Spirit Vessel

The stars covering the sky were bright and eternal. Even the continuous falling snow couldn't overshadow their brilliance.

The gale was in full blast under Mount Banda. Even the snow carried a stench of blood.

"We're here." Feng Feiyun exhaled some cold air.

The stars quaked and their light returned to the sky curtain once more.

On top of the qilin, the Evil Woman was dressed in a white daoist robe. Her body exuded a glorious light like a lantern in the dark.

Her emotionless and flawless eyes opened to stare at the mountain that looked like a sleeping behemoth. She slightly squinted and a cold glint appeared in her eyes.

Mount Banda was really too big. While standing at its base, nothing else besides its hills would be in sight. It was the same as standing below a divine wall connecting all the way to the nine heavens; both emitted a feeling of suffocation.

"I have taken you to Mount Banda, it is time to split up." Feng Feiyun let go of the iron reins.

"Crash!" He touched the beast's nose covered in scales. The great beast that used to be ferocious was now docile like a calf.

Feng Feiyun put Bai Ruxue, who was tied to the bull, down on the ground. She had already woken up, but she couldn't move at all due to being tied up completely. Her pretty pair of eyes akin to black pearls were especially dazzling next to her white skin.

Feng Feiyun sarcastically smiled: "Why are you glaring at me? Are you really angry?"

"Why didn't you kill me?" She maintained her glare.

"What's the point? Should I release you now?" He maintained his smile.

Ruxue frowned, slightly puzzled. However, she soon understood his intention. She was only a tool used to retaliate against the heretical school. After the deed, she no longer had any value to him.

Whether he released her or not didn't matter. The only thing of importance was that his purpose had been achieved.

Feng Feiyun had never considered himself a good person, but he couldn't just let someone he had just slept with freeze to death below the parasol tree, so he took her along.

At this moment, Ruxue had recovered a bit of her strength, so what was the harm in letting her go?

Since Ruxue got her freedom back, she quickly moved seven feet away from Feng Feiyun before coldly smiling: "Feng Feiyun, I assure you that this is the biggest mistake of your life. You have no idea how powerful a woman's vengeance is."

She retreated even more until she felt that Feng Feiyun was no longer a threat before stopping.

Feng Feiyun replied:: "Oh? Even if you cultivate for another ten or a hundred years, you still won't be a match against me."

"You are mistaken, revenge doesn't always require force." Her white hair was like a waterfall. It fluttered in the air while her enchanting eyes carried a hint of mockery.

Feng Feiyun asked: "You have other means?"

Bai Ruxue coldly replied: "I can torture myself, isn't this one method of revenge?" [1]

"Haha, I thought you were a smart woman, yet you're actually stupid to this level. Even if you cut off your arms and legs, I wouldn't sympathize at all." Feng Feiyun sighed and shook his head.

"Then what if I sleep with other men?" Bai Ruxue smiled amorously.

Her clothes slowly slipped down, revealing her flawless body. Plump yet slender, she was just like an elf in the snow — a natural seductress.

Feng Feiyun frowned and stared at her.

No man would want to hear about someone they had slept with sleeping with other men, even if they didn't like the girl in the slightest.

A man's possessiveness was very strong. This was true for every man.

"I'm confident that if I strip, countless men will want to have sex with me." Ruxue's eyes showed no signs of tomfoolery, only pure hatred. She stared at him: "Among these men, there will be your friends and enemies, those you hate and even your family. I will sleep with them all and let them have a taste of my exquisite body and moans."

At this moment, Feng Feiyun had to admit that he really didn't understand this type of creature — women.

"Haha, even that wouldn't be enough. I will sleep with the ugliest old man and random street beggars, I will sleep with every man in this world! If I become a woman sluttier than a prostitute, only you can be blamed. It would be your fault, so you must suffer this mental torture." She laughed deviously like an insane woman.

Maybe she really did become crazy.

Feng Feiyun asked: "You think I will feel grieved about it?"

She countered: "Can you truly deny this?"

"Haha, like I said, you are truly foolish. When you are off humiliating yourself, I might already be sleeping with other beauties, such pleasures." Feng Feiyun suddenly jumped up and landed on the bull's head. He directly took the Evil Woman into his embrace and laughed at Ruxue: "Remember, I, Feng Feiyun, will never have a lack of beauties. Having you or not doesn't matter."

The Evil Woman motionlessly stood there and only slightly glanced at him. No other man had dared to hug her like this, but Feng Feiyun was tightly holding onto her as if she was his lover.

Ruxue glared at the two and scowled: "Feng Feiyun, only time will tell. Don't regret this in the future."

