The long black pike swung down, accompanied by the sound of air being pierced and a flash of icy light.
Wang Xiaomie turned away as he saw Xiao An ready to be stabbed through the throat, but Yi Yan lowered his face and yelled, "Xiao An!" at this moment.
In that crackling second, Xiao An, who had been restrained, straightened up in an instant!
"Dong—"
The swinging weapon was knocked off by the pink magic wand!
The petite girl abandoned her attack on An Kai and charged right for Wen Fengjin!
What the hell is going on?
Wang Xiaomie looked over in surprise and was stunned for a minute. Xiao An's skin, which was indistinguishable from human skin, was actually chapping in a succession of tiny fissures, which covered her exposed legs, arms, and neck.
Just looking at it hurt. Blue blood sprayed forth when Xiao An was struck hard with the weapon. Wen Fengjin stabbed her in the chest with his sword. Xiao An's movements came to a halt, and her body swayed a few times, blue blood bled from her eyes, and her head shook as if her neck couldn't support it.
Xiao An expressionlessly pulled the soft sword penetrating her chest with gentle hands, so powerful that even Wen Fengjin had no alternative but to withdraw his might and retreat.
"What's going on?"
An Kai approached Wen Fengjin and inquired.
Wen Fengjin's expression went chilly, and he didn't respond, instead sneering at Yi Yan.
People who spend their days yelling about evil and monsters are far crueler than the monsters!
Wang Xiaomie, on the other side, observed Xiao An battle with An Kai and Wen Fengjin again as if she had made a great move. The one-eyed puppets took advantage of the situation to make matters worse, and the gold weapons proved too dangerous for An Kai. An Kai's abilities were exceptional, yet he couldn't keep the swarms of ants from biting the elephant to death. Furthermore, it was as if he had drawn hate, and he was always the one who was battered.
Wen Fengjin would change positions to block the crazy Xiao An when An Kai couldn't hold on, so that An Kai had time to take the medicine. In this way, the ones who were suppressed and beaten turned out to be Wen Fengjin and An Kai!
Wang Xiaomie didn't know how Xiao An was resisting Wen Fengjin's coercion right now, but seeing Xiao An like that made him realize it wasn't a good thing.
As expected.
Bai Yu's face grew pale as he saw this scene. He turned his head and stared at Yi Yan, asking in disbelief: "What are you doing?! Xiao An’s core will be completely damaged if she continues like this and she will die!"
Yi Yan's easy smile disappeared, and his slender eyes were drawn to Bai Yu.
He stated: "It is not yet time. The drought demon and Wen Fengjin have yet to be consumed to the extent that I desire."
Bai Yu couldn't contain his rage and stared wide-eyed. Because he was angry, he spoke quickly and quietly: "We can use Xiaomie and that purple-haired zombie to make them kill each other right away! Anyway, in the end..."
"Bai Yu!"
Bai Yu's words became lodged in his throat as a result of the indifferent voice, and his face grew red from the discomfort.
Yi Yan was like a gentle teacher, but when he became enraged, he made young people like Bai Yu nervous.
Yi Yan chastised: "Wen Fengjin is an immortal monster, and the drought demon is also a violent creature that feeds on countless resentment and blood in order to grow. If we can't consume them, even if we let them battle until only one is left, we might not have the last laugh! Can't you see how tenacious a monster's vitality is and how formidable its abilities are?!"
"But Xiao An..."
"Bai Yu!"
Yi Yan and Bai Yu locked their gazes on each other.
"Xiao An is my masterpiece, my best puppet, yet a puppet is nothing more than a tool."
Yi Yan looked away from Bai Yu's bewildered gaze to watch the people fighting outside and remarked lightly.
"Tools need to be replaced..."
Wang Xiaomie, who could hear everything: ...Beast.
That young girl was an individual no matter how you looked at her. Even though she was essentially a created puppet, she could still speak and live like a human. She had been with Yi Yan for so long that he should at least have some affection for her. But he abandoned her so easily...
Extreme rationality is just cruelty...
Even Wang Xiaomie, an outsider, felt bad, let alone Bai Yu.
Bai Yu gazed at the man he thought was the gentlest, most considerate, and would provide him with a happy family, but he never imagined this man to be his blood relative.
And now he'd spoken something like that, shattering all his fantasies and expectations!
Bai Yu smiled dismally as he replayed the memories of getting along with Xiao An in his head. "I’ve always treated that child like my younger sister. She’s a part of our family... Isn't it correct that you won't let her withdraw because you already have a better 'masterpiece'?"
Yi Yan's face was frosty, and he didn't respond. He wouldn't allow anything to go wrong with the plan he'd been working on for over two decades just because of Bai Yu's sorrow.
Wang Xiaomie sighed sympathetically from the bottom of his heart as he looked at Bai Yu's back. Oh, foolish Da Bai~
Bai Yu tightened his fists and turned to look outside the door.
An Kai took the medicine one by one, while more and more one-eyed puppets broke around him. Xiao An's right arm was severed, and a steady stream of blue liquid ran from it, staining the white cartoon shirt, blue vest, and skirt.
The crimson and gold figures worked together to blaze dazzling rays of light across the air.
Xiao An was stunned as she saw herself flying towards the sky filled with dark clouds. She blinked her big eyes and felt as if she had turned into a cloud and was floating in the air.
A white glare exploded, perplexing the inorganic eyes, and she fell down and saw her own body...
The headless girl shook her body a few times, knelt on the ground, and eventually joined the broken puppets. They'd all turned into piles of junk in the dump.
Bai Yu averted his gaze from the lifeless eyeballs. He sat stiffly in the wooden chair, his teeth clenched.
