Seeing that figure and posture, Yelu Qi immediately knew it was Xu Pingran. She had actually turned back down the mountain midway tonight!

What was worse, at this moment, calculating from her speed, he no longer had time to properly bury this dug-out pit.

Yelu Qi remained calm in his urgency, signaling Yelu Xunru from afar to leave quickly. Xu Pingran now had beast-like keen senses—it would be difficult to hide any movement within several li from her.

Yelu Xunru also sent back a responding signal, but Yelu Qi frowned. Sure enough, he then saw a black shadow flash as Yelu Xunru came down from the tree and rushed straight toward Xu Pingran.

Yelu Qi smiled bitterly. There were two women in this world he couldn’t handle—one was Xunru, the other was Jing Hengbo.

He watched as Yelu Xunru’s figure flashed not far in front of Xu Pingran and disappeared into the grass. Xu Pingran indeed stopped, her gaze turning coldly and sharply in that direction.

At this moment, Yelu Qi’s thoughts flashed like lightning.

If he fled now, he ultimately still couldn’t escape Xu Pingran. This woman turning back midway at night should mean she already knew about his movements and was ready to make her move against him. Even if he fled back to the main compound now, it would just be fleeing back to the Xueshan disciples’ den—equivalent to walking into a trap.

Better to take a risk and try—success or failure would be decided in this one gamble.

Looking around, behind the courtyard was a vegetable plot, empty and barren with no place to hide.

…

Xu Pingran’s white dress had appeared increasingly loose recently, dancing ethereally like something weightless in the night wind. From afar, it also resembled paper streamers.

Her footsteps that had been heading toward the small courtyard stopped, her gaze turning toward the black shadow not far ahead. The black shadow didn’t move very fast, and she seemed uninterested, her gaze glancing over casually before lifting her feet to continue toward the courtyard.

Suddenly, behind the black shadow, a white shadow darted past, dragging the black shadow away at lightning speed. Xu Pingran’s gaze flashed, and her raised footstep stopped again.

This white shadow, this movement technique—it vaguely resembled what was unique to Xueshan people. Could some disciple have betrayed her?

The importance of this matter at this moment exceeded investigating Yelu Qi. Xu Pingran turned and pursued those black and white shadows.

Those two seemed extremely familiar with the terrain, turning east and west. Several times when Xu Pingran was about to catch up to them, she would suddenly lose their traces. Finally, in front of an abandoned waterwheel house, Xu Pingran clearly saw the two enter, but after circling several times, she didn’t see a single person.

Under the moonlight, Xu Pingran’s expression appeared somewhat irritated. Looking at the empty, dilapidated house, she flicked her sleeve and turned to leave.

The darkness was completely silent except for the distant chirping of summer insects.

After quite a while, from somewhere unknown came whispered sounds.

“…Ugh… it stinks, it stinks…”

“Fortunately, behind this waterwheel house there’s still half a room blocked by a wall, with only a small hole… but how does it lead to the neighboring pigsty…”

“Heh heh heh, the noble wife of Tianmen Sect Master always keeps her eyes looking upward—how would she look down at a dog hole…”

“Cheap little brother, why aren’t you saying anything? Doesn’t the pigsty smell nice?”

“Ah… cheap little brother, tell me, we’ve been sending messages to that old codger for so many days—why hasn’t he arrived yet? Where the hell did he go?”

…

The small courtyard of the exterminated family had low walls and broken gates, appearing desolate and cold under the moonlight.

Snow-white dress hem brushed against the ground as Xu Pingran’s eyes slowly swept the surroundings.

Having failed to track those black and white shadows, she returned to the small courtyard. The courtyard was empty without a soul in sight.

A trace of cold laughter flashed in her eyes—so he took the opportunity to escape? Where could he run to? Did he think he could still escape this calamity?

Three days ago, she discovered that her personal maid and inner disciple Su Nian seemed off. After careful observation, she finally discovered that Su Nian had actually fallen for someone.

The object of her affection was obviously Yelu Qi. This man possessed an elegant grace that Xueshan disciples couldn’t have, and his calm composure forged through countless trials was very charming. Not just Su Nian—more than half the female Xueshan disciples couldn’t keep their eyes off him.

Xu Pingran wouldn’t care about others, but Su Nian was her personal attendant who couldn’t have any problems. Sure enough, once she paid attention, she discovered issues with the food and drink Su Nian gave her.

