False body!

Liu Ningzhi could still tolerate this much pressure.

Thinking Ning Que had a taste for that sort of thing, she broke into a coquettish giggle. "Hehe, so this is how you like to play, sir..."

Liu Ningzhi offered no resistance, letting Ning Que grip her throat, her eyes so seductive they could almost drip water.

Behind the screen, Zhuge Qing had witnessed the entire scene: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ!!!!

Rumble...

At that moment, she felt as though lightning had struck her, leaving her mind utterly blank.

She had only sneaked out to experience the place every gallant hero who "upheld justice" would visit—a brothel.

Not only had she been picked as a lucky guest the moment she arrived, but she had also witnessed such a steamy scene!

She was practically dumbstruck.

It was no different from someone acting out a vivid erotic painting right before her eyes!

Although the screen kept her from making out their exact appearances,

the silhouettes cast upon it made the impact even stronger.

The shadows on the screen were black, and those bare silhouettes left even more room for her imagination to run wild.

Their figures, movements, and expressions kept growing more vivid in her mind...

Eeeek!!!

Still an innocent young girl, when had Zhuge Qing ever seen anything like this?

Her cheeks visibly turned crimson, like a monkey's bottom.

"Gulp..."

She kept swallowing, yet her mouth and throat remained dry.

The sword she held against her chest trembled incessantly, almost slipping from her arms.

Her bottom kept scooting across the cushion toward the corner until she was huddled right in it.

Small, pitiful, and helpless.

Zhuge Qing wanted to flee, but her eyes seemed unable to move, remaining fixed on the two people behind the screen.

She wanted to see what they would do next.

Huh?

Why was he only choking her instead of going any further?

Just as Zhuge Qing grew embarrassed enough to flee, she noticed with surprise that the two figures behind the screen had held the same position for quite some time.

Yet they showed no intention of going any further.

Liu Ningzhi told Ning Que he could stop, but the large hand around her throat did not loosen. Instead, it kept tightening.

Liu Ningzhi realized something was wrong.

"Sir... sir, what's the matter?"

"I... I can hardly breathe..."

Liu Ningzhi's face had already gone from red to a swollen, purplish blue.

Her mouth hung open, her tongue protruding like a hanging corpse at the execution hour.

Crack!

Ning Que abruptly tightened his grip, and a loud crack of breaking bone rang out.

Liu Ningzhi's neck drooped at an unnatural ninety-degree angle.

She breathed her last.

Although Liu Ningzhi was dead, no kill notification sounded in Ning Que's mind.

"Let's go!"

The next moment, Ning Que rose, pulled aside the screen, and took Zhuge Qing straight out.

"Huh? Where are we going?"

Zhuge Qing had been utterly bewildered the entire time.

Crash...

Ning Que did not take Zhuge Qing through the Flower Delight House's front entrance. Instead, he leaped straight out of the window.

"Ah..."

It would have been a lie to say she was not frightened by a leap from such a height.

Zhuge Qing cried out in alarm.

Then Ning Que disappeared into the darkness with her.

Half an incense stick after Ning Que left with Zhuge Qing,

Liu Ningzhi's corpse began paling at a visible rate, eventually becoming even paler than a dead body should have been.

Her corpse also began to collapse and crumble.

Her features twisted and fell away.

Her entire body became like cement, finally turning into a puddle of bloody sludge and disappearing inside the Flower Delight House.

Gentle songs and graceful dances continued within the house, filled with the girls' lilting chatter.

Yet the courtesan queen's room stood empty.

All three people who had entered it had mysteriously vanished.

Downstream from Qingzhou Lake, where the current ran fiercest,

even the lake water was black.

Deep water was green; black water marked an abyss.

The Cave of No Worries was known as "two worlds, aboveground and below."

It was not at the bottom of the lake.

Instead, it lay within a tunnel downstream beneath the lakebed.

The winding tunnel led into hidden depths, twisting and turning countless times.

After passing through it, one would find a pitch-black cave entrance.

This was the Cave of No Worries.

Within the cave lay a world of its own, brightly lit and lined with city walls.

It was practically another city.

Yet compared with Qingzhou City by daylight, this place was far more dilapidated.

It was also far more sinister.

Every household here flew a black flag bearing a strange black lotus.

This was the emblem of the Yin Lotus Cult.

In other words, most of the factions in the Cave of No Worries were actually subordinate to the Yin Lotus Cult.

The Yin Lotus Cult controlled these factions not through strength, but through its genuine doctrines.

Or rather, those unwilling to obey the Yin Lotus Cult had all been implanted with the Heartless Gu, becoming walking corpses that obeyed only the cult's commands.

At that moment, inside a stone tower in the Cave of No Worries,

a black-clad figure sat upright.

Her appearance and figure were identical to those of Liu Ningzhi in the Flower Delight House.

Compared with that Liu Ningzhi, however, she was a little less alluring, a little colder, and somewhat more real.

"Pfft!"

The next moment, she abruptly opened her eyes and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Her aura also seemed weak and listless.

The severe injury had clearly taken a heavy toll on her. She lay on the floor, gasping for a long time before recovering her senses.

Liu Ningzhi's face was now filled with shock, horror, and utter disbelief.

"How did he realize I wanted to implant a gu in him?"

"And choke me to death while he was at it?"

Unbelievable!

The esteemed holy maiden of the Yin Lotus Cult had actually "died" once already.

That was right!

The Liu Ningzhi in the Flower Delight House had been a fake, merely an illusory body conjured through Liu Ningzhi's Yin Arts.

The Yin Lotus Cult practiced spellcraft, a sinister, unorthodox art that happened to fall somewhere between martial arts and cultivation methods.

In fact, she had long since recognized that the fair-faced scholar was the provincial governor's daughter disguised as a man. Her reason for choosing Zhuge Qing and Ning Que was simple—use the Heartless Gu to control Ning Que and make him kill the governor's daughter.

That way, she could create the illusion that a guest had killed the governor's daughter while keeping herself out of it.

Anyone could have been the one she controlled. It did not necessarily have to be Ning Que.

If there was a reason she had chosen Ning Que, it was that she had recognized at a glance that he was wearing a disguise.

What a regret...

If only I hadn't picked that brat...

But Liu Ningzhi's expression soon turned vicious again, blood still lingering at the corners of her mouth.

"It doesn't matter. A monk may flee, but his temple cannot. Even if you can evade my pursuit, can you evade every expert in Qingzhou City?"

The provincial governor's daughter would die tonight, without fail!