Soon, Cui Xiaoxiao felt her body being tightly wrapped by some viscous liquid, continuously sinking deeper and deeper…
When she could no longer move at all, Cui Xiaoxiao’s heart instead calmed down.
She quickly closed her eyes, then suddenly opened them wide. The supernatural ability she had awakened in her childhood meant she wouldn’t be misled by illusions, but could instead see everything around her.
Amidst the bloody filth, she saw a pair of cold, eerie red-black eyes staring straight at her through the bloody mist.
Cui Xiaoxiao tried to negotiate: “May I ask this hero’s esteemed name? If you have any requests, why not speak them first? We can discuss and negotiate, harmony brings wealth!”
Those eyes filled with murderous intent seemed not to have expected this little girl to be so bold, and in all these long years, she was the first person who could see him…
Cui Xiaoxiao’s words seemed to have an effect. The force that wrapped around her like a giant python seemed to ease slightly, then a low voice tinged with bloodthirsty killing intent whispered in her ear: “You… can see me?”
Seeing that this demon wrapped in thick blood seemed reasonable, Cui Xiaoxiao quickly said: “Yes, I’ve had some supernatural abilities since childhood, able to see things that ordinary people cannot see.”
Just then, the blood sea that pervaded the entire cave seemed to gather into a large palm, dripping with thick black blood drops, grabbing Cui Xiaoxiao’s chin. Those eyes seemed to move closer, examining her up and down with slight disdain, then sneered coldly: “Qin Lingxiao took a fancy to trash like you…”
Cui Xiaoxiao hadn’t expected this mysterious blood demon to know about Qin Lingxiao wanting to marry her, but from the tone, it seemed the blood demon, like Qin Lingxiao, greatly looked down on her qualifications.
So she laughed dryly and said: “I know my qualifications are shallow and I’m unworthy to be Sect Leader Qin’s wife…”
She thought the blood demon looked down on her and felt sorry for Qin Lingxiao, so she’d go along with the conversation.
But unexpectedly, this time the blood demon didn’t wait for her to finish speaking before forcefully gripping her chin tighter, its tone filled with killing intent: “Sect Leader Qin? He’s worthy of that title?”
The sudden force hurt so much that Xiaoxiao squinted her large eyes, the red mole at the corner of her eye trembling slightly under the shadow of her long lashes.
After the blood demon became angry, its bloody, muddy body transformed into a giant snake, slowly winding around Xiaoxiao’s ear, accompanied by dripping sounds as it deliberately lowered its voice: “Today, you suffered enough humiliation in front of that boy Qin Lingxiao, didn’t you? The way he looked at you was like looking at pig shit! Don’t you feel angry? Angry that he looks down on your master, even angrier that you lack ability… It doesn’t matter, I’ll give you a chance. As long as you’re willing to listen to me, I’ll make you very strong, very strong… so strong that everyone will have to prostrate at your feet…”
As it spoke, the bloody hot breath drilled straight into Cui Xiaoxiao’s ear canal, carrying a hoarse magnetic tone that made her blood vessels throb in rhythm…
For a moment, something seemed to explode in Cui Xiaoxiao’s heart. The helpless grievances of being sold and living in displacement since childhood, the humiliating anger of being caught and beaten while stealing on the streets – all surged up at once.
Yes, she was too weak!
If she were as powerful as Qin Lingxiao, able to kill at will all those who bullied her, how… how wonderful that would be…
When she thought this way, she didn’t realize that the black blood wrapped around her body seemed to grow more and more, thicker and stickier, finally almost like a blood cocoon about to wrap her inside.
Cui Xiaoxiao slowly closed her eyes in that soul-bewitching voice…
So tired, and the surroundings were so warm and comfortable. If she could just sleep for a while… but she still couldn’t peacefully sink into the surrounding warmth, always feeling like she had forgotten something important.
Just as she was about to fall into chaos, waves of pain came from her palm.
