Chapter 50: Killing One’s Wife: She Would Never Abandon Ye Xi, Never Part 2

“I don’t know much, but I’d never hurt the one I love.”

“Shut up!” Fury and jealousy swirled in Yin Erou’s eyes as she roared, “I won’t let you die together! I’ll kill you first, then slowly kill her!”

In that instant, Yin Erou forgot her priority was to swiftly kill Ye Xi and Shen Mingjin. She fixated on maximizing their suffering, letting Ye Xi taste the depths of her twisted emotions.

Ye Xi: “You loved Mao Xinqing that much?”

“Of course!” Yin Erou answered without hesitation. “Xin Qing was the one I loved most!”

“But you killed her.”

“Enough! Shut your mouth.”

Ye Xi had no intention of complying or letting Yin Erou dodge after striking her wound. “If you loved her so much, why did you kill her?”

Yin Erou shouldn’t have wasted time answering, but Mao Xinqing truly held weight for her.

Ye Xi’s repeated mentions of Mao Xinqing’s death still provoked her.

“It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault. It was… Shao Yan! No! It was Xin Qing. It was her own fault!”

Yin Erou no longer denied Mao Xinqing’s death. Instead, she pushed all the blame onto others.

The electric eel thrashed and rolled in the water as she let out uncontrolled, shrill screams. “It was Shao Yan who came to me to discuss killing you! She overheard my family’s secret. I begged her not to tell anyone, but she insisted on saying that I had been forced into it too. Even if the Investigation Bureau of the General Bureau found out, I probably wouldn’t be sentenced to death—just imprisonment. And there’s always a chance to get out. She said she was willing to wait for me. I didn’t have to be threatened by Shao Yan… It was her. She never asked if I was willing to go to prison. She had no idea how terrifying the prison cells for imprisonment are.”

“She didn’t understand anything at all. If the truth got out, it wouldn’t just be me going to prison—my entire family would be destroyed. Why couldn’t she think about me a little more? My family is full of my blood relatives, and they all love me so much. How could I betray her…? I love Xin Qing so much. Why did Xin Qing have to betray me? Why did she have to tell? Was right and wrong really that important? More important than our love?”

“I had no choice but to tie her up and dig out her eyes so she couldn’t ruin our chance. But… when she overheard that we weren’t just plotting against you, but also against Shen Mingjin, she went completely insane. She said the Spirit-Devouring Snake Clan was the Embracing Snow Clan’s guardian deity. She absolutely wouldn’t allow anyone to harm her Miss Mingjin. That was her faith, the unwavering belief of every member of the Embracing Snow Clan… What about me? She hurt me. She valued Shen Mingjin more than me. So I had to kill her.”

“No, I didn’t kill Xin Qing. I love her so much—how could I possibly kill her? It was you who killed her! I never wanted to kill her. I wanted her to join us. I even specially fed her the spirit flesh that my mother had stored for me. I wanted her to stand on the same side as me. But why wouldn’t she come over? She ate the spirit flesh—if the truth came out, she’d be punished too. She… It’s all your fault. Yours. Not mine. It’s not my fault.”

“It’s you. It’s Shao Yan. It’s Shen Mingjin! You killed my A-Qing!”

Yin Erou dumped all the crimes onto others, twisting her confessions and accusations. Exaggerated laughs occasionally burst from her mouth, and every gesture declared her unstable mental state. It seemed as if she had gone mad from personally killing Mao Xinqing.

But Ye Xi felt that Yin Erou had neither gone mad nor had the right to speak of love.

Ye Xi had pieced together the story as well. The beast-shelled Mao Xinqing was a rather naive demon. Upon discovering that her lover was being threatened by Shao Yan, her first instinct was to persuade her lover to turn herself in and escape the threat.

Because she believed in her bond with Yin Erou, she was willing to spend the rest of her life waiting for her mistaken lover to be released from prison. But she overlooked that Yin Erou might not place her in the most important position as well.

Even in her half-mad, half-lucid ramblings, Yin Erou never forgot to conceal her secrets. But Ye Xi could guess what she meant by “spirit flesh”: the flesh of a Ye Family Demon Bone Physician.

The faint phantom shadows Ye Xi had seen in their bodies now made sense.

The reason the phantoms in the three demons’ bodies were so faint also had an explanation.

The Verdant Wolf Clan devoured the blood and flesh of Ye clansmen. It wasn’t unusual for the other two clans that had stirred up internal strife in the Embracing Snow Clan to also have Ye blood on their hands. Shao Yan had sided with the Tiger Clan during the internal conflict. Even as a great demon, she wasn’t an insider, so the flesh she could obtain was limited.

The Embracing Snow Clan’s great families had Ye clansmen’s blood, and it wasn’t surprising if some families among the other Ten Clans did too.

Yin Erou’s family was very likely one of them. She might have been young at the time and hadn’t dared to eat much of the flesh she was given, so she only consumed a little. But her family had given her a lot, so she stored the rest using special methods. After Mao Xinqing discovered it, in order to drag her down with them, Yin Erou forced some of it into Mao Xinqing. Unexpectedly, not only did Mao Xinqing refuse to join them in their crimes, but she also exploded into an even fiercer argument with Yin Erou to protect Shen Mingjin.

In the heat of the argument, Yin Erou killed Mao Xinqing in a fit of rage.

Digging out eyes, feeding flesh.

When she couldn’t forcibly pull Mao Xinqing into the mire of crime, she killed her.

In the end, she even faked injuries on herself and slandered Mao Xinqing for attacking her.

