Over the past few days, Helan Zhao had discovered a kind of fish in the Cold Pool. It was broad-bodied and flat, and tasted delicious when grilled over charcoal.
Yuan Shu liked eating it, so he often went over to catch some.
She had already grown used to it.
After waving him off and telling him to go on with his business, Yuan Shu sat cross-legged on the stone platform and began cultivating.
Ling Chi’s bone-forging was nearing its final stage. Blood-red energy clung to the newly formed bones like veins.
Ling Chi’s entire body radiated a terrifying pressure.
Even the Hehuan Divine Tree had rarely emerged in his sea of consciousness lately, afraid that it might disturb him while he forged his bones.
Yuan Shu’s divine sense entered his body. She merely looked up quietly for a moment before withdrawing without a sound.
The instant her awareness returned, Yuan Shu sensed that something was wrong.
Someone had wrapped their arms around her from behind.
A faint osmanthus fragrance drifted into her nose from the side—familiar and intoxicating.
Unable to help herself, Yuan Shu took a deep breath and turned to look at the beautiful face resting against her shoulder.
“Helan Ying?”
“Sister, I thought that after getting yourself a cheap little brother like mine, you’d forgotten all about me.”
Helan Ying wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his face against the side of her neck and greedily breathing in her scent.
After watching Yuan Shu and Helan Zhao acting so intimate with each other, Helan Ying had finally realized the truth.
He seemed to have truly fallen for Yuan Shu.
Even if Yuan Shu whipped him again, he would regard it as a reward.
He was willing to accept it all!
Yuan Shu cast him a sidelong glance and reached out to push away his approaching face.
“Today is the eighth day since I entered the trapped formation. At most, we’ll be able to leave in two days.”
“Helan Ying, you should be more than just a prince of the Heavenly Dragon Dynasty, shouldn’t you? Or perhaps I should say that you aren’t actually Helan Ying at all. You’re the newly emerged Earth Demon Sha, aren’t you?”
Helan Ying’s expression froze. He raised his head to look at Yuan Shu, shock surfacing in his eyes as his expression instantly grew tense and solemn.
Once it was exposed that he was an Earth Demon Sha, endless pursuit and slaughter would await him.
The righteous sects of the immortal path would never let him go!
“There’s no need to be so nervous. We aren’t enemies.”
Yuan Shu let out a soft laugh and explained, “I was entrusted by someone to find the newly emerged Earth Demon Sha. This should be enough to prove my identity.”
As she spoke, Yuan Shu summoned the source power of the Earth Demon Sha that Mo Yi had given her.
The reason she had not revealed her identity before was that Xiushe needed Earth Demon Sha energy, and she had happened to discover a way to absorb it.
If she told Helan Ying, he might use that knowledge to threaten her, which could easily backfire.
But now, Ling Chi had absorbed enough Earth Demon Sha energy, so there was no longer any need for her to keep up the pretense.
“Once we leave this place, I’ll hand you over to your fellow Earth Demon Sha. So I won’t hurt you.”
After saying this, Yuan Shu pushed away the stunned Helan Ying and rose to her feet.
For a while, silence filled the cavern. Neither of them spoke.
Just as Yuan Shu thought Helan Ying would heed her advice and obediently wait for the exit of the trapped formation to appear, a soft laugh suddenly came from behind her.
“So that’s how it is. You never intended to kill me from the very beginning.”
When he had been captured by her, he had been quite worried. He had even been willing to swallow his pride to survive, allowing her to whip him and force kisses on him.
So it turned out that everything had been an act on her part!
Helan Ying slowly raised his lowered head. A mocking smile appeared on his exquisite, handsome face.
“You’re right. The real Helan Ying is already dead. When I emerged, he was trapped inside that formation and had already died.”
“However, even though I’m not the real Helan Ying, this body truly belongs to Helan Ying. So it wouldn’t be wrong to say that I am him.”
“Since you’ve already acted all the way to this point, why not keep acting, Sister?”
Helan Ying slowly rose from the ground. “Is it because of the drug you gave me, which made you think you could control me? Or because Helan Zhao has arrived, making you feel that dealing with me would be easy?”
Helan Ying chuckled twice, a wicked smile spreading across his face.
“Sister, you still don’t understand the Earth Demon Sha well enough.”
With a wave of his hand, his entire presence changed.
Yuan Shu keenly sensed a powerful aura of baleful energy and pressure emanating from him. Her eyes widened slightly.
“You… have recovered your strength?”
“That’s right, Sister. The effects of that drug of yours have already been neutralized. I’ve recovered my strength!”
Helan Ying continued to smile. Spiritual energy surged around his body, condensing into strands of biting wind that seemed almost tangible, whipping his robes loudly.
The next instant, Yuan Shu’s vision blurred. An arm suddenly wrapped around her waist from behind and pulled her forcefully into an embrace.
Helan Ying’s cool, dangerous voice brushed against her ear.
“I originally planned to deal with you after we left this place. But you’ve been very disobedient, flirting and acting all lovey-dovey with that Helan Zhao.”
“Do you know that the Earth Demon Sha are naturally vindictive and extremely narrow-minded?”
“You struck me so many times, and I never struck back. You kissed me so many times, so of course I have to return every one of them.”
“Sister, you won’t be able to escape!”
Yuan Shu’s eyes widened slightly. She gathered her spiritual energy and struggled, but could not break free.
Her heart filled with alarm.
Had this Helan Ying really recovered his strength?
No. It wasn’t as simple as merely recovering his strength.
When she had first met him, she had still been able to exchange several moves with him.
But now, Helan Ying’s strength clearly crushed hers.
This man had recovered a great deal of his Earth Demon Sha power!
“How did you do it? There’s no Earth Demon Sha energy here, and the Earth Demon Sha energy within your body was absorbed by me. There’s no way you could have increased your strength. You—”
“Don’t be impatient, Sister. I’ll tell you everything slowly.”
Helan Ying turned his head and kissed Yuan Shu on the cheek before speaking with a soft laugh.
With a wave of his hand, the formation that had originally imprisoned Helan Ying in the cavern suddenly glowed with a gray light.
Immediately afterward, the stones in the center of the formation shifted, revealing a pitch-black opening.
Helan Ying led her toward the opening. With another wave of his hand, he sent a piece of firewood tumbling down. The scene beneath the opening instantly became clear.
It was a complete human skeleton, stark and eerie. But unlike ordinary bones, this skeleton was entirely black—black and gleaming, as though it were…
“A demon!”
Yuan Shu exclaimed in surprise, and Helan Ying’s soft laugh sounded beside her ears.
“That’s right. A demon—one that used a secret technique to force its way into this formation. It was quite powerful.”
“It wanted to absorb Helan Ying’s strength and break free of the formation’s restraints, but it never expected to encounter me, who had just happened to awaken.”
“So I casually slaughtered it and then… naturally took over Helan Ying’s body.”
“I have to say, Sister, you were lucky. When you encountered me, I happened to be at my weakest.”
“Otherwise, before I even became interested in you… you would have died!”
His sticky, husky voice was completely different from the way Helan Ying usually spoke.
The obedient quality was gone, replaced by something dangerous and sinister.
At that moment, Yuan Shu’s heart suddenly tightened.
