Chapter 162: Beast or Worse Than a Beast?

With no suitable hiding places on the exterior of the palace, Lin Qiu had no choice but to flee inside.

As a result, he was almost skewered by the bone spikes of the skeletal spider.

Fortunately, Senior Li stepped in to help.

Then, with the monster transformed from Lin Wen in hot pursuit, Lin Qiu ran deeper into the structure, occasionally tossing out a few talismans that left Lin Wen battered, bloody, and thoroughly enraged.

Amidst the chase, the two gradually reached the deepest recesses of the palace—a vast, cavernous hall surrounded by giant, oddly shaped armchairs.

In the exact center of the floor was a small hole, roughly the diameter of a human head.

At that moment, it was spewing a massive amount of white light particles that felt warm upon the skin, a manifestation of extremely gentle spiritual energy fluid.

Surrounding the hole sat a man and a woman. The female cultivator had her eyes covered with a white gold-threaded blindfold; her flushed face was delicate and captivating, and her figure was breathtaking.

Lin Qiu could swear on his life that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, even without seeing her eyes.

Another male cultivator was seated behind her, his hands pressed against her shoulders, continuously channeling his vital energy into her body to suppress some kind of toxin.

Moreover, this had been going on for quite some time; his face was pale and etched with deep anxiety.

The arrival of the two junior martial brothers was utterly abrupt.

Especially given their pitifully low cultivation realms—one at the Dao-Body Realm, and the other a Spirit-Refining Realm practitioner transformed by the blood wolf. How on earth did they get in here?

Chi Jiuxiao could not help but feel perplexed, but he quickly barked a warning.

"Do not come closer."

He and his mother had been trapped here for a long time. Had it not been for the special concealment formation disk, the skeletal spider would have surely found them.

Furthermore, Chi Luan had been poisoned by the spider and was experiencing severe physical reactions. He had no choice but to expend massive amounts of vital energy to suppress the eruption of the toxin.

Fortunately, his cultivation was high, and relying on the spiritual energy surging channel, his vital energy replenished at a rapid pace.

Yet, after dragging it out for so long, the aphrodisiacal poison was growing increasingly fierce. He could not suppress it much longer; either he found a way to detoxify her, or he would have to let her satisfy the urge.

Previously, he had been the only male present, and her own son at that, so such a rebellious thought was naturally out of the question.

Now, two more had arrived. One was trash transformed into a blood wolf, and the other was a Dao-Body realm good-for-nothing. While the latter's looks were decent, that gaze of his was utterly repulsive.

Unless driven to the absolute brink, Chi Jiuxiao would never consider such a method.

By now, every detoxifying pill he had on hand had been administered, yet the aphrodisiac remained stubbornly potent. He was growing desperate.

On the other side, Lin Qiu, having been warned, indeed dared not approach. He could only run in circles around the grand hall, yet this was already the innermost sanctum of the building.

There was nowhere left to run.

Watching his junior brother close in relentlessly, Lin Qiu gritted his teeth and shouted, "Senior, do you have any way to deal with this thing? He is my junior brother; I cannot bring myself to kill him!"

Silence.

"Senior! Is there a way?"

Still silence.

A ruthless glint flashed in Lin Qiu's eyes, and he threatened, "Senior, either you tell me how to subdue him, or I will lead him straight to you!"

"You dare?!"

"Why wouldn't I dare? To be honest with you, my master is still outside dealing with the skeletal spider alongside Boss Li. Once they free their hands, you certainly won't be able to sit here in peace."

"My master and Boss Li surely have a way to help you. If you help me now, I'll have them help you later. Isn't mutual benefit a good thing?"

"..." Chi Jiuxiao.

His initial reaction was disbelief, but given the pitifully low cultivation of these two, their ability to enter made the presence of others holding off the skeletal spider the most plausible explanation.

Even if the people behind this kid could not help him neutralize the aphrodisiac, having a pill or two to help was better than nothing.

As long as he could temporarily suppress the toxin in Chi Luan's body, he intended to bleed himself as a temporary measure to delay the toxin's outbreak, and then rush to the Heavenly Ruins Mountain in search of a cure.

The thought of his mother suffering such a fate filled him with extreme aversion. No one could ever be Chi Jiuxiao's father! He would not allow it!

A decision was made on the spot.

