The dungeon was dark and damp, sequestered by countless restrictive barriers and spell arrays. Even the key to the gate of the dungeon was protected by a three-layered spell array set up by cultivators of the Dharmic Enlightenment level. This level of security was so high that even a fly with spiritual awareness would not be able to leave the dungeon.

The icy floor of the dungeon was strewn with serpentine streaks of dried blood. The scene was completely stifling and blood-curdling.

A ragged, thin figure was curled up in the corner of the dungeon – her disheveled hair obscuring her face. Her arms wrapped around her legs, and her head was buried in her knees. Day after day, she maintained this posture, completely motionless. It was almost as though she were dead.

-Click-

The lock opened. The dark and isolated dungeon received its first visitor in over three hundred days. This visitor had pleasant looks, a graceful figure, pristine jade-like hands, and was dressed in fine, refreshing clothing. It was a look which was completely incompatible with the state of the dungeon.

Glancing at the ragged figure, the visitor’s eyes revealed a glimmer of both elation and derision. She promptly walked over to the other side of the dungeon. With a condescending and malicious smile plastered on her face, the visitor lifted the chin of the ragged lady with the tip of her shoe.

As the captive woman’s disheveled hair parted involuntarily, one could see that her face was completely covered in horrific scars. Worse, there were two deep, dark holes where one’s eyes would normally be.

The person on the floor was a blind woman. She had been horrifically disfigured, and her cultivation had been completely crippled.

“Chichichi-- you’re so pitiful…so pitiful. The dreadful and formidable Lady Demoness actually finds herself in such a pitiable predicament,” the visitor remarked. Not only did the tone of her voice carry no trace of pity, she obviously took pleasure in the scene before her.

Hearing the voice of the visitor, the lady on the ground finally moved. Her cracked lips quivered, asking, “Qin Shanshan, how’s your brother?”

Perhaps it was because she hadn’t spoken for such a long time, but her voice sounded extremely hoarse, like the grinding of gravel on the floor.

Qin Shanshan frowned, with ever-growing abhorrence in her eyes. “Haaa--? My brother?” She hooked her lips into a smile full of ridicule and derision, “Jun Xiaomo, are you still expecting my brother to come and save you? Do you know what day it is today? Today is the day that he marries my new sister-in-law! He is in love – do you really expect that you, a murderous demoness, would even cross his mind?!”

He actually…

Jun Xiaomo’s heart felt as though it had been stabbed by a needle – and it wasn’t an acute, unbearable type of pain, but the type of pain that reverberates and lingers, even eking out traces of blood ever so slowly.

She should have known. After all, that person had not come to save her after such a long time…

Jun Xiaomo unconsciously held her abdomen. She once carried a child belonging to her and that man…

Jun Xiaomo’s silence caused Qin Shanshan to feel bored. After all, since they were both young, Jun Xiaomo had always been better than her – birthright, looks, talent, and even cultivation! Qin Shanshan couldn’t accept it. However, under her brother Qin Lingyu’s orders, Qin Shanshan had no choice but to remain cordial and feign civility with Jun Xiaomo.

It was so stifling and humiliating!

Luckily, Jun Xiaomo had stumbled – and had even stumbled at her brother’s hands.

“Who is she…?” Jun Xiaomo hoarsely uttered. “She”, in this case, naturally referred to who the bride was – Qin Shanshan’s new sister-in-law.

Qin Shanshan took pleasure in the fact that Jun Xiaomo would ask this of her own volition. “She…Actually you know who she is. You must not have forgotten who "Yu Wanrou" is, have you?” Qin Shanshan asked with a relaxed disposition. However, when she mentioned Yu Wanrou, her eyes flashed with a trace of intolerance and bitter resentment.

