“Life and death are both effortless to him.”
Compared with Qin Buan’s outward calm, Ye Que and Shen Yihuan could not remain composed.
Shen Yihuan was confused and could not make sense of it.
“Senior Brother, what is Qin Buan doing?”
From their perspective, Qin Buan had never been a good person. She had targeted them at every turn, tried to put them to death, and had a close relationship with the Demon Lord Xie Mucheng. She was certainly not someone who would sacrifice herself for justice, but rather someone who was afraid of death and valued her own life above everything else.
Ye Que nodded slightly.
“Perhaps this is another act she is putting on with Xie Mucheng.”
Mist rose everywhere. From somewhere in the darkness came the noisy cries of crows and sparrows, mixed with the low growls of wild beasts, creating an atmosphere of despair that chilled the heart.
Qin Buan was not afraid that Xie Mucheng would kill her. At worst, she still had two life saving talismans. But if he killed the male and female protagonists, then even if she had countless lives, it would be useless.
Xie Mucheng seemed to have lost his patience. A sword shimmering with silver light floated behind him, carrying an immense pressure that tightly compressed the air before Qin Buan.
“Do you not want to know about the full moon…” Qin Buan struggled to force out a few words.
But her voice abruptly stopped.
Xie Mucheng slightly raised his hand, and Ye Que was instantly lifted into the air like a drifting leaf. Xie Mucheng held him in his palm, his slender fingers slowly tightening around his neck as Ye Que’s face gradually turned blue and purple.
Holding Ye Que suspended in midair, Xie Mucheng looked at Qin Buan with a faint, unreadable smile.
“Now tell me what else you know.”
The system’s warning alarms rang one after another inside Qin Buan’s mind. She forced herself to remain calm.
“You are making a grave mistake by using his life to threaten me. Of course I can tell you how to resolve the problem with your blood moon, but in exchange, you have to let me go. As for him, kill him if you want.”
Shen Yihuan bit her lower lip so hard that a vivid tooth mark appeared. The spiritual power within her transformed into a blue light that slowly gathered between her brows. In the blink of an eye, a powerful surge of spiritual energy entered her body.
She had broken through.
Qin Buan’s eyes lit up with excitement.
The original storyline was finally happening.
Xie Mucheng said coldly, “Then I shall grant your wish.”
Before anyone could react, a fierce surge of spiritual energy sent Shen Yihuan flying. The deep blue spiritual power surrounding her transformed into a protective barrier that blocked the fatal attack.
This was the strength of Xie Mucheng. Even while injured, he could easily stop Shen Yihuan after her breakthrough.
Qin Buan unconsciously swallowed. Her throat felt tight, and belated fear slowly crawled up from the depths of her heart, sending shivers through her body.
Perhaps Xie Mucheng had genuinely been interested in what she had said earlier, which was why he had not killed her. In this world where the strong preyed upon the weak, life and death were decided by nothing more than a thought from him.
The long sword floated in midair before Xie Mucheng caught it with one hand. Wind roared around him as he stood tall and graceful. With the most casual and almost playful movement, he raised the tip of his sword and swiftly thrust it toward Ye Que’s chest.
“Senior Brother Ye!”
Shen Yihuan summoned her personal sword and instinctively tried to rush forward, only to witness a scene she would never forget.
【Host! The male protagonist is in danger!】
After a burst of frantic electronic noises, Qin Buan’s world once again fell into silence.
【Host, your second life saving talisman has been activated. Please cherish your final opportunity!】
Qin Buan took that sword for Ye Que.
No one present had expected it.
A trace of astonishment flashed across Ye Que’s handsome face. He instinctively reached out to support Qin Buan, but Qin Buan immediately shoved him away.
Because the system had activated the life saving talisman, Qin Buan felt no pain at all. She even stood up as though nothing had happened.
She turned toward Xie Mucheng and caught the surprise and amusement in his eyes before spitting blood onto his chest.
The next moment, the amusement disappeared from Xie Mucheng’s eyes and was replaced by disgust.
Unable to hold herself back, Qin Buan shouted at the still stunned Shen Yihuan.
“What are you waiting for? Attack him!”
Shen Yihuan came back to her senses and quickly drew her sword, striking toward Xie Mucheng with ruthless force and without holding anything back.
