The mountain forest ravaged by the Taotie flower resembled earth with its sinews and bones removed. The ground was sunken with bronze bowl-sized pits, and those green tendrils, appearing harmless, crisscrossed above in a demonic posture, quietly absorbing the moon’s essence—it seemed the Taotie flower’s belly was not yet full.

The forest was completely silent, without even the sound of insects chirping—there were no insects left. They had all been eaten along with Xiliang’s emperor and grand tutor.

In the hollow of a tree that was half-decayed, there was suddenly slight movement.

From that extremely filthy tree hollow, covered with tree sap and rotting leaves of unknown colors that made one want to flee at first sight, a pair of hands suddenly emerged.

Slender, delicate, pale hands—under the moonlight one could see faint blue veins.

The hands gripped tightly onto the already rotted tree trunk. Disregarding the handful of putrid, foul-smelling matter he grasped, he only used force, struggling with difficulty, feeling his way inch by inch, moving inch by inch, until he had moved his entire body out.

Having finally crawled completely out of the tree hollow, his entire body was covered in green and blue substances of unknown origin. Yet he seemed not to see this at all, leaning against the tree and sliding down weakly while gasping for breath.

He raised his head, and the moonlight outlined a heartbreakingly beautiful profile. His slightly disheveled temple hair was soaked with fine perspiration, making his eyebrows and lashes appear deeply black.

Chu Feihuan.

A person who could not stand had a different field of vision and contact area with the ground than upright people. Chu Feihuan discovered the secret of that misdirected moonlight slash just a moment earlier than Qin Chang Ge and Xiao Jue.

But it was only a moment earlier. When Chu Feihuan discovered something moving beneath him and wanted to warn Qin Chang Ge, the enormous suction produced by the giant demonic flower had already caused his chest to ache severely, making him unable to speak.

Then Qin Chang Ge stepped on the demonic flower’s tentacle with one foot, trapping herself in the snare, and Xiao Jue also brought himself down trying to save her.

Chu Feihuan almost immediately chose to flee.

Three years ago he did not know what fleeing felt like, just as he also did not know what filth, hunger, or being beaten felt like.

But it didn’t matter. Three years of bitter suffering had taught him to retreat step by step from his principles in the worst environments for the sake of survival. As long as he could stay alive and wait for what he wanted to wait for, nothing else mattered.

Not understanding, not willing—then learn, force himself to accept.

Even if in many quiet, solitary nights, tears flowed in his heart when remembering the past.

Just like this moment, in that instant he decided not to rescue her and crawled into the tree hollow with his back to her.

The moment he crawled into the hollow, he suddenly thought: what if it were him standing beside her, what if it were him lunging forward, what if it were him reaching out to pull her…

There were no what-ifs.

In this lifetime, perhaps there would never be what-ifs again.

The young man who once wielded a sword whose cold light shook nine provinces, who coldly laughed at the chaos of the mortal world, three years later when she fell into danger, could only turn his back to her and hastily choose to flee.

In that moment, she probably only saw the person rushing toward her with an anxious face, only saw that kind of resolute companionship that feared neither life nor death, following her to heaven, earth, or the yellow springs below.

Chu Feihuan’s fingers dug deeply into the rotted wood grain, his fingertips slightly seeping blood.

Yet his expression remained as calm as ever.

He had to flee.

Someone always had to remain free.

All three of them could not fall into danger.

He could not accompany her in sword dancing like drifting wind, could not accompany her in riding horses like flowing light, but he could choose a different way to protect her. Like this moment—three years of beggar life had enabled him to endure such unbearably filthy, putrid odors. Three years of adversity had taught him how to discover vitality and preserve himself in the most unfavorable environments. So he had been able to discover in that brief moment that the green demon branches greatly disliked rotting things—around every half-decayed tree, there was a small area without those tendrils.

Chu Feihuan sat quietly on that small patch of ground, carefully avoiding contact with any demon branches. He looked carefully and discovered that many trees in this forest were somewhat decayed, and beside the rotting trees were scattered bones—mainly beasts, but also some human bones, though very few, like finger bone segments. The land of Nanmin was originally famous for being gloomy and mysterious with many demonic creatures, so the three had not paid attention when they first saw these things. To these three people, dead human bones were about the same as tree branches, so they had overlooked the pattern of bone appearances.

The decayed parts of tree trunks all faced the direction of the demonic flower’s mouth.

The rotted tree roots, in the direction facing the demonic flower’s mouth, all had bone fragments.

Chu Feihuan’s expression was grave as he stared at the gorgeous yet sinister demonic flower on the mountain cliff ahead, like a thousand-eyed demon face. Waves of cold ran through his heart.

