The performance ended at half past eleven. It was naturally too late to travel then, so Zhou Xin stayed in Dragon City that night.
Because the sixth and seventh floors of Sunshine Hotel had been booked out, Zhou Xin and her group stayed at another hotel called Blue Rain.
The hotel stood beside a river. It had probably once been intended to offer the sort of rooms with sea views, but unfortunately, by the time the hotel was completed, the river water had already become murky. Thus, its greatest attraction was gone, and Blue Rain could only linger half-alive beside the river. Even so, the surroundings were quite pleasant. Otherwise, Zhou Xin and the others would not have chosen to stay there.
Zhou Xin’s group was fairly large. Besides an assistant, there was also a dedicated makeup artist and bodyguards, making seven people in total.
Bodyguards and assistants, entourages accompanying them wherever they went—this was an obvious norm in the entertainment industry. Even celebrities who considered themselves very famous but were actually ignored by everyone would still put on the same airs.
However, the bodyguard Zhou Xin had brought was powerfully built and highly trained. He did not seem like someone an outdated female celebrity who had vanished from the entertainment industry for three years could afford to hire. As for hiring him temporarily, that would make even less sense. Of course, what was even stranger was that after escorting Zhou Xin back to her room, the person who gave the order for the bodyguards and the others to leave was Zhou Xin’s assistant—a thin-faced yet excessively fair-skinned man.
Only after everyone had left did Zhou Xin’s assistant look at her, a trace of fervor in his eyes.
“Three years. I’ve finally waited for this moment. The good days of mine, Huo Yuanlin, are about to begin.”
Zhou Xin’s assistant, Huo Yuanlin, looked at her and muttered to himself.
Ever since he had taken control of Zhou Xin three years ago and secretly infiltrated her life, he had been waiting for this day to arrive.
“As long as the Yinkui Pill succeeds, it won’t be long before the Yinkui Sect will recognize me as its supreme master. More importantly, Xinxin, you will never leave me again.”
Huo Yuanlin wiped his right hand across his temple, then tore a Human Skin Mask from his face. The fairly ordinary-looking face beneath it was replaced by an utterly hideous one. His features seemed almost piled together, his eye sockets were deeply sunken, and there were even two moles on the left side of his face. He was the sort of person no one would want to look at a second time after seeing him once.
Yet Zhou Xin, who was facing Huo Yuanlin, showed not the slightest discomfort at his appearance. Or rather, in her subconscious, there was no distinction between good, bad, ugly, or handsome. Thus, no matter how ugly a man standing before her was, she would simply stand there like a wooden figure.
“Xinzin, do you know that ever since I saw you three years ago, I was astonished by your beauty? I swore then that I would make you my woman.”
Huo Yuanlin spoke to himself, gazing at Zhou Xin’s face with both infatuation and frenzy.
“Once the Yinkui Pill reaches maturity, all of this will come true.”
However, while Huo Yuanlin rambled on at the wooden figure, someone suddenly knocked on the door. Before Huo Yuanlin could react, the door abruptly swung open with a click.
A young man in ordinary clothes walked in. His appearance was rather striking, with star-like brows and sword-shaped eyes, and he possessed an aura that was almost suffocating.
It was Fan Xiwen, who had slowly made his way there after parting from Shuimu Nianhua and Xie Min.
Fan Xiwen’s arrival placed immense pressure on Huo Yuanlin.
Anyone would have felt that something was wrong when someone broke through the door and swaggered in so openly.
Furthermore, if outsiders learned of Huo Yuanlin’s hideous appearance after removing his mask, along with what he was doing to Zhou Xin, he might face pursuit from the martial arts world. Naturally, he had to be nervous.
However, Fan Xiwen had no interest whatsoever in Huo Yuanlin’s thoughts. The Chu Emperor was a man of taste. Although he was curious how a freak with Huo Yuanlin’s appearance had come to look that way, he had no desire to inspect Huo Yuanlin’s filthy thoughts and memories.
With a casual gesture, the small bell that had originally been hanging from Zhou Xin’s right wrist floated into Fan Xiwen’s hand.
Huo Yuanlin was startled. This bell was a magical artifact, and he had gone to considerable lengths to obtain it back then. Moreover, ever since it had been placed on Zhou Xin, no ordinary person could easily remove it unless Huo Yuanlin, its master, did so personally. If an expert forcibly used brute strength, the bell would self-destruct.
Yet now, not only had someone removed the bell, but to Huo Yuanlin’s astonishment, nothing had happened.
“Could this young man be a Grandmaster expert?”
A possibility surfaced in his mind, but even Huo Yuanlin himself was unwilling to believe it.
Fan Xiwen’s age was his most powerful disguise. Convincing people from the martial arts world that Fan Xiwen was a reclusive Grandmaster expert would be even harder than convincing Huo Yuanlin that he was a dog.
In the current martial arts world, there were no more than a dozen Grandmasters. As for the legendary Divine Realm, it had become an unreachable dream.
Everyone in the martial arts world wanted to become a Grandmaster, but in the end, how many could actually reach the summit?
The youngest Grandmaster at present was Hong Jianjia, Sect Master of the Huangting Sect. Twenty years ago, he had already earned the reputation of the Huangting Sword God, and when he entered the Grandmaster Realm last year, he broke the martial arts world’s record for the youngest Grandmaster. The Huangting Sword God had just turned fifty this year, which showed that the Grandmaster Realm was not something one could reach casually.