It turned out that just moments ago, Xiaoxiao had gripped the thin blade she had turned out from her wristguard in her palm – this was a skill she had mastered when making a living on the streets with her swindler foster father.
With just two fingers pinching the thin blade, she could instantly cut open pedestrians’ money pouches and bags. This was also Xiaoxiao’s weapon for self-protection when encountering danger throughout her life.
The wandering life since childhood had surrounded her with all kinds of people, and there were countless rogues who, discovering she was a girl, harbored ill intentions.
One dangerous encounter after another had made Cui Xiaoxiao very vigilant and unwilling to easily believe those coaxing words.
Just when the blood demon approached her, she gripped the blade tightly in her hand. Her long vagrant life had made her body automatically make judgments faster than her brain.
As a result, just when she was about to lose consciousness, she was finally awakened by this bit of pain from being cut by the blade!
What was happening? How could she easily let an invisible monster stir her emotions and make her drowsy again?
Could it be… that this blood demon’s words had the effect of arousing people’s inner demons?
Xiaoxiao still remembered the experience of subduing demons at the Silk Farm, and she also remembered that the Bai family’s daughter-in-law had also been invaded by evil energy due to inner demons, so much so that after becoming a demon, she couldn’t remember things clearly.
It seemed this blood demon also planned to follow the same pattern, making her the next Bai family daughter-in-law!
Cui Xiaoxiao understood clearly: she had to escape the blood demon as soon as possible and absolutely could not be controlled by it, although the talismans she drew weren’t very effective; if they had the enhancement of her extremely yin blood, they seemed to have some use.
Thinking of this, she used her cut hand to struggle to pull out a talisman from her sleeve – this was the water-transforming talisman she had drawn earlier.
After the water-transforming talisman was soaked with Xiaoxiao’s fresh blood, she suddenly threw the talisman toward the blood demon while silently chanting incantations in her mouth, wanting to use water to wash away the viscous blood that covered her entire body and shackled her.
But after chanting several times continuously, she didn’t hear the sound of rushing water. Instead, a warm current flowed out from her cut wound like a thin snake.
Cui Xiaoxiao silently called out that this was bad! Her half-baked incantation seemed to have been recited wrong. The talisman wasn’t summoning water, but started summoning the blood from within her body.
If this continued, before the blood demon could strike, she would die from blood loss.
But what she never expected was that when the water talisman drew the blood threads flowing from Xiaoxiao’s palm like vines entangling the blood demon, the blood demon suddenly stared with disbelieving eyes, let out a painful, muffled groan, then instantly threw Cui Xiaoxiao away.
The blood demon muttered in disbelief: “I actually can’t control you! What mystery lies in your blood? I don’t believe it! Besides him, there’s a second person in this world who can break free from my control…”
Cui Xiaoxiao couldn’t understand what it was shouting about. After her arms regained freedom, she cut another wound on her palm and continued drawing blood while chanting incantations.
This time, Cui Xiaoxiao grasped some technique and was able to simultaneously draw out two blood threads that, like spirit snakes, attacked the blood demon again.
The blood demon seemed very wary of Cui Xiaoxiao’s blood and didn’t dare to engage directly. It only let out an angry roar before disappearing with its bloody viscosity into the dark recesses of the cave.
Xiaoxiao could no longer hear what it shouted at the end.
Just as the blood demon disappeared, a rebounding force quickly bounced her up. When she was about to hit the ground, the feeling of weightlessness made Cui Xiaoxiao cry out in alarm.
But when she opened her eyes again, Xiaoxiao, drenched in sweat, found herself still sitting on the meditation cushion. The gentle breeze blew around her, moonlight reflected on the babbling stream, and the campfire beside her had not yet been extinguished…
The other three fellow disciples meditating were startled by her cry and opened their eyes to look at her.
Ji Wuqi said harshly, “Instead of meditating properly, what are you screaming about? Oh, you must have been slacking off, fell asleep, and had a nightmare, right?”
