Under the pear tree, Chi Wang Chuan’s soft words carried a steady dignity. His robes billowed lightly in the wind, exuding an air of valor.
Xuan Ye slowly unsheathed the crescent-shaped blade of Yue Ying. Though seated cross-legged, his fingers trembled, still dripping blood. Raising his head, he fixed Chi Wang Chuan with an unwavering gaze. "Do you not plan to tell me your story? Will you take the truth with you to eternal confinement?"
"My qi spilled during the ordeal. If we fight now, I may not win," he added calmly.
Xuan Ye didn’t respond to that assertion but continued softly, "I want to know where your nails went and why you wagered on this seemingly doomed gamble. Deep down, don’t you also yearn to share your secret with someone?"
Chi Wang Chuan hesitated. His hand, poised to command the lingering fragrance, faltered, trembling faintly.
Harboring a secret alone is a torment unto itself.
"My story... isn’t anything extraordinary." He began softly, attempting a calm tone, though his trembling voice betrayed the deep emotions beneath. His body seemed to quake under the weight of his memories.
"It’s nothing remarkable—just about a woman..." After a long pause, he continued, drawing a deep breath as if steeling himself against his own pain.
Just a woman—a phrase that began so many stories.
Her name was Ji Li, a pseudonym she adopted after arriving in the Central Plains.
When he met her, her eyes burned with desire and a vengeance fierce enough to crush all obstacles in her path.
But he didn’t mind.
Because at night, when no one else was around, her eyes would fill with uncertainty. She would lean against his shoulder, sighing deeply without a word.
In those moments, her brief vulnerability pierced through her otherwise steely exterior, making him fall deeply in love. He felt that by shouldering her burdens and her hatred, he could give her solace.
"I am from Nan Jiang. My family practiced blood sorcery for generations."
"Blood sorcery isn’t inherently evil."
"But the man who wiped out my entire clan didn’t see it that way."
"He was so powerful, yet he spared not even the children..."
She told him this about her past. And he believed every word she said.
Blood sorcery wasn’t evil.
His devotion to her was genuine, born of his heart—not because of any spell.
She never coerced him.
"Even that curse that could make a man utterly devoted—she only mentioned it in passing. It was my own interest in the curse that led me to pursue it relentlessly, slowly falling into the trap," Chi Wang Chuan said, his tone heavy with regret.
"A curse to make a man utterly devoted? Is it the menstrual blood curse?" Ban Xia interjected. Her curiosity was piqued—she had once seen a show called Midnight Tales, and that particularly disgusting curse had left a lasting impression on her.
"It involves menstrual blood, but it’s not the menstrual blood curse. That curse only works for a month. This curse can control a man for a lifetime," Chi Wang Chuan replied.
Ban Xia shuddered involuntarily and asked again, "What else does it need? Corpse oil?"
"Corpse oil," Chi Wang Chuan confirmed.
"A female frog carrying eggs?"
"Yes, a gravid frog."
"And…?" Ban Xia prodded further.
Chi Wang Chuan hesitated, his voice trailing off. The forest began to grow misty again, and the pear tree behind them seemed to be tinged with a faint blood-red hue.
"And one thing more," he finally said, his voice filled with bitterness. "The live extraction of a devoted man’s fingernails."
As he spoke, the words seemed to carry a suffocating wave of bloodlust.
Live fingernail extraction—Chi Wang Chuan’s memory of the pain remained vivid. From the pinky to the ring finger, then the middle finger—one nail at a time. First, the tweezers would pry the nail upward, the skin and flesh clinging desperately before the final, excruciating pull…
That agony, repeated ten times, had nearly turned his hair white overnight.
Ji Li, his lover, had shed tears back then. Her hands trembled as she wrenched out his nails, repeatedly whispering, "This is for revenge. Once it’s done, we’ll leave together and start anew."
Her tears were genuine; Chi Wang Chuan could see that. And so he believed her. He believed every word she said.
At her side, he helped locate the pear tree, gathered the ingredients, and buried everything beneath its roots to lay the curse.
By the following year, the tree blossomed and bore a single, eerily green pear.
"This is the Bi Yu Pear," Ji Li had said when she plucked the fruit. Her voice carried a fleeting but unmistakable trace of malice.
"Let’s begin," she had said finally, abandoning all traces of vulnerability.
"She lied to you. If it was just for revenge, a simple menstrual blood curse would’ve sufficed," Ban Xia blurted, her disbelief evident. Even she, just from hearing the story, could spot the flaws in Ji Li’s plan. How naïve and foolish must he have been at the time?
The plan was riddled with holes.
Ji Li would use the Bi Yu Pear to curse her enemy, luring him in. Meanwhile, Chi Wang Chuan was to lie in wait until the right moment to strike.
His hiding place was a small pit they dug together beneath the bedroom. No more than a meter deep, it allowed him to leap out in an instant.
"This man is highly skilled in martial arts. Killing him won’t be easy, so you must wait for the perfect moment," Ji Li had instructed as he climbed down. She handed him a waterskin as she spoke. "Take some water. You can go without food, but you’ll need to drink."
Chi Wang Chuan understood what she meant by "perfect moment."
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