Chapter 132: The Silent Prey

Yuange’s heart skipped a beat.

She swayed as she ascended the high altar, her footsteps echoing crisply against the obsidian steps.

In her hand, she clutched a small key, forged from Flowing Light Gold and adorned with a vibrant peacock feather at its end.

“Tap. Tap. Tap.”

She deliberately slowed her steps, sensing the caged woman’s breathing pattern shift.

Finally, she stopped before the cage.

“Shen Zhaoqing.” Yuange bent down, pressing her face close to the bars. Her eyes curved into crescent moons, and her voice dripped with cloying sweetness. “After being locked away for so long, have you missed me?”

The woman in the cage abruptly lifted her head.

Her almond-shaped eyes blazed with searing fury and humiliation. Her cheeks flushed crimson with anger, and her lips were pressed into a thin line, her jaw taut as a drawn bowstring.

The chains clinked softly with her movements, the sound starkly clear in the silent hunting ground.

“Hmph.” Shen Zhaoqing turned her head, refusing to look at her.

Yuange chuckled. Without hesitation, she used the key to unlock the cage door, then ducked inside.

The cage wasn’t small; it offered enough space for one person to stand and move. However, for two, it felt undeniably cramped.

Shen Zhaoqing instinctively recoiled, but the chains restricted her, forcing her to futilely press against the cage wall.

“Why hide?” Yuange extended a hand, precisely gripping Shen Zhaoqing’s chin and forcing her to meet her gaze.

The warmth of Shen Zhaoqing’s skin beneath her fingertips, the subtle tremor she felt, sent Yuange’s pleasure soaring to its peak.

“Glare at me again, let me see.” She leaned in closer, their noses almost touching, their breaths mingling. “Just like before, staring, cursing, wanting to bite me to death… how utterly amusing.”

Shen Zhaoqing’s pupils constricted, her chest heaving. Her bound wrists struggled, making the chains clatter.

She bit her lower lip until a trickle of blood appeared, yet she truly uttered not another word. Instead, she simply fixed Yuange with those burning, unwavering eyes.

Excellent.

Yuange was nearly intoxicated.

She released Shen Zhaoqing’s chin, then began to gently comb her fingers through Shen Zhaoqing’s slightly disheveled long hair. Her actions were tender, yet her words were utterly cruel.

“Good girl. This is a fine prey. I will take good care of you.”

“Every day, I’ll feed you the finest spirit fruits, let you drink the purest jade dew, and dress you in the softest mermaid silk. You’ll simply stay here, go nowhere, and wait for me to visit, won’t you?”

She stepped back, surveying the scene within the cage with satisfaction.

Day after day.

Yuange indeed provided Shen Zhaoqing with the “best” treatment, just as she had promised.

The spirit fruits were Vermilion Beauty Fruits, ripening only once every millennium. The jade dew was Moonlit Nectar, of which only a single drop could be acquired at the Jade Pool Banquet.

As for the mermaid silk, it was Moonlight Gauze, handwoven by the mermen of the East Sea.

Yuange came every day.

Sometimes it was in the early morning, bringing dew-kissed fresh flowers to place in a specially crafted glazed vase by the cage.

Other times, it was in the afternoon, carrying a pot of wine, which she would slowly sip outside the cage, admiring Shen Zhaoqing’s silent profile through the bars.

Occasionally, she would arrive late at night, guided by moonlight, saying nothing, simply sitting outside and watching Shen Zhaoqing curl up on the beast hide to sleep.

Each time, she would provoke and tease, speaking frivolous and cruel words, eagerly anticipating Shen Zhaoqing’s reaction.

Shen Zhaoqing’s reactions evolved from fierce curses, struggles, and attempts to attack at first, to later silence and cold indifference, and finally…

The light in those eyes dimmed little by little.

Like stars gradually obscured by dark clouds, after the anger had burned itself out, what remained was a hollowness that made Yuange even more uncomfortable.

At first, Shen Zhaoqing no longer tensed up immediately when she approached.

Later, Shen Zhaoqing would mechanically accept, chew, and swallow the spirit fruits Yuange offered.

