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Join the ServerSu Baixue’s reprimand sounded sharp yet powerless beneath the crimson moonlight.
“Ling Chen! This method, no matter how you look at it, is nothing but a crooked path!”
“Devouring linked shikigami and low-tier yokai to forcibly boost power?”
“This is a forbidden technique explicitly banned by the Demon Extermination Order!”
Ling Chen leisurely patted away imaginary dust from his side, responding to Su Baixue’s accusations with a contemptuous scoff.
“Miss Su, you are still so naive and rigid. In this world, how can there truly be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ techniques?”
“The only difference lies in how it’s used, and by whom.”
He spread his hands, a playful smile gracing his lips.
“Please, open your mind a little. Don’t let those old rules and doctrines shackle your hands and feet.”
“Any means that achieves its purpose is a good means.”
“You speak with such righteous indignation, but are you employing this forbidden technique for some ‘just cause’?”
Su Baixue’s eyes blazed with fury.
“Or is it merely to satisfy your selfish desires?”
“Selfish desires?”
Ling Chen seemed to have heard something amusing, his shoulders shaking with laughter.
“If a technique can help me achieve my desired goal, then for me, it is the best technique under heaven.”
“As for what it was originally defined as… does it matter?”
His gaze suddenly turned cold, his tone laced with undeniable arrogance.
“Here, my will is the rule!”
Before his words even faded, the last bizarre hand seal in his grasp was completed.
Dark red runes streamed from his fingertips, eagerly burrowing into the Ox-demon’s massive body.
“Roar—!!!”
The Ox-demon suddenly threw its head back, unleashing a roar interwoven with pain and savagery. Its already crimson bull eyes were instantly filled with dense, black blood vessels, threatening to burst!
Its colossal body trembled violently, as ominous dark purple patterns spread from its chest.
It opened its gaping maw, and a terrifying suction force erupted from thin air!
The first to be affected were the five ice sculptures of female yokai shikigami, frozen solid by Xue Li.
The ice crystals shattered and melted under the invisible force, revealing five beautiful faces contorted in despair.
Their lingering yokai power and spiritual essence transformed into streams of murky light, which the Ox-demon greedily absorbed into its enormous mouth.
Next was the Nightmare Beast, left barely clinging to life by Su Mian.
It seemed to sense its impending doom, its vertical pupils reflecting extreme terror. It tried to struggle and flee, but the contract held it firmly in place.
Ultimately, it transformed into a dense torrent of purple-black yokai energy, similarly devoured by the Ox-demon.
This was still not enough!
Centered around the Ox-demon, all the low-tier yokai from the Boundary of Illusions within a hundred-meter radius, who had luckily escaped Xue Li’s purge and were lurking in the shadows, were now ensnared as if by an invisible net.
They screamed and wailed, forcibly dragged closer. Their fragile bodies disintegrated into primordial fragments of yokai energy in mid-air, rushing frantically into the Ox-demon’s seemingly bottomless form.
“Crack, crackle…”
“Sizzle, hiss…”
After devouring these yokai, the Ox-demon’s size visibly swelled by a whole circle.
Its emanating yokai energy underwent a qualitative change!
No longer the fierce but somewhat understandable savagery from before, it was now a catastrophic source of yokai energy, mixed with the pain, resentment, and fear of countless different yokai—exceedingly complex, chaotic, yet immensely vast!
This aura surged skyward, temporarily dispelling the dark red demonic mist overhead, forming a vortex of yokai energy!
Peak Grade-1… Half-step Special Grade… Finally, after devouring enough ‘nourishment,’ that immense yokai energy violently vibrated, barely crossing that invisible threshold—
A Special Grade yokai!
Although its aura was incredibly unstable, chaotic, and brimming with signs of imminent collapse, it was undeniably the oppressive power of a Special Grade entity!
Merely standing there, the aura it exuded caused Su Baixue’s breathing to seize, and the circulation of her spiritual power became sluggish.
Xue Li’s expression also turned utterly grim, and the chilling energy around her automatically condensed into a thick armor of ice crystals.
“Hmm… it’s a bit forced. The foundation is too weak; it’s a pseudo-Special Grade built by brute force stacking.”
Ling Chen squinted, as if evaluating a less-than-perfect work. However, he quickly revealed a satisfied smile.
“Nevertheless, the energy output and short-term explosive power are sufficient.”
“It seems… it should last for about ten minutes without issue.”
“Ten minutes is more than enough to take down both of them.”
His gaze once again fell upon Su Mian, who was still baring her fangs and growling at him from the center of the yokai energy. The greed in his eyes was almost overflowing.
