Tianyan's account did not differ much from Su Jinxuan's.
In fact, compared to Su Jinxuan's version, Tianyan placed even greater emphasis on the importance of the succubus Su throughout the entire ordeal.
This also made Xu Yuan realize that his impression of Su Jinxuan had been a bit too stereotypical.
This succubus was actually not so disgraceful after all.
Her being brainwashed and soul-controlled by Madame Wan could be called an act of necessity, or even voluntary.
After Su Jinxuan and Tianyan jointly devised a plan to use the Bewitching Soul Fiend Physique to pry information out of Madame Wan, before they could even carry it out, Madame Wan made the first move.
Without any particular reason—as a yin ghost, Madame Wan simply had no reason to pass up such a sumptuous feast.
Yet the moment Madame Wan attempted to use the soul-controlling pink crystals to brainwash the two of them, Su Jinxuan detected her methods and, working together with Tianyan, deduced Madame Wan's true identity.
Even so, after discussing the matter, the two women decided to risk proceeding with their original plan.
Because it was already too late to run.
At the time, they did not know Madame Wan was not at her peak; they only knew she was a terrifying yin ghost of at least Semi-Saint caliber.
Faced with such a colossal disparity in power, if they fled and a head-on clash ensued, their chances of survival were slim. It was better to risk sticking to the plan.
Tianyan possessed the Heavenly Yan divine soul and did not fear soul control, while Su Jinxuan simply beat Madame Wan at her own game.
The Bewitching Soul Fiend Physique itself radiated lethal allure to its surroundings at all times, let alone when someone tried to implant a technique into her body to influence her.
While Madame Wan was brainwashing and controlling Su Jinxuan's soul, Su Jinxuan also used her charm techniques—having gathered all Three World-Tops—to turn the tables and influence Madame Wan.
Both of their soul-controlling secret arts stood at the world's absolute peak, but in the end, this battle with daggers hidden behind smiles concluded with the succubus Su's defeat.
However, when mentioning a detail here, Tianyan's tone dropped slightly:
"Xu Yuan, do you know? Madame Wan's soul-controlling secret art works imperceptibly, advancing step by step, gradually altering the victim's thoughts until her presence replaces the most important person or thing in the victim's heart."
Xu Yuan had experienced this with Bai Muxi.
When Xiao Bai was barely affected, she had already begun subconsciously offering advice favorable to Madame Wan, not to mention Su Jinxuan, who was deeply immersed in it.
Sitting side by side with Tianyan atop the carriage roof, Xu Yuan asked hesitatingly:
"I know about that. Did Su Jinxuan ultimately fail because she was affected and gave up casting her technique?"
On the distant horizon of the desert, a terrifying sandstorm whipped up colossal clouds of dust. The girl's unbound, long, straight black hair fluttered in the wind.
Then,
that cool voice, tinged with banter, made Xu Yuan's eyelid twitch involuntarily.
She said,
"After Madame Wan substituted herself for a certain someone in Su Jinxuan's heart, that vixen ended up getting even more worked up and eager."
"..." Xu Yuan.
"..." Su Jinxuan.
Tianyan's gorgeous eyes suddenly glanced at Xu Yuan beside her. She sighed and asked with a beaming smile:
"I really wonder which bastard in her heart Madame Wan replaced herself with...
"Don't you agree, Master Xu?"
"..."
Watching the wind and sand whip past the girl's exquisite, flawless face, Xu Yuan reflexively pressed his palms together. Thoughts racing, he whispered:
"Th-This might have been a fluke, but it was still a good thing, wasn't it?"
"A good thing?" Tianyan narrowed her beautiful eyes into crescent slits, looking somewhat dangerous.
"Think about it, Tianyan. If Su Jinxuan had given up bewitching her, wouldn't you have been in even greater danger during the final breakout battle?"
"Hmph... You always have a pile of twisted logic."
