Free Web NovelChapter 32: Chapter 32—Marry Him
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Xiao Ming’s claw was one inch from Lei Cheng’s face. She cracked one eye open to peek.
Lei Cheng’s lips curved upward.
Xiao Ming’s expression changed in an instant—she understood, too late. She tried to redirect, to pull the strike wide, but her own momentum carried her forward, all that golden enhancement energy still driving her forward.
Slash!
Her claw tore into the Ninth Elder’s right shoulder.
The illusion dissolved the moment the strike landed. Xiao Ming pulled her claw back—slick with the Ninth Elder’s blood—and landed on the ground. She tilted her head, genuinely baffled, unable to pinpoint the exact moment Lei Cheng’s illusion had caught her.
The answer was simple, and infuriating. The moment Lei Cheng had bound the Ninth Elder with the Life Intent vine, he had simultaneously cast an illusion. She had felt herself lunging at Lei Cheng—but in truth, she had lunged at the Ninth Elder.
Lei Cheng grinned. "Did you enjoy my gift?"
Xiao Ming scowled.
The Ninth Elder’s voice had changed—all the ferocity had drained out of it, replaced by something lower, stammering, almost unrecognizable. The great Ninth Elder of the Celestial Fox Clan was pleading. "Let me go—please—I will pledge my entire life to your servitude. I swear it."
Lei Cheng glanced past him toward Lin Mei, who remained on her knees, head bowed, trembling. He raised his palm and pointed at her.
"Two down," he said. "You’re the only one remaining."
Xiao Ming bit her lip.
Lei Cheng raised his palm.
The ground beneath Xiao Ming’s feet shattered—and a second massive green vine erupted upward, coiling around her body in one swift, constricting motion. Xiao Ming immediately detonated every scrap of her golden energy outward, rotating her entire body in a furious attempt to break free. The vine did not budge a single millimeter.
Then, the screaming in the courtyard suddenly stopped.
Both Xiao Ming and Lin Mei turned toward the Ninth Elder at the same moment. His body had gone still. The green corrosive energy had finished its work. He dissolved from the inside out—reduced to dust, then scattered by the wind until nothing remained at all. Not a fragment of bone. Not a single strand of golden fur.
Silence pressed down over the ruined courtyard.
Lei Cheng shook his head with a slow exhale. "Why?" he asked quietly. "Why bring all of this upon yourself... just to target me?"
He wanted answers, which was precisely why he had kept Xiao Ming alive. He needed to understand why she had chosen him in the first place.
"As if I would tell you anything," Xiao Ming spat, her voice burning with contempt. "If you dare—just kill me."
Lei Cheng clicked his tongue.
"Life explosion."
He muttered it quietly, and the vine blazed—green energy erupted through every coil in a sudden surge, corroding and burning through Xiao Ming’s body simultaneously. In moments, every trace of golden fur had vanished. Her entire form was covered in screaming green scars, no clean patch of skin left anywhere.
The Life Intent withdrew.
Lei Cheng tilted his head and asked pleasantly, "Now—would you care to tell me?"
Xiao Ming grinned through the ruin of her body. "You call this torture? I have endured far worse than this."
Lei Cheng clicked his tongue and gritted his teeth. "So you’ve suffered worse pain, have you?"
He snapped his fingers.
Crack! Bang!
A massive vine erupted from beneath Lin Mei—still kneeling, still trembling—and coiled around her with brutal speed. Life Intent flooded in. Before Xiao Ming could even open her mouth, Lin Mei was burned to dust. Green particles drifted downward and settled quietly on the stones. Xiao Ming stared blankly at the place where Lin Mei had vanished.
The two great vines that had killed the Ninth Elder and Lin Mei stood tall and still in the silence, rising several meters into the sky.
Xiao Ming’s eyes went dim. Her throat dried. Her body trembled—just for a moment—despite the vine locked around her.
Then she roared: "Kill me if you dare!"
Lei Cheng looked at her with something almost like mild interest. "Oh. As expected—you do have some feeling for her."
Xiao Ming said nothing.
Hua Mingyue appeared beside Lei Cheng in the next instant, silent as ever. Before he could ask anything, she said simply, "Keep killing her until she answers. It is a form of torture."
Lei Cheng’s gaze sharpened briefly. He had nearly forgotten—the Bizarre Rule’s immortality. ’The mark denies the bride’s end. Only when the mark’s purpose is fulfilled does that denial fade.’ Mo Yong had died, but Mo Ming still bore the mark.
He took a slow breath. "All right. Let’s begin."
