The Taoyuan Village cultivator calls me a "living sacrifice," which is reasonable from his standpoint. For Taoyuan Village, the thirty million people in the Southern City are living offerings for their "Paradise" plan. However, I noticed something off about his tone; his words seemed also interpretable as Jiaoshu personally wanting to seek an object for sacrifice externally.

What's even more suspicious is that Jiaoshu, upon hearing the Taoyuan Village cultivator's words, showed strange changes in his expression and emotions.

"But you're out of luck." The Taoyuan Village cultivator criticized with a condescending attitude, "…I recognize you. You're Jiaoshu among the Xuanming believers, aren't you? Previously, you were quite the force to be reckoned with, killing many of our associates.

"To be candid, one of my reasons for coming here is to quickly eliminate troublemakers like you. I was initially puzzled why you weren't here, but we still managed to catch you after all.

"If you had been a bit later returning with this living sacrifice… perhaps you wouldn't be dying here now."

"Living sacrifice?" I asked.

"Don't believe his words," Jiaoshu said solemnly, "Taoyuan Village's cultivators specialize in sowing discord. Many from Luo Mountain and secular governments have been seduced by their 'Paradise' plan and turned into shameful traitors. Even among us Xuanming believers, some have been converted by them. They're practically a bunch of eloquent devils..."

The Taoyuan Village cultivator laughed and said, "Look at you, I never said you had to turn him into a living sacrifice. Just now, my words could have been interpreted as me calling him a living sacrifice myself from my own perspective, right? You're too easily flustered."

Jiaoshu's face turned cold, as he subtly pressed down on my shoulder, saying, "...Things will become very dangerous after this. Don't stray far from my side. Our chances of escaping are quite slim; stray movement will make us even less hopeful..."

The Taoyuan Village cultivator said distantly, "Do you intend to use that child as a meat shield or something else?"

He made a gesture, and all the monsters on the platform surrounded us. Then, with a playful tone, he continued, "Well, I'll give you an opportunity, shall we? Tear off your hypocritical disguise yourself and present that child to me with your own hands. Then I'll allow you ten seconds to escape first before I pursue—how about it?"

Jiaoshu let out a scornful laugh.

Her reaction to disregard life and death genuinely comes from the heart; as a devout Xuanming believer, there's no way she would submit to Taoyuan Village's believers. However, the Taoyuan Village cultivator didn't actually intend to sow discord.

Even though I don't know if Jiaoshu truly plans to use me as a meat shield, nor do I believe that in this level of combat, I, without the ability to fight, would be of any value as a meat shield, it seems like Jiaoshu genuinely wants to use me as some form of living sacrifice.

Throughout this journey, I have long noticed Jiaoshu's strange emotions and suspicious intentions toward me. Saying it's entirely subjective malice wouldn't be accurate, but she indeed planned to entrap me in some form. Initially, her impatience towards me was somewhat flavored with facing an "object soon to be out of contact." If it weren't for my Power of Word Spirit, extracting valuable information from her would be impossible.

Currently, facing the Taoyuan Village cultivator's words, her emotional response on the surface of her soul was very similar to the pattern of "being exposed." The Taoyuan Village cultivator didn't reveal any misleading emotions premised on sowing discord; he was indeed stating the truth.

Jiaoshu promised to never let Taoyuan Village's cultivators and monsters threaten my life—but she hid the fact that she might also target my life.

Under immense danger, sweat dripped from her forehead, while she summoned her Evil Sword and quietly muttered to me, "The opponent is an achieved level Taoyuan Village cultivator. You don't need to know what level that is, just understand that given the enemy's strength, we cannot escape. So, three minutes—

"I possess explosive power, but it can last only three minutes. If the battle isn't over within this time, it means we'll have no resting place afterward. I'll fight with all my strength, so you must follow my instructions as much as you can within this time frame."

Before I could respond, the Taoyuan Village cultivator across from us obviously heard our voice and laughed even harder.

"I have your details, Jiaoshu. Your ability is to accumulate power at ordinary times and explode during battle. The time is fixed at three minutes; the more power accumulated ordinarily, the greater the output during those three minutes," he said. "But thanks to our comrades who sacrificed valiantly under your hands, I've analyzed and judged several of your battle scenes personally.

