Huntian Cave was located on a barren mountain on the outskirts of Lin’an City. When Mo Xi arrived, he saw dozens of bodies sprawled haphazardly around the entrance to the cave, all of them servants of the Yue family.
Mo Xi checked the breath of several people one after another, but there was nothing he could do to save them. He was just about to enter the cave when he heard faint sobbing coming from a corner.
Following the sound, he found a young girl covered in blood, curled up into a ball and hiding in a crack between the rocks, quietly crying.
“Xiao Lan’er?!”
The surviving girl was none other than Xiao Lan’er, the young disciple Jiang Yexue had taken in.
She looked completely terrified. When she heard Mo Xi’s voice, she shuddered violently and turned around as though she had seen a ghost, her eyes staring blankly.
“No, no, no… Don’t kill me… Don’t kill me…”
Mo Xi immediately reached out his hand.
“Don’t be afraid. It’s me.”
“You…”
Xiao Lan’er stared at him through tear-filled eyes, trembling for a long while. Then she suddenly burst into tears and threw herself into Mo Xi’s arms.
“Waah… Brother Xihe, they’re killing people inside the cave… They’re killing people inside…”
Mo Xi wasn’t accustomed to being physically close to others, but Lan’er was still young, and she had been so badly frightened that he couldn’t bear to push her away. He raised his hand and gently stroked her fine, soft hair, quietly comforting her for a while.
Once Lan’er had calmed down somewhat, he asked, “How did you end up here?”
“Sir brought me here. Sir was afraid people would bully me, so he always kept me by his side.” Xiao Lan’er sobbed. “But Sir himself was bullied. He told me to run… Wuwu… I’m not a good child. I was scared… so I really ran…”
Mo Xi’s heart tightened.
He had thought that if Murong Chuyi wanted revenge, he would only target Yue Juntian. He had never expected things to turn into this situation.
He said to Xiao Lan’er, “Stay here for now. I’ll go inside and see what’s happening…”
But Xiao Lan’er suddenly grabbed him.
“Brother, don’t go! That man in white… that man in white is a bad person! He killed Uncle Yue!!”
Mo Xi was abruptly shocked.
“Murong Chuyi has already killed Yue Juntian?!”
“Mm… Mm-hm!” Xiao Lan’er nodded through her tears. “After Uncle Yue used the blood sacrifice on that pool of monsters, he became… he became very weak. He couldn’t even speak. Sir and Brother Chenqing were both helping him transfer spiritual energy…”
“But at that time, I saw that big brother in white had such a frightening expression. Something wasn’t right. It looked like he was hesitating about something… I was just about to warn Sir when that big brother in white suddenly attacked…”
“He-he killed Uncle Yue in an instant, then summoned a whole bunch of warriors made of bamboo and started killing people everywhere…”
“Sir and Brother Chenqing went to stop him, but he… he wouldn’t listen at all…”
“Sir was afraid he wouldn’t be able to beat him, so he gave me a concealment talisman and told me to run outside and hide. I-I was terrified… When I ran out, Sir and Brother Chenqing were already injured…”
The more Xiao Lan’er spoke, the more frightened she became. Her clear eyes filled with terrified, sorrowful tears, and when she blinked, they rolled down her cheeks.
“I hid outside. I could hear the sounds coming from inside the cave. At first, they were still fighting, but later…”
Her childish voice grew softer and softer until it was barely audible.
Then, overcome by grief, she suddenly burst into loud sobs.
“Later, I couldn’t hear anything anymore! Sir never came out to find me, and Brother Chenqing never came out to find me either! The bad person won! The bad person is inside this cave…”
She wrapped both arms tightly around Mo Xi’s waist, as though afraid of losing the last person she could trust. She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.
“Brother Xihe, don’t go inside. You’ll be killed… Wuwu… Don’t be like Sir and Brother Chenqing… Don’t go…”
Mo Xi felt his teeth go cold.
Killing Yue Juntian had been easy for Murong Chuyi, but dealing with the aftermath was difficult. Whether they were servants or relatives of the Yue family, no one could simply stand by and do nothing.
Could it be that, in order to escape, he had even killed Jiang Yexue and Yue Chenqing…?
Mo Xi lowered his head and said to Xiao Lan’er, “I have to go inside.”
