Everyone was stunned by this sudden turn of events, but what was even more surprising was that when Luo Ying’s sword struck the arm, Chen Tian’s hand wasn’t injured at all. Instead, Luo Ying’s sword seemed to have its edge rolled.

“My hand…” Chen Tian stared blankly at his arm, then let out a miserable wail.

It was useless. At this moment, they were already underground, on the Longquan Sword’s territory, and Chen Tian had been branded as a sacrificial offering—he was completely doomed. Su Zhuyi kept her head lowered, displaying a very frightened appearance, but her heart was churning with countless thoughts.

The Longquan Sword was an evil sword that needed sacrificial offerings to satisfy its desires. Since it was also a sword, it had requirements for its sacrifices. What it liked were probably sword cultivators, and what it loved to devour was sword intent.

Luo Ying’s sword dao achievements were so high that if she sacrificed herself to the sword, she might very well be able to make the Longquan Sword temporarily calm down. This way, the rest of them would have a chance to escape alive!

In her previous life, Luo Ying fed herself to the sword in exchange for the safety of the other Feihong Sect disciples. When Qinghe learned the truth about Luo Ying’s death, he slaughtered the entire Feihong Sect. That’s right—could it be that all those people he killed afterward were those who had received Luo Ying’s kindness?

There were far too many people whom Luo Ying had helped, and not everyone who accepted her help would speak of it openly. Therefore, at the time, no one thought in this direction. Now that she connected it this way, Su Zhuyi felt her guess was quite reasonable, and she immediately became more irritated.

If Luo Ying sacrificed herself to the sword this time and she also escaped, she would be hunted by Qinghe to the ends of the earth in the future. This was truly a damn difficult situation to navigate.

Just as Su Zhuyi was pondering these problems, sudden changes occurred on the Feihong Sect cultivators’ side.

Chen Tian could be heard wailing continuously, his voice extremely pained, as if he were being flayed alive. As he screamed, the other Feihong Sect cultivators also cried out in alarm, weeping constantly…

These young disciples of the Righteous Path were always making a fuss over nothing, unable to withstand the slightest hardship. When faced with danger, would shouting and screaming be of any use?

Su Zhuyi sneered coldly in her heart. She remained very calm, unhurriedly lifting her head to glance over, and saw Chen Tian’s entire body transform into a pool of blood. The blood looked somewhat rust-stained, like iron rust.

In just the blink of an eye, a living person had turned into a pool of water, leaving only a set of red and white disciple robes spread on the ground. This caused the Feihong Sect disciples to be terrified beyond measure, each of them pale as paper, stumbling toward Luo Ying’s side.

“Senior Luo, how could this happen?”

“Senior Luo, save us! Senior brother is dead—am I going to die too?” Liu Zhen’s face had long lost its arrogance. Her face was streaked with tears, her expression panicked, and her body trembled with intermittent convulsions.

Luo Ying slowly stood up. Her face still showed no expression, and she only said: “First, find the location of the Longquan Sword’s true body.”

The flying sword’s malevolent energy had burst open a thin crack in the seal, and they were already within the seal now. They had fallen through the crack that the seal had burst open. Now, they could only find the crack and figure out a way to fly out.

That crack must be near the body of the Longquan Sword.

Luo Ying held her sword and continued forward following the direction of the water flow. The Feihong Sect disciples followed closely behind her. They still showed consideration for their sect fellowship—one helped up the trembling Liu Zhen, another carried the immobilized Qin Chuan on his back. As for the dead Chen Tian, no one dared to look at him again.

After they had walked a bit farther away, Su Zhuyi crept to the edge of that pool of blood and used her hoe to pick out the storage pouch from the pile of clothes.

The Longquan Sword only consumed people when eating sacrificial offerings; it didn’t touch their belongings. Su Zhuyi was someone who would pluck feathers from a passing goose. Since she was currently poor with hardly any cultivation resources, naturally, she would pick up whatever she could. The pouch contained over a dozen Spirit Stones and several low-grade magical artifacts—much wealthier than the previous disciple. As for those colorful stones they mentioned earlier, there wasn’t a single one on Chen Tian. They must all be with Liu Zhen, but that female cultivator hadn’t taken the stones out to show everyone from the beginning to the end. While she might be timid as a mouse, she could certainly keep her composure in this regard.

Su Zhuyi stuffed this entire storage pouch into the previous storage pouch, then jogged to catch up with the group.

They followed the water flow for a full three hours. Even though they had been walking in the direction of the water flow the entire time, they ended up back at the original spot. When Liu Zhen from Feihong Sect saw Chen Tian’s clothes, she panicked again. The other cultivators also looked grave, while Su Zhuyi, having wandered around in this circle, already had some understanding in her heart.

The Longquan Sword took its meaning from “a hidden dragon in the abyss”—it was originally an ice sword. Luo Ying’s Qianlong was forged imitating the Longquan Sword, so her sword naturally carried frost, making it difficult for ordinary people to wield. Similarly, if that Longquan Sword from back then hadn’t had so many people die for it, it would also have been a frost sword. However, that sword-forging master first made his entire clan throw themselves into the furnace as sacrifices, then sacrificed himself to the sword. On the day the sword was completed, it killed so many living beings that this sword became full of malevolent energy, with resentment condensing into evil fire that could melt frost into water.

