Holy Maiden, wait a minute. Why are you asking me to cultivate again?

Beyond the market town, in the wilderness.

Du Shaoyi had not expected Song Zhao to "sacrifice his eyes to save his ears," and his movements hesitated for a moment.

Since it's all torture anyway, blinding them isn't out of the question.

Ding!

The poisoned dagger pierced Song Zhao's eyeball, but instead of the expected sound of a sharp object piercing flesh, he heard the sound of metal clanging.

"Um?"

Du Shaoyi was slightly taken aback when he didn't see any blood. He looked at Song Zhao's eyeball and found a layer of golden light on it, with densely packed runes and talismans inside.

"This is?"

boom!

A brilliant golden light burst forth from Song Zhao's eyes, like a divine bridge spanning life and death, instantly annihilating the poisoned dagger. Three clinking sounds were heard, and all three layers of protective spiritual light on Du Shaoyi's body shattered!

"Ugh!"

The eldest son of the Du family stared blankly down at the sight of a huge, bloody hole in his chest, almost covering his entire chest.

"you......"

Du Shaoyi fell backward, finally understanding why the other party had offered up their eyes.

"Heh, heh..."

Song Zhao gasped for breath, realizing that he had temporarily lost his sight after the Golden Core Eye emitted golden light, but otherwise he was fine.

"As expected, my guess was right. I still have my left eye, and I still have a trump card to save my life..."

He came to Du Shaoyi's body and took a storage ring off his finger.

This storage ring, like Du Lingfeng's, has a layer of restriction on it.

"The Du family, this is truly a fight to the death..."

After Song Zhao used the Heavenly Demon Pearl to refine Du Shaoyi's corpse, he burned the clothes with a bright flame.

"I'm going to break the restriction now."

He staggered to his feet and prepared to walk toward the market.

But before he could take more than a few steps, he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and his vision went black.

"The power of the Dharma Eye does indeed have side effects."

"That golden light probably exhausted all my vital energy... I'm going to die, I've suffered a great loss of vitality."

Song Zhao tried his best to keep his eyelids open, but he still collapsed to the ground.

A short while later.

An elder from the Tianwu Sect flew in and saw Song Zhao lying on the ground.

"Strange, I clearly sensed a Golden Core aura just now. Was I mistaken?"

The elder stepped forward to check Song Zhao's breathing, picked him up, and took him back to the sect.

......

......

When Song Zhao woke up again, he was in the Grand Elder's palace.

The first thing he did upon waking was to check if his storage ring was still there. Only after confirming that the item was still there did he slowly take in his surroundings.

"Where is this?"

Just as I was feeling down, I heard two women's voices outside.

"Elder, how is Song Zhao's injury?"

"Oh my, Holy Maiden, what's your relationship with him? I haven't even had a chance to visit my disciple yet, what brings you here?"

"...He used to be a servant in my palace. It's not unusual for him to come and check on me after hearing that I was injured in the market, is it?"

"Tsk tsk, a menial servant, yet the Holy Maiden cares about him. I think there must be something going on."

It's the Holy Maiden and the Grand Elder.

Hearing the footsteps getting closer, Song Zhao immediately tried to get up.

However, he was too weak to get up.

A severe depletion of vital energy is different from an injury; it doesn't heal in a short time.

crunch.

The eldest elder, dressed in a red dress, entered first, her two large red lanterns bobbing up and down.

"How was it? I heard about what happened at the market. You're very brave, daring to chase after and kill people from the Blood Demon Cult."

Song Zhao smiled and said, "It's alright. How are Zhang Xing and the others? Are they alright?"

"You're quite loyal. They're not really in any trouble, they've just lost a lot and need some time to recover."

Cui Yu held Song Zhao in higher regard and glanced back, saying, "Yes, even the Holy Maiden has come to see you in person."

"It seems you are very important to the sect."

"I'll go out first. You two, master and servant, can have a chat."

From her attitude just now, Cui Yu knew that Su Fangyue and the new student were definitely having an affair, and she had no reason to stay any longer.

"Your Holiness..."

After Cui Yu left, Song Zhao spoke first, looking directly at Su Fangyue: "I'm sorry you had to see this."

"Oh, not really. Everyone has moments of weakness in life."

"Besides, you've already seen how weak I am."

Su Fangyue walked over and gently placed her fingers on Song Zhao's wrist.

Today she was dressed very simply, without any makeup, yet she was still pleasing to the eye, like a fairy in a simple dress untouched by the mortal world.

"Well, it's nothing serious, just a significant loss of energy."

Su Fangyue withdrew her finger, took out a pill from her storage bag, and held it between her two fingers: "This is a Qi-replenishing and Yuan-stabilizing pill. It will be good for you. Take it."

Song Zhao accepted the pill and smiled, "Holy Maiden, you are so kind."

"Even though the sect leader said we shouldn't associate with each other, you still came."

Su Fangyue scoffed, "So what? You killed so many Blood Demon Cult members, that's a great achievement. Even if I sleep here tonight, my master won't say anything."

After swallowing the pill, Song Zhao let out a few wicked laughs: "Then it's a deal, you'll sleep here tonight."

"You're already like this? And you're still thinking about that kind of thing?" Su Fangyue's cheeks flushed slightly, and she looked her up and down with her almond-shaped eyes.

Song Zhao said, "I didn't say anything. I just asked the Holy Maiden to stay with me for one night. It's you who misunderstood, Holy Maiden."

"Ha, men."

Su Fangyue didn't argue, but sat on the edge of the bed and shared what was happening in the outside world with Song Zhao.

It turns out that in addition to Tianwu Market, other markets under the jurisdiction of Tianwu Sect were also attacked, and the number of dead and injured has exceeded one hundred.

This enraged Dongfang Huaizhen, who personally led a team to wipe out the Blood Demon Sect.

"I always felt that the Blood Demon Cult was not simple, as if it was harboring a huge conspiracy."

Su Fangyue let Song Zhao rest his head on her snow-white thighs, her heart filled with worry.

Song Zhao smelled the fragrance and said, "Last night I overheard them saying they'd leave as soon as they finished their work. Could the market have been sabotaged?"

"I don't know. Master also sent people to the market. If something was tampered with, they should be able to find out."

As the two were talking, another noise came from outside.

"Elder, is Song Zhao here?"

"And who are you?"

Cui Yu scrutinized Lin Shuangwan as she stepped forward. She wore a sky-blue dress, revealing her warm jade-colored skin between her white boots and the hem of her skirt, and had a pure and innocent face.

Lin Shuangwan gracefully bowed: "Disciple Lin Shuangwan."

"I heard that Song Zhao recently became your disciple, Elder, so I came to inquire about it."

"Hehe, what's your relationship with him?" Cui Yu's lips curled up slightly, noticing that the old man was quite popular with women.

I was even a little jealous of myself.

Lin Shuangwan replied without hesitation, "He and I are fellow Daoists. We've completed missions together, and we've been through thick and thin together."

"Then go over there, he's in that little courtyard."

Cui Yu released the people, wanting to see who was more powerful, Lin Shuangwan or the Holy Maiden.

"Thank you, Elder."

Lin Shuangwan thanked him and hurried into the courtyard. After opening the door, she found Song Zhaozheng and Su Fangyue together, with Su Fangyue's hand pressing her head firmly against her thigh.

"Haha, Fairy Lin, the Holy Maiden insisted that I rest my head on her lap, I had no choice."

Song Zhaoqian chuckled, and Lin Shuangwan's smile visibly darkened.