It wasn’t poison—no one could poison her. The problem was with the food itself—all items that conflicted with her cultivation technique. Sometimes it was seasoning, sometimes just a thin layer smeared on the bowl’s rim. The methods were extremely secretive and skillful. Many medicines wouldn’t show problems once or twice, but combined together, one would discover that everything eaten during a certain period had very adverse cumulative effects. This technique revealed that the perpetrator not only possessed extraordinary wisdom and patience but already knew she was practicing Tianxie.

Tianxie, as the name suggested, was naturally Tianmen’s evil technique. The Nine-Level Tianmen had always prided itself as a transcendent sect and orthodox prestigious school, but no matter how prestigious and orthodox, they inevitably faced disasters and lean times. To stand firm through centuries of changes and upheavals, some secret methods were indispensable. This Tianxie was a technique that a certain Tianmen Sect Master had obtained through dishonorable means when fighting an equally matched enemy to ensure victory. The technique itself was somewhat incomplete and required extremely high martial foundations from the practitioner—only someone with sect master-level profound skills could cultivate this martial art. But who at the sect master level would be willing to abandon their foundation and risk learning this incomplete, uncertain technique? Not to mention this technique was very disgusting to practice, and while Tianmen people dressed in snow-white might be filthy inside, they all loved cleanliness on the surface.

Xu Pingran was determined to seize the country. Now seeing things going unfavorably, she couldn’t return to Tianmen, Murong Chou might not spare her, and being forced out of Di Ge had greatly damaged her strength. To gather power again, she first needed to be strong enough herself. With no choice, she began practicing this legendary evil technique that, if successful, could dominate the world but would curse the practitioner for life.

Thinking of being forced every night to eat or use even more disgusting methods to consume those bloody, reeking fierce beast organs according to requirements, the cold gleam in her eyes grew colder. After this stage, there would be even more cruel and ruthless processes that made even someone as iron-hearted as her shiver while looking at the current yellowing, light red moon.

That moonlight was so unclean, just like those things swallowed alive…

She felt increasingly agitated in her heart. Whether it was the technique’s side effects or Yelu Qi’s doing, this irritation generated intense killing intent. She decided not to kill beasts tonight, but to kill people.

To kill just like those beasts—slowly, silently, inch by inch, tearing apart… listening to the sound of blood hitting the ground, thick and hot, while her heart remained ice-cold.

She paced in the empty courtyard. The person in her hand struggled slightly, and she suddenly awakened, remembering she still had someone in her grasp.

She looked down to see the woman in her hand had disheveled hair but revealed a pair of eyes that were somewhat frightened yet relatively calm.

This was her prey for tonight. Earlier when going up the mountain, she saw a group of people had just arrived below and were heading toward the village. She recognized these people as wearing Ji Kingdom’s military uniform and intuitively felt they were related to her, so she simply captured what appeared to be the highest-ranking person among that group on her way down.

The first stage of her Tianxie technique was nearly complete. The second stage would require living people, preferably women, and this woman’s constitution met her requirements perfectly.

There was some loose soil on the ground, proving this place had been dug before. It must be the family who died from eating beast meat and were buried here on the spot.

She threw the woman down, took a shovel from the courtyard, and casually dug a few times, revealing a shallow pit. At the bottom, under the mud, the dark clothing of a corpse was vaguely visible.

Xu Pingran paid no attention. She had matters on her mind and didn’t plan to dig out the corpse. Seeing she had uncovered the body, she stopped and grabbed the woman beside her.

Soil trickled down, falling on Yelu Qi’s nose.

He remained motionless.

The shovel dug carelessly, striking his body several times, but he didn’t move.

He was that “corpse.”

The moment before Xu Pingran entered, he had jumped into the pit, lying on the corpse below and covering himself with soil. He had planned to strike when Xu Pingran came to this area, but she never approached closely. When she did approach, she began using the shovel to dig. Face to face, no one was a match for Xu Pingran, so he dared not move, waiting for an opportunity.

He never expected Xu Pingran to be digging at the corpse. What did she want with this body? Yelu Qi was prepared to strike if she continued digging, but Xu Pingran stopped when there was still a shallow layer of soil between them.

Yelu Qi breathed a long sigh of relief inwardly, then felt his back becoming itchy with a kind of cold feeling slowly seeping into his bone marrow. He frowned, remembering that beneath him was the corpse rumored to have died of plague.

The plague was fake, but the poison was real.