He snapped his fingers.
The vine surged with dark green energy—a massive injection of Life Intent flooding directly into Xiao Ming’s body.
In a flash, she turned to dust.
Lei Cheng’s fingers twitched. The dust scattered. Then, in the space between the vine’s bindings—a pulse of golden light. Something began to form, visible to the naked eye: internal organs first, then skeleton, then flesh layering over bone, then fur spreading across every surface, then the exact crimson phoenix robe she had worn before her death, neat and unrumpled.
Xiao Ming reappeared—fully restored, lashed tightly in the vine’s grip, staring at him.
Lei Cheng’s grin spread wide. "So that’s immortality, is it? Let’s see how many times you can survive."
A trace of envy flashed through Lei Cheng’s eyes before disappearing in a flash. He knew that immortality is useless without power.
He snapped his fingers.
She burned to dust. She reformed. He snapped again. She reformed again.
Snap—revive. Snap—revive.
He did not give her a single moment to breathe between deaths. Before she could open her mouth, before she could process the return of sensation, she was already dying again.
He killed her a hundredth time.
Hua Mingyue raised her palm. "That’s enough. She should be ready to speak now."
Lei Cheng exhaled. "So—will you talk?"
Xiao Ming said nothing.
Hua Mingyue sighed softly. "It seems I misjudged the timing. Continue." She waved her palm.
Lei Cheng raised his hand to snap again—
"I’ll speak! I’ll speak!"
The words tore out of Xiao Ming before she could stop them. She no longer knew how many times she had died.
She had been burned and reformed almost a hundred times in less than half an hour. Each death was not simply the ending of the body—her soul had been sensing the process of her body dying and re-forming, over and over, until she could feel the damage accumulating inside it like cracks spreading through stone. She could sense it clearly: her soul injuries would need at least a few months to heal.
Lei Cheng stepped forward and walked to stand directly below the vine, looking up at her bound form.
"Why did you target me?"
Xiao Ming closed her eyes. A long breath. Then, quietly, she said, "Just like you slaughter fattened chickens and sheep... I chose you."
Lei Cheng narrowed his eyes. "At the end, it’s survival of the fittest. Now tell me the real reason." He snapped his finger. Xiao Ming died and revived yet again.
Xiao Ming screamed the moment she was brought back to life. "It’s because of your luck—your luck is compatible with mine!"
Lei Cheng’s brows rose slightly.
"My luck?" He glanced briefly at Hua Mingyue, who gave a small nod. He knew she could fill in the rest—but he wanted to hear it directly from Xiao Ming.
"In Azure Cloud City," Xiao Ming continued, her voice raw and hoarse, "your luck is the most compatible with mine." She paused. A few tears slipped from her closed eyes and fell. "I should not have targeted you. There were two more who were also compatible. I should have chosen one of them instead... I hate getting attracted to you."
For a moment, Lei Cheng wondered who they were.
Xiao Ming regrets her choice of picking Lei Cheng.
"But you did target me," Lei Cheng said, cutting cleanly through her remorse. "So tell me—how is compatibility measured?"
"Your luck must be neither too low nor too high—just within a suitable range relative to mine for the mark to take hold." Her voice had dried to a rasp. "If your luck is too high, I suffer a backlash when the mark is placed."
"And why does it have to be luck?" Lei Cheng pressed.
"The Bizarre Domain formation depends on the mysterious and illusory power of luck. That is how it works for us foxes. I cannot speak for other Bizarre Clans."
Lei Cheng exhaled slowly. "Luck compatibility. Higher is better—but if the gap is too wide, it rebounds on you." He turned to Hua Mingyue.
"Correct," she confirmed.
Lei Cheng stood in quiet thought for a moment. Then he turned back to Xiao Ming and tilted his head with a sudden, unreadable smile.
"One more question," he said. "If you were to kill Mo Ming right now, would your immortality break?"
"No." Xiao Ming shook her head. "Once a Bizarre Rule is invoked, the mark remains active until the rule is fulfilled or its time expires. My immortality is tied to the mark, not the person. Only when the mark’s condition is fulfilled will I lose my protection."
Lei Cheng paused. He turned this over for a moment. Then he grinned.
He released Xiao Ming. The vine dissolved back into the ground, and she landed on her feet—restored, good as new from her latest revival.
He turned to the side, where Mo Ming was still lying unconscious on the ground. He looked at Xiao Ming and said brightly, "How about you marry him now? I want to observe how a Bizarre Domain actually forms."
Xiao Ming’s eyes widened. She took a few steps back.