She knew full well that Mao Xinqing was an Embracing Snow Clan demon, sharing the common belief with most of the clan: to protect the last bloodline of the First Generation Leader, to protect the Spirit-Devouring Snake Clan that had saved the Embracing Snow Clan from fire and water. Yet she still borrowed Mao Xinqing’s identity to deceive Supervisor Lin and lure Shen Mingjin to her death.

Not even her enemies were as ruthless as her, yet she had the nerve to claim love here.

Ye Xi raised a hand to cover her mouth, suppressing the urge to vomit. Her stomach churned violently—not just from the disgust of Yin Erou’s “love,” but also because Yin Erou had stored the raw flesh of Ye Family Demon Bone Physicians. If one family did it, there were surely others.

What were her family members to them?

Reserve rations?

Ye Xi’s body contained the bloodlines of all the deceased Ye clansmen. She felt a visceral disgust, as if Yin Erou had carved out her own flesh to store. The thought that Yin Erou had forced raw flesh into Mao Xinqing only intensified it.

Yin Erou had to die. Her family couldn’t escape either.

Ye Xi touched her pocket, where two phones were recording simultaneously.

Shao Yan looked at the raving Yin Erou with disgust. “Yin Erou, look at yourself—like a ghost. Isn’t she just a female demon? If you survive today, you can find another one. Let me remind you: if you keep going crazy and they hold out until reinforcements arrive, you and your family won’t get off so easily. Even if Ye Xi has no evidence, you know what kind of person Ye Tan is. With how protective she is, even if Ye Xi falsely accuses you, Ye Tan will investigate you for ten years.”

“No need for your reminder!”

Yin Erou roared in fury and surged toward Ye Xi once more.

Fighting in water gave Yin Erou too much of an advantage. Though Ye Xi’s survival methods had increased, she was still struggling to keep up. Electric currents occasionally wrapped around her, making her legs grow weaker and weaker. Moreover, water conducted electricity—the moment the current gathered in the water, it even affected Shen Mingjin, who was battling Shao Yan.

Fortunately, the current affected Shao Yan too, or Shen Mingjin would have had an even harder time.

While controlling the Pink Fur Rabbit, Ye Xi kept an eye on Shen Mingjin. She also had to divide her attention to predict Yin Erou’s next moves, manipulate branches, and counter attacks the rabbit couldn’t block. She realized she had overestimated herself. Her bond with the Wanling Tree’s power wasn’t strong enough yet to confront a great demon like Yin Erou. She gradually fell into a disadvantage, her speed slowing.

The waterproof Pink Fur Rabbit, bolstered by the Wanling Tree, was actually a bit more agile in the water than Ye Xi.

While drawing Yin Erou’s attention, Ye Xi maneuvered the Pink Fur Rabbit to approach from behind. It bit into the electric eel’s tail when she wasn’t looking, its hard rabbit teeth puncturing two holes in the tail.

Ye Xi hadn’t even caught her breath from the successful sneak attack when the water currents suddenly spun rapidly.

She sensed something was wrong. Shen Mingjin rushed toward them immediately, but it was too late.

The electric eel’s body suddenly split. A small electric eel darted out, while the remaining eel body coiled tightly around the Pink Fur Rabbit and plunged into the vortex formed by the swirling water. Purple electricity exploded instantly within the whirlpool, shredding both the Pink Fur Rabbit and the eel body.

“Ye Xi!”

Ye Xi heard Shen Mingjin’s anxious voice. She wanted to tell her she was fine, but the moment the rabbit exploded, it felt like sharp spikes pierced her body instantly—even her heart felt stabbed through by countless steel needles. The intense pain left her unable to even cry out.

It was as if she had lost the ability to speak, her sweat and blood melting into the water.

The swimming small electric eel seized the chance and bit into Ye Xi’s wounded leg.

Shen Mingjin swiftly approached Ye Xi. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a small rabbit-shaped light cluster falling from the vortex. She quickly coiled her snake tail around it before continuing. She yanked the eel away, but Ye Xi’s legs were already mangled and bloody. Because the duplicate body had been crushed, cracks appeared all over Ye Xi’s skin.

The electric eel reverted to human form and sneered at the heartbroken and pained Shen Mingjin. “Shen Mingjin, you can’t protect her. Why don’t you two stop resisting? That way, I might let you die a little more easily.”

Shen Mingjin ignored Yin Erou. She urgently called Ye Xi’s name. “Ye Xi, don’t sleep.”

“Sister…”

Ye Xi’s voice was feeble, her eyelids trembling uncontrollably.

She didn’t dare close her eyes. The pain blurred her consciousness further.

Hearing Ye Xi’s weak voice, guilt and anxiety surged through Shen Mingjin. She hugged Ye Xi tightly.

Unable to block two great demons, she could only wrap Ye Xi with her body and tail, ensuring that Yin Erou and Shao Yan’s next attacks would land on her alone.

Ye Xi hadn’t fully passed out yet. She saw what Shen Mingjin was doing and struggled to move her lips. “Sister, don’t worry about me. You leave first. You… tell Grandma about this. Tell your Bureau Chief. They will…”

“Ye Xi, I’ll get you out of here. I definitely will.”

Shen Mingjin didn’t abandon Ye Xi. She would never abandon Ye Xi.

Ye Xi saw Shen Mingjin’s hand reaching for the seal. Before she could stop her, the door was violently kicked open from outside. The gathered water dispersed and scattered rapidly.

Shen Mingjin, holding Ye Xi, tumbled to the ground. Yin Erou’s body, kicked flying, crashed onto the floor with them…