HPLFK 02

Chapter – 02

Oh No, Your Wife Doesn’t Want You Anymore! 

“Why are you crying? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

A familiar, bone-deep male voice sounded by her ear, accompanied by a slight, swelling ache that made A-Shang let out an involuntary whimper of pain.

It hurt… it hurt so much…

Instinctively, she grabbed onto the man’s shoulders, her nails digging into his flesh and leaving several glaring scratch marks.

The faint, uncomfortable sensation of fullness made A-Shang open her eyes. Meeting the cool yet desire-laden gaze of the man before her, her pupils abruptly dilated.

It was Xie Hengyu!

How could he…

Realizing what he was doing to her, A-Shang’s body reacted faster than her mind. She struggled violently and kicked him hard in the abdomen. “Don’t touch me!”

So filthy!

He was so filthy!

Xie Hengyu hadn’t expected her to suddenly struggle. Caught off guard, he was knocked back to the foot of the bed by her kick.

“Xie Hengyu, you’re truly desperate!” A-Shang’s eyes were red. She grabbed the quilt and wrapped herself up tightly, glaring at him as she rasped, “If you want it, go find Shen Yueqing!”

He was so dirty!

The thought of him touching her with the same body that had touched Shen Yueqing made A-Shang’s entire being surge with revulsion.

Xie Hengyu had been kicked to the foot of the bed. Hearing her nonsensical words, he frowned. “What are you rambling about?”

His wrist caught hers. A-Shang met Xie Hengyu’s cool gaze and was about to tell him to get lost when she suddenly noticed the conspicuous mark of a fox clan love gu on his collarbone.

A-Shang froze, her eyes fixed on his collarbone. Why was this love gu still on him…

Hadn’t he already found a way to break the gu?

Xie Hengyu watched the girl, her eyes red, wrapping herself up tightly as if she truly didn’t want him. Yet just a moment ago, she had been blushing and pretending to endure everything he did with silent tolerance.

Xie Hengyu held her gaze for a moment, then formed a purification seal with his hand and dressed himself.

Since she was unwilling to continue, he would not force her.

As Xie Hengyu turned to leave, A-Shang was about to ask him what exactly was going on—when she inadvertently caught sight of her own arm. Staring at her fair, unblemished skin, her eyes widened in shock.

Where were the scars?

Where were the scars from the Weak Water that had burned her when she saved Xie Hengyu?

And hadn’t she already died?

She had been dead for a very, very long time…

A-Shang raised her eyes to survey the surroundings. Though it had been ages, looking at this familiar setting, she knew this was the Jade Extreme Hall—the new residence that Elder Changxuan had bestowed upon them when she and Xie Hengyu had married.

Not long after their wedding, however, there had been an accidental fire that had burned the Jade Extreme Hall to the ground.

After that, the entire sect had whispered that even the heavens could not bear to see her as Xie Hengyu’s wife, and that was why the hall had burned.

But whether it had truly been an accident or someone had deliberately set the fire, A-Shang no longer wished to dwell on it.

The world had always looked down on her birth. How could a lowly half-demon like her be worthy of the pure and untouchable Xie Hengyu?

When Xie Hengyu was injured and she brewed medicine for him, they said she had ulterior motives. When she took a sword for him and lay bedridden for three months, they said she was putting on a show. When she jumped into the Weak Water to save him and nearly lost her face, they said a venomous woman like her didn’t deserve such a pretty face.

Later, when she was framed for colluding with the demon race and died under the lightning punishment on the Punishment Terrace, they must have all said she deserved it.

She had thought that although Xie Hengyu was heartless, at least for the sake of their marriage, he would believe in her. But he hadn’t. He hadn’t even come to see her before she died.

“Hah…”

A-Shang let out a bitter, mocking laugh, her eyes red. She had never imagined that something as absurd as rebirth would happen to her.

Living this life anew, she would not be as foolish as she had been in her previous life.

