Ye Qiudao

The Demon Binding Rope took the form of a black iron chain. Jade Bone was bound tightly, coiled from head to foot. The rope constricted further and further. Those arcs of lightning seemed tiny, yet they pierced through the purple light cloaking Jade Bone, holding it firmly in check. Qin Sang watched Jade Bone impassively, sparing no expense of his true essence. Yet what happened next vastly exceeded his expectations. Whether their self-comprehended formation diagram failed to draw out the rope's full power or the ancient records had exaggerated, Jade Bone did not lose all ability to resist once ensnared, contrary to what they had anticipated. "Hmph!" After a brief moment of dishevelment, Jade Bone clenched its fists. Purple radiance erupted across its body, forming a layer of purplish mail between its flesh and the Demon Binding Rope. Buffeted by the blast of purple light, the rope reached a point where it could no longer contract. *Clank!* The Demon Binding Rope let out a grating, tooth-aching screech. Every iron link strained and shuddered violently, evoking dread that it might snap at any moment. Jade Bone snapped its head up, its features twisted in savagery. It glared coldly at Qin Sang, a bloodthirsty sneer curling at its lips, and threw its head back to unleash a heaven-shaking roar. The screech was shrill and agonizing, like a supreme demonic wail. Every listener felt their head swell and swim with dizziness. Qin Sang's chest tightened. His true essence actually began to stagnate, sending a secret shudder through him. Amid the demonic roar, purple light as dense as physical substance erupted from within Jade Bone, sweeping instantly into every corner of its body and gleaming with an uncanny luster. Jade bone and brocade skin. It was like a work of art! This purple radiance was different from before. Qin Sang and Qingjun could clearly perceive that Jade Bone's resisting strength had swelled immensely. It seemed to have unleashed some extraordinary secret art, rendering its power far more terrifying than before. At the same time, the constraints placed on Jade Bone by the spirit formation of astral essence stones weakened. *Snap!* In the next instant, Jade Bone thrust its hands out like lightning, grabbing hold of the Demon Binding Rope itself with speed so blinding that neither Qin Sang nor Qingjun could react in time. …… Above them. Bai stood between Old Demon Ye and Jade Bone. Although Old Demon Ye showed no intention of interfering for now, one could never be too cautious. Seeing that even Qin Sang and Qingjun's combined might—bolstered by both spirit formation and the Demon Binding Rope—failed to suppress Jade Bone, a flicker of surprise passed deep within Bai's eyes, yet his expression showed no panic. Old Demon Ye's gaze was profound, his face calm as an unruffled well. He watched coldly, like an outsider observing a spectacle. When Qin Sang had appeared, Old Demon Ye's attention was drawn to the Demon Binding Rope. Seeing that Jade Bone was about to snap even the rope, his eyes flickered faintly, and he cast a deep look at Bai. Bai's heart clenched. Demonic corpse qi gathered in his palm, ready for battle at any moment. …… *Crack, crack...* Jade Bone gripped the Demon Binding Rope tightly and wrenched it outward in opposite directions, attempting to tear it apart by sheer brute force. The rope was submerged in purple light, transforming into a purple chain. As its controller, Qin Sang could clearly sense how terrifying Jade Bone's strength was. The Demon Binding Rope genuinely stood a chance of being destroyed in its hands! His expression shifted drastically as he poured everything he had into stopping Jade Bone from destroying the rope. Suddenly, a cold snort detonated by Qin Sang's ear. An overwhelmingly ferocious impact surged through the Demon Binding Rope. Qin Sang grunted, staggering backward as his face flushed red. Right then. Qingjun suddenly detached herself from the astral essence stone formation, soaring high into the air. She shed her disguise, revealing her stunning figure and countenance. At that very moment around the blood altar, figure after figure flashed into view. Because Jade Bone was in peril and Old Demon Ye had eased up, leaving the sinister formation unmanned, its power plummeted. The cultivators trapped within the ghost mist finally breached the blockade and rushed over. Daoist Zhenyi and Daoist Canghong were half a step behind Qin Sang. The cultivator surnamed Guan and the others trailed further back at varying speeds. Figures appeared from other directions as well. The two largest groups had arrived. One was a cluster of Nascent Soul cultivators led by Count Dongyang and Demon Monarch Tongyou. On the other side, Jingyu flew alongside Snake King, surrounded mainly by demon cultivators, accompanied by human cultivators like Bing Han and the City Lord of Yinshan Pass. With that, nearly all the Nascent Soul experts who had entered the ghost mist were present. They tilted their heads back, staring blankly at Qingjun. A red dress, eternal and