Cui Xiaoxiao touched the sweat on her forehead, widened her eyes, and tried hard to identify the surroundings, confirming that she was still meditating by the stream. Everything just now… seemed to really have been a dream.
But just then, Jiang Nanmu stared wide-eyed at Xiaoxiao’s chin: “Xiaoxiao, why is your chin red?”
Xiaoxiao stood up and went to the stream, using the campfire’s faint light to see her face.
On her pointed chin, there were several red marks. Xiaoxiao slowly reached out her hand and pressed on those red marks – they were the traces left by a large hand’s grip, the same as where the blood demon had gripped her chin in her dream just now!
Was that… a dream?
Moreover, in her right palm… she was gripping the thin blade hidden in her wristguard… At this moment, the blood marks on her palm had not yet congealed and were still dripping blood.
She suddenly became alert and quickly turned to look for her old dog Ji Xiang, but found it wasn’t staying by her side. When she called out, a familiar dog barking came from the nearby bushes.
When they went over, they discovered the dog barking was coming from a cave hidden among the bushes.
Cui Xiaoxiao recalled her recent dream, and a chill ran up her spine. However, this cave looked ordinary, not like the sinister scene full of skulls from her dream.
The old dog’s barking also sounded pitiful. Cui Xiaoxiao couldn’t worry about so much, so she held up a torch and called for Ji Xiang while tentatively walking in.
When she entered, Cui Xiaoxiao breathed a slight sigh of relief. It turned out Ji Xiang was stuck in a narrow crevice in the stone cave. Hearing faint squeaking sounds, it had probably gotten stuck in the stone crevice while chasing mice.
There was no choice – as a dog of the Lingshan Talismonger Sect, if it wanted to eat meat, it had to develop the skill of “a dog catching mice.”
Cui Xiaoxiao went over to push away the stones to let Ji Xiang out, but the moment she pushed the stone away, the entire stone wall cracked open with a rumble. In the crevice of the stone wall, there was a box that seemed to be made of gold but wasn’t gold.
A’Yi, who was following behind, reached out and took out the bronze box. When he brushed away the dust on top, it revealed the relief carving on the bronze box.
Jiang Nanmu used the firelight to widen his eyes and see the pattern clearly, then suddenly gasped and shouted: “Don’t touch it!”
Cui Xiaoxiao also saw the pattern clearly: at first glance, it was a lotus flower with nine curved lines, very similar to the lotus brand on the heads of Jiuxuan Sword Sect disciples.
However, this lotus was not red, but a thick black like filthy blood. If you looked at it for too long, you’d feel the discomfort of having your soul absorbed into it.
“Second Senior Sister, this… couldn’t be the mark of Jiuxuan Sword Sect, could it?”
Jiang Nanmu said urgently, “If I’m not mistaken, this nine-curved black lotus is the demonic seal of Demon Lord Wei Jie, who nearly overturned heaven and earth two hundred years ago.”
Although Qin Lingxiao’s Jiuxuan Sword Sect was a righteous cultivation sect, it had also evolved from Wei Jie’s demonic cultivation, so the cultivation seal it manifested was similar to Wei Jie’s demonic seal.
But two hundred years ago, this similar black lotus had stirred up bloody storms that made people change color at its mention.
Cui Xiaoxiao looked thoughtfully at the black lotus, suddenly remembering that she seemed to have seen it before.
Right, when Qin Lingxiao was slaying demons at the Silk Farm, wasn’t there this black lotus on the hilt of that old sword he used?
Thinking of this, Xiaoxiao suddenly understood. So when that traitorous disciple Qin was slaying demons, because he wasn’t confident, he simply used his master Wei Jie’s sword.
However, Qin Lingxiao seemed unwilling to let others see his connection with the master he had personally killed, even insisting on covering the sword hilt with white cloth, which was quite intriguing…