Chapter 52

The sound was crisp and clear to Shen Qing, pleasantly ringing in her ears, leaving her feeling refreshed.
Although the slap was loud, it didn’t actually hurt at all. The only effect was the residual moisture and warmth from her palm inadvertently transferring onto Li Daoxuan’s face.
He tilted his head slightly, pressing his cheek in acknowledgment, and his gaze quietly drifted toward Shen Qing.
She sat upright, meeting his eyes with a look both innocent and obedient, and said in a sweet, clear voice, “Just joking, Your Highness. Your magnanimity surely makes you above quarreling with a mere girl like me.”
She had echoed his words back to him, verbatim.
Li Daoxuan let out a faint, enigmatic laugh and slowly wiped the water off his face.
The quieter someone is, the stranger they often seem. Seeing Li Daoxuan so calm and expressionless, Shen Qing instinctively took a step back, her eyes unconsciously wary.
In a low voice, Li Daoxuan said, “Lady Shen is right. My generosity is vast; I wouldn’t deign to quarrel with a mere girl.”
He emphasized the words vast generosity deliberately.
“Hmph.” Shen Qing squinted, letting out a barely audible, cat-like snort of disdain.
At that moment, something unusual occurred.
Both of them looked up. The red glow above the Yuan Chun Pavilion vanished instantly, and the previously dense aura of demonic energy dissipated completely.
Shen Qing’s calf muscles tensed instinctively. She wanted to rise, but seeing Li Daoxuan’s firm posture, she relaxed again. Right now, even if she rushed out, it would be pointless. As long as the fiend lingered, not a single strand of her hair could escape notice.
She reasoned that as long as the people in the Yuan Chun Pavilion were still here, they would eventually return.
Li Daoxuan observed the dissipating dark energy and pinched the silk pouch at his waist. Feeling it warm, he opened it and took out a yellow talisman folded into a triangle.
The talisman radiated heat like a freshly heated branding iron, scorching to the touch. Yet Li Daoxuan’s palm remained perfectly unharmed, smooth and unscathed. His brow remained calm, showing no sign of pain.
Whether it was the talisman’s hidden power preventing harm, his own pain tolerance, or both, no one could tell.
He lifted the talisman carefully, examining it intently. Shen Qing, drawn by his serious expression, moved closer to look. But even after studying it for a while, the secret within eluded them.
Puzzled, she asked, “What are you looking at?”
Li Daoxuan replied coldly, “The talisman.”
Shen Qing rolled her eyes. Of course it’s a talisman! she thought. “I mean, what are you doing with it?” she pressed.
Silence answered her.
Unbeknownst to her, Li Daoxuan was initiating his first strategic move against the opponent through that talisman.
Back in the Bai Shuisha’s underground palace, he had laid a formation using several talismans along the path to monitor its movements. He knew that such a small talisman array was merely an illusion before true strength, and now, it was time for the host to discover it.
Inside the palace, lamps cast dim light against the walls. The young man’s eyes reflected the flickering flames like a lamp sinking into an endless abyss.
He wrapped the final white silk around his wrist. Once the jagged scar was sealed, he allowed himself a faint smile of satisfaction.
Moments later, he moved his piercing gaze to a corner. With a flick of his sleeve, several yellow talismans, weighed down by stones, slid into his fingertips.
These talismans were naturally hostile to demonic spirits. The faint sizzling sound erupted immediately, scorching his fingers to the point of blood and charred flesh, and tendrils of blue smoke wafted from between his fingers.
He seemed unfazed by the pain, staring at the talismans in his grasp with delight.
A lamp wick on the wall burst mid-flame, sending black smoke curling over him and drawing the deadness from his pupils.
When the young man lifted his narrow eyelids, his eyes had turned a mesmerizing, blood-red hue.
He pinched the yellow talisman, brought it to his lips, and whispered, “Break.”
Far above at Huachun Pool, flames erupted in Li Daoxuan’s hand, startling Shen Qing.
Seeing him still standing there, oblivious, she hurriedly slapped the burning talisman away, her brows nearly forming an angry eight-shaped crease. “Are you stupid?! Doesn’t it hurt? Why don’t you let go?!”
The talisman vanished in green smoke before touching the water.
Shen Qing inspected his hand carefully. Apart from slight redness, there were no blisters or burns. She finally relaxed. It wouldn’t interfere with his sword work; unnecessary injuries now could reduce their odds against the fiends later.
Li Daoxuan withdrew his hand and fixed his gaze on her. “A minor backlash can’t harm me.”
She lifted her eyes slowly, frowning. Just as she was about to scold him, she froze.
His eyes shone like stars, radiating a brilliance almost too bright to behold.
An inexplicable aura enveloped him, like a raging tide surging outward.
