If I, a death row inmate, am not to become a demon, am I to become a member of the Imperial Guard?

A warm sensation came from between my eyebrows.

The force wasn't domineering; it flowed gently like a spring stream through Zhou Yang's parched meridians. The feeling of utter exhaustion, as if his life force had been drained, was gradually fading. His body was still tired, his muscles sore, as if he had just finished a long chase, but the deepest deficiency was being replenished.

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

The breath was long, carrying the smell of blood, but also a hint of new life.

"Zhou Yang?"

Qin Shuang's voice was right beside him. She stood beside him the whole time, her sickle pointing diagonally at the ground, her eyes scanning the surroundings warily. The wind was strong on the mountaintop, making her robes flutter, and a few strands of hair clung to her pale cheeks.

"It's nothing." Zhou Yang shook his head, supporting his knees as he slowly straightened up. "I'm just a little tired, like I've been completely drained."

Qin Shuang didn't say anything, but simply handed over a water pouch.

Zhou Yang took it, unscrewed the cap, and took a big gulp. The cool water slid down his throat, suppressing the unease in his chest. He looked around.

They stood on a wide mountaintop platform. Beneath their feet were polished flagstones, their cracks covered in resilient moss. In the center of the platform stood a massive circular altar. The altar was constructed of obsidian-like stone, its surface engraved with intricate, ancient runes. Those runes gleamed with a cold, eerie light under the moonlight, as if they had slumbered for countless ages.

It's so quiet here.

Apart from the sound of the wind, there was no sound of any living thing. There was a cold, metallic smell in the air, a mixture of stone and dust.

"This place... is not simple." Qin Shuang's voice was very soft. Her fingers tightened their grip on the sickle.

Zhou Yang also sensed it.

The dragon spine fragments within his body were slightly warm, as if responding to something. The sensation wasn't intense, but it was very clear, like two magnets attracting each other across a table.

"Be careful," he whispered. "There's something wrong with this altar."

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing the solemnity in each other's eyes. They approached the altar cautiously, one on the left and one on the right. Their footsteps were so light that they made almost no sound on the stones.

The closer he got, the clearer the runes on the altar became. They weren't just decorations; they were array patterns Zhou Yang had never seen before, with strange lines and a powerful aura.

They were less than ten steps away from the altar.

hum-

A muffled buzzing sound rang out from the center of the altar.

The fragment between Zhou Yang's eyebrows instantly became scorching hot, like a red-hot branding iron.

"Back off!" he shouted, pulling Qin Shuang and leaping backward.

The bluestone slabs beneath our feet began to shake violently.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three loud bangs, like the beating of drums.

The ground around the altar suddenly exploded, and three huge rocks rose from the earth. Those rocks were at least ten feet high, with rough surfaces and full of holes.

To Zhou Yang and Qin Shuang's astonishment, the rocks began to deform and recombine. They stretched and twisted like living mud, gradually transforming into human shapes.

Rough stones formed their limbs and torsos, and magma seemed to flow within their hollow chest cavities. They had no facial features, only a forcibly torn stone mouth that emitted a hoarse, grinding sound.

Three stone figures, or rather, three puppets made of rock, emerged from the smoke and dust with heavy steps. With each step, the ground trembled.

"The Guardians of Linyan..." Qin Shuang murmured, her expression turning somewhat grim for the first time. "Ancient texts record that these are mechanical puppets that guard ancient ruins, impervious to swords and spears, and possessing immense strength."

Zhou Yang's heart sank.

He's in terrible shape right now; he'd struggle to even fight one of these monsters, let alone three. That burst of power just now has completely drained his energy.

"I'll distract them, you find an opportunity!" Qin Shuang didn't hesitate at all. With a swift movement, she drifted towards one of the Frosty Rock Guardians like a white snowflake.

Her movements were quick and sharp.

The scythe drew a bright silver arc in the air, whistling sharply, and struck straight at the guard's knee.

"clang!"

A piercing clang of metal clashing.

Qin Shuang's scythe struck the guard's stone leg solidly, producing only a string of sparks and leaving a shallow white mark. The immense recoil caused her arm, which was holding the scythe, to go slightly numb.

This thing is so hard!

The guard seemed oblivious to the pain. Instead of looking down at its leg, it stretched out its enormous stone paw and slammed it down towards Qin Shuang's head. This strike carried a whistling sound; if it landed, it would likely turn Qin Shuang into a pile of minced meat.

Qin Shuang reacted extremely quickly. She touched the ground with her toes and retreated rapidly, narrowly avoiding the attack.

The stone palm slammed into the ground, and the bluestone slab instantly cracked.

The other two guards also moved, taking heavy steps as they flanked from the left and right, forming a triangle that trapped Zhou Yang and Qin Shuang in the middle.

Qin Shuang frowned.

She discovered that although the guards moved clumsily, their coordination was impeccable. They had no weaknesses. Simply dodging would only lead to being worn down and killed.

She took a deep breath, and her eyes suddenly sharpened.

We have to fight tooth and nail.

"Zhou Yang, watch closely!"

With a sharp shout, the attack of her scythe changed abruptly. It was no longer a slashing motion, but transformed into a dense stream of sword light. Her swordsmanship was no longer the previous sweeping and powerful scythe technique, but became light, agile, and swift, the tip of the sword skimming the water like a dragonfly, constantly stabbing at the guards.

That's the Quanzhen Swordplay.

