Refusing to accept defeat, she gripped the shovel with both hands and slammed it down with all her might.
Crack!
The shovel snapped clean in half.
Xue Mingzhao remained frozen in her swinging stance, falling into a dead silence.
Su Ye squatted down, brushed aside the thin layer of soil on the surface, and tapped it with his hand.
Thump, thump. The surface underneath felt incredibly hard and heavy.
“Junior Sister, it doesn't seem like there's dirt under here.”
Xue Mingzhao took out a night-luminescent pearl and swept away all the soil on the surface.
The soft glow illuminated the ground.
Beneath the thin soil was a solid slab of grayish-black rock.
The rock's surface was completely flat and icy to the touch, without a single natural crack in sight.
Su Ye continued to persuade her,
“Since this spot isn't suitable, let's just find another place.”
Xue Mingzhao tapped the stone surface.
“We could have changed spots earlier.”
“But not anymore.”
“Why?”
“It broke my shovel.”
This had now become a matter of pride.
She took out an Exploding Talisman and threw it at the rock.
Boom!
A muffled explosion rang out.
Dirt flew in all directions, but the rock didn't even lose a speck of dust.
Xue Mingzhao walked forward in shock.
“It's this hard?”
She threw out three more Exploding Talismans.
Boom!
The surrounding grave mounds shook from the impact.
Several already crooked tombstones fell over on the spot, but the rock remained completely unscathed.
Xue Mingzhao was completely incensed now.
“Fine, fine, fine.”
“Today, I'll see if your rock is harder or if I have more talismans.”
Su Ye stood by her side, opening his mouth but hesitating to speak.
To bury their master, his junior sister was gradually losing her mind.
Xue Mingzhao pulled out a supreme-grade Sky-Blasting Talisman.
She refused to believe that something capable of blowing a hole through an entire island couldn't handle a single rock!
Xue Mingzhao slapped protective talismans onto herself and Su Ye, retreated dozens of zhang away, and only then hurled the Sky-Blasting Talisman at the giant rock.
BOOM!
The ground beneath their feet shook violently as a plume of dust shot into the sky.
Once the smoke and dust cleared, the two of them quickly rushed over.
A thin crack had finally split open in the center of the rock.
Xue Mingzhao's eyes lit up.
“It's working!”
Another two Sky-Blasting Talismans descended.
Accompanied by a sharp, ear-piercing cracking sound, the entire rock shattered completely, revealing a massive cave opening below.
A thick stench of blood and demonic energy instantly surged out from the opening.
The two of them lay at the edge of the opening and peered down cautiously.
Deep underground, a massive, blood-colored formation was hidden.
A figure clad in black sat cross-legged in the center of the formation. Their eyes were tightly shut, and black mist billowed all around them.
Countless thin streams of black energy extended from the formation, piercing through the surrounding stone walls and connecting to the grave mounds above.
Like blood vessels, the black energy continuously absorbed the yin energy and residual blood essence from the graveyard.
Su Ye lowered his voice. “Junior Sister, the person below... seems to be of the Demon Race.”
The moment those words left his mouth, the figure in the formation suddenly snapped their eyes open.
A pair of crimson eyes locked onto the two of them with precision.
Su Ye swallowed hard.
“Ju... Junior Sister.”
“It looks like we've provoked something we shouldn't have.”
He turned his head to look.
Xue Mingzhao had already retreated three zhang away, and she had even summoned her Azure Ripple Leaf.
“What are you still looking at!”
“Run!”
Su Ye's legs went weak, and he scrambled frantically toward the Azure Ripple Leaf.
A wisp of black smoke suddenly shot out from the cave, wrapping around his waist and dragging him back.
“Junior Sister!”
Xue Mingzhao drew her sword and rushed forward, slashing down fiercely at the black energy.
The blade passed straight through the black smoke as if slicing through air, completely useless.
Immediately after, a second wisp of black smoke wrapped around her arm.
The two of them were dragged underground at the same time, crashing heavily onto the edge of the formation.
