Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Qiao Ying drifted back to consciousness from a heavy, dazed stupor. Her hand brushed against something sticky and slick, and she startled awake, sitting up from the ground. The corpses all around her frightened her so badly she nearly lost her three souls and seven spirits.

She scrambled to her feet and wiped the blood on her hand against the stone wall as best she could, then shrank into a corner, utterly at a loss.

Bones and bodies were piled up like a mountain. Severed limbs and chunks of flesh lay everywhere. Yet what was strange was that on the corpses whose heads were still intact, their faces all wore blissful smiles. Others, however, were frozen in expressions of extreme terror and despair.

The thick stench of blood spread through the cold, damp air, making the place feel even more eerie.

The sound of dripping water echoed endlessly. Looking around, she realized this was a cave. Unknown minerals embedded in the stone walls gave off a faint glow, just enough for her to see.

Judging from the marks on the walls, this place had likely been dug out not long ago. And judging from the mountain of corpses piled on the ground, perhaps this was the lair of some demonic beast.

And this was where it stored its food.

Qiao Ying still remembered that before she had been captured, Mu Yunshu had been taken first. She did not dare make a sound and attract the monster’s attention, so she could only force down her fear and carefully pick her way out of the corpse pile on tiptoe.

Although she could not remember her past, Qiao Ying was certain she had never seen so many dead bodies in her life. She tried her hardest not to lower her head and look at the innocent victims’ gruesome deaths. Once she got out of the heap of corpses, she lifted her skirt and broke into a quick run.

She had no idea how Mu Yunshu was doing. She hadn’t already been eaten by that Yaoguai, had she?

Qiao Ying shook her head. Secretly, she thought that right now she could barely protect herself, so she really had no right to worry about whether anyone else lived or died.

“Qiao Ying.”

The young man’s voice was uniquely clear and gentle, like a spring breeze brushing through a bamboo forest, leisurely and pleasant to the ear.

Qiao Ying turned back. When she saw that familiar figure in blue-green robes with white hair, her eyes lit up, and she ran over. “Shen Qingyu, you came to find me!”

Shen Qingyu smiled faintly. “Yes. I came to find you.”

“This place is very strange. I don’t know what happened. As soon as I opened my eyes, I was lying in this weird cave. And over there, there are so, so many corpses. This must be the lair of the Evil Yaoguai Xue Heting wants to catch.”

Shen Qingyu said, “Your guess is correct.”

“Then what do we do now?”

Shen Qingyu reached out to her. “I’ll take you out.”

Qiao Ying paused slightly. She looked at Shen Qingyu’s clean, fair hand, then hid her own hands behind her back. “My hands are filthy. It wouldn’t be good if I dirtied you. I’ll just follow behind you.”

Shen Qingyu withdrew his hand. “All right.”

He turned and walked ahead, while Qiao Ying followed behind him and asked, “Shen Qingyu, why didn’t you bring that Blind Staff today?”

“I was in a hurry to find you and forgot to take it.”

Qiao Ying gave an “oh,” then looked at his back and said, “Shen Qingyu, we’ve been together for a while now. I have a secret, and I think it’s time I told you.”

Shen Qingyu asked, “What secret?”

“I didn’t leave you not because I couldn’t afford to lose the bet, but because I like you.”

Shen Qingyu stopped walking, and Qiao Ying quickly stopped as well.

A moment later, the young man turned around. The corners of his lips lifted, and he said softly, “Qiao Ying, I like you too.”

Qiao Ying suddenly pointed behind Shen Qingyu. “Who’s that!”

The instant Shen Qingyu turned back around, Qiao Ying bolted down another passage.

Before long, she heard a rustling sound. A chill was closing in behind her, but she did not dare look back. She could only run for her life through the maze of tunnels that branched in every direction.

Not long after, a pebble shot through the air. A sudden pain struck Qiao Ying’s foot, and she pitched forward, hitting the ground hard.

Behind her, a twisted figure slowly approached.

That hoarse voice asked, “How did you figure it out?”

Qiao Ying braced both hands against the ground and backed away. “If Shen Qingyu heard me say I liked him, he would either smile and ask what that meant, or he’d say it was clingy and disgusting. He would never say he liked me!”

“I see. So that was where I gave myself away.”

The twisted shadow drew closer. Once Qiao Ying saw it clearly, goose bumps rose all over her body.

It was a monster with a fish’s head and a human body. Blue scales gleamed coldly in the dimness. Its gill covers opened and closed with its heavy breathing. Sharp webbed claws grew from its fingertips, and every step dragged a wet trail across the ground. Its green eyes locked firmly onto the prey before it.

“You’ve become afraid. Your flesh has turned unappetizing. I’ll just nail your corpse to the wall and use it as decoration.”

If one were to explain it in a more scientific way, it meant that when humans felt fear, they secreted a certain hormone. Yaoguai with high standards for meat did not like eating flesh like that.
To put it in simpler, cruder terms, this Yaoguai was a pure pervert. When its prey fell into the illusion it had created and reached the height of happiness, eating them in that moment made them taste even better.

