The Demoness Breaks Her Seal

Bang!

The bluestone wall exploded apart with a deafening crash.

Amid the billowing dust, a crimson blur shot forward.

It was a petite young girl.

The luxurious crimson dress she should have been wearing had long since been reduced to bloodstained strips of cloth that barely covered her body.

Her deathly pale skin was branded from head to toe with black sealing runes that writhed like living creatures.

Her disheveled hair hung like withered grass around her face.

Beneath it lay a pair of scarlet, bloodshot eyes devoid of even a trace of reason.

At this very moment, those eyes were locked onto Qin Lin, who sat leisurely in the Grand Master’s chair.

A morbid obsession churned within her pupils.

“So much pure true essence… it smells so wonderful…”

“Big Brother, you smell sweeter than all the blood food in this world.”

“Just one bite.”

“Only one bite.”

“Let me make you part of my body…”

“Then we’ll never have to be apart again.”

The girl’s speed defied all logic.

Her limbs twisted like a spider’s as she propelled herself forward.

The ten black claws extending three inches from her fingertips, each lined with backward-facing barbs, slashed toward Qin Lin’s throat like ten venom-coated demonic blades.

Faced with a fatal ambush that would make even seasoned cultivators tremble in terror, Qin Lin did not so much as blink.

On the surface, the Inspector Envoy from the Holy Hall of Central Province remained as calm as a mountain.

His spotless white robes fluttered gently.

His gaze was as tranquil as an ancient well.

The strike capable of tearing apart a Golden Core cultivator looked no more threatening to him than a child waving a tree branch.

In reality…

Qin Lin was screaming inside.

‘Holy hell! They actually sealed a man-eating lunatic inside the wall?!’

‘I’ve got decades of cultivation but don’t know a single damn technique!’

‘If she scratches me once, my carotid artery’s going to paint the ceiling red!’

‘System! How much longer until my sword art unlocks?! Save me!’

“Where’d this crazy girl come from?!”

“Are you starving that badly?”

“You actually dare take a bite out of my Master?!”

Yu Ruyan’s eyes widened like an enraged leopard’s.

She had already been in a foul mood after surviving for days on only half a cold roast chicken.

There wasn’t a drop of grease left in her stomach.

Now, some wild girl she had never seen before actually dared try to eat her master…

…who also happened to be the source of all her future meals.

The instinct to protect her food exploded inside her.

With a furious roar, Yu Ruyan’s muscles tightened beneath her coarse cloth robes.

Veins bulged across her arms.

The Innate Sword Bone within her body rang sharply.

Gripping her firewood cleaver with both hands, she forcefully intercepted the demoness’s claws and shoved her flying backward.

The demoness let out a piercing shriek.

Her tiny body twisted unnaturally in midair.

She kicked off the Profound Iron bars before pouncing once more at Yu Ruyan.

“Perfect!”

“I was just thinking my bones were getting rusty these past few days.”

“I’ll use you to loosen them up!”

Without retreating a single step, Yu Ruyan charged straight at her.

Watching his eldest disciple stand before him and grow fiercer as the battle continued, Qin Lin secretly let out a long sigh of relief.

The clothes clinging to his back were already soaked through with cold sweat.

Maintaining an air of effortless composure, Qin Lin shifted into a more comfortable sitting position.

He picked up the cup of cold tea sitting on the battered wooden table beside him and took a leisurely sip.

Then he looked toward his second disciple, Luo Youmeng, who stood ready at the side.

“Youmeng.”

“Don’t just stand there.”

“Calm your mind.”

“Watch carefully.”

With an inscrutable expression, Qin Lin pointed toward the deadly battle unfolding before them.

“This…”

“…is an extremely dangerous contest.”

“And also the greatest possible test of one’s insight.”

“That demoness fights with ruthless, unpredictable techniques.”

“But she has already lost her reason.”

“Everything she does is driven purely by bloodthirst born of cultivation deviation.”

“As for your Senior Sister…”

“Though she currently knows nothing but brute-force hacking and slashing, she resembles the dealer at a gambling table.”

“Steady.”

“Patient.”

“Using this cramped space to slowly seal off every avenue of escape.”

