Chapter 16: The Scent of Betrayal and the Heart Lock Array

“Splat—!”

The sound of sharp claws tearing into flesh was a dull, heart-stopping thud.

The Three-Eyed Demonic Wolf’s claws, gleaming with a chilling light, slammed firmly into Zhang Fan’s chest.

His protective spiritual barrier shattered instantly, and the sharp claw tips ripped through his flesh, drawing forth a spray of blood.

“Urgh, ah—!”

Zhang Fan let out a pained groan, his body sent flying backward like a tattered sack. He slammed heavily into a large tree, his chest already stained crimson with blood, revealing bone-deep wounds that were horrifying to behold.

“Senior Brother!!!”

Activating Drunken Hidden Evasion to its utmost, Shen Zhaoqing instantly teleported before Zhang Fan. From her personal storage pouch, she frantically pulled out a pile of pills, both large and small, and shoved them all into his mouth.

Zhang Fan’s breathing gradually stabilized. He struggled to stand, but instead coughed up a large mouthful of fresh blood, and his longsword clattered to the ground.

Having landed a successful strike, the Three-Eyed Demonic Wolf moved to deliver a fatal blow.

“Go!” Dozens of high-grade talismans exploded with a roar, freezing the Three-Eyed Demonic Wolf in its tracks.

Shen Zhaoqing trembled uncontrollably.

Though Shen Zhaoqing was a coward, she couldn’t stand by and watch a fellow disciple fall to the beast’s claws.

Aside from her first year after transmigrating, it had been a long time since a ‘companion’ had been on the verge of death before her.

“Senior Sister, I’m so scared.”

A sob escaped Li Wuxia, who was also terrified. The moment she fully registered what had happened, she flung herself into Shen Zhaoqing’s embrace as if petrified.

Her small body trembled like a leaf caught in the wind, her hands clutching tightly around Shen Zhaoqing’s waist as she buried her face in her chest.

“Senior Sister… Senior Sister, I’m so scared…” Her voice was thick with tears, filled with helplessness and dread.

Zhang Fan’s jade talisman had shattered during the battle. Now, on the brink of death, he had been fed a pile of life-saving elixirs by Shen Zhaoqing. Soon, his spiritual energy began to circulate, and Zhang Fan transformed into a streak of golden light, withdrawing from the arena.

Shen Zhaoqing had no time to notice any of this.

Her entire body had frozen stiff.

As she held the trembling Li Wuxia in her arms, a bone-chilling cold shot up from the soles of her feet, straight to the crown of her head.

The body in her embrace was icy cold, utterly devoid of warmth.

More importantly, a faint, almost imperceptible stench of fishiness infiltrated her nostrils.

It was a smell… like decaying aquatic plants mixed with the metallic chill of rust.

‘This smell…’

Shen Zhaoqing’s pupils abruptly constricted.

She remembered.

Not long ago, an outer sect disciple she occasionally spoke with had mysteriously fallen victim to poison. Their body had turned cold, their meridians stagnant, and they had nearly lost all their cultivation.

When she had visited that person, the scent she detected on them was precisely this! Exactly the same!

At the time, everyone had assumed the disciple had either made a mistake in their cultivation or accidentally ingested some poisonous herb. No one had considered any other possibilities.

‘But now…’

Shen Zhaoqing slowly, ever so slowly, lowered her head. She gazed at the junior sister whose face was buried in her embrace, shoulders still trembling with sobs, tears streaming down like pear blossoms in the rain.

She had seen it clearly just now.

That black thread that had tripped Zhang Fan.

And now, this familiar, nauseating fishy stench.

One clue after another linked together in her mind, pointing to a truth that sent shivers down her spine.

‘So… it was her.’

‘It had always been her.’

****

Shen Zhaoqing held Li Wuxia’s shoulders, clearly feeling her body tremble. She could hear her suppressed, pitiful sobs.

This junior sister, who had always timidly called her “Senior Sister” and seemed so harmless as she cleared paths through crowds for her, was a hundred thousand times more dangerous than Shen Zhaoqing had ever imagined.

Feigning nonchalance, Shen Zhaoqing stood up. As she did so, she subtly, yet deliberately, widened the distance between herself and Li Wuxia.

