Leng Yue's cold night, the stars scattered, the clouds thin.
"Hng— Hng—"
In the misty blur, an ethereal and elegantly aloof figure like that of a celestial maiden flitted by.
It wasn't until Lin Qingque's figure had walked far away and disappeared at the end of the street that the Sword Sect female disciple, sitting collapsed on the ground, clutching her mouth to prevent any sound, dared to let go of her hands, which by now were covered in bite marks.
Yet she felt no pain whatsoever, her fear had sunk deeper into her heart than any pain could.
"What a joke, expecting us to stop these two monsters?"
The memory of her fellow disciples being brutally dismembered before her eyes made her legs shake uncontrollably.
"How could we possibly stop them, it's terrifying, just too terrifying, they are not human at all!"
She curled up tightly and hugged herself. If she didn't, she was afraid that she would lose even the last bit of warmth from her body.
What scared her even more was the expression and attitude of those two while they were committing those acts.
One of them showed no emotion, as if it were normal; with the rise and fall of a blade, they could dismember her while she remained lucid, watching herself being cut apart bit by bit, like Paoding dissecting an ox.
The other seemed to do nothing, just standing there, muttering things like "Hurry up and come out, give me my senior brother back," but the disciples who approached her would suddenly turn back with tears, stabbing their swords into the sisters they had spent long days with, even shared bedding with.
And whenever this happened, she would let out a chillingly sweet laugh.
"Hehe, just like that, right?"
A genteel voice said warmly beside her.
"Exactly, just like that."
The female disciple heard the voice and instinctively turned her head, looking at the gentle smiling face as if it were embedded in the wood, gradually overlapping with the one in her memory.
Moments later, as if realizing something, she suddenly widened her eyes and let out a scream.
"Ahh!!"
Though her body should have been exhausted, at this critical moment of life and death, a burst of hidden strength surged, and the female disciple, grabbing her sword, spun around and fled through Sword Control flight.
"You really have quite a bit of patience."
Lin Qingque's smile slowly faded.
She looked up at the moon in the sky, suddenly exerted force, and her entire body crashed through the door, entering the room.
"I want to see how long you can watch your little junior sisters being slaughtered."
Lin Qingque, with no expression on her face, elegantly brushed the sawdust off her hair, and a slow, sickly flush arose on her cold little face: "Senior brother, don't be afraid, I am coming to rescue you now."
Plop.
A pebble hit the ground, making a slight noise.
"..."
Lin Qingque slowly turned her head and saw from the ruins a pair of wide, panic-filled eyes.
"It's you."
"Immortal, Immortal Master."
Clearly, she had witnessed what had just happened.
Lin Qingque gently exhaled, slowly squatting down, revealing a face full of loving affection: "Come here, to sister."
The little girl's eyes widened in terror. She wanted to flee but found herself involuntarily taking a few steps forward.
One step, two steps, as if possessed by a demon.
"Then, come, let sister see your heart."
Lin Qingque smiled, looking at the child who was almost identical to her "former self."
"Ah—"
The little girl lowered her head, fearfully looking at her delicate little hands as she scratched her skin and pierced into the flesh, bit by bit.
Thick, darkened blood that had started to stink slowly trickled from what should be pale skin.
"It hurts so much."
"It's okay, be good, sister will blow on it for you," Lin Qingque said while rubbing the girl's head and smiling gently.
Yet that sweet and cold smile, in the middle of the night, inevitably made one's heart race and skin crawl.
When the girl's tender hands tore open her chest cavity, exposing what lay inside, it revealed a sight that inevitably caused goosebumps to rise.
Where the heart should have been was now empty, housing only a black creature curled up like an old rat.
It lay there peacefully asleep, as if it were a baby.
Meanwhile, in another world, in almost the exact same spot, Liu Ruoxue just happened to be gazing at Xu Yuan, and slowly said, "Xu Yuan, you have no heart!"
"Sister, what is this?"
Seeing this scene, the little girl seemed to have realized something, and black blood slowly began to ooze from her eyes.
Suddenly, her eyes widened as she looked up, as if sensing danger, and frantically waved her small hands, reaching out to grab Lin Qingque.
Lin Qingque remained motionless.
But her hands slowed as if stuck in a morass, eventually coming to a halt in mid-air.
Lin Qingque wielded her sword in a light swing, and a casual stroke pierced the demonic rat that had just opened its eyes and leaped at her in a sneak attack.
The girl slowly closed her eyes.
By now, Lin Qingque had also understood some of the truth about this town.
The people in this town, if nothing else, were likely completely controlled by these parasitic demonic rats.
That's why Xu Yuan and Tian Liuli did not bother to save anyone.
That's also why, after such a large rat swarm, some people in the town were still alive.
It's also why the man who had blocked their way earlier, upon realizing that Xu Yuan truly intended to kill him, scampered off like a rat, believing that they, as Immortal Masters, would not harm them, mere mortals.
However, why... did they show no intent of completely exterminating them?
"It's all right now, go to sleep, and when you wake up, forget all about this, oh, and remember... don't let that Immortal Master brother find you, or you'll die right away," Lin Qingque said with a smile to the little girl who was supposed to be dead.
She did not know how much longer her hypnosis would allow her to "live."
But for now, she could be at ease.
To her senior brother, she was still the unique "little junior sister."
"What a fright, I thought for a moment, senior brother was about to pick up another 'me.' It made me rush over to find her," Lin Qingque said to herself.
Indeed, the person she truly wanted to find was her, not the escaping Sword Sect Disciple.
After all, from other people's minds, they learned that their eldest sister had taken their senior brother to another world, similar yet different from this one. Hence, they used such slaughter-like tactics to force the Sword Sect walker to show themselves.
If not for that, they had no interest in playing these cat and mouse games.
It could give their senior brother the wrong impression that they enjoyed such acts, aside from dirtying their hands and getting tainted with that foul-smelling blood.
As long as it didn't involve their senior brother, the lives of others were of no consequence to her!
Even if it were bloodthirst, she would only crave the blood of her senior brother.
"But speaking of which, senior brother's upbringing of me was a failure. He never taught me knowledge like 'good morning bite' or anything like that. How neglectful, now that I'm grown, I can't use innocence as an excuse anymore, what a hassle! Maybe after this, I'll just find some youth-restoring and memory-wiping potion for senior brother to drink, and then... hehehe!"
Under the moonlit night, the celestial maiden-like girl wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and headed in the direction of the recently fled female disciple while losing herself in her own delusions.