The Old Tsundere

The snow in Shuo City fell even faster than on the sacred mountain.

You Su's eyelashes were covered with ice crystals, and all that remained in her vision was a chaotic white blur.

He followed three steps behind Ganlong Venerable, his gaze sweeping over her straight back—

It wasn't that You Su was obsessed with that perfect jade back, but rather that a faint red hue lingered on the grayish-white fabric behind the woman.

That was blood. The woman rushed to Shuo City without stopping, and at the same time, she did not forget to go on a killing spree. All the evil spirits that caught her eye were left without a trace, and died very quickly.

Such external injuries were not a big deal for a Void Glimpse Venerable, but they couldn't withstand her brutal battle. So the external injuries had to repeatedly go through the process of healing and reopening, and the seeping blood stained her back clothes red.

While she was slaughtering the evil spirits, You Su not only dared not speak or disturb her, but he didn't even have a chance to intervene. He was like a mascot, being picked up casually and sent to the next stop after the woman had killed all the evil spirits in her sight.

Along the way, she encountered many survivors, and the woman took good care of each of them. She did not waste time blindly gathering them together. If they could not be organized into a force capable of effective defense, the dense "human scent" would only make it easier for the evil spirits to find them. By scattering and hiding, she could make the evil spirits lose interest in them, and they might not even notice them.

Even so, they still arrived in Shuo City on the third day, without the woman even having a moment's rest.

You Su did not ask why she came to Shuo City first; he thought the woman must have her own reasons.

But the closer you get to the Evil Well, the stronger the concentration of evil spirits should be, and this was indeed confirmed along the way. However, when you arrive in Shuo City, you find that this is not the case; it is eerily quiet here.

Ganlong Venerable suddenly stopped, her simple dress fluttering in the wind. You Su followed her gaze and saw several frozen children's corpses huddled under the snow-covered archway, their bluish-purple hands still tightly gripping half a tree trunk, as if clutching the last grain of millet to save their lives.

You Su's Adam's apple bobbed. At that moment, the wind and snow swept across the banners on both sides of the long street, and a notice half-soaked in blood stood out—"Sacred Mountain Relief Grain Has Arrived, Please Go to Snow Village Residence to Collect It Immediately."

Snow Village Residence was the place where You Su and the Archimedes Venerable discovered the strangeness of Shuo City. Along the way, You Su basically told the woman everything he knew.

"They believed this nonsense until their deaths." Ganlong Venerable's voice, carried by the wind, was sharper than an icicle.

The stench in the air was nauseating. You Su felt that people were wicked and that those who went to collect the grain might become food for the evil spirits themselves.

"Is that well really near Shuo City? Why are there so few evil spirits here?"

Venerable Ganlonghao frowned, seemingly pondering the same question. Her deerskin boots, embroidered with dragon patterns, rolled over the notice, and a trail of crimson blossoms instantly appeared on the snow—the frozen river of blood beneath the ice was beginning to melt.

You Su's pupils suddenly contracted.

Suddenly, those "rivers of blood" surged, and countless skeletal hands emerged from the viscous black water. The once silent snowfield was filled with the cries of infants, each cry tearing open a "frozen corpse"—these were not ordinary people at all, but evil spirits wrapped in human skin!

"Step back!"

With a flick of his sleeves, Ganlong Venerable unleashed nine Mysterious Ice Chi Dragons that burst forth from the sky. Their roars shattered the swirling snowflakes, but vanished into wisps of smoke the instant they touched the black water.

You Su's Ink Pine Sword barely severed a lunging, rotting corpse, the vibration from the blade making his hand go numb—the bones of these evil spirits were even harder than those at the bottom of the sea, and a ghostly blue fluorescence flowed through every crack.

"How can there be such a tough evil spirit?!"

Before he could finish speaking, the ground suddenly collapsed.

