She looked into the young man's eyes. Though they should have been cold and devoid of emotion, a hint of anticipation flickered deep within them as he gazed at her with unwavering focus.
Clearly, he would not be appeased without an answer.
Lin Muci's mind raced, unable to conjure a satisfactory reply. She could easily placate him with sweet words, but she worried about his "Duanqing" curse flaring up immediately. Yet, if she spoke cruelly, she couldn't bear it.
Moreover, Helian Lanyan and that Qingque were present. If she said something that hurt him, she knew he would undoubtedly suffer greatly.
Lin Muci found herself in a predicament. She could only purse her lips, staring blankly at the young man opposite her. A hint of coldness stirred in his eyes, and his brows were laced with a trace of mockery.
"Are you too afraid to repeat what you said before?"
"That's right, you didn't have a childhood sweetheart fiancé by your side back then."
"Why, even after he hurt you so badly, you still consider his feelings and dare not tell him that you've been intimate with a demon—how intimately you've been with a demon... right?"
Disappointment and pain warred in his eyes. Looking at Ling Qianhe like this, a cascade of thoughts flashed through Lin Muci's mind. After a moment, she spoke rapidly.
"No—"
She paused slightly.
Then Lin Muci said,
"It's not like that. I'm not concerned about Helian Lanyan's feelings at all."
She quickly made up her mind, then looked up at Ling Qianhe and said,
"I said I wanted to stay by your side because I knew your sadness and pitied your suffering—"
She took a deep breath and continued,
"I don't want you to be alone."
The young man opposite her continued to gaze at her with his deep black eyes. It was as if heaven and earth had revived, and spring had returned to the earth; a touch of emotion gradually appeared in his eyes. He looked at her intently, silently observing her, and then he spoke.
"I said, I believe everything you say."
"Then, can you say 'I love you'?"
Lin Muci fell silent.
What she had said earlier was indeed from her heart. She did pity this orphaned, helpless youth. In the eyes of others, he was a demon, but in her eyes, she had seen this young man grit his teeth and move forward step by step. She knew he wasn't born to destroy heaven and earth—but he asked her to say she loved him.
She couldn't utter the words.
She knew—the one she loved was only Ling Qianhe. The possessive youth, his burning affection, his madness and obsession, he sought only Lin Muci his entire life.
It was difficult for her to say "I love you" to Ling Qianhe again. The system was rapidly shouting in her mind.
"Host—hurry and say it, it's okay..."
"If you've decided, you can tell him that the one you love has always been..."
Lin Muci remained silent. The light in the eyes of the young man opposite her seemed to extinguish little by little. Like plum blossoms in wind and snow, his face, once like white jade, was now covered in a dull haze.
He pursed his lips, a cold smile on the verge of shattering gracing their corners.
Deep within his pupils, an irrepressible malevolence surged.
"Then who do you love?"
She didn't know how to explain.
"In this world... I love no one..."
"But I can stay by your side forever..."
The young man grabbed her hand and whispered icy words into her ear with the gentlest tone.
"Is it enough to stay by my side?"
"Perhaps it was in the past, but now I'm greedy and want more. What will it take to satisfy me—"
He reached out and pressed Lin Muci's hand unhesitatingly to the spot over his heart, then murmured in a deep voice.
"Touch it—touch my heart—they all say I am a heartless person."
"But I also wish for my heart to beat for someone."
Lin Muci couldn't bear to look at the profound affection and confusion that flashed across his exquisitely handsome face. Helian Lanyan, standing nearby, perked up.
"Xiao Ci, since you don't love this demon, come back with me."
"I don't know why you're staying by his side."
"If the Jade Bone Lotus is gone, I'll find another way for you... Don't worry, I'll definitely help you regenerate your spirit veins..."
Mentioning this, Lin Muci suddenly looked up.
"Regenerate spirit veins? Find another way?"
It was better not to bring it up. When it was mentioned, her heart was filled with anger. The sarcastic smile on her lips grew more pronounced. She seemed to be covered in ice and snow. Though her appearance wasn't stunningly beautiful, her ethereal aura made people involuntarily shiver.
