Chapter 65: A Desperate Stand and a Demonic Arrival

Shen Zhaoqing lowered her head. She gently pressed her forehead against Yuange’s cold temple, her voice hoarse beyond recognition.

“Little Princess…”

She held the girl in her arms, whose breath grew increasingly faint.

The wine from the Gui Niang Hu desperately nourished Yuange. Yet, the injuries were real, and the pain was undeniable.

Given the severity of her wounds, the wine’s restorative effects were proving far too slow for Yuange.

“Heh, what truly touching camaraderie.”

A voice, laced with boundless malice and mockery, drifted down from the sky not far away.

Fen Yu hovered in mid-air, a tyrannical gleam flickering in her single eye. Having missed her strike, her already rampant killing intent surged to its peak.

“Since she’s so eager to die in your place, then I shall grant you both your wish.”

“Let you two fools, ignorant of death, turn to ash together!”

Before her words fully faded, a torrent of azure-blue flames, even more terrifying and concentrated than before, coalesced once again in her palm.

The threat of death descended anew.

Shen Zhaoqing slowly raised her head. She gazed at Fen Yu in the sky as if looking at a dead woman.

Shen Zhaoqing remained silent. She merely and carefully placed the unconscious Yuange, who lay limp in her arms, gently onto the ground.

She then stood before Yuange, using her own figure—which was as insignificant as an ant before a Soul Transformation Realm great demon—to block the terrifying pressure capable of incinerating heaven and earth.

This time, it was her turn to stand guard.

Since this debt was hers, she would repay it with her life.

“Don’t you dare touch her!” A hoarse roar erupted from Shen Zhaoqing’s throat.

A sneer of contempt flickered in Fen Yu’s single eye. “The squeal of an ant truly is melodious.”

She raised her hand, the azure flame fireball in her palm poised to strike.

The instant Fen Yu raised her hand, Shen Zhaoqing forcefully lifted the Gui Niang Hu. She desperately channeled every last trace of her meager spiritual energy into the gourd!

*Buzz—!

The ancient wine gourd emitted a soft hum. A cloud of golden-tinged wine mist, so dense it seemed almost solid, erupted from its mouth.

This was no ordinary wine mist.

It was the purest, most primordial life force, generated by the Gui Niang Hu resonating with her Dao Source Body.

Normally, she wouldn’t waste even a single drop of this substance, reserving it to nourish her meridians or to cling to life in critical moments.

But now, she had wagered her entire fortune.

The thick wine mist did not disperse. Instead, under her clumsy control, it moved like a living cloud, gently and carefully covering Yuange’s bloody right eye wound.

*Sizzle—*

A faint, almost inaudible sound echoed.

Those azure-blue Soul-Burning Flames, which had been wildly flickering and scorching Yuange’s divine soul like maggots clinging to bone, instantly hissed in terror upon contact with the golden wine mist, as if encountering a natural predator. Their light and flames dimmed in an instant.

Though not completely extinguished, the relentless destructive aura was forcibly suppressed by a warm, life-giving force.

Yuange’s breathing, which had grown so faint it was almost imperceptible, finally stabilized a fraction.

“Hm?”

Above, Fen Yu, poised to deliver a fatal blow, suddenly froze.

What kind of power was that?

It was not spiritual energy, nor demonic energy, nor even demonic qi.

It was an aura that felt incredibly familiar yet utterly detestable to her.

It was as if… as if it were the most primordial ‘life’ force from the dawn of creation, when all things revived!

Why, in the deepest recesses of her heart, did the ‘Soul-Burning Flame’ — which had been consumed by hatred for ten thousand years — feel a trace of… a trace of longing upon sensing that aura?

A trace of longing to be soothed by it?!

No!

Impossible!

This had to be an illusion!

“Heretical fiend!”

Fen Yu’s confusion was instantly replaced by boundless killing intent.

She could not understand, and she refused to understand.

Everything that surpassed her comprehension and shook her Dao heart would meet only one fate: utter annihilation.

“No matter what monstrous thing you are, go to hell with that Golden Crow mongrel!”

She let out a piercing roar, the azure flame fireball in her palm blazing brighter, ready to be unleashed.

Shen Zhaoqing’s pupils contracted sharply.

*Zheng!!!*

A mournful sword cry, as if capable of rending the heavens, exploded from the horizon without warning.

Immediately after, a blood-red sword light arrived in an instant, moving with an overbearing posture that completely disregarded spatial distance.

Everywhere it passed, even the air was frozen and shattered by its unparalleled, biting killing intent.

Fen Yu’s expression drastically changed. She had no time to react, only able to rely on battle instinct to violently hurl the fireball, condensed with all her demonic energy, upwards.

*Boom—!!!!*

Blood light and azure flames collided violently in mid-air.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only an eerie, deathly silence that swallowed all light and sound.

The blood-red sword light effortlessly cleaved the azure flame fireball in two.

Then, its momentum unabated, it continued with world-ending might, slashing directly towards Fen Yu’s true form.

“What?!”

Fen Yu shrieked in utter horror. The illusory fiery wings on her back violently flapped, and her figure instantly transformed into a streak of light, retreating a hundred zhang in a wretched state. Only then did she narrowly avoid the sword light’s edge.

Even so, a strand of scarlet hair was still severed by the sharp sword qi, slowly drifting down.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down her temple.

That sword earlier…

If she had been even one-tenth of a breath slower, it wouldn’t have been her hair that was severed, but her neck.

When did such a terrifying powerhouse arrive within a thousand-mile radius?

Fen Yu, still shaken, looked up.

In the distant sky, a white figure was seen striding through the void, step by step.

The person wore white robes under a black and red cape, their frosty white hair flowing wildly in the fierce winds.

They walked slowly, yet with each step, a ripple of blood-red energy spread through the space beneath their feet.

Despite the vast distance, a terrifying pressure, as substantial as a mountain, already bore down heavily on the hearts of everyone present—a pressure that proclaimed dominion over all, treating everything as mere straw dogs.

Myriad Flower Blood Palace’s Demonic Venerable, Ling Shuangjue.

She had finally arrived!

Upon seeing that familiar figure, Shen Zhaoqing’s nerves, stretched to their absolute limit, suddenly relaxed.

The reinforcements… had finally come.

Although these reinforcements were, in themselves, a super-sized source of trouble.

Ling Shuangjue’s gaze did not linger on anyone.

The moment she appeared, her blood-red pupils traversed the vast distance, precisely and firmly locking onto Shen Zhaoqing.

When she saw Shen Zhaoqing’s pale face, the trace of blood at the corner of her lips, and her weakened, spiritual-energy-depleted state, Ling Shuangjue’s already icy gaze instantly plummeted below freezing.

Then, her eyes slowly descended.

They fell upon Yuange, lying on the ground before Shen Zhaoqing, her breath barely clinging to life.

Then, they settled on Shen Zhaoqing’s hand, still tightly clutching the Gui Niang Hu, continuously channeling the life-saving golden wine mist to Yuange.

In that instant.

“Heh.”

Ling Shuangjue let out a soft snort, and an indescribably terrifying aura erupted from her. The temperature of the entire battlefield seemed to plummet by dozens of degrees.

Yet, within those red pupils, the surging killing intent had almost solidified.