Daoism and Buddhism represented two different schools of thought. Although they weren’t in opposition with each other, they seemed all but mutually exclusive. The fact that a Daoist could emanate a Buddha-like aura was quite extraordinary to the gathered crowd.

Yun Ruoyan stared warily at the man, preparing to counterattack at any moment. If she were truly about to lose, then she would reveal the Feilai Blade and damn the consequences.

The aura from the spiritual master’s prayer beads grew stronger and stronger. Yun Ruoyan didn’t know what he was planning, and she couldn’t help but become more anxious. Her five fingers curled slightly as she began mobilizing her spiritual energy reserves. But as soon as she tried to do so, her right cheek erupted in pain, as if someone were repeatedly stabbing her with a knife.

“Agh!” Yun Ruoyan couldn’t help but shout. The sensation of pain grew more and more intense: it was a dull knife, repeatedly stabbing into her, pulling at her skin…

“Arghh!” Yun Ruoyan shouted once more, clutching her cheek with her face, as she curled up in pain.

The crowd, momentarily bedazzled by the spiritual master’s aura, now turned curiously to Yun Ruoyan because of her sudden shouts and expression of pain.

“Ruoyan, what’s going on?” the Yun matriarch began.

“The master’s demon-hunting arts must have taken effect!” Madam An yelled out. “Xiao Lan, get the Yun matriarch away from that demonspawn! She’s about to reveal her true appearance!”

The crowd began to murmur once more.

“Could the second miss of the Yun family really be a demon?!”

“None of us are reacting to this aura, except for her…”

Yun Ruoyan was in such pain that she was just barely avoiding the temptation to knock her head against the ground. She had curled up into a little ball, shaking and trembling against the ground. In her mind, she tried calling out to Qiuqiu. If this were to continue, she would be in such pain that she could neither think nor reach out to it.

“Mistress, you’ve been poisoned!” Qiuqiu was as anxious as she was. Being sealed, however, it could provide her with no physical support. Even if it could leave the pocket dimension, with its current appearance and ability, it would be in as much danger as she was.

“I’ve… been poisoned?” Yun Ruoyan frowned. When had that happened?!

“Mistress, the poison was in your face, and now it’s spreading throughout your body!”

“Damn it!” Yun Ruoyan cursed, finally realizing the origin of the poison. “That damned Rong Yuehong—she intended to drag me to my death!”

On Yun Ruoyan’s right cheek, by her birthmark, was a scratch from Rong Yuehong’s fingernails. That girl had been out for her life from the very beginning. She had painted poison on her fingernails, and any little scratch would be Yun Ruoyan’s death sentence.

In some lapse of judgment, Yun Ruoyan had failed to account for this possibility when Rong Yuehong had asked for her to carry her into the Yun manor. It was such an unassuming request that there had to have been a trick behind it!

Ever since her rebirth, Yun Ruoyan had been careful and prepared for every eventuality—but now, not only had she gotten poisoned, it had taken effect at the worst possible moment. At this point, she couldn’t use her spiritual energy at all, let alone summon the Feilai Blade. Could she only sit back and watch Madam An’s plans unfold?

“Look, she

is

a demon!” Madam An suddenly shouted.

The crowd’s gaze had already been drawn to Yun Ruoyan’s body. Out of thin air, they saw nine long fox tails sprouting out of her back. The tails were white and fluffy, each about a foot long. They swayed in the air, making Yun Ruoyan look as if she was about to attack the nearby guests.

“Ah! Ruoyan…” The Yun matriarch looked at the sudden tails in astonishment, and Yun Lan similarly opened his eyes wide in shock.

“Master, look, Yun Ruoyan’s truly a nine-tailed fox demon!” Madam An called out again. She was both anxious and excited—the scene in front of her was unbelievably real! Even if the spiritual master had told her that it was only an illusion beforehand, she still couldn’t believe that the sight in front of her could be falsified.

Yun Lan immediately reacted, grabbing hold of the Yun matriarch and tasking Xiao Lan with bringing her to a safe location. As she was brought away, the Yun matriarch continued looking at Yun Ruoyan, doubt creeping into her eyes.

“The demon, the demon’s been revealed!”

Some of the guests were scholarly officials, and quite a number were women and children. When they saw this unbelievable sight, they turned pale and began to swarm toward the entrance of the hall in fright. Those who had a considerable level of cultivation chose to stay behind, encircling Yun Ruoyan and the spiritual master as they watched on.

The imperial guards quickly escorted Li Qianxiao and Li Qianyuan to a corner of the great hall.

“She’s actually a demon?!” Li Qianxiao’s eyes were almost popping out of his head. On the other hand, Li Qianyuan only narrowed his eyes, not saying a word.

“Father, Sister Ruoyan must have been killed by this demon a long time ago.”

“Let’s kill this demon to get revenge for her!”

Yun Ruoyao and Yun Ruoyu stood by their father’s side and said in unison. Yi Qianying had long since vanished, as had most of the other scions from the Yun family.

“Daoist, what can we do about this demon?” Yun Lan looked at the spiritual master, sighing.

