Shi Yeshan let out a light scoff but didn't say anything more. Su Zhai coughed twice in a low voice, trying to cover up her embarrassment.
Sensing Shi Yeshan's displeasure, Chu Yi felt a bit awkward. "I didn't expect someone to set up a labyrinthine array here. Let's not talk about it now! She's really getting away!"
With that, she dashed off again like the wind.
Su Zhai glanced at Shi Yeshan and let out a long, quiet sigh. "As long as she's fine, let's go home."
Shi Yeshan frowned. "She deserves to learn a lesson."
"Shi Yeshan!" Chu Yi's voice rang out again from not too far away. "Come give me a hand."
He initially wanted to ignore her, but Su Zhai was curious as well, so she pushed Shi Yeshan toward the commotion. They arrived just in time to see Chu Yi stepping on a crimson snake, while a little girl beside her was biting down hard on Chu Yi's arm, refusing to let go.
She had bitten it bloody.
"That's the Fifth Young Miss from the manor," Su Zhai recognized her, surprised. "Her biological father is a high-ranking official in the capital."
At the time, Su Zhai had even remarked that this Fifth Young Miss was practically the standard female lead of a harem intrigue novel—born clever and pretty, raised in a countryside manor, and always sneaking out to play. Su Zhai had seen her once before. She had a sharp, difficult personality, famous throughout the area.
But no matter how sharp-tongued she was, she shouldn't be this vicious.
Chu Yi gritted her teeth and brought the edge of her hand down hard on the girl's neck, but the girl somehow withstood the blow. In pain, she viciously tore a chunk of flesh from Chu Yi's arm.
Su Zhai's heart jolted. She was about to step in when Shi Yeshan raised a hand to stop her. "There's a snake."
The snake was a demon—the labyrinthine array from earlier had been its doing.
Bound by the Cease-Killing Order, Chu Yi couldn't deliver a killing blow. After sacrificing a piece of her flesh, she grabbed the girl by the neck with one hand, staring straight into her eyes. "You're a mortal. How did you end up consorting with a snake demon? And you even set up a labyrinthine array to hunt passersby."
"She's the young miss from the manor, but she went missing last month. Everyone helped search for her," Su Zhai explained to Chu Yi. "She should have had a cultivator guarding her, but he disappeared too."
That cultivator had also come from the capital, specifically assigned to protect this young lady in the countryside.
She was quite attentive to all the big and small matters in the village.
Shi Yeshan brushed a half-fallen leaf off her shoulder, looking uninterested. "Shall we go home?"
"…Wait a moment." Su Zhai looked at the girl, who was like a little wolf cub, and suggested to Chu Yi, "Why don't we send her back to the manor? Maybe she's been bewitched by the snake demon."
"I'm not going back!" the Fifth Young Miss finally spoke up. "Don't you dare take my snake."
Because Chu Yi was stepping on it, the crimson snake was writhing in agony on the ground.
But Chu Yi found this amusing. "Heh."
She threw the girl to the ground and ground her foot hard into the snake. "Oh, so this snake is your friend."
She gradually increased the pressure under her foot, watching with relish as the girl's face twisted with hatred. Chu Yi sneered. "What, do you hate me?"
Su Zhai gripped Shi Yeshan's sleeve tightly, hesitating over whether she should speak up to stop this.
Shi Yeshan thought she was scared, so he simply pulled her into his arms. But after a moment, he sensed something was off. "What's wrong?"
"She's just a child," Su Zhai said softly. "She doesn't know any better."
Shi Yeshan's tone was calm. "She knows very well how to kill. You nearly fell victim to her."
His tone carried clear disapproval.
Su Zhai softened her voice. "I'm still alive, aren't I? It's fine. And that labyrinthine array wasn't that powerful—"
It was manageable, really.
She was getting into her explanation when she noticed the man's expression growing increasingly displeased. She trailed off awkwardly and fell silent.
Shi Yeshan paused, then told her, "You and Chu Yi are both simple-minded, without a malicious thought in your heads, so the Inner Demons conjured by the array couldn't turn back on you. But if it had been anyone else, who knows how gruesome their death might have been. Do you want to be scared to death by those ghosts?"
She had such sympathy for a complete stranger.
So quickly, she had forgotten the fear and worry of being trapped for an entire day.
Su Zhai shook her head timidly.
She understood the danger now.
"Hey, I just saw several corpses over there. That kid is definitely not innocent," Chu Yi called back. "I can't kill anyone myself, so one of you come over and finish off these two."
Shi Yeshan's gaze remained indifferent. Noticing that Su Zhai still looked reluctant, he gave a faint order. "Send the child back to her home."
But the Fifth Young Miss fought even harder, as if returning home was worse than death. She pointed at Chu Yi's nose and shrieked, "I know! You like this married woman!! The two of you are carrying on behind her husband's back—shameless! Your Inner Demons are all about this, aren't they? Too afraid to let anyone see."
Su Zhai: ?
…What kind of bizarre turn was this?
Chu Yi was equally dumbfounded. The crimson snake seized the opportunity to dart away, but a blast of palm wind from Chu Yi struck it into critical injury, and it stopped, writhing in pain.
The Fifth Young Miss rushed over, pressing the snake against her chest, then turned back to glare at Chu Yi through gritted teeth, her eyes filled with ruthless venom. "One day, I will cut you into a thousand pieces!"
"Don't even think about running." Chu Yi threatened, "And… don't you dare say nonsense."
Having said that, she guiltily glanced at the couple, feeling that Shi Yeshan's dark, gloomy eyes were even more unsettling than the little girl's.
He tilted his head slightly, his voice soft as a snake's hiss, asking, "What did she just say?"
His pupils were deep and dark, with black halos spreading at the edges.
