Chapter 535: 524

Only those eyes grew even darker and lonelier.

The wind outside the window remained still, and even the slight drizzle under the night sky had unknowingly fallen silent.

The jade in Cang Nanyi’s hand quickly dissolved into specks of light, returning to the palm of Baili An.

“Young man, now that you are the City Lord of Xianling City, do you still wish to reopen Ghost Mountain?” the lady asked.

Baili An shook his head and spoke only two words, “Thank you.”

Cang Nanyi naturally understood what he was thanking her for, and she nodded slightly, “That is very good. As the night feast continues and the hall fills with honored guests, as today’s host, you have been absent for quite a while.”

Baili An once again bowed and said, “Si Chen takes his leave.”

As Baili An, and his retreating figure, prepared to leave the Ziwei Pavilion, his silhouette suddenly paused. He did not turn around but softly muttered, “Fang Geyu, are you going home?”

The calling was still in the old-fashioned, serious manner, addressing by the full name.

Cang Nanyi glanced at the girl but said nothing.

She adjusted her attire and stood up, walking leisurely to the windowsill, casually reaching out to pluck a wildflower from the wisteria, and bringing it to her nose for a light sniff.

A gentle breeze arose outside the window, and the pavilion was filled with the sound of rain.

The girl who was just conversing with the lady was now silently muted, not responding.

Baili An did not turn around. The rain slanted down from outside the hall, landing on his clothes, his body suddenly feeling a bit icy.

Taking advantage of the light rain, Qingshui fetched a green umbrella, softly saying, “Lord Si Chen, shall we go back?”

Baili An closed his eyes and then reopened them. He hummed softly, leaned down under the umbrella, and gradually walked away until his and Qingshui’s figures blurred and vanished outside the pavilion.

Fang Geyu looked down at the small box in her hands, her expression distant, seemingly lost in thought.

That moment, an elegant and beautiful hand came over, gently opened the lid of the box, and the lady leaned closer to peer inside. She raised her eyebrows slightly in surprise, “Hmm, not bad. After seeing that young man once, the Heart Examination Spider has indeed started to spin its silk.”

Fang Geyu looked slightly impatient and irritable, dismissing the lady’s hand without saying a word.

Cang Nanyi placed the plucked wisteria flower on the bedside and said, “That young man is of the corpse demon lineage, he knows what it means to face me at tonight’s banquet, yet he still came, naively and arrogantly believing he can reopen Ghost Mountain and reenter the Bronze Gate.”

She chuckled lightly, “I find this somewhat endearing.”

Fang Geyu frowned.

Cang Nanyi glanced sidelong at her, “I am quite curious; he clearly knows the saints do not harbor demons, so why, knowing you are still alive, has he not relinquished the seat of City Lord to you as a Guest Elder?”

To ordinary people, the seat of City Lord of Xianling City is a coveted, dream-like throne.

But for a corpse demon, it is like a sword hanging over his neck.

Saints do not ferry demons; they only slay them.

Cang Nanyi did not deny that if it wasn’t for that half piece of jade and the half-told story by that woman, she indeed would have taken the pure land and ferried this demon tonight.

As a descendant of Jiang Chen and a member of the Royal Family of corpse demons, he indeed had the qualifications to prompt her to act.

Fang Geyu carelessly placed the box containing the spider next to the wildflower, looking out through the window at the night rain, softly saying, “If I wanted it, he naturally would give it. I have never spoken, yet he understands, I don’t want it anymore.”

He was always very clever, even cleverer than she.

But wisdom to excess is a hurt.

Without her having to say a word, he was able to understand on his own.

A fine rain washes the wisteria, flowers beside the pillow, spider in the box.

A thread of vacant attachment lives, murderous intent rises at the end of a hundred memories.

Setting a square-inch net, not to kill the masses.

When spinning meets wrapping, the silk forms a large web, the spider turns into Kunlun as the Heart Examination Spider, fed with Fang Geyu’s heart’s blood coming alive, and the spider itself, the thread turns into a cocoon, sealing memories and desires within the box.

This was the only thorough method to deal with the Evil God within her.

The her who slew dragons could no longer use the power of the original heart to suppress that being.

Seeing heart, sealing heart, in this way, the True Ancestor Evil God would no longer have desires or seven emotions to feed on.

And this was also the price Fang Geyu had to pay for leaving the dark waters of the other side.

As the spider silk turned to frost, seeing the self-binding net first formed, Fang Geyu finally realized, she had indeed ended up like her mother.

The night feast, amidst the gathering.

Lights intertwined.

Even though they were fated not to hold the City Lord’s position, the rare gathering of the famous families in the hall, amidst the music and dancing, was the perfect atmosphere for making noble connections and discussing grand topics.

When the wine was at its peak, even the discontented Ying Xiu found himself being urged to drink a few more glasses by a group of female cultivators who admired his handsome youth.

Although Ying Xiu generally could handle his liquor quite well, as he uncontrollably glanced toward Su Jing, seated decorously amidst the table arrangements, she seemed out of place in this environment of lights and dancing, her cold, detached demeanor not touching mundane affairs, her gaze fixed outside the hall, never once resting upon him.

A frustrated heat filled Ying Xiu’s heart, and with the wine glass pushed to his lips by several female cultivators, he drank in one go.

With the alcohol rushing to his head, he couldn’t help but recall, more than two hundred years ago, his nuptial contract with the Taixuan Sect.

Time had passed for so long, memories from his youth were somewhat blurry and difficult to retrieve; vaguely, he only remembered his first sight of young Su Jing beneath Nanze Mountain, amidst a mess of wild vegetables, she was not his preferred type.

Later, he could not clearly remember how his dislike turned to hatred, irritation, and eventually strangers.

The image of her that lived in his memory gradually faded away, becoming unclear.