Qiao Ying struggled to buy herself time. “You can’t kill me. I… I… That’s right, I’m friends with the famous Xue Heting. If you let me go back, I’ll make sure he stops hunting you down!”

“Oh? You’re Xue Heting’s friend?” The Fish-head Yaoguai let out a cold laugh. “Perfect. Xue Heting reduced me to this state. If I kill his friend, I’m sure he’ll suffer and blame himself.”

Just like today, it had deliberately tossed a corpse into Zhao Manor, then taken the chance to abduct Zhao Zhiyi’s bride, all to provoke Xue Heting.

Qiao Ying’s back hit the stone wall. There was nowhere left to retreat.

Just then, a drop of water fell onto her face. She suddenly realized something was wrong. This place was dazzlingly bright, lit up all around. She raised her head, and her pupils contracted.

The top of the cavern was not stone. It was a layer of water, clear as a mirror, rippling with glimmers of light. It reflected the scene above with perfect clarity, as if heaven and earth had been turned upside down.

Above the water’s surface, a Youth in Blue with white hair happened to be passing by.

Snow-white hair spilled over his shoulders. His blue robes drifted in the breeze like flowing clouds. A white silk blindfold covered his eyes, hiding whatever lay beneath, and in his hand he held an ebony blind cane. In the wind and rain, his slender figure seemed to float, ethereal as an immortal.

Beneath the water, Qiao Ying had her back pressed against the icy rock wall, looking utterly wretched.

She called out, “Shen Qingyu!”

“This city is covered in rain now. Anywhere there is water is like a mirror I can peer through.” The Fish-head Yaoguai laughed. “You can scream until your throat tears and it won’t matter. He can’t hear you, and he can’t sense you. So go on, cry to heaven and earth and get no answer. Watch the person most familiar to you stand right before your eyes while you die in agony.”

Qiao Ying finally understood why those bones and corpses had all died in different ways. Those who failed to see through the illusion died in happiness. Those who did see through it were forced to watch the people they loved most right in front of them, only to die in despair.

Just as the Fish-head Yaoguai had said, the rainwater on the ground was like a mirror, and the scene above the water was clearly visible.

The blind Youth in Blue had probably grown tired from walking. Holding his Blind Staff, he stopped and quietly listened to the sound of wind and rain, the faintest trace of a smile at his lips.

Seeing that the Fish-head Yaoguai had already reached her, its sharp claw stretching toward her, Qiao Ying shut her eyes and shouted, “Shen Qingyu, save me!”

“Didn’t I tell you? Even if you scream until your throat-”

Before it could finish, an ear-piercing shattering sound abruptly tore through the wind and rain.

With the Blind Staff in the Youth in Blue’s hand as the center point, spiderweb-like cracks spread in an instant. The translucent surface of the water shattered with a crash. Splashed raindrops carried flecks of silver light as they pattered down through the dusk.

The Fish-head Yaoguai’s claw froze in midair. Its murky eyes bulged wide. “How is that possible?!”

The young man raised a hand and lightly swept it through the empty air. The cracks spread through the curtain of rain like ink bleeding across paper, and the void was forcibly torn open into a gap.

Qiao Ying suddenly heard the sound of wind and rain. A mist of rain brushed over her, dampening a few strands of her hair. When she lifted her eyes, a black Void Rift had appeared before her.

“As expected, I really do hate being watched.”

With several splashing crashes, the water mirror shattered, and the space above the cavern became an ordinary stone ceiling.

The white-haired figure in blue stepped out from the black Void Rift. The white silk blindfold hid his eyes, but it could not conceal the clear, gentle smile at the corner of his lips. His sickly pale complexion made him look like a Ghost, and with his sleeves fluttering, he seemed even less like a living person.

“You can actually shatter the void… You… just who are you?” The Fish-head Yaoguai trembled all over, its earlier ferocity gone without a trace. In a panic, it grabbed Qiao Ying and clamped a hand around her throat, threatening, “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll kill her!”

Shen Qingyu remained unhurried. He even had the leisure to straighten the front of his robe, which the wind had ruffled slightly. A moment later, he smiled. “I heard you like me?”

Qiao Ying tugged up the corners of her mouth and let out two dry laughs, her eyes drifting. “Did I? I don’t think so. You must have heard wrong.”

“Is that so?” Shen Qingyu sighed with great regret. “I was thinking that if you liked me, then no matter what, I really ought to save you.”

Qiao Ying immediately said, “Shen Qingyu, I like you. In this whole world, the person I like most is you!”

Shen Qingyu smiled. “Most?”

“No, only. There are so many people in this world, but I only like you!”

Shen Qingyu said, “So sticky and sappy. A little disgusting.”

Qiao Ying: “…”

See? There really was something wrong with this man’s brain!