"You clearly know what the best method is."
"If you refuse to say it, I will."
"Dig out the spirit veins of your Qingque. And give them back to me."
Helian Lanyan froze. It was the first time he had seen Si Muci like this. He seemed to have become a completely different person from the childhood friend he knew. His breathing faltered.
"But Xiao Ci... you didn't say that back then... you clearly said that if you broke her wings and gouged out her eyes, that would be enough..."
"'Even if they were returned to you, they would be useless... you said it was fine, I believe you.'"
"Xiao Ci, you already let her go."
"Why are you bringing it up again?"
"If she loses her spirit veins now, it's equivalent to losing her life. Unlike you, she will truly die..."
Xue Zhizhi, standing nearby, was overjoyed upon hearing Helian Lanyan's words, feeling a sliver of hope. Helian Lanyan truly cared about her. Her eyes gleamed with joy—while Lin Muci's lips continued to carry a deep, mocking smile.
"Will truly die?"
"Let her go?"
"That was then, this is now. Back then, I said I didn't care because I was young and ignorant, and very stubborn."
"I felt that if something was tainted, it was better to discard it."
"Now that I've grown up and matured considerably, I naturally know that one cannot be too stubborn; it doesn't benefit oneself. Moreover, why should I let her go?"
"What is mine, if stolen, must be returned."
"Besides—my punishing her back then was my business. If you truly wanted to seek justice for me, shouldn't you have returned my spirit veins back then?"
"Otherwise, why would it have come to this?"
"Our relationship has long since been severed."
Helian Lanyan's eyes widened in disbelief. He looked at the young girl before him, her expression calm, and opened his lips, his voice trembling slightly.
"You weren't like this back then..."
"Little Sister Xiao Ci was the most innocent and pure. Although spoiled, Qingque was still a life..."
Lin Muci stared at him coldly.
"Just because I'm not capable of acting now doesn't mean I don't care. Take your Qingque and get lost. Sooner or later, I will hunt you down and personally dig out her spirit veins. If she scatters her soul, so be it. If you try to stop me, I'll kill you too!"
She wasn't being petulant.
She was serious.
Even Helian Lanyan could discern the seriousness in her words. His cheeks turned somewhat pale—after a long silence, he gave a bitter smile, a flicker of subtle pain flashing in his eyes.
"Xiao Ci... you..."
"I will find a way."
Ling Qianhe had been pondering whom she loved, but he could no longer listen. He strode forward in two swift movements and stood beside Xue Zhizhi, declaring loudly,
"Why bother with so much trouble."
"If she wants to dig, I'll dig for her."
A black longsword, radiating malevolent aura, suddenly appeared in his hand.
He glanced at Qingque Xue Zhizhi, whose face was pale and hidden behind Helian Lanyan, then directly thrust the sword towards her heart.
She trembled all over, faint golden patterns appearing on her body. Ling Qianhe's sword had already forced her spirit veins to surface. Ling Qianhe's lips curled into a cold smile. His sword was about to viciously hook her spirit veins.
Helian Lanyan, however, intervened.
The plot had indeed returned.
These two were indeed going to fight, but even though Ling Qianhe was a demon, he was not the demon king destined to destroy the world. Helian Lanyan was, in fact, the current Demon Emperor, and he was no match for Helian Lanyan.
Lin Muci wanted them to stop.
Helian Lanyan's sword fiercely struck Ling Qianhe's arm.
His true form was a five-clawed golden dragon, his body incredibly tough, comparable to divine weapons. He blocked in front of him, his face grim.
"Insignificant demon, overestimating yourself!"
Ling Qianhe looked at him, his eyes filled with mockery.
"You're protecting her?"
"You're actually protecting her?"
He sneered.
"You don't honestly think this woman is anything good, do you?"
"You don't know that this woman specifically rushed to my imperial palace to seduce me, do you? She said she saved me—how strange, I remember very clearly that I was born to be rejected, and no one in this world would ever save me."
"Except for a fool named Si Muci, who would go with me to the Vast Wasteland."
"No one ever pitied me."
