From among the corpses, a trembling hand reached out and grabbed Yaohua's ankle.
It was Gusu Yue.
He wiped the blood off his face and asked with some difficulty, "Yaohua, is that you?"
Yaohua was on the verge of tears of joy. "You're still alive? What on earth happened?"
Gusu Yue's head was already separated from his body at this moment. It was his headless torso that was holding onto her.
He said weakly, "First, put my head back on. I won't be able to hold on much longer..."
Yaohua quickly picked up his head and placed it on his torso.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then looked around warily. Lowering his voice, he said, "While you were in cultivation, Zhaojun bewitched Ming Ye and made him kill us all."
"What?" Yaohua couldn't believe it. "But wasn't he already sealed in the ore? And he only had to wait for me to leave seclusion to get out. Why would he collude with Zhaojun?!"
Could it be that all this was false? Had she not broken through yet and was still in a hallucination?
Gusu Yue held her hand tightly and gritted his teeth. "We let our guard down precisely because of this. But Ming Ye had been contaminated by Zhaojun's demonic qi when they were together before. Zhaojun took advantage of this and secretly bewitched him..."
Let's rewind the time to a few days ago.
Everyone was waiting for Yaohua to finish her seclusion. The days they spent together were quite harmonious.
Ziying and the others were strongly called upon by the villagers and went to help them.
Ming Ye was left alone at the bottom of the cliff. Before he knew it, he saw a stone rolling on its own.
Sensing something was amiss, he grabbed the stone and saw Zhaojun's panicked face. He couldn't help but fly into a rage. "You dared to break the seal and escape?!"
With that, he was about to strengthen the seal.
Zhaojun screamed in fright. "No! Lord Ming Ye, if you don't kill me, I'll tell you the real way to break through the ice field!"
Although Ming Ye no longer trusted him, his hand that was about to seal him stopped involuntarily. "You're trying to deceive me again?"
"I'm already sealed now. All I want is to live freely." Zhaojun said pitifully. "My lord, it must be very painful for Yaohua to cultivate. It's extremely difficult for her to break through to the Nirvana Realm. There's a high chance that she won't be able to withstand the spiritual power of the ancestor and will be wiped out."
Ming Ye snorted. "You even know such confidential matters?"
Zhaojun sighed. "I'm just a tiny stone now. I wouldn't dare to deceive you, my lord. I just want to remind you that her master is Chongming, the Immortal Lord of the Immortal Realm. He enforces the law most strictly, so he will definitely not take you out of the ice field."
When Ming Ye heard the name Chongming, he frowned in confusion and shrank back a bit. But he had been trapped in the ice field for too long and couldn't remember why he was afraid of Chongming.
His face looked a bit ugly. "You're trying to deceive me again? Precisely because her master is an Immortal Lord who enforces the law, he will be more lenient towards her."
Zhaojun sighed. "If you think so, you're completely wrong! She worships her master the most and will never go against his will. If you don't believe me, you can go and ask them."
Ming Ye hesitated for a moment but still strengthened the seal. After Ziying and the others came back, he asked them. Then, with a gloomy face, he picked up the stone again.
He asked with a dark face, "What other methods do you have?"
Suddenly, Zhaojun burst into ear - piercing laughter. "Fool! Even if I knew the method, I wouldn't tell you. You exterminated all the Heavenly Demon Clan and sealed me in this damned stone. As a member of the Heavenly Demon Royal Clan, I will never help you!"
Ming Ye's anger was completely ignited. "You have to tell me even if you don't want to!"
He released Zhaojun from the stone and tortured him in various ways.
But Zhaojun was uncharacteristically stubborn and gritted his teeth, refusing to speak.
This was the scene Gusu Yue saw when he happened to pass by the cliff.
Zhaojun was cut into pieces of flesh, and Ming Ye was holding his head ferociously. "Tell me. Will you tell me or not?!"
Gusu Yue immediately saw that the demonic qi that had originally been in Ming Ye's fingertips was growing wildly.
He thought it was bad and quickly said, "Don't be deceived by him!"
But Ming Ye was in a fit of rage and didn't want to listen to him at all. He struck a palm and immobilized him.
Gusu Yue couldn't move and could only watch anxiously as Zhaojun deceived Ming Ye.
He heard Zhaojun let out a painful scream and then say, "I, I'll tell you! As long as you use the blood of people in multiples of nine, you can weaken the power of the formation. The more people in multiples of nine, the greater the power of the formation will be weakened."
Ming Ye snorted and looked into the distance.
The first to be killed were the nine palace guards.
Ming Ye killed them expressionlessly and arranged their bodies according to what Zhaojun had said.
The pearl at the bottom of the cliff trembled and suddenly emitted a brilliant light, shining on the bodies of the dead.
Ming Ye murmured, "I can really feel the restriction of the formation loosening a bit... Great!"
He suddenly became excited, and a red tinge gradually climbed into his eyes. "I'm going to kill them all, kill them all!"
Gusu Yue wanted to move but was powerless.
Ziying and the others tried to stop him, but Ming Ye's mind had already been gradually eroded by the demonic qi and he wouldn't listen to anyone.
Ziying and the others' attempts to stop him enraged him, so he killed them all. If Gusu Yue hadn't had the foresight to preserve his soul with a secret technique, he probably wouldn't have survived either.
The death of the immortals made the pearl release more power, and the restraint on Ming Ye was greatly weakened.
Yaohua closed her eyes, and tears silently slid down from the corners of her eyes. "So, where is he now?"
There was a kind of indifference towards life and death hidden in Gusu Yue's calm tone. "Probably killing people."
At this moment, nine bloody corpses fell from the sky.
Ming Ye slowly appeared in the wind and snow. By now, his eyes were completely red and his body was covered in blood.
He tightly held a stone in his hand, and Zhaojun's laughter came from the stone. "Hahaha, Snow Demon, you didn't expect that the Heavenly Demon Clan has a way to revive the dead. As long as nine people don't die here, the formation will be gradually broken. You'll never be able to escape!"
These words further enraged Ming Ye.
He roared, "Why did you save Gusu Yue? Don't you really want to help me break the formation?"
Yaohua looked at his angry appearance and was also filled with anger. But before she could scold him, she saw him charging at her with his sword.
It was the sword full of spiritual power.
Fortunately, she had already received the inheritance, so she narrowly avoided it. Otherwise, she would have become a soul under this sword.
Gusu Yue reminded her, "He has been completely eroded by the demonic qi now."
Yaohua clenched her fists, and the True Fire of the Phoenix suddenly appeared behind her and rushed towards Ming Ye.
At this moment, through the tests in the hallucination, she had learned how to control the True Fire of the Phoenix. The true fire burned brightly and condensed into the shape of a phoenix. The suddenly rising momentum made Zhaojun and Gusu Yue tremble at the same time.
Gusu Yue frowned tightly. "This familiar and terrifying aura... How could she comprehend it so quickly..."
Zhaojun was shocked. "The Fire Phoenix Divine Skill can't be inherited. Why do you..."