A blur of light and shadows filled Qin Xiang’s vision, while that cold, delicate hand remained motionless on her wrist for a long moment. Though she found it strange, her heart still instinctively recoiled in fear.

“Fifth Sister… Fifth Sister?”

Just as Qin Xiang was so frightened she could barely breathe, a gentle call suddenly rang out. Qin Xiang froze, and in the next moment, she felt someone grab her hand. She blinked hard several times, and the double vision before her finally cleared somewhat. She stared dumbfounded at the face that appeared before her, almost feeling as if she had entered a dream.

But soon, Qin Xiang knew this was no dream.

If it were a dream, she could never have dreamed of Qin Wan…

Standing before her was Qin Wan, wearing a jade-colored pleated dress with a lotus-pink cape. She didn’t appear disheveled, though a few strands of hair had come loose from her bun. She looked at Qin Xiang with anxious eyes, seeming to call out to her.

Qin Xiang frowned slightly, wondering why Qin Wan had appeared there.

With this thought, a huge hope suddenly arose in Qin Xiang’s heart. Never mind Qin Wan – even if it were just a servant here, she would beg them for help. Using all her strength, she managed: “Save… me…”

Qin Wan looked at Qin Xiang with furrowed brows, quickly pulling out a pill from her sleeve and placing it in Qin Xiang’s mouth. It was a Heart-Clearing Detoxification Pill that she always kept with her, which could neutralize most common drugs. However, Qin Xiang had been given anesthetic drugs, and this antidote couldn’t eliminate it. There wasn’t time to wait for all the poison to leave Qin Xiang’s system.

After Qin Xiang swallowed the Heart-Clearing Detoxification Pill, Qin Wan suddenly moved swiftly to take out a silver needle from her sleeve. She raised her hand and pierced it into Qin Xiang’s shoulder and neck. In an instant, Qin Xiang let out a soft groan of pain.

Intense pain and a numbing sensation spread from her shoulder and neck. Though the pain made tears stream from her eyes, she regained some feeling in her limbs and upper body. Qin Xiang moved her lips, finally able to speak.

“Heart… Doctor Sun… wants my heart…”

“Two hours… in two hours he’ll come…”

Speaking thus, Qin Xiang’s gaze wavered as she continued, “Bei Fei Yu… Bei Fei Yu is Shang Lu… he’s Doctor Sun’s subordinate… not Young Master Bai…”

Her speech was confused, and she worried Qin Wan wouldn’t understand, but unexpectedly, Qin Wan showed no surprise. Qin Wan nodded and efficiently helped her up, saying, “First, get up—”

Qin Xiang was pulled to her feet. Her outer robe had been removed, leaving her in only her undergarments. Seeing this, Qin Wan unfastened her cape, which still carried her body warmth, and draped it over Qin Xiang’s shoulders. As Qin Wan deftly tied the strings at her neck, Qin Xiang’s nose tingled with emotion. “How… how are you here?”

As Qin Xiang spoke, her eyes reddened again. Qin Wan glanced at her, showing no joy or emotion at this reunion between sisters. She only looked at Qin Xiang with a stern expression, “Now is not the time to discuss this. We need to leave this place.”

Qin Xiang quickly nodded. At this point, she would overlook anything to save her life.

“Good, let’s go now…”

Qin Xiang agreed hurriedly, but Qin Wan’s brows remained furrowed. Qin Xiang looked at her in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Qin Wan had to explain, “Third Brother went to chase after you, but we separated on the way and haven’t heard from him since. Sixth Sister, along with Fu Ling, Wan Qing, and the others, have all been captured and brought in. They’re still unconscious in the outer room.”

Qin Xiang’s eyes widened immediately, but Qin Wan grabbed her arm, saying, “Let’s go.”

Qin Xiang was pulled to her feet. She had lost her shoes and now wore only cloud socks, but there was no time to worry about such things. Her whole body was numb, and she stumbled along with Qin Wan, who had to support her by letting her lean against her side.

Just as they exited the ice room, Qin Wan suddenly halted.

Qin Xiang looked at her in confusion, and Qin Wan immediately said, “Someone’s coming—”

As Qin Xiang was still surprised, a faint sound of footsteps reached her ears. Her heart suddenly jumped, and fear immediately showed on her face. Qin Wan’s eyes swept around, and she supported Qin Xiang as they walked toward the other side of the ice room.

They moved further from the exit, heading deeper into the dark residence.

After turning another corner, Qin Wan stopped. She listened carefully, feeling that the footsteps were approaching the ice room. Her heart rose to her throat. If that person reached the ice room and discovered Qin Xiang missing, they would be discovered, and at this point, all her efforts would have been in vain.

