She vented her fury until the bitter resentment inside her chest had eased a fraction. Then she stopped where she stood to catch her breath, raised one slender hand to tidy a stray lock of hair, as if something had crossed her mind — and, swaying gracefully, walked to the edge of the lake and gave a single light clap.
For a moment the lake surface remained utterly still. Then slowly, ripples began to form, and a sound grew from far off to near — a violent churning of rushing water, as though something beneath the surface was racing swiftly toward the shore.
Qin Yao and the others were still in a state of tense bewilderment when a series of splashing sounds erupted from the water. One after another, revenants came surging out — every one of them with a ghastly complexion and protruding fangs, their entire bodies seething with destructive energy, clearly having cultivated to a considerable degree.
They churned and stirred eagerly in the water, their eyes either rolled white or glowing faint green. Whether they still retained the ability to see was unknown, but their posture was as menacing as could be — every single one of them staring fixedly ahead.
Chun Qiao snapped her fingers and called out sharply, “There’s food right in front of you — what are you standing there for?”
The revenants had already been twitching their nostrils, sniffing for quite some time. At this command, all restraint was gone. They snapped their long fangs open wide and leapt from the water one after another, surging and scrambling toward the bloody pile of organs on the ground. In no time at all, they were shoving and snatching, stuffing the organs into their mouths and chewing with abandon.
Chun Qiao seemed thoroughly satisfied. She laughed coquettishly and nodded. “These are all fresh and still warm — the best things for growing your destructive energy. Eat more, build your power faster. When the time comes, help Master deal with those meddlesome monks and Daoists.”
With that, she turned — and saw Xu Shenming still writhing on the ground in pain, unable to rise. She let out a cold laugh. “Besides, Master has already gone to collect new souls. Even if I were to beat both of you to death tonight, I doubt she’d blame me for it. I’d like to see whether your bones are harder, or my fists.”
She then leapt high into the air and came crashing down directly toward Xu Shenming’s waist with tremendous force. Her strikes were vicious and merciless, and the sheer power behind them was astonishing. With a blow like this landing, several of Xu Shenming’s ribs would surely be shattered.
Lin Xiao’s expression turned hard. He could contain himself no longer. He drew his long sword, and in a fury of motion, stepped forward.
Chun Qiao was on the verge of hearing the sound of bones cracking when a figure shot toward her from the side without warning. She was completely unprepared — she took a heavy kick to the chest, and with a sharp cry was launched through the air like a cannonball.
She hit the ground, her head striking a pebble at the back. She didn’t even bother with the pain — she rolled at once and pushed herself back up to a stand. Looking up, she saw a young man holding a sword, watching her coldly. Behind him stood a boy and a girl, both with unfriendly expressions.
“You?” She automatically dismissed Qin Yao and A’Han, narrowing her eyes at Lin Xiao. Men in Chang’an who were unmoved by her beauty were truly rare — and tonight, three had gathered at once, each one clearly still in full possession of his soul.
Interesting. She studied Lin Xiao. In her long, bewitching eyes, something seemed to reach out like a pair of delicate hands, sweeping him from head to toe with an expression of shamelessly sensual pleasure. “Well, well, you delivered yourself right to my door — I’ll be happy to claim you in a moment!” She reached for something at her waist and flung it directly at Lin Xiao.
Lin Xiao gave her no chance to follow up. He had already thrust his sword forward, blocking whatever she had thrown. There came a series of metallic clanking sounds, and the object in Chun Qiao’s hands coiled around his blade like a serpent.
Seeing this, she curled her lips in a smile, shook the iron chain, and moved to pull Lin Xiao toward her — when a sudden jolt struck her tiger’s grip, and a great and strange force surged in.
She was badly shaken. She retreated swiftly, several steps back, desperate to dodge that mysterious power — but she was one step too slow. The next instant she felt a searing pain in her chest, a sweet metallic surge rose in her throat, and blood came spraying from her lips.
She knew she had underestimated her enemy tonight. Without pausing to wipe the blood from her mouth, she moved to reel in the iron chain — only to find that it had already been severed into several pieces by Lin Xiao’s blade and was falling clattering to the ground.
“And here I wondered what kind of demon or devil this would be.” Lin Xiao tossed the last fragment of chain from his sword to the ground and said with a cold smile, “You’re not even worth the trouble.”
But Qin Yao had already spotted something: the end of the chain on the ground was unmistakably a small claw carved from jade, with the character “Heaven” faintly etched into it. She froze for a moment, then looked sharply up at Chun Qiao. “The Heaven-Yin Claw? What is your connection to the Heaven-Yin Sect of the Miao regions?”
Miao people? Lin Xiao was also taken aback. He looked at Chun Qiao again with new eyes. No wonder people had always said this woman had a peculiar accent — some had even speculated she might be from Dongying. But it turned out she was Miao.
All trace of Chun Qiao’s coquettish manner was gone. Only an icy, murderous coldness remained. She stared at Lin Xiao and Qin Yao for a long moment, then suddenly wheeled toward the cluster of revenants still fighting over the organs and shrieked, “What are you standing there gawking for?! Tear them all to pieces!”
At that cry, the revenants stopped what they were doing all at once. They turned, sniffed the air, dropped the flesh in their hands, and hurled themselves straight at Lin Xiao and the others.