Chou, who had been tossed away during the whole exchange, returned to Li Meirong"s side. The miniature pitcher plant placed one leafy tendril atop Li Meirong"s open wound. "Master, you"re losing a lot of blood."
Still slumped on the ground and too tired to move, Li Meirong patted Chou"s head gently and said in the most rea.s.suring way she could muster, "I"m alright. It"s just a little cut."
Chou transformed back into his humanoid, toddler form. His big, round eyes a.s.sessed Li Meirong, looking entirely unconvinced. "Master should summon the silly turtle to help us."
"Alright." Li Meirong closed her eyes for but a moment and summoned Feng Huang from the dimension, but the Turtle Demoness did not show up.
With a shake of his head, Chou muttered, "Useless turtle got herself drunk and is probably dozing off at some place." He started plucking out a few of his own leaves and attached them to the wound, trying to staunch the bleeding. "Master should also allow Chou to eat No Eyebrows, and let us leave this stupid place!"
Li Meirong sighed and patted his head once again. She felt like a horrible human being for considering his proposition with utmost seriousness. Was it a justifiable course of action to have one"s Plant Spirit gobble up a murderer? The fact that she had already allowed Chou to eat several of her enemies, along with the fact that she no longer felt guilty about it was troubling to her.
When the sound of Liang Rou Yan"s weeping settled, Li Meirong fixed her weary stare back upon the madwoman, glancing at her through hooded eyelids. "Can you tell me just one thing? What have I ever done for you to hate me so much? Since the very first time I met you, you have constantly hara.s.sed me, sent people to kill me, tried to condemn me for no reason, and now, finally, you decided to take the matter into your own hands. Why?"
Liang Rou Yan instinctively turned towards the direction of Li Meirong"s voice, taking a few calculated steps forward. She laughed maniacally, as though she heard the funniest thing in the world. "I love the way you"re acting as though you"re the innocent victim. Why don"t you tell me, Li Meirong, why have you gone into the Bestiary Division which I control?" Her voice trembled. "Why have you tried to seduce my Master with your furnace body? Why have you stolen him from me?"
"..." Li Meirong blinked a few times. It was quite difficult to process anything after getting tossed around and nearly being mauled by a tiger, not to mention almost getting choked and stabbed in the chest. But despite her confusion, she tried to comprehend what the madwoman was talking about. It wasn"t easy, since both of them seemed to have been communicating on two different wavelengths.
Nevertheless, the more she thought about it, the more she was certain that No Eyebrows was referring to another person altogether, which made no sense. The last thing she wanted was to steal that psychotic Grandmaster Zhu Zhang from anyone, much less seduce him!
"Did you make me your target because I remind you of someone else?" Li Meirong"s eyebrows rose high as she asked incredulously.
"Ha!" Liang Rou Yan sneered, "You are all the same! Look at what you did to my Spirit Beast!" She s.h.i.+fted her attention to another matter and pointed at her own face with the front of the blade. "Look at what you did to my eyes!"
Her irises were seared and the pupils turned white.
"I didn"t want to do this. You forced my hand." Li Meirong responded as calmly as possible. She struggled to her feet and stumbled back down, dizzied by the amount of blood she had lost and the sudden upward movement. Chou cus.h.i.+oned Li Meirong"s fall by sending his tendrils to wrap around her legs and stabilized her.
"Forced your hand?" Liang Rou Yan repeated, cackling loudly. "Don"t act as if you"ve already won!"
"Oh? I"ve killed your Spirit Beast and ruined your vision. Do you want me to be responsible for your death as well?" Li Meirong feigned confidence.
Now that Liang Rou Yan turned blind, Li Meirong was glad for it. This way, "No Eyebrows" couldn"t see her sorry state and s.h.i.+vering frame as she clutched a palm to her leaf covered wound, maintaining constant pressure on it.
Though, it didn"t help a lot. Hot blood pooled through her fingertips.
Liang Rou Yan cackled loudly, tossing the blade aside. "You think you"ve managed to beat me, don"t you?" She looked up to the sky and spread her arms in expectation. "Allow me to show you what happens to those who cross me!"
In the starless heaven, cloaked by a cl.u.s.ter of clouds, lightning forked down from above and ripped through the inky night right onto Liang Rou Yan"s wide open arms. She stood there encased in an electric current, a vessel of pure, raw, unadulterated energy.