"Cough, let's not talk about that. If it didn't work on her, how did Su Jinxuan fail?"
Xu Yuan tried to steer the topic away, and surprisingly, Tianyan did not press the matter further. Instead, she continued recounting what they had experienced in that nameless manor.
Su Jinxuan's defeat was not due to tactical failure; the chasm between her cultivation and Madame Wan's was simply too vast.
While her progress had only reached fifty or sixty percent, the other side had already hit one hundred percent.
Although the little succubus relentlessly cast her charm techniques on Madame Wan even after being completely bewitched, the trouble was that the more Madame Wan liked her, the more eager she was to eat her.
In the literal, physical sense.
It was a rainy night.
Misty and dim, a drizzling rain pattered against the eaves.
Tianyan, who was cultivating with her eyes closed, suddenly noticed that Su Jinxuan next door had stepped out into the rain.
She had been invited to the main hall by the nameless manor's sole servant.
Sensing the eerie atmosphere, Tianyan immediately detonated the contingency planted in Su Jinxuan's sea of consciousness, temporarily restoring her clarity.
The battle broke out at once.
And only then did Tianyan and Su Jinxuan realize to their horror that Madame Wan was a full-fledged Saint Tier yin ghost!
The moment the battle began, Madame Wan overwhelmed them with crushing, instantaneous dominance.
Yet the intelligence gathering over those days had not been in vain.
Just as Madame Wan's terrifying aura descended to envelop them, Tianyan unleashed a wide-area technique she had prepared long in advance, blasting toward the outer settlement.
She intended to slaughter all those "soul chanters" who had been brainwashed into villagers.
There were around a hundred of them, crafted from Body Integration cultivators at the very least, with no shortage of Grandmaster-realm intent-souls among them.
With such a large stockpile of rations, Madame Wan could not possibly sit by and do nothing; she was bound to pull back to defend them, which created an opening.
An opening where they could advance to attack or retreat to flee.
At that moment, both women chose to advance.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Su Jinxuan poured all her strength into her charm technique in an attempt to bewitch Madame Wan, forcefully driving her fifty-to-sixty-percent brainwashing progress up to one hundred percent!
In that flash of lightning and flint, the entire nameless manor, along with the outer settlement, was reduced to ashes by Tianyan's technique.
But when the dust settled,
and they saw Madame Wan descend before them again after rescuing most of the soul chanters, completely unaffected by the charm technique...
listening to the drizzle pattering against the loess earth, the two women fell into a deathly silence.
In the silence,
Su Jinxuan offered a small explanation.
She said,
"Um... I think my charm technique missed."
"..."
That single sentence instantly shattered Tianyan's composure.
She couldn't understand—
how could this woman named Su be even more unreliable than that bastard?!!
That bastard only liked being ridiculous in ordinary times, but at critical moments, he never dropped the ball.
And what about this Su?
She didn't clown around normally, but at such a critical moment, she suddenly pulled off such a massive blunder!
Yet a turning point occurred just as Madame Wan was about to strike at the two women:
A twisted little hand abruptly thrust through Madame Wan's bulging lower abdomen!
Amidst the billowing flames and drifting drizzle,
a twisted ghost infant concealed in dark shadows ripped open Madame Wan's belly and crawled out.
Then,
turning around, it immediately locked in combat with its mother.
Su Jinxuan's charm technique had landed entirely on this ghost infant.
Yin energy raged, and a twisted, terrifying soul intent filled heaven and earth.
Watching the scene in the curtain of rain, Tianyan felt no joy; instead, her mental state collapsed even further.
She was tired.
She began to suspect whether this woman named Su and that bastard named Xu hailed from the very same sect.
Why did both of them love tormenting her so much?
Did every single one of them have to wait until she was in despair and prepared to fight to the death before handing her a spark of hope to turn the tables?!
Afterward, the two women tried to coordinate with the ghost infant to besiege Madame Wan, but it yielded little result.
