Chapter 196: I Never Said I Would Let You Go

Liu Xuanyin lifted those deathly gray-white eyes, calm, and looked directly at Gu Qingwan’s blood-red heavy pupils hidden behind the mist. He spoke slowly:

“Release me, and let Hu Huxu leave with me.”

“The Hu Family is not deeply implicated in this matter; they were merely coerced and used by me.”

“In exchange…”

He paused, his tone still that unsettling calm:

“As head of the Liu Family, I will activate the array’s preset soul-preserving restriction to temporarily stabilize Li Xiuye’s spirit and delay the soul-refining process.”

“I will also tell you exactly how to safely lift the Nine Nether Soul-Refining Chains and take him away from here.”

“Otherwise…”

Liu Xuanyin’s voice did not flicker, but it carried a cold, unquestionable resolve:

“I will now make his soul… dissipate.”

The cave fell silent once more.

Only Liu Xuanyin’s slightly heavy breathing, weakened from exertion, and the faint slimy sounds of the Filth Mother’s contaminated sac-like body shifting and secreting, broke the stillness.

Hu Huxu curled up in a corner. Hearing Liu Xuanyin mention him, his whole body shuddered. Fear, hope, and an almost unbelieving, complicated look flashed across his eyes.

He opened his mouth to speak, but dared not. He kept his head down and, with the corner of his eye, anxiously watched Gu Qingwan and Lu Yuan for their reactions.

At the moment Lu Yuan heard Liu Xuanyin’s words, his heart clenched hard.

Liu Xuanyin absolutely could not be allowed to go — letting him go would be like releasing a tiger back into the mountains!

This life would never be peaceful again; who knew when he would pop up next.

Cut the grass; the root must be removed!

But…

The old man…

The old man must be saved!!

Lu Yuan almost said something, but the words stuck in his throat.

Right now, it was not Lu Yuan’s place to decide, nor his right.

Gu Qingwan did not immediately react to Liu Xuanyin’s conditions.

She remained floating quietly, the darkness at her fingertips slowly rotating.

Her blood-red heavy pupils behind the mist watched the Liu Family head below, who seemed calm but had staked his last chip on the old man’s life.

Was Qingwan thinking?

Weighing options?

Or…did she simply not care at all?

Lu Yuan’s heart leapt into his throat.

He believed in Gu Qingwan’s strength—she might be able to save the old man before Liu Xuanyin could trigger the restriction.

But…what if she couldn’t?

What if the Nine Nether Soul-Refining Chains and the array were too deeply fused with the malevolent deity, and they activated too quickly?

The old man was already at the end of his rope and could not withstand any risk!

Lu Yuan would never gamble the old man’s life.

But the problem now…

Liu Xuanyin was cunning. Even if released, he might not keep his word!

He could trigger the restriction the moment he left, or there might be other ambushes outside!

Gu Qingwan still hovered in the air, quietly watching Liu Xuanyin below.

There was no emotion in her beautiful eyes; no one could tell what she was thinking.

After watching the floating figure a while, Liu Xuanyin then lowered his head and looked toward Lu Yuan.

The situation was delicate.

On the surface, Gu Qingwan was the strongest presence there—unfathomably so, to the point of outrage.

But Liu Xuanyin could see who held the decision-making power.

It was Lu Yuan.

Although Gu Qingwan had not spoken to Lu Yuan since appearing, and they had only briefly exchanged glances moments ago, Liu Xuanyin could tell Lu Yuan called the shots between them.

And now… Lu Yuan said nothing…

Finally, Liu Xuanyin looked at Lu Yuan and coldly said:

“Daoist Lu, whether to trust me falls to you.”

“But this is the only choice you currently have to ensure Li Xiuye’s temporary safety.”

“Kill me or attack by force, and Li Xiuye will inevitably die.”

“Let me leave, and he… may still have a sliver of life.”

His tone was even, but he enunciated “temporary” and “a sliver of life” with cruel clarity.

He laid the harsh choice bare in front of Lu Yuan.

Use the old man’s life to bet on whether Gu Qingwan could save him before the restriction activated?

