Bugs

"Ugh..."

Like a murmur upon waking from a drunken stupor, a soft, delicate voice rang clearly through the silent space.

Yi Qingluan opened her eyes and felt utterly weak all over. She tried to circulate her spiritual energy, only to find it still completely depleted.

The moment she sensed her condition, her still-dazed mind snapped awake, and she recalled what had happened before.

She had been lured out of Qin Lian with news of the Cold Pool, then fought fiercely in the air against a Spirit Array Grandmaster. After losing, some Heaven Piercing Realm youngster had used an unknown method to seal her spiritual energy. She had then been bound in layer after layer of restraints and subjected to a question-and-answer exchange.

Then, then...

Yi Qingluan pressed a hand to her forehead. A sharp stabbing pain fiercely assailed her mind, leaving only blankness whenever she tried to recall what had happened.

It seemed she had forgotten something.

But none of that was important. What mattered most now was...

She looked around, her body tensing.

Biting cold crept over her body, stimulating every pore.

The surroundings were ruins, as though some building had collapsed.

Yi Qingluan recognized this place. This was the Cold Pool, the place she had once guarded.

Before it collapsed, Yi Qingluan had never come here. After it collapsed, she had only come to look at it from afar once.

Her remaining years should have been spent living for it, but...

"This servant has failed."

Yi Qingluan murmured to herself as she slowly rose from the freezing ice. Her fingers brushed over the nearest broken wall.

As she looked at the ruins, a trace of self-reproach clearly flashed through her usually calm, unruffled eyes.

"I failed to protect the last trace You left behind."

The collapse of the Cold Pool had caught her most off guard.

That day, it had felt as though her soul had been hollowed out. She lived numbly from day to day. If not for the news Xiao Rouze had brought, she likely would never have stepped out of Qin Lian again.

She withdrew her hand from the frigid ice, her brows knitting slightly.

Never mind where that man and woman had gone. Why had she awakened here?

The young man had gone through such trouble to capture her just to ask a few questions?

Her mind was a mess, and she could not make sense of the situation. Whether it was the scene before her or the purpose of those two, she could not figure it out.

She could not shake the feeling that tonight's battle had been somewhat... hasty.

It felt like a fierce beginning and a feeble end.

"I should return to Qin Lian first."

She let out a breath and made her decision.

She was severely injured, and her spiritual energy was unstable. If someone took advantage of her weakness now, the children in Qin Lian would have no one to rely on.

With that thought, she turned to leave.

But just then, a cold wind suddenly rose. A powerful sense of danger enveloped her heart. Her brows furrowed as she turned toward a certain direction amid the ruins.

"Who's there?"

She demanded coldly, her sharp tone filled with vigilance.

"Rustle, rustle."

What answered her was not a voice, but a faint scraping sound.

The instant Yi Qingluan heard it, she thought of a creature she loathed beyond measure.

She mobilized the last of her spiritual energy. A white ribbon shot out at once, violently pulverizing that ruined corner into dust.

Ice dust scattered through the air, and the thing hidden in that corner appeared before her.

It was actually a palm-sized... Centipede?

A disgusting bug.

Disgust flashed through Yi Qingluan's eyes. After that war, none of the surviving members of the Yan Tian Sect could possibly feel anything but revulsion toward such creatures.

Such disgusting things had only been even more disgusting on the battlefield.

Yi Qingluan let out a breath, but she had no intention of wasting effort killing it. She was eager to return to Qin Lian and heal her injuries.

Yet after taking only two steps, she stopped, her brows slightly furrowed.

How could there possibly be living creatures within the Cold Pool?

Especially such a weak little bug.

"You're leaving in such a hurry. It seems your injuries are quite serious."

Just as Yi Qingluan stopped, a somewhat grating voice sounded behind her.

She turned toward the source of the voice.

At the same time, the Centipede raised its head to look at her. One person and one bug stared at each other through the air, making for a rather ridiculous sight.

"Yi Qingluan, I've seen you before."

As the two faced each other, the voice sounded again. Its source was, bizarrely, that Centipede, which seemed utterly out of place here.

"You were the maid beside Luo Yuwei, Saintess of the Yan Tian Sect. I saw you from afar once during the Heaven Suppression War."

The Heaven Suppression War.

Yi Qingluan stared at the bug, her aura turning incomparably sharp. She spoke indifferently to the Centipede. "The Heaven Suppression War? Heh, a filthy bug from the Spirit Bug Clan."

"Oh my, being compared to a bug is truly such a tremendous honor."

