Chapter 38: A Perfect Scapegoat.

“Stop screaming. No matter how loud you scream, he won’t hear you.”

Jiang Jinyue’s hand, stroking the little deer, was still gentle, but her tone wasn’t as polite anymore.

Without her acting, the Nine-Colored Deer finally felt the witch’s true sinister oppressiveness.

“Considering you’re a Nine-Colored Deer, I won’t rashly erase your memories.”

“But I hope you understand that, He Yimo not only saved you but also saved my life in the dungeon. He’s not just your good friend…”

“Maybe I’m not a good fox, but at least I won’t repay his kindness with harm.”

“So, since we’re both demon spirits, I hope you’ll be lenient and not sow discord between me and He Yimo’s precious relationship.”

At the end, Jiang Jinyue seemed to recall something, and her alluring face flushed slightly, revealing a bit of pure, sincere girlishness.

For a moment, the Nine-Colored Deer felt that she treasured this first-met companionship just like she did.

The multi-faceted charming fox lady actually had such a sincere side…

“Bleat..”

The Nine-Colored Deer lowered its brows slightly, acknowledging.

Jiang Jinyue stroked her head one last time and smiled knowingly.

As the illusion ended, two streams of blood suddenly appeared from her drooping, crescent-moon-shaped peach blossom eyes.

“Miss Jiang, why is your eyes bleeding?!”

“It’s, it’s nothing… It’s probably a backlash from using too many illusions tonight.”

Jiang Jinyue clenched her silver teeth, covering her eyes with her hand, her breathing becoming heavy.

He Yimo was baffled. As they were walking, Jiang Jinyue’s eyes suddenly started bleeding tears, and the previously restless Nine-Colored Deer suddenly became quiet.

“Meh…”

Wangxue, seeing the fox girl’s painful expression, remembered something and approached her proactively, using its nine-colored antlers to emit natural spiritual energy to heal her.

In just a moment, Jiang Jinyue recovered significantly.

She opened her blood-red bewitching eyes and blinked. She found that her eyes, which had been bleeding due to illusion overload, no longer hurt after just a few seconds of healing.

“Is this the divine miracle passed down in Snow Village…”

Jiang Jinyue was incredulous.

It wasn’t the first time her eyes bled.

Although Jiang Jinyue had the illusionary bonus of a naturally charming body, illusions weren’t omnipotent. Sometimes, using too many illusions in a single day would cause her eyes to ache. In severe cases, they would bleed, and she wouldn’t be able to open them.

However, Jiang Jinyue wasn’t usually this fragile.

It was mainly He Yimo and the Nine-Colored Deer tonight, both of whom had high resistance to illusions.

He Yimo was at least still within the human realm.

But the Nine-Colored Deer was outrageous. The fatigue Jiang Jinyue felt from casting a single illusion on her was almost equivalent to hypnotizing He Yimo seven or eight times in a day!

Jiang Jinyue had expected her body to struggle.

But she really hadn’t expected the Nine-Colored Deer, whom she had just intimidated, to disregard their past grievances and actively heal her.

“It’s just like the Nine-Colored Deer in the fairy tale…”

Jiang Jinyue stared at the Nine-colored deer’s praying appearance blankly, and can’t help but sigh softly.

This time, it was He Yimo’s turn to be left out. He looked back and forth but couldn’t understand what had happened between Jiang Jinyue and the Nine-Colored Deer.

Why did they suddenly starts acting all sisterly and touched?

Did Jiang Jinyue use illusions again when I wasn’t looking?

“Bleat!”

After a brief healing, the Nine-Colored Deer returned to He Yimo’s side, nudging him to leave.

At the same time, Jiang Jinyue did the same.

She came to He Yimo’s other side, smiling sweetly, “Thanks to the Nine-colored deer’s healing, I’m fine now. Let’s leave quickly.”

…

…

“Brother He, thank you for your companionship tonight.”

“It’s getting late, I think… I should also bid farewell to Brother…”

Back on the bamboo path outside the mountain temple, Jiang Jinyue turned around, put her hands behind her back, and said goodbye somewhat reluctantly.

Under the moonlight, the fox demon girl gently swayed her demonic tail, her cherry-red eyeshadow-lined eyes crinkling like the moon, so bewitching they could form threads.

She tilted her head and smiled sweetly, just like the scene when they first met at the martial arts arena during the day.

He Yimo couldn’t help but be captivated by Jiang Jinyue’s eyes.

It couldn’t be helped. Her innate charm was like this. If you weren’t careful, you’d easily fall under her spell!

“Ying… ying ying!”

The Nine-Colored Deer bit He Yimo’s sleeve and tugged anxiously, finally pulling He Yimo out of the charm.

He Yimo blinked, feeling a bit dazed.

Ever since he had saved Jiang Jinyue, he had been less vigilant around her. But unexpectedly, after less than an hour together, Jiang Jinyue had cast an illusion on him again.

