Chapter 67: On the Verge of Death Part 3

Yu Li was an extremely polite person, even good-tempered to an unconventional degree. She never interrupted others when they spoke, but Sheng Changyi became the exception. She interrupted Sheng Changyi’s confession of deep affection. “Changyi… People can’t be this greedy. You want to kill me, yet you still hope I love you. That’s not fair to me. Put yourself in my shoes. If I did this to you, would you love me?”

“I would!”

Sheng Changyi answered with exceptional firmness. Jin Banwei couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh just from watching. She couldn’t understand Sheng Changyi anymore. They were killing Yu Li right now.

If she truly loved her from the heart, how could she bear to let her die, and die so miserably?

Jin Banwei didn’t even dare look at Yu Li’s body anymore. Those wounds and the bulging red veins made her feel incomparable heartache. She was already in so much pain she couldn’t breathe, but the Memory Reading Card forced her to keep watching.

She couldn’t even empathize, couldn’t stand in Yu Li’s position to think about how much pain she was in. Just thinking about it would drive her mad.

Jin Banwei’s mind was in chaos, unable to think about the roles everyone here played.

Yu Li didn’t believe Sheng Changyi’s words. Her thin lips were pale and bloodless. Her breathing was very labored, but her words of refusal were clear to everyone. “Please don’t say such things. You know very well you can say that only because it’s not you dying today. I don’t want to resent you, but I can’t love you either.”

Sheng Changyi’s face stiffened. She didn’t understand why Yu Li, who was gentle to everyone, had no such tenderness for her.

Mi Kong let out a mocking laugh. “Little girl, she’s kind-hearted, but not a fool. You’re about to kill her and eat her flesh and blood. You still want her to entrust her heart to you before dying? How could there be such a good thing in the world?”

Sheng Changyi wanted to speak again, but Yu Li had already closed her eyes, no longer looking at her or these ugly faces.

Even Huang Yuanling couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “Sheng Mao, I find the people of your Yungu Village quite interesting.”

“Shut up.” Sheng Mao coldly spat out two words. He stepped forward and pushed Zhuo Ning aside. Red gu worms emerged from his palm one after another. They drilled into Yu Li’s body through her wounds.

Zhuo Ning watched him release the insects and cursed. “You! Are you insane? You fed her the Red Luo Gu so quickly. If she dies too fast, how am I supposed to skin her!”

Zhuo Ning pushed Sheng Mao away. A dagger suddenly appeared in her hand. She flipped Yu Li over. The sharp blade cut into her skin. Sheng Changyi wanted to stop her. She looked at Sheng Changyi’s reaching hand and said indifferently, “If you don’t let me skin her, I’ll skin you.”

Sheng Changyi shuddered and abruptly withdrew her hand.

The witch patterns on her face trembled. Her movements under her hand didn’t slow at all. More and more scraps of skin and flesh fell down.

Sheng Changyi’s eyelids trembled lightly. “What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see? Carving witch patterns.”

Sheng Changyi wanted to ask why she couldn’t wait until after skinning to carve the witch patterns, but looking at Zhuo Ning’s blood-covered face, she ultimately couldn’t say a word. Her strength was inferior to anyone here. She was timid, cowardly, even fearful.

Yu Li’s body trembled violently. Zhuo Ning pressed down on her body and chuckled softly. “Yu Li, so you do fear pain after all.”

As her body trembled more and more severely, the Snake Demon suddenly stepped forward. It cupped Yu Li’s face with both hands and abruptly thrust its fingers into Yu Li’s eyes. “Her eyes belong to me.”

The fresh eyeballs were gouged out. The spurting blood dyed the Snake Demon’s face red and also splashed onto the suspended Painting Scroll. The places on the painting stained with Yu Li’s blood actually began to burn. The Black-Robed Person’s expression changed slightly. “Zhuo Ning, hurry up. There’s going to be a problem.”

“Damn it!” Zhuo Ning cursed at the Snake Demon. Watching it swallow Yu Li’s eyeballs, she suddenly felt extremely disgusted. She sped up considerably. The auras of the people on the Sacrificial Altar also grew weaker and weaker.

What happened afterward, Jin Banwei didn’t know.

Because the Ren Qianjing she parasitized couldn’t hold on any longer. She collapsed. All she could see with her eyes were snakes slithering one after another. Her soul began to float out slowly. More and more snakes surged toward her, but they weren’t devouring her soul. Instead, they drilled into her mouth, as if offering up all the devoured flesh and blood to Ren Qianjing. Ren Qianjing’s consciousness began to blur. She didn’t want to become a puppet ghost, but it seemed inevitable.

