Chapter 15
Chapter 15
“Hey! Are you two pretending I don’t exist?!”
The Fish-head Yaoguai could not help roaring when he saw Qiao Ying and Shen Qingyu start chatting as if no one else were there. His body shook, and the sharp claw pressed against Qiao Ying’s neck trembled with it.
The skin at Qiao Ying’s throat was terribly delicate. Before long, a bloody line had appeared there, raw and stinging. Very carefully, she nudged the Fish-head Yaoguai’s claw. “Be careful. I’m just an ordinary human. I die very easily. If I die, you won’t have a hostage anymore.”
“Shut up!” the Fish-head Yaoguai shouted. “I’m the kidnapper here. I don’t need you teaching me how to do this!”
Qiao Ying shut her mouth.
The Fish-head Yaoguai then looked warily at the strange and beautiful Youth in Blue. “You live with this woman, so I imagine she means quite a lot to you. As long as you let me go, I won’t kill her. How about it?”
Even as he asked, he was tense. Though he did not know exactly who Shen Qingyu was, he could tell Shen Qingyu’s strength was far from ordinary.
At the very least, up to now, he had never encountered any Demon Hunter or Great Yaoguai with this kind of power.
Shen Qingyu smiled in an approachable way. “Are you threatening me?”
The Fish-head Yaoguai swallowed nervously. “Yes. I am threatening you.”
Qiao Ying gave the Fish-head Yaoguai a rather subtle glance.
What kind of importance could she possibly hold in Shen Qingyu’s heart?
The only reason he had tied himself to her was that he was terribly bored, had happened to run into something interesting for once, and had developed a momentary interest in her, that was all.
By now, the Fish-head Yaoguai regretted mistakenly dragging Qiao Ying into this. If not for Qiao Ying, he naturally would not have provoked Shen Qingyu.
He barked again, “If you don’t agree to let me go, I’ll kill-”
Before he could finish, a crisp, cold gust of wind suddenly swept past.
Blue robes flowed like clouds breaking through mist. White hair and the white silk blindfold whirled like frost and snow. The Blind Staff spun lightly in Shen Qingyu’s palm, and a cold gleam flashed at its tip. Before the Fish-head Yaoguai could react, the Blind Staff had already stabbed like a venomous snake through the wrist clamped around Qiao Ying’s neck.
Qiao Ying suddenly saw blood spray. A few cold drops splattered onto her face, and her pupils contracted sharply as she stared at the blue-robed, white-haired figure before her.
The corner of Shen Qingyu’s lips lifted in the gentlest, most courteous curve. “Let me hear it again. How were you threatening me?”
The Blind Staff flipped. From up close, Qiao Ying felt a rush of cold wind. The Fish-head Yaoguai’s pierced arm snapped clean off and spun to the ground. With a miserable scream, he staggered back several steps, blood pouring out like a fountain.
Without the hand holding the hostage, his threat became a joke.
Qiao Ying came back to herself. With shaking hands, she pulled out a handkerchief and desperately wiped the blood from her face. “Just now… if you had been even a little off, you would have stabbed me!”
Shen Qingyu turned his face slightly and smiled. “My apologies. You were seized by an Evil Yaoguai, and in my excessive concern, I lost my sense of measure.”
Concern?
She had not seen even the tiniest bit of it!
Qiao Ying knew her place better than anyone. Resisting the urge to complain, she shrank behind him and wiped her face again and again, but the smell of blood still lingered.
“You… you actually dared to sever my arm! You deserve to die!”
Before the Fish-head Yaoguai’s shrill roar had faded, the surrounding water suddenly churned. Countless blue-black tentacles and mottled, scaled heads broke through the surface-some with huge fanged mouths, some covered in slick, rotting algae. All sorts of bizarre Water Yaoguai howled as they closed in, a fishy stench spreading through the air.
Shen Qingyu’s blue robes were dampened by the water vapor, yet his white hair remained fluffy as snow. The smile at the corner of his lips deepened. The white silk blindfold over his eyes lifted lightly in the wind, making him truly seem like an immortal untouched by joy or sorrow, standing apart from the mortal world.
In the next instant, however, the Blind Staff turned in his palm, and the cold gleam at its tip split open the skull of a Water Yaoguai lunging straight at him. Warm Yaoguai blood splashed across his pale cheek, yet he let out a low laugh as though he had tasted sweet rain.
“I hope you can last a little longer.”
His figure shuttled through them like a Ghost. Every fall of the Blind Staff was accompanied by the crisp crack of breaking bones and the wails of Water Yaoguai. At times, the staff tip pierced through a Yaoguai’s belly and churned its organs to pulp. At times, it swept sideways, severing the limbs of several Water Yaoguai at once. Broken bodies dropped into the water, sending up a skyful of bloody mist.
Though the eyes beneath the white silk blindfold could see nothing, they caught every Water Yaoguai’s weakness with precision. He laughed in delight, his movements vicious yet carrying a sickly smooth grace.
