I Need To Find A Way To Make Her Love Me Again - Chapter 62

The wind on the field suddenly grew tense. A woman’s shrill scream drew everyone’s attention. Yan Xiaoling looked back and saw someone standing before the ice coffin. To her horror, she realized the person had broken through the barrier she’d set. Her pupils constricted in shock, followed by a surge of violent rage. She roared, “Liu Ruoni, don’t you dare take another step!”

The icy chill at her fingertips felt like a lingering dream. Liu Ruoni looked at the face of the person in the coffin with a whirlwind of emotions. Hearing the shout, she looked up at the furious Yan Xiaoling charging toward her. Her expression didn’t flicker, but a round headed, long armed figure suddenly leaped out from behind her. With long, pointed ears, it flew into the air to snatch at the fluttering Plain Moths.

Seeing the Chen’er Monkey appear, Yan Xiaoling froze. She cursed inwardly, she knew this little beast could disrupt the commands given to the Plain Moths. She couldn’t let it get near them.

In a flash, she shifted her blade. While trying to block the monkey, her gaze uncontrollably drifted back. She saw Liu Ruoni lifting her sister’s body with a triumphant look, intent on taking her away. In that instant, all logic seemed to be forcibly sucked out of her mind. Even as the screams of the Plain Moths echoed in her ears, she couldn’t care less, only one voice screamed in her heart. Her sister could not be taken away.

When Yan Xingyu and Yi Rong saw the true face of the woman in the ice coffin, they both held their breath for a heartbeat. Seeing Liu Ruoni’s actions, they finally understood what her true goal had been all along. Unexpectedly, the bubbles spat out by the Chen’er Monkey could confuse not only humans but demons as well. Seeing all the Human Ghouls freeze in their tracks, the crowd felt a mix of shock and joy.

Liu Ruoni watched Yan Xiaoling attack her in a frenzy. With such disorganized swordplay, the woman couldn’t even get close. Liu Ruoni’s disdainful gaze only served to further snap the woman’s strained nerves.

Beaten back once more, Yan Xiaoling stared at her own disheveled reflection in the blade. She seemed shrouded in the shadow of defeat. She looked around at the battlefield, the scene before her was nothing like she had planned. She stared blankly, as if unable to comprehend how things had spiraled so far out of her control.

The woman responsible stood right before her. Looking at Liu Ruoni’s indifferent, contemptuous face, even the wind felt like it was stinging her eyes. Yan Xiaoling suddenly stopped moving.

Liu Ruoni didn’t believe her opponent would give up so easily. An ominous feeling rose in her chest. She noticed the woman’s hand snap upward not toward her, but toward the cluster of dazed Plain Moths hovering in the air.

With a series of air-piercing shrieks, a massive sonic wave erupted, vibrating through everyone’s eardrums. They watched as the moth demons lost strength in their wings and plummeted to the ground. They were horrified. Yan Xiaoling had actually moved to kill all of her own Plain Moths.

As the moths struggled on the ground, the scales on their white wings shed like a thick mist, surging toward the crowd. Sensing danger, Yan Xingyu shouted, “Careful of the dust!”

Everyone reacted instantly, holding their breath and manifesting protective barriers to shield themselves from the suffocating powder.

A faint “clack” sounded, quiet, yet it signaled a change in the rhythm of the battle. People sensed something being unleashed. The Human Ghouls, as if receiving a new command, tilted their heads back simultaneously. The scales in the air landed on their dull eyes, forming a fluorescent film. A new world was taking shape in their sight.

Liu Ruoni’s heart hammered against her ribs. She summoned the Blood Swallows to wrap around the person in her arms, then lunged with her sword. She saw the woman look up with a sinister smile, blood trickling from her mouth matching the madness in her eyes. After chanting a cryptic, dense incantation, Yan Xiaoling laughed maniacally: “Today, not a single one of you leaves! Hahaha!”

The Plain Moths were demons raised by Yan Xiaoling’s own flesh and blood, bound to her soul through dark arts to control the ghouls. Killing them was no different from damaging her own heart’s meridians. Yet, Yan Xiaoling did the opposite, she abandoned control of the moths and the ghouls alike, intending to drag everyone down to hell with her.

This lunatic.

Liu Ruoni cursed inwardly. As their blades clashed with a piercing ring, she hissed through gritted teeth, “A mutual destruction this ‘good’ isn’t your turn to claim.”

Yan Xiaoling felt the constriction on her heart loosen. Though her soul was heavily damaged, she felt an inexplicable sense of liberation. Hearing those words, she laughed, “If it’s not my turn, it won’t be yours either, Liu Ruoni!”

“You will never have my sister. Even if it’s just her corpse, I will never give her to you! Hahaha!”

Liu Ruoni’s expression darkened, her voice low with suppressed rage. She sneered, “Yan Xiaoling, after doing all this, what have you actually gained?”

“Look at you now. You wanted the Yan clan’s recognition, so you schemed to turn them into ghouls, thinking they would obey you. Instead, you are tortured endlessly by the backlash of ghost qi.”