She picked up her clothes on the ground and covered her naked body before turning into a white shadow heading for the forest.

Feng Feiyun stared at her departing back with inexplicable melancholy. The pleasure from before was no longer there; it was replaced by a sense of guilt. If she truly degenerated to that level of debauchery, would he really not feel the slightest heartache?

"Boom!" Feng Feiyun felt a sharp pain in his chest. A powerful force blew him away. His body slammed into the snow, burying him inside completely.

"Bah! Bah! Ey, I was just joking in order to persuade Bai Ruxue from not straying down the wrong path, yet you hit me so hard. You're gonna kill someone like this." Feng Feiyun climbed out of the snow while shuddering. A bunch of snow fell from his clothes.

She replied in a serious tone: "If I really wanted to kill you, would you still be able to crawl up?" Her demonic pupils were extremely frightening.

"Then why didn't you kill me?" Feng Feiyun couldn't help it. He was indeed stirred by Ruxue's words. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to touch the Evil Woman's finger, let alone embracing her.

It was because she was a devil, not a woman; a ferocious sword, a cold iceberg, a hell full of corpses and blood. Anyway, this was not a human being and definitely not a woman.

Hugging the Evil Woman was more dangerous than hugging an extremely poisonous snake or a man-eating scorpion.

The more he thought about it, the more scared he got. His scalp felt numb and even his back broke out in cold sweat. He could only be thankful for still being alive and well right now.

"It is because my cultivation has not recovered completely, so you need to be my servant." Her voice was unquestionable like that of an angel from the sky.

Feng Feiyun retorted: "I've never been a servant before."

She ruthlessly stated: "Then you can only die."

He asserted: "Death is better than being your servant!"

She elaborated: "You are wrong. After you die, you will become a Corpse Evil. Not only will you no longer be eligible to be a servant, you can only become my slave to be ordered around by me. A servant and a slave, although it is only a difference of a single word, they are fundamentally different worlds."

Feng Feiyun knocked his head in realization: "A servant is still a human while a slave is no more."

She said: "Clever, which is why I pick you to be my servant."

"So I should feel honored?" Feng Feiyun could only helplessly smile.

"You should, even if it is simply from being able to talk to me so much. This is not a treatment ordinary people could enjoy."

Feng Feiyun smilingly nodded: "This is the treatment of a servant."

"You can think of it like that."

"Can we change the title?" In the end, Feng Feiyun chose to compromise. After all, being alive was still better than a good death. Plus, dying to the Evil Woman would definitely not be a good death.

"Whatever." The Evil Woman compromised as well because she was grievously injured and needed to keep him behind. Otherwise, her near future won't be pretty either.

Furthermore, she had other calculations. The Azure Bronze Spirit Vessel had been taken back by Feng Feiyun, so how could she let him leave so easily?

"How about the Messenger of the Evil Woman then?" Feng Feiyun mused for a while and finally came up with a title that could leave him with some face.

"Messenger of the Evil Woman." She repeated.

Suddenly, a woman's scream came from afar. It was especially discomforting when carried by the gales.

Feng Feiyun and the Evil Woman both stared at the forest.

"Swoosh!" His body flew like an arrow leaving a bow. He rode the wind and, after a few short breaths, he was already more than ten miles away and inside the forest.

He stood there, astounded by the appalling sight before him.

This was a bloodied female corpse with both hands pierced by two iron chains connected to black trees. Her skin had been flayed and her eyes were ripped out. Her tongue was cut off and two nails pierced her eardrums as well. Blood was dripping down all over.

What kind of terrifying torture was this? What kind of hatred justified such torment?

She was beyond recognition. Only her extremely long hair could prove that she was Bai Ruxue. But now, her name should be "red-as-blood". [1. I've mentioned this before, but Bai Ruxue = White as snow.]

No wonder why the screams earlier were so desperate. Her killer was simply too cruel.

Feng Feiyun was familiar with this method of killing. Only the mysterious master could be this ruthless. So he actually came to Trinity and presented such a big gift. This murder was him telling Feng Feiyun that he had arrived!

[1] [1. This will be a notion unfamiliar to the West to an extent. In China's literature, especially in a historical setting, sleeping with someone carries great significance, at least in their beliefs about virginity and chastity. There is one prominent phrase that I paraphrase loosely — one passionate night connects the pair for one hundred years. This shows just how important the first sexual contact is. These literatures even romanticize this type of kinship to the point where a raped victim occasionally falls in love with her rapist because he was her first and she wouldn't marry a second man for a variety of cultural reasons/beliefs. So when Bai Ruxue said this, she is using this type of belief to say that hurting her is also hurting him because of their "connection".]