Chapter 60

“Mumu!”

Beneath the city walls, a pair of lifeless hands suddenly lunged toward Bai Shuo’s neck.

Bai Shuo let out a piercing scream and shut her eyes in terror.

Before the hands could touch her neck, they were severed mid-air.

Bai Shuo was flung backward, stumbling a few steps until she landed near Big Iron Flower.

Big Iron Flower stood behind her, but the one who saved her… Bai Shuo turned her head and saw a young man holding a silver chain, blocking the creature that had just attacked her.

“Are you out of your mind?! You injured your spiritual veins just to lift the restriction and save her?!”

Big Iron Flower’s face turned dark as she shouted in frustration.

Bai Shuo turned to look.

The boy’s lips were tinged with blood—a startling sight.

“Mumu…” Bai Shuo’s heart trembled.

Before she could speak, Big Iron Flower’s surprised voice rang out.

“What is that thing?”

At the same time, deep within the stone hall under the palace of the Yi King, the Yi King held a stone sword suspended above a blood pool.

The sword emanated a powerful black energy, which suddenly transformed into countless claws that attacked the immortal and demon disciples in the hall.

The claws turned into an evil force, burrowing into the disciples’ foreheads.

Agonized wails echoed through the stone hall as streams of spiritual energy were drawn from their spiritual cores and flowed continuously into the blood pool.

Beneath the city walls, Bai Shuo’s breath hitched as she finally got a clear look at the creature that had attacked her.

It appeared human but bled from its orifices, its face deathly pale, eyes blood-red.

Bulging veins burst under its skin, and its severed fingertips exuded a black, ominous aura.

It was a Yi overflowing with evil spirit.

The creature, with its severed arms raised, hunched over and growled fearfully at Fan Yue.

“A Yi?”

Bai Shuo froze.

The creature roared and lunged at Fan Yue again, arms outstretched.

“Mumu, watch out!” Bai Shuo cried out in alarm.

Fan Yue’s silver chain sliced downward.

“Wait!”

Hua Hong’s expression shifted as she tried to stop him, but the creature’s legs were already severed at the knees by Fan Yue.

It collapsed with a heavy thud.

Hua Hong quickly propped up the fallen creature and checked its wrist.

Suddenly, the creature twisted its head unnaturally, its gaping mouth snapping toward Hua Hong.

The foul stench of evil spirit assaulted her senses.

Hua Hong’s pupils shrank as she leapt back.

The silver chain slashed down again, severing the creature’s head.

Even in death, its mouth continued to snap madly, as if still seeking to bite.

Hua Hong, shocked by the scene, turned pale.

“Mumu!”

Bai Shuo, unable to move, called softly to her little disciple.

For some reason, though she usually scolded Fan Yue often, today she felt unusually meek.

The young man didn’t turn.

Instead, a wave of spiritual energy surged from his palm and broke the restriction on Bai Shuo.

She felt a lightness envelop her and quickly ran to stand behind her disciple.

“Mumu.”

Bai Shuo called again, but Fan Yue ignored her.

Feeling awkward, Bai Shuo didn’t dare speak further.

She had promised never to abandon her disciple, but if she were heading to her death, she couldn’t risk his life too.

After all, her disciple was too precious!

Nearby, Hua Hong knelt to inspect the corpse.

Fan Yue coldly stopped her.

“Don’t touch it. The evil spirit on its body can devour souls.”

Hua Hong froze and quickly withdrew her hand.

Despite Fan Yue’s amnesia, his words were never wrong.

“evil spirit that can devour souls? Such a thing exists?”

Bai Shuo, curious, took a few steps forward but was pulled back by her disciple.

Overjoyed, she turned to speak, only for Fan Yue to give her a wooden-faced glare.

Bai Shuo’s expression darkened.

She turned to Hua Hong instead.

“Big Iron Flower, how could a Yi become tainted with evil spirit?”

Hua Hong shook her head, about to speak, when a low, bestial growl suddenly echoed from all directions, omnipresent and eerie.

“What’s that sound?”

Bai Shuo looked around but could see nothing in the darkness.

Yet the stench of decay thickened.

Frowning, Fan Yue gathered spiritual energy in his palm and unleashed it into the air, illuminating their surroundings.

The street became bright as day.

Bai Shuo looked up and felt a chill run down her spine.

The streets of the Yi City were crowded with Yi cloaked in evil spirit—hundreds, if not thousands.