Qin Buan wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. Facing Ye Que, whose eyes were complicated and whose lips seemed to want to say something, she gestured with her hand.
“I am fine. Hide somewhere.”
Ye Que: …
Qin Buan had arrived wearing the same white sect robes, but she loved cleanliness and had never allowed them to become dirty. Even if they became stained the previous moment, she would use a cleansing spell the next moment to make them spotless again.
Never before had she looked like this.
Blood continued flowing from the wound in her shoulder, spreading across her entire body until she looked as though she had just crawled out of a pool of blood.
Ye Que grabbed her arm.
“Are you all right?”
Qin Buan looked at Shen Yihuan, who was being continuously beaten, and truly had no time to chat with him.
“I am fine. Do not get in my way.”
Ye Que: …
His mouth opened and closed several times, but in the end, he said nothing and released her.
Qin Buan was just about to make a stunning entrance, but the moment her toes touched the ground, all the blood in her body seemed to freeze. A wave of dizziness immediately followed.
Qin Buan asked the system in her mind, “System, what is happening to me? Did I not use a life saving talisman?”
The system wiped away its imaginary sweat.
【Host, the life saving talisman only keeps you alive. It cannot heal your injuries.】
But if she fainted now, would Shen Yihuan not be in danger again?
Qin Buan endured the dizziness and stumbled forward.
Xie Mucheng’s tall figure became increasingly blurry before her eyes. The constantly swaying afterimages looked like tens of thousands of separate bodies.
“I… will tell you how to resolve it. Stop attacking her.”
Qin Buan’s consciousness was becoming hazy, while blood continued flowing from her body. She slowly approached Xie Mucheng.
“The method to keep your body from being affected is…”
She knew exactly what Xie Mucheng needed. If a powerful person had a weakness, they would naturally do everything possible to eliminate that weakness. Xie Mucheng would certainly be no exception.
Sure enough, Xie Mucheng stopped moving. His phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, and his thin lips moved.
“Speak.”
Qin Buan pressed a hand against her forehead and stood dazedly for a moment. Her mind suddenly went blank. Her scattered consciousness was like a lump of paste, and she could no longer tell which direction was which.
Several moments later, she suddenly felt that the world before her had become brighter. She slowly raised her head and saw that the dark clouds covering the moon had been scattered by a powerful wind, revealing the blood red moon once again in the night sky.
Qin Buan smiled knowingly.
Then she raised her middle finger at Xie Mucheng, her eyes sparkling with vitality.
“I made it up. I do not know!”
The glaring moonlight disappeared in an instant. Qin Buan’s vision went black, and she collapsed heavily.
At the moment she fell, she deliberately aimed herself at Xie Mucheng, figuring that this way she would not hurt as much.
Just as she was feeling pleased with herself, something soft suddenly brushed across the back of her hand near Xie Mucheng’s waist. It felt gentle, almost like cotton.
When she tried to catch the sensation, it vanished completely. Even Xie Mucheng’s body suddenly became hard, almost like wood.
With her eyes closing, Qin Buan regretted choosing Xie Mucheng as her cushion. If she could do it again, she would rather fall onto the ground.
A powerful voice shook the entire mountain forest.
“She is awake! She is awake!”
Qin Buan moved her aching arm and opened her eyes in lingering shock.
The first thing she saw was an elderly man dressed in a dark purple robe.
His face had been filled with worry, but the moment he saw her open her eyes, all of it disappeared and was replaced by overwhelming joy.
At the same time, a slender hand reached out and rested against Qin Buan’s wrist, carefully taking her pulse.
Following that hand upward, Qin Buan found herself looking into a pair of deep lake blue eyes. They were calm yet clear, like a mirror that reflected everything with perfect clarity.
The owner of those eyes had a gentle and refined air. Although he was checking her pulse, his gaze remained firmly fixed on her.
The original character’s memories gradually became clearer, and Qin Buan recognized the two people before her.
The older one was Qin Buan’s father, the Second Elder of Xuantian Sect.
The person checking her pulse was her elder brother, Qin Dinglan, the most talented medical cultivator in the sect.
Qin Dinglan usually did not speak much and was a very gentle person.
Unfortunately, his life was cut short. When he learned of Qin Buan’s death, he was overcome with grief and died suddenly.
