They got married?
Su Qing looked at the medicine bowl that Yin Yi handed over, and then thought of the danger her master might be facing. In the end, she took the medicine bowl, tilted her head back, and drank it all in one gulp.
The bitter medicine slid down her throat, but it cleared her muddled mind somewhat. However, half an hour passed, and the guard still hadn't returned.
Su Qing sat by the window, her gaze fixed on the stone path outside the courtyard, her palms damp with cold sweat. She remembered how her master, in her past life, would always catch her wrist when she landed unsteadily when teaching her the art of lightness.
He recalled how, when she first drew the wrong talisman, her master didn't scold her but patiently taught her how to hold the pen again; he recalled how, during the chaos caused by evil spirits, he could have protected himself but instead stood in front of her... "Your Highness!" Finally, the guard hurriedly pushed open the door and knelt on one knee with a solemn expression. "Over at Qinglang Mountain... we haven't found any trace of Elder Mu Han."
The disciple searched the Elders' Hall, the disciples' quarters, and even the bamboo forest behind the mountain, but no one had seen him. They only heard that Elder Mu Han went to the Ancestral Hall for a meeting three days ago, and hasn't shown his face since. "Three days ago?" Su Qing suddenly stood up. "That's the day I woke up!"
"Grandmaster must have sensed something and acted against Master beforehand!" She grabbed the elder's token from the bedside table and was about to rush out, but Yin Yi stopped her: "Ah Li, calm down! Going to Qinglang Mountain now is like walking into a trap! Since Grandmaster dared to touch Elder Mu Han, he must have set a trap for you."
“But Master might be in danger!” Su Qing’s eyes reddened, her voice trembling with tears. “He knows I’m on Qinglang Mountain. If he’s safe, why wouldn’t he come looking for me? He must have been captured by Grandmaster, and maybe even be under some kind of evil spell…” Yin Yi’s heart clenched as he watched her anxiously on the verge of tears.
He paused for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "I will personally go to investigate the outskirts of Qinglang Mountain. You wait for news at the Prince's residence. The secret guards will protect you. If there is any news about your master, I will have someone tell you immediately."
“I want to go with you!” Su Qing shook her head, her tone firm. “I’m familiar with the terrain of Qinglang Mountain, and I might be able to find clues that the secret guards haven’t discovered. Besides… I want to personally confirm my master’s safety.”
Yin Yi looked at the stubbornness in her eyes and knew he couldn't persuade her otherwise. He sighed, reached out and brushed the stray hairs from her forehead, and softened his tone: "Okay, I'll take you. But you must stay by my side, and you're not allowed to act on your own or be impulsive."
Su Qing nodded vigorously, clenching the Elder's Token in her palm—A-Li, a name she had forgotten for many years, had become the pillar of her heart. In this life, she would not only protect the seal of the Silver King's Mansion and make her grandmaster and Bronze Sparrow pay the price, but also protect the people she wanted to protect.
"Master, wait for me. Ah Li is coming to save you." The carriage wheels rolled over the bluestone road, making a regular "creak" sound.
Su Qing gripped the Elder's Token as she sat in the carriage, her eyes fixed on the scenery outside the window. At first, the familiar streets of the capital were flashing by, but after half an hour, the scenery outside the window gradually became unfamiliar. The weeds along the roadside grew thicker and thicker, and there was no sign of heading towards Qinglang Mountain.
“Father, this is the wrong road.” Her heart tightened, and she reached out to lift the carriage curtain, trying to see the direction outside, but suddenly a very faint sweet fragrance lingered around her nose.
The fragrance was subtle, mixed in with the ambergris already present in the carriage, and could not be detected unless one sniffed carefully. She turned around abruptly to look at Yin Yi opposite her. He was still wearing a black brocade robe and sitting upright, but the gentleness in his eyes was gone, replaced by a coldness she had never seen before.
"Father, you..." Before she could finish speaking, a sudden wave of dizziness washed over her, and the scene before her eyes began to spin. She tried to raise her hand to channel her spiritual energy, but her fingertips were too weak to muster any strength, and the Elder's Token slipped from her palm, falling with a "thud" onto the floor of the carriage.
"Ah Li, stop struggling." Yin Yi's voice suddenly changed, no longer possessing any of the familiar gentleness, but instead carrying a clear yet eerie tone. "This 'Drunken Soul Incense' can even knock out high-level cultivators. You've just woken up, your body is weak, how can you withstand it?"
Su Qing's consciousness grew increasingly blurred. She stared intently at the other person's face and finally realized something was wrong—although the person's outline resembled Yin Yi, there was no faint scar behind his ear left by his father's years of wielding a sword.
It was a disguise! She tried to shout, but her throat felt blocked. In the end, she could only watch helplessly as "Yin Yi" raised his hand, a black aura striking the back of her neck, and she completely lost consciousness. When she woke up again, the sweet fragrance in her nose had dissipated, replaced by a strong smell of rouge.
Su Qing suddenly opened her eyes and found herself lying on a bed covered with red silk. She had already changed into a bright red wedding dress—embroidered with golden phoenixes circling the hem, pearls adorning the collar swaying gently with her movements, and tassels from the cuffs hanging down to her wrists, the red so striking it was almost blinding, just like the glaring red in her memory, the same red that contrasted sharply with the dark scene in the sacrificial cave. She hurriedly sat up and looked around: the room was filled with red silk, faded "囍" characters pasted on the walls, and a pair of red candles on the table, their flickering flames bathing the entire room in a crimson glow.
