Chapter 78

“Miss Jimo, Miss Yue, this way please.”

After the rain cleared, the Zhongli clan sent someone to visit the Jimo clan’s bamboo house, inviting Liuyu and Yue Niang to discuss matters regarding the puppets.

Mo Lin heard faint conversations in the pitch-black abyss.

“Damn it! These tentacles have me trapped! I can’t cut through them! The knife is by your feet, kill him, kill him, and I’ll take you away!”

The man entangled by the tentacles squeezed out these words through clenched teeth, the constricting tentacles tightening inch by inch, nearly choking him.

The sound of a woman’s footsteps echoed in the spacious cave.

Her fingers were soft, her breath gentle, a presence he had known since birth.

“It will be quick.”

“A man should protect his mother, right?”

“A-Lin, it will be quick, and it won’t hurt anymore.”

Hot tears fell on his face, and as the blade’s reflection appeared in his eyes, the young boy seemed to be seized by an invisible force, suddenly frozen in place.

“In the next life, don’t be born a little monster again.”

—-

Autumn rain pounded on the banana leaves outside the bamboo cottage, the raindrops falling from the eaves forming a continuous line, washing away the moss-covered stone steps.

Mo Lin woke up to the sound of rain, the bedding soaked with warmth, and the dying embers in the copper stove let out a dull crackle. He stared at the beam overhead, taking a moment to recall where he was.

— This was a bamboo cottage in the Bronze City, far from the residences of the Shentu and Zhongli families, rented by Fang Fuzang for them to rest and recuperate for a few days.

Mo Lin came back to his senses and instinctively reached out to touch the pillow beside him.

She wasn’t there.

“Master?”

Outside the door, the demon girl, the mountain demon, and Lan Zhu were playing Liubo chess. They looked up in surprise as the young man, draped in an outer robe, appeared silently.

Mo Lin’s gaze was fixed straight ahead.

“What are they doing?”

The demon girl turned her head to look at Yue Niang and Yin Lanruo in the corridor. The two were lying on reclining chairs, chatting leisurely, Yue Niang gesturing animatedly, making Yin Lanruo laugh continuously.

“Obviously, they’re enjoying the rain and chatting.”

Mo Lin stared expressionlessly at Fang Fuzang, who was crouching nearby to add charcoal to the fire, then serving tea and snacks to Yue Niang.

“I meant, what is he doing?”

Yue Niang took a bite of a bean cake, her delicate eyebrows furrowing seriously:

“Xiao Fang, is this bean cake not freshly made? Why doesn’t it taste sweet?”

Fang Fuzang gritted his teeth: “It’s raining so heavily outside, where am I supposed to get freshly made ones, and if you call me Xiao Fang one more time…”

“Master!”

“Fang Fuzang,” Yin Lanruo’s soft voice carried a strange pressure, “if it weren’t for Yue Niang’s efforts, along with Miss Liuyu and the Lord of Jiuyou fighting at the front, I wouldn’t be able to stay here safely. Do you really think it’s all thanks to you?”

Yue Niang nodded heavily in agreement.

Fang Fuzang endured it.

Because Yin Lanruo was right, this time Miss’s plan did rely on Yue Niang’s talent to proceed smoothly.

If Yue Niang hadn’t gained Zhongli’s favor, even if they managed to capture Yin Lanruo, Zhongli wouldn’t let it go easily.

“Alright,” Fang Fuzang endured it, forcing a smile, “anything else?”

Yue Niang’s short arms spread out awkwardly on the armrest of the recliner, squinting her eyes in satisfaction:

“Very good, then give me a shoulder massage…”

“Don’t push me, or I’ll really hit you next time we spar.”

Yue Niang: “… I’ll go read a book! I have to go to Zhongli’s place to repair the puppets in a few days, I don’t have time to spar!”

Mo Lin watched Yue Niang almost stumble into a pillar in her haste, then slowly withdrew his gaze.

“Where is the Empress?”

Lan Zhu, focused on the chessboard, scratched his head in frustration under the demon girl’s pressing moves, and absentmindedly replied:

“The Empress went to the kitchen early in the morning.”

