Red and white fell through the air like meteors, ripping open the dim sky.
“Brother… Brother!”
Yan Qingge’s voice trembled beyond recognition.
Staring at the dying Bai Qingran, her mind went completely blank.
She instinctively reached out, trying to press down on the gaping hole in his chest that kept bubbling with bloody foam.
Warm, sticky crimson kept spilling between her fingers no matter how hard she tried to stop it.
In a panic she opened her storage pouch.
Her fingertips had gone stiff from sheer terror.
Yan Qingge shakily pulled out the pills inside, but her hand suddenly jerked.
The jade bottle smashed against the ground and shattered.
Round medicinal pills scattered everywhere, covered in dust and blood.
Yan Qingge dropped to the ground in a wretched heap.
Using blood-stained hands, she picked up one pill after another—every single one something that could save Bai Qingran’s life in her eyes—while choked, grief-stricken sobs leaked from her throat.
Behind her, heavy, sinister footsteps approached slowly.
Yan Qingge whipped around in terror.
That twisted black shadow now stood only a short distance away.
She instinctively reached for her sword, only to touch empty air at her waist and realize with horror that the blade meant to protect both her and Bai Qingran had been thrown away by her own hand.
“Hahahaha.”
The black shadow’s laughter was ugly and hoarse, like a venomous snake slithering over dead leaves.
It mixed joy, mockery, and even a trace of smug satisfaction.
“Yan Qingge, I won’t kill you. But I need you to completely possess Bai Qingran. Tear him apart! Devour him! Make him rot inside your flesh and blood forever!”
The words exploded in her ears.
Yan Qingge could not believe what she was hearing.
Yet at the same time, the darkness hidden deep inside her heart began to churn.
A desire darker than ink roared madly.
She turned her head with difficulty and looked at the blood-soaked white figure.
Unconsciously, she swallowed.
I… I can possess Brother?
“Yes, you can possess Bai Qingran. Isn’t that exactly what you want? Isn’t that your deepest desire, Yan Qingge?”
The black shadow spoke like a devil that could read hearts, tempting her relentlessly.
The broken white was dotted with vivid red.
The seductive beauty of Bai Qingran’s tragic, blood-stained face was magnified infinitely in this moment.
Claim him. Imprison him. Let no one else in the world covet this beauty.
Make him belong to me completely.
Continue that unfinished kiss from that night in this sea of blood. Devour him…
Yan Qingge’s gaze began to blur.
A demonic, evil light surfaced deep in her black pupils.
She reached out with a trembling hand, fingertips about to touch Bai Qingran’s cold cheek, as if ready to abandon all resistance to the devil’s whispers.
“Cough… cough…”
Bai Qingran coughed up a mouthful of blood.
His body convulsed violently from the pain.
Looking at the girl who was nearly bewitched before him, there was no fear in his red pupils.
Instead, he gave a helpless, crooked smile.
Then he took out the rattle drum from his bosom—the very one Yan Qingge had smashed with her own hands, yet which he had painstakingly repaired piece by piece.
Dang lang dang lang.
The sound was no longer crisp like before; it was dull and hoarse.
Yet it pierced through the layers of black qi shrouding Yan Qingge’s heart like a ray of dawn light.
“Good thing… it didn’t break…”
Bai Qingran’s voice was so weak it was almost inaudible.
He forced out his last breath and pressed the rattle drum into Yan Qingge’s hand.
“Cough… cough… Qingge, this is Brother’s birthday present for your twentieth birthday.”
On one side the black shadow screamed in her ear to “possess him.”
On the other, the clumsy, faint, yet impossibly pure sound of the drum rang out.
Yan Qingge took the rattle drum and unconsciously began to shake it.
Dang lang dang lang.
Memories surged wildly.
Twenty years old… eighteen… seven…
Every scene was Bai Qingran’s gentle protection.
What he had given her was unconditional familial love and tolerance.
Yet just now she had nearly let the black shadow tempt her into imprisoning him with dark, ugly desire.
“Wuu… wuuu… Brother, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
Yan Qingge broke down in tears.
Under Bai Qingran’s pure “love,” she was washed clean.
“I love you, Brother. Bai Qingran, I love you.”
Seeing the demonic nature gradually fade from the girl, Bai Qingran gently took her hand.
For a brief moment he too felt dazed.
He had saved Yan Qingge originally to escape the cage Chu Mo had woven for him.
Yet these thirteen years inside the illusion—how could he simply cast them aside?
