# 401
**Chapter 401 – You’re Really Pretty**
The moment the serpent eyes met those crimson pupils, a gray hue crept across Cao Yuan’s face beneath his mask, and his skin began turning to stone at a speed visible to the naked eye!
“Old Cao!!”
Baili Pangpang shouted, wasting no time. He raised the [Wind-Thunder Scroll] broom in his hand and swept it forward. A violent gale swallowed both figures at once.
The snake woman’s form flickered, reappearing atop another serpent eye not far away. Cao Yuan’s body, however, was sent flying over a dozen meters, wrapped in black fiendish flames as he crashed through a wide floor-to-ceiling window and plummeted from the twenty-second floor.
Baili Pangpang’s mouth twitched.
“Old Cao… this, this isn’t my fault!” he muttered.
The snake woman’s dual pupils locked onto Baili Pangpang, clearly displeased that he’d interrupted her petrification. The eerie snake eyes beneath her feet spread like a tide, instantly covering the entire space once more.
“Little fatty of the Baili family.” The snake woman’s scarlet tongue traced the corner of her lips, her eyes narrowing. “Do you know how much your head is worth these days?”
Baili Pangpang’s burly frame shuddered. “Who? Who’s the little fatty of the Baili family? You’ve got the wrong guy! I’m Marshal Tianpeng!”
Snake woman: …
She let out a cold laugh. “Baili Tuming, Zhu Bajie… whatever. You’re all dying here today!”
Her figure flashed again. Without thinking, Baili Pangpang closed his eyes and swung the [Wind-Thunder Scroll] broom behind him, then to his side—completely random, no pattern at all.
“Not looking at eyes, not looking at eyes, not looking at eyes…”
Fierce winds mixed with lightning rampaged through every corner of the space. The snake woman flickered repeatedly, her expression growing darker.
Whether intentional or not, the fatty had abandoned all judgment and tactics, swinging blindly with eyes shut—but it worked.
With Baili Pangpang’s moves unreadable, the snake woman couldn’t predict his actions and didn’t dare appear nearby. While the [Wind-Thunder Scroll] wasn’t terrifyingly powerful, for a fragile agent like her, getting hit would still hurt.
Baili Pangpang’s actions perfectly embodied the phrase: “No move beats all moves.”
Leaning against the wall, Molly coughed violently. The gale swept past, whipping her long hair into chaos.
She tilted her head, peering from the corner into the center of the battlefield. Baili Pangpang stood alone, eyes closed, flailing wildly. The snake woman shifted positions a few times, then vanished into thin air.
Molly blinked.
The next moment, a chill surged in front of her!
She spun around to find a black-haired snake woman, wielding a hiltless blade, standing before her. Those bewitching vertical pupils curved in a sly smile.
Thud!
Pain lanced through Molly’s abdomen as the hiltless blade pierced her body. Agony she’d never felt before flooded her mind, and crimson blood soaked through her clothes.
“While that little fatty’s throwing his tantrum, killing you first… seems like a good idea.” The snake woman’s lips curled into an icy arc.
One hand gripping the blade, she pressed the other against Molly’s head, slowly bringing her eyes closer…
Under the torment of pain, Molly nearly lost her mind, unable to stop herself from lifting her gaze toward the serpent eyes.
Whoosh—!
Just as petrification was about to begin, an arrow whistled past, severing their eye contact. The white fletching grazed the snake woman’s eye!
“Ah!!”
She yelped, snapping her right eye shut, brow furrowed. She whipped her head around.
Not far away, Jialan stood in a flowing blue hanfu, light-yellow hardwood bow in hand, already nocking a second arrow, eyes calm.
She released. The feathered shaft tore through the air, streaking straight for the snake woman’s face!
But halfway there, the snake woman vanished.
Jialan clenched her teeth, spun, and instead of nocking a third arrow, gripped the bow with both hands and swung it like a longsword!
Shhh—!
A hiltless blade slashed across the bow’s surface. Stripped of its [Undying] protection, the wood split under the edge.
The snake woman didn’t let up, fury in her eyes. She hacked faster, each strike widening the notch. Whatever the hardwood was made of, it endured four cuts; on the fifth, it finally snapped!
Crack!
The string broke, the bow shattered. Jialan, holding half a bow, lips pressed tight, staggered back several steps.
She glanced at her palms—once fair, now bloodied from the snapped string. Blood dripped down the broken wood, pattering onto the floor…
She was hurt.
Staring at the fragments, her eyes reddened. The hardwood bow her mother had passed down, companion of over three millennia, was now splinters.
Seeing this, the snake woman’s face lit with delight.
“Yes, that expression… that look is perfect!!” A flush rose on her cheeks, trembling with excitement.
Jialan clenched the broken bow, raised her head, ready to recall the [Undying] trait from Qin Kai.
Doing so would worsen his injuries—maybe kill him—but if she didn’t, they’d all die here!
At that moment, the hilt of the Straight Blade on her back glowed blue, and a warm body pressed against her from behind.
Startled, she turned to find Lin Qiye, swaying, arms wrapped around her… or more precisely, around the Straight Blade.
Under mental corruption, his hazy mind leaned all his weight on her. Off-balance, Jialan stumbled forward into the solid wall.
“W-what… are you doing?!”
Flustered, she spun, parting her lips to scold him—only to freeze at the sight of his flushed, drunken-looking face.
Lin Qiye shook his head, one hand braced on the wall behind her, and lifted his dazed eyes to hers.
“…Hmm?”
He blinked slowly.
“It’s Jialan…” His eyes narrowed as he studied her face, then, after a long moment, murmured:
“You’re… really pretty.”