Shen Gurong drew the curved sword he had snatched from the doll from his waist, his fox ears standing on end.
Sang Luofu quickly approached, covered in blood—it was unclear whether it was hers or someone else's—yet she smiled and curtsied respectfully, saying, "Your Majesty remains as serene as the morning sun."
Shen Gurong looked at her coldly: "I dare not accept such praise."
He examined Sang Luofu closely. Indeed, as Xue Manzhuang had said, she exuded a strange aura, as if her exquisite beauty was pieced together inch by inch.
Plus, there was the "beauty bone" Sang Luofu had mentioned earlier…
Shen Gurong shuddered imperceptibly. Was her entire appearance pieced together from the beauty bones of others?
Sang Luofu had previously mentioned possessing the most beautiful human bones in the world. Shen Gurong thought that if she didn't have a grudge against Shen Feng Xue, she was probably coveting his bones.
Thinking this, Shen Gurong silently tightened his grip on the knife.
Sang Luofu, perhaps injured in her fight with Qingyu, had spiderweb-like cracks appearing on her beautiful face, dividing her exquisite features into several pieces. Even more bizarrely, the expressions on those separated faces were completely different.
Joy, anger, sorrow, surprise, fear—all these expressions appeared on the same face, a sight so chilling it sent shivers down one's spine.
Shen Gurong, filled with fear, thought to himself: "Ahhh! This! This face! So terrifying, so shocking! I must tell this story to the storyteller when I get back. This half-face makeup is too old-fashioned; a monster should have ten faces!"
Sang Luofu's lips curved into a smile, but tears welled in her left eye. She said softly, "The Holy Ruler is deeply righteous, having slain countless demons and evil spirits across the Three Realms in the past hundred years. He deserves this praise."
Shen Gurong thought to himself, "Praise it if you want, put the knife away first."
Sang Luofu moved forward, and Shen Gurong gripped the knife tighter, his body tense, as if ready to unleash a series of Bagua-style fish-slicing techniques at any moment.
Sang Luofu saw the knife in his slender fingers, covered her lips, and chuckled softly again. She said, "The Holy Ruler has been punished by lightning, his spiritual veins sealed. He is now no different from a mortal. This knife is too sharp; you'd better put it down."
Before she finished speaking, the bone knife in her hand flashed white, splitting into ten pieces like a peacock's tail, shooting towards Shen Gurong like arrows.
Shen Gurong remained unfazed, clearing his mind as he raised his hand holding the knife. In a flash, the knife moved with incredible speed in his hand, clanging several times as it deflected Sang Luofu's bone knives one by one.
The last bone knife collided with Shen Gurong's blade, producing a piercing clang before turning to ash and falling to the ground.
"Oh?" Sang Luofu showed no surprise, simply smiling as she said, "As expected of the number one person in the Three Realms, even without spiritual power, you can still catch my knife."
Shen Gurong remained expressionless, thinking: As expected of the number one person in the Three Realms! Even without spiritual power, he can still catch her knife!
Shen Gurong casually twirled his knife, glanced indifferently at Sang Luofu, and said, "That water ghost deserved it. If I hadn't killed him, I would have been the one to die. Miss Sang, you understand the law of the jungle in the Three Realms, right?"
His intention was to use his silver tongue to coax Sang Luofu into a conversation—though he knew it would be futile, it was better than waiting to die. After all, Sang Luofu hadn't used any spiritual power with those bone knives; if she had really become ruthless, he probably wouldn't have survived.
He was mentally calculating what kind of reasoning to use when, unexpectedly, the moment he finished speaking, Sang Luofu's expression changed instantly.
Her split face instantly coalesced into a single expression.
It was the fear, disbelief, and brewing madness of hearing terrible news.
Shen Gurong looked at her strangely, not understanding what was wrong with her.
"You..." Shen Gurong heard her say, each word slurred in a hoarse voice, "You killed him?"
Shen Gurong: "..."
So Sang Luofu didn't know about this?!
Shen Gurong dug his own grave, then handed his enemy a shovel, telling him to bury him.
Shen Gurong gave a bitter laugh, saying without much hope, "Can you forget what I just said?"
Sang Luofu was on the verge of collapse. She gripped the bone knife tightly, her usual composure completely shattered. She murmured, "You killed him? You actually killed him?"
She kept repeating this one sentence, the bone knife nearly crushed in her slender fingers.
Shen Gurong heard her breathing grow heavier and heavier, knowing something was about to happen. He instinctively took a half-step back, but this seemed to be the signal for Sang Luofu to explode. The next instant, a muffled thud sounded past Shen Gurong's ear, as if something heavy had swept through the air.
His pupils contracted, and he tilted his head slightly, just in time to see a strand of severed white hair drift to the ground, the ends coiled into a circle.
Shen Gurong: "..."
Sang Luofu had completely disregarded her beauty at this moment. The cracks she had forcibly suppressed burst open, and her entire body seemed to twist, sprouting snow-white bones that attacked Shen Gurong like sharp blades.
