Chapter 39

#What are you afraid of?

The air was icy cold…

Each breath I exhaled turned into white mist in the freezing air, swirling before vanishing.

On Xie Zhuo’s chest, the evil aura was pouring into my wrist wound. The piercing pain made me instinctively hunch over, and my survival instincts screamed for me to pull my hand away from his chest a thousand times over.

But I held on.

First, I fought against my instincts. Then, I resisted the invading evil aura within my body.

I didn’t know how much time had passed—maybe just a moment, maybe an entire night…

When black lines began to show through my skin along my meridians, and the wound on Xie Zhuo’s chest finally stopped bleeding, I knew most of the evil aura in his body had been drawn into my own blood vessels. What little remained inside him no longer posed a threat. It couldn’t continue tearing at his wounds. With his physique, those external injuries would soon heal on their own.

I was about to pull my hand back, but…

Something suddenly felt wrong.

When I tried to withdraw, I realized for the first time that the evil aura wasn’t simply attracted to my blood. It was… clinging to me.

It was pulling me, refusing to let me leave Xie Zhuo’s chest. The remaining dark aura continued to pour into my body.

This isn’t right…

It was as if this evil aura had consciousness. It wanted to enter my blood.

“Xie Zhuo…” I gritted my teeth. At that moment, as the chill overwhelmed me and my body could no longer resist the evil aura, countless scattered thoughts suddenly flashed through my mind.

Over the past five hundred years, Xie Zhuo had never stopped saying, “I’m no good for you.”

Four hundred years ago, that spider demon with eight eyes who dragged me away from Kunlun said that Xie Zhuo had given himself a weakness.

And just recently, Xie Xuanqing’s wariness when he accompanied me to Cuihu Terrace.

Then there was Xie Zhuo’s injury filled with evil aura… the blood oath I carried bearing his blood… the strange capital of Jingnan…

Every piece of information pointed toward the evil aura. Or rather, toward a connection between the evil aura and me.

As my mind raced, the last thread of evil aura slipped from his chest into my wrist.

Pain like an explosion burst in my heart, as if it were being burned by flames and branded by hot iron.

My body curled up uncontrollably. I bit down hard, holding my breath, clinging tightly to Xie Zhuo’s robes. “You better… not be hiding something crucial from me. You better… not make me question my confidence in my celestial body…”

The pain inside me grew unbearable. I couldn’t even keep my grip on his robes anymore.

I thought—this life of mine might really end here, because of whatever Xie Zhuo kept from me.

Goddamn it, that bastard—if he knew something, why didn’t he say it sooner?!

If I had known it would hurt this much, if I had known it would cost my life, if I had known—

I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. Darkness swallowed my world.

Just before I lost all consciousness, one final thought flickered through my mind: Maybe, even if I had known everything—what Xie Zhuo kept from me, how much it would hurt, that it might kill me—I still would’ve bitten my wrist open to save him…

How ridiculous…

We’re supposed to be a bitter, separated couple…

The world went completely black.

I didn’t know how long had passed. When I next became aware of “myself,” it felt like I had stepped into chaos.

Mist surrounded me, the silence deafening. I wandered aimlessly through this fog. As I moved forward, strands of black lines began to appear—like spiderwebs spun from evil aura. The deeper I went, the denser they became.

Fear surged within me. I wanted to stop walking, but my legs no longer obeyed me.

I looked down—and was shocked to see that my ankles and knees were already entangled in black webs. They dragged me forward like a puppet on strings.

A shadow suddenly flickered behind one of the webs.

I turned to look, but the figure seemed to sweep past behind me instead. No wind followed, but a voice whispered in my ear: “You’ve arrived…”

He was smiling…

That voice—it sounded strangely familiar.

The shadow appeared again, behind the web ahead to my left. I saw the face clearly—it was Wu Cheng!

He looked at me with a wide smile, but his expression was deeply eerie.

The web beneath me yanked hard. My knees buckled, slamming me down into the chaos—but they didn’t touch solid ground. Instead, it felt as if I had fallen into a bottomless abyss.

