As Murong Chuyi fell, the tide of the Zhaoxue Sword and the spiritual whale of the Swallow Heaven Staff collided one final time in midair.
Then, because its master had been defeated, Zhaoxue abruptly disappeared.
Immediately afterward, Swallow Heaven was also withdrawn by Mo Xi.
The battle that had been raging like a towering storm only moments ago suddenly fell into complete silence.
Mo Xi descended from the top of the cavern back to the ground and walked over to Murong Chuyi.
It was impossible to tell whether Murong Chuyi was dead or unconscious. But even if he was still alive, he had suffered extremely severe injuries. Bright red blood had soaked through his pristine white clothes.
He lay there without the slightest sign of life, like a broken puppet whose soul had been completely emptied.
The Bamboo Warriors that had still been stubbornly resisting inside the cavern had lost their master’s control as well. One after another, they crumbled into sand and mud, toppling crookedly onto the ground.
It seemed that the crisis had finally been resolved.
Little Lan’er sobbed quietly, as though she had survived a disaster.
Yue Chenqing had exhausted all of his spiritual power and suffered severe injuries. At this moment, he no longer even had the strength to use his lightness skill to cross the Blood Pool.
Fortunately, Jiang Yexue possessed artifact-manipulation techniques. He summoned his own Bamboo Warrior and had it go retrieve the barely breathing Yue Chenqing from the Ghost Command Platform.
“Brother…”
Yue Chenqing struggled to raise his face, coughing up bloody foam as he spoke indistinctly.
After calling him “Brother,” his eyes turned sluggishly toward Murong Chuyi.
The moment he saw his Fourth Uncle lying on the ground, his face violently contorted.
“…”
He could not say a single word.
He did not even know what he was feeling at that moment.
In the span of a single night, it was as though his bones and flesh had been ripped apart and crushed into mud.
In the end, it was Little Lan’er who pushed Jiang Yexue’s wheelchair over.
The three of them embraced each other.
“It’s all right now… It’s all right… You did very well, Chenqing…”
Jiang Yexue comforted him softly.
But no matter how much he tried to comfort him, Yue Chenqing continued trembling faintly, unable to stop shaking.
His injuries could not be delayed.
The situation with Murong Chuyi and the Yue family also needed to be reported to the imperial court as quickly as possible.
After their brief embrace and words of comfort, they went over to Mo Xi, who had been staring at Murong Chuyi in a daze.
“Lord Xihe… thank you… If you hadn’t been here today, I’m afraid everyone in the Yue family would have died in this Hundong Cave.”
Mo Xi did not answer Jiang Yexue’s thanks. He only shook his head.
But as Yue Chenqing drew closer, he could not help looking at Murong Chuyi again.
Seeing Murong Chuyi lying there with his life or death still uncertain, Yue Chenqing suddenly did not know whether he felt more hatred or more pain.
He only felt as though his spine had been completely torn apart. The pain forced him to hunch over, and fine beads of cold sweat continuously trickled down his handsome, delicate face.
Little Lan’er supported him from beside him. Feeling him trembling more and more violently, she looked at him, then at Murong Chuyi, and said softly,
“Brother Chenqing, if you… if you still have something you want to ask him… I have… I have medicine here that can preserve someone’s life…”
She carefully took a pill from her pocket.
“My father told me to keep it on me for protection…”
She hesitated, then said in a tiny voice,
“I just don’t know if it still works…”
She was half-supporting Yue Chenqing, and her small body was already bearing his weight, so for a moment she did not have a free hand to give the medicine to Murong Chuyi.
At that moment, Mo Xi suddenly said,
“I’ll do it.”
He took the medicine from Little Lan’er and walked over to Murong Chuyi.
With his back turned to everyone else, he gave the pill to him.
Then he stood up.
Everyone assumed he was preparing to take Murong Chuyi with them and leave Hundong Cave together.
But then they saw Mo Xi suddenly raise his hand—
A hissing sound of spiritual energy rang out.
The only passage leading out of the cave was sealed shut by Mo Xi’s barrier.
The other three were all stunned.
Yue Chenqing: “Lord Xihe…?”
Little Lan’er was equally bewildered.
“Brother Xihe?”
Jiang Yexue frowned and coughed lightly, looking at him in confusion.
Mo Xi offered no explanation.
Instead, he suddenly said,
“I’m sorry. There are some other questions I need to ask the three of you.”
The three of them had no idea why he had suddenly turned hostile, and all stood there in stunned confusion.
Mo Xi first turned toward Jiang Yexue.
“Brother Jiang, after I returned to Chonghua, where did we first meet?”
Jiang Yexue looked puzzled, but still answered,
“It was… Feiyao Terrace? Why?”