"Your ability indeed accumulates power, but it's not accumulating power normally and using it for only three minutes during battle, it's the other way around—the three minutes are when your superpower begins accumulating, and once those three minutes are over, you can explode far beyond the normal strength, exhibiting achieved realm capabilities at the Residence Realm level, am I right?"

Upon hearing this, Jiaoshu kept her composure as if the other was spouting nonsensical gossip, yet I captured tumultuous emotions from the surface of her soul—she was exposed again.

"The ability to unleash power higher than your own realm cannot be considered weak, but there must be strict limitations or a price involved," the Taoyuan Village cultivator spoke in a high-handed manner, "From my perspective, you can only propel those three minutes of accumulation progress once a battle begins. Otherwise, you could have started accumulating already while talking to me now.

"Once an enemy knows your weakness, no one would accompany you through those three minutes of warm-up. Either defeat swiftly or evade before the end of three minutes and turn away, that's why you spread false information about your power so enemies think they only need to drag past the three minutes. Unknowingly, those three minutes are their countdown to defeat.

"To boost the credibility of the false information, you never disclosed your power information personally but spread indirect hints through actions to those around you, even theatrically hanging a lamp with mana fluctuation on your chest.

"The lamp's light starts as blue, gradually turning yellow and red over time, and flashing in the last thirty seconds… Along with your increasingly exhausted acting as the finale approaches, anyone would think they should adopt delaying tactics to prevent a backlash from this 'cornered beast' before victory comes, right?"

Could there actually be such a thing? I couldn't help but look at Jiaoshu beside me, who maintained a calm demeanor. However, from the subtle tremor emanating from her tightly gripped Evil Sword and the fluctuating emotions on the soul's surface, it was clear her details were again laid bare by the enemy.

I knew her previous exhausted posture was acting, but I didn't realize there was such a truth.

Starting from the Great Success Rank, demon hunters deepen their understanding of abstract concept domains, acquiring increasingly inexplicable skills, yet they gradually shift towards prioritizing pure mana competition over special abilities, with this trait being more pronounced at the Impermanence stage. In the descending Formation, Abiding, Decay, Void System, demon hunters always operate with limited card types, making it tough to achieve thorough strategies in battle.

With correct combat tactics, ordinary people can defeat Bad Level demon hunters, and there are numerous cases of Residence Level demon hunters defeating achieved levels.

Their battles often aren't about power contests but the battle of wisdom and experience; the availability and amount of intelligence significantly affect the outcome.

Having entered the abnormal world starting from the Great Success Rank and early becoming Impermanence, I rarely experience battles focusing on intelligence gathering and battlefield observation. Sometimes, I regret the extreme power affecting my adventure experience profoundly. Now, I again realized—I truly missed much of the exciting and thrilling part of the abnormal world.

Even now, in the state of wielding Bad Level level mana, to kill Jiaoshu beside me, the Taoyuan Village cultivator across, and all surrounding monsters, would only take a dull instant.

"It's not too late now, hand over that child to me, and I'll honor my promise," the Taoyuan Village cultivator spoke with an alluring tone.

Jiaoshu coldly replied, "Hand him over to you—so you and these monsters can devour him alive?"

"It would be far better than turning into a living sacrifice for you Xuanming believers, right?" the Taoyuan Village cultivator spoke naturally, "With us, he only needs to endure temporary pain, and his soul eventually merges into 'Paradise' to enjoy an infinitely lovely dream… Whereas with you, even his soul will be extracted for the final ounce of value, ending without a trace left."

"Enough talk! Let's move." Jiaoshu aimed her sword at the Taoyuan Village cultivator.

The Taoyuan Village cultivator regretfully nodded, "Alright, alright. But before that—"

Before the words could finish, he suddenly launched an attack, sharply raising his right hand towards me first for some reason.

A blue thunderbolt, as thick as a trunk, burst from his palm, piercing through the air in an instant, with its foremost turning into a giant claw woven by electricity, aiming to seize me fiercely.