Guo Yun: Plays Ye Shunguang, teammate Ye Shiyuan

Kim Min-jun made a strange "hoarse" sound from his throat, like an old bellows struggling to pump, each breath accompanied by a trembling sound mixed with phlegm and fear.

Ye Shunguang's calm question—"Senior brothers and sisters, what should we do?"—felt like a final announcement before a death sentence to him. Every word was like an icicle, piercing his already taut nerves.

He trembled like a leaf in the autumn wind. Although he felt a clear pain where Pan Yinhu had gripped his wrist, it was nothing compared to the icy fear that gripped his heart.

The fear was so concrete, so immense, that it almost burst his body.

Pan Yinhu and Ju Fufu were taken aback when they heard Ye Shunguang's question, and then quickly exchanged a glance.

Although the three people in front of me were despicable in their words and deeds, they did not deserve to die. They seemed to be just ordinary refugees who were starving and resentful.

The world is not peaceful these days; emptiness is rampant, and many are displaced. It's not impossible to encounter such a person.

Moreover, the worst evil they have committed so far is trying to overturn the pot and uttering malicious words. Even if they are unhappy, they cannot use torture in private, as this is not in line with the usual style of the temple.

However, Ju Fufu spoke first. Already annoyed that these ungrateful fellows had almost ruined the porridge her junior brother had painstakingly prepared, and even more distressed that her junior sister, returning injured, had to be disturbed by such a mess, she angrily retorted, her round almond eyes widening even further, her finger almost touching Jin Minjun's nose: "Dispose of them? Of course, kick them out! Are you suggesting we let them stay here to continue causing trouble? Junior Brother Pan kindly offered porridge, and they've only incurred our wrath! I think they're just too full… uh, they're starving and acting unreasonably!"

She paused, then raised her voice, her tone decisive and leaving no room for argument: "Anyway, either tie them up and throw them at the mountain gate, waiting for Master to return and decide their fate, or... send them directly to the nearby police station! Report them for disturbing the peace and attempting robbery! Let their people teach them a lesson!"

In her opinion, it would be best to hand this kind of scoundrel over to the police station, lock him up for a few days, let him suffer a bit, and reform him. If he doesn't reform, then let him fend for himself.

In her view, this was the easiest and most conventional solution. Sending these three people over would be enough.

Pan Yinhu pondered for a moment, feeling that although his senior sister's words were direct, they were the safest option at present.

These three individuals are of unknown origin and have behaved in a foul manner. Keeping them in the temple would be a threat, while driving them away directly might lead to further entanglement or resentment, causing further trouble.

Handing it over to the Public Security Bureau for proper handling is the most appropriate course of action. This demonstrates that the Taoist temple is not a place where one can act recklessly, and also avoids potential gossip and criticism that might arise from handling the matter privately.

He nodded slightly and said in a deep voice, "What Senior Sister said makes sense. The three of you have behaved inappropriately and have disgraced our temple. We will hand you over to the police for punishment."

He slightly increased the pressure on his wrist, both as a warning to Kim Min-jun to stop any further rash actions and as a declaration of his intention to carry out the order. His long, strong fingers gripped Kim Min-jun's wrist tightly, making it extremely difficult for an ordinary person to break free.

"The Police Department?!" Kim Min-joon seemed to be burned by those words, jolting violently. An unnatural flush rose on his pale face, and a twisted, desperate struggle erupted from him. "No! We can't go! You can't send us to the Police Department! Damn it... You can't do this! Do you even know who I am?!..."

Send them to the police station? Are you kidding me! If they're detained by what sounds like a local official agency, and then questioned, their identities could easily be exposed! Even if they aren't exposed, being imprisoned, losing their freedom, what's the difference between being locked up in a dangerous, forbidden area and waiting to die?

Who knows if they might suddenly be swallowed up by the void during their imprisonment? Who knows what the Chinese government or this terrifying woman might do with this?

Most importantly, the live stream was still on, and the whole world could see them being thrown into jail like trash! That was worse than being killed outright!

Kim Min-jun could almost see the overwhelming ridicule and insults in his country's live broadcast room, the shocked and disappointed faces of his family and friends, and his own social death, which might even affect the future of his family...

"We didn't mean to! We were just too hungry! We were scared!" Kim Min-jun's voice suddenly rose, becoming sharp and panicked, as he tried to grasp at the last straw—feigning pitifulness to gain sympathy.

Although his performance at this moment was extremely exaggerated and distorted due to extreme fear, with tears streaming down his face and his features contorted, he said, "We were chased by monsters all the way here, and our companions were all separated! We barely managed to escape here, and we're on the verge of a nervous breakdown! Just now... just now I was confused! I was blinded by greed! I apologize! I apologize to you all! I apologize to this beautiful lady! I apologize to this... this Taoist priest!"