This made the Longquan Sword, suppressed beneath Seven Fairies Mountain, burn hot, while the surrounding area had cold spring water. The spring water around here was equivalent to the Longquan Sword’s sword intent, similar to the frost covering the Qianlong Sword’s body. They had been walking in the direction of the water flow, which was exactly like circling this Longquan Sword once, so naturally, they would end up back where they started.

So there was no need to search for any sword.

The sword was right beneath their feet. Chen Tian was a sacrificial offering, and the place where he died was probably the heart of the Longquan Sword, where the malevolent energy was most concentrated. This meant that the crack in the seal burst open by the Longquan Sword should be right there.

The seal sealed the sword, not people.

If they flew upward from where Chen Tian died, they might be able to escape to safety. However, the problem was that everyone’s spiritual energy had been completely devoured by that scorching aura when they fell. Without spiritual energy, they couldn’t fly, and flying magical artifacts couldn’t be used either. Even if they used pills to replenish their spiritual energy, as soon as they rose three feet from the ground, the heat waves would surge over and burn away all the spiritual energy in their bodies again. Therefore, it was naturally extremely difficult for them to go up. By the same logic, since they had fallen here, even if they didn’t yet have that mark branded on them, they were already considered sacrificial offerings by the Longquan Sword by default. Did the meat that had reached its mouth think it could fly away?

That probably wouldn’t be so simple.

While Su Zhuyi was pondering, Luo Ying had already walked to the place where Chen Tian died. She directly stepped on that pile of clothes, and after stepping on it, she stood still without moving. Her face showed no expression, and she didn’t even furrow her brow slightly.

Where the Feihong Sect cultivators didn’t even dare to look, Luo Ying, in her white robes, quietly stood upon it. She remained silent for a moment, then suddenly thrust her sword backward with her reverse hand. Su Zhuyi’s heart jumped—could it be that although Luo Ying saw that the location was problematic, her thinking went in a different direction from hers? Was she planning to attack that place, wanting to sever the Longquan Sword’s malevolent energy? No, that would be counterproductive—she might expand the crack or even destroy the seal!

Su Zhuyi was anxious beyond measure, but the next moment, her eyes widened as she was shocked by the scene before her.

Luo Ying’s sword thrust was not aimed at the clothes, but at her arm.

Fresh blood gushed from her arm, dripping down along the Qianlong Sword’s blade, slowly dripping into that pile of clothes.

Sacrifice!

Luo Ying was truly making a sacrifice—she was using her blood to feed the Longquan Sword!

After Luo Ying fed the sword with her blood, she swung her sword again with her right hand. Frost condensed into solid form in the air, stacking upward to form steps one after another.

Her face was pale, but her lips were particularly bright red. Her voice was now slightly hoarse as she commanded in a low voice: “Go up.”

Su Zhuyi immediately understood Luo Ying’s meaning.

She moved extremely quickly, stepping onto the staircase formed by Luo Ying’s frost sword intent. The steps were very high, and she was short with short legs, making it quite difficult to climb. She could only hook her hoe onto the sword intent above, then use the leverage to climb up, continuing upward…

Seeing Su Zhuyi’s actions, the other Feihong Sect cultivators finally reacted. They were all tall and had higher cultivation levels than she did. Even though they couldn’t use spiritual energy now, their movements were much more agile than Su Zhuyi’s. Several people instantly overtook her, stepping on the flying sword’s intent as they rushed toward higher ground.

Su Zhuyi was even stepped on by Liu Zhen, who used her as a stepping stone to leap up several steps. Although she was frustrated, this wasn’t the time for revenge. Seeing the ice and snow staircase melting, she didn’t dare pause and quickly swung her hoe upward as she climbed.

At this moment, when escape was imminent, no one cared about Qin Chuan, who had broken limbs and couldn’t move.

Qin Chuan lay on the ground without moving. He looked up, staring blankly as his senior brothers and sisters climbed higher and higher until they became small white dots. He watched his little master hanging halfway up, also working hard to climb upward. When he could no longer see the people at the highest point, Qin Chuan crawled bit by bit to Luo Ying’s side. He asked, “Senior, is there anything I can help you with? My blood seems quite powerful, too.”

Seeing that Luo Ying had lost so much blood and was pale as paper, Qin Chuan slowly moved his broken leg and suddenly slapped his already-stopped bleeding wound, letting fresh blood flow toward that pile of clothes.

Luo Ying, who had maintained an expressionless face, slightly lowered her head and quietly looked at Qin Chuan. Her gaze was cold and remote, and even at this moment still contained spring snow, but it wasn’t as harsh as before.

Then she lightly stamped her foot, grabbed and threw, directly hurling Qin Chuan toward the sky. At the same time, she said coldly: “Take him up, or I’ll withdraw my sword intent.”

They were currently climbing up using Luo Ying’s sword intent. Once Luo Ying withdrew her sword intent, everyone would fall. Therefore, as soon as her words fell, the Feihong Sect cultivator near Qin Chuan immediately grabbed him. He felt the steps beneath his feet seem to solidify somewhat and was immediately overjoyed, feeling he had made the right choice.

But just as they could see a ray of daylight, several black shadows suddenly appeared on the walls to their left and right.

“Since you’ve come, don’t leave.”

“Stay and keep me company…”

Seven human figures appeared above, four women and three men. They appeared to have no physical form, like flying phantoms. Judging by their demeanor and the malevolent energy on them, they were undoubtedly demonic cultivators.

What Seven Immortals—they were seven demonic cultivators full of malevolent energy. Using evil to suppress evil, fighting poison with poison!