The creatures, blank-faced, turned toward the trio as the light shone.

In an instant, they roared and charged.

“Mother!”

Bai Shuo screamed, but before she could react, Fan Yue and Hua Hong simultaneously unleashed spiritual energy, striking down the incoming creatures.

However, just like before, the creatures, despite their mangled bodies, crawled back up and continued their assault.

“Run!”

Hua Hong commanded coldly.

Her staff swept through the horde, creating a brief opening.

Fan Yue seized Bai Shuo by the waist and leapt into the air.

Mid-flight, Bai Shuo felt a hand grab her leg.

She looked down and saw a Yi leaping toward her, trying to drag her down.

“Ah! Mumu!”

A flash of silver spiritual energy severed the hand, and Bai Shuo clung to her disciple like an octopus.

More creatures leapt after them, roaring, while Hua Hong remained trapped on the street below.

Suspended mid-air, Fan Yue, blood-stained silver chain in hand, resembled a war god.

Yet the horde seemed endless, with more creatures swarming from the houses below.

Even Fan Yue’s expression darkened at the sight of the relentless onslaught.

“Mumu, head there!”

Bai Shuo suddenly pointed to the city wall.

The creatures wreaked havoc across the city, yet not a single one dared approach the wall.

Fan Yue, with a burst of spiritual energy, leapt toward the wall, landing safely with Bai Shuo.

The maddened creatures snarled and lunged but stopped abruptly at the foot of the wall, unwilling to advance further.

“Why won’t they approach the wall?” Bai Shuo asked, astonished.

“The walls of the Yi City are formed from a dragon scale of Mu Guang. They bear the aura of a dragon,” Hua Hong explained as she landed beside them, bloodied.

A golden dragon could purge evil spirits from all three realms.

No wonder creatures didn’t dare get close.

“What happened to these Yi?” Bai Shuo asked Hua Hong.

Hua Hong, pale-faced, shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

“They’ve been corrupted by evil spirits, their souls hollowed out,” Fan Yue said, retracting his silver chain and looking toward the city.

“I fear every Yi in the city has been affected.”

“Could it be the Yi King?” Bai Shuo blurted.

“That God-Creating Formation of his—could it require the souls of Yi?”

“Impossible!” Hua Hong exclaimed.

“Hua Lin is the Yi King. He would never sacrifice the entire Yi race!”

A heavy silence fell over the wall.

If it wasn’t the Yi King, who could have turned an entire city into this in a single night?

As the trio pondered, the horde below suddenly stirred, racing toward a specific spot.

“Look!” Bai Shuo pointed.

A woman clutching a child was running frantically through the streets, pursued by the horde.

“It’s Auntie Xiaoqi, the one we saved yesterday! Mumu, save her!”

Before Bai Shuo could finish, Hua Hong had already leapt from the wall, slicing through the horde.

She grabbed the woman and her child, leaping back onto the wall in a few swift movements.

The woman, still shaken, brightened upon seeing the trio.

Bai Shuo stepped forward to ask her something, but Fan Yue suddenly pulled her back.

“Wait!”

Before he could finish, the child in the woman’s arms broke free, snarling as it lunged at Bai Shuo.

Fan Yue’s eyes grew cold as he raised his silver chain to strike.

“Don’t!”

The woman pulled the child back, binding his hands and shielding him behind her.

“Please, Immortal Master! My son still has his senses!”

The three looked closer.

The child’s face was flushed red, his body tinged with green, but he was still banging his head against the wall, crying out in pain for his mother.

Bai Shuo quickly pulled a binding talisman from her bag and stuck it onto the child.

His eyes closed as he collapsed to the ground.

The woman clutched her son tightly in her arms.

“What exactly happened? What’s going on with the people in the city?”

Hua Hong asked urgently in a low voice.

“I don’t know,” the woman replied, her face full of fear.

“Today was supposed to be Mengyu Festival. We were all going to the palace to celebrate. But then the king suddenly ordered everyone to stay indoors and not go out. I stayed at home with Hu’er all day. Just now… just now Hu’er went mad. I thought it was his illness acting up again, so I wanted to take him to the Yi King’s Palace to find you for treatment. But as soon as I stepped outside, I discovered… discovered that everyone in the city had gone insane! They’re biting anyone they see. Hu’er also became like this…”

The woman clutched her son helplessly.

