“Absurd… Completely unreasonable!”
Tang Mu’s anger boiled over as he roared.
“Tang Yan! Come back!!”
However, he received no response from Tang Yan.
“Shixiong! On the Flying Chariot… there are only eight people!”
At this moment, Tang Qing suddenly realized something and spoke to Tang Mu in a trembling voice.
Tang Mu was stunned for a moment, then looked toward the Flying Chariot in the sky.
Most people, upon seeing the Ten Stars appear together, would instinctively assume they were all present.
However, just as Tang Qing said, there were only eight people on the Flying Chariot in the sky at that moment.
Lai Min, ranked second among the Ten Stars, was not among them.
A sense of foreboding instantly filled Tang Mu.
He looked toward the path leading down the mountain and saw a graceful woman walking slowly in their direction with a bewitching stride.
It was Lai Min, known as the Twin Blade Rakshasa.
“Sorry, Tang Yan has already fallen asleep. He can’t hear your shouting anymore, okay?”
Covered in blood, Lai Min tossed a broken object to the ground and smiled at Tang Mu.
Tang Mu recognized it at a glance—the item broken in two on the ground was Tang Yan’s weapon, the Yan Staff.
Tang Yan’s cultivation was already inferior to Lai Min’s, and he definitely hadn’t expected her to attack.
That was why he was caught off guard and lost his life.
“For my Shidi, and for all the other innocent people—the Xingyue Alliance… I’ll make you pay in blood!”
Tang Mu’s eyes were bloodshot.
With a furious roar, his entire body surged with true energy, and with a single leap, he shot straight into the sky!
His true energy formed into a deep brown longsword, aimed directly at Li Ruobai!
However, Li Ruobai didn’t even need to act himself.
Several sharp arrows shot out from beside him, piercing the air toward Tang Mu.
Not only that, the others also maneuvered their Flying Chariots to attack.
Tang Mu’s sword light didn’t reach Li Ruobai—it could only block defensively.
“Ding ding ding ding——”
Tang Mu deflected all the arrows aimed at him, then became entangled in combat with the other six.
Relying on his exceptional movement, he darted across several Flying Chariots, holding his own evenly against the Seven Stars.
However, this was merely a burst of strength fueled by anger.
After the initial explosion, due to the prolonged airtime and fighting six at once, his true energy and stamina rapidly depleted.
Soon, he could no longer keep up.
Under the relentless attack, he was struck by several arrows and finally fell from the sky, crashing heavily to the ground.
“To fight seven alone—you were just a mantis trying to stop a chariot.”
Li Ruobai looked down from above and sneered coldly.
Lai Min, who had been waiting quietly on the ground, finally approached the fallen Tang Mu, two blood-stained short blades gripped tightly in her hands.
But at that moment, the small and thin Tang Qing rushed to Tang Mu’s side, standing between him and Lai Min.
“No… I won’t let you hurt my Shixiong!!”
He spread his arms, red-eyed, and shouted at Lai Min.
“Little brother, do you really think you can stop me?”
Lai Min looked at Tang Qing with a playful glint.
“Be good. If you hurry and get out of the way, big sister promises to make it quick for you, okay?”
“I… I won’t move. And I won’t let you hurt him, either!”
Tang Qing gritted his teeth, ready to die.
“Such courage. But even if you could stop me, who will stop them?”
Lai Min pointed at the remaining Eight Stars behind her, sneering.
The next second, Li Ruobai and the others leaped from the Flying Chariot, launching a massacre of all the rogue cultivators on New Moon Terrace.
They acted like bandits—each time they killed someone, they looted everything of value.
“Why… are you doing this!”
Amid the screams of the scattered cultivators, Tang Qing’s voice trembled with confusion, terror, and disbelief.
“Why?”
“Hmm… There’s a simple truth: ‘Two tigers cannot share one mountain.’ The Qingyun Alliance has rooted itself in Yunzhou for over a hundred years. It’s time for them to rest—and sleep forever.”
Lai Min replied coldly.
“If Xingyue Alliance lacks resources, we take them from these stupid, weak, delusional outsiders. If we lack manpower, we recruit from your Qingyun Alliance and other small groups. The start of the Recruitment Assembly marks Xingyue Alliance’s harvest time, doesn’t it?”
She waved her hand dramatically.
“Look at these fleeing outsiders. Not a single one has the courage to admit being a Demonic Cultivator and sacrifice themselves. Pathetic cowards. What’s the point in letting such trash live?”
Lai Min’s words drifted to Chi Ming, who wasn’t far away.
The chaos had erupted too suddenly.
Chi Ming’s first instinct was to take Fang Xiaoyu and hide somewhere safe.
Yet Lai Min’s words deeply struck her heart.
“Is it because I didn’t admit my identity… that so many people died?”
Chi Ming was lost in unprecedented confusion.
“But… I already left Among the Colorful Clouds and even joined the hunt against the Demoness. Someone like me shouldn’t be a Demonic Cultivator anymore, right?”
“I’m not a Demonic Cultivator…”
“I’m not a Demonic Cultivator. I’m not a Demonic Cultivator!!”
Chi Ming screamed over and over inside.
But the endless screams and wails nearby continued to wear down her will.
“Chi Ming, you…”
Fang Xiaoyu saw Chi Ming’s spirit growing more and more unstable and tried to speak.
But Chi Ming turned to her.
Her eyes were empty and sorrowful.
“Xiaoyu… I’m sorry…”
Tears fell from Chi Ming’s eyes.
Her pale lips trembled.
As if after a struggle between life and death, she spoke slowly:
“I… am a Demonic Cultivator.”
Fang Xiaoyu was stunned.
At that very moment, Lai Min raised her twin blades high, preparing to cut down both Tang Qing and Tang Mu.
But in the next instant—
A pillar of fire crashed down like a meteor toward Lai Min.
She reacted swiftly, retreating, but the blazing flames still scorched her.
“So hot! What the hell—”
Before Lai Min could finish, a blade flashed from within the fire, slashing past her.
“Pu——”
A sword pierced her chest, spraying blood.
She screamed in agony.
“Help me! Help——”
She called out for help, but her plea was cut short.
The girl who emerged from the flames drove a makeshift longsword deep into her heart.
By the time Li Ruobai and the others arrived, Lai Min was already dead in a pool of her own blood.
As the second strongest of the Ten Stars, Lai Min hadn’t survived until help arrived.
The others looked warily at the red-dressed girl.
“You… who are you?”
Li Ruobai gripped the Star River Sword tightly, frowning.
“I am a Demonic Cultivator.”
Chi Ming’s eyes glowed red as she spoke, one word at a time.
“And so are all of you.”