The First Venerable of the Prosperous Age

Chang'an was so frightened that he fell to the ground with a thud, exclaiming, "A ghost...a ghost!"

His greatest fear is ghosts, especially red female ghosts.

The girl continued happily gnawing on her severed hand, not glancing at Chang'an again.

"Take a deep breath, take a deep breath." Chang'an slowly calmed down.

He thought to himself, "If she's a female ghost, why doesn't she harm people? And why is she wearing the same clothes as the Crane Disciple over her red dress? Could it be that she's not a ghost...?"

Chang'an swallowed hard in fear and asked in a trembling voice, "Are you... are you a ghost?"

Upon hearing this, the girl became somewhat agitated, and shouted angrily in her childish voice, "You're the ghost! Your whole family are ghosts! Hehehehehe!"

Chang'an hurriedly covered his head, "I was wrong, I was wrong, please don't eat me."

"Hmph, it's good that you know you were wrong." The girl continued to tease the severed hand in her palm, seemingly enjoying herself immensely.

Chang'an slowly raised his head, watching her treat the severed hand like a beloved toy, and wondered, "Is this a little girl? Or has she gone mad?"

Chang'an mustered her courage and asked, "Why...why do you use a severed hand as a toy?"

Upon hearing this, the girl smiled happily, holding the severed hand and saying, "This is not a toy, this is my master~ If you insist on calling him my toy, that's not impossible, hehehe."

Chang'an was somewhat amused and exasperated. "Then... what does your master, who you hold in your hand, usually teach you? Biting your nails?"

The girl suddenly looked sad, "This is only a part of my master, but I believe that the other parts of him will come to take me away soon."

Chang'an laughed and said, "Your master is truly a good person who keeps his promises."

His words were obviously sarcastic, but the young girl, being still quite naive, naturally took them as a compliment.

She asked happily, "How do you know my master is such a good person? Have you perhaps met him?"

"Of course I've seen..." Chang'an wanted to continue teasing her, but suddenly noticed that the black clothes she was wearing had a picture of a little monk printed on them, and the figure and appearance were so similar.

"This severed hand? Could it be my elder brother's lost left hand?"

Chang'an's eyes trembled as he looked at her expectant, innocent smile, and he answered evasively, "I...I think...I've never seen him..."

The girl's smile froze, her blood-red hair began to flutter in the wind, and she angrily said, "You lied to me!"

Chang'an hurriedly said, "You...you haven't even described your master's name or characteristics, how can I be sure I've ever seen him..."

"Sister!" A voice suddenly came from the corner of the wall. A young man dressed in rich clothes but covered in grime was sneaking towards them. It was none other than the young master Su whom Chang'an had seen in front of the Water Heart Pavilion that day.

However, it seemed that Young Master Su did not recognize Chang'an. He hurriedly ran to the black knife and said excitedly, "Sister, come with your brother quickly."

"Who are you? I've never seen you before," Xiao Tao said coldly.

Young Master Su was stunned. Although the two of them had lived in the Su family for many years, they had never met each other before.

"I...I'm your brother! Our Su family was wiped out by some unknown person a few days ago. All my servants and confidants have also scattered...So now you're the only family I have left, sister!" The eldest son of the Su family began to complain bitterly.

Xiao Tao was very puzzled: "What kind of place is the Su family?"

“That’s your home!” said Young Master Su.

Xiao Tao sneered, "For me, home is where my master is."

Chang'an was shocked: "Are the two of them really that close? How come I've never heard my elder brother mention this before?"

Young Master Su had never heard of this before, so he said angrily, "Your master? Could it be the monk who was brought into the Su residence that day?"

Xiao Tao was overjoyed and finally turned to look at Young Master Su, excitedly asking, "Do you know where he is?"

Young Master Su's eyes darted around, and he said with a wicked smile, "Of...of course, it was your master who sent me to find you."

"Really?! Where is he now?" Xiao Tao's eyes widened with joy.

"You'll find out if you come with me." Seeing that he was about to succeed, Young Master Su smiled even more broadly.

