"Sigh, the kids are getting disobedient now that they're older!" Zhuang Shuxia sighed.

Zhang Xu watched as her cloak fell, revealing a face entwined with black tendrils, her eyes red as if they could drip blood. She looked at Yan Chenghuan, her eyes filled with both greed and wickedness.

The only thing missing was the image of a mother.

Zhang Xu watched with a pounding heart and secretly gave Yan Chenghuan a meaningful look.

What happened?

Originally, the demon seed would find a vessel and emerge when it gained enough power. Everyone assumed that this time, the demon seed had chosen Yan Chenghuan, since such a vessel was extremely rare. In reality, they were all wrong. The demon seed had already found a vessel—Zhuang Shuxia herself. However, unexpectedly, Zhuang Shuxia became pregnant at that time, and the demon seed split in two. One half remained in Zhuang Shuxia's body, while the other half was inherited by Yan Chenghuan.

This is also why Yan Chenghuan, despite appearing to have been demonized, still maintained a clear mind.

Zhuang Shuxia no longer looks like a normal person. Why did she lose her mind?

Yan Chenghuan's lips twitched: "Because the power of the demon seed is with me, while my mother's is demonic energy."

"I only found out about this recently after absorbing the power of the demon seed. I never imagined that my mother's mind had already been corrupted."

A look of deep sorrow appeared in Yan Chenghuan's eyes.

Zhang Xu thought to himself that he was just a boy who had just lost his father, and now, not long after, he would lose his mother as well?

Yan Chenghuan pursed his lips, staring intently at Zhuang Shuxia, trying to awaken the remaining kindness in her heart. However, Zhuang Shuxia stared at him and chuckled softly, her voice both wicked and cold.

"Son, why don't you give these things to your mother? If you give them to me, you won't be in so much pain anymore." Zhuang Shuxia's voice was full of seduction.

Yan Chenghuan closed her eyes in sorrow, the last glimmer of hope in her heart vanishing.

Fate was indeed cruel to him.

Zhang Xu carefully observed Zhuang Shuxia's face, and saw that there was a struggle in her eyes from time to time. However, the struggle was so fleeting that it was hard to catch. Yan Chenghuan was too grief-stricken to notice it.

"You're not fucking insane, why should I risk everything to give you this stuff?"

Zhuang Shuxia looked at her, her eyes filled with an even more sinister light: "Little girl, how dare you talk to me like that! Of course I'm his mother, otherwise why would I help him destroy the Hehuan Sect?"

"Yan Chenghuan only wants to find a few people involved. You wiped out the entire sect, and then all these debts will be attributed to Yan Chenghuan. What kind of mother are you? What kind of mother would betray her own son like this?"

"Hehehe, what a naive little girl! You think you can get away with just finding a few relevant people? You'll still offend the entire sect."

Zhang Xu pursed her lips tightly, but her hands behind her back moved secretly, which Yan Chenghuan saw clearly.

It's no exaggeration to say that Zhang Xu has a talent for array formations; she learned a lot from just one glance at their array formations in Yunyan Pavilion.

Now that Yan Chenghuan is seriously injured, she, as an assistant, can't do much. The best course of action now is to escape.

But where should they escape to?

It seems that only Yuqingshan, which claims to be the most orthodox in the world, can do it!

Zhang Xu, with her hands behind her back, perfectly mastered the teleportation array in Yunyan Pavilion.

"Do you think everyone is as petty as you? Righteous people naturally repay kindness and avenge wrongs. We are just following the rules."

"Little girl, are you stalling for time?"

Zhuang Shuxia, now corrupted by the demonic seed, was perfectly clear-headed and immediately realized that she was stalling for time.

"Hahaha, what an naive little girl! You think stalling for time will bring someone to rescue you?"

As Zhuang Shuxia spoke, her fingernails suddenly grew several tens of centimeters long, the sharp nails aimed at Yan Chenghuan's heart.

Just as Zhang Xu finished her action, a white light rose from beneath their feet the instant Zhuang Shuxia's hand landed on Yan Chenghuan's chest.

The two living people vanished in an instant before her eyes.

Her hand missed its mark, and Zhuang Shuxia's violent aura surged: "You brat, I'll tear you apart!"

"Ah~~~~"

Just as Zhuang Shuxia was about to follow their scent to Shi Ou, a large net descended from the sky.

The seemingly ordinary large net fell on her as if it weighed a thousand pounds, directly slamming her into the ground.

"It's time to come to an end after so many years of planning."

A sound echoed through the woods.

Halfway through their walk, Zhang Xu was accompanied by Yan Chenghuan when the system in her mind suddenly started sending out frantic alerts.

"Beep beep, progress is 91%."

"Ninety-two percent"

"Ninety-three percent."

······

A bad premonition came over Zhang Xu, and tears streamed down her face without warning as she looked at Yan Chenghuan.

Yan Chenghuan panicked immediately, feeling as if he had touched a handful of quicksand; the harder he tried, the faster the sand slipped through his fingers!

The system's prompts in Zhang Xu's mind grew faster and faster, and the light in her eyes gradually faded.

Yan Chenghuan felt as if a hole had been torn open in his heart, and something golden flew out of his chest. The tear grew larger and larger, and overwhelming pain pressed down on him from all directions.

He was momentarily out of breath.

:"don't want·······"

Zhang Xu did not respond to his calls, but slowly closed her eyes.

"Sis, aren't you going to eat?"

The long-lost voice came, and Zhang Xu opened her eyes, meeting a pair of clear eyes.

Who else could it be but his own brother, Zhang Li?

As if she had just woken from a long dream, Zhang Xu felt her eyes sting and tears streamed down her face.

"Sis, you can't be serious, can you? You're this hungry after just one meal?" The cool boy had no idea what was bothering her; he just pulled some paper from the side and placed it in her hand with a look of disgust.

"If you don't want to get married, then don't accept the marriage proposal. Your parents are just worried that you won't have anyone to take care of you in the future. Don't worry, even if you don't have anything to eat in the future, as long as I have something to eat, you will have something to eat too."

Zhang Li kept rambling on and on, but Zhang Xu's tears fell even more joyfully, and in the end she burst into loud sobs.

Zhang's parents, who were still waiting outside the door, were at a loss for what to do. When they opened the door and saw their daughter crying loudly, they couldn't help but clutch the hem of their clothes.

"Such a big child, why are you crying! I...I..."

However, Zhang Xu simply buried her head in her hands on the desk, letting the tears stream down her face.

It was like a magnificent and beautiful dream, but after waking up, all that remained was emptiness and melancholy.