Yu Wanrou had not only enticed her brother away, she had even snatched away the man that she loved! Not to mention, Yu Wanrou already had so many suitors to begin with! Truth be told, compared with Jun Xiaomo, Qin Shanshan hated Yu Wanrou even more. However, because Yu Wanrou had surrounded herself with many formidable suitors, Qin Shanshan was unable to exact any form of revenge against her.

She therefore chose to vent all her frustrations and grievances on Jun Xiaomo.

Jun Xiaomo smiled to herself in a self-deprecating manner. She should have known better – who could resist the charms of Yu Wanrou?

Within the last century, there were two well-known female practitioners in the cultivation world. One was notorious for “evil”, while the other was well-reputed for “good”.

The words “Jun Xiaomo” were synonymous with “terrifying”, “bloodthirsty” and “Lady Demoness”, causing people to instinctually retreat in fear, while “Yu Wanrou” would be the exact converse. Almost all the male cultivators were willing to throw themselves at Yu Wanrou with the hope of becoming her partner.

In reality, numerous male cultivators had in fact thrown themselves at Yu Wanrou. Many of these were even formidable and powerful people with cultivation levels that were out of this world. Yet even so, they were hell-bent on fawning over Yu Wanrou and earning her favour.

It was not a well-known fact that Jun Xiaomo and Yu Wanrou had come from the same sect. It was an even less known fact that Jun Xiaomo’s current predicament was caused by Yu Wanrou and her lackeys. Or perhaps, even if people knew, they might simply respond with a “well done”.

After all, this was a person widely persecuted as a Lady Demoness; while the other was a beautiful damsel in distress. Over time, people’s hearts have become completely biased and partial, and they continue to be convinced by their perception of the “facts” presented to them.

But if one peeled off the cover of that pristine image, how rotten must that core be?

Jun Xiaomo clutched tightly at her abdomen, subconsciously revisiting that fateful day when the poison ebbed away at her child’s life force bit by bit, until he was nothing more than a pool of blood and water filled with pain, despair and hatred.

Her child! She had already been pregnant for six months. Why did Yu Wanrou have to implicate the child in her plans? Even if people might say that a Lady Demoness’s child would be a vile spawn, why couldn’t they see for a fact that Jun Xiaomo would not have become a demonic cultivator had it not been for the schemes of others?!

“Why! Why her!” Jun Xiaomo lamented. She would not mind if anybody else had married Qin Lingyu; it just cannot be Yu Wanrou! “She killed our child!” Jun Xiaomo bemoaned, clenching her fists so hard that her bony fingers left deep depressions in her palm.

“Haa-? ‘Our’ child? Who do you mean? You and my brother? You better not implicate my brother with that vile spawn of yours.” Qin Shanshan smugly looked at Jun Xiaomo’s despondence, remarking with extraordinarily vicious words.

“What do you mean?” Jun Xiaomo lifted her head. Even though Jun Xiaomo was left with empty eye sockets, Qin Shanshan could nevertheless see the shocked expression on her face. Jun Xiaomo looked completely stunned.

“It is as I had mentioned.” Qin Shanshan calmly explained the cruel truth of the matter, “My brother had long since been involved with Yu Wanrou. However, Yu Wanrou is a very selfish person – even though she is herself promiscuous, she expects her partners to all be completely loyal to her. So, for Yu Wanrou’s sake, do you think my brother would even touch you?”

“Then whose child is it?”

“Who knows? The Euphoria-Stimulating Incense that night wasn’t too bad was it? I initially intended for you to be involved with my brother so that that detestable Yu Wanrou would finally be off his back. Little did I expect you to be so useless. Not only did you end up frolicking with a stranger, you even got pregnant with a stranger’s child!”

“Qin Lingyu never told me that the child was not his.”

“Of course not! Why would he tell you this and strain your relationship before he could extract every last bit of value from you?”

