Chapter 598: Chapter 549: The Ancient City Illusion_2

Within their tribe, a fully grown Hook Snake warrior had fallen at the hands of a not yet mature, youthful Enchanting Demon on the first night of their return journey.

The girl had mysteriously managed to escape the prison cart right under their noses; what was even more terrifying, she had chosen not to flee but to turn and fight desperately.

Baili An was speechless with shock as he watched the girl.

Was this girl Ning Feiyan?!

Even though she looked very different than in her adult years, with a frail and delicate frame that barely seemed viable, the biggest difference was in her face.

She wasn’t very pretty right now; half of her face bore scars crisscrossed like blue-black ink. They looked like some ancient curse, and now, they were stained with the fresh red blood of the dead Hook Snake, which gave her an ominous aura.

This was a past that Ning Feiyan had once experienced.

Unsurprisingly, the girl holding the knife was caught by a powerful Hook Snake Demon by the throat.

The moment she was crushed to the ground, her short blade was mercilessly torn from her hand, the blade piercing through her wrist and cruelly nailing her to the ground. Yet she didn’t even utter a grunt.

“You plucky little thing, I’ll crush you right now!”

The Hook Snake’s grip made the bones in her neck creak, but the girl didn’t resist or struggle. Half of her face pressed against the ground turned red with suffocation, but she didn’t utter a word of weak pleading.

“Stop.”

The leader of the Hook Snake Demons was a man with a soft, dark air about him, excessively pale, befitting his cold-blooded nature, with sharp eyebrows and lips red as blood, handsome yet emanating a sinister aura.

As soon as he appeared, the brutal Hook Snake holding Ning Feiyan didn’t dare to hesitate, almost instinctively releasing her quickly.

He knelt on the ground, his gaze filled with profound fear, “Great… Lord.”

The Hook Snake leader paid no mind to his trembling, his eyes leisurely watching the girl slowly stand up before him. She even dared to pull out the short blade herself and casually throw it at his feet.

Still too young, Baili An thought, watching Ning Feiyan at that moment. Although her mind was filled with thoughts, she was more like a young fox that had not yet become enlightened, unable to perfectly hide her emotions and thoughts.

This action was somewhat a venting of anger.

The Hook Snake leader looked down at the blood-stained dagger at his feet and smiled, “I think at such a deadly moment, to be unarmed is not a wise decision.”

Ning Feiyan’s wrist continued to bleed profusely, and she looked at the man and smiled as well but didn’t speak.

The man’s cold vertical pupils were full of interest. He lifted the tip of his foot, shaking the dagger into the heart of the injured dying Hook Snake male demon, conclusively ending his life.

He touched his chin and measured Ning Feiyan, laughing, “I remember you’re the Enchanting Demon Lord’s granddaughter. Although you haven’t inherited the appearance of the Demon Charm, the energy of the Divine Origin lineage you contain is unimaginable. With that in mind, I won’t harm you and will take you back to the Demon Department to nurture you well, but only if you are obedient.”

Ning Feiyan sneered silently.

His voice was smooth, as if naturally laced with enticing lethal intent, “Tell me, you clearly could have killed him in one stroke, yet why did you choose to torture him in such a cruel way?”

Ning Feiyan calmly glanced sideways, looking at the Hook Snake male demon breathing his last, “He whipped my sister and injured her. I gave him some pain to even it out. Fair, isn’t it?”

“Sister?” The man glanced into the prison cart at the mother and daughter huddled together, trembling.

When the mother saw him look her way, she hurriedly held her daughter tighter in her arms, hiding her and looking wary and cold, staring at Ning Feiyan as if in resentment, without a hint of gratitude.

And her little daughter in her arms, despite shivering, couldn’t help but sneak a peek at her sister standing in the midst of the demons with one astonishingly bright eye.

There were no scars on Hong Zhuang’s face at that time; the child was exquisitely pretty. The innocence in her eyes resembled closely the beautiful adult appearance of Ning Feiyan. No doubt, she was the most beautiful among these Enchanting Demons.