Use skill to overcome force, and stillness to control movement.

Her sword tip precisely avoided the hard rock shell, repeatedly stabbing at the gaps where the guards' bodies were joined. That was their weakest point.

"puff!"

A soft sound.

The sword tip pierced the shoulder joint of a guard, and a red light shone through the gap, then quickly spread.

The guard froze, and the rocks on his body began to loosen and crumble.

Qin Shuang pressed her advantage, spinning around as her sword flashed like rain, instantly covering the entire body of the guard.

"Snap! Snap!"

The crisp cracking sound continued incessantly.

In just a few breaths, the ten-foot-tall rock guardian was completely disintegrated under Qin Shuang's dense sword light, turning into a pile of rubble.

Having dealt with the first one, Qin Shuang didn't rest for a moment; she turned and rushed toward the second target.

But the other two guards seemed to have learned their lesson. Instead of fighting alone, they stood back to back, protecting all the gaps and forming a fortress without any weaknesses.

Qin Shuang's sword light pierced the guard's body again, but only brought up a series of powerless sparks.

Zhou Yang watched anxiously from the side.

He desperately wanted to rush up and help, but his legs were still trembling. He knew that if he rushed up now, he would only be a hindrance.

His gaze was fixed on the two guards back to back. His mind was racing.

Weaknesses... there must be more weaknesses.

He noticed the guard's chest area. The stone there was a darker color, and he could vaguely see a glowing rune. That rune had also lit up when the first guard was hit.

It's the core!

"Qin Shuang! Attack the runes on their chests!" Zhou Yang shouted with all his might.

Upon hearing this, Qin Shuang's gaze sharpened. She immediately understood Zhou Yang's meaning.

She stopped making pointless thrusts, took a deep breath, and concentrated all her inner energy at the tip of her sword. Her figure became elusive, circling the two guards at high speed, searching for an angle to attack.

She skillfully dodged the guards' attacks.

In the instant he dodged to the side, the opportunity arose!

As the two guards turned to attack, the runes on their chests were exposed for a moment.

A sharp glint flashed in Qin Shuang's eyes.

Instead of retreating, she advanced, her body like a fully drawn bow, the sword in her hand transforming into an extremely straight line.

"break!"

The sword tip struck precisely at a guardian rune.

"Bang!"

The runes shattered instantly.

The guardian's body shuddered violently, the red light on its chest extinguished instantly, and then it collapsed with a crash, shattering into pieces on the ground.

Only one left!

However, the last guardian made an unexpected move the instant Qin Shuang drew her sword. Instead of attacking Qin Shuang, it turned and slammed its massive stone palm towards the weakened Zhou Yang!

Its target from the very beginning was Zhou Yang!

It sensed that the one in black was the real source of the trouble.

Zhou Yang's pupils suddenly contracted.

He watched as the towering stone palm descended upon him, the wind pressure almost suffocating him. He tried to dodge, but his body wouldn't obey him.

It’s over.

At this critical moment, Qin Shuang's figure flashed in front of him like a ghost, and her sword swept out to block the stone palm.

"clang--!"

A tremendous force struck, and Qin Shuang let out a muffled groan as she was thrown backward, crashing right into Zhou Yang's arms.

The two of them rolled to the ground together.

The guard had raised his hand again.

"Run!" Qin Shuang struggled to stand up, but spat out a mouthful of blood.

Zhou Yang held her in his arms, watching the stone palm fall again, a resolute glint in his eyes.

There is no escape.

We have no choice but to gamble.

He closed his eyes, concentrating all his thoughts on the space between his eyebrows. There, the third fragment was pulsating warmly.

He used to burn his lifespan to advance his cultivation techniques. It felt like a piece of his life was being forcibly ripped out of his body.

But now, he doesn't want to do that.

What he wanted was... power. The power of the fragment itself.

"come out!"

He roared inwardly.

The fragment between his brows seemed to understand his command, and burst forth with unprecedented light.

The light was not gentle, but dazzling and domineering. An invisible shockwave suddenly spread outwards from Zhou Yang as the center.

There was no sound, no flame.

Only pure power.

Visible ripples appeared in the air.

The guard, about to strike, abruptly stopped. Fine cracks began to appear on the surface of its stone palm, which hovered in mid-air.

Cracks, like a spider web, quickly spread across its entire body.

Zhou Yang's shockwave had penetrated its hard outer shell, directly disintegrating its structure from the inside.

"Boom... Crack!"

The last guardian, without even a complete roar, shattered silently before everyone's astonished eyes. It didn't turn into large chunks of rock, but instead dissolved into dust that drifted away in the wind atop the mountain.

The world has finally fallen silent.

Zhou Yang gasped for breath, his vision blurring in waves. That sudden burst of energy had drained him of his last ounce of strength. He didn't want to move a single finger.

Qin Shuang leaned against him, her condition no better. Her face was pale, and there was blood at the corner of her mouth, but her eyes were surprisingly bright.

She looked at Zhou Yang, then at the pile of dissipating dust.

"You...did it."

Zhou Yang tried to grin, but found he couldn't even manage that. He could only lean helplessly against Qin Shuang, feeling each other's body heat.

It took them a long time to recover.

They helped each other to their feet and looked at the altar, which had returned to peace.

Right where the last guardian had just shattered, on the stone surface of the altar, something was emitting a soft light.

Those are not fragments.

Instead, it was a mountain map made of light. At the end of the map, a red dot was slowly flashing.