Chapter 75

Chapter 75: Not Giving Up

The instant Bai Meng Jin saw him, her heart dropped.

“He’s completely devilized,” she said.

There was only a shell left. Whatever man had once tended this shop was gone. His body was nothing but a host.

The Devil Creature’s mouth twisted into a smile, as if it were still learning how to wear a human face. It lifted a hand.

The arm stretched—flesh turning into branch, branch turning into flesh—thick with devil qi as it whipped down hard.

“Dodge!” Ying Shao Guang shouted.

He and Bai Li Xu split, one to the left, one to the right.

Ying Shao Guang’s first instinct was to look back for Bai Meng Jin—

He saw a branch coil toward the Yin-Yang Umbrella, trying to bind it.

“Junior Sister Bai!”

His face changed. He lunged—

A ripping sound tore behind him. Another branch burst from the Devil Creature’s back and lashed toward him like a spear.

Ying Shao Guang cursed and retreated, forced to dodge instead of helping.

Bai Li Xu summoned his flying sword, sword light cutting through leaves and tendrils in sharp arcs. The courtyard rang with impacts—wood striking stone, talismans flaring, sword qi snapping through air.

And then the Devil Creature made a strangled sound.

The devil qi on one of its branches dispersed abruptly. The branch withered in an instant, crumbling like burned paper.

Ying Shao Guang’s eyes flicked over—

Bai Meng Jin stood steady, unscathed. She drew the Yin-Yang Umbrella back as if she were simply adjusting its weight, then drove the tip into another branch.

“Hiss.”

The branch seemed to ignite from within. It withered, blackened, and fell limp.

From start to finish, her movements were smooth and unhurried. The Devil Creature didn’t touch her even once.

Ying Shao Guang’s mind flashed backward—to the Myriad Flowers Formation, to the final spirit stone that had closed the exit.

He had assumed Ling Bu Fei had been shameless enough to throw it.

Now that he thought about it, that pale hand had been too small, too slender.

It had been hers.

So it was her.

That soft-looking, harmless Junior Sister Bai—she had spotted the formation core cleanly, provoked him into charging ahead, then sealed him inside with a spirit stone like a door slamming in his face.

“Senior Brother Ying!” Bai Li Xu barked. “Focus. This devil isn’t easy.”

Ying Shao Guang dragged his attention back with effort, forcing himself into the fight again. He would settle accounts after. After they lived.

The Devil Creature shrieked, then opened its mouth wide and spat out a flower.

It drifted in the air, pale and eerie, making the skin crawl for no reason at all.

A fragrance flooded their noses.

Bai Li Xu’s sword light slowed for a single beat.

A branch caught him and slammed him into the ground.

“It’s poisonous!” Bai Meng Jin snapped.

She flashed forward. The branch whipped again, and she lifted the umbrella to block, landing lightly with the force.

Ying Shao Guang and Bai Li Xu were both battle-hardened. They swallowed antidote pills without hesitation.

Ying Shao Guang couldn’t help blurting, “Why are you fine?”

Bai Meng Jin glanced over, almost amused. “I have a Jade-Tempered Body. Haven’t you heard of it?”

Ying Shao Guang choked on his next breath.

Of course. A physique so rare it made people curse at the heavens.

She was practically the Heavenly Dao’s favored daughter.

Branches snapped and regrew. The Devil Creature sucked in and swallowed a devilized plant nearby. New branches sprouted, thicker than before.

“This can’t go on,” Ying Shao Guang said, fending off lashes with his fan. His brows furrowed. “All the plants in this courtyard are its food. That means it can keep growing forever.”

Bai Meng Jin’s gaze stayed locked on its mouth. “It isn’t endless. Destroy the flower in its mouth. Without it, it can’t absorb devil qi properly.”

Ying Shao Guang’s irritation spiked. “Easy for you to say. It has so many branches—how are we supposed to get close?”

“We can.”

Bai Meng Jin opened the Yin-Yang Umbrella fully.

It was the first time Ying Shao Guang had seen it open.

The canopy above was white as new snow. The underside was black as ink. The handle looked like pale bone. Resting on her shoulder, it was as elegant as a noble lady in a painting—beautiful, chilling, and wrong.

Bai Meng Jin bared her teeth in a grin. “You two better hold on.”

The umbrella began to spin.

Devil qi twisted, drawn into the motion, whipping into a vortex around her. The air thickened. The devil qi condensed until it looked almost tangible.

Inside the vortex, the Devil Creature screamed and went mad.

Branches burst from every part of its body.

Rip—rip—rip.

Its clothing tore and stretched as the host body swelled with forced growth.

Ying Shao Guang’s curse was ripped away by the lashes. He had no spare breath left to yell at Bai Meng Jin. He could only defend, fan blazing with gold light as he forced branches back again and again.

Bai Li Xu didn’t speak. He ran a finger across his sword. Blood beaded and flashed, and in an instant multiple sword lights formed, slashing through the storm of branches.

At the same time, devil qi rose from Bai Meng Jin’s body, wrapping her completely.

The Devil Creature didn’t attack her at all.

When that devil qi thickened into something like liquid, Bai Meng Jin leapt.

Her right hand gripped the bone handle. She yanked hard.

A blade edge, white as snow, slid free—hidden within the umbrella.

She drove it straight into the orchid in the Devil Creature’s mouth.

“Hiss.”

The sound was like something scorching.

The orchid withered instantly.

“Graaah—!”

The Devil Creature’s scream tore through the courtyard.