Shen Qinghe POV
The three-story demon's fist came down like a falling mountain.
I shoved Yuehua aside and crossed my arms, channeling every drop of spiritual energy I had left. The impact drove me six feet into the ground. My bones screamed. Blood filled my mouth.
"Shen!" Yuehua's voice was raw with terror.
"Stay back!" I coughed, forcing myself upright. The crater around me steamed. "This thing is mine."
The demon laughed—a sound like grinding metal. "The seal-bearer's guardian. How touching." Its skull-face burned brighter. "The Demon Emperor sends his regards."
It could talk. That was bad. Demons that could speak were ancient. Powerful. This wasn't some mindless beast—it was a general.
Around us, the townspeople fought desperately against the smaller demons. Old Man Chen's temporary cultivation let him cut through three at once, but he was slowing down. The blacksmith's wife stumbled, exhausted. Xu Tian protected Lan Meiying while battling two shadow creatures.
We were losing.
The giant demon raised all six of its arms. Dark energy gathered around its claws. "The seal calls to us. We will answer. This realm will fall."
"Not today." I summoned my fire sword, but my hand shook. The power transfer to the townspeople had drained me more than I'd admitted. And using demon-tainted energy to help Yuehua bond with them? That had cost me dearly.
My cultivation was barely at half strength.
The demon struck again. I dodged left, then right, but the third blow caught me across the chest. I flew backward, crashing through a partially destroyed wall.
"Shen!" Yuehua ran toward me, but Wei Zichen blocked her path.
"Foolish girl," the sect leader said coldly. "You're the one attracting these creatures. The seal inside you is like a beacon. Every demon within a hundred miles is coming here because of you."
"Then help us fight them!" she shouted.
"Why would I do that?" Wei Zichen's smile was cruel. "Let the demons kill the rogue cultivator. Let them exhaust themselves trying to take the seal from you. Then I'll step in, claim the seal for Heavenly Sword Sect, and be the hero who saved everyone. The empire will thank me. The sects will praise me. And I'll finally have the power to break through to Nascent Soul stage."
Yuehua stared at him in horror. "You're going to let everyone die?"
"Mortals die every day. What's a few hundred more?" He turned away dismissively. "Meiying, come. We're relocating to a safe distance."
"No." Lan Meiying's voice was quiet but firm.
Wei Zichen spun around. "What did you say?"
"I said no, Master." She stepped away from him, her legs shaking but her eyes hard. "I've watched you sacrifice disciples for power. I've ignored it because I was scared. But this?" She gestured at the dying townspeople. "This is too far."
"You dare defy me?" Ice formed around Wei Zichen's hands. "I made you, girl. Everything you are comes from my teachings."
"Then I guess your teachings are garbage." Lan Meiying raised her sword, pointing it at her own master. "I'm done being your tool."
The giant demon wasn't waiting for their drama. It charged at Yuehua, six arms reaching for her glowing chest where the seal pulsed.
I forced myself up, ignoring the broken ribs grinding together. "Yuehua! Run!"
But she didn't run. Instead, she did something crazy.
She ran toward the demon.
"What are you doing?!" I screamed.
"You said the seal creates bonds!" she yelled back. "If it's calling to demons, maybe I can use that connection!"
She was right. Theoretically. But the theory hadn't been tested. If it failed, the demon would rip the seal out of her body along with her internal organs.
The demon's claw closed around her. I heard her gasp of pain.
Then she pressed both hands against its burning skull-face and pushed with the seal's power.
Golden light exploded outward.
The demon shrieked—a sound of pure agony. Its skull cracked. Black smoke poured from the wounds.
"It's working!" Xu Tian shouted. "She's hurting it!"
But I could see what they couldn't. The seal's power was tearing through Yuehua's body like fire through paper. Her nose bled. Her eyes were bloodshot. She was destroying herself to fight back.
"Stop!" I ran toward her. "You're going to die!"
"Better than letting it kill everyone else!" She pushed harder. The demon stumbled backward, six arms flailing.
I had seconds to make a choice.
Let her sacrifice herself and possibly save the town. Or save her and doom everyone.
Some choice.
I grabbed her from behind, wrapping my arms around her torso. "Together," I said firmly. "We fight together or not at all."
I poured my demon-tainted cultivation into her, merging it with the seal's power. The combination was unstable—like mixing fire and ice. My cultivation method was corruption personified. The seal was pure righteousness.
They should have destroyed each other.
Instead, they fused.
The golden light turned silver-black—a color that shouldn't exist. The demon general screamed louder. Its entire body began dissolving, not into smoke, but into nothing. Erased from existence.
When it vanished completely, Yuehua collapsed in my arms.
"I've got you," I whispered, even though I could barely stand myself.
The smaller demons, seeing their general destroyed, fled back toward the black pillar. Within minutes, the battlefield was clear.
We'd won.
But the victory felt hollow.
Wei Zichen laughed—a bitter, angry sound. "Impressive. You two just created a hybrid cultivation technique that shouldn't be possible. Demonic energy and righteous power working together?" He shook his head. "You realize what you've done? You've proven that cultivation's most fundamental rule—that demonic and righteous paths can never merge—is a lie."
"So what?" I asked tiredly.
"So the sects will hunt you both until you're dead." Wei Zichen's eyes glittered with malice. "Not to capture you anymore. To eliminate you. Because if word spreads that the two paths can be combined, every rule, every hierarchy, every power structure in the cultivation world collapses."
Before I could respond, Xu Tian shouted a warning.
The black pillar wasn't fading. Instead, it was growing brighter. Larger. The cracks in the sky spread wider.
And from the darkness at its base, something moved.
Not a demon this time.
A person.
They stepped into the moonlight, and my blood turned to ice.
I knew that face. Those eyes. That cruel smile.
It was impossible. I'd watched them die ten years ago.
"Hello, little disciple," my dead master said softly. "Did you miss me?"
The world tilted sideways. Because my master—the wandering immortal who'd saved me, taught me, and died protecting me—was standing fifty feet away with demon-red eyes and darkness pouring from their body like smoke.
They'd been dead for a decade.
And now they were very much alive.
And very much not human anymore.