Tang Muxi had another falling out with the Demon Lord. They had just reconciled, but less than ten days later, they were back in a cold war—though it was a one-sided cold war on her part.
Since that unpleasant parting, the Demon Lord continued eating and drinking as usual, not giving the matter a second thought. Every day, she prepared to destroy the Tianji Secret Realm and seize a chance to escape.
She was a very determined person, and once she made a decision, no one could sway her. Destroying the Tianji Secret Realm was actually quite simple; it only required detonating the demonic veins beneath the desert and the spiritual veins within the secret realm.
The power of the demonic and spiritual veins was immense. Once they erupted, it would cause a massive upheaval in the entire secret realm. This place was connected to the mountain-protecting formation, and the Tianji Sect’s proud secret realm would become a deadly blade, destroying itself from the inside out.
Without the protection of the mountain-protecting formation, the overwhelming power would crush the entire sect. By then, the Tianji Sect would be in chaos, and no one would have the time to care about them.
The plan was perfect, except…
“The formation for the demonic veins is set. When will we connect it to the spiritual veins?” Bai Ling, who stood by Jiang Yin’s side, had been helping with the formation setup these past days.
Though young and innocent, hunting had become second nature to it. Unlike Tang Muxi, it didn’t have much compassion. Living here, kindness meant starvation and death. If you didn’t hunt, you became the prey. That’s how it had survived for fifteen years.
Detonating the demonic veins was easy, but the spiritual veins were difficult. To deal with the spiritual veins that had been entrenched here for years, they needed to connect the spiritual veins to the demonic veins, using the immense power of the demonic veins as a fuse to ignite the spiritual veins completely.
The demonic veins had been set up long ago, but Jiang Yin had yet to mention connecting the passage. If Bai Ling hadn’t seen her destroy many souls with its own eyes, it would have thought this ruthless senior sister had changed her mind.
Jiang Yin didn’t respond, eating her meal slowly. She seemed the same as usual, but Bai Ling felt she had something on her mind.
“Are you ready?” Tang Muxi, who had been silently watching their conversation, suddenly spoke. The Demon Lord hadn’t told her the plan, so she was quite concerned.
She wanted to stop it, but deep down, she felt powerless.
There was no other way. If they didn’t follow the Demon Lord’s plan, they would only await death. These days, the Demon Lord seemed to deliberately annoy her, always discussing the plan during meals, as if intentionally letting her hear it.
Mocking her naivety? Tang Muxi felt exhausted.
Bai Ling was about to explain, but Jiang Yin cut in first, “So what if we are?” Her tone was cold and mocking, aggressive.
Tang Muxi’s eyelids twitched, then she closed her eyes slightly, saying nothing more, and continued eating her meal dejectedly.
After speaking, Jiang Yin remained expressionless and silent. She seemed relaxed, but Bai Ling felt she was somewhat distracted.
Something was off.
After the meal, Bai Ling saw Jiang Yin heading alone to check the demonic veins and quickly followed.
It could tell Jiang Yin was in a bad mood, guessing it was related to the meal earlier. Not daring to jump onto her shoulder, it floated up on a few ice shards and asked, “Why didn’t you let me explain earlier?”
Their plan was clearly incomplete, with the crucial step of connecting the passage still undone.
Jiang Yin’s face was cold. “We’re not opening the passage.”
“Huh?” Bai Ling was stunned. Seeing her continue walking forward without a care, he hurriedly chased after her. “Not opening the passage? How are we going to destroy the Mountain Protection Array without it? Can we rely solely on the power of these demonic veins?” Bai Ling guessed it wouldn’t be enough. The demonic veins were small and could only affect the desert, not reaching other areas. If they only detonated the demonic veins, at most, it would blow a hole in the secret realm and turn the desert upside down. It wouldn’t destroy the Mountain Protection Array, so how would they attract the attention of the elders?
Could it be…
Bai Ling’s face stiffened. “Don’t count on me. Although my teleportation seems to cover a long distance, the spatial laws inside the secret realm are different from the outside. If I take both of you, we might not escape from Tianji Gate.”
Jiang Yin glanced at her, seemingly disdainful of her uselessness. “What if you only take her?”
“Tang Muxi?” Bai Ling calculated roughly. “That should be doable.”
One less person would save a lot of energy.
Suddenly, she stopped and looked up sharply. “Wait! You don’t plan to attract attention yourself and have me take that fool away, do you?” The more Bai Ling thought about it, the more likely it seemed. If they didn’t blow up the spiritual veins, the creatures in the Tianji secret realm would be safe. The demonic veins could at most shake the Mountain Protection Array but not shatter it, so someone would need to attract attention. Compared to the penniless Tang Muxi, Jiang Yin, who held a divine artifact, would be the target of the elders.
“No way! No, no, no! Don’t worry about that fool. She can’t stop us anyway. Just follow the plan. Even though you have a divine artifact, your cultivation is still low. They have the numbers; you can’t win.”
Seeing Jiang Yin unmoved, Bai Ling was anxious and couldn’t understand why she was acting as foolishly as Tang Muxi. “Besides, if they forcibly seal the mountain using the Mountain Protection Array, we won’t be able to escape even if we want to. We must destroy the Mountain Protection Array.”
“And even if someone has to stay behind, let that fool do it. She’s very powerful, more so than many who think they’re strong!” Bai Ling accidentally revealed Tang Muxi’s hidden strength and realized her mistake only after hearing Jiang Yin’s rebuttal.
“Absolutely not!” Jiang Yin’s cold anger finally showed. “You take her away. I have a way to deal with the Mountain Protection Array.”
Bai Ling shivered at her fierce tone and shrank her neck in grievance. She couldn’t understand why Jiang Yin didn’t believe that Tang Muxi was truly powerful. In times of danger, she would turn white, and no one could match her.
