Chapter 925: 合

Li Sui sat in Zuo Qiuyong's study, devouring raw meat. While eating, she played with the sleeping ink monkey in the pen holder and didn't forget to take out the three clay figurines to fiddle with.

"Dad, don't worry, I'm doing well here," Li Sui said to the figurines, alleviating her boredom. "Auntie is a kind person; she takes good care of me. I'll wait for you patiently. One hundred and eighty years is... how many months again?"

Just as Li Sui put down the meat and was counting with her tentacles, there was a snap. Several lanterns extinguished all at once, plunging the room into immediate darkness.

"Hmm? What's happening?" Before Li Sui could react, she suddenly felt a chill on her neck. Immediately, her delicate head, like that of Princess Anping, flew off.

As more than a dozen tentacles swiftly wriggled out from the severed neck, Li Sui's body was violently thrown back.

A bloody, mangled dog head emerged from under her skirt. It immediately sensed extreme danger in the surrounding darkness, and panic surged through its heart. "Auntie! Help! Someone's trying to kill me!!"

However, from Zuo Qiuyong's room, just one room away, there was no reaction.

"Oh no! Why isn't Auntie coming? Could she be in danger? I need to escape quickly and take her with me!"

"Ban Ruo Jie Di! Mo He Wan Luo Ren Li!" As the unintelligible chanting began, Li Sui instantly felt a splitting headache. It was as if something was drilling into her brain.

She wanted to fight back, but her attackers seemed to be well-prepared. Li Sui couldn't see anything in the darkness; she couldn't even tell who was attacking her.

"Auntie! Help... save me..." Li Sui used her last ounce of strength to lunge towards the study door.

But just as she groped her way forward, and her tentacles were about to touch the door frame, the entire study space suddenly stretched immensely. The door frame, which had been within arm's reach, now seemed as far away as the horizon.

At the same time, an intense pain suddenly erupted from Li Sui's back. Her body stiffened uncontrollably, and when she reached for her chest, she found a large hole piercing straight through her.

"I can't die! I still need to save my dad!" As this thought crossed Li Sui's mind, countless tentacles instantly burst out from her mangled body.

But the next moment, Li Sui felt all her tentacles violently grabbed and yanked hard in every direction.

Accompanying the sudden sound of tearing flesh, blood splattered, and the room instantly fell silent.

To the three individuals who already knew all of Li Sui's abilities, every one of her reactions was anticipated.

"Brother, is it dead?" a female voice echoed in the darkness.

The extinguished lanterns were gradually relit. The eldest of the three complained indignantly to his younger brother, "Why did you shred it so much? Do you know how many Immaculate Longevity Pills this thing could be worth if we sold it?"

The woman quickly interjected, trying to calm her brother. "Brother, hurry and clean up this mess. Stop arguing; this is the Lord's study."

"Should we ask the Lord to take a look?"

"No need, Lord Si Tian Jian is too kind-hearted to witness this," the eldest said. He pulled out a patched cloth bag and forcefully scooped it, instantly sucking up all the scattered flesh from the floor.

The three quickly walked out, respectfully bowed towards Zuo Qiuyong's room, and then hastily departed.

Once outside the residence of Lord Si Tian Jian, all three beamed with joy. This mission had brought them a massive profit.

"This item was a reward from the Lord to us. Don't publicize it. If Zhang Tude finds out, it might cause trouble," the eldest instructed. "Let's disperse first, go one by one, and meet at the old spot outside the city."

Upon hearing this, the youngest brother's expression turned resentful, as if he had a grudge against the person mentioned. "I refuse to believe it," he scoffed. "Does he dare to openly rob us within the Directorate? Looking at him, one would think he's in charge of the entire Si Tian Jian!"

"There's no need to argue with someone like that. We are now the Lord's trusted confidantes. Soon enough, we siblings will make him behave himself within the Directorate!" the eldest said. "Disperse!"

Hearing their elder brother's words, the other two immediately nodded. They promptly split up and exited the Si Tian Jian complex through different exits.

The eldest brother, carrying the most noticeable item, tried his best to remain inconspicuous. He didn't arrive at the old meeting spot until dusk.

It was a dilapidated temple, but only the two siblings knew that there was a hidden grotto beneath it, dug out by a rat spirit.

As soon as he descended from the entrance with the burlap sack on his back, his two siblings, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately rushed forward to meet him.

"Brother, why are you so slow? If you weren't my flesh and blood, I'd think you ran off with the goods!"

The instant the two made contact, the eldest brother opened his mouth, and several flat, black tentacles immediately shot out, burrowing into his sister's orifices.

"Why did you try to kill me!" the eldest brother roared. The sack on his back writhed rapidly—Li Sui was not dead.

Having ambushed one by surprise, the remaining sibling tried to flee but was too late. They were ultimately devoured by the flat tentacles.

Once everything had settled, the eldest brother reached back and pulled off the burlap sack, revealing a large, bloody hole connecting the sack to his back.

A hole had been torn in the sack at some unknown point, and through this hole, Li Sui's tentacles had already spread throughout the elder brother's entire body. More accurately, the person was now Li Sui, a parasitic host of the Black Grand Sui.

The eldest brother's body, controlled by Li Sui, stumbled and knelt on the ground. He sobbed as he removed the sack from his back, and bloody dismembered pieces fell scattered from within.

As the shadows from the body parts were absorbed by Li Sui, her slender tentacles became full once more.

Controlling the new body, Li Sui searched among the gruesome remains and found the dried, shriveled human skin—it was her father's. He had given it to her for protection, saying that in this world, aside from her mother, she was his greatest concern...

It was her father's initial worry that had saved her life.

A weeping Li Sui, controlling the new body, continued to search on her knees. She finally found the three clay figurines and clutched them tightly to her chest. "Dad! Why did Auntie try to kill me? I liked her so much. Didn't she say I was her family? Were all her words lies?"

Li Huowang, 180 years later, did not answer this question, but Li Sui herself figured it out.

As the person's mature thoughts merged with Li Sui's, she was no longer naive. She quickly identified obvious contradictions from past details.

The biggest contradiction was Xuan Pin. As the Si Tian Jian of Daliang, could he really come to Daqi so easily? And have such a good relationship with Daqi's Si Tian Jian, coming just by invitation?

Adding to this were other completely different minor details: the vanished text on the Taoist robe, the altered voice. Everything pointed to one ultimate conclusion: Zuo Qiuyong was a liar, and everything she had said was false.