This wasn't the Silver Prince's Mansion, nor was it Qinglang Mountain; it was a strange courtyard furnished like an abandoned bridal chamber. "Awake?" A familiar voice came from outside the door. Jing Cong walked in, dressed in a moon-white brocade robe with dark embroidery on the hem, a smugness she'd never seen before on his face. "Miss Yin Li, how have you been?" Su Qing clenched the red silk beneath her, her fingertips turning white from the force—Jing Cong was the most favored disciple under the Qinglang Mountain Grandmaster. In her previous life, during the chaos of evil spirits, he had stood silently behind the Grandmaster, watching her being cursed by the crowd. She never imagined that in this life, he would have colluded with the Grandmaster so early on, even impersonating her father to deceive her! "It's you! That 'father' just now, was that you in disguise too?"
“You got it right.” Jing Cong walked to the bedside, looking down at her with a contemptuous tone. “So what if Yin Yi hides you away? I’ve already planted spies around him. I knew you would wake up today, and I also knew you were in a hurry to find Mu Han.”
"But it's a pity you'll never find him again—he's probably locked up in the dungeon of Qinglang Mountain by your grandmaster, waiting to be turned into a blood puppet."
"You're talking nonsense!" Su Qing jerked off the covers, ready to rush over, only to find her wrists bound by cold iron chains. The other end of the chains was fixed to the foot of the bed, the clanging of the iron rings particularly jarring in the quiet room, making it impossible to break free. Jing Cong's smile grew even colder: "I'm not talking nonsense."
The Grandmaster needs your bloodline to break the seal of the Silver King's Mansion. This wedding dress is prepared for your 'sacrifice'.
"Wait, you will 'voluntarily' come with me to the sacrificial cave to use your fingertip blood to activate the patterns on the stone platform—at that time, the seal will break, the evil spirits will be unleashed, and the Silver King's Mansion and Qinglang Mountain will become ours."
Su Qing's heart clenched. So their target was never Mu Han, but the Silver Prince's bloodline within her! Looking at the red wedding dress she was wearing, she recalled the darkness and fear in the sacrificial cave when she was ten years old. The panic in her eyes was gradually replaced by a cold hatred.
"Don't even think about succeeding." She raised her head, her eyes as firm as ice. "Even if I die, I will not help you break the seal!" "That's not up to you." Jing Cong's smile vanished as he pulled a small black porcelain bottle from his sleeve, his tone icy. "While you were unconscious, your master placed a 'Mind Control Gu' on you."
"As long as I crush this porcelain bottle, the Gu worms will wreak havoc inside you. At that time, you'll be more obedient than a puppet on strings."
After saying that, Jing Cong turned and walked towards the door. Before leaving, he glanced back at Su Qing, his eyes full of calculation: "Stay put, Miss Yin Li. Soon, you will become the 'hero' who breaks the seal." The door clicked shut, and the light of the red candle reflected in Su Qing's eyes, but it brought no warmth whatsoever.
She gripped the iron chain on her wrist, her fingertips repeatedly tracing the gaps between the links. Suddenly, Su Qing touched a tiny protrusion—a sharp iron spike at the joint of the link that hadn't been properly polished. An idea struck her, and she quietly pressed her fingertips against the spike, using her body as cover, she slowly used her spiritual power to guide the spike toward the iron chain on her wrist.
As soon as she began to circulate her spiritual energy, a sharp, stabbing pain shot through her lower abdomen, as if countless tiny insects were gnawing at her internal organs—the "Mind-Controlling Gu" had been disturbed. She groaned, cold sweat beading on her forehead, but she didn't stop. In her previous life, she had learned an emergency method of "nourishing the spirit with blood" on Qinglang Mountain. Now, she bit her tongue, using the taste of blood to temporarily suppress the Gu worms' agitation, and the spiritual energy at her fingertips suddenly intensified.
With a soft click, the gaps in the iron chain widened slightly as spiritual energy stretched them. Su Qing's eyes lit up, and she was about to exert more force when footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by the sound of a key turning in the lock. She hurriedly withdrew her spiritual energy, hid her hands behind her back, and lay back down on the bed, pretending to still be weak. The door was pushed open, but instead of Jing Cong, a young maidservant dressed in gray entered.
The maidservant, carrying a bowl of dark, medicinal soup, approached the bedside, her eyes darting around, her hand trembling slightly as she handed over the bowl. Su Qing took the bowl, her fingertips inadvertently brushing against the maidservant's hand, touching a patch of cold sweat. Suspicious, she deliberately pretended to drop it, and the bowl clattered to the ground, splashing the dark medicine all over the maidservant's skirt.
"I'm so sorry!" The maid was terrified, her face pale. She hurriedly knelt down to pick up the shards, her sleeve slipping down to reveal a deep, bone-revealing scar on her wrist—the shape of the scar was exactly the same as the one left by the Silver Prince's guards during training! Su Qing's heart skipped a beat. Taking advantage of the maid's distraction while she was picking up the shards, she asked in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Are you one of Father's people?" The maid paused in her work, quickly glanced at her, and then lowered her head again, silently mouthing, "The Prince is trapped in the dungeon of the Prince's mansion by Jing Cong. He sent me to deliver the 'antidote pill' to you. It's in the medicine."
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