Han Ji rolled on the ground, the screams pouring from his mouth no longer sounding human. His skin cracked open, starting at his abdomen, and dark red light shone through the fissures. It was not blood, but ignited true qi rampaging through his body.
His features twisted into a knot, his mouth gaping wide as hoarse whimpers rose from his throat, as though someone had him by the neck.
A scorched smell filled the air around them.
The smell of burning flesh.
At the sight, Xie Tinglan's knees trembled uncontrollably. Her mind went blank, and all the blood in her body seemed to freeze. With her limbs ice-cold, she thought:
"How is this possible? A Dharma Body Realm elder of the Heavenly Heart Sect was burned to death right in front of me, just like that?"
"No."
"He wasn't just burned to death. He was burned to death by the true qi inside his own body."
What had that man done?
Xie Tinglan shifted her gaze to Yi Yang. That monster stood just five paces away, his hands hanging at his sides as he calmly watched the charred body struggling on the ground. His gaze was that of someone watching something that had nothing to do with him.
Without hesitation, without another thought, only one word remained in Xie Tinglan's mind-run.
Her dignity as an elder of the Bamboo Creek Gate, her grudge over Heyu County, Brother Han's promises-none of it fucking mattered anymore.
Staying alive mattered most.
Xie Tinglan's movement technique was far from slow as she fled for her life. Driven by her true astral perfection cultivation, she covered more than a dozen zhang in a few bounds.
But she had taken fewer than three steps when she heard a rush of wind behind her.
Xie Tinglan could