The Centipede sounded delighted. Its body wriggled as it crawled onto a nearby rock, trying its best to meet Yi Qingluan's gaze.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jin Chong of the Spirit Bug Clan, fortunate enough to have been one of the participants in the Heaven Suppression War."

Jin Chong?

"Jin Chong."

That name immediately came to Yi Qingluan's mind. Bai Ye had told her of it.

The Centipede froze slightly, then quickly understood. "It seems someone told you something before you came here?"

"Weren't you already dead?"

Although she was only speaking to a bug, Yi Qingluan did not lower her guard. Her body remained tense as she watched every movement of the Centipede before her.

"Heh, a centipede does not stiffen even after death. As long as the little treasures I raised still exist, I am immortal and indestructible."

The Centipede's voice was cold. "Or do you really think some brat merely in the Three Heavens Realm could completely destroy me?"

Yi Qingluan said nothing.

If it were that mysterious young man, perhaps he really could.

Had not even a Supreme like her suffered greatly at his hands tonight?

"You revealed your identity so casually. Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"

Yi Qingluan's tone was utterly indifferent. She held not the slightest goodwill toward the five great Spirit Clans that had participated in the Heaven Suppression War. If anything, she was filled with hatred.

"You can't kill me." The Centipede sounded unconcerned. Perhaps the place where it was lying was too hard, for it shifted slightly.

"Your condition is probably worse than mine right now. Kill me? Don't make me laugh. If I hadn't deliberately made a sound, you probably would not even have noticed I was here."

The Centipede looked contemptuously at Yi Qingluan with its tiny eyes. Never underestimate a bug's senses. It understood this woman's current condition perfectly.

Yi Qingluan said nothing. Truthfully, her condition might have been even worse than the bug believed.

But she could not show even the slightest weakness, at least not before she figured out what this bug wanted.

"Let's make a deal."

The Centipede spoke frivolously. "I know what your master left behind here, something you have always wanted to know. I also know whose hands those things are in now. You will not lose out by dealing with me."

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"What do you want?"

Yi Qingluan asked in a low voice.

At those words, the contempt and frivolity in the Centipede's tiny eyes vanished in an instant. It gazed hatefully around at the surroundings, and its shrill voice rang out with overwhelming resentment.

"I want you to take me out of here. Out of here, out of here!

"

Its body swayed wildly, and it spoke faster and faster.

"It is preventing me from leaving. I have been trapped here for a year. The rest of my life cannot be ruined here. I have to get out, I must!

You take me out, and I'll tell you everything you want to know!

"

The Centipede grew increasingly frenzied.

Yet as Yi Qingluan watched the frenzied Centipede, her expression grew calmer and calmer.

Jin Chong being unable to leave this place was most likely a safeguard her mistress had left behind back then. After all, he was one of the five great Spirit Clans...

As for her, she naturally felt no such inexplicable restraint. If she wanted to take Jin Chong away, she would need to conceal him with spiritual energy, and she could likely evade her mistress's detection.

But...

Yi Qingluan stared coldly at the Centipede, then turned and left without the slightest intention of lingering.

The Centipede panicked at once when it saw her actions. "Don't you want to know those secrets? Take me with you, and I'll tell you everything!"

Secrets?

Yi Qingluan gave a cold laugh.

Of course she wanted to know. More than anyone else, she wanted to know what traces her mistress had left behind.

But...

She turned around and stared at the palm-sized bug with a look of particular disgust. "I will not make any deal with you Spirit Clans."

With that, she prepared to turn and leave.

But at that moment, the Centipede calmed down and spoke again.

"What a loyal servant you are. But do you not know that the one who personally destroyed the Yan Tian Sect was the Saintess you revered so highly..."

Yi Qingluan's steps halted once more. Her pupils widened as though she had heard some earth-shattering secret.

She stiffly turned around and looked at the Centipede.

"What... did you say?"

"I said that the Yan Tian Sect you long for was destroyed by that Saintess herself." The Centipede crawled to a higher spot, its grotesque mouth seeming to curl into a mocking smile.

"Then..."

How would you choose?

Beside the person and the bug, two figures stood as though they had been entirely ignored. One stood to the side with eyes closed, while the other sat on a nearby rock, watching the scene before him.

Gilded Gold light and silver light intertwined in his eyes, gold and silver merging together. Behind him, an Ice blue Phoenix Shadow flickered.

He watched the shocked Yi Qingluan, his eyes glinting faintly, his gaze deep and unreadable.

What choice would you make me choose?

Within that Ice Plains, an Ice Sword had long been prepared to leave its sheath...