True Form

Yu Yuanhai and Ye Jiaheng both felt deeply embarrassed; even Yan Wenyen could barely watch any longer.

"You've succeeded in enraging me!" The millennia-old Demoness glared furiously at Bai Lingjun and the others. That recent humiliation had been intolerable!

Meanwhile, outside the ancient tomb—

"Something is approaching. Be on your guard," Li Xintian said as he sensed movement nearby.

"I know," Hu Qiuyan replied, also picking up on the disturbance.

Suddenly, a tall figure appeared, clad in tattered black clothing. Its mouth was filled with jagged fangs, empty eye sockets flickering with twin ghostly flames—a corpse thrall.

The corpse thrall fixed its gaze on Li Xintian and Hu Qiuyan, then charged straight toward them.

"Perish!" Li Xintian, while receiving healing from Hu Qiuyan, reflected that his use of the Vital Energy was too single-minded. Gathering the righteous energy, he swiftly traced the character for "destroy." Without further movement, the Vital Energy transformed into a pale blue beam, piercing through the advancing corpse thrall.

The creature collapsed instantly, dissolving into a cloud of crimson smoke that spiraled into the sky.

Hu Qiuyan stared wide-eyed, astonished by the terrifying power of the Vital Energy.

"Qiuyan, help me up. We'll walk as you heal me," Li Xintian, looking much better, said, paying no further mind to the fallen thrall.

"Oh, right," Hu Qiuyan replied, snapping back to herself.

Li Xintian leaned against her, and together, one man and one fox moved slowly toward the ancient tomb.

Inside the tomb—

The millennia-old Demoness spun her hands in circles, channeling her magic, and thrust both palms toward the unconscious Hu Xiaoqiu, intoning, "Demoness of the Ghost Gate!"

"Ah!" Hu Xiaoqiu's form twisted, transforming into the terrifying and sinister Demoness of the Ghost Gate, her fingernails growing to a centimeter in length; her forehead now exactly like the Demoness’s. Then, as if in a tug-of-war, she would revert back to her original self.

"Elder Sister, it hurts so much, please save me!" Hu Xiaoqiu awoke from her stupor, her body suffused with a faint blue glow of Vital Energy, resisting the invasion of the demonic power. She wept in agony, feeling as if her body were being torn apart.

"Demoness of the Ghost Gate!" the ancient demon shrieked, intensifying her magic and expelling the Vital Energy from Hu Xiaoqiu's body.

Instantly, Hu Xiaoqiu transformed fully into the Demoness of the Ghost Gate, soared into the air, and landed beside the millennia-old Demoness.

"Haha! Heaven and earth are mine alone to command!" The Demoness, seeing Hu Xiaoqiu’s transformation, withdrew her magic and laughed wildly as a violent wind rose. Only Bai Lingjun could see clearly; the others were blinded by the storm.

"Demoness of the Ghost Gate, unite with me—heaven and earth shall bow to us alone!" With those words, the Demoness turned into a beam of black light, like a living black hole.

"Yes, Dread Sovereign," Hu Xiaoqiu replied, flying toward the black hole.

"Xiaoqiu!" Bai Lingjun drew the golden cord from her waist and looped it around Hu Xiaoqiu’s ankle. As the cord dragged along the ground, it pulled Bai Lingjun into the air as well.

Qiu Shuguang, seeing this, quickly grabbed Bai Lingjun's wrist and was also pulled skyward.

Ye Jiaheng, Yan Wenyen, and Yu Yuanhai all clung to the ancient tomb’s supporting columns.

"Those in the back, don't let her get away!" Bai Lingjun shouted to the others.

"Don't talk to me, or I'll lose my grip—I don't have the strength!" Yu Yuanhai yelled, clutching the column.

"Then stop talking and hold on tight!" Qiu Shuguang retorted, exasperated enough to want to strike him.

Hu Xiaoqiu and the black hole seemed drawn together like magnets. The golden cord began to splinter, strand by strand, until it finally snapped, and she was sucked toward the black hole.

The cord snapped completely, sending the others tumbling from midair to the ground.

