After Faking Her Death and Escaping, the Junior Sister Fell to the Demonic Path - Chapter 60

“Pfft—!”

A spray of dark blood bloomed like a brilliant flower before Qin Qingyi’s eyes, as a low-level demon was cut in half by her sword.

“How can there be so many demons?”

Qin Qingyi swung her sword again, finishing off the low-level demon brandishing its claws before her. Yet, an endless stream of demons rushed forward, one after another, fearlessly charging towards her.

Most of these demons were covered in thick, dark scales. They had horns growing from their heads—some with just one, others with two. Some had twin black bone wings on their ribs; when unfurled, the wings were like sharp blades, fluttering with the surging demonic energy.

Without exception, all these demons had hideous faces. Some held weapons, while others brandished long, sharp talons or used their bone wings as weapons.

Even if their wings were severed or their arms cut off, as long as they had a breath left, they seemed impervious to pain, their eyes blood-red and fanatical, engaging in a desperate fight with the surrounding disciples.

Qin Qingyi was dazed from the continuous slaughter. If her estimation was correct, it had been almost half an hour since she rushed to the scene.

She glanced around.

There were too many.

Looking out, the entire training ground was now completely overrun by demons. It was a chaotic mix of black and white, with all Sword Sect disciples fighting fiercely against the demonic horde.

“Senior Sister, don’t get distracted!”

Zhou Zhixue called out loudly, then the cold gleam of the Changle sword flashed, slicing off a demonic claw that was dangerously close to Qin Qingyi’s back. She then thrust her sword again, destroying the demon.

Seeing Qin Qingyi slightly distracted, she frowned worriedly, “Senior Sister, what’s wrong?”

The battle was intense, and a moment’s distraction could lead to irreversible consequences.

Senior Sister clearly knew this—

But looking at her face, Zhou Zhixue couldn’t bring herself to say anything accusatory.

Given the current situation, a temporary lapse in concentration was understandable.

Zhou Zhixue stood suspended in the air, looking down at the Sword Sect disciples who were still struggling to hold on, her brow tightly furrowed.

Half an hour ago, the two Senior Sisters had recovered from the shock of the demon attack on the Sword Sect and quickly rushed to the training ground.

The training ground was located near the western boundary of the Sword Sect, one of the closest points to the barrier, and also where most of the low-level disciples were gathered.

The demons seemed to have received prior information; after breaching the Sword Sect barrier, they headed straight for the training ground.

Their malicious intent was obvious.

Qin Qingyi and Zhou Zhixue arrived a step too late.

Many unprepared disciples were injured by the sudden appearance of the surrounding demons, and those who reacted were often killed due to insufficient strength.

The entire training ground was stained with blood within just fifteen minutes.

Fortunately, the strength of this vanguard of demons was not high; most were at the Golden Core stage, with only an occasional Nascent Soul stage demon general, none exceeding the mid-Nascent Soul stage.

However, Qin Qingyi had a strange feeling that, among the besieged Sword Sect disciples, the most numerous demons were around her and Zhou Zhixue.

As if by design, they were gradually surrounding the two, and the numbers were increasing.

Layer upon layer, densely packed, they tightly encircled the two.

Qin Qingyi and Zhou Zhixue stood back-to-back, holding their sharp swords, vigilantly facing the menacing demons.

“Too many demons are coming, and something is wrong,” Qin Qingyi tilted her eyes and spoke to Zhou Zhixue behind her.

She was deeply worried and shared her inner guess with the other party: “It’s like… they have a target and are heading straight for the two of us.”

Zhou Zhixue frowned upon hearing this. Her gaze swept over the dense mass of demons surrounding them, and she, too, began to sense that something was amiss.

There were indeed too many demons around them.

“They are coming straight for you two,” the Immortal Venerable Wuwang, hiding in Qin Qingyi’s Dantian, said calmly.

“That day, when you emerged from Black Water Cliff, you were contaminated with a lot of demonic energy, and you also took something out of it. Now, in the eyes of these demons, the two of you are no different from live targets.”

Qin Qingyi’s eye twitched. She quickly grasped the main point of the Immortal Venerable’s words: “Are you saying these demons are connected to Black Water Cliff?”

The Immortal Venerable Wuwang nodded slightly.

Qin Qingyi’s heart sank.

If that was the case, it meant her actions that day had been exposed within the demon race.

Then this sneak attack was a warning from the demon race, or perhaps… retaliation.

Qin Qingyi took a deep breath. While maintaining vigilance against the surrounding demons, she quickly synchronized the known information with Zhou Zhixue.

“A portion of these demons is probably coming for me,” she whispered quickly. “I caused quite a stir at Black Water Cliff some time ago. These demons must be here for revenge.”

