Father and son, flesh and blood — and having just witnessed Rong Huanxuan choose the absolute finality of self-detonation as a way to stab him in the back, the Rong Family Head knew at once what Wu Youzi was trying to do.

He was clearly trying to follow in the treacherous Rong Huanxuan’s footsteps — using himself as the weapon to deal a devastating blow.

Accursed wretch. Unfilial son. Fool.

The Rong Family Head erupted in fury and tried to pull back — but it was already too late. He could only force his spiritual power with everything he had, driving the Shihun Fan to swallow Wu Youzi whole. But Wu Youzi had already unleashed every trace of his sinister power in a savage, head-on assault against the Shihun Fan’s core formation eye.

“No!” The Rong Family Head let out a roar of fury mingled with dread. He felt his spirit being violently backlashed by a savage force — like being struck by a hammer. He sprayed out a large mouthful of dark blood and was sent flying backward.

As the core formation eye of the Shihun Fan was destroyed, the tremendous backlash it sent into its master left the fan itself seemingly stripped of all control. The grotesque spirits and ghastly demons locked within the fan’s surface scattered like headless flies, swarming madly toward the only living being remaining at the core — slashing and tearing. A mist of blood rained down from midair; the sky, already shrouded in the fan’s shadowy power, was permeated with an unnerving red. Those who witnessed it felt their minds crack with terror.

The Rong Family Head vomited another mouthful of essence blood. The backlash from his life-bound treasure being critically damaged, combined with the lingering wounds from the clan’s protective formation backlash before — two blows piled upon each other, a doubled assault — left him feeling as though his soul was being torn apart, his cultivation in retreat. He quickly fished out a supreme restorative elixir and swallowed it whole, suppressing the searing agony in his spirit with all his will, and chanted the incantation at a desperate pace, driving the Soul-Devouring Art.

He was going to drain every last shred of Wu Youzi’s soul power from within the Shihun Fan. All the divine and demonic power the man had gained through self-sacrifice — every bit of it would serve him now, replenishing the vast expenditure of true essence he had suffered.

At the same time, Lang Jiuchuan watched the Rong Family Head — hair turned fully white, face gaunt and hollowed yet more deranged than ever, invoking his secret technique to drive the now-out-of-control Shihun Fan to devour everything in reach. Her gaze dropped to a temperature that cut to the bone.

She did not deny that she preferred to work with external forces when possible. But she had no taste for hiding at the rear while others made sacrifices so she could reap the rewards. If that was all she did, what was the point of her own cultivation?

Wu Youzi had made his choice. She had hers.

Lang Jiuchuan’s toes touched the ground and launched her skyward. She threw the Jade Bone Talisman Brush at the Shihun Fan and murmured an incantation: “One stroke to define what is false, ten thousand laws to set heaven and earth right — Go!“

The Shihun Fan froze for a fraction of an instant. In the next breath, Wu Youzi’s soul was drawn out by the talisman brush — but it was already in a state of dissolution, soul and spirit nearly scattered, wrapped in dense blood-saturated demonic miasma, on the very edge of vanishing completely.

Lang Jiuchuan did not pause. She steadied his soul with a single stroke of the talisman brush, then in one movement — like a thread of green smoke — swept toward the Rong Family Head. She carried him with her, hurling both of them at breakneck speed into the Shihun Fan, which had lost control and was devouring every source of living power it could reach.

The Rong Family Head was momentarily surprised. Then a vicious smile split his face. “Heaven has a road but you would not walk it; hell has no gate but you kick your way in. Demon woman — you’ve walked right into my trap. Today you enter, and you do not come back out!”

Within the Shihun Fan was a boundless expanse of black mist and swampy darkness. The Rong Family Heads of each generation had used it as their spiritual weapon — severing evil, eliminating demons — and the countless souls swallowed within had sunk here, lamenting endlessly, transformed into a source of pure yet deeply corrupted soul power, nourishing this weapon generation after generation. That power had made it a priceless treasure of the highest order.

But at some unknown point in time, it had also begun to devour living souls, rendering the treasure both righteous and evil, its power boundless and limitless. Those souls and the weapon sustained each other — meeting the strong and growing stronger in response, from which there was no escape. They could only transform into even more ferocious spirits of grievance, screaming as they threw themselves at any new nourishment that arrived.

“What a lot of meaningless words.” Lang Jiuchuan shielded herself with pure thunder energy and summoned the Dizhong Bell, striking it hard.

Clang.

