The Cold and Aloof Palace Master's Daily Demon-Slaying Life

At the same time, Xia Zhu's entire body began to twist and deform violently and uncontrollably in mid-air.

Huge, wriggling tumors bulged on the skin's surface, bursting open to reveal countless tiny, slimy tentacles.

The bones emitted a teeth-grinding popping sound as they grew and mutated wildly.

Her neck swelled up and a new head began to grow.

Her back split open, and several grotesque, purplish-brown arms covered in bone spurs and suckers, like venomous insects emerging from their cocoons, struggled and tore through flesh, dripping with viscous fluid.

When the changes stopped, Xia Zhu turned into a monster with three heads and six arms.

No, to be precise, it is a form that is even more deformed and evil than three heads and six arms.

Her skin had turned completely purplish-brown, covered with twisted, magical patterns and tiny, constantly opening and closing mouths containing fine, spiraling teeth.

Immediately afterwards, an ancient, difficult incantation, filled with ominous and taboo connotations, was simultaneously chanted from the mouths of her transformed three heads, with difficulty yet unwavering determination:

"I will exchange my three lifetimes for the power of Yama, the King of Hell..."

"Through three lifetimes, may you be forever condemned to Yama..."

The Three Lives Yama Curse

This is the most vicious and costly supreme forbidden spell in the Diluo Sect's lineage.

Once cast, the caster will sacrifice their "three lives and three lifetimes"—not just their soul in this life, but also all possibilities in the past and future, and all qualifications for reincarnation.

It is a price a hundred times worse than being annihilated and never reincarnated, a price that is completely "erased" from the meaning of existence.

But in return, they gained almost limitless power, far exceeding their own limits, during the brief period when the spell was in effect.

This is not over yet.

After swallowing the flesh and blood of the ancient demon and chanting the Yama's Curse, a fierce fire of the soul, seemingly intent on burning everything to ashes, ignited in the eyes of Xia Zhu's three twisted heads.

【Burning Spirit Technique】.

Burn all the potential of the physical body, burn the origin of the primordial spirit in the Purple Mansion, burn the memories of the divine soul, burn emotions, burn beliefs... burn everything that can burn, in exchange for the final and most extreme explosion.

Ancient Demon Flesh and Blood, Yama's Forbidden Curse, and the Great Spirit-Burning Technique.

Triple superposition, triple sacrifice, triple madness.

This is truly leaving no room for compromise.

We harbor no illusions and seek no future.

The goal is to unleash the strongest power in the shortest amount of time.

Just to fulfill that promise made with a pinky promise.

To outsiders, it might seem foolish, insane, and incomprehensible to pay such a terrible and irredeemable price for a mere remark from a long-dead person.

But for Xia Zhu—

worth it.

Her master gave her a second life and a "home".

Protecting this "home" is her promise to her master, and it is also the sole reason for her to live.

This is her way.

It was also her choice.

No complaints, no regrets.

The next moment, Xia Zhu's power surged to a certain critical point, and his three distorted, pained, yet strangely calm, ferocious faces spoke at the same time.

Their voices overlapped and mingled, like a chant from the deepest hell, echoing eerily in the blood-red light:

"Demonic flames burn my body, bones form mountains; my soul is severed in the Nine Netherworlds after three lifetimes."

"The Milky Way is dimmed in the eternal night, and the curse of Yama is broken."

"I fear not the empty karma of reincarnation, but only seek to keep my promise and guard the lonely banner."

"Though this body has taken the form of an Asura, I have no regrets about treading the River of the Dead!"

Yes.

She never regretted joining the Diluo Sect.

I have never regretted becoming my master's disciple.

He has never regretted taking on the heavy responsibility of protecting the sect.

I have never regretted... the choice I made at this moment.

The senior student chose to run away; he might regret it in the future.

But she, Xia Zhu, has no regrets.

Never regret it.

