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

The sound of armor plates clashing came from the end of the passageway. It was dense and rapid, like the urgent beat of a death knell.

Zhou Yang gripped Qin Shuang's wrist with his left hand, while his right hand drew the standard longsword of the Blood Shadow Guard from his waist. The blade was narrow and long, with a cold, sinister curve. He swung the sword backhand, cleaving the oncoming crossbow bolt in the air. The metal clashed, sparks flying onto the damp wall before being extinguished instantly.

"Left side." Qin Shuang's voice was hoarse.

Three feathered arrows pierced the air. The arrowheads gleamed with a ghostly blue, coated with poison.

Qin Shuang broke free from Zhou Yang's grasp and formed a hand seal. Frost appeared on her fingertips—the Xuanbing Force, a power forced from the last wisp of true energy within her meridians. A chilling aura filled the air, and the three poisoned arrows condensed into ice shells in mid-air, crackling as they fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

She swayed, a mouthful of blood welling up in her mouth, which she forced back down. The taste of blood spread on her tongue, tinged with the astringency of rust.

Zhou Yang didn't look at her. He stared at the seven dark figures surging towards him, all elites of the Demon Suppression Division. They carried chain-bladed swords, the blades dragging and scraping loudly in the dimly lit corridor.

"Stay close." Zhou Yang only said one sentence.

He rushed out.

The longsword cleaved open the first man's throat; before the blood could even spurt out, Zhou Yang had already ducked and crashed into the second man's arms. An elbow strike to the sternum echoed with a muffled crack. The third man's chain wrapped around Zhou Yang's neck; Zhou Yang grabbed the chain with his left hand, his palm slashed open, but he seemed oblivious to the pain. He yanked hard, and the man staggered forward, crashing head-on into the tip of Zhou Yang's blade.

Three corpses lay on the ground. Zhou Yang shook the blood off his left hand, turned around, and pulled Qin Shuang back to his feet.

"Walk."

Qin Shuang's steps were unsteady; he practically dragged her along. Her body temperature was frighteningly low; even through her clothes, Zhou Yang could feel her veins throbbing. Something was wrong. This wasn't just an injury.

Zhou Yang's pupils contracted. He "saw" it—a ball of dark blue light in Qin Shuang's dantian, bound by eight golden chains, was struggling frantically. With each struggle, wisps of blue light were drawn away, turning into nourishment for the runes on the dungeon walls.

The Demon Suppression Division not only imprisoned her, but also extracted her life essence.

"Bear with it," Zhou Yang suddenly said.

Before Qin Shuang could react, Zhou Yang slapped her on the back. The instant their palms met, Qin Shuang shuddered violently. She felt a surge of intense heat rush into her body, like a red-hot iron rod being plunged into an ice cave.

"You..." Qin Shuang's forehead was instantly covered in cold sweat.

"Don't move," Zhou Yang said in a low voice. Data streams were flashing wildly in his eyes, and the system panel unfolded before him:

[The seal on the Xuan Yin Body has been detected to be loosening. Should I consume my lifespan to force a breakthrough?]

[Warning: The target meridians are severely blocked; forcibly breaking through them will cause irreversible damage.]

Required lifespan: 30 years

Zhou Yang's lips twitched. Thirty years. The wealth he had accumulated by killing Fang Tian and the Immortal Envoy's projection was about to be wiped out in one fell swoop.

He glanced at Qin Shuang's pale profile. She had bitten her lip, and blood dripped down her chin onto her clothes, staining the area red. The blood droplets froze into ice crystals the moment they touched the fabric.

"Add more money," Zhou Yang muttered.

[Lifespan has been deducted]

[Initiating the unblocking of the Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin... Completed]

[Initiating the unblocking of the Foot Shaoyin Kidney Meridian... Completed]

[Initiating the process of closing the Ren and Du meridians... Successfully achieved]

boom!

Something seemed to explode inside Qin Shuang's body. The eight golden chains were torn apart by a brute force, and a dark blue light surged, instantly flowing throughout her limbs and bones. She tilted her head back and let out a short, sharp shriek, the sound waves causing the surrounding walls to crumble and dust to fall.

Centered on her, a visible blast of frost exploded outwards. The two pursuers at the forefront were instantly frozen into ice sculptures, frozen in their sword-wielding poses, their faces still frozen in astonishment.

Zhou Yang was thrown back half a step by the blast wave, a tightness in his chest. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and smiled, "Looks like the money wasn't wasted."