But…

This time, Jiang Jinyue’s illusion seemed to have no special purpose.

She didn’t make He Yimo reveal any heartfelt words, nor did she suggest that He Yimo do anything. She simply made He Yimo stand in the moonlight, staring at the fox lady’s sweet, peach-blossom eyes for several minutes.

If not for the Nine-Colored Deer’s reminder, He Yimo didn’t know how much longer he would have stared at her unblinkingly!

And as He Yimo came to his senses, he now inexplicably felt that her smile was deeply impressed upon his memory. Even when he closed his eyes, he could still clearly see her features.

“Let’s part ways here.”

“If we meet again in the future, we’ll maintain our normal relationship as fellow sect members.”

He Yimo clasped his hands in salute and left with the little deer, and Jiang Jinyue did the same.

However, although Jiang Jinyue said goodbye, she actually stopped after taking a few steps.

Under the moonlight, the fox demon girl stood still, her blood-red bewitching eyes staring at He Yimo’s receding figure—

“The little princess of Snow Village is really kind and simple.”

“With her around, it seems I’ll never have the chance to cast illusions on He Yimo again.”

“But… slightly using illusions to enhance his favorability towards me is still easy.”

“Moreover, tonight’s harvest has been quite fruitful!”

Jiang Jinyue said expressionlessly, a smile forming on her cold, alluring face.

Seeing that He Yimo had already walked away, she looked up at the fading moonlight.

“It should be about time Gu Wanglan returned.”

Jiang Jinyue lifted her boots, turned around, and walked back towards the depths of the bamboo forest—

“Judging by the time, it’s too late to clean up the traces in the dungeon.”

“But if I can’t erase the traces of the battlefield, I can erase the clues in Gu Wanglan’s memory.”

As the fox demon girl walked, the white dress on her body ignited with flames, turning into a blood-red Gothic evening gown.

“Let me think—”

“Who should I frame for stealing the deer~?”

The girl’s jade finger lightly tapped her face, her expression innocently guileless.

After a moment of silence, a nearly perfect scapegoat came to mind, and a cold smile, signifying a bad woman, appeared on her lips.

…

…

…

“Damn it, no wonder my eyelids have been twitching all day!”

“This mountain temple is so perfectly hidden, there’s no way anyone should have discovered the secret here…”

“It must have been that damned deer screaming in the middle of the night, attracting people to this place!”

In the early morning, as the sun rose.

Beneath the ruins of the mountain temple, a gray-haired man in a trench coat looked grim and annoyed.

He walked along the messy cave tunnels, eventually stopping before a pile of rubble.

Gu Wanglan’s brows furrowed slightly, and he lifted a large boulder.

Soon, his gaze was drawn to a wisp of light red fur pressed under the boulder.

“This is…”

Gu Wanglan pinched the light red fluff and narrowed his cold eyes.

“Fox fur?”

His mind raced, but he couldn’t think of any fox demon who would be a suspect in the theft from the mountain temple.

There were many fox demons in the world, but Gu Wanglan genuinely couldn’t recall anyone he had offended.

If it’s to a member of their sect, who has a fox spirit-body.

Unless the culprit was just causing trouble for fun—

“No, it shouldn’t be that witch. The Miyue Sect is also a Western faction. She has no reason to come to the Wuji Sect and antagonize her colleagues.”

The more Gu Wanglan pondered, the more his head hurt.

He continued to collect the scattered fox fur along the way until Gu Wanglan saw the dungeon mechanism shattered to pieces, the ground covered in black blood, and the worm’s carcass with its scales completely removed—

“What is the origin of this fox demon, to actually kill the Breeding Worm?”

Gu Wanglan crouched down, his fingers tracing the bloodstains on the ground, his eyes filled with shock and his mind blank.

He seemed to remember something and quickly got up and ran to the upper dungeon.

Sure enough, it was also a mess. All the mechanisms were triggered, leaving only an empty iron cage hanging in mid-air.

“The deer was also stolen…”

At this moment, Gu Wanglan was completely stunned.

He clenched his fists and punched the wall, creating a large, cracked dent.

“Damn fox, whoever you are! I swear I’ll kill you!”

Gu Wanglan’s eyes reddened. He drew his sword and slashed at the iron cage in a fit of rage.

But after a moment of losing control, he keenly recalled a certain detail—

“That’s right! Since she left bloodstains!”

“Using the Miyue Sect’s secret technique, sacrificing her blood to the Mother Goddess, I might be able to locate the thief’s whereabouts!”

Suddenly, Gu Wanglan calmed down a lot.

While the bloodstains on his fingertips were still wet, he ran out of the cave without looking back.

But as soon as he climbed out of the basement, he felt a cold gaze on the Buddha statue in the main hall of the mountain temple.

Gu Wanglan suddenly turned around, but found nothing.

A strange laughter came from above his head. Gu Wanglan looked up and finally discovered the long-awaited red phantom—

“Brother Gu, I heard you want to settle a blood debt with me?”

—