Chapter 16

The gale blew in gusts as the carriage pulled to a stop on the grassy plains. Green phoenix birds frolicked in the wind, while inside the carriage sat a figure with hair like frost and snow, his ten fingers bound by red threads.

Moments later, the carriage curtains were drawn aside from the outside. A man in black entered, wearing a ghastly ghost mask with green face and fangs; his middle finger was also wrapped in a red thread.

"You've come," Siming said with a smile.

The masked man glanced several times at the ten flawless red threads on Siming's hands before taking a seat. Siming poured him a cup of tea and asked with a grin:

"Whom did you tie that red thread to?"

The masked man touched the thread on his own middle finger, his tone devoid of much surprise. "You saw her?"

Siming's smile did not fade. "Should I call you bold or something else? To conjure a 'fated connection' for a man's daughter right in front of her own father—if I hadn't helped you cover your tracks, you would have been exposed long ago."

"Thank you," Yexiao replied.

"Was this why you were in such a rush to get this 'Thread of Fate' from me in the first place?" Siming asked leisurely.

"She is my wife," Yexiao whispered. "I cannot rest easy."

Siming smiled, not asking what it was he was worried about.

Yexiao took the teacup and drank a few mouthfuls. "Lord Tianzhu wants me to steal the 'Thread of Fate' again. Are you going to give it to me directly, or should we have a fight to put on a show?"

Siming raised an eyebrow in surprise. "What? Is he trying to conjure a 'fated connection' too?"

Yexiao set the teacup down and tapped his fingers against the table. "He has not granted me a title."

"He is testing you. You still haven't earned his trust?" Siming leaned back against the couch, winding a strand of his own white hair around his finger.

"I blocked the Weak Water Sword for him, so he at most thinks I am useful. Deceiving Lord Tianzhu is no simple matter; this request to steal the 'Thread of Fate' is merely a ruse. He suspects my relationship with you. The Seven Absolutes of the Demonic Gate are all still alive, and it won't be easy for me to rise to the top."

"By the sound of it, do you intend to kill one of the 'Absolutes' to take their place?"

Yexiao laughed aloud but did not answer.

Siming was not in a hurry either. He brewed a few pots of tea in a relaxed manner, his head bowed as he stroked the red thread on his index finger.

After both had politely finished their tea, they retreated outside the carriage without haste. Siming removed the red thread from his thumb and handed it to him. "Go back and finish your task. I don't want to have to break another carriage."

Yexiao glanced once more at the red thread on Siming's index finger, but ultimately, he did not ask where that one came from.

Watching his retreating back, Siming lowered his head and touched the thread on his own index finger. He murmured to himself, "Truly remarkable... a 'prescience' that even Heaven's Fate cannot achieve..."

Once out of Siming's sight, Yexiao struck his own chest with a palm without hesitation. He gritted his teeth as blood spilled from his lips and veins bulged on his arms. After a long while, he leaned against the wall and began to walk in a certain direction.

Wei City.

Yexiao climbed over the city wall in a disheveled state. A black snake slithered to his feet; he ignored the creature following him, adjusted his mask, and headed toward the teahouse in the city.

"You've returned?" Lord Tianzhu asked softly.

A black snake crawled from behind him onto his hand, slowly coiling around his wrist like a bracelet.

Yexiao panted as he threw a red thread onto the table. "Siming told me to give this to you. He doesn't trust me; this injury was inflicted by him on purpose."

"You've worked hard," Lord Tianzhu said gently. "Dealing with Siming is not easy, is it? He is not so easily fooled. I suppose this 'Thread of Fate' is what he wanted you to give me in exchange for my trust?"

Yexiao neither nodded nor shook his head. He stood calmly to the side of the teahouse. Lord Tianzhu sighed, "The next time you see him, tell him you have gained my trust. I will find a day to grant you a title, but you will have to continue dealing with him for a while longer."

He flicked his finger, and the black snake on his wrist hissed. Lord Tianzhu lowered his head and smiled kindly. "Missing Little White? Don't be impatient; I will take you to see him in a few days."

Yexiao watched coldly as he spoke to his snake. He looked upward as if by accident, where several red-eyed demonic beasts were circling, staring at him with greedy, covetous eyes, yet seemingly held back by some constraint.

"I am going to Baiyue. Will you accompany me?" Lord Tianzhu asked harmoniously.

"I will," Yexiao replied concisely.

"The Absolute of a Thousand Faces told me the River of Oblivion Flower has been stolen. This is troublesome. If the 'Three Sages' cannot be summoned back, then the tasks that follow will be difficult to execute..." Lord Tianzhu rested his chin on one hand, sounding neither regretful nor indifferent, as if merely complaining in passing.

"Who stole it?" Yexiao asked with a frown.

Lord Tianzhu looked him over for a moment, then smiled and said a name. Yexiao remained expressionless. "Then there is no hope. I don't have the capability to steal anything from the Nine-Fold Mountain."

"That is true," Lord Tianzhu chuckled softly. "Do you think that person truly has a weakness?"

Yexiao arched a brow ever so slightly. He knew who Lord Tianzhu was referring to, but he had not expected him to be so blunt, as if he were certain Yexiao had a way to deal with that person.

He remained silent.

"I hear he has a daughter." Lord Tianzhu studied Yexiao's expression, but all his emotions were hidden behind the mask; at least from the outside, there was nothing unusual.

"Do you think we should invite his daughter to be our guest?" Lord Tianzhu asked with a chuckle.

