Inside the dark, damp cave, a young woman sobbed, her voice echoing back and forth between the cavernous walls.
Beside her stood a tall skeleton.
"So noisy."
The White Bone Demon King impatiently swatted the woman.
The woman shrank back, her sobs quieting a little, but her tears still flowed uncontrollably.
The White Bone Demon King paid her no further attention. Ghostly flames flickered in its eyes as its mind filled with the imposing figure it had seen several hundred years ago, when it first gained intelligence.
Lord Mountain Sovereign!
If only it had the good fortune to receive Lord Mountain Sovereign's guidance again this time and learn a spell or two.
After all, merely the enlightenment technique this lord had left behind after awakening its intelligence had created the demonic force that held sway over White Bone Mountain.
Demons with a legacy truly were different from wild demons like them.
"Mmph... mmph..."
Annoyed, the White Bone Demon King hooked a bony finger into the wad of cloth in the woman's mouth and yanked it out.
"Stupid woman. Keep making noise, and I won't mind making you suffer a little."
It threatened her, bringing its ghostly flames close to her face. Green light shone on her pale features, eerie and terrifying.
The woman drew a deep breath. Rather than being frightened, she straightened her back.
Though her hair was disheveled, her face filthy, and her lips pale and cracked, her eyes brimmed with defiance as she stared at the skeleton before her.
"I am Prince Yan's daughter, a commandery princess! Release me at once, you stupid demon, or when my father takes action... he'll scatter even your ashes!"
At her words, the ghostly flames in the White Bone Demon King's eyes suddenly leaped.
It swiftly stuffed the cloth back into the woman's mouth, then silently rose and hid in a corner by the cave wall.
It looked as though it were avoiding a god of plague.
"That plague-ridden damned tiger actually dumped such a hot potato on me!"
Even a demon like it knew Prince Yan's illustrious name.
A member of the imperial clan, and a Martial Dao grandmaster to boot!
If someone like that learned it had abducted his daughter, a single finger would be enough to crush it to death.
"Perhaps... only a demon with powerful backing like Lord Mountain Sovereign would dare abduct this noble daughter of Great Li."
As for a wild demon like itself, it would naturally keep as far away from her as possible.
Hadn't even Lord Mountain Sovereign only dared abduct her, not kill her?
As for what the woman had just said... it had never heard a thing.
Abducting her was a capital offense, and releasing her was a capital offense too. All it hoped now was that the tiger demon would hurry back and take this hot potato away.
Just then, after barely a moment of peace, the woman began sobbing again.
The White Bone Demon King dared not pay her any attention. It silently turned around to face the cave wall.
But it found something strange.
These sobs... seemed to contain a hint of delight?
As though she had spotted a glimmer of hope.
Tap... tap... tap...
Suddenly, a faint sound came from behind it.
Footsteps?!
The White Bone Demon King spun around. Its ghostly flames flared, instantly flooding the entire cave with green light.
What greeted it, however, was a flash of silvery-white saber light, and... a pair of utterly cold, indifferent eyes.
Crack!
The sound of shattering bone rang out. Amid a shower of fragments, a white figure flew backward and crashed into the lake.
At the sight, joy filled the woman's heart, and her muffled cries grew more exuberant.
Though she was bound and could not move, her eyes shone as she stared at the figure entering through the cave mouth, as though she had seen her savior.
Lu Guan glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, feeling only surprise.
What the hell? What was a woman doing among a bunch of skeletons?
With nothing but bones left, did they still have that thing to use?
He shook his head, casting those jumbled thoughts aside, then blurred into an afterimage and lunged toward the lake.
The White Bone Demon King staggered upright in the lake, drenched from head to toe. It stared in horror at the figure charging toward it, its ghostly flames flickering violently.
Where had this unfamiliar True Qi Realm martial artist come from?
There was no time to think. It abruptly thrust out a skeletal palm, sending a stream of icy Sha Qi surging forward like a long rainbow.
Wherever the Sha Qi passed, frost coated the ground and tiny ice crystals formed in the air. Even a section of the lake froze over.
Though demons did not practice martial arts, their demonic bodies naturally developed extraordinary qualities as their realms advanced.
This was especially true of demons with exceptionally powerful bloodlines.
This was also why most demons scoffed at human martial arts.
A single slap from me was an innate Divine Ability. Why bother learning flashy moves?
Lu Guan's expression remained unchanged. True Qi poured from his body, instantly extinguishing the icy Sha Qi.
Its momentum undiminished, all the remaining True Qi bore down on the skeletal body like a colossal mountain holding up the heavens, rendering it immobile.
Its joints creaked in agony, as though they might be crushed at any moment.
And so, its ghostly flames wavering, the White Bone Demon King could only watch as the saber-wielding youth approached step by step.
In fact, the instant its opponent struck, it had keenly sensed the enormous gulf between them.
Such vast True Qi could never belong to a martial artist who had only just broken through to the True Qi Realm... he had to be at least a late-stage expert, perhaps even at perfection!
If the tiger demon were still here, the two demons together might have had a fighting chance.
But... as the youth drew ever closer, the White Bone Demon King had already sensed a trace of a familiar presence on him.
The tiger demon had encountered him before.
Yet he had appeared here... the outcome naturally went without saying.
"Hh... hh..." Its jawbone opened and closed with difficulty, its ghostly flames flickering uncertainly. "Lord Mountain Sovereign won't let you get away with this!"
Before its words had faded, Lu Guan's saber slashed down. A chill ran down the White Bone Demon King's spine, but it could not even manage a final, dying struggle.
As smoothly as slicing tofu, the Primordial Saber severed its skull, sending it arcing into the water with a splash.
[Early True Qi Realm White Bone Demon, cultivated for three hundred and fifty years, poor aptitude, extracted one hundred years of effective cultivation]
"Whew."
Lu Guan exhaled a breath of stale air and sheathed his saber.
"Mmph, mmph, mmph!"
"Coming."
Hearing the woman's muffled cries, Lu Guan strode over and freed her from her bonds.
Once he saw the young woman's lovely face clearly, Lu Guan seemed to understand why the demons had tied her up.
Ah... poor thing.
Cultivation aside, every last demon in this world deserved to die!
The woman licked her pale lips and stared straight at Lu Guan, asking weakly, "Do you have anything to eat?"
Heaven have pity, those damned demons knew nothing of cherishing a beauty.
Even though she was a Qi and Blood Realm martial artist, going more than ten days without food or water had left her terribly weak.
An ordinary person would have died long ago.
Lu Guan shook his head.
Naturally, he would not be carrying food on him, though there were plenty of dry rations in the camp tents.
"The Demon Suppression Bureau has a camp at the foot of the mountain. There's food there."
With that, he shifted his gaze away from the woman and began surveying the cave.
The ceiling was several zhang high, with stalactites hanging overhead, dripping water drop by drop. Corpses and rotting flesh littered the ground, their stench assaulting his nose.
Before long, he noticed something strange.
In the deepest part of the cave, numerous skeletons had been arranged before a stone wall.
Those skeletons were stacked in a bizarre arrangement, skulls above and ribs below, with limb bones extending in all four directions, piled layer upon layer into seven tiers.
It looked very much like some mysterious ritual.