Chapter 139: Boundless City

At least seven or eight Corpse Puppets surrounded her from all sides, and her Spiritual Power was nearly exhausted.

Shen Mo wanted to rush to her side, but three Corpse Puppets cut off his retreat.

He turned his head back.

Chu Yi was only five steps away from him.

Shen Mo gripped the broken half of the hairpin tightly.

He knew he had no chance of winning.

“I want to speak with her,” Shen Mo said.

Chu Yi looked at him for two seconds, then nodded, ordering the Corpse Puppets to open a path.

Shen Mo walked up to Su Wan’er. Blood spilled from the corner of her mouth, internal injuries from taking a Corpse Puppet’s palm strike head-on just now.

But her first reaction upon seeing him was still to reach out and check his pulse.

“Are you hurt?” she asked.

Shen Mo shook his head.

He reached out to wipe the blood from her lips, his movements very gentle.

Then he leaned close to her ear and said a single sentence in a voice only the two of them could hear.

Su Wan’er’s pupils shrank sharply.

Shen Mo stepped back and turned to face Chu Yi.

“I agree. But you must let her go.”

Chu Yi nodded. “Fine.”

“I want to watch her leave with my own eyes,” Shen Mo said.

Chu Yi ordered the Corpse Puppets to clear a path leading deep into the forest. Su Wan’er stood in place without moving, her eyes reddening, her lips trembling faintly.

Shen Mo looked at her, his gaze very calm.

“Go,” he said.

Su Wan’er’s hand tremble as she gripped her sword.

She gave Shen Mo one last look, then turned and walked step by step toward the small path through the trees.

Shen Mo watched her silhouette disappear among the towering ancient trees until he could see her no more.

Then he turned back and looked at Chu Yi.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Chu Yi raised the Glazed Lamp a little higher, illuminating his face.

She studied him for a moment, then suddenly said in a soft voice:

“Young Master Shen, I do not need you to fear me.”

Shen Mo said nothing.

“I only need you to keep your word.” Chu Yi turned and walked toward the rear of the Corpse Puppet crowd. “You stay with me, and she lives.”

Shen Mo followed behind her, still gripping the broken half of the hairpin in his hand.

Chu Yi walked in front.

The Bone-Core Flame in the Glazed Lamp swayed gently with her steps, its ghostly blue light casting long, slender shadows among the ancient trees.

The Corpse Puppet crowd followed silently behind, their footsteps so uniform they seemed like puppets pulled by the same string.

Shen Mo was caught in the middle—Chu Yi in front, Corpse Puppets behind, three on each side, sealing off every possible escape route.

He was not surprised.

From the moment the iron fence over the Dark Channel was pried open, he had vaguely felt something was wrong.

Too smooth—an abandoned secret passage with no collapse besides the rust, no residual Formation, no blockage from the Demon Domain’s mutated spiritual plants.

This was not like luck. It was more like someone had deliberately kept it clear.

“The secret passage was maintained by Miss Chu.” Shen Mo spoke, not as a question, but a statement.

Chu Yi did not turn back, but her footsteps slowed by half a beat.

“Young Master Shen is perceptive,” she said. “Indeed, I had people regularly clear all the secret passages around Nan Gong Jin’s old residence. I just did not dare act too obviously, for fear of being noticed by Chao’er’s people. The rust on the iron fence was real—I deliberately left the final step for you to push open yourself when the time came.”

“So from the very beginning, you were waiting for me to walk into the path you had laid out.”

“Yes.” Chu Yi’s tone was perfectly candid. “The Flower Queen Competition, the strife between Pei Shuying and Chao’er—all within my expectations. The only thing I did not anticipate was that you would escape the side hall on your own. That was three days ahead of my original plan.”

Shen Mo silently digested this.

She had calculated that Chao’er and Pei Shuying would fall for the Lure the Tiger Away trick, that the two would check each other at the stronghold, and even the movements of every faction in the Southern Wilderness Demon Territory.

What she had not calculated was him.

This gave Shen Mo a faint, almost negligible sense of agency—at least his actions had exceeded the chess player’s predictions, even if only by three days.

“You said earlier that after it is done, you would arrange for me to live under a false identity,” Shen Mo said. “I want to know—was that promise real or false.”

Chu Yi stopped walking.

She turned around, the Glazed Lamp’s light falling on the ground between them, forming a clear boundary of light and shadow. She stood on the bright side, Shen Mo in the dark.

“I never lie.” Chu Yi said. “Young Master Shen, you can think about it yourself—if I wanted to kill you, why waste these words? I would simply throw you into the pill furnace. I have no personal grudge against you, only need. You help me revive my father, I guarantee your safety for the rest of your life. This deal is the greatest sincerity I can offer.”

“Your sincerity does not include letting me go,” Shen Mo said.

“It does not.” Chu Yi admitted. “Young Master Shen’s constitution is too special. Letting you go would be equivalent to throwing you into a wolf pack. Rather than let others tear you apart, better to keep you here—at least I only take the part I need.”

“What you need is my life.”

“Yes.”

Chu Yi turned and continued walking. Her pace was unhurried, her skirt trailing over dry, rotting leaves with a faint rustling sound.

“My father, Chu Yang, was slain by Yun He’s own hand a thousand years ago.” Her voice echoed through the forest, calm as though she were telling a story from an ancient text. “Yun He is my mother, but when she killed him, she was more decisive than when she killed anyone else.”

“The reason was stupid too. Just because my father said he had never loved any of them, including Yun He, so she acted.”

Shen Mo did not respond.

Chao’er had mentioned this matter half-awake once, but vaguely.

Hearing it now from Chu Yi’s mouth, the calmness in her tone only made the heart grow colder.