Or spare this culprit for now and exchange that for a “temporary” safe window and “a sliver” of hope?

Lu Yuan clenched his fists so hard his knuckles went white; his mind was a storm.

Although he trusted Qingwan’s power, when it came to the old man’s life, he could not gamble—he could not afford to.

This was no longer a choice between letting a tiger roam free and the old man’s life.

Once the old man’s life was involved, this stopped being a question of options.

Lu Yuan feared Liu Xuanyin would renege in the end.

After all, all the initiative lay with Liu Xuanyin now.

Lu Yuan’s fear was that Liu Xuanyin would kill the old man in the end.

“Daoist Lu, there is not much time.”

“If you dawdle, your master will not hold on.”

Liu Xuanyin’s voice sounded like a death knell.

Lu Yuan looked up at the moon-white figure in midair.

He wanted Qingwan to give him a look, a sign.

Even a slight nod to tell him, “Relax, I have this; Liu Xuanyin can’t touch your master.”

But Gu Qingwan merely hovered there. Her blood-red heavy pupils behind the mist remained calm and still, like an emotionless statue.

She quietly observed the mortals’ struggling choices.

Lu Yuan could not read her mind or guess her plan.

Under Liu Xuanyin’s calm but oppressive gaze, time ticked away, slicing Lu Yuan’s nerves like a dull knife.

Finally, Lu Yuan closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The cold, damp air, thick with yin energy and coppery blood stench, stung his lungs painfully.

When he opened his eyes again, they contained only a near-numb resolve.

“All right.”

Lu Yuan’s voice was dry and hoarse.

There was no other way.

At this point, Lu Yuan had no means to counter Liu Xuanyin.

None at all.

He could not gamble with the old man’s life.

Or rather, this could not be called a gamble.

The old man’s life was in Liu Xuanyin’s hands.

Even knowing Liu Xuanyin might break his word, Lu Yuan had no options.

Now, apart from agreeing, there was nothing else.

“I agree. I will release you and let Hu Huxu leave, but you…”

Lu Yuan stared at Liu Xuanyin, his eyes openly filled with killing intent and warning.

“You must immediately activate the soul-preserving restriction and stabilize my master’s spirit!”

“And you must, word for word, tell me how to safely lift the Nine Nether Soul-Refining Chains!”

“I, Lu Yuan, swear that even if I must chase you to the ends of the earth and my soul shatters, I will leave the Liu Family… not a single living thing!”

It was a fierce threat with little practical use, but it had to be said.

He ground out the last four words through his teeth, each syllable forced and measured.

Liu Xuanyin’s dead gray-white pupils flickered almost imperceptibly when Lu Yuan said “all right,” as if a breath had been released.

He nodded, his voice still calm:

“Very well.”

“I swear in the name of the Liu Family ancestors: as long as you keep your word and let us leave safely.”

“I will activate the soul-preserving restriction and tell you the method of lifting them.”

Having said that, Liu Xuanyin stopped looking at Lu Yuan and turned to Gu Qingwan in midair:

“Daoist Lu has agreed.”

“Please show mercy and open the passage to let us leave.”

“I will activate the restriction at once.”

Hu Huxu, listening, suddenly wore a look of ecstatic joy.

He tumbled out of the corner, huddled close to Liu Xuanyin, and in a mix of crawling and scrambling, edged beside him with the look of someone who had just escaped death.

“Let’s go.”

Gu Qingwan’s clear, cold voice broke the cave’s oppressive silence like the final pardon.

A flash of determination lit Liu Xuanyin’s eyes. Without hesitation, he shouted to the two weakened evil-god phantoms behind him:

“Divinities, follow me away!”

Then he forced his weak body forward and stepped first toward the passage Gu Qingwan had opened with a wave.

His steps were unsteady, but deliberate, with no sloth or procrastination in his movements.

The Filth Mother’s phantom uttered a low, hoarse cry.

Her contaminated sac struggled, bringing along the ruined remains of the nearly destroyed Thousand-Faced Dream, slowly sinking into the darkness at the passage entrance and following behind Liu Xuanyin.