“Senior Sister?” Li Wuxia asked, her voice laced with grievance.

“The Three-Eyed Demonic Wolf,” Shen Zhaoqing said, pointing to the beast lying utterly lifeless on the ground. “This demonic beast is worth a lot of points, and you know I’ve never cared about such things.”

“Junior Sister Wuxia, this demonic core is yours. Go and take a look first.”

“Is Senior Sister worried about me?” Li Wuxia’s eyes brightened for a moment upon hearing this, and two blushes crept up to her ear tips.

“Haha.” Shen Zhaoqing let out a dry chuckle.

‘Care about a hammer? The person I should be most worried about right now is myself!’

As reason returned, Shen Zhaoqing began to falter in her resolve.

“Senior Sister.” Li Wuxia did not go to inspect the demonic beast as Shen Zhaoqing had hoped. Instead, she took two steps forward, closing the distance between them.

“Senior Sister,” Li Wuxia murmured, then rose onto her tiptoes to whisper into Shen Zhaoqing’s ear. “Senior Sister, please don’t abandon me, okay?”

The scent of the poisonous herb grew ever clearer.

“Get away from me!”

With that push, Shen Zhaoqing exerted every ounce of her strength. It was born both from a desire for Li Wuxia to move away and an uncontrollable surge of terror and repulsion.

Li Wuxia stumbled from the shove, falling to the ground. When she looked up, a flicker of bewilderment and hurt crossed her ink-blue eyes, swiftly replaced by profound fear.

As for Shen Zhaoqing, the instant she pushed Li Wuxia away, she activated Drunken Hidden Evasion to its absolute maximum.

Her form seemed to transform into a wisp of weightless green smoke.

Shen Zhaoqing scrambled away, covering more than ten meters in a desperate dash. Her heart pounded as if it would leap from her throat. She dared not look back, only running with all her might deeper into the dense forest.

She had only one thought now: ‘Get away from Junior Sister! The farther, the better!’

However, she hadn’t run far before she sensed something was amiss.

An invisible, heavy force, like a set of shackles, enveloped the entire valley.

This power did not target the physical body, but rather the very rules of existence.

A voice whispered deep within Shen Zhaoqing’s soul: ‘Do not run, do not hide, do not conceal.’

‘Every action must abide by the “rules.”‘

Under the suppression of this power, Drunken Hidden Evasion, her life-saving technique, operated with extreme difficulty. The original sensation of blending seamlessly with the environment vanished, replaced by a strong feeling of sluggishness.

‘This feeling… the Enforcement Hall?’

****

Meanwhile, outside the Myriad Beast Valley, on a temporarily erected high platform…

Ning Jihe, the Chief of the Enforcement Hall, sat upon a dharma seat crafted from frigid ice jade marrow. She was dressed in snow-patterned robes, her dark green hair bound high with a silver coronet. Her face was like frost, her gaze three parts colder than the ice jade beneath her.

Before her, a massive water mirror floated, clearly reflecting the various scenes within the Myriad Beast Valley. Beneath the water mirror, a formation plate composed of countless silver runes slowly rotated.

The “Pure Law Heart Lock Array” had already been activated.

Under the array’s shroud, all opportunistic evasion techniques and aura concealment methods would be suppressed. Furthermore, the most primal desires and impulses of every living being within its confines would be infinitely amplified.

Ning Jihe’s gaze was fixed intently on a corner of the water mirror, on a faint speck of light representing Shen Zhaoqing.

The Outer Sect Grand Competition was the perfect opportunity for her to publicly verify the anomalies surrounding Shen Zhaoqing.

Otherwise, even with the rules set by the ancestors, how could her ‘good junior sister’ have allowed Shen Zhaoqing to participate? She would likely have rushed to the arena early on to forfeit on Shen Zhaoqing’s behalf.

“Chief, the array has been fully activated,” an Enforcement Hall disciple reported respectfully. “The ferocity of all demonic beasts within the valley has been incited to its peak.”

Ning Jihe nodded slightly, her gaze still fixed on the light speck. She spoke in a cold tone, “Continue monitoring, especially her. Report any unusual activity immediately.”