Mo Lin frowned slightly: “Why did she go to the kitchen?”

“To make breakfast for the Master,” the demon girl smiled, her eyes curving as she looked at the surprised Mo Lin, “she must have thought the Master worked hard yesterday, so she wanted to personally cook for you. The Master is really lucky!”

The mountain demon glanced at the demon girl.

Even if the Empress cooking was surprising, their Master had been busy with her plans and got injured. Having such a husband, he thought the Empress was even luckier!

The demon girl added: “The physician said your energy sea is exhausted and you need to rest well for a few days. You should go back and lie down.”

“Don’t fuss,” the mountain demon glared at her, “when has the Master ever needed to rest for injuries? He always gets better after a sleep.”

“Don’t tell her I got up.”

Mo Lin withdrew his foot just as he was about to step out, and before closing the door, his eyes carried a warning:

“Continue your game. If you let it slip, you’ll be the ones questioned.”

The door quickly shut, leaving the mountain demon standing there, stunned.

Soon, the sound of a girl’s footsteps came from the corridor. Mo Lin swiftly climbed back onto the bed and closed his eyes. He heard the girl talking to the mountain demon outside, asking if he had woken up, but the mountain demon hesitated before replying.

“Last time I was too harsh. My apologies. Are you fully recovered now?”

The grip on Liuyu’s wrist tightened, almost as if it was going to break her bones.

Zhongli Lingzhao’s face was as cold as frost, but this time, she ignored Liuyu’s seemingly obedient but actually provocative words and instead addressed Zhongli Yi:

“Half a million gold pieces! She could actually use that to truly raise a group of cultivators among the farmers in Longque City. Father, you are nurturing a threat. This will come back to bite us!”

“Lingzhao!”

Zhongli Yi’s face darkened. He glanced at the clan members who had started to look over and lowered his voice:

“Do not be disrespectful in front of others. This was a collective decision by the elders of the clan—”

“Grandmother isn’t aware! How can this decision be valid?”

Bringing up the old lady was a mistake. The mention of her made Zhongli Yi’s resolve even firmer.

“Your grandmother is seriously ill. Currently, the head of the clan and your father are in charge within the Zhongli clan. Lingzhao, have I been too lenient with you, allowing you to repeatedly act willfully and recklessly, even in front of outsiders!”

“I’ll say it only once, Lingzhao, let go.”

Zhongli Lingzhao’s eyes blazed with anger, her gaze filled with resentment and disappointment, almost piercing through the man in front of her.

Even though this was her biological father, she couldn’t help but think he was foolish!

With grandmother in seclusion for health, the head of the clan only concerned with crafting, and her father along with other elders distressed by the clan’s talent gap, they were grasping at any talented newcomer like a lifeline!

Where in the world were there such favorable outcomes!

Liuyu met Zhongli Lingzhao’s icy and murderous gaze, and as Lingzhao released her hand, Liuyu waved her fingers in her palm.

“Thank you, Miss Lingzhao. From now on, the Jimu clan and the Zhongli clan are allies. I hope Miss Lingzhao is magnanimous and doesn’t hold past grudges.”

Allies?

This was like negotiating with a tiger!

The Jimu clan was not like the Shentu clan.

The Shentu clan relied on their secret crafting techniques to sustain their workshops, easily controlled by the Zhongli clan.

But the Jimu clan?

They had land, people, and the Yinshan clan’s market. Now, they even had a significant amount of money.

Even if they couldn’t shake the Zhongli clan now, what about when they established new cultivator academies, raising those common folks destined for mediocrity? A year later, ten years later, what would the situation be?

Zhongli Yi looked at the enraged Zhongli Lingzhao and felt a pang of disappointment.

He understood Lingzhao’s worries.

Did he think the Zhongli clan were fools?

Perhaps in ten or twenty years, the Jimu clan would rise, but if they didn’t exchange resources with the Jimu clan today, pulling in this emerging faction, the Zhongli clan would collapse first.

She couldn’t see the bigger picture, only knowing life and death struggles, completely disregarding the broader situation.