Jun Xiaomo coughed a few times, and a few streaks of blood seeped out of the corners of her mouth. She collected herself, and with a hoarse voice, slowly uttered, “Heavens search my soul. I may have wronged the heavens, wronged my parents, wronged my sect brothers and sect sisters. However, I have never wronged Qin Lingyu. Even if I lose control of my body to the devil, I wouldn’t bear to hurt even a single hair on Qin Lingyu’s head. Yet, after all is said and done, what have I got at the end…”

A trace of complexity shone in Qin Shanshan’s eyes. Indeed, compared to Yu Wanrou, Jun Xiaomo was a hundred, no, a thousand or even ten thousand times better.

Only, what was the use of this? The person that her brother loved was Yu Wanrou, so no matter how much Jun Xiaomo did, her brother would not appreciate any of it.

“Every man for himself, and the Devil takes the hindmost.” Qin Shanshan finally said.

Hearing this, Jun Xiaomo laughed. It started with a small, low chuckle, and it grew bigger, and louder, and bigger, and louder. Finally, Jun Xiaomo roared enormously with laughter – a laughter filled with absolute despair; a laughter that penetrated the marrows. What a statement – ‘Every man for himself, and the Devil takes the hindmost’.

At this moment, Jun Xiaomo felt as though her mind were awash with a renewed sense of clarity. As the scenes of her life replayed in her mind, she connected the dots on the little details which she had initially ignored to finally reveal a different narrative of her life. Her emotions ignited with unprecedented hatred.

This level of hatred was even higher than the hatred she had when her child was murdered!

“Was Qin Lingyu marrying me for the dowry he received?”

“My parents’ death also reeked of Qin Lingyu’s schemes, does it not? He’s a loyal dog of the Sect Leader!”

“That one fateful night when my father’s Peak[1] was completely annihilated was also part of Qin Lingyu and the Sect Leader’s plans, was it not? The Sect Leader lusted after my mother, while Qin Lingyu coveted my father’s spirit treasures!”

“And this degenerate demon within me…was this really an accident, or was this all part of a carefully thought out plan? If I did not emanate demonic energy, how could Yu Wanrou use the pretext of the righteous duties of an upstanding sect to persecute me?"

……

In the face of Jun Xiaomo’s rhetoric, Qin Shanshan did not deny anything. Her silence signified a tacit approval of Jun Xiaomo’s analysis of the situation. But, apart from a tacit approval, she did not for a moment think that her brother had done anything wrong. After all, people are all selfish, right? No one asked Jun Xiaomo to be good to her brother anyway. If anything, it was Jun Xiaomo who had made a mistake.

If Jun Xiaomo had eyes right now, the tears which she had accumulated her whole life would flow out like waters from a broken dam.

She hated! She hated all of Qin Lingyu’s actions. But above all, she hated herself for not being discerning enough of the true nature of people and letting a wolf in sheep’s clothing gain a foothold in her household, resulting in the complete annihilation of her family and the entire Peak!

At this moment, blood dripped from Jun Xiaomo’s fingertips onto the floor, melding directly into the copious amounts of already dried blood on the floor.

Qin Shanshan shuddered, unconsciously taking a few steps back. The present aura around Jun Xiaomo made her seem very dangerous.

Despite knowing for certain that Jun Xiaomo’s spiritual root had been crippled and her nascent soul had been crushed, something about Jun Xiaomo still made Qin Shanshan’s hair stand on end.

Run! RUN! Qin Shanshan’s mind blared with warning signs of danger. But before she could take any action, she realized it was all too late.

“You…What are you doing?!” Qin Shanshan’s legs looked as though they were frozen solid, immovable and devoid of any feeling and senses.

She panicked and was gripped by a sense of abject fear. She did not want to die!

“Hehe…what are you trying to do?” Jun Xiaomo invoked the residual spiritual energy within her body, firmly pressing her blood-stained palm to the floor.

With Qin Shanshan at the centre, the ground glowed with a red light, revealing a complicated pattern on the floor.

Jun Xiaomo had actually used her own blood to draw up a formation array! Qin Shanshan finally realized why this dungeon was full of bloodstains.

