Ji Yurong shook her head and sat to the side, beginning to brew tea.
A moment later, Li Jiangying felt the ground tremble slightly. It turned out that a few more people were arriving. Li Jiangying secretly opened her eyes a sliver and discovered the newcomers were Cui Yu!
She was followed by several others: Black Flame, who was clutching his bloody abdomen and staggering, and three or four unfamiliar people wearing black cloaks.
Upon arriving, they saluted their respective leaders. Cui Yu was Ji Yurong’s subordinate; Black Flame belonged to Nether Smoke.
Seeing that she miraculously still had one more subordinate alive, Nether Smoke couldn’t help but brighten a little. She asked with concern, “How did you get so injured?”
Black Flame knelt on one knee, clutching his lower abdomen, grimacing in pain. “It’s all because of that Cui woman! She left me behind all alone and ran off first!”
Cui Yu had exchanged a few quiet words with Ji Yurong before sitting aside to rest. Upon hearing this, she laughed and said, “Clearly, you were bewitched by lust and suffered defeat at the hands of someone with a lower cultivation level than yours.”
Hearing this, Nether Smoke flew into a rage and kicked Black Flame over. “You useless waste! Heal your wounds properly right now!”
At that moment, Li Jiangying slowly opened her eyes. She looked at Cui Yu, who was sitting not far away, and frowned slightly. “To think you didn’t die. What a shame.”
Cui Yu smiled at her. “I thought of wanting to come and see someone, so I wasn’t willing to die. Jiangying, don’t worry, I won’t harm you.”
Li Jiangying looked at her speechlessly and gave a huge eye-roll.
“However, I am somewhat curious. When did you discover I was a spy?”
Li Jiangying said lazily, “The moment I ran into you at Flying Swallow Capital, of course.” Back then, she had mentally prepared herself for Cui Yu’s death. But not only did Cui Yu survive, she hadn’t even lost her money pouch. And after meeting Doctor Liu, Li Jiangying became increasingly suspicious of her.
Why had they been ambushed that night at Fangping Town? She initially thought Doctor Liu’s side had leaked the information, but after meeting her again, Li Jiangying realized Doctor Liu wasn’t that kind of person. Moreover, looking back, the night attackers at Fangping Town had been far too thoroughly prepared.
Add to that, after returning to the palace, Li Jiangying had been controlled by the Grey-White Phantom, frequently losing her senses. After she entered closed-door cultivation, however, these incidents gradually disappeared. She didn’t believe the Grey-White Phantom had kindly left; that only meant that outside of seclusion, she had been in contact with something that aided the Grey-White Phantom in controlling her.
After much deliberation, she had confirmed that Cui Yu was the problem.
Li Jiangying suddenly frowned. Her elbow slipped, and her upper body fell to the ground. “Ahh… my arm’s asleep! Come here and help me up.”
Without thinking much, Cui Yu stepped forward, bent over, and took Li Jiangying’s hand to pull her up.
A cold light flashed in Li Jiangying’s eyes. She suddenly exerted force, yanking Cui Yu down to the ground instead. With nimble agility, she rolled on top of Cui Yu. A Short Sword slid from her sleeve, and its icy, sharp blade plunged towards Cui Yu’s throat!
However, the silver chain around her waist yanked hard, pulling her sideways and sending her flying away. The short sword failed to sever Cui Yu’s neck, leaving only a shallow, bloody scratch.
Li Jiangying crashed to the ground. She silently put away the short sword and lay there, motionless.
Ji Yurong was right in front of her. She smiled and said, “Cui Yu can’t be killed. She’s still useful.”
Cui Yu stood up with a bitter smile and dusted the grass and leaves off her clothes. She wasn’t angry. She even humbly explained to Li Jiangying, “I never intended to harm anyone. It’s just that from the very beginning, Yurong assigned me to the Moon Shadow Devil Palace. You see me as a traitor, but if I sided with you all, wouldn’t I then be a traitor to Yurong?”
Li Jiangying lay on the ground, silent for a long while. Suddenly, she flipped over, clutching her lower abdomen with both hands. Her brows were tightly knit in an expression of extreme pain. She cried out, “Oh no! Oh no! My Demon Core is going to shatter! I’m dying, I’m dying!”
Ji Yurong watched her with amusement. “How exactly is it ‘shattering’?”
Li Jiangying: “Nothing left to absorb… it’s drying up and about to crack!”
Ji Yurong nodded in understanding. She unbound the silver chain from Li Jiangying’s waist, then looked at Nether Smoke.
Nether Smoke froze. “What do you mean by that?”
Ji Yurong spoke pleasantly, “My people here are all Righteous Cultivators. She needs Devil Qi.”
Nether Smoke furrowed her brows, her expression shifting uneasily. Finally, she steeled herself. She grabbed Black Flame by the collar and flung him in front of Li Jiangying. “He’s Fire Element too. Just right to feed you.”
Black Flame cried out in terror, “Highness! I am utterly loyal to you! You can’t—!”
“Shut up!” Nether Smoke scoffed. She nimbly hopped forward, raised her broken guqin, and smacked Black Flame on the head with a thunk.
A droning sound drilled into his mind. The terror on Black Flame’s face vanished, replaced by a blank, listless expression. Li Jiangying was completely merciless. She drained his Fire Element Devil Qi completely dry. The Demon Core inside her recovered a tiny bit more.