Mo Xi did not answer.
His second question was directed at Yue Chenqing.
“Chenqing, when you were stationed at the Northern Borderlands, what did the stall you most often ate at sell?”
Although Yue Chenqing was confused, he still rasped out an answer.
“…Shaobing.”
Mo Xi turned toward Little Lan’er.
The little girl stood there in bewilderment, her clear, moist eyes looking up at Mo Xi.
“Brother Xihe…”
Mo Xi asked,
“You once gave your Brother Gu Mang something. Do you remember what it was?”
Little Lan’er bit her lip and thought carefully for a while.
In a tiny voice, she said,
“I… I don’t remember…”
She looked somewhat frightened.
“Do I have to remember? Th-then I’ll think harder!”
Mo Xi said,
“It’s fine if you can’t remember. I’ll ask you another question. Where did you and I meet for the first time?”
“I…”
“You wouldn’t happen to have no memory of that either, would you?”
“…”
Little Lan’er stammered, but for a moment she could not answer.
Mo Xi’s eyes darkened.
A black shadow flashed.
The girl’s neck was suddenly seized in his hand!
Little Lan’er screamed, panicking.
“Waaah! I… I…”
Mo Xi raised his other hand.
Between his slender fingers was a white pill.
It was the very same “life-preserving medicine” Little Lan’er had given him earlier, asking him to give it to Murong Chuyi.
Mo Xi said coldly,
“You think I would actually give this medicine to Murong?”
He had already grown suspicious at the time.
He had swiftly switched the pills inside his sleeve.
The pill he had just given Murong Chuyi was actually medicine he had been carrying in his own Qiankun pouch for treating injuries.
“You said this was a life-preserving pill…”
Mo Xi’s voice turned icy.
“But I wanted to see whether, aside from preserving life, there was anything inside this pill that could seize a person’s will and soul!”
He rolled the pill between his fingers.
The white pill was crushed into powder.
And sure enough, a tiny Gu worm was writhing inside.
——
Just as he thought!!
Mo Xi’s expression instantly turned vicious.
“Speak!”
Gripping Little Lan’er’s delicate throat, he stared at her with eyes as sharp as an eagle’s.
“Who are you really pretending to be?!”
Little Lan’er burst into tears.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about! Help… help me…! Brother Chenqing, Sir…”
Seeing that she still refused to admit anything, Mo Xi no longer wanted to waste words with her.
He drove spiritual power into his palm and probed her body.
And when he did, he discovered that although her spiritual energy appeared to be surging violently, it was actually only a thin layer of illusion attached to her physical body.
He was startled.
That violent spiritual core of hers…
Had already withered away.
She was a puppet too!
Years of instinct from fighting others made Mo Xi abruptly withdraw his hand.
But he was still too late.
A layer of black qi began spreading from his fingertips.
It was the poison of the Corpse-Stiffening Grass from Liao!
“You—!”
“…You really are making things difficult for me.”
Little Lan’er broke free of his grip and retreated several steps.
Then, on her childish face, a sweet and radiant smile suddenly blossomed.
“Brother Mo, why can’t you just play dumb? Why do you have to dig all the way to the bottom of everything?”
That tone clearly no longer belonged to a six- or seven-year-old child.
Mo Xi tried to suppress the demonic poison spreading through his fingertips, but it was useless.
The poison of Corpse-Stiffening Grass was extremely vicious and spread rapidly.
Before long, the sensation of paralysis had already spread through most of his body.
He breathed slightly heavily.
Amid the shifting light and shadows of Hundong Cave, he looked at the little girl standing quietly beside the Blood Pool.
The girl smiled with an expression completely incompatible with her age.
“Originally, I intended to let you be a witness.”
“But you seem to prefer becoming a wrongfully killed ghost.”
“Brother Mo.”
She sighed, her voice gradually becoming softer.
And at that very moment, another voice suddenly drifted eerily from behind Mo Xi.
“You had a road to walk among the living, but you refused to take it. The gates of hell were closed to you, yet you insisted on barging in…”
Mo Xi endured the excruciating pain of the Fallen-Heart Grass poison spreading through his body and abruptly turned around.
Jiang Yexue was sitting in his wheelchair.
His face was still stained with blood, but there was none of the weakness he had displayed earlier.
His hands were folded together as he calmly watched Mo Xi.
Tilting his head, he smiled slightly.
“It’s because you know too much. You can’t blame me for killing you.”
Mo Xi felt a sharp pain in his chest.
But it was not because of the Fallen-Heart Grass.
He stared at Jiang Yexue’s face.
He could not utter a single word.
His vision gradually began to blur.
