In the pitch-black, cramped bottom of the well, the young man huddled in the corner, hugging his knees. His eyes were filled with terror, yet not a single tear fell. The sight alone was heartbreaking.
Every time this image—seared into her mind from some unknown point—resurfaced, Xu Songhe felt as if her heart had turned into a ball of cotton, squeezed tight by an invisible hand.
It left her chest aching and her breath shallow.
She forced herself out of the memory, keeping her back to the young man.
Clutching the rabbit, she walked toward Yu Baisui and his group, her pace slow but determined.
The snow crunched softly under her feet. Trying to suppress her panic, she urgently called out to the System.
“System, didn’t you say you’d reward me with an item? Give me something useful right now!”
The System replied promptly, [Generating an item suited to the Host’s current situation.]
Suddenly, a knife appeared in her hand.
Xu Songhe stared at it, caught between laughter and tears. “What am I supposed to do with a knife? There are so many of them, and I can’t fight! Don’t you have a smoke bomb or something?”
The knife that had suddenly appeared in her hand was incredibly sharp. Behind her, the young man tilted his head, the blade’s cold glint reflected in his eyes.
She wants to kill me too, he sneered inwardly. All that nonsense she said before was just a lie. I should have killed her the moment I had the chance.
A moment of weakness had only gained him a new enemy.
Xu Songhe, completely oblivious to the murderous intent rising behind her, kept a smile on her face.
She walked slowly, saying, “Shopkeeper Yu, I have a treasure here that can help you deal with him.”
Yu Baisui already thought the boy was no match for them. Hearing her words, his disdain deepened. “Well, let’s see it. What is this treasure?”
She smiled. As she brought her hand from behind her back, her expression shifted instantly. She slammed the object into the ground, and a thick cloud of white smoke erupted, swallowing everyone’s vision.
“Run!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, she turned and grabbed Qi Wuyang’s hand, pulling him in the opposite direction.
After running for what felt like an eternity, Xu Songhe stopped, leaning against a tree trunk to catch her breath.
She glanced back over her shoulder. “They… they didn’t follow us, did they?”
When he didn’t answer, Xu Songhe looked up in confusion, just in time to catch the flicker of astonishment in the young man’s eyes.
She had never seen him look that way before. Her anxiety spiked, and she asked nervously, “Wh-what’s wrong? Are you hurt? But… those people didn’t even get near you…”
“Hurt me? With them?” Qi Wuyang sneered, a playful smile touching his lips. “What’s the matter? Weren’t you going to leave with them just now?”
His tone was so casual it was as if the life-and-death crisis they’d just escaped was nothing more than a game.
Is he… touched by what I did? Is he about to say something sentimental? Xu Songhe watched him, her eyes wide with a flicker of hope.
Instead, he let out a soft sigh, his voice tinged with mock disappointment. “What a pity. I could have sent you both on your way together.”
“…”
Xu Songhe didn’t want to hear another word. She couldn’t understand how this man could remain so utterly composed, as if he wasn’t the one who had been the target of a killing spree just moments ago.
“What’s the plan now?” Xu Songhe asked, her questions coming in a rapid-fire stream. “We still haven’t found the item, we’ve become targets for everyone, and we can’t even get near Shopkeeper Yu anymore. How are we supposed to find any more clues?”
The phrase “find the body” felt too morbid for her to keep using. She’d been trying to say it for the entire journey but still couldn’t get used to it, so she decided to switch to more general terms.
“What would be the point of approaching him?” Qi Wuyang asked.
He gazed back toward the direction they had just fled, his tone as casual as if they were discussing what to eat for dinner. “Isn’t the simplest solution to just kill them all? No one could stop me then.”
His dark eyes reflected Xu Songhe’s trembling form. He smiled faintly. “What’s the matter? Do you think they’re innocent? Do you want to plead for their lives?”
He chuckled softly. “They were trying to kill me just moments ago. Is it wrong that I’d strike first?”
Xu Songhe stared up at him, stunned by his answer.
Qi Wuyang is… not like normal people, she thought. He’s ruthless, vengeful…
She had to admit the system was right about him. But as a normal person, she couldn’t just stand by and watch a group of people—people with the same right to live as she did—be slaughtered.
“I just think… maybe we could consider our options before acting?” she pleaded.
“For example, this matter has nothing to do with the other townspeople. There’s no need to go out of our way to kill them all.”
“I should have killed them the moment I sensed my true body was here,” he interrupted, his gaze piercing her.
“Sparing them this long has been an act of extreme mercy.”
His voice turned cold. “You were wrong just now. I am exactly what they say—vicious and ruthless, a killer who doesn’t blink.”
“You’re not,” Xu Songhe insisted, shaking her head stubbornly.
She had only conceded to the first half of the system’s description, not the last two parts. “Every demon we’ve met on this journey has tried to kill me. You’re the only one who’s protected me. You say you want to kill them, but you didn’t even touch them when they were provoking you. You aren’t bad at all…”
“What did you say?”
The boy’s smile vanished, the frosty chill in his eyes nearly shattered by a sudden flare of murderous intent. “How do you know I’m a demon?”
“I—”
Xu Songhe bit her tongue hard, cursing herself inwardly. How could I have blurted that out just to comfort someone?
He’ll think I’m some kind of spy who got close to him just to investigate, she panicked.
How am I supposed to explain this now? I can’t exactly tell him about the System…
“I-I-I was just guessing!” she stammered, twisting away and trying to avoid his gaze, which seemed to pierce right through her heart.
“Young Master, you’ve changed your appearance so many times… that’s not something a normal person can do. I started to suspect you then. And when you said your… your body was stolen, that was even stranger! I… I was just taking a wild guess. I didn’t think I’d actually be right.”
Suddenly, a hand gripped her jaw, forcing her face up to meet those cold, piercing eyes.
“You’re lying.”