Qian Renxue walked slowly up to him, her gaze indifferent, her cool voice echoing. "Dugu Bo, do you still remember the battle at Jiayu Pass? With the deadly venom of your Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor, you slaughtered countless soldiers of Spirit Hall. Your hands are stained with no small amount of our blood."
Dugu Bo barely steadied his tottering body. His face was white as paper, and every trace of resistance had vanished from his eyes. His voice was low and hoarse. "The victor becomes king; the loser becomes an outlaw. I have nothing to say. One man must answer for his own deeds. Please do not implicate the innocent. Spare my granddaughter, Dugu Yan."
"Your granddaughter?"
A flicker of coldness crossed Qian Renxue's eyes. "I have no intention of killing her. Your Jade Phosphorous Serpent martial soul leaves you steeped in deadly poison, and the poison in your granddaughter's body has already taken deep root. Within three years, her own venom will eat away at her flesh day and night, until she dies in agony. An end like that, worse than death itself, would soothe the hatred in my heart far more than killing her outright."
"Yan Yan... my Yan Yan..."
Dugu Bo's eyes instantly turned hollow and lifeless. His body trembled uncontrollably, his heart filled with despair.
The only reason he had agreed to help Xue Beng this time was the top-grade, twenty-thousand-year soul bone the emperor had promised him.
Only by obtaining that soul bone could he suppress the poison in his granddaughter's body and keep Dugu Yan alive.
But now, defeat was certain. The promised soul bone had dissolved like a fleeting bubble, and even his own life hung by a thread.
Without his protection, without a soul bone to suppress the poison, Dugu Yan would