You Su retreated hastily, his toes barely touching the ground, but his ankles were still swallowed by the surging black tide. A bone-chilling cold climbed up his meridians, and he vaguely saw a huge shadow appearing beneath the ground—it wasn't a well at all, but a gigantic maw that seemed to devour the sky and the earth. Tens of thousands of evil spirits were squeezing out from between the fang-shaped stalactites, and rotting flesh and blood were sticking together to form a bridge leading to the human world.

"Pay close attention!"

As the Xuanbing Chains wrapped around his waist, You Su caught a whiff of a cold fragrance. Ganlong Venerable pulled him into the air, and the phantom of a dragon formed an ice bridge beneath their feet. Black water roared as it crashed against the ice, and crimson mist seeped from every crack, creating a bizarre and unsettling scene.

The snow in Shuo City suddenly became sticky, with each snowflake coated in a putrid, slimy substance.

You Su nearly strained his entire body to cleave open the head of a corpse puppet, but what splattered wasn't brain matter, but rather black sand. The sand ignited upon hitting the ground, and from the rising smoke emerged hundreds of distorted human faces, all wailing in unison:

"Sir... why don't you save us...?"

The ice blade that Ganlong Venerable conjured from his fingertips hovered in mid-air, while the shattered corpse puppet lay prostrate on the ground. Ice crystals condensed into frost on her eyelashes, and nine phantom dragons stirred and circled restlessly behind her, yet hesitated to pounce on the weeping phantoms.

"Watch out!" You Su spun around and bumped into the stunned female immortal.

The claws of three corpse puppets grazed her shoulder, Mystic Ice Chi Armor shattered, spreading red plum blossoms on her plain dress.

You Su's back slammed against the ice wall, a metallic taste rising in his throat; he had already sensed the strangeness of this Shuo City.

What they saw was not the real Shuo City, but rather an illusion they had fallen into upon entering this place!

"You're crazy! These aren't living people! They're illusions created by evil spirits Dream Master Type!"

"I know." Ganlong Venerable's voice was hoarse as he raised his hand to freeze the lunging corpse puppet, but he didn't kill it.

The face beneath the ice suddenly contorted into a grotesque grimace; black blood seeped from the old man's cloudy eyes. "My lord, where is the rice you promised?"

Her fingertips trembled, and the ice melted away silently, like melting tears.

The entire city began to twist and contort. The bluestone pavement rolled up like a giant python shedding its skin, revealing the writhing flesh and blood beneath. The two characters "Shuo City" on the archway dripped pus and blood, transforming into the words "Save me."

You Su felt a sticky sensation on the soles of his boots. Looking down, he saw that the snow had turned into countless eyeballs, each pupil reflecting the pale face of the Ganlong Venerable.

All of this is so bizarre and almost insane; it could never be a real scene!

"You expected this!"

You Su swung his sword, shattering the oncoming horde of corpses. The Ink Pine Sword groaned under the strain, "You knew this was an illusion when you entered! But you still inevitably fell for it! The more these evil spirits resemble ordinary people, the more it proves—"

Ganlong Venerable shook away the corpse puppets within a ten-zhang radius with his wide sleeves, but the Mystic Ice Chi Armor failed to condense again. "I don't need your reminder!"

"Still being stubborn! No wonder God gave you two souls!" You Su gritted her teeth and roared, "Because He knew that if you, a stupid and stubborn woman, were alone, you would eventually be the one to get yourself killed!"

Ganlong Venerable was taken aback by her words, and her palms were bruised from being pinched.

He's so stupid and stubborn... After spending so many days together, he still wants to yell at me?!

But why... do I feel like he's so right...?

In fact, she knew that all her achievements were basically achieved by her split soul, while the timid and cautious 'self' only needed to focus on cultivation and go along with her.

But without that "self" to restrain and persuade her, could she really make the right decisions time and time again on her own?

Just like now, she knew that these Evil Puppet were so difficult to kill because the illusion reflected her psychology—the more she was reluctant to kill these Evil Puppet that should have been the people of Shuo City, the harder they were to kill. And the illusion became increasingly distorted and dangerous.

