Immersed in blood and fire, Sima Jiao could no longer hear sounds from the outside world. He only felt the furry little bundle on his chest stir slightly, and thinking she must be afraid, he reached down to pat her reassuringly.

He couldn’t hear what she said; he only sensed from her an emotion he had never felt before. It didn’t seem to be fear particularly, but rather a kind of soft, melancholic feeling that brought a moment of clarity to his blood-drenched, chaotic thoughts.

He stroked this soft, warm little body, and suddenly remembered the feeling of holding her while resting during previous occasions. He hadn’t truly slept for a very long time; even with his eyes closed, he couldn’t find a moment’s peace. But lying there holding her, the world suddenly became a bit quieter, less clamorous. She often made little noises, but they weren’t irritating at all.

He needed to immerse himself in cold springs to suppress the spiritual fire in his body, so his form was perpetually cold. She was different. Even now, when the spiritual fire inside him had grown so powerful that it burned his blood, making his body hotter than an ordinary person’s, he still felt cold—cold to the bone. She was different, still warm and soft as ever.

At this moment, Sima Jiao suddenly didn’t want her to die alongside him anymore.

“Forget it,” he said.

Liao Tingyan heard him. Sima Jiao’s voice wasn’t loud, and she didn’t know what exactly he meant by “forget it.” She only saw him suddenly tearing open his already mangled arm, spilling fresh blood. His blood had changed from red to golden-red, with a temperature growing increasingly hot; when it spilled out, it became great patches of fire.

The flames abruptly surged up again, cutting off those severely wounded cultivators from Geng City Immortal Manor.

“He’s trying to escape! Stop him!” Master Qian Lü was still the quickest to react, shouting out the moment Sima Jiao made his move.

Unfortunately, none of them could stop Sima Jiao.

Liao Tingyan felt Sima Jiao falling toward the ground, like a burning flame dropping from the sky. He crashed down, destroying a high building with golden tiles and red walls. People hiding inside the building screamed in terror. Sima Jiao stood up leaning against the ruins, ignoring the frightened people, and left, gathering his energy.

His speed was still very fast, sweeping toward the distance like the wind. Wherever his blood fell, it quickly ignited into flames. Liao Tingyan felt that this man would soon be consumed by the fire himself.

He was truly formidable. Despite being injured earlier, he could persist for so long, as if he felt no pain. Liao Tingyan knew that if it were her, she absolutely couldn’t have endured it. But she didn’t know what his plan was now. Earlier, he had been prepared to perish together with those people, but now it seemed he had changed his mind.

The ancestor’s thoughts were truly difficult to fathom.

Sima Jiao stopped, leaning against a tree trunk, head tilted back, gasping for breath. He grabbed the otter’s tail and set her down beside him. Behind them, there was rustling in the forest as something approached.

Liao Tingyan turned her head and saw the familiar large black snake slithering out from the woods.

Sima Jiao didn’t even look, as if he knew the snake had arrived, and said to Liao Tingyan: “You go with this fool.”

According to conventional rules, Liao Tingyan should have asked: “What about you?” But she didn’t ask, because the answer was obvious; she could find a hundred and eighty similar scenes in TV dramas. He was planning to stay behind to draw their fire, letting her and the snake escape quickly. After all, he truly looked like he wouldn’t last much longer, and the wall of fire he left behind couldn’t hold those people off forever.

The scenario of “I’ll hold them off, you hurry and go” seemed like something that should only happen between the male and female protagonists. Liao Tingyan’s feelings were complex, and she didn’t move for a moment.

The foolish great snake had somehow made its way over, but its intelligence wasn’t functioning today either. Upon seeing them, it excitedly slithered over, circling them. It approached the blood-covered otter, raising its head and flicking its tongue to taste the blood on Sima Jiao’s hand. Then it hissed painfully as the scorching blood burned its tongue.

Sima Jiao kicked it lightly and said with disgust: “Get lost.”

He sat beneath this ordinary tree, appearing withdrawn. The tree trunk he had leaned against showed burn marks. Both the big snake and Liao Tingyan had some cultivation and had drunk his blood, so they weren’t very afraid of the heat emanating from him. At this moment, the big black snake was still coiled beside him, appearing hesitant. Liao Tingyan hadn’t moved either.

So Sima Jiao looked up at them again. “I’m not planning to kill you anymore, yet you don’t even know how to escape?”

Liao Tingyan suddenly felt her body heat up and grow heavier, and she transformed back to human form, sitting on the big snake’s head. She was startled, looking at her voluptuous figure with long legs and long dress, and exclaimed in surprise: “Wasn’t it supposed to be three months?”

Sima Jiao: “I lied to you. It only lasts a few days. If you wanted to change back, you would have already.” Who knew she seemed quite satisfied with the otter form, which had lasted an extra half day.

Liao Tingyan realized this wasn’t the first time the ancestor had tricked her, and suddenly felt a surge of boldness. She had an impulse to take his pet and leave quickly, abandoning him here to await death alone.

However, she ultimately sighed.

She telekinetically moved Sima Jiao onto the black snake’s back and flew beside the black snake herself. She stroked its head and said, “Brother, use your fastest speed and run forward. We should escape now.”

