20. Liuli, you don't understand love

"If it were a fatal blow, one that passed from the back through the chest, then there shouldn't have been a scream."

Xu Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly, his expression mixed with an innate confusion as he spoke calmly.

He knew that Tian Liuli was proud and suspicious by nature. Even if her Heart Demon acted for him, wholly adored him, pleased him, and was even willing to lay down her life for him, she wouldn't always trust him.

She simply treated him as a beloved caged bird or jade in her arms, willing to feed him and keep him warm.

But she would never let him escape her cage or leap out of the valley of her chest.

All she had for him was a desire to control.

In the end, it was still because she loved him but didn't understand what love truly meant, which made her no different from him.

As for Lin Qingque… she was the same, yet different.

The same was that she, too, did not understand love. The difference was that the way they expressed love was not the same.

"Indeed."

Tian Liuli nodded with a cool expression, the candlelight flickering in her eyes like red lotuses blooming on a lake surface.

"Could it be… the enemy is attempting to 'lure the tiger from the mountain'?"

Lin Qingque's eyebrows knit slightly, her small hand propping up her chin as she pondered.

"Lure the tiger from the mountain? There's not much sense in that."

Xu Yuan shook his head: "Besides, for 'luring the tiger from the mountain' to work, there has to be a mountain. There's nothing they covet where we are."

"There is."

Lin Qingque suddenly spoke with confidence as if she had just remembered something.

"What?"

Xu Yuan and Tian Liuli both were taken aback.

"The bathwater I left in the room."

Lin Qingque stated emphatically, her demeanor filled with sheer confidence.

"…"

"If it wasn't to 'lure the tiger from the mountain'."

Tian Liuli disregarded her words, saying indifferently: "Then it must be…"

Suddenly, she stretched out her hand, her slender, jade-like fingers delicately grasped and pinched at the air, lifting a thread of firelight that transformed into layers of whip shadows striking towards the dark corner of the room.

"Ahh!"

A black shadow, as if startled, sprang out, with claws outstretched, lunging towards the whip shadow.

But a shrill, grating scream was heard, followed by a series of crackling sounds.

A charred body, black as coal, fell from mid-air, twitched once, and then remained motionless.

"Did you kill it?"

Lin Qingque's eyes widened slightly, seemingly incredulous.

"What else?"

Tian Liuli's voice was unfluctuating.

"Aren't you destroying the evidence?"

Lin Qingque stared straight at her and said.

Tian Liuli found it somewhat funny: "Such a demon, lacking Spiritual Wisdom, what corpse could I destroy, what evidence could I erase."

"If there was blood on its claws, then Miss Liuli's display of fire magic would have removed the bloodstains," Xu Yuan suddenly interrupted, as if he was hinting at something.

"Oh?"

Tian Liuli's expression turned cold.

"But, I believe in Miss Liuli's character; she is not that kind of person," Xu Yuan stated earnestly.

"Heh…"

Tian Liuli let out a cold chuckle, but her expression did not ease because of it.

This contrasted sharply with the smile she had shown when Lin Qingque had jokingly blamed her earlier.

"Senior Brother, do you really trust this woman that much?"

Lin Qingque spoke faintly from the side.

"I trust you too," Xu Yuan said, as if he had just realized that his previous statement might have offended both of them, and he hastily tried to mend the situation.

"Hmph!"

But clearly, his answer was not quite satisfactory to her.

Nevertheless, it at least temporarily soothed the combative thoughts between them.

"Was that demon the murderer?"

Xu Yuan asked.

"No."

Tian Liuli was about to speak.

However, a scream from another part of the town once again ripped through the sky.

Xu Yuan's complexion turned ugly, as the situation seemed to grow more and more bizarre.

What should have been one tragedy per night was now occurring in quick succession.

"Let's go."

The three of them didn't bother with anything else and broke through the roof, flying swiftly toward the source of the noise.

As they entered the house, they immediately saw the man lying on the ground, his death identical to the one they had seen earlier.

"What is this…?"

All three looked into the darkness inside the house, but this time, it was empty, with nothing to be seen.

"It wasn't trying to ambush us just now?"

"No, it should be that, having failed in ambush, they changed their plan?"

Tian Liuli stared at the withering wound, where dark blood was flowing out steadily, as though splashed with ink on red cloth, not bright nor profound.

"It's just that, this manner of death is a little too strange."

She murmured, "It's obviously just died, yet it looks as if it has been dead for a long time, could it be Daoist Magic involving time?"

Tian Liuli furrowed her delicately drawn brows like ink-wash painting, pondering for a moment.

"Ah!"

The third scream rang out.

This time, it came from a direction to their left.

At this moment, the town, which had just quieted down, plunged into restlessness once again.

One by one, the lantern lights lit up, resembling the sky lanterns floating into the air at the Lantern Festival.

"I guess, someone's trying to separate us?"

Tian Liuli said in a deep tone.

"Exactly."

Xu Yuan had come to the same conclusion.

"They want to force us to split up and pick us off one by one."

Tian Liuli said indifferently, with her eyes downcast.

"Let's go to the right."

After saying this, Xu Yuan didn't wait for their response. His figure flickered, and he soared upwards.

Tian Liuli also looked troubled, perhaps thinking about something.

When the three were mid-air, screams echoed from below as expected.

Tian Liuli saw the next moment, Xu Yuan, like a falling meteor, plunged straight down. His sword light, like a torrential waterfall, illuminated the night and shattered the entire house, utterly disregarding whether the people inside might still have a chance to live.

'He's in a hurry.'

Tian Liuli thought quietly.

When the two landed, Xu Yuan stood amidst the rubble, his sword piercing through a black creature similar to the one Tian Liuli had just slain.

Looking down at the demon, his expression seemed to relax somewhat.

"It should be the demon's doing."

Xu Yuan said.

The situation seemed to have taken him by surprise, but not completely beyond his expectations.

"The demon's doing?"

Lin Qingque looked at him, puzzled.

Xu Yuan explained, "Demons have an innate tendency to seek benefits and avoid harm. After cultivating, they gain Spiritual Wisdom, making them unlike ordinary beasts. Thus, seeing us together and sensing danger, they naturally try to separate us.

Although they have opened their Spiritual Wisdom, aside from a few exceptional ones that can reach the wisdom of a normal adult, most of them are on par with three-year-old children, so their schemes are definitely crude.

If it were people behind this, they would surely know that we would anticipate their next move to be here."

"So, you mean, if it were people orchestrating this, the fourth incident wouldn't have happened here?"

Lin Qingque seemed to understand but then asked, "But what if they intended for us to think this way?"