Gu Yin only smiled and said nothing.

It was as if the two of them had completely forgotten the Three-Headed Flood Serpent still circling nearby. And maybe that was exactly why he now found himself trapped between fear and hesitation.

He knew perfectly well. Gu Yin never fought a battle she hadn’t already planned to win. This time, they were doomed.

Sure, Kunpeng’s getting held off by Qing Luan and the battle’s in full swing, but if he wanted to take off, there’s no way anyone here could stop him. Not even if they all joined forces.

And as for himself…?

Just thinking of how the Ox Warrior had died sent a chill crawling down his spine.

All of sudden, Gu Yin turned her gaze toward him and gave a small, knowing smile.

“Lord Sanyuan,” she said softly, “I know you and your people only followed Kunpeng out of confusion, not malice. The Alliance needs strong hands right now, and I won’t cut off my own arm. If you surrender here and now, once this is over, I’ll let the matter rest. How about it?”

At once, the Three-Headed Flood Serpent felt his comrades' eyes fixed on his face. In those looks, he saw hesitation, fear… but also hope. Hope for release.

His strength seemed to drain away. Meeting Gu Yin’s deep, unreadable eyes, he managed a bitter smile and lowered his head.

Gu Yin’s lips curved ever so slightly. She could tell he wasn’t truly submitting. Just beaten down for the moment. But that was fine. For now, that was all she needed.

Her gaze returned to Tianzhi. The stubborn cultivator had already forced down the raging Seven Passions Flame during that brief pause. Her steps had steadied again, and the look she gave her remained as intense as ever, burning with fury and resentment.

Gu Yin sighed and clapped her palm. The sharp sound was nearly drowned out by the rumbling explosions around them.

So faint that even the Three-Headed Flood Dragon nearby barely noticed.

Something felt wrong. He turned his head. And cold sweat broke out down his back.

Countless figures emerged from the swirling ice mist around them.

At a glance, he saw them clearly: Daoist Jia, the Ice Witch, the Soul-Severed Monk, and the Heaven-Balancing Lord. Four of the Ten Ruling Councilors, all present. And with the ones already there, that made all of them. All except the damn Net Throat Demon... and Gu Zhixuan, whose fate remained uncertain.

Every figure standing in the mist was a master of formidable cultivation.

If those people all rushed him at once, not even three hundred heads would be enough to save him. A bitter taste filled his mouth, but he couldn't help feeling relieved. He'd bowed his head in time, and his old life was spared.

Hundreds of elite cultivators had appeared without a sound, and the pressure they brought was impossible to ignore. Even Tianzhi faltered; she paused, stunned.

Gu Yin stopped watching her and turned his attention back to the fight between Qing Luan and Kunpeng.

The Ancient Kunpeng Demon wasn't stupid. He knew things were going badly and had been looking for a chance to slip away. But in both cultivation and speed Qing Luan matched him; getting away in a hurry wasn't going to be easy.

Seeing Kunpeng in that awkward place, Gu Yin let out a dry chuckle. "We'll make sure this old Kunpeng learns his lesson. Don't try to scheme on somebody else's turf if you can't judge how heavy the beads are," she said.

She tilted her head and smiled at the newly arrived Ice Witch. "Lady Ice Mist, lend me a hand to drive that unwelcome guest off, will you?"

The Ice Witch blinked, then nodded. At her cue, every pair of eyes in the crowd swung toward Tianzhi. And the change was immediate.

When had anyone ever seen a sect leader reduced to such a sorry sight?

These rogue cultivators and demons had always looked down on the major sects of the Tongxuan Realm. They’d been tangling with Tianzhi and her people for decades out here, and seeing her humiliated now felt like sweet vindication.

At first a few snorts of disdain. Then, like a dam breaking, hundreds of voices burst into laughter. Loud, cruel, and full of filthy taunts. The sound rolled over Tianzhi like a tidal wave and swallowed her up.

Her face had gone so pale it was almost translucent. Listening to that warped laughter, even a bystander like Li Xun felt his chest constrict. It was suffocating.

“Gu Yin’s too brutal… might as well have killed her outright.”

