In the blink of an eye, every muscle and bone in Li Xun’s body was groaning under unbearable strain.

And that force that invade him earlier… what difference did it make now?

It felt as if a thousand great drums were pounding inside his ears. He knew it was really just the sound of his own blood rushing and crashing through his veins.

He wondered how he was even still aware, why the first blow hadn’t completely destroyed him.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when a sudden coolness spread across his back.

It was like a splash of cold water hitting a blazing furnace. Brief, but undeniably real.

Hissing noises filled the air, and then a grotesque, unnatural scream pierced through. Strangely, Li Xun felt much lighter.

The link with the Nine Netherworlds Realm had lasted only for a fleeting instant.

The strange disturbance in the Bottomless Nether Ring soon came to an end. Thanks to the changes along his back, Li Xun suddenly realized that the flames inside his body had weakened a great deal.

His head cleared somewhat, and he quickly thought of a way to respond. But then his eyes landed on three figures in the distance. Xiao Yi and her companions, who should have been long gone. They stood there staring at him, looking as if they’d just seen a ghost.

Get away from them!

His mind was on the edge again, his thoughts flickering in and out.

Driven by that single impulse, Li Xun somehow managed to seize control of his body once more. With a sudden twist, he shot upward, straight into the sky.

But… what were those specks of dark ash dancing in the air right before he'd shot up into the sky?

....

Luo Yuji’s mouth had fallen open, and she forgot to close it. Just moments ago, she had witnessed the most terrifying scene she’d ever seen in her life.

She was probably the only one who had seen everything from start to finish.

Just a split second before it had happened, she turned her head on impulse. She only meant to throw Hundred Ghosts a taunting look. But what met her eyes instead was a shadowy figure that flickered into view like a phantom and pressed himself against Hundred Ghosts’ back.

Her startled cry made Xiao Yi turn around too, stopping short in shock. They caught sight of the “shadow” slamming a fist squarely into Hundred Ghosts’ back, sending him stumbling forward before he froze in a strange, rigid pose.

“The Funeral Seal,” exclaimed Xiao Yi. “It's the Falling Feather Sect!”

Hu Buli gasped. “He’s finished...”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he almost bit his tongue off.

In that instant, Hundred Ghosts’s body swelled, and a wave of eerie gray-white flames burst outward from him.

The air around the two rippled and warped under the blast of heat.

Even several li away, Luo Yuji and her companions could imagine just how terrifyingly hot it must be.

Through the shimmering, distorted air, everything looked warped and unreal. Even so, all three of them saw it clearly. The same shadowy figure that had struck Hundred Ghosts with mountain-crushing force was now thrashing wildly, struggling to tear his hand free from Hundred Ghosts’ back.

The gray-white flames flared again, surging three feet out from Hundred Ghosts’ body and forming a strange, beautiful ring of light.

In the midst of this transformation, the assassin let out a shrill, piercing scream. Its body swelled, and countless short, razor-sharp streaks of gray-white fire...

That was how Luo Yuji later described it.

How else could anyone explain the way that figure’s body was shredded to dust in an instant and scattered away as ash?

Holding her breath, Luo Yuji watched Hundred Ghosts shot into the sky. For a moment, it felt like she’d just taken a trip to the edge of hell and back. It was a long while before she finally let out a deep breath.

Slowly, she turned toward her two elders. “What… what on earth just happened?” she muttered.

Hu Buli’s face went stiff. He said nothing. Xiao Yi thought for a moment, then nodded. “I think I finally understand why Hundred Ghosts' cultivation advanced so quickly.”

The answer seemed completely unrelated, which only made Luo Yuji more curious. Shaking off the lingering shock, she pressed her. “Why?”

“There must’ve been a powerful master from the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect who infused him with a massive amount of Yin Fire Qi during initiation. That much energy couldn’t have been fully absorbed, so it just sat inside him, dormant. Normally it would’ve stayed that way, but when the Funeral Seal struck, it triggered a backlash…”

She paused, frowning. “But even that doesn’t quite add up. Setting aside why anyone would do such a thing, even if they did, Yin Fire of that purity is rare. There can’t be more than two or three people in the whole sect capable of it. And lately, I haven’t heard of anyone losing that much power.”

Luo Yuji, no stranger to cultivation herself, frowned in thought. “That still doesn’t make sense. That kind of infusion... doesn’t it mess up your future cultivation? He’s from a demonic sect. The faster they progress, the easier they lose control. Why would anyone do something that hurts both sides?”

Xiao Yi let out a quiet sigh. She was about to answer when her expression suddenly changed. Grabbing Luo Yuji by the waist, she barked, “Move!”

A figure flashed past in front of them.

