“You’ll never find out where they are! Hahahahaha!” The demon laughed darkly.
Song Yingyue pushed the tip of her sword another inch closer and said sharply:
“If you still refuse to speak, I’ll destroy you completely.”
“Go ahead and kill me! If I die, those girls won’t survive either! Hahahaha!”
The creature’s eerie voice bordered on madness.
“Yingyue.” Xie Zhili glanced toward Song Yingyue and shook his head slightly.
She immediately understood.
Returning her sword to its sheath, she stepped back.
Xie Zhili moved forward, his gaze sharp.
“Do you truly think we can’t find those girls?”
“Hahahaha! Then go look for them!” the demon cackled viciously. “But before you do, they’ll probably already be dried corpses.”
Xie Zhili continued calmly:
“If I’m not mistaken… you’ve been using those girls’ yin essence to prolong someone’s life.”
The instant those words fell, the demon’s arrogant demeanor vanished.
It stared at the two silently.
Even Song Yingyue’s usually gentle face filled with anger.
“You truly are selfish to the extreme!”
The demon roared furiously:
“So what?! Abandoned in the mountains, only she alone worshipped me! How could I—”
Before it could finish, Song Yingyue interrupted coldly:
“And weren’t those girls your worshippers too?”
“That’s different!” the demon snapped back. “What they worshipped were their own desires—not me! If it’s for her sake, what’s wrong with sacrificing a few insignificant people?!”
While the argument continued, none of them noticed a silver streak flash behind them.
Yu Qingci descended from the sky riding his sword with Tong Huanyou.
The moment Tong Huanyou was set down, her stomach churned violently as though the world had flipped upside down.
She was just about to run aside and throw up—
When Yu Qingci casually placed a hand on her shoulder, blocking her path.
Tong Huanyou forced herself to endure the nausea and urgently pleaded:
“Big brother, I really feel awful. Can’t you let me puke first?!”
Yu Qingci replied indifferently:
“I was severely injured not long ago. If you suddenly start vomiting loudly now, the commotion will attract attention.”
Tong Huanyou closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and trembled with irritation.
“Aren’t you already healed?!”
“But Elder Sister doesn’t know that.”
A faint smile curved at Yu Qingci’s lips, his tone carrying subtle threat.
Tong Huanyou bit her lip hard before forcing out a stiff smile.
“…Fine.”
Grinding her teeth, she wrapped an arm around Yu Qingci’s waist and allowed him to lean heavily against her.
Then she raised her voice toward the others ahead.
“Big Sister Song! Big Brother Xie!”
Song Yingyue and Xie Zhili immediately turned around.
There stood Tong Huanyou supporting Yu Qingci beside a broken willow tree in the distance.
In the next instant, Yu Qingci’s complexion abruptly turned pale as paper. His body weakened dramatically, looking as though a gust of wind could topple him.
Tong Huanyou silently rolled her eyes.
No Oscar ceremony is complete without you.
“You two came here?” Song Yingyue hurried forward and nervously supported Yu Qingci.
Tong Huanyou pressed her lips tightly together. The second Yu Qingci released her, she immediately dashed toward a broken tree nearby.
Before she could even steady herself, she bent over, one hand clutching her stomach while the other braced against the tree trunk, and vomited violently.
Seriously!
She would never envy how cool sword flight looked in dramas ever again!
Seeing this, Xie Zhili asked worriedly:
“Miss Tong, are you alright?”
Finally finishing, Tong Huanyou turned around and waved weakly, about to say she was fine—
When she suddenly noticed the suppressed demon secretly manipulating the broken willow branches nearby, launching them straight toward the completely unaware Xie Zhili.
No!
The male and female leads absolutely cannot die here!!!
Without thinking, Tong Huanyou instinctively threw herself forward and shielded Xie Zhili.
Her entire body trembled as she squeezed her eyes shut, already mentally prepared for another death save reload.
But in the next instant—
Song Yingyue swiftly formed a yellow talisman with one hand and flung it out like lightning.
The broken willow branches were instantly burned into ashes.
“Are you alright?!” Song Yingyue asked anxiously.
“Whew… that was close.”
Tong Huanyou let out a huge sigh of relief and looked at Song Yingyue gratefully.
“Big Sister Song! Thank goodness for you!”
Big sister heroine, you are literally my angel! An angel!!
Xie Zhili didn’t even have time to thank them before immediately rushing back to reinforce the suppression formation.
Meanwhile, Yu Qingci suddenly spoke faintly:
“Elder Sister.”
Song Yingyue turned toward him gently.
“What is it?”
Yu Qingci coughed weakly several times before saying:
“The person that thing wanted to prolong the life of… has already died.”
Watching his act, Tong Huanyou silently rolled her eyes again.
What a drama king.
And here I am, forced to cooperate with your performance by pretending not to notice~~
Unexpectedly, however, those words reached the demon’s ears.
“What did you say?!”
It roared in disbelief.
“That’s impossible! She was clearly still alive!”
Tong Huanyou exchanged a glance with Song Yingyue as the two slowly approached the formation.
Tong Huanyou sighed softly.
“You probably can’t sense her aura anymore, can you?”
The demon’s smoke-covered body suddenly stiffened, as though desperately trying to perceive something.
“N-no… impossible…” it muttered blankly.
Then suddenly, as though remembering something, its eyes turned utterly frenzied and despairing.
“It was you! YOU DID THIS!!”
The thick smoke around its body instantly began spreading violently outward.
“Not good. It’s going berserk.”
Xie Zhili frowned deeply and rapidly changed hand seals. Beneath his feet, a nine-petaled lotus formation bloomed.
Golden light erupted everywhere, resonating with the bronze Bagua mirror suspended overhead.
“Miss Tong, I’ll have to trouble you to watch over A-Ci again.”
Song Yingyue suddenly turned toward Tong Huanyou.
“Huh? O-oh, okay.”
Tong Huanyou instinctively caught the “weak” Yu Qingci and nodded blankly.
Then she watched Song Yingyue step forward to stand beside Xie Zhili.
Nine swords materialized around her and pierced into the corners of the lotus formation.
Wild winds rose instantly, whipping everyone’s robes through the air.
“What do you mean ‘okay’?”
Yu Qingci suddenly muttered in a low voice only the two of them could hear.
Since half his body weight rested against Tong Huanyou, she had to spread her stance awkwardly just to support him.
Pouting, she muttered back:
“Fine then, not okay. But seriously, why aren’t you worried about Big Sister Song?”
The heroine is literally fighting demons right now.
Shouldn’t you be rushing over to play protective knight instead of pretending to be weak?!
Yu Qingci sneered and glanced at her with open disdain.
Then when his gaze landed on Song Yingyue’s back, his expression softened slightly.
“You think my elder sister is as weak and fragile as you are?”
The moment he finished speaking, the demon’s surging resentment was steadily suppressed under the combined power of the two cultivators.
Finally losing complete emotional control, the demon screamed madly:
“You killed her, so I’ll make all those people you worked so hard to find accompany her in death!”
At that moment, Xie Zhili suddenly shouted:
“Do you realize that using so much yin essence to prolong her life would prevent her from ever reincarnating?!”
The demon froze.
For a long while, it stared blankly ahead.
Then in disbelief, it shouted:
“That’s impossible—you’re lying to me!”
Dark clouds rapidly gathered across the sky.
Thunder rumbled.
Rain seemed imminent.