Wen Shan immediately sensed the change in Senior Sister.

  Her already icy features grew even more detached, as though nothing in the world could stir her gaze.

  More unsettling still was the aura emanating from her.

  It was inhuman.

  No, not merely similar.

  His heart lurched.

  The aura radiating from her now was identical to the one Huang Xiuxiu had carried before.

  There was no difference at all.

  What was happening?

  Before he could piece it together, Senior Sister spoke to the demonic hound in a voice devoid of emotion.

  “You saw that a soul was hidden within her body. But do you know whose soul it was?”

  The hound’s massive frame stiffened.

  A horrifying possibility seemed to dawn on it.

  “No… impossible! That was your soul? Just now… you retrieved the severed fragment?”

  A faint, mocking smile curved her lips.

  “Yes. The soul within her was a portion I split from myself. That way, you would never suspect that there was still another person here suited to the Hai Suan path.”

  “You lunatic!” the hound roared, fury and disbelief mingling in its voice. “Do you understand what forcibly merging a severed soul fragment will do to you? The damage will be irreversible. You will suffer worse than death!”

  She laughed softly.

  “So what? The elders of my sect already divined that entering this realm meant certain death for me. One person would need to bear the calamity in my stead.”

  “That person was Junior Sister Ling’er. She volunteered to become the vessel of my divided soul.”

  “As long as I can reclaim the Hai Suan treasure and obtain the complete inheritance, then neither my sacrifice nor hers will have been meaningless.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Madwoman! You humans are all mad!” the hound bellowed. “Using your own junior sister as a shield against disaster? No wonder our Lord seeks to exterminate you all!”

  She sneered.

  “If you seek to wipe us out, what choice do we have but to fight for survival?”

  “Once my soul is fully merged, this treasure will be—”

  Her words cut off abruptly.

  Her face turned deathly pale. Her slender body began to tremble uncontrollably. Cold sweat poured down her brow.

  Agony, born from the depths of her soul, tore through her consciousness.

  It was pain beyond endurance.

  Even with her resolute Dao heart, her awareness collapsed in an instant.

  The hound froze briefly, then erupted into wild delight.

  “Ha! Soul fusion is not pleasant, is it? Especially with a fractured soul! As long as I kill you before you finish merging, there will be no second genius here!”

  “Yes. Kill you, and it ends!”

  Its mountainous body lunged forward, jaws wide.

  Senior Sister, lost in unimaginable torment, sensed nothing.

  She did not react.

  But a figure stepped forward.

  The cultivator from Xia Ke Gang.

  He roared,

  “Fight!”

  And collided head on with the hound.

  The impact sent his feet carving trenches through the stone as he was forced backward. His restored spiritual power was far weaker than the beast’s.

  “You think you can stop me?” the hound jeered, pressing forward. “Your cultivation has barely returned to Qi Refining. You dare block my path?”

  The man burst into laughter, bold and unrestrained.

  “Of course I cannot stop you. But if I can delay you for even a moment, it is enough!”

  In the next instant, his spiritual power reversed violently.

  His body blazed like a miniature sun.

  He self detonated.

  The explosion, even at Qi Refining level, blasted the hound’s flesh apart. It howled in pain, blood scattering across the summit.

  Before it could recover, the Divine Iron Camp cultivator rushed forward without hesitation.

  In his hands was a plain black iron sword.

  Without a word, he cleaved down at the beast’s head.

  The hound snapped its jaws shut.

  With a sharp crack, it bit the blade, halting it.

  But the sword suddenly radiated brilliant light.

  It detonated.

  The blast tore into the hound’s face. Blood streamed from its eyes and nostrils as it roared in fury.

  “Are you insane? That sword would be a spiritual treasure outside this realm! And you destroyed it? If this realm did not suppress its power, I would be gravely wounded!”

  “And now—”

  Before it finished, it lunged forward and swallowed the Divine Iron Camp cultivator whole.

  It turned its savage gaze toward the last two cultivators.

  Two had already died.

  And they had not even bought half the time required.

  The promised quarter hour seemed impossibly distant.

  Though injured, the hound could still easily kill the remaining two.

  At that moment, the Five Grains Mountain cultivator suddenly turned toward the righteous disciples behind him and shouted,

  “Fellow Daoists. If we perish here today, do you harbor regret?”

  The answer came in unified thunder.

  “No regrets!”

  In an instant, the ground beneath them split apart.

  Cracks opened like the furrows of fields.

  Every disciple, including the Five Grains Mountain cultivator, leapt into the fissures without hesitation.

  The earth sealed.

  And from it, towering ancient trees erupted skyward.

  In mere breaths, a vast forest surged into being, branches interwoven, trunks thick as fortresses, forming an immense living barrier before the demonic hound.

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