As they crossed paths, eyes as cold as frost swept over their faces. Luo Yuji, whose cultivation was weaker, felt as if she were plunging into a bottomless ice cavern.

Hu Buli and Xiao Yi drew their long swords at the same time. Blades sliced through the air with a ringing hum. In the next instant, Hu Buli let out a strangled cry and spun away, sent flying.

She didn't back down an inch, but blood was already running from her torn hands. Clenching her jaw against the pain, all that escaped was a sharp, choked gasp: “Yin Wanderer!”

Yin Wanderer was furious. Xiao Yi could feel it as clearly as the edge of her blade. But almost at once, another thought struck her.

For Hundred Ghosts? Is that really worth it?

.....

Hot… hot! Cold… fucking cold!

Li Xun let out an unconscious groan. By now, there was no longer any boundary between hot and cold. What remained was nothing but pure pain.

Heaven only knew where he was. All he felt was himself sprawled in a patch of grass, his whole body convulsing like a chicken whose neck had been slit.

Fuck you, fuck... He buried his face in the grass, pressing against the dirt, cursing wildly in his heart.

He didn’t even know who his curses were for. The words just tumbled out of him, a desperate attempt to dull the pain that burned from his bones all the way to his skin.

If you had seen his face right then, you would’ve realized that this Daoist in the dark robes of the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect had the exact same face as the famous “Spirit Bamboo.”

And that face was now twisted in sheer agony.

Hell, he’d already converted his qi, so why wasn’t the problem solved? Worse yet, it felt like things were getting even more out of control.

The surging Yin Fire was nothing like before. This time, it didn’t flow neatly into his limbs and bones; it raged forward and back during the qi conversion, constantly testing the limits his endurance.

His control was gone. All Li Xun could do was lie there and feel it happen. The awful groaning of his bones, the crushing weight deforming his insides. His body was on the verge of shattering, and he was powerless to stop it.

Li Xun had been under no illusion that a couple of rushed qi conversions would solve the formidable problem Master Ghost had left him.

But he had never imagined the problem would flare up so often!

Fine, he admitted it. If not for this eruption of Yin Fire, he might’ve already been punched into dust by that assassin. Still, the way things were going now didn’t seem any better.

Through his fading consciousness, Li Xun felt his body like a lump of soft clay, being twisted into all sorts of bizarre shapes by invisible hands.

He drew in a breath thick with the taste of dirt, and gave up the urge to lift his head. He muttered another “Fuck,” and felt his mind plummeting into a bottomless abyss.

With a long hiss, he convulsed violently, and just as his mind teetered on the brink of shattering, a sliver of light broke through the darkness.

In a haze, he seemed to hear a faint voice murmuring by his ear.

The words were strange yet rhythmic. A verse that flows effortlessly. Every twist and turn hits the right beat, rising and falling in perfect harmony.

Li Xun couldn’t make sense of its true meaning at first, though he noticed it was filled with words like yin and yang, softness and hardness.

Little by little, he began to understand more. He noticed how the rhythm of the words kept changing, sometimes rushing like a sudden storm, other times stretching out so each syllable seemed to linger and twist. What was remarkable was that every single sound was perfectly clear.

The voice carried a strange power. The chaotic energy raging inside him began to separate on its own, splitting into yin and yang, rising and falling in balance with the rhythm. Slowly, order returned to the turmoil, and the pain started to fade.

By now, Li Xun knew exactly who was helping him. He didn’t dare interrupt the flow of his true breath, simply guided it in sync with the external rhythm. After several steady cycles, once he was sure the Yin Fire had quieted again, he slowly straightened up into a seated position.

He exhaled a long, stale breath, then patted his cheeks to brush off the dirt. And to clear his head a little more.

Yin Wanderer watched him with interest, showing no intention of saying anything.

Only when Li Xun felt his composure return did he lift his head. He stared straight at her, and the first thing he said was, “Did anyone follow us?”

That caught her off guard.

She’d thought his first question would be about his own condition. Clearly, she had underestimated his sense of caution.

After a brief pause, she shook her head without the slightest doubt.

Li Xun didn't let up. “When did that guy start tailing us, and how?”

Yin Wanderer knew he meant the assassin from the Falling Feather Sect, but in this matter, she had no say.

After thinking for a moment, she decided to answer honestly. “That’s not something you should be asking me.”

Li Xun fixed her with a cold stare, his gaze sharp and coiled like a venomous snake about to strike, though his face stayed perfectly calm and still.

The way Li Xun looked right now... it was enough to make even Yin Wanderer feel a chill in her heart. And that's saying something.

There was no doubt about it. This was the calm before his emotional storm. Right now, he needed someone to vent his anger on, and she'd already braced herself for the humiliation she knew was coming.