“But Yun He could not bear it after all. After killing him, she sealed the corpse at the bottom of the Cold Pool in the Luoxia Mountains for a thousand years.”

Shen Mo felt his stomach churn.

He remembered the first time Yun He violated him—those lazy, condescending eyes. The way she looked at him was like looking at an interesting object, something to play with at will, yet forbidden to others.

“You hate her,” Shen Mo said.

“I pity her.” Chu Yi corrected him. “And I pity my father too. That is why I spent thirty-three years nurturing the Qie Tian Pill, to truly bring him back to life, not leave him at the bottom of the Cold Pool as an undecaying, unrotting living corpse.”

The forest suddenly opened up.

The ancient trees parted, revealing a cleared expanse of ground.

In the center of the clearing sat a carriage—strictly speaking, a Flying Artifact.

The cabin was black as ink, its surface carved all over with Array Patterns Shen Mo could not understand.

The carriage was not pulled by horses, but by four tall Corpse Puppets, their armor intact, ghostly green light gleaming beneath their helmets.

The curtain lifted, and a slender figure jumped down.

She was a girl of about fifteen or sixteen, her hair in double loops, her face pretty, a cinnabar dot between her brows.

When she saw Shen Mo, her eyes brightened for an instant, then she bowed respectfully. “Miss, the Pill Hall is fully prepared.”

Chu Yi nodded and gestured toward Shen Mo with a “please” motion.

“Young Master Shen, please board the carriage.”

Shen Mo stood still without moving.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I can only ask you to board.” Chu Yi’s tone remained gentle.

“I dislike roughness, but the Corpse Puppets behind you will not hesitate. Rather than make an ugly scene, better to board with dignity. Young Master Shen is a smart man. You know how to spare yourself unnecessary suffering.”

Shen Mo gripped the broken half of the hairpin.

The tip of the hairpin had pierced his palm, and a small pool of blood had already formed. The pain kept him clear-headed.

His gaze passed over Chu Yi and swept across the number of Corpse Puppets and the spacing of the trees at the edge of the clearing.

No opportunity.

He was only a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

His composure now was thin ice, and beneath it was an unseen abyss.

He released his hand. The broken hairpin fell onto the rotting leaves without a sound.

“Let’s go,” he said.

The carriage interior was unexpectedly comfortable.

The cushions were made of fine cloud brocade, a pot of warm Spirit Tea sat on the small table, and a stick of Calming Incense burned in the corner.

If one ignored the four Corpse Puppets pulling the carriage outside, this was almost the treatment of an honored guest.

Chu Yi sat facing him and personally poured him a cup of tea.

“It is not drugged.” She drank a sip first, then pushed the cup toward Shen Mo. “At this point, I no longer need such methods.”

Shen Mo did not touch the tea.

The carriage rose smoothly, passing through the dreadfully dark canopy of the Black Wind Forest, heading deeper into the Southern Wilderness.

Outside the window swept a dark purple sky and distant, faintly visible beacon towers.

Shen Mo did not know where Chu Yi was taking him. He could only memorize the route and the turns, trying to draw a map in his mind.

“Pei Shuying should still be at the Bone Ferry right now,” Chu Yi suddenly said. “Yun He will delay her for four hours. By the time they break through the Prohibition Seal, we will have already arrived at our destination.”

Shen Mo did not respond to this.

He thought of the direction Su Wan’er had left in.

The Black Wind Forest was on the outer edge of the Southern Wilderness.

If she traveled at full speed, she could reach the nearest Teleportation Array in about two hours.

And from when he had left until now, only half an hour had passed.

Chu Yi said Pei Shuying would be delayed four hours—which meant Su Wan’er had ample time to bring reinforcements.

“Young Master Shen is thinking of Peak Master Su.” Chu Yi observed his expression. “Do not worry. Since I promised to let her go, I will not send anyone to hunt her. Moreover—”

She paused.

“I need her alive. Only when news spreads that you are in my hands will those madwomen hesitate to act.”

Shen Mo finally picked up the teacup.

Not to drink, but to hold it to the light and examine the color of the tea.

The ghostly blue Bone-Core Flame shone through, casting ripples on the surface of the tea.

“Miss Chu calculates everything without fail.” He set down the teacup. “But there is one thing I cannot understand—you said you need me alive to complete the medicine catalyst. So why not act now? What are you waiting for?”

Chu Yi was silent for a moment.

“Because the Qie Tian Pill still lacks one final condition—the location.”

She did not hide it. “We need the Array Emperor of the Northern Border, Yin Su, to set up the Reverse Yin-Yang Array and inject vitality into my father’s body at the moment the pill is completed. It took me ten years to persuade her to act. Her condition was that the furnace must be opened on her territory.”

“That condition does not seem hard to fulfill.”

“It is not.” Chu Yi said. “Only, her territory is in the Myriad Beast Mountain on the Northern Border frontier. From the Southern Wilderness, even on the fastest Flying Artifact, it takes a day and a night.”

A day and a night.

Shen Mo calculated in his mind.

Pei Shuying was delayed four hours. He still had a window of about one day. If someone could find him within a day—

“Young Master Shen.” Chu Yi suddenly interrupted his thoughts. “Stop calculating.”

Shen Mo raised his eyes.

Chu Yi’s gaze was calm as a deep pool. “I know you were memorizing the route just now. I also know you are calculating time. But since I have laid out the entire plan before you, it means I am not worried about you finding someone to turn the tables. Because—”

The carriage curtain was suddenly lifted by a gust of wind.

Outside the window, ten thousand lanterns fell like a river of stars.

It was a massive city, occupying the entire basin ahead.

The walls rose a hundred zhang high, the entire surface embedded with dense rows of spirit lamps, illuminating a hundred li in every direction as bright as day.