A’Luo glared at Yun Xiao and stated seriously, “It is the mission of us cultivators to punish the wicked and eliminate the evil.”
Before Yun Xiao could respond, A’Luo stared intently into the distance, her brows tightly furrowed. “The malevolent energy is clearly mixed with a bloody mist. A considerable number of people must have been harmed by the evil cultivators.”
With that, she changed direction and flew straight towards the source of the evil energy.
Knowing the seriousness of the matter, Yun Xiao did not dare to be careless and carefully observed their surroundings.
Fearing detection by the evil cultivators, A’Luo quickly put away her flying artifact. She and Yun Xiao used their lightness techniques to approach the area.
The sun had not yet set, but the streets were completely deserted, and the doors of the houses on both sides were tightly shut.
Yun Xiao’s eyebrows knitted together as she said in a low voice, “Something is wrong. Be careful.”
A’Luo nodded, agreeing with Yun Xiao’s assessment.
The closer they got to the source of the evil energy, the more uneasy Yun Xiao felt.
A cultivator must not ignore any feeling conveyed by their body. She had reason to believe this was a warning from her own physique.
Should she retreat?
No. If she retreated every time she sensed danger, how far could she possibly walk on the path of cultivation?
My destiny is controlled by me, not by heaven. She absolutely must not yield to hardship and danger.
The moment this thought emerged, her previous impulse to retreat vanished, replaced by resolve.
Wait. A few days ago, her cultivation had consecutively broken through to the late-stage Nascent Soul. Even in the Tianyuan Realm, with her current cultivation, she could hold her own even against a Soul Transformation expert. So why would she be shaken by danger just now?
Yun Xiao quickly looked at A’Luo. A’Luo had stopped at some point, her eyebrows tightly furrowed, clearly having seen something.
The saying, ‘The time to use a book is when you regret not having read enough,’ was fitting for the present moment. Before encountering the male lead, the original owner had been cultivating with her mother in a secret realm and had never heard her mother mention anything about evil cultivators.
Thus, she didn’t know what A’Luo was currently facing, nor how she could help her.
Evil energy fears lightning. Should she just directly launch a few bolts of lightning to dissipate that foul-smelling evil energy?
No, what if her recklessness ended up harming A’Luo? That would be terrible.
Thinking until her mind was exhausted, Yun Xiao couldn’t come up with a solution. She anxiously stood guard around A’Luo.
Trapped in a mesmerizing illusion, A’Luo felt helpless and lost, facing the contempt and accusations of her fellow disciples.
She wanted to say that she had only recently learned of her Nine-Tailed Fox identity, but her fellow disciples gave her no chance to speak.
The people from the Enforcement Hall took her to the Main Sect Hall. The Peak Master of the Artifact Peak slammed his hand on the table and stood up, demanding, “What is your intention for painstakingly concealing your identity and entering my Qingyun Sect?”
Just as A’Luo was about to defend herself, the Artifact Peak Master pointed a finger at her Master, Yuhui Daoist, and questioned, “She was brought back by you. What do you have to say?”
Yuhui Daoist did not even look at A’Luo, saying with disgust, “At that time, there was nothing unusual in her body. You don’t need to say more. I will personally clean up my own sect.”
With that, Yuhui Daoist snatched A’Luo and returned to the Dharma Peak, taking out the disciplinary whip and severely lashing A’Luo’s body.
In just a few breaths, A’Luo’s body was covered in fresh blood.
The pain on her body was nothing compared to the pain in her heart, simply because Yuhui Daoist’s words were filled with hatred.
“My reputation has been ruined by a detestable demon cultivator like you.”
A’Luo opened her mouth to argue, but gushing fresh blood flowed out.
She didn’t know why she had been abandoned by her own people. She only knew that if her Master hadn’t brought her back to the Qingyun Sect, she would have long ago died in some corner.
She could endure the scorn and rejection of her fellow disciples and the punishment of the sect, but she absolutely could not accept her Master’s rejection.
Abandoned by your own people, rejected by your Master. What face do you have left to continue living in this world?
Yes, she had no face to continue living. As long as she lived, she would be a stain on her Master’s reputation.
She slowly closed her eyes, allowing the darkness to engulf her.
“A’Luo, A’Luo, wake up!”
