Drip! Drip!
Blood trickled slowly from Song Zhi'ang's arms.
Just how overbearing was Li Guanqi's strength?
In her current state, Song Zhi'ang was simply no match for him. After only a brief clash, she was already pushed to the brink just trying to defend herself.
Hideous, charred wounds covered her from head to toe.
Yet despite suffering agony that would have broken any ordinary person, not a trace of emotion showed on Song Zhi'ang's face.
Li Guanqi's gaze turned solemn. He refused to believe she could not feel pain.
After all, Song Zhi'ang was still human, not some mindless Abyss Demon.
Yet he could not detect the slightest emotional tremor in her eyes.
It was as though none of this torment meant anything to her.
Even as the thought crossed his mind, Li Guanqi's hands did not slow in the least.
Slash!
Li Guanqi swept his blade upward in an erratic, razor-sharp arc with blinding speed, cleanly severing the wrist that held Song Zhi'ang's sword!
Spurt!
"Ugh!"
Clutching her severed wrist, Song Zhi'ang retreated violently as demonic qi surged around her and blasted toward Li Guanqi.
Spikes screamed through the air, shooting forth with lethal velocity. By now, Song Zhi'ang had completely lost her senses.
Her body was entirely puppeteered by the demon spirit, reduced to an unthinking marionette.
Li Guanqi pulled back and shot forward without mercy. In an instant, thunder erupted, and thousands of lightning bolts rained down upon the woman like a heavenly tribulation.
The sky full of spikes shattered to pieces. Li Guanqi descended from the sky, the sword in his hand poised to strike.
Yet right at that moment...
The demonic qi within Song Zhi'ang abruptly receded. Watching Li Guanqi's sword thrust toward her, she slowly closed her eyes.
Two streaks of bloody tears traced down from the corners of her eyes as she struggled with all her might to force her body to spread its arms wide.
Watching this from the distance, Ye Feng looked ready to burst a blood vessel.
On the other side, Lu Tian frowned in displeasure and barked chillingly, "Bitch! I told you to kill him!!"
Demonic qi surged, nearly swallowing the woman whole once more.
Song Zhi'ang's eyes filled with fierce torment, clearly fighting with everything she had against the control of the demon spirit inside her.
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. He could not tell whether this was a trick, yet his sword pushed forward without the slightest hesitation!
As thousands of lightning bolts crashed down, Ye Feng finally tore free from his restraints and roared toward the sky, "No!! Eldest Brother, stop—!!!"
Yet Ye Feng's voice came too late...
Thrust!
Song Zhi'ang abandoned all resistance, and the sword blade right before her pierced cleanly through her body!
The long sword ran straight through her chest, piercing her heart and emerging from her back.
Ye Feng looked as though all the spirit had been drained from him in an instant. Dazed and hollow, he could not bear to accept this outcome.
Fresh blood bloomed in midair like a magnificent crimson rose, only to wilt and wither away...
Li Guanqi's heart was a tangle of emotions. He could not fathom why she had refused to dodge, why she had sought death.
With her left hand, Song Zhi'ang gripped Li Guanqi's large hand tightly, letting the blade remain buried through her flesh.
The bloodlust faded from her eyes, and a glimmer of clarity returned to them. The black flower at the center of her brow had long vanished.
Looking at Li Guanqi with deep, conflicted emotion, she actually took a step forward!
The pain of the blade grinding against her heart made her brow knit.
Yet her forward step was resolute, bringing her less than two feet from him.
To any onlooker, it looked as though Song Zhi'ang had thrown herself straight into Li Guanqi's embrace.
Li Guanqi instinctively wanted to pull back half a step, but Song Zhi'ang seized him tightly. Her voice trembled faintly, pleading in fragile desperation.
"Don't go... please...?"
Her voice was gentle and clear, the rasping hoarseness entirely gone.
