Monster Hunt (IV)
He Shu also drew the bowstring almost at the same time. His fingertips lost their blood color and turned pale due to the extreme force, and the arrow made a faint tremor in the darkness.
This shadow demon actually dared to be so arrogant and break into the bottom of the Nine Nether Prison alone!
In the darkness, a slender figure slowly solidified. The face was still identical to Tao Hua's, except that the gentle pink dress had been replaced with a deep and depressing black robe, as if drenched in the ominous dark night.
"Huaiguang, hurry up..."
The hanging peach painting made a faint and anxious urging sound, but the voice was broken.
The shadow demon completely ignored the tense situation between He Shu and He Qi. She just waved her sleeves indifferently, and the shadow under her feet turned into tangible dark brown vines that wrapped around the waists of the two men, and suddenly exerted force to throw them towards the stone wall.
He Shu slammed heavily against the cold, hard wall, and a rusty, sweet taste surged in his throat.
"Hurry back to the Spirit Purifying Bottle...then they won't be able to catch you!"
"Haruhi..."
The shadow demon's figure floated in front of Tao Hua like a ghost, stretched out its pale and almost transparent hand, and gently stroked the cold cheek of the person in front of it.
A warm teardrop fell on her fingertips and blossomed, then was gently wiped away:
"The soul in the Spirit Purification Bottle actually left without permission..."
Her voice deepened, filled with resentment and despair that was too thick to dissolve.
"I've been hit hard, and I can't hold on for much longer, Chun Fei... I can't leave... I absolutely can't leave..."
The darkness in the prison seemed to erode the shadow demon's power, and He Shu felt that the vines binding his body were no longer so difficult to shake.
He exerted force suddenly and easily broke the already somewhat weak restraints.
Spirit Purifying Bottle...
That person’s soul…isn’t it Qingshan!
Thinking of this, he could no longer hold back, rushed forward, and asked harshly:
"You said that person—"
Before he could finish his words, a pitch-black vine came out of nowhere and wrapped around He Shu's neck with lightning speed, pulling him roughly in front of the shadow demon.
The face distorted by anger rapidly enlarged in front of his eyes, and the cold breath almost sprayed on his face.
"Uh—cough cough cough—"
A feeling of suffocation instantly gripped him, and his face quickly turned red due to lack of oxygen.
"What should I... do with you? Crane, Book."
The shadow demon's teeth were chattering, and every word seemed to be squeezed out slowly from between his teeth, filled with extreme hatred.
The veins on her forehead bulged, and her beautiful face was now hideous and ferocious, with bloodshot eyes like spider webs.
"First, he survived the calamity of heavenly thunder, then he narrowly escaped from the Heavenly Palace... Now, he has even snatched away the soul of the person I finally found, who was willing to enter the bottle for me..."
"He Shu...you who are so weak, cowardly, and ridiculously incompetent...why did you have to become my fate?"
Her voice suddenly rose in pitch, so sharp that it almost pierced the eardrums of everyone present. Even the monsters that had been imprisoned in the cages around them for who knows how many years began to be attracted by this crazy aura and let out low and excited roars.
"How can I be willing to accept this... How can I be willing to accept this, to accept that you are such a despicable person! You destroyed everything I have worked so hard on and planned for so long!"
"It's only a little bit...it's only one step away!"
The shadow demon's complaints became more and more fierce, and the strength she used to control the vines also tightened inch by inch.
"I was just one step away from escaping this damn fate...all because of you!"
The familiar feeling of dying came over him again, and He Shu struggled hard. The next moment, He Qi's sword came and cut the vines neatly. She flew forward and hit the shadow demon on the shoulder with a palm, forcing it back several steps.
"Heavenly reinforcements are arriving soon. You can't escape. There's no need to struggle any further. Surrender immediately!"
Heqi held a sword in front of Heshu to protect him, and spoke with majesty.
“Hahahaha…hahahaha——”
The shadow demon staggered to steady himself, a trace of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth.
"Surrender?"
She raised her hand and wiped away the bloodstain very slowly with her fingertips, a smile full of arrogance and contempt appeared on the corner of her mouth.
"If it weren't for your Qingshan seeking death, causing me to be suppressed by the jade bottle... you would have been rotten meat under my vines from the moment we met..."
She lowered her head and smiled, her voice hoarse and crazy,
"But... using his life in exchange for my current happiness isn't a loss..."
When the shadow demon raised his head again, his face had regained an eerie calm, but deep in his inky black pupils, there was still a heart-pounding madness surging.
She walked step by step towards He Shu, who had just escaped from suffocation and was kneeling on the ground gasping for breath.
Just as Heqi was about to step forward to stop her, she swung a vine and slammed him against the stone wall, making a dull sound.
"Without my protection, how long do you think his remaining soul can last?"
