When I truly fell into the world below, I finally realized that it was my master who was unethical, but I was the one facing retribution. Heaven is truly unfair.

I found myself in a winding corridor with flying sand and stones before my eyes, continuous miasma, and soil mixed with broken walls and ruins all around, as if this had once been an underground palace. Since Divine Lord built Suo, the Suozhao clan’s most sensitive trait has been intuition. Though only sand and dust were visible before me, the demonic energy that had approached earlier now surrounded me.

Looking around, Divine Lord Yinze and Xuanyue had long disappeared to who knows where.

Not far ahead, ghostly shadows seemed to flicker with floating demon lanterns, making me afraid to take even a single step.

However, the Earth naturally restrains water. In this arid sandy ground, before long I felt difficulty breathing, discomfort throughout my body, and could barely keep my eyes open.

At this moment, a voice came from above, echoing throughout the entire palace: “Little water demon, originally when you escaped that water demon city, if you had lived quietly under a false name, the six realms are vast—I wouldn’t have come to trouble you. But what did you do instead? Knowing there were tigers on the mountain, you deliberately went to Tiger Mountain. Today’s consequences are all of your own making. Dying an unnatural death, you can’t blame anyone else.”

I was stunned. This voice was so familiar, having appeared countless times in my nightmares over the past few months—it was Ruyue Weng!

In this instant, Mother Empress’s severed fingers, Father King’s collapse, and the cries of all Suozhao’s people attacked me like nightmares.

I raised my defenses throughout my body, but my legs couldn’t help feeling weak: “Where is this… why did you send me here?”

Ruyue Weng said, “Heh, truly useless. You’ve stayed at Qinghong Mountain for three months, yet can’t even recognize Lianyao Valley?”

“Why did you bring me here?! I’m not a demon—I’m a spirit!”

“I naturally know you’re a spirit.” Two strange laughs came from Ruyue Weng’s aged voice. “But when people get old, they sometimes become confused. Sometimes, looking at you, I feel there’s no difference between you and a demon. For us immortals, we’d rather wrongly kill ten thousand spirits than let one demon escape. Besides, spirits’ lives are originally cheap and worthless. Enjoy your days here sharing the same fate as the demons.”

“Wait! Don’t leave! Let me out!”

However, no matter how much I called afterward, Ruyue Weng never responded again—apparently he had gone far away.

Lianyao Valley—these three words were truly quite frightening. Though I’d never been to this place, I was already familiar with its famous reputation and various legends: Lianyao Valley, as the name suggests, was a valley that gathered the most demons in the world. But it wasn’t simply locking up demons.

Legend had it that among Taishang Laojun’s six treasures, there were originally two Purple Gold Red Gourds. He used one to build a gourd-shaped Demon Prison Temple at Qinghong Mountain to imprison demons caught by Qinghong Mountain disciples. However, as the number of Qinghong Mountain disciples increased, a small temple wasn’t enough to contain more and more demons. Houtu Niangniang moved it to a canyon outside the mountain and built the Lianyao Valley. From then on, any vicious demons caught by immortals would be thrown here.

Of course, for me at this moment, the troubling thing wasn’t “demon” or “valley,” but the word “refine” in front. Originally, demons trapped in the Purple Gold Red Gourd would turn to pus in moments. In this enlarged demon-refining gourd, the top layer of sand was material that would weather demons. The longer one stayed in the upper level of Lianyao Valley, the faster they would die.

Simply put, Lianyao Valley was the eighteen levels of hell for demons.

No demon wanted to stay on the top level. Those squeezed to the upper level were all small demons. But the further down one went, the more terrifying it became, because Lianyao Valley connected directly to real hell—the Avici Hell, the place of eternal damnation. What stayed there, no one knew if they were demons, ghosts, or some other terrifying things.

Looking up at the high sky above, I discovered the sky was purple, indicating there was a crimson magical net in mid-air, probably a barrier personally set by the Heavenly Emperor. Any demon or spirit that touched it would be annihilated… This was truly troublesome.

Where on earth had Taishi Jun gone? I saw him fall with me at the time—how was there no trace of him now? Should I wait for him in place, or should I leave this dangerous place?

The discomfort in my body grew stronger, making me quickly decide: I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, and ran forward…

However, the road was long and far, seemingly endless. The already weathered demons wailed in the wind, repeatedly giving me the illusion that I would faint and turn to ash.

Just when I could barely hold on, the sandy ground beneath my feet suddenly softened, and I fell again. This time, I appeared in a small, broken stone room. At least there was no more miasma and sand here, but it was covered with moss and terrifyingly cold—wait, moss? There might be a water source nearby!

Hugging my arms, I carefully stepped to the door and discovered there was indeed flowing water on both sides of the corridor. But at the same time, I also saw too many things I didn’t want to see.

The entire corridor was actually crowded with various demons: old tree root spirits with green eyes glowing in worm holes, moth spirits dropping ash all over the ground, vine spirits swaying in wall corners… They crawled throughout the corridor like maggots. Just one look made my stomach churn with acid.

I stepped back two paces, but turning around, I saw the moss on the wall start wriggling and spray poison at me!

I immediately manipulated the flowing water in the corridor, forming ice spikes to pierce it. Green fluid splattered all over the wall. It twisted twice on the ground and then went still. Then I quickly retreated into the room, not daring to go out again, afraid of being discovered by other demons.

