Chương 45: Chapter 46: The Yao Race

Reyn closed his eyes, bracing for the cold embrace of death. Instead, a faint, tearing sensation rippled through the air, and the chaotic roar of the world outside was abruptly replaced by an eerie, suffocating silence. A voice, sweet as honey and soft as silk, drifted into his ears.

"Little brother, you really haven't been a good boy. How could you go wandering through Big Sister's home without an invitation?" Reyn snapped his eyes open. Before him stood the woman, her face as radiant as a blooming flower, yet the sight drained every drop of color from his cheeks. Beneath her playful tone, he could feel a murderous intent so naked and chilling it felt like a blade pressed against his throat. Her smiling facade only made the coldness in his heart grow deeper.

Chu Dian's eyes flickered with a dark, calculating light. Without a word of warning, he lashed out. With a flick of his wrist, several tendrils of demonic qi erupted, moving with a sinister sentience as they lunged toward Reyn's seven facial orifices.

"To disrespect the Master is to court death!" Chu Dian barked. Reyn's pupils dilated. He moved to retreat, but his body refused to obey. A crushing, invisible force had pinned him in place, rendering him as helpless as an insect in amber. The mysterious woman frowned slightly. With a casual wave of her hand—a gesture so effortless it barely seemed like movement—the lashing tendrils of demonic qi disintegrated into nothingness. Her lips parted as she spoke with icy indifference.

"Do not kill him yet. To let him die so quickly would be far too merciful."

"This subordinate was overzealous. I beg the Master's forgiveness," Chu Dian said, immediately bowing his head. His face was a mask of terror, but his eyes darted restlessly, hiding thoughts known only to himself. The woman gestured for him to stand aside. She paused for a moment, her fingers weaving through the air to form a complex, shimmering mudra. A pitch-black seal, glowing with a ghostly luminescence, manifested in the void between them.

"Bind!" she commanded. The seal streaked forward, sinking into Reyn's forehead and vanishing.

"I do not know what trick you used to break my previous restriction," she said, her voice laced with supreme confidence, "but you will not be so lucky this time." Even in her weakened state, this seal—a high-level technique from the Upper Realms—was more than enough to suppress a mere Qi Condensation cultivator. Reyn felt his entire body tighten. In his dantian, his spiritual energy became stagnant, as if turned to lead. His Divine Sense was hammered back into his mind, sealed behind an impenetrable wall.

His expression darkened as he realized he was now truly a prisoner. The woman ignored him, leaving him slumped on the floor as she turned her gaze back to the shimmering light screen. Reyn followed her gaze and gasped. The screen projected the battle raging outside. Though silent, the sheer scale of the destruction was breathtaking. He watched as the three high-level cultivators traded blows, their spiritual energy flooding the sky like tidal waves.

This is the power of the Golden Core, he thought, his heart racing. If this is the Golden Core, then what of the Nascent Soul? Can they truly move mountains and drain seas? For a moment, the sheer spectacle of the battle eclipsed his own dire situation.

"Demon Guard, they are about to fall," the woman said softly, her eyes flashing.

"The moment they perish, activate the array. I will use their essence blood and spiritual power to shatter this seal once and for all!"

"As you command, Master!" Chu Dian replied. A flicker of feverish excitement crossed his face as he stepped forward, positioning himself just behind her. On the screen, the battle reached its climax.

"Vile creature! Even if we die, we're taking you to the grave with us!" the portly Daoist and the old woman screamed. Their faces were twisted with a desperate, suicidal fury. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"Detonate!" The two exchanged a final, grim look. Their bodies began to swell unnaturally, and a violent, unstable pressure radiated from them, warping the very air. BOOM! BOOM! As the two Golden Core masters shattered their cores and burned their souls in a final explosion, the Ghost Corpse Venerable let out a panicked, guttural roar. Thick, rolling billows of corpse-qi erupted from its body, forming a protective sphere ten meters wide.

But the combined self-detonation of two Golden Core experts was a force of nature. The corpse-qi barrier was shredded like wet paper. The creature shrieked in agony as its body cracked and withered. Geysers of ghastly green corpse-blood sprayed into the air, and its aura plummeted instantly. Inside the hall, the light screen shook violently, the image blurring under the sheer force of the shockwaves. Reyn turned pale, feeling the phantom tremors of that world-shaking power.