Xie Hengyu did not love her, and she would no longer hold out hope.

She did not want him anymore.

—

A-Shang did not stay in the Jade Extreme Hall. Instead, she returned to the small hut she had lived in as a disciple of the sect.

Because of her half-demon status, no female disciple had been willing to share a room with her, so she had always lived alone.

The hut had not been cleaned in a while and was a bit messy, but at least it was tidy.

Counting the time, she and Xie Hengyu should have been married for about a month now.

A-Shang lay down on the bed, wrapped herself in the quilt with her clothes still on, and closed her eyes.

The moment she closed her eyes, she had a dream—a dream of her previous self.

She was the child of a human and a fox demon. Since birth, she had never met her mother; she had been raised solely by her father, who worked as a village teacher.

Whenever she asked about her mother, her father would remain silent. Then, when she was seven, her father passed away from illness, and A-Shang became an orphan.

Because she was a half-demon, shunned by both humans and demons alike, A-Shang drifted through many places. Eventually, she settled in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, working as a servant doing menial labor in a demon establishment.

A-Shang’s goal in life was simple—to listen to her father and live well.

That was, until she turned sixteen, when a group of demon-slaying cultivators came to the establishment. Among them, A-Shang fell in love at first sight with the cultivator who slew a great demon with a single sword strike.

In the Land of Ultimate Bliss, handsome male demons were not hard to find. Ever since she turned fifteen and entered her heat cycle, her body had grown fuller and her features more stunning by the day. Many male demons had courted her, but she had never responded to any of them.

Not until she saw that man. The moment she laid eyes on him, A-Shang understood for the first time what it meant to have one’s heart stirred.

He was different from any man she had ever seen. He was like an untouchable white lotus atop a snowy peak—so pure, so unattainable, as though he could never be defiled.

Later, she heard people say his name was Xie Hengyu—a renowned demon-exorcising cultivator from the Immortal Sect.

It was because of him that A-Shang first entertained the thought of leaving the Land of Ultimate Bliss. She wanted to cultivate the Dao. She wanted to see him—even if just for a single glance.

So she cultivated diligently, and a year later, she passed the entrance trials of the Immortal Sect and became a disciple.

Although she was only an outer disciple, she was still overjoyed. She believed that as long as she worked hard, one day she would draw closer to him.

What she never expected, however, was that when she merely helped a female disciple deliver clothes to Xie Hengyu, she was set up. She ended up spending a night with him and, accidentally, a love gu was planted on him.

—

“She says she wasn’t the one who drugged him? She climbed into Senior Brother Xie’s bed, and yet she still has the audacity to lie without shame.”

“A half-demon is a half-demon—the methods they use are just that despicable.”

“I heard she often hides in places where Senior Brother Xie passes just to sneak a peek at him. So disgusting.”

“Given that the situation has come to this and there is no cure for the love gu, marriage between us is currently the best option…”

“If it weren’t for her using such a vile method, a lowly half-demon like her would never deserve to marry Senior Brother Xie!”

“Poor Senior Sister Shen—her future husband was stolen by this disgusting half-demon.”

“Wretched beast! Hand over the Ultimate Heaven Stone!”

“Just a mere half-demon…”

Countless chaotic voices assaulted her ears. A-Shang clutched the quilt tightly and shook her head, murmuring softly:

“No… it wasn’t me… it wasn’t me…”

The one who drugged him wasn’t me. The one who colluded with the demon race wasn’t me. The one who stole the Ultimate Heaven Stone wasn’t me…

“It wasn’t me!”

A-Shang jolted awake from the nightmare, her forehead covered in a thin sheen of sweat. She looked around the familiar room and felt a measure of safety wash over her, realizing it had only been a nightmare.

In her previous life, right up until the very end, she had never found the person who had drugged her and Xie Hengyu. That female disciple had appeared out of nowhere and vanished just as mysteriously.

In this life, she was determined to find her—and uncover the true mastermind behind it all!