Hong Yanzhi felt a bit confused.
Just now, Lin Xue had clearly been calling the rats ‘big brother.’
Isn’t her brother supposed to be Zhang Zongnian?
Has Zhang Zongnian come up to the upper cave chamber?
Hong Yanzhi looked around with a guilty conscience.
Half a month ago, when she interrogated Zhang Zongnian, she hadn’t held back at all.
Now, seeing Zhang Zongnian again, it would be rather awkward.
But she didn’t see Zhang Zongnian anywhere.
Hong Yanzhi looked curiously at Lin Xue, only to notice a trace of tear marks on her face.
She cried?
Hong Yanzhi became even more puzzled.
Lin Xue stared blankly as the tide of rats surged ceaselessly toward the chamber where Shu Da was.
A moment later, she suddenly wiped away her tears, put away the sheet of paper recording the cultivation method, and quickly turned to walk back to her own room.
Zhang Zongnian sacrificed himself to deliver this cultivation method to her; she couldn’t waste his efforts.
Shu Er should be about to advance to a greater demon; she had to hurry and attempt to level up as well.
She must not let Zhang Zongnian’s sacrifice be in vain!
Hong Yanzhi stayed close, following Lin Xue back to her room.
Eight Rat Demons followed step by step, guarding the door and continuing to keep watch over Lin Xue.
Lin Xue returned to her room and said to Hong Yanzhi, “I’m about to begin cultivating. Don’t disturb me.”
Then she sat cross-legged on the bed, moving her Serpent Core outside of her Essence Core while opening her system panel.
Yesterday, she had spent 10 Experience points each on the Beast Mastery Heart Sutra (Recognition Chapter) and the Chu Wu Shu taught by Hong Yanzhi.
Now, the Experience points on the panel read 1,480.
In the cultivation method slot, the status of Changsheng Jue (Upper Volume) was (Qi Refining Sixth Layer Perfection) +.
Lin Xue directly dumped her Experience points onto the “+” after Changsheng Jue (Upper Volume).
She spent 300 Experience points in one go—Qi Refining Seventh Layer Perfection.
Then another 300—Qi Refining Eighth Layer Perfection.
Continuing, another 300—Qi Refining Ninth Layer Perfection.
After investing 500 more Experience, Changsheng Jue (Upper Volume) was now at the Great Perfection of the Qi Refining Stage.
Lin Xue had reached the same Cultivation Realm as Yang Yuting at that time.
Just one more step, and she would reach Foundation Establishment.
She could feel her senses becoming keener, the spiritual energy in her body light and agile, brimming with powerful strength.
Now, she was confident that she could face Yang Yuting head-on and defeat him with ease.
Hong Yanzhi kept vigil at Lin Xue’s side.
She suddenly sensed that something seemed to have changed in Lin Xue, something different, but couldn’t quite tell what it was.
After all, her own Cultivation Realm had already fallen to the late Body Refinement stage, and her senses were much duller.
She couldn’t see that all demon aura had vanished from Lin Xue’s body, replaced instead by a wisp of spiritual energy.
Lin Xue looked at her panel.
She had 80 Experience points left.
The “+” after Changsheng Jue (Upper Volume) was still there.
But that “+” had turned gray, and she couldn’t invest any more Experience into it.
Lin Xue believed that if she could just add a bit more, she could immediately break through to the next Cultivation Realm, enter the Foundation Establishment stage, and become a powerful cultivator.
But for some reason, the system wouldn’t let her add more points.
Lin Xue frowned.
What’s going on?
Where was the problem?
If she couldn’t reach Foundation Establishment, then no matter if she was at the peak of Qi Refining or Body Refinement, she wouldn’t be able to last a few moves against the soon-to-ascend great demon Shu Er.
She grew a little anxious and focused her attention on the gray “+” sign, trying to figure out the cause.
A prompt appeared before her eyes:
“An auxiliary item can be used to break through the Bottleneck.”
Lin Xue was suddenly enlightened.
So it was a Bottleneck.
It seemed this system also had its limits. It wasn’t as she once thought, able to ignore bottlenecks and allow unlimited point allocation.
Before, she hadn’t needed a Barrier-Breaking Pill to go directly into the mid- and late-stage of Qi Refining, probably because the breakthroughs within minor realms weren’t so difficult, so the system just let her skip them.
Major realm leaps, however, were much harder; even the system couldn’t ignore that gap.
And the auxiliary item for breaking through the Qi Refining bottleneck—wasn’t that the Foundation-building Pill?
Lin Xue immediately took out the Foundation-building Pill from the storage space of her Chu Wu Jie Zhi, popped it into her mouth, and swallowed it.
Right now, with only the absolutely loyal Yao Nu Hong Yanzhi by her side, she had no concerns about the secret of her storage ring being exposed.
After swallowing the Foundation-building Pill, her body instantly underwent a transformation.
She was forced into Nei Shi, watching as the Foundation-building Pill slowly dissolved inside her, strengthening every meridian and acupoint, refining her physique.
She became immersed in the process, closing her eyes tightly, severing all perception of the outside world.
Hong Yanzhi, who was guarding by the bed, was startled to discover that Lin Xue actually had other storage magic items, some secrets she wasn’t aware of.
She recalled how Zhang Zongnian had refused to say anything under interrogation, and a faint suspicion about the truth of her younger brother’s death arose in her heart.
But these guesses were no longer important.
Lin Xue was already her master; her life was now tied to Lin Xue’s.
