Youyan Gate, one of the three great demon sects of the Eastern Wilderness.
Its disciples were infamous for their cruelty. They killed without hesitation, reveled in deceit, and acted with unrestrained brutality, leaving behind countless atrocities across the Eastern Wilderness. Rumor had it that even to join Youyan Gate as the lowest outer disciple, one had to slay hundreds just to step through its gates.
Pu Dingping was one of its elite disciples. The number of lives ended by his hands could no longer be counted, each death more gruesome than the last.
What he enjoyed most was not the kill itself, but the moment before it. He loved drawing out his victim's deepest fears, forcing forth their hatred, unwillingness, and desperate hunger for life. The more they trembled, the more they panicked, the more ecstatic and frenzied he became. That fear, that despair, fueled his strength.
As for orders from those above him? They meant nothing in his eyes.
All he cared about was devouring those emotions. If he could absorb Heavenly Underworld Six Yin Body, his power would become unmatched.
Here, in this place, he would reign supreme.
His towering figure loomed forward, and from behind him surged a mass of blood-red shadow, writhing with grotesque tendrils that twisted and clawed through the air.
"Ah! You're not Yu Zhu!" Tang Xiangyin cried out, trembling as she pointed at the monster behind him. "Yu Zhu… Yu Zhu was already devoured by you!"
What?!
Yao Ranran's calm face instantly shifted, her expression twisting in shock.
Pu Dingping caught her reaction and sneered, his cold, sinister eyes flashing with smug delight.
"Jie jie jie… too late for you to know. Die, all of you!"
Tremble. Fear.
The monstrous shadow behind him swelled, opening a gaping abyssal maw above their heads. The reek of blood and decay poured down, suffocating, as the two women stood small as grains of sand beneath its looming presence.
"My life is over!" Tang Xiangyin, at the brink of death, cast one final glance at the Tang ancestral hall. She gripped Yao Ranran's hand tightly and said, "Ru Meng, are you ready?"
"Ready for what?" Yao Ranran's tone was steady as she drew the Demon Staff.
Tang Xiangyin lifted her hand toward the ancestral tablets. Her jade finger pointed to the very top. "Monster, put my spirit tablet there!"
Yao Ranran almost stumbled at the absurdity of her words, then raised the staff in a sweeping strike.
"Blood-red fiend, return Yu Zhu's life to me!"
"Good, good… struggle! Resist!" Pu Dingping's lips curved into a twisted grin, spreading his arms wide as if to welcome her attack.
"So weak. So pitiful. Little female cultivators. Let me savor the last flames of your desperate will to live. Jie jie jie…"
"Spit out Yu Zhu!" Yao Ranran's mind surged with memories—
Grandma Zhang's kindness. Xiao Rong's mischief. Jiang Shengxiang's shameless flattery.
Then she saw it: the blood-soaked monstrosity, still wearing Yu Zhu's clothes and hairpin. Fury exploded within her chest like a tidal wave.
That fury hardened into raging resentment. The black-gold Demon Staff erupted with violent demonic qi. Golden light intertwined with black brilliance, surging like a storm.
Pu Dingping's blood-red eyes gleamed. He did not resist, only laughed. "Jie jie jie… the Heavenly Underworld Six Yin Body, and now such delicious rage. The Eastern Wilderness's secret realm truly rewards me well!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the span of a breath, Pu Dingping's body withered like a collapsing flower. The blood-shadow above him burst apart, raining crimson droplets across the hall. His twisted grin still hung on his lips, but a gaping hole had been smashed through his chest.
The staff did not relent. Another crushing blow shattered his limbs, blood pooling across the floor.
At the same time, in Youyan Gate's Hundred Puppets Chamber—
A wooden puppet exploded. Its torso ruptured, limbs broken.
Hao Yinqin flew in, forming seals with both hands, his expression grim.
"Five Substitutes, heed my command! The Xiao Ping puppet is destroyed. Offer yourselves to restore him!"
"We obey!" Five gray mists surged from the ground, forming into vague human shapes with blank expressions.
"Activate the Ghost Substitution!" Hao Yinqin and the five stood in a hexagonal formation around the broken puppet.
One gray ghost dissipated into mist, cloaking the chamber. The shattered puppet reformed within moments.
Back in the Tang ancestral hall—
Yao Ranran froze as she saw Pu Dingping's shattered limbs drift back together. His torn chest knitted closed before her very eyes.
Pu Dingping's gaze flickered in terror, then twisted into rage.
"Arrogant little cultivator! I was careless before. But now, you will not touch me again!"
He raised his hands to summon the blood-shadow once more—
But a massive black-gold staff, thicker than two men could encircle, came crashing down from the heavens. With merciless force, it smashed him into a pulp.
"Let's see you recover this time," Yao Ranran said coldly, gripping the staff as she stared at the mangled flesh.
The battle had lasted only a few breaths, yet to Tang Xiangyin, it felt like two lifetimes had passed.
One lifetime as a spirit tablet of the Tang ancestral hall.
One lifetime as the woman standing behind this indomitable cultivator.
Back in the Hundred Puppets Chamber—
The gray mist shielding the puppet exploded. Hao Yinqin wiped blood from his lips and barked, "Second Ghost, forward!"
"We obey!" Another ghost merged into the fragments, reconstituting Pu Dingping once more.
"Again?" Yao Ranran raised the staff. The pulverized Pu Dingping twitched, reforming into flesh. He opened his mouth to speak—
"I won't give you another chance—"
But his words drowned beneath the descending staff. Its black-gold radiance blazed with eerie power, smashing him into dust yet again.
Hao Yinqin's forehead dripped sweat. "Third Ghost, heed my command!"
"Yes!" A third ghost melded with the puppet, forming Pu Dingping once more.
"Escape. Escape!"
Pu Dingping's body had barely reformed when his face went pale. Only one thought filled his heart: "I must escape! If I stay, both I and my final ghost substitute will perish without a trace!"
He roared to the sky, igniting his life's essence blood, and bolted upward through the mist in a desperate attempt to flee.
But the Demon Staff was relentless. It descended once more, smashing his skull, shattering puppet and man together.
Hao Yinqin spat blood, voice hoarse. "Fourth and Fifth Ghosts, together!"
"We obey!" Two massive mists fused with the shattered puppet, restoring Pu Dingping's body once again.
"No… no more… stop tormenting me!" Pu Dingping, trembling, burned his lifespan itself. He stumbled into the air, his only thought survival.
"Spare me… spare me… Yu Zhu isn't dead—"
His desperate cry was cut short. The black-gold staff pierced clean through his head. His blood-colored pupils froze wide with terror as his life ended at last.