“The stronger the prey, the greater the sense of accomplishment in taming them, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Boom!”
The ‘reborn’ Ox-demon, under Ling Chen’s command, launched another attack!
This time, its speed, strength, and aura were incomparable to before!
With every step it took, deep fissures cracked open in the earth, and the resulting wind was nauseating.
“Roar!” The demonized Su Mian felt an unprecedented threat. The malevolence in her crimson eyes intensified, and her three fox tails lashed out fiercely once more!
“Bang!!!”
No longer easily deflected as before, this time, the three fox tails, imbued with crimson yokai energy, collided squarely with the Ox-demon’s horns, erupting in a metallic clang and violent energy ripples!
Su Mian’s fox tails were flung high by the recoil, while the Ox-demon’s massive body merely swayed violently, taking three heavy steps backward before forcibly stabilizing itself.
An even match!
No, in terms of pure power collision, the Ox-demon at this moment even subtly overpowered Su Mian, who was fighting purely on instinct!
“Roar!”
“Roar—!”
The Ox-demon roared and lunged again. Su Mian, her ferocity ignited, met it without fear. Crimson yokai energy and foul yokai energy clashed and tore at each other wildly.
A pure contest of physical strength and yokai power unfolded under the crimson moonlight, each collision subtly distorting the surrounding space.
Xue Li, naturally, would not stand idly by. Her figure flickered, moving around the periphery of the battle.
With every wave of her hand, extreme cold ice cones and sharp ice blades assailed the Ox-demon’s joints, eyes, and gaps in its skin—its relatively vulnerable points.
This greatly disrupted the Ox-demon’s movements, creating opportunities for Su Mian.
With Xue Li’s assistance, Su Mian gradually regained some of her lost ground, even occasionally leaving wounds on the Ox-demon.
Although the Ox-demon’s power had surged, its movements were somewhat stiff and sluggish due to the mixed energy and immense burden on its body.
With Xue Li providing support and their tacit cooperation, it quickly fell into a disadvantage again.
Seeing this, Ling Chen frowned slightly but did not panic. While maintaining his forbidden technique’s control over the Ox-demon, he once again formed hand seals, muttering incantations.
Several talismans simultaneously assailed Su Mian and Xue Li from different angles! These talismans were not meant to cause direct harm but primarily to interfere.
Su Mian roared, sweeping away several talismans with her fox tails, but one still struck her, causing her movements to slow by half a beat. The Ox-demon grazed her shoulder with a fierce charge, sending her staggering backward.
Xue Li’s situation was similar; her actions were also hindered by the talismans. Seizing this window, a fierce glint flashed in Ling Chen’s eyes, and he issued an even more ruthless command to the Ox-demon.
“Continue! Devour everything nearby that you can!”
The Ox-demon opened its giant maw, and a terrifying suction force erupted once more! This time, the range was even wider, forcibly dragging even some distant yokai who had sensed danger and tried to flee.
They were crushed and devoured amidst their wails!
Its body further expanded, and its aura climbed again. Though even more chaotic and unstable, it had truly solidified at the Special Grade level, even slightly stronger than before!
“It should be able to last another five minutes or so…”
Ling Chen estimated, a cold smirk playing on his lips.
“But, that’s enough.”
The Ox-demon, having fully crossed the Special Grade threshold, underwent a dramatic transformation in combat power!
It was no longer clumsy; its speed and strength had ascended another level.
“Bang!”
Su Mian was kicked in the abdomen by the Ox-demon’s hooves once more. Despite the cushioning from her fox tails and yokai energy, she was sent flying over ten meters.
Xue Li attempted to provide support, but was forced back by a jet of black aura spewed by the Ox-demon. Her ice crystal armor corroded with a sizzling sound.
The tide of battle instantly reversed!
Even though this Special Grade was a defective product, and despite the abnormally high quality of Su Mian’s yokai energy, under the absolute energy tier and rule suppression, she and Xue Li were quickly completely suppressed, struggling to hold on, constantly facing mortal danger.
However, Ling Chen soon discovered a fact that irritated him.
No matter how ferocious the Ox-demon’s attacks, how many hoof strikes, horn jabs, or falling leaves imbued with Special Grade yokai power landed on Su Mian, they would always be largely neutralized at the last moment by the soft white light emanating from the necklace around her neck!
That seemingly thin white light barrier contained incredibly terrifying spiritual power, weakening the attacks of the Special Grade Ox-demon by more than seventy percent!
The remaining power, while capable of injuring and paining Su Mian, could not inflict a fatal blow.
“The spiritual tool forged by Senior Xiao is truly formidable, to the point of envy…”
Ling Chen narrowed his eyes, staring at the necklace that continued to emit white light steadily amidst the crimson and foul yokai energy. His tone was complex.
