I can hear you.

His blood roiled without end, a strange intuition stretching across his mind. Chu Changqing stepped over the gore, walking toward the birdcage, drenched in fresh blood.

In his hand, he gripped a blood-stained broken sword.

He stared for a long time before his senses slowly returned.

The broken sword dripped crimson, and the beasts within the entire Beast Soul Barrier were deathly silent.

All life had fallen quiet beneath his blade.

The curve of the youth’s lips flattened as his reason returned.

The blood of the Immortal Bird… had seized control of his mind.

He gazed quietly at the empty birdcage and the scarlet carpet. His scalding blood made him see a phantom within that cage—a massive white bird, white flames burning at the tips of its wings, staring at him with ink-black eyes.

“Immortal Bird,” he said, his voice flat and clinical.

The white bird was elegant, its voice slow and powerful. “Young man.”

“It is difficult to control, isn’t it? The bloodline of the Immortal Bird.”

The instincts of slaughter and lust within that bloodline had governed him.

The white bird gazed at him, its eyes filled with a trace of pity. “I need you to inherit my final wish.”

“As a reward, I will help you escape the control of the bloodline and obtain the true power of the Immortal Bird.”

Chu Changqing refused. “I have no need for that.”

He had his own plans.

The voice went silent for a long moment, then let out a soft laugh.

“You think… with your current ability, you can keep the person you desire?”

Chu Changqing watched it in silence, the light in his eyes flickering with uncertainty.

“Perhaps with your current strength, you truly can possess her,” the white bird continued, its voice elegant and slow. “But you will only possess her.”

“You have no way to protect her.”

It scrutinized him, its voice light and rhythmic. “The agitation and carnal instincts of the Immortal Bird bloodline will never fade; you cannot soothe them. One day… your reason will be devoured by those instincts.”

Chu Changqing’s lips pulled into a cold smile. In the next instant, a powerful pressure radiated from him. The white bird was startled, and its massive phantom instantly shrank by half!

It looked at the youth with suspicion, the confidence in its eyes replaced by doubt.

Such powerful mental strength!

How could such a resolute will be controlled by a mere bloodline?!

A trace of ferocity entered the youth’s usually calm peach-blossom eyes. His smile was cold and arrogant. “I hate it when people threaten me. You are nothing but a remnant soul.”

The white bird stared at him. “Even if you can control it now, the power born from blood will one day destroy you.”

Chu Changqing let out a scoff.

He had long been entangled in the abyss of the Immortal Bird’s darkness. He couldn’t climb out.

If madness was the end, then it was a beautiful enough conclusion.

The Immortal Bird remained composed. “Half of your bloodline’s power has awakened. You are already immortal; surely you’ve felt your reason being tethered by it. If the remaining half awakens—”

“The person I want is mine, whether in life or death,” Chu Changqing said softly. “Possessing her is enough. As for what happens to me, I do not care.”

The white bird narrowed its eyes. “Truly? You do not care?”

Its voice turned heavy. “You just slaughtered the entire mountain of spiritual beasts that chose to submit to you. They willingly sacrificed themselves for you, using their blood to pave your throne.”

Chu Changqing looked up, his dark eyes devoid of starlight.

“A mountain of beasts is insignificant. But…”

“Today it is beasts; what about tomorrow?” the bird’s voice turned mocking. “When you lose your reason to the bloodline, you will only know slaughter. You will make the world pay with their lives for your ascent. And one day…”

“You will make her one of—”

“Shut up!”

In the next second, a surge of mental energy rushed toward the remnant soul. The Immortal Bird gave a soft cry, its black eyes suddenly turning a fiery red. With a piercing roar, the phantom of the white bird lunged toward the youth!

By all rights, he should have destroyed this soul.

Except…

A girl’s delicate, beautiful features suddenly flickered in his mind.

“You might not be a good person… but you aren’t that bad.”

“I feel that if it’s me… perhaps I can still save you.”

The moment the soul pierced through his body, he seemed to hear a whimpering cry in his ear. Through the soul power of the bird, he returned to that dim secret room. The girl was curled into a ball in agony, her brow furrowed, her lips pale, her slender fingers tensed. Her breath was as thin as a thread.

“…Chu Changqing.”

Weak, filled with pain—it was as if she were grabbing at a fragile straw in a desperate situation.

Chu Changqing’s pupils shrank!

The white bird’s soul whispered: “You can have her. But you cannot keep her.”

It hurt. It hurt enough to die.

Chang Wan felt a freezing chill, clutching at a useless straw, trying to find comfort in the warmth of someone’s embrace.

Who was this person?

She couldn’t see clearly, but the air was thick with the scent of blood, neutralizing the strange, eerie smell in the secret room.

This made her feel much better.

Amidst the unbearable pain, she felt her forehead enveloped by a searing heat. A gentle fragrance mingled with the scent of blood began to spread.

This fragrance soothed her. Her spirit was exhausted from the pain; once she relaxed slightly, she fell into a deep sleep.

The blood of the Immortal Bird could cure a hundred poisons. Chu Changqing let the blood flow from his wrist and fed it to her gently.

She resisted at first, but perhaps the blood eased the pain, and she gradually stopped fighting. Her pink tongue darted out, licking at it bit by bit like a thirsty cub, filled with an urgent, helpless fragility.

Once she had settled into a deep sleep, Chu Changqing tore off a piece of white cloth to bandage his wound and carried her to the bed. The girl who was usually cold and proud was now so pale she looked as if she might shatter.

The Green Cherry Sunken Fire was gone.

No wonder.

The scent of that agarwood could ward off all poisons.

“Why aren’t you wearing the Green Cherry Sunken Fire?”

He murmured to himself, but the answer came quickly.

Knowing that Shen Cong wanted to kill her, she naturally wouldn’t carry something he had given her.