Qin Wan bit her lip lightly, hearing the footsteps pass by the ice room without pause and continue in their direction. Qin Wan grabbed Qin Xiang’s hand and immediately headed deeper inside.

This dark residence was ancient, and a cold feeling permeated every one of Qin Wan’s senses. They followed the corridor deeper inside, passing one hidden door after another. Qin Wan didn’t know what lay behind them and dared not enter rashly, but she felt the footsteps behind them still hadn’t stopped. Seeing a straight passage ahead and hearing the footsteps drawing near, Qin Wan had no choice but to push open a hidden door and slip inside with Qin Xiang.

As soon as the door closed, the footsteps in the outer corridor became particularly eerie.

The footsteps grew closer and closer, and Qin Xiang gripped Qin Wan’s arm tightly.

In the darkness, Qin Wan frowned but didn’t push Qin Xiang away. The footsteps drew ever closer, finally passing by their door. Qin Wan quietly let out a breath of relief, while Qin Xiang collapsed to the ground.

As Qin Xiang sat down, she made a rustling sound. Qin Wan quickly pressed down on her and made a soft “shush” sound.

Qin Xiang understood and immediately froze. The person had just passed by their door and would surely return later. If they heard any noise from the room, they would be discovered…

Qin Xiang didn’t dare be careless. They hadn’t even made it to the exit, and who knew what was hidden in this dark residence? Once it was discovered she had escaped, it would be too easy for Sun Haoyue and the others to find her.

Qin Xiang remained motionless beside Qin Wan. Just then, she detected a very strange odor, like sewage, but with an additional spine-chilling smell of decay that made it worse than mere sewage. Qin Xiang immediately gripped Qin Wan’s arm tightly. In these circumstances, all her usual jealousy and resentment had been forgotten completely.

After about half an hour, the footsteps returned from the depths of the dark residence, quickly passing by the door where the two were hiding.

Both Qin Wan and Qin Xiang held their breath, only letting it out in relief when the footsteps had disappeared completely.

“What should we do? Should we go out now?”

Qin Wan instinctively felt that the person from before hadn’t gone far, so she shook her head.

She stood up and, looking into the pitch-black room, took out a fire stick. With a “crack,” the fire stick instantly lit up, immediately illuminating half of this spacious room…

“What… what is this?”

Qin Xiang didn’t dare speak loudly but still couldn’t help asking quietly, because as far as they could see, this dark room was filled with white porcelain jars, one after another.

These jars, both large and small, were all arranged in rows on long tables. From the outside, one couldn’t tell what they contained, but the nauseating and frightening smell indicated that these jars must hold something.

Qin Wan narrowed her eyes, instinctively walking among the jars with her fire stick. This room was about ten Zhang square, and Qin Wan could see thirty or forty jars. Directly opposite her, Qin Wan was surprised to discover that this room had another section. Given the dangerous situation, they shouldn’t move around carelessly, but as Qin Wan looked at these jars, she couldn’t help but feel a chill. Having examined so many corpses and saved so many people, Qin Wan had an instinctive premonition… she was about to discover Sun Haoyue’s deeply hidden secret.

Holding the fire stick in one hand and pulling Qin Xiang with the other, she passed by the long tables filled with jars, stepping slowly toward the second section of the room. Qin Xiang trembled in fear, instinctively huddling into Qin Wan’s cape, her hand gripping Qin Wan’s tightly, unwilling to let go. They moved extremely slowly, afraid of making any unnecessary sound.

Soon, Qin Wan saw the second section of the room…

In an instant, every hair on her body stood on end. Behind her, Qin Xiang couldn’t help but let out a low cry, and then quickly released Qin Wan’s hand to retch at the side.

This second section was also extremely cold. As Qin Wan stepped in, she immediately saw ice basins placed in the four corners of the room. She wanted to take a few more steps forward, but seeing the relatively fresh corpse laid out on the central table, Qin Wan couldn’t move another step. It was a corpse no more than seven days old, only slightly decomposed due to proper preservation.

The corpse wasn’t bloated but was covered in deep purple postmortem lividity. Beneath the purple marks, the corpse’s skin was particularly pale. What horrified Qin Wan and Qin Xiang was that while the corpse’s limbs were intact, from the neck down to the hip bones, there was little more than skeleton and skin – all the internal organs had been removed.

The corpse lay silently on the long table. At its feet were several large porcelain vessels containing crystalline ice blocks, and atop the ice blocks lay several objects of varying shapes.

