“Fucang!”

Prince Chang Qin was greatly shocked. He had actually used his sword energy transformed into a dragon to bite that Princess of the Zhuyin Clan! What great enmity was there? Even if they had dragon scales, that was Chunjun! Could she withstand that bite?

As soon as his words fell, he saw that golden dragon transform into endless surging tides, like an enormous smooth golden silk cloth, pouring into the gaping maw of the Ba Snake Dajun, forcibly propping open his fangs so they couldn’t close. The white-robed war general’s form flashed and he pursued into the Ba Snake’s belly swift as a shooting star.

Turbid energy and poisonous fog as thick as paste instantly enveloped Fucang’s body, making every step difficult. He recited an incantation. The golden dragon immediately swam over nimbly, coiling around him and shaking away the turbid energy and poisonous fog. He saw that inside the Ba Snake’s belly, countless white bones soaked in ghastly green poison—they should all be the corpses of mortals he had previously devoured. Set against the blood-red cavity, they were exceptionally horrifying and eerie.

Those war generals who had just been sucked into the Ba Snake’s belly had all been contaminated by the poison—clearly they couldn’t survive. Fucang flew rapidly in circles countless times, yet he never found any trace of Xuan Yi. She was of the Zhuyin Clan—even poison ten thousand times more potent would have no effect on her whatsoever. It was impossible for her to be harmed by this poison.

But where was she? She was simply like a mass of white snow, melted away inside the Ba Snake’s belly.

In the surging turbid energy, a thread of elusive icy cold power was suddenly captured by him. Fucang turned and sped away, only to see large pools of blood on the blood-red cavity that had no poison, all frozen into ice—Zhuyin Clan blood. Chunjun had actually wounded her this severely.

He bent down and picked up a palm-sized pitch-black dragon scale from the frozen pool of blood. The Dragon Princess’s dragon scale. There was more than one in the pool of blood—at a rough glance there were no fewer than five or six pieces.

Fucang gripped those dragon scales in his hand and looked all around. Sure enough, not far away was another pool of blood frozen into ice, with several dragon scales fallen on it as well. He picked up all the dragon scales and tracked along the bloodstains. The last pool of blood was larger than all the previous ones, with more than ten scales fallen in the blood, along with a golden ring glittering brilliantly, stained with blood.

Fucang picked up the golden ring extremely slowly. For a moment he only felt all the clamor in his mind instantly fall into deathly silence.

*

Fine rain carrying turbid energy fell in flurries. If this were the upper realm, Zhi Xi would have liked rainy days very much. In the past at Mingxing Hall, when most leisurely, she enjoyed listening to the rain while practicing calligraphy or playing a melody on the zither to cultivate her body and mind.

But the rain in the lower realm truly couldn’t make her feel leisurely. The turbid energy sliding down with the rain threads was dense and numerous, making her body, which had been tortured not long ago, begin to ache faintly again.

The commanding general hadn’t been wrong—the excruciating pain of the Solar Radiance Cranial Infusion was enough to make a minor celestial deity like her faint for three days. But when she received the punishment, she actually hadn’t fainted. She felt her heart hurt ten thousand times more than her body.

Probably in her brief half-lifetime, what she believed in was the conviction that as long as one worked hard at everything, one could smoothly obtain it. She indeed worked hard and indeed obtained what she wanted, so she had always believed this world, above and below, was fair, and had always taken pride in her own fairness and integrity.

Only Xuan Yi’s existence had shattered everything she believed in. It turned out there had never been any fairness in matters of the heart. Fucang had never paid attention to her efforts, and Shao Yi gave her complete rejection.

The rain threads grew denser and denser. Zhi Xi stopped her movements of wielding the soft sword and, panting heavily, returned it to her waist. Her colleagues had all been transferred by the full war division muster order to deal with the Ba Snake Dajun. Having just received punishment a few days ago, the commanding general was still quite considerate toward her and hadn’t called her to follow along. She had originally wanted to come out to practice sword techniques and move her muscles and bones, but right now the turbid energy was too heavy—it was truly very uncomfortable.

She turned around, about to return to the War Generals’ Palace, when she suddenly felt a sinister wind howling behind her. Immediately after, it seemed something had crashed hard into the forest. Turbid energy rushed toward her face.

She was greatly startled. Gripping her soft sword tightly, she retreated several steps. In her current state, she probably couldn’t exterminate demon clan members. Judging from the degree of turbid energy rippling, it was probably an extremely formidable one.