Bai Qingran knew that once the Heart-Questioning Gu Devouring ended, Yan Qingge’s memories of the illusion would vanish like smoke.
To her he would become nothing more than a blurry figure in a half-forgotten dream.
He knew it.
Yet why did his heart ache so badly?
Bai Qingran struggled to his feet.
The movement pulled at the wound in his chest, turning his face deathly pale.
Stubbornly he leaned closer, gently wiped the tears from the corners of the girl’s eyes with his thumb, and—under her shocked gaze—kissed her lips as if she were the most precious treasure in the world.
The kiss was very light, very clean, yet carried the bitter taste of blood.
So be it. Let me be selfish just this once, Bai Qingran thought.
Their lips parted.
Yan Qingge stood frozen in place.
The rattle drum’s sound echoed madly in her mind.
The Calming Heart Art sensed the violent tremor coming from the depths of her soul and began circulating on its own.
Illusion and reality—two lines that should have remained parallel—crashed together fiercely beneath that blood-stained kiss.
“Ahhhhhh!!!”
Yan Qingge clutched her head in agony and rose.
A flood of memories forced their way in, nearly bursting her divine sense apart.
Her black hair faded away as blazing red hair ignited from the roots like raging flames!
Her black pupils vanished.
Eternal golden pupils flared to life!
A terrifying ring of scorching flame waves swept outward with her at the center.
The ancient divine beast phoenix’s cry nearly shattered the illusory starry sky.
“I remember now! My name is Yan Qingge, True Disciple of Red Sun Phoenix Heaven Sect!”
Phoenix flames roared and surged forth.
The Departing Phoenix Nirvana Scripture spun wildly inside her body.
A Crimson Phoenix Plume wreathed in heaven-burning power appeared in her palm.
“Impossible! Impossible! Damn it! You should not have woken up!”
The black shadow—no, the gu—let out a despairing wail.
The entire illusion trembled violently.
“Yan Qingge, you despicable wretch! Wouldn’t it have been better to obediently possess Bai Qingran? Isn’t that exactly what you desired?!”
Phoenix flames streaked across the sky, leaving a blinding red arc.
This was fire that naturally countered all poisons.
Wherever it passed, the void itself was scorched with fine black cracks.
The gu dodged frantically, yet the scorching heat that clung to it like a shadow made its whole body tremble uncontrollably.
“Brother is mine.”
Yan Qingge moved with elegant steps, yet carried mountain-crushing killing intent.
Destroying flames danced in her golden pupils.
“How I possess him is my business. A lowly gu like you has no right to tell me what to do.”
The Crimson Phoenix Plume traced a perfect fan shape through the air.
Phoenix flames erupted.
In the next instant Yan Qingge had already teleported in front of the gu.
“Hiss—ahhhhh!!!”
A blood-curdling shriek tore through the heavens.
With just one glancing collision, the gu’s pitch-black body ignited.
The flames spread like maggots burrowing into bone, racing along its limbs.
To save itself, the gu viciously severed its own injured limbs.
The black chunks had not even hit the ground before they burned into nothingness.
“Heh. Can’t take it anymore?”
A cruel arc curved at the corner of Yan Qingge’s mouth, but there was not a trace of mirth in her eyes.
“You hurt Brother so many times before. I’m going to carve that debt out of your body inch by inch.”
The Crimson Phoenix Plume turned into countless afterimages across the sky.
This was a magnificent, utterly ruthless execution.
Yan Qingge had countless chances to kill the gu outright, yet she refused.
Like a cat toying with a mouse, she precisely controlled every strike of the Crimson Phoenix Plume, forcing the gu to sever its own limbs again and again amid endless screams, making it feel her near-maniacal rage in a cycle of despair.
Cornered, the gu suddenly changed direction and charged toward the unconscious Bai Qingran.
It roared madly, “Yan Qingge! Even if I die, I’m taking Bai Qingran with me!”
“Courting death!”
Countless phoenix flames rained down from the sky like swords, pinning the gu in place.
Then a massive blaze exploded from inside its body.
Accompanied by a soul-shattering wail, the gu was completely annihilated.
With its master’s death, the illusion began to collapse.
Amid the heavens-splitting, earth-shattering chaos, Yan Qingge bent down and hugged Bai Qingran with obsessive tenderness.
The phoenix flames behind her formed vast crimson wings that wrapped the two of them tightly.
“Brother, you are mine.”
“Forever. You can only ever belong to me alone.”
Red light streaked downward like a fiery meteor from the shattering sky, igniting layer after layer of dense fog.
The illusion finally ended.
The great dream awakened.