Ten-Day Deadline (Seeking Favorites, Recommendation Tickets, and Investments)

Ten-Day Deadline (Seeking Favorites, Recommendation Tickets, and Investments)

Pei Ling was only distracted for a moment before he felt his robe suddenly grow heavy at the hem. Something invisible, like a child, had grabbed hold of it.

He swung his saber backward, but heard no scream. Instead, pain flared in his thigh—the wretched thing had taken a bite out of him, even as it vanished into thin air!

With that thing leading the charge, footsteps soon grew denser all around him. As if they had a deep-seated grudge against Pei Ling, they rushed at him in hysterical, frenzied waves, stopping at nothing and using every means at their disposal... The more he fought, the more alarmed he became. His blood and qi churned throughout his body, and the blood mist around the Aversion to Life Saber glowed so vividly it seemed ready to drip. Every swing brought a chorus of shrieks and wiped out at least a dozen of the ghostly things.

They were weak enough to fall with a single blow, but even ants could bring down an elephant. With every swing of his saber, sweat streamed down Pei Ling's forehead. His strength was already starting to fail, yet the enemy's numbers seemed endless!

After a while longer, wounds began to appear on Pei Ling's body.

He gasped for breath and tried to retreat out of the courtyard. Fighting as he fell back, he reached the gate and kicked it with all his strength... only to find that beyond the shattered gate lay not the bluestone path from before, but a darkness that seemed to stretch without end.

That darkness carried a sinister chill, steeped in ill omen.

Pei Ling had meant to grit his teeth and step inside, to see if it was an illusion. But the moment he neared the darkness, his heart began to pound with dread. It was as if every part of his body instinctively recoiled from entering.

"What is this...?" Pei Ling wiped away his cold sweat. In that short time, another bite mark had appeared on the back of his hand. But then, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, he shouted, "I've mastered the Blood Fiend Saber Technique. Miss Wu Liu, won't you show yourself?"

With the penalty hanging over his head these past few days, he had nearly forgotten Fairy Li's ten-day deadline!

Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, a soft snort came from the darkness beyond the gate.

The dense footsteps all around him seemed to take fright. They let out a chorus of shrill cries, as if trying to scatter. But a streak of Black Light shot out of the darkness, transforming into countless tiny fish that darted after them in every direction.

For a time, rustling sounds filled the courtyard and the space beyond, unceasing and crackling like silkworms devouring mulberry leaves. Even Pei Ling's expression shifted slightly as he listened.

At the same time, the temperature around him plunged. The cold was especially bone-deep across his back. A soft, icy body pressed against him there. Two deathly pale arms slipped over his shoulders and slowly curled around his neck. Wu Liu's breath was frosty as she pressed her lips almost against his earlobe and whispered like a lover, "Young Master Pei Ling... since you've mastered the Blood Fiend Saber Technique, why are you still running away?"

"Do you have any idea how hard I looked for you at Huaiyin Peak..."

"And how hard I had to chase you all this way..."

As she spoke, she caressed Pei Ling's throat.

Pei Ling didn't dare move at all. He only gripped the Aversion to Life Saber's hilt tightly. After his blood and qi had circulated for a moment, he finally managed to speak. "Miss Wu Liu... don't misunderstand. I wasn't running away. I've just been terribly short on spirit stones lately, so I left the sect to take on a task."

"Oh?" Wu Liu suddenly appeared in front of him, her deathly pale face less than an inch from his nose, making her seem all the more eerie. Her blood-red lips curled into a smile that held no mirth. "You've only just joined the sect, and you're already so short on spirit stones?"

Pei Ling answered honestly, "I killed Li Siguan, Zhou Yi, and Miao Chengan. According to the Sect Rules, I have to pay a huge fine."

"..." Wu Liu's fingertip rested against his throat. She paused, then burst into delighted laughter. "You used them to cultivate your External Fiend? No wonder you mastered the Blood Fiend Saber Technique so quickly."

"External Fiend?" Pei Ling had mastered the Blood Fiend Saber Technique entirely thanks to the system. As for himself, he knew too little Cloud Seal Script to understand a word of what the technique actually said...

He couldn't help staring blankly at her.

Wu Liu withdrew the finger she had pressed to his throat, raised her sleeve to cover her mouth, and giggled. "The Blood Fiend Saber Technique has an Internal Fiend and an External Fiend. The Internal Fiend not only strengthens your body, but also suppresses the External Fiend to keep it from turning on you... You killed three people right from the start, and for now, you can still control it. But if you keep killing, you'll gather even more External Fiend. When your Internal Fiend can no longer hold it down, you may well go mad and become a lunatic who knows nothing but slaughter!"

"However..."

Wu Liu abruptly clamped a hand around Pei Ling's throat and cried in a frigid voice, "Even if you kill to cultivate, there's no way you could master the Blood Fiend Saber Technique in a mere ten days!"

Pei Ling felt as if he had fallen into an icy abyss. The bone-piercing cold even froze his eyeballs, leaving him unable to move. He could only watch as her black fingernail extended and pierced his forehead. As if speaking to herself, she murmured, "Young Master Pei Ling, what secrets are you hiding... Let me cut you open and have a look... Just a little peek... all right?"

As she spoke, her nail slowly slid downward. Pei Ling felt a sharp sting in his forehead, followed by warm liquid trickling down. Terror flooded his heart.

The female ghost really meant to flay him alive on the spot!

"No... no... Master..." Just as Pei Ling was gripped by terror and could do nothing to resist, Wu Liu suddenly stopped. Her sweet, lovely face twisted, and she babbled incoherently, "No... Master... no... Master... Master never said I could touch him... I... uh..."

After struggling for a moment, Wu Liu's face twisted with fury. She suddenly shoved Pei Ling away and shrieked, "You'd better hurry up and do something to anger Master! Then Master might hand you over to me in a fit of rage!!!"

Pei Ling stumbled back several steps, but he let out a long sigh of relief. He gave a dry laugh and didn't dare say a word.

"..." With Fairy Li holding her back, Wu Liu didn't dare do anything else to Pei Ling. She turned all her pent-up fury on the invisible children that had attacked him moments ago. With a beckoning gesture, she pulled the Black Light into her hand. It turned out to be a small lamp stand. Wu Liu brushed her pale hand over it, and a tiny flame sprang to life.

The flame was brilliantly bright, the complete opposite of the pitch-black lamp stand.

Once it appeared, even the ruined courtyard seemed to regain some life.

Yet a child's face seemed to flicker in and out within the flame, accompanied by shrill cries, as though it were enduring unimaginable torment!

Wu Liu gazed upon the scene with a look of delighted rapture. At last, she glanced at Pei Ling and spoke in a casual, gentle voice. "Young Master Pei Ling, do you know? Once you start killing to cultivate the Blood Fiend Saber Technique, you can only keep killing from then on! Even if one day your Internal Fiend can no longer suppress your External Fiend, you still won't be able to stop..."

She deliberately left her words unfinished and watched Pei Ling with a half-smile. When she saw his face turn pale and his brows knit together with worry, she finally smiled with satisfaction behind her sleeve. "Young Master Pei Ling, it seems you have something you'd like to ask me?"