"This woman named Xue Zhizhi, she said she owed me a life-saving grace—said she saved me in the snow."
"I do have some fragmented memories, but unfortunately, being born a demon, cold-hearted and unfeeling, I can observe others' emotions as if watching a fire from across the river."
"When she said that, she was extremely pleased, thinking, another fool has been tricked and fallen victim to our clan's secret technique!"
"Another one..."
"So, who do you guess was the last fool?"
He looked at Helian Lanyan opposite him. Helian Lanyan, who had been standing there with an ethereal and handsome demeanor, suddenly looked even worse upon hearing his words.
Xue Zhizhi hid behind him, only her fair face peeking out, but now her face was filled with panic.
"Don't—don't listen to his nonsense!"
"There's nothing... He's a demon, he's the one who bewitches people... Lanyan, don't fall for his tricks, don't fall into this demon's trap!"
Her voice was almost a whimper, like a desperate cry in the wind and snow, but the devastatingly beautiful youth opposite her looked at her with growing amusement.
His appearance was too striking and flamboyant. He observed the exceedingly elegant young man opposite him, watching him stand there with unsteady breath and a grim expression, and then he laughed.
His laughter was mocking and arrogant.
"You know I'm a demon too."
"You seduced me."
"And gave me the Heart-Questioning Stone. Asking me to ask Si Muci who she loves."
"Although I crushed that Heart-Questioning Stone."
"But the important thing about the Heart-Questioning Stone is its marrow—I kept a wisp of its marrow energy, hidden in my sleeve. So if I release that wisp of Heart-Questioning energy now, do you dare to say that you truly saved the man by your side?"
"Do you dare to say you lied to him?"
Qingque's expression was extremely unsightly—and the youth continued to fix his cold gaze on her eyes.
"However, that stone was given to me by you, so you might have tampered with it."
"I can probe your deepest, truest thoughts—"
"You are very flustered now."
"I am also very curious, how could a woman like you trick the man beside you? It seems he truly is a purebred fool—"
"I was worried that Xiao Ci would like her childhood sweetheart brother, but now it seems my worries are unnecessary."
"How could Xiao Ci fall for a foolish idiot?"
His words were laced with mockery, but they succeeded in making Helian Lanyan's eyes turn red!
His demonic heart was in turmoil, demonic energy colliding within his body, but he forcibly suppressed it. He couldn't unleash his cultivation here; this was the lower realm, not the demon realm. If he did, he would be punished by heaven and earth.
But how could the backlash of demonic energy be easily endured? He opened his mouth, wanting to speak, but instead, he spat out a mouthful of bright red blood!
He turned to look at the trembling, despairing Qingque again.
"Is what he said true?"
In fact, he had already realized something was amiss.
Xue Zhizhi was not in her clan, but here.
Why had Xue Zhizhi come...
What was she doing here?
Xue Zhizhi merely looked at him with tear-filled eyes.
"I like you—it's all because I like you..."
"You saved me, don't you remember? My true form was almost dead before you, and you saved me with your kindness..."
But before she could finish speaking, Ling Qianhe continued,
"So you used some means to alter his memory?"
"Just as you altered mine."
"You've been fooling him like a傻子... Oh right, you pair of ungrateful wretches also dug out Xiao Ci's spirit veins..."
"Truly... deserving of death!"
By this point, his eyes were filled with chilling murderous intent. The murderous intent surged like a tide. He didn't know the exact identities of the two people opposite him, but he didn't care. They were just a pair of black-hearted scoundrels.
Killing them was the only way!
Anyone who bullied Xiao Ci would not be allowed to get away with it!
Helian Lanyan felt as if his heart was being torn to shreds. He was truly enduring the so-called heart-wrenching pain. He blankly turned his head to look at the Qingque. He had always felt he owed her gratitude and was willing to do anything for her.
Now, it felt like a joke.
If she wasn't the one who saved him.
Then what was the truth?
His mind was in chaos. Looking at her tearful eyes, he felt no trace of pity.
"So—the one who saved me wasn't you at all."
"Then... who saved me?"
"Who were you impersonating?"