“Don’t…don’t act rashly!” Qin Shanshan panicked. “Let me go, and I’ll urge my brother to save you, ok?”

“It’s too late.” Jun Xiaomo lowered her head and said. Did Qin Shanshan think that she would be able to let everything go so easily now that she knows the whole truth?

If she still had her eyes, bystanders would be able to see that her eyes were burning with intense hatred and manic rage.

This formation array was initially prepared to deal with Yu Wanrou and her lackeys. Now, it seems that it would suffice to deal with Qin Lingyu alone. Qin Shanshan was a bonus.

“This…what formation array is this? No, your spiritual root has clearly already been crippled. How can you even activate the formation array?”

Qin Shanshan had a trace of hope in her heart. She hoped that Jun Xiaomo would not be able to fully activate and power this formation array.

“Do you really think that formation arrays must be powered by spiritual energy?” Jun Xiaomo curled her lips, evoking a strange smile. With a determined look on her face, she slowly stated, “Have you ever heard of a formation array powered by a person’s life force, with the sole intent of exacting revenge on a person’s nemesis and his relatives?”

“You…you demon! A demon who does not even spare her own life! Let me go. Hurry and let me go! Brother! Come save me, brother!” Qin Shanshan struggled to get out, but it was all in vain.

She regretted it all. She truly regretted it all. She should never have and stolen her brother’s jade token to enter the dungeon to bluster in front of Jun Xiaomo.

With absolute focus, Jun Xiaomo completely tuned out the screams of Qin Shanshan and began reciting a string of mnemonics. These mnemonics seemed to carry an ancient, mysterious power with it, causing the red glow of the formation array to intensify.

Jun Xiaomo could feel her own spirit slowly being torn from her body, and her consciousness was also fading. This type of feeling was extremely painful and unbearable. However, her heart had long been hardened. She was willing to do anything as long as she could drag her nemesis to hell together with her.

Qin Lingyu, I bet you never would have imagined that I would use such a method to finally bring mutual destruction to both of us.

Jun Xiaomo felt herself growing weaker and weaker.

My child, mother is finally able to see you soon…Jun Xiaomo held her abdomen and collapsed on the floor. Finally, her lips curled to reveal a desolate yet serene smile.

A red light shot up to the sky. The dungeon that held the Lady Demoness Jun Xiaomo for hundreds of days on end finally collapsed with a loud tremor.

Hundreds of miles away, a dignified male cultivator clad in a groom’s attire suddenly collapsed to the floor, yielding up his life.

This marks the end of a story. Yet, another story is just beginning.

[1] A Sect has numerous Peaks, and Jun Xiaomo’s father was a Peakmaster

Ahh…it hurts… The bones of her entire body felt as though they had been shattered. She couldn’t even lift one finger.

Jun Xiaomo lay on the bed, seemingly trapped in a never-ending nightmare. She desperately struggled to wake up, but to no avail. Her body involuntarily twitched from time to time. Her chest rose and fell violently in tandem with her furious breathing. Large globules of cold sweat constantly beaded up on her glistening forehead, frequently rolling down, percolating the gaps in her hair.

“Hey dear...Mo-Mo, where does it hurt? Tell Mum, alright?” The beautiful lady sat beside the bed watched her daughter. Her eyes were filled with pain and heartache that only mothers know of. She tenderly and patiently wiped off the sweat on Jun Xiaomo’s body with her handkerchief.

Ever since her sixteen year-old daughter received punishment for entering the Sect’s forbidden ground, her daughter had been trapped in a nightmare, unable to awaken from her slumber. Liu Qingmei was initially furious at her daughter’s mischievous and naughty ways. Yet, after a few days, Liu Qingmei’s anger quickly turned into a deep concern for her.