He struggled, ignoring the pain that his wrists were almost crushed, desperately trying to turn towards Ye Shunguang, tears welling up in his eyes, whether real or not, it was hard to tell—perhaps fear itself was the best tearjerker.

He stammered, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! We'll leave right now! Get out of here immediately! We'll never show our faces in front of you again! Please, please don't send us to the police station! There... there might be monsters there! We'll die! Please have mercy! Monks are supposed to be compassionate!" He resorted to the most common moral blackmail tactics, hoping for a glimmer of hope.

"666, changing faces without losing points."

"You guys are truly unparalleled in the world of comedy. Even Stephen Chow would have to admit defeat. You're absolutely invincible! Do you know how difficult it is to hold back laughter in the middle of the night?"

"Damn it! These three cowards are a disgrace to our great nation! They might as well just die in the cave!"

"If you ask me, Ye Shunguang only knows how to use her senior brothers and sisters to do her dirty work! This shows she's afraid of us! So we are the strongest! Ye Shunguang is nothing but a coward!"

"What? You're not a bro? Are you even speaking human language, upstairs??? @Hard-witted

"They're all in Chinese, but why can't I understand them when they're put together?! How are these words arranged and combined???"

"@HanGuoZuiYong, Mr. Wang XX, temporarily residing at XX Hotel, XX District, XX City, do you know that your current behavior is likely to attract criticism? Also, you seem to have had some improper contact and criminal record with our national team athlete Ye Shunguang recently. What, do you have connections?"

"Awesome bro, support justice and openness!"

"Holy crap, this is a lot of information. @DaLinjiangIsMyHometown, bro, have you finished reading?"

"Dalinjiang is my hometown: I will lead the charge!"

"@TruthoftheWorld, I remember you! Weren't you the first person to open that person's box last time? You did a great job!"

"I'm number one at swearing: I've already booked my ticket."

"Kakawa: That's right, I ordered it for him again."

"666, and there are even combo attacks!"

"I can't take it anymore, I'm dying of laughter. I want to see this scene on Dark Ridge right now."

Park Jiyeon and Lee Jong-seok finally recovered from their shock and fear of Ye Shunguang. Hearing the “Security Bureau” and Kim Min-joon’s pitiful pleas, they were even more terrified.

Even less assertive than Kim Min-jun, they felt an imminent disaster looming over them. Forget everything else, they cried out, tears streaming down their faces, "No! We were wrong! We'll never do it again! Let us go! We'll leave right now! We'll disappear immediately!"

"It's all his fault! It was all Kim Min-jun's idea! We tried to persuade him..." In his desperation, Lee Jong-seok even tried to distance himself, his trembling finger pointing at Kim Min-jun. Faced with extreme fear, that pitiful team spirit crumbled instantly.

Kim Min-jun suddenly turned his head and glared fiercely at Lee Jong-seok, his eyes flashing with malice. Lee Jong-seok was so frightened that the rest of his words caught in his throat, and his face turned even paler than before.

Chen Jianjun and Ye Jianguo, who had come out to investigate the commotion from the side room, had now reached the door and were standing shoulder to shoulder with Ye Shunguang. Looking at the disheveled state of the South Korean athletes, their faces showed complex expressions.

Ju Fufu was taken aback by their sudden change, then looked at them with even more disdain: "Now you're scared? Where were you before? If apologies were enough, what would we need sheriffs for?"

She hadn't forgotten the faces of those people when they called her and Junior Brother Pan "monsters." Those disdainful, terrified looks, as if they'd seen something filthy, reignited her anger. They'd really given them far too much face.

Pan Yinhu frowned even more deeply.

The speed with which these people changed their tune, from arrogant to obsequious, only revealed their despicable nature. Sending them to the police station would certainly be easier, but judging from their current terrified appearance, it wasn't entirely a pretense.

Is there something the police department is particularly afraid of? Or... do they really have some unspeakable secrets? Are they fugitives? Or are they involved in some troublesome matter? If so, they should be handed over to the police department. If that's the case, they may have criminal records or criminal histories that the police department is unaware of... Letting them out there might endanger the village.

He couldn't help but turn his questioning gaze to Ye Shunguang.

These people seemed to recognize their junior sister. It was only when she came out that they became terrified, as if they had seen their natural enemy... Their fear far exceeded that of ordinary strangers.

They'd seen their junior sister before? Where? In the cave?

A terrifying thought, like a venomous snake, slithered into Pan Yinhu's mind: Could it be... could it be that his junior sister encountered these treacherous, opportunistic villains in some void, forcing her to use the Azure Sea Sword? That's why she was so weak when they encountered them, lacking even a third of her former strength, and had also suffered partial amnesia...

