Chapter 23: Hu Sanniang
306 Words
Shen Moyan looked at her, not knowing what to say.
"Eaten by my father"—those five words, said so calmly, calmly enough to make your skin crawl.
"How... how did you get in?"
"I've always been here." Hu Sanniang said. "Inside you. Came earlier than all those ancients of yours."
Shen Moyan was stunned.
"What?"
"That Purple Tenuity Divine Weapon—my blood is on it. When you repaired the book, you touched my blood, and I came in. I just stayed quiet, watched them come in one by one, watched you draw stroke by stroke."
She stepped closer, fog swirling around her.
"You know why you can hold so many ancients? Not because of some 'Debt-Bearing Grid.' It's because of me. I'm holding it open for you. Otherwise, they'd have burst you open long ago."
Shen Moyan was silent for a long time.
"What do you want?"
"Help you." Hu Sanniang said. "Help you complete the nine strokes. Help me kill my father."
"Why?"
"Because he killed me." For the first time, Hu Sanniang's voice showed a flicker of emotion. "He was my father. I worshipped him growing up, learned magic from him, helped him with his work. That siege three hundred years ago—I took a sword for him, almost died. Guess how he repaid me?"
Shen Moyan said nothing.
"He ate me." Hu Sanniang smiled, a cold smile. "He said I had his blood in me, eating me would boost his cultivation. He ate forty-seven people. The first one he ate was me."
The fog around her churned, as if echoing her emotions.
"Three hundred years, I've waited for someone who could avenge me. Now, I've waited long enough."
She looked at Shen Moyan, something strange in her eyes.
"You help me kill him. I help you survive the nine obstacles."
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