Having never fought demons before, I stayed alone in this small, broken room for a long time out of fear. About an hour passed, and I gradually felt my strength failing, so I quietly walked to the door.

At this moment, an old tree root spirit happened to pass by the door. I was so scared I almost used the Water Control Technique, but quickly discovered it only glanced at me before lazily walking away. I tried stepping out of the room, walking forward lightly, and found that all the demons on the entire floor were listless without much killing intent.

Finding the stairs, I went down to the next level and discovered all the demons were still in the same state. Most were demons cultivated from plants and insects, all relatively small in size.

I continued down to the third level.

A flying fish demon came toward me head-on, opening its large mouth to reveal white, sharp teeth and biting at me!

I used water to leap upward, avoiding its attack, then used ice arrows to stab it again. But it wasn’t so easy to deal with—it dodged and attacked again.

I made water droplets condense into a sword in my palm, holding it in front of me. It charged straight at me and was perfectly pierced by the sword!

Wow, I was just reacting instinctively like this, and it worked? I repeatedly used that same move and found it quite interesting. Refocusing to resist more attacks, I didn’t expect the surrounding demons to look at the flying fish demon’s corpse on the ground and flee in fear.

Even so, I still didn’t let my guard down. From the fourth to the fifth floors, I eliminated four or five more small demons along the way.

Finally, I reached the sixth floor. Here, the walls were covered with fresh blood, and the ground had white bones that had been picked clean. I couldn’t help shivering. Indeed, the demons became more terrifying the further down one went. That green moss demon initially must have attacked me because it felt I had occupied its room. But down here, the demons became fierce and would kill me for no reason.

Back then, when Panlong captured me, it was also to use me as a pregnancy medicine. Divine Lord Yinze had said that the entire Suozhao clan was very nourishing. For demons, it must be the same. But I had thoroughly investigated all the upper floors—there was only water, no food, and no exit.

If I didn’t continue going down, I would only starve to death above. But going down, I might become food in a demon’s belly…

Just as I felt conflicted, I saw dozens of human legs appear in front of a door to the northwest. Thinking my eyes were playing tricks, I looked carefully and discovered it was a centipede spirit that had cultivated dozens of human legs!

My scalp went numb immediately. I retreated a step in terror, but tearing pain came from my shoulder! I screamed and twisted my head around, only to be nearly suffocated by what was behind me—biting me was a blood-red giant python as thick as a tree trunk! It had a human head with disheveled hair, bulging eyeballs, and a mouth opened wide, split to the ears, with all teeth like saw blades—long and sharp.

I remembered reading about this demon in books before. This creature was called Yuwu, growing in Shaoxian Mountain, feeding on humans. But if humans ate its flesh, they would die from severe poisoning.

I used water to form ice arrows, stabbing at its head. Unexpectedly, it picked me up and suddenly serpentined forward! It moved too fast—I couldn’t even see what the surrounding demons looked like before it carried me through half the floor. My fresh blood dripped on Yuwu’s head, making it excitedly hiss wildly.

Finally, in a corner, it coiled around me with its snake body, pulled out its sharp teeth, opened its wide mouth, and brought two rows of sword-like fangs toward me, seemingly wanting to pierce through my head. At this moment, I created dozens of ice spikes, charging straight at its face! Several of them happened to pierce through its eyes!

Its roaring sound spread throughout the entire floor, and its snake body loosened as a result. I quickly used water to jump out and fled desperately in the opposite direction.

Having been hungry for so long, I was already exhausted. I could only crouch in the corner of a dilapidated room, pressing my wound while gasping for breath. Releasing my bloody hand, I found the bleeding wouldn’t stop, so I could only press it back again and tear my clothes to bandage it.

Who knew when the wound would heal? If I kept consuming time like this, I would eventually be eaten…

No, I couldn’t think like this. During Taoist classes, the teacher had said that regardless of whether the opponent was human or demon, one must never lack fighting spirit—otherwise the opponent would quickly sense it, and one would become the loser. I should be grateful instead. I was Luowei, the little princess with the best grades. If it were Hanmo instead, he would have been eaten by demons long ago! What I needed to do now was hide here to rest and heal…

Just thinking of this, a shadow suddenly cast over me, scaring me so much my heart nearly stopped.

It was a terrifying face hanging upside down, connected to a long red snake body.

In an instant, I realized this was another Yuwu, poking its head in from the window behind me!

I slid my body downward, lying on the ground, avoiding its open fangs biting down! It bit through the wall, suddenly pulled its head back outside the window, and in an instant flashed to the small room’s doorway! I looked up at the window—it was only the size of a washbasin, definitely not big enough to escape through! Drawing ice arrows from outside the window to attack it, I had also become somewhat sluggish due to injury, and they were all blocked!

Yuwu opened its mouth of sharp teeth, stretched its body, and reached toward me! I was terrified to the limit and could only hold my head and scream!

It was over. The next second, I would be torn to pieces and swallowed…

But after waiting a long time, I felt no pain in my body. Instead, warm liquid dripped on me. Looking up, I discovered a sword had extended through the window, piercing through Yuwu’s skull.

“Come out.” A cold but familiar voice sounded behind me.

I was stunned for a moment, then immediately felt so moved that my eyes grew hot. I quickly wiped the Yuwu blood off the back of my hand, got up, and ran out the door cheerfully.