“Don’t worry, no matter how strong she is, she’s only at the peak of Foundation Establishment! No matter how capable she was before, if we all attack together, we might not lose!” A demonic cultivator picked up his weapon and tried to rally the others.
What he said wasn’t wrong.
If they hadn’t just gone through that brutal fight, if half of them weren’t dead and the rest weren’t all injured, maybe they’d be willing to risk it.
But now, not only had they lost half their people, the survivors were all wounded to some degree, and their enemy had even set up a formation against them while they weren’t paying attention! So at this moment, the demonic cultivators’ will to fight was low.
The pep talk just now clearly didn’t work.
They were here to do a job for the Demon Lord, not to throw their lives away.
There was no reason to charge forward when they knew it was a dead end.
“You think the Demon Lord will let you go if you fail and run away? Before you came out, every one of you was marked with a trace of the Demon Lord’s power! If you fail and he gets angry, with just a thought, he could wipe you all out! Think about it carefully!” Seeing that encouragement didn’t work, the demonic cultivator switched to threats.
Move forward and you might die, retreat and you’re dead for sure—so what will you choose?
“What?!” The crowd erupted in panic.
They’d all thought that mark was their last protection from the Demon Lord! How did it turn into something to silence them?
Makes sense though… Just now, they’d been too caught up in the fight to realize it, but all those corpses on the ground proved the Demon Lord never intended to protect them.
If the power he’d given them was for protection, they wouldn’t have suffered so many casualties!
Now there was no way out.
These demonic cultivators had to fight Bai Hansu to the death if they wanted any chance of survival.
The sudden blow left them on the verge of collapse.
When the adrenaline was pumping, they didn’t feel anything even after brushing past death several times, but now that things had calmed down, the more they thought about it, the colder they felt inside.
But Bai Hansu wasn’t about to give them time to recover.
In a life-or-death battle, hesitation only gets you killed, especially when facing an enemy with overwhelming strength.
Even though the path of sound wasn’t Bai Hansu’s main focus—she’d only picked up a bit of it by chance, far from a true sound cultivator—it was already more than enough to deal with these small fry.
And then there was the formation she’d set up in advance.
She didn’t actually need it to deal with these demonic cultivators, but there were people behind her she needed to protect, so she had to make absolutely sure nothing went wrong.
With the formation suppressing them, their strength, which at best could reach the peak of Foundation Establishment, dropped even further.
No matter how tough their bodies were, they couldn’t withstand Bai Hansu’s music infused with sword intent.
In an instant, blood sprayed everywhere!
One of the demonic cultivators reacted fastest, quickly forming a hand seal and gathering all the spilled blood into a huge shield to protect the group.
Bai Hansu formed a sword seal with her right hand.
Sensing that three people were hiding just out of her sight, she traced her hand lightly through the air toward the blood shield.
“Crack…”
The hard shield shattered on cue, revealing the stunned face of the spellcaster behind it.
At the same time, Bai Hansu split her focus and read the memory of the Nascent Soul in her hand.
Once it was no longer useful, she crushed it without hesitation, not even giving it a chance to explode and escape the secret realm.
Bai Hansu couldn’t help but recall what her guqin teacher had once said.
This piece was her own creation, and since she hadn’t named it yet, she temporarily called it “Soul-Chasing Prelude.” The name wasn’t great, but it really did fit the power of the piece.
The prelude chases the soul and takes lives, the second movement severs reincarnation, and the final movement… the final movement hadn’t been composed yet.
Maybe when that sound cultivator reached the Tribulation Crossing stage, the last movement would be born.
“Such a beautiful piece, but you play it so full of killing intent.
Aren’t you ruining its original mood?” A flamboyant male voice suddenly appeared on the battlefield.
A man in flashy purple clothes descended from the sky, waving an even flashier fan that looked like it was made from peacock feathers, blocking Bai Hansu’s attack.
This changed the one-sided battle, giving the demonic cultivators a chance to catch their breath.
“Lord Quwu! You’re finally here!” The demonic cultivators were so excited they nearly cried.
This flamboyant and particularly showy demonic cultivator was none other than the Fusion Stage cultivator Quwu they’d just mentioned.
Bai Hansu had overheard their discussion while setting up the formation, so she knew about this person.
Quwu was somewhat famous in the demon lands, and his appearance almost confirmed the identity of the other Demon Lord involved—Chi Di, who ruled the southeast of the demon lands.
Chi Di was notorious for being a playboy, with countless beauties in his harem.
But high-level cultivators had a hard time having children, so even though he doted on his women every day, he only had one precious son.
Naturally, he cherished this only child, which matched the memories Bai Hansu had just read.
For such a small secret realm, it was impressive it could handle so many big shots.
Dealing with Quwu, using this half-baked path of sound probably wasn’t the best idea, since he was a sound cultivator too.
“I’ve heard this piece before.
It was composed by a righteous path sound cultivator—a rare masterpiece.
You know this piece… could it be you’re that sound cultivator’s disciple?” Quwu gently waved his gaudy fan, looking especially interested in Bai Hansu.
“If you’re willing to join the demon lands, I could teach you myself~”
Bai Hansu answered with action, making it clear she wasn’t interested—in fact, she wanted Quwu dead.
For a sound cultivator, their instrument was as important as a sword was to a sword cultivator—almost like half their life.
So Quwu never expected this righteous path sound cultivator to just pick up her guqin and swing it at his head! The way she charged at him, if you saw it, you’d know it was a guqin, but if you didn’t, you’d think she was wielding a sword!
“Stop! Is that any way to use a guqin?! You’re not worthy of being a sound cultivator! Stop right now!”
Quwu didn’t fight back, just kept dodging as gracefully as he could while yelling in frustration.
He’d thought that even if he dodged casually, this reckless sound cultivator wouldn’t be able to hit him.
But as time went on, his movements got more and more awkward, and sweat started to bead on his forehead.
What the hell! Since when did sound cultivators fight in close combat?!
It wasn’t until a lock of his hair got sliced off that he finally snapped.
“My hair! Damn it! I’m going to kill you!”
Quwu pulled out the flute at his waist and was about to play when the whole secret realm suddenly shook violently.
He hadn’t even started playing—what was going on?
“Jiayin!”
“Hey!”
Wen Jiayin and Li Youxi’s frightened shouts made Bai Hansu’s face go pale, and Quwu’s expression darkened.
Not good! The entrance to the treasure had opened! Quwu didn’t care about Bai Hansu anymore and rushed straight toward where Wen Jiayin and the others had just been standing.
“Clang!”
A cold, gleaming sword was suddenly at Quwu’s throat, even drawing a line of blood that trickled down.
A few large drops of sweat fell as Quwu froze in place.
Bai Hansu looked a bit pale, but her sword hand was still rock steady.
A few minutes earlier, Wen Jiayin and the others had been placed somewhere safe, just waiting for Bai Hansu’s signal to come out.
But when the ground started shaking, the floor suddenly gave way beneath their feet.
Having spent so much time in the Demon Subduing Hall, Wen Jiayin immediately sensed the demonic energy below.
In that critical moment, she only had time to kick the other two out of harm’s way, but she herself was dragged into the abyss by the suction.
But in the darkness, Wen Jiayin didn’t notice the protective talisman around her neck glowing faintly.
The soft white light formed a gentle phantom that held her, shielding her as they fell into the unknown darkness together.
Wen Jiayin didn’t know anything, but for some reason, her wildly beating heart gradually calmed down.
Was it just her imagination? She thought she could sense Master’s presence.
Only with Master around did she feel like nothing could scare her, no matter what danger she faced.
