My back is about to break!

The Immortal Cave was deadly silent, the smell of blood mixed with a decadent scent that was nauseating.

Lin Yuan lowered his gaze, looking down at the exquisitely beautiful body on the ground that was devoid of Life Qi.

She was like a shattered piece of jade, having lost all her former brilliance, leaving only a broken, tragic beauty.

There was not a shred of pity in his eyes, only cold, calculated intent.

A supreme grade Cauldron at the Nascent Soul Stage; killing her would truly be a waste.

But a living enemy at the Nascent Soul Stage was a lethal sword hanging over his head.

Lin Yuan had struggled at the bottom for eighty years, crawling out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood; he believed in only one truth.

Only a dead person poses no threat.

His killing intent was firmer than ever at this moment.

Lin Yuan raised his palm, and vast magic power gathered in his palm, silent and soundless, yet it made the surrounding air viscous and heavy.

Once this palm fell, the head of the woman before him would explode like a watermelon, splattering red and white everywhere.

Just as he was about to act.

A hoarse, weak, yet ice-cold voice rang out in the silent Immortal Cave.

"If you kill me, you won't survive either."

Yue Qingyao had opened her eyes at some point.

Those eyes, once as cold and clear as the moon, now held only dead silence and an inseparable, thick resentment.

"I am a Grand Elder of the Misty Immortal Sect. My Divine Soul is branded with the Sect's secret technique, the 'Mirror of Returning Light and Shadow'."

"The last things I see, hear, and feel before I die will be transformed into an indelible image and transmitted back to the Sect's ancestral hall."

Her voice carried no plea for mercy, merely stating a cold fact.

"Do you know what it means to kill a Grand Elder of the Misty Immortal Sect?"

"It means that across the heavens and earth, from the azure sky to the Yellow Springs, the entire Misty Immortal Sect will hunt you down with all their might until your Divine Soul is extinguished."

Lin Yuan's raised palm paused in mid-air.

He looked at Yue Qingyao, the killing intent on his face slowly fading, replaced by a playful smile.

"Senior, did you get something wrong?"

He squatted down, meeting her resentful eyes levelly, and spoke with composure.

"We have long been in a situation where only one of us can survive."

Lin Yuan did not wait for her reply, continuing on his own with a firm, resolute tone.

"You won't let me go."

"So, death sooner or later is still death. If I kill you, I can at least remove a major threat; no matter how I calculate it, I come out on top."

Yue Qingyao's heart sank to the bottom.

This man was impervious to reason, his mental fortitude terrifyingly strong.

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she had suppressed all emotions, using her last bit of strength to offer her only bargaining chip.

"I will give you two paths."

"First, kill me, and from now on, live as a fugitive, hunted to death by the Misty Immortal Sect."

"Second..."

She gritted her teeth, each word squeezed out from between her teeth, filled with unspeakable humiliation.

"I will take the great heart demon oath and sign a Divine Soul contract. From this day forward, our grievances will be wiped clean, and we shall never meet again. Let today's events be as if they never happened. I will absolutely never hunt you down, nor will I leak a single word to anyone!"

"If I violate this oath, the Heart Demon will consume me, my Divine Soul will crumble, and I will die and my Dao will vanish on the spot!"

Hearing this, Lin Yuan fell silent.

The great heart demon oath had extremely strong constraints on Cultivators; once violated, whether Cultivating or trying to break through a Bottleneck, it was very easy for the Heart Demon to backlash.

And the Divine Soul contract had even stronger binding power; this contract seemed to possess the power of the Heavenly Dao. If violated, one would truly die and their Dao would vanish on the spot.

These two were considered the most reliable oaths, directly linked to a Cultivator's Dao path and life.

But Lin Yuan still felt it wasn't safe enough. He now held absolute control.

His mind flashed with lightning speed, and after a moment, he had an idea.

With his Cultivation, it was unlikely he could forcibly plant a Restriction on Yue Qingyao, but if the other party was willing to cooperate, then there was one type of Restriction that could be successfully planted.

Thinking of this, Lin Yuan shook his head, his smile becoming sinister. "Senior, you don't seem to have realized your situation yet. It's not that you are giving me two paths, but rather, whether I am willing to give you a path to survive."

