Chapter 293 - 286: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, the Oriole Is Behind

Hearing the sound, Song Ciwan looked up. Through the dense layers of tree canopy, she saw the light and shadows shifting above.

In an instant, two figures, wrapped together in the same Red Silk, crossed paths. The Red Silk tightened. The figure in blue raised a hand and thrust it through the chest of the figure in red.

The red figure seemed about to counterattack, but the blue figure ripped her still-beating heart from her chest and held it aloft.

An eerie blue light spread over the still-beating red heart like spilled ink, staining it layer by layer. The red figure quickly lost the strength to fight back.

But she wasn’t dead yet. Clutching the empty cavity in her chest, she stared in agony, resentment, and disbelief. "Lan Qin, why?"

Tears streamed down Lan Qin’s face as she whispered, "I’m sorry, Hong Xiao. I know you’ve been good to me, but why couldn’t you have been a little kinder to my sister?"

Hong Xiao, as if she still couldn’t process it, asked with difficulty, "What... are you saying?"

Lan Qin scoffed. "Back when the Young Master was choosing personal handmaidens, there were one hundred and twenty-eight of us, and we went through six full rounds of selection. My sister was still in the running after the fifth round. Her Fire Attribute Spirituality was at eighty points—not a bit lower than yours, and maybe even a little higher!"

Hong Xiao said nothing.

Lan Qin continued, "I was so sure my sister would be chosen. If she had been, we could have left that place together. We wouldn’t have to live in constant fear, of being drained, of being Devoured, of being used as human cauldrons... living a life that’s neither human nor ghost..."

As she spoke, the eerie blue light in her hand continued to spread, soon corrupting more than half of Hong Xiao’s heart.

Hong Xiao’s breathing grew faint, and the Red Silk binding them together began to slowly come undone.

Lan Qin had much to say. A crazed look crept onto her face as the words poured out of her. "It was you. You went to my sister in secret. I don’t know what you said to her, but the very next day, she made a mistake during the assessment and nearly died on the spot!

From that day on, my sister lost her chance to advance. She could never leave that hellhole!

Hong Xiao, I may call you sister, but you could never be a real sister to me. You thought I didn’t know, but I’ve known all along! You stole my sister’s chance. With her mistake, you were perfectly positioned to be her replacement.

All these years, you pretended to be good to me, to win me over, but it was all just a ploy to get me on your side so you could compete with Qing Feng for the Young Master’s favor.

And my playing along with you? Wasn’t that just to lull you into a false sense of security, to bide my time until I could get my revenge? Your Cultivation improved by the day, and I almost thought I’d never get the chance. But thankfully... the Celestial Lord is on my side!

We entered this Demon Realm, and this strange place has rendered all methods of communication useless. I can kill you here today, and no one will ever know the truth. Not even the Young Master."

Lan Qin’s expression twisted, and the bizarrely vibrant yet dark Demonic Qi cast her face in a grotesque light.

The eerie blue light finally consumed Hong Xiao’s entire heart. Her body began to tilt backward, her hand lifting weakly to point a trembling finger at Lan Qin.

Lan Qin declared with glee, "Today, I have avenged my sister!"

At that very moment, Hong Xiao finally managed to speak a complete sentence. "You and your sister... you’re twins from the same womb. The clan has its rules. The Young Master would never allow two such closely related people to serve as his handmaidens at the same time. Between the two of you, there could only ever be one!"

Lan Qin was stunned. "What?" she said.

"You say I ruined your sister? That’s laughable... On what grounds? How would that even be possible? It was her... she was unwilling to compete with you. She chose to give you the chance to leave Fangchen Pavilion. When we spoke in private, it was only to beg me to look after you in the future. You are the real reason for her downfall... the true culprit..."

Her words trailed off as she gasped for breath.

Lan Qin’s mind reeled from the shock. Her grip loosened, and the heart, now dyed a deep ink-blue, fell from her hand.