“Allow me to handle the matter. Stay away as I subjugate the demon,” the spiritual master hurriedly replied, afraid that the crowd would harm Yun Ruoyan. He was also rather curious as to why Yun Ruoyan was screaming in pain: his illusions didn’t inflict pain, and all he wanted to do was to misdirect the crowd’s attention in order to sneak Yun Ruoyan away without hurting her.

However, she looked as though she had consumed some grave poison.

Madam An must have distrusted me and made a move beforehand! 

The spiritual master turned and glared fiercely at Madam An, who didn’t understand his sudden malice. When she saw him turn to her instead of to Yun Ruoyan, she quickly urged, “Spiritual Master, what are you waiting for? Please, take her away!”

If Yun Ruoyan were to die, then the spiritual master would have done all this for nothing. Without any further hesitation, he threw his prayer beads at her. Because Yun Ruoyan had been poisoned, her right cheek began to swell up once again. Consumed by the pain, she had lost all rationality and was trying to scratch the wound. Luckily, the prayer beads entrapped her before she could begin hurting herself in earnest.

Even so, Yun Ruoyan’s face had begun to bleed, and purplish-red blood spilled down her finger and into the

qilin 

beads on her bracelet.

Meanwhile, Li Mo’s flaming steed had arrived by the border of the capital, and they could see the imposing eastern gates of the capital from a distance.

“Slaughtering King, we’re here!” one of Li Mo’s subordinates called out as he pointed ahead of them. He was bewildered by his master’s actions: wasn’t it just a simple banquet? Why was their master so anxious to make it to the Yun manor on time, so much so that he ignored his wounds and was even willing to exacerbate them?

Li Mo had just begun to relax when a sudden pain shot up a finger on his right hand, and his forehead scrunched up. The

qilin 

beads contained three drops of Li Mo’s blood, and the only reason that his finger had begun to hurt must be because the person wearing the beads was in danger.

The capital’s gates were right ahead of him. Beside him, his subordinates were getting ready to enter when their master suddenly soared up into the skies as he rushed in the direction of the Yun manor.

“Slaughtering King!”

“Find me at the Yun manor,” Li Mo’s voice rang out in his mind.

The group of five or six black-clad men all raised their heads as their master disappeared from view. One of them asked, “Su Bei, where’s he gone now?”

“To the Yun manor!” Su Bei continued galloping toward the capital gates.

Back in the Yun manor, Yun Ruoyan, who had been entrapped in the prayer beads, was in such pain that she was smashing her head against the ground.

This poison was unusually nasty: despite the head-splitting pain, Yun Ruoyan wasn’t close to fainting from her agony at all. Rather, the pain seemed to sharpen her mind, so that she could feel each surge ever more strongly.

In the pocket dimension, Qiuqiu was so flustered that it had almost begun rolling on the ground as well. Yun Ruoyan wasn’t conscious enough to maintain her connection with it, but it was still able to sense the pain that agonized her.

“Calm down, demon!” The spiritual master plucked a gourd from his waist, walked to Yun Ruoyan’s side, and poured it over her body. Then, the crowd saw Yun Ruoyan transform completely into a nine-tailed arctic fox, lying unmoving on the ground.

The spiritual master picked it up and hurriedly began walking out. The medicinal wine that he’d poured on her would only be able to resist the poison for a little while, and he had to find an antidote rapidly.

If a human furnace were to die in front of him just like that, despite all his efforts, he would surely be so vexed that he’d spit out blood!

“Daoist,” Madam An’s voice interrupted his thoughts, and her body blocked his path. “Daoist, please explain—”

Madam An wanted the Daoist to describe how he’d detected that Yun Ruoyan was a demon in the first place, as well as why he’d chosen to strike at this particular time. Madam An had worked out the specifics with him beforehand, and if he were to leave just like that, it would surely sow doubt in Yun Lan and the Yun matriarch’s minds.

But before Madam An could finish, the spiritual master had already knocked Madam An aside. He thundered, “Who told you to poison her?! If she dies, I won’t spare you!”

“Daoist, what do you mean?” Yun Lan blocked his way upon seeing the spiritual master suddenly strike at Madam An before shouting something about poisoning.

“All of you, move aside!” The poison was insidiously worming its way through Yun Ruoyan’s body. By this time, the spiritual master had lost all his patience.

As the spiritual master clutched the fox in his hands even more tightly, Yun Lan detected something amiss. “Daoist, if you drop the fox in your hands, I won’t forbid you from leaving.”

“Official Yun, do you intend on picking a fight with me?!”

Yun Lan was already preparing for a big fight. Having seen the spiritual master in action, he knew that his opponent would be strong indeed, and he didn’t hesitate to mobilize his entire reserve of energy.

But the spiritual master only snorted. “You’ll have your fight, but not today!” Under the crowd’s surprised gaze, he morphed into a cloud of black smoke and rushed by Yun Lan’s side.

Yun Lan hesitated for a moment, and by the time he regained his senses and ran out to the courtyard, the black smoke had already risen into the air. Just as the black smoke was about to vanish entirely, a black shadow appeared from the horizon, and an ice-cold voice echoed from the heavens. “You dare snatch my possession?!”

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