He was an insignificant character.
After taking her pulse, Qin Dinglan said to the Second Elder, “Xuxu is fine.”
The Second Elder let out a long sigh of relief and patted Qin Dinglan on the shoulder.
“You have worked hard.”
Qin Dinglan’s tone remained calm.
“It was no trouble. Xuxu is my younger sister, so this is only natural.”
The Second Elder said nothing more and instead asked Qin Buan, “Xuxu, are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?”
For some inexplicable reason, Qin Buan did not dare look directly into Qin Dinglan’s eyes. She always felt that his gaze was too deep and that he could see through her with ease, leaving her nowhere to hide.
Qin Dinglan noticed that something was wrong and softly asked her a question, trying to close the distance between them.
“Xuxu, when Junior Sister Shen brought you back, she brought a fox with her and said that you had saved it. I saw that it was seriously injured, so I treated it. I should be waking up soon. Would you like me to bring it here?”
“Thank you, Brother.”
Qin Buan forced a smile before turning toward the Second Elder.
“I am already fine, Father.”
The Second Elder nodded repeatedly.
“As long as you are fine, as long as you are fine. Your father could neither eat nor sleep, terrified that you would never make it back from the Demon Realm. If the other elders had not stopped me, I would have stormed into the Demon Realm myself.”
The original Qin Buan had committed countless evil deeds, yet she had a loving father and an elder brother who tolerated her at every turn. That was why she had been able to rule the sect as she pleased.
Qin Buan wanted to ask about the male and female protagonists, but she was afraid that the Second Elder would notice something unusual. She therefore deliberately raised her voice and made it sound sharp.
“Father, how are Ye Que and Shen Yihuan?”
At the mention of them, the Second Elder became angry and began complaining loudly.
“Is it not all because Ye Que failed to protect you? He could not even protect you properly and caused you both to become trapped there. Yet he recovered quickly, while my precious daughter had to lie in bed for three whole days! He has already been punished by your father and sent to sweep the Ten Thousand Steps.”
Qin Buan blinked, feeling somewhat guilty.
“Actually, Father… I was the one who tricked him and Shen Yihuan into going to the Demon Realm.”
Unexpectedly, the Second Elder not only failed to become angry, but became even angrier.
“Then that makes it even worse! What kind of bad intentions could my daughter possibly have? Just because he went there, did that mean he could not come back? He has cultivated for so many years, yet he could not even protect you. I think he did it deliberately.”
Qin Buan: …
She finally understood why the original Qin Buan had been able to become the villain.
“Besides, was there anything wrong with me punishing him? If he did not go there willingly, why did he not explain himself before all the elders that day? Instead, he claimed that he had been abducted by demon cultivators and that you and Yihuan had gone there to rescue him.”
The Second Elder snorted disdainfully.
“Xuxu, do not defend him. Ye Que has already explained everything himself.”
Qin Buan exclaimed, “He really said that?”
The Second Elder lovingly stroked Qin Buan’s head.
“Good Xuxu, did you hurt your mind somehow?”
Qin Buan asked in disbelief, “Then what did Shen Yihuan say?”
The Second Elder replied, “She said the same thing as Ye Que.”
Qin Buan was so shocked that she could barely form words.
This was clearly supposed to be part of the original storyline, yet it had somehow changed.
In the original novel, Ye Que and Shen Yihuan had used this matter to make things extremely difficult for the Second Elder. They had even nearly ruined his reputation under the scrutiny of several elders.
But…
Why had the storyline suddenly deviated?
“Xuxu, this nine tailed fox has not yet transformed into human form.”
Just then, Qin Dinglan entered through the door carrying the little fox.
The little fox had not yet awakened and was lying obediently in his arms without moving.
The moment Qin Buan saw the little fox, her weak appearance disappeared completely. She immediately opened her arms and hurriedly said, “Let me see!”
The Second Elder smiled warmly as he took the little fox and handed it to her.
“You have not recovered yet, so you should stay away from creatures like this.”
Qin Dinglan was somewhat helpless.
“Xuxu, there can be no demons in the sect. You must make sure that the other disciples do not discover it.”
Qin Buan rubbed the little fox’s head, and the back of her hand brushed against its fox tail. That familiar sensation immediately returned.