The heart tumbled across the moss- and leaf-strewn bark of the forest floor. Nearby, a tiny, lizard-like creature from the Demon Realm poked its head out, looking as if it were ready to pounce and devour it at any moment.

At that exact moment, Hong Xiao, who had looked to be on the verge of collapsing, suddenly shot back up.

"Ah!" Lan Qin screamed.

Hong Xiao was too fast, and they were too close. It was as if space-time warped for a moment—in a flash of starlight, in the blink of an eye, Lan Qin had no time to react before Hong Xiao spat a mouthful of air right in her face.

It was a breath of fiery-red gas, carrying an extreme heat that instantly enveloped Lan Qin. She had no time to use any of her skills, and even the defensive Magical Artifact on her body was rendered useless.

WHOOSH—

Flames erupted, turning Lan Qin into a human torch.

Having turned the tables, Hong Xiao sighed softly. "My dear little sister, after all these years, you still haven’t learned. When you face an enemy, you must eliminate them as quickly as possible. Hesitation, pointless chatter... that’s how you get yourself counter-killed."

Lan Qin rapidly turned to ash in the flames, managing only to shriek, "You lied to me..."

And then, all sound vanished.

At the same time, far below the duo, the Heaven and Earth Scale manifested beside Song Ciwan and collected a ball of Death Qi.

[Death Qi. Source: Death of a Demonized Late-stage Qi Cultivation Cultivator. Weight: Two catties and one tael. Eligible for trade.]

’A Demonized Cultivator!’

On the level above, Hong Xiao staggered toward the ink-blue heart lying on the ground.

She bent down, about to snatch the heart back into her hand.

Next to the heart, the Lizard Demon Spirit that had been peeking out raised its head, coiled and ready to strike.

Simultaneously, Song Ciwan leaped up from below. She passed through the barrier of immense pressure and arrived on the upper level of the giant tree. In that fleeting instant, she pointed her sword from a distance at the bent-over Hong Xiao.

The Void Illusion Demon Sword, unused for so long, stirred. An invisible blade of light cut through the fabric of space and time, landing silently upon Hong Xiao’s heart.

No, Hong Xiao’s heart wasn’t in her chest. To be precise, the sword had struck her Heart Soul.

The heart of a person is not the organ, but the Thought, the Soul Spirit—it is the sorrow and joy, the obsession and anger felt by that Soul Spirit in this very moment.

Hong Xiao’s movement to retrieve her heart froze. She stopped in place, her eyes widening as a myriad of complex emotions flashed within them.

Somehow, the secret she had buried deep in her heart for so long—one she hadn’t spoken even as Lan Qin died before her—now came tumbling out uncontrollably.

"It was... I lied to you," she whispered to the ashes of Lan Qin. "I lied to you, and I lied to your sister. I was the one who told her the Young Master would never keep twin sisters by his side, that only one of the two could remain!"

"But I had no choice. If I didn’t make it out, who would have saved me?"

"No one. Hehehe... So, I will not apologize..."

"I will never apologize..."

THUD!

Hong Xiao collapsed, falling headfirst to the ground. Her voice hadn’t even fully faded before she went silent forever.

She had hesitated, wasting precious time. By failing to retrieve her heart, she had, at the most critical juncture between life and death, exhausted her own life force.

Ahead, the Lizard Demon Spirit, which had long been lying in wait, sprang up and pounced on the heart.

From behind, Song Ciwan raised a hand. The Heaven and Earth Scale flew out, and in a single instant, it collected Hong Xiao’s corpse from the ground, along with the ink-blue heart.

But as the Lizard Demon Spirit leaped through the air, flames erupted from its body out of thin air—it was the Blazing Flame Technique, cast by Song Ciwan.

By now, Song Ciwan could cast such Minor Magic without any hand seals. With a mere thought, her Blazing Flame Technique, executed with utter Mastery, incinerated the Lizard Demon Spirit, vaporizing it on the spot.