Thinking of the various dangers that might be encountered in the void, and the series of chain events that might result... Pan Yinhu's heart sank suddenly.

He instinctively tightened his grip on Kim Min-jun's wrist, his knuckles turning slightly white from the force. The pressure was even greater than before, almost crushing the other's wrist bones. A chilling aura even leaked out uncontrollably, causing Kim Min-jun's wrist meridians to ache intensely.

"Ouch! Ouch! My hand is going to break! Loosen it, loosen it!" Kim Min-jun felt an even stronger, colder force pressing down on his wrist, the bones making a teeth-grinding "crunch" sound, and he couldn't help but howl in pain, his forehead instantly covered in cold sweat.

He stared in horror at Pan Yinhu's face, which had suddenly turned incredibly gloomy, and the fury that was about to burst forth from those gentle and honest panda eyes. He couldn't understand why the Taoist priest had suddenly resorted to killing him.

What did he say that offended the Taoist priest? He had no idea!

Ye Shunguang leaned against the door frame, most of his weight resting on the door panel, facing his senior brother's gaze, which was filled with obvious worry and inquiry, and the silent question hidden in that gaze—"Did they bully you?"

His gaze was heavy, filled with the protective affection of a senior brother and the anger about to erupt.

Her long eyelashes trembled slightly.

"No? How did things suddenly turn out like this? What should I say?"

Under Pan Yinhu's increasingly intense gaze, she frowned slightly and uttered a muffled syllable: "Uh..." The voice was very soft, carrying the weakness of unhealed injuries, and a trace of... confusion?

Then, as if trying to recall, or perhaps disturbed by her physical weakness and the chaos of the moment, her gaze drifted away for a moment, without immediately denying Pan Yinhu's terrible conjecture.

This brief hesitation and uncertainty, in Pan Yinhu's view, was almost tantamount to acquiescence. His pupils suddenly contracted, and the anger in his chest surged straight to the top of his head.

As expected! The amnesia I observed after meeting my junior sister was indeed related to these people!

"Junior Brother Pan?" Ju Fufu also noticed the sudden change in Pan Yinhu's emotions and strength, and looked at him with some surprise.

"Senior sister," Pan Yinhu's voice was terrifyingly low, carrying a sense of impending doom, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth, "these people... are probably more than just being unreasonable." His gaze was like a knife, scraping across the faces of Jin Minjun and the other two, which were contorted with pain and fear, as if he wanted to nail them to the pillar of moral shame.

He paused, seemingly considering his words, but his anger led him to choose the most direct and closest explanation to his guess: "Before she met us, my junior sister might have done this to save them..." He didn't finish his sentence, but the unspoken meaning, combined with Ye Shunguang's earlier "hesitation" and Pan Yinhu's undisguised anger, made Ju Fufu instantly understand something.

Ju Fufu's eyes widened instantly, and her gaze towards Kim Min-jun and the other two changed from disdain to anger and coldness: "Huh? You guys...?!...Tsk..." She gasped, then uttered a syllable of extreme disgust and anger.

She turned sharply to Ye Shunguang, her voice filled with urgency and heartache: "Xiaoguang! Did they hurt you...?" The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she stopped herself for fear of touching on her junior sister's painful past, though the anger in her eyes was already burning fiercely.

"No! No! We didn't do anything! We don't even know her... Ah no! We just... Ah!... We've seen... Hands... Ahhh!" Kim Min-jun saw that things seemed to be heading in a completely wrong and more fatal direction, and he panicked. He wanted to explain, but he was incoherent and made things worse.

He wanted to say that he had only "seen" them in the live stream, but how could he say that out loud? Saying that he had "seen" them would confirm Pan Yinhu's guess that they had encountered Ye Shunguang in the void.

So the more frantically he denied it, the more guilty he appeared to Pan Yinhu and Ju Fufu.

"Why did you suddenly start attacking?"

"The children didn't understand what Mr. Panda was trying to say at the end."

"Same question as the person upstairs. Why does Senior Sister lose control of her expression whenever that topic is mentioned?"

"Could it be? Holy crap, it matches up! Could it be that the price of the Azure Sea Sword is memories?"

"???"

"Wow, no wonder! But these three are really unlucky. They're suspected right now, they don't have an alibi, and the worst part is they actually know each other."

"What a coincidence! If another coincidence were to occur at this moment, it would be even more incredible."

"Ye Shunguang's expression...did she really forget something? Or was her injury too severe?"

At this tense standoff, on the verge of exploding—

Boom!!!

A deep, muffled roar, as if from the depths of the earth, shook the ground without warning! It wasn't thunder; thunder comes from the sky. This sound came from beneath our feet, carrying a heart-palpitating resonance, as if the entire mountain range, even this land, was groaning in pain!