At the very moment the absorption finished, she reversed her grip on her sword and severed Black Flame’s head. The bloodstained head rolled over to Nether Smoke’s feet. Nether Smoke instinctively jumped back, shrieking, “What have you done! Who gave you permission to kill him?!”
If only his Devil Qi had been temporarily drained, fine, he could have slowly recovered it through meditation and cultivation over time, eventually becoming an Innate Realm warrior again.
But now Li Jiangying had directly killed him!
At this very moment, Nether Smoke had only two people left on her side!
Li Jiangying looked at her sympathetically. “I did say you were naive.”
Nether Smoke: “You—!”
Li Jiangying smiled faintly. She actively picked up the silver chain and wrapped it around her own waist, then sat down beside Ji Yurong, closed her eyes, and rested.
After that, they pressed on without stopping. Li Jiangying noticed that although they would take circuitous routes, they were generally heading north. That was the direction to leave the Devil Domain.
Nether Smoke had wanted to invite them to Nether Smoke Commandery, but Ji Yurong had refused. And now she only had two people. Weighing her options, probably fearing she herself might be drained by Li Jiangying, Nether Smoke finally left behind a sentence: “Don’t forget what you promised me!” and then scurried away with her last surviving subordinate.
Now, only Ji Yurong and her four Righteous Cultivator subordinates remained, along with Li Jiangying and Cui Yu, the two Devil Cultivators.
Another day passed. When they stopped to rest again, they had already reached the edge of the Devil Domain. Although Li Jiangying was restricted by the silver chain and unable to absorb external Devil Qi, she could still sense it. The further they went from the Devil Domain, the sparser the Devil Qi became, and correspondingly, Pure Qi began to increase.
She had been watching coldly for several days and suddenly discovered a little secret: in her free time, Cui Yu always liked to stare at Ji Yurong. That look in her eyes was truly…
However, Ji Yurong seemed completely oblivious and didn’t acknowledge her at all.
After a moment’s thought, Li Jiangying walked up to Ji Yurong. Suddenly, with an “Oh, my!” she threw herself into Ji Yurong’s arms.
Ji Yurong reached out to support her, somewhat puzzled. “What is it now? Is your Demon Core shattering again?” she asked with a laugh.
Li Jiangying looked towards Cui Yu, then hooked one arm around Ji Yurong’s neck and said with theatrical exaggeration, “Not this time. It’s just that the journey is boring and I feel so lonely. Sister Ji is so beautiful; this little sister’s heart flutters uncontrollably.”
Ji Yurong allowed her to hang onto her body, not stopping her, as if indulging a child’s playfulness. She merely smiled and retorted, “Is that so?”
Cui Yu watched these two helplessly. She could tell Li Jiangying was deliberately trying to provoke her. Probably seeing that she couldn’t kill her, she decided to seek revenge in another way.
Cui Yu shook her head, not angry. She explained, “Yurong doesn’t like women.”
“So that’s it!” Li Jiangying revealed a look of sudden enlightenment, then the corner of her mouth curled up in a devilish, wicked grin. She raised her other hand and rubbed across Ji Yurong’s chest in a wide, exaggerated motion. “No matter, as long as I like her, that’s enough. For Yurong’s sake, I’m willing to be on top!”
Ji Yurong: “…”
Cui Yu: “…”
Cui Yu’s expression finally changed. She looked at Li Jiangying, thought for a moment, and said, “In that case, once we leave the Devil Domain, I will write a letter back to the Moon Shadow Devil Palace and inform the Highness of Jiangying’s… words and deeds today.”
Li Jiangying: “…”
She laughed sheepishly and removed her hand from Ji Yurong. “That’s really not necessary! As the saying goes, when will the cycle of revenge ever end…”
Ji Yurong raised her hand and chopped the back of Li Jiangying’s neck with a knife-hand strike, knocking her unconscious. She held the now-asleep woman and sighed helplessly. “Let’s head back first.”
On another road within the Devil Domain, Li Yueying was speeding along, gripping Li Xiangshui.
Li Xiangshui kept her eyes tightly shut. Suddenly, she opened them and said, “It’s no good. I still can’t sense her.” The connection between Li Jiangying and Li Xiangshui had previously become extremely faint, though it occasionally strengthened for a brief moment. Li Xiangshui had been guiding Li Yueying, and they had pursued together.
But now, the connection was simply too weak. Li Xiangshui could no longer pinpoint her location.
“Is that so.” Li Yueying set her down, thought for a moment, and clenched her fists. No matter what, this direction… they wanted to take her out of the Devil Domain. “We’ll head north first.” She had a rough idea now of who might have taken Jiangying.
Li Xiangshui looked at Li Yueying with concern. “You should rest for a while.”
Li Yueying pressed her dry, cracked lips together. Her naturally blood-red eyes were now filled with veins, making her look even more ferocious and terrifying. She gazed towards the distant, unreachable north, as if seeing all the way to her Jiangying.
Li Yueying murmured, “She’s still waiting for me… She must be waiting for me to bring her back…”
Since killing Solitary Mountain and heavily wounding Poison Scorpion and Nether Smoke, this woman had endured a painful and arduous transformation in that very spot. And from the moment she had emerged, walking out from the discarded, ruined flesh and blood, she hadn’t rested for a single day.
Li Xiangshui sighed softly, a sour ache in her heart. “Don’t worry. I can sense that Li Jiangying is fine and safe right now.”
Li Yueying nodded wordlessly, said nothing, and grabbing Li Xiangshui, continued on her way.