He extended a finger, gently lifting Yue Qingyao's chin, forcing her to look at him: "A great heart demon oath? A Divine Soul contract? They sound very safe. But I don't believe them. I only believe in myself."

Yue Qingyao's delicate body trembled violently; this was the ultimate humiliation.

"So, oaths and contracts alone are not enough."

He said slowly, admiring Yue Qingyao's instantly pale, beautiful face.

"Besides that, I want to plant a secret technique of my Yin Corpse Sect in your body, called the 'Three Corpse Heart-Devouring Curse'."

"Don't worry, this curse won't harm your life, nor will it turn you into my Puppet." Lin Yuan's voice was filled with malicious gentleness. "It's just that if you ever harbor even the slightest killing intent towards me in the future, the curse mark will activate, causing your own magic power to backlash against you, letting you taste the pain of ten thousand ants devouring your heart. The higher your Cultivation, the more intense this pain will be. Senior is a Nascent Soul powerhouse; I imagine that feeling must be quite wonderful, right?"

Yue Qingyao stared fixedly at Lin Yuan, her chest, bound by the restraining chains, heaving violently.

What a great, insulting shame!

A dignified Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, actually falling into the hands of a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator, and having to be planted with such a sinister curse by the other party.

But did she have a choice?

She did not.

After a long while, Yue Qingyao put away the emotions in the depths of her eyes and slowly closed them.

"Fine..."

"I agree."

...

Another day passed in a flash, and Yue Qingyao turned into a stream of light and soared into the sky.

With her departure, the Formation she had set up dissipated, and Lin Yuan also removed the Restriction in the Immortal Cave.

He walked out of the Immortal Cave, the dazzling sunlight making him squint slightly.

Not far away, on a giant rock, Gu Zheng sat cross-legged.

She looked haggard. For a month and a half, she had been trapped in the illusion Formation. Although she wasn't injured, her mental state was greatly exhausted.

Hearing the movement, Gu Zheng opened her eyes abruptly.

The moment she saw Lin Yuan, her tense nerves finally relaxed, and she walked over quickly.

"You finally came out! I thought you..."

She stopped mid-sentence.

Her phoenix eyes scanned Lin Yuan up and down, her beautiful eyebrows furrowed.

"Why are you..."

"Also so haggard?"

At this moment, Lin Yuan's face was pale, his eye sockets sunken, looking as if he had been completely drained.

He looked even weaker than her, who had been trapped for a month and a half.

Hearing this, Lin Yuan sighed solemnly.

He reached out, seemingly unintentionally rubbing his own old waist.

"Sigh, don't mention it. I was trapped in the Formation. To break the Formation, this month and a half really wore me out."

"Wore you out?"

Gu Zheng: "..."

She felt there was a hidden meaning in these words, but she couldn't say what was wrong.

"What exactly happened in the Formation? I felt the intense Spiritual Qi fluctuations inside suddenly disappear!" Gu Zheng asked.

Lin Yuan waved his hand, looking righteous: "I tried my best to break the Formation and enter it, but it was empty inside. I suppose the person who set it up had already left. It's a pity, all that effort for nothing, I didn't gain anything."

Gu Zheng scanned with her Divine Sense, found nothing unusual, and looking at Lin Yuan's "weak" appearance, she finally believed him a little, stepping forward to support him: "Since we've been delayed for so long, let's hurry back to Tianyuan City!"

Lin Yuan leaned against her soft shoulder, nodded, and boarded the Ink Jade Flying Boat.

As soon as the Flying Boat took off, a communication Jade Slip at Gu Zheng's waist suddenly shone brightly, the light warm yet extremely urgent.

She probed with her Divine Sense.

Her originally cold face was instantly replaced by wild joy!

"It's a message from Grandfather!"

She looked up at Lin Yuan, her phoenix eyes flashing with light intertwined with excitement and agitation.

"We've taken back Black Stone City!"

"The Misty Immortal Sect suffered heavy losses and has already retreated to Lanyue City!"

"Grandfather wants us to go directly to Black Stone City!"