Xiao An did not answer Li Qingshan immediately. Instead, she began thinking in silence.
“Since you’re considering it, then let’s go look for her. It’s not like it’ll take a lot of time anyway.” It was rare for Xiao An to be interested in someone else. Li Qingshan felt like he should encourage something like this. And, with what Qian Rongzhi had left for Xiao An, they had to do what they could.
“It’s too dangerous.” Xiao An shook her head.
“Don’t worry. I might not know divination like you, but I can still sense real danger.” Li Qingshan pointed at his head before rubbing her hair. “Just treat it as me going out to have some fun with you.”
“Alright.”
They arrived at the Hawkwolf Guard. Li Qingshan accepted the mission and went upstairs to give Han Qiongzhi some notice.
After a series of intimate contact, Han Qiongzhi heard about the details of Li Qingshan’s mission. She said in surprise, “You want to accept this mission? Do you know her very well?”
“I obviously don’t know her as well as you. We’ve basically just worked together a few times. She’s probably dead already, but I should still bring her remains back!” Li Qingshan studied Han Qiongzhi as he said without the slightest concern.
The floor-to-ceiling windows allowed scorching sunlight to pour in. As she sat in the tall back chair in her Scarlet Wolf uniform, she seemed extremely valiant. Li Qingshan leaned against the table right in front of her, daydreaming away.
Han Qiongzhi stroked her chin in thought; this action was extremely masculine, which gave her a different kind of charm.
“Alright, you can go!”
Li Qingsha smiled. “What, are you worried that your man might run into the White Lotus Mother, and she might keep him around as a trophy husband?”
Han Qiongzhi leaned against the seat back and raised her legs, crossing them on the table. She looked down. “If it were little Hua, then there might have been some chance for that to happen. With your looks, you’ll probably just be cut up immediately. I received news a few days ago that the White Lotus Mother and Altar Lord Black Lotus have already returned to the Mist province to rebuild the White Lotus cult.”
Li Qingshan asked, “Is the information reliable? Aren’t they afraid of being caught there?”
“The Mist province is not the Green province. It’s truly a lawless place. Basically all the people who cannot deal with the Hawkwolf Guard in the Green province will flee there. If you really can’t find her, don’t forget to just bring some remains back.” Han Qiongzhi winked.
“That doesn’t sound like a good idea!” Li Qingshan said. The search mission for Qian Rongzhi came with quite a lot of contribution. After all, it had to do with the fate of a Scarlet Wolf guard.
“Who cares? I’m in charge right now anyway. It’s not like little Hua is here. Old Wang has gone cultivating too. I have to deal with all these matters alone. It’s driving me crazy.”
“Fine then. Wait for my return.” Li Qingshan leaned over and gave her a deep kiss before standing up and leaving.
Han Qiongzhi arrived beside the floor-to-ceiling windows and watched his cloud takeoff. She smiled with her lips closed.
……
The daemonic beast moved with startling speeds. Its two glowing eyes were like drifting shadows, producing two long trails of light. It circled around Qian Rongzhi again and again, rapidly drawing closer.
Qian Rongzhi widened her eyes as far as she could. In the beginning, they managed to follow the daemonic beast around, but afterwards, they stopped moving, as if she had completely grown numb to it all already.
The daemonic beast confirmed that this was not a trap. The two balls of circling green light suddenly moved towards the centre of the cave. The daemonic beast lunged over and bit Qian Rongzhi’s neck. That was the only place on her body with fewer wounds. Even when she was in extreme pain, she would constantly control herself so that she would not accidentally end her own life.
Was this going to be it after enduring all that pain for three months?
Four canines pierced her skin first, followed by the rest of the teeth. They just needed to close up a little more, and there would be no need to wait for her to suffocate. They would directly shatter her vertebrae.
Even at this moment, her gaze and expression remained the same as before. The pain that could agonise others was as lovely as the spring breeze to her, while the looming death might have only been salvation to her.
The daemonic beast stiffened. Tremendous pain permeated its entire body instantly like venom.
Qian Rongzhi finally revealed a smile, which seemed more demonic than anything else on her terrifying face. With her hands beside her body, she propped herself up slowly before biting into the daemonic beast’s neck.
At a closer glance, a tiny, gorgeously-coloured snake had already begun circling around Qian Rongzhi’s neck. A parasite would protect its host. Its method of protection was obviously to make the enemy have a taste of the same pain.
When the punishments of hell descended, the daemonic beast’s daemon qi completely dispersed. It could not even move a single muscle. Its tough hide was gradually pierced by her teeth, and the metallic, salty blood flowed into her mouth. She was like a vampire, sucking hard and using the blood of others to make up for her own blood loss.
She had already finished off the food she had prepared in her hundred treasures pouch a long time ago. Fortunately, the smell of blood she gave off lured many wild beasts over. This was the method she had used to eat them all and replenish her energy.
Filling herself with blood, she recovered quite a lot of strength. She ripped open the daemonic beast’s belly and took out a translucent daemon core the size of a rice grain. She consumed it immediately and did her best to meditate.
The daemon core happened to match her elemental affinity. It was basically luck bestowed upon her by heaven. The true qi she had not seen in a very long time finally appeared within her sea of qi once more. Powered by the true qi, her wounds gradually closed up.
Qian Rongzhi suddenly felt dizzy. Touching her forehead, she found that it was another fever. Remaining within the forest and having lost her true qi for an extended period of time, this was already the third time she had fallen sick.
