Chapter 96: Hell in the Pot (Part 5): Aaaah, Just Die Already Part 2

Just to keep her identity from being discovered? Such an absurd reason?

Mu Qian Tan fell silent for a moment before she asked, “Are you venting at me?”

Shang Shan said indignantly, “You clearly had the power to drive away that monster, right? You could have even stopped her before she entered the city! But you did nothing!”

Mu Qian Tan said, “So what?”

Shang Shan said, “So look at what this place has turned into! Tan Que got eaten too! You…”

Mu Qian Tan raised her hand, a thin cold gleam swirling in her eyes. “First off, Tan Que won’t die—at least not right now. Second, she got eaten to save you, didn’t she? If you weren’t so useless, she wouldn’t have ended up like that. Who are you blaming here?”

Shang Shan’s chest heaved dramatically. Dirt and blood mixed together on her face, making her eyes burn even brighter. They locked gazes with Mu Qian Tan’s cold eyes—one side fiery, the other icy—like sparks flying between them.

After a long while, she was the first to lower her gaze. She knew her master was right; she had only spoken without thinking because she was too agitated.

Seeing her yield, Mu Qian Tan withdrew her hand and snorted coldly. “Because I’m strong, I have to save people? Who made that rule? You? What are you even?”

Shang Shan’s face flushed red in an instant. She hadn’t expected that after traveling with this woman—this nominal “master” of hers—for over a year and going through so much together, she was still “what are you even” in her mouth.

An extreme sense of humiliation swelled in her heart. It quickly turned to grievance, then rapidly morphed into anger—a destructive rage laced with self-abandonment. She felt the blood frenzy ignite in her body again. She moved her lips, raised her eyes to meet that gaze, and said word by word, “You’ll get yours.”

Before the last word left her mouth, she was kicked flying. She tumbled several times before crashing into a pillar and stopping. Qiu Shui was scared out of her wits. She rushed to Shang Shan’s side to check on her but couldn’t bring herself to act against the blood-soaked woman.

Mu Qian Tan lowered her foot and straightened her skirt hem. “What happens to me isn’t for you to say.”

Shang Shan clutched her forehead, wiping blood from her palm. She seemed to smile before finally lifting her head. She said to Qiu Shui, “Sister Qiu, will the officials come soon?”

Qiu Shui was at a loss. “They should be here any minute. A physician will come too. Hang in there.”

“I’m fine.” Shang Shan pushed herself up from the ground. “I’ll leave saving people here to you. I need to go find my friend. It should still be in time if I head there now.”

Qiu Shui’s expression was complicated. “But you’re… like this…”

Shang Shan shook her head and smiled. “It’s fine, Sister Qiu. You don’t get it—losing a bit more blood can really clear the head. Alright, go on. Saving people comes first.”

She gently pushed Qiu Shui, gave a couple more instructions, placed Lingdang on her shoulder, tied a few strips of cloth around herself, and chased after the black dog in the direction it had vanished. Qiu Shui stood helplessly in place, pacing blankly for two steps. She stole a glance at the black-clad woman before turning to help rescue people.

Mu Qian Tan didn’t look at her. Her gaze fixed on that tiny figure disappearing into the darkness. She thought to herself, ‘She’s gone off on her own. Do I really need to follow?’

Li Biyuan’s head throbbed with pain. ‘How did you two end up like this again? Sister Tan, can you please fix that temper of yours?’

Mu Qian Tan said, ‘Isn’t my temper good enough? I even like granting people’s wishes. Since she thinks she can handle it without me, why should I go? To cheer her on? I’m heading back to catch up on sleep.’

With that, she actually started to leave. Li Biyuan cried out, ‘No! Hell is super dangerous. She can’t do it alone. Please, Sister Tan, don’t be mad at our female protagonist. If you have to yell at someone, yell at me! Let me take your anger! Go save her, pleeease!’

Mu Qian Tan didn’t respond. She continued staring into the darkness. After a moment, she murmured, “She curses me plenty on the regular. What’s with the sudden meltdown today?”

She still remembered the fury on that girl’s face—the kind where she was burning up from the inside out, dying to devour flesh and drink blood. The last time she’d seen it was probably last year. She rarely reflected on herself, but she thought back to what she’d just said. Useless? What are you even? That was no different from her usual talk. Which sensitive nerve of that stupid dragon’s had she poked?

Of course, with her friend just eaten alive right in front of her—life or death unknown—it was normal to lose her temper a bit. Mu Qian Tan could understand that. So one kick was enough. She wouldn’t truly let her charge into hell alone. The female protagonist dying early would bring too many unknown troubles.

Mu Qian Tan stood there for a bit before floating away from the city.

The black dog was enormous. It left very obvious traces wherever it went—like deep claw marks in the soil and a whole swath of trees toppled to either side.

Mu Qian Tan followed the trail up the mountain to the Heaven-Earth Ascension Spirit Platform. The temple had been sliced in half. A ring of poplars was all snapped at the waist. The stone stele was destroyed too, scattered in rubble—all likely the black dog’s handiwork.

A dark red formation floated above the ground. Shang Shan stood at its edge, lost in thought about something.

Mu Qian Tan stopped not far behind her, hiding behind a tree.

Shang Shan bit her lower lip as she stared at the formation ring.

All the signs pointed here. That dog had gone into the “hell” connected to this formation.

