Cang Yaochen stepped onto the scalding iron plates, leaving charred, bloody footprints with every stride. Dark red fluid seeped from the wound in his spine, yet the sheer malevolence unleashed by the removal of the Soul-Settling Needle made him look more like a primordial monster than the Divine Enforcers facing him.
The staggered Divine General let out a roar, his muscles bulging as he swung his halberd in a wide arc, bringing down a dense web of golden lightning. Cang Yaochen side-stepped, his movements a blur of distorted shadows. His right hand shot out, clamping around the General's throat. His fingers dug in, piercing the sanctified armor and sinking deep into the flesh.
"I've dismantled countless bones as hypocritical as yours ten thousand years ago."
Jiang Li broke through the ruins of the subterranean prison with Cang Yaochen on her back. Above the City of Sin, the sky had been completely blotted out by the golden arrays of the Sacred Ground. The dark alleys, usually devoid of sun, were now illuminated as bright as day. A suffocating pressure of divine power filled the air, leaving the ghost-cultivators and apostates trembling in the shadows, not daring to show their faces.
"Seal the void! Not even a fly gets out!"
High above, a commander in gold armor brandished a sun-sword, his voice echoing like thunder. Behind him, hundreds of cultivators formed battle arrays, their artifacts shimmering, encircling the City of Sin like an iron bucket.
Jiang Li stood on a crumbling roof, coldly eyeing the hypocritical golden light above. Cang Yaochen's breath was shallow, his searing blood soaking into her red robes. The exhaustion of his Asura origin combined with the agony of a shattered godhead kept his brow furrowed even in unconsciousness.
"Let's collect some interest on this debt first," Jiang Li whispered, raising her right hand.
The Mirror of Profound Inquiry levitated into the air, its crimson light spinning rapidly. A sinister aura, one that transcended the gods themselves, erupted instantly. She didn't use her Heart-Piercing Crossbow—that was her final card for a desperate struggle. Now, she wanted to test the restored mirror.
"A demonic artifact! Loose arrows!"
The commander spotted her instantly. At his command, hundreds of golden arrows infused with demon-breaking runes whistled down like a torrential rain, blanketing the rooftop.
Jiang Li didn't even blink. Her left hand formed a seal, tapping lightly on the floating mirror.
"Reverse."
A single, icy word fell from her lips.
The mirror vibrated violently, the erupting malice transforming into a physical, dark red vortex around her. The whistling golden arrows froze mid-air the moment they touched the vortex. A heartbeat later, they spun around, losing all control, and screamed back toward the Sacred Ground's formation with twice the speed.
Agh—!
Screams tore through the sky. The cultivators never expected their own attack to backfire. The formation shattered as dozens were pierced through. Golden divine blood rained down, staining the filthy streets of the City of Sin.
"Bastards! That's a causality-type demonic tool! Form the 'Great Sun Suppression Array'!" The commander shook with rage, waving his sword to steady his men.
The remaining cultivators shifted rapidly, their divine power weaving into a massive golden sun that descended toward Jiang Li with a heat meant to incinerate all things.
Jiang Li let out a cold sneer. she could feel that this array was indeed a lethal counter to the demonic nature inside Cang Yaochen; the man on her back began to convulse even more violently. She couldn't fight them head-on.
She withdrew the mirror and blurred into motion, a streak of red fire leaping across rooftops toward the abandoned docks at the western edge of the city. There lay the Styx River—the only path out.
"Pursue them! They must not escape!"
Golden lightning and sword-qi exploded behind her, grinding old buildings into dust. In full sprint, Jiang Li spun around, the Heart-Piercing Crossbow appearing in her hand. She ignored the commander and fired a volley at the lead pursuers.
Thwip-thwip-thwip!
Three short arrows flew in a triangular formation. The moment they left the string, Jiang Li infused the tips with a strand of "Despair" extracted from the mirror. The cultivators raised their spirit shields, but the arrows phased through the barriers as if they were mist. It was an attack aimed directly at the soul.
The struck cultivators let out shrill wails, the light in their eyes vanishing as they plummeted from the sky, smashing into the ground. This method of erasing the soul alongside the body made the remaining pursuers hesitate, slowing their pace.
Taking that opening, Jiang Li reached the banks of the Styx. The water was thick, black, and smelled of nauseating rot. A few dilapidated bone-ships floated on the surface. She leapt onto one with Cang Yaochen, casting the mirror to the bow. The malice from the mirror poured into the vessel, and with a screech of grinding bone, the ship tore through the black water, vanishing into the thick river mist.
Half an hour later, downstream from the City of Sin.
The bone-ship collided with a beach of jagged rocks and fell apart. Jiang Li carried Cang Yaochen ashore, staggering. The Styx water was highly corrosive; even with the mirror's protection, her boots and hem were tattered, and her skin stung with a burning itch.
She laid him on a cold, massive boulder. Without the river mist to hide him, his condition looked dire. The wound on his spine had stopped bleeding, replaced by a layer of eerie purple crystals crawling outward. His breathing had nearly stopped, and the demonic runes on his face were fading into a dull grey.
This was the sign of total Asura origin depletion—the body was beginning to self-destruct.
"Don't play dead, Priest Cang."
She wiped blood from her face. The Mirror of Profound Inquiry hovered above them, casting a thin red glow. She knew the pursuers would be upon them soon. She looked toward the distant, mist-shrouded mountain—the entrance to the Red Lotus Purgatory. It was the place where, three thousand years ago before her heart was carved out, she had personally planted ten thousand acres of crimson lotuses.
Jiang Li hauled Cang Yaochen's arm over her shoulder and began the grueling climb. At the entrance—a jagged stone fissure—a heatwave capable of melting divine weapons slammed into them. It wasn't the dry heat of a forge, but an "infernal fire" that bored into the soul to incinerate sin.
"Halt! Sacred Ground business! Rebels, stay your path!"
The golden commander had caught up, riding a golden compass with a dozen elite guards. Jiang Li didn't look back; she flicked her wrist, pinning three crossbow bolts into the earth before the fissure.
"Enter, if you wish to die."
She dragged Cang Yaochen into the stone crack, vanishing into the glowing red light. Inside was a sea of blood-colored lotus ponds. Every flower burned with a dark red flame.
On a black stone platform in the center, Jiang Li laid him down. Half of his face was now encased in purple crystal. His consciousness was gone, but his throat squeezed out broken syllables—half-ancient mantra, half-dying murmur.
"Li'er... go..."
Jiang Li snorted and tore open the remnants of his robes, exposing the horrific old scar where he had once gouged out his own heart. She sliced her fingertip, and the Mirror of Profound Inquiry flipped to face the wound.
"You wanted to save me? Well, I'm forcing you to live."
She pressed her hands to the back of the mirror, forcing a strand of her newly fused soul-origin out. Through the mirror's reflection, it slammed directly into Cang Yaochen's chest.
Life-for-life.
Asura malice and the Evil God's origin collided violently inside him. He convulsed with a blood-curdling shriek as the purple crystals shattered into dust. Sensing the origin aura, the ten thousand lotuses tilted toward the platform, wrapping the two of them in a massive, flaming cocoon of blood-red fire.
Cang Yaochen's eyes snapped open—his double pupils now a chaotic swirl of purple light and red fire. He seized Jiang Li's wrist, his grip strong enough to shatter bone.