The man saw all this and withdrew his gaze quite regretfully, looking at Ning Feiyan, “It’s a pity to be born as an Enchanting Demon.”

In the end, the great leader of the Hook Snake Clan still couldn’t execute Ning Feiyan.

She was re-imprisoned in that cell, without reprimands, not even whipped.

But he ordered that her group had sheltered her and allowed her to leave the cage, so all were deprived of food and water.

As days passed, the tortured Enchanting Demons began to die off.

As one died, everyone seemed to see their own fate, and it all stemmed from Ning Feiyan, who naturally became the target of everyone’s attacks.

Every day, she ended up with numerous bruises from being bullied by her own clanmates.

Unlike her cruel treatment of the Hook Snake male demon, she was much more passive and accepting of her kinsmen’s actions.

Others trampled on her, and she kept quiet, taking it all.

Yet in the dead of night, Baili An would see her alone, tucked in a corner of the prison cart, caressing a green round stone hidden in the sleeve, unseen in the dark shadows.

Throughout the journey, she appeared very calm, and rarely interacted with her mother or sister, except when some Enchanting Demon clanmates vented their anger on Hong Zhuang.

If it wasn’t for her crying out inadvertently at first, this trouble would not have been brought upon them.

In a rage, an Enchanting Demon woman couldn’t resist giving Hong Zhuang a harsh slap, spinning tears in her eyes, but she dared not cry out loud again.

The next day, the Enchanting Demon woman was found dead in the prison cart, then swept down from the vehicle like discarded trash and thrown by the roadside.

Ning Feiyan calmly watched the clanmate’s body covered by the wild grass, her face devoid of emotion.

Everyone thought the Enchanting Demon woman had died of exhaustion and hunger.

But Baili An saw clearly and knew it wasn’t so.

Despite the various cold and cruel actions he had seen from Ning Feiyan, even killing clanmates didn’t seem out of character.

But he hadn’t expected Ning Feiyan to have cared so much for Hong Zhuang.

The prison cart was huge, able to hold twenty to thirty people, but within a few days, Ning Feiyan’s group had dwindled to fewer than ten.

Since the night Ning Feiyan killed the man, they had not received a single drop of water or a grain of rice.

Under the torment of illness and hunger, finally, someone couldn’t endure the cold and fear of death and submitted to their annihilatory enemies, begging for a morsel, a bowl of cold tea, and in the cold, scornful gaze of others, they willingly degraded themselves.

There is a great sensory difference between an Enchanting Demon who serves willingly and one who is forced.

And those Enchanting Demons who survived this war were of high status in the Beiyuan Forest, possessing extraordinary Spiritual Power.

The Hook Snake leader fully recognized the importance of this bunch of Enchanting Demons and did not indulge in needless humiliation.

But if they offered themselves for survival, he would naturally not begrudge his subordinates.

Once someone led the way, the traces of dignity began to fade slowly, eroding away.

Watching an Enchanting Demon return to the cage with roasted meat and clear spring, devouring hungrily, aroma filling the air.

That night, three more people left the prison cart.

One of them, while Ning Feiyan’s mother was asleep, quietly took Hong Zhuang’s hand, with Hong Zhuang’s beautiful looks, intending to get more food rewards together.

At that time, young Hong Zhuang didn’t understand what she was going to do and was about to leave obliviously, perhaps hoping to find some food for her mother and sister.

Ning Feiyan saw this and without a word, cast a cold glance at the woman, her icy gaze slashing across the woman’s face like a knife.

The Enchanting Demon hesitated and didn’t dare to entertain the thought about Hong Zhuang again, hitching up her skirts and walking toward the group of the Hook Snake Clan.

Then, Ning Feiyan coldly addressed Hong Zhuang, “If you dare to step off this cart, I’ll break your legs.”

Hong Zhuang immediately shrank back, not daring to make a sound.