Seeing this, the female disciple's eyes widened in horror.
"She's… she's absorbing me—?!"
Her voice broke.
Her body rapidly shriveled, her once fair skin clinging tightly to bone.
Her scream barely escaped before her throat dried out completely.
The red mist surged in one final wave—
…And silence returned.
Where once stood a beautiful, living woman—
Now only a dried husk remained.
The worm slowly crawled out from Yao Xin's neck, now smaller, darker… and obedient.
It slithered along her collarbone and vanished beneath the skin.
For a long moment—
Nothing moved.
Then—
A sharp inhale cut through the stillness.
"Haaah...!"
Yao Xin's chest rose violently.
Her eyes snapped open.
They were unfocused at first as fragments of memory flooded in.
Golden blades.
Overwhelming force.
....The sensation of death.
Her brows knitted slightly as she slowly sat up.
Pain coursed through her meridians and her head, as if there were a needle stuck in her brain.
