Inside the earthen cavern, corpses piled atop corpses into a mountain, churned and crushed by thick tree roots that wrung eerie sounds from them.
Sticky, blackened blood flowed along a maze of dense channels, weaving together into an eerie array-diagram. The reek of gore surged to the heavens, and in the unseen dark it was as if countless wronged souls wept and wailed.
A kindly-faced old woman hung in the air, her four limbs transformed into coarse roots whose surfaces were cracked and split. They writhed ceaselessly, weaving into a vast net that ran through heaven and earth, stirring all ten directions.
As the Forbidden, sinful spell array took shape, an almost tangible killing energy bred and surged endlessly within the cavern, which was already thick with yin energy.
Thirteen Heaven Realm demons lay dormant here, their eyes blood-red—clearly the rolling waves of murderous energy had drawn out the savagery buried in their bones, and they looked ready to spring into motion. The hundreds upon thousands of female ghosts and sprites could restrain themselves even less, loosing wave after wave of ghostly wails and beastly howls.
"Granny's demonic might is peerless, her magic powers boundless!"
Li Fei, mixed in among the throng of demons, shouted the cry at the top of her lungs, wearing a look of shared glory.
The Tree Demon slowly lowered her head, her pitch-black eyes set deep in sunken sockets, her hoarse, thin voice seeming to rise from hell:
"Children, this Soul-Burial Spirit-Nourishing Grand Array will be complete in just three more shichen… Granny must contend with the heavenly tribulation, so the Demon Suppression Bureau's lackeys I leave to you."
"Hsss…"
"Kill them all!"
"Yihihihihi—"
"Rest easy, Granny—we'll make sure those Demon Suppression Bureau folk come but never leave."
The demons and monsters answered as one, and Li Fei's slogan still rang out loudest of all.
"Very good…"
The Tree Demon closed her eyelids, her body turning into a length of withered wood, her aura drawing inward—only the long roots kept stirring without pause.
Li Fei looked the Forbidden array over from all sides. A river of blood streamed beneath her feet, the stench of gore in the air so thick it stung the nose, the nearly boiling killing energy prickling her skin—growing more refined with every passing second.
Clearly, the Tree Demon had come out of seclusion and stirred up this storm of blood and slaughter for one purpose: to seize heavenly treasures and gather living souls, and lay out this Soul-Burial Spirit-Nourishing Grand Array. Over long ages she had exhausted her potential yet never broken through to a higher realm, and now, with her lifespan nearly run dry, she had no choice but to rely on Forbidden methods, seeking to shatter her shackles and wrest her fate from heaven itself.
But this array was too vicious and cruel, an offense against the harmony of heaven, and before it could take shape it would draw down tribulation and raise a great commotion—so the Tree Demon had been forced to recruit soldiers to guard her while she worked.
Of course, the old thing was cunning to the core, and she hadn't revealed the whole plan until the array was nearly complete, lest word leak out.
—And now, all of it was about to settle into place.
Li Fei sat down cross-legged and quietly adjusted her condition. She knew that before long, a fierce battle would break out.
The long night had come, but tonight was not calm as nights past. Dark clouds churned across the sky, and dull thunder rumbled and cracked, as if a storm were about to fall and wash away the world's sins.
"Something's finally stirring."
The effeminate man in the dark-red python robe set down the rouge in his hand, gathered True Qi into his eyes, and gazed off toward a valley more than ten li away.
There, a spread of black mist billowed, shifting into human faces—men and women, old and young—every one like a vengeful ghost, hideous and terrifying.
"Lord Xu, do we set out now? We've waited so long our bones are near rusting through."
The remaining six of the Demon Suppression Bureau rose to their feet as well. They had lain low here, conserving their strength for a long while, all in preparation for this fight.
"Bring all the gear. We'll go pay that Tree Demon a visit—fetch the thing early, so we don't hold up His Majesty's birthday banquet."
Xu Qianfu flicked his sleeve, his tone soft and effeminate.
The two surviving death-row convicts looked at each other, a dazed vagueness surfacing on their muddled faces. When it finally sank in, they gaped like fish pulled from water, tears streaming down.