"Rise, Array!" the woman cried. Her hands moved like butterflies in a storm, weaving a frantic series of incantations. Chu Dian stepped forward, his body erupting with pure demonic qi. Under the woman's guidance, the dark energy coalesced into dozens of obsidian runes that hovered in the air. These runes, the size of a child's fist, were twisted and ancient, radiating an aura of primordial desolation. Reyn stared at them, recognizing a haunting similarity to the ancient Tadpole Script he had seen before.

"Go!" the woman shouted. The runes vanished into the floor. A low, vibrating hum shook the entire palace. Centered on the woman, the ground erupted in a flash of black light that surged toward the center of the room. A massive, intricate formation—the Seven Fiends of Heaven and Earth Array—manifested across the floor, spanning dozens of meters. The essence blood and spiritual energy of the fallen Golden Core cultivators were drawn into the palace by an irresistible pull, soaking into the lines of the array.

As it drank the lifeblood of the masters, the formation's glow intensified, emitting a suffocating, mountainous pressure. Outside, the Ghost Corpse Venerable—now possessed by the beast—howled in unease. It paced frantically at the edge of the dark light, sensing a power it feared to touch.

"The Seven Fiends of Heaven and Earth Array is open! Today, the shackles that have bound me for eons shall break!" The woman rose from the Blood-Jade Platter, her long black hair whipping around her in an invisible wind. She looked like a celestial goddess descending from the clouds, yet her eyes were cold as the abyss, filled with the wrath of an Asura. She pointed a finger toward the heavens, her voice ringing with an indomitable will.

"When I return to the light of day, I shall leave a trail of a million corpses! I shall wipe your sects and your lineages from existence, casting your souls into the depths of reincarnation, never to transcend! I... shall... return!" As she spoke, a pale green barrier appeared within the array, covered in deep-blue runes that pulsed with a defensive power.

"Hmph! A mere remnant of a restriction, its power faded to a tenth of its peak, and you think you can stop me? Break!" The woman's voice carried an innate nobility that seemed to make the very world tremble.

"Ancestors of the primordial era, your descendant seeks the strength scattered across the world! Primal Ancestor's Call!" As her voice fell, the Seven Fiends Array roared with demonic flames. A titanic silhouette emerged—a towering figure with twin horns and eyes that looked upon the world with supreme disdain. The phantom let out a silent, earth-shaking roar of defiance.

Simultaneously, the green barrier reacted, condensing its own runes into a slender, majestic figure whose eyes held the swirling galaxies of a thousand cycles. The two phantoms—ancient enemies since the dawn of time—clashed instantly in a battle of wills.

"A mere lingering shadow dares to block me? Begone!" the woman hissed. She waved her hand, and Chu Dian's body erupted with even more demonic qi. More black runes flew into the horned phantom, causing it to solidify and radiate an even more terrifying pressure. Chu Dian stood with his head bowed, his body wreathed in smoke. For a split second, a strange green light flickered in his eyes. The woman, focused on the final push, condensed a final, ancient rune.

"Go!" she cried, her face turning deathly pale from the exhaustion of her cultivation. Chu Dian let out a sudden, piercing roar. The demonic qi around him instantly transformed into a vibrant, toxic green. He threw his hands forward, and a green rune merged with the woman's black one, striking the horned phantom. The phantom shrieked. Its proud, disdainful expression twisted into one of agony. Veins of sickly green light spread across its body like a virus.

Under the weight of the betrayal, the phantom began to fade, eventually dissolving into nothingness. The Seven Fiends Array flickered and dimmed, its power collapsing.

"Stop!" the woman screamed, her eyes wide with shock and fury. She lunged at Chu Dian, her palm striking out with lethal force. Chu Dian coughed up a spray of pale green blood, but his face was twisted in a triumphant grin. He didn't fight back; instead, he allowed the force of the blow to throw him toward the restriction. He hit the barrier and vanished into it, slipping through the gap he had created. The woman collapsed, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Her face was as white as a sheet.

"The Yao Race..." she hissed, her eyes fixed on the screen where Chu Dian now stood outside, safely perched beside the Ghost Corpse Venerable.