Madame Wan was far too strong for them. Although the ghost infant was frighteningly formidable as well, it was still no match for Madame Wan. Moreover, the contingency planted in Su Jinxuan's sea of consciousness could only restore her clarity temporarily. Thus, Tianyan began to contemplate retreat.
Naturally, Tianyan did not abandon Su Jinxuan at that time.
Using the ghost infant's life as leverage to pry some words from Madame Wan, Tianyan obtained some intelligence of uncertain veracity. Then, she abandoned the ghost infant to cover their retreat, grabbed Su Jinxuan, and fled.
However, Madame Wan did not let them off so easily. After helping the ghost infant suppress the Charm God bewitchment, she pursued them relentlessly.
And the current conflict between the two women had unfolded during that period of flight.
Tianyan's and Su Jinxuan's accounts diverged somewhat here.
Yet what Xu Yuan could be certain of was that during their flight, Tianyan had indeed abandoned Su Jinxuan.
Because at regular intervals, she had to expend vast amounts of energy to restore Su Jinxuan to clarity from the soul-controlling secret art.
From Tianyan's perspective, a formidable foe was hard on their heels, and she was dragging along such a burden. If this continued, both of them would die there.
The Qin family and the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion were merely using each other in a partnership of convenience.
Moreover, Su Jinxuan hadn't been entirely well-behaved along the way; from time to time, she would tease her with that vixen physique.
Although the Heavenly Yan divine soul was immune to ordinary bewitchment, Su Jinxuan's physique, technique, and Dao charm were far too extraordinary—so extraordinary that Tianyan's body subconsciously developed something akin to PTSD.
Unable to confirm whether Su Jinxuan had planted a hidden contingency inside her just like with the ghost infant, Tianyan simply struck and wounded Su Jinxuan in a mountain cavern, then ran off on her own.
From Su Jinxuan's perspective, however,
she had fallen victim to the soul-controlling secret art entirely for the sake of them both. Furthermore, she had already begun circulating her cultivation to dissolve Madame Wan's bewitching art, and with a few more days, she would have purged it completely.
At such a moment, Tianyan not only chose to flee on her own, but even attacked and wounded her. This was practically a blood feud of life and death.
After listening closely to Tianyan's account, Xu Yuan rubbed his temples with a mild headache.
Honestly speaking, he felt neither Tianyan nor Su Jinxuan was in the wrong.
It was just that Tianyan had fooled around with him in the Charm God Illusion realm for over a decade, mastering the fine art of "better a fellow daoist perish than myself," whereas Su Jinxuan's experience was shallower and she had simply been outplayed by Tianyan.
Though this washboard Saintess was a bit clumsy with her words, her practical execution was top-notch.
The problem now, however, was that both sides were his own people.
Putting himself slightly in Su Jinxuan's shoes at the time, Xu Yuan could feel the despair she must have experienced.
Despair from being able to do nothing, left only to watch helplessly as that Saint Tier yin ghost caught up with her to wait for death.
Alas...
A soft sigh was blown away in the extreme weather of the desert sandstorm.
In the silence, Xu Yuan stared at the girl's expressionless profile for several seconds. Deliberating carefully, he spoke softly:
"How about... apologizing?"
"Me? Apologize?"
Tianyan's body trembled violently upon hearing this. She immediately turned her head to glare at him, her slightly aggrieved voice rising a pitch: "Where did I do anything wrong in this?!"
"You didn't do anything wrong."
Xu Yuan reached out and gently supported the girl's trembling back, his voice tender. "If I put myself in your shoes, I probably would have made the exact same choice."
Hearing this, Tianyan sniffled and clenched her fists:
"Then why should I apologize? Just because I'm stronger, had better methods, and outcalculated her, I have to yield to her?"
"..."
Better methods?
Your methods are way too high-level—the dignified Saintess of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion gets bullied by everyone in turn.
