Run

Ye Chang'an was on the verge of tears.

He had suffered such a massive loss at her hands. If he didn't win a round back to save face, she would keep stepping all over him in the future.

He didn't want the Taiqing Pavilion disciples or the Wen family to find out, so his only option was to hire two experts to deal with her.

Since she had beaten him up, he would teach her a lesson too, and see how she could act so smug after that.

Who would have thought that before they could even make a move, he'd be taken hostage!

Shivering, he forced a smile that looked uglier than crying, his voice trembling as he defended himself, “S-Senior Sister Lin! I... I really didn't want to kill you! It was... it was just a joke...”

Song Yao had drunk too much wine, and waves of sleepiness were washing over her.

Still gripping his hair, she slightly lowered her eyes. Her clear and beautiful features were flushed a faint red from the alcohol, shedding some of her usual coldness and revealing a hint of lingering youthful innocence.

Ye Chang'an felt deeply uneasy under her gaze, but looking at her face, he also felt an indescribable emotion.

Why were the girls of the Nine Saints Hall each more beautiful than the last, yet each more difficult to deal with than the last?

Song Yao was, Wen Tang was, and now this newcomer, Lin Mu, was too.

But Song Yao was dead, and Wen Tang had been sent away and couldn't cause any trouble. Surely this Lin Mu couldn't be even harder to deal with than the first two, right?

Just as he was thinking this, his scalp tightened again.

The person in front of him seemed to suddenly think of something fun. “Just a joke? Then Young Master Ye must be very free. Perfect, I have some Qi-Replenishing Pills here. Why don't you help me test them, Young Master Ye?”

Ye Chang'an: “...”

He had heard rumors about her Qi-Replenishing Pills.

Lu Mingxuan and the others from the Beiyao Sect had been utterly tormented by them. Not only did they completely lose face, but they had also nearly lost half their lives.

And now, she actually wanted to torture him with that same stuff.

He opened his mouth, wanting to refuse, but Song Yao added, “My Qi-Replenishing Pills are good things. If you don't agree, I'll pluck out all your hair.”

Ye Chang'an: “...I'll do it.”

Only then did Song Yao let him go, pulling a pile of pills out of her spatial pouch. “Go ahead.”

Ye Chang'an: “H-Here?”

Song Yao: “Is there something wrong with here?”

Ye Chang'an: “...”

They were in the middle of nowhere. If he took the pills and went mad like Lu Mingxuan and the others, what would he do?

Moreover, he had heard that other, even worse symptoms might occur.

Song Yao was sleepy and couldn't be bothered to argue. “Right here. Just eat them one by one. I'll watch you.”

Ye Chang'an: “...”

Having her watch him was exactly what made it even more terrifying.

He looked around, and after confirming that there was truly no one who could save him, he had no choice but to reach for the pills with a trembling hand.

After agonizing and hesitating for a long time, he finally closed his eyes and tossed a pill into his mouth with an air of tragic resolve.

Song Yao pulled out her little notebook again and began recording seriously.

She would be returning to the Nine Saints Hall soon. That place was different from the outside world; most people there were old acquaintances, so she couldn't just mess around. There wouldn't be this many test subjects for her to ruin.

Besides, she had already grasped a bit of a pattern. The more test subjects she had, the easier it would be to succeed in refining pills once she returned.

Once she completely mastered the Qi-Replenishing Pill, she could sell them. Her future livelihood would be secured!

The more Song Yao thought about it, the more hopeful she felt about her future. Before the medicinal effects could kick in, she poured out a few more pills, stepped forward, pried Ye Chang'an's mouth open, and stuffed them in. “Hurry up, I'm getting sleepy.”

Ye Chang'an: “...”

Over the next few hours, Ye Chang'an consumed several waves of pills. He went through a cycle of losing his sanity, going mad, experiencing manic fevers, vomiting, and dizziness, only to spring back up with a hundred times his usual energy due to the medicine's effects.

By the time he was sitting on the ground, his body feeling entirely comfortable and his spiritual energy doubled, he somehow felt as if he had just been whipped with a lash dipped in saltwater.