Was all of this finally about to end?
The lords of the Demon Suppression Bureau had promised: so long as they came out of it alive, then… then…
Clang—
A cold blade-flash came and went in an instant. Two heads dropped and rolled across the ground, colliding like marbles, the look of survivors frozen on their faces.
A Demon Suppression Bureau member slid his blade back into its sheath, not sparing so much as a glance at the two corpses fallen behind him.
"Let's move. Once we've dealt with the Tree Demon, I'll go take a look at that low hill—see just which demon had the nerve to harm a man of my Demon Suppression Bureau… Maybe we can even recover Wang Wu's corpse."
The seven of the Demon Suppression Bureau pressed forward, torches held high, their whispers vanishing into the sobbing night wind.
…
"Is—is it going to rain…"
Wang Yutong huddled in her room, looking anxious and uneasy.
She wasn't afraid of thunder—only tonight's thunder was especially terrifying, and Li Fei still wasn't home.
Raindrops began to fall, pattering against the windows, quick and loud, and before long a torrential downpour came sluicing from the black clouds, the rolling thunder deafening.
Qiao'er set down her book and gazed silently out the window.
For no reason she could name, her nerves felt unsettled, as if somewhere in the pitch-black night a terrible demon lord were waking from slumber, about to unleash a boundless calamity of slaughter.
Then, all at once, Qiao'er saw a streak of sword-light cut through the wind and rain, charging without hesitation straight toward that darkest of places.
Here it comes!
Li Fei's head snapped up. Blazing battle qi spread through every limb and bone, and her jet-black hair danced though there was no wind.
A sword-gleam flashed at the top of the cavern, and in the next instant the thick rock stratum split apart, forced open into a gap three zhang wide.
"Rawwr!"
The huge bear sprite, its skull flooded with murderous energy, threw back its head and roared, its eyes blood-red.
Amid a surge of seemingly endless demonic energy, that mountainous, massive figure leapt high and slammed with a thunderous crash toward the intruder.
Li Fei, meanwhile, quietly stepped back a few paces and hid behind a female ghost, to keep the blood from splashing on her.
"Loud set of lungs, at least."
In a tone at once unrestrained and worn with the weight of years, a stream of sword-energy poured forth, fleeting as light glancing off water, gone like a passing shadow.
When the sword-light faded, Nie Yunyi alighted lightly within the cavern.
Splat… splat…
Two seconds later, the bear sprite's body, severed clean in two, thudded to the ground, one piece after the other.
Nie Yunyi swept his gaze around. Countless bones reflected in those eyes that seemed to smile yet not smile. Paying Li Fei no mind at all, he lifted his eyes toward the Tree Demon hanging in midair.
"Quite the talent, aren't you? Went and built yourself a whole Soul-Burial Spirit-Nourishing Array."
There was no anger to be heard in Nie Yunyi's tone, yet his eyes narrowed slightly. An overflowing righteous energy lit up the long sword in his hand, like a lamp burning bright and undying through the ages.
One man, one sword, ringed on all sides by demons, he jerked his chin toward the Tree Demon:
"Stop hiding your true body. Come fight me while there are still demons left alive here—otherwise, once I've razed this place, the debt you owe still won't be one you can run from."
"You humans feed on all living things, yet I never saw the chickens, ducks, pigs, and cattle you devour come to collect a debt from you."
The Tree Demon opened her pitch-black eyes, her voice layered upon itself as she spoke: "For hundreds of years I never killed wantonly. Every living soul I take now is for the sake of extending my life—how is it any different from you hunting and eating meat?"
"You make a fair point."
Nie Yunyi did not argue, and asked in earnest, "Any other last words?"
"My children have already gone to Luyuan County."
The Tree Demon smiled kindly, though every word she spoke came out layered and doubled, carrying a magic that could taint the mind: "They have gone hungry too long, and crave blood and flesh. If Hero Nie hurries over, perhaps he can prevent some needless slaughter."
"This trick again. I really am…"
Nie Yunyi cursed.
