“Let go of me!” Shi Ying felt as though her wrist had been scorched by fire where she was touched, sending faint tingles through the nerves of half her body.
She manipulated the crimson threads, directing them toward Yun Jinghe.
Yun Jinghe tightened her grip around Shi Ying’s waist, flicked her wrist, and unsheathed a blade as thin as a cicada’s wing, intending to sever the threads with a single slash.
But this time, the threads were different. They twisted together midair, coiling tightly around the cold, gleaming blade, freezing it in place unable to advance or retreat.
Seeing her obstruction was effective, Shi Ying raised her hand, palm clenched, summoning countless more threads from behind her. They wound around Yun Jinghe’s arms, trying to force her to release her hold.
Yet Yun Jinghe resisted the force stubbornly. As the two opposing powers pulled against each other, the threads sliced through fabric and bit into flesh. Bright red blood seeped out, staining the pristine white sleeves.
The blood trickled down the threads, but Yun Jinghe’s expression remained unchanged. Her slender, bony hand stayed firmly locked around Shi Ying’s waist, unyielding as stone.
“Surprised to see me?” Yun Jinghe asked.
That day, when Shi Ying had been pushed into the eye of public scrutiny, she hadn’t wanted to waste time entangled in it. In the end, she had relied on the Yun family’s influence to escape.
“Why do you keep chasing after me?” Shi Ying truly couldn’t understand there shouldn’t be such deep hatred between them.
“Let go?” Yun Jinghe repeated softly, voice low. “Why should I?”
It was Shi Ying who had provoked her first. Before this, Yun Jinghe had even given her a chance.
But Shi Ying had pushed that opportunity away and chosen to come to her side instead.
Distracted by Yun Jinghe, Shi Ying had no attention to spare for the black serpent. The threads binding it began to loosen.
The moment Yun Jinghe appeared, the serpent’s golden pupils contracted sharply, its hatred so intense it seemed almost tangible.
Sensing its restraints weakening, it immediately thrashed, shaking off the threads.
As it prepared to slither away, it glanced back at the two locked in struggle. Unwilling to leave just like that, a new plan formed in its mind, it was time to claim a better body.
Coiling the lower half of its body, it raised its upper half, the scales on its tail suddenly flaring open like waves, emitting a grating, rasping sound.
Soon, the rustling of countless crawling creatures emerged from the surroundings.
Yun Jinghe tilted her head slightly, sensing the unusual disturbance.
Ignoring the threads embedded deep in her flesh, she took two slow steps back, pulling Shi Ying with her.
Hiss
The area was surrounded by waist-high grass, now trembling faintly as though something slithered within.
Shi Ying also noticed the eerie shift. Looking down, she saw Yun Jinghe’s hand around her waist was covered in shocking streaks of blood just the sight of it was painful.
Does this person not feel pain?
Frowning, she turned her head to glare at Yun Jinghe. “Let me go!”
“Don’t move.” Yun Jinghe’s voice betrayed no hint of strain from the threads cutting into her.
In the next instant, she pivoted slightly, lifting her sword and sweeping it toward a particular direction.
Shi Ying watched in alarm as Yun Jinghe was about to make such a grand movement while still entangled with the red silk threads. In her panic, she loosened her control over the threads slightly.
The sword blade broke free from its restraints and slashed fiercely through everything in front of it. Several small snakes, severed in half by the sword’s energy, fell to the ground, writhing and struggling in their death throes.
Immediately after, countless small snakes of various colors and shapes emerged from the surroundings, slithering forward to encircle the two of them.
Yun Jinghe looked up and saw that the branches of the trees were also coiled with many small snakes, all hanging down, watching them with predatory eyes.
At the sudden sight of so many snakes, Shi Ying felt her scalp tingle. Instinctively, she searched for the black snake she had previously bound, only to find it had already vanished without a trace. This was undoubtedly the work of that snake demon.
“Yun Jinghe, let me go quickly!” Shi Ying had no intention of meeting her end here.
Yun Jinghe glanced down at her, then swung her sword, sending out several sharp gusts of sword wind that formed an impenetrable barrier in front of them, cutting down all the mindless snakes that dared approach.