Seeing that Xiao Tao was about to be tricked by Young Master Su in her excitement, Chang'an quickly said, "Little girl, don't listen to him. He doesn't even know where your master is. He just wants to trick you into being sold to human traffickers so that he can have a peaceful life for the rest of his days!"

Enraged that his secret had been exposed, Young Master Su pointed at Chang'an and shouted, "Where did this wild brat come from, daring to spout nonsense and sow discord between my brother and sister!"

Young Master Su stared at him for a long time…

"Oh, it's you, kid. By the way, weren't you also searching for that monk back then? By now, you should have some leads, right?" Young Master Su recognized Chang'an after all.

Moreover, as soon as these words were spoken, Chang'an panicked. He could clearly feel the bone-chilling cold emanating from the girl at the tip of the black blade.

"You were lying to me after all!" Xiao Tao's eyes widened in anger, and her blood-red skirt began to flutter in the cold wind.

Before Chang'an could escape, she heard Young Master Su angrily say, "Sister, what's so good about that stinky monk? Why are you so hung up on him!"

"What did you call him?" Xiao Tao's face was filled with murderous intent, her sharp eyes fixed on him.

"I...I didn't say anything..." Young Master Su realized he had said the wrong thing and began to instinctively back away.

In her rage, Xiao Tao forced out a sinister and eerie smile.

She treasured the severed hand in her hand, gently kissing the blackened and decaying back of her hand, and whispered, "Master, sleep in your disciple's arms for a while." With that, she carefully put the severed hand into her bosom.

This gentle and heartwarming gesture, however, made the two of them feel a suffocating sense of oppression, and cold sweat had already soaked their backs without them even realizing it.

Young Master Su began to run at full speed.

But Xiao Tao still smiled, raised her already reddened eyes, and with a gentle reach, her snow-white arm instantly stretched out several feet, tightly gripping Young Master Su's neck.

"Such long arms, dripping with black, sticky mud... can this even be human...?!" Chang'an was utterly horrified.

In the blink of an eye, Young Master Su's eyes rolled back, his face turned purple, as if he were about to die at any moment.

"You really shouldn't call him that!" Xiao Tao lifted him up and pulled him back onto the blade of the black knife.

The bright red blood bloomed as brilliantly as a flower, but the bloom was fleeting. Before anyone could react, the beautiful blood flowers withered and faded, leaving only the dead head in the corner and the headless corpse in the distance.

Xiao Tao stretched out her arm, looked at the blood in her palm with disgust, and then smeared all the blood onto her blood-red skirt.

Chang'an, watching from below, was horrified. If Xiao Tao found out Lu Xiaosan's true whereabouts, wouldn't he be chopped into mincemeat?

Xiao Tao continued to glare at him, and said sternly, "Tell me quickly, where is my master now?"

"He...he is now..."

Seeing that Chang'an was stammering and unwilling to speak clearly, Xiao Tao immediately became furious and grabbed the hilt of the knife she was sitting on.

Seeing this, Chang'an panicked even more, "If you... if you kill me, you will never know his whereabouts again."

Xiao Tao didn't care about anything else. She gripped the hilt of the knife and leaped high into the air, the black blade instantly shooting out from the ground!

Under the poignant moonlight, the girl in the red dress and black clothes raised her black knife, several times wider than herself, ready to chop Chang'an below into mincemeat.

"Su Xiaotao".

The sound was colder than the blade of a black knife.

The person who spoke stood quietly on the roof beam. In the darkness, only a pair of eyes, bright and sharp like cold stars, could be seen.

Su Xiaotao actually stopped, landing straight down. She held the towering black knife in her hand as steadily as if it were a needle.

She glared fiercely at the person on the roof beam. "Why are you back! Do you think you can stop me?"

"Haven't you killed enough people these past few days?" The person on the roof beam wasn't talking; it was more like issuing an irresistible order.

Xiao Tao gritted her teeth in resentment, but suddenly her eyes turned red, and she swung her sword at Chang'an again.

Chang'an didn't have time to dodge, and the people on the roof beams didn't intend to save them.