Please, Don’t Die - Chapter 31

Twelve Walls.

Ying Qujie noted down this peculiar name.

When chatting with Yan Xingyi, He Qingsheng vaguely glossed over the specifics of his own situation, merely mentioning that he had lived in seclusion in the mortal world for several years before meeting an accidental death. He made no mention of the Twelve Walls.

Yan Xingyi glanced at He Qingsheng and suddenly had an idea. “Xiao He, since you’re a ghost now, why not go to the Twelve Walls? You might even stumble upon some extraordinary encounters.”

He Qingsheng wasn’t sure if Yan Xingyi was truly ignorant of the cultivation world or not, so he countered, “You make it sound so easy. I don’t even know how to get there. Are you offering to take me?”

“Well, I’m afraid I can’t help with that,” Yan Xingyi replied sheepishly, scratching his nose. “As the Imperial Preceptor, my duties are limited to forecasting the weather and assessing feng shui. How would I know how to find the Twelve Walls? I’ll look through the Celestial Tower’s collection later to see if there are any records.”

He Qingsheng didn’t stand on ceremony. “Alright, thanks.”

After the meal, He Qingsheng and Yan Xingyi chatted a while longer.

Ying Qujie listened quietly from the side, lost in thought.

He timed their conversation and, just as it was winding down, asked Yan Xingyi if he could borrow a few rare books on spirits and ghosts.

Yan Xingyi was taken aback but smiled and sent a servant to fetch them.

When the servant returned with the books, Ying Qujie said he had already read them all.

Yan Xingyi had no choice but to go to the storeroom himself.

He Qingsheng shot Ying Qujie an approving look.

Ying Qujie was baffled.

The next moment, He Qingsheng vanished without a trace.

Ying Qujie: ?

Fortunately, He Qingsheng didn’t stay gone for long. Before Yan Xingyi returned, he drifted back into the little wooden puppet.

…

That night.

A shadowy figure appeared silently on the eaves, his toes skimming the tiles without making a sound.

Under the faint moonlight, his silhouette darted swiftly between the rooftops, light and agile.

His form-fitting black attire left no loose ends, as if even the wind couldn’t detect his presence.

Patrolling soldiers passed by him, oblivious.

Their footsteps faded into the distance.

The black-clad figure crouched slightly, then sprang forward, landing as softly as a wildcat.

“This way.”

He Qingsheng whispered in his ear, his voice barely audible, like a secret.

Ying Qujie glanced at him, then took a deep breath and slipped into the corridor.

After bidding farewell to Yan Xingyi and returning to the residence that afternoon, He Qingsheng had been acting mysteriously.

Now, under the cover of night, her true intentions were revealed.

He had forced Ying Qujie into tight black clothing to infiltrate the Imperial Preceptor’s residence under cover of darkness.

Ying Qujie’s face was covered with a black cloth, revealing only his cold, starlit eyes, gleaming sharply in the dark.

The Imperial Preceptor’s residence was adjacent to the imperial palace, and the Celestial Tower stood behind it.

The Celestial Tower was heavily guarded, making the Imperial Preceptor’s residence the most likely entry point.

He Qingsheng observed their surroundings carefully.

She refrained from using any ghostly energy, lying motionless in Ying Qujie’s arms like an inanimate object.

Ying Qujie moved with extreme caution, not even stirring a speck of dust as he entered the Celestial Tower.

The rich scent of ink and old books hung in the air, lending the library an ancient and solemn atmosphere.

Two-story bookshelves lined the circular tower walls, with wooden staircases spiraling upward. The handrails were embedded with night pearls, illuminating the interior as brightly as daylight, yet not a single beam of light escaped the stairwell’s end.

There, a pitch-black void devoured all illumination, like an unfathomable whirlpool.

The silence was absolute, so quiet one could hear a pin drop.

Ying Qujie shook the little wooden puppet, but there was no response.

Frowning, he wondered what He Qingsheng was up to.

After a quick glance around at the shelves brimming with books, Ying Qujie realized that picking one out would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

He dismissed the idea and stepped toward the staircase.

He Qingsheng watched his every move intently.

As his foot landed on the first step,

Now!

The small wooden puppet, clad in green robes, shot forward like an arrow loosed from its bow, striking upward at the venomous snake plummeting from above.

The snake bared its fangs, dripping with venom, and when its ambush failed, it spat a stream of blue-green poison.

