Lin Xue and Hong Yanzhi held hands and passed through the teleportation gate together.
She felt as if she were passing through a curtain of water.
Her feet touched the ground.
A completely different aura from that of Qiansi Garden rushed toward her.
Lin Xue looked up and discovered that there was a world within this place.
It resembled a small valley.
Mountains surrounded it on all sides, and at the center was a flat clearing the size of two or three soccer fields, overgrown with weeds.
Carved into the clearing was a complex array formation.
The array was currently inactive—dead silent, without the slightest fluctuation of spiritual energy.
At the center of the formation stood an ancient-looking altar.
Beside the altar was a stone stele bearing three large characters: Hehuan Valley.
Behind Lin Xue and Hong Yanzhi, six female demons from Qixia Mountain and Poison Lady were also teleported in one after another.
Poison Lady had been here many times before.
She walked to the front and led Lin Xue and the others to the right side of the altar at the center of the clearing, where they waited for Zong Biao and those human men to enter.
Lin Xue remained fairly calm.
Behind her, however, the six female demons were all tense and uneasy.
All they knew was that here, whether they were willing or not, they would have to do that kind of thing with more than a dozen human men, using the techniques Poison Lady had taught them to absorb the men’s yang energy.
Though unwilling, they could not defy the Demon King’s orders, nor did they have the power to resist.
After all, even someone as powerful as Lin Xue, as well as Hong Yanzhi, the young mistress of Qixia Mountain, had obediently learned the dual-cultivation techniques and entered this secret realm, waiting to be with men.
They could only accept this reality.
A wave of disturbance rippled through the valley.
Demon General Zong Biao and sixteen young, able-bodied human men appeared inside the secret realm.
The moment the sixteen men arrived, the first thing they did was look toward the female demons, searching for Lin Xue’s figure.
Once they spotted her, they stared fixedly, each one rubbing his fists together, secretly preparing to be the first to rush to her side.
Only then did Lin Xue notice the way these men were looking at her.
Their eyes glowed green—they were clearly treating her as prey.
She froze for a moment, suddenly feeling as though she had returned to Qixia Mountain, facing those repressed little demons from before.
The gazes made her uncomfortable.
Any guilt she had felt toward these men was diluted considerably.
Zong Biao also looked at Lin Xue, his eyes burning with desire.
Ever since learning that Lin Xue was a snake demon, he had been unable to stop thinking about her.
But prolonging Blackhide Demon King’s life came first, so he had to suppress his urges for now.
Thinking that the female demon he desired would first be defiled by those stupid humans made Zong Biao feel deeply dissatisfied.
He wished he could replace those human men and be the one whose yang energy Lin Xue absorbed.
Unfortunately, the Yin–Yang Dual Cultivation Codex clearly stated that human men possessed the purest yang energy.
If one wanted to extend life, it had to come from human males.
That was why Erlong Mountain abducted people from human villages every time.
After today’s mating ritual, Lin Xue—being the strongest among the eight female demons—would certainly be the first to be harvested by Blackhide Demon King.
Once that old monster had his fill, she would become Zong Biao’s toy.
Thinking of this, Zong Biao grew increasingly impatient.
He barked an order, telling the sixteen human men to stand on the left side of the altar, facing the female demons.
Under his command, the sixteen men took their positions, facing the eight female demons.
Several of the men were already showing off the results of over a month of training, striking poses and flexing what they believed to be impressive muscles.
A chill ran through Lin Xue’s heart, and her guilt toward them diminished even further.
Zong Biao strode up onto the altar and took a spirit stone from his robes, placing it atop the altar.
Seeing a demon carry a spirit stone with him piqued Lin Xue’s curiosity, and she glanced at it more closely.
She discovered that it was actually a high-grade spirit stone.
Spirit stones were divided into grades: low, medium, high, and top-grade, each tier increasing by a factor of one hundred.
One high-grade spirit stone equaled one hundred medium-grade stones, or ten thousand low-grade ones.
Zhang Zongnian, a low-ranking constable of the Demon-Slaying Bureau, earned only five low-grade spirit stones per month.
Even working his entire life, he probably would never earn a single high-grade stone.
Thinking of Zhang Zongnian, Lin Xue’s mood darkened again.
She still remembered how happy he had been when she gave him the storage pouch taken from the Yang family, worth more than a dozen medium-grade stones.
Unfortunately, that pouch had been taken back by Hong Yanzhi only days later.
