Chapter Thirty-Six: The Pure Heart Fan

Xie Yingying whipped her head around and saw an elder standing on a high ledge, pointing furiously in her direction. She drew in a sharp breath. Fortunately, there were several caves along this mountain path, some of which connected to one another. Without hesitation, she bent down and slipped into a nearby cave, crawling deeper into the darkness that seemed to stretch on endlessly.

Before long, indistinct voices drifted in from outside. Xie Yingying pricked up her ears and heard two disciples from the Celestial Fox Clan grumbling discontentedly:

“That Xie Yingying, honestly—why did she have to run off? We finally had a day to rest, and she’s gone and stirred up all this trouble for us.”

“Exactly! And now the elder’s sent us to search this route. Just look at Xie Yingying—timid and frail as she is, how could she possibly have dared to take this road?”

Hearing this, Xie Yingying could only sigh inwardly. Did they not understand that “the most dangerous place is often the safest”? She waited for this group to pass, but soon another search party followed. Now she couldn’t get out even if she tried; all she could do was continue crawling through the cave in the pitch black.

The more Xie Yingying thought about it, the more infuriated she became. As she crawled forward, her clothes became smeared with mud and sand. The cave was damp, and before long she was filthy from head to toe. Not only had her escape slowed to a crawl, but she was now caked in mud, seething with anger. As she dragged herself forward, she muttered under her breath, “White Shengyun, you just won’t let me go, will you? You’d rather see me dead. The day my cultivation rivals yours, if I don’t beat you half to death, I’ll hardly be satisfied!”

Meanwhile, White Shengyun stood with his hands behind his back at the doorway of the chaotic bridal chamber, his mood seemingly calmed somewhat by White Qirui’s intervention. White Qirui sat nearby, fanning himself with a folding fan, his voice gentle as he tried to persuade him: “Xie Yingying will be found in due time. There’s no need for you to be so anxious—the guards and disciples have blocked every path out of Guifeng Mountain.”

White Shengyun responded with a cold grunt, offering no further words. Seeing this, White Qirui simply continued fanning himself at his side, offering no more advice.

Behind White Shengyun, the hand he kept hidden was quietly forming a spiritual seal, gathering power. It seemed he was communicating with something unseen.

Far away in the rear mountains, Xie Yingying was suddenly wracked with pain, her body collapsing uncontrollably to the ground, her face pressed into the mud.

This pain was far worse than anything she had endured before. The primordial force rampaged within her, like thousands of bloodthirsty ants gnawing away at her flesh, even seeming to suck the marrow from her bones. The agony from her abdomen to her chest was especially excruciating.

Xie Yingying knew that the moment she cried out, the sharp-eared Celestial Fox disciples would hear her. So she bit her lip hard, using every ounce of willpower to drag herself forward.

She had no idea how many caves the one she entered connected to, but at least she knew she was crawling downward, so her direction was right. Her hands had turned a ghastly blue-white, the veins bulging grotesquely. The wounds on her arm and wrist—inflicted by White Shengyun days before—had split open, oozing fresh blood.

The pain grew ever more intense, and her crawling slowed further. Blood trickled from her lips, but she seemed oblivious to it. She lifted her head—a simple motion now required immense effort—and saw a pale light ahead.

The cave’s exit was within reach, but the primordial force within her was as wild and furious as White Shengyun’s own temper, rampaging through her body. Xie Yingying could no longer move; she collapsed fully, letting the muddy water soak her through.

Sweat beaded on her forehead, dripping into the dirt. A suppressed moan escaped her lips, and she hurriedly covered her mouth, blood seeping between her fingers, refusing to let another sound pass.

She would rather die here in torment than return to White Shengyun’s side, only to be tortured to death by him or the women around him.

Besides, with White Shengyun’s temperament, even if she went back now, confessed her fault, and tried to please him, he’d only torment her all the more.

At the thought, Xie Yingying bit her lip even harder, as if to ruin its beauty forever.

At that moment, White Qirui continued fanning White Shengyun, his gaze catching sight of the spiritual seal being formed with the hidden hand, as spiritual power flowed out. His eyes narrowed subtly, a shift in his expression betraying his thoughts. He knew something of the situation between Xie Yingying and his younger brother; seeing this, he feared White Shengyun truly meant to kill her.

He thought of Xie Yingying, with whom he had always gotten along, and of the letter she had once written him. Lightly tapping his fan, he secretly channeled spiritual energy into it, but outwardly he maintained his gentle tone: “Shengyun, if you continue like this, she may never be able to return.”

After a long silence, White Shengyun finally spoke, his voice slow: “Third Brother, I heard you recently acquired a fine spiritual artifact—the Pure Heart Fan. One sweep can calm a person’s chaotic thoughts or dispel their anger and sorrow. If you infuse it with spiritual power, it can cloud a person’s mind, can it not?”

White Qirui started at this, hastily withdrawing his energy and coughing lightly. “Mm…yes.”

White Shengyun glanced at the folding fan in his hand and said coolly, “That would be the very fan you’re holding, wouldn’t it?”

White Qirui could only offer a wry smile. “Truly, I can hide nothing from you.”

“I won’t kill Xie Yingying. I simply want to force her to return and admit her fault,” White Shengyun said blandly, not pursuing the matter of White Qirui’s changed demeanor over Xie Yingying. “But you’re right—I have no desire to see her dead.” As he said this, a trace of interest flickered across his face.

With that, he loosened his hand from the spiritual seal before White Qirui, rolling his wrist until his spiritual power dissipated.

As the pain in Xie Yingying’s body ebbed, she was astonished. She had truly thought White Shengyun meant to kill her; after all, now that their marriage was complete, she had no further use. Yet he had relented!

Something felt off, but seeing the exit so near, she wanted nothing more than to seize this chance to escape.

After resting for a moment, her strength returned. She began crawling toward the mouth of the cave once more. Before long, she reached it. Cautiously, she poked her head out and saw that she had traversed two-thirds of the steep mountain path. Joy fluttered in her chest. Seeing no one to the left or right, she dashed out at once.

She had barely rounded a bend in the path when, stepping forward, she found herself face to face with two Celestial Fox disciples.

Xie Yingying froze in shock. For that matter, the two disciples were even more bewildered—how had they, taking a shortcut up the mountain, managed to run into the very person everyone was searching for?

“Xie Yingying?!” they exclaimed in unison.

Swallowing hard, Xie Yingying gathered spiritual energy behind her back, forcing a laugh. “Heh… I was just out for a little stroll.”

But as soon as she finished speaking, her expression turned steely, and she unleashed her spiritual power with a sudden strike.