Xiang Haikui had not yet fully regained consciousness and didn’t know who was binding her tightly. She instinctively assumed that Jing Ran couldn’t hold on any longer and had been replaced by someone else.

Hearing it was Yin Changli, just like when she went mad collecting demonic energy before, and he helped calm her with Tianren sword energy, her frenzy and violence gradually weakened, and her body slowly stopped struggling.

The taste of blood in her mouth reminded her that she had bitten him.

In her transformed, frenzied state, she didn’t need to look to know how hard she had bitten down.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t conscious,” she apologized first, then gritted her teeth and said solemnly, “But let me go. I didn’t choose this path because I don’t want the fusion, so no matter how many methods you have—even ten thousand—they’re not what I want.”

“I understand.” Yin Changli understood everything, but he kept her curled within his body, holding her tighter and tighter to prevent her from struggling again, softly comforting her, “But it’s enough, you’ve already done very well. Leave the rest to me. I’ll avenge you. I won’t let him off easily…”

At this moment, Xiang Haikui couldn’t listen to reason. Tian Kuang’s madness quickly occupied her consciousness again: “Let me go, did you hear me? This is my own business, between him and me—what does it have to do with you? By what right do you take over for me?”

She struggled again, and he coiled even tighter: “I understand you, but to watch you harm yourself like this with my eyes open—I can’t do it.”

“Again, it’s for my good, is it? May I be ungrateful and refuse your kindness?”

“I…”

“What do you want me to think? That like him, who believed that deceiving me, concealing things from me, was all for my good, I must gratefully accept it? Yin Changli, your self-righteous face is no different from his!”

Stopping her when she wanted to fight to the death was the same self-righteousness as killing her when she wanted to endure humiliation to survive!

No difference!

Xiang Haikui struggled again, even opening her outer sharp scales, which scraped against his scales with an ear-piercing sound!

Yin Changli had already forcibly split himself to break through the encirclement. When his “shadow” left behind was shattered, the backlash had already hit him like a heavy punch. Now he instinctively curled his serpent tail in pain.

“Are you letting go or not?!”

He gritted his teeth.

“Fine!”

When she went berserk, he wouldn’t use brute force to suppress her like Jing Ran, so he was dragged down with her, falling from the palace tower hundreds of feet high, all the way to the base, cracking the sea city’s foundation that had existed for hundreds of thousands of years.

Crack—the fissure shattered, opening a hole in the foundation, and with a splash, they sank into the Netherworld Sea.

With a rumbling sound, the palace tower collapsed layer by layer, dust and debris flew everywhere, and the floating city swayed even more violently on the Netherworld Sea.

Above, Jing Ran spat several mouthfuls of blood. After his true energy, focused on Xiang Haikui’s meridians, was interrupted, he immediately began healing himself.

With his cultivation originally recovered to only fifty percent, being stabbed twice by Xiang Haikui, plus all this turmoil, had truly cost him half his life. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so severely injured—it must have been thousands of years ago.

“You useless waste!” Having barely stabilized his condition, he looked at Jin Ying and the others with uncontrollable fury. “So many of you, and you can’t even stop a cripple who just ended his hibernation with only half his power left! What am I feeding you for?!”

The Netherworld’s turbid energy was heavy. Without extremely high spiritual sense or having grown up in the Netherworld from childhood, people of the Heavenly Race couldn’t withstand it.

That’s why Jing Ran could only rely on them, unable to deploy personnel from the Upper Realm.

Knowing they were useless, he had no choice.

He dared not use any of the formidable subordinates his elder brother had left behind.

Seeing them busy trying to capture Yin Changli, Jing Ran stopped them: “Leave him be! You’ve missed your chance—just take care of yourselves!”

After speaking, Jing Ran flew downward, diving into the sea to capture Xiang Haikui.

As he plunged into the Netherworld Sea, the bone-chilling seawater flowed directly into his body through the wounds in his chest and abdomen, causing pain that nearly made him faint.

Never mind that it was the Heavenly Race’s glimmer of hope—even if it wasn’t, after all he had sacrificed, he had to succeed.

People are just that despicable—the more it hurts, the more unwilling they are to let go!

Moreover, watching Yin Changli snatch someone from his side filled him with rage. A mere failed person who once knelt at his feet—what right did he have to take what belonged to him!

The high officials of the Twelve Palaces hadn’t yet understood what Di Jun meant when, with a “whoosh,” all the lanterns hanging from the palace eaves suddenly extinguished.

This signified that the magical arrays and barriers protecting the floating city had disappeared!

The sound of weapons clashing rang out from the Inner City. Just as they were about to enter, someone shouted: “The sea surface!”

They could look in any direction—in the Netherworld Sea, not even a feather could float except for marine creatures. Now huge waves carried dense, brilliantly colorful, strange fish, each with a person standing on its back.

These people wore feathered clothes and held feathered fans. As the strange fish approached Other Shore City, they transformed into huge blue birds, their claws gripping the fish’s dorsal fins, carrying the fish up to Other Shore City.

After landing in the city, the blue birds transformed back into human form.

The strange fish beneath their claws subsequently transformed as well.

Other Shore City fell into complete chaos, becoming a battlefield.

Jin Ying frowned slightly: “Does Yin Changli look down on us that much? To attack Other Shore City, he only sent three clans?”

“Capture him first!” one of the Palace Masters pointed into the distance.

Jin Ying looked over. Two people were fighting their way toward the Twelve Palaces.

One had previously come looking for Xiang Haikui. Now his body emanated green poison mist. When Netherworld guards attacked him, they touched the poison mist and melted away, bubbling.

