Scramming was entirely out of the question.
Murong Wenyu remained unperturbed by Yu Qinghan’s cold demeanor, saying with a faint smile, “If you’re truly uneasy, you can assign someone to keep an eye on Wen Xu, ensuring that any anomalies can be detected right away.”
Yet Yu Qinghan shook his head, stating in a chilly tone: “Unnecessary. If I so wished, I could wipe out the Xuanshuang Sect right this instant.”
The implication was that a mere Xuanshuang Sect was utterly negligible; his primary concern was his little disciple’s well-being.
After all, the child had been raised on his own territory; he couldn’t possibly allow outsiders to bully him.
Disliking the smell of medicine, Yu Qinghan had no intention of lingering, departing after exchanging only a few words.
Returning to his personal quarters at Feiyu Palace, before he even had a chance to catch his breath, a sharp, stabbing agony suddenly flared across his chest.
Clutching his hand to his heart, Yu Qinghan’s handsome face contorted in agony as his brows knitted together, nearly pressing into a deep vertical crease.
His deep, pitch-black pupils suddenly bled into an ominous crimson, his gaze turning sinister and flashing with an icy, freezing light, while a formidable and vicious power leaked out from within his body, expanding outward in an uncontrollable surge.
“Damn it, why did it come early this time?!”
Yu Qinghan cursed in a low, frigid snarl, violently flicking his silver-patterned sleeve to slam every single door and window of Feiyu Palace shut in an instant.
Simultaneously, over at Mingyue Cottage located not far from Feiyu Palace Wen Xu, who was just preparing to bathe, suddenly felt a wave of eerie chilliness, only feeling somewhat better after stepping into the warm pool of water.
During his bath, Wen Xu struggled and wrestled with his inner hesitation for a good while before finally daring to reach out and wash that extra appendage.
Though it felt intensely awkward, washing it was an absolute must!
With a face burning bright red, Wen Xu finished washing up, not even daring to glance down—the shame of it was simply too overwhelming.
What kind of sins had he committed in his past life to have his soul transmigrate into a body like this? Finding a wife was completely out of the question now.
He might as well give up on romance early on; it was merely a pity that he had remained a mother-to-be single for twenty-seven years without even holding a girl’s hand.
Intercepting Wen Xu’s internal thoughts, the system suddenly piped up: [The host could find a husband and marry out, that way you can break your single streak.]
Wen Xu: [??? I’m a man!]
System: [Times are progressing, men and women are all the same. May all lovers in the world eventually find marital bliss.]
Wen Xu: […Allow me to say a heartfelt thank you!]
Words utterly failed him when it came to this wretched system!
His newly awakened body remained somewhat frail, so Wen Xu rested in bed for another three or four days. Once he felt mostly recovered, he began pondering how to butter up Yu Qinghan.
A man devoid of worldly desires, Yu Qinghan was an exceptionally Buddha-like villain, making it notoriously difficult to pin down his specific preferences.
After turning it over in his mind repeatedly, he decided to head over first and test the waters.
Though Feiyu Palace looked close enough, the original owner’s cultivation base was low, and Wen Xu couldn’t fly, forcing him to trudge up step by step.
By the time he reached the exterior of Feiyu Palace, he was already panting and breathless from exhaustion.
After resting on the stone steps for a short while, Wen Xu stood up and turned around to gaze at the magnificent Feiyu Palace gleaming radiantly in the sunlight, an expression of awe washing over his face.
As he stared for a moment, he suddenly noticed a layer of golden light enveloping the outer perimeter of Feiyu Palace, shimmering like a massive protective dome.
Tilting his head in puzzlement, Wen Xu gave it no further thought and walked straight toward it. The exact moment his body passed through the golden light, an unprecedented wave of freezing cold suddenly washed over him.
Was that golden light just now a barrier? It was warm and cozy on the outside, yet freezing cold on the inside truly two entirely different worlds.
Wen Xu was clad in only a thin, aqua-green tunic, and at this moment, he was shivering uncontrollably, unable to stop himself from rubbing his arms for warmth.
“Master?”
Pushing open the heavy doors and stepping inside, Wen Xu called out tentatively. Receiving no response, he faintly caught a strange sound drifting from behind the pale gold relief folding screen.
Curious to know what on earth was making that noise, he hesitated for a moment before walking forward. Wading past layers of fluttering drapery and sheer gauze, he finally laid eyes on the true spectacle within…
“Ah!!!”
“A snake! There’s a snake! Such a huge snake!!!”
A colossal white serpent was coiled around a carved golden pillar, its crimson pupils flashing with an eerie, demonic light, while its massive jaws parted slightly to reveal a set of razor-sharp, chilling fangs and a flickering scarlet tongue a sight capable of making anyone’s scalp tingle with terror.
Gazing down at Wen Xu from its lofty perch, the white snake glared with hostile malice, emitting a terrifying, deep, and menacing hiss.
