The eastern part of the city was full of dust and sand as if a sandstorm had passed over it, and the streets were desolate.
Many buildings were overturned by the violent airwave, and the floor tiles on the streets were uprooted. Only a few low houses survived.
Bang ---
A golden figure fell from the sky and crashed onto the tiled roof of a house, dislodging all the tiles on impact. Then, it bounced up and down, finally landed on the street, and rolled away. It lay there motionless with its legs crooked.
Yun Xi was lying on the ground, looking at the sky with a dull expression, and the strange giant red lotus was reflected in her eyes. After her head suffered such a blow, she was now dazed.
She realized she must have been badly hurt, but she felt no pain at all.
Indeed, Yun Xi now felt as if she was left with only her head and right hand, and the rest of her body had disappeared.
"Hiss... cough... cough..."
She wanted to get up but found that she couldn't exert any strength at all, and she had a taste of rust stuck in her throat that felt extremely uncomfortable.
And it was also at this time that the petals of that bloody lotus in the sky, once again, began to contract.
Whew --
After a roar, the lotus once again started spraying countless red particles into the sky, and the dense pollen thoroughly painted the Dragon House streets blood red.
Looking at the red snow falling, Yun Xi's first thought was that she had to hide inside a house.
She tried to imitate the cloth wrappings that those two people were wearing, but because of that demonic cultivator, they were full of holes, the bamboo hat was missing, and now, she couldn't use thunder and fire to protect herself.
She had seen what happened to those who were stained with red snow.
"Tsk..."
Yun Xi clicked her tongue, gritted her teeth, and tried to crawl out of the street to take cover under an eave with the only hand she could still move. Unfortunately, just raising her hand took all her strength.
Knowing that she probably wouldn't be able to avoid being possessed by the blood spirit and turning into that disgusting monster, Yun Xi felt very reluctant and used her last strength to raise her right hand.
She gave a thumbs up to the blood lotus in the sky, then turned her wrist and pointed her thumb down.
A defying shout rose to the sky. "Fuck you, shitty demonic cultivators!! I will definitely kill you all in the next life! Cough-- cough-- cough--"
Red snowflakes floated in the air, coming toward her bruised cheeks.
Yun Xi resigned to her fate, and her raised arm fell suddenly, hitting the pavement.
Rustle --
There was a sound of footsteps, then a torn paper fan slid from the edge of Yun Xi's field of vision, covering the red snow and the giant lotus in the sky.
Then, an umbrella blocked her sight.
Yun Xi rolled her eyes to look at the person holding the umbrella for her. The young man with a bamboo hat had his face wrapped in bandages, revealing only a pair of dark purple eyes. There was a lot of dust on his dark clothes, and he looked a little untidy.
After a moment of silence, Yun Xi opened her mouth and took a deep breath. "Hey, you... cough, cough..."
However, before she finished speaking, she spurted a mouthful of blood.
Ye Anping looked down at her, shook his head, and moved his gaze downwards. Seeing her legs that were twisted like a crab's and the corner of the semitransparent golden undergarment underneath her skirt, he felt a little helpless.
Squatting down, with the umbrella under his arm, he picked up Yun Xi supporting her back and thighs and walked toward a barely intact second-story attic on the side of the road.
Although Yun Xi wasn't too happy, she could only glare fiercely into Ye Anping's eyes to express her protest.
"..."
In the attic, Pei Lianxue was currently sitting cross-legged on a wooden table, regulating her breathing and condensing her qi. She opened her eyes when she heard the commotion and saw her brother carrying a girl into the room. Puffing up her cheeks, she jumped off the table.
"I'll do it."
Pei Lianxue snatched Yun Xi from Ye Anping's arms and placed her on the table she had just meditated on. Ye Anping then walked over and grabbed her twisted legs.
Click ---
"Ahhhhh---!!"
With a scream, Yun Xi's dislocated knee was put back by Ye Anping with his bare hands, and then, without pause, he straightened her left hand and left foot.
Grinding off her teeth, Yun Xi made one last effort, glared into Ye Anping's deep purple eyes again, then rolled her eyes and fainted.
Ye Anping checked her with his spiritual sense, then raised her eyelids and confirmed there was no big problem.
He then went to the corner and checked the other Moon Shadow Sword Sect disciple he had dragged inside. After confirming that the man's breath was stable now, he stood up, straightened the bamboo hat on his head, and left the house together with Pei Lianxue.
...
The red snow on the street was much denser than before. Ye Anping glanced at the sky from under his bamboo hat. Then, he adjusted Pei Lianxue's hat a little, and they ran back toward the square.
The square had now changed beyond recognition. The houses and pavilions within a few hundred feet of the center had disappeared, leaving only an extremely regular and clean circular open space.
In the center of this open space was Zuo Min's headless cicada shell, and on the ground next to it, the golden page.
According to the game, Zuo Min's self-destruction meant the battle was over. Once she died, she would not appear again, but Ye Anping had an unsettling feeling about this eerie place.
He had a feeling that Zuo Min was not dead yet.
A cultivator specializing in toxic parasites had the vitality of a cockroach, so he had to take precautions.
"Sister, be careful."
Pulling out his sword, Ye Anping led his sister to the cicada shell, picked up the golden page, and put it back into his storage bag. Then, he slashed Zuo Min's body twice with the sword, took out a fire talisman, and ignited her carcass.
