Jiang Li stood firm at the center of the altar, her crimson robes snapping violently in the gale.
She could feel the shard of Black Chaos Jade burrowing frantically into her chest, jolting through the very marrow of her bones. Driven by this agonizing pain, the Record of the Turbid World's Divine Essence was pushed to its absolute limit. The originally pitch-black turbid qi surged through her meridians like tens of thousands of ants devouring her flesh.
CRACK—!
Jiang Li felt the barrier that had long suppressed her finally shatter. Turbid Qi Level 4: Radiant Realm.
However, before she could catch her breath, the suffocating, frigid aura that had been suppressed for too long deep within the chamber finally erupted.
The sound of iron chains dragging across the dry stone slabs was heavy enough to throw one's heartbeat out of rhythm. Every metallic strike felt like a hammer against the soul.
Clang—Clash—!
A figure draped in black chains slowly lurched out of the shadows of a subterranean rift. With every step he took, the scorched earth beneath his feet vented a plume of foul-smelling black smoke, and the surrounding air instantly plunged to the freezing point.
Jiang Li tightened her grip on the Heart-Piercing Crossbow; the blood groove at its trigger was filled with her own heart's blood. She stared at the figure's face, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks.
It was Lin Yuan.
Once the most brilliant genius of the Black Hero Sect, the youth who used to smile warmly at her in front of the Void-Returning Hall, was now a living corpse forcibly stitched together by demonic energy. The left side of his face had completely rotted away, exposing jagged teeth and white bone, while the right side was covered in hideous, violet-black demonic runes. His eyes had no pupils—only two pits overflowing with thick, black blood.
"Lin... Yuan..." Jiang Li whispered the name, her voice so dry it was barely audible.
Lin Yuan gave no reaction. Like a mindless puppet, he mechanically tilted his stiff neck. When his gaze moved past Jiang Li and landed on Cang Yaochen—who was being besieged by a dozen Golden-Armored Divine Generals outside the chamber—the bleeding pits of his eyes erupted with a hatred that could destroy the world.
"Cang... Yao... Chen..."
He lunged forward, the stone slabs beneath him instantly pulverized into dust. He threw his head back and let out a shrill, piercing shriek. Then, his withered, skeletal right arm jerked backward, his fingers like steel hooks as they plunged brutally into his own spine.
Squelch—!
Mist of blood sprayed against the searing stone walls, sizzling upon impact. Under Jiang Li's horrified gaze, Lin Yuan actually drew a White Bone Sword, dripping with slime and black demonic fire, directly from his own spinal cord.
"The Great Elder told me before he died..." Lin Yuan dragged his heavy chains, step by step toward the exit, his throat emitting the guttural growl of a beast. "It was you who crushed his divinity. It was you who turned the three thousand souls of our Black Hero Sect into sacrifices for this ruin... all just to hoard some pathetic 'merit' for your own ascension!"
"Lin Yuan! Wake up! The Great Elder lied to you!" Jiang Li leapt forward, the Heart-Piercing Crossbow leveled before her, the bolt aimed at Lin Yuan's throat. "He planted that obsession in your soul just so you would turn into a demon to guard this tomb!"
Lin Yuan heard nothing. Throughout the days he was tortured in the Demon-Refining Pool, this hatred had been his only support.
"Kill him... take you away..."
Lin Yuan blurred into a shadow, instantly smashing through the stone doors of the chamber. The bone sword carved a crescent of demonic fire through the air, hacking down toward Cang Yaochen with devastating force.
Outside the Secret Chamber.
The golden halberds held by three Heavenly Dao Divine Generals had already pierced through the stone pillar behind Cang Yaochen. He could only hold his ground by gripping the razor-sharp edges of the halberds with his bare hands.
[Warning: Host Cang Yaochen has severely violated the Heavenly Dao Obliteration Directive.]
[System Self-Destruction Progress: 45%... 50%... Core Divine Source beginning to collapse!]
The system's voice in Cang Yaochen's consciousness had become a shrill wail; he could feel his consciousness fracturing. The Rakshasa persona was waking up.
As Lin Yuan's bone sword descended with its ruinous demonic fire, Cang Yaochen's right eye suddenly flared with a streak of manic ferocity.
CLANG—!!!
Lin Yuan's bone sword slammed heavily into Cang Yaochen's shoulder. Golden Buddhist light and demonic fire clashed violently, erupting in a rapid-fire succession of concussive blasts.
The ground beneath Cang Yaochen's knees instantly caved in. He looked up at the tortured, unrecognizable form of his fellow disciple before him, a trickle of blood escaping the corner of his mouth.
"System... shut up," Cang Yaochen growled in his heart.
He used his last remaining divine power to blast back several Divine Generals who were trying to strike Lin Yuan from behind.
"ROAR—!!!"
Just as Lin Yuan was about to pull back the bone sword for another strike, an ear-shattering roar erupted from above the altar.
A fiery red silhouette shot out from Jiang Li's sleeve like a bolt of lightning, expanding rapidly in mid-air. The Suanni, previously the size of a common hound, had completely torn through its evolutionary shackles.
Amidst the blaze, its body swelled to over ten feet in length. Its soft fur transformed into thick, dark red scales, and its hooves stepped upon clouds of black smoke. The adult Molten-Fire Suanni let out a thunderous roar as it landed at the center of the battlefield. Its massive claws slammed down, burying three Golden-Armored Divine Generals deep into the earth's veins.
It stood as a wall between Cang Yaochen and Lin Yuan, letting out a roar of holy defiance against the stunned disciples of the Sacred Ground.
Jiang Li flipped onto the Suanni's back. She could feel the staggering heat radiating from the beast, her red robes turning a deep purple amidst the flames. She drew the Heart-Piercing Crossbow to full tension and released her finger.
Whiz—!
A pitch-black bolt trailed a long wake of turbid qi, instantly piercing through a Sacred Ground Elder who was in the middle of casting a spell.
"Since you all desire so badly to kill me, the 'Evil God,' then I shall show you exactly what an Evil God looks like!"
Jiang Li laughed from the Suanni's back, her voice carrying a reckless madness that cared nothing for the cost. She looked down at the "Monk Cang" who was being besieged just to protect her. Seeing the Buddhist blood splattered across the stone pillars, the final crack of doubt in her heart split into a bottomless abyss.