Smoothly repackaging the card-sharp theories from his previous life into profound cultivation philosophy, Qin Lin continued,

“Remember.”

“The Dao of deception is not limited to cards and dice.”

“It encompasses all things in this world…”

“…even battles fought between life and death.”

Luo Youmeng’s delicate body trembled.

Even ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators would face such a terrifying demoness with absolute caution.

Yet not only was her master completely unruffled…

He wasn’t even interested in making a move.

Instead, he was treating a life-or-death crisis as a live lesson for his disciple.

The admiration in Luo Youmeng’s eyes became even more fervent.

She immediately cast aside every distracting thought and focused completely on the battle.

In her vision, the two combatants’ movements seemed to slow dramatically.

Every gust of wind…

Every flow of blood and qi…

Became unmistakably clear clues.

“Master!”

“I’ve figured it out!”

Luo Youmeng spoke rapidly, yet every word was precise.

“Although the demoness can’t feel pain, every time she gathers strength…”

“…the dense cluster of black sealing runes around her right ankle slows for an instant.”

“That makes her lower body’s transitions half a breath slower than her upper body.”

“If Senior Sister attacks during that instant…”

“Ruyan!”

“You heard her, didn’t you?”

“That’s her weakness!”

“Attack her lower body!”

Without even half a second’s hesitation, Qin Lin shouted Luo Youmeng’s analysis aloud.

Naturally, he also claimed full credit for this brilliant piece of guidance.

“Got it, Master!”

Locked in fierce combat, Yu Ruyan responded without missing a beat.

Her wrist flicked.

The firewood cleaver, originally aimed at the demoness’s face, suddenly changed direction midway through the swing.

She completely abandoned her own defense.

The demoness’s claws raked three bloody gashes across her shoulder.

But her cleaver sliced across the ground with astonishing precision, cutting directly toward the demoness’s right ankle.

Slash!

The demoness let out a muffled cry of agony.

Her right leg buckled beneath her.

She staggered backward several steps before crashing heavily into a Profound Iron pillar.

The impact echoed throughout the prison.

Yet instead of retreating, the injury only awakened an even deeper madness inside her.

Slowly lowering her head, she extended her crimson tongue and licked the black demonic blood flowing from the wound on her leg.

Then…

She began to laugh.

“Hehehe…”

The eerie laughter sent chills crawling down everyone’s spine.

The black sealing runes covering her pale skin suddenly began writhing violently.

It was as though boiling water had been poured over them.

Crack… Crack…

Layer after layer, the sealing runes shattered and peeled away.

An overwhelming aura erupted wildly from the tiny body of the demoness.

The bluestone floor nine hundred zhang beneath the earth split apart in every direction.

Outside, the blood baleful energy gathered by the Myriad Blood Formation seemed to answer its master’s call.

It poured through the cracks in the ground and surged frantically into the demoness’s body.

Luo Youmeng’s face turned deathly pale.

She immediately grabbed Qin Lin’s sleeve.

“Master!”

“This is bad!”

“The seal inside her body is about to break completely!”

“This aura…”

“It feels like the awakening of an ancient Demon God’s bloodline!”

Qin Lin’s calm expression didn’t change.

His heart, however, skipped a beat.

‘Crap.’

‘This has gone completely off the rails.’

‘Not only is this crazy girl ridiculously tough…’

‘She even has a second phase?!’

But that wasn’t the true danger.

As the ancient demonic aura beneath the prison erupted uncontrollably, its terrifying fluctuations burst through the earth and shot into the heavens.

At that very same moment—

Deep within the Blood River Sect.

Inside the Blood Pool Forbidden Ground, the most heavily guarded place in the entire sect.

Upon a lotus throne made of white bones in the center of the blood pool…

An emaciated old man who looked as though he had been dead in meditation for centuries suddenly opened his eyes.

His pupils glowed like two crimson lanterns.

A horrifying pressure erupted from his body.

It was ten…

No—

A hundred times greater than that of the outer sect elder.

In an instant, the entire Blood River Sect and Qingshui Town were enveloped by that overwhelming might.

The Blood River Sect Master…

…had been forcibly awakened from seclusion.

“Who dares disturb the Blood Guide Medicine Cauldron that this sect has raised for so many years?”