At this moment, one of Mo Su Zhēnjūn's disciples spoke up: "Zhēnjūn, the formation disk I buried at the entrance has broken. I cannot tell if any black-armored insects have entered."
"They probably won't dare enter. If they wanted to, they would have done so already, instead of waiting to be attacked," Mo Su Zhēnjūn replied calmly.
"Not necessarily," a Golden Core demoness retorted. "We were forced into this passage. If they find no escape, they might come in after us."
Jian Dan used her divine sense to scan. The entrance brightness confirmed the disk had indeed broken. Pigeon-egg-sized insects were tentatively entering the tunnel. Behind them, rubble blocked the original entrance but tiny larvae were squeezing through cracks, flapping their wings, and following the larger insects to fill the entryway.
Mo Su Zhēnjūn seemed to sense the danger but remained silent. He stepped to the spot Jian Dan had struck earlier and swung his Cold Moon Blade three times. Arching waves of blade qi tore a half-human-height gash in the stone wall.
Thick, pure streams of demonic qi gushed outward, leaving everyone stunned.
Without warning Jian Dan's Mó Yuè Zhǎn, under her feet, flared with light and carried her racing through the opening.
Mo Su Zhēnjūn, feeling the surge of pure demonic qi, sheathed his dagger and also stepped into the crevice. The others exchanged glances and followed, including two Daoist Golden Core cultivators who donned protective shields.
Once inside the silent tunnel, the first insect entered and immediately was enveloped by the demonic qi. At first the insect seemed to absorb the power, but in an instant its abdomen expanded and it exploded with a pop, reduced to mush.
One by one about a hundred surviving insects approached. The demonic qi seemed aware, coiling smoke tendrils that impaled them like tiny beads on a string. Each popped in sequence.
As the last insect entered, the crevice began to close. The qi coils snapped back, and the fissure sealed as though it had never existed.
At the rear, a wounded insect fluttered in, drawn by the remains of its kind. Wingbeat weak, it hesitated and retreated, finally slipping into a gap in the rubble.
Meanwhile, in the mortal realm at Yashan white sun border:
A sky-splitting thunderclap announced the sudden drop of a bloodied figure from the sky. A few moments later, the scent of blood attracted hungry predators. A jackal lunged, but a precise arrow pierced its hind leg.
The wounded jackal yelped and fled, dragging the arrow. Other animals retreated, but one black panther watched without retreating.
Hunter A Hu, bow in hand, flanked the bleeding figure. The wound was grave. He planned to bury the body swiftly, lest wild beasts feed.
He felt his ankle tug tight. Frightened, he spun around to see a pale yet beautiful woman clinging to him, whispering hoarsely, "Save me."
She collapsed unconscious. A Hu checked her breathing, then hoisted her over his shoulder, rushing toward a nearby hunting lodge.
The woman, later revealed as Du Yanran, felt relief before slipping into deep unconsciousness.
After being torn through dimensions and ejected from a space fissure, she believed mere moments had passed. But to the cultivators, ten years had gone by.
She was gravely injured—almost every meridian was torn. Though she was Foundation Establishment, she could not use spirit energy; her body was weaker than a mortal's. She had no choice but to call for help—beginning the long road to meridian recovery.
Inside the fissure, Jian Dan had followed into the breach and her Mó Yuè Zhǎn greedily absorbed the pure demonic qi. Her Heavenly Demon Art activated automatically. Demonic qi rushed through her meridians and into her dantian. The golden core on the yang side of her Taiji disk spun faster, gradually transforming into a demon core.
She closed her eyes and observed the surroundings. This space was pitch black. No one was in sight—even Mo Su Zhēnjūn had not followed her here.
Retrieving a luminous pearl from her ring, she illuminated a five-meter radius—only emptiness greeted her.
She attempted to connect to her spatial storage. The magnolia flower in her mind continued spinning, emitting gentle white light, but the ring remained inaccessible.
In the fissure, Mo Su Zhēnjūn and the Golden Core demoness could not find Jian Dan. Sensing no danger and finding this place to be an unexpected opportunity, Mo Su Zhēnjūn sat down and began refining his demonic qi using Ice Spread Technique—gradually advancing toward Mid-Nascent Soul stage.
Jian Dan realized she could not escape due to the rampant demonic qi. She sat cross-legged and focused on the Heavenly Demon Art.
As pure demonic qi flooded in, it circulated through her meridians, passed through the Taiji disk's yin side, and compressed. The golden core spun faster and transformed—she felt it took five years' cultivation condensed into a moment as the demon core completed.
She began practicing the Ice-Skin Jade-Bone Demon Body Art. Demonic qi swirled around her like butterflies drawn to nectar, soaking into her skin, vessels, and bones.
She sensed a dormant special energy stirring within her body. As she refined it, the hidden power within the demonic qi revealed itself, strengthening—transforming her from the inside out.