The forest had surrendered to unnatural silence—the kind that pressed against eardrums like invisible hands, suffocating and ominous.
Yan Zheng led their group through a narrow path drenched in shadow, his sword resting at his side though vigilance never left his bearing. Behind him, Lu Rourou tugged nervously at her sleeves, glancing backward with mounting anxiety.
"Yan-ge," she whispered with trembling voice, "I think... Chi Ruyan isn't with us anymore."
Yan Zheng didn't spare a backward glance. "Let her wander. I'm not her appointed guardian."
Shen Yao fanned himself with theatrical elegance despite their dire circumstances. "A pity. That face was worth observing. Though naturally, no one outshines my magnificence." He struck a dramatic pose worthy of opera stages. "Not even hell's own devils."
Qingze studied him with bewildered confusion. *Does this man praise himself even in demon-infested forests?*
Suddenly, Rourou stumbled with a startled cry.
Before anyone could steady her, skeletal hands burst from the earth like grotesque flowers blooming, wrapping around her ankles with iron grip and dragging her downward into hungry soil.
"Rourou!" Lan Xueyao lunged forward with desperate urgency.
A chorus of inhuman shrieks erupted around them.
The ground fractured open, releasing more clawed appendages that slithered forth—bony fingers reaching to snatch at legs and flowing robes. Rourou's panic-stricken wails rose like prayer to uncaring heavens. "Shijie! Shijie, save me—I don't want to die yet! I haven't grown wealthy or married—Shijieee!"
Shen Yao and Yan Zheng threw ropes toward her struggling form, but the dead's grip only tightened with malicious purpose.
Qingze's sharp eyes scanned the shadowed woods. There—behind gnarled trees, a pair of crimson eyes flickered like dying embers. He recognized that malevolent presence immediately.
"Skeleton demons," he spat with cold fury. "This bears Demon Pei's signature."
Rourou screamed again, half her body already swallowed by cursed earth.
Lan Xueyao gritted her teeth until jaw ached. "Don't cry, Rourou! We'll free you!"
Yan Zheng hurled a fire spell toward the skeletal abominations. Bones blackened and cracked but refused to yield. "Damn it—"
"They won't vanish unless their master falls," Qingze stated grimly, voice heavy with certainty.
Yan Zheng's face paled like winter snow. "Then where is this demon?"
Qingze pointed with unwavering finger. "There."
As if summoned by their fear itself, Demon Pei emerged from shadow's embrace. His pale skin glowed with unnatural luminescence beneath the canopy, eyes blood-red and dancing with cruel amusement.
"Ahh~ you found me," he drawled, lips curving into a smile sharp as broken glass. "Such weak cultivators. So delightfully noisy."
Qingze stepped forward like a shield made flesh. "Harm them, and His Highness will claim your head as trophy."
Demon Pei's laughter echoed like breaking bells. "His Highness? That frozen bastard won't spare them a thought. And you, Qingze—still as foolishly naive as always."
Before another word could poison the air, Yan Zheng lunged with a warrior's roar that shook leaves from branches.
Steel met dark magic in an explosion that set the forest ablaze with deadly light.
---
Meanwhile, deeper in the woods where moonlight dared not venture...
Night air had grown frigid enough to freeze breath. Hua Ling rode swiftly upon his spirit beast—a massive white-furred wolf whose paws made no sound against forest floor. His brows furrowed with dread he refused to acknowledge, heart pounding like war drums in silent chest.
Faint traces of ... demon aura...
He leapt from the beast and followed the scent like a hunting hawk following wounded prey.
Through twisting trees and shadowed paths that seemed to shift with malicious intent, he arrived at a cave carved into the cliffside. There—within stone's cold embrace—he saw Chen Xinyu lying against rough walls, pale and trembling like a flower crushed by winter's cruel hand. Lingque supported him, eyes wide with protective fury.
"Your Highness!" she gasped upon noticing him. "You've returned—"
Xinyu stirred weakly. "Your Highness...?"
But before he could rise, Hua Ling had already crossed the distance and seized Mochen by the collar, dragging him outside with violence barely restrained.
Xinyu blinked in startled confusion. "They're fighting... again?"
Lingque caught his arm with gentle insistence. "Don't interfere. This isn't your battle."
---
Outside, wind howled like mourning spirits as Hua Ling shoved Mochen against a tree with enough force to crack bark. Rage burned in his eyes like winter stars gone supernova.
"I commanded you to stay away from him," he hissed through clenched teeth.
Mochen's lips curved into a relaxed smirk that could infuriate saints. "If not for my intervention, he would've been torn apart by agony. I merely suppressed the curse. Why such fury, Your Highness? Why does he matter so profoundly to you?"
Something flickered in Hua Ling's gaze—uncertainty, perhaps, or recognition of truths he refused to name. He doesn't... He shouldn't...