The sound of the bell rolled out like waves, crashing into the aggrieved souls. Shrieks rose to a pitch, the struggling ceaseless — making the fan’s power overflow continuously outward. Many outside could not withstand this magnitude; they collapsed with blood streaming from all seven orifices.

The arcane runes on the bell surged forth like a snake of thunder and lightning, coiling toward the Rong Family Head, who was channeling his evil power at full force to fill the Shihun Fan’s shattered formation eye. The righteous and domineering lightning coiled around him and cinched tight with a sizzling crackle.

Crack.

The Rong Family Head let out a scream of agony. The evil power laced with the combined force of countless souls — rather than flowing into the Shihun Fan — turned to attack Lang Jiuchuan instead. “Demon woman — surrender your life!”

But the thunder energy cloaking Lang Jiuchuan was like a coat of protective lightning, sealing every attack completely out — including those suicidal, maddened spirits that threw themselves at the lightning without any thought of survival. She stood unshakeable. The only consequence was the continuous drain on her true essence to maintain it, her complexion gradually turning pale.

The Rong Family Head saw this, and his eyes flickered between terror and greed, blazing with a strange light. If he could absorb her — devour her power — would he not live up to the meaning of his Daoist name and touch the very doorstep of eternal life?

Lang Jiuchuan watched his greed and registered it coldly within. She pretended to be near the point of collapse, swaying faintly, and waited quietly. Not yet. The moment was not right. A snake struck but not killed would only turn against you. She needed to wait until he was going all-out.

Yes — she did not believe for a moment that this was the full extent of what the Rong Family Head was capable of. He was devious. He was meticulous. Even suffering successive backlashes, he still had the strength to expend more true essence. That meant he must have something held in reserve to protect himself. She needed to wait.

Wait until he had committed everything he had, and then strike him down in one blow.

If you wish for their ruin, first drive them mad.

Lang Jiuchuan’s spirit and consciousness surged. A layer of golden radiance bloomed around her — carrying what seemed like the faint fragrance of a lotus blossom — and completely ensnared the Rong Family Head’s greedy heart. A supreme supplement for a soul.

Dark craving and frenzied desire flashed through him. He ground his teeth and bit down. Both hands moved through a dense, intricate sequence of seals. He mobilized every trace of true essence and essence blood in his body, unleashing the soul-devouring forbidden secret technique with absolute, total abandon — holding nothing back.

The terrifying, savage energy circling his body flowed and turned, transforming into threads of flowing light that shot from all directions toward Lang Jiuchuan, attempting to tear her soul out of her body by force. At the same time, those threads of light — fine as needlepoints — stabbed into her core and spirit seat, stealing her spiritual power.

Now.

Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes snapped open. She said clearly, “Rong Yiming — you have devoured the souls of others, disregarded all human bonds, brutalized your own blood. Your sins are heavy and your crimes are many. Today — let this demonic fan of the Rong Family reap what it has sown.”

The moment her words fell, she forced a drop of essence blood — containing the purest Yang true essence — from the tip of her finger, and let it fall into the red embroidered ball resting in her outstretched palm.

An immense surge of Dao resonance poured through her palm and into the ball. It hummed — the ball rose and spun in midair, and without warning erupted in a blaze of breathtaking, brilliant crimson radiance. The fine, thread-like sin-fire runes inscribed upon the ball’s surface came alive. As the embroidered ball spun faster and faster, a terrifying aura exploded and spread outward.

It was the aura of karma fire — capable of judging and burning away all sin and wrongdoing.

“Purge evil, burn away sin — Ignite!” Lang Jiuchuan threw her hand back. The embroidered ball was unleashed. The red light plunged into the darkness —

Boom!

It was as though a spark had landed in a vat of boiling oil. The flames erupted in an instant, surging and cascading outward, rolling over every aggrieved soul and every sin lurking within the black mist.

Screams of terror reached a crescendo — and vanished rapidly into the fire.

Within this ten-thousand-law Shihun Fan, passed down through the Rong Family for how many generations, how many living beings had served as nourishment within it? How many grievances had festered and grown? Even Wu Youzi detonating himself, his body and all his power, had only managed to shatter the core formation eye. The depth of accumulated sin within this fan was beyond imagining.

But every last trace of sin, every accumulated wrong — before the Red Lotus Karma Fire, there was nowhere to hide. Only burning annihilation.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The karma fire exploded outward — as though the earth itself was trembling and the mountains were splitting.

The Rong Family Head’s vicious laughter and greedy hunger transformed instantly into a terror and disbelief he had never felt before in his entire life. “This is — impossible — ah—…”