The surrounding webs began to rise, while I kept falling downward. When pain exploded in my knees, I hit the bottom of the chaos. I couldn’t stand up. All I could do was breathe in the chaotic air, my jaw clenched tight in pain.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

The voice came from above.

Wu Cheng stood high above me like a god, overlooking me. But his features began to change—within moments, he had taken on the appearance of Chief of Jingnan.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

“You’re curious who I am.” He seemed to read my mind. Then his face shifted again—this time, into Queen Mother of the West…

“I am everyone.”

His voice was soft, and in the next instant, his face was right in front of me. Still using the face of the Queen Mother, it morphed again—and turned into my face.

Using my face, he smiled in a way I never had. The sight made my skin crawl.

He said, “Now, I can even be you.”

He raised his hand. His fingertip touched my face, but as it did, it transformed into black spider silk. It stuck to my cheek, pulling at the corners of my mouth, forcing me to mimic his smile.

The wider he smiled, the harder the web pulled at my lips—until pain like tearing spread across them. He kept going, as though intent on splitting my face open right here.

“You’ve gotten quite good at it,” he said, as if encouraging me. “Try just a little harder, and you can help me kill Xie Zhuo.”

Those last three words—kill Xie Zhuo—sent a shiver through my soul. As if in response, all the black webs around me trembled, stirred by an invisible gust of wind.

The figure before me turned his gaze away from my face and looked around. When he turned back, his face had changed again—this time to Old Qin.

He asked me, “You still want to resist me?”

Before he finished speaking, a faint voice slipped into my ear: “Cut the webs…”

It was Xie Zhuo’s voice.

I turned, trying to find him. I didn’t see him, but I did manage to break the threads pulling at my face.

“You want to be like Xie Zhuo?” the figure said, eyes narrowing.

“Fu Jiuxia!” Xie Zhuo’s voice rang louder now. “Cut the webs!”

I looked down at my hands.

As I moved, more and more spider threads on my face snapped apart.

These webs… they can be broken. I can break free!

I raised my hand—the web tugging on my elbow snapped. Between my fingers, the black threads unraveled one by one.

The person before me stared with dark, venomous eyes, but behind that malice was a glint of amusement: “Still not enough.”

He watched me tear away more and more of the spider silk—he didn’t stop me, didn’t rush, just quietly observed. “I will give you even more,” he said.

I tore off the spider silk binding my body, then looked up at him.

The man before me suddenly stood. The spider silk around him pulled him backward. I reached out to grab him, but caught only a handful of black threads.

The silk in my hand once again turned into black, malevolent energy. I shouted into the chaos, “Who are you?!”

No one answered.

Only Xie Zhuo’s voice rang in my ears, like a morning bell or evening drum: “Come out!”

With a thunderous roar, the chaos instantly vanished.

I jolted awake.

Dark clouds loomed overhead, so thick I couldn’t tell if it was day or night.

My mouth hung open, breath forming visible clouds in the frigid air.

It took me a while to recover. My limbs were numb. I tried to lift a hand, only to realize I could barely move it. Looking down, I saw that half of my body had been buried in thick snow.

“I… I’m not dead yet…”

Who buried me?

Before I could finish the thought, the raw rasp of my own voice startled me.

I closed my mouth and tried to struggle up from the snow.

But a cold fingertip pressed against my forehead, halting my movement.

Startled, I was gently pushed back into the snow.

As my gaze shifted upward, I saw the owner of the hand—Xie Zhuo.

He was kneeling at my head, and I lay there looking up at his upside-down face.

His expression was somber, frost clinging to his lashes, his lips pale and tightly pressed.

He looked into my eyes, knowing I was awake, yet his fingertip remained firmly against my forehead—pressing even harder.

He pushed my forehead, forcing the back of my head deeper into the snow.

Neither of us spoke.

Xie Zhuo not speaking was normal, but at that moment, his silence felt strangely off.

He looked at me as if trying to regulate his breathing, the finger at my brow trembling slightly.

Xie Zhuo had always been good at hiding emotions. But in that moment, even freshly awake, I could see the storm raging in his heart, barely held back…

“Xie Zhuo…” I asked, “What are you afraid of?”