“Mo-Mo, don’t scare your mother like that. Hurry up and wake up alright?” Liu Qingmei was well-reputed to be a strong and courageous lady. Yet faced with her daughter’s serious injuries, she was unable to keep herself calm and composed. The tears she shed over these past few days far outnumbered the tears she had shed over the past year combined! To make matters worse, her husband had entered closed-door cultivation, and she could only forcefully bear the frustration and pain in her heart alone.

-plop- A drop of tear landed on Jun Xiaomo’s hand, and the sensation offered a small reprieve from the pain she was experiencing.

This is…water?

Jun Xiaomo was still fully immersed in the moment of death where her life force was torn from her body at the dungeon. She had thought that the formation array was incomplete, and she was simply waiting for death’s arrival. However, the cool, otherworldly sensation on her hand suggested to her that things were not as they seemed.

Her consciousness slowly but surely returned to the present, and she found her ears ringing with a high-pitched noise. Jun Xiaomo tried shaking her head to dispel the noise, only to realize that her head felt heavy as though it were made of lead.

“Mo-Mo…” Almost as though she had sensed it, Liu Qingmei leaned over her body, gently caressing her daughter’s hair.

“Mum…” Jun Xiaomo immediately recognized this voice which was buried in the depths of her memory. Two streaks of tears promptly gushed out of her tightly shut eyes, flowing into her hair.

How many years has it been since she had last heard her mother’s tender call to her? She must finally be dead right now. Otherwise, how could she once again see her father and mother?

“Mo-Mo, don’t cry. Let mother know where your discomfort is.” Liu Qingmei wanted so much to embrace and comfort her daughter, but she was also worried that the injuries on her daughter’s body might be aggravated. So, she could only gently and carefully hold onto her daughter’s hand.

Jun Xiaomo wanted to exclaim that her whole body was in discomfort, especially in her heart! However, the multitude of words found themselves lodged in her throat, and the only utterances which made its way out were incomprehensible.

With mixed feelings in her heart, Jun Xiaomo slowly opened her eyes.

This is…light?!

In the wake of losing her vision, Jun Xiaomo had almost forgotten what it was like to be able to see. She subconsciously shut her eyes before slowly opening them once again. This time, her vision gradually became clear.

Sandalwood furniture, lilac veils, and a young…mother.

“Mum…” Jun Xiaomo’s voice was filled with emotions. She wanted to lift her hand to see if her mother was real or not. Only, the pain in her hand prevented her from doing so.

Liu Qingmei noticed Jun Xiaomo’s intentions, and lifted her tender hands to her cheek, saying “Dear…Mum is here.”

“Mum, am I dead?” Jun Xiaomo asked with a bitter smile on her lips. No matter what, having had the opportunity to see her mother one last time before being reincarnated, Jun Xiaomo was very satisfied.

“Silly child! What do you mean, dead? Your father is still around – no one would dare to beat you to death!” Liu Qingmei looked at her quizzically. Who wakes up and immediately suspects that oneself is dead? Liu Qingmei glared at Jun Xiaomo, rebuking, “Have you finally learnt your lesson this time? Such mischief. You even dared to enter the Sect’s forbidden grounds!”

Forbidden grounds? Jun Xiaomo knitted her eyebrows, her pale lips stretching out into a thin line.

Jun Xiaomo’s memory from a long time ago resurfaced in her mind – when she was sixteen years-old, she was incited by Qin Shanshan to enter the Sect’s forbidden grounds, almost lost her life as a result, and even alarmed the Sect’s Court of Elders. However, because Qin Shanshan was Qin Lingyu’s sister and she wanted to please her sweetheart, Jun Xiaomo did not tattle on Qin Shanshan. Instead, she bore all of the punishment herself. The Sect Elders punished her in accordance with the rules of the Sect, almost taking away the remaining bit of life in her!

If not for the fact that her father was a Peakmaster in the Sect, perhaps the Sect Elders might really have simply allowed her to return to the heavens.

