When Li Qinglin led his troops to besiege Longevity Temple, Qin Yi had only just come under attack. The two places were theoretically not far apart. Longevity Temple was already close to the royal palace, but "not far" within a Capital City was practically enough to span a whole county from east to west. Both sides attacked and defended at almost the same time, yet neither knew of the other.
Only when the flames from Ascension Platform burned through the sky was Qin Yi racing from the Princess Residence toward the Crown Prince Residence.
Seeing the blazing fire in the distance, Qin Yi slowed his steps. The doubts in his heart abruptly cleared, and he understood everything.
"Brother-in-law really is a god-tier teammate!" Relieved, he smiled at Liusu.
Liusu gave a flat "Mm." A collaborator like Li Qinglin was truly reliable—so reliable that it found things a little dull. There was no show left to watch.
At that moment, a thought even rose in Qin Yi's mind... Seeing that fire, Mang Zhan would surely flee the city... In theory, the Crown Prince Residence should not be in much danger now. Should he not go back? Should he instead find a way to hold Mang Zhan back and make him die in Southern Li?
The thought flashed by only briefly. Weighing the two choices, he ultimately could not suppress his worry for Li Qingjun and continued racing back to the residence.
Ye Ling's injuries had yet to heal. If a Transformation Stage great demon appeared, the two girls could still be in danger.
The Wooden Sword Array was a dead thing and could not be moved about for use. If the two girls stayed in the safe zone at the heart of the array, they naturally would be fine. The problem was that the enemy's target might not be them. If the enemy wreaked havoc elsewhere, such as capturing Li Qinglin's family, Li Qingjun would absolutely be unable to hold herself back from leaving the array to rescue them.
Otherwise, she would not be Li Qingjun.
There were not one, but two Transformation Stage great demons who appeared at the Crown Prince Residence. When Minghe activated the Seven Stars Defense Array, they had happened to be outside its range and narrowly escaped disaster, becoming the last main force in Dong Huazi's hands.
One was an Eagle Demon, the other a Wolf Demon. Both had successfully transformed and indeed looked like human men. Yet one had an especially conspicuous hooked nose, hooked enough to be practically a literal hook; the other still had not shed his fangs, with quite a bit of gray fur on his face.
Well... making them pretend to be human was rather difficult, because it was hard to find humans that ugly...
Clearly, both were only at the early Transformation Stage, but that was already no easy feat. If they had been two early Foundation Establishment cultivators well-versed in all manner of advanced spells, with decent coordination, the two of them could have turned all of Southern Li upside down. Not to mention a mere Crown Prince Residence.
Fortunately, these two were much like Ye Ling and had not learned anything particularly impressive. If they were sent to charge through thousands upon thousands of troops, with an innate military general like Li Qinglin standing at the forefront among those armies, then these two demons truly would not be able to accomplish much. But using them to storm the Crown Prince Residence and seize Li Qinglin's family? There really would be no one who could stop them.
If they could force Li Qinglin to withdraw his troops, then who would be the deer and who the hunter would still be unknown.
Dong Huazi's on-the-spot decision could not really be called wrong.
The two demons came flying through the air. Before they even reached the Inner Courtyard, hundreds of bows and crossbows emerged from who knew where and loosed a volley at them.
The Eagle Demon gave a savage laugh and swept his right hand. A wild gale abruptly arose, forcefully scattering hundreds of arrows in all directions.
"If ten thousand arrows were fired at once, that might be a little troublesome. But these few hundred drizzles? Aren't they just scratching your Eagle Grandfather's itch?"
The Eagle Demon spread his arms, and the phantom image of enormous flapping wings appeared behind him. With a whoosh, he dove down.
The Wolf Demon shot forward, reaching the courtyard gate in the blink of an eye.
Both were demons famed for their speed... Yet they had not expected someone to be even faster.
Black Light flashed. Two black feathers streaked out like startled lightning, shooting straight for the two demons' throats so quickly that they tore through the air with a shrill howl.
The two demons halted sharply and narrowly dodged. Turning their heads, they saw Ye Ling's small figure racing toward them at top speed. Farther behind her, Li Qingjun was clutching a silver spear and desperately rushing over.
Qin Yi had guessed correctly. Almost the instant Li Qingjun saw the demons flying toward the Inner Courtyard, she had grabbed her silver spear and charged out. Ye Ling had no choice but to follow. Her speed was famously swift, and she instead rushed ahead of Li Qingjun.
