The surviving female disciples trembled.
Xie Jun radiated murderous energy. Her sword was drenched in blood, droplets falling to the ground one by one.
The sight was more chilling than the Two-Headed Snakes.
One female disciple backed away, her teeth chattering. "Wh-who is she? She's terrifying!"
Hearing the noise, Xie Jun slowly turned her head.
Xiao Qinghe's expression changed. Summoning all his strength, he shouted, "Junior sister, don't turn around!"
If she turned around, there would be no hiding what she looked like now. He absolutely couldn't let her see!
But he had forgotten someone: Bai Liuli.
"You're..." Bai Liuli stood right in front of Xie Jun, pointing at her face with a trembling hand.
Although clouds obscured the moon, the light was dim, and Two-Headed Snake blood covered Xie Jun's face, it still couldn't completely conceal the demon marks on one side.
She had been exposed!
But that wasn't the worst of it!
Xie Jun's eyes were blood-red and utterly unfocused. Her gaze rested on Bai Liuli without a flicker of emotion, cold and steeped in killing intent.
Devoid of reason or feeling, she had already undergone demonization and become a killing machine. Step by step, she approached Bai Liuli.
Her bloodstained sword rose high, its point aimed at Bai Liuli's heart!
Bai Liuli's breath caught. With both legs injured by the Two-Headed Snakes, she had no time to dodge.
Knowing death was certain, Bai Liuli sank into despair and closed her eyes in defeat.
Just then, a figure stepped in front of her.
Xiao Qinghe barely managed to hold himself upright. Looking at the girl who had lost her senses, he raised his hand and rapped her sharply on the head. "You little brat, how could you hit a woman? Look closely! She's on our side!"
Bai Liuli: "...!!!"
Xiao Qinghe's actions were a hundred times more horrifying than discovering that Xie Jun belonged to the Demon Clan!
Had he lost his mind?
Xie Jun had completely undergone demonization. Even a dozen Two-Headed Snakes had been no match for her. How could Xiao Qinghe dare to...
"Master Xiao, she'll kill you! Run!" Bai Liuli cried, her heart pounding in fear.
"I've been badly poisoned. I don't have much time left, but my junior sister..." Xiao Qinghe smiled bitterly. Dragging his battered body toward the girl, he finally exhausted the last of his strength.
He suddenly stumbled and pitched toward the ground.
An instant before he hit it, the bloodstained sword fell with a clang. At the same time, an arm wrapped around him and hauled him back up.
Looking at the pale, powerless Xiao Qinghe in her arms, the girl's eyes lost their bloody hue and regained a little focus. "Senior brother?"
Xiao Qinghe gave her a weak smile. "You little brat... you did well..."
Xie Jun looked up at the blood-soaked ground and the dismembered Two-Headed Snakes scattered everywhere. For a moment, she was dazed. "I did this?"
Turning to see the trembling female disciples, her gaze sharpened.
The female disciples finally broke, turned around, and ran.
Xiao Qinghe frowned.
With the Demon Clan wreaking havoc throughout the Nine Ridges and Eighteen Peaks and danger lurking everywhere, didn't they realize that leaving Xie Jun now was the foolish choice?
"If they want to get themselves killed, no one's stopping them." Xie Jun snorted. Feeling Xiao Qinghe's body grow icy, her expression shifted. "Senior brother, don't scare me!"
Xiao Qinghe's body was as cold as solid ice, his lips so white they seemed coated in frost. No matter how tightly she held him or tried to warm him with the intense heat of her Demon Clan body, nothing helped.
Blood still poured from the hole in his shoulder.
It wouldn't stop.
"I'm fine. Just a little cold..." Xiao Qinghe tugged at the corner of his mouth but couldn't manage a smile. Even speaking sent white mist from his lips, and his body shook uncontrollably. "Don't be afraid. I won't die..."
No matter what, the system won't let me die.
Right, Hellish System?
The system stayed utterly silent.
Xiao Qinghe panicked. "Hellish System, you're not really going to let me die, are you? I still owe you ten thousand points! Who's going to pay you back if I die? One year old-"
Perhaps Xiao Qinghe's utter despair was written too plainly on his face. Xie Jun's heart trembled, and she quickly tore off a strip of her robe's hem to bandage him and stop the bleeding.
