The Wujiang Fairy poured and drank by herself, downing another cup of wine before sneering coldly. “I originally thought that since you were of the Zhuyin Clan, I should show you some respect. Who knew you’d be so useless? Little Princess, does your leg hurt? Let me tell you—even if you’re not afraid of the Five Elements and Yin-Yang, you can’t escape my hundred thousand poisonous soft barbs. Once they touch your flesh and blood, you’ll never be able to get them out for the rest of your life. As long as I wish it, this right leg of yours will be crippled. Hmph! What Zhuyin Clan! What goddess! Nothing more than this!”

She slammed the crystal cup heavily back onto the table. Xuan Yi’s body suddenly trembled slightly. Expressionlessly, she lifted her skirt hem, only to see that the wound that had stopped bleeding was now torn open once again. The intense pain covered her forehead with cold sweat.

Xuan Yi looked at the wound for a while, then covered it back up with her skirt. Her expression soft and weary, she slowly said, “The Fairy’s methods are indeed formidable, but I’m still all ears. Please resolve my confusion, Fairy—who was that goddess?”

The Wujiang Fairy stared at her coldly. “You seem extremely confident in your own cleverness. Since you want to stall for time, I’ll stall with you. At such a young age, what qualifications do you have to question me? It should be me asking the questions!”

Xuan Yi smiled, unconcerned. “That’s fine too. What questions does the Fairy have?”

The Wujiang Fairy sized her up like a cat toying with a mouse. “Guess—all along this way, you clearly fled very quickly and hid very far away. How did I catch up with you? If you can’t guess, I’ll devour your right leg.”

Xuan Yi took out the pearl string from her bosom and said calmly, “The problem is probably with this pearl string. I looked at it carefully just now. Our master opened the Way of Natural Heaven, emphasizing that three begets all things, so all the various items around him come in multiples of three. I counted the pearls on the string—there are thirty-four. I suspect one of them is a counterfeit made by the Fairy. However, my divine power is meager, so I cannot tell which one is fake.”

The Wujiang Fairy never expected that she would actually guess correctly, and for a moment was at a loss for words.

Xuan Yi said, “May I be all ears now, Fairy?”

The Wujiang Fairy looked at her calm, unruffled eyes. Even though her right leg was dripping with fresh blood, she still maintained the elegance of the Zhuyin Clan, sitting upright, completely unaffected by her injury.

The Wujiang Fairy’s cat-toying-with-mouse expression gradually subsided as she said seriously, “Little Princess is indeed ice-smart and clever, which I greatly admire. Fine, I’ll tell you. I once had a biological younger sister. Twenty thousand years ago, she and I were merely two small fish demons in the Wujiang River. That day, your master passed by the Wujiang River and dropped his pearl string, killing my sister. He told me that my sister should have been reborn as the daughter of the Wujiang River God, but she mistakenly entered a demon fetus. So he dropped the pearl string just before my sister turned five thousand years old to take her away, allowing her to be reborn into a divine fetus. He left the pearl string with me as a token, so that in the future when my sister grew up and became aware, she and I could recognize each other.”

Twenty thousand years ago? All three celestial gods were secretly shocked. From what she said, demon clans spent thousands of years cultivating human form, plus twenty thousand years of cultivation—no wonder there was no record of her in the divine realm. She was still far from reaching one hundred thousand years old.

Xuan Yi looked astonished, covering her mouth with her sleeve and admiringly surveying her from top to bottom. “Being a demon is actually this easy? In just twenty thousand years, you’re more formidable than our divine lords of several hundred thousand years. I’m actually somewhat envious.”

The Wujiang Fairy laughed delicately. “This cunning little princess, trying to get me to talk? So young, yet born far too clever—that’s not a good thing. Since I’ve already offended the Zhuyin Clan, I might as well offend them thoroughly!”

Her fingernails suddenly grew several inches long, each one sharp as a blade. She actually attacked without warning, without any forewarning, clawing toward Xuan Yi’s heart. With a crisp “ding,” the blade-like fingernails struck the Chun Jun sword that suddenly blocked her attack. Several of her nails broke instantly, while Fucang was knocked back several steps by her great force, his finger bones aching intensely, nearly unable to hold onto Chun Jun.

The Wujiang Fairy sneered. “Fucang Shenjun, if you keep protecting her, I’ll kill you together with her.”

She transformed into a dark wind and charged straight over, reaching for Xuan Yi again. But suddenly it became hot behind her as Shao Yi’s long arms embraced her, his fingertips holding a Phoenix Nirvana flame flower and presenting it before her, saying softly, “Fairy, I don’t like watching beautiful women fight and kill. Let’s drink wine and chat pleasantly instead. Don’t resort to violence.”