She had just tried to enter but failed. The stone stele had collapsed, and the longevity chains were gone. She didn’t even have the chance to descend to hell as an insincere soul. And catching another evil demon on-site to enter the array was even harder. In other words, she couldn’t get in!

She had tried with Lingdang, but it had no effect. Probably because such a good little demon didn’t count as “evil.” She paced anxiously in circles, hesitating over whether to draw another summon evil array. But letting more blood? She’d probably faint after two steps. How could she save anyone like that!

If only her master were here…

Hmph! That woman! She wasn’t her master anymore!

Remembering earlier, she pouted, blinking her eyes.

Truth be told, she didn’t mind what her master had said to her. She’d heard it for over a year and was used to it. She didn’t hate it—in fact, she kind of liked it. It was way better than when her master ignored her completely.

But she tolerated the harsh words on one condition: in her heart, her master was lofty enough—someone she could never fully see through, always wanted to get closer to, a woman with some inexplicable pull on her. But now, just moments ago, all that attraction had shattered.

That woman was just an utterly cold monster who treated lives like weeds!

Even Tan Que, whom she didn’t see often, had rushed out of the house to save her—and gotten eaten by the monster for it. But that woman! Did she even know what friends were?

No—did she even have a shred of humanity?

Shang Shan had thought she was late by one step because she was saving people. But no… she had passed right by those buried in the rubble, as if nothing had happened.

She casually wiped the blood from her face. Shang Shan took a deep breath, facing the formation. A phrase echoed in her ears: Don’t be of two minds.

It was that woman who had said it.

Shang Shan closed her eyes, then opened them again. Before figuring out how to enter the array, she noticed something off.

Qiu Shui said the monster swallowed plenty of people during its rampages. But this time, strictly speaking, it only ate one before bolting. If it was just about eating one from the start, there was no need for such a huge commotion—it could have done it outside the city.

So, the black dog had gone to all that trouble to come in for some other purpose besides eating people.

That purpose: to eat a special person.

Someone who could lure them—the ones who’d been to the Heavenly Palace—right here to the gates of hell.

It was a trap!

Shang Shan’s brows furrowed solemnly. Even if it was a trap, she had to go!

She felt the fine porcelain bottle in her bosom, pulled it out, and checked it. The surface had a few cracks, but Little Baldy inside was fine. Shang Shan relaxed. Then she realized what else felt wrong.

Why, back at the Heavenly Palace, did Xiao Xian know everything about them?

Her master had never told the Demon-Exorcising Little Immortal her name. She hadn’t used her title in front of outsiders either—only the Monster Play Troupe members and their group knew it. So why, at their first meeting, did Dingxiang accurately call her master’s alias Immortal Wang Lan?

Why did Xiao Xian glance at her sleeve at the end? Did she know her real purpose in coming? And why didn’t she pursue it further?

As her head cleared, the scenes she’d experienced replayed in her mind. The more she thought, the more inconsistencies piled up. Shang Shan realized the shattered teacup might have another explanation. And those things Xiao Xian shouldn’t have known—even from up high, her ears couldn’t be that long to hear their private talk. So, what had served as her eyes and ears?

There was only one thing on the three of them that belonged to those three Xiao Xians.

The protective talismans!

Shang Shan pulled out the three protective talismans and shattered them with spiritual power. Out spilled countless tiny clay eyes and ears the size of fingernails—dense and creepy as hell, clattering to the ground.

At that moment, the red formation lit up. Several clay little demons crawled out. They grabbed at her clothes, pointed downward, and made strange gestures, as if leading the way!

Shang Shan was overjoyed. She praised, “You’ve come to help me!”

From what she’d seen that afternoon, she knew these little demons probably weren’t bad guys. And even if they were, if they offered a chance to enter that so-called “hell” right now, she wouldn’t pass it up. She grabbed the hand of one clay little demon and plunged into the red light of the formation.

In the instant before she vanished, Mu Qian Tan rushed forward, pressed down on one little demon’s head, and entered the formation with them.

As the red light faded from her view, a dark red cavern scene unfolded—similar to the Heavenly Palace but much wider and darker. Aside from glowing ores embedded in the ground, there were hardly any light sources. Visibility was quite limited.

Mu Qian Tan looked around. She saw no one—only the clay little demon she had grabbed wriggling in her hand.

Huh? Where’d she go?

They’d entered one right after the other. They shouldn’t be too far apart. But now she heard no sounds, saw no figure. The surroundings felt utterly empty, as if she were alone.

She took a step forward. Her foot sank into something soft. She looked down and jolted in shock. What she stepped on was her own clothes!

Binding cloth, undergarments, outer robes—layer after layer, clearly stripped from her body. Why would her clothes get stripped entering the formation?

And right after, she made an even more shocking discovery!

Wait, wait, wait—what the hell? Whose are these black claws?

The two feet she’d used to step on the clothes—no, two chicken-claw-like talons, small, like some animal’s juvenile form. She was barely half a foot off the ground. Her body in view was covered in fluffy gray fur. What the hell was this?

Mu Qian Tan had never panicked so hard. She felt dizzy. The clay little demon hopped over and patted her head, as if to comfort her that it was okay.

Who wanted comfort from this ugly thing!

The reflection in the one-eyed clay little demon’s eye held the answer. Mu Qian Tan wanted to die right there. But before dying, she had to see what she looked like. She shuffled two steps and used a weird gray fluffy wing to slap the little demon, telling it to stay still.

Then she peered into those eyes.

Mu Qian Tan was done for.

She—she—she had turned into a baby penguin!!!