IVYSCP - Chapter 67

Chapter 67

Ling Qingyue dodged the incoming blade of Sword Qi and found a gap to speak to Pei Yin. "When I killed them, there was no Demonic Qi on them at all. How could they suddenly demonize? Could there be demons within this secret realm?"

The demonized disciples attacked with ferocious, ruthless moves. Pei Yin said coldly, "Subdue them first, then we'll talk."

"Alright!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Ling Qingyue spotted Mu Xiaoyao trying to come help. She swept out a wave of Spiritual Energy, pushing the girl far back, then smoothly took her sword and called out, "Stay far away! Borrowing your sword, many thanks!"

Pei Yin's array formation and the sword in Ling Qingyue's hand worked with seamless synergy. Pei Yin focused on trapping them while Ling Qingyue, using the same method she'd once employed against Liu Qingtang, severed their hands and feet. Finally, Pei Yin sealed them with a single gesture, ensuring they could not rise again.

Quite a few bone-collecting cultivators had gathered around. Every one of them stared, stunned, at the scene before them.

Ling Qingyue frowned.

That the Shangtianqiong Sect disciples had demonized would be impossible to hide now.

Raising her hand, Ling Qingyue returned the sword. She nodded once at Mu Xiaoyao, who clutched her sword and dipped her head in return.

No longer paying any mind to the surrounding crowd, Ling Qingyue and Pei Yin stepped forward to examine the demonized disciples.

"Cultivation Deviation?" Ling Qingyue asked, then immediately shook her head and muttered to herself, "No. When they came to encircle me, they were perfectly fine. They demonized after death."

Pei Yin glanced at her. "Aside from Cultivation Deviation, the only thing that can cause a cultivator to demonize and lose their mind is the blood of a Blood Demon."

At this reminder, Ling Qingyue remembered.

Yes, the Blood Demon.

She had also considered the Blood Demon back during the Linshui Town incident.

Linshui Town, the wood carving Liu Qingtang…

The Ancient Yao Forest, the Shangtianqiong Sect disciples…

Ling Qingyue looked down at her own hand and murmured, "It can't be… me?"

That wood carving had been stained with her blood, carrying a wisp of Liu Qingtang's Divine Sense, and afterward it became the wood carving Liu Qingtang. And these Shangtianqiong Sect disciples—had they also come into contact with her blood during the encirclement, then demonized after death…

This half-human, half-demon body of hers—could the demon half be a Blood Demon?

Pei Yin raised a barrier around the two of them, shielding their conversation from eavesdroppers.

"But if I'm a Blood Demon, and they demonized because of my blood, shouldn't they obey my commands? Why did they still want to devour me?"

In that instant, Ling Qingyue suddenly understood the reason she had constantly felt someone following her along the journey. It had been these four demonized disciples, tracking her the entire time.

"When we return to Piaomiao Sect, ask Gu Huai. She spent some time researching Blood Demons back in the day."

Ling Qingyue nodded in agreement, then pointed at the four before them. "Then what about them?"

If they brought them out, it would stir up yet another wave of trouble, and very likely expose her identity. The crippled Shangtianqiong Sect disciples knew she had killed these people. If they didn't bring them out, within this secret realm teeming with countless yao beasts, what if they were influenced as well…

Pei Yin had clearly considered this too. She said quietly, "We'll seal them here for now."

As she spoke, she formed a complex series of seals with both hands. A pale golden sealing formation slowly emerged before them. Ling Qingyue watched and unconsciously tried to mimic her, only to end up with her own fingers tangled in knots, still completely baffled as to how she had done it.

She couldn't help but think: How are this woman's hands so nimble? She'd probably be excellent at cat's cradle.

Just as the sealing formation neared completion, the ground suddenly shook violently. Ling Qingyue immediately tensed, pressing close to Pei Yin's side in alarm.

The other cultivators around them also drew swords and readied blades, on edge at the disturbance.

Pei Yin had no choice but to temporarily set aside the sealing. She wrapped an arm around Ling Qingyue's waist and flew upward. Soon, all the cultivators in the Bone Burial Ground hovered in midair. Dust and sand were kicked up, swallowing their figures in an instant.