Xiao Lan’er’s eyes immediately filled with tears again.
“Wu…”
“But I’ll definitely come back out. You hide here for now. I—”
Xiao Lan’er protested fiercely.
“No! I don’t want to! I don’t want to hide anymore!”
“…”
She wiped away her tears as she cried.
“I already abandoned Sir and ran away once! I don’t want to hide anymore… Brother Xihe, if you’re going inside, then take me with you.”
Mo Xi saw how agitated she was, her little hand gripping his clothes tightly and refusing to let go no matter what. Looking around at the corpses strewn everywhere while the bamboo warriors stomped about, he knew that Xiao Lan’er was prone to losing control when subjected to intense stimulation. Her condition was already extremely unstable. If no one restrained her, she might become even more uncontrollable.
So he said, “Then stay behind me. But you must listen to me. Don’t act on your own. Understand?”
Xiao Lan’er nodded repeatedly.
Mo Xi set her down from his arms. She staggered after him, and together they opened the stone door and entered the eerie Huntian Cave, where cold winds blew through the darkness.
This corpse-filled cavern was extremely deep.
As they proceeded inward, broken limbs and shattered remains of Yue family servants lay everywhere along both sides of the passage. The entire cave was filled with a thick stench of blood.
“Uncle Butler…”
“Auntie Chen…”
Because Xiao Lan’er had once accompanied Yue Chenqing back to the Yue residence, she recognized many of the people along this bloody path.
Every time she recognized someone, the hand clutching Mo Xi’s clothes trembled a little more.
Mo Xi had no choice but to cast a calming spell on her in advance, lest she be unable to withstand the stimulation and suddenly lose control.
Xiao Lan’er was teary-eyed.
“Brother Xihe, I’m scared…”
“Don’t be afraid.”
But Mo Xi’s own heart had already sunk into darkness.
He was constantly worrying about whose corpse they would see next.
What if it were Yue—
“Yue… Yue…”
Mo Xi’s blood suddenly turned cold.
He abruptly looked in the direction Xiao Lan’er was pointing.
It wasn’t Yue Chenqing.
But his heart still sank heavily.
It was Yue Juntian and Yue Juntian’s younger brother, Yue Yongcheng!
These two princes who had once wielded tremendous influence in Chonghua’s royal capital now lay sprawled on the ground like lumps of rotten mud.
Only a thin strip of flesh still connected their heads to their necks. Blood continued to seep from the severed wounds, though the bright red blood was no longer gushing. Only intermittent streams remained, dripping down with soft, rhythmic splatters.
The expressions of the two brothers had frozen in looks of extreme fear and rage.
But death had drained the color from their faces, making them look like paper masks that had been crudely pasted together. In the depths of Huntian Cave, they radiated a faint, ghostly aura.
Xiao Lan’er trembled and pressed herself tightly against Mo Xi’s leg, quietly sobbing.
“Wuwu… What do we do…?”
Mo Xi watched Xiao Lan’er while quietly comforting her, but this reassurance was something he could only give to her.
He could not give it to himself.
Far too many people had died along the way.
Nearly the entire group the Yue family had brought with them had been wiped out.
He didn’t know whether the next corpse they encountered would be Jiang Yexue’s or Yue Chenqing’s.
Murong Chuyi’s hatred and ruthlessness had far exceeded anything he had anticipated. He even wondered whether something unexpected had happened during the ritual, something that had once again triggered Murong Chuyi and driven him to massacre everyone.
But regardless of what had happened, after Murong Chuyi had killed so many people, the situation could no longer be salvaged.
“Brother Xihe, Mr. Jiang…”
Mo Xi gently raised a hand to stop her. He led her onward, though both of them moved much more quietly now.
Yue Juntian’s corpse was already here. The corpse-filled chamber where the ritual had taken place must be very close.
Sure enough, when they reached the area behind a massive dripping stalactite, a familiar voice suddenly echoed through the vast cavern—
“The grudge between us—you know it better than anyone. There’s no need for me to list every single thing again.”
Murong Chuyi?!
The two of them leaned sideways and looked out from behind the stalactite.
Almost the instant they looked, Mo Xi instinctively raised a hand and covered Xiao Lan’er’s mouth, muffling the scream that was about to escape her.
