"Where is Pale Silver?" Holding Lou Yunxiao in his arms, Ning Ke summoned the Pale Silver Sword.
"Make yourself wider," he said. "Then take your master out of this Underground Palace and back to the surface."
Now that Ning Ke had lost his sight, everything around him was pitch-black.
An instinctive fear rooted him to the spot. For the moment, he could only direct the divine sword with his words.
Feeling his way, he laid Lou Yunxiao on the Pale Silver Sword. Ning Ke knew that Lou Yunxiao's spiritual energy and Demonic Aura had now reached a balance, so the glowing barrier of runes would no longer block him.
Once Lou Yunxiao was gone, he could take care of the aftermath.
The Pale Silver Sword stayed where it was, seemingly unwilling to leave.
Ning Ke smiled and tapped its hilt. "Don't worry. The Red Cloud Sword will come find you in a little while."
Only then did Pale Silver shoot away.
Soon, it was gone without a trace.
Ning Ke felt his way to his feet, stepped on the hem of his robe, and staggered two steps, nearly falling.
So this was what being blind felt like.
And Lou Yunxiao had spent the past three years living like this.
Thinking back, he had tried every possible way to put Lou Yunxiao through his paces at the bottom of the Demon Abyss.
Even afterward, he had kept teasing him.
He had held him to the standards of someone able-bodied.
He had never realized that, for a blind person, every movement demanded twice or even several times the effort it took anyone else.
"Phew."
Ning Ke finally felt his way to the foot of the stone stele.
He cut his finger with the Red Cloud Sword, mixing his blood with all his remaining demonic power to fill in the golden runes according to the talisman he had already committed to memory.
But the instant he drew the first stroke, the Underground Palace suddenly shook violently.
Then a furious roar rang out: "Who-"
"Who touched the seal?!!!"
The sleeping Demon woke. He could not even spare a thought for the fact that Lou Yunxiao, that living corpse, was gone, and instead charged straight toward Ning Ke at the center of the Underground Palace!
Ning Ke's heart clenched, and he tried to draw the runes faster.
But these runes had, after all, been left by Heaven's Way, and the power they held was staggering.
Every stroke consumed an immense amount of Divine Sense. How could he possibly speed up?
In the blink of an eye, the Demon reached the great hall.
The golden runes struck him, destabilizing the Demonic Aura around him and making his whole body feel ill.
But at that moment, how could he care about any of that?
After all, if this brat reinforced the seal, he would inevitably be sucked beneath the stone stele. He would not even be able to remain in the Underground Palace!
And he would no longer be able to feast on the flesh and blood of other cultivators and demonic beasts!
"You damned rat! Die!"
Terrifying pressure and Demonic Aura bore down on Ning Ke.
But in the next instant, an enormous phantom of a Nine-Tailed Fox suddenly appeared behind Ning Ke, shielding him!
Ning Ke was drawing on the power of his true body.
But he was too far from his true body, after all. He could not hold out for long.
Leaving the phantom to fight the Demon, Ning Ke continued concentrating on painstakingly drawing the remaining runes, even as blood seeped from his eyes and the corners of his mouth.
"A Nine-Tailed Fox?!" the Demon exclaimed in shock. "Doesn't this Secret Realm restrict cultivation levels?! Even the demonic beasts here couldn't possibly cultivate to the level of a Nine-Tailed Fox!"
"How could you be here?!"
But he soon realized that Ning Ke's fox was only a phantom. Gritting his teeth, he said, "So it's nothing but a bluff! Watch me kill you!"
The Demonic Aura clashed with the phantom. Their battle tore through the Underground Palace, making it shake with thunderous rumbles.
It was like an earthquake.
The ceiling shattered, stones fell, and sand collapsed and poured through...
As the Demon fought the phantom, Ning Ke suffered the corresponding pressure as well. By now, his back had caved in, and a pool of blood had gathered beneath him.
Only by clinging desperately to the stone stele could he keep himself from collapsing facedown.
After roughly seven minutes, the Nine-Tailed Fox phantom finally could not hold out any longer and shattered.
At the same moment, Xiao Yuan cried out in alarm.
[Host, dodge!]
But how could Ning Ke have the strength to dodge?
The Red Cloud Sword blazed with light, trying to stop the Demon, only to be viciously swatted aside. In the next instant-
Ning Ke felt his back pierced through. A hand brimming with Demonic Aura plunged into his chest and burst out through the front!
The Demon held his living heart in his hand. It was still beating faintly.
"Cough-"
Ning Ke spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the stone stele.
His hand completed the final stroke, then fell limply to his side.
"You damned bastard!!!"
The Demon roared and viciously crushed the heart in his hand.
He tore his demonic-energy-filled hand free, and Ning Ke was flung into the pool of blood like a rag.
Every inscription on the stele blazed with light. The Demon screamed and tried to flee.
His struggles tore the Underground Palace apart.
More and more stones fell, and sand and rubble poured down...
The Red Cloud Sword enlarged to shield Ning Ke, letting out one anxious, mournful cry after another.
Ning Ke's consciousness grew hazy. He wanted to reach out and complete his final task-self-detonation-but no matter how hard he tried, he could no longer move at all.
The Demon destroyed the Underground Palace, but the stone stele still dragged him beneath it and sealed him away forever.
And in the final moment before Ning Ke lost consciousness, he was still thinking.
Since I didn't manage to self-detonate, would this not count as completing the task?
If it counted as a failure, would I have to go through this part of the story all over again?
Please, no.
Because it really...
Hurt so much...
Before you continue