With each step Jian Dan took, blooming flames of Manjushahua ignited beneath her feet, burning the fallen insect corpses into ash. Every black-armored insect that tried to flee toward the cave entrance was eliminated by her hand. Now, she had entered the cave.
The other Golden Core cultivators, still locked in fierce battle against the black-armored insects, all shifted their focus briefly to glance at her. This demon cultivator had dealt with every fleeing insect alone. Her strength clearly could not be underestimated.
Of course, such wide-range techniques consumed enormous amounts of demonic qi. In order to preserve her dramatic entrance, Jian Dan had one hand hidden in her sleeve, gripping a mid-grade spirit stone to rapidly replenish what she had spent.
Within her dantian, the yin-yang Taiji disc churned. On its dark side, demonic qi surged. In its center, the tiny Nascent Soul version of Jian Dan opened her eyes, glanced at the half-demon core opposite her, and accelerated the conversion of spiritual energy.
The situation inside the cave was far from optimistic. Though the cultivators had managed to hold back a portion of the insect larvae, most of the mother insects were converging on Mo Su Zhēnjūn, clearly attempting to take him as a new host.
Given that he had advanced to Nascent Soul so quickly, Mo Su Zhēnjūn's strength was naturally formidable. At this moment, he called out directly to Jian Dan:
"Daoyou, I need your help destroying the bodies of these Nascent Soul cultivators. Otherwise, they'll continue serving as vessels for the mother insects."
Jian Dan nodded in understanding. After all, no one who had reached the Nascent Soul realm would ever want to be turned into a breeding container for insects. It was a humiliation worse than death.
As Jian Dan advanced, more and more insects came to attack her, slowing her progress. On the other side, the pressure on Mo Su Zhēnjūn eased slightly. He ordered the remaining cultivators under his command to retreat to the outside, while he raised his blade and began slashing at the nine surrounding pillars. The Nascent Soul cultivators bound to those pillars showed no reaction as their restraints were severed, and their limp bodies dropped one by one into the central pool.
Jian Dan, standing at the center of a storm of flame and blade, continued her slaughter. Her Mó Yuè Zhǎn flashed and danced, insect corpses piling up and feeding the fire beneath her feet.
Noticing Mo Su Zhēnjūn's actions, Jian Dan summoned one of her Mó Yuè Zhǎn clones and infused it with red flame, sending it toward one of the unmoving Nascent Soul cultivators.
The blade sliced through flesh, and from within poured a wave of thumb-sized black-armored insects. These were not larvae—they were full mother insects. The cultivator's body disintegrated in moments, reduced to gray ash.
Jian Dan's and Mo Su Zhēnjūn's eyes both flashed coldly. The enemy had used cultivators' bodies as fertilizer to raise mother insects, which would then produce more larvae to infect others. The entire cycle was a grotesque form of parasitic cultivation.
Having confirmed that there was no longer any hope of saving the remaining Nascent Soul cultivators, the two unleashed their full strength. Blade shadows and spinning crescent weapons interwove, cleaving through the swarm.
Outside the cave, the remaining Golden Core cultivators obeyed Mo Su Zhēnjūn's command, setting up a containment formation at the entrance to ensure none of the creatures inside would escape.
Mo Su Zhēnjūn took charge of destroying the infected Nascent Soul bodies, while Jian Dan followed up with fire, incinerating the corpses in an instant.
After half an hour, every one of the hosts had been destroyed, and the once-deafening insect cries faded into silence.
Mo Su Zhēnjūn exchanged a glance with Jian Dan. She swept the entire cave with her spiritual sense once more. Finding nothing amiss, she gave him a nod of confirmation.
Mo Su Zhēnjūn withdrew his Hán Yuè Rèn. Jian Dan's Mó Yuè Zhǎn, however, continued to circle her, drifting slowly like a guardian spirit. She made no move to return it to her dantian.
At the cave entrance, the cultivators who had maintained the formation finally breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing Mo Su Zhēnjūn approach, they prepared to lift the formation, but he raised his hand and stopped them.
Jian Dan raised her left hand and summoned the black-and-red insect she had extracted earlier from the beast cultivator's body. The Manjushahua flame blossom wrapped around it and carried it toward the pool at the center of the cave.
The insect, which had previously remained still, now began frantically thrashing its six legs, struggling against the flame's grip.
Jian Dan narrowed her eyes. Her left hand clenched into a fist. In that moment, the trapped insect combusted within the flame, erupting in a burst of vivid light like a firework. Its remains scattered into the pool below.
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In here I want to use Hán Yuè Rèn, not Cold Moon Blade for Mo Su weapon. If I am not mistaken, "Yuè", is one of the 'signature' of Heavenly Demon Palace.