Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

The woman answered mechanically, and with a flick of her right hand, a murky ball of blood was clearly visible in her fair palm.

As if she wanted to prove her point, she stretched out her right hand, giving the girl enough time to see the blood-red sphere clearly.

"This is his essence and blood. The soul of a mortal is useless to me. This is the essence and blood extracted from his body."

"But he is still a mortal. If his essence and blood are removed for too long, even if he returns to his body, he will still face death. So you only have half a minute to save him."

"Now you have two choices—"

The woman's free right hand slightly extended her index finger, the joint of which looked particularly stiff and was stained with some indelible marks.

"First."

"Leave now, and I won't kill you or do anything to you. You don't need to worry about whether I'll kill you when you leave. If I really didn't want to let you go, you'd be dead by now."

"second--"

She raised another finger, and although her facial muscles did not move at all, a faint light of expectation flickered in her eyes.

“I can return his essence and blood to him, and I will also allow you to let him leave this place. In return, I will not lay a hand on him. But in return, I will have to sacrifice your body and soul.”

"I think you probably don't understand what blood sacrifice is. To put it simply, it means you will die, and die a very painful death."

The woman stared expectantly at the bewildered girl, shook two fingers of her right hand, and then focused her gaze on the blood sphere floating in her left palm.

She remained silent, but her meaning was clear.

—It's time to make a choice.

The girl slumped down, staring blankly at the pale-faced young man who seemed to be growing cold. Then she looked up, her gaze wandering between the woman's face and the ball of blood.

She only has half a minute.

One is death, and an extremely painful death.

The other is life... at the cost of the deaths of others.

No—if we start counting from when the woman began explaining, it probably hasn't even been half a minute.

She had to make a decision immediately.

The girl opened her chapped lips, and a hoarse voice came out.

"I...I choose..."

Before he could finish speaking...

Suddenly, a hand pierced through the surrounding dark flames and grabbed the woman's right wrist with terrifying speed.

The woman wasn't shocked, or rather... she seemed completely unsure how to express shock, and simply tilted her head slightly.

The next instant, a long shadow flashed past.

boom!

The ground collapsed!

A powerful whip kick, truly like a whip cleaving the sky, struck the woman's exquisite face. With a force like a mountain collapsing, she flew backward, crashing into and breaking countless thick tree trunks that had not yet been completely scorched by the flames.

The ball of blood was held by another hand wrapped in snow-white bandages.

The owner of the hand flung it backward, tossing it onto a white-haired boy who looked no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, who was walking slowly towards them.

"Senior brother, it's up to you now."

Leaving behind a figure that was hardly imposing, the woman's cold voice held boundless anger.

The white-haired boy who received the ball of blood grunted in acknowledgment. Then, under the stunned gaze of the girl, he slowly placed the ball of blood, which represented essence and blood, back into the young man's mouth. Afterward, he slowly channeled his inner energy into the young man named Ah Jun.

Zhang Ruoxue glanced back at the young man whose expression was gradually improving, and a huge weight lifted from her heart. Her sharp, hawk-like gaze swept around the surroundings...

The entire village had been engulfed by black flames, and the corpses on the ground had been burned into black mud by the flames. That black mud... was the embodiment of a demon.

They are exactly the same.

A woman named Zhang Ruoxue recalled her small village, Jinglin, from the past...

The mere thought of the man who slaughtered the entire village filled her with rage.

"How should I put it... I'm a little surprised."

A woman, who had clearly been whipped across the face by Zhang Ruoxue, walked slowly towards them, her face completely unharmed despite the blow to her face. Her beautiful features remained untouched.

She touched her facial muscles, blinked, and scrutinized Zhang Ruoxue with her gaze: "Although I don't know what surprise is... judging from your expression..."

"You're very angry right now, aren't you?"

“Yes…” Zhang Ruoxue clenched her fist, and the sudden burst of energy ripped off the bandages on her right arm, revealing her extremely icy right arm. Her eyes were filled with anger as she coldly said, “Stand right there, and I’ll come over and twist your head off right now!”

