The apricot grove concealed a secret passage leading to the Underground Palace—a narrow, winding stone staircase descending downward. Due to its proximity to the sacrificial pits, translucent, sorrowful ghosts frequently appeared along the way.
The steps of the passage were slick with moss, making them treacherously slippery. Xin Mei had barely descended two steps when a male ghost phased through the wall, leaping in front of her and yanking off his own head with a loud laugh. "Pretty lady, look! I have no head! Wahahaha!"
A female ghost nearby scoffed in disdain. "How inelegant! Look at me—I have no feet!"
She drifted back and forth in the cramped passage, her bloodstained skirt billowing beneath her, revealing indeed no feet.
(Si Lan's inner thoughts: Are they really sorrowful?)
Xin Mei hesitated, glancing between the headless ghost and the footless ghost, about to speak when a hand suddenly covered her mouth from behind. Lu Qianqiao's low voice murmured in her ear, "You'd better not say anything. These vengeful spirits are quite troublesome."
He knew Xin Mei's way with words all too well. If she provoked these wronged ghosts who had been buried alive, the Underground Palace would be thrown into chaos.
She nodded, her lips brushing against his slightly rough palm. Lu Qianqiao shuddered imperceptibly—his body, in the midst of transformation, was like dry tinder, and the slightest spark could set it ablaze. He quickly withdrew his hand, but as if unwilling to be defeated by the Blood of the War Devil, he grasped hers instead, giving a gentle tug that pulled her along with his steps.
"...The ground is slippery. Follow me."
Xin Mei couldn't help but look up at his face. In the dim light, his crimson eyes gleamed like a beast's—hardly a pleasant sight, enough to send chills down one's spine.
She stared for so long that Lu Qianqiao finally spoke softly, "Are my eyes that hideous?"
She shook her head. "Not at all. They're red and glowing—unique."
He lowered his head with a bashful smile, tightening his grip on her hand, and said nothing more.
The path was teeming with ghosts, damp and eerie, and the man holding her hand had eyes more terrifying than any specter. Yet Xin Mei suddenly felt as though she were walking down a sunlit road strewn with flowers—the sickly green Ghost fires drifting down like fluttering petals, the vengeful spirits floating about like cheering bystanders, and his glowing eyes like an eternal lamp lighting the way forward...
She was almost falling in love with this dark, haunted realm.
After what felt like the time it took to eat a meal, the passage finally ended, opening into a vast, breathtaking space. The Imperial Mausoleum's Underground Palace was grand and spacious, illuminated by eternal lamps that cast the underground chambers in a snow-white glow. But that wasn't the main point—the main point was that in the northeastern corner, several familiar demons, like Zhao Guanren, Ying Lian, and Tao Guoguo, were gathered around tables playing mahjong, thoroughly engrossed.
"Did you all move into the Underground Palace?" Xin Mei asked curiously as she approached.
Zhao Guanren lifted his face—pale from losing—and his eyes immediately brightened at the sight of her tattered wedding dress. Then, noticing the large tear in Lu Qianqiao's robes, revealing the elegant curve of his collarbones, he grew excited.
"Come here..." He beckoned Xin Mei secretly. "Tell me, have you two already had your secret wedding night? Looking this disheveled—was the General particularly wild?"Xin Mei thought back to the thrilling scene in the apricot blossom grove and shook her head. "No, the wild one was me."
"Oh!" Zhao Guanren clutched his nosebleed, dizzy. "Young lady, you truly are a heroine among women!"
Si Lan strode over and glared at him sharply before taking a headcount. His expression darkened further. "More demons sneaking out of the Imperial Mausoleum?"
Tao Guoguo grimaced. "Brother Si Lan, they won't listen to us. They said... since Brother Qianqiao is about to die anyway, and they were only forced to stay in the mausoleum before... Now that Brother Qianqiao can't even maintain the cloud mist array, so... so..."
Still young, he couldn't hold back anymore and burst into loud sobs. His chubby little bird demon brother, seeing his elder brother cry, immediately wailed too and threw himself into Lu Qianqiao's arms, whimpering in a childish voice, "Brother Qianqiao, don't die!"
Lu Qianqiao lifted him slightly to sit on his arm, patting his back in an awkward attempt at comfort.
"Ah, what's there to cry about?" Zhao Guanren sighed. "You're just making the general feel worse. Come here, let's go play another round."
He dragged away the emotionally unstable little demons, and their cries gradually faded.
Si Lan's face was grim. "General... should I leave the mausoleum to track down those escaped demons...?"
Of the three hundred demons in the mausoleum, many had been forcibly confined by the general's cloud mist array after his demotion, preventing them from harming humans. Now that he was undergoing his Transformation Tribulation and couldn't control his powers to maintain the array, their escape was inevitable.
Lu Qianqiao shook his head. "Just keep an eye on them. Don't let them harm anyone."
Si Lan left with several capable demons, and soon only Xin Mei and Lu Qianqiao remained in the Underground Palace. Deliberately turning away, he took a step forward before speaking quietly, "There are many rooms here. Find one to rest in."
...That's it? After all that peach blossom fluttering, this was all he had to say?
"Lu Qianqiao." She called from behind, tugging at her hair in frustration. "Shouldn't... shouldn't you say something to me?"
He paused, then finally turned. His blood-red eyes met her dark ones for just a moment before darting away again.
"Say what?" His voice was low and hoarse.
"I... I don't know." She wasn't sure what he should say either. Shouldn't this be his decision?
After a silent moment, he spoke again. "Actually... I still don't want you staying in the mausoleum. You should return to the Sinister Clan immediately."
The illusion of dancing peach blossoms before her eyes vanished with a "poof."