Yexiao refused flatly, "If you want to court death, don't drag me into it."

The black snake hissed a warning at him, but was stroked soothingly by Lord Tianzhu. Its pitch-black eyes stared at him unblinkingly.

"With the River of Oblivion Flower gone, we must think of other ways..." Lord Tianzhu sighed gloomily. Yexiao felt that with this man's twisted and treacherous mind, he likely already had a plan. He said nothing and stood coldly in place to regulate his breathing. One was talking to a snake, the other was closing his eyes to rest, and neither disturbed the other until a man walked in from outside. He was a man in red robes, hair disheveled, covering most of his face. His fingernails were extremely long and tinged with black, and his skin looked as if it hadn't seen the sun in centuries. Looking closely, the red robe was dripping with blood; it was not a robe at all, but a garment of blood.

He tilted his head and glanced at Yexiao. His pupils were red, glowing with a fierce light, as if he hadn't had time to restrain his murderous aura. It was not the look one gives a human.

Lord Tianzhu looked at Yexiao, and Yexiao turned and left with agility.

He wandered aimlessly through the city for a while, seeing a blood-stained hairpin dropped on the ground. Demons were not interested in human objects; they never cared what they left behind after a massacre, nor did they care about the consequences. In the past, she had detested demons; if she saw him consorting with them, she would likely never see him again for as long as she lived.

Yexiao picked up the hairpin, his thoughts drifting to the past. When they were first married, she was frail and highly sensitive; she would feel nauseous at the slightest scent of blood on him. Over time, he had to burn incense and cleanse his hands for an hour every time he went to see her. And later...

Yexiao held his forehead, his expression beneath the mask extremely gloomy. She hated him because of her father, and hated even more the culprits who caused it all. He had no argument against that; it was indeed he and those people who caused her to lose her family.

Many things happened over those years. Her senior brother took her father's place, and so she also grew to hate the senior brother who had raised her. But the relationship between them was tangled and impossible to sever. Yexiao did not like her senior brother, but she could not leave him, even insisting that he wait outside the door every time they were together, just in case she fainted.

Later, he felt that this was not necessarily a bad thing. That man was always aloof and indifferent, yet every time those moments occurred, his expression would show a flicker of turbulence.

Yexiao felt he should thank her senior brother, for it was he who had personally delivered her to him.

She did not love him.

Yexiao knew this clearly. She was, after all, a wife he had snatched, and there were countless wolves outside eyeing him, waiting for any mistake so they could replace him.

Fortunately, this time he had made full preparations, willing to cooperate with that person from the Heaven's Fate Pavilion just to bind her to himself.

Yexiao touched the red thread on his middle finger through the mask. He could not see her yet. He suddenly recalled Lord Tianzhu's words. Something was wrong. Why had he noticed her so early?

By rights, her encounter with Lord Tianzhu should have been years away, and the same went for the one from the Heaven's Fate Pavilion. They should have had little intersection, and she had never mentioned her relationship with Siming before...

Yexiao's face grew dark. There were too many variables. He had to deal with the immediate trouble first. Lord Tianzhu was using the "Witch King" to cultivate a gu. He would be going to Baiyue next, where he might face that person. And Siming... where did Siming get that "Thread of Fate"?

The image of that red thread on the index finger flashed through his mind, but a key clue was missing. He had to force himself to stop thinking about it for the time being.

Yexiao walked to the city gate without realizing it. Two figures were hanging upside down from the high wall, swaying in the wind. One of them laughed and greeted him, "Guess who I am~"

Yexiao turned and walked away expressionlessly. The Venerable Wubei and the Venerable Wuxi hanging beside him whispered to each other, "Wuxi, did he not recognize us?"

Venerable Wuxi was hanging her head, trying to sleep. Hearing this, she said impatiently, "So noisy!"

With that, she kicked Venerable Wubei off the wall.

Venerable Wubei let out a miserable shriek as he tumbled down, his head and neck becoming misaligned. He shouted, "Help! Is there anyone to take care of this!"

Venerable Wuxi stared at Yexiao's back, let out a lazy yawn, and jumped down, stepping on Venerable Wubei's head. A large hole instantly appeared in Wubei's skull, and red and white fluids spilled all over the ground.

Venerable Wuxi laughed, "Wubei, you look much better this way."

"Really?" Venerable Wubei grinned, looking quite pleased. Venerable Wuxi crouched down to sew his head back on. "Do you want to go see Yexiao's wife?"

Venerable Wubei asked, "You know who his wife is?"

Venerable Wuxi said triumphantly, "I saw it in his dreams."

Venerable Wubei gasped, "Wuxi, you've learned Zhuang Zhou's 'Dream Entry'?"

As she sewed, Venerable Wuxi grew impatient and accidentally misaligned his eyes. She tore all the thread out again. "I didn't just see it, I heard it too... Tsk, he hides it so well. If he hadn't dreamt of her every night, I would never have found an opportunity. Hee hee, his wife is so beautiful, I want her too."

Venerable Wubei reminded her, "Wuxi, you are a woman."

Venerable Wuxi grew angry and embarrassed. "I want her anyway! I'm going to snatch his wife!"

Venerable Wubei laughed loudly, "Then I want her too!"

The two Venerables, Wubei and Wuxi, colluded and immediately set a grand goal. "We are going to sleep with Yexiao's wife!"

"Snatch Yexiao's woman!"

"Be the father and mother of Yexiao's children!"

"Does Yexiao have children?"

"I don't know!"

"Hahahahahaha!"