Chapter 44 shows great awareness; he's a good dog.

Inside the sedan chair, Xie Xun steadied himself amidst the swaying.

Only then did he realize that a tentacle-like vine had sprouted from beside him, with some twisted runes floating on it, which he couldn't understand at all. But it felt like a sticky liquid. He swiftly cut the vine off and casually threw it away.

The nauseating sensation from earlier made his stomach churn.

In a flash, he remembered that his great-grandfather had sketched out a similar scene in his notes.

The Red and White Double Evils clash, Yin and Yang are in opposition. The pure Yin one rides in the sedan chair of the dead, bound by the covenant of a ghost marriage. At the third quarter of the hour of midnight, the path to the underworld is opened, and the soul is offered as a sacrifice, so that it can be reborn.

No wonder the Liu family went to such lengths to set up this scheme, even using the Yin Banner and the Red and White Double Fiends; it turns out they had this in mind.

They not only want his life, but also want that old monster from the Liu family to be resurrected in his body!

They want to use him as a sacrifice and even steal his body?

The Liu family doesn't deserve it!

Having figured out the key point, Xie Xun was no longer flustered.

He gripped the Seven Star Sword tightly in his hand, and a righteous aura slowly enveloped his entire body.

Just then, the bottom and walls of the sedan chair suddenly cracked open, and countless barbed vines shot out like venomous snakes, attacking from all directions, intending to bind his limbs.

"That's disgusting."

Despite the danger, Xie Xun remained calm. With a sudden flick of his wrist, the Soul-Locking Chain wrapped around his arm as if it were alive, and the hook, following his movement, firmly hooked onto the crossbeam of the sedan chair roof with a clang.

He used the momentum to leap up, his body nimbly suspended in the air, narrowly avoiding the stench-filled waves of vines beneath his feet.

The vines' attack did not weaken in the slightest; instead, they seemed to be aiming straight upwards.

Xie Xun's eyes sharpened, and the Seven Star Sword flipped in his wrist, slashing at the ferocious vines.

In an instant, the vines were easily severed like rotten wood, and black sap splattered everywhere, making a hissing, corrosive sound.

Xie Xun frowned as he looked at the severed but still wriggling vines.

He remembered that next to the record about the Red and White Duo, there was a line of small vermilion annotations:

The malevolent energy condenses into vines, binding spirits and locking souls; this is the art of Yin Wood borrowing life, often coexisting with those burdened with deep resentment.

No wonder they chose to open the Yin Road in the Ghost Market; the accumulated Yin energy here for centuries is the perfect breeding ground for these evil trees.

“Use the resentment of those who were buried alive to nourish the Yin wood, and then use it to take my life, ha!”

Xie Xun sneered, "What a clever tactic."

Suddenly, Fu Qinghuai's voice came from outside the sedan chair, "Xunxun, be careful of the vines, they will steal your yang energy!"

As expected, the severed vines wriggled rapidly as if they were alive, with fine blood vessels extending from the cuts, greedily absorbing Xie Xun's pure yin energy.

These vines have really stopped pretending.

But he knew perfectly well that fighting against these endless vines was a waste of energy. No matter how sharp the Seven Star Sword was, it could not cut through all these filthy creatures that lived by the Yin Path.

We must find the source!

As he swung his sword to cut down the approaching vines, he quickly surveyed his surroundings.

Through the sedan curtain, he noticed that the rhythm of all the vines' attacks was synchronized with the movements of the paper effigy outside. The paper figure had a vermilion dot on its pale face, and its hands were rapidly forming hand seals.

It's as if someone is controlling these vines through paper figures.

That's it!

"Fu Qinghuai!"

Xie Xun shouted, and at the same time, he changed the direction of the Seven Star Sword, ignoring the surrounding vines, and concentrated all his power on the tip of the sword. With a righteous aura, he pierced through the air and stabbed straight in the direction of the paper figure, "Strike the cinnabar mark between its eyebrows!"

Almost at the same instant he spoke, Xie Xun yanked back the Soul-Locking Chain with his left hand, using the force to shoot himself out of the hole in the sedan roof like an arrow.

"Crack—!"

The instant he stepped off the red sedan chair, a brief crack appeared in the invisible barrier, and countless vines followed closely behind Xie Xun, which he used as stepping stones.

Fu Qinghuai, who had been trapped on the outside and unable to attack the inside, had been waiting for this moment!

The shadowy figure darted in through the fleeting gap like a ghost, followed by a thick black mist that then transformed into countless fine threads that quickly wrapped around the paper figure's hands as it made hand seals.

Attacked from both inside and outside, the righteous aura of the Seven Star Sword and the sinister ghostly power of Fu Qinghuai, two completely opposite but equally terrifying forces, struck their target simultaneously.

Before the paper figure could even utter a sound, it was torn into countless flying fragments by the combined attack of the human and the ghost.

It exploded with a bang.

"Search!"

The whole process took only a few seconds. Without the support of the vines, Xie Xun suddenly fell, and at that moment, a black shadow swept past like a strong wind.