A barrier of sinister energy formed above Ying Qujie’s head, blocking every drop.

The poison slid off to either side, sizzling as it corroded the wooden steps.

In the blink of an eye, He Qingsheng had already exchanged three blows with the blue-green serpent.

Their movements were so swift that Ying Qujie could only catch glimpses of their afterimages colliding midair, accompanied by violent clashes.

Lan Shanqing was unnaturally agile, the intricate blue-green patterns on its scales forming hypnotic swirls as it moved, a natural ability to disorient its prey.

An ordinary cultivator would have long since succumbed to dizziness, falling helplessly beneath its fangs.

But He Qingsheng merely felt a stinging in her eyes. Instead, her strikes grew fiercer, each aimed at the snake’s vital spot.

Lan Shanqing hissed in pain and lashed its tail viciously at He Qingsheng.

Then, at the last moment, it abruptly changed direction mid-swing, whipping toward Ying Qujie beneath the stairs.

The serpent was certain He Qingsheng would rush to save this mortal, buying itself a moment to recover.

But He Qingsheng didn’t spare a single glance. The wooden puppet leaped high, using the force of her descent to pin the snake to the ground with deadly precision.

Boom!

The blue-green serpent slammed into the floor, its vulnerable spot crushed beneath He Qingsheng’s grip.

A surge of crimson-black sinister energy swarmed over it.

Yet, contrary to expectations, the snake wasn’t devoured.

“You’re just as unpleasant as your junior brother,” a voice sneered.

Before He Qingsheng could react, a dazzling multicolored light struck the puppet, sending her flying.

She steadied herself midair and glared at the point where the sinister energy and the radiant light clashed. “As expected of the infamous Lan Shanqing.”

“Oh? You know of me?” The sinister energy dissipated, the radiant glow receding to reveal a bewitching figure.

The woman was breathtakingly beautiful, her crimson lips stained as if with blood. Every gesture exuded effortless allure as she covered her mouth with a light laugh. “Did that hypocrite Yu Fu mention me to you?”

He Qingsheng frowned. There was something unsettling about Lan Shanqing’s tone.

“The hatred of annihilating his family and kin, my junior brother would never forget.”

“Annihilating his family and kin? I like the sound of that.” Lan Shanqing smiled coquettishly, swaying gracefully as she approached. “I slaughtered so many of Yu Fu’s kin, yet I spared his life. Tell me, little shijie, doesn’t that count as a life-saving grace?”

“And for such a grace… shouldn’t he repay me with his body?”

The moment she finished speaking, Lan Shanqing halted.

In a flash, He Qingsheng raised her arm to block a devastating strike.

“Oh? You noticed, little shijie.” Lan Shanqing retreated swiftly, evading He Qingsheng’s counterattack. “You really are as detestable as Yu Fu.”

Detestable?

It had been a while since He Qingsheng had heard that word.

The elders and disciples of Zhenyuan Sect usually just told her to drop dead.

“Are you… trying to act coy with me?” He Qingsheng smiled, her eyes glinting with cold amusement. “Since you’re so sharp, why don’t you guess, if I dared to come for you, would I ever let you leave unscathed?”

Lan Shanqing’s pupils narrowed into slits. With her innate sensitivity to danger, she realized with chilling clarity.

She was now a turtle in a jar, a bird in a cage.

The moment He Qingsheng first stepped into the Imperial Preceptor’s residence, she sensed that sinister, eerie gaze.

She returned to investigate multiple times afterward, but each attempt ended without success.

Until today, when she coincidentally ran into Yan Xingyi, who coincidentally invited her as a guest.

A sudden inspiration struck He Qingsheng, she brought Ying Qujie along.

Sure enough, the moment she entered the residence, she keenly detected that gaze again.

Lan Shanqing was an extraordinarily dangerous presence among the Twelve Walls.

He Qingsheng disliked uncertainty. Within this Celestial Tower lay countless books, and what she sought was the spiritual power imbued within these texts.

A strange and intricate array lit up beneath Lan Shanqing’s feet, its shimmering blue glow capable of snatching souls and lives.

The array abruptly contracted. Lan Shanqing rolled aside, narrowly avoiding a barrage of spiritual energy swords.

But a terrifying pressure closed in, and for the first time, Lan Shanqing experienced such horrifying killing intent.

