The black qi coiled around Xie Zhaolin's fingertips froze in midair.
Under the moonlight, she stared at the girl kneeling on the ground and finally spoke.
"That day you stabbed Zhang Laosan twenty-seven times, it wasn't only him you hated."
Ah Mo's breath caught.
"What you hated even more was yourself," Xie Zhaolin's voice was soft, "you hated the self that barely survived in the gambling den, the self that killed your sister, the self that wagged its tail like a stray dog, begging for scraps."
Ah Mo's nails sank deep into her palms, blood dripping through her fingers. Then, all of a sudden, she threw her head back and laughed hoarsely.
"You're right, Immortal Master!" Her eyes shone with a frightening brilliance. "When I stabbed him, every blade screamed at me—why the hell do I have to live so filthy? Why can't I kill cleanly, like you…?" Her voice dropped low, almost reverent. "…clean and pure."
The night wind swept across the courtyard, lifting dead leaves into the air.
Xie Zhaolin didn't reply, only kept her gaze on her.
"Immortal Master," Ah Mo suddenly spoke again, her voice hoarse but smiling, "did you know? When I was little, in the gambling den, I met an interesting man."
Xie Zhaolin raised her eyes slightly.
"He always wore a gray robe and only played three rounds each day." Ah Mo's cracked lips curved as her tongue ran over them. "The first round, he bet small. The second, he doubled. The third…" She broke into a violent cough but stubbornly pressed on, "…the third, he put everything down."
"And then?"
"And then?" Ah Mo bared her teeth, blood streaking between them. "Then he lost it all. He knelt on the ground and begged the dealer to lend him just a little, saying if he won it back, he'd do anything… In the end, he really did win. But the dice were rigged long ago. The moment he stepped out of the den, he was stabbed to death in an alley." She licked the blood from her lips. "That day I realized, the dumbest thing about gamblers isn't greed, it's thinking they can control the outcome."
Xie Zhaolin's voice was calm. "Do you think you can control it?"
"No." Ah Mo laughed. "I know I can't, but I enjoy the game. Just like now… I know you'll kill me, but I still want to see if you'll soften at the last second."
For a moment, Xie Zhaolin almost found it absurd. "She's testing me."
Even now, even at this point, she's still gambling.
"When your sister died, was that what you thought too?" Xie Zhaolin asked softly.
Ah Mo's expression went blank for a second.
"She was different." Her voice quieted, almost muttering to herself. "She was too stupid. She thought if she treated me well, I'd be grateful." Her nails dug into her palm again, blood dripping fresh. "But in this world, kindness is the most useless thing of all."
"Oh, right. About the poison pill…" Her bloody lips curled into a smile. "Do you know why I wasn't afraid?
I lived twelve years in the back alleys of gambling dens. I've seen countless people die.
Real poison…" She paused. "…is always kept in the plainest clay jars. Because when someone uses poison, they want lives, not a show."
"The pill you gave me… was too fancy. So fancy it was like one of those pretentious courtesans in the flower houses, desperate to flaunt her worth."
At last, Xie Zhaolin's expression changed. "She'd figured it out from such a detail?"
"Do you know what's funniest of all?" Ah Mo's voice suddenly rose. "I saw through it, but I still swallowed it anyway! Because I was gambling—"
"Gambling what?"
"Gambling you wouldn't let me die!" Ah Mo burst into wild laughter, her voice cracking with madness. "See? I guessed half right. You didn't poison me…" Her laughter cut off, her lips twitching. "…but the other half, I lost."
The black qi snapped tight.
"Ha… haha…" She spat blood, but her eyes never left Xie Zhaolin's. "Immortal Master, do you know how many times I've gambled in this life? They say nine out of ten bets are losses, but I've never once lost… The dice in the gambling den, my sister's life, even betting on whether you'd kill me… I won every time. Just this once, I lost."
Her voice grew weaker, but it still carried a defiant edge.
Xie Zhaolin was silent for a while before asking, "If you had another chance, would you still kill your sister?"
Ah Mo laughed wildly, without a shred of hesitation.
"Yes! Of course I would! We were like two bindweed vines—she wrapped around me, I dragged her down, neither of us could live! But once I killed her, I had the chance to become a poison vine… even if I could only cling to the lowest thorn bush!"
For a moment, Xie Zhaolin felt dazed.
—Alike.
Far too alike.
Alike to who?
Alike to Yu Xiaotang.
That little junior sister who was stuck in Qi Refining for decades with no progress, who one day obtained a Foundation Pill from who knows where and finally broke through.
That same Yu Xiaotang who later betrayed her, who killed her.
Xie Zhaolin's fingers twitched. The black qi tightened.
Ah Mo's throat cracked under the pressure, yet her eyes still locked onto hers.
"Immortal Master…" Her voice rasped, "have you ever… killed someone… like me?"
Xie Zhaolin's fingers trembled.
"Many."
"Then…" Ah Mo's pupils widened, her voice thinning to a whisper, "do you… remember their faces?"
The question stabbed into her heart like a dull knife. She remembered Lu Mingchuan's eyes before death, remembered countless souls she'd cut down.
"No." The word left her lips flatly.
Ah Mo smiled, this time pure and free of any schemes.
"That's good…" Her voice faded. "I… don't want to be remembered…"
Her fingers twitched as if trying to grasp something, but in the end they only dropped limp. The back-alley days, the bowing and scraping for scraps, all of it slipped away with her fading sight.
Just like the filthy self she'd always tried to escape.
Xie Zhaolin looked at the crumpled body and spoke softly.
"You weren't like Yu Xiaotang at all."
Ah Mo's words echoed in her ears—"I'd rather be the villain than a corpse!"
So righteous, so… blinding.
Yu Xiaotang never dared say something like that. That junior sister always cloaked her killings with excuses. She killed for "happiness," for "necessity," but never admitted it outright.
A small laugh slipped past Xie Zhaolin's lips.
So that's how it is.
This little liar, this lunatic, at least told one truth—she never covered her sins.
When she stabbed Zhang Laosan twenty-seven times, it was because she hated, not because she was forced. When she killed her sister, it was for her own rise, not because she had no choice. Even when she schemed against an Immortal Master, she said it plainly: I'm gambling.
How ridiculous.
Yet in a world that devours people whole, that raw, naked evil almost seemed… clean.
The black qi gathered in Xie Zhaolin's palm, igniting into a ghostly blue flame. With a wave, the fire fell onto Ah Mo's body, spreading in an instant.
"In your next life…" She watched the fire dance, her voice low. "Pick a better dealer."
The flames devoured that still-smiling face, burned away the filth, erased every trace.
Xie Zhaolin turned to leave. But just as the final flame flickered between death and survival—
"Tap, tap, tap—"