After taking the half million gold pieces from Zhongli Lingzhao’s hand, Liuyu finally turned her attention to the hundreds of puppet soldiers under the bridge corridor.

The Zhongli clan had cut off this shallow creek, storing the puppet soldiers in the dried-up creek bed.

Ordinary puppet soldiers stood silently in formation, but the giant puppet soldier she had seen the other day was bound tightly by thick golden chains around its neck and limbs.

It wasn’t just restrained; it was being guarded against. If it made any move, the chains would simultaneously exert force, tearing it to pieces.

After watching for a while, Liuyu asked,

“By the way, what’s the story with this puppet soldier?”

Before Zhongli Yi could respond, Zhongli Lingzhao interrupted coldly:

“This is the highest secret of the Zhongli clan. Miss Jimu, if you want to know, wait until your next life.”

Liuyu turned to look at her, leaning in close to whisper in her ear:

“It sounds like if I make the Zhongli clan mine, then an outsider becomes an insider, doesn’t it?”

Zhongli Lingzhao’s pupils contracted.

“Father!”

Zhongli Yi had no interest in the girls’ mutual provocations. He turned and joined the other craftsmen, heading toward the puppet soldiers in the creek bed with Yueniang.

Standing on the bridge corridor, Liuyu looked distantly at the sleeping puppet soldier.

What exactly are you?

After nightfall, the Zhongli clan hosted a banquet to entertain Liuyu. Yueniang was still with the other craftsmen studying the puppet soldier, leaving only Zhongli Yi and his daughter to accompany her.

More precisely, Zhongli Yi’s wife, Lady Zhaoyun, was also present.

From the start of the banquet, Lady Zhaoyun had been scrutinizing Liuyu’s face, as if searching for something familiar.

“Miss Jimu, you look somewhat familiar. Have we met somewhere before?”

Liuyu knew why she said that.

Because this beautiful yet fragile Lady Zhaoyun had secretly admired Yinshan Ze since she was sixteen, even after getting married, she couldn’t forget him.

She seldom left the house, but the few times she did appear in public happened to coincide with occasions Liuyu attended.

Liuyu always felt she was trying to see a shadow of her father in her.

After a moment, Liuyu raised her cup and responded with a smile:

“If I had seen such beauty as Lady Zhaoyun’s, I would never forget.”

Hearing this, Lady Zhaoyun’s eyes flickered briefly with a dim light, which soon extinguished, returning to her previous lifeless beauty.

Zhongli Yi didn’t notice the undercurrent between the two, holding his wife’s hand tightly and said:

“Today, the Zhongli clan is fortunate to gain talent and an ally, a double blessing. Miss Jimu, let us drink to that…”

Before he could finish, hurried footsteps were heard outside.

The music in the inner hall abruptly stopped.

“Master, something’s wrong.”

Zhongli Yi’s smile vanished: “What’s the matter?”

Liuyu also slowly put down her wine cup.

She had not planned for this.

The cultivator said, “It’s about that girl, Yue. Just now, to repair that giant puppet, the clan elders used the You Si Soul Seal. But no one dared to put their consciousness thread into the soul seal, except for that girl, Yue. As soon as she did, she… she was barely left with a breath of life.”

Liuyu abruptly stood up.

The soup, dishes, and meat spilled all over the table. She walked straight out the door.

Zhongli Lingzhao stood up and shouted, “Stop her! How can we let her see the secrets of the Zhongli clan!”

Even Zhongli Yi looked troubled.

This matter was… tricky.

That puppet, Tianjia 31, was made by the old lady of the Zhongli clan herself and should be her last work in this life. Even the artisans of the Zhongli clan didn’t know the process. Only he and the head of the clan knew that the “materials” used were secretly transported by the Jiufang family.

Although the Ji Mo clan had allied with them, their relationship was not close. By reason, she should never see the secrets of this puppet.

“A commoner’s life is naturally insignificant.”