Outside the passage, the churning blood-ghost qi and wailing monstrous voices seemed to quiet, if only slightly.

Hu Huxu, huddled in the corner, watched the passage open and Liu Xuanyin take the first step. The fear that had been constricting his chest instantly flipped into delirious joy!

Afraid Qingwan would renege, afraid Liu would abandon him, he burst forward at incredible speed the moment Liu moved, like a startled wild dog — mindless, desperate, charging toward the passage!

Lu Yuan watched Hu Huxu’s frantic, scrambling back, feeling a complex swirl of emotions.

There was hatred for Hu Huxu’s betrayal and resentment at letting the tiger go.

But more than that was a helpless compromise made for the old man’s sake.

Just as Hu Huxu’s figure was about to surge through the passage, half his body already bathed in the dim, blood-scented light outside…

Gu Qingwan moved.

Her movement remained elegant and slow, but carried a detachment above rules themselves.

She didn’t even look at Hu Huxu as he was about to vanish; she merely turned her face slightly.

Her blood-red heavy pupils behind the mist casually glanced at the retreating figure, and with an almost lazy motion, she issued a warning.

Only a warning.

There was no energy fluctuation, no flash of light, not even the slightest killing intent.

She simply looked.

Yet the instant her gaze landed…

Hu Huxu, whose body was already more than half out, his face drained with triumphant relief, abruptly faltered in mid-stride!

As if he had crashed into an invisible, intangible barrier harder than black-iron.

No—he didn’t collide.

He…froze.

His expression shifted from ecstasy to stunned confusion, and at last collapsed into a profound, bone-deep terror and despair.

As if someone had pressed pause, he froze.

His mouth opened, as if to shout, to beg, to question, but no sound emerged from his throat.

Only the futile raspy friction of air.

Then, under Lu Yuan’s suddenly constricted pupils,

Under Liu Xuanyin’s shocked halt and returned gaze,

Under the terror-wave radiating from the two evil-god phantoms as they suddenly ceased their movements,

Hu Huxu’s body, fixed at the passage entrance and bathed in that eerie light where the two worlds met,

became like a fragile clay puppet squeezed slowly by an invisible giant hand.

A soft, sickening, vomit-inducing sound—like wet cotton being forced and rupturing—issued: a faint but unmistakable muffled pop.

There was no blood spraying, no flesh or bone hurled about.

Hu Huxu’s entire body, his tattered clothing, the face frozen in expression—

His remaining Tiger Family bloodline force, the broken spiritual sense that communicated with the divinities.

All his life force, soul, existence… everything, in that single sound, was seized by an invisible, immaterial, overwhelmingly compelling force of pure annihilation.

From the micro level, compressed, crushed, then…

Completely…

Burst apart!

Not an explosion, but annihilative—erased utterly from the plane of existence.

All that remained on the spot was a small wisp of quickly dissipating, murky-colored mist, like cheap pigments mixed together,

and a faint residue of Tiger Family aura that the cave’s yin qi instantly dispersed.

Then there was nothing.

Hu Huxu—head of the Hu Family of Continuing the Lamp in this generation,

a notable figure even among the Ten Families beyond the Great Wall, the architect who lured Lu Yuan into this trap—

was gone.

Silenced utterly, without a trace.

It was as if he had never existed.

The light the passage briefly blocked poured in again, as if the horrific moment had never occurred.

The cave sank into an even deeper, colder stillness than before.

Liu Xuanyin froze, one foot inside the passage, one foot outside, holding a bizarre stance.

The residual phantoms of the Filth Mother and the Dream Demon trembled wildly in the dark.

They emitted unprecedented terror and submission and dared not advance another inch.

As if ahead lay not a path to life, but an even more dreadful entrance to purgatory.

Lu Yuan stood utterly stunned, his mind blank.

No—what does this mean?!

At the same time, Gu Qingwan slightly turned her head. Her blood-red heavy pupils, through the mist, looked down once more at the utterly stupefied Liu Xuanyin.

Her voice, cold and peaceful and without any hint of emotion—like icy water over polished jade—sounded again: