"Are you really leaving?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
The same questions and answers as always. In the past, Su Yun would stop here, stubbornly clenching her jaw with lowered head.
But this time she rose and walked deep into the cave dwelling. When she returned, she carried a tray holding a small bowl filled with red clay and several copper coins.
The red clay was of that dark ochre color, carrying a faint bloody scent, as if soaked in someone's blood.
Su Yun raised her hand, pinched a tiny cluster, and slowly sprinkled it onto a copper coin.
Red rust immediately grew on the coin, the red clay clinging to it like a haunting spirit. When the final shape settled, it resembled someone's sigh of resentment, tinged with venom.
"If you ever grow tired of this woman, you can use my method - release these copper coins." Su Yun's expression remained blank as she prepared several more coins. "Remember, you cannot stay away from this cave dwelling for long."
"I'm asking you, why must you leave?"
Su Yun fell silent for a moment, then held a copper coin in her palm for him to see. "Do you see this red rust?"
"Obviously."
"Before my death, there were unfinished matters that became my obsession. This obsession now crawls all over my heart, just like the rust on this coin, growing daily until one day it will completely envelop my heart."
Chi Lian remained silent, taking the coin and examining it for a long, long time.
"I remember I bought you, with a contract binding you for lifetimes."
His tone had softened.
Su Yun was ecstatic: "You can take one of my souls and one of my spirits as payment, or anything else, just let me go."
Chi Lian's eyes glowed with an eerie green light as he placed a hand on her head.
Just then, a foul wind swept through the cave. A reddish-brown smoke passed through the entrance and settled at Chi Lian's feet, quickly taking shape and transforming into the ochre-red robe he often wore.
Su Yun looked down and saw a tear running from the collar to the hem of the robe. Shocked, she asked with genuine concern: "Someone actually damaged your snakeskin? Who was it? Are you alright?"
Chi Lian narrowed his eyes, swallowing back a sigh as he withdrew his hand from her head.
"Go."
Three emotionless words.
"Don't you want payment? Why?"
"Because of what you just said."
Chi Lian replied, flipping his palm and sending her flying out of the cave with one strike.
"If you keep staring at me like that, believe me, I'll dig your eyes out!"
In the guest room of Minister Hou's residence, Ban Xia spoke viciously, giving Chi Xue the eight hundredth roll of her eyes.
Chi Xue quickly lowered his head, pulling out his tattered book. He wet his finger with saliva and began flipping through the pages excitedly before showing it to Ban Xia: "Look, look! According to this book, you're very likely one of our clanspeople."
Ban Xia leaned over, glanced at the shabby book, and delivered another eye roll: "Great, this is indeed a heavenly text - I can't recognize a single character. Keep spinning your tales."
"It doesn't matter if you can't read it, I'll explain." Chi Xue continued excitedly, pointing at each character in the worn book. "Our clan has always maintained a peculiar balance - there are always exactly ninety-nine clan members. If someone passes away without a newborn to replace them, then it's time to recruit from outside."
"Is that so?""Uncle Wu went out to hunt spirits three years ago and hasn't been heard from since. He's probably no longer with us. So now our clan, including the Elegant Confinement, only has ninety-eight people left."
"Is that so?"
"That makes you the ninety-ninth!"
Ban Xia laughed heartily: "If you knew where I came from, you wouldn't think that way."
"Where you come from doesn't matter." Chi Xue suddenly lowered her voice, taking on a somewhat mystical tone: "What matters is who you truly are, and whether you possess the traits of our clan."
"What traits does your clan have?"
"Everyone in our clan are born spirit hunters."
Ban Xia fell silent.
Born with the spirit eye; able to release supernatural energy to repel evil spirits when in danger; capable of sensing the presence of evil spirits; and not long ago, she had actually been able to chant that incantation to make Feng Yi appear.
All of these abilities were innate, requiring no training whatsoever.
Could it be that she had traveled through time precisely to come to the Song Dynasty and find this so-called destiny?
With this thought, she pursed her lips and asked a question absolutely characteristic of the Ban family.
"So what benefits would I get from joining your clan?"
Under the moonlit night, the autumn wind grew stronger. Xuan Ye melted into the darkness, walking faster and faster.
Earlier he had lied to Ban Xia and Chi Xue, saying he needed at least a day and night to recover. They believed him and were talking back and forth in the room, waiting for him to regain his strength.
