Coincidence

He wasn't some starving ghost who wanted to eat everyone he caught...

At that moment, a traveling merchant suddenly said, "If you ask me, Brother Li Qi, if you really crave her body, why not just take her right here? She hasn't woken up anyway. Once you've had your fun, once you're satisfied, just toss her by the roadside. You can't let her burden you for the rest of your life, right?"

"Besides, you're her lifesaver. It wouldn't be anything strange for her to offer herself to you, would it?" the merchant said with a snicker.

There wasn't the slightest shred of humanity in those words. Li Qi frowned in displeasure, simply rose to his feet, and walked toward the woman. As he walked, he said in a joking tone, "Hey, what do you mean, take her right now? Do I look like—"

Before he could finish, the woman shuddered and woke up.

"Ah, you're awake?" Li Qi was delighted and let out a breath of relief. It was good that she had woken up—now he wouldn't have to agonize over it.

"Miss, what's your name?" He decisively stepped forward and asked her.

Who would have thought that this beautiful woman would shrink back, her face full of terror and fear as she said in a trembling voice, "I... I'm very powerful, you... don't come any closer..."

Shen Shuibi had never imagined, even in her wildest dreams, that she would end up like this.

Back when she served Your Highness, she could not exactly be said to wear fine clothes and eat exquisite food, but at the very least, servants handled all the miscellaneous chores. All she needed to do was obey Your Highness and give orders to the attendants.

But when Your Highness fell from power overnight and was forced to flee to Baiyue, Shen Shuibi naturally followed. Not only did she suffer untold hardships along the way, she was separated from Your Highness and left to wander the Myriad Mountains.

Those Human Way cultivators had not only shattered her magical artifact, but had also planted divine sense within her cultivation, forcing her to disperse her own cultivation foundation before she could escape their surveillance.

She had thought she could finally catch her breath. She found an abandoned, dilapidated temple, enlightened a Wild Dog, and prepared to rest properly for a while. Then she encountered someone who cultivated the unique arts of the Baiyue Great Shaman. He might even be the disciple or attendant of some Shaman, protected by the power of ghosts and gods, able to divine fortune and misfortune, even reverse seasonal rains, calm winds and droughts, dispel disasters and warfare, and ward off illnesses from afar. His body was filled with all manner of strange divine abilities.

She had once read in ancient books that among Shamans, the very greatest were the Grand Diviners and Great Shamans.

Grand Diviners mastered the methods of the Three Omens: first, Jade Omens; second, Tile Omens; third, Plain Omens. The forms of their canonical omens numbered one hundred and twenty, while their chants numbered one thousand two hundred.

They also mastered the methods of the Three Changes. Their canonical hexagrams numbered eight, while their variations numbered sixty-four.

They further mastered the methods of the Three Dreams: first, Induced Dreams; second, Strange Dreams; third, All-Ascending Dreams. Their canonical cycles numbered ten, while their variations numbered ninety. They used the eight turtle-oracle mandates for affairs of state, and with those eight mandates assisted the divinations of the Three Omens, Three Changes, and Three Dreams, observing the fortune and misfortune of all under Heaven and calculating the fates of every living being.

Great Shamans, meanwhile, could conduct grand sacrifices to Human-Ghosts, heavenly gods, and earthly deities, using their own bodies to bring Human-Ghosts, heavenly gods, and earthly deities into harmony and command them for human use. They governed the Six Calamities, the Six Prayers, composed the Six Declarations, distinguished the Six Titles, distinguished the Nine Sacrifices and Nine Bows, wielded fire and water, and served ghosts and gods—thus were they called Shamans. Ghosts and gods protected them, ancestral heroic spirits traveled at their side, and heavenly gods, earthly deities, and the myriad gods of the four quarters all sheltered them. Their might was terrifying.

Grand Diviners and Great Shamans were both the foremost powerhouses of the Shaman Path. Before the Human Way invasion, they had been Baiyue's undisputed rulers.

The Myriad Beast Technique was a unique art belonging solely to the Great Shaman lineage, an exclusive privilege of the Shaman people.

