The Cult Leader's blood dripped from his fingertips, striking the cracks in the cauldron's body. Instead of sliding away, that drop of blood seemed to be sucked in, rapidly seeping into its depths.
Chen Wuya immediately sensed that something was wrong. The Misaligned Energy within him trembled faintly, and the system issued a prompt:
[Symbiotic Contract Activated, Energy Circuit Completed]
Boom!
The entire Devil's Den jolted violently, and cracking sounds rang out from the rock walls. Fissures spread from the cauldron's body to the surrounding stone, while black smoke wrapped in firelight burst forth. The ground began to tilt, loose stones rolling down as a muffled rumble echoed from afar, as though some colossal thing beneath the earth had awakened.
"It's coming out." Bai Zhi braced herself on her sword and forced herself upright, her voice tight.
Before her words had faded, a roar erupted from within the cauldron. It was neither human nor beast, more like countless people screaming at the same moment, their cries converging into a shockwave. Chen Wuya's eardrums stabbed with pain, his vision went black, and he nearly dropped to his knees.
A pillar of bloody light shot from the cauldron's mouth and condensed into a gigantic human face in the air. Its features were twisted, its eyes rolled white, its mouth stretched open to its limit.
"Freedom!" The voice shook the rock strata apart. "Three hundred years... at last!"
Chen Wuya raised his head and stared at the face as Misaligned Practice Connects to Spirit spun madly within his sea of consciousness. He felt a pressure far surpassing that of a terrestrial immortal spreading outward. The air grew viscous, making it hard to breathe.
Bai Zhi gritted her teeth and drew her sword, pouring true energy into the blade. She knew she