unchanging. Robes billowing, brilliant as blazing fire. A physique like a cinnabar phoenix, spreading its wings to take flight! The breathtaking sight seared itself deep into everyone's soul, unforgettable. Looking at Jade Bone, Qingjun's expression was as detached as ever—just as it had been when she told Qin Sang years ago that everyone was merely a passerby in her life. Catching Qingjun's bright gaze, Jade Bone paused slightly. Inexplicably, an unprecedented sense of mortal peril arose in its heart. Qingjun flew directly before Jade Bone. Lifting her fair wrists, her jade fingers danced lightly with a singular rhythm and beauty. To the side, Qin Sang was also stunned. He could not divine her intentions. To better manipulate his Nascent Soul talisman puppet, Qin Sang had once sought Qingjun's guidance on puppetcraft. Qingjun had withheld nothing, even producing an ancient tome of puppet seals to instruct him personally. He could guess she was performing a puppet seal secret art, but he could not tell which seal it was. Each puppet seal in the ancient tome possessed distinct functions, yet none matched Qingjun's present hand movements, nor were any suitable for such an occasion. *Could it be a new puppet seal? It feels far more complex than any recorded in the tome. Wait! This is...* A wave of profound shock flashed across Qin Sang's eyes. The instant Qingjun completed the seal, a wisp of faint grey qi suddenly welled up from the bone marrow deep inside the big toe of Jade Bone's left foot. Against the purple light, the grey qi appeared exceedingly frail, yet it was extraordinarily stubborn. It grew directly within Jade Bone's skeleton and spread throughout its entire body at astonishing speed. Old Demon Ye's pupils abruptly constricted. Jade Bone looked down, its face warping in shock. The purple light covering its body surged frantically toward the grey qi. Unexpectedly, the grey qi was like maggots clinging to bone, buried deep within its marrow, long since fused seamlessly with the skeleton. No matter how domineering the purple radiance was, it could not expel the grey qi. Shaking off his shock, Qin Sang drove the Demon Binding Rope at all costs to suppress Jade Bone. Qingjun's eyelashes fluttered. Meeting Qin Sang's eyes, she gave an imperceptible nod. Soon, grey qi crawled over every bone in Jade Bone's body. Shifting and swirling, the grey qi gradually outlined the silhouette of a puppet seal. A hundred thoughts flashed through Qin Sang's mind as he began to piece together the truth, his amazement deepening with every passing second. Without question, that grey qi was the manifestation of a puppet seal—one deeply planted within Jade Bone long ago to refine it into a puppet! Given Qingjun's current cultivation, no matter how profound her secret arts were, it should have been impossible to plant a puppet seal inside the Jade Bone fiend without its knowledge. She could not have done so even against an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator. Unless she had laid her trap long ago! Thinking back, the only opportunity Qingjun ever had to contact Jade Bone was during the battle at the blood pool, in that final struggle against Old Demon Ye. The Qingluan had grasped Jade Bone. While it appeared to have been knocked back by Old Demon Ye, it had actually deceived everyone, secretly transferring the puppet seal into Jade Bone's body! Enlightenment dawned upon Qin Sang. No wonder he had always felt something was missing from Qingjun after leaving the Blood Lake, even if he couldn't put his finger on what it was. She hadn't seemed severely wounded, yet it took her a long time to recover, during which she couldn't even use the Qingluan puppet in battle. It turned out that back then, Qingjun had transferred the puppet seal from within the Qingluan into Jade Bone, refining it into a puppet without anyone noticing! And that was precisely the truth. At that time, Qingjun had not lacked the strength to fight Old Demon Ye. However, it would have required a fight to the death, and she might not have succeeded in snatching the prize from the tiger's jaws. Jade Bone's consciousness was already extinguished; gaining a mere skeleton offered limited utility. Sizing up the situation, Qingjun had chosen to turn the tables by using a puppet seal to control Jade Bone, feigning weakness so Old Demon Ye would seize it. That way, whatever Old Demon Ye did with Jade Bone, she could use it to spy on Sin Abyss's true secrets, perhaps even catching Sin Abyss completely off guard. Only, events had not unfolded entirely as she had envisioned. Old Demon Ye had plotted against everyone, defecting from Sin Abyss and fleeing into Sin God Palace. Upon receiving word, Qingjun had departed Yucheng by night and circled the entrance of Sin God Palace several times, but unable to sense any ripples from the puppet seal, she had returned disappointed. Earlier in Sin God Palace, she had volunteered to bring up the rear precisely to sense the puppet seal using her secret art. She had also been the first to discover Old Demon Ye's trail. All his prior doubts regarding his senior sister fell neatly into place. Having worked this out, an even greater question arose in Qin Sang's mind. Staring intently at the grey qi inside Jade Bone, he remained utterly baffled. *What kind of puppet seal is this? It's one thing to fool Old Demon Ye's senses, but the fiend revived by possessing Jade Bone's body, yet even it noticed nothing until now!