Ling Qixuan covered his mouth and staggered back, panting in pain.

His gasps turned into wails and roars, and his hands moved from his mouth to his stomach. Even his icy face was twisted in agony. The drop of water had entered his mouth, swiftly traveled down his esophagus, into his stomach and intestines, and then plunged downward with the weight of a thousand juns. Tragically, Ling Qixuan’s internal organs were already half-frozen, so it couldn’t pass through quickly. Instead, it dragged his entire digestive system down, causing him such excruciating pain that he wished for death.

Ling Qixuan could sense the strange water inside him through his internal vision. He tried to freeze it, and succeeded, but even as ice, it wouldn’t integrate into his own system. It remained a heavy ice droplet, continuing its descent.

“This… what is this thing…” Ling Qixuan felt death approaching. “Lu Xingzhou, you cannot kill me!”

Lu Xingzhou said lightly, “Why not?”

“If you kill me, my body will be truly possessed by the Ice Demon, becoming its complete clone…” Ling Qixuan gasped. “You don’t want Dugu Qingli to face the Ice Demon directly, do you…”

Lu Xingzhou spread his hands. “Indeed, I don’t, but unfortunately, I can’t retract this water. It’s irreversible.”

Ling Qixuan: “…Don’t push me!!!”

He wasn’t lying. The power of the Ice Demon could indeed consume everything he had, including his consciousness. As the master of a powerful sect, even in his fervent pursuit of the origin of ice, he wasn’t willing to sacrifice himself. This meant his own consciousness was actually fighting against the Ice Demon, allowing him to maintain control, with the Ice Demon’s power serving him.

If he were to willingly sacrifice himself, the Ice Demon would become the dominant entity, which was absolutely not what Lu Xingzhou wanted to see. Dugu Qingli could not face the Ice Demon at this moment. Ling Qixuan was confident that Lu Xingzhou would greatly need him as a buffer.

“The Ice Demon’s host doesn’t need the body; it needs the spirit platform. Destroying it will suffice,” Lu Xingzhou said nonchalantly, a Soul Banner appearing in his hand. “An honored seat in the Human Emperor Banner.”

Ling Qixuan: “!!!”

A chilling wind rose, accompanied by the wails of ghosts. Ling Qixuan’s spirit was effortlessly drawn out, floating towards the banner. “Lu Xingzhou! You will regret this!”

“Boom!” Lu Xingzhou launched a crimson Lotus Calamity Flame into Ling Qixuan’s spirit platform, incinerating and purifying it, leaving the platform utterly shattered. Ling Qixuan’s remaining Ice Demon body, which temporarily couldn’t be burned away, still stood there.

At the same time, Dugu Qingli fled, rushing directly into the distant boundary membrane, which was the battleground between Jiang Yuan and Xuan Nü. The next moment, an incomparably terrifying demonic presence descended. Ling Qixuan’s Ice Demon body opened its crimson eyes.

Ice Demon: “…”

Dugu Qingli was gone, and Ling Qixuan’s spirit platform was destroyed. Its host was merely a chunk of ice sculpture with its internal organs ravaged. The boundless dark flames of the Soul Banner were scorching this body, and a drop of Tianyi Shenshui was “pulled” out from within, bringing the entire digestive system to the ground. The physical body was completely ruined, incapable of hosting.

The Ice Demon’s divine consciousness raged with fury. “Lu Xingzhou, is it… This venerable one remembers you…”

Lu Xingzhou reached out and pressed his hand on the chaotic ice body, injecting a wisp of Taiyin True Fire into it. “Ice is yin, so when it transforms into a human, it becomes a cute little white-haired girl. Logically, shouldn’t you also be a female demon? I’m very lenient with all women…”

“Boom!” The Taiyin True Fire instantly burned off the ice sculpture’s head.

A lingering, malevolent demonic thought echoed in the air: “Lu Xingzhou… do you think that by letting Dugu Qingli avoid this, you won’t be tainted? This venerable one awaits the day you too become a demon!!”

Lu Xingzhou said lightly, “Me? I was already a demon.”

Yinfeng Laoren and the others had just felt an incredibly terrifying demonic presence, almost world-destroying, but before they could react, it suddenly vanished. They all stared in stunned silence.

“Don’t look like that. It’s not that we’re so amazing; it’s that its main body is still sealed and can’t come out at all. We’re just bullying a demon,” Lu Xingzhou said, raising his Soul Banner and sweeping all the other high-ranking members of the Ice Prison Sect into it. His gaze swept over Yinfeng Laoren, clearly containing deep killing intent.

Yinfeng Laoren didn’t know who the true demonic cultivator was at that moment. They all shivered, silent and trembling.