Yue Chenqing was practically on the verge of madness.
“Brother…?”
Jiang Yexue gave a quiet hum.
“Mm.”
He smiled.
Yue Chenqing completely broke down.
His entire body trembled as he clutched his head, unable to believe it and even more afraid to think about it.
“No… It’s impossible… It can’t be! How could it be possible?!”
“Fool.”
Jiang Yexue smiled faintly.
“What in this world is ever absolutely impossible?”
Still completely unhurried, Jiang Yexue rose to his feet.
He actually stood up from the wheelchair and walked toward them.
Yue Chenqing’s pupils contracted.
His face was drained of all color.
“You… You actually…”
Jiang Yexue wore a light lotus-white robe. His figure was tall and slender, his sleeves fluttering in the wind.
His bearing was that of a gentleman like the wind, gentle and refined like jade.
How could he possibly be a cripple with useless legs?
“Yes. I’ve been completely healthy for a long time. I just never told you.”
As Jiang Yexue spoke, he raised a hand.
Between his porcelain-jade fingers and palm, a cluster of white-gold flames ignited.
It was precisely the same radiance that came from Little Lan’er’s spiritual core.
A killing spell condensed in his palm.
Jiang Yexue shifted his gaze away from Yue Chenqing and toward Mo Xi.
“Lord Xihe, I’m sorry. I’ll have to take you down first.”
Without another word—
He struck down in an instant!
Mo Xi had already expended a great deal of spiritual power during his fierce battle with Murong Chuyi.
Now he had also been poisoned by Corpse-Stiffening Grass.
The poison took effect extremely quickly, capable of making a person’s entire body numb and rigid within an extremely short period of time.
Eventually, the victim would become completely unable to move.
Mo Xi barely managed to defend himself.
Amid the violent collision of spiritual energy, he raised his head while panting.
“It was you… You stole her spiritual core…”
“Oh? You sensed it after only one exchange?”
Jiang Yexue’s smile remained as gentle and elegant as ever.
“Yes. That violent spiritual core inside Little Lan’er’s body would only have been a hidden illness for her.”
“But after I absorbed its spiritual power through a secret technique, it became something I could use—a weapon in my hands.”
“And it cured my leg condition.”
As he spoke, the golden light in his hand grew increasingly intense, pressing down toward Mo Xi.
“Otherwise, why do you think I took her in?”
“I don’t like children at all. Especially crying ones like her. They’re terribly irritating.”
The two forces clashed.
The dazzling radiance illuminated Jiang Yexue’s extraordinarily handsome face, beautiful like pear blossoms beneath the moonlit sky.
But Mo Xi had never found that face so unfamiliar as he did today.
“Jiang Yexue… you’re completely insane!”
“People use snake gallbladders as medicine to cure illnesses. I’m merely looking for a treatment for my legs.”
Jiang Yexue said,
“Besides, when I asked the academy to give her to me, she was already going to have her spiritual core power stripped away because she couldn’t control herself.”
“If the academy took it from her and I took it from her, what’s the difference?”
Violent spiritual energy met violent spiritual energy.
One side was simply weak, while the other was powerful.
Jiang Yexue controlled Little Lan’er’s spiritual power, crushing Mo Xi down little by little.
“Stop struggling, Brother Mo. You’ve already exhausted too much of your strength. At this moment, you simply can’t be my opponent.”
Jiang Yexue was not wrong.
Fine beads of sweat seeped from Mo Xi’s forehead.
The black qi of the Corpse-Stiffening Grass had already begun creeping upward, corroding his wrists and arms.
Mo Xi could not even bend his fingers enough to summon Swallow Heaven a second time.
And just then, he suddenly heard Yue Chenqing beside him cry out in grief and fury, his voice hoarse:
“Yin Soldiers—”
He actually intended to mobilize the monsters that had not yet returned to the Blood Pool and use them to stop Jiang Yexue from slaughtering them!
Jiang Yexue’s gaze instantly turned vicious.
Although Yue Chenqing’s spiritual power and physical strength had already reached their limits, using this forbidden technique now might not only fail to work—it might even kill him outright.
But compared with Mo Xi, who was on the verge of being completely controlled by the Corpse-Stiffening Grass, Yue Chenqing was clearly the greater threat at this moment.
Thus, just as Yue Chenqing coughed up blood and was about to utter the words “Obey the command!” Jiang Yexue abruptly withdrew the force he had been applying against Mo Xi.
His wide sleeves swept outward as he shot toward Yue Chenqing.
With a vicious strike, he knocked Yue Chenqing to the ground.
Jiang Yexue narrowed his eyes with unmistakable malice.
“Why do you always have to make trouble for me, Yue Chenqing?”