It was both a sneak attack on the Sword Sect to strike at its current strength, and retaliation against her for disrupting the demon race’s grand plan.

Thinking back to the secret information she obtained at Black Water Cliff, and the corpses of the young of various races that had fallen from the demon cocoons, Qin Qingyi gritted her teeth fiercely.

The demon race was far too arrogant!

Zhou Zhixue was startled but did not show too much surprise. Instead, she offered comfort to Qin Qingyi: “Senior Sister, don’t be afraid. We are in the Sword Sect; we will be fine.”

This was the Sword Sect’s territory. As the attackers, the demon race must have expended considerable effort to get here.

The various elders of the Sword Sect would naturally not stand by and watch their disciples be harmed by demons.

Zhou Zhixue had one more thing unspoken: even if these demons were here to retaliate against Senior Sister, she was still here. As long as she was alive, she would not allow these demons to harm her Senior Sister.

Although she didn’t say it aloud, Zhou Zhixue tightened her grip on her sword. As she fought the surrounding demons, she constantly monitored Qin Qingyi’s movements. Whenever a demon approached Qin Qingyi, Zhou Zhixue would prioritize protecting her, even if it meant risking injury, to eliminate the danger around her Senior Sister.

Not far away, Xie Su and Hu Yu were beyond reach of the two’s battle, also entangled by numerous demons and unable to break free. Despite their anxiety, they couldn’t spare a hand to help.

Watching Qin Qingyi and Zhou Zhixue submerged in the tide of demons once more, Hu Yu couldn’t clearly see what was happening.

“Damn it, these demons are too difficult to kill!” Hu Yu’s eyes were red with anger.

He could see that among the people present, Senior Sister had the most demons around her.

He was barely coping with the demons around him; could Senior Sister, whose strength was currently weaker than theirs, handle so many demons?

Yet, he was entangled and couldn’t break free to help!

Damn it! Could Zhou Zhixue protect Senior Sister?!

Xie Su was equally anxious but also found it difficult to escape. He could only desperately fight in the surging demonic tide, killing demons while shouting towards Hu Yu’s direction: “Save some spiritual power, or you won’t even be able to protect yourself!”

Now, only by protecting himself could he ensure not to cause trouble for Senior Sister and the others.

Xie Su gritted his teeth and once again unleashed a sword technique, slaughtering the surrounding low-level demons.

For a moment, the battle was extremely chaotic.

Fortunately, soon after, a powerful burst of spiritual energy erupted from Qin Qingyi’s side, and the surrounding demons dissipated under the cold light of the sword energy. Hu Yu looked over and found that Zhou Zhixue had overdrawn her spiritual power, freezing all the surrounding demons with ice and then slaying them.

The number of demons around her and Qin Qingyi immediately decreased by more than half, greatly alleviating the pressure on the two.

“That’s more like it,” Hu Yu mumbled as he observed this.

However, the demons around him had not decreased but rather increased after a period of intense fighting. He was finding the combat increasingly difficult. Although killing them was not a problem, their sheer numbers were troublesome.

Hu Yu’s nerves were taut; he no longer had the luxury of looking in Zhou Zhixue’s direction and had to refocus on his own battle.

“Senior Sister, don’t be afraid!” Zhou Zhixue’s face was pale. Though she was already shaky from spiritual power exhaustion, she still firmly shielded Qin Qingyi behind her.

Seeing the spiritually exhausted Zhou Zhixue, Qin Qingyi’s heart trembled.

This child…

She clearly didn’t need to come over just now, yet she endured the pressure of the surrounding demons’ attacks, rushing in to clear obstacles for her.

Qin Qingyi’s expression softened.

Zhou Zhixue in front couldn’t see her expression but still comforted her, “Senior Sister, don’t be afraid. Nothing will happen. Master and the Elder Aunts will be here soon.”

Qin Qingyi didn’t speak. She just watched Zhou Zhixue in front of her, sighing almost imperceptibly.

Forget it, forget it.

She activated the remaining half of the demon core within her body, causing the other half within Zhou Zhixue to also become active. The demonic energy continuously nourished Zhou Zhixue’s meridians and also provided her with abundant spiritual power.

Zhou Zhixue was unaware of this. However, she could feel her spiritual power gradually increasing. Her Dantian, which had been nearly depleted, was now being replenished with spiritual power.

Zhou Zhixue was instantly energized, gripping her sword even tighter.

“You’ve gone soft,” the Immortal Venerable Wuwang said, hitting the nail on the head. “You are showing compassion for her.”

Qin Qingyi was silent.

She didn’t know how to refute it.

“You were so good to her before, making her completely devoted to you. Now you are doing this again. How do you expect her to feel?”

“She won’t know,” Qin Qingyi countered softly, slicing off the head of a demon that had lunged near.