"You're doing this again?" Her eyes widened.
"But since you're staying, find a room to rest. Don't worry about anything."
Huh, back to square one.
Xin Mei lowered her head in thought, suddenly feeling timid. She almost didn't dare ask, but she did anyway. "Lu Qianqiao, does marrying me really trouble you so much? Do you... really not want to marry me?"
He'd said he didn't dislike her, but not enough to marry her regardless of life or death. True or not, those words had struck her harder than any talk of transformation or burial. The doll he'd made her, his quiet care—those couldn't have been her misunderstanding, could they?
She watched his red eyes anxiously.He remained silent for a long, long time before finally raising his eyes to meet hers without avoidance: "...Fake."
Xin Mei blinked, as if trying to discern the truth in his words, when suddenly he pulled something from his Cosmos Sack and tossed it toward her. She caught it and upon closer inspection, found it to be a completed doll—golden armor, silver helmet, gripping a long blade, pointing forward with imposing majesty.
Her General.
"A gift," he said, then turned to leave, his ears red as agate.
She burst into laughter and darted to his side like a rabbit, tilting her head to see his face. He stubbornly turned away, refusing to let her look. Xin Mei pressed her hands on his shoulders, stretching her neck like a goose to force her face into his line of sight, widening her eyes curiously to study his expression.
...He seemed to have been beaten up pretty badly by her. The left corner of his mouth was split and slightly swollen, while the right side was still bleeding. Combined with the suspicious flush on his face... well, he looked quite disheveled.
Noticing her gaze on his wounds, Lu Qianqiao covered the right side of his face with his hand and gave her a cool glance. "Go rest," he said flatly.
"I'm not tired. Sorry about knocking out one of your teeth earlier—does it still hurt? Open your mouth and let me check the wound."
"No need."
She then pulled out a small bottle of trauma medicine from her sleeve and shook it. "Then let me apply this to the cuts on your lips."
...If you get any closer, I don’t know what I might do.
Holding his breath, his entire body stiffened as she pushed him onto a stone chair, handing him tea to rinse his mouth and clean the wound. His body, currently undergoing the Transformation Tribulation, reacted intensely to every external stimulus due to the awakening of his power. The moment her fingertip, coated in ointment, touched his skin, he shuddered.
Her soft fingers gently spread the medicine over the wound, her porcelain-white face so close he could count her lashes.
Blissful, yet agonizing. He wanted to push her away, yet couldn’t bear to.
The War Ghost’s restless blood surged violently beneath his skin, bringing with it a sharp, unfamiliar pain. His fingers clenched the arms of the stone chair with such force that the carved horns of the small beasts decorating them shattered with a crack .
Xin Mei jumped. "Does it hurt that much?"
She quickly finished applying the medicine and cut a piece of gauze to cover the wound, ensuring it wouldn’t accidentally rub off.
"Is that why you all moved into the Underground Palace—to avoid being discovered?" she asked while cleaning the wound on his other cheek.
Lu Qianqiao’s ears were ringing too loudly to hear her clearly. He only managed a vague "Mm" in response.
Endure, endure, endure... The character for "endure" has a knife hanging over it. Besides his poker face, endurance was his greatest skill.
His heart felt as though gripped by an invisible force, that suffocating pain returning, just like the night his eyes had suddenly changed color. His blood raged wildly, and he trembled slightly. He couldn’t move. It felt as though even the slightest shift would make everything spiral out of control.
After tending to his wounds, Xin Mei noticed his hair was slightly messy, with a long blade of grass tangled in it. She smoothed his hair and plucked the grass away, laughing. "Lu Qianqiao, I’m not an executioner. You don’t have to be so tense."
His lashes trembled violently, the color of his eyes shifting between red and deep black, the glow flickering in and out.
Xin Mei waved a hand in front of his face, growing alarmed. "Hey, something’s wrong with you. I’ll go get Si Lan..."He abruptly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the vivid blood-red hue had receded, leaving his pupils as dark as ink.
The prey was right before him—seize her! A cold voice spoke from the depths of his heart.
Yielding to the War Ghost's powerful and irresistible instincts, his fingers hooked like talons, silently gripping her shoulders. With a gentle tug, the soft prey tumbled into his embrace.
Lowering his head, he fiercely captured her lips.
How sweet her scent was—it was her.
He wished he could merge entirely into her... Extending his arms, he crushed her tightly against him, his lips moving over hers with rough fervor. The bitter taste of trauma medicine mixed into their mouths, and the gauze pressed against her wound was rubbed loose and fell away.
He felt as though he was trembling—or perhaps it was her. Their relentless lips delved deeper, and between their pressed skin, tiny sparks flickered. His tongue, unable to resist, tangled clumsily, frantically, fiercely with hers.
...The trauma medicine tasted so bitter in her mouth; her lips were sucked and bitten until they ached; she couldn’t breathe—it was agony.
Xin Mei’s thoughts scattered to trivial, unrelated things—until his scorching lips trailed down to her neck, nipping and sucking, stirring a strange sensation from deep within her body.
Instinctively, she tried to struggle, but suddenly, he shoved her away, clutching his chest as he curled up on the stone seat, trembling violently. Thin streams of blood seeped from his features, staining his robes crimson in moments.
Xin Mei scrambled up from the ground, ignoring her weak legs. She struck his neck first, then scooped up the unconscious Lu Qianqiao, shouting as she ran, "Si Lan! Zhao Guanren! Lu Qianqiao is bleeding from all seven orifices!"
The newlywed bride, whose "first kiss" had been inexplicably stolen, didn’t even have time to dwell on it before rushing to save her frail and ailing groom.
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