To be honest, he had only recovered seventy to eighty percent so far. His joints still stiffened when walking, and his chest ached sharply when breathing rapidly.
But there was no other way. If he recovered completely, that damned You Huang would surely recover too and would definitely interfere to ruin things again.
So time was pressing. He had been hurrying along, searching for the mark he had left, walking almost the entire night.
Finally reaching his destination - Guanmao Mountain in the outskirts. Even without the mark's guidance, he could smell that fishy, damp, evil scent in the air.
The snake demon must be here, within one li.
"He's coming."
Almost at the same moment, Chi Lian sensed it, the cup in his hand trembling slightly.
Feng Yi lay beneath his couch, covered with a fox fur. Hearing this, she opened her eyes wide, not without hope.
Chi Lian then bent down, looking at her: "You're also hoping someone will come to rescue you, aren't you? You're hoping to leave this place, right?"
Feng Yi met his gaze without fear, nodding firmly.
"As a lover, where do I fall short? Am I not handsome enough, not considerate enough, or do I not bring you enough pleasure?"
For a moment, Feng Yi seemed lost in thought.
As a lover, he was indeed qualified - with an exceptionally handsome face carrying a melancholic temperament, a slender figure, and that time in the hot spring... the intimacy he gave her was truly unparalleled joy she had never experienced before.
"No woman would enjoy being taken by force."
Finally, she found a reason to refuse.
"Besides taking you by force, where else am I unworthy as a lover?" Chi Lian bent even lower.
Feng Yi pursed her lips.
"And also... I'm a snake, a damned snake, aren't I?" Chi Lian said, his voice both sinister and sorrowful.
Feng Yi didn't answer. Because Chi Lian reached out his hand, grasped her elegant neck, and with a gentle sound, had already cut off her breathing.
"Welcome, honored guest."After completing this task, he raised his cup and offered a distant toast to Xuan Ye, who had just arrived at the cave entrance: "What a pity. You won't be able to save the person you wish to save."
Xuan Ye hadn't expected that this snake demon wouldn't need to be sought out—instead, it sat in the center of the brightly lit cave dwelling, holding a crystal glass, toasting him fearlessly from afar.
"Second time we meet. Allow me to introduce myself—I am Chi Lian."
"My name is Xuan Ye." Xuan Ye rested his hand on the hilt of his blade.
"She's already dead." Chi Lian pointed at Feng Yi's body on the ground.
"Then it's time for you to depart as well."
Xuan Ye, ever a man of few words, curled his fingers, drew his blade, and gathered his energy—all in one fluid motion.
"I suppose it is time for me to depart." Chi Lian echoed, raising his hand and extinguishing all the lights in the cave in an instant: "But... you'll be keeping me company."
Xuan Ye quickly held his breath and tossed Moon Glow upward, illuminating the cave ceiling.
But it was already too late. Chi Lian had vanished, and the once-opulent cave dwelling was instantly transformed beyond recognition, littered with jagged rocks everywhere.
Moon Glow's radiance slowly spread. Xuan Ye looked up and faintly saw two faint green lights deep within the cave, so he hurried toward them.
It was a stone wall continuously seeping water, covered in moss due to the moisture.
On the moss, at the very top of the stone wall, was a Soul Suppressing Nail engraved with scriptures. Nailed beneath it was a long snake skeleton.
From top to bottom, the snake bones measured nine feet long—undoubtedly a terrifyingly large serpent.
Eroded by time, the snake's head had long decayed, leaving only a skull.
Yet Xuan Ye still saw two glimmers of green light in the empty eye sockets, and he could even perceive the skull smiling faintly—a sinister, Chi Lian-esque grin.
"A lonely life... come and accompany me in ending it..."
The words echoed through the cave dwelling, their source unknown.
Blood began to seep from the ground beneath his feet—endless, belonging to no one identifiable.
The cave began to change as well.
Moon Glow's brilliance intensified. Xuan Ye looked up and could clearly see patterns gradually emerging across the cave walls, inch by inch.
They were serpent patterns. The entire cave filled with a salty, fishy scent, as if freshly skinned snake hides covered everything from sky to earth.
A drop of cold blood fell from above, landing on Xuan Ye's forehead.
At that moment, Xuan Ye felt an ominous premonition.
It seemed... this snake demon called Chi Lian didn't intend to escape, nor to fight him—but to bring about their mutual destruction.
Taking him along to bid farewell to this damned lonely existence.
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