He forced her hand apart, gritting his teeth, “Sang Yunling, are you seriously not afraid that I’ll kill you?”
Realizing it a beat too late, a cold drop of sweat slowly slid down Sang Nian’s forehead. “Turns out you’re a two-faced hypocrite, huh?”
Xie Chenzhou: “Heh.”
In the original book, Xie Chenzhou was a complete weakling whom anyone—man or dog—could walk all over, yet here he was, crushing a demonic beast’s skull with his bare hands.
Which link in the chain had gone wrong, Sang Nian had no idea.
She only knew that her chances of surviving were rapidly approaching zero.
Observing her exceptionally expressive face, Xie Chenzhou took a step toward her. Dropping his gaze to look down at her, a smile failed to reach his eyes. “Why aren’t you saying anything now?”
Staggering backward, Sang Nian sighed. “It’s not like I can beat you. If you want to kill me, what choice do I have?”
He pressed forward step by step. “So you’re saying you agree to let me kill you?”
One of Sang Nian’s feet had already stepped into the water, and the slippery pebbles beneath made it hard to keep her balance. “Can I disagree?”
Xie Chenzhou continued forward. “No.”
Sang Nian tried again, “Can we get back on the bank first? Otherwise, a corpse floating in the water might scare anyone who comes here to fish.”
Xie Chenzhou arched a brow. “No.”
Her temper finally flared. “Well, today I insist on dying on dry land.”
She shoved hard against his chest.
To her surprise, he didn’t budge an inch, while she slipped on the rocks and instantly lost her balance.
Just as she was about to fall, a hand suddenly grabbed her collar.
Sang Nian raised her eyes in panic.
It was Xie Chenzhou.
She had just begun to let out a breath of relief when, the next moment, Xie Chenzhou curled the corners of his lips and deliberately relaxed his fingers one by one.
Thud.
Sang Nian fell flat backward into the water.
Splashes flew in all directions.
The water wasn’t deep—only reaching her waist—and after flailing for a few seconds, she steadied herself, lifted her chin, and glared fiercely up at Xie Chenzhou.
He looked down at her from his position of superiority. Seeing her disheveled state as if it were the most amusing sight in the world, he suddenly and inexplicably burst out laughing.
His voice, like shattering ice hitting a wall, carried the clear, bright ring characteristic of a youth, echoing far across the water’s surface.
Sang Nian: “…”
Absolute psycho.
She ground her back teeth together. Taking advantage of his lack of vigilance, she abruptly grabbed his ankle and yanked downward with all her might.
Splash—
The recently settled waves erupted once more.
Xie Chenzhou hauled himself up from the water, wiped the moisture from his face, and stared expressionlessly at Sang Nian.
Sang Nian curled the corners of her lips into a smile at him. “Yo, why aren’t you laughing anymore? Were you just born lacking a sense of humor?”
His face darkened, and he abruptly reached out to clamp his hand around her throat.
Sang Nian sighed, patted the back of his hand, and said helplessly, “Stop messing around, Xie Chenzhou. You can’t kill me.”
Did he really take her protective magical treasures for mere window dressing?
Xie Chenzhou continued to glare at her coldly.
Just as the standoff reached its peak, a low, bubbling voice suddenly drifted up from beneath the water:
“Beauty ~ What kind of game are you two playing? Can big brother join in?”
Sang Nian: “?”
A string of bubbles burbled up from the underwater depths.
The next second, a battered, bruised man slowly bobbed to the surface in a bizarre posture.
He was dressed in a tattered, powder-pink long robe, holding a frantically thrashing yellow catfish in his mouth. Using a single hand, he swept his soaked bangs out of his eyes and flashed a seductive, wicked grin at Xie Chenzhou and Sang Nian.
“So you two like playing in the water. You must really love a handsome, dashing water-type demon like big brother here.”
Xie Chenzhou: “…”
Sang Nian gasped sharply. “Where on earth did this water ghost come from?!”