Liuyu suppressed her temper and slowly said, “But I just spent fifty thousand gold zhus on her. Isn’t it a waste? Let me take a look at her condition. The Ji Mo clan has numerous heavenly materials and treasures from the Xiangli clan. Surely, one of them can save her.”

There was a long silence.

“Heavenly materials and treasures might be useless.”

Zhongli Yi looked steadily at Liuyu.

“But if Miss Ji Mo is willing to risk her life, there might still be a chance.”

When Liuyu and her group arrived under the gallery bridge from earlier in the day, several artisans were gathered around the giant puppet and Yue, leaving a large open space.

Liuyu pushed through the crowd and immediately examined Yue’s Qi Sea.

Indeed, there was still a breath of life.

However, the vital energy in her Qi Sea was so thin that it could dissipate at any moment. The situation was not optimistic.

She looked at Yue’s pale sleeping face. No one could have expected that the lively girl from earlier in the day was now on the brink of death.

Liuyu did not dwell on what had already happened. She turned and asked, “What needs to be done?”

Zhongli Yi stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the chest of the giant puppet.

The worn golden armor had been removed, revealing its steel skeleton. In the chest area, there was a heart-protecting mirror embedded in the body.

“That is the soul seal on the puppet. To repair this puppet, you must extract your consciousness thread from your Qi Sea and place it into the soul seal.”

Liuyu stared at him.

“Although I don’t understand the art of crafting, I know that puppets and golems are not repaired in this way.”

“Tianjia 31 is different.”

Zhongli Yi looked deeply at Liuyu.

“Lingzhao was right. This is a secret of the Zhongli clan. Miss Ji Mo should not ask too many questions. You only need to know that to save Yue, you must put your consciousness thread into the soul seal and bring her consciousness thread back.”

As Liuyu listened, she adjusted her breathing.

She must not appear too eager.

She must not value Yue too much, or else even if she saves Yue, the Zhongli clan will doubt Yue’s loyalty.

Liuyu slowly let go of Yue.

“It sounds dangerous.”

“It wasn’t originally dangerous.”

Perhaps afraid that Liuyu would give up, one of the artisans said, “We just wanted Yue to go in and investigate the internal situation, record it, and bring it out for everyone to discuss. Given her level of crafting skill, controlling the consciousness thread should be basic. Just investigating wouldn’t be too dangerous. Now… it seems that the internal circuit of Tianjia 31 is too complicated, and she got lost.”

After all, it was a puppet made by the old lady herself.

And…

These artisans didn’t dare to say it.

A puppet made from a living body is naturally more complex than one made from metal and iron.

“If it’s so simple, why don’t you go?”

Liuyu straightened up and smiled at Zhongli Yi.

“I’ve thought about it. You probably don’t want to lose both money and men. How about this: I will only take my deserved ten thousand zhus. The forty thousand for Yue will be returned to you. Surely you won’t risk my life for a commoner…”

“And a city.”

Zhongli Lingzhao couldn’t believe what her father said.

“Miss Ji Mo, is this sincere enough?”

Liuyu slowly exhaled and smiled.

“If the lord is so eager to seek talent, then I will accept your offer.”

Zhongli Yi looked at the girl’s back as she sat cross-legged, and his mind was clear.

If she could bring back Yue’s consciousness thread, it would provide clues to repair the puppet. Given the puppet’s value, it wouldn’t be a loss.

If she didn’t come back, it would eliminate a future enemy for the Zhongli clan without damaging its reputation.

It was all good.

The moment her consciousness thread entered the soul seal, an overwhelming sense of discomfort occupied her mind.

Yue was definitely not lost.

Even her eighth-level cultivator’s consciousness thread struggled to withstand the dense darkness surging from all sides. How could Yue, a mere third-level cultivator, handle it?

The consciousness thread transformed into an ethereal form. As Liuyu released her Qi flow to sense her surroundings, she walked through the dark swamp.

The Qi flow slowly spread out in the sticky, oppressive space.

She seemed to be walking through a dark maze.

What should have been a clear path was divided into two, with each end spinning in opposite directions. The once clear circuit became a dead end. But as long as it was reconnected, it would be smooth again.

So that’s it.

