"This is instigating an internal conflict among them!"
Yue Yunqiao pointed angrily and accused, "Despicable!" She looked toward the cottage. "Senior Brother Bai, you had better think this through. If you walk a crooked and evil path, the sect will surely come to purge you!"
Guan Mowen chuckled. "Fairy Yue speaks the truth, but the ruthlessness of the world is something paragons like you cannot possibly understand."
Blood flowed faster and faster on the ground. The Bai clan members gathered under the Yellow Springs Wood gradually withered. Some let out gurgling sounds, twitching and thrashing about.
They could no longer endure it.
"Dad! Mom!" Bai Menglian's face was covered in tears. Her respect for Bai Chong'an was replaced by hatred. "Granduncle! My father has always treated you with the utmost respect. How could you be so cruel? And Little Third, she is only twelve years old!"
After a moment of silence, a sigh finally sounded from inside the small cottage, seeming to show pity, but other than that, there was no other response.
Bai Menglian's heart sank straight down. She now believed it; Granduncle had truly lost his mind and was determined to walk the demonic path. If that was the case...
Seeing her draw her sword and slowly step to the side of Huo Chongxiao and Yue Yunqiao, Guan Mowen knew her answer.
"It seems the eldest miss has chosen them, which is truly regrettable. Yet you are the junior whom the master values and loves the most in this family!"
Bai Menglian said coldly, "That was the granduncle of the past. Now he is nothing more to us than a humanless fiend!"
Guan Mowen shook his head without further explanation, and looked toward another. "What about the eldest young master?"
Bai Mengxing was at a complete loss. "I, I..."
Guan Mowen said kindly, "Eldest Young Master, don't be nervous. If you choose the master, just step over to my side."
Having grown up as he had, Bai Mengxing had never encountered a situation that required him to make his own decisions. His life revolved around three things: eating and drinking, dealing with his tutors, and bullying people along the way. If trouble arose, he would just call for his mother.
"Mom..."
Bai Mengxing called out instinctively, then turned his head to see his mother's anguished face. His mother was not a good person; both petty and arrogant, she had a terrible reputation in the family, but she cherished him like the apple of her eye. His father was the same, secretly skimming money from the shops and saying he wanted to save up more spirit stones for him so he could enter Danxia Palace in the future.
"No." Bai Mengxing shook his head and retreated toward Huo Chongxiao's direction. "You harmed my father and my mother..."
Guan Mowen was surprised. "The eldest young master is truly unexpected..."
Huo Chongxiao and the others were also surprised. Bai Mengxing was unlearned, incompetent, and bullied the weak; they had not expected him to hold his ground at a critical moment.
Finally, there was Bai Mengjin. Everyone had naturally assumed there was no need to ask, and Guan Mowen held no hope either. She and Yue Yunqiao were on good terms, and as soon as the incident happened, she had brought people rushing toward Wuye Cottage. No matter how one looked at it, she would not—
"I choose Granduncle." Without waiting for Guan Mowen to ask, Bai Mengjin spoke up and actively walked toward him.
Huo Chongxiao and Yue Yunqiao wore expressions of utter astonishment, while Bai Menglian and Bai Mengxing found it even more incredible.
"Second Sister?!" They cried out in unison.
Bai Mengjin came to a stop beside Guan Mowen and faced them. "Eldest Sister, Eldest Brother, you both have parents, but I do not. The people who died here today more or less bullied me in the past; I have no reason to make a pointless sacrifice for them."
Yue Yunqiao's anger flared up instantly. "Junior Sister Bai, I thought you were a warm-hearted and kind person. We were strangers earlier, yet you still stepped in to save me, and now you are actually aiding and abetting an evildoer!"
Bai Mengjin said regretfully, "I'm sorry. Senior Sister Yue, if it were anyone else, I would definitely stand on your side, but Granduncle and I share blood ties. By comparison, I still hope he can safely get through this ordeal."
