The Forbidden Path to Immortality-Chapter 247

Li Xun remembered her. How could he not? She was the same beauty who had once sparred with him in the bedroom, nearly turning the tables on him. She was the infamous “Devour of Yang,” as renowned as the “Flayer of Yin” he’d once toyed with in the forests of the southeast. But this time, Li Xun knew better than to let his guard down for even a second.

He'd learned his lesson the hard way. This was one of those beautiful, deadly spiders you didn’t want anywhere near your hand.

Devour of Yang wore a long black silk dress, modest in cut, covering her completely except for her face and hands. On first glance, it seemed airtight, impenetrable. But if you looked closely, if your eyes were sharp enough, you could make out the faintest hints of skin beneath the dark fabric, like a body shrouded in a thin, teasing mist. Enough to catch the eye and hold it.

She was tall, curvy, and outright incendiary, with a face that could stop a man in his tracks. But those eyes... those black, glossy eyes made it clear she wasn’t just a pretty face.

Li Xun knew this all too well.

Li Xun was on high alert. Devour of Yang was frighteningly sensitive to the aura of men. It wasn’t just sharp senses; it was a rare, uncanny gift. At this distance, Li Xun wasn’t at all sure he could hide from her.

Her soft, honeyed voice drifted to his ears.

“Huh… still a step too late. There’s no living aura left around here… Hmm, the bodies on the ground have been moved, and with that warning sword earlier... Purple Robe, this is on you!”

Even when she was scolding him, there was no anger in her voice. Yet the Purple-Robed man trembled all the same, tongue-tied and terrified.

Devour of Yang sighed again. “Forget it. What’s done is done, killing you now wouldn’t solve anything. Go after her. If we’re too late, that girl’s scent will have mixed with others... She can’t get far, but if someone else finds her first, you won’t be the only one in trouble.”

The Purple-Robed man looked as though he’d just been pardoned from death. Without another word, he shot off toward the south, the same direction Yan Shuiyue had fled.

Devour of Yang lifted off the ground as well. But just before leaving the courtyard, she glanced back right toward the spot where Li Xun was hiding. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Li Xun frowned and realized: Of course... she knows someone’s here, but because of Yan Shuiyue, she doesn’t want to make things messy…

He stepped out from the shadows, looking up in the direction she’d gone. The sky was empty now. And his frown only deepened.

As a disciple of the sect, watching outsiders swagger around and do whatever they pleased on his turf didn’t sit well with him.

Now, Li Xun suddenly kind of understood what the Underworld Flame King must have felt.

Pressing his lips together, he strolled out of the courtyard, glancing at the sky to gauge the time.

After that warning sword had been sent, it would take at least four hours for reinforcements from the sect to arrive. He wasn’t about to stand around waiting... but where should he go now?

Tenghua Valley lay to the east, Devour of Yang had gone south…

Now that was a real pain in the ass.

“Huh?”

Li Xun’s heart gave a jolt, but he didn’t stop. Keeping his original pace, he slowly made his way to the edge of the forest. A few night birds, startled by his presence, took to the air. For a moment the woods, which had finally fallen quiet, erupted into a flurry of wings and calls.

Li Xun shook his head slightly, about to turn back, when he suddenly sprang forward, lunging toward a nearby thicket. Before he even reached it, the air around him heated up rapidly, and with a whoosh, the bushes burst into flames.

A low cry came from within. A woman stumbled out of the fire, rolling and scrambling to her feet, then bolted in the opposite direction without a glance back.

This time, though, getting away wouldn’t be so easy.

She had barely taken two steps when a cold hand closed lightly around her throat. With a quick twist, her balance was gone, and she fell backward... straight into the chest of the man behind her.

Instantly, more than a dozen streams of true breath surged through her, locking down every major meridian. Her limbs went limp; she couldn’t move at all.

“Oh? What a coincidence. We meet again.”

Li Xun turned the woman in his arms around with an easy smile. That face.. if it wasn’t Yan Shuiyue, who else could it be?

He felt the weight of her in his arms and, for once, didn’t think anything lewd. A wide grin spread across his face instead. “Not bad,” he muttered. “Smoke and mirrors, eh? Had the lot of them eating out of your hand. Well done.”

She didn’t react at all, which made Li Xun pause in surprise. He lowered his head, and found her staring straight up at him. Her clear eyes seemed to hold a light that shouldn’t be there, not at a moment like this.

Li Xun frowned. Something about her attitude felt… off. His face hardened, and his fingers grew a little less gentle.

Yan Shuiyue let out a small gasp, her cheeks flushing red.

Li Xun’s fingers weren’t up to anything truly sinister, not really. But to Yan Shuiyue, blessedly naive and disastrously inexperienced, every inch of her body seemed wired to explode at the slightest touch. And the way she was dressed right now…

Li Xun raised an eyebrow. “Eh? You’re in more of a hurry than me?”

Li Xun spoke half in jest, half serious , as his hand slithered like a snake beneath her undergarment, pressing gently against the smooth skin beneath. Yan Shuiyue went weak all over, losing even the strength to shift away. All she could do was moan softly, her breath carrying a faint, helpless whimper.

He brought his lips close to the curve of her ear. “Tell me,” he whispered, “why did you take off your outer robe?”

“It... it had a scent on it...” By now, Yan Shuiyue was kneaded and pressed by Li Xun like dough, utterly spent, answering whatever came to mind. “Devour of Yang's nose is sharp, so I used… the Mirror Puppet to -- Ah!”

His fingers tightened, sliding over a place she didn’t want touched. A sharp cry ripped from her. She was trembling, on the verge of breaking. Seeing this, Li Xun decided not to tease her further, and slowly drew his hand back.

