Xing Yue's smile stiffened.
Almost instinctively, she took two careful steps backward, the hem of her robe brushing lightly against the stained temple floor. Her movement was subtle, but in the tense silence of the ruined hall it was impossible to miss.
Hong Tian Luo's eyes sharpened.
In his mind, there was only one explanation.
She is about to run.
Before she could move another inch, his hand shot forward and grasped her arm firmly.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
His voice was calm, but the grip on her sleeve left little room for misunderstanding.
"You haven't answered my question yet."
His dark eyes fixed steadily on her.
"Who are you… and how did you know me?"
Xing Yue blinked.
Outwardly, she looked exactly like a startled kitten that had been caught trying to sneak away from the kitchen table. Her shoulders stiffened, and her smile became awkward and slightly crooked.
But inwardly—
Her thoughts exploded into chaos. (Juan Xing Yue! Juan Xing Yue! What kind of ridiculous trouble have you walked into now?)
She mentally smacked her own forehead.
(Even the Future Spirit trembled when facing you—and that fellow had enough power to fight you head-on! You are supposed to be known for your charisma! Your presence! Your brilliance! And now look at you!)
Her inner voice grew louder with each passing second. Shrinking like a guilty thief!
(This is shameful! Aiya! Truly shameful!)
Meanwhile, on the outside…
She was still smiling like an idiot.
For several seconds she stood there frozen in Hong Tian Luo's grasp, looking as though her soul had temporarily wandered away.
Then suddenly—
Her eyes cleared.
As if waking from a trance, Xing Yue straightened her posture abruptly. She flicked her sleeve sharply, the motion filled with exaggerated annoyance, and let out a dramatic humph.
"Nonsense!" she declared loudly.
Her tone carried the confidence of someone scolding a foolish subordinate. She lifted her chin proudly.
"The golden mole in the middle of your chin!" Her finger pointed accusingly toward his face.
"That mark is something even Hong Yanli himself could never cleanse! It is famous throughout the heavens!"
She crossed her arms with great seriousness.
"How dare you assume it would be impossible for me to recognize you!"
Her voice rose slightly at the end, as though the mere suggestion had deeply offended her dignity.
Her expression was so solemn—so overly serious—that the entire statement sounded almost theatrical.
Inside her mind, however…
Xing Yue gave herself a triumphant thumbs-up.
Excellent!
(You handled that perfectly! See? No more embarrassing yourself! That's the spirit!
Remember your charisma!)
She mentally nodded to herself in approval.
Hong Tian Luo did not immediately reply.
Instead, he looked at her carefully.
His gaze slowly traveled over her face, her posture, the strange confidence she had suddenly adopted.
His expression was not hostile. But it was analytical. Almost like someone examining the details of a complicated puzzle.
"Then…" he said slowly. "You must be an immortal." His voice carried quiet curiosity.
"For you to possess such knowledge."
He fell silent again, clearly considering the matter.
Xing Yue folded her arms tighter, maintaining her dignified pose—though inside she was praying that he would stop asking questions.
Meanwhile, Hong Tian Luo turned away from her and looked once more toward the grotesque scene within the temple.
The sight had not improved.
The blood, he remains, he twisted tree.
All of it remained as disturbing as before.
Still, he forced himself to observe carefully.
Despite his personal dislike for filth and disorder, he did not avert his gaze. Instead, he stepped slowly across the hall, examining the remains scattered across the floor.
The flesh had been crushed beyond recognition. It was not simply torn apart. Nor butchered. It was ground.
Pulverized into a grotesque mixture of bone fragments and bloodied tissue.
Identifying the victims was completely impossible.
Even determining how many people had died here would be difficult.
Yet something about the arrangement of the remains seemed… familiar.
Hong Tian Luo narrowed his eyes.
He crouched slightly beside one of the darker stains on the floor, studying the pattern carefully. At first glance it looked like random violence. But the more he observed, the clearer it became. There was a method, repetition in it.
The flesh had been destroyed in exactly the same manner.
