A’Yi was startled by First Senior Brother’s shout and frantically pulled out demon-subduing talismans, following First Senior Brother as they charged toward Cui Xiaoxiao.

Cui Xiaoxiao had been holding her breath and concentrating, focusing her energy. Her water control incantation was becoming increasingly skillful, and she was manipulating it with divine proficiency when she was startled by First Senior Brother’s shout.

As a result, the water flow she was controlling didn’t waste a single drop – it fell straight down from the air and splashed entirely on the faces and bodies of the two senior brothers, instantly drenching them like drowned chickens.

Cui Xiaoxiao shook her numb arm and smiled apologetically at the two senior brothers: “Oh my, sorry about that. But didn’t you two wash up? Perfect opportunity to get clean…”

After Ji Wuqi confirmed repeatedly that Cui Xiaoxiao hadn’t become a demon and had only comprehended the secret technique of controlling water flow during last night’s meditation, his eyes remained wide as bronze bells.

“Impossible! You were asleep yesterday. How could your power possibly surge?”

Second Senior Sister Jiang Nanmu’s eyes also bulged wide. When she learned that Cui Xiaoxiao hadn’t used a talisman just now but had controlled water by silently reciting incantations, her eyeballs nearly popped out.

One must know that when Talismonger Sect members cast spells, they use talismans as carriers. It’s like a person climbing a mountain – if they use a bamboo staff, climbing becomes twice as effective.

This was a manifestation of insufficient spiritual power, requiring external objects for support. This was also why the way of using talismans was looked down upon by other sects and palaces – those who made talismans were all naturally deficient, originally unsuited for cultivation.

It was like being physically weak with inconvenient legs, but insisting on using crutches to climb high mountains. Even forcing oneself to climb a section, one could only perpetually circle the mountainside.

Precisely because of talent limitations, sects like the Talismonger Sect rarely produced any great talents who could shake the four directions.

And cultivating to the end, being able to control the five elements without using talismans – in the various Talismonger Sect branches of the past few hundred years, this was almost unheard of.

After all, breaking free from the limitations of talismans required incomparably high talent and cultivation accumulation. Since they were used to the “talisman” crutch, few people were willing to abandon it and learn to walk again.

And now, their Lingshan Talismonger Sect’s Cui Xiaoxiao… could do this! Just how much higher was her talent than theirs?

When Ji Wuqi heard from Jiang Nanmu that Cui Xiaoxiao hadn’t used a water control talisman, he absolutely didn’t believe it.

Cui Xiaoxiao didn’t say much more. She extended two slender fingers and again drew a thin stream from the creek water, unceremoniously splashing it on First Senior Brother’s dark face, then said: “How about it? Do you believe it now?”

Ji Wuqi wiped his wet face and was completely speechless.

The cultivation world was like this – aside from the distinction between righteous and evil, talent and cultivation overwhelmed everything!

No matter how much Ji Wuqi had looked down on Cui Xiaoxiao before, now she had used her strength to prove that among all the disciples of the Talismonger Sect, her talent was the highest! Master hadn’t misjudged.

Cui Xiaoxiao naturally knew the reason for her cultivation improvement, but she couldn’t explain it too clearly to her fellow disciples, or First Senior Brother would think she had become a demon.

While continuing on the road, Cui Xiaoxiao pondered. The Demon Pearl in her body initially should have wanted to control her, just like controlling the Bai family’s daughter-in-law, stirring up the resentment in her heart, leading her to become a demon and be controlled by it.

Who knew that her extremely yin blood would play a role at the critical moment, repelling that demon? Now, she and the Demon Pearl had reached a delicate balance point. As long as this balance wasn’t broken, she should be temporarily safe.

However, when that blood demon discovered she had broken free from its control, it said she was the second person who could do this.

Cui Xiaoxiao was somewhat curious – who would be the first person to break free from the Demon Pearl’s control?