Although the big black snake wasn’t very intelligent and had ordinary bloodlines, it had been raised by Sima Jiao for several hundred years and had completely mutated. It was tougher than most demon cultivators and also very fast, almost like a streak of lightning. Liao Tingyan gathered her spirits and flew beside it, feeling that her good rest and energy conservation recently had all been for this moment of speed and intensity.

Sima Jiao was somewhat surprised; he hadn’t expected Liao Tingyan to do this.

“You’re escaping with me?” Sima Jiao’s tone was strange.

Liao Tingyan: “Yes.”

Sima Jiao: “You want to die?”

Liao Tingyan: “Actually, not really.”

Sima Jiao: “Bringing me along is just asking for death. You can’t be that stupid, can you?”

Liao Tingyan sighed inwardly. “This isn’t stupidity. You saved me, so I must repay you.”

“Old sir, could you please have some survival instinct and tell us where we can escape safely?”

“Nowhere is safe,” Sima Jiao lay on the snake’s back, his tone casual. “Since you won’t leave when they catch up later and kill you, I’ll kill them to avenge you.”

Oh, so your logic is quite complete then. Liao Tingyan realized there was no point in reasoning with a mentally ill person.

If it were just her alone, she might not struggle if facing death, but with Sima Jiao added, she had to make more effort. They sped through the mountains, with the black snake slithering on the ground while Liao Tingyan flew to avoid adding to its burden. Sima Jiao hadn’t spoken for a while; Liao Tingyan noticed his eyes were closed and his chest wasn’t even rising and falling.

Could he be dead?

Just as she was hesitating whether to stop and check Sima Jiao’s condition, a sudden brightness appeared before her. They burst out of the forest and faced a lake. At the lakeside stood a small wooden cabin, and on a small boat next to the cabin sat a person wearing a bamboo hat, fishing. The scene was leisurely and relaxed. The lake’s light and water had a faint, hazy quality that naturally calmed one’s heart.

Liao Tingyan thought: Ah, we’ve intruded into someone else’s territory.

The fishing person didn’t turn around, but spoke in a voice neither loud nor soft, yet clear enough for Liao Tingyan to hear: “Since fate has brought you here, don’t be in a hurry to leave.”

Liao Tingyan was pulled back. Sima Jiao, who had been half-dead lying on the big snake, now stood up and walked to the front, eyeing the pale-colored figure with vigilant disgust.

Liao Tingyan thought: …Is this ancestor the type whose survival instinct explodes when he sees a threat, instantly recovering? Wasn’t he almost dead? How can he stand up again?

She began to suspect that Sima Jiao might be lying again, that he wasn’t going to die at all.

“Child, it seems you still remember me.” The angler turned around, wearing a kindly grandfather-like smile that warmed the heart.

But Sima Jiao’s reaction wasn’t so friendly. He frowned, “So it is you.”

Liao Tingyan wondered: Who?

The bamboo hat was removed, revealing a bald head. Liao Tingyan glanced at his gray monk’s robe and the Buddhist prayer beads he wore. So he was a monk.

She recalled some gossip she had heard before—when Sima Jiao was very young and causing trouble, the previous sect leader had invited an accomplished monk from Shangyun Buddhist Temple to educate him, even giving him the Dharma name “Cizang.” Could this be that person?

The ages of the various individuals in the cultivation world were truly harder to discern than Sima Jiao’s moods. Looking at this high monk, who appeared so young and radiant—once he removed his bamboo hat, one felt as if bathed in Buddha’s light.

The high monk glanced at Liao Tingyan and gave her a benevolent smile as if he had heard what she was thinking.

Wait, do all of you have mind-reading abilities?

Sima Jiao stared directly at the monk, his killing intent growing stronger. “Are you here to kill me or to save me?”

The monk said: “Killing or saving—both are possible. Before that, I need to solve a problem.”

“Oh?” Flames appeared under Sima Jiao’s feet.

The monk shook his head slightly, unafraid of his threatening behavior. “However, this question is not for you to answer.”

His eyes changed from black to amber. Liao Tingyan felt dazed as soon as those eyes looked at her, forgetting everything. When she suddenly regained consciousness, she saw Sima Jiao collapse on the ground, and the black snake coiled nearby, asleep. Two were instantly knocked out.

Liao Tingyan thought: The high monk is awesome! The high monk is powerful!

“It seems he’s truly severely injured, to be suppressed at this level,” the monk sighed, then smiled at Liao Tingyan and stepped forward to drag Sima Jiao. “Please come with me. I need your help with something.”

Liao Tingyan followed him toward the small wooden cabin, watching as the monk placed Sima Jiao on the only wooden bed inside. The bed appeared unused, with just a layer of humble straw.

“Please sit, have some water.”

Liao Tingyan sat down and drank the water.

The monk sat nearby, as kindly as a grandfather, and gently asked: “You’re a demon cultivator from the Demon Realm, aren’t you?”

Liao Tingyan covered her mouth to keep from spitting out the water she had just drunk.

“???”

“Me? I’m a demon cultivator???”

The high monk: “…Why do you look so surprised?”