“To think it can withstand the Ox-demon’s attacks in this state…”
His mind raced, knowing that a direct assault wouldn’t work in a short time.
His gaze swept over Xue Li, who was desperately resisting the Ox-demon and had no time to spare, then at Su Mian, who was receiving ‘special attention’ from the Ox-demon and breathing heavily. An idea surfaced.
He ordered the Ox-demon to intensify its offensive, firmly pinning Su Mian’s movements, especially using its massive hooves and demonic chains to restrict her three incredibly destructive fox tails.
At the same time, he flickered, appearing before Su Mian, who was still baring her fangs and growling at the Ox-demon, her movements restricted.
Su Mian’s crimson eyes instantly locked onto him, a threatening growl rumbling in her throat. She tried to attack, but the Ox-demon’s restraints held her firmly.
“Don’t be so fierce; you’ll belong to me soon.”
Ling Chen chuckled, extending his hand directly towards the pendant of the necklace around Su Mian’s neck.
“Buzz—!”
Just as his fingers were about to touch the pendant, the light shield suddenly flared, and a pure yet powerful repulsive force erupted!
Ling Chen felt as if his finger had been burned by a red-hot iron, or had crashed into an invisible wall. Intense pain accompanied a huge rebound force, sending him staggering back several steps, his finger numb.
“Oh?”
Ling Chen shook his numb hand, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes, followed by a look of realization.
“So that’s it… Senior Xiao truly thought of everything.”
“This necklace, I’m afraid, has a special restriction set upon it.”
“Anyone with strong hostility towards the wearer, or those judged as ‘enemies’ by the necklace itself, cannot forcibly remove or even touch it.”
He suddenly turned his head, looking at Su Baixue, who stood not far away, her face pale and her expression complex. A meaningful smile appeared on his face.
“Miss Su,”
His voice carried a deliberate, uncomfortable softness.
“Would you mind coming over and lending a hand?”
Su Baixue watched him warily. “What do you want to do?”
“Help me remove the necklace from your ‘brother’s’ neck.”
Ling Chen said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“You see, the necklace’s restriction seems ineffective against those without hostility.”
“Give it a try; perhaps you can take it off.”
“Why should I help you?” Su Baixue coldly refused, clutching the spiritual talisman in her hand.
“Why?”
Ling Chen’s smile turned somewhat sinister. He pointed at Su Mian and Xue Li, who were struggling under the Ox-demon’s suppression, constantly acquiring new wounds.
Then he pointed at the Ox-demon, whose aura was becoming increasingly unstable, with tiny cracks appearing on its body, as if it could explode at any moment.
“Don’t you want to know the truth behind your parents’ disappearance?”
“And what is truly hidden behind your brother’s current transformation?”
His voice was laced with temptation.
“Think about it, once she becomes my shikigami, everything will be under my control, won’t it?”
“At that time, I can make her cooperate obediently with any investigation by the Demon Extermination Bureau and tell everything she knows, completely and truthfully. These two matters are not in conflict.”
Watching Su Baixue’s eyes subtly waver, Ling Chen continued to raise the stakes, his tone carrying a trace of imperceptible mockery and coercion.
“Moreover, Miss Su, with your current strength, do you truly believe you can restrain her, and that Snow Woman beside her?”
“If my Ox-demon can’t hold on and self-destructs, and they take the opportunity to escape… in the vast Boundary of Illusions, or if they hide back in the human world, it will be as difficult as ascending to heaven for you to find them and uncover the truth later.”
“Now is the best opportunity. Miss tonight, and you might regret it for a lifetime.”
Su Baixue’s heart sank.
The disappearance of her parents weighed on her like a boulder, and Su Mian’s drastic change before her was undoubtedly the most direct, and perhaps the only, clue to unraveling the mystery.
Ling Chen’s methods were indeed despicable, but what he said was not entirely unreasonable. Could she, by herself, truly restrain and ‘persuade’ Su Mian, who had clearly lost her rationality and whose power had surged, to speak?
And what about that clearly formidable Snow Woman…
The Ox-demon let out a pained roar, a crack splitting open on its body, its aura growing even more unstable. It clearly wouldn’t last much longer.
Time was running out.
Su Baixue’s fingers dug hard into her palm, leaving deep crescent-shaped marks. She glanced at Su Mian, who was covered in wounds yet still glared furiously at Ling Chen, seemingly without any particular aggressive intent towards herself.
Then she looked at Xue Li in the distance, who was being pushed into dangerous situations by the Ox-demon, her ice-blue eyes looking at Su Baixue with a clear mix of disdain.
