Chapter 217

Luo Yuanming cursed inwardly, chanting a spell silently, and three talismans appeared in his hand.

The Swift Shadow Talisman, the Earth Fire Talisman, and the Bone Corrosion Curse.

Unlike sword cultivators who charge forward with a sword without hesitation, talisman cultivators rely on the coordination and flexible use of talismans, making them much more elusive and unpredictable.

By attaching the Bone Corrosion Curse to the Earth Fire Talisman, anyone burned by it would experience the excruciating pain of thousands of ants gnawing at their hearts. Coupled with the Swift Shadow Talisman, it was incredibly difficult to dodge.

Honestly, he hadn’t expected these two Golden Core disciples to be so troublesome.

Luo Yuanming’s cultivation relied entirely on drugs and soul refining, making it all show and no substance. Despite his Nascent Soul mid-stage cultivation, he found it strenuous to face the two of them working together.

Ning Ning was light and agile, moving so quickly that the Swift Shadow Talisman seemed ineffective against her. With a slash of her sword, a cluster of earth fire disappeared;

As for Pei Ji, he fought like a madman, attacking fiercely and swiftly despite being severely injured.

It was hard to imagine that this red-eyed mad wolf had stood silently in front of the girl moments ago, enduring all attacks for her without a word, despite excruciating pain.

Sword energy clashed with talismanic arts. After several exchanges, both sides were significantly drained of spiritual energy. As talismans flew around Luo Yuanming and surged forward, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

He had also coughed up blood before while listening to storytelling at a teahouse.

Like the long-standing legend in Luan City, to gain something, you must exchange it for something precious.

Soul refining induces a strong dependency, and the longer you practice, the greater your need for souls.

A single soul strand was no longer enough to satisfy him. To stop his body’s rapid deterioration, he needed to quickly gather the souls of forty-nine women and absorb them all at once.

If he had gathered the numbers and set up the grand array earlier, he wouldn’t be in such a miserable state today.

This was Luo Yuanming’s desperate final attack. Ning Ning could not withstand it and was thrown two zhang away by the spiritual energy.

Three people, three pairs of eyes looking at each other, three human figures collapsed on the ground.

Ning Ning endured the pain, looked at Pei Ji, and mouthed, “Are you okay?”

He looked terrible but still nodded.

“You’re out of options, aren’t you?” Luo Yuanming struggled to stand, issuing a dry laugh, “I still have plenty of talismans. Dealing with you two will be easy.”

—“Really?”

The response didn’t come from either of them.

The sudden female voice carried a faint hint of mockery and a casual disdain. Startled, Luo Yuanming looked up and saw a familiar face in the flickering firelight.

It was Luan Niang.

“You—”

His usually confident face showed a brief moment of confusion and bewilderment: “Aren’t you supposed to be asleep in the room?”

He asked earnestly, not expecting her to look down and sneer, regarding him like a bug, each word stabbing deep: “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you had already sensed something was wrong?”

Luo Yuanming’s expression became even more frantic.

Luan Niang’s tone was indifferent, her words like thousand-pound stones dropping on his heart: “The sedative incense, letting them drink Jiuzhou Spring Return in front of you, and then abducting Zheng Weiqi… Don’t you think these actions were too deliberate?”

What did this mean?

She did it all on purpose? Deliberately letting him notice something was wrong, then deliberately… luring him to the well to capture the Xuanxu Sword Sect?

“I knew you’d come to the well once you sensed something was wrong.”

She made a silencing gesture, her long eyes curving seductively like spring water flowing from a crescent moon: “But what you thought was waiting to trap a rabbit was actually my trap to catch you.”

Finally, she appeared.

Ning Ning let out a long breath, looking up to meet her gaze, remembering the note Zheng Weiqi had given them.

It was a message from Luan Niang.

[Luo is suspicious, waiting inside. If you find the location, please do not inform the sect elders. Fight him with all your might; further arrangements will follow.]

When she first saw this note, Ning Ning was puzzled.

Knowing the location of the soul refining place but not informing the elders and asking them to fight Luo Yuanming sounded thankless and laborious.

But after thinking it over, she quickly understood her intention.

If the elders knew, they would surely hand Luo Yuanming over to the Jucidial Court—

But Luan Niang wanted to kill him personally.

She must have a method in mind. As long as Ning Ning and the others depleted most of Luo Yuanming’s strength, she could finish him cleanly.

“Catching me in a trap—”

Luo Yuanming’s face changed drastically upon hearing this. Struggling to step forward, his features twisted and contorted like poorly molded clay: “You can’t do this to me! You bitch! I am a dignified Nascent Soul cultivator. Come on if you dare!”

He spoke while lunging forward as if to tear her apart, but to his utter surprise, his right leg stopped abruptly, immobilized.

At the same time, a dark light surged from under his feet, like unbreakable chains gradually binding him.

Luo Yuanming’s eyes grew hazy, his voice trembling with fear: “This is… the Soul Locking Formation? Impossible! Impossible! How could you know such an evil art, and where did you get so much spiritual energy?”

The Soul Locking Formation.

Using one’s own bones and blood as the medium, transforming into chains filled with intense resentment, the caster suffers greatly, but the cursed one meets a grim end.

Its notable feature is its ability to largely ignore cultivation differences. The more blood and resentment, the stronger the force.

“My own spiritual energy and blood aren’t enough, of course.”

She smiled mockingly: “But don’t forget, in this underground space… there are more than thirty trapped girls.”

Luo Yuanming’s face instantly turned ashen.

Luan Niang quietly watched him, her eyes filled with undisguised disgust and a hint of something else.

She was, in fact, someone without great ambition, just like many other girls in the Hundred Flower Deep, not special at all.

Desperately earning money, desperately selling smiles, only hoping one day to leave the Nuanyu Pavilion—

But what then? She didn’t know.

The day she met Song Xianning, they stood together on a flower boat, talking about the legend of the phoenix bird.

“It can fly freely across the heavens and earth, but it’s fixated on finding a’mate’, how foolish.”

At that time, Song Xianning turned her head, her pupils filled with star-like brilliance: “If I were a phoenix bird, I wouldn’t be fixated on pointless love and affection. I would fly out of this city, to Youzhou, to the capital, to many mountains and rivers, to see what lies beyond Luan City.”

“But how can we ever fly out?”

She had just finished dancing, tired and sleepy, her words lacking strength: “In today’s world, girls without support can’t do anything; anyone can bully them—men have it so good. Why were we born as girls?”

Born in a place of debauchery, she was all too familiar with the plight of fallen women.

It was a life where one could see the end at a glance, struggling in the mire with nothing to gain, revolving around men with no dignity left.

They were powerless, helpless.

“I don’t think so.”

Despite her sickly appearance, Song Xianning smiled brightly: “Though limited by society, girls can be just as good, if not better than men—we can be stronger, smarter, and more strategic. One day we’ll surpass them.”

She stared blankly.

“After all, we can study, practice martial arts, and cultivate. I’ve decided, once my cultivation is successful, I’ll escape and wander the world. I won’t care about any engagement or societal norms.”

Such words were not what a young lady would typically say.

Song Xianning smiled and asked her, who was debased, incompetent, and trampled by everyone:

“Do you want to come with me?”

It was something only they knew.

No one else would know that the current ruthless and seductive city lord’s wife had, at the bottom of her treasured box, a carefully hidden old painting amidst layers of gold and silver jewelry.

The painting depicted two young girls in white sitting by the Longyin River, the water flowing quietly, everything serene.

She had stared at the painting for a long time the first time she saw it.

In the depths of the dark cave, a faint light flickered.