Chapter 11: The Red-Haired Girl
Any normal person, even with a decent level of profound strength, would not necessarily dare to rashly approach in such a situation. But Xiao Che, without even a moment of hesitation, walked straight toward that abnormal white shadow.
As he gradually drew closer, he suddenly realized that this was actually a person! A person lying there quietly!
"Who are you?" After vaguely making out that it was a person, Xiao Che stopped and tested with a cautious voice.
But the figure in his sight had no reaction whatsoever, not even the slightest sign of movement or breath.
Had she fainted? Or… was she dead?
Who could this be? Why would she be lying here? Wait! If she had been lying here during the day, she would definitely have been discovered long ago. As things stood, it was clear that he was the first to find her, which meant she had also appeared here not long ago… at the earliest, after night had fully fallen.
Xiao Che hesitated no longer and strode over quickly.
When he reached this figure, and the moonlight illuminated her features as he looked at her, Xiao Che was stunned on the spot.
This was actually… a girl!
The girl appeared to be only twelve or thirteen years old, her petite and delicate body curled up like a frightened kitten, her white dress in disarray. From under the hem of her skirt, two slender, snow-white calves were exposed. Upon closer inspection, fine scars were scattered across them. One of her feet wore a black shoe, while the other shoe was missing, leaving a bare, tender pink foot like an ice lotus, each exquisite toe crystalline and translucent, as if carved from jade.
But what drew the most attention was her hair—it was an eerie, vivid red! The cold glint that had flashed across the corner of his eye earlier had been a reflection from her hair.
A girl? How could a girl be here? And she seemed to bear many injuries.
What was with the color of her hair? Were there people on the Tian Xuan Continent with red hair?
Xiao Che bent down and reached out to gently shake the girl's shoulder. "Little sister? Little…"
But after just one call, his voice abruptly stopped, and his hand, which had been shaking her shoulder, withdrew like lightning. Because through the thin fabric of her clothes, what he felt was an utterly icy coldness—not a trace of the warmth that should belong to a living person. And what shocked him most was that the moment he touched the girl's body, he distinctly sensed an intensely toxic aura!
That's right—a lethal poison! A poison more terrifying in toxicity than any he had ever known, a poison he had never encountered before! It was so dreadful that the instant his palm made contact, every hair on his body stood on end.
It was only then that Xiao Che suddenly noticed that the weeds and vegetation around the girl, under the moonlight, were not a dark green… but a horrifying charred black! Even the ground had turned pitch black.
A chill ran through Xiao Che's heart. If it weren't for the Heavenly Poison Pearl within him, making him immune to all poisons, he would have been poisoned to death the moment he touched the girl's body.
How could there be such a terrifying poison in the world? Wasn't the ultimate poison of the world the Heavenly Poison Pearl? But even when I used the Heavenly Poison Pearl before, I was never able to release such a fearsome toxin! It's not even close!
Could there be something in this world more poisonous than the Heavenly Poison Pearl?
How did this little girl end up poisoned with something so terrible? And why was she lying here?
Countless doubts surged in Xiao Che's mind. But without a doubt, this little girl was dead. With a poison like this, not to mention a little girl, even a super-strong expert at the Heavenly Xuan Realm would be killed in an instant.
Xiao Che took a heavy breath. After hesitating for a moment, he once again pressed his hand on the girl's shoulder and slowly turned her silent body over. Her face was revealed under the moonlight, and it stunned him again. He stared at her blankly, as if he had lost his soul, unable to come back to his senses for a long time…
"How could there be… such a beautiful girl…" Xiao Che's soul trembled as he let out an involuntary cry.
This girl was incredibly beautiful—beautiful to the point of being eerie, beautiful enough to steal one's soul. If he hadn't seen her with his own eyes, he would never have believed that such a young girl could exude such breathtaking charm.
Her red hair was like that of a demon, her face like white jade. Every feature was flawless to the extreme, and when combined, they formed a perfection so stunning it was hard to believe. The delicacy of this girl's face was such that Xiao Che, scouring all the memories of his life, could find no words to describe it. Even though he was looking at her from such a close distance, a deep sense of unreality lingered in his heart… because deep down, he simply couldn't believe that such a flawless, breathtakingly beautiful face could exist in this world.
Xia Qingyue was the number one beauty of Liu Yun City, and even throughout the entire Cang Feng Empire, few women could compare to her. When he had first seen her true face, Xiao Che had only briefly lost his composure. But when he saw this girl's face, he felt as if his very soul had been struck heavily. He had never imagined that one day, the mere sight of a person's face could cause such intense, unbearable turmoil in his heart.
She was still just a little girl of twelve or thirteen. If she grew to Xia Qingyue's age… it was unimaginable! Perhaps by then, a single smile or frown from her would be enough to ignite a war that would plunge the world into chaos.
But such a peerlessly beautiful girl had been poisoned to death by a venom so potent that even he, an expert in toxins, had never seen its like. And she had died on the territory of the Xiao Sect. What occupied Xiao Che's mind at that moment was not what poison she had been hit with, nor why she was here… but a deep sense of regret. Regret that something so exquisitely beautiful had been so cruelly destroyed.
What kind of person could be so vicious as to harm such a beautiful girl!