Previously, just at the ninth level, he had now entered the tribulation crossing period.

As for the other, he was a white-haired youth with only seventh-level cultivation, somewhat clumsy in his movements, holding two gold swords, one long and one short.

“That beast spirit is called Bai Xingxian. Though merely Yin Changli’s servant, Yin Changli treats him extremely well.”

Jin Ying almost disappeared on the spot, rushing to kill Bai Xingxian.

With the city in chaos, Lu Xiqiao and Bai Xingxian were heading toward the Twelve Palaces, progressing with great difficulty.

Lu Xiqiao had originally planned to cultivate his heart first, but fearing his cultivation level was too low to receive Xiang Haikui, he had allowed his power to break through barriers, directly entering the tribulation crossing period.

It was better when he wasn’t fighting. Once he started, blood was everywhere, constantly stirring his heart, with turbid energy continuously surging within him.

A flash of red passed through his eyes but was immediately suppressed.

“Brother Bai, you’ll have to help block for me.” Lu Xiqiao hid behind Bai Xingxian, avoiding fighting whenever possible. If he went mad with cultivation by the time they reached the Twelve Palaces, he would truly be a hindrance.

“Huh?” Bai Xingxian was already stretched thin, and stopping made things even more difficult.

Among the Mountain Sea Race people, except for a few leaders, no one else recognized him. No one helped him; those passing by didn’t even offer assistance.

Lu Xiqiao was about to speak when he suddenly felt a powerful pressure descending.

“Look out!” His pupils contracted as he quickly spun around, shielding Bai Xingxian, his hands forming seals to concentrate half his spiritual power into a green “spider web” in front of them.

The poisonous “spider web” flew out but was shattered by Jin Ying with one finger: “A newly formed dual fruit body for Dao merging with such power is quite impressive. In the future… pity there won’t be a future for you!”

“Stop wasting words!” Bai Xingxian knew of the Netherworld Lord’s ruthless methods and was terrified. This must be the critical moment his uncle had mentioned. He extended his palm toward her, and a golden flame surged forth!

Jin Ying had initially been unconcerned, but when the golden fire approached and her soul began to tremble, tremendous panic engulfed her!

She frantically dodged, and after landing, her body shook uncontrollably like falling into an icy river in deep winter.

This was spiritual sense suppression.

A spiritual sense that could almost contend with Di Jun.

She looked with fear at the astonished white-haired youth before her. If Yin Changli protected him so much, could he be the Lord’s reincarnation?

No, the Lord’s spiritual sense was even stronger than Di Jun’s.

He wasn’t that strong.

He must be a blood descendant of the Lord.

“Someone come!” Jin Ying retreated in panic. As a member of the Heavenly Race, no matter how low Bai Xingxian’s cultivation was, she couldn’t overcome his spiritual sense. She could only find non-Heavenly Race experts to come.

…

The black serpent coiled around the flood dragon, continuously sinking into the Netherworld Sea.

The dragon’s blade-like scales pierced the serpent’s scales, beginning to penetrate beneath the skin. The seawater along their path turned red.

The seawater grew increasingly cold. Yin Changli didn’t resist—the cold would help cool the demonic blood in her body too—but he was careful not to harm her.

As their bodies grew numb from the freezing temperature, her hatred and anger seemed to gradually solidify. Xiang Haikui hadn’t withdrawn her blade scales, but her struggling amplitude slowly decreased.

“Let me go,” she still insisted.

Yin Changli finally thought of a persuasive argument: “Just give me a chance to express my apology. It’s not helping you—it’s a transaction. I’m buying peace of mind, alright?”

“What are you apologizing for? What did you do wrong?!”

“Many things. Starting from the day I decided to change fate and chose you as a pawn, that was wrong.”

“You were never wrong.”

Xiang Haikui wasn’t speaking out of anger. She had already understood that they essentially had a transactional relationship, and what he had given had always exceeded what she had contributed.

Her dissatisfaction with him was her temperament.

In her homeland, she had always followed in Jing Ran’s footsteps.

When Yin Changli brought her to this world, she began following his instructions.

He was a deity, a lifesaving benefactor, a boss.

She trusted him almost completely.

“Before your hibernation, you said that after you woke up, you would hold up the sky if it fell. During those ten years of your amnesia, you made countless promises to me. Including the day before you woke up, when you told me that after you awakened, we’d see who would still dare say following you was seeking death…”

Xiang Haikui had self-awareness and never took it seriously.

But even though she had built a wall in her heart, some wind inevitably leaked through.

“Strength” fears not “blows” but “tenderness.”

Ten thousand blows couldn’t match that little bit of tenderness.

After he awakened, he could distinguish everything clearly, but she was somewhat confused. She inevitably felt wronged and became increasingly critical of him.

“But gradually I understood—my attitude was wrong, not yours. Between us, it was always a fair and square transaction…”

Even if he had genuine feelings, she couldn’t demand that he had to be good to her. That wasn’t reasonable.

“Let’s not talk about before,” Yin Changli just wanted to persuade her quickly. Di Jun couldn’t sink as fast as their beast forms, but he would arrive soon. If she wasn’t stable when they met him, she would surely fight him again.

“This time, you suffered because of me. Whether it was him or Han Qi, I should have anticipated what they were planning to do. I could have prevented it, but I…”

Xiang Haikui interrupted him: “Even if you had foreseen it and taken me away early, when I learned about that lollipop he gave me…” She paused, then said fiercely, “I would have returned to stab him when you weren’t paying attention!”

She emphasized again, “This is between him and me—it has nothing to do with you. If you feel you owe me, then respect my choice. Otherwise, you’re all cut from the same cloth!”