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

The surroundings were eerily quiet.

Zhou Yang's playful remark about "cash out" was like a stone thrown into the sea, failing to elicit any response.

The air inside the cave was as thick as glue, and with each breath, the lungs were filled with the smell of rust. It wasn't ordinary rust; it was blood, the residue left after the blood and qi of thousands of people had been boiled dry, making one's throat dry.

He didn't move.

He held the embroidered spring knife horizontally in his hand, the tip pointing at the figure sitting cross-legged by the pond.

It was an extremely strange-looking back view.

The man was wearing an extremely large gray robe, and he looked thin and emaciated, as if something had drained his energy and spirit, leaving only a skin and bones.

He sat cross-legged on a protruding bluestone, facing the churning pool of blood, like a rotten mud statue with its paint peeled off in a temple.

In the center of the blood pool, a palm-sized fragment of the jade seal floated.

It wasn't as dazzling as Zhou Yang had imagined; instead, it was dull and gray, its surface covered with cracks, like a piece of charcoal just pulled from a stove. But this unremarkable "charcoal" caused the pool of blood to surge wildly, each bubble bursting as if in worship.

Zhou Yang narrowed his eyes slightly.

He's calculating.

How many breaths would it take to rush through from here?

Three breaths.

No, this blood pool is strange. The blood energy within it seems to have a conscious hand, pulling at a person's steps. It takes at least five breaths.

Five breaths is enough time for this "Imperial Advisor" to kill him several times.

The answer is: countless times.

Zhou Yang was absolutely certain of this. He saw the dried black bloodstains beside the Grand Preceptor, which splattered in a strange pattern, as if someone had exploded behind him.

"Young man, why are you so angry?"

The seated figure finally moved.

He didn't turn around, but just tilted his head slightly.

The voice was hoarse and aged, like two rough pieces of sandpaper rubbing against each other, making one's eardrums ache.

"You're a quarter of an hour faster than I expected."

The Imperial Advisor spoke slowly, his tone as calm as if he were discussing the weather, "I thought you would at least spend the time it takes for an incense stick to burn in that maze outside. I didn't expect you to blow up the road directly."

Zhou Yang's heart skipped a beat.

Did the other party know he had blown up the road outside?

Although the old man was sitting there without moving, he had complete control over the commotion outside.

"Just lucky, a slip of the hand." Zhou Yang grinned, displaying the roguish and shameless nature of a street rogue to the fullest. "Old sir, let's not beat around the bush. I'm not interested in what kind of offal you're cooking in this pot. But I like that stone. Name your price, I'll take it and leave without delaying your soup-making."

Greed.

The Imperial Advisor shook his head and slowly stood up.

As he stood up, Zhou Yang felt as if a mountain had suddenly collapsed above his head.

There was no strong wind, no imposing roar.

It's a pure, real pressure.

The stalactites at the top of the cave began to tremble slightly, and the water droplets on their surfaces were shaken off and fell. The pebbles on the ground bounced around like startled fleas.

A visible dark red ripple spread silently outwards from the Imperial Preceptor.

Zhou Yang's pupils suddenly contracted.

He saw it clearly.

That's neither internal force nor true qi.

That's malevolent energy.

The malevolent aura was so thick it was almost tangible.

This old man didn't restrain his aura at all; he was like a burning ember, and the surrounding air was distorted and deformed by his terrifying body temperature.

"You want this fragment of the dragon's spine?" The Imperial Advisor turned around.

What kind of face was that?

Withered and sallow, his skin clung tightly to his cheekbones, his eye sockets were sunken, and there were no pupils in his eyes, only two eerie green flames flickering within them.

His lips were chapped, and a faint trace of blood clung to the corner of his mouth.

"If you want it, then come and get it."

The Imperial Advisor raised a hand, which was as dry as a chicken claw, with nails that were two inches long, jet black and shiny, and thick blood dripping from the fingertips.

He reached out and grabbed at Zhou Yang in mid-air.

This grab had no technique whatsoever; it was just a simple grab.

But Zhou Yang felt as if his heart had suddenly been gripped tightly.

Boom!

A muffled thud came from inside his chest.

Zhou Yang's face turned pale, and his footwork instantly shifted, making him resemble a slippery fish as he suddenly retreated three zhang (approximately 10 meters).

