It Was Him!

"Get back!" Yunyouzi had also noticed something amiss with the Flying Yaksha and shouted an urgent warning. Yet he was too far away. To trap the Shadow-devouring Leopard, he had not only unleashed every bit of power from the demon king blood restriction and the Flawless Pearl, but had also overdrawn his own spiritual power. Though willing, his strength fell short. *How could the Flying Yaksha betray me?* Qin Sang was stunned. He could clearly sense that his soul imprint inside the Yaksha was still undamaged and intact. Yu Hua's consciousness had long been completely wiped clean during the process of refining the living corpse. Logically speaking, it was impossible for the Flying Yaksha to turn on him. Otherwise, a backlash would have struck the moment its refinement was complete. This sudden backlash had come without the slightest warning. Furthermore, Qin Sang had stepped back to avoid the aftershocks of the Xutian Thunder, leaving very little distance between them. The Flying Yaksha lunged with vicious intent, and by the time Qin Sang realized something was wrong, it was already right in front of him. Caught off guard, Qin Sang's first instinct was to activate the soul imprint and forcibly bring the Yaksha under control to stop it. The Flying Yaksha jerked to an abrupt halt and let out a bizarre screech. Its blue-skinned, fanged face—normally lifeless and devoid of expression—suddenly contorted in agonizing struggle, twisting into an expression eerily reminiscent of a living human. It was actually resisting Qin Sang's control! At the same time, Qin Sang sensed an unprecedented force surging inside the Yaksha, battering against his soul imprint. This force had been concealed far too deeply. All this time, Qin Sang had commanded the Flying Yaksha without ever noticing it. It felt entirely unfamiliar and strange, carrying a chilling aura that was starkly different from the Yaksha's corpse qi. This definitely was not the Flying Yaksha's own power! After that brief pause, the Flying Yaksha sprang forward once more, its face savage. Moving like a ghost, it brought a gust of corpse qi right toward Qin Sang's face. Qin Sang found that his soul imprint was being suppressed by that alien force. The Flying Yaksha had broken free of his control entirely! Even so, Qin Sang did not panic. That brief hesitation had bought him enough time. He might be out of Xutian Thunders, but he still had his corpse core. As he retreated at top speed, the corpse core in his sea of qi finally unsealed. A surge of potent true essence completed a full heavenly circuit through his body in an instant, and a dazzling arc of sword radiance flashed between man and Yaksha. Sword qi arched like a rainbow, accompanied by the rumble of thunder. The ebony sword finally displayed its might as a magic treasure once more! Baffled by the Yaksha's betrayal, Qin Sang dared not hold back. The ebony sword shot straight for the vital point between its brows. Having refined the Flying Yaksha with his own hands, he understood its weaknesses intimately. Its greatest vulnerability was its origin soul. As long as he shattered the Heavenly Corpse Talisman and extinguished the origin soul within, the creature would be slain. Unexpectedly, though the ebony sword was lightning fast, the Flying Yaksha was just as quick. With a strange howl, it swung its ghostly claws before its face in the nick of time. Both its palms were severely mauled by the ebony sword, but it managed to shield its vital point, escaping death. Immediately afterward, the Flying Yaksha recoiled sharply, and a startled cry rang out from within its body: "A corpse core?!" Hearing that exclamation, Qin Sang's face darkened completely. He had long suspected that the Flying Yaksha could not have betrayed him without cause—unless some stray spirit had eluded his senses, crept inside, and usurped the vessel. After thinking it over, there was only one place where that could have happened: Dichen Cave! From the moment he captured Yu Hua until he finished refining the Flying Yaksha, Qin Sang had kept the corpse by his side. It would have been impossible for anyone to slip past his senses and invade it. The only possibility was after they killed Daoist Jiupao, when the Yaksha was severely damaged and left to recuperate in Dichen Cave. During that time, Qin Sang was not beside it, leaving an opening for someone to take advantage of. That scream confirmed his suspicions. For some reason, Qin Sang found the voice somewhat familiar, as though he had heard it long ago. The situation left him no time to ponder. Having failed in its ambush, the Flying Yaksha spun around and lunged straight toward the Crimson Cloud Purple Fruit. A green light flashed on its chest, unleashing astonishing speed that was even a fraction faster than the ebony sword performing the Sword Qi Thunderclap. Yunyouzi was exhausted and powerless to stop it. Qin Sang was caught unprepared and could not intercept it in time either. In the blink of an eye, the Flying Yaksha crossed the lake and landed before the Crimson Cloud Purple Fruit tree. It leveled its palm at the tree, wrapping corpse qi around the trunk and the ripe purple fruit. Turning around, its pitch-black eyes flashed with icy menace as it glared at Qin Sang. "Take one step, and I'll destroy it instantly!" Qin Sang landed on the surface of the water, his expression grim. By now, he had recalled where he had heard that voice before, and who its owner was. "Yi Tiannie! You're still alive!" Yi Tiannie, Sect Master of the Kuiyin Sect. Back then, it was Yi Tiannie who had planted the Heart-Devouring Insect gu in Qin Sang's origin soul and forced him to infiltrate the Yuanzhao Sect as a spy, triggering a series of trials and tribulations. He was the first ruthless monster Qin Sang had ever encountered—one against whom Qin Sang had been utterly powerless, left entirely at his mercy. Back then, Yi Tiannie's lifespan was already near its end. In a desperate gamble, he had stolen the Yuanzhao Sect's supreme treasure, the Nine-Illusion Heavenly Orchid, only to be killed when the Yuanzhao Sect Master detonated their grand formation, reportedly leaving not even bones behind. Qin Sang had thought him long dead and in the underworld. Yet he had survived until now, seized the Flying Yaksha, and ambushed him. The flesh on the Yaksha's face squirmed, contorting until it truly took on the likeness of Yi Tiannie. Qin Sang would recognize that face even if it were burned to ashes! "To dare refine yourself as a corpse and forge a corpse core as an external core... Ruthless enough!" Yi Tiannie let out a shrill, cackling laugh, suddenly sighing with emotion. "To think my Kuiyin Sect produced such a figure! Even this old man misjudged someone! The lad I once declared worthless turned out to be so ruthless. Hiding among the righteous sects while practicing demonic arts, wiping out the entire Kuiyin Sect with a flip of your hand, turning corpse refining arts upon yourself and disrupting my plans... You'd be hard-pressed to find another like you in the cultivation world. No wonder you've made it this far!" A trace of genuine admiration tinged Yi Tiannie's tone. Qin Sang felt no honor in the praise. His chest blazed with towering fury, like a volcano on the verge of erupting. "Your origin soul was hiding inside Yu Hua all along?" Discovering that the one occupying the Flying Yaksha's body was Yi Tiannie brought instant clarity to Qin Sang's mind. Many lingering doubts from the past made sense in this moment. He remembered when he encountered Yu Hua. Back in Wuya Valley, Yu Hua had tracked him down by sensing the Heart-Devouring Insect gu. Yet Qin Sang had already been using the Void Origin Seal to suppress the vibrations of the insect gu, containing them within a limited range. Anyone else would have had to be well within that range to detect him. The only exception was Yi Tiannie, the master of the Heart-Devouring Insect gu. The one who had sensed him back then was very likely not Yu Hua, but Yi Tiannie! Furthermore, Yu Hua's knowledge of the Kuiyin Sect's remnants had far exceeded what a Foundation Establishment disciple should have known. Not only did he know the whereabouts of those remnants, but he was also intimately familiar with Daoist Jiupao's background and hiding place.