This so-called path was similar to the meridians in a human body. By using the puppet’s control rod to block the circuit, the Qi flow inside the puppet would disappear.

Liuyu thought she would search for a long time, but unexpectedly, the energy flow she released quickly detected another thread of mental intention.

“Yuemother!”

In a dead end, Liuyu heard the sound of Yuemother sobbing.

“Miss!” Yuemother’s mental thread immediately wrapped around Liuyu’s wrist like an eel. “This place is so scary, I want to get out!”

Liuyu naturally wanted to leave as soon as possible. She comforted her, saying:

“We will leave soon, we will take you out right away, don’t be afraid, Yuemother…”

However, just as she spoke, the black swamp under her feet suddenly began to churn.

“What is happening?” Liuyu tried to break free, only to find she couldn’t. “Yuemother, is this really how the normal apparatus circuits are?”

“Of course not!!!”

Yuemother clung tighter, shivering, and said:

“A normal circuit is just a big piece of iron! This big piece of iron looks like a big piece of iron, but it is made from living people! This is his sea of consciousness! We are inside his sea of consciousness!”

Liuyu showed a look of shock and touched the black sticky liquid on Yuemother’s mental thread.

“Then what are these things?”

A practitioner’s energy sea should be pure, and their sea of consciousness even clearer. How could it have something like this?

Moreover…

This thing seemed to exude an ominous aura.

“I don’t know, but I know it’s very evil—”

Before she finished speaking, Yuemother’s voice, along with Liuyu, was swallowed by the churning black liquid underfoot.

Sight, hearing, and smell—all disappeared.

In this moment of silence, Liuyu could only feel herself falling into a viscous quagmire, with nothing around to support her. Even her energy flow was being devoured, leaving only endless sinking and boundless fear—

“A man should protect his mother, right?”

“A-Lin, it will be over soon. It won’t hurt much longer.”

“In the next life, don’t become a little monster again.”

When her senses returned, besides the abundant energy flow surging into her body, there were also these fragmented sentences.

…What was this?

Who was speaking?

Encased in the abundant energy flow, Liuyu felt as if she had returned from hell to the mortal world. The previous discomfort vanished, as if something was continuously supplying her with energy flow.

The white light became a hazy halo, and her surroundings gradually cleared.

Liuyu found herself in a cave.

Before she could understand what was happening with the three people present, she saw numerous tentacles suddenly writhing violently, instantly flinging away a strong man and sending a woman holding a knife flying, slamming heavily against the stone wall.

The frantically thrashing tentacles passed through Liuyu’s ethereal figure, shaking the stone walls and causing rubble to fall.

In the narrow cave, the owner of those tentacles struggled like a trapped beast, and the gusts of wind he created sounded like the roars of an animal.

He looked like a boy about ten years old.

Liuyu couldn’t help but take a few steps forward.

He had sixteen tentacles covered in black snake scales, and a pair of pitch-black dragon horns on his pale forehead.

He…

He seemed to resemble someone.

A huge wave of dread and confusion overwhelmed Liuyu’s consciousness. When she regained her senses, the scene in the cave had shifted to a rapidly moving dense forest.

The boy called A-Lin by the woman was running through the night.

The scene changed quickly, and Liuyu could feel his emotions. He seemed to be hiding, with someone in pursuit.

“We’ve caught five ghost beasts! Just one more to go!”

“Set up a formation to seal this place. He’ll come out to find food when he’s starving in ten days, and then we can catch him!”

Liuyu watched the boy hiding in the black bear’s nest.

The spiked tentacles broke open the chest of the huge black bear, and its blood flowed in the darkness. His own wounds were also bleeding profusely.

He let his wounds remain exposed and, expressionless, ate the black bear alive.

Liuyu should have felt disgusted.

But as the nausea rose, an even stronger pain surged up, overshadowing the discomfort from the scene, leaving Liuyu feeling only the desolation of a dissipating will to live.

This was not just Liuyu’s emotion; it was his emotion.

The boy, reeking of blood, mechanically finished eating and then slowly curled up, hugging himself.

