That expression devoid of remorse changed, turning into intense regret and pain.
But in the next moment, Yan Xueyi grabbed her and threw her back onto the giant spider—
The demon overlord sneered, “This seat will grant her wish.”
“Didn’t she want to see her son?”
A mass of karmic fire surged up.
Madam Zi fell silent.
Now she was about to reunite with “her son.” One could say her wish had been fulfilled. Although her son had not been revived, the family was reunited in the underworld—complete and perfect.
So thought the demon overlord.
Only after they had both been burned completely did the air in the entire underground hall seem much cleaner.
But Chao Jinsui suddenly felt that something was wrong.
She had always possessed a keen intuition—this intuition had allowed her to escape death countless times… so what exactly was wrong?
Chao Jinsui suddenly saw the huge pit left in the ground after the giant spider had been burned by karmic fire.
Her gaze froze as she saw demonic qi continuously pouring out from that pit.
She suddenly said, “Yan Xueyi! Leave now!”
The Su clan were half-demons, and that Gu King had long been fed with half-demon blood, its demonic qi soaring to the heavens; moreover, this spider’s nest itself was a “pit of the dead,” where countless corpse auras had accumulated over time, transforming into demonic qi that lingered without dispersing.
So then, just how dense was the demonic qi that had gathered inside this spider’s nest?
The demon race was extremely slow to react in such matters, because to them, demonic qi was nourishment. Who would be wary of their own nourishment?
But Chao Jinsui was human.
Demons could devour demonic qi and strengthen themselves. To them, this was a gluttonous feast; but at the same time, when the demonic qi became dense to a certain degree, it would cause demons to lose control!
But it was already one step too late—
Yan Xueyi was an extremely powerful naturally born demonic seed. That also meant his devouring ability far surpassed that of other demons, even stronger than Hongniang’s.
His self-control was extremely strong. Chao Jinsui had never seen him lose control but that was under normal circumstances! Where in the cultivation world could there be a place with demonic qi denser than a demon cavern?
He froze in place, almost instinctively beginning to devour the surging demonic qi.
He was clearly trying to control himself, but the demonic qi had already begun to seep into his body. Veins bulged across him, his rationality gradually fading, his eyes slowly being overtaken by black demonic qi.
For Yan Xueyi, this demonic qi posed no danger at all. In fact, after swallowing so much demonic qi, his strength would even increase but once he lost control—
Guangping, Hongniang, the nearby households… not a single one would escape.
Hongniang had already stepped in front of Chao Jinsui:
“Miss Chao, go quickly! I’ve already had Guangping come to take you away!”
Guangping indeed arrived swiftly, but when he saw this scene, his expression changed slightly—
He probably had not expected Hongniang would trap him like this!
After all, Hongniang was loyal only to the Demon Venerable. She had no particular friendship with Guangping—if one must die, better to drag Guangping along as company.
Guangping said, “Hongniang, you will die.”
Demons could devour one another. If the human race still had a chance to hide and survive, demons would certainly die.
Hongniang said, “Protect Miss Chao properly, you coward!”
Guangping: ……
It had already been said—provocation really did not work on the demon race.
Guangping took a deep breath, and for the first time glared at Hongniang in anger. Seeing that he was about to take out those Buddhist prayer beads—
Chao Jinsui: “Go quickly! Are the two of you out of your minds? Take Lingyun and run as far away as possible!”
Hongniang and Guangping had been waiting for those words!
The two demons, one in front and one behind, grabbed Lingyun, and whoosh—they disappeared.
Like wind sweeping away clouds.
The surroundings suddenly became empty, leaving only her and the demon overlord facing each other.
Chao Jinsui: “……”
One must not overestimate a demon’s sense of morality.
✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦
Although it felt somewhat like she had been set up and left to take the fall, Chao Jinsui knew very clearly—if he lost control, within a hundred li, only she could hold him back.
Chao Jinsui faced the demon overlord before her.
She held her breath, lowering her presence to the extreme.
At this moment, his eyes were already covered by demonic qi, completely black, even the pupils gone.
In this state of loss of control, he was far more dangerous and far stronger than usual. Even the already terrifying oppressive aura was increasing geometrically. If Lingyun were still here, she would probably already be coughing blood under the pressure.
Chao Jinsui gripped the hilt of the Kunlun Sword, slowly tensing her slender, flexible body, like a bow fully drawn, poised to release.
She knew very clearly that against Yan Xueyi in a state of loss of control, she had not the slightest chance of winning. So from the beginning, she had never intended to defeat him.
Countless methods had already flashed through her mind. In the end, she chose the tactic of “dragging”—as long as she held the demon overlord’s attention and kept him occupied until he regained his senses, the damage could be minimized.
On the terrifying great demon’s beautiful face, the pitch-black pupils had no focus whatsoever. Clearly, he could not see. He relied only on scent, driven by instinct to devour and kill.
Suddenly, this terrifying beast heard a voice:
“Yan Xueyi!”
In the suffocating silence, that voice was like an anchor that suddenly appeared.
In an instant, she felt him lock onto her—that sense of danger from being targeted by a colossal beast far exceeded that of the giant spider. She almost instantly tensed in alert.
The next moment, they both moved.
Ferocious black qi shot toward her direction.
Though the demon had lost his sight, his sense of smell was extremely sharp. He locked onto his target relentlessly. She leapt up, almost leaving afterimages, pushing the Gale Realm to its absolute limit in an instant, her figure drifting and swift.
Just like flying a kite, she relied on her movement technique to restrain the demon overlord, keeping him dragged within the hall the entire time.