“Watch your mouth,” the water-ghost-adjacent man snapped, tossing aside the fish that had just given itself two resounding slaps across the gills, looking thoroughly displeased. “I’m a legitimate demon bearing noble royal blood, not some shady, wandering ghost.”
Dragging Xie Chenzhou with her, Sang Nian bolted straight up to the bank without looking back. “Let’s get out of here. What if he’s looking for a scapegoat?”
The man in pink raged, “I told you I’m not a ghost!”
With a flutter, he intercepted their path, blocking them with a cold sneer. “I went through so much trouble to bring you here, and you still thought you could run? In your dreams!”
Sang Nian gasped in realization. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Hmph, I’ve already shaken off all our pursuers.”
With that, the man in pink slowly dragged his tongue around his lips in an exaggerated circle and batted his eyelashes at Xie Chenzhou. “No one’s going to interrupt our romantic night together.”
Sang Nian couldn’t help but cover her eyes.
This aesthetic was simply… too painful to look at.
Noticing her reaction, the man in pink flashed an even more wild and unrestrained grin. “Don’t worry, little beauty. Big brother will take care of you right after him.”
“Or do you want to join in together?” he crowed with excitement. “That’s brilliant, three is a crowd in a good way! I’ll sleep right in the middle!”
Sang Nian: “…”
She wanted to slap him, but she was also a bit afraid he might lick her hand.
She muttered to Xie Chenzhou, “I’m feeling the urge to commit violence. How about you?”
Xie Chenzhou said expressionlessly, “He doesn’t count as human.”
“I advise you two to surrender quietly and stop making pointless struggles.”
The man in pink pulled a small dagger from his robes, gave the blade a lingering lick, and let out a creepy, cackling laugh. “This dagger of mine is laced with a deadly poison. If I accidentally scratch either of you—”
Before he could finish his sentence, his mouth twitched, and his entire body convulsed violently as if struck by lightning.
Thump—
He collapsed face-first.
Sang Nian / Xie Chenzhou: “…”
Absolute nutcase.
Seeing the man’s limbs still twitching uncontrollably, and knowing full well the importance of securing the kill shot, Sang Nian immediately pulled a three-meter-long spiked mace out of her storage pouch.
The man in pink: “!!!!”
He frantically flipped himself over with a trembling motion and tried to crawl away.
“Did you really think I spent the last half-month just doing calisthenics?”
Lifting the mace high, Sang Nian grinned menacingly. “‘Next time for sure’? ‘Plaything in the tent’? ‘3’?”*
The next moment, a blood-curdling shriek pierced the morning air, startling countless birds into flight.
The screaming went on for a good long while, until a few gasping shouts echoed from not far away:
“Stop right there!”
“Fellow cultivator, please let go of that weak and defenseless demon.”
“That’s right! Your behavior is entirely too cruel!”
Following the voice, Sang Nian turned her head, her gaze locking directly onto the group standing by the roadside.
There were two young women and a youth, dressed in flowing garments with jade plaques bearing the insignia of the Xiaoyao Sect hanging from their waists.
Look at that striking beauty. Look at that trademark male-lead expression featuring precisely three parts chill and four parts detachment, paired with those classic fan-shaped eyelashes.
Intuition told Sang Nian that these were the male and female protagonists she had been waiting for through thick and thin.
Only—
Glancing down at the man in pink who now resembled a bruised pig’s head, then sweeping her gaze across the spiked mace in her own hand, and finally returning to the three newcomers whose faces radiated intense moral outrage, she had a terrible sinking feeling that things were going south.
Sure enough, the trio zipped forward with a whoosh to stand protectively in front of the bloodied man in pink, raising their guards as they glared at Sang Nian.
“Please refrain from continuing to beat up this somewhat shady-looking demon!”
Sang Nian: “…”
Wake up, people! I’m the one you’re supposed to be rescuing! ME!