Chapter 198 - 176: The Vast Red Dust, All Is but Passing Scenery

After Su Mo explained her plan, Lin Shan stood there stunned for a good while.

She frowned. "What’s wrong? Are you unwilling?"

Lin Shan shook his head. "It’s not that. I’m just afraid I’ll mess it up."

"Just do as I say, and the situation is bound to turn around." Su Mo’s brow furrowed. "If you don’t want him to die a quick death, get a move on."

Lin Shan’s brow tightened. "I’ll go at once!"

As Su Mo rose to her feet, she tossed down a small packet. "The poison and the antidote are both inside. Once he gets out, have him find me in the North Wing."

After seeing Su Mo off the mountain, Lin Shan hurried away to arrange the matters she had entrusted to him.

---

Meanwhile, over with Jiang Wu.

Her wounds hadn’t fully healed, but since she controlled a wisp of Jin Tong’s Heart Soul, dealing with him was hardly a challenge.

Jiang Wu stared at the mangled, bloody figure on the floor, then reached down and grabbed his chin. "Trying to kill me? *You* think you can kill me? Did you really think I kept a wisp of your Heart Soul for fun?!"

She summoned the wisp of his Heart Soul in her right hand and squeezed lightly. Jin Tong’s brow furrowed in pain against his will.

His heart began to pound uncontrollably, as if about to burst from his chest. A deadly wave of suffocation washed over him.

Jiang Wu sneered. "Just because I didn’t touch you, you thought I was powerless against you? You dare team up with Su Mo to oppose me? Should I call you naive, or just stupid? Do you think *she* can kill me, or that *you* can?!"

"This is the tenth time. They failed to kill me the nine times before! And you think relying on Su Mo will change the outcome this time?!"

A flicker of shock crossed Jin Tong’s eyes. ’So... this is the tenth time?’

The hand on his chin suddenly tightened, sliding down to his throat. She squeezed again, her voice a furious snarl. "You fell in love with me the last nine times, so why not this time? Why?! That’s how the story was supposed to go! How could you not fall for me this time!"

Jin Tong’s frown deepened. ’I was really that much of an idiot nine times in a row?’

’This is beyond absurd!’

Unsurprisingly, Jiang Wu caught the cold, self-mocking sneer that flashed in his eyes.

"What’s that look in your eyes? Do you regret having loved me? What right do you have to regret loving me! It was your good fortune to be able to love me!"

Jin Tong watched her, his expression blank. He wasn’t afraid of death, just unwilling to go down like this.

’She isn’t dead yet. How could he die first?!’

A frustrated glint appeared in Jiang Wu’s crimson eyes. In a tone of bestowing charity, she said, "I’ll give you one last chance. Be my dog, or be one of the ghosts I’ve slain!"

Enduring the suffocating pain, Jin Tong forced out, "You think I would care for that?"

He suddenly let out a soft, mocking laugh. "Don’t you find this laughable, City Lord? For nine lifetimes of my entanglement, you were utterly disdainful. Yet this one time, when I no longer love you, you’re the one who wants to be entangled with me? Could it be... you’ve fallen in love with me?"

"Bullshit!" Jiang Wu’s gaze hardened, and she violently slammed him to the ground. "Even if you were reincarnated ten more times, I would never fall in love with you!"

Finally getting a chance to breathe, Jin Tong secretly tried to channel his Inner Strength, but couldn’t muster any of it.

’Jiang Wu’s poisons were always notoriously difficult to counteract.’

’But right now, detoxifying wasn’t the priority. He had to provoke her and stall for time.’

Jin Tong frowned. "The truth is you’re afraid of Su Mo. You’re worried that if I team up with her, you’ll be completely annihilated. That’s why you’re in such a hurry to kill me, isn’t it?"

The corner of Jiang Wu’s eye twitched up as a bone-chilling sneer spread across her lips. "You’ve been dreaming so much you can’t tell fantasy from reality anymore. Now that you’ve been reduced to my prisoner, do you think she’s far from the same fate?"

Jin Tong said dismissively, "Don’t kid yourself. She’s far more difficult to handle than any opponent you’ve ever faced. After just a few clashes, she’s already found your weakness. It’s only natural for you to be afraid."

A frown flickered across Jiang Wu’s brow. It was gone in an instant, but Jin Tong still caught it.

’Now he was certain. Jiang Wu wasn’t invincible after all. She really did have a weakness.’

’If he could just find that weakness, he would have a chance to defeat her.’

Jin Tong continued to needle her. "It seems Su Mo was right. Even if you repaired the weakness in your Reversed Feather, it doesn’t stop a new one from appearing somewhere else."

Jiang Wu’s gaze sharpened, and killing intent flared in her eyes as she looked at him. "I really can’t let you live!"

Just as she was about to rise and rush over to strangle him again,

a figure darted in from the doorway. "City Lord, Lin Shan has arrived."

Jin Tong’s brows twitched slightly.

Jiang Wu asked in a low voice, "What’s he doing here? Offering himself up for execution?"

Ruo Xu glanced at Jin Tong and deliberately raised his voice. "He has brought Jin Tong’s soldiers with him to surrender to you!"

"Hah!" Jiang Wu sneered at Jin Tong. "Just what I’d expect from a man you trained. He even learned how to be a perfect traitor. He’s much smarter than you, though. At least he knows who to follow to secure a future!"