"You..." Yue Yunqiao was so furious she was seeing red.
Huo Chongxiao stopped her. "Junior Sister, forget it."
"Good! Good!" Guan Mowen, having listened to this exchange, clapped his hands and looked at Bai Mengjin with admiration. "Second Miss, you truly are the smartest person in this family. As long as today's endeavor succeeds, you will be the master's only successor."
As the words left his mouth, the Yellow Springs Wood suddenly emitted a muffled thud, and the Yin-Yang Umbrella spinning atop it accelerated its rotation. The Bai clan members beneath the tree shrieked repeatedly as the blood within their bodies was rapidly sucked dry.
"Ah, ah, ah..." One clan member fell, followed closely by a second, and a third...
"Mom! Dad!" Seeing his parents lose their vital breath, Bai Mengxing wanted to rush forward, but was pulled back by his eldest sister.
Bai Menglian was weeping tears of sorrow, yet she gripped him desperately. "Don't go! Going won't save them, and you'll just throw your own life away instead..."
Finally, all of those people collapsed. The blood troughs overflowed with blood, and the previously withered leaves of the Yellow Springs Wood seemed to receive nourishment, actually regaining their vitality bit by bit.
This kind of wicked sorcery was something Huo Chongxiao and Yue Yunqiao were seeing for the very first time, and they could not help changing their expressions.
The Yin-Yang Umbrella spun rapidly, and this vitality was channeled through its transformation toward the cottage.
The restless demonic qi surging all around seemed to be pacified, solidifying little by little.
"Not good! His Demonic Heart is about to form!" Huo Chongxiao shouted. "Quickly, interrupt it!"
With that, he raised the sword in his hand and took the lead in attacking Guan Mowen.
Bai Mengjin had never seen Guan Mowen make a move and only knew his cultivation was not low. At this moment, as he raised a hand, demonic qi surged outward, and Huo Chongxiao was actually driven back a step, barely managing to keep his footing.
"Senior Brother!" Yue Yunqiao cried out, drawing her sword to step forward. "I'll help you!"
The three of them engaged in a fierce melee.
Bai Menglian tightened her grip on her sword, wanting to step forward to help as well.
With quick eyes and swift hands, Bai Mengjin blocked her and Bai Mengxing. "Eldest Sister, Eldest Brother, I don't want to fight with you. How about we strike a bargain? As long as you don't make a move, I won't make a move either. There's no need for us to kill each other."
"Bah!" Bai Menglian glared at her angrily. "Who is family with you? Since you've made your choice, from now on we are no longer sisters!"
Pushed aside by her, Bai Mengxing stammered and followed up, "M-me too! From now on, you're not my sister anymore."
Bai Mengjin smiled derisively. "You talk as if you ever treated me like a sister in the past. Eldest Brother, from childhood to adulthood, how many times did you curse me as a bastard? Did you really think I wouldn't remember? Eldest Sister may not have bullied me, but when I was being bullied, did you ever help me?"
Bai Menglian's face flushed red with anger. "Didn't I help you whenever I saw it? What could I do if I didn't see it?"
"So you weren't sincere after all! Cheap pity like that is better off discarded!"
"Fine! Fine!" Bai Menglian bit her lip and drew her sword. "Since you have no regard for sisterly affection in your eyes, I won't stand on ceremony with you either!"
She lunged forward with a sword strike. Bai Mengjin raised her hand to parry and retreated backwards. Seizing the moment of her high agitation, Bai Menglian gave chase immediately.
Bai Mengxing looked this way, then looked that way, and finally chose to follow his eldest sister. Unable to insert himself into the duel between the two, he would occasionally grab something from the side to cause trouble for Bai Mengjin, shouting wildly, "Don't run! Taste my brick!"
The three siblings ran about in a chaotic flurry, with Bai Mengjin thrusting a sword to the left and tossing a talisman to the right, quickly turning Wuye Cottage into a complete mess.