Her mind was in turmoil. Ultimately, the yearning for the truth, and a complex thought perhaps even she herself was unwilling to admit—a desire to place her ‘out-of-control brother’ within a manageable range—overwhelmed her principles and her disgust for Ling Chen.
“…My relationship with her isn’t good. She might not be without hostility towards me.”
Su Baixue heard her own dry voice, sounding more like a powerless excuse.
“I might not be able to take it off either.”
“How will you know without trying?”
Ling Chen smiled genially, stepping aside.
“Please, Miss Su. For the truth.”
Su Baixue took a deep breath, as if summoning all her strength, and slowly, step by step, walked towards Su Mian, who was firmly suppressed by the Ox-demon’s yokai chains and massive claws.
The closer she got, the clearer she could see Su Mian’s current appearance. Her demonically beautiful face was stained with blood and dirt, her crimson eyes held only wild rage, continuously roaring towards Ling Chen.
Her three fox tails struggled futilely, leaving deep indentations on the yokai chains.
As she reached Su Mian, Su Mian’s gaze finally fell upon her. In those crimson eyes, the violent killing intent paused slightly, and a subtle, bewildered ripple appeared.
She didn’t immediately erupt with aggression as she had with Ling Chen, but merely watched Su Baixue warily, her low growl softening as if trying to discern something.
This scene made Su Baixue’s heart skip a beat for some unknown reason. Her trembling hand, fingers cold, slowly reached for the warm pendant around Su Mian’s neck.
The light still glowed, but it didn’t repel her as it had Ling Chen. Her fingertips gently touched the cool chain, then the pendant. There was no resistance, no sudden jolt.
She unfastened the clasp, and the necklace easily came off Su Mian’s neck. Holding it in her hand, the pendant still retained a trace of Su Mian’s body temperature, as well as the pure and familiar spiritual power afterglow of Xiao Moyuan. Su Baixue was stunned.
She had really… taken it off. What did this mean? It meant that in her demonized state, dominated by instinct and full of aggression, Su Mian truly held no hostility towards her, her ‘sister’? Not even the slightest trace of wariness or desire to attack?
An indescribable complex emotion instantly overwhelmed her. There was relief, there was anticipation for the truth she was about to obtain, but more than that, there was a heavy, almost suffocating bitterness and an absurd guilt.
“Heh heh, as expected, it’s still ‘deep sibling affection,’ ah.”
Ling Chen’s light chuckle sounded from the side, full of mockery.
“Even as a yokai, she subconsciously trusts you, my dear partner.”
Xue Li’s cold voice cut in, carrying undisguised contempt and anger.
“It’s truly pitiful that she has a sister like you.”
“Helping an outsider, pushing your brother, with whom you grew up, even without blood ties, into the abyss of becoming a perverted shikigami… You humans are sometimes colder and more disgusting than us yokai.”
“At least, we yokai know to protect our own kind!”
“I…” Su Baixue opened her mouth, wanting to retort, wanting to say that she was forced, that it was to uncover the truth. But the words caught in her throat; she couldn’t utter a single one.
Xue Li’s gaze pierced like an icicle, and the warm touch of the necklace in her hand felt even more like a silent condemnation.
“Alright, keep the necklace. Since you helped me with this, that item is yours.”
Ling Chen was in high spirits, seemingly having lost interest in the necklace.
In truth, he knew well that the necklace’s suppression was deeply bound to Su Mian; even if he got his hands on it, he couldn’t use it at all.
All his attention was now focused on Su Mian, who was suppressed by the Ox-demon, had lost the necklace’s protection, and whose aura had noticeably weakened, as well as Xue Li on the other side, who was also greatly exhausted.
To be able to acquire two such excellent and powerful yokai shikigami in one go, today’s harvest had far exceeded expectations. As for an unusable exclusive spiritual tool? There was no need to care at all.
“Then, let’s start with this aloof Miss Snow Woman.”
Ling Chen licked his lips, walking towards Xue Li, who was temporarily trapped by a portion of the Ox-demon’s yokai chains. His hands once again began to form seals.
Contract runes appeared in the air, slowly drifting towards the pale-faced, yet still cold and unyielding, Xue Li.
“Become my possession… I will cherish you well.”
Ling Chen’s eyes gleamed with a morbid excitement, as if he could already see the scene of the contract being fulfilled, and the cold, icy Snow Woman submitting at his feet.
Xue Li gritted her teeth, frantically channeling her dwindling yokai power to resist the invasion of the contract runes.
Her ice-blue eyes were filled with determination; even if it meant self-destruction, she would never endure such humiliation! Clearly, Ling Chen noticed her thoughts.