“But if he isn’t a reclusive Grandmaster expert, there’s no reason he could remove my Violet Gold Bell.”
Huo Yuanlin’s thoughts became complicated. Unable to determine Fan Xiwen’s background, he grew extremely wary.
Fan Xiwen, however, paid no attention to any of this. He shook the small bell called the Violet Gold Bell in his hand. Before long, the Violet Gold Bell emitted a series of booming sounds, then turned into a pile of powder that fell to the floor.
Pfft!
Huo Yuanlin suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, his mind and spirit trembling violently.
When the Violet Gold Bell shattered, the spiritual energy attached to it naturally dispersed in an instant. However, in front of Fan Xiwen, it was impossible for that spiritual energy to escape.
He spread out his divine sense and established a barrier throughout this realm. Then he suddenly closed his eyes and circulated the God Emperor Heart Sutra, greedily absorbing the remnants of spiritual energy in the air like a whale sucking in water.
Unfortunately, there was too little spiritual energy. It was not even enough to let Fan Xiwen reach the threshold of Qi Refining First Layer in an instant.
The spiritual energy within his body was as fine as silk, flowing through his meridians and throughout his body.
Fan Xiwen could not help letting out a helpless sigh. This feeling was truly awful.
With another casual wave of his hand, Zhou Xin, who had still been standing stiffly like a wooden figure, suddenly blinked and shouted at Huo Yuanlin, “Bastard, may you die horribly!”
“You whelp! How dare you ruin my great undertaking!”
Huo Yuanlin instantly flew into a rage. He did not even stop to consider whether he could defeat Fan Xiwen.
Huo Yuanlin did not care much that the Violet Gold Bell, which had cost him an enormous price, had been shattered. It was only a magical artifact. As long as Zhou Xin remained in his hands, none of it mattered. However, Zhou Xin had now suddenly broken free of his control, which meant that the scheme Huo Yuanlin had spent three years arranging had been exposed in an instant.
Zhou Xin was far too important to Huo Yuanlin. Once he lost control over her, everything he had would be gone, and he might even lose his life.
If death was inevitable either way, why think about anything else?
Huo Yuanlin suddenly exploded into action, shooting toward Fan Xiwen like an arrow released from a bow.
Unfortunately, even after cultivating until the age of thirty, Huo Yuanlin was only a useless Bright Force practitioner. Fan Xiwen did not even blink. With a cold snort, he sent Huo Yuanlin flying backward.
He had come quickly and departed just as quickly, leaving Zhou Xin at the side feeling unable to keep up with what was happening.
However, once Huo Yuanlin crashed to the floor, Zhou Xin reacted extremely quickly. She grabbed a solid wooden chair from the hotel and smashed it toward Huo Yuanlin.
“You bastard! Do you know that every time I see your face, I feel like throwing up?”
Huo Yuanlin took the chair squarely to the face, making his entire face look even uglier.
Zhou Xin ignored him. Seeing that the blow had worked, she repeated the same move and smashed him again.
Although Zhou Xin could only obey Huo Yuanlin’s commands after being controlled by the Violet Gold Bell, she still retained her memories. Thus, she knew everything Huo Yuanlin had done to her over the past three years.
At that moment, Zhou Xin wished she could kill Huo Yuanlin.
“That’s enough. I still have a use for him, so don’t kill him.”
Fan Xiwen spoke from the side. At present, he very much hoped to obtain a few more decent magical artifacts.
“You have no idea how disgusting this man is.”
Zhou Xin turned her head, tears already streaming down her face.
Three years ago, after putting on that string of bells, Zhou Xin began to drift into a dazed, confused state. She no longer dared accept acting roles, and her agency terminated her contract. Zhou Xin went from a female celebrity with a promising future to someone who had instantly fallen out of favor. Then Huo Yuanlin appeared, wearing a Human Skin Mask and posing as her assistant. At first, Zhou Xin thought Huo Yuanlin could cure her illness, but she soon learned that his appearance marked only the beginning of her nightmare.
The string of bells controlled Zhou Xin’s actions but could not control her memories. Every day, she was like a walking corpse, allowing Huo Yuanlin to manipulate her as he pleased. Whenever night grew deep and all was quiet, Huo Yuanlin would tear off his Human Skin Mask and stand before Zhou Xin, making no attempt to conceal his madness and infatuation as he repeatedly spoke of his great undertaking. Huo Yuanlin believed that with the Violet Gold Bell in place, as long as he was careful, Zhou Xin could never escape his grasp.
Thus, Zhou Xin also learned of Huo Yuanlin’s scheme.
The medicine Huo Yuanlin had tricked Zhou Xin into drinking was actually a secret formula of the Yinkui Sect. Any woman with a yin-cold constitution who drank it would gestate a Yinkui Pill within her dantian. After three years, the Yinkui Pill would mature, and by consuming it through a secret technique, Huo Yuanlin could increase his cultivation by ten years without any effort. Moreover, if the two of them engaged in dual cultivation afterward, their cultivation would increase with twice the results for half the effort.
If Zhou Xin had not needed to remain pure while gestating the yin pill, she would have lost her chastity long ago.
After everything she had endured, killing him was the only way to vent the hatred in her heart.