When she looked up and saw Hua Hong’s face, her eyes froze.

Then, she called out in a trembling but excited voice:

“Your Highness… Princess Hong, it’s you…”

Though Hua Hong had left the Yi City a hundred years ago, her face hadn’t changed much.

Without the embellishments of makeup, she only looked more cold and indifferent than in her youth.

“Your Highness, please save Hu’er! I beg you, save my son!”

The woman grasped Hua Hong’s hand tightly, as if holding onto her last hope.

Hua Hong’s gaze suddenly shifted to Bai Shuo, specifically to the bag hanging from her waist.

“I… I only know how to treat illnesses and detoxify poisons. I don’t know how to expel evil spirit!” Bai Shuo said hurriedly.

Hua Hong’s face turned pale.

She suddenly asked, “Why hasn’t she been tainted by the evil energy?”

Though the young man had not regained his memory, Hua Hong instinctively looked toward Fan Yue.

It was only then that Bai Shuo realized that in the entire city, Auntie Xiaoqi was the only one untouched by the evil energy.

“She bears Rong Xian’s mark. The protection of a immortal spirit can shield the spiritual core,” Fan Yue said coldly.

Hua Hong paused.

She thought of the old man who begged for wine every day at the woman’s tavern, and her eyes grew warm.

Just then, the child in the woman’s arms let out a heart-wrenching scream.

Hu’er’s body convulsed, and evil energy surged from his chest toward his forehead.

A transparent soul seemed about to be torn from his brow.

“This isn’t good! That evil energy is trying to seize his soul!”

Bai Shuo cried out anxiously.

Seeing the evil energy about to invade the child’s brow, Hua Hong couldn’t hold back any longer.

She turned and shouted toward Fan Yue.

“Palace Master!”

At that moment, a sharp pain struck Fan Yue’s brow, as though something deep within him was struggling to break free.

His body trembled, and he gripped his silver chain tightly, leaning against the city wall.

His cold gaze fixed on Hua Hong.

Whoever he was, he only wanted to be Bai Shuo’s disciple!

“Rong Xian… Rong Xian…” Bai Shuo, who had been focused entirely on Hu’er, didn’t notice the tension between Hua Hong and Fan Yue.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up.

“I have an idea! I can save him!”

All three of them turned to her. Bai Shuo hastily untied her bag, rummaging through it before pulling something out.

The object glowed with a brilliant golden light and radiated pure spiritual energy—it was Rong Xian’s golden core, which they had previously subdued.

“Since Senior Rong Xian’s mark can protect Auntie Xiaoqi, this golden core should also be able to expel the evil energy from Hu’er’s body!”

Without hesitation, Bai Shuo placed the golden core into Hu’er’s mouth.

As soon as the core entered his body, its pure spiritual energy coursed through him.

Black tendrils of evil energy began to escape from his fingertips, dissipating into the air with a roar.

The child no longer screamed in pain, and his bluish-purple face gradually regained a healthy color.

“It’s working!”

Bai Shuo exclaimed joyfully.

Hua Hong let out a breath of relief.

The woman, overjoyed to see her son recovering, was about to speak when the ground beneath them suddenly began to shake violently.

The city wall trembled, and a dragon’s roar echoed through the heavens and earth.

A dazzling golden light exploded outward.

Hua Hong immediately shielded the woman and her son.

Bai Shuo was flung into the air by the shockwave, but Fan Yue caught her mid-flight, pulling her into his arms to shield her.

When the light faded and peace returned, the group looked up to see an enormous, magnificent golden formation materializing.

It enveloped the entire Yi City.

Bai Shuo gaped in shock.

“What… what is that thing?”

“That’s… a Spiritual-Sealing Formation?” Hua Hong murmured as she stared at the formation.

No, it couldn’t be.

She had once entered the core of a Spiritual-Sealing Formation, and its power had been gentle.

Yet this golden formation radiated nothing but murderous intent.

“Heavenly Fire,” a cold voice said suddenly from atop the city wall.

Bai Shuo and Hua Hong both froze and turned their heads.

Outside the Yi City, a group of immortal and demon clan leaders gazed at the golden formation with equal astonishment.

“The Divine Formation? Why would a small city like the Yi City possess a Divine Formation?” murmured the Yunxiao sect master.

For a thousand years, the God Realm had been sealed, leaving the Three Realms devoid of true god.