She knew this, but she was still overwhelmed by guilt and couldn't bring herself to kill him, thus falling into a vicious cycle.

You Su suddenly grabbed her trembling wrist. The female immortal's body temperature was colder than ice and snow, as if what flowed through her meridians was not blood, but stagnant cold mist.

"Look at these eyes!" The boy forced her to look at the writhing eyeballs scattered on the ground. "Which eyes hold hatred? Which eyes hold resentment?"

Ganlong Venerable staggered backward, his pupils clearly filled with an unquenchable hope that lasted until his death.

Just as she had witnessed the deaths of her ancestors, the people here seemed to have long been accustomed to suffering, so they were used to death. Rather than resenting the hardships of life, they preferred to pray that their descendants would not have to suffer so much.

"Before you took control of Bei'ao, even without the rampant Evil Tide, the number of people who starved and froze to death in the Northern Ao Continent wouldn't have been less than it is now! Yet the people of the Northern Ao Continent still live on to this day!" His voice pierced through the wails of the corpse puppets. "What are you! What makes you think that the rise and fall of Bei'ao is solely your responsibility! What you perceive as guilt is nothing but belated sentimentality in the eyes of the dead! They don't want you to be buried with them; they want you to live on with this pain and fulfill your mission!"

The ground suddenly collapsed, and thousands of eyeballs converged into a river of blood, supporting a skeleton a hundred feet tall, like a bodhisattva from ancient mythology. Its skull was inlaid with the faces of the people of Shuo City, and what it held in its palm was not a jade bottle, but a boiling well of blood.

"Have you finished cursing?" Ganlong Venerable stared at the hand that You Su was gripping tightly around her wrist.

Startled, You Su hurriedly let go, but the other person grabbed her wrist.

Countless red ropes hung from the ribs of the White Bone Bodhisattva, each tied to a convulsing corpse puppet. They chanted in unison, the sound waves causing You Su's eardrums to bleed, "Venerable One, have mercy. Let us go to the Yellow Springs together."

Amidst the disturbing chanting, You Su vaguely seemed to hear a whisper.

"Thanks."

He looked at the woman in astonishment, only to see that her black hair was already flying wildly, obscuring her profile.

"I am willing to offer my life to Bei Ao, and I will never waver in my resolve, even if it means dying ten thousand times"

She murmured these words, a blood oath she had sworn when she was twelve, upon which all her paths would be built from this foundation. Since it was the path she had chosen, she should adhere to it no matter what happened!

As soon as she finished speaking, she leaped into the air, her elegant demeanor shining through despite her simple long dress, like a celestial maiden.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the White Bone Bodhisattva opened its abdominal cavity, and billions of eyeballs converged into a vortex, intending to drag the two into the abyss.

The moment the vertical pupils shot out blood-red light, the female immortal's ice dragon finally pierced through the illusion before her. The White Bone Bodhisattva let out a unwilling scream, and thousands of red ropes snapped simultaneously, turning into a scarlet snow.

Feeling helpless and adrift in mid-air, You Su thought to herself, "Big sister, if you're going to chop, then chop! Why are you dragging me along? I only cursed at you a few times, did I really have to witness this?"

The snow in Shuo City suddenly stopped; it hadn't snowed at all here, and there really were many evil spirits.

Ganlong Venerable touched the ice dragon's phantom with her toes, her plain skirt sweeping across the ice crystals that had formed on the ground. Countless shattered human faces were frozen within those ice crystals, vanishing one by one with each step she took, but the eternal flame in her eyes remained unchanged.

The woman parted the snow on the street, and lying in the dirt was a slimy, black, fat fish that looked like it had a human face. Without hesitation, she turned it into a puddle of mud in an instant.

You Su realized that this was the culprit behind the illusion, but she also sensed that something was wrong:

"I also crawled out of the Sea Well. Their individual strength isn't outstanding, but their sheer numbers make them formidable. There shouldn't be such powerful evil spirits, able to enter our dreams without us even realizing it. I suspect they are remnants that hid at the bottom of Shuo City a thousand years ago."