“A’Luo, we haven’t gathered all the medicinal herbs for the Suppressing Marsh Pill yet! You promised Wanqing you would go see her when you returned to the sect, and you haven’t done that either.”
“Everything you see is fake! If you give up now, won’t you let those evil cultivators succeed?”
“Master, if your Master knew you were trapped in an evil cultivator’s illusion and couldn’t get out, he would definitely be furious and curse, saying that his years of accumulated reputation had been ruined by you.”
No, her Master’s reputation must not be damaged because of her.
A’Luo opened her eyes, forcing herself to climb up from the ground. The world before her was hazy; there was no Master, and she had no injuries on her body.
She took out the sword from her storage ring, poured all her qi into it, and slashed forward.
The mist dispersed, and the illusion shattered.
Yun Xiao had been guarding A’Luo all along, not daring to leave for a moment.
It took her a while to figure out the key point: her previous inexplicable sense of panic and the urge to retreat was a trick played by the evil cultivator.
A’Luo’s prolonged unconsciousness meant she had fallen into the evil cultivator’s illusion.
Her body was here, so only her divine sense could enter the illusion.
Divine sense is both powerful and vulnerable. To break free from an illusion, one must either find a method to break it or perceive the illusion as false and wake up on their own.
She hadn’t sensed any surrounding arrays, which left only two possibilities: either the evil cultivator’s cultivation was higher than hers, or the evil cultivator possessed a high-level spirit beast specializing in illusions.
Half an hour ago, Yun Xiao noticed A’Luo’s aura growing weaker and became extremely frantic.
In the end, she could only try a desperate measure, continuously talking into A’Luo’s ear.
She had already made up her mind: if anything happened to A’Luo, she would certainly drag out all the evil cultivators here and smash them into ashes.
Seeing A’Luo open her eyes, Yun Xiao rushed forward in surprise and excitement, saying, “This is great! A’Luo, you’ve finally woken up!”
She inspected A’Luo from head to toe. Once she confirmed A’Luo was fine, the burden on her heart was finally lifted.
Thinking of her earlier anxiety, anger welled up within her. She ground her teeth and hissed, “I’m going right now to catch that evil cultivator and beat him soundly!”
A’Luo raised her hand, grabbed Yun Xiao, and shook her head, saying, “He has discovered us. Right now, we are exposed, and he is hidden. We must devise a comprehensive plan.”
Yun Xiao rolled her eyes and transmitted her voice: “How about this? I’ll lead the charge and use lightning to destroy their lair. You’ll be responsible for guarding the perimeter and preventing any stragglers from escaping.”
Unable to think of any other immediate solution, A’Luo nodded in agreement.
After taking a few steps, Yun Xiao felt uneasy. She turned back and cautioned, “Be careful. Call me if anything happens.”
Although this was not the first time Yun Xiao had shown concern for her, a warmth still rose in A’Luo’s heart.
If Yun Xiao hadn’t constantly muttered in her ear just now, she feared she would have already ended her life within the illusion.
Through this incident, she realized she truly harbored this inner demon.
In recent years, the human and demon realms have mostly kept out of each other’s way. The four major sects also accept demon cultivator disciples. Even if the sect discovered her identity as a demon cultivator, they would not treat her as they did in the illusion.
The sect might not pursue her too much, but her Master might. Her Master, who had become increasingly obsessed over the years, might be suspicious, or even look upon her with disgust, just as in the illusion.
She promptly stopped her thoughts. A’Luo lightly nodded. “You should also be very careful.”
Yun Xiao’s peach blossom eyes lit up—A’Luo was showing concern for her!
A faint smile unconsciously curled up her lips. She strode with light, quick steps towards the Chu Manor, which was enveloped in evil energy.
The blackened evil qi was foul-smelling, and the blood qi mixed within it was nauseating. Not wanting her nose to suffer, Yun Xiao simply sealed off her sense of smell.
She found the lotus pond that was continuously emitting evil qi. Without any hesitation, she consecutively launched several bolts of lightning, as thick as bowls, towards the lotus pond.
Such a large disturbance quickly drew out over a dozen black-robed evil cultivators.
Yun Xiao roughly checked; the highest cultivation among them was only Golden Core stage.