But he was still too slow.

Although the withered hand was several feet away, its invisible force was like a bone-deep wound, gripping his shoulder tightly. Two sharp, agonizing pains shot through his shoulder, as if red-hot iron hooks were viciously ripping his collarbone.

"Um?"

The Imperial Advisor let out a soft exclamation, and the withered hand stopped in mid-air.

"Interesting. Your body..."

His eyes, burning with green flames, narrowed slightly, as if he could see through Zhou Yang's skin and into the pulsating corpse poison within him.

"It actually withstood my murderous aura?"

Zhou Yang didn't speak; he was panting.

Fine beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead, mixing with the blood on his face and flowing into his eyes, causing a sharp pain.

This guy is ridiculously strong.

The mere pressure from his opening stance nearly made him drop his sword. Was this the so-called "Imperial Advisor"? Was this the mastermind behind everything, plunging the entire Anyang Prefecture into chaos?

Is this... the strength of a Grandmaster?

Zhou Yang gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down.

Being afraid is useless.

Fear is a more deadly poison than swords.

"Old man, this is practically forcing you to buy and sell," Zhou Yang spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his eyes turning fierce. "Since we're not talking business, let's talk about something else."

The corpse poison in his body began to boil.

From the moment the Grand Preceptor grabbed him, Zhou Yang felt the dormant corpse poison within his body start to stir wildly, like a shark that had smelled blood.

They are yearning.

They longed for the aura emanating from the old monster before them.

"wrong……"

Zhou Yang suddenly sensed something was wrong.

The malevolent energy didn't attack him; instead, it... surged into his body?

The Imperial Advisor clearly noticed this change as well. A look of extremely human surprise appeared on his withered face, which then turned into ecstatic joy.

"Good! Good! Good!"

He said "good" three times in a row.

"I was wondering where in this world I could find a physical vessel capable of containing such immense malevolent energy. Unexpectedly, what I sought was found right under my nose!"

The Imperial Advisor took a step forward.

This step covered a distance of several meters.

He seemed to shrink the distance between people, appearing instantly at the edge of the blood pool.

The terrifying sense of oppression suddenly increased tenfold. The rocks on the cave walls began to groan under the strain, and cracks spread rapidly like a spider web.

Zhou Yang felt his bones creaking.

"Kid, the corpse poison in your body, was it left to you by that good-for-nothing Fang Tian?"

The Imperial Advisor looked down at Zhou Yang, his eyes filled with greed, as if he were looking at a fattened pig. "That was a medicinal ingredient I refined years ago, and I never expected it would end up benefiting your body. Since you've delivered it to my doorstep, I won't be polite. This body, I'll accept it!"

Before he could finish speaking, the Imperial Advisor suddenly opened his arms wide.

boom!

The entire blood pool instantly erupted into chaos.

As if responding to a command, the boiling blood transformed into ferocious blood snakes, roaring as they surged into the sky and then swept towards Zhou Yang in a massive, overwhelming manner.

At the same time, the corpse poison in Zhou Yang's body completely spiraled out of control.

They were no longer under Zhou Yang's control, but began to operate spontaneously, as if forming a huge vortex within his body, frantically devouring the evil energy surging in from the outside.

pain!

Heart-wrenching pain.

Zhou Yang felt as if his meridians were being filled with molten iron, every blood vessel on the verge of bursting. Dark purple lines began to appear on his skin, like the tattoos of a demon.

"ah--!"

Zhou Yang couldn't help but let out a low growl.

He wanted to swing his knife, he wanted to fight back.

But the force was so great that even lifting a finger became incredibly difficult for him.

This is the absolute difference in strength.

This is the sword of Damocles hanging high above our heads in this world.

"Struggle, roar!"

The Grand Preceptor's hoarse voice echoed through the cave, carrying a twisted pleasure, "Your suffering will become nourishment for my rebirth. This fragment of the dragon's spine is fine, but it's not as substantial as a perfect physical body. Don't you think so?"

The blood snake had already coiled around Zhou Yang's ankle; it was cold, slippery, and had a nauseating, fishy stench.

They were climbing upwards, trying to drag him entirely into that boiling pool of blood.

Zhou Yang's vision began to blur.

