187: Absolute power

At the peak of Chiyang Mountain, the gates of the Burning Heaven Sword Tomb slowly opened, and a decaying Sword Intent that seemed to have accumulated for ten thousand years erupted, mixed with the scorching heat from deep within the earth's veins.

This Sword Tomb was originally the burial ground for the powerful Sword Cultivators of the Second Heaven throughout the ages, and it was also a Holy Land that countless Cultivators dreamed of. This Ten Thousand Immortals Assembly was nominally for the Prodigies of various Sects to enter and find ancient Sword Intent to gain fortuitous opportunities. However, as Lin Chen stepped into that gray and desolate land, the Eye of Omniscience in his Sea of Consciousness began to throb violently, issuing an unprecedented warning.

"My Lord, the 'Qi' here is not right." Su Qingge pressed close to Lin Chen, her silver pupils beneath the blindfold constantly analyzing the chaotic lines of spiritual energy in the Void Realm. "This isn't Sword Intent; it's more like... a scent of blood that has been suppressed for a long time."

Iron Heart Orchid also tightened her grip on the dragons roar scarlet edge. Having forged metal for years, she was extremely sensitive to the Qi of metal and stone. "That's right. The Sword Qi here carries a crazed demonic nature; it doesn't look like a blessed land of the Righteous Path at all."

Walking ahead of them were the elites of the Sword Washing Pool, led by Bai Bingxin. Still dressed in white, she walked through the dark Sword Tomb like a proud and lonely snow lotus. She consistently and deliberately kept her distance from Lin Chen, unwilling even to cast a single glance back at him, as if one more look would cause her pure Dao Heart, cultivated over many years, to be defiled by this 'filthy' man.

As the group delved deeper into the core of the Sword Tomb, the surrounding scenery became increasingly eerie. The broken swords scattered on the ground began to emit a tooth-aching hum, and from the cracks in the rocky ground, wisps of strange, blood-red mist gradually rose.

"We've arrived. This is the core of the Sword Tomb—the Sword Washing Pool ruins."

Sect Master, the Sect Master of the Sword Washing Pool, had appeared on the high platform at the core at some unknown point. His green Daoist robe billowed in the wind, and his sage-like appearance, illuminated by the blood mist, revealed an indescribable sinister quality.

"All Disciples, form the Formation! Communicate with the Sword Intent!" Sect Master shouted.

Bai Bingxin took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the inexplicable unease in her heart. She led dozens of Junior Sisters to sit cross-legged according to the positions of the Sect's Formation, suspending their Life-bound Flying Swords before them. In her view, as long as her Revered Master was there, the Sword Washing Pool would remain the backbone of the Righteous Path in the Second Heaven.

However, the moment they began to circulate their Cultivation Technique, a sudden mutation occurred!

The originally pure Sword Qi Formation instantly turned dark red upon contact with the gullies beneath the high platform. A massive blood-colored light curtain rose from the ground, enveloping all the Prodigies within. That was not a Formation for communicating with Sword Intent at all, but the forbidden of all forbidden arrays in the cultivation world—the Blood Sacrifice of the Heavens Array!

"Ah—!"

Several screams rang out as a few female Cultivators with weaker cultivation were instantly pierced through their Dantians by blood-colored tentacles emerging from the ground. Their entire essence and blood were sucked dry in the blink of an eye, turning them into shriveled corpses.

"Revered Master! What is happening?" Bai Bingxin opened her eyes in horror. She discovered that her Life-bound Flying Sword was actually frantically absorbing her Origin essence and blood. Her limbs were tightly pinned in place by blood-colored chains, and the cold, desperate aura of death made her feel as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.

"Master... quickly stop the Formation! The Formation has backfired!" Blood overflowed from the corners of Bai Bingxin's mouth as she looked toward the old man on the high platform, still refusing to believe what was happening.

Sect Master, however, looked down at the screaming Disciples below, a crazed and greedy smile appearing on his face. Where was there even a hint of his former sage-like demeanor?

"Backfire? No, Bingxin, this is the correct way to activate the Formation." Sect Master's voice was as cold as a serpent. "The ten-thousand-year demonic sword of the Sword Washing Pool, 'reverse scale,' has been dry for too long. It needs the purest essence and blood of Sword Cultivators to awaken. For the eternal foundation of the Sect, and for me to achieve a Breakthrough from True Immortal to the Golden Immortal realm, your sacrifice is worth it."

