"Please spare , Senior!"
"I don't want to die, nor do I want to harm others—it was Grandma who forced !"
The fox, her chest pierced by a sword, looked terrifyingly fierce but still pleaded for her life, speaking with a voice full of desperation. However, she conveniently omitted any ntion of the scholar.
After all, it was always soone else's fault; she bore no responsibility.
Gu Lan shook his head, a slight smile on his face.
A thousand-year-old fox still playing ghost tales—who was she fooling here?
If she truly loved him, why was the scholar's vitality drained to the point of nearly dying?
Beside her, the scholar's eyes were filled with horror—not fear of the fox's true form but dread from her words.
"iniang, I'm not afraid of death. Why do you beg him for rcy?"
"I can go with you to the underworld; we can be husband and wife again in the next life."
The scholar stumbled forward, trying to embrace the fox, only to be swatted away with a flick of her tail.
"Scram!"
"I've cultivated for a thousand years, enduring countless life-and-death struggles to beco a celestial saint. Why would I die with you, a re mortal ant!"
The fox demon's fury was palpable. If not for her powers being sealed by Gu Lan, she would have killed the scholar long ago.
With a crash, the scholar flew back, slamming into the broken doorway. His already frail body took another hit, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
As he spat blood, he looked at the fox demon, his eyes filled with despair—his heart had died.
In his last monts, he thought of his wife and children who had seen him off when he left for the capital to take the imperial exams, of his mother toiling in the fields, and of the villagers who had pooled money for his education... He regretted it all.
But it was too late for regret.
At the end of his life, he looked at the fox demon and in the direction of the capital, filled with unwillingness.
He had failed to achieve his ambitions and instead sought love, pleasure.
What he thought was deep affection deceived others and himself.
"This so-called path was a re illusion, nothing more than a dream," Gu Lan murmured, a hint of confusion in his gaze.
He had witnessed countless facets of human life through his incarnations, people like the scholar who couldn't pursue their true hearts at every turn, and few ever truly understood their desires.
As the scholar died, a flicker of emotion stirred in the fox demon's red eyes, a fleeting mont of realization.
But that realization vanished in an instant.
The instinct to survive reawakened.
"Senior, he's dead!"
"Now that he's dead, will you let go?"
The fox demon begged again.
Gu Lan glanced at her, waving his hand as the sword that had pierced her chest flew back into his grip.
"Thank you for sparing , Senior!"
The fox demon quickly assud her alluring guise of a red-dressed woman. With her old lover dead before her, she showed no sign of grief; instead, she tossed Gu Lan a flirtatious wink.
Gu Lan looked at her icily.
A chill crept over her.
"iniang won't trouble you any longer—farewell, Senior!"
Knowing her charm was useless, she transford into a red light, fleeing from the scene.
But the mont she flew out of the house, a golden light blocked her path.
"Where do you think you're going, monster?"
"Great Heavenly Dragon!"
A monk in robes descended from the sky, his staff emitting the golden illusion of a dragon that struck the fox demon with fierce force.
"Ah!"
Another shriek of agony filled the air as the fox demon was forced back to her true form.
Desperate to escape again, she was then seized by a black vine.
"iniang, let Grandma devour you!"
"That accursed bald donkey is too powerful—I need your thousand-year cultivation!"
The vine demon revealed her true form, a terrifyingly large mouth.
The fox demon was overwheld with terror and cried, "Spare , Grandma! No, Grandma, please!"
But no matter how she begged, the vine demon proceeded with her plans.
After all, she had been raising this little ghost for a thousand years just to devour her at this mont.
Opposite them, the monk watched quietly, surrounded by a halo of Buddha's light, his face serene as a statue in a temple.
In no ti, the fox demon had been consud completely by the vine demon, not a bone left.
"You fiend!"
"You didn't even spare your kin—today, this monk shall exterminate you!"
"Great Heavenly Dragon!"
Seizing the mont the vine demon was busy absorbing the fox demon, the monk attacked again.
This ti, the golden dragons surrounding him transford into blood dragons, filled with a terrifying murderous aura.
These blood dragons were ford from the flesh and blood of countless monsters, appearing even more horrifying than the vine demon herself.
The monk's golden alms bowl and staff also revealed their true nature.
The alms bowl looked like a ghastly blood pool filled with bones, rivers of blood flowing through it.
The staff was a white bone, exuding eerie, murderous energy.
"Ha! You filthy bald donkey!"
"Your demonic aura is stronger than mine!"
"Who is the real demon here?"
The vine demon sneered as she counterattacked, mocking him.
The monk remained silent, letting his murderous intent radiate without end.
The terrifying duel between them instantly shattered the dilapidated house, revealing the truth of the place—
It was a desolate burial ground filled with countless unmarked graves.
At that mont, a Gu Lan incarnation sat on a lone grave, holding a sword and looking up at the sky.
Beside him lay the corpse of the scholar, who had died vomiting black blood.
Nearby, the fox demon's remains lay, nothing left but scraps of fur and bone.
"Human, demon, Buddha, immortal, god, devil... seven emotions and six desires, reincarnation of the six paths, heaven and earth... but where am I in all this?"
Gu Lan's incarnation murmured to himself, his gaze growing more lost.
anwhile, in the Immortal Realm's Ninth Heaven, thousands of figures mirrored this contemplation, whether they were scholars, farrs, rchants, high-ranking officials, or even emperors in dragon robes.
"Huh?"
"What's this? Another swordsman? Is he that bald donkey's accomplice, co to kill ?"
The vine demon finally noticed the blue-robed swordsman, Gu Lan, startled and frightened, imdiately extending a black branch toward his skull.
The monk, seeing this, showed no concern, his staff transforming into a blood-dripping white-boned dragon and striking at the vine demon.
The demonic aura on the monk made him look more like a demon than the vine demon herself.
Having chosen the path of slaughter, the monk gained strength with every life taken; he naturally wouldn't care about the fate of an ordinary person.
Boom!
The black branch, refined over ten thousand years, could pierce through any treasure, yet as it struck Gu Lan's forehead, it t an impenetrable barrier, shattering instantly.
"How is this possible!"
"What on earth is this man's cultivation?"
The vine demon, horrified, tried to retreat.
But before she could, the swordsman, who had been sitting by the grave, had already appeared by her side.
"Did you want to kill ?"
"To seek enlightennt through slaughter—is that truly your heart's desire?"
Gu Lan's incarnation looked at her, eyes still clouded, and tore a ten-thousand-year-old black vine from the ground—the true body of the vine demon.
It wasn't a tree demon at all; it was a vine demon!
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