Her eyes fixed on those snakes. Suddenly, a strange power surged from her body. She abruptly burrowed into a snake’s body, quickly darting into the lake and hiding among the dense mass of small snakes. Her consciousness grew fainter and fainter.

She only heard an angry curse. “Damn it. It must be because she devoured Yu Li’s flesh and blood earlier, causing a mutation.”

“What the hell? She’s missing one soul! Never mind her. Hurry and find Yu Li’s soul!”

…

Ren Qianjing had escaped becoming a puppet ghost only by relying on that bite of Yu Li’s flesh and blood. In the end, it was still Yu Li who gave her freedom. Yet she only felt resentment toward Yu Li.

Zhuo Ning, Sheng Changyi, Sheng Mao, Mi Kong, Huang Yuanling, the Snake Demon, the Black-Robed Person, and those two men who never spoke—they were the ones who killed Yu Li. No matter what they wanted from her, they undoubtedly took her life with the greatest malice and the cruelest methods.

The Red Luo Gu devoured her heart. Her eyeballs were gouged out by the Snake Demon. Her skin was peeled off bit by bit…

Even her soul was separated and sealed. She had long been torn apart by them.

Yu Li never learned to resent until death, but Jin Banwei, just watching, felt a raging inferno of anger burning in her chest.

They schemed against Yu Li. They plotted against the Guan Family. Everything was a massive conspiracy, and the mastermind was that Black-Robed Person. Unfortunately, Ren Qianjing’s level wasn’t high enough to see the Black-Robed Person’s face.

Who was the Black-Robed Person? Who were the remaining two men? What exactly was that painting?

More and more questions pressed in her mind, but her consciousness was no longer clear. She couldn’t maintain normal thinking. Hatred filled her mind, endless pain in her heart. Jin Banwei could feel a hidden killing intent slowly emerging.

She wasn’t a bloodthirsty monster. But at this moment, she wanted to kill those people more than anyone—no, not just kill them, but torture them to death. She wanted them to feel the pain Yu Li felt, to hurt like Yu Li did…

Jin Banwei didn’t know how many of the world’s most painful punishments there were, but she felt one should be added: watching the brutal death of a loved one. That scene lingered in her mind, unerasable. She felt as if all the blood in her body was about to solidify. She resented, she suffered…

“Little Jin.” Jin Banwei felt a pair of soft hands gently brush her cheek. A slightly familiar breath fell on her cheek.

The breath carried a faint coolness. Jin Banwei jolted awake. She saw that incredibly familiar person and felt dazed, as if still in a dream. Bloody tears welled up in her beautiful eyes.

Tears dampened Ren Qiao’s palm, and she was stunned for a moment. “Little Jin, what did you see?”

Her voice remained gentle, and her appearance had not changed.

But as she spoke, her body began to tremble uncontrollably. Her skin started to disintegrate bit by bit, cracking open… The scenes Jin Banwei had seen reappeared in her mind, overlapping with the ghost before her eyes. Her tears flowed even more fiercely.

As she gradually broke down, Ren Qiao emerged from the painting.

Ren Qiao looked somewhat at a loss at her disintegrating body and the falling skin. Her voice was slightly hoarse. “Little Jin, don’t be afraid. I, I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just that my soul has just fused, and I seem to have a bit of trouble controlling it… I’ll go back into the painting right now.”

She was apologizing to her, but Jin Banwei was not frightened by her at all.

Jin Banwei was not afraid. She just hurt—so much it hurt.

Jin Banwei suddenly hugged Ren Qiao tightly, stopping her from hiding back into the painting. She cried softly, “I care about you. I love you. I’ll grieve for your death. Don’t die, don’t die. Please don’t die!”

Ren Qiao was stunned. The blood on her body stained Jin Banwei’s collar, making her feel somewhat uncomfortable. The hand she had gently placed on Jin Banwei’s waist began to tremble. “Little Jin, I… am already dead.”

Yes, she was dead.

Yu Li was dead, dead over a hundred and ten years ago…

Jin Banwei only felt blood surge to her heart. Her slightly open mouth suddenly sprayed out a mouthful of blood. She hugged Ren Qiao tightly, managing only one sentence: “I’m sorry.”

She had come too late. Apart from being a bystander, she could do nothing. She could not save Yu Li, nor could she help her escape the pain she had suffered in life. She could not even stop the secondary torment.