Hearing that voice, Li Guanqi froze slightly. It felt as though the woman before him was no longer an irredeemable protector of the Heavenly Demon Hall,
but rather...
that decent woman in the small city wiping away sweat as she sold tofu, or that young woman playing the zither in the brothel to pay for her father's medicine.
Seeing Li Guanqi freeze in his tracks, Song Zhi'ang smiled.
Her eyes gazed hazily at him, yet she lacked the strength to wipe away the tears that blurred her vision.
Staring at the blurry figure before her, Song Zhi'ang's pale lips trembled slightly.
It seemed as though she had endless things she wanted to tell him in person, yet when the words reached her lips, they coalesced into a single phrase.
"I'm sorry."
As the words fell, Song Zhi'ang's body went limp. Her eyelashes quivered, and her heavy eyelids slid shut.
Her hands fell limply to her sides, her fingernails leaving a trace of blood across the back of Li Guanqi's hand.
Nothing could halt the ebbing of her life now...
Swoosh!
Song Zhi'ang plummeted headfirst from the void, only to be caught in the arms of Ye Feng as he arrived just in time.
Traces of blood lingered at the corners of Song Zhi'ang's eyes as she used her final ounce of strength to reach toward Ye Feng.
Ye Feng's chest heaved, a lump caught tight in his throat.
His voice trembled as he nodded frantically. "Don't worry... Don't worry, I will save Si'ang!!"
Cradled in Ye Feng's arms, Song Zhi'ang looked up toward Li Guanqi. Her mouth moved slightly, yet no sound came out.
Ye Feng spoke in a gentle murmur, not daring to look down at the woman in his embrace.
"Sleep now. Just sleep... and everything will be all right."
"You won't have to... live in fear anymore... You won't have to live in self-blame and guilt ever again..."
"You won't have to... look upon this filthy world anymore..."
Song Zhi'ang was dead. A smile lingered on her lips beneath her disheveled hair, stripped bare of all demonic qi.
Her aura was tranquil, resembling who she had been when they first met.
Li Guanqi stepped up beside Ye Feng and asked with a deep, furrowed frown, "How did your bond with her become so close?"
A bitter smile tugged at Ye Feng's lips.
"We were... each other's only support in the dark."
With just that one sentence, Ye Feng offered no further explanation.
He had seen her sit in dazed silence.
He had seen her writhing in agony as demonic qi gnawed at her soul.
He had seen her utterly wretched and broken countless times.
And she had witnessed the exact same in him.
He would urge Song Zhi'ang to live on—for Li Si'ang, and for... an invisible tomorrow.
She would urge Ye Feng to live on—for a reunion with his brothers, and so that... he would not end up as pathetic as she was.
Ye Feng was overwhelmed with grief, for every shred of this had been Lu Tian's doing!
Grief twisted into towering hatred as he lifted his gaze toward the distant void.
Suddenly!
Ye Feng's expression shifted slightly. He unleashed his divine sense, sending it sweeping out across all directions!
Soon enough, he discovered dozens of shadow-casting stones scattered throughout this space.
Those stones captured no sound—only images.
Ye Feng's face turned ashen. Shattering the stones to dust, he murmured under his breath,
"It's over..."
In a deserted, pitch-black void, a youth's face was bathed in tears as he stared blankly at the shattered images before him.
His voice brimmed with monstrous hatred. Gritting his teeth, his eyes wide enough to tear at the corners, he snarled with chilling fury,
"Li Guanqi... Li Guanqi!!!!"
"Why?! Why did you kill my mother?!"
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'LL KILL YOU!!!! AHHH!"
"Li Guanqi! If I, Li Si'ang, do not slaughter you, I am no human being!"
The seed of hatred took root and sprouted wildly in the youth's heart. Immediately afterward, towering demonic qi erupted from within his body!
Bizarre black divine runes bloomed from the center of his brow, spreading across his entire body in the blink of an eye.
Chapter 1133