The Fish-head Yaoguai could not stop himself from backing away step by step, his turbid eyes filled with terror. He had killed so many people, eaten so many people, and had been hunted by the Qingshuang Sword Master for so long. He could be considered someone who had seen his share of storms, yet never before had he felt such undisguisable fear as he did at this very moment.
Terrified of being splattered with blood and flesh again, Qiao Ying hid behind a rock. She poked her head out for one look, then pulled back, nauseated all over again.
Shen Qingyu wasn’t killing Yaoguai. He was chopping vegetables.
Impossible. It could never beat this terrifying human!
The Fish-head Yaoguai stared at the young man advancing step by step through the ring of Water Yaoguai as though he were taking a leisurely stroll through a garden. It turned to flee, but a sudden chill flashed across its feet. It toppled to the ground. The pain came sluggishly after, and when it twisted back to look, it realized both its legs had been severed. Blood was still spraying from the wounds.
Severed limbs and chunks of flesh littered the ground. Even the puddles in the tunnel had been dyed red. In that world like a blood-soaked hell of asuras, only the Youth in Blue remained untouched, his white hair still snowy, his smile still gentle. He did not look like a god of slaughter. If anything, he resembled a heavenly deity overflowing with compassion.
“I’m not done having fun yet. Why are you running?”
The Fish-head Yaoguai struggled to prop itself up with one arm and crawl away. “No, cultivating to this point wasn’t easy for me. Please spare me. Spare me just this once!”
A foot came down on its spine. After the crisp crack of breaking bone, the maimed Yaoguai lost all strength to move. Like a lamb awaiting slaughter, it could only lie on the ground in terror, completely unable to budge.
Shen Qingyu bent down and tilted his head slightly, his voice carrying a smile. “If it weren’t for you, I would already be home eating dinner by now.”
Behind the rock, Qiao Ying’s expression turned complicated.
So he was on a killing spree not for the captured girl, but simply because this had delayed him from getting home for dinner!?
The Fish-head Yaoguai’s face twisted horribly. “Whatever you wish to eat, my lord, I can make it. Fish and meat, fine wine and delicacies-whatever you want, I will make it for-”
The moment the Blind Staff landed on the Fish-head Yaoguai’s head, its voice stopped abruptly.
The Youth in Blue smiled. “No.”
The Fish-head Yaoguai’s eyes stared fixedly at the Blind Staff pressed between its brows, its eyeballs nearly bulging out of their sockets.
The young man said, “The things you make aren’t nearly bad enough.”
Qiao Ying’s eyelid twitched.
In the cave where only the sound of dripping water remained, the sticky squelch of blood and flesh being torn apart rang out with a jarring clarity. Just like that, a head was crushed with effortless ease, mixing with the dust on the ground in a bloody, nauseating mess.
Fortunately, the Youth in Blue could not see it. He flicked the Blind Staff, and scraps of flesh clinging to it, mixed with slick beads of blood, flew past Qiao Ying and splattered against the damp rock wall, blooming into dark red stains.
Qiao Ying unconsciously held her breath.
“What are you hiding here for?”
The young man’s pleasant voice suddenly appeared right in front of her. Qiao Ying looked up, and in an instant found herself facing a pale, breathtakingly beautiful face wearing an amiable smile. She jumped in fright and fell back to sit on the ground.
At some point, Shen Qingyu had arrived before her. He was bending down at the waist, his smile light and cheerful as he “looked” at her.
His snow-white hair and the white silk blindfold covering his eyes were still as spotless as before. A single speck of blood had landed on his pale skin, like a red plum blossom-bewitching and beautiful. The ebony blind cane in his hand had once again become the most ordinary of tools, without the slightest trace of bloodlust or murderous aura.
When no answer came, he asked again, “Qiao Ying, are you hiding from me?”
His tone was soft and clear, like wind brushing willow leaves. He sounded like a pure, innocent child, guilelessly asking an adult for an answer.
Qiao Ying forced a smile onto her face. “I only saw that you were enjoying yourself, and I was afraid of holding you back. That’s why I hid away, so I wouldn’t disturb your fun.”
“So, you were thinking of me?”
Qiao Ying nodded. “Yes, yes.”
Then she reached out and gently wiped away the blood on his face with her handkerchief. “Look at you, your face is dirty. You’re so good-looking, so be more careful next time. Don’t let your face get dirty.”
He tilted his head slightly. The white silk blindfold swayed with the motion, and the smile at the corners of his lips grew even softer.
“Mm. I understand.”
He obediently agreed, allowing the soft cloth to brush over his cheek. A few more traces of comfortable enjoyment slipped into his languid air.
Qiao Ying suddenly had the illusion that she was stroking the fur of some fluffy animal. If she scratched his neck a few times, perhaps this little creature would even let out a comfortable purr.
Looking at the young man’s beautiful neck, surrounded on all sides by scenes of bloodshed and cruelty, Qiao Ying inexplicably found that her fingers really did begin to itch.