He sealed her yokai power first. Su Mian, meanwhile, was heavily suppressed by the Ox-demon. Without the necklace’s protection, her wounds increased, and her crimson yokai energy flickered erratically.
Yet, she still glared fiercely at Ling Chen, especially at his retreating back as he approached Xue Li. She struggled even more violently, her fox tails frantically thrashing the ground, but she couldn’t break free.
Su Baixue clutched the necklace, watching this scene, the heavy feeling in her heart almost crushing her. Had she done something wrong?
Just as Ling Chen’s contract rune was about to imprint into Xue Li’s brow, and a flicker of despair crossed Xue Li’s eyes—
“Get lost!”
Two bone-chilling shouts, imbued with boundless rage, erupted simultaneously like thunder, reverberating through this crimson world!
One voice was clear and sharp, carrying the majesty and wrath of the Lord of a Hundred Demons!
One voice was deep and cold, containing terrifying spiritual power capable of shattering all illusions!
Boom!!!
As if responding to these two shouts, two vastly different yet equally vast and awe-inspiring pressures, powerful enough to make space tremble, descended with a crash!
To the left, a dense, pitch-black yokai energy, as if condensed from the essence of countless yokai, fell like a night curtain, instantly enveloping half the sky!
Within the yokai energy, a figure slowly emerged. He was no longer Hua Liang, wearing a school uniform and a playful smile.
Silver hair lightly floated in the yokai energy, its tips faintly glinting gold. A few strands of black hair fell across his forehead, accentuating his beautiful yet sinister and wild face.
His pair of demonic red eyes now stared coldly at Ling Chen, with clear killing intent in their pupils.
He wore a simple black kimono, with an ancient katana at his waist, its scabbard shrouded in an ominous aura. Around him permeated the majesty and dominance of the ‘Night Parade of a Hundred Demons’ ruler.
Merely by standing there, all surviving yokai within several hundred meters trembled and prostrated themselves on the ground!
At this moment, Hua Liang’s complete yokai form had descended! His speed surpassed visual perception; it was as if he had crossed space in a single step.
His katana was already half an inch out of its scabbard, the cold blade pressed against Ling Chen’s carotid artery. Just another fraction of an inch, and he would be decapitated!
“Who allowed you… to touch my people?”
Hua Liang’s voice was not loud, but it carried a soul-freezing chill. His red demonic pupils locked onto Ling Chen’s eyes, which had contracted sharply in extreme horror.
Almost simultaneously, to the right!
The seemingly eternal dark red sky of the Boundary of Illusions was forcibly torn open by an overwhelmingly dominant and utterly pure spiritual energy, creating a gigantic, irregular spatial rift!
At the edge of the rift, spatial turbulence roared, yet it could not intrude upon the silver spiritual energy in the slightest. A tall, stern figure, like a deity tearing through a scroll, stepped out from the rift.
Xiao Mozhou.
He still wore his simple black trench coat, but the spiritual energy flowing around him was like tangible flames, illuminating his utterly cold profile.
His gaze first swept dispassionately over Su Mian, who was suppressed by the Ox-demon, covered in wounds, and whose yokai energy was chaotic. It then lingered on her empty neck, his pupils almost imperceptibly contracting.
Then, his gaze turned to Su Baixue, who held the necklace, her face pale. That gaze was cold, sharp, carrying scrutiny, and a trace of deeply hidden, extremely complex disappointment and anger.
The moment Su Baixue met his gaze, she felt as if she had been doused in ice and snow, her entire body chilling. She instinctively tightened her grip on the necklace, but felt the pendant was now searingly hot.
Finally, Xiao Mozhou’s gaze fell on Ling Chen, and on the unstable, foul Special Grade Ox-demon. He didn’t even make any obvious movements; he simply raised his right index finger, pointed it towards the still roaring Ox-demon, and lightly tapped.
“Noisy.”
A silver beam of light, condensed to the extreme, instantly pierced through the Ox-demon’s massive, cracked body!
“Ow—!!!”
The Ox-demon only managed to let out an utterly shrill scream before its barely maintained Special Grade demonic body instantly exploded, its vast yokai energy beginning to frantically leak into the surrounding areas.
Just one strike. The pseudo-Special Grade Ox-demon was annihilated, turned to dust. Xiao Mozhou slowly withdrew his finger.
His gaze returned to the scene, finally settling on Ling Chen beneath Hua Liang’s blade, and the unfinished contract rune in his hand.
The entire crimson world fell into a deathly silence. Ling Chen, who had simultaneously enraged two terrifying existences, instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
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