She hid behind a tall pagoda tree and carefully peeked out, only to see nearby low shrubs shaking violently. Suddenly a colossal pitch-black dragon reared up. Turbid energy swirled all around it. It was twisting in the shrubs in extreme pain. Pitch-black gleaming dragon scales fell off piece by piece. Fresh blood flowed into the rain puddles, dyeing the ground red before freezing into ice inch by inch.

This was… the Zhuyin Dragon God! Zhi Xi gasped. Infected by turbid energy?! By whom? Judging from the body size, could it be Xiaolong Jun?

She was just about to step forward to help when she saw that pitch-black colossal dragon twist violently several times and suddenly transform into a slender scarlet figure—it was Xuan Yi.

Zhi Xi stopped in her tracks with startled uncertainty, watching her clutch her abdomen where blood gushed out continuously. It seemed she had suffered an extremely severe wound. Not only that—her back also had an equally deep wound, as if bitten out by something. What thing could bite and wound a Zhuyin Clan member covered in dragon scales?

Heavy panting echoed through the empty forest. The brilliant scarlet shadow twisted in agony on the ground. Dragon scales fell to the ground piece by piece. The turbid energy on her body grew heavier and heavier. Zhi Xi stared in astonishment as she occasionally lifted her face—that purely beautiful, unparalleled countenance was also a bloody mess, wreathed by pitch-black turbid energy. Moments later it returned to normal again.

Zhi Xi couldn’t help but gasp. The scarlet figure struggling painfully in the forest suddenly moved, falling before her swift as lightning. Dense pitch-black ice blades were about to pierce through her in the blink of an eye, yet they suddenly stopped a few inches in front of her.

The dragon scales gradually stopped falling. Xuan Yi’s face was deathly pale. She clutched the wound on her abdomen that bled continuously, her gaze burning as she stared at her. The ice blades didn’t stab down, but they also didn’t retreat.

Zhi Xi only felt her heart was about to leap out of her throat. After a long while she finally found her voice. “…You’re injured.”

Xuan Yi panted heavily but still didn’t speak. Her sharp gaze fixed on her face. After a very, very long time, her gaze finally became somewhat softer.

“Shijie.” Her voice was somewhat hoarse. “Don’t tell anyone.”

Did she mean the dragon scales falling? Or the injury? Or… this frenzied turbid energy that was gradually being drawn back into her body?

Xuan Yi spoke again, her tone slow. “Shijie, promise me.”

Was she infected by turbid energy? Or was it…

Zhi Xi stared at the fresh blood gushing through her fingers, suddenly remembering long ago, when this little princess hadn’t yet fully grown her dragon scales, she had also been injured. Back then she and Gu Ting had found ancient recipes and brewed Complete Nourishment Soup for her every day.

She couldn’t help but say in a low voice, “Your injury is very severe… what should we do?”

Xuan Yi didn’t answer. Wounded by Huaxu Clan sword energy, even with healing ability, it would take a very long time to recover. Panting, she withdrew the ice blades and turned to leave. Zhi Xi instinctively grabbed her wrist. “Don’t go that way!”

The War Generals’ Palace was in that direction—she would be discovered.

Who would have thought this slender scarlet figure would suddenly tremble and actually go limp, falling heavily onto the muddy ground. Zhi Xi hurriedly picked her up. The wounds on her abdomen and back were truly too deep. The Zhuyin Clan was immune to all techniques—she couldn’t be healed with recovery arts. She felt at a loss, looking around in panic, inexplicably somewhat guilty, as if afraid of being seen by the war generals.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhi Xi picked up all the dragon scales on the ground, carefully rinsing the frozen blood clean with rain dew. After confirming she hadn’t left any traces behind, only then did she vigilantly rise on the wind, deliberately flying through places with dense branches and leaves, winding about circuitously for quite a while before landing in a mountain hollow. With a wave of her long sleeve, the trees on the ground were immediately twisted and straightened by her technique, weaving into a moderately-sized tree house.

She must be mad. Xuan Yi’s condition was so bizarre—she should have reported to the commanding general. If it was infection by turbid energy, there should be a corresponding method of rescue.

Yet in her subconscious she felt this probably wasn’t infection by turbid energy. Xuan Yi’s dragon scales seemed to have been torn off by the turbid energy within her body. If she reported to the commanding general, it would probably be disadvantageous to Xuan Yi.