Please, Don’t Die - Chapter 54

Yu Fu’s hopeful expectations went unanswered.

A deafening explosion suddenly erupted in the distance, followed by a tidal wave of screams that pierced the heavens.

All three of them looked up simultaneously. Atop the Celestial Tower, an enormous blue-green serpent coiled upward, its scales shimmering with a dazzling array of colors under the sunlight as it twisted and turned.

The serpent raised its head high, venomously flicking its forked tongue, its vertical pupils locked warily on the black-clad youth hovering in mid-air before it.

He Qingsheng hadn’t expected Li Fu’an to act so quickly.

Lan Shanqing’s fleeing soul had retreated back to the Celestial Tower, only to run headlong into Li Fu’an.

Originally, Lan Shanqing could have quickly regained her strength by devouring some of the Twelve Wall’s ferocious beasts and birds of prey. But now, she had been forced by Li Fu’an into merging all her serpentine forms into one.

The reason Lan Shanqing was so difficult to kill lay in her ability to split into countless avatars. As long as even one remained, she would never truly perish. Even if reduced to a mindless wild snake, she could regain her intelligence within decades or centuries.

If the saying went that a cunning rabbit had three burrows, then she practically owned an entire underground city.

But killing her wasn’t entirely impossible. He Qingsheng had hunted down her soul until only one remained, while Li Fu’an forced out her true form, another method was to exterminate every last one of her avatars.

“Li Fu’an?” Yu Fu exclaimed in shock. “What’s he doing here?”

A flicker of worry flashed in his eyes but was quickly suppressed. He Qingsheng noticed it keenly, and a troubling suspicion took root in her mind.

Frowning, she grabbed Yu Fu and Ying Qujie, sprinting toward the Celestial Tower.

In the distance, sword shadows clashed, their metallic chimes crisp and clear, the battle between man and serpent had already begun.

Li Fu’an, an outsider dragged into the fray, possessed formidable cultivation and was in peak condition. He showed no mercy as he engaged the infamous venomous serpent, Lan Shanqing.

To the untrained eye, the fight seemed evenly matched, but anyone could see the blue-green serpent was already at a disadvantage.

Her venom failed to corrode his sword; instead, her maw was left bloodied by its strikes. Her sneak attacks and dark arts couldn’t breach his barriers, leaving her unable to even close the distance.

Cornered and beaten, her ferocity erupted. Abandoning all strategy, she lashed out with her tail, shattering the Celestial Tower’s top floor in an instant.

A rift in the spirit realm flickered ominously as a monstrous beast, Guan Chang, burst through, its massive form and gleaming fangs exactly what Lan Shanqing had hoped for.

Gathering her strength, the colossal serpent launched a final assault at the swordsman.

Li Fu’an met her head-on, only to be swallowed by a cloud of venomous mist. By the time he cleaved through it, Lan Shanqing had already scattered into countless snakes, fleeing in all directions.

Children froze in terror, too scared to cry. Vendors recoiled at the sight of blue-green patterns, struck dumb. Fleeing pedestrians felt a chill down their spines, had they turned, they would have met the fangs inches from their necks.

At the critical moment, no one saw how He Qingsheng made her move. Countless sharp spikes materialized around her, striking with ruthless precision, impaling every fleeing blue-green serpent in a single sweep.

Then, she devoured them all.

The world seemed to pause. The crowd stood dumbfounded before the overwhelming relief of survival washed over them.

Li Fu’an swiftly beheaded Guan Chang and sealed the spirit rift in one fluid motion.

As the most harrowing moment passed, everyone, except He Qingsheng and Yu Fu, let out a sigh of relief.

He Qingsheng struggled to suppress the backlash of her own killing intent.

Yu Fu, however, had a sinister spike embedded in his chest, for coiled within his embrace was yet another serpent.

He Qingsheng hastily withdrew the malevolent spike from Yu Fu’s body, yet she still collapsed to her knees, weakened. Her fingers brushed over the last piece of turquoise snake scale before she coughed up a mouthful of dark heart’s blood.