This little girl… she must’ve known Devour of Yang was on her tail from the start. So she played it smart. Tricked the guy in the purple robe first, then used Devour of Yang’s own confidence against him, and fooled that demoness, too, all in one go.

And to top it off, she almost managed to fool me as well… Li Xun chuckled to himself.

Too bad her luck ran out in the end.

“That fan... it’s from the Water Mirror Sect, isn’t it?” He cast a glance at the fire-ravaged ground, smiling. “Now that’s strange. The Water Mirror Sect usually keeps to itself, never makes enemies. So how’d things get bad enough for them to be hunted down like this? Oh, and I don’t think I caught your name yet.”

“Yan Shuiyue…”

“Yan Shuiyue? That name rings a bell. Ah, right... the disciple of that Daoist Yu Lan, isn’t it? Yes, I’ve heard of you.”

Li Xun played it up convincingly. “Tsk, your master really is heartless, sending such a little beauty down the mountain all alone. Since someone’s bound to take advantage anyway… why not let it be me?”

His arms tightened around her, pulling her into his chest. The sudden force of it and sudden danger made Yan Shuiyue scream again, and this time she couldn’t hold back her tears. “Let me go! It’s not... it’s not like that! My master was captured!”

Her words came out tangled and desperate, but the key point slipped through all the same. Li Xun’s brow lifted ever so slightly.

Her words were jumbled, all over the place, but she’d said the important part. Li Xun raised an eyebrow.

“Yu Lan got captured? By the Bliss Sect… no, wait, it must be the Western Alliance! Good, now, tell me exactly what happened.”

“I will! Just... let me go first!”

“Sure.”

Li Xun agreed without hesitation. The moment he let go, Yan Shuiyue collapsed to the ground with a soft groan.

It didn’t seem like she was badly hurt, but the sight was still pitiful. She didn’t even have the strength to cry. She blinked up at him through tear-blurred eyes.

Too bad Yan Shuiyue wasn’t very savvy about reading people. Her expression gave her thoughts away without her even realizing it. Li Xun caught the change, secretly amused. Clever girl, he thought, but he still decided to indulge her a bit, unlocking a few of her blocked meridians to give her back some movement.

Yan Shuiyue curled up, trying to hide as much of herself as she could beneath her thin clothes. It was a haphazard sort of cover-up, but she didn’t care

Li Xun chuckled, though his tone hardened again. “Stop stalling. Talk.”

Yan Shuiyue shivered. She quickly glanced at him, and saw that strange, unreadable look on his face. She didn’t dare hesitate any longer. She dropped her head, burying her chin between her knees and spoke in a trembling voice:

“Master and I came down the mountain together; she took me out for training. About half a month ago, we reached the southeastern forest… but we ran into Luo Moshi. Master…”

“Wait, what did you say? The southeastern forest? Luo Moshi?”

Li Xun drew in a sharp breath.

The warning cry of Lei Huieying were still ringing in his ears from a few days ago, and now someone was telling him that Luo Moshi, the most feared figure in the demonic path, had left the Trapless Mountain where he’d been secluded for centuries, and appeared in the southeastern forest?

What the hell was going on?

“Yes,” Yan Shuiyue nodded quickly. “It really was Luo Moshi. My master was shocked too. And it wasn’t just him... there were others there: the Heart-Consuming Concubine of the Bliss Sect, the Endless Nether Lord of the Underworld Monarch Sect... seven or eight dozen people in all. It was terrifying.”

“So that’s when they captured your master?”

“At the time, no. In fact, not at all. Luo Moshi was actually pretty polite to her. Spoke nicely, even asked my master for help. Something about calculating a certain direction or location. But my master said there were too many variables, and it couldn’t be done accurately…”

“What direction?”

“Huh? You mean… you don’t know?”

After a moment of stiff surprise, Li Xun slowly bent down, looming over her. His eyes narrowed as he studied the sudden calm and certainty on her face.

“From the way you’re talking,” he said, “it sounds like you already know who I am.”

Yan Shuiyue curled herself up even tighter, tears still clinging to the corners of her eyes. But somehow, she was smiling, bright and dazzling. “Of course. Among the new generation of the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect, only Hundred Ghosts could pull off something like this!”

Li Xun almost wanted to applaud. This young cultivator, so clearly green, seemed to have some secret technique for reading hearts. Time and again, she shone exactly when things were at their most dangerous.

He twitched a smile, crouching down so his eyes were level with hers. “Don’t tell me… you actually calculated all that?”

Every word that came out of Li Xun’s mouth was colder than the shards of ice buried beneath a thousand-year glacier. Yan Shuiyue instinctively leaned back a little, though she still kept that small smile on her face. “If I tell you… will you let me go?”

Li Xun chuckled, reaching out to give her cheek a pat. “Little girl, have you forgotten where we are? This isn’t exactly the time to bargain. As long as I’m willing, we can begin… anytime.”

“You won’t,” Yan Shuiyue cut in, lifting her chin, her voice clear. “As far as I know, Hundred Ghost is a master in controlling women, and your sect’s mind-controlling techniques are just as formidable. Put the two together, and even Flayer of Yin of the Bliss Sect can’t resist you. If you really meant to do it, you wouldn’t need all… this trouble.”

“Oh? So you know about Flayer of Yin too?”

A flush crept across Yan Shuiyue’s face. “Back in the Southeast Forest… a lot of people mentioned it. They said what happened to Flayer of Yin was awful.”

“Is that so?” Li Xun’s reply was mild, almost disinterested. Then he gave a thin smile. “If you’re that curious, I don’t mind showing you that method.”