But the Immortal Venerable Wuwang disagreed: “She doesn’t know now, but will she never know later?”

“You must remember that one day, she will break free of that seal, and she will eventually recall everything that happened before.”

“What will you do then?”

Qin Qingyi remained silent.

The other party sighed softly: “Pity and love, pity and love.”

“Where there is pity, love will follow.”

Qin Qingyi lowered her eyes, refuting inwardly: No, it won’t.

There will only be pity, not love.

Yet, when she looked at Zhou Zhixue, there was a softness in her gaze that she herself hadn’t noticed.

Arriving at the training ground after Qin Qingyi and Zhou Zhixue was Feng Ning.

Upon arrival, she immediately joined the battle, greatly easing the pressure on Qin Qingyi and Zhou Zhixue.

Perhaps because too many demons were besieging her, Feng Ning’s spiritual power was consumed rapidly. Soon, her face was deathly pale, but she remained composed.

Seeing the miserable state of the training ground, and the Sword Sect disciples gradually losing ground against the demon attacks, Feng Ning quickly dealt with the few surrounding demons. She then pointed her sword toward the sky, using spiritual power to project her voice throughout the area:

“Disciples at the Golden Core stage and above, heed my command! Quickly gather in groups of three to protect the low-level disciples!”

As the Sect Leader’s direct disciple, many people recognized Feng Ning.

Seeing her take charge, they seemed to find a backbone and were no longer as panicked as before.

All disciples who could fly and had reached the Golden Core stage or above exchanged glances, quickly forming groups of three to five, forming hand seals to create small protective formations, gathering the surrounding panicked low-level disciples inside the formations.

This formation was unique to the Sword Sect, designed to protect fellow disciples outside the sect. It was an improved version of the sect’s main protective array, capable of being activated by a minimum of three people.

A formation created by three Golden Core disciples could withstand at least three attacks from a Nascent Soul stage expert. If there were enough people activating the small formations, these formations could link up, sharing spiritual power, and could easily withstand more than ten attacks.

Instantly, the protective formations within the training ground lit up like stars in the sky. Fortunately, there were enough people, and more and more formations lit up. The various formations automatically connected with spiritual energy, sharing power. From afar, they looked like interconnected pieces on a chessboard.

As more and more formations lit up, the protective array became increasingly solid. The demons’ attacks were no longer as effective.

They had only relied on the swiftness of their arrival to catch the Sword Sect disciples off guard.

Now, the Sword Sect disciples were no longer panicked; they were calm and orderly. Furthermore, their daily training had never been neglected. Having regained their composure, they cooperated effectively, successfully pulling the situation back from the brink of collapse.

Disciples at the Golden Core stage and above, after setting up the protective formations, focused on battling the countless demons around them.

Although outnumbered, the Sword Sect was, after all, the largest sect that had consistently topped the Immortal Sect rankings. Any disciple sent out was a pillar of strength that other sects would expend all their resources to cultivate.

These disciples might not be able to defeat ten enemies on their own, but they could handle five without a problem.

This was something the demons’ cannon fodder couldn’t compare to.

Upon realizing that mutual cooperation, even using the most basic Sword Sect techniques, could slay the demons, these disciples grew excited. They began to strategize on how to efficiently and cleanly kill these demons in one blow without wasting any spiritual power.

They employed various tactics: one throwing a talisman, another simultaneously thrusting a sword, successfully eliminating a demon.

These highly coordinated disciples quickly gained the upper hand. They began to press their advantage against the demons, who were now aware that continuing the fight would only lead to death, striving not to let any demon escape.

In other words: they were in a killing frenzy.

The low-level disciples could not participate directly in the battle, but they were unwilling to just watch their Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters charge forward to protect them. They quickly organized themselves in a very short time. One group tended to the injured fellow disciples from the initial fighting, while the other group held their swords at the ready within the protective formation. As soon as they found an opportunity, they immediately thrust their swords toward the demons’ backs, thighs, or even lower body—weakly defended areas.

Cooperating with the Golden Core disciples outside the protective array, they quickly eliminated most of the demons in the training ground.

Just at this moment, good news came from the elders who were fighting the high-level demons at a higher altitude.

The Sword Sect’s main protective array had been repaired. Most of the demons outside had been slain by the Sword Sect elders, and the remaining few stragglers were fleeing like dogs.

The main protective array closed, and the sound of bells echoed. The Sword Sect was now impregnable.

This meant that the demons still trapped inside the Sword Sect had no chance of escaping.

They were like turtles in a jar, destined to be annihilated.

This greatly boosted the morale of the Sword Sect disciples.

Qin Qingyi and the others couldn’t help but show a slight sense of relief as they saw the tide turn.

At this point, the demons’ sneak attack had completely failed.

This sudden and hasty attack concluded with the Sword Sect’s organized and composed response.