Even Shui Die Lan, who usually lived for mocking others, had said something like that. That alone showed just how grim the atmosphere had become.

Li Xun grunted, but when he heard the word “kill,” something clicked. “Wait,” he said suddenly. “You said someone hired you to kill Tianzhi? Who was it?”

“Gu Yin, of course… huh?”

They locked eyes, realization striking at the same time. “Since when has she ever been that kindhearted?”

Li Xun’s brows knitted tighter. The whole situation was starting to feel more and more off. “So how exactly did you take this job?”

“I…” Shui Dielan began.

“Kunpeng! If you bow your head now, you might still walk away with your life.”

Gu Yin’s voice suddenly rang out. She was a masterof the art of sound-based attacks. In just that one line, her words rose and fell with a mesmerizing rhythm. Absolutely captivating.

Too bad her target wasn’t impressed.

Even locked in fierce battle, Kunpeng laughed. “Believing Sect Leader Gu words? You’d be better off believing Gu Zhixuan doesn’t chase women. Gu Yin, if you’ve got the guts, come at me! If not, I’m leaving right now!”

His voice cracked like thunder, rolling through the icy mist. Li Xun could see it. The dark, hulking shape of Kunpeng suddenly swelled.

Qing Luan flicked her sleeve, striking him in the chest. But it wasn’t Kunpeng who staggered back. It was her.

The instant her sleeve hit, it was as if a thousand drums exploded at once. Waves of invisible sound burst forth, rippling through the frost-laden fog. You could almost see the air shudder.

Layer upon layer of vibrations stirred the icy poison in the mist. The venom surged like a sudden blizzard, roaring to life and sweeping toward them.

The already unstable passage collapsed again, sucking everyone into the storm of icy poison. Worse yet, the choking mist made it almost impossible to see. In an instant, over a hundred people were plunged into blindness. The encirclement formation they’d built up fell apart in total chaos.

Amid the swirling ice fog, the only thing you could see was the Kunpeng’s body, growing bigger and bigger. It spread through the mist like a drop of black ink in water.

Li Xun paused for just a second, and by then the world before him was drowned in that suffocating darkness. Deeper and heavier than any night sky.

“In the northern sea there lives a fish, called the Kun. So vast, no one knows how many miles it spans. When it transforms into a bird, it is called the Peng. Its back stretches for thousands of miles, and when it rises in anger, its wings shadow the heavens.”

When the most exquisite texts of the Xuan Sect flashed back into Li Xun’s mind, he couldn’t feel any of the soaring inspiration or grandeur he had felt the first time he read them.

In truth, no one standing beneath a bird that spans a thousand li could possibly feel anything “beautiful” about it.

All they could feel was pressure. And fear.

“So this is the Kunpeng’s true form…”

Shui Die Lan muttered a curse, grabbed Li Xun’s arm, and hissed, “We can’t stay here. Once that old monster takes off, he’ll suck us straight into his gut. Ugh, it’d be disgusting”

“You sound like you’ve been in there before—”

The half-joke died on his lips when he caught, from the corner of his eye, the half-smile still lingering on Gu Yin’s face.

Then it came a deep, thunderous hng-hng sound, shaking the air. It felt as if the noise were echoing inside their very organs, growing stronger with every beat, until it became almost impossible to breathe.

But seeing the look on Gu Yin’s face, Li Xun felt like the sound… wasn’t really worth fearing.

“I told you before,” Gu Yin said calmly, “when you’re playing with someone else’s abacus, you’d better test the weight of the beads first.”

She seemed utterly unfazed by the chaos around her. Her voice cut cleanly through the pounding hng-hng sound, reaching everyone’s ears.

Then she raised her hand. And made a sharp, downward motion.

A crisp zheng! rang out, clear as a blade slicing through steel. The mighty waves of sound were split in an instant. The heaving fog, which had been surging like a stormy sea, froze mid-motion. It was as if the world itself had turned to ice.

The hng hng sound suddenly shot up, sharp and piercing. It slammed into everyone’s mind, but all those present were seasoned cultivator; they held their composure just fine.

Suddenly, the rogues and demons gathered around her scattered in all directions, vanishing into the icy mist.