It was his oversight.

Chu Changqing caught a whiff of the strange scent in the air and found Chang Wan’s unused Calming Incense. He smelled it and narrowed his eyes.

Before, he had simply disliked the smell. But now…

Sharing his five senses, the white bird’s soul said: [This contains… the scent of Weak Soul Grass?]

It wasn’t just in the incense; the air in the room was thick with it.

Chu Changqing crushed the incense in his hand, his gaze turning icy.

He knew what Weak Soul Grass was. He had seen it in the demon sect’s book of poisons; it was both a precious spice and a toxin.

Because he hadn’t known the scent, Chang Wan had fallen into the trap.

In spice, it made the scent more pleasant.

But as a poison, it had three concentrations. The first was a normal spice usage; the second made one addicted, causing headaches if one stopped using it; the third caused toxic headaches after long-term exposure.

But its true horror didn’t stop there.

Worse yet, it would slowly twist a person’s character.

Chu Changqing’s eyes went dark.

“I will always protect Sister.”

In a hazy dream, a little girl held a woman, her eyes a pale glass-like color. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

“You’re still too small,” the young Chang Wan said, patting her head with an air of mock maturity, though her eyes were filled with smiles. “Besides, I’m the one who should protect you.”

Chang Ying puffed out her cheeks. “I think I’ll be much stronger than Sister. Sister is so silly.”

Chang Wan was displeased. “You’re the silly one.”

Chang Ying smirked and magically produced a silk bag. “If Sister isn’t silly, how did she get a whole bag of silver stolen by a beggar today?”

Chang Wan’s eyes widened. “A-Ying!! How did you get that? He…”

The north of Qingzhou was freezing in deep winter. When Chang Wan went out, she saw a beggar with missing limbs and gave him all her money.

A cold light flashed in Chang Ying’s glass-colored eyes. “That man was a fraud.”

“A fraud?” Chang Wan seemed unable to believe it. “His legs were broken, his hands were gone, he…”

“He was crawling on the ground, he was so pitiful… he… he was a fraud?”

Chang Ying: “He…”

She paused.

That beggar truly was a beggar, but the hateful ones were the people who made him that way—the ones who cut off hands and feet to make them beg, then took their money.

She had already sent people to deal with that gang and get her sister’s bag back.

She wasn’t sure if that man counted as a “fraud.”

But…

Chang Ying looked into her sister’s eyes.

The things inside were different from hers.

There was justice and kindness rooted deep in her heart—honesty and brightness—a tenderness never polluted by malice.

It was that very integrity that led her to bring the orphaned Chang Ying back to the Chang family in the freezing snow.

“He wasn’t a fraud,” Chang Ying said with a small smile. “I was.”

“Sister’s bag is so pretty, why should it benefit a beggar?”

Chang Wan was angry. “A-Ying, how could you be like that?”

Chang Ying’s eyes curved. “Because I want to protect Sister.”

…The truth behind it didn’t matter.

She would protect her.

Protect her justice, her tenderness, and everything she wanted to uphold.

“Your spirit has been quite good lately.”

A low, soft voice spoke. “The night cherry blossoms at Yujun Mountain must be beautiful.”

Chang Ying’s thin lips curled into a gentle smile. “Hardly.”

She turned back, her glass-like eyes reflecting the cold moonlight. “It is you who has the leisure.”

The young man behind her laughed softly. “I proposed to Ah Wan.”

Chang Ying’s gaze didn’t flicker.

“Do not worry,” Qi Bing said. “She did not agree.”

He walked slowly to stand before her, staring at her face. There was no emotion in his dark eyes, and his voice was gentle. “Just like our deal…”

“I will always satisfy her desires.”

“She will uphold her justice and kindness just as you wish.”

“And you… you must pay the price for it.”

Chang Ying turned her head slightly, her glass-colored eyes as sharp as blades.

Chang Wan woke up with a light sweat on her forehead and a faint taste of blood in her mouth. She didn’t care about the details, looking around at her surroundings in a daze.

Familiar… yet somewhat strange. The birdcage.

She opened her eyes to meet the youth’s dark gaze. It took her a moment to react. “How am I…”

“You were poisoned.”

Chang Wan suddenly remembered that heart-wrenching pain and shivered.

Chu Changqing’s hand twitched; it felt as if something had struck his heart, and his gaze turned even colder. “Who gave you the Calming Incense?”

“It was… the Sect Leader.”

The girl’s lips were a heartbreakingly thin white, and her complexion was poor. “The incense… is there a problem with it?”

Chu Changqing touched her forehead. “The incense contained Weak Soul Grass.”

Hearing that excessive use could lead to character distortion, Chang Wan felt a chill in her heart.

She recalled the Sect Leader’s expression and demeanor when he left, and she felt cold all over.

Why would he… to her, one of his Elders?

Suppressing the chill, she lowered her head. “Did you save me?”

It was an obvious question, but Chang Wan didn’t know what else to say. She whispered, “Thank you…”

“No need to thank me.” Chu Changqing’s fingertips were gentle, moving from her forehead to her eyes.

Her eyes were a beautiful light-hazel, her lashes thick like two pretty brushes. Even her pale, haggard face couldn’t hide her unique charm.

His heart began to stir again—the beast-like part of his bloodline began to roar once more. He suppressed it, only to hear the girl gasp in panic as she looked at his bandaged wrist. “What happened to your hand?”

The taste of blood in her mouth… Chang Wan realized the truth and her eyes widened. “You…”

Could it be…

Her voice cut off the moment she met his eyes.

Chang Wan bit her lip and changed the question. “Why… why did you save me?”

The youth looked at her with those dark, heavy eyes, saying nothing, yet his aura was as dangerous and suppressed as a wild beast’s.