But Xiao Qinghe kept growing colder. This was a symptom of the poison taking effect, not something stopping the bleeding could relieve.
Human-Faced Ghost poison was incredibly potent. A single drop was enough to kill.
Xie Jun abruptly hugged him tight, her voice almost choked with tears. "Senior brother, tell me what I have to do to save you. There must be a way to cure the poison, right?"
Xiao Qinghe didn't answer.
Bai Liuli, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke. "The one we encountered was only a Ghost Slave. Human-Faced Ghost Slaves never act alone. If one appeared here, that means there are others nearby—at least—and in terrifying numbers!"
Xiao Qinghe's scalp prickled.
An entire swarm of monsters that could take on his face? Just imagining the sight was enough to make his skin crawl!
Then something suddenly occurred to him, and his expression changed dramatically. "Ghost Slaves are the Ghost King's puppets. If Ghost Slaves have appeared, there's only one possibility!"
The Human-Faced Ghost Clan lived much like bees. Human-Faced Ghost Slaves were the workers, responsible for hunting and gathering food to sustain the queen. The Human-Faced Ghost King occupied the queen's position. Linked to the Slaves through their souls, it controlled them with its consciousness and drove them to do its bidding, even increasing its cultivation by consuming their vital energy and blood.
When Xiao Qinghe first saw this setting, he had called it utterly twisted.
Enslaving and controlling the Ghost Slaves was bad enough, but it even demanded their bodies as sacrifices. That was more twisted than some feudal cult!
"That's right!" Bai Liuli realized it too, her eyes filling with terror. "If the Ghost Slaves have appeared, the Ghost King must be nearby!"
It really was the Human-Faced Ghost King!
Xiao Qinghe sucked in a cold breath.
The Two-Headed Snakes had been troublesome enough, but compared with the Human-Faced Ghost King, they were mere underlings.
Because Two-Headed Snakes were A-rank demon creatures, while the Human-Faced Ghost King was S-rank!
The Two-Headed Snakes weren't powerful enough to corrupt the barrier around the Nine Ridges and Eighteen Peaks. That meant this S-rank greater demon had to be responsible.
The problem was that the Human-Faced Ghost King was a villainous boss who only appeared in a late-game dungeon. Why wasn't it resting and building its strength in the demon realm, waiting to make its grand entrance later? What was it doing rushing out now?!
A max-level big shot running wild in the newbie village? Don't you know how embarrassing that is?!
Xiao Qinghe coughed up blood.
He remembered something more important. He had been wounded by a Human-Faced Ghost and infected with its poison. There was no cure; it could only be suppressed, and doing that required a crucial item-
The Ghost King Spirit Pill!
The Ghost King could command its thralls, and its Spirit Pill had the miraculous ability to suppress the poison. But obtaining the Ghost King Spirit Pill meant killing the Ghost King first. How could that possibly be easy?
Besides, even if he obtained the Spirit Pill and suppressed the poison, he would inevitably be affected by the Ghost King clan's innate nature. In other words, just as the Ghost King needed its thralls to sustain it, anyone who used the Ghost King Spirit Pill would need someone willing to become a ghost thrall and sustain them.
Wasn't this the fucking legendary "Soul-Tying Thread" romance setup?
Wasn't Xie Jun supposed to share the Soul-Tying Thread with the female lead, their souls connected, no distinction between them, bound together as lovers?
Where was the female lead?!
Why hadn't she shown up yet? The one time she finally appeared, it was a Human-Faced Ghost in disguise, and it had stabbed him full of poison with its tongue!
The plot had gone this far off the rails, and that was really fine?!
Receiving Xiao Qinghe's anguished questions, the system calmly displayed a passage in red.
[If the readers don't consider the plot derailed, then it isn't derailed. The host owes 9,800 points. Please find a way to stay alive and repay the debt.]
Xiao Qinghe: "..."
Listen to that. Was that something a human would say?
A fire burned in Xie Jun's eyes. She suddenly turned to Bai Liuli. "The Ghost King Spirit Pill can save my senior brother and suppress the Human-Faced Ghost's deadly poison?"
Before you continue