Immediately afterwards, instead of sunset glow, a thick, filthy, dark red color, like congealed blood, spread rapidly and wildly across the entire western sky at a visible speed!

The clouds, originally orange and red, were dyed into an eerie and ominous purplish-black, instantly shrouding the entire world in a suffocating and nauseating crimson curtain.

The light dimmed rapidly, as if dusk had been abruptly pulled into the dead of night by an invisible hand, but this "night" was tinged with a bloody darkness.

"...The Lemnian Void is expanding?!" Pan Yinhu and Ju Fufu's expressions changed drastically, and they exclaimed in shock at the same time, their voices filled with unprecedented solemnity and horror.

Pan Yinhu's grip on Jin Minjun's hand loosened for a moment out of shock.

It's this very moment!

The instinct to survive overwhelmed everything.

Without even thinking, the excruciating pain in his wrist, the fear and hatred deep in his heart towards Ye Shunguang, the Public Security Bureau, and the Taoist priest in front of him, as well as the greater terror brought by the change in the color of the world, drove him to take advantage of the moment when Pan Yinhu's attention was drawn to the earth-shattering change and his strength was slightly weakened. He let out a strange cry that was not human and struggled with all his might!

"Crack!" With a slight sound of bones dislocating, he actually managed to pull his wrist out of Pan Yinhu's grip, at the cost of excruciating pain and obvious swelling and deformation in his wrist, but he didn't care at all! As long as he could escape from here, what did losing a hand matter!

"Run!!!" he roared, his voice distorted by pain and fear. Without even glancing at Park Jiyeon and Lee Jong-seok beside him, he scrambled and ran wildly toward the direction of the mountain gate in his memory, like a wild dog with its tail on fire!

His mind went blank, leaving only the most primal command: Escape! Escape this Taoist temple, escape that terrifying woman, escape these Taoist priests, escape the approaching, terrifying roars and blood-red sky behind him, like the end of the world!

He fell, his knee hitting the bluestone slab hard. He immediately scrambled to his feet and continued running, unaware that he had lost a shoe. His bare feet were cut by the gravel, leaving bloodstains.

Park Jiyeon and Lee Jong-suk were also terrified by the terrifying sight of the world changing color and the deafening noise. Their legs went weak and they almost collapsed to the ground.

Kim Min-jun's escape served as a signal, igniting their last ounce of strength.

They screamed, a shrill sound unlike any human voice, bursting forth with unprecedented speed. Staggering yet desperately chasing after Kim Min-joon's retreating figure, they rushed down the mountain, quickly disappearing into the dark, crimson twilight, where the shadows of the trees loomed like those of a ghostly realm.

Only a few faint, terrified sobs and chaotic footsteps remained, fading into the distance.

Pan Yinhu realized what was happening, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes. He was about to take a step and give chase—these people were highly suspicious, and their escape in the chaos made them even more so! Moreover, with the void exploding and danger lurking outside, their reckless running could very well lead to their deaths, or... attract even more trouble!

But Ju Fufu grabbed his arm tightly and said urgently, "Junior brother! Don't chase them! Look over there! They're not the most important thing right now!" Her finger trembled as she pointed to the western sky, her voice filled with unprecedented urgency and tension.

Pan Yinhu looked in the direction she was pointing and saw that the Lemnian Hollow, which had been slowly rotating and expanding in the western sky, was now as if it had been injected with violent energy. Its edges were torn and churning, spewing out more viscous, blood-red light. The hollow itself was expanding wildly in his field of vision, completely swallowing the last remaining ray of light.

It was like a gaping maw, dripping with filthy blood, ready to devour anyone it could, its expanding boundaries about to engulf the mountain where Suibian Temple was located! The oppressive feeling was as if the sky had collapsed.

"..."

"Upstairs, you're out of this world."

"Not a buddy..."

At the same time, a dense, chaotic sound came from the street: terrified cries, screams, barking dogs, the sound of things collapsing and breaking, and... some unintelligible but chilling rustling and growling.

"Oh no! It might be those monsters corrupted by the ether again!" Ju Fufu instantly sensed the possible attackers and rushed into the street to intercept the creatures attacking the citizens.

"Xiao Guang...you go back first! Leave this to us." Pan Yinhu looked around and, confirming that Xiao Guang was still leaning against the door, quickly reminded him.

"But..." Ye Shunguang saw the situation take a sharp turn for the worse and wanted to do her part. But as soon as she tried to move, the pain in her body after the adrenaline dissipated made her frown.

"Leave it to us..." Ye Jianguo and Chen Jianjun appeared beside Ye Shunguang at some point and whispered to him.

Although Ye Shunguang wanted to say something more, reason told her that helping in this state would only add to their workload and could easily lead to further injury...

So he could only nod silently and, with Zhou Liming's help, returned to the temple.