* Little did he know, this was the Heart Demon Puppet Seal! Qingjun cultivated the *Lifeless Demon Seal* and had been plagued by inner demons for years. With her peerless talent, not long after slaying Leng Yuntian and advancing to the Nascent Soul stage, she had devised a method to sever her inner demons and eliminate the danger. Yet she felt that simply severing an inner demon that had troubled her for so long would be a waste. Was there no secret technique to harness it? Never lacking in boldness, she permitted the inner demon to coexist with her. Turning her sights toward puppetcraft, she pondered for a century and invented a secret art of her own, refining the inner demon everyone dreaded into a unique Heart Demon Puppet Seal! A Heart Demon Puppet Seal. It was world-shaking! If word spread, who in the cultivation world would not be stunned? Inheriting the formless, incorporeal nature of an inner demon, this puppet seal concealed itself within Jade Bone. Not only was Old Demon Ye completely oblivious, but even after the fiend possessed Jade Bone, it failed to detect the slightest anomaly. Of course, this was also because the fiend had only recently broken free and had yet to recover its strength. Had the fiend been at its peak, or had Old Demon Ye lacked such deep suspicion and released it twenty years prior, the Heart Demon Puppet Seal would likely have been uncovered long ago. A twist of fate. Who could have guessed that Qingjun's spontaneous move would play such a decisive role at this very moment! The Heart Demon Puppet Seal manifested. Sensing impending disaster, the Jade Bone fiend frantically channeled purple radiance to suppress it. Unfortunately, before the fiend had even possessed the body, the Heart Demon Puppet Seal had already integrated into the jade bone and brocade skin. The fiend had walked straight into a trap; how could the seal be expelled so easily? Moreover, without the Demon Binding Rope, even Qingjun's activation of the seal would have struggled to control the fiend. With the two combined, panic finally surfaced on Jade Bone's face! Through the brocade skin, one could clearly see the grey qi thickening, coalescing into arcane puppet seals that branded every single bone with faint, imperceptible ripples. No matter how the purple light battered it, the seals could not be erased. To make matters worse, Jade Bone could not afford to divert its focus from resisting the Demon Binding Rope. Having fused with the formation diagram, every iron link of the rope gleamed pitch-black, wrapping tightly around Jade Bone. Black lightning stabbed deep into its body to suppress the purple light, coordinating from without while the puppet seal struck from within. Even so, Jade Bone had not lost all power to resist, struggling with savage fury. The Heart Demon Puppet Seal, the purple light, and the Demon Binding Rope. Three powers clashed within its frame, radiating heart-chilling fluctuations. "Why haven't you struck! Kill her!" Jade Bone roared at Old Demon Ye, pleading for aid for the very first time. Old Demon Ye was watching the spectacle with rapt fascination. What drew his gaze was not his ally Jade Bone, but Qingjun. Though he did not know the origin of the Heart Demon Puppet Seal, he could guess that Qingjun had tampered with it at the blood pool. A chill ran down his spine, leaving him in lingering fear. He fancied himself deeply calculating and peerlessly brilliant, yet he had fallen into this girl's scheme without even knowing it. Throughout that time, he had kept Jade Bone's brocade skin right by his side, which amounted to carrying a hidden explosive. Fortunately, his plans had not conflicted with Qingjun's, and he had hidden in Sin God Palace for twenty years. Otherwise, he truly might have capsized in a ditch. Hearing Jade Bone's demand, Old Demon Ye glanced at Bai, who stood poised for battle. Chuckling softly, he said leisurely, "Think carefully about the oath we swore. If our situations were reversed right now, would you stand by or step in to save me? You know full well what lies across the Reception Platform. You deliberately muddied the terms, leaving loopholes in the oath, because you never intended to let Ye live, did you? Back then, did you ever consider that one day you would weave your own cocoon and trap yourself?" Old Demon Ye looked at Jade Bone with a mocking smile. "You!" Stunned, Jade Bone roared sharply, "You're mad! Without my protection, you'll never survive crossing the spatial turbulence!" Completely unmoved by the threat, Old Demon Ye said placidly, "I recall you once saying that when departing this realm, the most terrifying spatial storms