In just a short period of time, the Changqing Sect had been reduced to a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. A crimson hue filled the air, and the scent of blood drifted on the wind, carrying a suffocating heaviness with every breath.
Mu Ran anxiously searched for Cangshu Bai's whereabouts. However, the people before her exploded one after another, turning into mists of blood. Realizing that something was terribly wrong, she hid herself along the way, darting from east to west, but was ultimately caught by a man in black whose face she could not clearly see.
It was not that she had never seen a demonic cultivator kill before, but she had never encountered one who took such pleasure in chopping off heads and exploding people into bloody mist!
Cangshu Bai was just an ordinary doctor without the strength to even truss a chicken. Amidst such a terrifying massacre, he had likely been reduced to a cloud of blood mist as well, leaving not a single bone behind.
At the mere thought of this, Mu Ran could not hold back her tears.
She knew that the cultivation world had always been cruel, which was why both she and Cangshu Bai had always lived their lives with the utmost caution. Yet, in the end, they were only husband and wife for two years before being separated by death.
Mu Ran wanted to take back Cangshu Bai's jade pendant. It would have been one thing if this demon simply refused to give it to her, but he actually pulled her into his embrace, intending to take liberties with her!
She was trembling all over with anger.
"It is my fault. I shouldn't have teased you. Here is the jade pendant. Whatever you want, I will give it to you."
Holding the person in his arms, his voice was exceptionally gentle as he placed the spotless jade pendant into her hand.
But he had forgotten one thing: his current appearance was a disguise. As his outward appearance had changed, his voice had naturally changed as well. His wife, who kept her head lowered and dared not look at him, only saw him as a lustful demonic cultivator.
Mu Ran's trembling hands tightly grasped the jade pendant. Pressing her lips together firmly, she struggled to utter a complete sentence, "My... my husband's name is Cangshu Bai. He is very tall, and his voice is very pleasant. He doesn't speak much to outsiders and is just an ordinary man without the spiritual roots for cultivation."
The man lowered his eyes to look at the top of her head.
Her lips were quivering, and her breathing was erratic. It took almost all her strength to ask, "Did you... did you kill him?"
The expression on the man's plain and unremarkable face paused slightly.
A little blue fish swimming about in the air blew a bubble, as if mocking him.
Oh, the master had finally realized that his current identity was that of a complete stranger to the mistress.
Mu Ran held the jade pendant tightly against her chest. "You killed him, didn't you?"
He struggled internally for a long time before slowly releasing the embrace that confined her. "Leave this place."
When a person who knew they were about to die was suddenly shown mercy by their killer and offered a way out, they normally wouldn't think about anything else. They would just be ecstatic and flee immediately.
Mu Ran slowly stood up. Her feet stepped into a pool of blood. But after taking just one step, she suddenly grabbed the hairpin in her hand, turned around, and thrust it toward him.
Her movements were far too sluggish in the eyes of someone with profound cultivation.
In the instant before she even raised her hand, the man had already realized what she was about to do.
Han Yu also wanted to dart over to protect its master, but it was frozen in place by its master's aura.
The hairpin pierced into the man's chest, splattering blood.
"Give him back to me!"
Mu Ran screamed hoarsely. In the split second she was about to throw out all the treasures from her cosmos bag, her wrist was grabbed by his bloodstained hand.
As she looked up, she met the man's eyes, which faintly shimmered with a dark light. In an instant, her head grew dizzy and heavy; she lost consciousness and collapsed into his arms.
Han Yu could finally move. It hurriedly flew over, anxiously circling its master again and again. It didn't understand. Its master clearly could have dodged, so why did he insist on letting her stab him?
Cangshu Bai pulled out the hairpin, wiped away the blood, and carefully slid it back into Mu Ran's hair, adjusting it properly. His fingers then lingered on her cheek, gently caressing her skin, his fingertips playing with a loose strand of hair by her ear.
"I made her sad. It is only right that I suffer some physical pain."
Han Yu rolled its eyes, flicked its tail, and popped the bubble it had blown earlier.
Then why did you stop her when she was about to throw out her talisman treasures?
Cangshu Bai said, "She cares for me. If I am injured too severely, she will be even more heartbroken."
Tsk, humans.
Han Yu returned to the blood mist to devour the souls of those wicked people, too lazy to bother with this bizarre couple.
Cangshu Bai leaned down and buried his face in the crook of her neck, greedily taking in her scent. While feeling deeply satisfied, his heart also ached intensely because of her. It felt so heavy that his entire body could barely contain the love that swelled up for her.
Like an ant trying to shake a tree, or a mantis trying to stop a chariot—she knew she was overestimating her strength.
Yet she still turned back and did it.
Cangshu Bai tightened his arms, holding her tightly against him. Resting his jaw on her shoulder, the breath he exhaled by her ear carried a voice as hoarse as if it had been scorched by fire.
"Ranran, why are you so silly?"
It was an hour later before anyone realized that something had happened to the Changqing Sect.
The bloody light here shot up into the sky, clearly indicating that a bloody massacre had taken place not long ago.
A streak of purple light transformed into a man dressed in luxurious purple robes, rushing into the blood-covered main hall of the Changqing Sect.
"Zhizhi!"
Mu Zhizhi, who was lying on the ground, was picked up by the man. After a long while, she slowly regained her senses. Opening her eyes to see a sea of blood, she turned pale with fright.
"Mo Han!"
"I am here, do not be afraid." Li Mohan pulled her into his arms with a heartache, a fierce hostility surfacing in his peach blossom eyes.
Mu Zhizhi was the person he cherished most in his heart. If anything had truly happened to her, he would definitely make the entire Song City pay the price!
Mu Zhizhi cried and said, "Mo Han, it must be the people from the First Elder's faction of the Heavenly Desire Palace. They wanted to capture me to threaten you. Later... later, someone else knocked me out and tied me up here. I thought I would never see you again!"
A look of tender pity appeared on Li Mohan's peerlessly handsome face. He reached out, his fingertips gently wiping away the tears on Mu Zhizhi's face. His movements were as light as if he were afraid of breaking fragile glass, but the surging hostility in the depths of his eyes almost broke through the icy aura surrounding him.
"I know." His voice was deep and hoarse, every word trembling with the feeling of having lost and found her again. "It was my fault for not protecting you. I will definitely make sure the First Elder's faction dies without an intact corpse."
As it turned out, outsiders only knew that Li Mohan had suffered from Qi deviation a hundred years ago, falling into a coma and becoming a cripple.
In reality, that was merely a disguise he put on to bide his time and make people lower their guard due to the severe infighting within the Heavenly Desire Palace.
From the very beginning, his mind had been perfectly clear, so he knew all about the eldest miss of Biyun Mountain refusing the marriage and the second miss taking her place to marry him.
Mu Zhizhi did not despise him for being a "cripple." She was willing to marry him as his wife, and after marrying him, she often stayed by his side to talk to him and take meticulous care of him.
How could he not be moved by such a wonderful girl?