Was it possible that all these bones were spat out by the demonic flower? When spat out, they carried the liquid from within the flower that had dissolved them, falling on these trees facing the mountain cliff, causing partial decay in these trees?

Those dissolved beast bones and human bones…

Chu Feihuan raised his head, his eyes deep and profound, gazing toward the demonic flower.

“Hey.”

“Mm.”

“What kind of hellish place is this?”

“You ask me, who do I ask?”

“This yellow water below doesn’t look like anything good. Can’t touch it.”

“Mm…”

“Chang Ge…”

“Mm?”

“Could you please… not rub against me?”

“…”

Qin Chang Ge lifted her head from Xiao Jue’s body, helplessly and amusedly glaring at him. She glanced at the restless part beneath her and sighed resentfully.

This… was not my intention…

Even if I had such intentions, this position… would be far too challenging…

Looking up at her surroundings, the hazy circular walls were milky white with a heavy texture like silk, yet sprouted countless tiny hook-like filaments. Below, in a calyx-green expanse, some deep yellow liquid bubbled and floated, emitting a strange odor. At the four edges of the calyx-green base were small patches of white, smooth, flocculent material. The great Emperor Xiao of Xiliang was braced in an extremely bold posture, hands and feet propped against those four small white patches, forming himself into an arch bridge shape for Qin Chang Ge to lie upon.

As for why they had formed such a bizarre position, Qin Chang Ge herself did not know.

She only vaguely remembered that just moments ago, tremendous force like mountain floods and tsunamis had suddenly arrived, dragging her suddenly numb body to the edge of a great open dome-like black hole. Seeing a flash of yellow light and red flesh, she was tumbled and rolled inside. At the same time, Xiao Jue, who had been pulling her, suddenly shouted loudly and swung her into the air with great force at his wrist. He probably intended to throw her out at the last moment, but that thing closed in time. Xiao Jue’s throw immediately sent Qin Chang Ge crashing heavily onto himself, causing him to grunt in pain as they were about to fall into the yellow water. Fortunately, Qin Chang Ge, who had been thrown dizzy and crashed into someone’s solid muscles with her nose nearly bleeding, suddenly saw a mountain mouse roll into the yellow water and surface as gleaming white bones. Instantly alert, in the midst of chaos she hooked her foot around a pillar-like white stem-like object overhead, reached out forcefully to lift Xiao Jue by the waist, and barely pulled him up when he was only a hair’s breadth from the yellow water.

In just a brief moment, both had walked through the gates of life and death.

Now Xiao continued to arch like a bridge, while Qin Chang Ge hung suspended with one foot hooked on the long stem, her entire upper body lying across Xiao Jue’s chest. It looked somewhat like a pairs acrobatic act—graceful yet perilous.

But now in this place touching neither heaven nor earth, in such a difficult-to-sustain position, how long could they persist?

Moreover, those hook-bearing filaments constantly harassed them. Qin Chang Ge was busy swatting away those things for herself and Xiao Jue, her body moving constantly.

But her constant movement, rubbing back and forth, was a serious and difficult test for Xiao Jue. Because of the heat, she had removed her clothes down to just undergarments and a single long robe. Due to the fierce fighting, the buttons on her chest had fallen off, and the current position was inconvenient for adjusting. A large expanse of skin was exposed, swaying before Xiao Jue’s eyes, making him uncertain whether he should have a nosebleed or close his eyes.

Actually, it wasn’t about the exposure… For Emperor Xiao, who had harbored thoughts about Qin Chang Ge for a long time, even if she wore three layers inside and three layers outside of cotton clothing, as long as she was on top of him, he could not bear it.

Xiao Jue felt tremendously miserable. This arch-bridge position made him feel his waist was about to break. The snow-white skin of the woman in front was too dazzling and stimulating, and she happened to be pressing on a certain critical area, making him feel that part was also about to break.

But that woman was very unconscientiously and curiously exclaiming with wonder: “Wow, Xiao Jue, your core strength is amazing. Your consorts must be so blessed.”

…

Xiao Jue thought he might as well let go and drop into the yellow water.

But thinking again, he was supporting that woman. If he let go, wouldn’t she fall too? So he could only continue enduring the bitter torment.

Even in his torment, he did not forget to declare his innocence: “…What about my consorts being blessed… Chang Ge, don’t you know I’ve never been intimate with them?”

“Really? What a pity.” Qin Chang Ge inhaled, trying to make her body lighter, but continued teasing with a smiling expression.

Xiao Jue smiled bitterly and said: “The most regrettable thing in my life is inexplicably losing my empress.”

