CHAPTER 184: 184- SAVE YOUR HEAD.

The heavy door swung shut behind them, sealing away the nightmare. The transition was jarring.

One moment, they were in a tomb of silent, brutal death... the very next, they were plunged into the chaotic, vibrant life of a night market.

The alley was a canyon of noise and shadow. Lanterns strung between ramshackle stalls cast a warm, flickering glow on a throng of people.

Vendors shouted over one another, hawking dubious-looking spirit herbs, shimmering talismans, and sizzling skewers of mystery meat.

The air, once thick with the scent of blood, was now a competing mélange of spices, incense, and the faint odor of damp stone.

Xiao Pei took a deep, shuddering breath, the normalcy of the scene feeling utterly surreal.

It was then that the ground gave a low, deep groan.

A tremor ran through the cobblestones, silencing the haggling for a split second. Heads turned.

Then, with a sound like a mountain sighing, the entire building they had just exited collapsed in on itself.

Walls folded, roofs splintered, and the structure plummeted downward, not with a violent explosion, but with a deep, final crunch of settling earth and shattered timber.

A great cloud of dust billowed up, briefly swallowing the nearby stalls before settling to reveal a gaping, dark sinkhole several meters deep.

She hadn’t been lying earlier.. she had meant every word spoken and she truly buried him.

The market fell completely silent, then, as one, the crowd shrugged.

A building collapse in a place like this was just Tuesday.

The shouting and haggling resumed, slightly more subdued, flowing around the new landmark as if it had always been there.

Xiao Pei stared at the ruins, his stomach churning.

He found his voice, though it was small and strained. "Sister Du Juan... don’t you think you’re being too much?"

Du Juan, who hadn’t even glanced back at the destruction, stopped walking.

She turned to face him, her expression unreadable in the lantern light, though her voice was cool and even. "I gave him a clear warning, and he did not listen. Every actions have their own consequence."

"But what about the others?" Xiao Pei pressed, his conscience aching. "The guards... the... others. Surely they had families? They didn’t all deserve that."

Du Juan went very still. Her luminous eyes, which usually held the distant cold of the moon, seemed to sharpen, focusing on him with a new, piercing intensity.

A muscle in her jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

"Listen here," she said, her voice dropping, losing its coolness and gaining a sharp, almost brittle edge.

"I don’t know what you see in that nurse who was pawing at you, but I am not going to sympathize with people who choose to work for a monster who experiments on living humans."

The words ’pawing at you’ were laced with a frosty distaste that felt personal.

"You should be thanking me for sparing you a look at his trophy room. The walls were lined with the heads of his previous ’special’ patients. So, no. I do not think it was ’too much.’"

Before Xiao Pei could form a reply, she spun on her heel storming off into the crowd, leaving him standing alone by the gaping hole.

Xiao Pei hurriedly followed, his questions and protests dying in his throat.

Du Juan soon slowed to a purposeful stride as she wove through the crowds, her sharp eyes scanning the stalls.

Xiao Pei followed from behind as he watched her gaze slid over shimmering talismans and glittering artifacts without a flicker of interest.

Instead, she paused before stalls piled high with dried herbs, twisted roots, and bundles of bark, her fingers occasionally lifting a specimen to examine its color and scent before dismissing it with a barely perceptible shake of her head.

"What are you looking for?" he asked, his voice careful.

"Some roots and a bark," she replied without looking at him, her attention on a particularly gnarled piece of timber being hawked by a vendor with three teeth.

Xiao Pei stopped for a second, his brows knitting before he asked, voice laced with curiosity, "Surely not Spiritual Bitterness Root and Molten Elderleaf Bark... right?"

Du Juan’s hand, which was reaching for another sample, froze in mid-air.

She slowly turned her head to look at him, her expression one of genuine surprise.

"How do you know—?" she began, then cut herself off.

Her lips pressed into a thin line as understanding dawned. "Of course you would. You two are sworn brothers. You’ve probably brewed tea with the stuff."

A bold, almost impulsive thought leapt into Xiao Pei’s mind.

A faint, teasing smile touched his lips. "So... you’re in love with him, too?"

The effect was instantaneous. Du Juan recoiled in an instant and her composure shattered into pure, unadulterated alarm.

"Are you insane?" she hissed, her voice low but vehement.

She glanced around as if expecting an assassin to materialize from the crowd. "I very much love my head attached to my shoulders, thank you. No!"

She leaned in until her breath brushed against his ear, her luminous eyes glimmering with a fear that was painfully real.

"It’s the Matriarch who asked me to get them. Keep your lips shut tight before you get me into trouble."

Her voice cracked like a whip, low and urgent, before softening into something almost trembling. "The Matriarch sent me to see you killed... so be grateful I’m helping you instead of driving a knife into your back."

Xiao Pei held up his hands in a placating gesture, his teasing smile vanishing. "Understood. I won’t mention it again."

Du Juan stared at him for a second longer, before straightening up and smoothing her robes.

"Good," she stated flatly. "Now, stop asking foolish questions and help me look. The real ones should feel cold as ice and faintly smell of sulfur, even through the preservation seals."

Xiao Pei nodded and then he suddenly stopped, his brows shooting up as the words finally sank in.

"Wait... hold on. What do you mean the Matriarch sent you to see me get killed?"