Xu Pingran stood up, threw down the shovel, and turned her face aside.

A perfect opportunity!

Yelu Qi sprang up!

“Bang.” Someone was suddenly thrown down, hitting Yelu Qi squarely and stopping his rising momentum.

The soil on Yelu Qi’s face was knocked off. Instinctively opening his eyes, he met a pair of extremely shocked eyes.

These eyes seemed very familiar. Due to excessive fright, the woman on top of him opened her mouth to scream but suddenly stopped and bit her teeth.

Yelu Qi felt the woman’s face was familiar and was startled. He had originally wanted to strike regardless of everything but immediately stopped.

With just this pause, Xu Pingran had returned above, and soil began falling down, covering both of them.

The woman was also clever. Despite her great shock, she actually controlled her emotions, pretended to faint, and lay motionless against Yelu Qi.

Yelu Qi felt her position pressed against his chest carried a wordless intimacy, but this wasn’t the time to push her away. He could only wait as cold soil covered them.

Xu Pingran seemed distracted, casually covering them with a few shovelfuls before stopping. After stopping, she didn’t leave but lingered by the pit, as if waiting for something.

The two people in the pit remained motionless. The soil was loosely packed with air gaps, so they wouldn’t suffocate immediately.

A faint fragrance came from the woman, making Yelu Qi feel somewhat better, though this scent also seemed familiar.

Suddenly, an image of a luxurious carriage flashed through his mind, along with a pair of warm red lips actively approaching…

He suddenly felt a slight itch on his chest as the woman wrote with her finger. He carefully identified the characters: “Long time no see?” followed by what seemed to be a signature. After puzzling over it twice, he suddenly understood.

Ji Wen!

Why had this Ji Kingdom princess suddenly appeared here and been captured by Xu Pingran?

But he could no longer think clearly—his back was suddenly very itchy, becoming increasingly so. Within the itching was also a bone-piercing cold that slowly traveled up his spine. He could even feel that dark energy slowly spreading throughout his entire body.

He began trembling slightly. Ji Wen had been watching him intently and felt his trembling. Not knowing if she thought he was excited or worried his violent shaking would alert Xu Pingran, she hugged him even tighter.

She lay on Yelu Qi’s chest, positioned slightly lower with her chest pressed tightly against Yelu Qi’s lower abdomen. With this tight embrace and skin friction, Yelu Qi’s body trembled as he felt his back cold as ice while his lower abdomen suddenly surged with heat.

The alternating cold and heat was truly a wonderful sensation. The more Yelu Qi couldn’t control his trembling, the more nervously Ji Wen hugged him tighter. After several cycles, Yelu Qi painfully closed his eyes—he discovered he was actually becoming aroused!

This was truly an awful predicament.

Above, Xu Pingran still hadn’t left. She suddenly muttered, “It’s about time…”

Listening, Yelu Qi was initially confused, then suddenly his heart shook violently.

Xu Pingran wouldn’t have thrown Ji Wen down for no reason!

There was nothing else in this pit except that corpse. Xu Pingran throwing Ji Wen down here must have wanted her to contact the corpse.

What was the purpose of contacting such a corpse?

To poison her!

The corpse was covered in poison! It could infect even through clothing!

They couldn’t stay in this pit!

The loose soil above trembled as Xu Pingran reached down to grab Ji Wen. Ji Wen immediately released Yelu Qi, her eyes carrying a hint of farewell.

Yelu Qi had no time to think further. He suddenly sprang up, the short blade already gripped in his hand piercing past Ji Wen’s body straight toward Xu Pingran’s heart.

He used all his strength in this strike, so much that the soil beneath was carried up several feet. As mud scattered, it pattered against all three of them.

Xu Pingran only saw a dark shadow suddenly rise from beneath Ji Wen. In her shock, thinking it was a corpse coming to life, and being a woman after all, she couldn’t help but step back. Then the wind from Yelu Qi’s true power made her understand, but mud was flying toward her face, blinding her eyes and forcing her to step back again.

Ji Wen was very agile, desperately twisting her body aside. Yelu Qi’s figure slipped past her like a swimming fish, the short blade’s light misty and bright, piercing straight toward the heart.

“Clang.” A sound like metal striking metal rang out softly.

Yelu Qi’s heart sank as he felt the short blade in his hand encounter what seemed like an ice surface, sliding right past with a “chi” sound, tearing Xu Pingran’s chest garment but drawing no blood.

