I looked at the distorted expression on my own face. It wasn′t anger nor concern—it was something far darker. It was the quiet satisfaction of a long-awaited pn nearing its fruition.

  She stood alone on the stage, carefully adjusting her slightly disheveled wedding gown. The white fabric shimmered under the trembling lights, evoking a sense of isotion and lofty ambition. Beneath her feet, it wasn′t the flower-strewn floor of a wedding hall anymore, but that rough, warm nd at the foot of the Fulong mountains in my memories.

  Just like before, she stood there, alone, a lonely little tree yearning to be someone else's.

  If she really is the bride, she isn't gmorous enough, no matter how happily she smiles.

  "You've gone too far!"

  "You've gone too far!"

  The guests who had been huddled nearby suddenly started repeating her words, over and over, in various tones, high and low, thick and thin, forming an extremely unpleasant chorus in my ears. This piece had only one tune, one lyric, and one clear message—I'm a yaokai and should be eliminated!

  The guests closed in on me, some casually picking up the knives and forks from the ground, while others raised the shattered wine gsses, letting the jagged edges deeply embed into their hands, bleeding without a care.

  The crowd moved with remarkable speed, as if they were no longer humans but a pack of sharks hunting together in the sea.

  I felt a sense of impending doom.

  In a moment of distraction, Ao Chi grabbed me and stomped on my back, the force so strong it felt like my bones were about to break.

  "Don't hurt her!" Jiu Jue struggled to stand up, but before he could reach me, he was struck by Ao Chi's palm force, flying back like a sandbag. Fortunately, Pang Zi appeared just in time, acting as his human cushion.

  Shou Zi, like a mole, quickly burrowed through the crowd to Ao Chi's side, hugging his leg and saying, "Lord Ao Chi, please let them go. Although ruining the wedding is very despicable, you don't have to go so far to deal with them, right?"

  "Yeah, yeah, Lord Ao Chi, you're about to become the boss dy's husband. This guy is a good friend of the boss dy. Please give him some face and let him go. He might have drunk too much today because he was too happy, which is why he did these outrageous things!" Pang Zi, supporting the exhausted Jiu Jue, repeatedly pleaded with Ao Chi, then turned to the "Sha Luo" and said loudly, "Boss dy, say something! Didn't you always have a good retionship with Uncle Jiu Jue?"

  "If he were really my friend, he wouldn't have ruined my wedding." She only said this.

  At that moment, I felt guilty about the times I had deducted the saries of Pang Zi and Shou Zi. At a critical moment, it was rare for these two cowards to dare to stand up and speak.

  "When did it become your turn to talk?"

  Ao Chi, blinded by rage, was even more enraged by their "fearlessness" and raised his hand towards Pang Zi and Shou Zi.

  "Don't... don't touch them!" I struggled desperately under his feet, unable to turn my body at all.

  A beam of white light, wrapped around a dense mass of bloodstains, pierced through the hearts of Pang Zi and Shou Zi from his hand.

  The two let out a muffled grunt; their bodies instantly shrank, transforming into two panicked worms on the ground, one fat and one thin.

  Yes, Pang Zi and Shou Zi were two very ordinary, not very skilled, worm yaokais who knew nothing but how to make desserts and admire beautiful women.

  Ao Chi shot me a cold gnce, suddenly moved his leg away, and kicked me like a dead dog. The immense force sent me sliding across the floor, knocking over several guests who were at the front, advancing towards us step by step.

  I rolled over just in time to avoid the knives and forks that almost stabbed into my eyes, but a sharp pain shot through my calf.

  A big man tightly grabbed my left leg.

  "You've gone too far!" he said, still gripping the hilt of the knife.

  This body doesn't belong to me, but that certainly doesn't prevent the sensation of pain from spreading.

  I kicked the man in the face, and the force triggered by the pain broke his nasal bone.

  He clutched his nose, blood streaming down his face, and fell to the ground.

  "You are going too far!" The cries, growing louder and louder, gathered above my head, as if trying to cut off the air I could breathe.

  Ao Chi's kick perfectly sent me into the completely insane crowd, and they surrounded me tightly as I was forced into their midst. Over there, Jiu Jue's situation wasn't much better than mine; the crowd attacking him had completely overwhelmed him, and now and then, someone would fall, with knives, forks, or gss sticking out of their heads or chests.

  A plump middle-aged woman was flung into the air, followed by a rge worm leaping high and spping its tail on her head—it's Pang Zi.

  Two fists can't fight four hands, let alone more than four hundred hands. Jiu Jue's unusual weakness became increasingly apparent. Even with Pang Zi's help, it was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. They fought desperately, trying to get closer to me, but to little effect.

  I weaved through the chaos, dodging and evading. The weapons in their hands stabbed at me like raindrops. I punched, kicked, and blocked, using all my skills, but my body was still covered in wounds. My clothes were turning as red as the character "Double Happiness" on the wall. If it weren't for Shou Zi taking care of half the attacks for me, I would have probably ended up like a dead porcupine by now.

  The man and woman on stage watched us struggling on the brink of life and death as if it were a show.

  Almost all the usable weapons had been taken by those people. The skinny guy and I were like ants scurrying in a narrow gap, and every attack from them could be fatal to us.

  After fending off the closest dozen or so attackers, the skinny guy bit my colr and slipped out through a temporary gap in the battlefield, momentarily leaving that group of lunatics behind.

  Over there, Pang Zi also dragged Jiu Jue out of the encirclement, both of them already covered in wounds.

  We sprinted towards the gate, with pursuers closing in behind us.

  The tightly shut white gate was almost within reach, but a small figure stood in front of it—

  A little girl with a bow in her hair, about four or five years old, her fists tightly clenched, curled up, and crying, calling out, "Mommy, I'm scared, I'm scared!"

  "Human..." Jiu Jue frowned and said, "The gate is already sealed by a barrier. Quickly, pick her up, and I'll open the gate."

  This little girl was the only person I had seen here who didn't say, "You are too much."

  I quickly stepped forward, picked her up, and retreated behind Jiu Jue.

  "Step back a bit more." Jiu Jue turned around and gave a pale smile. "If I still can't open this door with all my strength, then smash my original body. There's a core inside. Although it won't help you much, at least it will give you ten times the strength you have now. Remember!"

  "Get lost! Stop talking nonsense!" My heart sank, and I shouted loudly, "Focus on opening the door!"

  Jiu Jue smiled, turned around, and took a deep breath.