"Shut up!"
Blood Fiend barked, the ferocity in his voice almost tearing the flames apart. "Zhao'er's affairs are none of your concern!"
He whipped his head around, killing intent surging in his eyes. "If anyone dares touch a single hair on her head, I'll grind her bones to dust and scatter her ashes, even if I have to destroy this Three Tribulations Rebirth Furnace!"
Before his words had faded, the gray mist abruptly swelled.
Over a hundred Crystal Mo Tribe cores trembled at once. The Gray-Black Light Net contracted like a cage, and spirit-severing qi surged like a tide, forcibly suppressing the Fire Lingzhu's three-colored flames.
Zhao Ningyi let out a muffled grunt and retreated several steps.
How could Blood Fiend spare any attention now to fighting Zhao Ningyi for the cores and power? His entire mind was fixed on that Jade Pendant.
An extremely fine strand of blood snaked out of the gray mist.
As fine as gossamer, the blood strand cautiously approached the Jade Pendant. It stopped several zhang away, not daring to move any closer, afraid of putting Qing Chen on guard and driving him to some mad act.
Blood Fiend's voice suddenly softened, a world apart from his earlier ferocity:
"Don't be afraid, Zhao'er."
"Your brother's here."
"I'll protect you."
The face in the gray mist showed a measure of grief. "Your brother was useless. I couldn't protect you and let you end up like this..."
"Don't worry. I'll find a way to reassemble your primordial spirit. Even if the path of a Dharma Cultivator won't work, we'll take the path of ghost cultivation! I'll stay with you. I'll always stay with you."
Qing Chen stood behind the blood mist barrier, silently watching it all.
The Brahma Demon-Refining Art circulated rapidly within him. The trembling of