"Nightmare Bodhisattva." Ganlong Venerable clenched his fists, his knuckles clearly visible. "There used to be a heretical cult that used Buddha as its name and worshipped this fat fish, hence the name Nightmare Bodhisattva. But... it should have been in the Heavenly Prison of the Evil Warding Department."

You Su was slightly taken aback, never expecting that the enemy's reach had extended into the Evil Warding Department.

"It seems your Kong Yuan Divine Mountain truly harbors filth and evil."

The woman glanced over, her gaze sharp. "Who isn't?"

You Su did not refute, for he had lost faith in these high and mighty immortals.

"Do you think it was placed here to protect that Sea Well, or to ambush you?"

"Perhaps both are true..." She couldn't draw a conclusion, but continued to move forward slowly, killing the evil spirits that rushed up at her recklessly as she went.

You Su's hands were itching to fight. Slaying evil spirits was a win-win situation for him. There were many Evil Demon around, so the domineering woman didn't try to take on too much responsibility. As You Su said, most evil spirits weren't actually that powerful. As long as you weren't afraid of them, you could basically defeat them.

As he was chopping away, You Su seemed to realize something and even rushed into someone else's house, ransacking it.

Seeing You Su actually come out with half a pastry in his mouth, Ganlong Venerable couldn't stand his behavior. "Is this the kind of character of Lotus Sword Venerable? Stealing even things from ordinary people's homes?"

You Su had been traveling with her for the past few days, enduring wind and rain, and hadn't actually eaten much. He had given most of his food to the refugees they encountered along the way. It wasn't that the woman forced him to be selfless; it was that he did it willingly.

He had given all his food to the people, and now that he was hungry, what was wrong with taking a little from them? But he also knew that he couldn't reason with this stingy woman; he had to use morality.

"So, you're saying it's okay to steal from rich people?"

Ganlong Venerable was speechless, You Su sneered, "It seems that Your Sovereign Lord has stolen before. Robin Hood-style governance is indeed Your Sovereign Lord's usual method of ruling the continent. But how can taking things from the dead be called stealing? That's called taking advantage."

As soon as he finished speaking, he stopped laughing, looked abruptly at the woman, and asked in astonishment, "You also discovered they weren't dead?"

Since the people are not dead, they will definitely come back, so You Su's act of taking advantage of the situation can indeed be classified as 'theft'.

With a flick of his wrist Ganlong Venerable deftly pierced the evil spirit lunging at him with an ice spike, his tone indifferent:

"Evil spirits don't eat mortals; they kill them for pleasure. But there isn't a single skeleton here, which defies common sense. They may be dead, but they certainly didn't die in the city."

You Su, however, revealed the woman's thoughts. "So many people remained calm and escaped Shuo City together in the face of danger, which must have been an organized operation, so their chances of survival are quite high. And the fact that so many people could escape from Shuo City, one of the sources, suggests that the number of casualties may be much lower than expected."

Even Changshan City, which I saw with my own eyes, wasn't actually littered with corpses. The Northern Ao people's ability to survive in their predicament truly exceeded my expectations. This is a good thing, so let's not pretend to be so bitter and resentful."

Ganlong Venerable turned back and glared at her, secretly annoyed that this young man was so hateful. He seemed to always take pleasure in seeing through her thoughts, and yet he always hit the nail on the head.

"Should I then burst out laughing?" the woman retorted coldly.

You Su pursed her lips, no longer trying to provoke this stone-like woman.

They remained silent the entire way.

Did you just say thank you to me?

You Su's sudden question made the woman pause, her angry eyes revealing a hint of exasperation, and she forced out three words through gritted teeth:

"It's an illusion!"

You Su found it amusing. She had seen arrogant young people before, but this centuries-old arrogant old man was a rare sight. However, with the ravages of age, he was afraid that he would only have arrogance left and no more coquettishness.

They barely had time to laugh before they arrived at one of their destinations—

That Sea Well from which evil spirits flowed incessantly.