"Don't be afraid," Pei Yin whispered to the person beside her.

Ling Qingyue blinked. She wasn't afraid at all.

The roars and high-pitched cries of yao beasts began ringing in her ears. Among them, the resonant cry of dragons and the howl of tigers were the most distinct, deafening and thunderous, along with the sound of birds circling and beating their wings.

"Look!" Ling Qingyue pointed in one direction.

Pei Yin followed her gaze. One after another, illusory, translucent yao beast souls manifested. They reenacted the battles of their lifetimes, tearing and biting at the souls of the yao beasts around them.

Even as mere lingering remnants of consciousness, the oppressive pressure of their spiritual power was not to be underestimated. It stirred an involuntary urge to shrink back in fear.

"These are all Great Yao, and even Yao Kings and Yao Emperors among them," Ling Qingyue said, awestruck.

She watched the dragon and tiger locked in combat and couldn't help imagining what the real battle must have been like. How earth-shattering it must have been. Could it be that most of the ancient yao beasts vanishing from the Immortal Realm was precisely because of this Beast War? What were they fighting over?

Many of the Immortal Realm's secret realms were Purple Mansion Realms left behind after the fall of past great powers. Such realms generally contained a fragment of the owner's Divine Sense. Using everything from their lifetimes, they beckoned later generations to come. Whether for an unfulfilled wish or to ensure their legacy survived unbroken, once the wish was fulfilled and the legacy passed on, the Purple Mansion Realm would dissipate.

A small portion of secret realms, however, were like the Ancient Yao Forest—born from such violent upheavals that they tore space itself apart, forming their own small worlds.

Entering the Ancient Yao Forest was, for a short time, no different from traveling back to the primordial era.

"They all want that thing."

Pei Yin cast a spell before their eyes. They watched as, at the heart of the battlefield, a gray dragon soared into the sky, clutching in its claws what looked like a crystal-clear stone.

Ling Qingyue asked, puzzled, "That is…?"

Before she could look more closely, a sudden piercing pain stabbed through her chest. She immediately grimaced in agony and doubled over.

"Qingyue!" Pei Yin hurriedly caught her and discovered she was trembling uncontrollably. Her body temperature soared rapidly, growing scalding hot to the touch.

Ling Qingyue heard her own heartbeat, thud after thud, as if it would burst from her chest at any moment. She clutched at her heart. The blue-green veins along her neck and cheeks bulged, and her fair face quickly turned a livid, purplish red.

"Pei Yin…" Ling Qingyue gripped Pei Yin's hand tightly. "It hurts so much. It hurts so much."

Frantically, Pei Yin made Ling Qingyue look at her. With one hand holding her wrist, she sent a probe of Spiritual Energy inside. Nothing was wrong.

She cupped Ling Qingyue's sweat-dampened face, then suddenly froze. "Qingyue, the Demonic Markings are emerging…"

Half her face was delicate and beautiful; half was fierce and hideous. This time, the black-mist Demonic Markings did not begin from the eyes but spread upward from the neck, as if born from the very center of her heart.

Ling Qingyue turned her head away, enduring the agony. "Don't—don't look."

The hand she had just been silently praising for its nimbleness once again covered her face. The woman's fingertips trembled faintly. Ling Qingyue lifted her gaze and saw that Pei Yin's eyes seemed veiled with a layer of mist. The mist cleared, gathered into drops, and rolled from the corners of her eyes.

Then, at a completely inappropriate moment, a thought slipped into Ling Qingyue's mind: So beautiful.

"…Are you crying?" Ling Qingyue wanted to raise her hand to wipe the tears away, but the pain was so intense she couldn't lift her arm.

Pei Yin blinked and held her even tighter. "Qingyue, everything will be alright."

Ling Qingyue pressed her head against Pei Yin's shoulder, breathing in her fragrance. The unbearable stabbing pain in her heart seemed to truly lessen a little.

How strange. It's clearly just a doppelgänger, yet she still smells so good.