“It will be over soon… it won’t hurt for long.”

“In the next life… I won’t have to be a little monster.”

The next day, the boy, who could have survived on the black bear, crawled out of the black bear’s nest to await his death.

But the anticipated death did not come.

He was put into a cage hung with talismans, along with other ghost beasts. They would give him clean water and some locally gathered fruits. The boy noticed that those escorting them were also eating these.

“These ghost beasts are really hard to catch, and the Yin Mountain Clan gives so little money.”

“I heard this one is from a newly split second branch, not the main family, just a fool who insisted on marrying a woman from a poor family. I don’t see much future here. After we return, we should consider serving another noble family.”

“I think the Xiangli Clan is good. General Xiangli holds great power, and might even enter the royal court!”

“Sounds good. It’s definitely better than this Yin Mountain Clan that wants to build some colorless city!”

The boy listened to the unfamiliar term Yin Mountain Clan, and a slight ripple seemed to form in his previously dead emotions.

This place called the Colorless City seemed different from what he had imagined.

Numerous ghost beasts gathered here one after another, without any whipping or torture. The food was simple and plain, but it wasn’t rotting or stinking meat.

During the day, the ghost beasts built houses in the city, and at night, they rested in simple thatched huts.

The first time he received a spiritual plant, the boy stared at it in the sunlight for a long time.

They said this thing is called money, and outside Wuse City, humans rely on it for their livelihood.

But that’s for humans.

What would monsters need this for?

It’s as if… it’s as if…

As if one day, they too could live outside Wuse City, like humans.

Sunlight pierced through the spiritual plant, falling into the dark, gloomy eyes of the young boy, driving away some of the darkness.

The always expressionless young boy even curved his lips slightly.

But in the next moment, dark clouds churned, the sunlight faded, and the lives of the demons turned upside down.

No more spiritual plants were distributed.

They began to work endlessly, their straw huts grew increasingly cramped, and their food had a faint smell of decay, just enough to sustain basic life. Some demons rose up in rebellion but were executed in the streets by the noble families wearing unfamiliar family crests.

The young boy and other demons were sent to wipe away those bloodstains.

He saw people with the Yinshi clan’s crest arrive quickly, arguing. A handsome man in red appeared, looking so frail he seemed like he could be blown away by the wind, but his orders seemed to carry significant weight here.

He heard them call him Yin Shanze.

The lord of Wuse City, Yin Shanze.

The young boy slowly wiped the blood off the ground, repeating a word in his mind as he did so.

Liar.

He lied to them.

Demons would never leave Wuse City, and he never regarded them as humans. Those spiritual plants were perhaps just to give them a bit of hope, so they could serve him better.

The young boy’s chest was filled with uncontainable rage. He tried to escape, but the city was heavily guarded, and he was too weak.

Moreover, the noble families had established a collective punishment rule. If anyone escaped, the demons around them would also be punished. If they truly managed to escape, the punished demons would have their hands and feet cut off as a warning.

“Today is my daughter’s full moon celebration, I am giving all the demons in the city Hongluan eggs to bless my daughter. If one is missing, it would take away a part of my daughter’s fortune.”

On the day he was locked in the thorn cage, that person named Yin Shanze passed by and handed him a Hongluan egg.

Bloodshot eyes stared at him intensely.

Liar, liar, liar.

The tentacle he swung smashed the Hongluan egg to pieces. His uncontainable anger was trapped in this enslaved body, restrained by the iron mask on his face, unable to utter a complete sentence.

He had to escape.

Even if it meant dying, he wanted to die outside Wuse City.

The growing young boy finally awakened a strange flame one night. Using this different fire, he finally escaped one morning when he was taken outside the city to help build a luxurious mansion for the noble families.

He ran wildly across the sunlit wasteland.

Until he found demons chasing after him.

“You can’t escape… you can’t escape…”

A woman with cracked lips caught up, almost crawling up the hillside with hands and feet. Behind her was a wailing little girl.

“If you escape, our whole family will die. I still have a child left in Wuse City. Please, I’m begging you, go back… go back…”

The young boy’s face turned ashen as snow.