"Xiaoqiu!" Bai Lingjun cried out as she watched Hu Xiaoqiu vanish into the black hole.

"Life!" At that moment, a pale blue beam of light shot from above Bai Lingjun’s head, entering Hu Xiaoqiu’s body.

Outside the tomb, the crimson glow from the demonic star in the sky suddenly shrank back into the star itself.

"Ah!" The millennia-old Demoness let out a wail as she fell from the sky outside the tomb, her magic shattered and her power rebounding against herself.

"Hmph, you wretched scholar! How dare you ruin my plans?! There was a door to heaven, but you would not pass; now, you seek a door to hell where none exists?" The Demoness rolled over and floated in midair, looking down with scorn.

"Millennia-old Demoness, your crimes defy reckoning. You lost your humanity long ago and are now consumed by darkness. Today, I will see your very soul annihilated!" Li Xintian stood tall, facing the Demoness.

Hu Qiuyan caught Hu Xiaoqiu as she fell from the sky, already returned to her original form.

The others from the tomb had also run outside and now watched from the entrance, but only Bai Lingjun rushed to Hu Qiuyan’s side and took Hu Xiaoqiu into her arms.

The Demoness, hearing Li Xintian’s words, clenched her fists and spun her magic, each rotation releasing a bolt of black lightning toward him.

Li Xintian did not move, standing silently as the lightning struck him and vanished as if into a bottomless sea.

He then raised his palm, summoned the Vital Energy, and unleashed a pale blue bolt that instantly shattered all of the Demoness’s black lightning.

She had no time to dodge; she gathered her power to disperse the blue lightning, which scattered and struck Qiu Shuguang, Yan Wenyen, Yu Yuanhai, and Ye Jiaheng at the tomb entrance. All four screamed and convulsed from the shock, then were flung backward, left groaning on the ground.

However, Hu Qiuyan, Bai Lingjun, and Hu Xiaoqiu, who stood behind Li Xintian, remained unscathed.

"This wretched scholar, his control over Vital Energy is progressing so fast!" The Demoness struggled to suppress her trembling hands, realizing she had lost centuries’ worth of cultivation.

"Master Li, if we do not destroy the Demoness today, there will be endless trouble!" Bai Lingjun urged from the side.

Even without her reminder, Li Xintian was determined to finish the Demoness. He released all his Vital Energy, a pale blue light shooting into the heavens.

"Millennia-old Demoness, perish!" He concentrated the energy into his palms, forming two powerful blue bolts that fused and shot toward the Demoness.

"Destroy!"

The Demoness summoned her magic, releasing a stream of black lightning from her mouth to intercept the incoming attack.

"Within heaven and earth resides the righteous spirit, in all forms it flows and abides..." Seeing the stalemate, Li Xintian began to recite the Hymn of Righteousness, drawing upon the world’s own vital energy for the first time.

As he chanted, pale blue light descended from the sky, even shattering the demonic star above.

"Vital Energy! No, I won’t accept this!" The Demoness’s power shrank rapidly as the demonic star was destroyed, and she howled in rage.

She screamed as the Vital Energy’s lightning struck her from the sky, hurling her to the ground.

She staggered to her feet, her hands splitting with cracks of blue light. As the cracks multiplied, plumes of purple-red smoke billowed upward.

Suddenly, the Demoness shattered into fragments and fell to the earth.

"At last, the Demoness is dead!" Hu Qiuyan exclaimed, patting Li Xintian’s left shoulder.

"No, she’s not yet gone," Li Xintian replied, raising his right hand. He had never seen anyone truly dead leave only a scattering of fragments.

As he spoke, the fragments on the ground converged into a black hole, from which a skeletal hand, wreathed in black flames and adorned with human skulls, emerged. The monstrous figure stood ten meters high, its eye sockets glowing with blood-red light.

Hu Qiuyan shrank back, hiding behind Li Xintian.

"I’ll leave this to you," she whispered from behind him.

"Everyone, be careful—this is the Demoness’s true form," Li Xintian warned.

"Today, you will all die! And you, wretched scholar, I will ensure your suffering is without end!" the Demoness roared in fury, now forced back into her original form, her powers nearly exhausted.