But Cui Xiaoxiao didn’t know that her scene of controlling water flow was also truthfully presented before Qin Lingxiao’s eyes.

At this time, Qin Lingxiao had already returned to Jiuxuan Sword Mountain, but before leaving, he had already sent disciples to track and monitor Cui Xiaoxiao all the way.

By the cold pool of Sword Mountain, using his spirit-sharing technique, he could see what Cui Xiaoxiao was doing through the eyes of the sword sect disciples secretly monitoring her.

…She had such supernatural abilities! He remembered when he met her before, the qi in her dantian was still empty. How could she reach this level in such a short time?

Could it be… she used the Demon Pearl to improve her cultivation? Wouldn’t this mean taking the same path as the demon Wei Jie?

Qin Lingxiao angrily opened his eyes and stood up abruptly, only to discover that Junior Sister Ling Zhishan had somehow entered the inner hall and was standing before him.

“Lingxiao… your forehead…” Ling Zhishan just noticed that the lotus mark on Qin Lingxiao’s forehead was gradually turning black, and couldn’t help but quickly walk several steps to come near him.

Qin Lingxiao reached out to cover the mark on his forehead, then said to Ling Zhishan as if nothing had happened: “I asked you to search for the Demon Pearl ‘Wrath’ – do you have any leads?”

Ling Zhishan knew he was unwilling to explain and could only suppress her worry, speaking: “I’ve already found it. Wrath has possessed a fierce tiger on Mount Mao, raging constantly all day, continuously eating passersby. I’m preparing to lead disciples to subdue that demon tiger and extract the Demon Pearl… I heard that you once met Cui Xiaoxiao alone. I wonder what it was about?”

Qin Lingxiao was also unwilling to answer this question. After all, proposing marriage himself only to be rejected by a wild sect’s female sect leader wasn’t something worth publicizing.

He closed his eyes again and said indifferently: “I still need to circulate qi and cultivate. If you have nothing else, please go down.”

Before other male cultivators, the usually cold and unattainable Liangyi Palace Master Ling Zhishan was always cold as an ice lotus, but before her Senior Brother Qin Lingxiao, she was as docile as a white rabbit.

She could see that Qin Lingxiao was in a bad mood, and what affected him seemed to affect him was Cui Xiaoxiao.

What kind of magic did a woman from a heretical sect have that could influence Senior Brother’s emotions?

She knew she couldn’t get answers by asking, so she could only look at Qin Lingxiao’s handsome face with love and hate, then turned and left the sword sect hall.

To enter Qin Lingxiao’s heart, one needed the ability to support him.

Right now, the most urgent thing was to obtain the Demon Pearl “Wrath.” As for that Cui Xiaoxiao, given the opportunity, Ling Zhishan wanted to have a good meeting with her…

Speaking of the Talismonger Sect members, they didn’t know they had been monitored from afar by sword sect disciples all along.

Today, they finally reached the base of Qilao’s Mountain Phoenix Pool.

When they entered the range of Qilao Mountain, the surrounding green grass gradually became sparse, not to mention any large trees.

Upon entering the mountain, the entire peak was like a barren hill, with yellow earth everywhere. Only on one hillside stood many stone blocks like remnants of tombstone walls.

Cui Xiaoxiao had good eyesight and felt that those stone tablets should originally have been covered with writing. But after so much time, plus being severely damaged, they had become almost indecipherable.

Second Senior Sister had often heard Master discuss various experiences of their predecessor master, so she was thoroughly familiar with the allusions of these stone tablets covering the mountain.

“Master said these stone tablets were merit monuments carved from dragon bones by the four great sects, but two hundred years ago, they were shattered by Wei Jie’s whip strike. I didn’t expect that after so long, there would still be remnant stones!”

Cui Xiaoxiao had also seen such a passage in the secret manuals. It seemed to be an allusion from before the great demon Wei Jie was pursued by the four great sects and fell into the Po Hun Snake cave.

