Chapter 96
Chapter 96
He Fei clearly valued Ding Yanyu as a hostage. He had eliminated both the possibility of escape and the possibility of rescue from outside.
As a competent kidnapper, He Fei knew the victims of his extortion would never surrender the ransom unless they saw that the hostage was alive.
He therefore opened the door before them.
Light flooded the dark chamber, revealing everything inside.
Ding Yanyu was badly injured, but medicine had preserved his life.
Pale-faced, he sat against the wall in one corner, barely conscious. Hearing people enter, he forced his eyes open. When he saw Shen Qingyu and Qiao Ying carrying the Demon-Subduing Sword, his expression changed.
“You can’t give him the sword!”
Agitated, Ding Yanyu struggled upright. After only two steps, he fell. Iron chains clattered, revealing a shackle around his right ankle.
The movement tore open the wound on his chest. Fresh blood spread across his clothes, making his pale face appear still more fragile.
Once a refined and unattainable heir in the eyes of the world, he now crawled in the dust. The sight was truly lamentable.
He Fei said, “You’ve seen him. He’s lively enough and in no mortal danger. Will you make the exchange now?”
Qiao Ying nodded. “Now that we know where he is, everything is simple. You want the sword? Catch.”
When she raised her hand as if to throw it, He Fei instinctively reached out.
But the cold flash speeding toward him was not the Demon-Subduing Sword. It was an ordinary ebony blind cane, colder and deadlier than any weapon in the world.
He Fei drew his sword by instinct, but he was still one step too late. The hand holding the antidote was severed at the wrist. The medicine bottle flew through the air and landed in the palm of the Youth in Blue.
Shen Qingyu tossed the bottle playfully and caught it again, turning his smiling face to the side.
He Fei had no time to mourn his severed limb. Clutching the wound as blood poured out, he retreated two steps.
Shen Qingyu said gently, “I’ll have Yan Yanchi thank you in person another day, if you’re still alive then.”
He Fei hurled his sword, striking a brick in the wall. With a creak, countless arrows emerged from all four walls.
“I knew you wouldn’t surrender it obediently, so you leave me no choice.”
As his words fell, the arrows flew.
Along with them came a figure launching a sudden attack.
Qiao Ying’s arms emptied. The Demon-Subduing Sword was now in the young master’s hands.
At some point, Ding Yanyu had broken free of his chain and joined He Fei at the door. His face remained white as paper, but he gazed at the Demon-Subduing Sword with strange tenderness.
“Ding Yanyu!” Qiao Ying cried.
Ding Yanyu said nothing. Only after the door closed and sealed away everything inside did he stride off impatiently.
He Fei’s subordinates appeared and bandaged his wound.
He Fei must once have been a formidable man. Despite the grievous injury and sweat streaming down his face, he did not make a sound.
“I protected Ding Fufu for you for ten years. Now I’ve violated my conscience to recover the Demon-Subduing Sword for you. The debt I owed you is repaid, isn’t it?”
Ding Yanyu nodded. “We owe each other nothing now.”
He Fei glanced at the chamber. “It won’t hold them for long. Take care of yourself.”
With that final warning, he vanished into the darkness as though He Fei had never existed in this world at all.
The wind grew stronger. Clouds covered the moon, foretelling heavy rain.
At the clinic, Chunsheng glanced out the window. “The weather is turning.”
He closed every door and window, then heard movement from the inner room.
Yan Yanchi lay on the bed with his brow tightly furrowed and fingers trembling.
He seemed to have returned to the cellar where he had been tortured.
“Where did you hide that Living Soul?”
“Tell me, Daoist Master.”
“Tell me, and I’ll give you a quick death.”
Then Yan Yanchi seemed to return to the previous day.
The young master entered and said gently to the girl, “I promised you I would come.”
Different words, different intonation, but precisely the same voice.
There was something wrong with that fool’s brother, yet not one of them suspected Ding Yanyu. Shen Qingyu usually did not seem stupid, so why had he failed to suspect him too?
They had taken the Demon-Subduing Sword to Ding Manor. That foolish female ghost was in danger!
Chunsheng had just entered when the man on the bed opened his eyes. He froze, then saw Yan Yanchi force his weakened body out of bed and panicked.
“Daoist Master Yan, the poison hasn’t been cured! You can’t move, or you’ll die!”
Lightning split the night in two. With the first crash of thunder, rain began pouring down.
Another thunderous crash sounded as the chamber forged from Adamantine Black Iron shattered into pieces. Amid smoke and dust, the young man’s immaculate azure figure slowly appeared.
As the haze cleared, a pair of hands gripped the arm held protectively in front of her. A girl rose on tiptoe and poked her head out from behind his broad sleeve. Her black eyes were bright and lively, and she showed little surprise at the turn of events.
“Little Fish, there’s something wrong with Ding Yanyu.”
Shen Qingyu chuckled. “Yes, there is.”
“Ding Lingling will be heartbroken.”
Shen Qingyu wound a lock of her black hair around his fingertip as though playing an amusing game. Whether others suffered or rejoiced meant nothing to him.
Qiao Ying took his hand and walked outside. She did not know the way out of the manor, but if they wandered long enough, they would eventually find it.
She had no idea where they were when lightning lit the sky again. The wind blew open a door, revealing a figure on the floor. Startled, she thought she had seen a ghost.
It was not a ghost, but Master Ding, whose four limbs had been broken.
He was now emaciated beyond recognition. His eyes bulged from a waxen face, the only parts of his body still able to move.
Qiao Ying asked, “What happened to him?”
“Every bone in his body has dissolved,” Shen Qingyu said.
Qiao Ying stared up at him. “Did you do it?”
Shen Qingyu smiled. “I only broke the bones in his arms and legs. I did nothing else.”
Master Ding should have feared Shen Qingyu, but now his clouded eyes seemed to glimpse hope. They filled with desperate pleading and tears.
If Shen Qingyu had not done this, who had reduced Master Ding to a state neither human nor ghost?
The answer was obvious.
A chill ran down Qiao Ying’s back. “Why is he crying?”
Shen Qingyu curved his lips. “He’s begging me to kill him.”
Everyone wanted to live. No one wished for death.
But when a person was kept alive by a single breath only to endure unimaginable pain without end, death became a release.