But seeing Jiang Yin’s unpleasant expression, she didn’t dare to say more and just followed behind her.
She couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t use a simpler method and instead chose to take such a risk. At this moment, Bai Ling felt a bit resentful towards Tang Muxi.
Following Jiang Yin to the center of the demonic veins, Bai Ling saw a stone coffin floating above, greedily absorbing the power of the demonic veins. The aura was very familiar yet very strange, making her feel an uncontrollable fear.
Jiang Yin stepped forward and released the Soul Jade Marrow, letting it burrow into the stone coffin. Soon, there were thumping sounds from inside the coffin, growing eerier in the dark, lightless environment. The stench of blood mixed with a chilling ghostly aura, as if an evil spirit was slowly being born.
Jiang Yin opened the stone coffin, and a foul stench hit her face. At the same time, a bloody, broken bone shot straight towards her eyes. Fortunately, at the critical moment, a pitch-black blade blocked in front of her, shattering the bone instantly.
“Growing quite fast,” Jiang Yin looked into the coffin and smirked coldly. Then, she used her finger as a blade to cut her wrist, letting her blood drip into the stone coffin.
The thing inside the coffin was extremely bloodthirsty, surging at the scent of blood, even trying to climb along the blood to devour Jiang Yin whole. But every time it got close, the Imprisoning Demon Blade would emit an aura that shattered its greed.
Bai Ling felt nauseous at the sight.
“What… what is this?” If she remembered correctly, the stone coffin should contain the remnants of Yin Li’s flesh and bones. Why had it turned into this?
Jiang Yin’s smile didn’t fade as she reached into the coffin and pulled out a dark aura entwined with the Soul Jade Marrow. “Do you recognize this?”
Bai Ling suppressed his nausea and sniffed carefully, her mind suddenly jolted. “This, this is Yin Li?! Wasn’t he already obliterated?”
Jiang Yin didn’t care, playing with the nearly shattered aura in her hand. “He was indeed obliterated, but one of his souls clung to the Soul Jade Marrow.”
“Didn’t you just ask me how to break the Mountain Protection Array?” Jiang Yin said with great interest as she injected a wisp of soul into the stone coffin. With a slight spell, the flesh inside the coffin began to churn and eventually stitched itself onto the broken bones. This thing couldn’t form a human shape, only a mass of flesh.
But because it contained a part of Yin Li’s soul, it now had an aura identical to his.
Bai Ling trembled uncontrollably, already having a guess in her heart. Jiang Yin continued, “When the time comes, I’ll use a bit of magic to make this thing mimic Yin Li and expose it in broad daylight. What do you think the Demon Emperor, who loves his son dearly, will do?”
“He… he will think his son has been resurrected…” Bai Ling could barely stand as she said this.
Such a scheme was too cruel.
“Exactly. With Yin Li ‘resurrected,’ the Demon Emperor will definitely tear through the void and descend once more. The Mountain Protection Array is nothing but a joke to him.”
“But when he breaks through the void and the array only to discover the truth, he will be furious! At that time, everyone in the Tianji Sect will be his target for venting his anger, and you will be the first to die!” Bai Ling now regretted not being able to speak; otherwise, she would have lashed out at Jiang Yin. What kind of crazy idea was this? It was suicidal.
The Demon Emperor wielded two powerful artifacts, the Heavenly Demon Halberd and the Soul Execution Disk. If he used them recklessly, Jiang Yin would have no chance of survival. Even if she managed to escape, she would become the Demon Emperor’s enemy, hunted to the ends of the earth with no place to bury her bones!
No one knew the extent of the Demon Emperor’s power, but it was clear that someone who could sit at the pinnacle of the demon realm was not someone a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator like Jiang Yin could provoke.
Jiang Yin, however, was indifferent, sneering, “I shattered Yin Li’s soul, and I bear the mark of the Soul Execution Disk. The Demon Emperor already can’t tolerate me. Adding another crime makes no difference. Do you think he would let the person who killed his son live?”
Seeing Bai Ling still wanting to argue, she raised her hand to stop her, “No need to say more. My mind is made up. This plan is the best way. Don’t speak of today’s events, or don’t blame me for turning against you.”
Crazy, crazy, Bai Ling thought that these two sisters were all insane. Each one was rushing to their death. Hearing Jiang Yin’s final threat, she left in a huff.
When she returned, she didn’t have a good expression for Tang Muxi, baring her teeth at her.
Tang Muxi: “…”
She pretended not to care and asked, “When are you going to act?”
Bai Ling, annoyed, snorted and turned her head away, not wanting to talk to her.
What difference did it make if she bore the mark of the Soul Execution Disk? The Demon Emperor wouldn’t be in such a hurry to kill her. But now, with this “resurrecting Yin Li” plan, wasn’t it just adding insult to injury? They were practically inviting the Demon Emperor to send someone to kill her.
In the end, it was all because she believed Tang Muxi’s nonsense.
She wouldn’t admit it, but she was being stubborn.
“None of your business.” Bai Ling was angry and didn’t dare to lash out at Jiang Yin, so she took it out on Tang Muxi.
But this was just her moment of false bravado. When Tang Muxi transformed, Bai Ling would be the only pitiful one in the group.
Bai Ling couldn’t help but feel sad; being a fox was too hard.
Tang Muxi didn’t get a response, feeling a blockage in her chest, unable to speak. She had never felt as much as she did now, hating her own weakness.
She had to become stronger, she must become stronger.
Author’s Note: Bai Ling still can’t speak and usually communicates by forming words with ice. In the previous version, to emphasize that she couldn’t speak, I removed all quotation marks from her dialogue. But later, I found it uncomfortable without quotation marks, so I added them back. She will only truly speak when she transforms.