After coming out, she confirmed that it truly was Ox-Strength Technique, bestowed by the Hundred-Beast Earthly Deity and unique to the Great Shaman lineage. She had been scared witless on the spot.

After thinking it over for a long time, she still decided to flee as quickly as possible. After all, the Wild Dog had no intelligence; it was merely a mad dog. She had only used it to protect herself for the moment.

To that end, she summoned this Black Mist.

This was an art called the Burial Qi Technique.

To bury was to conceal, to ride upon living qi.

Living qi was the qi of the primordial unity in motion. In Heaven, it circulated through the six voids; on Earth, it brought forth the ten thousand things. Without it, Heaven's qi would have nothing to draw upon, and Earth's form would have nothing to bear it. Moreover, living qi lay hidden within the earth, invisible to human eyes.

The Burial Qi Technique worked just so: it circulated living qi outward, rendering its user invisible and erasing every trace of them.

Yet who knew what divine ability the other side possessed? He could actually see straight through the Black Mist!

Seeing through it would have been one thing, but he just happened to have a whole Cleaver Squad beside him—men who had slaughtered who knew how many pigs!

When the cleavers struck together, they stirred the baleful qi on their blades. Wherever water flowed, it was unfit for gods to pass, and all of it bore fierce killing intent. It was the nemesis of living qi, forcing the Black Mist to dissipate and getting her captured outright.

Shen Shuibi knew the extent of her injuries all too well. And injuries aside, she had also dispersed her cultivation foundation to evade the search...

That was rather awkward.

So, entirely on instinct, she simply used her innate talent.

She was a Rabbit Demon who had already undergone Form Transformation.

And what was a Rabbit Demon's innate talent?

Playing dead...

As she prayed in her heart, You can't see me... you can't see me... you can't see me... she hoped the other party would find her unlucky or troublesome and toss her by the roadside. That would have been best.

But unexpectedly, this Shaman... was actually a good person.

At that critical moment, he had carried her on his back for a whole Chen.

Heavens, if you're so kindhearted, can't you just let me go?!

Shen Shuibi was almost crying inside.

But soon, she truly would cry.

As she listened to those people urge Li Qi to abandon her, she had secretly rejoiced. As long as they threw her by the roadside, she could immediately bolt.

Yet that Li Qi simply refused!

She had thought he was merely kindhearted, but then the man called Ba Kui exposed him at a glance: Li Qi had actually set his sights on her body!

To be honest, she had nearly been unable to keep playing dead then and there. Shen Shuibi had grown up at Your Highness's side since childhood—where had she ever seen such things?

She barely managed to hold herself together, only to hear someone else say... that they might as well take her right there, then dump her corpse in the wilderness.

Truthfully, she had nearly wet herself.

The Rabbit Demon had encountered life-and-death crises before. Though she had grown up at Your Highness's side, after she had been separated from Your Highness and pursued, she had nearly failed to escape. Most of the pursuers had gone after Your Highness, but even so, she had almost not gotten away.

But a life-or-death crisis was still a life-or-death crisis—this was a completely different matter.

And that Li Qi...

It seemed like he had actually listened.

He walked straight toward her.

And he was even smiling!

That heh-heh-heh laughter nearly made Shen Shuibi's rabbit ears pop out.

Why would rabbit ears pop out? Because she had been so frightened that she was about to reveal her true form.

Rabbits were timid by nature. She could no longer keep playing dead.

A fierce resolve rose in her heart. She clenched her tiny fists and secretly made up her mind!

At this point, she could only suddenly wake up and fight him!

So what if her opponent was a Zhu person? A rabbit could be killed, but not humiliated.

But... wait. He seemed not to care whether she was dead or alive. When she had pretended to be dead earlier, he hadn't seemed to care either—he had even been ready to come right over...

She was done for.

The moment she thought of that, Shen Shuibi immediately wilted.

Then came the scene from just now.

She opened her eyes tremblingly, hunched her neck, and stared at Li Qi in mortal terror.

As for Li Qi...