The aura of death was like an icy spider web, tightly wrapping every inch of Tang Xiaoqi's skin. He rolled and dodged with difficulty under father Xu Zhan's frantic sword shadows. Every movement ripped through torn-flesh agony. Fresh wounds continuously seeped dark red blood corroded by demonic energy. Vision darkened from blood loss and pain. His ears held only the mournful whistle of the demonic sword cutting air and his own rough breathing like a bellows.
He could not counterattack, could only dodge. That brief flash of pain and struggle deep in those pitch-black eyes became his only belief supporting him in this abyss, refusing to give up. He stared at his father's face, trying to catch again that trace of Xu Zhan in that complete demonic energy coverage.
However, the Demon's control was evidently stronger. Xu Zhan's attacks grew faster and more vicious. The demonic sword was like a bone-burrowing maggot, sealing all his possible escape spaces. A sideways roll dodging a thrust, yet another sword shadow silently attacked his heart! Angle cunning, timing ruthless. Xiao Qi had exhausted his previous strength, new strength not yet arrived. He was about to be pierced through the heart!
Despair, like an icy abyss, opened its mouth once more.
At this critical moment--
Hum!
A slight, yet seemingly sounding directly in the soul's depths, vibration came from Xiao Qi's chest!
It was that jade pendant! That jade pendant that had accompanied him since the night Xu Lan Mountain Manor was destroyed, carrying his identity mystery and Purification Origin!
It was no longer lukewarm but scalding! On its surface touching his skin, those originally plain, obscure patterns were now like living things, flowing on their own, emanating a soft yet carrying boundless sorrow and calling-meaning blue-green light!
That light was not dazzling, even somewhat dim, yet carried a strange power that penetrated all falsehood, reached source. It seemed to have its own consciousness, automatically leaving Xiao Qi's chest, floating up. Soft light beams like a bridge spanning time and space, precisely, irresistibly shining toward Xu Zhan raising his sword to strike!
The blue-green light, upon touching him, did not bring any offensive damage.
Yet abnormality occurred!
The violently falling demonic sword, at less than three cun from Xiao Qi's back heart, suddenly froze! The screaming souls on the blade seemed pressed mute, twisted faces frozen.
Xu Zhan's forward-moving form was also bound by invisible chains, abruptly stopping in mid-air!
His expression of cold numbness, for the first time, violently changed! Muscles twisted, lips silently opened and closed, seeming to want to say something yet making no sound. Those pitch-black like demonic abyss eyes were now like unleashing stormy waves!
Dense blackness writhed and receded intensely. A trace of human emotion, extreme pain and confusion, like a drowning person finally breaking the water surface, struggled to emerge! Those eyes were no longer pure killing machines but full of chaos, struggle, and a kind of... as if having slept too long, suddenly awakened, heart-wrenching pain!
His body began to tremble uncontrollably. The demonic energy around him became extremely unstable, sometimes surging, sometimes contracting, emitting chaotic crackling sounds. That demonic sword also began flickering, as if about to collapse at any moment.
Er... ah...!
A suppressed extreme, as if squeezed from the soul's deepest depths, mixed with pain and confusion low growl, finally came intermittently from Xu Zhan's throat.
He looked at that floating jade pendant emanating sorrowful blue-green light. The confusion in his eyes intensified. That jade pendant's glow seemed to arouse certain memory fragments in his soul, forcibly sealed and obliterated by demonic energy.
Was it the moonlight at Xu Lan Mountain Manor? His wife's gentle smile? His infant child's babbling face? Or... the roaring flames and endless despair of that night of destruction?
Countless broken images collided madly in his demonic-corrupted consciousness, bringing soul agony far exceeding physical pain!
Fa...ther... Xiao Qi lay on the ground, watching his father's intense struggle and pain, heart like being cut by knives. He forcefully endured the agony, reaching toward the jade pendant, trying to guide that sorrowful blue-green light, calling that soul drowned by demonic energy, Wake up... please... wake up...
The jade pendant seemed to sense his call. Its light became softer. That sorrowful calling meaning intensified, like the most intimate family member calling a lost wanderer home.
Xu Zhan's body trembled even more intensely. He suddenly clutched his head, letting out wail like a wounded beast. Demonic energy madly conflicted within him, trying to re-suppress the awakening will. His movements became completely chaotic--sometimes stumbling forward, sometimes retreating, sometimes swinging wild punches at air, making surrounding ruins scatter stones everywhere.
That demonic sword finally completely collapsed, becoming wisps of black smoke.
The father-son killing temporarily stopped. Instead, a more dangerous, consciousness versus demonic energy struggle was occurring within Xu Zhan!
The jade pendant floated in the air, continuously emanating sorrowful yet soft light, like a lighthouse in darkness, firmly guiding that struggling soul.
Xiao Qi closely watched his father, heart full of tension and anticipation. He did not know how long this jade pendant's abnormality would last, whether his father could truly break the Demon's control. But this was undoubtedly a chance, a chance to break this cruel tragedy!
However, high in the sky, the Demon's shadow evidently also sensed the abnormality below.
Hmph! Deathbed struggle!
A cold snort like thunder exploding. That terrifying pressure covering battlefield suddenly intensified severalfold! An even purer, more domineering demonic will, like an invisible hammer, smashed toward Xu Zhan who was fighting his own demonic energy, while also trying to interfere with and extinguish thatannoying blue-green light emanating jade pendant!
Xu Zhan's just-cleared eyes instantly covered again by dense blackness. The head-clutching motion became rigid. The demonic energy around him, like receiving a stimulant, began stabilizing and condensing again!
The jade pendant's light, under the Demon's strengthened pressure, also began flickering, like a dying candle.
The awakening process was interrupted!
The crisis was not resolved, but became more urgent due to the Demon's direct intervention!