Lu Li's voice trembled out of the darkness, as faint as wind rustling through an old curtain: "...So many...dead people, and a woman, pinned...pinned to the wall..."
He was pressed against the crevice in the cave entrance, trembling like a sieve, his face ashen, his eyes filled with unspeakable terror.
Just then—
"Whoosh!"
A bone-chilling surge of Qi suddenly swirled in from the Cave entrance, sweeping through like an ink-black tide, so dense it almost solidified.
Before it could react, a green-skinned Spirit Monster, half-asleep, was entangled by the Qi—
With a "bang!" it exploded in the air, flesh and blood splattering, shattered bones scattering.
The Cave instantly descended into chaos!
"Squeak!!!"
"Ah ah ah ah!!!"
The Spirit Monsters let out eerie, shrill cries, baring their fangs and lunging madly towards the cave entrance.
From that shadowy spot, an old man with a hunched figure slowly emerged.
He wore tattered grey robes, his eye sockets deeply sunken, his skin clinging to his bones, like an unrotted zombie. His long hair was disheveled like tangled algae, and he was enveloped by dark shadows, like wolves and snakes, hissing and coiling at his feet.
He seemed like a ghost crawled out of Hell.
The Spirit Monsters surged towards him like a tide, but he merely waved his hand.
Streaks of grey shadow, like gossamer threads, dispersed and burrowed into the Spirit Monsters' mouths, noses, ears, and eyes. In an instant—
"Puff puff puff!"
The Spirit Monsters swelled, twisted, and burst one by one, blood raining down in the cave.
In less than ten breaths, the ground was covered in severed limbs and broken bones, utterly silent.
The old man shuffled his feet, slowly walking to the rock wall and standing before the pinned woman.
He extended a withered hand, his fingertips covered in black cracks, and gently lifted the woman's chin.
It was an exceptionally pale face, completely devoid of color, yet...breathtakingly beautiful.
Even in her current disheveled and filthy state, barely clothed, with her belly torn open and intestines spilling out, she could not conceal that almost "Fairy-like" countenance.
The old man gazed for a moment, a strange mix of pity and sarcasm surfacing in his eyes, and he murmured:
"Tsk tsk...who would have thought that the Ascension Immortal Gate's former most beautiful Fairy—Fairy Qiuyue—would fall to such a state."
"Secretly cultivating forbidden arts, feeding Hell ghosts with flesh and blood, seeking to enter the Dao with her Yin soul, only to suffer a severe backlash, fall into the mountain belly...and be trapped here by a group of Spirit Monsters who haven't even opened their spiritual intelligence, having her flesh gnawed and blood swallowed daily, yet surviving for ten years, not dying."
The woman on the wall's lips moved, but only muffled gurgling sounds emerged.
The old man frowned, raised his hand to pry open her mouth, and paused.
"...Her tongue was cut out. Heh, she really was gnawed from top to bottom."
He released her, sighing with a hint of mockery:
"The people of Ascension Immortal Gate have probably long forgotten you. You were once so radiant, but now you've become this mountain ghost's blood sac."
"However...your life is still there, and your face is still there. You can barely still be considered the 'most beautiful Fairy.'"
"I'm not saving you for free—"
His gaze grew colder, his tone slowly turning frigid:
"From now on, obediently be my 'Cauldron.' This body of yours...used for refining pills, nurturing souls, and feeding ghosts, it won't disgrace that face of yours."
A line of bloody tears dripped from the corner of the woman's eye, her body trembling violently, yet she couldn't utter a sound.
Lu Li, Lu Ya, and Lu Yuan hid behind the rock crevice, cold sweat soaking their clothes, not daring to even cry out.
The old man walked to the wall, flipped his palm, and his five fingers transformed into black threads like ghostly shadows. With several whooshing sounds, he precisely pulled out the bone nails pinned to the woman's four limbs.
The moment the bone nails slid out of her flesh, the woman's body went limp like a broken paper doll, hanging on the wall, a trickle of bloody foam escaping her lips.
The old man caught her and gently placed her on the ground.
His gaze, however, deepened.
He picked up a bone nail, his brows slightly furrowed, examining it carefully.
"No...this nailing technique is particular, it's an evil method for suppressing souls and fixing spirits...locking Qi into bones, sealing orifices and severing the spirit."
He looked up at the rock wall, his eyes filled with solemnity.
"It doesn't seem like something Spirit Monsters could have done...could it be that this place once..."
He hadn't finished speaking when—Boom!
A roar, as if the mountain belly had exploded, suddenly came from the depths of the Cave!
Immediately after, a giant Spirit Monster, entirely green, with a height of two zhang, suddenly broke through the misty shadow and stepped out from the darkness.
Its entire body was muscled like rock, its eyes blood-red like lamps, its fangs ghastly, constantly chewing on something unknown. Unlike other Spirit Monsters, it was not emaciated and deformed, but wore fragmented beast hides, with a necklace of broken bones on its shoulder, and a vertical eye split open on its forehead, from which black Qi seeped out, terrifying to the extreme.
