Chapter 363: Chapter 363: What Was Lost Is Found

“Heh…”

Zhou Cangyan lowered his gaze and smiled.

Suddenly, he raised the sword in his hand. In a single, brief instant, he inflicted more than a dozen cuts on Zhang Yu’s body, each one deep enough to reveal bone.

He cut skillfully, avoiding any vital points with every strike. Then, he kicked open the lid and threw Zhang Yu inside!

“AH… AAAAAHHH!!”

Zhang Yu’s bloodcurdling screams echoed from within.

“No! No!”

Xuan Qi’s expression remained unchanged, but the Shadow Guard was filled with righteous indignation.

’He dared to throw the Princess Consort down there. Let him be fed to the snakes!’

’Snakes are extremely sensitive to the scent of blood; they’ll frantically burrow into his wounds! Even if the pain doesn’t kill him, the terror will!’

Zhou Cangyan turned to look at Xuan Mei and ordered, “Go find Huai Xu.”

“Yes, sir!”

Xuan Mei turned and left.

Zhou Cangyan, however, strode decisively toward that pitch-black, bottomless pit.

Realizing what he was about to do, the Shadow Guard’s expression changed. Before he could even try to stop him, Zhou Cangyan had already gone down.

Immediately after, Xuan Qi followed him, jumping down without a second thought.

“Hey! You… Ugh!”

The Shadow Guard had been bitten as a child and was terrified of those creatures. But with his master down there, he couldn’t abandon him, no matter how scared he was.

’Damn it! If I die, I die!’

“My Lord! I’m coming!”

He gritted his teeth and was about to step forward…

“Stay up there and guard the entrance!”

Zhou Cangyan’s voice echoed from below.

The Shadow Guard, one foot already over the edge of the pit, trembled as he heard his master’s command. He shakily pulled his leg back and shouted down, “Y-Yes, My Lord!”

Down in the pitch-black passage, the putrid, fishy stench of rot hit them in the face. The air was damp and clammy. By the time the two of them landed, Zhang Yu was already out of sight.

Xuan Qi took out a piece of ebony wood and brought his flint close to it. The wood burst into flame. He held it high like a torch, and their surroundings were instantly illuminated.

At the same time, the burning ebony emitted a peculiar fragrance. The snakes that had been approaching them all turned and slithered away, clearing a path.

Zhou Cangyan completely ignored the creatures slithering above his head and under his feet, striding forward with large steps.

“Ah…”

Not far ahead, Zhang Yu lay on the ground, his body entangled with what must have been hundreds of snakes. Only his eyes were faintly visible on his face, and they now looked toward Zhou Cangyan, pleading for help. “Save… save me… I’ll tell you everything…”

Xuan Qi’s steps faltered.

“My Lord…”

’He can name his co-conspirators in the Court. That’s exactly what we want.’

But Zhou Cangyan simply stepped right over him.

Xuan Qi froze for a moment, but then, without another word, he hurried to catch up.

Looking back, he saw the snakes around Zhang Yu’s neck tightening. His eyes bulged as he struggled to turn his head toward them. “Save… save me…”

Xuan Qi averted his gaze.

“My Lord, why…?”

Knowing what he wanted to ask, Zhou Cangyan’s lips curled into a cruel smile. He let out a low chuckle and said, word by word, “He dared to throw her in a place like this. Killing him a hundred times over wouldn’t be enough.”

As for what the man had to say, Zhou Cangyan couldn’t care less.

’He has to die, and it won’t be an easy death! And as for what I want to know, I’ll find a way to find out myself!’

Hearing this, Xuan Qi said no more, using the ebony in his hand to keep the swarm of snakes at bay.

The tunnel seemed to stretch on endlessly. Zhou Cangyan’s steps came to a sudden halt when he discovered the body of a man in black.

Snakes were still crawling all over the corpse, some even slithering into its horrifically wide-open mouth…

The sight was truly ghastly.

Xuan Qi glanced at the body and exclaimed in shock, “There are venomous snakes among them!”

The dead man’s face had a bluish tint—a clear sign of poisoning.

Most importantly, he saw that the bite wound on the corpse’s neck was swollen and the blood had congealed. He must have been killed by a venomous snake!

When he first came down, he had done a preliminary check and hadn’t noticed any venomous snakes. But now, he didn’t dare let his guard down for a second.

Zhou Cangyan said nothing and continued forward, his pace much faster than before.

Occasionally, he would step on a snake and be attacked. He would simply draw his sword and sever its head.

This happened again and again, his sword never resting. Animals have a natural sense for formidable opponents and danger. Sensing the Evil Qi emanating from him, the snakes instinctively feared him and no longer dared to approach, even without the repelling effect of Xuan Qi’s burning ebony.

Then, Zhou Cangyan saw a second corpse, and a third…

His grip on his sword tightened continuously. Veins bulged on his arm, and his lips were pressed into a thin, hard line.

Seeing this, Xuan Qi knew in his heart that the Princess Consort’s chances of survival were slim.

The deeper they went, the more snakes there were, writhing in layered, tangled masses that made one’s skin crawl.

Suddenly, Zhou Cangyan stopped.

He narrowed his eyes, his ears twitching slightly.

Immediately, he quickened his pace, his sword rising to slice the snakes lunging toward them into pieces.

Xuan Qi heard it too!

It was an incredibly faint sound, like someone gasping for breath.

Zhou Cangyan immediately rushed toward the sound.

When he and Xuan Qi reached the deepest part of the tunnel, the torch illuminated a scene of absolute horror…

Song Lianhe held a broken blade in her hand. Her entire body was covered in blood, making it impossible to tell if it was hers or from the snakes. She seemed to be in a state of shock, completely unaware of the two men approaching her.

Catching sight of a snake “flying” down from above in her peripheral vision, Song Lianhe’s eyes narrowed. She shot out her hand and snatched it mid-air! Then, grabbing it by the tail, she viciously slammed it against the wall…

’This snake was just like that bastard Zhou Cangyan himself.’

Song Lianhe vented all her fury on it.

’She had only one thought in her mind: either she would die here, or she would skin these snakes, take their gallbladders, and steep them in wine!’

Throughout it all, Song Lianhe remained silent, her eyes filled with ruthless determination.

Even someone like Xuan Qi couldn’t help but be profoundly shaken by the sight of Song Lianhe at that moment.

But then, Song Lianhe’s foot slipped, and she was about to fall headfirst into a pile of snakes…

Her mind went blank. Countless ways to die flashed through her head, but she had never imagined she would die here!

In the nick of time, an arm wrapped firmly around her waist. She was spun halfway around to break her fall. When she finally processed what had happened and opened her eyes, she saw an ethereally handsome face.

In this dark and gloomy place, he was like a beam of light shining into a world where she had lost all hope.

It was Zhou Cangyan…

After he had steadied her, Song Lianhe suddenly raised a hand to caress his face.

Noticing her movement, he simply lowered his eyes to look at her.

“They were right after all. You really do hallucinate before you die. You see the person you miss the most…”

Feeling the body in his arms still trembling, seeing her pupils dilated and unfocused, Zhou Cangyan felt a sudden, inexplicable ache in his heart. It hurt so much he truly wanted to level this place to the ground or burn it to ashes!

The broken blade in Song Lianhe’s hand clattered to the ground. She leaned against his chest and smiled faintly, her voice barely a whisper. “I never thought… that the person I’d want to see most at the moment of my death… would still be you…”

The man’s arms tightened around her.

The emptiness in his heart began to fill, little by little.

It was the feeling of recovering something he had thought lost forever.

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