Chapter 151: The Evil Cultivator Specifically Brought to Deal With Her
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Yu Zhi Yi turned her head to look beside her, only to find that Li Rou had vanished.
At first, Li Rou hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
She was simple in appearance and demeanor, often oblivious to minor details. After all, her young mistress was by her side. Miss Yu was a formidable expert in the Mystical Arts, so what was there to fear?
It wasn’t until the road ahead seemed endlessly long that Li Rou began to feel uneasy…
She had accompanied her young mistress on this street many times in recent days. She had secretly calculated that walking this street usually took about a quarter of an hour.
Now, however, they had been walking for nearly half an hour, and still, the end of the street was nowhere in sight.
Moreover, night had fallen.
She didn’t even know when it had gotten dark.
Finally sensing something amiss, she asked, “Miss, why does the road feel so long today?”
The answer came not in words, but in a strange laugh.
“Heehee…”
The sound—how to describe it? It was somewhat childlike, yet on closer listen, it seemed like a woman deliberately pitching her voice high in an affected manner.
Such an affected tone might normally be pleasing to the ear, even if slightly irritating. But this laugh sent chills down to the soles of one’s feet.
Li Rou instinctively turned her head.
“Miss” was also turning her head slowly toward her.
It was only then that Li Rou realized—this wasn’t her young mistress at all.
Judging by the outfit, this was a complete stranger.
The woman smiled faintly, but blood began streaming down her eyes like twin rivers.
Li Rou’s eyes widened in terror.
It didn’t stop there. Blood also started flowing from the woman’s nose, mouth, and ears.
The blood, as if it cost nothing, first trickled out in small streams. In no time, the trickles became thumb-sized rivulets.
Very soon, a small pool of blood formed at Li Rou’s feet.
She felt the blood seep past her shoes, then her ankles, then her knees.
Within moments, it reached her waist.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to struggle. Overwhelmed by terror, her entire body turned cold, paralyzed as if bound by an invisible force.
“Heeheehee…”
The woman’s eerie laughter rang out again. By now, Li Rou couldn’t even bear to look at her face.
The ghostly pale visage was now entirely obscured by the torrent of blood, rendering it unrecognizable.
In mere moments, the blood rose to her chest. At this rate, it wouldn’t take long for it to submerge her nose and mouth, drowning her.
Though her body was cloaked in fabric, sparing her the worst of the sensation, her bare hands felt the full, sticky, warm touch of the blood.
She shuddered, her skin crawling.
Revulsion churned within her. And as the blood rose higher, she could no longer ignore the overpowering metallic stench.
The cloying scent stung her nostrils, making her want to vomit, though no relief came.
Finally, the blood reached her neck.
Just a little higher, and it would engulf her mouth and nose, suffocating her.
In this extremity of fear, Li Rou’s latent potential broke free. She shouted, “Miss, run!”
At that moment, the blood rose to her lips, poised to spill into her mouth.
Just as she thought she would either drown in disgust or choke to death, a sudden burst of golden light erupted from her body.
The light was so dazzling that Li Rou instinctively squinted her eyes.
When she opened them again, the blood, the ghostly woman—all of it was gone. Nothing but illusions.
She was still standing on the long street, with her young mistress beside her, gazing at her with concern.
Though Li Rou had been terrified in the face of the ghost, she hadn’t felt like crying. Yet now, as the danger receded and the reality of surviving set in, she was overwhelmed by a surge of emotion that made her want to weep.
Li Rou, disregarding all notions of propriety, flung herself at Yu Zhi Yi, wrapping her arms tightly around her. Her voice was choked with sobs, “Miss!”
A cold hand gently rested on her back, and a deep, icy voice hovered near her ear, “It’s all right now. It’s all right. I’ll take you home.”
Li Rou froze.
She was naive, yes, but she wasn’t foolish.
Her young mistress’s voice… it was beautiful. Clear, ethereal—a sound that could soothe any troubled heart, washing away turmoil with ease.
This voice, though soft and feminine, lacked that heavenly clarity. Instead, it was unsettling, chilling her to the core.
Moreover, the young mistress’s voice, no matter what she said, carried a unique, calming power. Yet this voice brought only a spine-tingling sense of dread.
“W-what…” she stammered.
Sensing Li Rou’s rigidity, the voice grew even colder. “What is it?”
Convinced now that this was not her mistress, Li Rou screamed, shoving the figure away before darting down the street in panic.
The woman remained motionless as Yu Zhi Yi’s features dissolved into those of the weeping, blood-teared female ghost. Her pure white eyes stared emotionlessly after Li Rou, but her lips curled into a sinister smile.
Li Rou ran aimlessly, her terror blinding her sense of direction. Yet no matter which way she turned, the ghost always appeared before her, blocking her escape.
Finally, in the distance, she spotted a faint light cutting through the gloom of the long street. Her face lit up with hope, and she sprinted toward it.
“Stop! Don’t run any further!”
The familiar voice made her falter. It was her mistress—her real one this time. Wasn’t it?
Doubt crept in, but her instinctive loyalty to Yu Zhi Yi brought her to an immediate halt.
Above, the oppressive darkness that cloaked the street began to tear like an old painting. Cracks appeared, spreading wider, until the entire scene shattered, revealing a bright, clear sky.
Before Li Rou could process what was happening, she gasped in shock. Barely an arm’s length away, a thick wall loomed before her. At the speed she’d been running, she would have smashed into it headfirst.
The familiar, comforting fragrance wafted toward her, and she turned her wide, tear-streaked eyes to find Yu Zhi Yi standing beside her, watching with gentle concern. “Frightened?”
The ethereal, soothing tone of her voice and the calming presence—it was unmistakably her mistress.
Unable to contain herself any longer, Li Rou burst into tears and threw herself into Yu Zhi Yi’s embrace. “Miss, you scared me to death! Waaaaah…”
Yu Zhi Yi’s body stiffened at first but eventually softened. She hesitantly reached out and patted Li Rou’s back, her voice gentle. “There, there. It’s over now.”
“What you saw just now,” she explained softly, “were illusions. With the jade pendant I gave you, you shouldn’t have been in real danger.”
Li Rou sniffled. “Just illusions?”
Cultivators rarely lied, so Yu Zhi Yi hesitated. She didn’t want to frighten the girl further, but Li Rou deserved to know the truth. This ordeal had been her burden to bear.
“Illusions, yes, but also deadly traps,” she admitted. “That was a formation called the Hundred-Dreams Kill.”
“As the name implies, the formation generates a hundred different illusions, each one incredibly lifelike. The illusions range from simple frights to more complex deceptions. Most people don’t survive the earlier stages.”
“However, if someone with a strong will manages to resist the initial tricks, the formation evolves into more advanced illusions. These become indistinguishable from reality, lulling the victim into believing they’ve escaped, only to fall into an unexpected trap and meet a grisly end.”
“The one who set this formation was an evil cultivator,” she concluded grimly, “and they were targeting me specifically.”