Her palm was dry and soft.
She was a full head shorter than Wenren Ying. When they stood together, Wu Guanyue’s head came just to his chest. Being so petite, her hands were naturally much smaller than his as well. Whenever she took his hand like this, all he had to do was close his fingers, and her hand would disappear completely into his palm.
Normally, he loved doing exactly that. Then she would curl her fingers inside his palm and gently scratch it, like a kitten.
The sensation was subtle, yet maddeningly tantalizing. Wenren Ying never seemed to tire of it. Eventually, after the two of them had enjoyed themselves one night, Wu Guanyue lay in his arms and asked him about it.
At the time, Wenren Ying seemed a little embarrassed… Even though he had long since stopped feeling shy in bed!
In the end, he still answered, “When we were designing the Blood Demon Ancestor, I covered your mouth. At that time…”
“Ah! I know!” Wu Guanyue cried softly, her voice full of delight. “And then I…”
She suddenly broke into a rather mischievous smile, then quickly lowered her head and licked his palm.
“Brother Ying, is this what you like?”
Her eyes sparkled. Her expression was so innocent and guileless, like a little girl proudly celebrating a victory in some childish game. She had no idea how intensely what she was doing affected him…
Wenren Ying had remained perfectly still then, his deep eyes as dark as ink, fixed heavily upon her. And then…
Then Wu Guanyue was punished with his hand clamped over her mouth.
Being muffled like that was truly, truly… Mm… terrifying…
In the end, by the time that night was over, Wu Guanyue’s eyes had gone completely unfocused. She was left with nothing but instinct, licking and biting at Wenren Ying’s body in a daze.
The next morning, after waking up, she had hidden beneath the covers and laughed for ages.
Oh, Brother Ying… He was such a secretive pervert.
He looked like an utterly dependable and gentle older brother, yet he actually enjoyed things like that… Did he especially like the feeling of having his palm scratched? Perhaps it gave him a secret, intensely private pleasure.
These were the tiny habits known only to lovers who truly loved each other.
And yet now, as Wu Guanyue held his hand, it was trembling.
That hand, always dry and steady, seemed to have been soaked through by the autumn rain. Its palm was cold, no longer warm, and its fingers spasmed painfully as though enduring some unspeakable torment.
Wu Guanyue tugged on Wenren Ying’s hand, but he did not move.
He simply stood there like a statue, devoid of emotion, devoid of everything he should have possessed. He was so unfamiliar… so unfamiliar that Wu Guanyue began to feel afraid.
Wenren Ying seemed to be standing within a vast, bewildering emptiness. He did not know where he had come from, nor where he was meant to go. The obsessions of vengeance that had once driven him, the beloved friends and family he now cherished—all of it seemed to have been washed away, leaving behind only an empty shell.
There was only one sentence in his mind.
It was the command left behind by his master.
“Break all four limbs of Wu Guanyue and bring her to me!”
Wu Guanyue…
Wu Guanyue…
She… she was Wu Guanyue.
Wenren Ying’s black pupils slowly came into focus, gradually fixing upon her face.
Her face was… pale.
They were standing so close, so close that all he had to do was reach out to seize her throat. She was completely undefended, every part of her body exposed. Her limbs could be broken beneath his hands with ease.
But… why had he not moved?
The moment he imagined her limbs being broken by his hands, imagined her screaming in pain… a steel needle suddenly seemed to drive into his mind, making his very soul ache with unbearable agony.
That sensation… it was as though—
Hurting her was the same as hurting himself.
Hurting her was more painful than dying.
Every muscle in Wenren Ying’s body suddenly drew taut.
He was so tense that every meridian in his body seemed like a bowstring pulled to its limit. The contours of his muscles became twisted and knotted. Amid the curtain of rain, it was as though this small patch of space around him alone was filled with a savage, violent tension.
Even his ragged breathing sounded frightening amid the fine, ceaseless autumn rain.
Wenren Ying had clearly already submitted, yet the moment he saw Wu Guanyue, his instinctive love for her suddenly awoke once more, resisting the control of the Soul-Devouring Art!
Perfected Renhua might never understand such a feeling… because in all his life, he had never loved anyone without reservation.
“Ugh… ah…”
Wenren Ying suddenly threw his head back and let out a cry of terrible pain. The veins at his temples bulged, and his eyes were webbed with blood. Anyone could see that an intense struggle was taking place within his body.
Wu Guanyue stared at him anxiously, too frightened to say a single word…
What had happened to Brother Ying?
What had Perfected Renhua done to him?