will be largely blocked by Ziwei Palace. Taking advantage of Ziwei Palace's departure to escape this realm, a late Nascent Soul cultivator has a sliver of hope to survive the spatial turbulence. Compared to constantly watching my back against an ancient demon of unknown origin, Ye believes braving the turbulence alone offers a slightly better chance of survival. Your sole purpose was merely to open the restrictions on the Reception Platform. Since someone is willing to help me eliminate a mortal threat, Ye is naturally glad to see it done..." As he spoke, Old Demon Ye looked up, his gaze seeming to pierce through the firmament into the unknown. His eyes burned with feverish intensity. For countless years, the dream that innumerable peerless geniuses of cultivation had yearned for was now just one step away from him. He would step out of the Beichen Realm, shatter this cage, and venture into a vaster world! The moment these words fell, an uproar broke out among the Nascent Soul cultivators. That speech revealed too much information, every word falling like a bolt from the blue. "Ziwei Palace isn't descending—it's tearing open the void to fly away?" "What does escaping this realm mean?" "What is the Reception Platform?" "Could it be ascension? That's impossible! Legends say only Mahayana grandmasters can undergo tribulation and ascend. The difference between Nascent Soul and Mahayana is like cloud and mud—where could one ascend to?" …… Everyone fell into bewildered confusion. They wondered if their ears were playing tricks on them, or if Old Demon Ye had gone mad. Just how many secrets were hidden in this world that they knew nothing about? Yet these doubts did not impair their judgment. Having rushed all the way here, they certainly wouldn't stand by as mere spectators, and they joined the fray one after another. Some dashed to assist Qin Sang and Qingjun. Others charged straight at Old Demon Ye. It was time to settle old debts and new grievances alike! The revelations Old Demon Ye had just dropped shook them to their core. They could never allow him to depart; they had to pry the full truth from him. Yet Old Demon Ye seemed completely unperturbed, paying no heed to any of them. Hands clasped behind his back, he looked up at the firmament. The sky had collapsed entirely, resembling a gaping hole from which terrifying spatial storms poured forth. Deep within the void, a faint shadow hovered—the projection of Ziwei Palace's Inner Hall. Beneath the blood altar, a figure quietly materialized. It was none other than the tall, thin cultivator who had chanted the Rebirth Mantra for the blood infants not long ago. He had also consumed the Withered Yuan Pill and was now plagued by its lingering defects, knowing his future was bleak. Having witnessed firsthand Yuzhen's tragic fate of being refined into a blood infant, his hatred for Old Demon Ye penetrated to the bone. A look of resolve flashed in his eyes as he spat out a spirit blade. The blade was shorter than a finger, completely transparent as if carved from dark ice. His Daoist robes billowed quietly. As he channeled the spirit blade, wrinkles crept across the corners of his eyes, deepening by the moment; the blade was actually drinking his vital essence. Finally, his eyes snapped shut, man and blade uniting as one! *Whish!* The blade light pierced the sky! Like a startled rainbow, faster than anyone else's magic treasures, it slashed furiously toward Old Demon Ye! In the blink of an eye, the spirit blade plunged through the storm, arriving right before Old Demon Ye, aimed straight for the back of his heart. Old Demon Ye floated in place, appearing utterly entranced by the celestial phenomenon above, seemingly unaware of the impending doom. Seeing Old Demon Ye on the verge of falling beneath the blade, a flicker of hesitation crossed Bai's eyes as he weighed whether to intervene. Right then, a faint mist of blood suddenly surfaced around Old Demon Ye. A crimson silhouette stepped out from his body—another Blood Demon avatar. Shockingly, this avatar's aura was on par with Old Demon Ye's true body, even showing signs of surpassing it! "Another peak mid-Nascent Soul Blood Demon avatar!" Someone cried out in disbelief. Old Demon Ye had lost a Blood Demon avatar at the Blood Lake, yet within a mere twenty years, he had refined another. However, Qin Sang, Daoist Canghong, and the others could see that matters were far from simple. Qin Sang in particular realized something the moment he saw it. During the battle in the Abyss Ruins, when he and Snake King were hunted down by Old Demon Ye with no power to retaliate, he had vaguely sensed that their pursuer was not Old Demon Ye's true body, but a Blood Demon avatar. Back then, the avatar had exerted immense pressure on him, an impression still vivid in his memory. By the time of the blood pool battle, he possessed the Eighteen Demon Banners, and the avatar no longer seemed as formidable; he had even forced it to self-detonate. Reflecting on it now, his opponents in those two battles were likely not the same. From