She looked down at He Shu, but her tone became particularly intimate, as if she was talking to a close friend.
"Is there anything else you want to say to him? Considering our acquaintance, when I meet him in Hell, perhaps... I could be kind enough to pass it on for you?"
"What do you think will happen to Qingshan?"
He Shu suddenly raised his head, his eyes were red with extreme anger and fear. He clenched his fists and struggled to stand up.
"Why, you can't stand it?"
There was a sudden hint of genuine and twisted pleasure in Shadow Demon's smile, as if seeing He Shu's anxious and collapsed look was his only pleasure at the moment.
"What a pity... Although I did intend to trick him into being a scapegoat, you really can't blame me for this..."
"It was he who dragged his broken and sick body to beg me..."
As she spoke, she leaned close to He Shu's ear, her breath cold.
"The pain of soul-splitting and splitting, even I, as an immortal servant, couldn't bear it... But he, a mortal, endured it..."
Shadow Demon's voice, as gentle as a lover's whisper, was like the most vicious curse. Every word struck He Shu's heart, which was about to collapse, tearing at his last bit of sanity.
"It's all for you... He Shu. In every life, he has to endure the pain of having his soul torn apart... His fragile earth soul is torn apart bit by bit, until it is completely separated in this life..."
"Under that lonely peach tree, in that cold jade vase... twenty years of waiting in the dark, he simply didn't want to forget you. He just wanted to... continue that pitiful fate with you... but unfortunately, before he could fulfill his wish, this infatuated man... is about to die..."
There was even a hint of fake sob in Ying Yao's voice. As she spoke, she stood up and walked back to Tao Hua, her eyes moving across the face that she hated.
"How similar...so similar to the foolish me back then, and also to the helpless you now."
She raised her hand to touch the cheek that was already soaked with tears, and asked unwillingly in a low voice,
"Why did I fall in love with someone I shouldn't? Why did I let this feeling that shouldn't exist... give birth to me, who is equally miserable and can only hide in the shadows?"
"My dear Haruhi..."
She sighed softly, and that sigh contained too many complicated emotions, which eventually turned into a dead silence of determination.
"Haven't you always said that you owed me and wanted to make amends? Then do this one last thing for me..."
Black energy surged in the Shadow Demon's hands, and the entangled vines instantly hardened and deformed, turning into a sharp thorn, aiming at Tao Hua's heart and stabbing fiercely!
"Come with me...put an end to this ridiculous thing once and for all!"
"stop--"
Sang Li's sharp shout was heard, and she finally broke through the numerous obstacles and arrived. Several poisonous needles with a cold green light shot out rapidly. However, a thick wall made of countless wildly dancing vines instantly stood up out of thin air, blocking her way.
Her face was solemn, and the bone fan in her hand danced wildly. Sharp arcs of light cut through the vines that kept attacking her, but she was unable to break through for a while.
He Shu took a deep breath of the foul air filled with blood and coldness. He drew his bow again, aiming the arrow at the shadow demon that was flying in the air to avoid the sword light of He Qi.
"Are you going to kill me, Xiao Heshu?"
The shadow demon was clearly at the end of her strength. Her face began to crack, and thick black mist emerged from the cracks. The blood that continued to flow from the corners of her mouth dyed her jaw red, but the smile on her face was still crazy and unrestrained, with a brilliance that was burning out even at the brink of death.
"My death is not a pity...but what about your Qingshan..."
He Shu paused when he heard this, and the arrow that was ready to shoot deflected slightly, shooting towards the stone wall on the side with a whistling sound, and was firmly nailed into it, with the tail of the arrow still trembling.
"What do you mean!"
He roared, his voice distorted by fear.
Heqi also suddenly stopped her attack. She looked at the distracted Heshu with concern. Her lips moved a few times, but in the end she couldn't say anything. Her eyes were full of complexity and reluctance.
"Well, I mean..."
The shadow demon's voice suddenly became vague, with a strange allure.
"He Shu, how about you commit suicide for love?"
She paused, tilted her head, and continued in a tone that was sincere to the point of being cruel:
"So... you can be reunited with him... Everyone's dead, and this disgusting drama should end... Don't you feel tired of the endless entanglement in life after life? I'm tired of watching..."
"He Shu, don't listen to her nonsense!"
Sang Li chopped the vines vigorously while shouting anxiously:
"Master must have a way to save Qingshan!"
"Hahahaha—what nonsense?"
The speed at which the shadow demon's body cracked suddenly increased, and black mist surged out.
Her body could no longer support itself and completely shattered like a broken porcelain doll. A ball of rolling black mist suddenly rushed out from the pile of broken flesh and blood and quickly penetrated into Tao Hua's eyebrows.
"ah--"
A shrill scream burst out from her throat. Tao Hua suddenly raised her head, her pupils had turned pitch black, a cold smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, and she stared straight at He Shu.
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