Qin Shuang opened her eyes. Her eyes had turned a pure, icy blue, devoid of whites or pupils, only a cold, empty void. She raised her hand and waved it gently.

The entire passageway, from floor to ceiling, was instantly covered with a three-inch-thick layer of solid ice. The pursuers' feet were frozen to the ground, and they struggled in terror, but the ice only grew thicker and thicker, gradually rising above their knees, hips, and chests…

"Can't control it anymore?" Zhou Yang frowned. He grabbed Qin Shuang's shoulder, channeling his death energy into her through his palm. The chilling death energy collided with the cold energy of the Xuan Yin Body, and strangely, they merged. The blue in Qin Shuang's eyes faded slightly, and she regained some clarity.

"Let's go." Zhou Yang grabbed her. "This place is going to collapse."

A deafening roar came from behind. The howls of the Earthly Fiend Beast grew closer, and reinforcements from the Demon Suppression Division surrounded them from all directions. Zhou Yang kicked open the side door, and a cold wind carrying rain rushed in.

Outside is the backyard of the Demon Suppression Division, and beyond the high walls lies the capital city.

Zhou Yang didn't use the main entrance. He dragged Qin Shuang onto the wall, a hail of arrows raining down from behind. Qin Shuang countered with a palm strike, a chilling aura sweeping across the air, freezing the arrows into ice blocks before they crashed to the ground. At that moment, their auras intertwined strangely—Zhou Yang's corpse aura was cold and deathly, while Qin Shuang's Xuanbing Force was pure and deadly. The two forces merged, forming a ring of grayish-white protective energy around them.

A pursuer swung his blade, but the blade frosted and shattered upon contact with the protective aura. Zhou Yang swiftly sliced ​​off half of his head with a single stroke, the blood freezing into red shards before it could even splatter.

"Jump!"

The two leaped from the three-zhang-high wall. Below lay a dark alleyway overflowing with sewage, piled high with garbage, and reeking of foul odors. Zhou Yang rolled as he landed, dissipating the impact and instinctively pulling Qin Shuang into his arms. His back slammed against the hard stone steps, causing him to wince in pain.

"How are you?" Qin Shuang struggled to get up, but Zhou Yang held her down.

"Don't move." Zhou Yang coughed. "Listen."

A jumble of footsteps echoed from the alleyway entrance, at least twenty people. Further away, the sound of clothes rustling through the air could be heard from the rooftops. The Blood Shadow Guards had already sealed off this area.

Zhou Yang looked around. This was the western slum of the capital, the most chaotic slum. The houses were crammed together like rotten teeth, the alleys were so narrow that only one person could pass sideways, and clotheslines crisscrossed overhead, hanging with rags and stinking dried fish.

He knew the way. Three months ago, he was a lowly thug at the bottom of the social ladder, fighting with people until his head bled over two steamed buns.

"Come with me." Zhou Yang pulled Qin Shuang into a narrow crevice. The crevice was only big enough for one person, and black water seeped from the wall. Qin Shuang pressed herself against Zhou Yang's back and could feel the tension in his back muscles, as well as the smell of blood—his back must have been injured from that collision.

"Why did you sacrifice your lifespan to save me?" Qin Shuang suddenly asked. Her voice was very soft in the narrow gap.

Zhou Yang paused, but didn't turn around: "If you die, who will I collect my debts from?"

Qin Shuang remained silent. She stared at Zhou Yang's retreating figure, his black robe soaked in blood, a deep arrow wound on his shoulder, flesh torn open.

At the end of the crevice was a dry well. Zhou Yang lifted the well cover, jumped down first, and then reached out to catch Qin Shuang as she jumped down. At the bottom of the well was an underground river, its water murky and floating with rotten vegetable leaves.

"Walk half a mile along the river, and you'll find a sewage outlet," Zhou Yang said. "Beyond that is a mass grave."

He paused, then added, "I know that place well."

Qin Shuang looked at him. Zhou Yang took out his pipe from his pocket, wanting to take a puff, but found that the tobacco had already fallen out during the fight. He casually tucked the pipe back into his waistband, his movement tinged with annoyance.

"Trust me?" Zhou Yang asked.

Qin Shuang didn't answer. She reached out and gently touched the wound on Zhou Yang's back with her fingertips. The blood on her fingers was warm.

"Let's go," she said.

The two men waded through knee-deep sewage, step by step, into the darkness. The shouts of pursuers echoed overhead, and the torchlight flickered at the well's edge, unable to illuminate the deepest part of the dry well.

In the darkness, there was only the sound of water and the intertwined breathing of the two people.