Page 19

As they talked, the wind howled and the stench of blood filled the air. The webs coiled around the cave walls surged out all at once, revealing layer upon layer of bloodstains beneath.

The foul odor mingled with the thick crimson haze. The Everlight Lamp flickered, and a gust of wind swept past.

Chaoyan retreated several steps, her face full of disbelief, then slammed into the stone wall and fell.

"Damn it, that strike..."

She didn't even have the strength to get up. Like a dead fish, she lay sprawled to one side, trembling as she raised her right hand and pointed at Yinshan Ghost Mother. "It seemed casual, but concealed tremendous force. The poisonous wind has already seeped into my organs. No wonder you're Yinshan Ghost Mother—you're ruthless!"

Yinshan Ghost Mother: ?

She'd even started explaining it herself. What did she mean, "no wonder"? No wonder her big head! She hadn't used any force at all! What was this about "seemed casual, but concealed tremendous force"? It really was just a gust of wind!

Ignoring her shocked gaze, Chaoyan turned her head toward White Bone Lady and spoke in a faint, threadbare voice. "Madam, you must eliminate this...and avenge our sisters in the pavilion... Ah! It hurts!"

She didn't finish before her head lolled to one side and her eyes closed.

She was gone.

Yinshan Ghost Mother was stunned.

That shameless woman was absolutely putting on an act! Could she be any more shameless? How could there be someone so brazen in the world?

But White Bone Lady, that idiot, actually believed her. Her eyes were like a pie chart: sixty percent fury, forty percent pity. At last, she gave a sharp, soft cry. "You stole my essence and harmed my sisters. Die!"

Yinshan Ghost Mother: Shit.

With battle upon them, Yinshan Ghost Mother had no choice but to fight.

Webs layered upon webs, every strand imbued with deadly poison and bloodlust. They poured down like a sky full of silver needles, striking straight for White Bone Lady's head.

The woman in white gave a cold glance. Skeletons appeared from nowhere before and behind her, like an army with minds of their own, shielding their mistress at the center.

The webs knotted together, and white bones billowed with smoke.

In an instant, the cave was wholly engulfed in blinding white. The sticky, scarlet blood on the stone walls made the scene all the more bizarre and eerie.

The vast army of white bones consisted of those who had died horribly at White Bone Lady's hands. They surged forward with wails, their hollow eye sockets like bottomless abysses.

The original story hadn't described these two fighting in detail. After all, they were like gourds being sent to save their grandpa—one after another, they went to the protagonist group to be defeated.

But according to the setting, Yinshan Ghost Mother was stronger by a notch—

After all, she'd been farming in someone else's territory for years. If she hadn't grown stronger by now, that would be hard to explain.

Bony fingers sliced through layers of web, while the webs swept out in a wide-area attack, grinding the bone warriors to bits.

The two demonesses kept clashing head-on. Amid flashes of white light and dark shadows, White Bone Lady spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent crashing to the ground.

Yinshan Ghost Mother still had a little strength left, but she wasn't in much better shape. She forced a ferocious grin and panted, "Didn't see that coming, you useless wretch! Today, I—"

Before she could finish, she jolted in shock.

The little demoness in the corner, who should have been unconscious, had opened her eyes and was watching her with a faint smile.

"Chaoyan!"

White Bone Lady burst into laughter. "Quick, use the Shenxing Powder to get me out of here!"

This was the plan they'd agreed on: if White Bone Lady fell behind, Chaoyan would use the Shenxing Powder to whisk them away in the blink of an eye.

That old Yinshan hag thought she could finish her off today. She'd never expect White Bone Lady to have another trick up her sleeve. Ha! Bet you didn't see that coming—

Suddenly, White Bone Lady's expression froze too.

The air was full of cheerful energy. For a moment, things were rather awkward.

Chaoyan reached up to her temple and gave a gentle tug.

That face came off with it, revealing—

What the hell! Why was it still that Sword Cultivator's face?!

Ning Ning smiled warmly and said the words neither of them had managed to say. "Haha, didn't see that coming, did you? I prepared two faces."

Yinshan Ghost Mother looked as if she'd been struck by five thunderbolts, like someone who'd been cheated out of eighty million yuan in an online romance.

White Bone Lady rolled her eyes and spat out another mouthful of blood.

Why the hell?

It all went back to an incense stick's worth of time earlier.

Those two junior brothers were nowhere to be found. If she wasted time looking for them, she might end up alerting the enemy instead. The only strength Ning Ning could rely on now was her own. If she wanted to win this round...

Didn't White Bone Lady live on the top floor? In the original story, the protagonist group had fought their way through the demons one by one, but that didn't mean Ning Ning couldn't use a little cunning to make the two demons fight each other!

White Bone Lady, free tool, what a bargain.

After killing the demoness Chaoyan, Ning Ning had obtained the mask that looked just like her with no effort at all.

And, of course, she hadn't forgotten that the demoness had already been wearing a Human Mask.

That gave Ning Ning two disguises.

One was Ning Ning, a disciple of the Xuanxu Sword Sect, whom she could use to draw information from Ghost Mother; the other was Chaoyan, a demoness from Zhaixing Pavilion, whom she could use to win White Bone Lady's trust.

Chaoyan was dead, so Yinshan Ghost Mother would surely notice and send another puppet to investigate—

But Yinshan Ghost Mother knew what had happened. White Bone Lady knew nothing about it.

Though two powerful demons lived in the pavilion, they were at odds with each other.

Even if Yinshan Ghost Mother learned that her puppet had been killed, she couldn't tell White Bone Lady, given that she'd been secretly stealing her essence and had an identity she couldn't reveal.

She could only grit her teeth and control her puppets, investigating slowly on her own.

Little did she know that Ning Ning had already found White Bone Lady's lair.

As long as she made good use of the two demons' information gap and mistaken assumptions, the plan would work.

Convincing White Bone Lady wasn't difficult.

She wasn't Yinshan Ghost Mother; she couldn't use puppets to tell whether the person before her was real. It wasn't convenient for a Sword Cultivator to approach, so Ning Ning only had to wear Chaoyan's face, go pay her respects, and hurriedly bring up Yinshan Ghost Mother's existence...