking. "Did I say... you could leave?"

’Tsk... Of course things would take a turn for the worse.’

Lu Sangjiu’s expression didn’t change. "What, are you going to kill me again?"

"...Believe it or not, I never wanted you to die."

The rims of his eyes reddened as he bit out each word. "I just... want you to stay by my side. That’s all."

’I’m a genius,’ Lu Sangjiu thought wryly. ’I actually guessed the entire plot.’

"Things have come to this. Do you really think there’s any point in forcing me to stay?"

Cangming stared at her. "No matter what you say, I won’t let you leave."

"Do you know why I was so determined to wage this war?"

"I didn’t want to live anymore! I wanted the entire world to be your funeral offering!"

"But since you’re not dead, I don’t absolutely have to kill everyone."

"Gu Huang, don’t you want to protect this world? It’s simple. You stay, and I’ll end the war."

Lu Sangjiu: "..."

’This plot is so cliche... even cheap novels aren’t written like this anymore.’

’And he wanted the whole world to be her funeral offering. If she was dead, what use would that be to her?’

’In the end, it was just some self-indulgent drama he was staging to assuage his own guilty conscience.’

’Unbelievable. She was already dead, and she still had to be used as his excuse.’

’If he really got his way, then in the future, whenever people mentioned her, they’d surely slap the label of ’femme fatale who brought ruin to the world’ on her.’

’Seriously... what did I ever do to deserve this?’

Lu Sangjiu was bursting with unspoken complaints, and the look she gave Cangming was beyond words... ’Yep,’ she thought, ’I want to kill him even more now.’

"I can agree to stay, but I still need to make an appearance in the Cultivation World... How about you let me go first? I’ll return, resolve matters on that side, and then come back for you?"

Cangming’s face was expressionless. "Do you think I’m an idiot?"

"If I let you go, would you really come back?"

Lu Sangjiu spread her hands in a show of innocence. "If you don’t believe me, then there’s nothing more to be said."

"You can force me to stay, that’s fine. But you should know that I’ve always been one who would rather be shattered jade than an intact clay pot."

"If I’m unwilling, I’ll die before I let you get your way. You can guard me for a moment, but can you guard me for a lifetime? I’ll always find an opportunity to take my own life."

Cangming fell silent, staring at Lu Sangjiu for a long while before speaking again. "If I agree to what you’ve said... will you... truly stay by my side willingly?"

Lu Sangjiu said earnestly, "I certainly can’t promise to be ’willing,’ but I can probably manage not to cause trouble for you."

"Good."

Cangming agreed with surprising readiness. "I will let you go back, but..."

He paused, then suddenly raised a hand, shooting a stream of black light into Lu Sangjiu’s chest.

Her heart instantly seized. "What was that?"

"A Love Gu."

"It’s something I spent centuries cultivating," Cangming said.

"Now that it is inside your body, I can make you feel pain with a single thought. And if I wish it, you will die."

Lu Sangjiu’s brow furrowed. How unlucky!

’First it’s a Spell, now it’s a Gu. Can’t these people get any more annoying?!’

She touched her chest and looked inward, only to discover that the Gu Worm had not been destroyed by the Heavenly Punishment Qi!

’Is it because the Heavenly Punishment Qi is too weak now? Has it become useless for anything other than balancing the Spiritual Energy and Demonic Qi in my body?’

She couldn’t resist testing it out. She directed her own Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi to surround the Gu Worm.

However, the moment they made contact, the Gu Worm’s body glowed with a faint golden Light, repelling both the Spiritual Energy and Demonic Qi and sending them flowing backward!

The Gu Worm was unharmed, but the backlash sent her own energy surging violently through her body, inflicting an internal injury!

She clutched her chest, her face contorted in pain, as she heard Cangming speak.

"It’s useless. In the entire world today, no one can undo this Gu Worm but me."

"As long as you keep your promise and return, you’ll be perfectly fine. But if you don’t come back..."

Cangming stared into her eyes. "You know how I am. If I can’t have something... I want to destroy it."

"At that time, it won’t just be you. I will destroy this entire world you’re trying to protect, too."