Xiao Lan’er was nearly hysterical.
Beside the blood pool, where waves of resentful spirit aura churned through the air, Murong Chuyi stood holding a long sword, his back facing them in a white robe.
Before him, two people were bound by restraining spells.
One was sitting in a wooden wheelchair. His face was haggard and pale.
It was Jiang Yexue.
Murong Chuyi had already beaten him severely. His lotus-colored robes were mottled with blood, while his already crippled legs were covered in fresh blood.
The other person was kneeling beside him.
His entire face was streaked with tears, his eyes wide open. Aside from fear and anguish, the emotion those eyes held most strongly was actually bewilderment.
Who else could it be but Yue Chenqing?
Yue Chenqing had been hoarsely mumbling in a weak voice, the words repeating pointlessly, as though his soul had already been emptied of everything else.
“…Don’t kill them… Please… Don’t kill them…”
Jiang Yexue raised his eyes and looked at him sadly.
“Chuyi…”
“How many times do I have to tell you? You’re not worthy of calling my name.”
Every word Murong Chuyi spoke was icy cold.
Jiang Yexue said, “…Little Uncle.”
Murong Chuyi swept his sleeve, his sword-like brows furrowing in fury.
“I’m not your Little Uncle either!”
Jiang Yexue closed his eyes for a moment.
“Even if the Yue family has done many wrong things, I… Father, even if he did so many things wrong, after all these years… he ultimately lived alongside you. No matter how many thoughts you had in your heart, how could you go so far as to wipe out the entire Yue family…”
Murong Chuyi’s lips moved slightly, as though he wanted to explain something.
But in the end, he merely turned his face away and said stiffly,
“What is there for me to say to you?”
“…”
“Now that the killing has begun, I won’t spare a single person who stood beside Yue Juntian today.”
Murong Chuyi fixed his gaze on Jiang Yexue.
“That includes you. And Yue Chenqing.”
Jiang Yexue was silent for a while before finally lowering his head.
The injuries he had suffered during his earlier fight with Murong Chuyi were clearly extremely severe. Blood was still seeping from the corner of his mouth.
His hands were bound, so he couldn’t wipe it away. He could only speak softly.
“Have you not killed enough?”
“If you haven’t, then come at me. Don’t make things difficult for Chenqing.”
Yue Chenqing seemed to have been driven into a state where he had lost all awareness. He could only continue repeating:
“Stop fighting… Fourth Uncle… Don’t fight anymore…”
Jiang Yexue said, “Chenqing once sincerely admired you.”
Murong Chuyi fell silent for a moment before coldly saying,
“I don’t need anyone surnamed Yue to admire me.”
Jiang Yexue closed his eyes.
His bloodstained lips moved slowly.
“I know about your grievances. I know how deeply you hate Father. But if Chenqing’s mother hadn’t brought you back from the entrance of that temple all those years ago and raised you to adulthood, how could you have become who you are today?”
“…”
“You remembered Father’s crimes, but have you forgotten Aunt Huang’s kindness toward you?”
Murong Chuyi swept his wide sleeve, his sword-like brows raised furiously.
“I would rather I had never lived in this world at all!”
“Chuyi…”
“Confused and dazed, alone and without anyone, growing up under the control of the very people who humiliated my mother and drove her mad. These thirty years of my life have been nothing but a joke!”
Jiang Yexue shook his head and said quietly,
“You’re blinded by hatred. Aunt Huang was always so good to you. You remember those things that happened in the past. Whether your life was a joke or not, you know the answer in your own heart.”
“You refuse to spare anyone from the Yue family today, but for her sake, you should at least let Yue Chenqing go.”
The man who had always been gentle and kind raised his head. His gaze was resolute as he looked at Murong Chuyi.
“Otherwise, the person who will regret it in the end will definitely be you.”
But Murong Chuyi said,
“The thing I regret most in my entire life is entering the Yue family.”
With that, he raised his hand and swung it.
The Zhaoxue Sword burst forth with dazzling radiance and thrust toward Jiang Yexue—
The sword light illuminated Yue Chenqing’s dazed and bewildered face.
In that frozen instant, Yue Chenqing finally came back to his senses.
He suddenly screamed:
“Fourth Uncle, no!!”