-

In Zuo Qingqiu's eyes, the dying witch Xia Zhu suddenly burst into tears for no apparent reason, then swallowed a piece of writhing flesh, and then inexplicably recited a few melodramatic and passionate lines.

Then, he chanted a very evil incantation, and finally, inexplicably recited a poem that sounded somewhat tragic.

Then, the power within her body began to surge wildly in a way that defied common sense and was almost like "burning".

The cost is also obvious—

Her body began to undergo a horrific mutation, twisting into a monster with three heads, six arms, purplish-brown skin, covered in demonic patterns, and tiny mouthparts.

The atmosphere was chaotic and violent, filled with destruction and misfortune.

When this surge of power finally stopped, Xia Zhu's cultivation fluctuations had reached...

A hundred times greater than the ordinary Purple Mansion Great Perfection.

This number finally stirred a slight ripple in Zuo Qingqiu's usually calm heart.

It wasn't surprise, it wasn't fear.

Instead, it was... a faint sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of deep emotion or reflection).

Ordinary methods of stimulating potential can increase strength tenfold at most, but they have endless consequences, often costing the caster their foundation, cultivation level, or even death on the spot.

It can increase one's strength a hundredfold...

This goes beyond the scope of "secret arts" and touches upon a taboo, sacrificial, and rule-based exchange.

The price to be paid will inevitably be unimaginably severe.

Unfortunately, this kind of power, which relies on the crazy accumulation of "quantity" to forcibly elevate itself, is still essentially at the level of "Purple Mansion".

It is "enormous", not "qualitative change".

A fragile container, forcibly filled with water far exceeding its limits, will only have one outcome—

It was so full it burst.

Zuo Qingqiu could sense that Xia Zhu's condition was extremely unstable at the moment. The power of the hundredfold Purple Mansion Perfection was raging and roaring wildly in her distorted body, as if it would blow her to pieces from the inside out at any moment.

The time she can maintain this state must be extremely short.

"A hundred times the power of a perfected Purple Mansion..." Zuo Qingqiu murmured to himself, his eyes beneath the bamboo hat calm and unwavering. "Indeed... very strong."

It is invincible below the True Lord and can sweep away all Purple Mansions.

"pity……"

She shook her head slightly, her voice clear and cold, yet carrying an air of detached indifference.

"Not strong enough."

The gap between the Purple Mansion and the True Lord is a gap in the dimension of life, a chasm in the essence of power, and an insurmountable barrier between "rules" and "brute force".

That's not something that can be overcome simply by accumulating "quantity".

Just as Zuo Qingqiu was thinking, Xia Zhu, the witch below who had already mastered her power, whose body was still trembling violently and seemed to be enduring excruciating pain every second, launched an attack.

She clearly realized that in front of the True Lord, no matter how large her Dharma form was, she was still just a clumsy and fragile target.

Therefore, she used all of her violent energy, a hundred times greater than that of a fully-fledged Purple Mansion, without reservation or regard for cost, to activate her supernatural powers.

With three heads and six arms, he cast spells simultaneously.

"Buzz—!"

Above Zuo Qingqiu's head, hundreds of feet above the ground, a spatial rift with a diameter of over a thousand feet was instantly torn open by an invisible, enormous force.

Within the spatial rift was not emptiness, but a scene of dazzling golden light, faint chanting of Buddhist hymns, yet also exuding boundless eeriness.

A giant golden finger, seemingly crafted from pure gold and imprinted with countless ancient Sanskrit, demonic, and magical runes, with swastikas and skull phantoms wrapped around its tip, slowly emerged from a spatial rift.

The giant finger was hundreds of feet long, and its entire body exuded a terrifying Daoist aura of "suppression" and "annihilation". It was as if the Buddha's finger could enlighten all living beings, or shatter the sky and shake the six realms of reincarnation.

With its majestic power, it disregarded spatial distance and slowly, yet irresistibly, pressed down on Zuo Qingqiu below.

Supernatural power – [Great Brahma Demon God Finger].