Fu Qinghuai caught him in mid-air, supporting his knees with one hand and his back with the other, giving Xie Xun a steady princess carry. The strength of the embrace was so tight that it almost felt like he was melting into Xie Xun's body, and he suddenly felt a sense of relief at having regained what he had lost.

The yin energy naturally condensed, forming a cushioning force beneath them.

He lowered his head and buried his face in Xie Xun's neck, took a deep breath, and said in a hoarse voice, "We finally got it back."

This whisper was soft, yet it was more affectionate than any love confession.

Just now, he watched helplessly as Xie Xun was snatched into the red sedan chair, while he himself was blocked outside by the barrier. For the first time, Fu Qinghuai tasted the feeling of powerlessness.

That wisp of remnant soul used his power to snatch Xie Xun right in front of him!

Fu Qinghuai knew that neither of them wanted to confront each other directly, because that would only result in mutual destruction.

The other party had precisely identified this point, which is why they used this delaying tactic to carry out a deceptive substitution right in front of him.

The mere thought of another version of himself touching Xie Xun, groping Xie Xun, and attempting to devour Xie Xun nearly tore his reason apart with a violent killing intent.

Xie Xun was held too tightly by him, and moved uncomfortably, but stopped when he felt Fu Qinghuai trembling slightly.

He didn't understand what it meant for the evil spirit to have snatched back something it had lost and then regained.

Their relationship was nothing more than mutual exploitation. Fu Qinghuai needed his pure Yin constitution to nourish his remnant soul, and he needed Fu Qinghuai's ghostly power for protection.

Even though the evil spirit kept saying those ambiguous things to tease him and try to get closer to him, Xie Xun didn't take it seriously.

But now, the tight, painful embrace, and those suppressed words, weighed heavily on his heart.

A strange feeling, like tiny vines, gradually wrapped around his heart, bringing with it an indescribable throbbing.

But then he felt that it was because he regarded himself as an object of possession, so he would frantically snatch him back if anyone tried to take him away from Fu Qinghuai.

But is that really the case?

Xie Xun pursed his lips, trying to brush off this feeling with his usual assertiveness, but the words that came out were unusually hesitant, "You..."

What's wrong with me?

Fu Tinghan stepped back slightly, her peach blossom eyes fixed on him, not missing any subtle expression on his face, a hint of tension in her eyes, "Xunxun, what do you want to ask?"

"...It's nothing." Xie Xun paused, then said stiffly, "Don't hug me so tightly."

He tried to bring the awkward atmosphere between them back on track. It was as if, as long as they didn't delve into it, that moment of wavering had never existed.

"Crossing the river and then dismantling the bridge?"

Fu Qinghuai tightened his grip, his usual nonchalant tone returning, "Xunxun, what a cruel heart you have~"

He spoke in a half-truth, deliberately suppressing the surging emotions in his heart, and with the person in his arms, he nimbly spun around, avoiding the last few wisps of dissipating filthy and yin energy, and landed steadily on a clean open ground a little distance away.

Xie Xun pursed his lips, struggling to land. The hook of the Soul-Locking Chain on his wrist had somehow become deeply embedded in Fu Qinghuai's arm, blood slowly flowing down the chain.

But Fu Qinghuai didn't even flinch. Instead, he hugged him even tighter in that position, his peach blossom eyes filled with his usual playful teasing.

"If I hadn't caught you just now, wouldn't Xunxun have fallen?" As he spoke, his breath brushed against Xie Xun's ear in an ambiguous manner.

"Let go if you don't want it to hurt more."

Xie Xun withdrew the hook and disappeared into his arm's line of sight, feeling a strange pang in his heart.

This soul-locking chain was originally the reins he used to restrain evil spirits, but at this moment, even though Fu Qinghuai was bleeding profusely from being pierced by the soul-locking chain, he still had to protect himself.

He couldn't quite describe the feeling, but he subconsciously loosened the chains, pulled them back, and jumped down from Fu Qinghuai's arms.

The moment his toes touched the ground, Fu Qinghuai wrapped his arms around his waist from behind, rested his chin on his shoulder, and let out a low, husky laugh.

"Why did Xunxun put away that Soul-Locking Chain..."

Fu Qinghuai deliberately rubbed his waist with his uninjured hand. "Are you worried about me?"

Xie Xun tried to push his elbow back, but his opponent anticipated his movement and easily intercepted it.

"Don't flatter yourself," Xie Xun sneered. "If you want to keep getting beaten up, I can grant your wish."

"Don't give me irrelevant answers, Xunxun. Don't you feel any heartache?"

Fu Qinghuai took advantage of the situation and rubbed against the back of Xie Xun's neck, then waved his injured arm in front of Xie Xun as if to show off.

The wound pierced by the hook healed almost completely in a short time, leaving only a faint red mark. The demon's words remained quite ambiguous.

“My blood has seeped into the Soul-Locking Chains, so from now on... can Xunxun tighten these chains at any time, like tethering me to a dog?”

Xie Xun: "..."

He never expected that Fu Qinghuai would not only objectify him, but also treat him as his dog.

They're quite self-aware.

"Good, very aware, a good dog."