"Master... why?" Bai Bingxin's face was as pale as paper, her voice trembling enough to break one's heart. "I was the one you picked up; I am your most beloved Disciple... You taught me that a Sword Cultivator should uphold justice and dispel evil, and should protect all living beings..."

"Raising you was for this very day." Sect Master interrupted her, his eyes filled with a cruel sense of entitlement. "Your Ice-Flesh and Jade-Bone is naturally the best vessel to house the demonic sword's Sword Intent. To be able to become the offering for the demonic sword's reappearance in the human world, you should feel honored."

"Hehe, hahahaha..." Bai Bingxin began to laugh tragically.

At this moment, her faith and the 'Righteous Path Dao Heart' she had guarded for twenty years crumbled into dust before those words. Those she regarded as family were wailing in agony, while the mentor she viewed as a biological father was personally pushing her into Hell.

"Tsk tsk, is this the Righteous Path you've been defending? It's truly quite laughable."

A mocking and domineering voice pierced through the blood mist.

Bai Bingxin looked up abruptly. Amidst the sky full of blood-colored light, a black-robed figure came treading through the waves.

Just as a thick blood-colored tentacle was about to pierce Bai Bingxin's heart, a large hand covered in dark gold Dragon scales appeared out of nowhere and firmly grabbed the tentacle.

"Crack!"

The tentacle was snapped and crushed in Lin Chen's hand.

With one hand in his pocket, Lin Chen grabbed Bai Bingxin by the collar with the other, lifting her from the altar like a kitten and pulling her into his protective embrace.

"Do you see clearly now, Great Fairy Bai?" Lin Chen looked down at the distraught woman in his arms, his eyes carrying an undisguised trace of mockery. "You thought I was filthy, thought I was covered in the scent of blood. But now, the one who wants to eat your flesh and drink your blood is the very Revered Master who taught you to be 'clean.' Isn't that ironic?"

"Lin Chen..." Bai Bingxin looked at the man before her. At this moment, the domineering Evil Qi on him did not make her feel disgusted; instead, it became the only safe harbor in this blood-colored purgatory.

"You beast! How dare you ruin my great plans!" On the high platform, Sect Master was flying into a rage. He pinched a hand seal, sending countless blood-colored Sword Qi beams blasting toward Lin Chen.

"You think you can take my life with just this pathetic Formation?"

Lin Chen snorted coldly and stomped his feet violently.

"Ancestral Dragon True Body, Chaos Dragon Elephant, open!"

With a world-shaking Dragon roar, a dark gold light shield rose around Lin Chen, making him look like an unshakeable god of war. The blood-colored Sword Qi, powerful enough to instantly kill a True Immortal, crashed against the shield but could not even cause a single ripple. He forcibly carved out a hundred-meter safety zone in the center of the blood sacrifice array.

"Bai Bingxin, if you want to die, then continue feeling sorry for yourself here." Lin Chen gripped Bai Bingxin's slender waist with one hand, feeling her delicate body trembling violently from despair. "If you don't want to die, then hold on tight to me. Right now, no one cares about propriety between men and women. Do you want to die at the hands of that old thing as fodder, or do you want to live in my arms as my plaything?"

Bai Bingxin looked at her Junior Sisters below, who had already turned into withered bones, and then at the hideous 'deity' on the high platform.

Her tears finally burst forth like a broken dam.

At this moment, all her aloofness, all her persistence, and all her pride were trampled into dust by reality. She reached out with trembling hands, like a drowning person grabbing onto the last piece of driftwood, and tightly hugged Lin Chen's waist.

"Take me away... take me to kill him... even if I have to go to Hell... I'll accept it!"

..."Rumble!"

Driven by the Formation, the core of the Sword Tomb began to collapse violently, the blood mist becoming so thick it almost turned solid.

Lin Chen looked at the Sword Fairy in his arms, who had finally broken and also finally transformed, and a wicked smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Kill him? That's too simple."

Amidst the sky full of blood and fire, he lifted Bai Bingxin's frost-cold face, which was now covered in tear stains, his eyes filled with aggression.

"But before that, I need to collect some interest first."

Without any hesitation, on this altar where death and blood were intertwined, Lin Chen fiercely kissed those cold red lips that had once uttered countless words of contempt, right in front of Sect Master on the high platform.