“Stupid! So stupid! Extremely stupid!” Jun Xiaomo coldly muttered to herself. She could vividly recall the reason why she had entered the Sect’s forbidden grounds in the first place. Wasn’t it because Qin Shanshan said that the forbidden grounds held something which her brother had wanted? Just for that one casual statement, Jun Xiaomo ran into the forbidden grounds without further thought.

Recalling the things that she had done for Qin Lingyu, an indignant feeling stirred within her, churning and festering.

Could there be anyone lower than her?

A bloody taste welled up at the tip of Jun Xiaomo’s tongue. This smell was extremely pungent, yet it was the same familiar smell which had accompanied her in the three hundred or more days which she had been held captive in the dark and dank dungeon.

“Ah--! You’ve bit your lips! Is it painful?” Liu Qingmei call jolted Jun Xiaomo back to her senses, incidentally rescuing her lower lips from the vice-like grip between her teeth. Jun Xiaomo’s lower lips were left with a deep impression of teeth marks.

Jun Xiaomo’s eyes grew red and hot. In that instant, a force welled up within her prompting her to throw herself into her mother’s embrace, ignoring all the pain in her body.

“Mum~~! I’m sorry~!” Jun Xiaomo hadn’t forgotten how her parents had died, nor did she forget how her entire Peak was annihilated.

Jun Xiaomo’s tears completely drenched Liu Qingmei’s clothes. Her daughter seemed to have grown up overnight, and her whole being seemed to be shrouded with a kind of grief.

What exactly happened to Mo-Mo in the forbidden grounds? Whilst Liu Qingmei gently stroked Jun Xiaomo’s back, she slightly raised her eyebrows.

“Forget it. Let’s wait until her emotions have stabilized before asking her again,” Liu Qingmei thought to herself while tousling Jun Xiaomo’s hair.

Basking in the comfort and love of her mother again, Jun Xiaomo gritted her teeth – it seems that time had reverted to when she was sixteen years old. This also happened to be the year where she experienced the largest turning point in her life.

Mother, Father, and my fellow martial brothers and sisters, it will be my turn to protect you this time!

No matter what, she was not going to let the bloody scene which happened 30 years later repeat itself. If anyone dared to hurt the people which mattered to her, it would have to be over her dead body!

Indeed, one can only hope that they have enough good fortune to experience this Lady Demoness’s formidable and fearsome vengeance.

Behind her shimmering, tear-filled eyes, Jun Xiaomo’s gaze carried with it a deep and fierce determination.

“Mum~~! I’m hungry!” Reveling in the embrace of her mother, Jun Xiaomo sullenly remarked. Her current strength was far from that in her previous life. She had not even reached the Foundation Establishment cultivation level. Naturally, her body required physical food for sustenance.

“Alright, Mum is going to make you some porridge now.” Liu Qingmei caressed Jun Xiaomo’s hair. As she attempted to stand up, she realized that Jun Xiaomo had tightened her embrace and was even rubbing her head in her mother’s bosom.

“Now, now, why are you acting like a three year-old girl throwing a tantrum?” Liu Qingmei chuckled as she gently and playfully tapped on Jun Xiaomo’s forehead.

“It’s not that. It’s just that it feels like I haven’t seen you in such a long time, so I can’t bear to see you leave me.” Jun Xiaomo deeply missed the familiar lotus fragrance gently diffusing from her mother. Ever since the death of her mother in her previous life, she could only experience this fragrance in her dreams.

“Mother only wishes that you will stop getting your mischievous self into trouble. If you can do that, mother will be very satisfied.” Liu Qingmei helplessly sighed. She had thought that the “long time” which Jun Xiaomo was talking about was merely these ten over days where she was bedridden. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought that Jun Xiaomo was in fact referring to an entire lifetime.

“Mm. I won’t let you worry anymore! I will definitely focus on my cultivation from now on!” Jun Xiaomo raised her head and looked at her mother seriously. Her eyes glistened with unprecedented firmness.

