36: Chapter 36 Surviving the Calamity, the Yandere Emerges from Her Cocoon

"Shen Xiao..."

Her red lips parted slightly, uttering for the first time in her life, so clearly and profoundly, the name branded into her Divine Soul.

This murmur was as soft as a lover's whisper, yet it carried a bone-chilling coldness that caused the temperature of the entire frozen Martial Arts Arena to drop even further.

Shen Xiao's blood felt as if it were about to freeze solid.

He could feel that every breath was like swallowing a handful of broken glass, and his internal organs were protesting this crazy "100% power" stunt.

But his gaze remained locked tightly on Xia Lengbai's face, which was a mix of love, hate, and obsession.

Before he could figure out what was going on with this woman, a gust of wind, carrying the fury of a Golden Core Stage expert, rushed at him from the VIP seats!

"How dare you, you brat!"

Special Envoy's figure was as fast as lightning; he completely ignored the rules of the Sect competition and brazenly leaped onto the arena.

His spiritual power surged, and one of his large hands transformed into an eagle claw, reaching straight for the top of Shen Xiao's head!

"Hand over that evil technique! Come back with me to the Family to accept your punishment!"

Special Envoy's roar was filled with greed.

Crippling a Heavenly Grade Spiritual Root and stripping it out intact?

Such an unheard-of forbidden technique had a value far exceeding that of a mere Lin Yun!

He didn't care at all what Xia Lengbai had obtained; he only wanted the secret in Shen Xiao's head!

This claw strike came too fast. Shen Xiao was heavily injured, his internal spiritual power was exhausted, and he couldn't even move a finger.

As the eagle claw was about to touch his scalp, he could even smell the burnt odor emanating from the opponent's fingertips due to the spiritual power overload.

Damn it, I overplayed my hand...

Just as Shen Xiao thought he was about to have his skull cracked open on the spot, a calm yet incomparably majestic Protective Aura swept down from the high platform. It arrived late but struck first, brushing lightly against Special Envoy's eagle claw.

"Bang!"

With a muffled thud, Special Envoy was hit as if by a heavy blow. He stumbled back seven or eight steps before barely stabilizing his figure, a look of horror flashing across his face.

The Qingming Sect Sect Master had stood up at some point. He remained on the high platform, merely waving his sleeve casually, his voice indifferent yet unquestionable:

"Special Envoy, on the Life and Death Arena, Karma is settled by oneself. Shen Xiao is the victor, and this Spiritual Root is his spoils of war. Who he wants to give it to is his freedom."

This statement was tantamount to a public announcement—Shen Xiao, I will protect him!

Special Envoy's face turned ashen, but he dared not make another move.

No matter how arrogant he was, he dared not challenge an old monster of the Dao Integration Stage head-on on Qingming Sect territory.

"Ah!"

Just then, a shrill scream interrupted the standoff in the arena.

Xia Lengbai suddenly clutched her head and knelt on the ground in pain.

Inside her body, one force was the extreme Yin and coldness originating from the millennium cold marrow, and the other was the extreme Yang and hardness of the newly implanted Heavenly Grade Fire Spiritual Root. The two forces were like two incompatible evil dragons, crazily colliding and tearing at each other within her Meridians!

Frost and flames appeared alternately on her body, her skin cracking inch by inch, seeping out threads of blood; she looked like a Pill Furnace about to explode.

"Lengbai!"

Special Envoy was shocked and wanted to rush over, but he was locked in place by the Sect Master's faint aura, unable to move.

The crowd below was terrified; this was no great Opportunity; it was clearly a precursor to exploding and dying!

Shen Xiao endured the tearing pain all over his body, dragging a bloody leg, and moved step by step to Xia Lengbai's side.

He knelt halfway down, ignoring Special Envoy's murderous gaze, and extended his hand—which was covered in frost and still trembling slightly from over-exerting the cold Qi—pressing it onto Xia Lengbai's smooth forehead.

It was scorching to the touch, like pressing against a red-hot iron.

"System, Repair Function, stabilize her for me!" Shen Xiao roared in his heart.

[Ding! Detected violent energy conflict within the target, repair requires 500 Plunder Points. Current points: 120. Insufficient points, cannot execute.]

[Initiating backup plan: Host can consume own life force and spiritual power to temporarily construct an "Energy Balance Bridge", success rate: 30%, execute?]

"Execute!" Shen Xiao did not hesitate.

A warm current surged from his palm, carefully seeping into Xia Lengbai's brow.

This was not some profound technique, but rather him using his only remaining spiritual power, mixed with the aura of the cold marrow, to forcibly build a fragile bridge between the two extreme forces in her body, guiding them to reach a delicate balance temporarily.

The severe pain eased slightly, and Xia Lengbai opened her eyes abruptly.

What she met were eyes bloodshot, yet still as cold as ten-thousand-year black ice.

This face, the face she had seen in countless broken dreams, was now right before her eyes.

The hatred of being plundered in her dreams and the grace of being "bestowed" and "saved" in reality—two extreme emotions collided and merged violently in her mind.

The cold and aloof Fairy mask shattered instantly at this moment.

A strange and twisted smile appeared on Xia Lengbai's face. She suddenly raised her hand and grabbed back, gripping tightly onto the hand Shen Xiao had pressed against her forehead.

Her nails sank deep into Shen Xiao's flesh, as if she wanted to knead his entire being into her own body.

"Shen Xiao..." Her voice was hoarse and crazed, "It's you... it's you..."

Just as the whole arena felt their scalps tingle at this strange scene, a voice of extreme malice and resentment sounded from the other side of the arena.