He kept retreating, tears glistening in his trembling eyes.

“We… we can go together…”

“They’ll kill my child! That’s my child! How can I watch her die!”

The frail mortal woman lunged at him, clutching his pants tightly. The young boy unhesitatingly swung a tentacle, grabbing her other daughter.

“No, no, no—give her back! Give her back to me!”

“Let me go, or I’ll kill her!”

The woman’s cries mingled with the sound of rolling carriage wheels.

At this moment, Liuyu’s long-buried memories slowly awakened. She looked in disbelief at the person who lifted the curtain of the carriage.

That person—

“What is going on here?”

From the carriage decorated with the Yinshi clan’s crest, a ten-year-old girl poked her head out.

In the cold of winter, she was wrapped in a thick cloak, revealing a jade-like cute face. As she looked around, the jade hairpin in her hair jingled softly.

“A demon?”

The little girl mumbled, seemingly puzzled as to why a demon would be here, but she still jumped out of the carriage despite the others trying to stop her.

The jade hairpin turned into a sword, pointing at the little demon:

“Put her daughter down, or I won’t be kind to you!”

The childish voice mimicked an adult’s tone, not sounding intimidating but rather cute.

And she seemed to lack confidence.

Her flickering gaze moved over his flailing tentacles, and she unconsciously swallowed hard.

The young boy saw the crest on her carriage, his eyes turning blood-red as he roared:

“Get lost! Get lost! Even if I die, I won’t go back! Anyway, they’ll die if they go back! It’s no different from dying by my hand! I’ll kill her as a burial offering! If you have the guts, kill me!”

The little girl holding the jade sword was stunned.

The mortal woman then turned to the girl, hugging her leg and crying:

“Save my daughter! Please, save her!”

“Quickly get her away from Miss Liuyu!”

But the little girl stopped the guards, slowly reaching out to lift the mortal woman.

“You… don’t cry.”

She clumsily wiped the tears from the woman’s face and looked up angrily at the little demon:

“If you want to die, go die yourself! Why drag others to die with you! Do you have a grudge against them? Can’t you see how sad her mother is? If you were the one caught today, the one dying was you, the person who loves you would be sad too. Do you have no sympathy at all!”

The little noble girl was so anxious she spoke incoherently, her words losing the usual reason, and they were utterly unconvincing.

But in the next moment.

The little girl, tightly entangled by the tentacles, fell to the ground. She was stunned for a moment, then immediately scrambled and crawled toward her mother.

The young mistress of the Yin Mountain relaxed her expression and curiously leaned in to examine her.

“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

The morning sun had risen.

The young boy with the tentacles hanging down looked at the young mistress not far away.

The radiant golden light fell on her, making her appear as pure and adorable as the maidens beside the Queen Mother of the West.

She was holding another little demon girl’s hand, tilting her head with concern, asking if she was injured.

She had said earlier that if he died today, those who loved him would also be sad.

But…

Who would be sad for him?

His mother wanted to abandon him and run away, even willing to kill him with her own hands. Even the one who gave birth to him hated him to this extent; who else would be sad for him?

No one loved him.

The young mistress looked up and saw the little demon girl in tears in the distance. She blinked, puzzled.

“Miss Liuyu, should we kill him?”

The young mistress pondered for a while, then turned to look at the servant beside her:

“Can we let them go?”

The servant shook his head.

“Not even with my command?”

He still shook his head.

“Alright then,” the adorably cute young mistress wrinkled her nose, “then send them back to Wuse City… and make sure those people don’t bully them. This should be okay, right?”

The young mistress grumbled as she returned to the carriage, seemingly muttering, “If my words don’t matter, then I don’t want to go to Wuse City anymore.”

The young boy watched the carriage leave.

The hanging tentacles trembled slightly with the owner’s emotional fluctuations, and in that moment, some thoughts arose in his mind. Connected to his emotions, Liuyu clearly knew what those thoughts were—

He wanted to live.

To live until the day when someone would be sad if he died.

If he could be a little more greedy.

Then, then…

He hoped that person would be like her.