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"If I let her drink my blood, will it calm her down?" Xuan Ming asked.
The City of Slaughter contains horrible chronic toxins that are addictive like drugs, and the speed at which they are taken will also make people excited. So since the first day of entering the City of Slaughter, he has never let Hu Liena touch any Bloody Mary.
But even so, Hu Liena's desire still became very abnormal. This did not match the symptoms of Bloody Mary poisoning, but it was definitely not normal.
"Brother, your blood... is a thousand times more terrifying than the poison in this damn place." The Ice Dragon King said strangely.
"Once separated from your body, your blood will quickly lose its balance. The forces of extreme cold and heat will instantly erupt, annihilating each other and generating extremely terrifying destructive power."
"Forget drinking it. If an ordinary soul master were to touch even a drop, the conflicting energy would likely shatter their meridians or even cause their body to explode and die."
"Do you think your blood is a tonic soup? It's deadly!"
Xuan Ming was silent.
He could indeed feel the violent power contained in his blood, which usually maintained a delicate balance in his veins by relying on his strong physique and will.
As for what would happen after leaving the body, he didn't know, after all, he had never tried it.
"What about her situation..." Xuan Ming's gaze fell back on Hu Liena. Even in her sleep, her body would occasionally spasm slightly, and fine beads of sweat oozed from her forehead. It was obvious that she was still struggling with her inner desires and the erosion of the City of Slaughter.
"The root cause is still this damn place," the Ice Dragon King said with disgust. "It's constantly corroding the mind, amplifying all negative emotions and desires. This girl's obsession with you was already deep, and it's been infinitely magnified here. Coupled with the pressure accumulated from long-term tension and killing, she suddenly lost control."
"Your very existence is like a person dying of thirst in the desert seeing an oasis. They instinctively want to pounce on it and grab it. It's a mixture of the desire to survive and the desire for love, and it's not so easy to suppress."
This damn place is not just a place of killing. It has been polluted by the Rakshasa God and turned into a hotbed of depravity filled with all kinds of twisted desires.
Killing is only superficial; deeper down is the endless catalysis and degradation of desire.
Hu Liena had no resistance to Xuan Ming to begin with, and now that her strength was magnified, it was only natural for her to lose control.
Rather than saying that Hu Liena was dominated by desire, it would be better to say that she was influenced by Xuan Ming.
Xuan Ming's expression changed slightly, "So, if I'm not with her, she will be fine?"
"Of course." The Ice Dragon King's tone was a little subtle.
"How much she loves you, how much she loathes everyone else in this city. You're like the only light in the darkness; all her obsessions and survival instincts are tied to you. Without you, she might be even colder and more vigilant, like a lone wolf licking its wounds, less likely to lose control. With you around, she has an outlet for her vulnerability and dependence."
Xuan Ming silently looked at Hu Liena's slightly furrowed brows as she slept, and his fingertips curled up unconsciously.
"So, my existence is her biggest flaw?"
"That's understandable, but not entirely correct." The Ice Dragon King's tone softened. "Flaws are often also weaknesses and armor. At least just now, your presence comforted her, didn't it? Looking at it another way, without you as an anchor, she might have been completely assimilated by this endless slaughter and distortion, becoming a monster that only carnages, rather than being like this now... who only occasionally wants to pounce on you."
"But I always feel that there is another force causing trouble." Xuan Ming stood up and looked at the eternally dim red sky outside the window.
"illusion?"
A few days later.
Under the eternally unchanging crimson sky of the City of Slaughter, an extremely obscure aura, like a shadow blending into the blood mist, quietly descended upon the outer area.
Bibi Dong was dressed in casual clothes, her aura restrained to the extreme. She stood on the top of a twisted building like a ghost, her scarlet gaze piercing through the space, accurately directed at the familiar stone house in the inner city.
She was still worried after all.
After Qian Renxue entered the Elder Hall, it was unusually quiet. The interior of the Spirit Hall was temporarily stable, so she took the time to come in person, just wanting to secretly confirm the conditions of the two, especially Hu Liena's condition.
She knew how terrible the killing city was in corroding one's mind.
However, just as she steadied herself, a cold gaze shot towards her from the direction of the stone house below, accurately locking onto her position.
Xuan Ming's figure had appeared at the door of the stone house at some point, looking up at her. There was no surprise in his ice-blue eyes, as if he had already anticipated her arrival.
Bibi Dong was slightly shocked. Her hiding skills were so amazing, how could she be discovered so easily?
Xuan Ming has been in the City of Slaughter for a year, and his perception seems to have become even more terrifying.
She no longer hid, and her figure flashed, and she appeared in front of the stone house as if teleporting.
"Teacher?" Hu Liena in the room heard the noise and poked her head out vigilantly. Seeing that it was Bibi Dong, surprise instantly appeared on her face, but then she seemed to have thought of something. A trace of panic and embarrassment flashed across her eyes, and she subconsciously tidied up her messy clothes and hair.