She was frantic with worry, yet she also understood that Brother Ying was struggling to control himself. She… she had to trust him, of course. Brother Ying had always been such a dependable person…
The agonizing pain and the restraints imposed by the Soul-Devouring Art caused the meridians throughout Wenren Ying’s body to reverse their flow. Reversed meridians were an extremely dangerous condition: at best, they would leave him seriously injured; at worst, they would cause him to lose control and descend into madness.
But Wenren Ying had never been someone who meekly accepted his fate.
His very bones were steeped in a fierce, bloody defiance. If there was something he refused to do, then even death would not make him yield—if one tried to force a sharp sword into submission, it would only break itself on the spot!
Wenren Ying vomited a mouthful of blood.
It was as though ten thousand meteor hammers had smashed into his chest. A terrible pain tore through him, and his legs gave way. He dropped heavily to his knees.
Wu Guanyue had naturally never moved away from him. Thus, when he collapsed, he brought her down with him. The two of them fell together onto the rainwater-covered road. Wu Guanyue’s vision spun wildly, and in the next instant, her back struck the ground with a heavy thud, turning her vision black.
All she could hear was Brother Ying’s trembling, agonized breathing…
That sound was like a hand clenching around her heart, squeezing out pain, fear, and heartache.
Slowly, she pushed herself up from the ground and pulled Wenren Ying, curled up on the road, into her arms.
Her embrace… might have been cold now as well.
But compared with everything Brother Ying was suffering, all she had done was take a fall. It was nothing.
She embraced Wenren Ying, doing her best to keep her voice from trembling, doing her best to keep it from carrying the slightest hint of a sob.
The ends of her words lifted, making her voice sound both gentle and all-embracing.
“Brother Ying, Brother Ying… It’s all right. Everything will be all right. Little Yue is here with you.”
Wenren Ying lay back in her arms, his head resting on her thighs. His eyes were slowly losing focus again… This final struggle seemed, in the end, to be no match for Perfected Renhua’s Soul-Seizing Art.
After all, Perfected Renhua’s cultivation was simply far higher than his own.
Little Yue…
Wu Guanyue…
Wu Guanyue…
His orders were… His orders were to break all four of her limbs… and take her back…
Just then, something hot and scalding fell onto his lips. It seeped into his mouth with every breath, allowing him to taste a hint of bitterness.
Wu Guanyue’s eyes… were brimming with tears.
Tear after tear fell from her eyes… landing on his face.
And she was still speaking, one hand stroking Wenren Ying’s back with extraordinary gentleness. Her voice trembled slightly, yet she continued to comfort him.
Wenren Ying’s eyes suddenly cleared!
A lover’s tears were the most potent poison in the world—and the bitterest antidote. In that instant, Wenren Ying’s reason actually suppressed the Soul-Seizing Art, granting him a brief moment of clarity and allowing him to finally see his Little Yue, his beloved…
He abruptly reached out and seized Wu Guanyue’s hand.
An overwhelming joy burst into Wu Guanyue’s eyes. She was almost about to cry out, but Wenren Ying spoke first, cutting off her call.
“Go back to your world. Don’t ever come back!”
Those were the first words Wenren Ying said.
“Perfected Renhua and Wu Guizhen are old acquaintances. He’s here to capture you!”
Those were the second.
He could say no more. The Soul-Seizing Art had already surged back, once again taking control of his mind—and now he understood that he could not resist it. He simply did not have the strength to.
He was probably destined to remain his master’s puppet forever and ever.
For the first time in two hundred years, he regretted destroying his spiritual core back then.
But what use was regret? Soon, he would lose his mind again, and then… this time, he would carry out Perfected Renhua’s orders.
But… no one could force him to do what he did not wish to do. That had been true two hundred years ago, and it remained true two hundred years later.
Even Perfected Renhua—even an Earthly Immortal—could not make him yield.
Wenren Ying said gently, “Little Yue… close your eyes.”
He raised a hand and slowly covered Wu Guanyue’s eyes.
Then his long saber moved.
The blade flashed white and bright, gleaming with an icy, razor-sharp light in the pitch-black night. That light should have stabbed into Wu Guanyue’s eyes, but it struck only the back of Wenren Ying’s hand. Before her eyes was nothing but a gentle darkness.
The rain continued to fall, beating against their bodies.
The damp scent of blood began to rise. An ominous, humid stench of blood spread through the air.
Wenren Ying’s hand slowly—very slowly—slid downward.
And at last, Wu Guanyue saw what had happened before her eyes—
The long saber had pierced straight through Wenren Ying’s heart, its tip sunk deep into a crack between the flagstones, pinning him firmly to the ground.