With eyes blown wide in absolute horror, Wen Xu felt his legs turn to jelly, sending him crashing backward onto the floor. Why on earth was there such a massive snake in a place like this?!
At that very moment, he could finally truly understand Xu Xian; anyone who suddenly laid eyes on a gigantic python would inevitably be scared out of their wits.
What about Yu Qinghan? Had he been swallowed whole by the white snake?!
At that terrifying thought, Wen Xu’s already deathly pale face drained of all remaining color. No, I have to escape this place immediately!
His legs were too weak to support him standing, leaving him no choice but to flip over and scramble away on all fours. Yet barely had he crawled a single step forward when his waist suddenly tightened.
The white snake had whipped its tail around Wen Xu’s waist, hauling him right up before its face.
Staring at the gigantic serpent face hovering inches away, Wen Xu burst into tears on the spot. With tear-filled eyes, he pleaded in a voice choked with sobs: “Have mercy, O Lord Serpent! I only wandered in by accident, I swear I harbor no malicious intent! Please, I beg you, let me go!”
The white snake’s crimson pupils stared straight into Wen Xu’s face, its scarlet tongue darting in and out incessantly.
Stiffly forcing the corners of his mouth upward into a slight arc, Wen Xu desperately struggled to paste on a sincere smile while his crystal-clear, pure pupils mirrored the serpent’s terrifying visage.
“Lord Serpent, as you can see, I’m all skin and bones with hardly an ounce of meat on me, I wouldn’t taste good at all! So… please find it in your great mercy to spare me!”
In response, the white snake unleashed a terrifying, deafening roar that rattled his eardrums, followed instantly by a violent flick that hurled Wen Xu heavily against the wall.
Blergh,
With his frail physique, Wen Xu coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood directly. Agony wracked his entire body, and his lower back felt as though it had nearly snapped in half.
Catching the scent of blood, the white snake abruptly uncoiled its massive body from the golden pillar, slithering straight toward Wen Xu while letting out restless, irritable hisses.
Bursting into tears once more, Wen Xu’s little face was drenched in a flood of pathetic, heart-wrenching moisture.
As the white snake stopped right in front of Wen Xu, it didn’t open its gaping maw to swallow him whole; instead, it extended its forked tongue to lap up the blood staining the corner of his lips.
Paralyzed by terror that nearly stopped his heart, Wen Xu clamped his eyes tightly shut, too terrified to pry them open as he frantically shrieked to the system for rescue: [System, save me!!!]
System: [No immediate danger to the host’s life detected.]
Infuriated to the point of coughing up yet another mouthful of blood, Wen Xu snapped: [I’m about to be swallowed whole by a white snake! And you call that no danger?!!]
System: [Rest assured. Unless the host deliberately courts death and lets your life points drop into the negative, the system will automatically initiate a rescue the moment life-threatening danger is detected.]
Wen Xu mentally cursed every single generation of the system’s ancestors. Call this reassuring? How the hell is this supposed to be reassuring?!
Just as Wen Xu was convinced he was marching straight to his doom, a voice rang out one that sounded excruciatingly painful yet terribly familiar:
“Wen Xu?”
Could that be Yu Qinghan’s voice?
Whipping his eyes open, Wen Xu saw a human face suddenly materialize across the white snake’s serpentine features, shifting back and forth between human and beast in a bizarre, deeply unsettling display.
The interior of the hall was cloaked in dim shadows, illuminated only by the faint, eerie glow of a few night-pearls.
“M-Master? Is that you?” Wen Xu whispered, pitching his voice as softly as possible for fear of angering or alarming the white snake.
“Wen Xu… Wen Xu… Ah!”
After hissing Wen Xu’s name a few times, the white snake abruptly lapsed back out of control, letting out agonizing shrieks as its massive body thrashed wildly in every direction.
Terrified that Feiyu Palace was about to collapse on top of him, Wen Xu found himself with nowhere to hide or dodge.
After an indeterminate stretch of time, the white snake finally quieted down, though its form shifted into a half-human, half-serpent hybrid resembling the legendary descendants of Nuwa.
Gazing at Yu Qinghan’s face its features etched in frost, faint white scales faintly visible across his forehead, and eyes remaining an intense, eerie crimson he looked thoroughly demonic and evil.
Wen Xu was utterly thunderstruck, never in his wildest dreams imagining that this white snake was actually Yu Qinghan himself!
“Master… are you… are you conscious right now?” Wen Xu asked tentatively.
Lowering his gaze, Yu Qinghan stared down at the little ball of a person huddled before him, whose fair, tender face was streaked with tears while his lips were stained crimson with fresh blood.
Remaining silent, he used his serpentine tail to scoop up Wen Xu before slithering away toward the inner chambers.
As his body was hoisted mid-air once again, Wen Xu’s voice trembled with fear: “M-Master! Where are you taking me?!”
It felt as though Yu Qinghan hadn’t recovered his sanity yet; his eyes had previously been black, at most carrying a faint reddish sheen, unlike now.
They were so crimson they looked as though they were dripping with fresh blood.