Qin Chang Ge slightly restrained her smile, then said: “When the old man lost his horse, how could he know it wasn’t a blessing?” while stuffing a pill into Xiao Jue’s mouth.

“What is it?”

“Those barbs on the vines earlier probably had some brief paralyzing poison effects. They don’t harm the body much, but just to be safe, here’s a detoxification pill. This works against most poisons.” Qin Chang Ge looked relieved and glanced around. “Xiao Jue, this seems like a flower. We’re now inside the flower’s heart.”

“I think so too,” Xiao Jue frowned. “The things inside the flower heart are different from the tentacle-like things outside. I’m afraid the toxicity is greater. We can’t touch anything carelessly now. Try poking the top of the flower and see.”

“Poke what?” Qin Chang Ge felt her body becoming more flexible, the poison almost completely dispersed. She carefully tested the flexibility of that white stem-like object, estimating it could barely support the weight of two people, then said: “Can’t poke randomly. If we stimulate this flower to spray poison, you and I are right above that yellow water with no way to escape.”

She suspended herself and moved up along the stem and leaves, scooping up Xiao Jue’s waist with a laugh: “Come, let me take advantage of you too.”

Seeing that the Emperor of Xiliang was not well-adapted to this position but still stubbornly maintained face: “I rather think you’ve finally delivered yourself to me.”

“Then eat me,” Qin Chang Ge giggled. “Please, please.”

…

This woman grows more and more despicable, making me want to pin her down…

Joking aside, there was not a trace of disrespect in Qin Chang Ge’s expression. She slowly lifted Xiao Jue up, trying to raise him high enough to reach that only safe white long stem, to spare them this truly arduous position.

Just as Xiao Jue’s hand was about to reach the long stem.

The flower body suddenly trembled!

The long stem withdrew with a swish, Xiao Jue’s hand grasped empty air, then the long stem released again. With a bang, Qin Chang Ge was once again viciously slammed onto Xiao Jue, her beautiful nose cleverly colliding with his teeth, causing a gush of nosebleed.

Worse still, Xiao Jue had just left those four white safe zones, and now was directly knocked toward the yellow water!

Between each rotting tree, there was a certain distance.

For those with high martial arts skills, like those two who had fallen into the flower, that distance could be covered by simply lifting a leg. However, for Chu Feihuan, who had lost his martial arts and whose body had grown increasingly frail from years of devastation, each step was a difficult crossing of a natural chasm.

The moonlight was pale red, moving slowly between the tree shadows, perhaps unable to bear watching that man’s struggle and hardship, its color particularly dim.

By that dim moonlight, Chu Feihuan looked toward the next tree.

The spring-loaded firing mechanism hidden in his sleeve had been dismantled, and those steel strips had been cleverly connected together like a long chain, flashing with silver ripples under the moon.

Upon the ripples were dots of bright red—the steel strips were not polished smooth chains, and using them was very hard on the hands. Chu Feihuan’s hands were already torn, but he had never spared himself a pitying glance at those wounds with torn skin and exposed flesh.

He only used all his body’s strength to swing out the steel strips, hook onto trees, and use all his arm strength to drag himself across, avoiding contact with those crisscrossing demon branches underground.

Each time he moved under a tree, he had to lean against the rotting tree roots and gasp for half the day.

But when he raised his eyes and saw that he was a bit closer to that demonic flower, he felt shallow joy.

The distance from her… was still seventeen trees.

Chu Feihuan did not think about what those seventeen trees represented for him, did not think about what consequences would result after his body, which grew pale and nearly suffocated from exhaustion with each tree he moved to, repeated this seventeen more times. He simply thought that no matter how powerful a woman was, she still needed a man’s protection, and Qin Chang Ge was no exception.

The demonic flower was strange and powerful. That she still had not emerged by now indicated this thing was not so easy to deal with. If he did not strive, he would make another mistake.

He had once thought she was powerful enough to fear no schemes, and had hesitated one step at the most crucial moment. That one step had forged lifelong regret, almost not giving him another chance for redemption. From then on, he swore never again to leave her alone in danger.

For that past mistake, he had already deeply regretted once, regretted to the point where he felt that losing his martial arts, health, and sound limbs was punishment he completely deserved to bear.

He never wanted to be wrong again.

The steel strips shot out, silver light flashing. Using skillful strength, they wound around the next tree with a whooshing sound.

Chu Feihuan once again swung himself across.

Raising his head, the handsome man was sweating like rain. In that rain-like perspiration, his eyes intertwined with joy and anxiety.

The distance from you… was still… sixteen trees.