But gradually, dawn came. Faint human voices drifted from above—the movement of people on the surface grew more and more frequent.
The demon overlord turned his head, his attention gradually drawn upward.
Black qi shot toward the surface.
“Yan Xueyi!”
He gave no reaction at all!
“Yan Xueyi! Stop!”
But at this moment, the last trace of white in his eyes disappeared. The entire demon had already fallen into complete loss of control, no longer responding to the name “Yan Xueyi.”
In her urgency, Chao Jinsui blocked his path:
“Yanyan, stop!”
—That was from her memory, from a very, very long time ago, even earlier than that time in the Myriad Demon Pit, when she had first met the little demon overlord.
He reacted to that nickname!
At last, his footsteps halted.
Then he tilted his head, expressionless, and turned toward her.
In a flash of lightning, she was suddenly pounced upon by that mass of black qi!
She parried with her sword, rolled on the ground, and flew toward the hall!
She smiled and said: “Yanyan, it’s been a long time since we fought. Don’t you want to try?”
The next moment, the Fumo Sword stabbed down beside her cheek, slicing off the short hair near her face!
Danger was almost right before her eyes!
—Yet the Fumo Sword had been forcibly driven an inch off its mark!
The demon overlord’s expression was ferocious and pained, as if he were struggling with extreme difficulty against his own instincts.
She seized the chance and slipped out from beneath his arm like a swimming fish!
The ground beneath her feet had long since collapsed, revealing an abyss-like underground—
Cold sweat streamed down her back. She pushed the Gale Realm to its limit, but every stone pillar she barely managed to stand upon would be smashed to pieces by the demon overlord!
The next moment, she suddenly felt a fierce gust of wind.
The Kunlun Sword collided viciously with the black demonic qi. At the slightest contact, she fled again, like a nimble butterfly.
Chao Jinsui understood him very well. In her previous life, they had been enemies for an entire lifetime. In her long life, the tactical opponent she had studied most, the imagined enemy she had thought about most, was called “Yan Xueyi.”
She studied every move he made, analyzed every tactic he used.
She had been doing this since the very first time she fought him.
The moment he made his move with the sword, she could predict what he intended to do next.
In this world, no one understood Yan Xueyi better than she did.
—Because she had treated him like a book, a textbook. From the day she obtained the Fumo Sword, she had begun to study him carefully.
He often said she was a despicable and cunning human, sinisterly searching for his weaknesses.
Back then, the little demon overlord had angrily cursed at her: “If you’re a real hero, fight me fair and square!”
She replied, “Do I look like an idiot to you?”
She had used all Thirty-Six Stratagems on him;
Later, when her strength gradually grew, and she could draw her sword against him openly, confronting him head-on without falling into a disadvantage, she became his most troublesome opponent.
Because the word “understanding” was a sharper weapon than even the Fumo Sword.
And what of Yan Xueyi now?
He had become stronger—but when demons lost control, they had no reason left, relying almost entirely on instinct.
One moment she led him beneath pillars on the verge of collapse; the next, she slipped into narrow openings barely large enough for her body.
While running, she kept calling:
“Yanyan, I’m here!”
“Yanyan, look over here!”
Knowing he reacted to that nickname, she dangled it before him, like teasing a big cat.
Only, the cat toy had become herself.
She did not know how long she had held on, but her speed was slowing more and more.
She had skirted the edge between life and death countless times. Her spiritual energy was gradually drained, and a sluggish heaviness began to appear in her dantian.
But the demon overlord opposite her still had an endless supply of demonic qi. He continued absorbing the swelling demonic energy here.
In a single moment of distraction, she was suddenly slammed into by that ferocious mass of black qi. Both she and her sword were knocked down to the ground together!
She met his hollow pupils—within them was a terrifying pitch-black void. His appearance was utterly dreadful. From his neck to his cheeks were savage demonic patterns, and together with those broken demonic horns, he looked like an evil ghost crawling out from the Ninefold Nether Hell.
This was the true face of a demon.
Demons were chaos, disorder, and confusion.
At this point, she did not know how long had passed. Her spiritual energy had been drained dry; she did not know how much longer she could hold on.
Suddenly, she reached out and gently embraced that terrifying beast. “Yanyan.”
She noticed his expression go blank for an instant, as if he were about to struggle awake—but the surrounding demonic qi was far too dense.
He was once again dominated by instinct, subconsciously about to erupt in anger, wanting to fling her away.
But she grabbed his demonic horns, wrapping herself tightly around him, then gathered the very last trace of spiritual energy and fiercely stabbed the Kunlun Sword into his arm.
“Yanyan!”
“Had enough of going mad?”
She thought he would erupt again. Those silent few seconds seemed stretched unbearably long, and the sound of their breathing became extremely clear.
She felt his hand move to where the Kunlun Sword was.
Her heart pounded wildly.
Every pore in her body seemed to be telling her—danger, run.
She slowly tensed her body.
But he did not.
With immense difficulty and pain, he forced himself under control, driving the Kunlun Sword deeper into his own arm. The loss of blood barely brought a trace of clarity.
She heard the sound of the blade piercing flesh, heard his painful breathing.
Slowly, she felt the beast with hollow expression grow quiet, and suddenly, beside her cheek, he gently nuzzled against her.
He had come back.
A surge of joy rose in her heart.
She heard him say in a muffled voice, “It hurts.”
His voice was extremely hoarse, as if he had only just barely regained his reason.
She tightened her arms around his neck. “Yanyan, just now you made me fall so hard—it hurt too.”