She lifted her head slightly, peering over the woman's shoulder. Squinting, Ling Qingyue spotted that glowing stone again. This time, it wasn't multicolored light but Demonic Qi. The stone was completely surrounded by Demonic Qi.

With just a single glance, Ling Qingyue was wracked with pain again. She couldn't help but turn her head and bite into the side of the woman's neck.

Pei Yin cradled the back of her neck, kneading it gently. Her brow didn't even twitch. "If it hurts, then bite."

Hearing her words, Ling Qingyue slowly released her jaw. Seeing the beads of blood welling up, she realized she'd bitten too hard. Apologetically, she licked the spot.

It seemed that as long as she didn't look at that stone, the pain wouldn't be so unbearable.

Both hands gripping the woman's waist, Ling Qingyue applied a little force and turned them around. She said in a low voice, "I think that stone is what's causing me pain. I can't look at it. You look."

Hearing her speak, Pei Yin lowered her head, kissed Ling Qingyue's hair, and asked softly, "Does it not hurt anymore now?"

"Much better."

"Mm."

Pei Yin rubbed her hair, then finally settled her gaze on the stone. After changing hands several times, the stone was no longer in the gray dragon's claws. The object ten thousand beasts had fought over now hung alone and forlorn in the void. The Yao Kings watched with hungry eyes, but not a single beast dared draw near.

They, too, feared the aura emanating from the stone.

Before long, a pure white yao beast emerged. It lifted its head, fixing its gaze on the stone hovering in midair, then tilted its head back and let out a cry that sounded at once like sobbing and weeping. In the next instant, drops of silver liquid began to well from its forehead, streaming continuously into the stone.

Pei Yin stared intently at this scene. The words slipped from her lips in an unconscious murmur: "Bai Ze's Tear…"

Ling Qingyue jolted. "What? Bai Ze's Tear? Where?"

She turned, wanting to look, but a hand pressed her firmly back into the embrace.

The Bai Ze's Tear suppressed the stone's Demonic Qi. And that pure white yao beast, as if having offered up all its strength, soon collapsed weakly to the ground.

The myriad illusory beasts gradually dispersed, and the surroundings returned to stillness. Pei Yin saw that the Bai Ze's Tear which had surged toward the stone was now floating beside the four demonized disciples, swiftly dissolving and dispelling the Demonic Qi around them.

The dust and sand had yet to settle. No one witnessed this sight.

Pei Yin descended to the ground with Ling Qingyue and used a magical vessel to collect the remaining three drops of Bai Ze's Tear.

Two drops entered the bottle's mouth. But the third drop shot straight toward Ling Qingyue's back, and in an instant, the Bai Ze's Tear merged into her flesh.

The pain vanished. Ling Qingyue met Pei Yin's anxious gaze and said, bewildered, "It suddenly… stopped hurting."

She touched her own chest. Her heart beat steadily. She then touched her neck and face. The warmth was normal—neither hot nor cold.

Delighted, she looked at Pei Yin. "Is it gone?"

"It's gone."

Pei Yin gazed at her smooth, clear cheek, then looked thoughtfully at the porcelain bottle in her hand.

Bai Ze's Tear, it seemed, could suppress the abnormalities of the Demonic Blood within Ling Qingyue's body.

Bai Ze's Tear was rare and precious beyond measure…

Without further deliberation, Pei Yin stored the Bai Ze's Tear safely away, adding a seal for good measure.

Only after the dust and sand had completely settled did the voices of the others begin to rise around them.

"What happened just now?"

"I have no idea. I heard something like a dragon's cry. It made my chest pound and ache."

"Hey, why is the Demonic Qi gone from those Shangtianqiong Sect people?"

"It really is."

"Look! Their corpses!"

Once the Demonic Qi was thoroughly dispelled, the four corpses began to slowly dissolve into fine dust, merging with the wind.

Pei Yin's gaze instantly sharpened. Unconsciously, she tightened her grip on the hand of the person beside her.

A demonized corpse. Once the Demonic Qi is removed, the soul vanishes, and even the bones and flesh dissolve into dust and return to the earth.

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