Just now, she had probably missed her target in her anger, barely managing to graze Shen Gurong's ear and slice off a strand of hair.
This should have been a certain death, but for some reason, Shen Gurong felt strangely devoid of fear.
He looked at Sang Luofu's grotesque body and coldly thought, "Truly ugly."
Is this the kind of... arbitrarily pieced-together ghostly skin that the world pursues?
The familiar, piercing sound rang out again. Shen Gurong's eyesight was too poor to detect the bone knife hurtling towards him like an arrow. He could only rely on the sound to raise his hand and slash horizontally.
In a single, almost accidental move, he blocked one bone knife, but was forced back half a step. His own knife shattered into pieces, falling to the ground, leaving only the hilt.
Shen Gurong: "..."
When the second bone knife came flying, Shen Gurong had no choice but to raise his hand to block it. But as soon as he raised his hand, the black bead he always wore on his wrist suddenly flashed with a blood-red light. A ghostly shadow appeared instantly, opening its mouth and snatching the incoming bone knife in its jaws.
Shen Gurong's brow suddenly furrowed. Turning his head, he saw that the bead Xiwu had given him was gone, leaving only a red cord with a golden bell tied around his pale wrist.
Xiwu?
Shen Gurong stared intently, and the figure before him was a black snake as thick as an arm.
The black snake opened and closed its mouth, crushing the hard bone knife in two, chewing it, and swallowing it whole.
Shen Gurong: "..."
This...this really was done by Xiwu? That pitiful, weak girl who called him "brother"?
Now, Shen Gurong truly understood that Xiwu and his younger sister, Shen Xiwu, were not the same person at all. Even if they looked alike, they were ultimately different.
Sang Luofu's face twisted in a grimace: "Shen Feng Xue! You deserve to die!"
Shen Gurong remained unmoved. In the past hundred years, Shen Feng Xue had slain countless demons and ghosts, and countless people had loved and hated him. A person as pure and serene as the moon in the sky would not be swayed by anyone's gossip.
He was meant to be like the bright moon in the sky, untouched by worldly affairs.
Except for Mu Zhe.
Shen Gurong's pupils suddenly contracted, as if he had suddenly realized something. Even with the deadly Sang Luofu before him, he disregarded everything and directly took out the small wooden puppet from his arms, wishing he had eight more pairs of eyes to see its features clearly.
But the more he looked, the more his hands trembled, and the more his heart pounded.
The small wooden puppet's features seemed to be those of Mu Zhe grown up.
His hand went limp, almost dropping the puppet, and in a flash, countless snow-white bones scattered towards him like a shower of flowers. The black snake, unable to block them, let out a sharp cry.
It was the scream of a vengeful ghost.
Shen Gurong looked up and saw several bone knives slashing down on him.
In that instant, Shen Gurong was still wondering why Lin Shuhe would carve a puppet identical to Mu Zhe for him?
In an instant, a sharp sound rang out, and a trail of blood suddenly fell in front of Shen Gurong. Then, Lin Shuhe's voice rang out from behind him.
"Eleventh, isn't Senior Brother a little too late?"
Shen Gurong turned around in surprise.
Lin Shuhe casually held a sword identical to the one Shen Gurong held. The blade passed right past Shen Gurong, blocking his path. The sword, marked with streaks of blood, deflected the numerous deadly bone knives.
The blood on his blade splattered on the ground from the impact of the bone knives, releasing a stench that filled the air.
Lin Shuhe stood behind him, the strong scent of medicine mingling with the stench of blood, almost making Shen Gurong vomit.
His face was pale. He said, "Senior Brother."
Lin Shuhe's hand holding the sword nearly dropped, as if he might collapse at any moment, but he held it firmly. The oncoming bone knives seemed insignificant to him, less than raindrops falling from the sky. The broken knife in Shen Gurong's hand had somehow healed, its cracks still visible.
Lin Shuhe said softly, "This is your senior brother's natal spirit weapon. You must use it carefully."
Shen Gurong: "..."
A natal spirit weapon? A natal spirit weapon that shattered so easily?
But then again, this spirit weapon, like Lin Shuhe and this person, looked extremely fragile, yet it had barely healed thanks to Shen Feng Xue's divine intervention.
Seeing Lin Shuhe arrive, Shen Gurong felt inexplicably at ease. He tilted his head and asked, "Whose blood are you wearing?"
Lin Shuhe smiled and said, "Guess."
Shen Gurong looked in the direction he had come from—the dilapidated temple he had just escaped from.
Shen Gurong suddenly fell silent.
Lin Shuhe gently touched Shen Gurong's fox ears, his eyes slightly narrowed, a gentle smile appearing on his pale face.
"Eleven, your fox ears are quite nice," Lin Shuhe said softly. "But I know you don't like them, so I simply killed everyone who saw you like this."
Shen Gurong: "..."
He suddenly understood... why Shen Feng Xue's memories included the word "cold-blooded and ruthless" towards the sickly Lin Shuhe.
