The "Gate of the Underworld" would close again without the "food" to support it.
Gu Junshi had a rare find of a "feng shui treasure spot," transporting over a thousand souls lingering in the spiritual realm to the underworld for rebirth, barely whetting the "Gate of the Underworld's" appetite. Filling it was impossible; its "stomach" connected to the entire underworld, capable of consuming even if she sent all living beings in the cultivation world to rebirth.
In return, a large amount of refined black gold fragmented light, converted from death energy, scattered into her sea of consciousness, further extending and expanding it...
Sensing the loosening of her Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, she immediately withdrew from her sea of consciousness, embraced unity, and then the vast darkness and corpse energy accumulated within the rotten black mud of the earth's crust surged around her like a powerful subterranean wind. Gu Junshi's eyes gleamed, and she rapidly circulated the "Great Dao Ruthless Art" to clear the blockages in her meridians. This was a meticulous and patient task.
From Foundation Establishment to Golden Core was a watershed in cultivation, a complete severance from the mortal world. Her profound dark robes fluttered in the wind. After the surrounding dense chilling energy was drained, her cultivation instantly broke through from Foundation Establishment Great Perfection to early Golden Core.
However, she did not form a core. Those with废灵根 (waste spiritual roots) could not form a core at all. Therefore, her path of cultivation, compared to orthodox cultivators, was considered a path of unorthodox and evil arts.
She had gained considerable rewards tonight. The souls lingering in the ancient battlefield of the Great Expansion Sect numbered at least a hundred thousand, enough to cause such a significant impact on the surrounding environment. It seemed she had found a place to cultivate within the Great Expansion Sect from now on.
The wind howled with a sharp whistle, suddenly accompanied by a violent, bloody aura. Gu Junshi, who always distinguished clearly between life and death energy, abruptly turned her head.
Were there still living creatures in this forbidden zone?
She walked along, the moonlight hazy, wisps of black mist swirling in the cold air. On a pile of corpses that had piled up like small mountains, she saw a giant, snow-white demonic beast.
Its nine silver-white tails danced freely in the moonlight. It lowered its head and buried it in the chest of a corpse, tearing out its heart to eat. Blood stained its sharp, white teeth.
Gu Junshi narrowed her eyes slightly.
She glanced up at the sky, noting it was precisely the middle of the month.
After understanding, she coldly spat out, "Beast."
Sensing movement, the nine-tailed demonic beast raised its head, its eyes narrowed. Its fox eyes gleamed like rubies, upturned and narrow, appearing incredibly alluring under the moonlight, like a captivating young girl, pure and incomparably beautiful. It seemed to understand her derogatory words and let out an enraged, piercing cry, sharp like a baby's wail.
Then, it leaped and roared, its massive form and nine fluffy tails instantly blocking out all the light from the sky.
Gu Junshi knew she was no match for it in her current state. She used aerial evasion to dodge. It had lost all sanity, just as she had said, merely an animal acting on instinct. Reversing its natural course, it forcibly transformed into human form. Every full moon, it would revert to its original form due to backlash, seeking to devour humans.
It chased her crazily all the way. It shattered hillsides, clawed at stones, and ran unhindered across the wilderness, pursuing her.
But as dawn approached, it suddenly convulsed and collapsed. Its entire body's blood seemed to boil, a burning heat causing it immense pain. As it rolled and wailed, its demonic body began to shed fur, shrink, and finally transform into a perfect human form with jade-like skin and bone-like structure. Its nine soft, boneless demonic tails lay across its lower abdomen, gently sweeping and swaying.
Gu Junshi descended from the sky. The poisonous miasma around them converged into tentacle-like appendages, writhing and greedily attempting to devour living beings. She didn't even look, stepping on them and scattering them, making them unable to reform.
Seeing the unfamiliar face, Gu Junshi, with an indifferent expression, directly stepped on his face and ground it.
"Tell me, should I also leave a mark of a demonic beast on your face?"
She half-crouched, reaching for the silver fox hair behind his neck. She recalled how he would be heartbroken if even a few strands were lost in her previous life. Gathering her energy at her fingertips, she directly cut his hair shoulder-length. However, as the silver threads detached from his body, they instantly turned into a handful of lifeless black-grey smoke and dispersed in the wind.
She frowned, feeling a bit of regret.
Items made from the fur of a nine-tailed fox were worn for auspicious blessings, but unfortunately, if taken without the nine-tailed fox's consent, they could not be kept.
Gu Junshi thought for a moment, picked up a branch from the ground beside him, and wrote: "Beast, I recorded your heart-eating demonic transformation process with a shadow stone. If you don't want every disciple of the Great Expansion Sect to have a copy for viewing, be here at midnight tomorrow."
After writing, she threw the branch away and left without a backward glance, leaving behind a naked, beautiful fox-man lying pathetically on the ground.
—
When Wei Li slowly woke up, he found himself in the wilderness, but he wasn't alarmed. This had happened before, but this time... something felt different?
Shamelessly, he stood up naked. He felt a pain in his face. He touched it. Hiss, it wasn't just one spot that hurt, but his entire face!
He was shocked.
Could he have slammed his face into the ground during his transformation?
Impossible. Even if his mind regressed and he turned into a nine-tailed fox, he wouldn't be that foolish.
It wasn't until he inadvertently saw the writing left beside him that he bent down, squinting, and read each word. Then his face turned red, then white, then green, and finally, his eyes turned crimson. He stumbled back, clutching his chest in shock: "Heart-eating, demon, demon-man?!"
He (or she) had seen his pristine body and then just thrown him on the ground and left?!
Fine, meeting again, was it?
Wei Li raised his hand, and clothes appeared on his body, his hair color changing back to human black. As he instinctively brushed his hair—
His hand met empty air.
He blankly turned his head, and when he saw his hair was only up to his ears, he was stunned for a long time. Then, tears began to fall silently, one by one, and he couldn't help but feel self-pity.
Conversely, the killing intent around him condensed into a tangible, bloody aura, tearing open the poisonous miasma. A heart-wrenching howl seemed to echo in the air.