In that instant, he seemed to see the jade seal fragment in the center of the blood pool, which seemed to flash briefly.

That faint light, like a pair of indifferent eyes, was watching this absurd devouring.

"Add more money..."

Zhou Yang squeezed out those two words through gritted teeth.

His consciousness sank rapidly in the chaos, trying to grasp at the only straw—that damned, cold, life-only system.

Burn-in life.

As long as there's one second left, as long as I can still move a finger.

He hasn't lost money on this deal yet.

The Imperial Advisor's laughter stopped abruptly.

He saw Zhou Yang's eyes.

In those eyes, blackened by the corpse poison, the pupils were glowing. Not from fear, not from despair, but from a light called "greed."

That kind of greed was even purer and more terrifying than that of the Imperial Advisor.

"What do you want to do?!" The Imperial Advisor felt a sense of unease for the first time.

Zhou Yang's mouth suddenly split open, revealing a mouthful of teeth stained red with blood.

That smile was ferocious and insane.

"I think……"

He suddenly raised his head, and the Embroidered Spring Blade in his hand emitted a sharp buzzing sound. The cracks on the blade instantly shattered, but were forcibly glued back together by an even more violent black aura.

"Give me... more money!"

boom!

A jet-black blade of light suddenly erupted from Zhou Yang's body, shattering all the blood snakes that had coiled around him.

This strike was not intended to kill the enemy.

It was to break free from that damned restraint.

Using the force of the recoil, Zhou Yang shot forward like a black cannonball, heading straight for the boiling blood pool and the withered figure standing by its edge.

Since this blood energy is going to devour me.

Then I'll just thoroughly muddy your soup first!

The Grand Preceptor clearly did not expect Zhou Yang to be able to launch a counterattack under such heavy pressure, and he did not expect that the momentum contained in this strike would faintly show signs of breaking through the threshold of the Grandmaster.

That was a strike purely for killing.

There are no frills, no way out.

Only a resolute decision to perish together.

"court death!"

The Imperial Advisor snorted coldly, clasped his hands together abruptly, and the blood in front of him instantly solidified into a thick blood shield.

The blade struck the blood shield.

There was no sound of metal clashing.

There was only a dull thud, like wet Xuan paper being torn.

That seemingly indestructible blood shield, under the cutting power of the black light, became as fragile as tofu.

The black blade light pierced through the blood shield without hindrance, carrying Zhou Yang's reckless killing intent, and aimed straight for the Grand Preceptor's brow.

The Imperial Advisor's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints.

He finally saw it clearly.

That wasn't some kind of sword light.

That was clearly the result Zhou Yang achieved by burning away all his life force.

"madman!"

The Imperial Advisor had no choice but to step back; it was the first time he had ever given way to this junior.

But Zhou Yang did not pursue them.

He twisted his waist forcefully in mid-air, and plunged the Embroidered Spring Blade in his hand into the center of the blood pool.

His target was not the imperial advisor at all.

From the very beginning, that was all he had in mind.

That palm-sized, dull jade seal fragment.

This is his only bargaining chip.

This is also the key point of the entire cave formation.

Only by getting it can we possibly turn this damn passive situation around.

"Give it to me...!"

Zhou Yang's fingers touched the cold stone.

A strange warmth instantly spread from my fingertips throughout my body.

At that very moment, the entire cavern trembled violently.

The blood pool stopped boiling.

At this moment, all the blood energy seemed to hear the king's call, surging towards the jade seal fragment and into Zhou Yang's body.

The Imperial Advisor stood at a distance, his expression shifting from anger to astonishment, and finally to a deep-seated resentment.

"You dare to touch my lifeline..."

He roared, his voice like that of a demon.

"I will skin you alive and torture your soul for ten thousand years!"

Zhou Yang gripped the fragment tightly, and was thrown backward by a tremendous force, crashing heavily into the cave wall and creating a deep crater.

Gravel tumbled down, and dust billowed everywhere.

Amidst the smoke and dust, Zhou Yang coughed and struggled to stand up, only to cough up a mouthful of black blood.

But he smiled.

He opened his blood-soaked palm and looked at the stone in his hand, which was still gray but had a few red veins on its surface.

"Ahem...it seems..."

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes flashing with an eerie light.

"This deal is negotiable."