…

He Qingsheng’s original plan had been more measured: to buy time without disturbing Lan Shanqing’s avatar in the Tianqi Tower, gather all the souls of those who had died from the life-exchange ritual, and then use the combined malevolent energy of the souls and the mausoleum to eliminate Emperor Zhao Wu and the golden-robed man in the palace.

Killing Emperor Zhao Wu and the golden-robed man wasn’t purely an act of benevolence.

He Qingsheng had a premonition that devouring them would allow her to return to the Twelve Walls at full strength and immediately begin her revenge.

But plans rarely survive contact with reality.

She unexpectedly encountered Li Fu’an, who not only resolved the spiritual realm’s loophole more thoroughly but also accelerated Lan Shanqing’s demise.

Yu Fu, severely injured, was kept alive by Li Fu’an before being tossed into a storage spiritual realm.

Yu Fu and Lan Shanqing had been sent to investigate the capital’s situation and kill He Qingsheng, yet one was dead, the other crippled.

Emperor Zhao Wu and the golden-robed man, who had ties to them in the palace, must have already sensed the anomaly.

Gazing at the surge of sinister energy rising from the palace, He Qingsheng turned solemnly to Li Fu’an. “Senior Nephew, the merit of saving the world may rest with your master. This could be the greatest opportunity of your life in the decades to come.”

Li Fu’an nodded gravely.

Unsurprised by his agreement, He Qingsheng quickly briefed him on the situation in the palace. They swiftly divided their targets, Li Fu’an would handle the golden-robed man, while she took on Emperor Zhao Wu.

As they strategized, they made no effort to exclude Ying Qujie. Li Fu’an only gave him a probing glance upon first sight, his gaze lingering briefly on the red bracelet around Ying Qujie’s wrist before looking away.

Previously, He Qingsheng had deliberately kept Ying Qujie in the dark about the capital’s turmoil, so he listened intently to every word she spoke.

He Qingsheng had a way of downplaying danger, what she described as a three out of ten was likely a ten. Given her unprecedented seriousness and the mention of “world-saving merit,” Ying Qujie was certain this mission was perilous. He clenched his fists, not out of fear but worry that He Qingsheng might leave him behind.

After all, he had no cultivation, no power, just an ordinary mortal.

Once He Qingsheng finished briefing Li Fu’an, she seemed to finally remember Ying Qujie standing quietly nearby.

She turned to him.

Their eyes met, and for once, Ying Qujie felt oddly nervous.

“My blood is useful to you-”

“Physician Ying, are you afraid?”

They spoke simultaneously, both pausing in surprise before sharing a resigned smile.

Understanding passed wordlessly between them.

“Let’s go,” He Qingsheng declared.

The Tianqi Tower stood adjacent to the Imperial Preceptor’s residence. If anything went wrong, Yan Xingyi should have been the first to notice. Yet, from their vantage point, only Qi Wan emerged to reassure the panicked citizens.

He Qingsheng pressed her fingers to her temples and sent a coil of malevolent energy to wrap around Qi Wan’s waist.

The distance between the Tianqi Tower and the palace wasn’t far, but within that short span, the palace was engulfed in a haze of black miasma, rivers of blood flowing beneath.

The imperial gardens and surrounding palaces had fallen entirely. Evergreen trees withered, wintersweet blossoms died, and the delicate floral scents were drowned out by the stench of blood.

Countless corpses of palace servants lay scattered.

He Qingsheng took one glance before averting her eyes, silently reciting mantras to steady her mind.

Amidst the black mist, a fragile and precarious boundary appeared before them.

Yan Xingyi stood at the forefront, with the emperor and empress flanking him on either side, their expressions resolute. The officials who had been deliberating in the palace, some fearless, some timid, some terrified, had all formed a V-shaped formation behind the imperial couple. Shangguan Ding’an was also among them.

And behind the officials, the palace guards stood with their spears raised, sealing off any retreat.

He Qingsheng instantly understood, Yan Xingyi was borrowing the collective aura of the imperial court’s officials.

The rulers of a dynasty naturally carried the protective purple qi of heaven’s mandate, whether more or less. Gathered together, it could offer some resistance in the face of sudden anomalies.

When Yan Xingyi saw He Qingsheng, his eyes lit up instantly. “Immortal He, save us!”

