The Witch Spawn's rage boiled as the radiant pillar of light surrounding them abruptly vanished. The glowing circular formation beneath his feet sparked weakly, then faded into darkness.
His gaze shifted to the side, where Principal Feng Qing and Patriarch Ye Tian lay motionless within a smaller array.
Their bodies were pale and shriveled, as if their very life force had been drained, leaving behind only husks of once mighty cultivators.
He cursed under his breath at Ru Shi and Ru Hei, furious that they had failed to carry out even the simplest of orders. His carefully laid plans were in ruins, though not beyond recovery. A faint trace of energy still lingered in the formation.
Making swift hand seals, he poured more of his own ki into the shimmering circular formation beneath his feet. It began to glow once more, slowly restoring its vigor as the ritual patterns flared back to life. The formation was now forcibly consuming the remaining ki stones, exactly as it had been designed to do.
"Saintess, I will be arriving shortly," the Witch Spawn muttered as he took out a communication crystal.
Communication crystals were powerful tools used by cultivators and sects for long-distance contact.
However, the farther the message needed to travel, the more energy and ki stones resources were consumed to maintain clarity and stability.
Despite this cost, the Witch Spawn had spared no expense. He had spent years meticulously planning this operation, driven by two ultimate goals.
The first was personal. He intended to perform a forbidden blood sacrifice ritual that would allow him to break through to the Sentinel Realm. Doing so would not only restore the cultivation he had once lost while healing from grievous old injuries, but also push him to new heights of power.
The second objective was even more ambitious to tear open a spatial gateway to the Ghoul Continent using a complex network of spatial arrays.
This required an immense amount of energy and precise calibration, but he had prepared for it meticulously.
Over the past decade, he had been quietly gathering ki stones and other essential materials within Azure Sky City, stockpiling everything he would need.
Much of it had been acquired through deception, smuggling, or hidden channels long before the operation even began.
But due to the Moonlight Sect's earlier-than-expected arrival, he had swiftly informed the Saintess and initiated the operation ahead of schedule.
However, with their presence now threatening to expose everything, they had no choice but to activate the arrays and complete their objective earlier than intended.
He carried a skill core that was vital to the success of their mission in the forbidden region, making his presence indispensable. No matter the disruptions, the plan would proceed as intended once he arrived at the location through the spatial gate.
Suddenly, power surged through his muscles as he felt the breakthrough complete. He had successfully reached the Sentinel Realm!
Boom!
His aura exploded outward like a crushing wave, the sheer pressure sending the unconscious Principal Feng and Ye Tian flying across the chamber. They were already too weak to resist, their bodies crashing against the far wall like ragdolls.
However, he felt a sharp pain and coughed up blood. Due to the incomplete blood sacrifice ritual, he wasn't able to completely mend his injuries or achieve a perfect breakthrough to the next realm. The rushed process had shaken his cultivation foundation.
Moments later, footsteps echoed through the hall. A figure appeared dressed in a gown split between white and blue, her black hair tangled and her clothes dust covered. She looked utterly exhausted. It was Ye Ling'er.
She quickly scanned the hall, her eyes falling upon the motionless figures on the ground. Without hesitation, she rushed to the nearest one.
Ye Ling'er was horrified when she saw her father, Ye Tian. His once strong frame now gaunt and thin, his skin pale as parchment.
She touched him gently and channeled her profound ki into his body. Her ki was only about fifteen percent of its full strength. She had used most of it in her last attack against Ru Hei, leaving her exhausted and drained. But she forced herself to summon what remained and pour it into her father.
Her expression twisted with anguish, yet a small wave of relief washed over her. Her father was still alive, though terribly weakened and aged beyond his years.
She looked around and saw Principal Feng in a similar state, and her uncle who was standing some distance away. Principal Feng also bore wounds on his neck, as if some beast had taken savage bites from him.
She channeled more of her profound ki into her father's body to stabilize his condition. She was about to ask her uncle about what had happened when she heard footsteps approaching.
She tensed, thinking the Witch Spawn had returned, but instead saw two familiar figures, her uncle's wife, Sheng Qinhua, and her son Ye Shen.
Both were gasping for air as if they had run a marathon. When they saw that the pillar of light had disappeared and couldn't see the Witch Spawn anywhere, they wondered if he had fled.
They noticed Ye Ling'er sitting beside the unconscious Ye Tian, with Principal Feng lying nearby in a similar state.
Their eyes then fell upon a third figure standing at the far end of the chamber, his robes were tattered, with a little blood seeping from his mouth, but he didn't appear to be badly injured.
Sheng Qinhua smiled with relief and rushed toward the figure, with Ye Shen following behind her. She embraced the man and said, "You're okay, honey! When did you arrive here?"
She was overjoyed to see Ye Feng, her husband safe. With the white dome now gone, they could finally escape this nightmare with her husband and son.
Looking at Ye Tian's terrible condition, Sheng Qinhua couldn't help but feel secretly delighted. If something happened to her husband's brother, her husband could become the Ye clan patriarch and control clan matters far more than before.
She noticed her husband's chest felt unusually cold. 'Could it be that his old injuries had flared up again, like what happened a decade before?'
"Father, are you alright?" asked Ye Shen as he walked towards them.
Sheng Qinhua felt a surge of delight. Though everything had begun disastrously, now her husband had the chance to become clan patriarch. With Ye Xian and Sheng Qianying still trapped by the city lord and possibly dead, she believed her troubles were finally starting to resolve themselves.
But the warm feeling in her chest suddenly turned into a sharp, burning pain. She gasped and turned to see Ye Shen walking toward them, his usual calm broken. His face had lost all color, turning a sickly green, and his eyes were wide with horror, as if he had just seen a terrible nightmare.
Sheng Qinhua's gaze dropped without her control, and her heart jumped. There, held tightly in someone's hands, was a bloodied heart beating hard, its pulsations clearly visible beneath the wet, red surface. The heart seemed almost alive, growing and shrinking as if it might jump free at any moment.
A cold shiver ran down her spine, and the air around them felt heavy with fear and the silent terror of what this meant.
She vomited a mouthful of blood, shock and pain crashing over her as she realized the heart in his grip was hers,ripped from her chest by the man she still loved, her husband. His hand had pierced through her back and come out through her chest, tightly clutching her still-beating, crimson heart.
The figure smiled coldly, his face twisting and reshaping until it revealed the true form of the Witch Spawn. His blue skin shimmered faintly under the dim light, and his crimson eyes gleamed with cruel amusement as he gazed down at the dying woman in his arms.
In his blood-soaked hand, her heart throbbed violently.
Thump~
Thump~
Each beat echoed through the hall like a drum of death, slow, heavy, and final.
"Hello, my dear," he said in a voice that was decidedly not her husband's.
"Thank you for coming to me so willingly."