"Zhaoyang Princess..." Seeing Li Qingjun behind Ye Ling, the Wolf Demon gave a cackling laugh. "Wouldn't capturing this one be more useful than capturing Li Qinglin's wife?"
The Eagle Demon strongly agreed. "A man like Li Qinglin can marry another wife after one dies. What bird use is there in capturing his family? The Zhaoyang Princess can at least threaten that Qin Yi..."
The two demons shared the same opinion. They no longer entered the Inner Courtyard, and their gazes fell on Ye Ling at the same time.
Capturing Li Qingjun would be easy. This little girl was the troublesome one.
"The little snake who escaped the Demon Refining Array..." Both demons wore grave expressions.
They had experienced the Demon Refining Array's torment before.
Dong Huazi had left a back door within the Demon Transformation Poisonous Mist. Any demon spawned by the mist, upon reaching the peak of the Spirit Communion realm and condensing a Demon Core, would feel a summons in its heart and muddle-headedly enter the Demon Refining Array. There, it would be refined until life became worse than death, its Demon Core forcibly extracted. That pain was truly impossible to describe even one ten-thousandth of with words.
Unable to endure the pain, they had both knelt before Dong Huazi and begged for mercy, swearing blood oaths of the Demon Race and submitting to him. Later, they encountered another opportunity and broke through to the Transformation Stage.
Countless other demons, like them once at the peak of the Spirit Communion realm, had not even possessed the strength to beg for mercy. They were refined alive to death. The two had seen far too many.
There had been only one exception.
A little snake with wings had actually broken through to the Transformation Stage amid the Demon Refining Array's extreme agony, smashing out of the array by sheer force. Before everyone could react in their shock, she had turned into black lightning and vanished beyond the temple.
On the day the Crown Prince was assassinated, when they heard the Crown Prince's guards mention "a flash of black light," everyone in Longevity Temple knew full well who the killer was.
She was a terrifying great demon who had achieved a breakthrough amid ultimate agony, whose tenacity and endurance far surpassed her peers.
The memory flashed through their minds in an instant. Ye Ling had already arrived before them, hands on her hips as she cursed, "You two ugly freaks, nyah nyah nyah~"
"??" The two demons' expressions went blank.
A terrifying... great demon?
Was something wrong somewhere?
As they spoke, Li Qingjun also arrived before them and took over the taunting. "You both transformed into humans, so why is Ye Ling so pretty while you're so ugly? I think you should go back to that Demon Refining Array and be reforged. Too embarrassing—not too embarrassing for humans, too embarrassing for demons."
The two demons were so furious that smoke seemed to rise from all seven of their orifices.
As though performing a comic routine with her, Ye Ling added, "Anyway, they already disgraced demons long ago. Princess, you don't know this, but back then they knelt before Dong Huazi, kowtowed, and swore blood oaths. They practically wanted to call him Grandpa. Tsk tsk..."
The Wolf Demon could not help but snap, "Did you not swear a blood oath to Li Qinglin? Otherwise, how could he possibly trust you?"
"It was lifted." Ye Ling grinned. "His Highness wanted to transfer me to Qin Yi, so it was lifted. Then Qin Yi never made me swear anything at all. I'm a free demon. Aren't you jealous?"
Honestly, they really were jealous. Who wanted to bear a blood oath? Not only did they have to serve someone like oxen and horses, but if their master died, they would have to die with him. Who could stand that?
Now, there was a way to free themselves. Dong Huazi was deeply entangled in trouble. If they captured Li Qingjun and brought her back, there was a very good chance they could ask Dong Huazi to lift their blood oaths.
Two pairs of demon eyes fixed on Li Qingjun, murderous light gleaming within them.
Li Qingjun's expression remained calm. With a flick of her fair wrist, she lightly leveled her silver spear.
She knew her speed could not compare to demons like these. It was already impossible to lure them back into the array, and the sword array Qin Yi had painstakingly arranged had completely lost its meaning.
But she did not regret it.
If she could selfishly hide within the array and watch her brother's family come to harm, then she would not be Li Qingjun.
Like a little adult, Ye Ling sighed and also gave up on the idea of stalling for time with more nonsense.
Longevity Temple over there was already burning with flames reaching the sky. No matter how foolish these two demons were, they would not truly be delayed here by a few empty words.
They had to fight sooner or later.
Ye Ling's gaze suddenly grew somewhat fierce. With a turn of her small hand, a black flame rose in an eerie flicker.
Soaring Serpent, Fire God, home in Si, master of fright, terror, dread, Fierce General.
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