The wounds on Wen Fengjin's body were beginning to heal, as seen through the cut garments. An Kai sat on a heap of puppet bodies and flipped the medicine bottle upside down. It only had one pill left in it.
He grumbled as he gulped the medicine, "These puppets are so annoying. There are more than 200, if not 300, and even if there is medicine to heal the body, it is mentally draining."
He lowered his voice: "Senior Wen, if you guessed correctly, it will be the two of us who will fight in a while. This ba$tard was extremely insidious more than 20 years ago. According to the plan, you should be cautious in the end."
An Kai changed the subject with a bitter smile: "I will entrust my and my family’s lives to Senior Wen. Please remember not to actually murder me!"
"Of course I remember," Wen Fengjin said, raising the corners of his lips and nodding.
When he heard the words, An Kai stopped talking and began to rest.
"Looks like you’re done."
Yi Yan smiled in satisfaction as he noticed the wounds on Wen Fengjin and An Kai. He approached Wang Xiaomie and Little Purple Hair. Wang Xiaomie hurriedly resumed a lifeless expression, and then Yi Yan carried them in front of everyone.
Wang Xiaomie stood on the ground, but the agitated Little Purple Hair growled and struggled before being nonchalantly dumped at his(WXM) feet.
"Roar—"
The white fabric sack flailed around a few times, perhaps from the pain of the fall, and Little Purple Hair wailed out in a low voice, sounding very feeble.
An Kai's eyes went bright red as he saw this scene. The cheerful young man's face was fierce and menacing. He stared at Yi Yan as if he’d lost his mind and was about to leap forward and eat Yi Yan alive!
"Do these two look familiar to you?" Yi Yan stood behind Wang Xiaomie with a crooning laugh, turned his face sideways, and caressed Wang Xiaomie's side face with his hand.
Wang Xiaomie almost shivered when Yi Yan touched him.
And the expression on Wen Fengjin's face was almost identical to An Kai's.
"Bai Yu."
Pleased with their reactions, Yi Yan called out to Bai Yu, "Keep an eye on the puppet in your hand. If anything happens, break the puppet's neck."
Bai Yu responded quietly.
Yi Yan lifted Little Purple Hair's cloth sack, lightly flicked off dust on his cyan Mandarin jacket with one hand, and smiled at Wen Fengjin and An Kai.
"Now these two you cherish are in my hands, and I can control their life or death at any time. I can kill both of them at once, or I can let one go... Understand?"
Wen Fengjin sneered at him.
An Kai's face went blue, and his veins protruded.
'Your women are in my hands,' Wang Xiaomie ridiculed in his heart. 'I can spare one if you are obedient.' Who could not comprehend such simple words?
Little Purple Hair was still raging in the cloth sack. An Kai almost revealed the actual nature of a zombie. His sharply lengthening fingernails were jet-black, and he was about to charge up with his pike, but Yi Yan chuckled and said, "If you take one more step forward, I will kill him."
An Kai's footsteps stopped dead in their tracks, and he cursed, "F*ck!"
Wen Fengjin did not speak, but Wang Xiaomie had never seen Wen Fengjin make such an expression before, save when the two of them were being hunted down in the past.
"Only one can live." Yi Yan said with a chuckle, his thin lips slightly raised and his eyes full of condescending banter. "It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not, I only need one of you two to remain. The hostage in my hands becomes useless and dies when you do. Whoever survives can stay... Don't even try to deceive me. Drought Demon, failing to kill you twenty years ago is the greatest regret in my life, and now it’s time to make up for it..."
Wen Fengjin and An Kai didn't move. Yi Yan didn’t mind. He cocked his head indifferently and applied a light pressure with his palm, causing Little Purple Hair to screech. Wang Xiaomie couldn't help but seize his own neck and begin to exert force...
"Are you sure you don't want to begin?"
Wen Fengjin and An Kai exchanged glances as the man's laughter filled the air, then took a few steps back and raised their weapons.
The bloody stench of the life-or-death struggle filled the air, and a few raindrops fell, wetting the loess on the ground.
Wang Xiaomie was exceedingly nervous.
"Drought Demon, throw away your medicine bottle," Yi Yan ordered as the fight of the titans was about to begin.
An Kai's expression twisted. He spat violently and tossed the pill bottle to the ground. Yi Yan smiled and nodded, "Good."
F*ck! Luckily, Wen Fengjin anticipated this.
An Kai grit his teeth as he remembered the pill in his brocade bag, swung his spear with flair, and stabbed Wen Fengjin with full force...
Thunder broke out once more, and rain finally began to fall.
Raindrops the size of beans fell heavily and fast to the ground, while the wind continued to howl. The sky was a dull yellow, and Wang Xiaomie couldn't see the two of them clearly. He could only see bursts of chilly light through the rain that were extraordinarily bright!
He was on pins and needles, and Yi Yan averted his gaze when he saw they were indeed battling intensely.
"Bai Yu, get ready. Even if one of them lives, it will be nothing more than an arrow at the end of its flight. I'll kill the survivor, then we'll burn this place down and leave immediately!"
Wang Xiaomie heard all of this and conveyed a heartfelt greeting to Yi Yan's eighteen generations of ancestors, planning how to stab him while he was distracted.
"Understood."
Bai Yu responded lightly. He raised his eyes to glance at Wang Xiaomie's side face when Yi Yan was not paying attention. Wang Xiaomie wondered if it was his imagination, but he kept having the feeling that Bai Yu's glance meant something more.
But the sound of flesh being sliced open and the muffled groans soon stole Wang Xiaomie's attention to what was going on outside, and there was no time to worry about Bai Yu.