As Qin Wan looked at each one, the organs she had only seen illustrated in medical books now appeared vividly before her eyes.

At once, what was contained in the numerous jars behind her became almost self-evident.

An eerie coldness crept in from all directions, penetrating every pore of Qin Wan’s body.

She had once said there were no heart-eating monsters in this world…

Qin Wan stood for a long while before taking another step forward, immediately spotting the surgical tools laid out on the long table.

Like the Nine Needles of the Plain Questions, there were seven or eight of these instruments – long and short, curved and straight, each different in shape but all extremely thin and exquisite, even more delicate than the Cold Moon blade in her sleeve. Qin Wan could almost imagine how these exquisite tools could cleanly and precisely extract a person’s heart…

Her gaze shifted, and Qin Wan noticed another long table in the distance. While this table was currently clean and empty, beneath it was a wooden box containing something. Qin Wan, holding the fire stick, circled the table with the corpse and walked in small steps toward the box. Qin Xiang, who had been retching at the side, quickly came forward to grab Qin Wan’s arm when she saw her move. When they reached the box, they discovered it contained the corpses of two cats.

Qin Xiang let out a “wa” sound and began retching again.

Qin Wan’s gaze became concentrated as she looked around the empty room. When she looked at the long table, she could even imagine Sun Haoyue standing there in white robes, removing the organs from the corpse. Qin Wan’s brows furrowed briefly – who was this corpse?

With this thought, Qin Wan moved closer to look at the corpse’s face.

It was a face covered in deep purple postmortem marks, and although the corpse was incomplete, Qin Wan could tell it was female. Looking carefully at the somewhat withered hair, she thought the deceased must have been a young woman. As Qin Wan was wondering who the deceased might be, her eyes fell on the hand placed at the corpse’s side.

Seeing that withered, pale hand, a scene suddenly flashed through Qin Wan’s mind…

The funeral they had seen in front of the Changfu Inn!

Just as Qin Wan’s eyes narrowed slightly, suddenly, a cold draft swept through behind them.

“So you’re here—”

The cold voice suddenly rang out, startling Qin Xiang into a light cry. Qin Wan also turned abruptly at the sound, only to see that a hidden door had appeared in the wall of this second section, and “Bei Fei Yu,” dressed in silver robes, stood in the doorway, looking at them with dark eyes…

In the past, Qin Xiang’s eyes would have sparkled at the sight of Bei Fei Yu, but now she felt only resentment and shame. This Shang Lu was just a servant, just a servant pretending to be Bei Fei Yu, yet she had fallen for him! The person she had taken a liking to was just a servant who had deceived her and meant her harm.

Qin Xiang tightly held Qin Wan’s arm, half-hiding behind her, her eyes lowered, wanting to look at “Bei Fei Yu” yet unable to. Meanwhile, “Bei Fei Yu” slowly entered the room.

Qin Wan immediately backed away, her peripheral vision scanning behind her, searching for an escape route.

“Where is your master?”

With a slight turn of her eyes, Qin Wan suddenly asked in a deep voice. A flash of surprise crossed “Bei Fei Yu’s” eyes, seemingly not expecting the delicate Qin Wan to not only be unafraid but to speak with such authority. “Bei Fei Yu” smiled noncommittally, his eyes devoid of any emotion.

“You came to save her? I’m afraid you won’t be able to save her, and you’ll end up trapped yourself. You weren’t supposed to know so many secrets, and normally Master would just feed you some Forget-Worry Powder, making you forget everything you learned. But since you came in yourself and saw so much, you’ve chosen your path to death.” As he spoke, “Bei Fei Yu” shook his head.

“One wasn’t enough, and you’ve delivered so many more of yourselves here, all for her?”

Shang Lu glanced at Qin Xiang, his eyes showing a hint of mockery. In that instant, Qin Xiang’s fear of this room and this person lessened – Shang Lu’s mocking tone almost made her want to take a knife and kill him.

However, Qin Wan keenly noticed something amiss. “One wasn’t enough? Besides us, who else is here?”

Shang Lu smiled without answering, but Qin Wan’s eyes darkened. “Is Butler Zhou here too?”

Qin Wan now understood. Zhou Huai had taken this main road, and they should have encountered him on their way from San Yuan Village. Yet strangely, they hadn’t seen him at all during their journey. She had been puzzled about where he had gone, but now she understood – Zhou Huai must have found some truth in what she said but didn’t want them to risk themselves together, so he had come here alone.

