Chapter 47

Chapter 47

“My brother once told me he overheard a conversation between the Old Madam and the Old Steward… They mentioned Phoenix Town, Miss Mu, and so many, many terrifying things. I told him we should leave as quickly as possible, that the affairs of those important people weren’t something little people like us could get involved in. But my brother said we couldn’t. He needed to get that money so he could give me a better life.”

Ah Yuan choked on a sob. “But the next day, he was dead. They all said Miss Mu was a demon, that she was the one who killed my brother, but I know it wasn’t her. She saved me before. Even if she is a demon, she’s a good demon. She would never have killed my brother…”

Mu Yunshu held the blood-red bead in her hand. It carried the lives of hundreds, even thousands of people. She lowered her eyes slightly and said nothing.

Back then, when Song Zhenzhu realized that Mu Yunshu looked exactly like the person in her memory, she had been terrified and uneasy. She could only summon the Old Steward to discuss it, but their conversation had been overheard by a young manservant who had come to deliver tea.

Song Zhenzhu did not remember what that manservant looked like, nor did she remember his name. She had merely sipped her tea and said to the steward, “Handle this matter properly.”

The Old Steward had agreed.

As for how the Old Steward handled it, Song Zhenzhu had never asked.

He was only an insignificant nobody. She had never taken him seriously.

Only now did Song Zhenzhu suddenly realize that the man who had frozen to death in the estate was Ah Yuan’s brother.

“My brother was the fifth child in our family, so he was called Xiao Wu. The older brothers and sisters before him, and our parents too, all starved to death. Only he took me with him and struggled to survive until now. He couldn’t bear to eat anything good, and he couldn’t bear to wear anything nice. He always said he had to save money, lots and lots of money… That way, he could give it to me as a dowry and let me marry into a good family.”

“He didn’t do anything wrong. So why did he have to be thrown into an icehouse and frozen to death?”

“After he died, even his bones were dug up and used by someone with ulterior motives as a tool to frame another person.”

“I hate them so much, Qiao Ying. I really hate them so much. I want to kill. I want to kill those people sitting high above us. I want them to see that their lives aren’t any nobler than ours. As long as a blade pierces them, they will die too!”

Red cracks appeared across Ah Yuan’s pale face. Her eyes were threaded with blood, and the aura around her grew dark and turbid. The expression on her delicate face gradually twisted.

Qiao Ying looked to Shen Qingyu for help. “What’s happening to her?”

Shen Qingyu said with great interest, “She’s about to turn into a vengeful ghost.”

Generally speaking, vengeful ghosts were harder to deal with than ordinary ghosts. Of course, that also meant they were more worth fighting.

Shen Qingyu stroked his ebony blind cane, and his killing hand began to itch again. Yet when his fingers brushed against the bow tied around his hand, inexplicably, that urge to slaughter actually calmed down quite a bit.

Bai Xue crouched down and reached out to cover Ah Yuan’s eyes. “You’ve already done very well. Sleep in peace. Go find your brother. He must still be waiting for you.”

The crimson resentment around Ah Yuan was completely absorbed by Bai Xue. Before long, Qiao Ying felt the person in her arms growing lighter and lighter.

Ah Yuan’s lips moved faintly. “Brother… I want to go home.”

Her body slowly dissipated, finally turning into something like mist-untouchable, invisible. Everything disappeared.

Qiao Ying sat on the ground for a long time before drawing back her empty hands.

Shen Qingyu stood beside her and asked with a smile, “Are you sad?”

Qiao Ying nodded and remained silent.

Shen Qingyu sighed helplessly. “You really do have far too many useless emotions.”
Song Zhenzhu could accept dying by Zhao Fanhua’s hand, but she could not accept dying at the hands of a servant girl whose name she did not even know. She reached toward Zhao Fanhua, and at last there was fear in her eyes, dread, and even more than that, unwillingness.

Save me. I don’t want to die yet!

“Zhenzhu… Zhenzhu… No, Yunshu, Yunshu, you can’t die. You still can’t die!”

Zhao Fanhua had gone mad as well. He was clearly holding Song Zhenzhu’s body, yet the name he called was Mu Yunshu’s.

Song Zhenzhu’s face turned deathly pale, and blood gushed even faster from her wound.

“I’m sorry, Yunshu. I came back too late. Don’t leave me. Don’t die. You can’t die!”

Zhao Fanhua was like a terrified, helpless child, desperately pressing his hands over the wound on Song Zhenzhu’s neck. The bright red blood soaked through his clothes as well, making him look even more wretched.

No. She was not Mu Yunshu!

Song Zhenzhu’s very soul was screaming, yet she could not utter a single word.

She was Song Zhenzhu. She was his wife!

She was not another woman!

“Yunshu… Yunshu… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

Zhao Fanhua held the mangled body in his arms. Everything in the outside world seemed to have nothing to do with him anymore. He had lost his Sword Heart, and the Qingshuang Sword no longer remained at his side.

Ming Caihua watched the Qingshuang Sword fly over, his heart tensing. Only when he realized that the Qingshuang Sword had merely come to a quiet stop beside Xue Heting did he finally let out a breath of relief.

Bai Xue said, “You should leave.”

A pool of red blood appeared beneath Qiao Ying’s feet. The sensation of her five senses being sealed off and the world turning upside down struck again. When she opened her eyes once more, what she saw was the shimmering surface of water.

She came back to herself and looked around. “Shen Qingyu!”

From behind Qiao Ying came the young man’s pleasant voice. “I didn’t wander off. What are you panicking for?”

She turned around.

Beneath the moonlight, the Youth in Blue was smiling, gentle and warm, his beauty made even more striking.

He reached out to her.

Qiao Ying took his hand, and he pulled her up from the ground.

“Ahem, ahem!” Ming Caihua coughed beside them. “I thought that Sword Spirit was going to kill us all!”

Xue Heting had been set down on the ground. Ming Caihua thumped his own arms and let out a long breath.

Ming Caihua looked up, saw Qiao Ying and Shen Qingyu, and asked, “Why did she let all of us out?”

Qiao Ying looked at the calm surface of the water. “My guess is that she can’t hold on much longer.”

For Bai Xue to take human form and then restore the shattered cavern bit by bit to how it had once been required an enormous amount of power. Yet she had lost her sword master and could no longer be nourished. Being able to endure this long was already her limit.

Ming Caihua suddenly cried out, “Xue Heting’s good brother is still inside!”

Inside the underground cavern, the blue patterns gradually dimmed. Broken stones and dust fell together, heralding the final collapse that was about to come.

Zhao Fanhua held the corpse that would never move again, yet whose eyes were still open in unwillingness, and kept repeating the same words:

“Yunshu, I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

As a massive boulder came crashing down, the soulless body suddenly moved. It shielded the young woman in its arms. A heavy blow struck his back, making him spit blood, yet even then he did not let go.

Bai Xue looked up in astonishment.

Zhao Zhiyi’s face was expressionless. He was still nothing more than a puppet. Yet even without her command, he had still rushed over on the instinct of his body alone and protected her in his arms.