“Good girl~!” Liu Qingmei patted her daughter’s head with gratitude. Her daughter had finally grown up.

Jun Xiaomo’s eyes brimmed with tears again. Having lived life once, she was finally able to discern with clarity those who were worth her time and effort.

“Are you crying again?” It dawned on Liu Qingmei that her daughter seemed to have turned into a little crying cat after awakening from her slumber, shedding tears at the smallest of things. Even though this mischievous daughter had shattered her heart time and again, yet she could not help but feel some sourness in her heart seeing her daughter silently shedding tears before her eyes.

“It’s nothing.” Jun Xiaomo lowered her head, obfuscating the tears in her eyes.

She was not a weak person. Otherwise, when faced with the destruction of her Peak, the annihilation of her family and the persecution of several upstanding sects, how could she have made a name for herself as the intimidating, one and only Lady Demoness? She was ruthless to others, and even more ruthless to herself!

Presently, it was just that her emotions were stirred time and again because she could now once again see the ones whom she had loved and lost.

Fortunately, Jun Xiaomo’s stomach growled in a timely fashion, alleviating the embarrassing situation.

“It seems that Mo-Mo is really hungry. Mother is going to make food for you now.” Liu Qingmei stood up. This time, Jun Xiaomo did not keep her any further.

Watching her mother leave, Jun Xiaomo gently waved her hands and caused the doors of the room to close.

However, even this simple act caused Jun Xiaomo to experience excruciating pain! She groaned in pain and slammed back down onto the bed, fading in and out of consciousness.

After receiving the Sect’s punishment this time, her body was truly and thoroughly wounded. Jun Xiaomo gritted her teeth and endured the pain. She bitterly smiled to herself.

About half an incense of time later, Jun Xiaomo’s pain had slightly receded. Completely drenched in cold sweat, Jun Xiaomo painstakingly clambered up and sat down cross-legged, setting her palms facing up on her knees, closed her eyes, and entered into a meditation posture.

She had to check what kind of damage her body had sustained. She remembered that this year was the year where her cultivation speed suddenly slowed down, such that she was no longer even a match for regular martial brothers and sisters. Even when her parents scoured high and low for spirit pills and miracle herbs, they did not seem to have any effect on her. No one could diagnose what the cause of such a change was. In the end, they could only suspect that her talent for cultivation had fallen as a result of the Sect Elders’ punishment.

Because of this, Jun Xiaomo’s father, Jun Linxuan brashly wanted to pick a fight with the five Sect Elders. However, Liu Qingmei was able to dissuade him. After all, it was already considered a light punishment that Jun Xiaomo was not excommunicated from the Sect. If Jun Linxuan had pressed the issue, they would certainly be in the wrong. Furthermore, discounting the fact that Jun Linxuan would not be able to defeat the five Sect Elders on his own, this matter would in any event give people a basis to allege that Jun Linxuan was placing his own interests before the Sect’s.

In reality, Jun Linxuan was really known to be a selfless person in the Sect. If not for the fact that the problem arose in her daughter’s body, he would never have lost his cool and almost break off relations with the Sect.

Jun Xiaomo sent a trace of spiritual energy throughout her body’s meridians. Bestowed with the experience from her past life, even if her cultivation level right now were not too high, her control of spiritual energy would still be far better than most cultivators at her age.

Probing at her meridians, Jun Xiaomo discovered that her meridians were severely blocked. She even faced a strong resistance when re-converging her spiritual energy to her Dantian.

What is going on? Jun Xiaomo faintly remembered that just before she got injured, the flow of spiritual energy had been very smooth.

Jun Xiaomo was not flustered at all. She converged her spiritual energy around her Dantian, swirling them around ever so slowly and carefully, like a hunter seeking out a prey.

As her concentration deepened, Jun Xiaomo entered a mysterious state where her “inner vision” enabled her to inspect her Dantian’s condition.