Shen Qing frowned, trying to discern it. She couldn’t define the emotion. If she had to describe it, it was as though Li Daoxuan had become a freshly sharpened sword, cold, sharp, taut, ready for battle, thirsting for blood.
In truth, he was awakened by a formidable opponent, a rare encounter that excited him. Even the sword at his waist seemed aware of his indignation, humming in resonance.
Closing his eyes, he tried to calm the storm within, but the girl’s anxious expression flashed in his mind. The lingering warmth of her fingertips seemed to creep onto his palm.
He slowly clasped his hands behind his back, rubbing thumb and forefinger, as if both banishing and cherishing the warmth.
“What are you doing again?! I told you, don’t touch me if nothing’s wrong! Do you know if they find my body, we’re both dead?!”
The young man had just discarded the ineffective talismans. The red-clad girl, furious, strode up, grabbed his collar, and scolded, “Did you forget what I said?!”
Compared to her fierce glare, he remained calm, even smiling. He leaned into her motion and pressed a kiss to her lips.
“Don’t be angry. I’ve hidden your body. No one will find it.”
“Ranran, I missed you,” he sighed.
The kiss extinguished her anger. Ranran pushed him away disdainfully and stepped back.
Approaching, she noticed a coffin in the stone chamber. The corpse inside was gone, leaving only a neatly folded crimson wedding gown.
Shi Changfeng’s voice sounded behind her: “You went straight to the Yuan Chun Pavilion upon waking. I didn’t even get to see you first. If your body hadn’t been here, you might not have come back at all.”
He didn’t wait for her response, smiling as he lifted the gown. “I had originally prepared a wedding gown you liked, but it was tampered with and soiled. I went out recently to find a new one, even better than the last.”
He tenderly wrapped his arms around her slender waist, chin resting on her shoulder, and whispered, “Ranran, you said that once you woke, we’d marry. Now the gown is ready, and you’re awake. Let’s marry.”
Ranran, exasperated, said, “Shi Changfeng, let go.”
“No. You haven’t agreed yet. I won’t let go,” he said softly, lingering.
She sighed, realizing he was troublesome and she wanted to return to handle some matters. Patience won, she said, “Fine. I agree.”
Thinking of the tricky young man in the Yuan Chun Pavilion, she smiled, “Once we marry, we’re one. If I have difficulties, you’ll help me, right?”
Shi Changfeng slowly released her, ignoring the calculating gleam in her eyes. Delighted, like a child whose wish had come true, he said, “Everything you said is right, Ranran. We’re already one anyway… the rest we’ll deal with outside.”
He led her out of the stone chamber.
Outside, he pointed to a sleeping Red Lotus in the corner, happily saying, “Remember the little one? When I came of age, you gave me that pot of midday lotus. I never forgot it. I had them place it in my tomb.”
“I’ve been nurturing it all these years. See how beautiful it’s grown?”
Ranran glanced at the Red Lotus casually, having no recollection, and said, “Ugly.”
Shi Changfeng’s smile immediately fell. He looked at the sleeping Red Lotus, grasped it in the air, and his carefully nurtured pet burst into a spray of blood mist without even a scream.
“Sorry, Ranran. I let it offend your eyes,” he said, showing no sadness, only regret. If I knew you didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have let it out.
Ranran snorted. Seeing the dazzling red wedding gown fitted on her, Shi Changfeng’s joy returned, quickening their pace.
They arrived at a pond. Shi Changfeng raised his hand, and a small boat surfaced. They boarded and crossed to a wall mural on the opposite shore.
A familiar chant reached them again:
“Money paper strewn everywhere, coffins yellow, white, and black.
Drums blare, flowers red, soft palanquins.
Red and white collide, suona blares.
In life together, in death as well.”
Ranran furrowed her brow. “What’s that?”
Shi Changfeng said, “I wrote it for us. See, how fitting.”
He traced his fingers over each painting until they reached the last two.
The penultimate painting depicted a large tree by a river, with a lone bridal sedan chair positioned right in the center of the water. At the same time, a few people carried a coffin along the path nearby.
The young man dressed in mourning clothes sat atop that coffin, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the bridal sedan in the river, blood tears streaming from his eyes.
“At that time, I was nothing but a lone spirit, forced to sit upon my own coffin and watch you. I wanted to reach out to you, but you were in that bridal sedan, unwilling to even glance my way.”
The final painting showed only the river and the tree. The young man stood in the middle of the river, staring straight at the tree, one hand outstretched in its direction. On the tree sat the young woman in her wedding attire, returning his gaze, her hands neatly folded on her lap.
“You promised that after I died, you would come for me in your wedding dress, yet you left me alone in the river all these years. Ranran, how cruel your heart is.”
Shi Ranran smiled as she questioned him, “But didn’t I ask you back then? You agreed to die for me, didn’t you? And later, you came back, even becoming the Bai Shuisha. How impressive.”