If you insist on the strong humiliating the weak, you washboard Saintess will get bullied to death by the chest-bound princess and the others in the future.
Criticizing her inwardly, Xu Yuan also knew that Tianyan saying this had little to do with right and wrong.
His asking her to apologize implied that he was taking Su Jinxuan's side.
What the girl truly cared about was where his allegiance lay.
After a brief pause, Xu Yuan whispered:
"Then can you produce evidence?"
"Evidence?"
"Evidence that Su Jinxuan implanted a charm technique in your body. That way, I can speak up for you."
"..."
Tianyan blinked rapidly to keep her eyes from reddening, then turned her face away to look at the apocalyptic tornado-like sandstorm on the horizon.
"It's been so long. What evidence could there possibly be? Besides, why would I need you to speak up for me?"
"Is it that it can't be detected?"
"If I could be certain, I wouldn't have wounded her."
"Then how about I check for you?"
"..."
"..."
Silence suddenly descended upon the carriage roof.
Their gazes intertwined for several seconds before Tianyan couldn't help letting out a soft scoffing chuckle:
"Rascal. You just want to take advantage of me, don't you?"
"I'm serious," Xu Yuan said gently with a warm smile, reaching out to grasp the girl's fair wrist. "No matter what, Su Jinxuan nearly died. If there are traces of a charm technique, we'll let the matter drop. If not, how about you go apologize?"
Seeing this, Tianyan's dark brows immediately knit together, but feeling the warmth radiating from his palm, she merely struggled symbolically twice before letting him hold her hand. She murmured:
"Whatever you want."
"Heh~"
With a chuckle, Xu Yuan circulated his energy to mobilize his spiritual vision while speaking in a gentle tone:
"Relax a bit, I'm coming in."
"..."
Hearing these familiar words, a trace of fluster instantly surfaced in Tianyan's eyes.
She reflexively pulled her hand back, the immense force nearly throwing Xu Yuan off the carriage roof.
Yet Xu Yuan had been prepared; after all, he knew this washboard Saintess's temperament all too well.
In the fragmented memories of the Charm God Illusion realm, even though they had taken heaven as quilt and earth as bed so many times, Tianyan had acted shy and inexperienced every single time.
At first, Xu Yuan had assumed Tianyan was putting on an act as part of their play; after all, by ordinary logic, what old married couple would still be so bashful?
Only as time went on did Xu Yuan gradually realize this Saintess was genuinely like that, making one unable to resist teasing her.
With these thoughts in mind, once Xu Yuan stabilized himself, he chuckled:
"I'm an injured patient. If you pull something like this and my body falls apart, will you take responsibility?"
Tianyan also realized Xu Yuan had done that on purpose just now and snorted softly:
"You were the one talking nonsense first. What does it have to do with me? Besides, with your cultivation, you think you can inspect me?"
Despite her words, the girl nevertheless opened the entrances to her meridians.
As Xu Yuan poured his spiritual vision into her body, he said softly:
"My cultivation might be on the lower side, but I'm still the Great Calamity designated by your Overseeing Heaven Pavilion. I ought to have some special strengths.
"Tianyan, as the Saintess of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion, aren't you well aware of this?"
"..."
Tianyan subconsciously pressed her crouched legs together, her brow furrowed and her voice cool:
"Talk more nonsense, and I'll throw you down."
"Just a joke."
Xu Yuan shrugged, shut his mouth, and began inspecting the meridians and sea of consciousness inside Tianyan's body.
After a thorough probe, Xu Yuan opened his eyes again and shook his head gently:
"Aside from your injuries, I didn't find any traces of charm techniques inside your body. It's time for you to fulfill your promise."
As he spoke,
Xu Yuan held the girl's fair wrist and stood up. His long hair danced wildly in the swirling sand and dust as he looked back with a smile:
"She's so much younger than you. You should comfort your little sister, shouldn't you?"
Chapter 593