After watching Zuo Min's cicada shell gradually wither and then turn into a pile of black ash, he breathed a sigh of relief. However, when he looked down, he saw some black spots that looked like ash on the ground at his feet.
"Is it ash? Or..."
Ye Anping frowned slightly and thought for a moment. He took out a fire talisman, motioning Pei Lianxue to stand back, and then put the fire talisman on his own body and ignited it with spiritual energy.
In an instant, his whole body burst into flames.
Pei Lianxue, who retreated further away, was so frightened that her eyes widened. She wanted to step forward to help put out the fire but was stopped by Ye Anping.
"Stay back! Five, four, three, two..."
Ye Anping endured the severe pain and counted in a low voice.
And as the word 'one' reached his mouth, suddenly a blood-curdling screech burst from his back.
"Aaahhh...!!"
A blood-red energy column rose into the sky. Zuo Min's spirit couldn't stand the flames and immediately leaped away from his body.
"You brat!!!"
"Sister!"
As he shouted, Ye Anping took out a water talisman and poured a large amount of water over his body to put out the fire.
Seeing the soul trying to escape, Pei Lianxue stepped forward with her right foot, pointed her sword fingers at her chest, and ice-blue spiritual energy spread around her body.
In an instant, the ground in the square was covered in a layer of frost, and countless sharp spikes of ice appeared, chasing Zuo Min up to the sky and finally freezing her soul into a block of ice, causing her to fall back down and smash to the ground.
Trapped in the ice, Zuo Min glared angrily at Ye Anping. She had just lodged her soul in a flea-shaped parasite she had raised. She planned to wait for them to return for the golden page, then jump on that girl and look for an opportunity to take over her body.
However, when Ye Anping picked up the book page, the girl was standing too far away. She had no choice but to let the parasite cling to Ye Anping's clothes, ready to wait for an opportunity.
But who would have thought that this kid...
"Arrgh---!!!" Zuo Min looked up to the sky and shouted. "Wu Yue!!! Yao Yuanhua!!! You two losers, you can't get anything done!! If it weren't for you, how could I have fallen into the trap of two early-stage Foundation Building brats?!"
Ye Anping looked at her expressionlessly.
Indeed, if Wu Yue and Yao Yuanhua hadn't died, the remaining three demonic cultivators wouldn't have had to take over those two people's formation knots. With only him and his sister, killing Zuo Min would definitely be a tough battle.
But...
"Senior Zuo, who do you think killed them?"
"Who killed them..."
Zuo Min was dumbfounded.
Because Yao Yuanhua had a bad temper, when he was killed by the guards of the Dragon House , she and the others thought he accidentally exposed his identity as a demonic cultivator while making trouble in the brothel, thus being killed by the guards and the two Black Star Sect disciples.
Wu Yue thought the same and was eager to avenge Yao Yuanhua, so she also exposed her identity and was brutally killed.
It never occurred to them that they were being deliberately targeted.
After all, the Demonic Sect had only sent the five of them to the Dragon House to prevent the news from leaking out and attracting the attention of people who could stop them, like the Immortal Matriarch.
Even within the Demonic Sect, only a few elders and the patriarch knew about the Dragon House matter, so it was impossible for news to have leaked.
But...
After hearing Ye Anping's words, Zuo Min finally understood.
---There was a traitor among the five of them!
Zuo Min yelled at Ye Anping. "Could it be...Yao Yuanhua?!! He told you, right?! I knew it! That scumbag with his brain between his legs!!!"
"..."
Ye Anping pursed his mouth. He wiped the sword blade in his right hand with the fire talisman, and the sword burst into flames.
"Wait!! The Black Moon Routine !! I know!! Let me go, and I'll tell you the location of the Black Moon Routine remaining scroll!"
With a horizontal slash followed by a vertical slash, the two fiery crossed blows passed through the ice prison formed by Pei Lianxue's spiritual energy, igniting the soul inside.
"Ah---!... I'm dead, and you will never know where the remaining scroll of my Black Moon Routine is!!!"
" Pine Flame Mountain , one hundred miles east of Dragon House . Didn't you build a cave somewhere to store your things?"
"What??"
Ye Anping winked at her and said with a smile, "Senior Yao told me."
With that, he turned and walked out of the square with his sister, leaving Zuo Min's screams behind him.
Originally, he wanted to take away Zuo Min's storage bag, but... after thinking about it, he abandoned the idea. Most of her valuable things were stored in the cave in Pine Flame Mountain . Besides, who knew what weird things were in the storage bag she was carrying?
In the game, the first fragment of the ' Black Moon Routine ' in Zuo Min's possession required killing her to drop a secret message, which had to be decrypted to find her hiding place in Pine Flame Mountain . However, he already knew it and didn't need to decrypt it.
He returned only to retrieve the fifth fragment of the ' Black Moon Routine ' he had thrown as bait.
As they walked out of the square, Pei Lianxue looked back at Zuo Min, who was struggling and wailing, and asked weakly, "Husband, what does it mean you have a brain between your legs? Why is the brain down there?"
Ye Anping opened his mouth and turned toward his sister, but when he saw the innocent look in her eyes, he felt a lump in his throat.
"Well, it's like..."
"Like?"
And that's when a golden dragon rose into the sky above the Dragon House central district, catching Ye Anping's gaze.
After a moment of silence, he finally replied. "It's like... Feng Yu Die."
"Oh..."