"With your abilities, even if I were standing still, you couldn't twist my head off."

"Then let's give it a try!!"

Zhang Ruoxue had absolutely no pity or sympathy for the Demon Dynasty.

Even if the other person is a woman!

The demon cultivator has killed countless innocent people, even destroying her only family from childhood...

She could never tolerate such a thing.

however--

"Xiao...Mo?"

Just as Zhang Ruoxue and the woman from the Demon Dynasty were about to engage in battle, the white-haired youth suddenly stared intently at the woman's face as if he had witnessed something unbelievable, as if possessed.

This face... Gu Xingzhuo was all too familiar with it.

Upon hearing this name she had never heard before, Zhang Ruoxue abruptly stopped in her tracks, turned around in astonishment, and looked at her senior brother with confusion.

Gu Xingzhuo took a step forward blankly, his lips trembling, staring blankly at the woman in front of him, the black shadow shrouded in demonic energy.

Impossible... How could such a thing happen?

"You are... Wang Xiaomo?"

Upon hearing this, the woman frowned.

A look of confusion appeared in his eyes, but his other facial features remained stiff.

She looked back at the utterly shocked Gu Xingzhuo and asked in confusion:

How do you know my name?

"And who... are you?"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

I was thinking of skipping today, but after thinking about it, I decided to update anyway.

Hehe.

8. Tell me, who is that woman?

Wang Xiaomo didn't remember the white-haired boy in front of him.

At least I don't recall it.

But she seemed to care a lot, perhaps because of the lingering shock and confusion on Gu Xingzhuo's face, or perhaps because she herself had a special feeling for Gu Xingzhuo.

Almost instinctively, she took a step back, a strange and bewildered look creeping onto her pale face that didn't look like a living person at all, her eyes colliding with Gu Xingzhuo's gaze in mid-air.

She opened her mouth and questioned—

"Who are you? How do you know my name?"

"you……"

Gu Xingzhuo could tell that Wang Xiaomo was not pretending not to recognize him; he could clearly see the doubt in the other's eyes.

But that's precisely why he was so shocked, and the ripples in his usually calm eyes were now impossible to quell.

He recognized Wang Xiaomo.

Rather, the person he would never forget in his life is probably the woman in front of him.

So when Gu Xingzhuo saw Wang Xiaomo here, his almost withered heart felt as if it had been squeezed hard, and it began to beat violently, and even his breathing became quite rapid.

Because it's impossible...

"Senior brother?"

Zhang Ruoxue naturally noticed Gu Xingzhuo's unusual behavior. She frowned, keeping an eye on Wang Xiaomo's attack while also keeping an eye on Gu Xingzhuo's situation.

She hesitated for a few seconds before voicing her doubts: "Senior brother, do you recognize the cultivators of this Demon Dynasty?"

"I... I think I recognize it."

"Who is she? And what is your relationship with her, Senior Brother?"

"she……"

Gu Xingzhu stared blankly at Wang Xiaomo, who was suddenly lost in thought like a puppet in the distance. He stepped forward and asked softly:

"Mo'er...do you really not remember me? Have you forgotten everything from before?"

"before……"

Wang Xiaomo suddenly frowned. For some reason, the more she looked at Gu Xingzhuo, the more familiar he seemed, and the stranger he appeared. An indescribable feeling welled up in her heart.

It was a feeling she had never experienced before... It was strange, but also very unsettling.

She felt she should have it—that thing called memory.

"About the past, I..."

Of course.

next moment.

Her body jolted suddenly, and the confusion on her face and the doubt in her eyes vanished, replaced by a silent indifference.

Without any words or warning, she swiftly flicked her right hand, and a massive, pure black axe appeared beside her.

The giant axe was even taller than Wang Xiaomo himself. The axe blade was single-edged, extremely thick, and the edge contained a few drops of blood flowers, which were arranged in a row, with a large amount of demonic energy emanating from the blooming stamens.