Betrayal

The two of them entered the cavern together.

The deeper they went, the louder the commotion grew.

Sword Qi and Demonic Aura tangled together and slammed into the cavern walls. Large chunks of shattered bluestone littered the ground, along with several sword gashes deep enough to swallow a knee.

At the deepest point of the cavern, Xu Qinglan was fighting the Sword Mantis to the death.

Or rather, she was being beaten down without a chance to fight back.

Her once dark-blue robes were more than half soaked in blood.

Wounds marked her shoulder, thigh, waist, and abdomen. The deepest was on her left shoulder, where bone showed beneath torn flesh. Bright red blood dripped down her arm, drop by drop, onto the ground.

The Sword Mantis crouched before her. Its body was long and slender, clad in gray-green armor, and its thin, elongated forelimbs resembled two enormous sickle blades.

Each time they swept down, Xu Qinglan barely dodged. The blades carved deep sword gashes into the stone walls around her.

As a great demon at the peak of the Core Condensation Stage, it had no need to fight the sword cultivator before it for so long.

Even the most gifted cultivator in the Aperture-Opening Realm faced an insurmountable gulf in strength against an opponent a major realm and a minor stage above them. Talent alone could not bridge it.

It was merely toying with her.

Who knew how many centuries would pass before it encountered another prey that gave it such pleasure?

Xu Qinglan's jaw was set hard, her lips drained of color, her face cold as ice.

She tightened her hold on the pale-gold Sword Embryo in her arms and used its hilt to prop up her swaying body. Then she prepared to launch another desperate attack.

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