start to finish, Old Demon Ye had possessed two Blood Demon avatars! What was his intention in concealing this one? Noticing that Bai was tense and on high alert, Qin Sang suddenly realized a staggering possibility—perhaps the Beichen Realm was not devoid of Great Cultivators after all! The Blood Demon avatar stood side by side with Old Demon Ye. True body and avatar exchanged a glance, nodding to one another. The avatar abruptly shifted into a beam of bloody light, flashing directly into the space between Old Demon Ye's brows. Old Demon Ye's eyes instantly took on a bloody crimson hue. His brows locked tight as an expression of agony surfaced on his face. He threw his head back and roared, his cry piercing straight into the heavens! At this moment, his aura erupted with cataclysmic force. Spreading his arms as if embracing the heavens, his long hair whipped wildly in the wind, exuding terrifying demonic might. Beneath the shocked and reverent gazes of the crowd, his cultivation surged upward step by step, instantly shattering the bottleneck of the late Nascent Soul stage and stepping firmly into it! *Whish!* The spirit blade arrived. The Yin-Yang Twin Ge silently materialized, flashing with the light of yin and yang as they blocked the blade. With a single clash, they shattered the blade's body, then thrust toward the tall, thin cultivator with astonishing speed. *Thwack!* The ge pierced straight through his chest. Blood rained down. The tall, thin cultivator flew backward, his body stiffening as a bloody hole opened in his chest. While the rest of his body appeared unmarred, his Nascent Soul and origin soul had already been pulverized by the Yin-Yang Ge. The light in his eyes faded rapidly as he took one last lingering look at the mortal world. There was no resentment in his gaze, nor anger—only faint regret. Old Demon Ye had endured for centuries to reach this point; he truly deserved to be called a formidable hegemon. Even as mortal enemies, the cultivator had to admit Old Demon Ye was an unmatched figure of their era. Defeated by superior skill, he died without regret! *Bang!* The tall, thin cultivator closed his eyes forever, torn to shreds by the storm, erased from the world. The attacks from Daoist Canghong and the others followed close behind. The Yin-Yang Ge unleashed their divine might, the qi of yin and yang condensing into a twin-fish Taiji pattern that orbited the ge, shielding Old Demon Ye. Before long, Old Demon Ye's cultivation stabilized. He stood undeniably among the ranks of Great Cultivators! The sole Great Cultivator of the present Beichen Realm! The undisputed number one expert of the realm! The entire field fell into stunned silence! Even Qingjun, engrossed in driving the Heart Demon Puppet Seal, could not help casting her gaze toward him. Jade Bone was equally dumbfounded; it had still underestimated this man, underestimated the cultivators of this era. Qin Sang sighed inwardly. Outsiders claimed he would replace Old Demon Ye as the paramount figure of the Beichen Realm, but he knew full well he was still far from the summit. Peerless figures emerged endlessly in this world. His senior sister, Old Demon Ye... Had Senior Qingzhu not perished, his accomplishments would not have paled before theirs either. In intellect, will, methods, and talent, all of them were first-rate. Old Demon Ye had long broken through the bottleneck of the late Nascent Soul stage. Learning of the chance to leave this realm, he had agreed to cooperate with Jade Bone, yet his wariness toward the fiend had never diminished in the slightest. Knowing that neither inner demon oaths nor karma oaths were foolproof, he could only rest easy if he held his own trump card. To that end, he had not hesitated to seal away a portion of his cultivation using a secret art. Self-detonating the other Blood Demon avatar at the blood pool had served not only to cut off Old Man Tianzheng's escape, but also to feign weakness before Jade Bone. Had he announced his breakthrough to the late Nascent Soul stage to the world early on, whatever he sought to do would have been vastly easier. Yet he preferred the trouble, plotting against all living beings while calculating against Jade Bone as well! "Ye Qiudao, you dare!" Sensing mortal peril, Jade Bone shrieked frantically, as if driven mad. Old Demon Ye stood proudly in the void, never casting so much as a single glance downward. Turning his gaze, he looked down upon Bai with scrutiny. "I won't ask about your origins. Kill him, and Ye will reserve a spot for you on the Reception Platform. However, whether you can survive crossing the spatial turbulence will depend entirely on your own abilities." Bai gave a dry chuckle. "No need for Fellow Daoist Ye to trouble yourself. We have our own ways." Secretly, Bai rejoiced that he had not initiated an attack on Old Demon Ye. Had Old Demon Ye only possessed the cultivation of a peak mid-Nascent Soul expert, Bai would still have had the strength to battle him. Who could have guessed that Old Demon Ye had hidden his cards so deep!