Lin Shuhe raised his hand and pulled Shen Gurong behind him, saying calmly, "Stay away, be careful not to get blood splattered on you."
Before Shen Gurong could react, he felt his sixth senior brother, who could barely walk three steps, suddenly rush towards Sang Luofu, whose body was covered in bones, like a whirlwind.
In an instant, his long, thin fingers pierced directly into Sang Luofu's chest, and blue blood gushed out instantly.
Sang Luofu screamed ferociously, her face covered in tears. She froze, her eyes blankly staring at the man who had appeared before her like a ghost.
Lin Shuhe gently twirled his hand over her heart, the sound of flesh churning was chilling, yet his voice was soft and gentle, like a whisper to a lover.
"Mermaid Tears, I accept them."
Sang Luofu stared at him, stunned, feeling all her spiritual energy slowly draining from the bloody hole in her chest.
The countless bones pulled from the innocent body, like withered grass roots, gradually turned yellow and slowly fell away from various parts of her body.
She staggered, slowly kneeling on the ground.
Lin Shuhe withdrew his hand from her chest; his palm was spotless, two pale fingers gently holding a single, crystal-clear blue bead.
That was the mermaid tear.
Lin Shuhe lowered his gaze, glancing at Sang Luofu as if she were an inanimate object, and said indifferently, "Thank you."
Sang Luofu collapsed to the ground.
Whether it was impending death or tears blurring her vision, Sang Luofu vaguely sensed someone wading towards her from behind.
She struggled to open her eyes.
On the waters of Dongting Lake, a man dressed in white stood on the edge of a boat, a pole in his hand, slowly approaching her.
Sang Luofu's pupils dilated slightly. She waved her hand with all her might, trying to stop him from coming closer, but to onlookers, it appeared as if her fingers had merely twitched.
"Don't come closer," she thought. "I'm not the most beautiful, don't come closer."
Shen Gurong looked down at Sang Luofu, who was gradually losing her breath, when suddenly he heard her say something.
"I only..."
"I only want a beauty bone."
Shen Gurong's pupils contracted sharply.
Ten years ago, when he accidentally entered the water ghost's barrier, he seemed to have heard these words as well.
"I just wanted a pair of eyes."
"I can't find them anywhere."
Sang Luofu had already stopped breathing. The most beautiful woman in the Three Realms, now dead, was nothing more than a skeleton.
Lin Shuhe didn't care about Sang Luofu's life or death. He carefully wiped away the mermaid tears with a handkerchief, smiling as he beckoned to Shen Gurong: "Eleven, come here."
Shen Gurong's heart was as still as water. For some reason, he felt no fear whatsoever at Lin Shuhe's post-murder smirk. It was as if he had long been accustomed to Lin Shuhe's ruthlessness. He walked over expressionlessly.
"Sigh." Lin Shuhe sighed, biting his finger and dripping a drop of blood onto the mermaid tears. He quickly drew a talisman on the spiritual veins of Shen Gurong's wrist. He said, "Truly, your sins are heavy."
Shen Gurong: "..."
You weren't like this when you killed him.
Lin Shuhe finished drawing the talisman in one breath, then raised his hand and summoned a weak bolt of lightning, striking Shen Gurong's spiritual meridians imperceptibly.
Shen Gurong felt a tingling sensation throughout his body, and his spiritual meridians, which had been stagnant for several days, instantly became unobstructed.
His spiritual energy flowed as before.
Shen Gurong opened his hand to look at it, then casually flicked out a burst of spiritual energy, blasting a large hole in the ground with a loud boom.
Lin Shuhe sighed and said, "Eleventh, it's up to you to take your senior brother back now."
Before Shen Gurong could hear him clearly, he saw Lin Shuhe, who had just been killing someone, suddenly cover his mouth and spit out a mouthful of blood, his fingers stained crimson.
Shen Gurong was startled and immediately supported him.
Lin Shuhe slumped into Shen Gurong's arms, vomiting blood as he said intermittently, "Keep going east, and you'll get back to Xianyun City. Eleventh, remember, east."
He pointed in a direction.
Shen Gurong: "Senior Brother?! Senior Brother!"
Seeing Shen Gurong's pale face, Lin Shuhe forced a smile and said, "It's nothing, just spitting blood, I won't die."
After saying that, he promptly and cleanly fainted.
Shen Gurong: "..."
Shen Gurong blankly held the unconscious Lin Shuhe and looked around.
The surroundings were silent.
All was quiet.
Shen Gurong looked at the east direction Lin Shuhe was pointing. Although he didn't quite trust his sense of direction, he had no choice but to carry Lin Shuhe on his back, retrieve the Wind Riding Technique from Shen Feng Xue's memories, and instantly soared into the air, heading straight east.
A quarter of an hour later, Shen Gurong landed steadily.
A plaque above the massive city gate in front of him bore three characters.
Yuzhou City.
Shen Gurong: "..."
Shen-close-to-zoro-level-of-no-sense-of-direction-Gurong: ...
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