Chapter 401: Borrowing the Tiger’s Skin as a Banner

A decayed, bone-white dead tree had been beheaded, its silent hands reaching toward the sky. The hemp rope hanging from its branches was tied into a loop, swaying heavily in the wind.

A broken doll, stained with blood, lay in the rain-soaked mud. Its glass eyeball, separated from its body, stared blankly at the crows clustered in the treetops, rising and falling like clouds.

“Who killed the poor wildflower?” croaked a crow on the branch in a hoarse voice.

“It did!”

All the crows cocked their heads to look at the doll on the ground, shrieking in unison. Their deep, pitch-black eyes stared blankly at the ground, or perhaps somewhere deeper.

“Who saw the poor wildflower being uprooted?”

“It did!” all the crows cried again. “It is the demon’s minion.”

“Who saw the poor wildflower wither?”

“Still it! It saw the demon take away their stamens.”

Amid the crows’ noisy cries, lightning and thunder tore through the sky. For a moment, everything turned pale, desperately rending the night, as if painting a picture of a fate beyond one’s control.

……

Stop talking…

Stop talking.

Stop talking! I’m just a doll, what could I have done for them?!

Scenes from the past replayed endlessly before her eyes. In her heart, Ms. Rabbit let out a mournful cry, her mind on the verge of collapse.

The crows were right-she was an accomplice, not just to the missionary, but also to the Dusk Maiden.

She was a deadly bait, helping the missionary again and again to lure innocent girls to that desolate hill, watching helplessly as he committed unspeakable crimes.

Only she had seen the missionary’s demonic, greedy face as he sucked the “nectar.”

Only she knew how many girls’ bones were buried beneath that hill where wildflowers bloomed so brilliantly.

It was also she who carried the piercing cries that echoed on the hill each night, sending them drifting afar like dandelions on the wind, into the ears of thousands.

Thus, in the setting sun, the haunting legend of the deadly beautiful woman was born.

How terrifying-a haunting with such strong psychic energy fluctuation was subdued just like that?

What on earth is this witch type?

Not only is she absurdly strong, but she even knows the sword techniques of my Great Pure Palace…

Fu Xinyi stared blankly at Ms. Rabbit, whose body kept convulsing and twitching under the scarlet tentacles, her expression shifting between terror, sorrow, and weeping as if she’d lost her mind. A layer of deathly gray-white frost had frozen over her body. Fu Xinyi’s heart was filled with shock and doubt, her thoughts drifting.

Kids who’ve never seen such a scene must be scared out of their wits.

It wasn’t until a delicate and weak voice sounded in her ear that she snapped back to herself.

“Stop looking. If you want to live, leave now!”

Hearing this, Fu Xinyi looked up and saw that Lu Yibei had somehow appeared at her side, one hand clutching her chest, her body trembling slightly, face pale as if she’d just suffered a serious illness.

“You’re hurt?” Fu Xinyi asked cautiously.

“….” Lu Yibei rolled her eyes, weakly raised her other hand, and pointed to a spot near her waist on her back, where a hideous scar marred her exposed skin.

“With a gash this big, the blood alone could fill a pot of spicy hotpot. What do you think, am I hurt or not?”

Of course, this kind of wound is nothing… Lu Yibei secretly added in her heart.

If it was just being axed by Ms. Rabbit, she would never let the culprit who attacked her old man get away.

But now…

She couldn’t exactly tell Fu Xinyi, “My body’s about to explode,” could she? What if she ran off and left her behind?

In her current state, if Fu Xinyi didn’t help, once Ms. Rabbit came to her senses, she’d be the fish on the chopping block.

She just used the Taihe Gentleman Sword-she can’t be that bad. The Ancestors said, those with a vicious mind can’t properly wield the Taihe Gentleman Sword. Lu Yibei thought.

In the past half hour, she’d first burned through a huge amount of psychic energy using movement techniques to get innocent bystanders away, then launched a thunderous sneak attack on Suolang Baima, and then fought Ms. Rabbit to the death.

It wasn’t until she used both her charm ability and Meng’s lnnate skill at the same time that the violent psychic energy drain became the last straw.

Now, death was right at her doorstep.

Without enough psychic energy to suppress it, the power of the Hundred-Armed Giant inside her was about to go out of control!

She felt that part of the rampaging Hundred-Armed Giant’s power writhing inside her like a deadly snake, hissing and rampaging through her body.

The terrifying power clashed with her psychic energy, setting off tsunami-like echoes in her fascia and flesh, crashing against her bones with the crackling sound of glaciers splitting.

The pain of flesh instantly pulverized to dust, and the intense itching from the rapid regrowth driven by the witch type haunting’s core entity, tormented her nerves as if it was being carved into her soul.

As it turns out, when the “ten times stronger when blackened” rule and the “handsome for only three seconds” law both apply to me, the latter’s effect seems stronger. Lu Yibei mocked herself.

“Do me a favor, take me somewhere safe and hidden, please.” She said to Fu Xinyi. As soon as she finished, her body went limp and collapsed into Fu Xinyi’s arms.

As she leaned in close to Fu Xinyi, she whispered, “Zhang Huainan is my junior brother in name.”

Although Lu Yibei didn’t know who Zhang Huainan was, she’d heard Qing Ji mention that he once tricked kids with rainbow scorpions to promote their growth.

If Zhang Huainan was still alive, after all these years, he should be a big shot in the Great Pure Palace by now.

Spouting nonsense and borrowing the tiger’s skin as a banner-she’d done it before, and more than once.

“!!!”

When she heard the name “Zhang Huainan,” Fu Xinyi was stunned, her mind exploding like a bomb, buzzing loudly.

No way? That highly respected Headmaster is actually her junior brother? That’s not something you can just say!

She looked at the girl in her arms with suspicion, recalling how she’d just saved her life and wielded the Taihe Gentleman Sword. Gritting her teeth, she picked up the girl and ran out of the mall without looking back. But after a few steps, she stopped again.

“But… Senior, I can’t leave yet!” Fu Xinyi said weakly.

Lu Yibei’s brows knitted together, and she squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth, “What now? Stay and die?”

“My junior brother disappeared. He came to the movies with me, and now it’s so dangerous here and he’s missing. I can’t just leave him behind-he might die!” Fu Xinyi said.

Lu Yibei, “…”

Damn! You’re still thinking about your junior brother at a time like this? What’s so great about him?

If you don’t leave now, when those three come to their senses, your junior brother really will die!