The figure in the formation slowly rose. Their voice was raspy, making it impossible to tell their gender.
“Two little Foundation Establishment brats.”
“How dare you destroy my blood sacrifice formation!”
Xue Mingzhao immediately raised her hands.
“Brother, it's a misunderstanding!”
“We were just passing by! We had no idea you were breaking through here!”
The person opposite them raised her head.
A pale, bewitching female face emerged from the black mist.
“Who are you calling 'brother'?”
It was actually a female demon.
Su Ye quickly corrected himself.
“Sister, it's all a misunderstanding.”
“Who are you calling 'sister'?”
“Fairy? Goddess? Demoness? We really were just passing by!”
The woman sneered. “Passing by?”
“Passing by and conveniently blowing up an entire slab of Panyue Rock?”
Su Ye opened his mouth.
This was indeed a bit difficult to explain.
He couldn't exactly say they had only wanted to dig a fake grave, and who would have thought she happened to be lying right beneath it?
A wisp of black smoke suddenly wrapped around their necks.
The black energy gradually tightened, instantly cutting off their breath.
As Xue Mingzhao struggled, she caught sight of a black token hanging from the woman's waist.
The front of the token was engraved with a blood moon, surrounded by tiny, black demonic runes.
The Mingyue Palace!
This token had been mentioned in the original novel!
Xue Mingzhao immediately shouted:
“Mercy, milady!”
“We are from the Mingyue Palace!”
The woman's movements paused, and the black energy wrapped around their necks loosened slightly.
“The Mingyue Palace?”
She carefully sensed the aura of the two and sneered.
“You don't even have a trace of demonic energy on you, yet you dare to pose as members of the Demon Race?”
Xue Mingzhao's expression didn't waver.
“We were ordered to infiltrate human sects to gather intelligence, so naturally we had to conceal our demonic energy.”
“Otherwise, we would have been captured long ago.”
The woman was clearly unconvinced. “I, Xue Heng, have been in the Mingyue Palace for many years, yet I have never seen either of you.”
Xue Mingzhao's mind raced.
“Because we have a special status.”
“How special?”
“We are the Palace Master's children who were lost in the mortal world.”
Su Ye lowered his head, suddenly feeling a bit lost.
Just like that, his race had been changed.
Xue Heng also fell silent for a moment.
This status was indeed quite special.
But—
“The Palace Master has no wife at all.”
“Do you take me for a fool?”
With a wave of her hand, the black energy wrapped around Xue Mingzhao's neck once more.
Xue Mingzhao frantically called out to the Chaos Spiritual Root in her mind.
“Chaos Spiritual Root, can you change my spiritual root and aura to that of the Demon Race?”
The Chaos Spiritual Root instantly perked up. “I, the grand and glorious entity born at the dawn of heaven and earth—”
“Shut up!”
Xue Mingzhao roared in her heart.
“Either you change it now, or we both die together!”
The Chaos Spiritual Root immediately shut its mouth.
In the next instant, the spiritual energy inside Xue Mingzhao's body rapidly receded.
Pitch-black demonic energy surged out of her meridians, and the aura emitted by her spiritual root changed accordingly.
Within just a few breaths, the human aura on her body vanished completely.
Replacing it was a pure and dense demonic energy.
Xue Heng's gaze shifted slightly, confirming that the demonic energy was not a disguise made of illusion.
She turned her head to look at Su Ye.
“Why is he still a human?”
Su Ye instantly grew tense.
Xue Mingzhao replied without missing a beat, “He is my elder brother. His ability to conceal his aura isn't as good as mine.”
“Mother was worried he would be exposed after entering a human sect, so she personally sealed his demonic meridians.”
Xue Heng was still not entirely convinced.
“Even if you are of the Demon Race, how can you prove you are the Palace Master's child?”
Xue Mingzhao took a deep breath. “My mother is Ming Rao.”
The sneer on Xue Heng's face froze. “The Palace Master of the Shixin Palace, Ming Rao?”
“Exactly.”
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