His path to becoming a demon also began from the Po Hun Snake cave in the deep valley of Qilao Mountain.

As for this area within a hundred li of Qilao Mountain, it was still lush and verdant two hundred years ago. But after Wei Jie became a demon, he massacred the four sects and wanted to open the hidden Underworld gates on Qilao Mountain, causing great chaos among the gods. Finally, it seemed there was another great battle on Qilao Mountain, so that where divine fire had burned, not a blade of grass would grow.

Second Senior Sister usually loved reading about the famous allusions of various great sects, so she was naturally eager to tell these stories to her junior sister, this cultivation novice.

Cui Xiaoxiao initially climbed the mountain while smiling and listening, but as she walked, her complexion slightly changed. She suddenly felt a thread of pain shoot out from her chest, rapidly spreading to her limbs and bones.

These past few days, Cui Xiaoxiao had been at peace with the Demon Pearl in her body. She had thought her extremely yin bloodline had suppressed the Demon Pearl.

But now she discovered she had been happy too early.

Right by this hillside full of broken monuments at the base of Qilao Mountain, the poison from the Demon Pearl in Cui Xiaoxiao’s body finally began to take effect.

Just as Qin Lingxiao had said, when the poison struck, every pore of Cui Xiaoxiao’s body seemed injured, causing her pain like ten thousand arrows piercing her heart, making her roll on the ground in agony.

The three fellow disciples wanted to lift her and place her on a large stone nearby. But as soon as their hands touched Cui Xiaoxiao’s body, she immediately cried out in painful wails again. Even the friction of clothes on her body made her feel unbearably painful. Clammy sweat dampened her temples, and her hair clung messily to her cheeks.

Seeing her like this, Jiang Nanmu was so anxious she was about to cry, whispering: “What should we do?”

Ji Wuqi held a demon-subduing talisman in his hand – applying it wasn’t right, not applying it wasn’t right either.

Although he usually mocked his sect leader’s junior sister severely, seeing this seventeen-year-old girl in such pain with a face as pale as paper, he didn’t know how to respond for a moment.

Finally, Ji Wuqi simply helplessly crumpled the yellow talisman paper into a ball and threw it aside in frustration.

Just when several people were at their wits’ end, several Jiuxuan Sword Sect disciples appeared as if they had calculated the timing precisely, once again elegantly arriving on their swords.

Sword Sect First Disciple Jiang Zheng looked contemptuously at Cui Xiaoxiao rolling on the ground. After enjoying the spectacle enough, he leisurely spoke: “Master guessed Sect Leader Cui’s current predicament, so he ordered us to come here and escort Sect Leader Cui to see him. In the whole world, only our master can save you. Sect Leader Cui, please!”

Second Senior Sister Jiang Nanmu heard this and quickly nodded, preparing to help the sword sect disciples lift Cui Xiaoxiao together.

But Xiaoxiao, still rolling and struggling on the ground, was desperately clawing at the earth with both hands. She raised her head in dishevelment, revealing half a beautiful eye through her tangled hair strands. The red mole at the corner of her eye seemed about to drip blood, making her gaze appear somewhat fierce.

“…Thank you for Sect Leader Qin’s kind intention, but this young lady has no fortune to enjoy his goodwill. I appreciate the thought!”

Cui Xiaoxiao knew that Qin Lingxiao had deliberately calculated the timing before sending people to “invite” her.

He had even calculated that under the torment of the poison, she would lose all dignity and prostrate herself begging for his help. But the more Qin Lingxiao deliberately manipulated people this way, the more Cui Xiaoxiao refused to comply with his wishes.

Those who had mixed for food in the marketplace since childhood, if they didn’t have some stubborn and fierce temperament, wouldn’t even stray dogs come to bully them?

Beneath Cui Xiaoxiao’s seemingly worldly and smooth surface, when she became fierce, she could even disregard her own life!