Over.
And over.
And over again.
As if something had been applied systematically. His brows slowly furrowed.
Then realization flickered across his face.
"Soul–Squashing Pill…" he murmured under his breath.
The words were quiet. Barely louder than a breath. But unfortunately for him—
Xing Yue's hearing was not ordinary.
She immediately leaned closer to him, curiosity sparkling in her dark eyes.
"What's that?"
Her voice cut through his thoughts.
"Soul–Squashing Pill? I've never heard of it."
She bent slightly to peer at the remains as well, though her expression carried more interest than discomfort.
Hong Tian Luo straightened slowly.
For a moment he simply looked at her.
Then he asked calmly:
"Have you heard of the Soul–Crush Pill?"
The moment the words left his mouth, the air inside the temple seemed to grow even colder.
The twisted branches of the black tree creaked softly above them. As though something in the shadows had begun listening.
__
Xing Yue blinked in confusion.
Why was he asking that?
Her brows knit together as she tried to understand where his thoughts were going. The question seemed so out of place amidst the horrifying scene around them that it almost felt absurd.
"Who doesn't know that?" she said finally.
She stood up straight, brushing invisible dust from her sleeves as her gaze wandered toward the grotesque statue standing beyond the blood-stained floor. The once abominable image of Prince Yu Shaochen now looked almost mocking under the dim light filtering through the temple's cracked roof.
"Soul–Crush Pill is famous among young lovers," she continued casually. Her voice echoed faintly in the hollow temple.
"Once taken, it leads the user to a land of endless pleasure. Every sense becomes heightened… every desire magnified."
She waved her hand dismissively.
"To put it simply, it is nothing more than an aphrodisiac."
Her tone carried mild disdain.
"Something foolish young couples use when they want to act romantic."
She sighed dramatically, shaking her head.
Then she turned toward him again.
"But why does Mr. Hong ask about such a thing?"
Her finger gestured toward the horrific mess covering the temple floor.
"Is it related to… this?"
Hong Tian Luo followed her gaze. For a moment, he said nothing. Then he slowly shook his head.
"No."
"There is no direct relationship."
His voice remained calm, but there was a faint heaviness in his tone.
"However…"
He crouched slightly again near the mangled remains.
"Just as you said, the Soul–Crush Pill is known for love and pleasure." His eyes darkened.
"Then the Soul–Squashing Pill…"
"…is its wicked counterpart."
Xing Yue tilted her head slightly.
Hong Tian Luo continued."Once someone takes it, their body begins to collapse inward."
He gestured toward the flesh scattered across the floor. "The bones soften."
"The organs rupture."
"The entire body compresses… little by little." His voice lowered. "Until nothing remains except battered flesh." The words settled in the air like falling stones.
Xing Yue stared at him. Her eyes widened slightly.
"But… how is that possible?"
She looked down again at the floor. "How could a pill do something like that?"
Hong Tian Luo stood slowly.
"When you examine the remains carefully," he said, "you will notice something."
"They are all the same."
His gaze swept across the hall. "Regardless of where the bodies fell… or how they were positioned."
"They all ended the same way."
Xing Yue frowned and knelt down again.
This time she looked more carefully.
Earlier she had been too disgusted to examine the details.
But now…
She forced herself to observe. The crushed flesh. The flattened bone fragments.
The strange circular spreading patterns of blood.
Slowly, realization dawned.
He was right.
Every victim had been destroyed in exactly the same manner. Her expression darkened.
"This person…" She stood up slowly.
"…is truly wicked."
Her voice carried genuine anger now. "To feed someone such a thing…" She shook her head.
"How cruel."
Hong Tian Luo glanced at her.
Then, somewhat unexpectedly, he nodded in agreement. As the day had passed, he had found himself agreeing with this strange woman more often than he expected.
Though he still did not know her name.
Nor her true identity.
Time slipped away quietly while they continued examining the temple.
The sun moved across the sky unnoticed.
The shadows inside the temple slowly lengthened, stretching across the walls like silent ghosts.