Eventually, even when Yuange deliberately used sharp words to provoke her, Shen Zhaoqing’s eyelashes wouldn’t even flutter.

The woman in the cage remained beautiful. Indeed, due to the prolonged “meticulous feeding,”

her figure, draped in Moonlight Gauze, shimmered faintly between the golden bars, resembling a carefully preserved work of art.

Yuange stood outside the cage once more.

This time, she brought the rarest “Phantom Sound Butterflies” from the demon realm. These butterflies emitted ethereal music as they fluttered.

She opened the cage door and released the butterflies inside.

The vibrant butterflies danced around Shen Zhaoqing, scattering tiny specks of light and otherworldly runes.

Shen Zhaoqing raised her hand, and a butterfly landed on her fingertip. She looked at it, her gaze still calm and unruffled.

Then, she gently flexed her finger, startling the butterfly into flight.

There was no curiosity, no appreciation, not even the slightest basic stir of emotion for a beautiful thing.

She was like a jade sculpture—exquisite, cold, and devoid of life.

Yuange’s smile vanished completely.

She yanked open the cage door, stepped inside, and seized Shen Zhaoqing’s shoulders. “Look at me!”

Shen Zhaoqing obediently lifted her eyes, her pupils reflecting Yuange’s somewhat exasperated face.

“Speak!” Yuange shook her. “Curse me! Like before! Shen Zhaoqing!”

The chains clattered with her movements. Shen Zhaoqing’s body, as if boneless, yielded to Yuange’s will. Her long hair was disheveled, but her gaze remained distant.

Yuange released her.

She stumbled back a step, leaning against the cold golden bars.

Boring.

Utterly, completely boring.

What difference was there between a prey that wouldn’t escape, wouldn’t resist, and wouldn’t even offer any genuine reaction, and the gems, corals, and pretty feathers she collected in her palace?

What had she conquered?

A beautiful prison? An obedient puppet?

What kind of conquest was this?!

“Heh…” Yuange let out a low laugh. She raised her hand, demonic energy surging, and slammed it against the cage wall!

“Crack—Shatter—”

The cage, forged from Flowing Light Gold, began to fracture from the point of her palm’s contact. Cracks spread like a frantic spiderweb.

The embedded Demonic Cores exploded in succession, and the restraining runes were annihilated inch by inch!

The entire opulent yet cruel Golden Feather Cage began to disintegrate under this violent demonic power!

Shen Zhaoqing, still inside the cage, remained quietly seated, utterly unresponsive to the surrounding collapse. She didn’t even blink when flying fragments grazed her cheek, drawing a wisp of blood.

Until the entire cage completely dissolved into dust, the figure dressed in Moonlight Gauze, amidst the swirling golden motes, also vanished like a sand sculpture in the wind.

The hunting ground, the altar, the sunlight, the ancient trees… all visions began to twist, fade, and peel away.

[Conquest, is it—]

The cold voice had barely uttered its first syllable in her Divine Soul when Yuange, in a fit of extreme irritation, cut it off.

“Shut up!” she shrieked, her cyan demonic light flickering erratically due to her intense emotional turmoil. “It’s utterly dull! Get lost!”

[Trial, failed.]

The void swallowed the last lingering remnants of the Myriad Demon Kingdom’s hunting ground.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Three figures were violently ejected from the massive light mass almost simultaneously, landing heavily on the open ground before the Immortal Mansion of Gui Xu.

The seawater rushed back, causing all three to cough at once.

Gu Chang’an was the first to regain her footing, her Frostbright Sword held horizontally before her chest, her gaze coolly sweeping over the other two.

Ling Shuangjue wiped a trace of blood from the corner of her mouth, her scarlet pupils swirling with shame and killing intent.

Yuange, meanwhile, shook her drenched hair, her amber eyes narrowing like a provoked feline.

The air was filled with a deathly silence.

But this stillness was more suffocating than any fierce battle.

For in that brief moment, they had not only glimpsed their own inner flaws but, through the resonance of the Three Lives Stone, had also vaguely caught a glimpse of a corner of the other two’s illusions.

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