Although he didn't feel any discomfort for the moment, why did he feel a bit... dead inside?

It was as if he had died several times and then come back to life.

He looked at Song Yao with unfocused eyes.

The young girl yawned, scratching her messy hair, her face filled with exhaustion. She was clearly on the verge of falling asleep.

Driven by her determination to be a good pill cultivator, she lazily pulled out another handful of pills. “One last mouthful.”

Ye Chang'an: “...Why don't you just pluck my hair out instead?”

Obviously, he was in no position to refuse.

Feeling both weak and strangely healthy, he took the pills. Just as he was about to put them into his mouth—

The person opposite him suddenly regained complete clarity in her eyes, her brow furrowing slightly as she looked at him. “Did you hire other assassins too?”

Ye Chang'an was already seeing stars from the torment. Hearing this, tears gushed down his face, and his voice carried a sob, “I only hired those two! Pui! They weren't even assassins! I didn't want to kill you, I really didn't...”

Before he could finish, Song Yao suddenly rose and kicked him squarely in the chest, sending him flying thirty feet away.

A metallic sweetness rose in his throat. He wailed, but before he could even complain—

—the next second, two dark figures suddenly darted out of the forest, their long swords, swirling with black energy, slashing down violently right where he had been sitting.

The ground split open, leaving a bottomless fissure as gravel and dust kicked up.

Looking up, he saw that the two figures were completely enveloped in a dense, inescapable black mist, and the skin visible beneath their robes was a deathly gray.

Their eye sockets were completely empty, pitch-black without any eyeballs, and their lips were a bruised blackish-purple. They were clearly not normal humans.

They looked like demonic anomalies.

Having missed their strike, their swords paused for a fraction of a second before they immediately changed directions, charging at Song Yao and Ye Chang'an once more. The wind from their blades carried a bone-chilling, dark coldness.

Ye Chang'an was scared out of his wits. Rolling and scrambling across the ground to escape, his tearful cries cracked, “Help! What on earth are these things?!”

Song Yao used the shadows of the trees to flip onto an old scholar tree. Her robes brushed against the branches as she dodged the sword wind. She only evaded without engaging in combat, her brow furrowing as she observed them for a moment.

Judging by the way they were attacking Ye Chang'an—every strike aimed to kill—this was indeed not his doing.

Furthermore, their cultivation bases were definitely not low. At least, with her current strength, she wasn't confident she could defeat two of them.

Logically speaking, there should be disciples patrolling the vicinity of a major sect, and defensive arrays to block them. How could demonic anomalies of this caliber appear here?

And how did they happen to target them specifically?

The sword light, wrapped in thick, dark evil energy, slashed down again. Song Yao used the momentum to drop back to the ground.

Behind her, the old scholar tree split right down the middle with a loud crash, the black energy corroding through the trunk as wood chips flew in all directions.

The tree, which would have taken two people to hug, crashed to the ground with a heavy thud, sending dust billowing through the forest and loose rocks rolling everywhere.

Ye Chang'an only managed to dodge quickly because he was still powered by those several waves of pills. He hadn't been injured yet, but he couldn't withstand such a fierce onslaught for long.

Seeing Song Yao land, he rushed over as if grasping his last lifeline, scrambling on all fours. His voice shook uncontrollably, “Senior Sister Lin! What do we do now?!”

Song Yao reached out and patted his shoulder, speaking with profound earnestness, “Run.”

Then, she turned, stepped onto her Bishui Sword, and shot toward the city gates.

Ye Chang'an was stunned for two seconds.

Wait.

She was so arrogant when she was beating him up, but now she was running away so fast!

He narrowly dodged a slashing strike, then stepped onto his own sword to chase after Song Yao.

Behind them, the two demonic anomalies were still in hot pursuit, their speed incredibly fast.

The effects of the Qi-Replenishing Pills wore off at this exact moment. Seeing that they were about to grab his ankle, he grit his teeth and crushed the jade token at his waist.