Catching sight of the pond full of water, she gave a sinister smile and cast a spell to throw everyone into the water. Before the evil cultivators could react, she hurled a few more bolts of lightning into the lotus pond.
Water conducts electricity. The Golden Core stage evil cultivators had just stood up when their entire bodies crackled with electricity.
The lower-cultivation evil cultivators couldn’t withstand such powerful electricity. In no time, they were electrocuted and collapsed.
After dealing with these dozen or so evil cultivators, Yun Xiao flew above the lotus pond for a look. Evil qi was still surging out from the bottom of the pond.
What exactly was underneath? Had these evil cultivators killed everyone in the entire city?
Detestable!
She aimed a bolt of lightning, thicker than a water bucket, at the place where the evil qi was constantly spewing out.
This time, she used eighty percent of her strength.
The already battered lotus pond completely collapsed, exposing the blood-filled pool beneath to Yun Xiao’s eyes.
She couldn’t imagine how much blood it would take to fill a pool three feet across and wide, nor how many people’s blood was in that pool. She only knew that these evil cultivators treated human lives as worthless grass.
Before transmigrating, she was just an ordinary person with a slightly strong physique. She naturally knew how helpless and desperate one feels when faced with an irresistible force.
Rage filled her chest. She was going to kill those evil cultivators—not a single one would be spared.
Flying above the Zhao Manor, she used the Rain Summoning Art with her left hand and summoned lightning with her right. Her left and right hands worked seamlessly, shocking out all the hidden evil cultivators.
She killed every one that ran out, but she still couldn’t find the evil cultivator who possessed such heaven-defying means.
She challenged him loudly: “You cowering turtle, only daring to hide in the dark! Aren’t you quite capable? Come out! Fight me! I’m going to beat the living daylights out of you and blow you up into flowers with my lightning!”
A’Luo killed the evil cultivator trying to escape and came to Yun Xiao’s side. Glancing at the blood pool beneath, murderous intent instantly arose within her.
There was no movement. Yun Xiao continued to provoke, “What, are you scared? You waste of a person who only knows how to use malicious tricks! You deserve to live forever in a dark ditch where the sun doesn’t shine, keeping company with the snakes and rats underground!”
Bang! A wrinkled-faced evil cultivator burst forth from underground, glaring at Yun Xiao. “This old man shall make you pay for your reckless words today!”
Yun Xiao sensed that the evil cultivator’s cultivation was higher than hers. She signaled with her eyes for A’Luo to attack from front and back.
A’Luo understood. She took the initiative to engage the evil cultivator, leading him outside the city.
How could Yun Xiao let A’Luo fight alone? She immediately joined the battle, throwing lightning bolts at the evil cultivator’s head whenever she found an opportunity.
When she saw A’Luo at a disadvantage, she would smash lightning at the evil cultivator’s lower body.
The evil cultivator was so enraged he jumped up and down, summoning his contracted phantasmal beast.
Seeing the Soul Transformation-stage phantasmal beast standing beside the evil cultivator, Yun Xiao immediately realized how she and A’Luo had been tricked earlier.
Yun Xiao seized the initiative and consecutively struck the phantasmal beast with lightning bolts.
Having been sneak-attacked, the phantasmal beast, which was not adept at combat, was injured by the lightning. It glared ferociously at Yun Xiao, determined to make her die in its illusion.
Staring at the completely unfamiliar environment before her, Yun Xiao didn’t bother to think. She summoned lightning and cleaved the sky.
The illusion shattered, and the phantasmal beast spat out a mouthful of clotted blood and fainted.
His contracted beast had been severely injured by Yun Xiao just like that. The evil cultivator attacked Yun Xiao in a fit of rage.
Yun Xiao’s fighting spirit was ignited. She found that her combat techniques were becoming increasingly proficient, and her eyes were filled with excitement. She entirely treated the evil cultivator as her sparring partner.
The evil cultivator’s cultivation was higher than Yun Xiao’s, but her lightning was a weapon that countered evil cultivators. After more than a hundred exchanges, the evil cultivator not only failed to gain any advantage but was also seriously injured.
A’Luo saw that Yun Xiao was handling the situation with ease and didn’t step in to cause a distraction. Instead, she returned to the Zhao Manor.
Her intuition told her that the Soul Transformation-stage evil cultivator personally stationed here must have an ulterior motive.