When fighting such a master, if the first move failed, all advantage was lost.

Yelu Qi retreated urgently. Ji Wen, held in Xu Pingran’s hand, suddenly raised her foot and kicked toward Xu Pingran’s lower abdomen.

Xu Pingran seemed to sneer and didn’t dodge.

“Crack.” A soft sound of tendons or bones breaking. Ji Wen cried out in pain.

Xu Pingran’s hand had already passed over her raised leg and was grabbing toward Yelu Qi.

Ji Wen’s intervention still gave Yelu Qi a chance to retreat further. Xu Pingran only caught Yelu Qi’s outer garment. “Rip.” Yelu Qi’s inner and outer clothes were torn by her sharp nails from collar to lower abdomen, missing his stomach by just a hair.

Yelu Qi broke into a light sweat. Xu Pingran sneered again and was about to advance for another strike when her gaze inadvertently fell on Yelu Qi’s lower abdomen.

Her gaze first swept past carelessly, then suddenly shook violently.

That abdomen seemed to have a pattern…

She suddenly turned her gaze back to Yelu Qi’s abdomen. Yelu Qi was still retreating, but his speed had slowed. The poison he’d contracted was taking effect—dark energy was vaguely visible between his brows, and large patches of blue-black bruise-like things were spreading from his back toward the front half of his body. But just as Xu Pingran turned her gaze back, that dark energy had already spread to his abdomen, perfectly covering the exposed portion of Yelu Qi’s abdominal skin.

The sky was dark, and the small courtyard had no lights. At this moment, in Xu Pingran’s eyes, she could only see under Yelu Qi’s torn garment hem a vague mix of half-black, half-red in a blurry mass.

This blurry mass made her withdraw her killing move, drop Ji Wen, and flash forward to grab at Yelu Qi’s garment.

Yelu Qi’s evasive movements were now extremely slow. The toxicity ran rampant in his body, his legs gradually becoming numb and unresponsive. Using all his strength, he could only retreat three feet.

Ji Wen lunged forward to grab Xu Pingran’s legs, but before getting within three feet of her body, she was swept away by Xu Pingran’s sleeve, crashing beyond the courtyard wall with a thunderous impact.

Xu Pingran’s fingers had already reached Yelu Qi’s chest garment.

Under the faint moonlight, her fingernails gleamed with dark blue light.

Yelu Qi no longer fled, smiling slightly as he pressed his teeth against his tongue tip.

Falling into the hands of someone like Xu Pingran, the outcome would be worse than death. He had escaped for so long only because Xu Pingran still had thoughts of using his talents, always wanting to keep him for great purposes. After tonight, Xu Pingran would know he couldn’t be kept. With her personality becoming even more cold and vicious from practicing evil techniques, he had absolutely no chance of survival.

Rather than fall into Xu Pingran’s hands and have his sister risk her life to save him, or become a puppet poisoner in the future, losing his personal will to attack Jing Hengbo, it would be better to end it now.

Xu Pingran’s face was close at hand. He could already feel the fishy coldness of those dark blue fingernails.

His teeth pressed harder—

Just as he was about to bite down, seeing Ji Wen’s figure struggling to climb back over the courtyard wall, he suddenly thought of that brilliant woman who came and went like the wind.

May you have vast seas and high skies, forever free to roam.

Jing Hengbo.

His teeth were about to clamp down.

Suddenly a figure rushed forward, rolling right into Xu Pingran’s embrace, reaching out to tear off Xu Pingran’s skirt while shouting: “Madam! This servant deeply admires you!”

The movements were bizarre, the angle tricky, and the words shocking.

Even Xu Pingran couldn’t help but be stunned.

In just this moment of stunned surprise, that person had already rolled into her embrace, simultaneously pushing Yelu Qi away forcefully while looking up at the sky and shouting: “Ziwei! Husband! Your old lover is hitting me—whose side are you on?”

How could Xu Pingran allow anyone to get close? Sneering “seeking death,” her hand had already touched Yelu Xunru’s crown, but hearing this sentence, she was stunned again, her eyes becoming confused for an instant.

Then she snapped back to awareness. This time she didn’t even bother to sneer, her eyes completely ice-cold, sealing infinite rage as she raised her hand to strike. Black and white energy alternated in a flash between her fingers and palm.

Then urgent wind sounds came from overhead as she heard a voice say, “Pingran.”

A thunderous crash, as if struck by lightning.