The Wujiang Fairy grasped that cluster of Phoenix Nirvana Fire with her bare hands and extinguished it with a “tsk.” She smiled ambiguously. “You two divine lords have exhausted your tricks for the little princess, truly taking great pains. But unfortunately, I insist on killing her!”

Shao Yi sighed. Today he had sighed more times than he usually did in an entire year. “Little loach, if Senior Brother runs away by himself, you won’t blame me, right?”

Xuan Yi looked at him seriously. “I will. If Senior Brother Shao Yi runs away, even from inside the Fairy’s belly, I’ll curse you to never encounter another goddess in this lifetime.”

Shao Yi smiled bitterly. “How terrifying.”

The Wujiang Fairy in his arms twisted her body, trying to catch Xuan Yi again. He had no choice but to bend his arm and embrace her again, his chin pressing against her shoulder hollow as he said in a low voice, “For my sake, Fairy, please rest for a moment.”

The Wujiang Fairy didn’t answer. Her two fingers stabbed toward his eyes. Shao Yi tilted his head to avoid them, only to feel the demonic power surging violently within the body in his arms, overwhelmingly powerful. His arms could no longer hold her and were shaken apart. Fortunately, Xuan Yi opposite him had already been picked up by Fucang like a sack of rice, avoiding the Wujiang Fairy’s strike.

“…” Fucang looked at the Wujiang Fairy’s livid expression, thought about it, and was still a bit hesitant. “Chewing and eating celestial gods—could it be to force Baize Dijun to descend to the lower realm to see you?”

What kind of inexplicable question was this?! Xuan Yi and Shao Yi’s expressions instantly became extremely strange.

The Wujiang Fairy was obviously also greatly shocked, revealing a face full of disgust. “Baize Dijun? With that perpetually childish appearance, how could I possibly fancy him!”

Before her words fell, she saw a flash of cold light. Chun Jun shot toward her like a silver dragon. Being approached by this heavenly treasure sword made her feel instinctive terror, and she hastily retreated several zhang. Fucang then threw Xuan Yi toward Shao Yi like tossing a sack of rice, gripped Chun Jun tightly, and pursued. Without the troublesome dragon princess beside him, he had no reservations. He recited an incantation and touched the Wujiang Fairy’s shoulder. She had just been greatly stimulated by his words, and her demonic power had actually scattered somewhat. Her body involuntarily fell to the right. She heard him say as if relieved, “That’s good then.”

The cold light of Chun Jun stabbed toward her face, incredibly fast. She was bound by the incantation and could only tilt her head to dodge. The next moment, she felt a coolness in her left eye. Despite her demonic power being so powerful that her body was impervious to blades and spears, she was actually injured in the left eye by Chun Jun.

She roared in pain. The brown-red dress on her body immediately shattered into fragments. Tremendous wind and demonic clouds howled and swept wildly within this small River God’s residence. She revealed her enormous demon form, silently roaring at the three divine beings on the ground below. Her giant mouth was full of densely packed steel teeth, each thicker than their thighs.

Shao Yi retreated several steps while holding Xuan Yi, laughing helplessly. “So this is what you actually look like. It looks quite frightening.”

Seeing that giant fish tail about to slap down—the force of this slap, combined with her vast and terrifying demonic power, would probably turn the entire River God’s residence to dust, let alone the three of them, small divine beings.

Fucang retreated swiftly toward the main door, about to split the door open again, when he heard Xuan Yi laugh. “Fairy, look here.”

She raised her hand, her fingertips holding that string of pearls and shaking it. The Wujiang Fairy immediately understood that the pearl string was still in this little princess’s hands. She shouted hatefully, “Give it back to me!”

Xuan Yi said leisurely, “The Fairy has kept this pearl string for so many years and even specially captured countless divine beings to nurture it. It must be very important to you, right? Alas, it’s all because of this broken pearl string—it makes me angry just looking at it. Watch me freeze it into ice and crush it.”

The Wujiang Fairy immediately flew into a rage. “You dare?!”

Xuan Yi said mockingly, “I’m about to be killed anyway. What wouldn’t I dare?”

Masses of cold air emerged from her palm. In an instant, the thirty-four pearls were frozen into ice lumps. Her five slender fingers slowly closed together, as if she were about to crush them immediately.

The Wujiang Fairy never imagined she would pull this kind of trick. Her mind and spirit surging, her demonic power could no longer condense. She dispersed her demon form and revealed her human body, only roaring, “Such audacity!”

But then a strange and resonant celestial voice came from overhead. “Indeed, such audacity!”

Immediately following, tremendous lightning struck down, instantly splitting open this River God’s residence within the grain of sand. The ground full of flame flowers rolled about in chaos. This virtual world filled with mist shattered like an eggshell. Light and shadow changed in an instant, and in the blink of an eye, they had returned to the bottom of the Wujiang River.