He was merely an outer sect disciple with a low cultivation base.
Yet in that instant, Chu Yi was so terrified she could barely breathe, feeling a faint, subtle pressure unlike anything she'd felt even before Immortal Lord Ziying.
The senior brother was right.
A jealous husband was absolutely terrifying.
Especially since Shi Yeshan had always been narrow-minded.
"Children say nonsense without understanding." Su Zhai felt cold sweat crawling up her spine, instinctively grabbing Shi Yeshan's broad hand and holding it tightly. "How could that be? Don't believe such things."
Shi Yeshan's gaze drifted gently back to her, unreadable.
But it felt foreign.
"I've only known Cultivator Chu for such a short time…" Su Zhai felt embarrassed, shaking her head. "What is all this nonsense?"
Su Zhai wasn't good at lying; she always felt uncomfortable when she did.
And right now, she didn't dare look at him.
Shi Yeshan remained relatively calm. He remembered that Su Zhai was usually shy around strangers, yet she'd been quite close to Chu Yi, even going alone with her to the back mountain despite the danger…
There had always been a reason.
He blinked, gazing at Su Zhai's pitiful expression, slowly pondering when this had happened.
She was a succubus, instinctively craving others' Yang Essence and Yin Vitality. Since Shi Yeshan couldn't provide it for now, she'd find ways to seek it from others.
He shouldn't have let Su Zhai come into contact with others.
"Shi Yeshan." Su Zhai looked both amused and exasperated, gazing at the man's cold, dark eyes and saying helplessly, "What are you thinking about? I like you so much, how could I possibly have anything with anyone else?"
Shi Yeshan snapped back to reality. "…Mm."
This was the nature of succubi; he'd known this all along. It wasn't Su Zhai's fault.
Even if she had entanglements with countless others, the one she depended on was only him.
If an unwanted mistake had occurred, then it could simply be corrected.
She wanted Yang Essence? That wasn't difficult. No one in the world could satisfy her better than Immortal Lord Ziying.
He lowered his head, gently pulling Su Zhai into his embrace. "I know."
She felt that he really didn't know.
Because the man's embrace was so tight she could barely breathe, even squeezing her until it hurt—clearly abnormal.
"…I said, such ridiculous words. And you actually believe them." Su Zhai had truly run out of patience, patting Shi Yeshan soothingly. "It's absolutely impossible."
However, Chu Yi suddenly spoke up from behind them, "How is it impossible? I may be dim-witted, but I understand matters of the heart."
Chu Yi felt indignant. "Why can't I like her? Going on and on about how it's impossible, if you dislike me that much, then why did you give me that little cake? It's not like I even wanted to eat it."
Su Zhai: …
The man's embrace tightened even more, nearly suffocating her.
"You two trying to die together?" Chu Yi muttered discontentedly, "Hugging like that, in broad… in the dead of night, it's truly indecent."
The little girl was still holding the snake, shooting her a vicious glare.
No one had time to care about the little girl now. Su Zhai felt her vision go dark, slowly struggling free from Shi Yeshan's embrace, staring at Chu Yi in bewilderment. "Did you get something wrong?"
Don't do this—Shi Yeshan was about to join the vengeful spirit dream team.
Chu Yi said grumpily, "I didn't get anything wrong, because it was my senior brother who said it. My senior brother is very clever; he wouldn't make a mistake."
Lin Wei.
The murderous intent in Shi Yeshan's heart subsided somewhat, his voice turning slightly cold. "What did he tell you?"
Falling for a married woman—she was in the wrong.
Chu Yi disdained to argue and simply admitted it. "That day when you two went out to eat, I was outside, and suddenly a voice in my heart urged me to go find Su Zhai. My senior brother told me it was because I liked her, so I kept thinking about her."
Su Zhai: …
Was this a confession?
Why did it feel so strange?
Chu Yi glanced at Su Zhai, feeling equally depressed, and couldn't help complaining: "I don't even know what I see in her. Out of nowhere, I've fallen in love. A dullard with not a trace of Spiritual Qi on her, timid and weak. So it turns out I like someone who's only good-looking. What bad luck."
Su Zhai: …
Who's the one with bad luck here?
Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Shi Yeshan calmed down instead, returning to his former composed demeanor. "I was wrong."
"What are you wrong about?" Su Zhai asked cautiously. "There's really nothing between me and her. Don't overthink it."
She was very afraid Shi Yeshan would be driven mad with rage.
"Wrong for actually treating her like a person." Shi Yeshan frowned. "Knowing full well she has no brain."
"How dare you insult me." Chu Yi stepped forward recklessly, unable to contain herself. "I haven't done anything bad! Even if I planned to do something, it would have to wait until after you die. My senior brother said, once she becomes a widow, then I could—"
Before the words even faded, the man stumbled half a step, then abruptly dropped to one knee as if bearing some immense agony, bracing himself awkwardly with his hands, his eyes filled with shock.
There was no wind.
Yet the forest suddenly erupted in clamor, startled birds scattering into flight, even the dust seething and trembling faintly.
It was the Divine Pressure of Immortal Lord Ziying, sweeping down from all directions as if it could shatter everything in the world—irresistible, leaving no choice but to submit.
Chu Yi slapped his own forehead, his mind finally clearing as realization struck in an instant: "So it was the Grandmaster… who sent me,"
Under such terrifying Divine Pressure, the Fifth Young Miss and the crimson serpent could not withstand it, cowering prostrate on the ground before fainting from the strain.
Only Su Zhai remained composed as ever. She glanced around fearfully, then edged closer to Shi Yeshan's side, feeling as though something dreadful was about to unfold.
Shi Yeshan calmly took her hand. "Let's go home."