“You wanted your sister to prioritize you above all else, to have eyes for no one else, but you only made Xiaoxiang loathe you more, making her unwilling to see you.”

“In the end, you’ve become nothing but a detestable piece of trash.”

Their swords ground against each other, robes fluttering violently in the wind. The veins on Yan Xiaoling’s forehead bulged. The words caused blood to well up in her throat. Her eyes were bloodshot and wide with fury as she roared, “Even if she hates me, it will never change the fact that I am her only sister!”

“Only we share the same blood!”

“Only I will stay by her side forever!”

“So you killed your sister just so her corpse could stay with you forever?!”

The voice erupted from Liu Ruoni’s chest, every word spat out with a bone chilling rasp. Thinking of what this woman had done, her long suppressed killing intent finally boiled over. Her sword reflected the distorted, red eyed face of the woman before her. With a surge of power, she thrust the blade forward. Yan Xiaoling couldn’t dodge in time and was forced to catch the heavy sword with her bare hand, watching helplessly as the blade pierced through her palm.

The excruciating pain sliced through her heart, but Yan Xiaoling’s hatred only intensified. She croaked, “What did I do wrong?!”

“She had everything, and I didn’t even fight her for it. Why did she still want to abandon me?”

“If she hadn’t abandoned me, things wouldn’t have ended like this. She forced me! She forced my hand!”

In the midst of the slaughter, Yan Xingyu looked up at the increasingly deranged woman. Hearing her mad ramblings, she felt nothing but disgust. She wanted to rush up and deliver a killing blow, but the Human Ghouls, now free of the moths’ control had awakened a strange consciousness. Their movements became unpredictable, they even learned to cooperate. Even if their heads were cut off, other ghouls would catch them to use as weapons or reattach them.

The crowd was exhausted, while the ghouls possessed infinite energy. If this continued, even a pyrrhic victory would be a luxury. Just as despair began to set in, a speck of emerald appeared on the horizon. The speck grew into thousands of feathers, sweeping in with the wind. Dozens of emerald birds flew in, carrying an unrolled scroll.

A clear command fell from the clouds:

“Collect!”

Hundreds of emerald birds formed a bridge, holding the scroll open. The sound was as crisp as jade beads falling on a plate, vibrating through the air and causing the ghouls to scream in terror as they began to scatter.

A landscape of rolling green mountains and blue waters seemed to come alive from the painting. Slender streams of water coiled around the fleeing ghouls, choking out their maddened roars. The blood scented air seemed to be washed clean.

The crowd watched as a woman in a jade crown and green robes descended from the sky. With a flick of the scroll, she dragged the ghouls into the painting, rescuing them from the brink. They cheered, “Palace Master Guan!”

The excited shouts stung Yan Xiaoling’s ears. She turned to see Guan Suxue standing before the Shujing Map. She was stunned, how had the Shujing Map been repaired so suddenly? Taking advantage of the distraction, Liu Ruoni delivered a powerful kick to the woman she loathed so much.

Caught off guard, Yan Xiaoling was sent flying several meters, coughing as dust filled her lungs. She looked up to see a sea of eyes staring down at her. This familiar scene of isolation made her throat tighten, how had she ended up in this helpless position again?

Guan Suxue looked at Yan Xiaoling with a complex expression. In her memory, this was still the girl who followed her sister around, prone to small tantrums. How could she have committed such heinous crimes? She opened her mouth to speak, but looking at the carnage, what was there left to say?

With a sigh, she watched as Yan Xiaoling scrambled up, clutching several talismans, and lunged toward her. Guan Suxue frowned, preparing to strike, but realized she wasn’t the target.

Yan Xiaoling veered mid-air toward the Shujing Map behind her, detonating the talismans. Explosions rocked the air, but despite her desperate attempt, she couldn’t scratch the treasure. Instead, the emerald birds swarmed her and flung her back.

Just as she was about to hit the ground, a white figure appeared and caught her. She looked up to see Xu Pingxi had returned. She coughed up blood and gasped, “Go and take…” Before she could finish, a sharp pain pierced her chest. Her thoughts snapped like a broken kite string. She looked at him in disbelief.

“Xu Pingxi, you…”

Her body was already at its limit. Yan Xiaoling had no strength left to struggle. With her final shred of consciousness, she released the demonic qi sealed within her. The resentment and unwillingess in her eyes faded into a stagnant, hollow blankness.

The onlookers stood in shock. Yan Xiaoling was actually dead. Yan Xingyu turned to see Yi Rong standing frozen, staring blankly at the woman’s limp arm hanging off the white crane.

Guan Suxue hadn’t intended for Yan Xiaoling to die here. Seeing her murdered, her eyes turned cold as she barked at the man in the air, “Xu Pingxi! Why did you kill her?”

Xu Pingxi was busy searching the body for the Earth Spirit Crystal. Finding nothing, he glanced down at the crowd and said, “Do I really need to list the things Yan Xiaoling did?”

“For a person this heartless and monstrous, you lot still wanted to show mercy? Are you all mentally ill?”