Right after that, countless streams of qi shot out from every side, tracing predetermined paths that quickly converged into one.

You could feel it. In that instant, the swirling mist around them was no longer just mist. Those countless threads of qi had woven it into a single, seamless whole, and the primordial qi of heaven and earth now flowed within it in some strange, intricate pattern.

And just like that, the endless haze of ice and mist turned into a colossal cage, locking tight around the Kunpeng’s colossal body that stretched across the skies.

By now, the Kunpeng was roaring with fury. The sound was so vast and deafening that the air itself seemed to shake. It was no longer even possible to tell what kind of voice it was.

It felt as though all of Yemo Heaven was trembling.

Li Xun was completely floored by Gu Yin’s brilliance. Her technique was so clever, he couldn’t help but gape.

On the surface, it looked as if Gu Yin was rallying the power of hundreds of cultivators to launch a joint attack. But really, she was using them as conduits, drawing on their presence to merge all the primordial qi within thousands of li into a single force. Only with such mastery could she hope to bind a creature as enormous as the Kunpeng.

Just as Gu Yin had said, this was her domain. Her understanding and control over this vast land of ice and mist were far beyond anything the old Kunpeng demon could ever imagine.

Shaken as he was, Li Xun suddenly realized something.

Of course… Gu Yin had known all along about Tianzhi’s and the Kunpeng’s schemes. But it seems Tianzhi was acting out of personal grudges, while the Kunpeng aimed for her power itself. So this counterstrike of hers... he thought, eyes narrowing, it’s the Kunpeng she’s truly after. Tianzhi was just a decoy.

The Ancient Kunpeng Demon was a towering figure who had roamed the world for nearly ten thousand years. Finally, he had fallen into Gu Yin’s hands. Though he still had the strength to struggle, anyone could tell that with Gu Yin’s level of foresight, there was no way she’d leave herself without a final move.

As that thought crossed his mind, Li Xun saw Gu Yin draw back her arm and pull a short flute from her sleeve. She lifted it to her lips and blew a single, clear note.

Or at least, it seemed clear at first. But as the sound lingered in the air, Li Xun realized there was something off about it. Not bright and pure, but muffled, heavy, almost like the dull slice of a blade cutting into flesh…

At once, the Kunpeng’s earth-shaking roar was cut off mid-scream. What followed instead was a strange, rustling hiss.

“Rain?” Li Xun blurted, dazed.

But before the foolish word had fully left his mouth, Shui Die Lan’s face turned pale. Both she and Li Xun stared, frozen in shock, as a torrent came crashing down from above. A “downpour” so fierce and unnatural it made their blood run cold.

“Is it… raining?”

No sooner had the words left Li Xun's mouth than Shui Die Lan’s face went pale. Both she and he froze, staring Dumbfoundedly as a sudden, pouring rain slammed down around them.

That dark red color… that choking, metallic stench. This wasn’t rain at all. It was blood. A rain of blood.

The Kunpeng’s howling had stopped, but that didn’t mean the chaos was over. On the contrary, as the blood rain poured down, the primordial qi across a thousand li seemed to scream and clash violently, shaking the massive barrier formed by hundreds of cultivators. And yet… it did nothing.

“She… slit his throat…”

The words were barely whispered, but their meaning was crystal clear. Instinctively, Li Xun and Shui Die Lan summoned their protective true breath, shielding themselves from what felt like an endless, torrential downpour. For a long moment, neither could speak.

Only one thought filled Li Xun’s mind: Gu Yin was terrifying beyond belief.

And that terrifying Gu Yin now lowered her flute, turned her head, and smiled faintly at the Demon Phoenix. “All done,” she said.

The Demon Phoenix was calm, unreadable. After a brief pause, she shook her head. “Hardly. You’ve only given the Kunpeng a small cut on the neck. Calling that ‘mission accomplished’ might be a bit premature.”

“I can only do a little myself, but with you and Qing Luan taking the lead, there shouldn’t be any problem. From now on, the Rogue Cultivators’ Alliance will be completely under our control. And that’s when our real plan will finally begin.”