Yet blood continued to drip from the red silk threads wrapped around her arm. If one didn’t look closely, it almost seemed as though Yun Jinghe had become Shi Ying’s marionette.
While Yun Jinghe was busy fending off the snakes attacking from all directions, no one noticed the black snake, the instigator of this chaos hiding in a corner, greedily devouring its own kind. As it feasted, its body swelled in size, and dark purple patterns began to emerge on its scales.
The corpses of the small snakes Yun Jinghe had slain piled up in heaps, yet the remaining ones continued to charge forward as if they had no regard for their lives.
“Kill it!” Shi Ying loosened the red silk threads binding Yun Jinghe’s hand and instead focused her attack on the black snake.
Freed from her restraints, Yun Jinghe followed Shi Ying’s direction and stepped forward, sword in hand, but not before grabbing Shi Ying’s wrist.
Without exchanging a single word, the two moved in perfect sync.
Shi Ying used her threads to trap the black snake, restricting its movements, while Yun Jinghe raised her sword to strike down the serpent as it twisted and struggled to escape.
For some reason, Yun Jinghe sensed a familiar and loathsome aura emanating from the black snake, but she had no time to dwell on it now.
Just as the blade was about to descend, the black snake suddenly launched itself into the air. Defying death, it coiled around Yun Jinghe’s sword, its tough black scales instantly splitting open as purple blood trickled down the blade.
But the snake didn’t stop there. It reared its upper body high, opening its maw wide to reveal venomous fangs that gleamed menacingly in the sunlight.
At such close range, Yun Jinghe decisively released Shi Ying, pushing her away from danger.
Then, her eyes darkening, Yun Jinghe gripped her sword and slashed downward with full force, attempting to fling the snake away.
But the black snake suddenly uncoiled from the blade mid-motion, instead tensing its body and darting toward Shi Ying, who stood nearby.
Yun Jinghe’s pupils constricted, its target had been Shi Ying all along!
Her sword strike could no longer be retracted. The blade struck the ground, splitting the earth open in a deep fissure, sending shockwaves that kicked up fallen leaves and dust.
Yun Jinghe tried to reach for Shi Ying, but the red silk threads that had hung loosely around her arm suddenly tightened again, yanking her backward with such force that she stumbled, barely managing to keep her balance.
“Yingying!” Yun Jinghe bellowed in fury, the bulging veins on the back of her sword-gripping hand betraying her current desperation.
“Don’t come any closer!” Shi Ying had finally managed to escape her grasp and would never go back.
But then the icy serpent’s tail swiftly coiled around Shi Ying’s ankle, slithering upward before its venomous fangs suddenly sank into her calf.
Shi Ying immediately let out a muffled groan of pain.
Following close behind was the gleaming flash of a spiritual sword, piercing the black serpent’s vital spot with unerring precision. The tremendous force sent the snake flying, pinning it firmly to a distant tree trunk. The black serpent hung there motionless, its fate unknown.
For a moment, the surroundings seemed to fall silent. The smaller snakes that had been poised to attack halted in confusion, as if they had lost their target.
In the distance, birds and beasts scattered in panic as a thunderous sound accompanied faint tremors in the ground, as though something massive was skimming across the surface at incredible speed.
A snake tail as thick as a grown man’s waist swept past, flattening swathes of grass and gathering up the corpses of the dead serpents.
This was a python over five hundred years old, its appearance already showing signs of evolving into an anaconda.
The remaining smaller snakes turned and huddled close to the giant serpent.
The python’s crimson eyes glared at Yun Jinghe and Shi Ying as it flared a dark red neck frill and let out a furious, piercing hiss.
These smaller snakes were its offspring, and now most had been slaughtered, no wonder it was so enraged.
The deafening hiss even made the surrounding trees tremble slightly.
Shi Ying quickly checked the wound on her calf. Though venomous, the toxin didn’t seem particularly potent, the black snake had likely bitten her out of spite.
If not for the dire situation, she would have skinned that black serpent alive.
The giant python reared back slightly, adopting an attacking stance as its tongue flicked in and out, clearly assessing its enemies and searching for the right moment to strike.