Bibi Dong's sharp eyes swept across Hu Liena's face and immediately noticed something unusual.
Although Hu Liena tried hard to act normal, the lingering restlessness and fatigue in the depths of her eyes, as well as the faint aura of desire on her body that was suppressed but still keenly captured by Bibi Dong, made her frown.
"It seems that I came at the wrong time?" Bibi Dong's voice was emotionless, but her eyes turned to Xuan Ming with a questioning look.
Hu Liena lowered her head, twisted her fingers together, and said in a soft voice: "Teacher, I... I'm fine..."
She didn't dare to speak out about the many times she lost control.
Xuan Ming walked forward, pulled Bibi Dong aside, explained Hu Liena's situation to her, and expressed his doubts.
"Out of control?" Bibi Dong's pupils shrank slightly when she heard this, as if she had thought of something.
She walked quickly into the house, grabbed Hu Liena's wrist, and a pure and cold mental power quickly penetrated into her body, examining it carefully.
Hu Liena trembled, but did not resist.
After a moment, Bibi Dong's expression turned extremely ugly.
She did feel an extremely obscure, alien spiritual imprint with charm and wildness deep in Hu Liena's spiritual origin, which was almost integrated with Hu Liena's own soul!
The mark was silently absorbing the evil aura of the City of Slaughter and amplifying Hu Liena's primitive desire for Xuan Ming!
Nine-tailed celestial fox!
"What do you mean!" Bibi Dong asked angrily in her heart.
"What do I mean? This is what she has to go through." The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox said slowly.
"She gained my power and possessed the potential to become a god, but of course, she had to pay a price. The allure of the Sky Fox Clan is so strong that even gods cannot resist it. Do you think this power comes without a price?"
"Speak clearly!" Bibi Dong said coldly in her heart, the murderous intent almost being transmitted through the mental connection.
The lazy and charming voice of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox, with a hint of teasing, echoed in her mind: "Oh, don't be so angry, Your Holiness. I'm not harming her. I'm helping her, and I'm helping you as well."
"Help her? Help her be consumed by desire? Help her turn into a puppet that only knows how to ask for things?" Bibi Dong's voice was icy cold.
"That's wrong." The Nine-tailed Fox replied slowly.
"The power of the Heavenly Fox comes from the deepest passion and desire."
"Extreme love, possession, desire... these are the source of our strength."
"Repression and restraint will only cause power to stagnate."
"Your disciple's heart has long been filled with Xuan Ming, yet he is an iceberg who refuses to budge."
"This girl usually has a hard time controlling herself, but after entering this slaughter city, filled with the aphrodisiac and lustful evil, her innermost desires were amplified. My soul fragment was merely following her heart and slightly... fueling the flames."
"You call this adding fuel to the fire?" Bibi Dong was furious. "She almost completely lost control!"
"Out of control?" The Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox chuckled with disdain, "That's because she hasn't learned to harness this power. A true Heavenly Fox should be the master of desire, not a slave. I'm forcing her to face her own heart, to control this power."
"Compared to how you constantly had to endure the evil thoughts of the Rakshasa and maintain your integrity, her desires are nothing compared to that."
Hu Liena absorbed the Nine-tailed Fox Heart Lotus, gained her remaining power, and evolved into a true Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox. She possessed the potential to ascend to become a god. Moreover, this girl was a human, not a soul beast. As long as she could control this power, it would be almost a natural thing for her to become a god in the future.
But this power came too easily to Hu Liena, without any gradual process. She almost gained the power of the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox in one step, which was the result of hundreds of thousands of years of hard work!
This so-called loss of control was nothing more than Hu Liena's low level of cultivation and insufficient mental training, causing her to be harmed by her own power.
Listening to the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox's explanation, Bibi Dong gradually calmed down.
Yes... Compared with the evil thoughts of Rakshasa that she had endured day and night, the burning desire that Hu Liena was experiencing at this moment did seem... much milder.
Although the beast was hateful, what he said was not entirely unreasonable.
The power of the celestial fox comes from the deepest passion and desire.
Extreme emotions are a powerful force in themselves, but they also come with huge risks.
Hu Liena gained this power overnight, but lacked the corresponding control, and being backfired by the power was almost an inevitable result.
The environment of the Killing City only brought forward and intensified this process.
"So, your help means watching her get burned to death by her own desires?" Bibi Dong asked coldly.
"Of course not." The Nine-Tailed Fox's voice became more serious.
"I will help her when she is on the verge of losing herself completely, but more importantly, she needs to understand and control it herself."
"This is the tribulation of lust that every celestial fox must go through. Once she overcomes this tribulation, her mental strength and control over her own power will be elevated to a whole new level."
"If she can't make it... then that means she's unworthy of inheriting my power, and it's only natural that she'll be devoured by the backlash."