After glancing at the surrounding vegetation and ground, which had already turned black and charred, Xiao Che hesitated for a moment, then extended his left hand and pressed his palm against the girl's icy chest. The Heavenly Poison Pearl flashed with light and began to rapidly purify the poison on her body. After all, this was the back mountain of the Xiao Sect. With how terrifying the poison on the girl was, if it were allowed to spread, it could turn the entire back mountain into a dead zone. Although the poison power of the Heavenly Poison Pearl had almost entirely disappeared, its ability to detoxify remained.
The light from the Heavenly Poison Pearl in his palm persisted, gradually purifying the poison from the girl's body. Just then, Xiao Che suddenly noticed that her icy chest rose and fell slightly. Then, he saw her eyes… slowly, bit by bit, open…
They were extraordinarily dark eyes, flickering with a dangerous, eerie black light as they weakly shifted. The moment Xiao Che's eyes met hers, he felt a terrifying sensation of falling into an endless abyss… Shock filled his heart! This girl was clearly poisoned, with no breath, a cold body—obviously completely dead… and now she had opened her eyes!
The girl's right hand slowly reached out. Amid Xiao Che's shock, it firmly grasped his left wrist. Her lips moved slightly, and a faint voice emerged. The words were unmistakably…
"Heavenly… Poison… Pearl…"
Xiao Che's heart shook again. He could hardly believe his ears! The Heavenly Poison Pearl was something he had brought from the Cang Yun Continent; it was not an object belonging to the Tian Xuan Continent at all… And yet this girl had directly called out the name of the Heavenly Poison Pearl! Had he misheard? Or was it a coincidence?
"Little sister, you… Ah!!"
With a pained groan from Xiao Che, the girl opened her pale lips and sank her teeth deeply into the fingers of his left hand.
Blood gushed profusely from the pads of his middle and index fingers. All the flowing blood was sucked into the girl's mouth, not a single drop falling to the ground. Xiao Che, greatly alarmed, tried to pull his hand back with all his strength… But the girl's hand, though small, white, and delicate, clamped around his wrist like an iron hoop. No matter how much force Xiao Che exerted, he could not free himself even a bit. As his eyes widened, he felt as if all the blood in his body was being madly drawn toward his left hand by an irresistible force, sucked into the girl's mouth.
She's… drinking my… blood!?
The girl's dark eyes had already closed. She greedily sucked on Xiao Che's fingers, like an infant being fed.
Just what… is this girl…
She was clearly a young girl poisoned with a lethal toxin, yet she made it impossible for him to struggle or break free. After trying desperately several times, he finally gave up and could only watch helplessly as she drank his blood.
Xiao Che's body was already weak. With the massive loss of blood, his mind began to feel faint. Just as he was wondering whether this girl would suck him dry, the suction on his left fingers suddenly stopped. The small hand that had been gripping his wrist slowly relaxed.
Xiao Che quickly stepped back several paces, his face dark as he stared at this flawlessly beautiful girl who had just been drinking his blood. But after a long time, the girl made no further movement. She lay there quietly, just as when Xiao Che had first seen her, eyes closed, silent and still.
Whoosh…
A chilly night breeze swept past, brushing against Xiao Che's back and then blowing over the girl's still-lying body. In the cold wind, the girl's body suddenly scattered like mist, disappearing completely from where she lay, leaving behind only a badly torn white dress, a single black princess shoe, and a red butterfly hair clip.
Xiao Che: "!!!!"
Gone!?
At that moment, a strange sensation came from the palm of his left hand. His heart stirred, and a hint of surprise flickered in his eyes. He immediately closed his eyes, focused his mind, and entered the space of the Heavenly Poison Pearl.
The emerald-green space of the Heavenly Poison Pearl had originally been empty.
But this time when he entered, he saw a snow-white body, delicate as if carved from jade, quietly floating before his eyes.
Xiao Che's eyes widened, and he immediately reached up to firmly cover his nose.
There was no doubt that this was the same girl who had just sucked his blood and then vanished before his eyes. But the difference was… at this moment, suddenly appearing within the Heavenly Poison Pearl, she was completely unclothed, her petite jade body fully exposed before him.
Her eyes were tightly shut, her snow-white face serene. Her blood-red hair hung naturally, gently dancing without any wind. Her entire body's skin was smooth, white, and glossy, radiating a milky luster, tender and plump like a baby's. Her brows were like kingfisher feathers, her waist as if bound by a silk sash. Her two legs were slender and straight, like carved jade. Though she was young, her upper body had already developed to a considerable extent. On the perfectly shaped snow-white mounds, two soft jade beads were as fresh as spring bamboo shoots, breathtakingly beautiful.
This was a body not yet fully grown, yet it exuded a captivating charm that could steal one's soul, as if it concentrated all the ultimate perfection of the world.
With tremendous willpower, Xiao Che forced his gaze away, covering his nose and turning around. The moment he saw the girl's body, a surge of heat rushed upward. He believed that if he kept looking, that heat would definitely burst forth…
How is she not wearing any clothes…
No, that's not the important point!!
She clearly just disappeared, so how did she end up inside the Heavenly Poison Pearl! The Heavenly Poison Pearl has already fused with my body. Only I can control it. Without my permission, how could she appear here…
Could it be… because she drank my blood?
What in the world is going on?
Xiao Che's mind was a complete mess. With all his experiences across two lifetimes, he still could not understand what had just happened.