"Five Heaven Realm highnesses—it won't take them long to break Luyuan County, will it? Hero Nie, do you not care whether those common folk live or die?"
the female ghost Xiao Lian reminded him with a giggling snicker.
Clang!
The sword-gleam burst open, cutting through the dense killing energy, stabbing swift as wind and lightning toward the Tree Demon suspended in midair.
As the matchless, ferocious sword-intent ran riot, it tore whole strings of demons into a sky full of blood-mist, and at last pierced clean through the old woman above.
"Aahh—" Amid Xiao Lian's shrill scream, the old woman burst apart in an instant, splinters of wood shooting off in every direction—yet that abyssal demonic energy, heavy with sin, still lingered within the cavern, refusing to disperse.
"Hero Nie's sword is truly sharp."
The Tree Demon's aged voice began to echo once more: "But I have lived so very long, and I do have a few tricks left for saving my own skin… Hero Nie, do you truly mean to turn this place upside down and grind it out with me little by little?"
"A pity."
His single strike had not fully done the job, and Nie Yunyi sighed with regret.
This was not the first time he'd faced such a choice, but no matter how many times, his answer would never change.
Nie Yunyi did not stay to tangle with her further. As his True Qi surged, man and sword-gleam became one, tearing through the air and away.
"Scared me half to death…"
Watching that terrifying figure leave, Xiao Lian, her lovely face drained of color, was still patting her chest, looking thoroughly shaken.
That earlier strike, like a long rainbow piercing the sun—wherever it passed, not one demon kept its soul intact, and Xiao Lian herself had come within a hair of being caught in it and killed.
That fellow really is a good person…
In the corner, Li Fei quietly released the two poor wretches she had grabbed on a whim to shield herself, looking up at the great gap overhead, saying nothing.
She could be certain now: that Nie Yunyi's combat power absolutely rose above the level of Sequence 6! Sequence 5 at the very least! If it truly came to a fight, even with every demon here throwing themselves at him shoulder to shoulder, plus the home-field advantage, they'd most likely still be done for.
Unfortunately, Nie Yunyi was a good man, and dealing with a good man was all too easy for a villain—because the former had so many things to protect.
All that "don't involve the innocent, don't visit disaster upon a man's family"—pure nonsense. Play by the rules like that and what the hell kind of villain are you even?
And sure enough, for all his matchless combat power, when the demons held a whole city's populace hostage, Nie Yunyi—for the sake of the common folk of Luyuan County—had no choice but to rush back to their aid.
"Rawwr—"
The two demon-creatures Li Fei had yanked without warning turned their heads with vicious, fiendish faces, their bloodthirsty eyes glaring hard at her as they loosed furious snarls.
Li Fei watched them without a flicker of expression, her gaze deeper than any abyss, as if it gathered within it all the evils of the world.
After a few seconds of locked eyes, the monsters' arrogance withered away. They meekly put away their savage, brutal manner and shrank back, trembling.
—Here it comes.
Li Fei sensed it. A pure, mighty demonic power surged within her body.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
Suddenly another peal of thunder cracked open, as if a god were roaring in the heavens. Heavy black clouds blotted out the sky, seeming about to press down and crush the world beneath.
Great sheets of rainwater poured down through the opening, mixing with the blood in the cavern and bubbling up in murky patches.
A vast wash of lightning lit up heaven and earth, illuminating Li Fei's face—and illuminating, too, seven human figures that had appeared beside the gap at some unnoticed moment.
"Quite a lot of demons here—no wonder I caught a whiff of that foul stench from so far off."
In that soft, effeminate tone, the pale, beardless man in the dark-red python robe pressed his sleeve over his nose and mouth and drifted down through the gap: "Still, since you're all here already, none of you should leave."
Clang, clang, clang…
After the Demon Suppression Bureau members leapt into the cavern one after another, one of them swung his arm hard, hurling out the chain slung over his shoulder. Amid a grinding screech of metal on stone, the metallic chain stretched out toward all eight directions at astonishing speed, wrapping the entire vast cavern within it.