The old man's face changed drastically, his voice shifting:
"A Golden Core cultivation...Earth Fiend King!? That monstrous thing actually came into existence!!"
He let go of his hand, allowing the woman to collapse in a pool of blood, then pushed off the ground and turned to flee.
"Whoosh—!!"
But the Earth Fiend King had already sealed the cave entrance, letting out a series of strange cries, clenching its hands into fists and striking out, a powerful wave of corpse Qi sweeping through the entire cave.
Qi surged, dense fog dispersed, and instantly, the cave was filled with roaring winds and thunder!
The old man roared, his ghostly shadows swirling, engaging the King in battle. Palm shadows connected, bone blades clashed, flesh and blood flew, and Spiritual Qi roared like thunder.
Amidst this chaos—
A scattered wave of Qi crashed violently against the cave entrance above the rock wall!
"Boom!"
Lu Li, Lu Ya, and Lu Yuan, who were originally hidden in the crevice, were caught off guard and swept up by the impact, rolling down from the stone path like rag dolls.
"Ah—!" The three couldn't even scream as their bodies tumbled down the stone steps and bone piles of the Cave, hitting their heads and bleeding, finally falling heavily into a pile of corpses.
Blood mixed with dirt, dirt mixed with bones, the three had already fallen unconscious.
Meanwhile, inside the Cave, the battle raged, ghostly shadows like a tide, blood mist boiling.
After an unknown amount of time, the old man roared:
"I remember this grudge today! Earth Fiend King, the day I return will be the day your body and spirit are annihilated!"
The next instant, his figure transformed into a grey mist, fleeing in a hurry, disappearing into the depths of the darkness.
In the cave, only the Earth Fiend King's roars shook the heavens, and the corpse Qi grew thicker. The woman hanging before the rock wall, no longer able to struggle, stared expressionlessly at the unconscious trio, a faint glimmer of divine light quietly surfacing in her blood-red eyes.
The mountain belly, after the battle, was as silent as a tomb.
Blood and dismembered limbs were everywhere, and the air was filled with a nauseating stench of decay.
The tall Earth Fiend King stood in the cave, its chest heaving, blood oozing from its shoulder. Though victorious in the fierce battle, it bore terrifying wounds.
It stood amidst the blood-stained remains, looking down at the Spirit Monster corpses scattered across the ground. In its dark ghostly eyes, a hint of something akin to sorrow flashed.
Then, it slowly turned and saw the white-clad woman lying in a pool of blood.
Its massive body trembled, then it dragged its broken leg, limping quickly forward.
It crouched down, its thick hand gently supporting the snow-white, blood-stained body. Its movements were almost tenderly careful, as if holding a beloved doll, helping her sit up.
Its hands, covered in cracks and bloodstains, slowly covered the woman's cheeks—
The movement was gentle, the expression frozen in a chilling tenderness.
The Earth Fiend King's eyes brightened, as if waiting for her to open her eyes, waiting for a response.
Its lips curled, baring ghastly fangs, yet there was no hint of ferocity, but rather it seemed to be smiling.
—It was the smile of a beast towards its "lover."
But it didn't know that the woman was no longer the original "blood food."
The soul-suppressing nails had already been personally removed by that old Daoist.
At this moment, the woman's lowered eyelashes trembled slightly, and a sinister, cold, almost deranged glint quietly emerged from her blood-red eyes.
Her fingers moved.
Unbeknownst to the Earth Fiend King, she held a broken bone blade, a remnant left by a fallen Spirit Monster, covered in poisonous blood and rust spots.
Just as the Earth Fiend King reached out to caress her hair—
"Puff!"
The bone blade, carrying a faint black gleam, suddenly pierced its throat!
The Earth Fiend King's eyes widened abruptly, its body stiffening, as if it couldn't react for a moment.
It slowly lowered its head, looking at the bone blade embedded in its throat, blood gushing like a spring.
The woman looked up, staring intently at its face, a distorted arc slowly forming on her lips.
The next moment—
The Earth Fiend King roared, flinging her away!
Her body hit the rock wall like a rag, emitting a dull sound of bones cracking, blood flowing horizontally down her spine, her chest heaving violently, almost losing her breath.
The Earth Fiend King roared upwards, black blood gurgling from its throat. That fury lasted only a few breaths before the vitality in its eyes rapidly dissipated like a tide.
It crashed to the ground.
The Earth Fiend King, a generation's ruler, lay dead in the cave, its eyes wide open in death.
And the woman in the distance, leaning against the rock wall, her hair covering her face, covered in blood and grime, yet a strange curve hung on her lips.
She raised her head, and suddenly made sounds from her mouth: "Ah...ah ah ah...ah hahahaha..."
That was not laughter, nor pain. It was a tongueless person, using all her strength to imitate the sound of human laughter.
Her face was as pale as a ghost, yet her eyes were filled with a tearing pleasure.
Soundless mockery, wordless ecstasy.
Only those distorted "laughs" echoed among the dead.
Eerie. Mad. Deranged.