……
Hong Yanzhi cast aside those messy thoughts and wholeheartedly guarded Lin Xue.
In the natural cave behind the chamber of Old Third Hong, the place was already packed with rats.
Looking around, the ground, the cave walls—everywhere were pairs of blood-red eyes.
Every living rat in the entire cave had been summoned here by Shu Da.
Shu Da opened his eyes and glanced around.
It was almost enough.
He exhaled deeply and used his spiritual power to control the surrounding rat horde.
“Boom!” All the rats moved at once.
They swarmed toward the dozen or so thoroughly bound, immobilized Hua Ban Tongling and the other demons.
Fear flashed in Hua Ban and the other demons’ eyes as they whimpered and writhed desperately.
But their struggles were futile—they could only watch as swarms of red-eyed rats climbed onto them, baring their teeth and biting into their flesh.
In an instant, the bodies of over a dozen demons were engulfed by the rat horde.
Heart-wrenching screams echoed through the cave.
Each rat knowingly took only a small bite before withdrawing to make room for others, ensuring that as many rats as possible could share in the flesh of these late Body Refinement stage demons.
Shu Da’s method, akin to slow dismemberment, allowed the rat horde to maximize absorption and digestion of the demons’ Serpent Cores.
When a demon’s body was wounded, the Serpent Core would release demon power to repair the injuries.
As a result, demons often lost their Cultivation Realm after suffering grave injuries.
Every time Hua Ban Tongling and the other demons had a chunk of flesh bitten off, their Serpent Core would dissolve demon power to mend the wound.
This demon-power-laced flesh would then be bitten off and eaten by the next rat, the trace of demon aura temporarily stored within the rat’s body.
Shu Da methodically directed the rats to devour the demon flesh.
This process demanded a huge amount of mental energy from the controller.
Pain in the meridians inside Shu Da’s body grew ever more intense, and his face began to twitch.
He gritted his teeth and endured.
Shu Er sat across from him, watching as the dozen or so demons were gnawed into a wretched, living hell, trembling in fear.
Big Brother’s trick was simply too terrifying.
At the same time, he felt a sliver of relief.
Thank goodness he was on Big Brother’s side; otherwise, he’d face such a horrific death.
An incense stick’s time passed.
The rat horde gradually calmed down.
Hua Ban Tongling and the other demons had been completely devoured—even their bones crushed into fragments and swallowed.
Their Serpent Cores were also entirely dissolved.
Shu Da breathed a sigh of relief.
Suppressing the pain in his meridians, he reached out and began to operate Wan Shu Chao Yuan, extracting the demon aura contained in the flesh and bone fragments inside the rats.
One rat after another squeaked in agony.
From their bodies, invisible streams of energy were drawn out and gathered in Shu Da’s palm.
Lacking spirit meridians, the rats couldn’t retain demon aura for long.
Shu Da had to extract the demon power before it dissipated completely.
However, forcefully using Wan Shu Chao Yuan to draw out demon power would seriously damage the rats.
The rats howled in pain, collapsing in heaps.
A large portion died on the spot.
Those that didn’t died struggled, convulsed, and rolled across the ground.
The ground was soon covered in rat corpses.
The whole cave had become a veritable hell for the rats.
A large ball of demon aura quickly condensed in Shu Da’s hands.
He sent this demon aura into Shu Er’s body.
Under Shu Da’s control, the demon aura gathered at Shu Er’s Essence Core, attaching and condensing to his Serpent Core.
Shu Er trembled all over, his face twisted in pain.
His muscles began to bulge, his bones cracking loudly.
His Serpent Core started to change in shape and size, gradually solidifying, transitioning from an elastic state to a fully solid form.
Above Luoyun Cave, thick, inky-black clouds gathered once again.
The clouds pressed downward, lightning snakes writhing within, carrying a terrifying aura of destruction.
Shu Er raised his head, looking up at the awe-inspiring Tribulation Lightning through the crack above, fear on his face.
His tongue quivered as he said to Shu Da, “Big brother, I feel like I’m not ready yet… How about we forget it?”
With Shu Da here, whether or not he ascended to great demon, he’d still be second in command in this cave—why risk his life to undergo this Tribulation Lightning?
Shu Da gave him a murderous glare.
Shu Er shuddered, recalling the miserable fate of those demons earlier. He shut his mouth, not daring to say another word.
A dazzling bolt of Tribulation Lightning suddenly struck down through the crack toward Shu Er’s head.
But due to the narrowness and depth of the crack, the powerful Tribulation Lightning struck the cave wall instead, sending debris and rocks flying.
Shu Er shrank his neck, covered his head, raised his rump, and flopped to the ground with a scream.
Shu Da, suppressing his rage, kicked him hard.
Shu Er got up and realized that lightning hadn’t hit him just now.
Excitement surged within him.
Is surviving Tribulation Lightning really this easy?
Then what was there to be afraid of!
“Hahaha! What Tribulation Lightning? What trial? It’s nothing at all!”
He sat up straight with confidence, looked up at the sky, eyes full of defiance, and shouted while pointing at his own forehead, “Come on! Hit your Grandpa Shu Er right here! Hit me! Grandpa’s waiting!”
The second bolt of lightning, roaring with thunderous fury, crashed straight down.
This time, the lightning shot through the crack and struck Shu Er squarely on the head.
He dropped to the ground without a sound, face blackened, smoking from head to toe, foaming at the mouth, convulsing.
Shu Da: “……”