“Damn it!”
Bai Shuo quickly shoved the person off her, leaping three feet high in shock. Her scream startled the quiet flames burning in the medicinal stove, causing them to flicker erratically.
Oh no! Why on earth is this demon lord here? Wasn’t he supposed to have returned to the demon realm after taking the Bodhi heart?
On the floor, Fan Yue, bare-chested, lay where Bai Shuo had thrown him. Yet, he no longer had that cold, indifferent expression from a few hours ago; instead, he looked like the young man she had encountered in the mountains three years ago. His alabaster face was drained of color, his lips tightly pressed, his brow furrowed, and his whole body was curled up, drenched in cold sweat and trembling as if enduring immense pain. On his chest, a faint flicker of Bodhi heart flame burned, struggling as if unwilling to be consumed, making a final, desperate resistance.
Oh no! Did I accidentally summon him here?
Bai Shuo recalled how she had just pricked her finger and accidentally touched her forehead—the exact spot where she and Fan Yue had made their soul contract. She swallowed hard, clapping her hands in regret. Good job, Bai Shuo; your greed has really dug you a hole this time!
Three hours earlier, on the shore of Fire and Ice Island, Bai Shuo had revealed her suspicions with a sly expression that practically begged for praise. If she’d had a fox tail, it would have been wagging in spirals.
“Even if you’ve figured out his identity and weakness, it won’t do you any good,” Fan Yue remarked calmly, stepping on her imaginary fox tail.
“Why not? All I need to do is trick him into drinking blood infused with your demon power. Then, when you descend like a divine soldier, won’t Xie Bodhi be at your mercy?”
“You may be clever, but he’s no fool. He now possesses a demigod’s body. If you approach his true form, he’ll undoubtedly set up a barrier around his heart flame, cutting off my divine sense. You might get in, but I can’t follow. With his spiritual power, even weakened, he could crush you to dust with a single slap.”
Bai Shuo shivered, imagining herself being slapped to dust. Her face fell as she paced in worry until, suddenly, she stopped in her tracks and turned back. “I have a way to get you into his barrier.”
Fan Yue raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And what way would that be?”
“A soul contract!”
Fan Yue narrowed his eyes, his gaze turning cold.
The soul contract was a secret art in the three realms. It was considered “secret” not because few knew of it but because few dared to make one. It was said that during the ancient times in the god realm, when the demon clans rebelled, the Progenitor God trapped them in the depths of the Nine Nether Abyss. The Earth Goddess, who was in love with one of the rebels, sacrificed her divine life to plant her soul within her lover’s, allowing her to reach him across the barrier. But when her visits were discovered by the demon god, he, already fuming from his confinement, shattered the Earth Goddess’s soul with a single strike. As the goddess governed all life, her sudden death withered all things in the lower realms. Enraged, the Progenitor God banned the soul contract forever.
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