Ling Chen didn't rush to say anything to her, but instead strolled leisurely through the forest, a relaxed expression on his face.
Tang Yinmeng staggered ten steps behind him.
With every step she took, the previous abrasion on her ankle sent a piercing pain through her.
"How much longer do we have to walk?" she finally rasped, her voice dry and hoarse like sandpaper.
Ling Chen's steps suddenly halted.
He didn't turn around. Instead, he abruptly flung his right hand backward.
Whoosh—
A dark red blood blade grazed past Tang Yinmeng's ear, severing the quietly hanging, barbed man-eating vines behind her. Sticky green sap splashed onto her neck, chilling her to the bone.
"If you want to feed the vines, you can stop now. I wonder if the vines will play some strange games with you like tentacles?"
Ling Chen chuckled.
Tang Yinmeng froze in place.
Cold sweat drenched her back. She looked at the figure in front of her, swallowed by the darkness, and suddenly realized that she hadn't stepped into a sanctuary at all, but another deeper hunting ground.
This place was full of mutated vines.
After walking for a long time, the two finally reached a moderately sized cave. Ling Chen lit a bonfire.
"Knife."
He held out his palm.
Tang Yinmeng hesitated before handing over the dissection knife. The moment the blade left her palm, the mouth of the human-face pattern on it subtly curved upwards.
Ling Chen's fingertips traced the blade. He appeared to be playing with the knife, but in reality, he had secretly plunged a probe of consciousness into Tang Yinmeng's brain.
Buzz—
The Soul Jade Physique's icy will was like a stone dropped into a deep pool, and countless shattered memory fragments, like a bursting dam, violently surged into his mind.
Heavy snow buried the desolate mountain temple.
A man in luxurious robes placed two swaddled infants into the merit box. As he turned, the jade pendant at his waist flashed with the ancient character for "Tang."
The infants' amber pupils in the box reflected the wind and snow; they neither cried nor fussed.
The torrent of memories receded. Ling Chen suddenly opened his eyes, his crimson pupils locking onto Tang Yinmeng.
His gaze, like a surgical knife, sliced through her dirty face, piercing directly into the honey-colored amber pupils that shimmered under the cold flame.
Tang Hongxi.
The previous sect leader of the Tang Family.
That absurd figure, infamous in the hidden world for his romantic and unfaithful nature, who left behind countless illegitimate children.
And the eyes before him were identical to those of the infant in the merit box from his memory.
Even more ironic was Tang Buyu.
The young man who manipulated Metal Storm at Linghui Academy, the one who would become the future head of the Tang Family, wore the same Chi Dragon-patterned jade pendant at his waist when he fled the Tang Family—the very one Tang Hongxi had worn when abandoning the infants in the memory fragment.
Two abandoned illegitimate children, thrown into the same hell.
Interesting, interesting! Haha!
"Tang Yinmeng."
Ling Chen suddenly spoke, his voice carrying an all-knowing playfulness. "Was that name given by your mother, or the orphanage?"
Tang Yinmeng was struck as if by lightning.
Her amber pupils abruptly constricted to pinpricks. Her body uncontrollably recoiled half a step, her back slamming heavily against the damp cave wall.
"How do you know?" Her voice trembled beyond control. "About my mother's affairs?"
"I know more than just her."
Ling Chen's fingertips lightly tapped the blade, making a cold clacking sound.
"I also know that she hated that man until her death. Tang Hongxi."
"Your mother, when she was dying in her sickbed, must have told you that man's name, didn't she?"
Tang Yinmeng's mind went blank.
That name, buried deep in her memory, the name her mother had cursed with her last breath, burned her nerves like a red-hot iron.
"Shut up!"
She shrieked uncontrollably.
The dissection knife in her hand abruptly pointed at Ling Chen. The purple light from the human-face pattern on the blade surged, and a chaotic wave of resentment furiously poured into her arm along the hilt.
"Don't mention that name!"
"Who exactly are you? How do you know all this? Are you someone sent by the Tang Family? We've already been abandoned by you, what else do you want from us?!"
