The Art of Subduing Dragons

Chapter 44

Seeing that the two seemed oblivious to their surroundings, Su Yu, suppressing her strange feelings, spoke up, "It's quite a coincidence that such things happen in this world. It truly must be fate."

Luo Qingci came to her senses, restrained her emotions, and smiled, "Yes, it is fate. And she should be about the same age as your junior sister now."

"Should be?" Bai Jing, naive and innocent, sensed something was off in her words and subconsciously asked.

Luo Qingci felt a pang of bitterness in her heart, lowering her head and giving a self-deprecating smile. "I was incompetent back then and lost her. It's been many years since I last saw her." She then glanced at Ruan Li and her voice unconsciously softened, "If she were by my side now, she should be as well-behaved and beautiful as your junior sister."

Ruan Li pressed her lips together and remained silent.

Su Yu looked at Hua Xiwang, who raised her eyebrows, and the two were momentarily at a loss for words.

Luo Qingci, realizing it was inappropriate to discuss this in front of everyone, shifted the topic to the corpses at the village entrance, "How should we deal with these bodies?"

Nangong Jue furrowed his brows, "There are so many corpses, we can't bury them all. We can only cremate them."

Su Yu nodded in agreement, "But the villagers' hearts have disappeared. With over ninety people, so many hearts—did the elk owl eat them all?"

"The elk owl is greedy. Even if it had ninety hearts, it wouldn't be surprising if it ate them all," Chu Xun said gruffly.

"It's greedy, but it wouldn't just eat hearts, and there are so many of them. They might have another use." The elk owl had appeared in the original story but only for killing, without digging out hearts.

Although the plot hadn't changed, the details were different, and Luo Qingci felt uneasy.

As she pondered, the system notified her that Qi Qing's affection level had increased by 20.

This time, Luo Qingci didn't dare to be smug and quietly noted it.

Fortunately, there was no notification about a deduction, so she gained 20 points.

Ruan Li stepped forward and looked at the three willow trees, "Before the elk owl appeared, I smelled a strong odor of blood from over there. Now that it's dead, the smell is still lingering."

Luo Qingci knew Ruan Li had a keen sense of smell, and her statement meant there was definitely something wrong.

"Let's go take a look."

"Why didn't I smell anything?" Chu Xun muttered. Nangong Jue glanced at him and followed Luo Qingci and Ruan Li.

When they reached the front, Ruan Li was about to step forward but was pulled back by Luo Qingci. She shook her head at Ruan Li, signaling her to stop.

She had already sensed a malevolent aura coming from the large hole in the tree trunk.

"What's there?" Ruan Li asked nervously.

Before Luo Qingci could answer, a voice from within Ruan Li suddenly emerged without warning.

"I didn't expect, I didn't expect it to appear here," the sinister thought in her mind was surprised and excited, vaguely hinting at madness, which made Ruan Li extremely uncomfortable. She felt a rising sense of malevolence and fear. The presence inside was very unsettling.

She was so distressed that she stumbled a step and instinctively started to fall backward.

At that moment, Nangong Jue, being the closest to her, immediately noticed something was wrong. "Miss Ruan, are you alright?"