Eventually, the golden light of afternoon faded into the dim crimson glow of sunset.
By the time they finally decided to leave, the sky beyond the temple doors had already begun to darken.
The journey down the mountain was much quieter than the climb. Both of them carried heavy thoughts. They had just reached the lower path when Xing Yue suddenly grabbed Hong Tian Luo's sleeve.
"Wait."
Her voice was barely a whisper.
From the opposite side of the path, a slow procession of figures was climbing toward the temple. Orange robes. Low chanting voices.
The Weeping Ballad.
Without hesitation, the two of them quickly slipped behind a cluster of enormous mountain stones nearby. The rocks were so large that three grown men standing shoulder to shoulder would not have been able to circle them completely.
Hidden within the shadow of the stones, they watched silently. The procession moved slowly.
Each member of the group walked with lowered heads, their orange robes swaying gently in the evening wind.
But they were not alone. They were carrying people. Women and children. Small, limp bodies draped across their shoulders like sacks of grain. Most of them appeared to be asleep. Or perhaps unconscious.
The lingering fog that still clung to the mountain slopes likely made it easier to drug them.
Xing Yue's fingers slowly tightened against the stone. Her eyes scanned the captives one by one.
Then she suddenly froze.
Among them—
There was a woman, not old. But no longer young either. Perhaps in her forties.
Her hair was loosely tied, strands falling across her tired face. Even in sleep—or unconsciousness—it was clear that she must have been very beautiful in her youth.
Xing Yue studied her carefully.
Something about the woman felt… familiar.
Like a faint memory she could not quite grasp. Her gaze dropped lower.
And that was when she saw it. An anklet.
A delicate jade anklet resting against the woman's ankle.
The jade was smooth and pale green, polished with great care. Even in the fading light it glimmered faintly. It was not something an ordinary villager would casually own. Such a piece could easily be considered a family heirloom. Or sold for a considerable price.
Xing Yue stared at it a moment longer.
A strange feeling stirred inside her chest.
But before she could think further, the last members of the procession had already passed them. Soon the entire group disappeared up the mountain path toward the temple.
Only after the sound of their footsteps faded completely did Xing Yue move again.
She sighed quietly.
Then she knelt on the ground and quickly drew a simple teleportation spell using her finger.
A faint circle of light flickered briefly.
The next moment—
The two of them appeared directly in front of the small cottage at the edge of the village.
The fog had returned. Thicker than before.
It rolled across the ground like slow-moving waves, swallowing the surrounding trees and rooftops in pale gray mist.
Xing Yue pushed open the cottage door.
"Hey—"
She stopped. The room was empty. No fire. There was no annoying saucy girl inside. Not even a random village person seeking comfort from the fog.
"Eh?"
Xing Yue looked around. "Where's that annoying brat—"
She froze mid-sentence.
Then cleared her throat awkwardly.
"…I mean."
"…that young girl."
She rubbed her nose lightly. For a brief moment, she felt that her behavior had become suspiciously similar to someone she knew.
Jiang Yunxian.
Xing Yue grimaced inwardly. (Gosh!
That fellow is a terrible influence.) She mentally declared this with full conviction.
Outside, the fog thickened even more. The mountain path had completely vanished beneath the swirling mist. There was nothing they could do but wait for the girl to return. So they sat quietly in the dim cottage.
Time passed slowly.
Each of them lost in their own thoughts.
For Hong Tian Luo, one question lingered above all others.
(Why was an immortal here?) This land. The Yanli Continent, was his domain.
And yet an immortal had appeared here without his knowledge. It was not something he could easily ignore.
Meanwhile, Xing Yue sat by the window, staring into the fog.
Her thoughts were somewhere else entirely.
The middle-aged woman. The sleeping children. Their quiet, helpless faces. Their luck had been terribly poor. To fall into the hands of such monsters.
Xing Yue lowered her eyes.
Silently, she made a small promise in her heart. When she returned to the heavens…
She would plead for them. At the very least—
Their souls deserved peace.