Clearly the Demon Suppression Bureau meant to catch every demon in the place in one sweep—which happened to align perfectly with Li Fei's own thinking.
"Hsss—big words."
The serpent demon, a human face growing from its belly and its tail broken off at the end, flicked its forked tongue and answered in a sinister, chilling voice.
"So hungry…"
A tall skeletal frame spoke in human words, the ghost-fire burning in its sockets flaring with eerie light.
Facing the Demon Suppression Bureau's forces, the demons hurled taunts one after another. But with the cautionary example of the bear sprite, cut down in a single exchange moments ago, for all their loud clamoring, not one of them would take the lead.
"flamma coniuncta"
"accelerate"
"Draco Power"
Taking advantage of the standoff between the two sides, Li Fei used the [Silence Earring] to layer one buff after another onto herself. As Dragon's Strength—the crowning masterpiece of buff-type spells—took hold, a power that utterly transcended the low-Sequence tiers erupted within her like a volcano. The hard rock stratum cracked beneath her feet, deep fissures spreading out in jagged, irregular lines.
"Oh? That demoness is quite the beauty—even I feel a stir of tenderness looking at her."
Xu Qianfu's gaze suddenly fell on Li Fei, a flicker of envy crossing his eyes: "Take her captive. Bring her back and present her to His Majesty along with the rest."
"Yes, sir!"
At once a Demon Suppression Bureau hand took the order. Paying no heed to the demons eyeing him hungrily, he closed the distance to Li Fei in a few bounds, a keen light bursting from his eyes as he barked:
"Demoness—will you not surrender yourself and be bound?"
His answer was a small, gleaming white fist, its knuckles smooth and lustrous as jade, crystalline and clear.
Yet as that fist struck out, it whipped up gale after gale. Amid the surge of deep-red battle qi, a powerful, frenzied aura swept forth like raging waves and crashing surf, setting the ground trembling without pause.
"This is bad!"
The pressure, like a landslide and a tidal wave, made the Demon Suppression Bureau member's face change abruptly. With a flip of his wrist he drew out a coil of glittering golden rope. The rope blazed with dazzling brilliance as it flew toward Li Fei's neck.
The Demon Suppression Bureau's fearsome reputation was well-earned. Though they committed no fewer sins than the demons themselves, their power to intimidate demons was not to be underestimated—especially the core members. They possessed not only exquisite cultivation bases but also weapons and magic tools forged by the imperial court with the strength of the whole nation. Even against demons of the same realm, handling three or five of them was no trouble at all.
Take, for instance, the long saber Li Fei had seized from Wang Wu: it bore a "+50% damage against demons" bonus. Against humans it counted merely as fine craftsmanship, but in a fight against demons it was hardly inferior to Full Moon-grade equipment.
And the rope now flung at her likewise held astonishing power against demons. Even a Heaven Realm demon, once bound by this rope, would have its demonic power sealed and become fish on the chopping block, helpless before the knife.
A pity it was useless against Li Fei.
Li Fei's fist drove out like a war-chariot rolling across the sky, loosing a dull, tremendous roar. An inconceivable force blasted a hole clean through the man's chest, front to back, with the greatest of ease. The Heaven Realm expert was sent flying backward, blood scattering through the air.
The rope darting for her neck like a venomous snake, too, she caught in one hand—only the thing seemed alive, writhing endlessly to break free.
"Behave!"
Li Fei slammed the rope hard against the ground, then stamped a foot down and ground it back and forth. As crack after crack surfaced across the rock, the rope soon went still and lifeless.
In truth, had it not been for the need to keep the water at just the right temperature, she could easily have torn the rope to shreds.
[You have killed Qian Bin. Gained 2,014 experience.]
"Impossible! Even the Demon-Binding Rope couldn't hold her!"
Their comrade slain in a single exchange, the remaining six of the Demon Suppression Bureau paled in horror.
"The Demon Suppression Bureau? Nothing more than this."
Li Fei sneered, stamping a deep crater into the ground. Her figure flashed in a burst of speed, and with a howling rush of wind she charged straight at the Demon Suppression Bureau members without a hint of hesitation.
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