Consequently, she found an anomaly – her body was actually absorbing demonic energy?!

Being a reputable, righteous and upstanding sect, Dawn Sect’s premises had very little demonic energy. Therefore, the amount of demonic energy absorbed by Jun Xiaomo’s body was also minimal. Even so, a light and delicate layer of demonic energy surrounded her Dantian, preventing Jun Xiaomo’s spiritual energy from leaving or re-converging.

If not for the fact that she had been very familiar with demonic energy in her previous life, she would not have so quickly discovered this power which was different from the energy absorbed by spirit cultivators.

The only difference between spirit cultivating and demonic cultivating lay in the type of energy absorbed by the cultivator. Spiritual energy was gentler and found almost everywhere. Thus, spirit cultivators were ubiquitous. However, demonic energy thrived only in places associated with ruthless, vicious, and even evil purposes, including jails, dungeons, ravaged villages, forests which did not see the light of day, and so on. In order to gather demonic energy, some demonic cultivators even utilized formation arrays to attract or create numerous vengeful spirits and souls. This was one of the main reasons that the public spurned and disdained demonic cultivators to begin with.

Furthermore, demonic energy was by nature difficult to control. If one were careless when cultivating, the manifestation of the demonic energy would turn the cultivator into an irrational killer. Even Jun Xiaomo almost succumbed to such manifestation of demonic energies in her previous life, only to finally manage to re-stabilize her energy at the very last moment.

Jun Xiaomo knew full well that the inception of her tragic past life was exactly the existence of demonic energy within her body. Overnight, she was castigated and excommunicated from the Sect, and even persecuted by righteous, upstanding sects.

However, the very same demonic energy also turned out to be her greatest source of strength. It can be said that she had walked further on the path of demonic cultivation than most others in her generation, even attracting the envious gazes of cultivators of a higher cultivation level than her.

Jun Xiaomo had not planned to walk down the path of demonic cultivation again in this present life. Her previous life experiences were sufficient to pave a way for an extremely smooth spirit cultivation. That is why she saw no need to risk her life pursuing the ways of demonic cultivation. However, life had already determined otherwise. At the young age of sixteen years, Jun Xiaomo’s body had already been pervaded with demonic energy.

Save for people who possessed a demonic body, the people who could automatically absorb demonic energy were few and far between.  Some people are naturally born with demonic bodies, and fated to become demonic cultivators; while others acquire a demonic body later on in their life.

For Jun Xiaomo, the odds of her being naturally born with a demonic body is practically zero. This was because her body had absorbed spiritual energy very smoothly before she had turned sixteen years old. It was only after she turned sixteen years-old that her body’s absorption of spiritual energy inexplicably slowed down to the point of stagnation.

Perhaps her acquisition of a demonic body was artificially caused by someone’s meddlesome orchestration and schemes. Jun Xiaomo’s eyes flashed coldly. She had a few suspects in mind, but she was not able to say with any certainty.

Forget it, these people will eventually show their true faces. As long as these people made an attempt at the lives of her loved ones, she would not let a single one of them off! A wave of boiling hatred surged within Jun Xiaomo’s heart, but she quickly repressed it.

Mulling over the situation in her Dantian, Jun Xiaomo’s lips curled to reveal a calm and even bemused smile.

Unfortunately, this schemer is going to be sorely disappointed. So what if she had demonic energy in her body? Having a lifetime of experience behind her, how would she let herself fall again into the same predicament as in her past life?

Since some people decided to ‘bestow’ upon her an acquired demonic body, Jun Xiaomo would have to gladly accept their goodwill!

Only then, the end result would be completely out of the scheming person’s control.

Jun Xiaomo’s grin gradually blossomed into a wide smile – it must never have occurred to these schemers that there was in existence a refinement technique that enabled the conversion between demonic energy and spiritual energy!

With such a refinement technique, the demonic energy in her body would not only cease to be a misfortune to her; it could even be said to be her greatest blessing!