In parallel with their juniors' fights, the White Immortal sect leaders battled the sacrificial troops dispatched to cleave their necks. And while each Knife's death furthered Lord Soaring Crane's agenda, not only did the three remaining leaders not know about this, but even if they did, they'd still have to kill the Knives and face whatever consequences awaited them afterward. After all, Sacrificial Knives were not the type of opponents that one could capture just because they wanted to.
Suspicions regarding lineups and the manpower dispatched crossed the leaders' minds. But cornered by murderous strikes, they had no choice but to push their doubts out of the way to focus on those they faced.
Back to Zi Yao, the Yin Matriarch stood on the defensive, trading timid blows with Huo Jin, who pressured her with relentless attacks.
Unlike Lord Hanxing and Guang Fanghu, who faced the Sacrificial Knives united in their Muffled Scream of the Phantom God, Zi Yao didn't have to worry about the Knives, who watched idle as Huo Jin alone faced the Yin Matriarch. Yet, despite this advantage, it was Zi Yao who had it the worst.
"A'Yao, give up! Not only is my late-stage Nascent Soul cultivation base superior to any of the assassins dispatched by the Dark Moon cult, but the Withered Wood Ecstasy I've cultivated excels at twisting men and suppressing women. That said, even without that advantage, you wouldn't be by match!" Huo Jin's gleeful voice reverberated. Gray light flashed across the withered branches and eerie leaves sprouting all over his body, releasing waves of heretical yin energies that wreaked havoc throughout Zi Yao's body.
Still, the Yin Matriarch didn't flinch and, reeling across the air, she joined her hands in a rapid succession of mudras. Immense waves of Spiritual Qi rolled out of her dantian and, shaped by the hand signs, morphed into nine taiji seals that soared up the sky—congregating into a massive orb of crackling black and white lightning.
"Impressive. A'Yao, of all the cultivators I've had the pleasure to defile, you're the only one that succeeded in implementing such a high level of Daoist Magic in a combat environment. Your spell-casting abilities might not lose out to the scions of the noble spirit clans. Impressive! Oh so impressive! But A'Yao, the more you impress me, the greater my need to ravage you…becomes!" Huo Jin's maniacal laugh thundered. Though the gang leader had yet to lay his mortifying hands on Zi Yao, as far as he was concerned, the matriarch was his already.
Arguably the most corruptive and depraved heretical art of the Yanzhou Province, the Withered Wood Ecstasy could only be cultivated by mentally unstable individuals trapped between crushing suicidal thoughts and a singular thirst for life. After slaughtering his relatives for Zi Yao, only to have her exploit the crime to chase him out of the White Immortal sect, Huo Jin sank into this unique state. On the one hand, waves of regrets drowned him day and night, making him consider death every time he breathed. But on the other hand, the need for vengeance held him back, forcing him to shrug off the pain and seek ways to grow, grow fast and to such an extent that even the White Immortal sect's elite would be no match for him.
In exchange for this growth, the Withered Wood Ecstasy took many things. But it was without regret that Huo Jin surrendered it all. His mind, his soul, turning women into atrophied corpses and men into dry wood trunks. Across the centuries, he'd carried out so many atrocities that his own family's slaughter became an insignificant anecdote. And it was all for this moment…right now!
Arching his head back, Huo Jin broke into another peal of frenzied laughter. The coiling branches and leaves spread further, tearing through his robes and wrapping all except for his trunk. There, an obscene transformation took place. Huo Jin's flat chest expanded into ballooned breasts. The twisting faces of men and women alike flashed across these breasts. The heretic's lips took a purple hue, and his eyes became a full dark gray.
"Disgraceful." Before this horrifying scene, even Zi Yao struggled to maintain her composure. But aware that the tiniest mistake would result in her death, the Yin Matriarch restrained her disgust and shut her eyes close.
"A'Yao, surrender to your fate!" Vast Blood Energy erupted from Huo Jin's form, proof that he'd broken through to the first order of Blood Energy. His confidence went through the roofs, and his tentacle-like, wooden limbs whipped at Zi Yao.
The Greater Spirit Snake Sword flew from Zi Yao's side, becoming a titanoboa that raced to meet Huo Jin's strike. At the same time, black and white lightning bolts rained from Zi Yao's Daoist spell, taking away good chunks of the abomination's offensive power before its strike met the Greater Spirit Snake Sword.