She knew that she had to leave here. She required a better environment to recover, or she might end up dying here. If she drew over even stronger daemonic beasts, they would be able to crush her throat before becoming seized by the pain.
She saw the disemboweled carcass of the daemonic beast. Before she left, she had to finish it off so that she could build up enough strength.
The sun set and rose, but there was no concept of time at all in this gloomy cavern.
It had only taken Li Qingshan and Xiao An a few hours to reach the hamlet on the edge of the forest. Sure enough, the villagers had seen traces of her. The last few footprints from her led into the forest.
She had been so brazen, openly disclosing her tracks. Clearly, she did all of this on purpose.
Li Qingshan and Xiao An currently stood before the forest. The serenity made it seem like a different world. Looking for a single person in a forest that extended for thousands of kilometers really would not be easy.
However, it was not too difficult for Li Qingshan. He was very familiar with that woman’s smell and aura.
As he moved about swiftly and undertook a rapid search, a heavy smell of blood caught his attention. He lifted up the curtain formed from vines and saw a monster laying within a wild beast, eating its organs.
A hint of a familiar scent wafted over through the heavy smell of blood. He struggled to believe his eyes. “Qian Rongzhi?”
The “monster” suddenly raised her head and saw Li Qingshan. She was surprised. She smiled in an extremely vicious manner and said extremely powerlessly, “You’ve come.” She said it like she was sitting peacefully at home, welcoming the visit of a good friend she had not seen in a very long time; she did not act like she had just spotted a saviour from her despair.
Li Qingshan said nothing. All he did was take out a pill and walk over. Even he himself found this sight to be rather horrific. He never thought the White Lotus cult could actually be so cruel.
Qian Rongzhi spotted Xiao An behind him and suddenly felt a sense of shame. She curled up. The venomous snake in her body settled down slightly for some reason.
Li Qingshan wanted to force her mouth open and shove the pill in there.
“Don’t touch me!”
From that moment of distraction, Li Qingshan’s hand had already touched her face. Immediately, indescribable pain filled his body. Before he knew it, the tattoo of a coloured snake had appeared where the tip of his finger had touched her.
The parasite’s instincts of protecting the host would not change with the host’s will. From now onwards, anyone who wanted to touch her would have to face hellish pain too.
The Spirit Turtle Suppresses the Seas! Li Qingshan jerked his hand back and stared at it in shock, but he discovered that it was unscathed. His body was perfectly fine too; it was as if the pain earlier was just a dream.
At this moment, a pair of small, tender hands grabbed her hand.
“Xiao An!” Li Qingshan and Qian Rongzhi said together.
Xiao An showed no expression of pain at all.
The snakes of hell could be delivered to this world to punish the living, while in the Venomous Snake hell, they punished the dead. However, Xiao An was neither dead nor living.
Warmth spread through her hand. Qian Rongzhi saw holy, golden light rise up from Xiao An. Then, the light spread through her body along her hands, enveloping her completely in the golden light.
Her wounds gradually healed, and subsequently, the vicious, uneven scars were erased bit by bit. This was not the effects of buddhist techniques. Instead, it originated from the power of the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty. Her appearance seemed to become even more charming than before.
Xiao An let go and receded to Li Qingshan’s side. Qian Rongzhi said gently, “Thank you.” She asked Li Qingshan, “Do you have water?”
With a snap of his fingers, a swirl of water wrapped around her body, washing away the filth and rags on her before vanishing as steam. It revealed her pale body and beautiful proportions, completely naked.
Li Qingshan had always been a person with very strong desires, but standing before this woman, his mind would always be as calm as water. It was no different right now. He could not even be bothered with shifting his gaze.
Qian Rongzhi was no different. She picked up her hundred treasures pouch and took out a dress, putting it on. She moved her arms and extended her legs in the process in a natural manner. She was neither trying to seduce him nor avoid him.
It was as if he did not treat her as a woman, and she did not treat him as a man.
Li Qingshan said, “Looks like you’ve suffered quite a lot.”
“Do you want to know?” Qian Rongzhi had already put on the dress. She was straightening out her hair before a mirror.
“Let’s hear it.” Li Qingshan was rather curious.
As a result, Qian Rongzhi told him what she went through casually. She said it so easily that it sounded like she was telling a story about someone else.
Even Li Qingshan shivered inside after hearing it all. He asked, “How do you plan on dealing with this gu?”
Qian Rongzhi said, “There’s nothing I can do about it, nor is there any need for me to do anything about it. As long as I let go of my shamelessness and hatred, it’ll naturally stop torturing me.”
The Venomous Snake hell had always been for punishing those who ran amok due to a lack of shame, those who sinned endlessly due to hatred. However, punishment was not its purpose. Instead, its compassionate purpose was to get the sinner to come to their senses and realise the sins they had committed so that they could attain redemption and salvation.
Li Qingshan mockingly asked, “Can you achieve that?”
Qian Rongzhi smiled in response. “Of course not. I won’t feel shame for anything. I hate everyone in the world!”
The venomous snake swam around happily, and she suddenly collapsed on her knees, digging her fingers deeply into the earth. Her smile became twisted due to the pain, but it also became more resplendent. Even if she sank into endless suffering within Avīci, she would never repent or mend her ways.
TL: Avīci is the lowest level of hell, where suffering is the greatest. It’s also what the late Swedish DJ Avicii named himself after.
PS: Shamelessly begging for monthly votes is like falling into the Venomous Snake hell, but even if I have to fall into the Venomous Snake hell, I’ll still beg to my heart’s content!
