190: the truth

Bai Yao had a very long dream.

In the dream, she returned to modern times, wearing a white lab coat and conducting research in a laboratory.

Her mentor pointed at her thesis and said, "Your hypothesis is too bold. Cross-dimensional energy interaction? This does not conform to existing physical laws."

She smiled and said, "But what if it really exists?"

Then the scene changed.

She stood on the Fox Tribe altar, with Xing Che standing opposite her, his silver hair flowing with a cold light under the moonlight.

He said, "Bai Yao, leave this place. You do not belong to the conflicts of this world."

She said, "But I am already here."

Then Xuan Mo fell into the abyss, calling for her to live on over and over... while Rin stood in the distant Northlands calling out to her.

Finally, it was Caesar.

He stood on the walls of Myriad Beast City, his back to the sunset, turning back to smile at her: "Bai Yao, I will wait for you. No matter how long."

Several worlds, several lives, intertwined and collided within the dream.

Finally, all the images shattered into points of light, reassembling into a clear vision.

She floated in a void, before her was a giant, glowing totem.

She recognized that totem; it was the Moon Goddess mark on the Fox Tribe altar, but at this moment, a black crystal stone she had never seen before was embedded in the center of the totem.

Deep within the crystal stone, something was pulsing slowly, like a sleeping heart.

A voice rang in her mind, ancient, majestic, and carrying a cold fury:

"Desecrator... you shall pay the price..."

Bai Yao snapped her eyes open.

What met her eyes was a familiar roof, the room beside the Fox Tribe altar.

She was lying on a bed covered with soft animal hide, with a thick blanket over her.

"Sss..."

She looked down and saw bandages wrapped around her chest, and a dull pain was radiating from it.

The sky outside was already bright. It seemed she had been unconscious all night?

"You're awake."

A raspy voice came from the bedside.

Bai Yao turned her head and saw Xing Che sitting on a chair nearby. He had changed into a clean white robe, his silver hair carefully tied up, though the look of illness hadn't fully faded from his face.

But those eyes had regained their luster.

Bai Yao looked at his arm; the purple patterns on his arm had truly disappeared.

"The curse..." Bai Yao spoke with difficulty.

"Lifted."

Xing Che's voice was very soft. "All the tribesmen drank the medicine prepared with your blood, and the night of the full moon passed safely. The Fox Tribe... is saved."

When he said this, his eyes were filled with complex emotions—relief, gratitude, and a deep, bottomless fear.

Bai Yao breathed a sigh of relief and tried to sit up, but her body was weak.

Xing Che immediately rose to support her, his movements gentle.

"You have lost too much blood and need to rest for at least a month."

Helping her sit up, he handed warm water to her lips. "During this time, you cannot overexert yourself, and certainly... no more drawing blood."

Bai Yao took a few sips of water from his hand, feeling her parched throat feel a bit better.

She looked up at Xing Che: "What about you? Your injuries..."

"My curse has been cleared."

Xing Che set down the water cup and sat back down by the bed. After a long silence, he said softly, "But my cultivation... most of it is gone."

Bai Yao's heart tightened.

The High Priest's cultivation was the bridge for the Fox Tribe to communicate with the beast god.

If his cultivation was truly gone, it meant he could no longer preside over large-scale sacrifices, could no longer divine heavenly secrets, and might even... lose his status as High Priest.

"Was it because you forced the divination of the forbidden technique?" her voice was raspy.

Xing Che shook his head and looked up at her, his amber pupils reflecting her image:

"It was because... I changed the prophecy."

He paused, as if organizing his words, or perhaps recalling some painful experience:

"A year and a half ago, during the divination before the Moon Goddess Festival, I saw the Fox Tribe's calamity for the first time.

The solution shown then was to offer the purest moonstone—the one that was later swapped. But I calculated one step further."

"I calculated that if the calamity truly happened, the only variable... would be you."

Bai Yao held her breath.

"The hexagram showed that you would appear in the Fox Tribe and use a special method to break the curse, but the price would be..."

Xing Che's voice suddenly choked up, "...your life."

"So I did two things."

He continued, his tone as calm as if telling someone else's story. "First, I secretly investigated who might have swapped the offering, wanting to stop the calamity at its source.

Second, I distanced myself from you, using the most decisive way to push you out of this game."

" But I overlooked one thing.."

He smiled bitterly. "I underestimated how stubborn you are, and I also failed to account for... how fate would pull you in by force in ways I couldn't predict."

Bai Yao stared at him blankly, looking at this man who always calculated everything so clearly, now exposing all his vulnerability and regret before her.

After a long time, she asked softly:

"And now? Does the hexagram still show... that I will die?"

Xing Che was silent for a long time.

The sunlight from outside shone through the window frame, casting shifting shadows on his face.

He raised his hand, his fingertips lightly brushing her stray hair, his movements as gentle as if touching a fragile dream.

"The current hexagram... is a mess."

"And with my cultivation... I can no longer calculate it."

Xing Che's voice was very soft, carrying a near-devout tenderness,

"From the moment you took your heart's blood, all prophecies lost their accuracy. Bai Yao, you have become a variable that even the heavenly secrets cannot measure."

He leaned down, his forehead gently resting against hers.

This action was too intimate; Bai Yao wanted to pull away, but he held her shoulders.

"So promise me,"

He whispered in her ear, his warm breath brushing against her earlock,

"Don't take any more risks. Leave the rest... to me."

Bai Yao wanted to say something, but hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.

Elder Cang Mu pushed the door open, his expression solemn: "High Priest, Goddess, a reply has come from Myriad Beast City."

He handed over a scroll of animal hide.

Bai Yao took it and unrolled it; on it was Caesar's familiar, vigorous handwriting:

"Verified. A year and a half ago, the City of Ten Thousand Evils purchased three top-grade moonstones at a high price. The description of the patterns on one of them perfectly matches the stolen offering of the Fox Tribe.

Additionally, the City of Ten Thousand Evils has been frequently moving troops near the border of the central region recently, as if plotting something. I have already set out with my personal guards and will arrive within three days. Take care. — Caesar"

At the end of the letter, a simple sketch of a lion was drawn, roaring at the sky.

Bai Yao gripped the letter, her heart beating violently.

moonstone... City of Ten Thousand Evils... swapped offering... border troops... all the clues connected to form a line, pointing to a terrifying truth.

The Fox Tribe's calamity, from beginning to end, was a man-made conspiracy.

And the designer was the City of Ten Thousand Evils, watching from the border like a tiger, waiting to reap the final harvest.

"What exactly does the City of Ten Thousand Evils want to do?"