“Ha… ha~”
Shen Qingyi lay sprawled on the wooden bed, soft moans escaping her lips again and again.
Though she fought with all her might to restrain herself, she could not help but let out stifled sounds from her mouth.
Evil Thought spread from her mind, coursing through her body and limbs.
The heat in her body intensified, and the breath she exhaled with each whimper grew ever warmer.
She felt terrible.
Terrible beyond compare, so terrible that she even thought about solving it herself.
But how could she possibly do such a thing?
Her whole body was weak, her hand clenching the bedsheet tightly.
She gritted her teeth, fighting back this beclouding desire with sheer willpower.
The woman at her side let out a laugh, her voice incomparably melodious.
“Hahaha! Shen Immortal Doctor, oh Shen Immortal Doctor, do you even realize how wretched you look right now? Ahahahahaha! Why bother resisting so desperately? Why not just let yourself fall? After all, isn’t enduring it this way even more painful for you?”
“Hahahahaha!”
But then, her laughter abruptly stopped.
Shen Qingyi was unaware, but from the woman’s perspective, something strange had happened to Dog Lian, whom she had locked down with an Array.
A surge of tremendous demonic power erupted from nowhere, descending upon Dog Lian.
Its aura soared rapidly, soon reaching the peak of the Divine Platform Realm.
At the same time, its body began to change, gradually taking on human form.
It was the very image of Su Qiulian.
Nine fluffy tails swayed behind her, a pair of snow-white fox ears twitching slightly atop her head.
The instant she arrived, she shattered the Array binding her with overwhelming demonic power.
She seized The Black-Clothed Woman in one swift motion, speaking coldly:
“Crossing Tribulation Stage aura? Hmph, just a trick of the Array! Still, being able to trap me for a while—your Array Dao skills aren’t bad! So this is the heritage of the Demonic Sect?”
“Cough… urgh… I clearly set up two Arrays to isolate you! How did you manage to descend here? Not even a Main Soul Fox Spirit could do that, could it?”
The woman rasped, her throat squeezed tight by Su Qiulian’s hand.
“That’s exactly why I am the Demon Emperor!”
Su Qiulian sneered, her eyes drifting for a moment to Shen Qingyi, who was suffering and stifling moans upon the bed. A pang of infinite heartache struck her.
It was all her fault—she hadn’t anticipated the Demonic Sect would still have such insidious means, resulting in Little Shen’s misfortune.
Blaming herself, Su Qiulian tightened her grip, squeezing The Black-Clothed Woman until a trickle of fresh blood oozed from the woman’s lips.
She demanded, “Where’s the antidote?! If you want to live, you’d better hand it over right now!”
But to her surprise, The Black-Clothed Woman abruptly expired, her body dissolving into a pool of pus and blood that splattered onto the floor, reeking with stench.
“What…?”
Should she say as expected of a Demonic Sect disciple?
Ruthless even to herself—dead at the slightest threat.
At that moment, however, the woman’s laughter echoed once more from above the room.
“Hahahaha! So what if you broke free? My goal has already been achieved! But since you seemed so frantic just now, let me give you another little problem to solve!”
As her voice faded, the ground beneath Hao Ren Town began to shake violently.
Not just their location, but the entire region covered by the massive Array began to tremble.
“Rumble—rumble—”
With the shaking, the streets of Hao Ren Town split apart in all directions, as though the whole town was about to collapse into the earth.
The woman’s voice rang out again:
“Well? This is the second stage of the Array! Soon, this entire town will sink underground, every last townsfolk—tens of thousands—will slumber in the depths beneath! Well? To save your Little Shen, will you abandon the Hao Ren Townsfolk who raised and cared for her for ten years? Choose, Demon Emperor! Save your lover, or save these tens of thousands of humans who have nothing to do with you! Hahahahaha!”
As her words trailed off, the woman’s voice faded away.
No matter how Su Qiulian tried to track her, she could not find her hiding place.
In that instant, Su Qiulian finally realized—the woman had never truly entered the Array; she herself had been outplayed.
“Damn it!”
With a furious curse, Su Qiulian pulled Shen Qingyi from the bed into a tight embrace, feeling the searing heat radiating from her body.
Su Qiulian tried to draw the Evil Thought from her with demonic power, but to little avail.
“Beclouding Desire Pill? How could something like this exist in the world?”
Worry filled Su Qiulian’s eyes as she gazed at Shen Qingyi, whose brows were furrowed in agony.
By now, Shen Qingyi seemed to have lost all reason.
From the moment she fell into Su Qiulian’s arms, her hands roamed desperately over Su Qiulian’s body, her anguished whispers repeating, “It hurts so much… it hurts so much…”
Her warm breath fluttered against Su Qiulian’s neck, but the crisis left Su Qiulian no time for improper thoughts.
The tremors grew fiercer.
Su Qiulian hastily swept the whole of Hao Ren Town with her Divine Sense, searching for the areas of greatest upheaval and pinpointing every townsfolk’s location.
At the same time, she softly comforted the girl in her arms:
“Don’t be afraid, Little Shen. I’m here. If it’s too much, just bite my hand. You can use as much force as you need!”
“Bite you…?”
Shen Qingyi, in her daze, heard Su Qiulian’s words.
She would never have agreed, but the Beclouding Desire struck her again—her whole body itched unbearably.
She could hold back no longer and bit down on Su Qiulian.
“Mmph…”
Su Qiulian stifled a groan.
Shen Qingyi hadn’t bitten her hand, but instead rose up and bit directly into her neck.
To make sure Shen Qingyi wouldn’t hurt herself, Su Qiulian deliberately lowered her body’s defenses. Otherwise, Shen Qingyi’s teeth would have broken against her skin.
A set of sharp white teeth sank into her neck, Shen Qingyi’s fangs piercing Su Qiulian’s delicate skin, nearly reaching her artery.
Blood began to trickle down.
Enduring the pain, Su Qiulian continued channeling demonic power to extract the Beclouding Desire from Shen Qingyi’s body, her Divine Sense still blanketing the entire town, her demonic power spreading outward.
Every street and alley fell within her reach.
She poured every ounce of her power, covering even the smallest brick, and finally—just as the tremors peaked and the whole town collapsed into the earth—
A massive Fox Spirit Shadow materialized, enveloping the entire Hao Ren Town, shielding it from utter destruction as the town plunged deep below the ground.
“BOOM——!!”
With an earth-shaking roar, Hao Ren Town landed safely, suffering no large-scale casualties.
However, the Haoren Townsfolk were still possessed by the Array’s Evil Thought. After the quakes, each reverted to a vicious, furious state.
They argued, cursed, even fought, wielding all sorts of tools as if to bludgeon each other to death.
Su Qiulian’s eyes grew cold.
She controlled the Fox Spirit Shadow with her Divine Sense and roared:
“Stop!”
In an instant, a surge of overwhelming demonic power and Divine Sense swept through Hao Ren Town, knocking every townsfolk affected by Evil Thought unconscious.
If she couldn’t resolve it for now, at least she could grant them peace for a while.
Afterward, Su Qiulian intended to contact the two Disciples of the Qin Shui Sword Sect with her Divine Sense, to direct them in locating the Core Array Node and destroy this Great Array.
But at that moment, Shen Qingyi, still biting her neck, suddenly let go.
Her hands reached up to gently cradle Su Qiulian’s face, her lips stained a vivid red with Su Qiulian’s blood.
Shen Qingyi wrapped her arms around Su Qiulian’s neck, her body slowly rising, her voice thick with longing as she called out the name Su Qiulian had never forgotten, even in her past life.
Shen Qingyi whispered, “A’ Lian… hold me…”