Bai Bingxin's body felt as if it had been struck by lightning, and her eyes instantly lost focus. She had never been touched by a man, let alone at such an extremely oppressive moment of betrayal by her Revered Master and the collapse of her faith. That never-before-experienced masculine aura, like a volcanic eruption, instantly invaded her teeth and stirred the spring of her heart that had been stagnant for twenty years.

"Mmm... ugh..."

She wanted to push him away, but found herself already drowning in this transgressive entanglement that was filled with a sense of security.

Lin Chen's large hand slid down her long spine, feeling the jade-like skin beneath her thin white robe, which was taut from extreme terror and shame.

"This body... since your dear Revered Master doesn't want it, I'll take it."

Lin Chen laughed loudly. Amidst Sect Master's frantic roars of rage, he held Bai Bingxin and soared into the sky, directly smashing through the blood-colored light curtain... Deep within the Sword Tomb, inside a dark grotto.

The air here was still permeated with the agitation brought by the blood sacrifice, and even the mountain walls radiated an unusual warmth.

Lin Chen placed Bai Bingxin on a flat bluestone. This Eldest Senior Sister of the Sword Washing Pool now had her snow-white robe in tatters, revealing a large expanse of skin that was as crystalline as ice and snow, yet stained with layers of pink flush due to shame.

"What, you still don't plan on opening your eyes?" Lin Chen stood before her, his gaze like that of someone inspecting a trophy.

Bai Bingxin slowly opened her eyes. At this moment, those clear and cold eyes no longer held even a trace of Sword Intent, replaced instead by a hollow blur after being utterly destroyed.

"I already... have nothing left." She murmured, her voice carrying a heartbreaking raspiness. "The Sect was a lie, the Dao Heart was a lie... Lin Chen, what do you actually want?"

"What I want, you will find out very soon."

Lin Chen leaned down, bracing his hands on either side of the bluestone, his god-demon-like aura completely enveloping Bai Bingxin.

"In this world, strength is the only Dao Heart. Since your so-called Righteous Path wants to sacrifice you, then I will reforge you. But the process of reforging will be very 'painful.'"

Lin Chen's large hands showed not a shred of pity for the fair maiden as he directly tore apart the last white robe on her body that represented her aloofness.

"Rip—!"

At that moment, Bai Bingxin's immortal body, hailed as the number one 'Ice-Flesh and Jade-Bone' in the Second Heaven, was completely revealed within the dim grotto.

Unlike Zhuyan's wildness and unlike Iron Heart Orchid's robustness, Bai Bingxin's body was like a work of art carved from ten-thousand-year-old profound ice, every inch of its lines exuding a sacred and inviolable coldness.

Her waist was so slender it seemed one could wrap a hand around it, and her long legs were so straight it was suffocating, currently pressed tightly together due to extreme shyness.

"Don't... don't look..." She wanted to reach out to cover herself, but Lin Chen pinned her hands above her head.

"Look at me!" Lin Chen's voice was like a clap of thunder, shattering her final defenses. "Look at the man who dragged you out of Hell! From now on, your sword is only allowed to be drawn for me; your body can only tremble for me!"

Lin Chen suddenly lowered his body.

"Ah—!"

That was a betrayal of the Righteous Path, a revenge against her Revered Master, and even more so, the instinctive desire of a woman to be conquered by the strong at a moment of desperation.

"Lin Chen... Lin Chen! I want to kill you... I also want to thank you..."

She wept, her originally cold body beginning to turn scorching hot under that storm-like ravaging, like a piece of ice crystal about to melt.

In this dark heart of the Sword Tomb, the most outstanding 'Ice Heart Sword Seed' of the Sword Washing Pool was bit by bit turning into the most erotic and loyal spring water within the furnace named Lin Chen.

What Sword Sect, what Righteous Path.

In the face of absolute power, they all have to kneel and beg for mercy.

[Congratulations to the host! Successfully conquered the Sword Washing Pool Saintess, Bai Bingxin!] [Bai Bingxin's faith has completely collapsed. Current loyalty: 85% (Love born from hate, loyalty born from humiliation)!] [Reward received: Control over the ancient demonic sword 'reverse scale'! Unlocked Dual Cultivation talent: Ice-Fire Nine Heavens!] [Next plan: Take Bai Bingxin, kill your way back to the altar, and personally break Sect Master's spine! Make the Sword Washing Pool completely your private garden!]