Chapter 97: Demon who kill Qing yan sect

I took a deliberate step forward, completely closing the small distance between us. Before she could react or slide her exposed leg back into the safety of the red silk slit, I reached out and firmly gripped her narrow waist, pulling her flush against my chest.

“Ah!”

Qing Yan gasped, her hands instinctively coming up to plant themselves against my shoulders. The sudden, intense contact of my solid, muscular pressing right against her full chest sent a visible jolt through her frame. I leaned my face down, my lips moving closer to hers, fully intending to steal another taste of that sweet nectar.

“W-Wait! What do you think you are doing, you shameless rogue?!” Qing Yan squeaked, her face exploding into a angry shade of pink.

With a sudden burst of her newly awakened strength, she dug her palms into my chest and forcefully pushed me away. Her chest heaved rapidly as she adjusted her ruffled vermilion robes, her eyes flashing with a mix of intense shyness, irritation, and absolute fury. “We are in the middle of a dangerous forest! The sun is completely up, and you… you are still thinking about that?! Have you no discipline as a cultivator?!”

“Hey, how can you blame me?” I grinned, completely unbothered by her reaction as I dusted off my new white and blue robes. “A beautiful woman stands in front of me looking like a goddess, and I’m supposed to just look at the scenery? That’s asking too much from a man.”

“Be quiet!” she snapped, her teeth chattering slightly from pure embarrassment as she turned her head away to hide her blushing cheeks. “You are utterly infuriating. If you do not start taking our situation seriously, I will personally roast you until there is nothing left but your arrogant smirk!”

“Alright, alright, let’s get down to business then,” I chuckled, stepping back to give her some breathing room. I gestured toward the sleek, obsidian-silver band she was still clutching in her hand. “Before we move any further, we need to secure your gear. Take the spatial ring I gave you. Prick your finger and drop a single drop of your blood onto the crest. That will bind the Cosmic Void Ring directly to your soul circuit.”

Qing Yan frowned slightly, her anger instantly giving way to the serious mindset of a high-tier cultivator. She looked down at the black polished ring, feeling the faint, incredibly dense space-time restrictions humming within it. “A space-expansion artifact of this tier… even the grand elders of my old sect would fight over it. You truly are full of mysteries, Barry.”

Without hesitation, she nipped the tip of her index finger with her sharp thumbnail. A tiny bead of pristine,red blood emerged, pulsing with the faint, golden-red sparks of her fully restored core. She pressed her finger against the obsidian metal.

The ring instantly drank the blood, vibrating violently as a violet light erupted from the crest. The spatial restrictions shattered, instantly mapping themselves onto her spiritual consciousness. Qing Yan gasped softly, her eyes widening as she felt the sheer, limitless void now linked to her mind. “This… the internal space is massive! I can store an entire mountain range inside this thing!”

“Told you it was high-quality,” I said, leaning casually against a nearby boulder. “Now, if the sky falls down or if my internal energy fluctuates, we won’t lose our supplies. Everything you need is safely tied to your soul.”

“Good,” she murmured, a small, genuine smile finally breaking through her shy demeanor. She slipped the ring securely onto her finger, the gold earrings dangling from her ears catching the bright morning sunlight as she tilted her head. “At least you are useful for something other than teasin me.”

“Ouch. Your words cut deeper than a demon’s blade,” I joked, earning myself another glare from her.

Our lighthearted banter didn’t last long. The moment we rounded the northern edge of the massive stone mountain to find the main path leading out of the Necis Forest, the atmosphere drastically shifted. The cheerful, golden sunlight suddenly felt cold, and the air turned thick with a suffocating stench that I recognized all too well.

The stench of high-tier demonic corruption.

I held up a hand, my playful expression instantly vanishing as my senses went on high alert. The breakthrough to the Meridian Stage had pushed my perception to a terrifying degree; I could hear the faint, scraping sound of armor and low, guttural snarls over a mile away.

“We have company,” I whispered, pulling Qing Yan down behind a dense thicket of overgrown brush.

We peeked through the leaves, and my eyes narrowed. Blocking the entire northern mountain pass was a fortified encampment. Dozens of armored monsters patrolled the perimeter, but standing right in the center of the camp was a towering figure. He stood nearly nine feet tall, clad in jagged, blood-red platemail, brandishing a massive, two-handed executioner’s axe that bled a smoky vapor.

The Demon Lord’s Vanguard Scout. A high-level commander sent to investigate the massive explosion of golden-violet energy that had cleared the forest’s dark aura during our night in the cave.

The moment Qing Yan’s eyes locked onto the vanguard leader, the air around her violently fluctuated. The fragile, blushing girl from moments ago completely disappeared, replaced by a furious, lethal peak-level expert. Her small, delicate hands clenched into tight fists, and a terrifying, concentrated wave of pure fire erupted across her hands, the sheer heat turning the green grass beneath her to black ash in a split second.

“It’s them…” she hissed, her voice vibrating with a terrifying hatred that made her entire frame tremble. “That armor… they belong to the very vanguard unit that slaughtered my sect and dragged my people away into cages. They are the ones who turned us into slaves.”

“Qing Yan, calm your aura,” I commanded softly, placing a steady, grounding hand on her shoulder. My golden Meridian energy flowed gently into her, masking her explosive heat before the scouts could detect the sudden spike in temperature. “If you charge in blind, the entire camp will swarm us.”

“I don’t care!” she whispered, her eyes burning with a manic, furious crimson flame as she looked at me, her teeth grinding together. “They treated us like animals, Barry! They broke my friends, starved my elders, and used sealing cuffs to turn my pride into dirt! Now that my core is at the Genesis Peak, I will burn every single one of them to absolute cinders!”

I looked at the furious, vengeful woman beside me, then glanced back at the armed vanguard camp blocking our path to freedom. A slow, dangerous smile spread across my lips as my own golden energy began to hum beneath my skin.

“Well,” I murmured, my voice dropping into a dark, confident tone. “If they’re the ones who made you suffer… then I guess it’s time to show them exactly what happens when you make my woman angry. Let’s go introduce ourselves.”