Chapter 854: Abundance Offspring!?

"You've come at the perfect time! I'm about to go mad being chased by those two! Do you know, just now—just now—I was chased through at least twenty corridors, my shoes flew off, the Dragon Lady demanded I fight with her, the General demanded I accompany her, uh, I don't even know what I'm supposed to accompany, but it was terrifying! I tell you, right now the Dan Ding Office is all wrong, there's nobody everywhere, the General—no idea if he took the wrong medicine or got possessed, and Lord Bai Lu, who is usually such a well‑behaved child, has started shouting battle at anyone she meets—"

Qingque spoke quickly.

Mainly because she had been holding it in for too long, all the question marks in her mind were stuck at the back of her throat, and now that she finally found someone who could listen to her, all the questions poured out like a floodgate opened, rushing out in a rush!

Moreover, both hands were gesturing in front of her chest, her facial expression shifting from terror to confusion and then to excitement, her eyebrows bouncing up and down.

Then she suddenly stopped.

Her foot hung in mid‑air, not descending.

It wasn't because she had finished speaking.

It was because Xue Yi was watching her.

But this "watching" wasn't ordinary.

Xue Yi's body remained completely still, neither nodding nor frowning, and she made no reaction that a normal person would have upon hearing a colleague's plea for help.

She simply stood there, arms naturally hanging at her sides, her slender legs, encased in white tights, held together motionlessly.

Those crimson eyes stared at Qingque without blinking, the depths of the pupils showing no hint of warmth.

Qingque recognized that way of looking, the countless faces on the Shuhuo giant tree in her dream also gazed at her with that same stare.

There was no Rage, nor curiosity.

It was a Lock!

Qingque's steps halted about five paces away from Xue Yi.

She didn't dare step forward any further.

Because her body reacted before her mind did.

Instinct let out a scream in that Shana instant!

She hadn't even figured out what she was afraid of!

Her body immediately made the decision for her, knees slamming down, waist bending backward, the whole figure tilting to the left at an almost impossible angle, like a puppet cut from its strings!

The teal hem swung through the air in a half‑circle, layers of rippling fabric edges rolling up, revealing the hem of the white underskirt beneath.

At the very moment she twisted aside, a demon‑breaking spike brushed her right shoulder and drove into the spot where she had just been standing.

The shaft was dark‑copper, the blade glinting with a cold silver sheen, and faint teal‑blue exorcism runes on the spike flashed a chilling glint less than an inch from her eyes.

Then came a deep, muffled "Boom"!!!!

The sound of the wall being pierced by the spike, shards of brick and wood splintering beside her ears, a small fragment of stone crashed onto her face, scraping the still‑swollen cheek, the pain making her gasp sharply for cold air.

Had she remained in place, the spike would now have pierced straight through her skull.

Qingque staggered back three steps, her back slamming into the opposite wall of the corridor, one hand covering the cheek grazed by stone, the other hand braced against the wall, her whole being in a blank state where she even forgot to breathe.

She looked down at the air above her right shoulder; the demon‑breaking spike had brushed off a small clump of broken hair, a few snapped brown‑ish strands drifting lazily onto the floor at her feet.

Then she jerked her head up, looking at Xue Yi.

Qingque's lips opened, her voice forced out from her throat, trembling and full of incomprehension.

"Xue—Xueyi Judge?!"

"What are you doing? It's me! Qingque of the Tai Bu Si! I'm not—I'm not a bad person! I'm a victim! Do you understand, victim!"

The words came out stammering.

Qingque stared at Xue Yi's cold face, trying to find even the slightest hint of a joke in those crimson eyes, but there was none!

Nothing at all!

That face bore no expression, calm as if the one who had just acted wasn't her.

And Xue Yi gave no reply.

Her right hand produced the spike again, while her left hand simultaneously drew a second soul‑binding iron chain from behind; the chain unfurled in the air, the links rattling as they slid across the corridor floor, the copper bells at the end jingling sharply and shrill.

The chain's shadows under the fluorescent lights flickered like two slithering snakes, one sweeping horizontally toward Qingque's ankle, the other looping from above, aiming to coil around her waist!

But Qingque evaded again.

Only this time she fled more clumsily, throwing herself onto the ground, limbs hitting the floor, the crisp clatter echoing through the corridor.

The chain swept over her head, the sharp edges of the links shaving off a few floating hairs, the copper bell at the end striking the wall beside her, the wall plaster cracking, shards splattering onto her sleeve.

The other chain skimmed almost flush against her side, leaving a shallow scratch on her belt.

"Wait!! I said— I said you wait a moment! Just a moment!"

Qingque rolled and crawled backward, her hands slipping twice on the smooth wooden floor before she could brace herself.

She lifted her head to look at Xue Yi, her face dusted with ash, stray hairs at her temples clinging to her forehead with cold sweat, her eyes wide and round, pupils shrinking to two tiny dots from fear.

"I didn't commit any crime! I really didn't! I sneaked a peek at the General's dancing— that was wrong, but it was curiosity— no, that doesn't count as a crime, does it?! At most it's— it's misconduct! Ten Kings Office doesn't handle this, right? You deal with violent, demonic, serious criminals; I can just write a self‑critique and hand it to the Grand Diviner for approval—"

Xue Yi took a step forward.

Her small leather boots pressed onto the floor, the soles emitting a steady, light thud.

Qingque shuffled back two more steps.

Her heels bumped the wall.

No way out.

Instinctively she glanced back; indeed a wall lay behind, the same side of the same corridor as the one that had just blocked her, only shifted about ten steps to the side.

This wall was a dead end just like the previous one, with not even a window on its surface.

Xue Yi stepped forward again.

The chain slowly tightened in her hand, the links grinding against each other, emitting a fine metallic gnashing.

Her lips moved slightly.

The voice was low, devoid of any emotional inflection, yet it made the hair on one's skin stand up more than Jing Yuan's clipped tone earlier.

"Abundance Offspring!"

"Die!"

Every word was poured clearly into Qingque's ears.

It instantly froze Qingque's blood on the spot.

"Abundance Offspring—me?!"

Qingque pointed at her own nose, her expression wildly swinging between confusion and grievance.

Her mouth opened and closed, closed and opened again.

She stared at Xue Yi's eyes.

Those crimson pupils grew larger before her, containing no emotion belonging to a "human".

There was only cold murderous intent.

Qingque opened her mouth, trying to say something, to make one last effort, to declare her identity again, to say, "I am not a Abundance Offspring; I am a normal Diviner of the Tai Bu Si," but her lips only managed a brief twitch.

The Demon‑Breaking Spike had already slipped from Xue Yi's hand, its tip thrust straight into her brow.