"Boy, find the wound where your junior brother was poisoned and inject fire-attribute spiritual qi into it. It will temporarily weaken him."

"Got it."

Hearing this, Lin Qiu was overjoyed and immediately retrieved an Immortal-Binding Rope from his storage pouch. This was the very item Cao Chenglong had previously left behind when controlling two individuals—an item he had secretly pocketed, which would now come in handy for capturing his junior brother.

While running, he fashioned a running noose with the rope and swung it like a lasso.

"Take this!"

"Awooo—!"

The werewolf transformed from Lin Wen let out an angry roar, spitting a blood-red energy bullet from its mouth that struck the rope and knocked it wildly off course.

Lin Qiu was alarmed and hurriedly pulled a stack of yellow talismans from his talisman pouch, hurling them forward with all his might.

The talismans fluttered across the sky like living entities, autonomously revolving around Lin Wen and flashing with spiritual light. Threads of blue light linked the talismans together, forming a talismanic prison that temporarily bound him.

This kind of ability, which required material components to cast, must have been some sort of secret technique. While its potency seemed decent, his comprehension of it was poor, and the effect was exceedingly brief.

It trapped Lin Wen for less than ten seconds. While Lin Qiu was still searching for a wound on the outside, the talismanic prison shattered with a loud crash as Lin Wen plowed straight through it.

"Senior, is there any other way? I can't find his wound, and I can't control him! Help me!"

"Trash!"

Chi Jiuxiao swore he had never seen such a useless Dao-Body cultivator in his life.

Frowning, a flash of spiritual light burst from between his brows and shone directly upon Lin Wen, causing the blood-wolf-transformed Lin Wen to instantly freeze in place.

"Use a Demon-Suppressing Talisman, stick it to his forehead, and then find the wound and apply another one there."

"Coming, coming!"

Lin Qiu drew a deep breath, finally relaxing slightly as he began to feel the soreness throughout his entire body.

Once he found the wound and applied the Demon-Suppressing Talisman, even if Chi Jiuxiao withdrew his spiritual light, the creature could not move.

"Hehe, you heartless dog-shit Wen, actually chasing and trying to catch your senior brother, truly..."

"Enough. Are you certain your master and that so-called Boss Li can handle the skeletal spider?"

"This..."

Lin Qiu's eyes rolled, and he asserted with certainty, "They can definitely handle it."

"Even if they can't kill it, trapping it long enough to come in and rescue me shouldn't be a problem."

"Good. You and your junior brother stay over there and don't come near."

"Alright."

The group returned to a state of silence, and Lin Qiu, having nothing to do, began wandering around the spacious hall.

Busy fleeing earlier, he now focused his attention and quickly spotted several crude, rustic artifacts.

A place like this ought to have some good treasures.

Thus, he began poking around the periphery. Seeing this, Chi Jiuxiao barked another reprimand.

"Don't go touching things randomly. This place used to be the Fiend-Demon Tower; trigger any formation mechanism and we'll all be doomed."

"Oh... right, right."

Lin Qiu awkwardly halted the hand reaching toward a hanging lamp, though he dismissed the warning inwardly.

Oho, this little thing looks nice.

His eyes fell upon a wolf-head gemstone embedded in a pillar. It was blood-red throughout, as alluring as a pigeon-blood ruby; such an item must be worth a fortune in spirit stones.

Catching Chi Jiuxiao out of the corner of his eye with his eyes closed and paying him no mind, Lin Qiu boldly pried the object loose and tucked it into his robes.

He continued to scan his surroundings, but found no other items that appeared extraordinary.

Out of boredom, he walked back over to Lin Wen and began muttering under his breath.

He never stopped to think that a place looking so mundane housed only this strikingly unusual blood-red wolf-head gemstone—could things really be so easy to take?

At that very moment, Lin Wen's nose began to twitch, and blood-colored patterns started forming over his heart.

Meanwhile, the gemstone hidden inside Lin Qiu's robes slowly slipped out, silently drifting closer to the rigid, immobile Lin Wen.

The moment the gemstone made contact, like a drop of water merging into a river, it vanished instantly.

In turn, Lin Wen's blood-wolf transformation became even more thorough; his wolf muzzle gradually protruded, and the hair covering his body began to turn a deep, bloody hue.