Ling Chen still wore a smile.
"You fool, would someone sent by the Tang Family be a mutated person?"
He slowly stood up. The intense pain in his shoulder blades caused a slight hesitation in his movement, but the Soul Jade Physique's oppressive aura spread out like an awakened beast, instantly dimming the fluorescent moss in the cave.
"Hate him."
He advanced step by step, his crimson pupils like an abyss vortex.
"Then what can you do? My poor little sister, that scumbag is already on the verge of death. If you want revenge, you might not have the chance if you don't hurry."
"What?" Tang Yinmeng's pupils quaked.
"How can he die? He's the Tang Family Head!"
"Believe it or not, six months from now, he will die by the hand of your brother—Tang Buyu."
"Brother, Tang Buyu? No, I clearly remember he was very gentle. He couldn't possibly do such a thing. He was completely a good student, not at all like someone capable of seeking revenge!"
Ling Chen continued as if he hadn't heard her.
"Tang Buyu will use the Thousand Mechanism Technique he personally taught him to shred his heart."
Ling Chen's fingertip traced his own chest, leaving a trail of blood.
"Just like this—*thud*."
Then he didn't bother to prove himself further. The mental probes, originally used to peek into memories, now became syringes, injecting fragments of memory into Tang Yinmeng's mind.
This included the memory of Tang Buyu and the Tang Family's defensive battle.
Then he suddenly raised his hand, and an invisible blood control force instantly choked Tang Yinmeng's throat, slamming her violently against the cave wall.
"Ugh!"
Tang Yinmeng curled up in pain. The dissection knife slipped from her hand and fell to the ground.
Ling Chen bent down to pick up the knife. The face of Mu Xi on the blade immediately became quiet again the moment it saw Ling Chen.
"Now, after seeing all those memories."
He pressed the tip of the knife against Tang Yinmeng's trembling throat, his voice as soft as a lover's whisper, as if the previous brutality had been an illusion.
"Tell me, what else did your mother leave you besides hatred?"
The coldness of the knife tip pierced through her fear.
Tang Yinmeng looked at the crimson eyes before her and suddenly understood: this wasn't a question... it was a judgment.
She closed her eyes. The image of her mother, coughing blood and gripping her wrist on her deathbed, overlapped with the weeping face on the blade before her.
Was she going to die here today too? Her eyes were misty with tears. This was what it meant to be weak, to not even have the right to resist!
"Mother, Mother, life is but a fleeting thirty thousand days, but neither of us had that fortune. Let me continue to take care of you in another world."
She closed her eyes, appearing ready to accept whatever fate awaited her.
But in this somewhat desolate scene, Ling Chen suddenly laughed, a joyful laugh.
"Tang Yinmeng, you're so foolish. How could someone as kind as me save you only to then kill you?"
"What's more... you have such a practical ability."
He abruptly retracted the knife. The blood control force instantly vanished.
Tang Yinmeng collapsed to the ground, coughing violently.
"From today onwards, you have already died once, so..." Ling Chen's smiling voice echoed in the cave.
"From today onwards, this new life of yours... is mine."
"Treat your wounds before dawn."
He tossed a roll of bandages and half a tube of dark red medicine.
"I'm going out to get some food. Hurry up and treat your wounds."
"Otherwise, I don't mind tasting a maiden's fragrance."
Ling Chen smiled as he walked out of the cave entrance.
Tang Yinmeng trembled as she grabbed the bandages. As her fingertips touched the medicine, a familiar, nauseatingly sweet scent of blood entered her nostrils.
It was a drop of the gluttonous beast's heart blood.
She abruptly looked up. The cave entrance was empty. Only the cold night wind carried Ling Chen's last words, scattering them into the darkness.
"If you want revenge, make yourself useful, at least... like your brother."
"Well... I know you hate him too. After all, he abandoned you and your mother, got adopted by himself, and then cut ties—what a scumbag... Hahaha, the more I think about it, the more interesting it gets!"