Lu Xingzhou quickly fed himself a pill to suppress demonic intent and closed his eyes to meditate. He could feel his own malevolence… his mind became extremely violent the moment the Ice Demon descended. That desire for destruction, that sense of hatred, intensely filled his heart. For example, his slight aversion to the aura of Yinfeng Laoren and the others playing with corpses had now turned into extreme loathing; he wished he could obliterate them all…

But this was something he had prepared for. The Lotus Calamity Flame burned brightly in his Mingtang, specifically to counter such things. After all, Lu Xingzhou did not possess an ice attribute, so the Ice Demon couldn’t possess him; it was merely a demonic taint. With the Lotus Calamity Flame and the specially refined demon-suppressing pills, it could still be resolved. It was fortunate that he had made the little white-haired girl hide; if she had been here, something terrible would have happened.

Ye Tinglan had repeatedly warned him not to touch the Ice Demon, which was indeed prudent. But Lu Xingzhou felt that this borderline contact was not without benefit. He wanted Dugu Qingli to first approach and analyze the Ice Demon’s power from various tangential angles, so that in the future, she would at least have a direction and plan, and know what kind of decisive battle preparations needed to be made. After all, that was something the little white-haired girl eventually had to face; merely avoiding it was not the path to progress. It would be better if the personalities of the Ye sisters could be harmonized…

When his eyes opened again, the malevolence in Lu Xingzhou’s eyes had disappeared, replaced by a gentle warmth. “Why are you all surrounding me? Go check on the battle over there.”

The battle over there was much more difficult than expected. Jiang Yuan, no longer suppressing her bloodline and fully unleashed, plus a giant mecha, seemed capable of single-handedly challenging the still-recovering Xuan Nü. Adding Si Han, it should have been a crushing victory. However, when the fight actually began, it proved not to be so easy.

The Channü Xuangong, which even the naive version of Jiang Yuan could resist, should have been even easier for the cold version of Jiang Yuan, but the opposite was true. The colder Jiang Yuan became, the softer her attacks grew, and her peach blossom eyes filled with tears as she fought. Si Han was the same; even though his ice cultivation should have been a natural counter to such things, he, too, found his desires reignited as he fought, barely daring to look directly at Xuan Nü’s body and eyes during the battle.

How could they fight like this? If it weren’t for the unaffected mecha acting as the main force, both of them would likely have fallen there. Neither of them could understand why; logically, this shouldn’t be happening. Pei Qingyan’s strength was inferior to Si Han’s, and even when Xuan Nü was at her peak, she couldn’t make Pei Qingyan feel lust during battle. How could an injured Xuan Nü make even Si Han unable to resist?

Xuan Nü evaded the mecha’s attacks, giggling. “Can’t figure it out? Then don’t bother. Just obediently become this venerable one’s servant, and I will bestow upon you extreme bliss, oh…”

“Swoosh!” Jiang Yuan’s dagger slashed with incredible speed, but Xuan Nü easily caught her wrist. “Tsk tsk, such beautiful little hands. It’s a pity to hold a dagger; you should be holding something else…” As she spoke, her red lips neared Jiang Yuan’s neck. Jiang Yuan trembled, her eyes filled with even stronger killing intent, yet she was helpless. Yes, she looked even more like a disgraced heroine.

“Bang!” The mecha relentlessly delivered a punch, and Xuan Nü frowned, dodging. This thing was truly annoying; without it, she would have succeeded long ago.

Actually, there was no other reason; it was simply because she had also unleashed her full power. She was a Qianyuan, not a Huiyang. If Jiang Yuan could unseal her bloodline suppression, she could naturally unseal her cultivation suppression. People thought she only had Grade 1 strength at most when injured, but if she released the suppression, she still possessed Huiyang strength. However, under normal circumstances, Qianyuan cultivators in this world dared not unleash their cultivation. Jiang Yuan even refrained from exposing her bloodline, fearing it would attract the attention of pursuers. But when trapped in a desperate situation, who cared so much?

“You are also a stowaway, an earlier stowaway,” Jiang Yuan suddenly said. “Even this body of yours is not your true form; it’s still just an avatar. Your true self is in the ancient realm!”

“Little sister is quite clever,” Xuan Nü said, somewhat surprised, laughing. “It’s a pity we won’t have the chance to meet in the ancient realm.” Her jade palm struck Jiang Yuan’s shoulder. Jiang Yuan grunted, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Fortunately, the mecha had blocked some of the impact, deflecting the blow, otherwise that palm strike would have been fatal.

Si Han silently stabbed Xuan Nü’s back with a sword from behind, his sword trembling. He felt as if he was killing someone he loved, very reluctant. How could such a sword strike have any effect? Xuan Nü casually waved her hand, and Si Han’s sword dropped, his eyes becoming dazed.

Just then, a sword light pierced through the boundary membrane, heading straight for Xuan Nü’s face.

Dugu Qingli!

Xuan Nü glanced, amused. “You’ve been tainted by the Ice Demon’s intent, yet you still dare to come find me… Little Snow Maiden, do you know what it feels like for honeyed snow to melt into water?”