Unaware of any change, Lin Qiu continued to stand nearby, venting his grievances about past unpleasantries.

As for why he hadn't placed the gemstone into his storage pouch, the thought had never even crossed his mind. His mind had been bewitched the moment he first touched it; otherwise, he wouldn't have lingered by Lin Wen's side for so long.

He didn't even remember that he had pried a wolf-head gemstone off the pillar in the first place.

Barely the time it takes to burn an incense stick passed before the Demon-Suppressing Talisman pasted on Lin Wen's forehead instantly burst into flames.

"What is going on..."

Catching the scent, Chi Jiuxiao looked over and flew into an instant rage.

"Fool! What have you done?!"

The roar crackled like thunder, instantly jolting Lin Qiu from his mesmerized state.

His face drained of color.

"I was under an illusion! I don't know what happened!"

Previously, even after contracting the blood wolf poison, Lin Wen's cultivation remained within the Spirit-Refining Realm. Now, having fused with the wolf-head gemstone, he had fully transformed into a demon, his realm abruptly surging to combat power equivalent to the Purple Palace Realm.

Whether he could recover his sanity remained unknown.

Yet right now, he was a massive trouble, and Chi Jiuxiao was still immobile.

Regaining his mobility, Lin Wen swung a wolf claw, striking Lin Qiu with a blow that sent him crashing violently against the hall wall, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

He instantly lost consciousness.

Lin Wen licked the corners of its mouth, foul-smelling saliva dripping between its sprawling tongue and sharp fangs.

Compared to Lin Qiu, Chi Jiuxiao's aura was far more enticing to it.

The blood of a powerful being!

It craved it!

Then...

It lunged forward, its wolf claws tearing three bloody gouges through the air as it fiercely slashed down.

"Damnable trash!"

Chi Jiuxiao was furious, but the more critical the situation, the more composure was required.

With no other choice, he could only grab Chi Luan and dodge.

Though his internal vital energy was abundantly replenished by the spiritual energy surging channel, his mental exhaustion was immense, and his soul was fatigued, drastically reducing his combat effectiveness.

Dodge-rolling away from the wolf claws, he placed Chi Luan at the edge of the hall, drew his Emperor Sword with his right hand, and flicked his wrist to unleash five or six sword auras, each seven meters long.

At a single encounter, the limbs of the blood-wolf-transformed Lin Wen were severed entirely.

Such was the chasm between the Golden Core and Purple Palace realms; even when in poor condition, one could easily achieve a second-long annihilation.

Yet, the matter was far from over.

Possessing the special blood-wolf gemstone, Lin Wen's torso sprouted countless blood threads that spliced back onto its severed limbs, restoring them in the blink of an eye.

Seeing this, Chi Jiuxiao switched to another sword technique infused with fire-attribute vital energy, attempting to char its wounds and halt its regeneration.

He even managed the bandwidth to spare a glance backward.

That glance proved disastrous. Deprived of his potent vital energy suppression, the aphrodisiacal poison within Chi Luan was erupting rapidly.

She was in excruciating torment, frantically tearing at her own garments.

"Go to hell!"

He panicked—truly panicked now. Fearing it would be too late to save Chi Luan, he unleashed his full power.

His supreme divine ability, the Yin-Yang Divine Light, flashed outward. The moment it made contact, Lin Wen rapidly vaporized and vanished, leaving behind nothing more than a patch of gray ash and a single blood-red wolf-head gemstone. It was dead!

Dead with absolute finality.

In Chi Jiuxiao's hands, the Yin-Yang Divine Light boasted a record of instantly slaying peak Golden Core cultivators; dealing with a Purple Palace cultivator possessing formidable regenerative powers was a trivial affair.

When Cao Chenglong stepped inside, this was precisely the scene that greeted his eyes.

A jolt ran through his heart, but his attention was immediately drawn to Chi Jiuxiao and Chi Luan.

He had experienced that very reaction himself, so he knew it all too well.

As such, while he could cure the aphrodisiacal toxin, the peculiar affliction of the heart could not be cleared away so easily.

Play the beast for a change? Judging by the standards of his Cao Cao radar, these two brothers really did present quite the helpful assist.

Chi Luan, after all, had once been among his targets for conquest.

With her son standing right here, things were bound to be a little awkward.