Mu Anxiao forced a laugh. "No, I'm just very curious. Don't be angry, please don't be angry." She waved her hand dismissively.
Shen Yan glared at her, then looked back at the boy of fifteen or sixteen.
"Hasn't she already left?" the boy asked, echoing Mu Anxiao's earlier question.
Hearing the boy's words, Mu Anxiao felt a surge of excitement, but this time, she dared not speak.
"She can leave and still come back," Shen Yan said coldly.
The boy's face instantly turned ashen. "That's true. Then she..." He cautiously glanced left and right. "She's not here now, is she?"
"Your blood has merged with her soul, preventing her from going to the underworld," Shen Yan stated.
"My blood..." The boy's nerves tightened. "My blood only merged with her soul; it doesn't affect where she goes."
"But she's already filled with resentment, especially towards you," Shen Yan said coldly.
Mu Anxiao stared at the back of Shen Yan's head, swallowing hard.
"Then what should I do?" the boy's voice trembled.
"Either you die, or you... tell the truth." Shen Yan reached out and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.
The boy's body slumped. "Master... told me not to say."
"When I arrived, I heard him say he intended to give you to that monster you mentioned... Think carefully," Shen Yan said calmly.
If not for the preceding events, the boy might not have believed Shen Yan. However, the facts proved that his master had indeed locked him in the woodshed. Not only that, but he had also confined him with Mu Anxiao, who harbored hatred towards him.
He then lowered his gaze slightly. "Tell me what to do, and I will listen."
"Find a way to control that monster."
"No," the boy shook his head. "I can only control a demon soul; I haven't reached the stage of controlling a monster. If I could, I wouldn't be offering this deity to that monster."
"These are things your master taught you," Shen Yan said.
The boy nodded. "Yes, but Master hasn't passed this technique on to other disciples. Only a few of us know it, but now," he recalled the situation, "now everyone knows."
"So, the so-called female demon of the deity, you brought her back from the forest ahead," Shen Yan said, disregarding his latter comment.
"Yes, but she's not a demon," the boy asserted.
"Setting aside whether she is a demon or not, do you know where your master learned all this?"
At this moment, the boy hesitated. Then, memories of his master's past harshness gradually surfaced, along with his master's words: "You disloyal disciple, you're a waste alive, die."
With these thoughts, he looked up and met Shen Yan's eyes. "Master said he seemed to have learned it from a cultivation book that someone had lost. That book is in his study, and he reads it every night."
"You're not lying, are you?" Mu Anxiao truly didn't believe the boy's tall tales anymore.
"No," the boy shook his head with firm conviction.
"Go," Shen Yan uttered two words abruptly.
Mu Anxiao frowned and looked at Shen Yan, her voice dry. "Are you serious? I'm human. Going out there would be extremely dangerous. You..." She pouted again. "You can't do this to me."
"Can you stop pouting all the time? The way you look is really asking for a beating," Shen Yan said, staring at Mu Anxiao's face.