Even Jinyao, who ruled the Ninth Heavenly Palace, had only reached the demigod level.

Rumors claimed that the Palace Master of Haoyue Palace, Fan Yue, had attained the demigod level.

But to this day, no one had witnessed him perform any divine feats.

“Someone has altered the formation consciousness of the Spiritual-Sealing Formation, transforming this city-protecting defense formation into Slaying-God formation,” Jinyao said gravely.

“Who did it? Could it be the Yi King?” Chang Huo demanded angrily.

“It wasn’t him,” Jinyao replied, his expression grim.

“If the Slaying God Formation is fully activated, all living beings within the formation and in a thousand-mile radius outside it will be reduced to ashes. The Yi King, along with tens of thousands of his people, is within the city. He has no reason to do this. Moreover, altering the consciousness of a divine formation requires at least the power of a demigod. He simply isn’t capable of it.”

A demigod? First, evil spirits infiltrate the Yi City, and now, out of nowhere, a hidden demigod appears?

The Three Realms had been peaceful for hundreds of years.

How had things escalated into such chaos?

“Rest assured, everyone,” Jinyao continued.

“The Spiritual-Sealing Formation is, after all, a divine formation left behind by His Majesty Mu Guang. Divine formations are sentient. Even if someone has altered the formation consciousness, they cannot destroy the dragon soul His Majesty embedded in the formation core. Without that, the Slaying God Formation cannot be activated.”

Hearing this, the crowd’s tense expressions relaxed.

“Not necessarily,” Elder Feng Xian, who had been silent, suddenly interjected.

“Lord, both the children of the immortal and Demon clans are within the city. If they are used as sacrifices…”

“That still wouldn’t be enough…”

“What if the entire Yi race is added to the sacrifice?”

Feng Xian’s voice was grave, and Jinyao’s expression shifted slightly.

At that moment, the golden dragon formation shone with an intense light.

Dragon roars echoed endlessly as a suffocating black deathly aura engulfed the entire formation.

The instant the sinister energy enveloped the formation coincided with Hua Hong invoking Fan Yue, the Demon Lord’s true title.

On the city wall, Bai Shuo turned her head in shock, looking at her little disciple in disbelief.

Fan Yue was kneeling on one knee, his face showing a trace of pained struggle, yet his eyes were chillingly calm and indifferent.

Looking into those eyes, Bai Shuo’s breath caught, and her heart clenched inexplicably.

“Mumu…” she called out softly, but the kneeling young man seemed not to hear.

“Palace Master! You’ve finally awakened?!”

Hua Hong exclaimed excitedly as she ran to Fan Yue, kneeling beside him.

“Stop the Yi King. He’s using blood sacrifices to activate the Slaying God Array. The children of the immortal and Demon clans, along with the Yi, are all being used as offerings!”

“What?”

Hua Hong’s initial joy was replaced by shock.

Bai Shuo couldn’t comprehend what Fan Yue was saying.

She could only stare blankly at his icy eyes, overwhelmed with confusion.

“Palace Master?!”

A sharp cry startled Bai Shuo, who was already unsettled.

She stumbled backward, but a pair of arms caught her waist, pulling her tightly into an embrace.

“Master,” a low voice whispered in her ear.

Bai Shuo suddenly pushed away from Fan Yue’s arms and looked at him.

“Mumu?!” Her voice trembled.

“It’s me,” the young man nodded, his gaze clear and sincere.

Bai Shuo smacked him on the shoulder with a sigh of relief.

“Thank heavens! You scared me half to death!”

She lowered her head, taking deep breaths to calm herself.

“Goodness, I thought I’d lost my life.”

Suddenly, as if remembering something, Bai Shuo jolted upright and turned to Hua Hong.

“What did that big demon just call this thing?”

“The Slaying God Formation,” Hua Hong said flatly.

She cast a protective spiritual barrier over the mother and child, then leaped into the air without looking back.

“You stay here. I’m heading back to the Yi King’s Palace!”

“Mumu, follow her!” Bai Shuo shouted without hesitation.

The young man hesitated for a moment, uncharacteristically still.

“Mumu! Ah Zhao is still in the Yi King’s Palace!”

Bai Shuo turned toward him, her face anxious.

This time, her disciple did not hesitate.

He wrapped an arm around Bai Shuo, lifting her into the air, and followed Hua Hong toward the palace.