In a deafening blast of horrendous energies, the two clashed. And despite Zi Yao's masterful combination of spell and sword, powered by its heretical energy sources, Huo Jin's casual whip strikes held a clear advantage, constantly pressuring Zi Yao, whose face grew listless.
Capitalizing on his momentum, Huo Jin sent the Greater Spirit Snake flying out of the way, vanished, and reappeared before Zi Yao.
"A'Yao, you're mine!"
Huo Jin's hair-raising voice thundered, making skins crawl from 10,000 miles away. The abomination's mouth opened wide, a flurry of vines poured out, piercing through Zi Yao's skin to lodge in her meridians!
Undisturbed, the Yin Matriarch didn't fight back. Heck, even as Huo Jin siphoned her qi, essence and blood, she didn't even bother to resist—if only for appearances sake. Her skin turned deathly pale and, certain of his victory, Huo Jin drooled as he pictured all the things he'd do to his soon to be victim. But as the abomination's thoughts ran wild, the blood he drained from Zi Yao flooded his inner system, spreading heavy doses of virulent poison throughout his half-wood, half-flesh body.
"UGH!"
Choking on the noxious blood, Huo Jin retracted his vines and flew back. His tentacled limbs stroked his throat, blood tears trickled down his face, but no matter how he rotated his cultivation base, the poison wouldn't weaken—worse, it only grew stronger.
"You…are not human?!" Full of rage and indignation, Huo Jin choked the words out. And even as they left his lips, the gang leader realized that, once again, the ice queen had cheated him clean!
The rollercoaster of emotions making a mess of his psyche had no incidence on Zi Yao. As if none of this had anything to do with her, the Yin Matriarch dusted her robe, readjusted her hair, and gazed into the distance.
'Yao'er, the main forces have arrived, and all spies have been dug out. Unlike what we expected, the vassal leaders have not made any significant moves. But they're still not cleared of suspicion. We can use this opportunity to have their affairs scrutinized by inspectors, restrain their powers, and remove them if need be.' With his assassins' floating heads forming a grotesque ring around him, Lord Hanxing sent Zi Yao a mental message.
'Understood. As we've agreed upon, the Purple Veil guard stands ready to execute your orders. First let the main force charge our gates before dispatching the troops. I will finish things here, then explain the situation to Guang Fanghu.'
'Ooof. As you like. But you better prepare some honeyed words, because he will not take it well.' The exchange ended here. The Greater Spirit Snake retreated to Zi Yao's side, coiling her form like a doting mother giving warm shelter to her babe.
"Me? Human? Odd question. Humans are unpredictable emotional wrecks. Why would I want to be one?
A'Jin, look at what humanity has done to you. The level of disgrace is mind-boggling." In a perfect show of nonchalant disrespect, Zi Yao said. But despite the "A'Jin" clearly being used in a derisive manner, Huo Jin's monstrous eyes flashed with hopes, and fighting off the poison tearing his insides out, the abomination raised its head at Zi Yao.
"How…did you call me?"
"Hahahaha! What? Does hearing me say A'Jin make your loins stir with wild expectations. Pitiful wretch. Do you even know who put the Withered Wood Ecstasy on your path?" For the first time since the Yin-Yang contest started, Zi Yao's lips curled into a smile. That smile, radiant and disarming, crippled Huo Jin's hatred—again making him yearn for that demoness' embrace.
But once the words reached his brain, and the implications settled within, Huo Jin's face twisted in grief. His limbs shook uncontrollably, but even as he trembled, the monstrous gang leader aimed his tentacled hand at his love—begging an answer.
"What? You thought some past expert buried that heinous skill for you to stumble on? No, it was I all along. And I have to say that, of all the pawns I've cultivated, you were by far the most productive. Huo Jin, if all my tools can follow in your footsteps, my White Immortal sect's hegemony is a foregone conclusion," Zi Yao said, putting the final nail in the coffin of Huo Jin's wretched heart.
"Zi Yaooooo!" As warm tears filled Huo Jin's eyes, the monstrous gang leader launched himself in a desperate charge, flailing his wooden tentacle limbs at the Yin Matriarch. The Greater Spirit Snake opened its maw, massive jets of sword force billowed out—tearing the Flowing Plucking gang leader into shreds!