"Shen Xiao... may you die a horrible death! I... I curse you to fall into Hell forever!"

Lin Yun, who had been crippled into a pile of mud, struggled to lift his head.

Two lines of blood and tears flowed from his eyes. Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the golden mark that only he could see, bestowed by the Heavenly Dao, was emitting its final radiance.

He wanted to self-destruct his Divine Soul, detonating this final mark. Even if he couldn't kill Shen Xiao, he would make his Divine Soul suffer damage, leaving a clue for the Heavenly Dao to clean up the traitors!

A destructive aura began to condense on him.

Alarm bells rang in Shen Xiao's heart; he could feel a fatal danger brewing.

There was no time to think. He broke free from Xia Lengbai's hand, stumbled over to Lin Yun, leaned down, and said rapidly in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"You idiot, do you think the Heavenly Dao is helping you? You are just a Gu King on the heavenly dao chessboard. We are all your nourishment. Once you are ripe, it will swallow you in one gulp!"

"Do you believe that even if you don't die today, your 'Child of Destiny' status will transfer to someone else, staging a new 'protagonist's revenge story'?"

Lin Yun's crazed expression, which was about to detonate, froze instantly.

heavenly dao chessboard? Gu King? Nourishment?

These words, like bolts of Nine Heavens divine thunder, struck deep into his Divine Soul.

As the Child of Destiny, he could vaguely feel the trajectory of fate. Shen Xiao's words precisely poked at that trace of fear deep in his heart that had long existed but which he dared not think about!

Yes, why was it that every time he encountered danger, he could "just happen" to turn peril into safety?

Why were there always women who would "inexplicably" fall in love with him and sacrifice everything for him?

So... so he wasn't the chosen one; he was just a pig being raised in captivity!

His faith collapsed in an instant.

"Pfft!"

Lin Yun spat out a large mouthful of black blood, and that destructive aura instantly dissipated without a trace.

His eyes lost their focus, his pupils dilated, and he kept repeating:

"Fake... it's all fake... I am a pig... I am a pig..."

He laughed, he cried, rolling on the ground full of frost and blood, drool and snot flowing all over his face.

The Child of Destiny had gone mad.

Completely mad.

Seeing that the plan to extract secrets from Shen Xiao had failed, Special Envoy's face was so gloomy it could drip water.

He turned his gaze to Xia Lengbai and said coldly:

"Lengbai! This is not where you should be! Follow me back to the Family immediately to go into seclusion and stabilize your Spiritual Root! Otherwise, you will be dealt with according to Family rules!"

However, Xia Lengbai, who had been acting like a marionette, now slowly walked out from behind Shen Xiao.

She straightened her body; around her, one side had wisps of rising white cold Qi, and the other had raging crimson flames.

Ice and fire—these two completely opposite forces had actually formed a strange and powerful harmony within her.

That pressure far exceeded that of an ordinary Foundation Establishment Late Stage!

She raised her face, still stained with dried tears but wearing a morbid smile, and looked straight at Special Envoy, saying word by word:

"Uncle, from today on, I am no longer a tool for the Family to use for marriage alliances."

She paused, turned her head to look at the swaying figure behind her, the obsession and possessiveness in her eyes almost overflowing.

"I am his spoils of war. Where he goes, I go."

This declaration, which bordered on self-objectification, plunged the entire arena into dead silence once again.

Special Envoy was shaking with anger, pointing at Xia Lengbai, unable to say a word for a long time.

In the end, feeling the pressure of the dual-System Spiritual Root emanating from Xia Lengbai—which even made him feel palpitations—he could only glare at Shen Xiao with resentment, flick his large sleeves, and depart in anger, turning into a streak of light.

Late at night, in the Qingming Sect Inner Sect, in a quiet secret chamber.

Shen Xiao sat cross-legged, his face pale as paper.

He had just swallowed a Medicinal Pill for healing and was preparing to circulate his Qi to dissolve the medicinal power when the System's cold notification sound rang in his mind.

[Warning: Host has overdrawn Luck, forcibly changing the core logic of the plot, triggering the Heavenly Dao's "Logic Correction" mechanism. Within the next three days, the Host will encounter a "low-probability fatal event"; please prepare carefully.]

Shen Xiao's eyelids twitched violently.

A low-probability fatal event?

Isn't this just the cultivation version of "being killed by a meteorite when stepping outside" or "choking to death on water"?

This shady Heavenly Dao, can't handle losing, so it's starting to release patches?

Just as he was feeling uneasy, with a "creak," the heavy stone door of the secret chamber was silently pushed open a crack.

Shen Xiao opened his eyes abruptly and shouted sharply: "Who!"

A slender figure holding a long sword squeezed in through the crack in the door.

It was Xia Lengbai.

She had changed out of the blood-stained plain clothes and was wearing a tight-fitting black night-traveling outfit, which made her skin look like snow and her figure appear slender and graceful.

However, the sword in her hand, which should have been shining with spiritual light, was now stained with spots of dark red blood, which were still dripping down, emitting a fresh scent of blood.

She closed the stone door behind her; one could even hear the "click" of the door bolt falling into place.

In the secret chamber, only the faint breathing of the two remained, along with the "drip-drop" sound of blood beads falling from her sword tip in the silence.

Xia Lengbai walked toward Shen Xiao step by step, her eyes, which were shockingly bright in the darkness, staring fixedly at him. Her red lips parted slightly, her voice carrying a trace of hair-raising paranoia and sweetness.

"Since you tore my life to shreds," she murmured softly, "you must compensate me with your own."