Shang Lu didn’t speak, but neither did he deny it. He seemed to have lost patience for further discussion with them and suddenly moved toward Qin Wan. He was naturally lean, his movements graceful – a martial arts expert. Qin Xiang’s legs went weak with fear. Seeing him advance, Qin Wan suddenly pulled something from her sleeve.

With a “whoosh,” Shang Lu frowned as a crimson spot appeared on his silver robes.

Shang Lu looked incredulously at the sleeve arrow in Qin Wan’s hand, then at the bloodstain on his thigh. He suddenly let out a cold snort and charged at Qin Wan. Qin Wan pulled Qin Xiang back toward the first section of the room, her sleeve arrows firing rapidly with “whoosh whoosh” sounds. However, Shang Lu was now on guard, and Qin Wan’s arrows had little effect, merely adding two or three grazing wounds…

Soon, Qin Wan’s sleeve arrows were depleted. These arrows were given to her by Yue Ning for self-defense, and she usually kept them in her bundle rather than on her person. She had only brought them this time because the trip to Hundred Herbs Garden was risky. It could only hold ten small arrows at once. This was Qin Wan’s first time using such a device, and with the arrows’ limited damage potential, they couldn’t be lethal. Shang Lu’s martial arts were exceptional, and he showed no fear of pain. In moments, he was before Qin Wan, who stepped back hurriedly, inwardly crying out in dismay…

As a burst of force approached, Qin Wan’s eyes swept around and spotted the porcelain jars on the long table behind her. A quick idea struck her, and she grabbed one of the jars and hurled it at Shang Lu. When she grabbed the jar, Shang Lu indeed hesitated, and when the jar flew at him, his first instinct was to try to catch it—

Qin Wan’s eyes brightened, and she shouted while throwing more jars, “Run—”

The anesthetic hadn’t worn off from Qin Xiang’s body, leaving her limbs weak and numb. However, seeing Qin Wan struggling to keep Shang Lu at bay, she immediately ran for the door. Seeing this, Shang Lu’s eyes turned cold. When the next jar came flying, he no longer showed any hesitation. With a “crash,” a white porcelain jar shattered on the ground, releasing a bitter, foul smell. Among the scattered porcelain shards, Qin Wan saw something round and crimson roll out—

Qin Wan’s heart pounded. If Shang Lu had lost even this measure of hesitation, she and Qin Xiang were truly like fish on a chopping block. Her sleeve flickered, and Cold Moon fell into Qin Wan’s hand. Seeing Qin Wan’s defensive posture, Shang Lu gave a cold smile, then leaped to block Qin Xiang who had nearly reached the door. He coldly regarded Qin Xiang, “Where do you think you’re running?”

Just as Qin Xiang was about to escape, her path was suddenly blocked. She froze, face pale, trying to back away, but Shang Lu flashed before her. Qin Xiang only saw a silver blur, and before she could react, her throat was tightly gripped. A sharp pain shot through her neck, and she began coughing violently.

“Cough, cough, cough—”

Qin Wan stood to the side holding Cold Moon, as a chill spread from her feet to her heart.

Shang Lu could restrain Qin Xiang with just one hand. He took out a medicine bottle from his belt and threw it at Qin Wan’s feet. “Take it.”

Seeing Qin Wan remain motionless, Shang Lu immediately tightened his grip. With this fierce squeeze, Qin Xiang struggled helplessly. Watching this, Qin Wan bent down to pick up the medicine bottle. She opened it and poured out a brown pill. As the pill rolled in her palm, Qin Wan looked up at Shang Lu.

Shang Lu squeezed again threateningly, forcing Qin Xiang’s head back as her feet kicked weakly.

Qin Wan’s eyes lowered briefly before she raised her head to take the medicine—

With a “bang,” the door that Qin Wan had previously closed suddenly burst open.

Qin Wan froze, Qin Xiang was startled, and Shang Lu turned back in surprise. But just as he turned, an incredibly powerful palm strike landed on his back. Shang Lu felt his heart and lungs shake, and blood welled up in his throat. His grip loosened, and before he could react, another palm strike hit his lower back. This time, Shang Lu staggered forward two steps, his vision went black, and he collapsed.

Qin Xiang collapsed to the ground, coughing desperately, while Qin Wan frowned as she looked at the wooden-faced Wan Xing.

She had seen it clearly – from breaking down the door to striking, Wan Xing’s movements had been even more decisive and skilled than Shang Lu’s. Qin Wan’s eyes fell on Shang Lu lying on the ground, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. She knew his internal injuries were severe.

Wan Xing maintained her usual submissive, silent demeanor, head slightly bowed. “Young Miss, this servant has found the exit. Let me lead you out—”