The more Lin Xue thought about it, the more pitiful Zhang Zongnian seemed, just like her in her previous life.
Recalling the scene of him turning into a rat, blending into the rat swarm, and leaving her behind, her heart felt as though it were weighed down by a heavy stone.
After placing the spirit stone on the altar, Zong Biao activated it.
Spiritual light flickered as energy began to circulate through the grand array, slowly bringing it to life.
The array suddenly seemed to awaken.
The sixteen young men instantly flushed red, their eyes burning with desire, restless and eager.
The Extreme Bliss Array had taken effect.
Poison Lady quietly opened a small bottle.
A faint fragrance drifted out and spread throughout the secret realm.
Lin Xue suddenly felt a strange sensation surge within her body.
Her limbs grew weak, and she felt an uncontrollable urge to be held, to do intimate things with someone.
Beside her, Hong Yanzhi and several of the other female demons were clearly affected as well.
Some of the demons bit their lips, gazing at the men opposite them with watery eyes and flushed faces, looking extraordinarily alluring.
Hua Yingying, the weakest and least resistant among them, even knelt on the ground, panting heavily, pulling at the front of her clothes with her own hands.
On the altar, Zong Biao suddenly stiffened.
He sniffed with his pig snout, his eyes going vacant.
His breathing grew heavy.
He turned to look at the female demons, his eyes bloodshot and filled with greedy lust.
Then he sniffed again and looked toward the sixteen young men below the altar, his gaze filled with overwhelming hatred.
Under the effects of the Delusion Powder, he had lost his reason, viewing any male before him as an enemy trying to steal his women.
Murderous intent spread across his pig-like face.
Seeing his reaction, Poison Lady knew the drug had taken effect.
She glanced at Lin Xue and saw that she, too, was reacting.
Poison Lady sneered and quickly moved to the sixteen men.
Spider legs extended from her back as she rapidly sprayed silk, forming a sturdy spider cocoon that enclosed herself and the sixteen men, isolating them from the female demons.
Greedy as she was, she intended to keep all sixteen men for herself.
Whether Zong Biao killed them or she did, they would die anyway.
Why not take them all, enjoy them one by one, and then kill them?
Afterwards, she would go out and kill Zong Biao, seize the black obsidian around his neck, and claim that the men had been killed by him.
With no witnesses, who could challenge her?
As for Zong Biao and Lin Xue’s group of female demons outside the cocoon, she could already foresee what would happen next.
Under the influence of her incense, Lin Xue would fall into lust and be ravaged by Zong Biao.
With Lin Xue’s cultivation, she would not die.
As for whether the other seven female demons survived, that would depend on their luck.
If Lin Xue blamed her afterward, she could simply claim she had also been affected by the array.
Inside the spider cocoon, the sixteen young men grew frantic when they realized they were trapped.
Poison Lady looked at the strong men with shining eyes.
She retracted her extra spider legs, stripped off her clothes, wove a large bed out of silk, and lay down on it.
Curling her finger at them, she laughed and beckoned them over.
Under the combined effects of the array and the incense, the sixteen men rushed toward her.
Outside the spider cocoon, Zong Biao was blocked by the silk and briefly confused.
Then he turned toward Lin Xue and the other female demons.
His breathing grew even heavier.
Having lost his reason, he forgot how Lin Xue had once subdued him effortlessly.
Staring straight at her, he strode toward her.
Lin Xue understood the cause of her condition.
She circulated her demon power, pricked her finger with a wooden spike, and dispelled the drug.
Clarity returned to her eyes.
Through their soul link, she told Hong Yanzhi to use the fan.
Hong Yanzhi shouted and snapped the fan open.
Zong Biao froze when his eyes met the eye painted on the fan.
In his vision, the female demons surrounded and served him.
He smiled foolishly.
But what he wanted most was still Lin Xue.
In the illusion, Lin Xue transformed into a half-human, half-snake form and gazed at him.
His desire surged.
He broke free and ran toward her.
Lin Xue bound him tightly with her snake tail.
Unable to escape, he nodded eagerly when she questioned him.
He revealed how to use the black obsidian to open the secret realm.
Lin Xue memorized the method.
Then she took out Blood Fiend.
She stabbed him through the neck.
The illusion shattered.
Zong Biao collapsed, blood bubbling from his mouth.
Soon, he died.
“You have slain a mid–Core Condensation realm demon. Experience gained: 2000 points.”