“How is this possible?! Weren’t you dead?!”

Lan Shanqing scrambled to his feet, his face twisted in fury.

“Fool.” The voice was accompanied by a dazzling streak of light, nimbly weaving through the sword rain, seizing Lan Shanqing, and vanishing without a trace.

The speed was so fast that He Qingsheng didn’t even catch a glimpse of her junior brother’s appearance.

A surge of red-and-black malevolent energy chased after them, determined to keep them from escaping.

He Qingsheng had known she would see her junior brother again, but she never imagined it would be under such circumstances.

Whether he was being controlled or acting of his own will didn’t matter.

Now that they had crossed paths, she couldn’t let him escape.

The blue light was retracted by He Qingsheng, merging into the red-and-black energy, which instantly swelled several times in size, gripping the white-robed youth by the ankle.

“Yu Fu!”

The golden-embroidered white-robed figure paused slightly, then without hesitation, severed his own left foot and struck backward with a palm, blocking the encroaching malevolent energy.

A burst of colorful smoke obscured vision.

He Qingsheng only heard a distant voice,

“Senior Sister, if you keep chasing me, your friend won’t live to see another day.”

That little brat. He Qingsheng gritted her teeth and turned to check on Ying Qujie’s condition.

Damn it!

“Follow me.”

With those words, she hurried out of the tower and rushed back toward the Imperial Preceptor’s residence.

Ying Qujie had her shared malevolent energy protecting him, so naturally, nothing would happen to him under her watch.

But the tremors from the Celestial Tower must have alerted Yan Xingyi, who guarded it.

The one in danger, the one whose life was at stake was Yan Xingyi.

Though Yan Xingyi still had his suspicious points, he was, after all, from the same world as her. He Qingsheng wasn’t ready to see him dead just yet.

She found Yan Xingyi at the back gate of the residence, entangled by a venomous snake.

One hand was prying at the serpent coiled around his neck, while the other gripped the snake’s head tightly, denying it any chance to strike.

His purpling face and trembling wrists were clear signs of how long he had been struggling.

The moment Yan Xingyi saw He Qingsheng, his eyes lit up.

“Save… me…”

His throat was constricted by the snake, barely allowing him to speak.

Without hesitation, He Qingsheng drew a hidden soft blade from a wooden puppet and stabbed it straight through the snake’s seven-inch point.

The serpent’s coiled tension instantly slackened. Gasping for breath, Yan Xingyi yanked the snake away and flung it aside.

He Qingsheng stepped forward and delivered a few more strikes until the ordinary five-step snake writhed and finally stopped moving.

Yan Xingi collapsed unceremoniously to the ground, coughing violently until he could barely breathe. It took him a while to recover.

“Fuck, I almost died,” he rasped, his voice hoarse and broken. “Thank god you were here. Thanks.”

He Qingsheng: “It’s fine. Just say less, it’s hard to listen to.”

“Can’t say less at all, damn it! You have no idea, that hundred-pace viper just lunged at my face! Holy shit, scared me to death.”

After the initial shock, Yan Xingyi suddenly sat up straight, his eyes gleaming as he stared at He Qingsheng.

He Qingsheng shivered under his gaze but calmly met his eyes.

Then, in a proud tone, Yan Xingyi declared, “Bro was also insanely badass just now, grabbed that snake in one move! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have even lasted till you came to save me!”

He Qingsheng took in his exhilarated expression and silently sighed in relief before raising a thumb in earnest agreement. “Yeah, badass bro.”

“So, badass bro, how much longer are you gonna sit here?”

“Heh.” Yan Xingyi stood up, dusting off his sleeves with a goofy grin. “Let’s go, let’s go. Right now.”

Thud, thud, thud…

The synchronized footsteps of guards approached from a distance.

The moment the captain stepped inside, he spotted Yan Xingyi already standing. Deeply impressed by the Grand Diviner’s foresight, able to predict events before they unfolded, he grew even more awed.

If the Grand Diviner himself had come out to wait for them, this matter must be of utmost importance.

The more the captain thought about it, the more excited he became. With a booming voice, he saluted Yan Xingyi and announced, “Report, Your Excellency! By your orders, we’ve successfully captured the suspicious intruder near the Celestial Tower.”

Yan Xingyi: “Bring them in.”

He Qingsheng’s brow twitched as his gaze met Ying Qujie’s shadowed stare.