His voice emerged cold as forged steel. "If you breathe one word about the mark to my father, I'll rip your tongue out and feed you to my beast piece by piece."
Mochen tilted his head with fox-like cunning. "Relax. I won't tell Uncle anything. But you cannot prevent me from seeing him."
Hua Ling's fist clenched until knuckles went white as winter bone. Just as he prepared to strike—
"Your Highness, please—don't."
Xinyu had stumbled forward on unsteady legs, supported by Lingque, brows still furrowed with lingering pain. "He hasn't done anything wrong. He... he saved me."
The air between them crystallized into silence profound as deep ocean trenches.
Mochen stared at Xinyu, unable to tear his gaze away. His heart thundered in his chest like caged thunder—loud, wild, uncontrollable. This was the first time anyone had taken his side. Not even his parents had defended him in darker days past.
Hua Ling turned slowly, his gaze meeting Xinyu's. His knuckles whitened further, but confronted with Xinyu's pale face and trembling hands, his fury faltered like flame meeting rain.
He lowered his fist with visible effort.
Without a word, without explanation, he turned and walked away. His robes swept behind him like living shadows fleeing light.
Mochen watched his departure, something sharp and calculating glinting in his dark eyes. He touched the collar where Hua Ling's fingers had seized him.
"Fascinating," he murmured to himself.
Lingque released a long-held breath and rolled her eyes with divine exasperation. "Wonderful. Now His Highness is even more frigid than usual."
Xinyu muttered weakly, "He should cease such childish behavior..."
Mochen supported Xinyu back toward the cave's shelter. "Don't worry, Yu-ge. Just rest now." He gazed at him with undisguised affection warming his usually cold features.
---
Steel's song echoed through ancient trees as Yan Zheng pressed his assault with relentless determination. His sword became a blur of deadly intent beneath the forest's dim canopy. Across from him, Demon Pei grinned with blood-red eyes alight with exhilaration.
"Intriguing," Pei laughed while dodging another lethal strike. "A human like you... I've rarely needed to exert such effort. You're almost making this entertaining."
With a roar that shook heaven itself, Yan Zheng gathered his spiritual energy and unleashed a brilliant strike—a blade of pure qi slicing through mist like divine judgment. It connected true, drawing a sharp cry as dark blood splattered earth like scattered rubies.
Clutching his wounded side, Pei's eyes gleamed with dangerous interest. "You've captured my attention, Yan Zheng. I'll return another day to play properly." With a final smirk, his body vanished into swirling darkness like dissipating smoke.
Silence fell heavy as funeral shrouds, broken only by Rourou's sobbing. Only her head remained above ground, her body still gripped by skeletal hands. But with Pei's retreat, the cursed limbs loosened their grip and crumbled into dust like autumn leaves.
"Rourou!" Lan Xueyao rushed forward, kneeling and pulling her free from earth's hungry embrace. "Are you injured?"
"I—I thought death had claimed me," Rourou whimpered, burying her face in Xueyao's arms. "Perhaps I should marry before dying..."
"You're safe now," Xueyao said gently, brushing dirt from tear-stained cheeks.
Rourou scrambled to Yan Zheng, clinging to his leg like a devoted child. "Yan-ge, thank you... thank you for saving my unworthy life..."
Yan Zheng awkwardly patted her head with uncomfortable affection. "That's sufficient. Stand up."
"Ha!" Shen Yao laughed, tossing his fan with theatrical flair. "As expected of our sect's shining star. You even caught Demon Pei's eye. That's remarkably rare honor!"
Yan Zheng's frown deepened with concern. "We have no time for celebration. We must find Xinyu and the others—immediately."
---
In a makeshift camp, Chi Ruyan paced like a caged beast, fury trembling through her elegant limbs. Her voice cracked like breaking porcelain as she shrieked at terrified subordinates. "You let him escape?! Just like that?!"
"Miss... we couldn't stop him," one muttered with downcast eyes. "It was His Highness. He would've slaughtered us all."
"You useless cowards!" Chi Ruyan's scream could have shattered glass. She overturned a table with violent gesture, its legs snapping like broken bones as it crashed. She collapsed to her knees, clutching her head while tears streamed down her cheeks like rivers of molten silver.
"Why... Why must you make this so impossible, Your Highness?" she sobbed, voice raw as open wounds. "What more do you demand from me? My very soul?"
"Madam..." Chao Chao approached with gentle caution, kneeling beside her mistress.
Chi Ruyan choked on her breath, palms digging into dirt until nails cracked. "Tell me... what do I have left to offer...?"
Suddenly, a strange breeze stirred the trees with unnatural purpose.
From the shadows stepped a beautiful woman cloaked in an air of elegance and danger combined. Her eyes shimmered with light no mortal should possess. Chao Chao immediately prostrated herself. "My Lady..."
Chi Ruyan's tear-stained face lifted slowly, breath catching in her throat like a trapped bird.
"...Gege?"