The emperor and empress were equally surprised to see the one who should have been out confronting the calamity here instead.

Li Fu’an used his sword to draw a boundary, and a powerful, solid barrier rose from the ground, taking over the heavy burden from Yan Xingyi’s hands.

Yan Xingyi barely managed to keep himself from collapsing in front of everyone, but he did let out a long sigh of relief.

“No time for idle talk,” He Qingsheng instructed. “Get these people out of the palace, then hurry to help your disciple.”

After saying this, she followed Li Fu’an into the barrier.

Yan Xingyi quickly grasped the situation and explained it to the emperor and empress. The people in the palace began an orderly and swift evacuation.

Once the three of them entered the barrier, He Qingsheng noticed that Li Fu’an wasn’t carrying his sword.

She asked skeptically, “Can you manage without your sword?”

Li Fu’an replied, “My master is Ming Zhi.”

Alright, she shouldn’t have asked.

Inside the barrier, the baleful qi was so dense it was as if an ink pool had been spilled across the heavens and earth. Compared to the red-tinged baleful qi in her own hand, He Qingsheng found herself, for once, approving of her own baleful qi on an aesthetic level.

The black-and-red baleful qi brushed against her wrist, almost smugly.

He Qingsheng wordlessly plucked off one of its tendrils.

Once separated from her, that strand of black-and-red baleful qi instantly shed its docile demeanor, ferociously devouring a large swath of the black mist in the space.

In an instant, the hostility in her heart surged severalfold.

Suppressing her discomfort, He Qingsheng examined the two nearest corpses.

Outwardly, one corpse was dressed elegantly, a palace maid, while the other wore coarse hemp cloth, a lowly serving matron.

But the souls within the corpses revealed the truth: the maid’s body held the matron’s soul, and the matron’s body housed the maid’s.

He Qingsheng had already captured all the wandering souls in the capital, leaving Emperor Zhao Wu and his followers without enough souls that had died under the right circumstances for their ritual.

After Lan Shanqing’s incident, they realized the situation outside the palace was beyond their control and had hastily resorted to creating the required souls within the palace itself.

As for why it was a shoddy job, He Qingsheng found that the souls of these two unjustly slain palace maids yielded no resentment, only fear.

The other corpses were similarly paired. After examining several pairs, He Qingsheng managed to extract a small amount of resentment.

She frowned. The quantity didn’t add up.

Even with Lan Shanqing’s death, they wouldn’t have taken such reckless action for just this meager amount of resentment.

As the three ventured deeper into the imperial garden, golden flowers came into view, swaying gently in the black mist like the last rays of sunlight about to be swallowed by darkness.

But no one would mistake these flowers for harmless now.

Li Fu’an hesitated. “Mianrihui?”

“Yes.” He Qingsheng shrugged, pointing at the few remaining flowers in the garden. “Senior nephew, looks like we’ll have to switch opponents again.”

Li Fu’an asked, “You mean…?”

He Qingsheng nodded, instructing Wei Chunfeng that the person who used Mianrihui to trap Emperor Zhao was harboring sinister intentions. Given the current situation, the golden-robed man was most likely Mian Rihui.

Mianrihui flowers was highly toxic to cultivators, and Li Fu’an would be at a disadvantage against him. The best approach was for He Qingsheng to step in.

“Then, do you stand a chance against the golden-robed man, Mian Rihui?” Ying Qujie suddenly spoke up.

According to He Qingsheng’s account, Emperor Zhao was the vengeful spirit of the late emperor, while the golden-robed man was enigmatic and unpredictable. By any measure, the golden-robed man would be harder to deal with than Emperor Zhao.

With the sudden change in plans, Ying Qujie couldn’t help but worry.

He Qingsheng stroked her chin, tucked the small wooden puppet into Ying Qujie’s arms, and floated ahead on her own. “Buying some time won’t be a problem for me. Physician Ying, you follow him first and keep yourself safe. Once Emperor Zhao’s spirit is vanquished, both of you can come back and lend me a hand.”

Her tone was lighthearted: “Mian Rihui and I have old scores to settle, who knew we’d get to settle them all at once?”