Chapter 41: The Great Terror

Dugu Jue’s words instantly brought to Chuxue’s mind a terrifying divine ability—Soul Search.

If the opponent were to cast this art upon her, he would be able to search her spirit and learn everything she desired to keep hidden...

At this thought, Chuxue’s gaze turned fierce as she seemed to make a monumental decision.

She must never let him succeed and bring danger to Wang Chu.

She began to secretly mobilize her spiritual power, intending to end it all through self-detonation.

However, things did not develop as she had anticipated.

The moment her spiritual power was stirred by her divine sense, Chuxue discovered that the spiritual power within her, as well as her physical body, seemed to have severed all connection with her divine sense, entirely beyond her control.

“Hmph, trying to take your own life? Too late! I want to see for myself just who that person is whom you protect with such desperation!”

As Dugu Jue spoke, he had already arrived right in front of Chuxue.

He extended his right hand, hovering it three inches above Chuxue’s face, and then activated the Soul Search technique.

A wisp of black breath penetrated her palm and sank straight into Chuxue’s crown.

Chuxue desperately wanted to resist, but she was utterly powerless.

On many occasions in the past, Chuxue, having stepped into the Deity Transformation Realm, had believed herself to be an expert.

Yet at this very moment, she felt like a complete weakling.

A weakling incapable of protecting her friends, unable even to dictate her own death.

An intense wave of guilt made Chuxue’s chest feel tight and heavy.

She regretted it.

She felt that she had been utterly selfish.

Had she known it would come to this, she never should have gone to see Wang Chu in the first place...

As for the excruciating agony that the Soul Search was about to bring, she no longer cared about it in the slightest.

The black breath rapidly invaded her sea of consciousness, penetrating deep into Chuxue’s soul.

Dugu Jue wore a ruthless expression, already imagining the miserable end that awaited that person.

Should he also drag him here and torture him to death right before Chuxue’s eyes?

Dugu Jue felt this was a rather splendid idea.

Only by doing so could Chuxue, and those disciples in the sect who harbored similar thoughts, finally understand.

They were meant to be ruthless hunters lurking alone in the darkness, rather than prey weighed down and dragged down by the shackles of romantic entanglements.

Visions began to materialize before his eyes.

Normally at this point, the person being subjected to the Soul Search should already be screaming in agony.

Yet Chuxue remained completely silent.

Dugu Jue felt a trace of surprise, thinking to himself that Chuxue’s willpower was truly extraordinary. Had she not been afflicted by an incurable poison that reduced her to a cripple, she might well have had the potential to become one of the Three Shadows in the future.

The images before his eyes gradually cleared.

What Dugu Jue saw was a chicken demon sporting a strange, parted hairstyle and wearing bizarre black-and-white clothes.

Just as he was feeling puzzled, that chicken demon had already begun to writhe its body, appearing as though it were about to dance.

Dugu Jue found it somewhat unbelievable.

Could there actually be members of the demon race hiding within Ling City?

And moreover, Solitary Star Seven had actually forged a friendship with a chicken demon whose attire and behavior were so utterly bizarre?

This...

Dugu Jue was instantly overcome by an indescribable sense of strangeness.

Was something wrong with his Soul Search technique, or had this Solitary Star Seven genuinely befriended such a freakish monster?

Before Dugu Jue could determine which possibility was true,

that "chicken demon," poised as if to dance, had already turned around, presenting its back to Dugu Jue.

Strange music rang out at that moment.

Then, upon hearing the music, the chicken demon’s body shuddered as it let out a shrill screech:

"Chicken... Ni... Tai... Mei!"

Boom!

Dugu Jue felt his head ring violently, plunging into dizziness and vertigo as the world spun around him. Something bizarre seemed to have forced its way into his very soul.

Immediately afterward, a heart-wrenching, agonizing pain struck from the deepest depths of his spirit.

"Chicken... Ni... Tai... Mei!"

He felt as though he had been cast into an endless, dark abyss.

Surrounded entirely by that chicken demon—the chicken demon continuously letting out those bizarre, shrill cries!

Dugu Jue clamped his hands over his ears, sealing off his five senses and his divine sense perception.

He desperately intended to make this grotesque sound vanish.

Yet, it was completely futile!

That sound continued to scream loudly right beside his ears, as if trying to pierce his eardrums!

Dugu Jue clutched his head, his eyes bloodshot, feeling as though he was on the verge of going completely mad.

Just as his psyche was reaching the brink of collapse,

the chicken-like screech finally stopped!

Dugu Jue felt a wave of relief. After catching his breath for a brief moment, his mental state quickly recovered to its initial condition.

It was only then that he realized his divine sense had already withdrawn from Chuxue’s sea of consciousness and returned to his own physical body.

At this moment, cold sweat poured from his temples beneath his mask, his face exceptionally pale as he slumped pathetically on the ground, retaining not a shred of the demeanor expected of the master of the Solitary Star Sect.

Recalling everything he had just experienced, Dugu Jue still felt a lingering fear.

When he looked at Chuxue once more, he subconsciously shrank backward, his eyes filled with dread.

By now, he finally understood what had just transpired:

A third party, located thousands of miles away, was using supreme divine abilities to secretly protect Chuxue’s soul.

During his attempt at a Soul Search just now, he had been ruthlessly played for a fool by this mysterious powerhouse...

On the other side, when Chuxue opened her eyes and saw the master of the Solitary Star Sect sitting on the ground, staring at her with a look of sheer terror, she was both startled and bewildered.

Wasn't this Dugu Jue performing a Soul Search?

Why did she feel absolutely nothing, while the opponent looked as though his own soul had just been searched?

"You... exactly who have you befriended?"

Dugu Jue asked tremblingly.

Naturally, Chuxue would not tell him the truth. Instead, she pleaded:

"Sect Master, I beg you to spare him. He truly has nothing to do with this matter."

Heh.

Beg me to spare him?

Dugu Jue was so infuriated by Chuxue’s words that he almost laughed out loud.

A supreme expert capable of protecting your soul with divine powers from thousands of miles away and casually playing me for a fool in the process—

Does he need you to beg me to spare him?

It would be more like me begging him to show mercy and spare my Solitary Star Sect!

Just as Dugu Jue was thinking this,

Rumble!

The tightly sealed gates of the grand hall were violently smashed open.

To be precise, they were hacked open.

Hacked open by a burly young man who, much like Dugu Jue, wore a mask—though his was a pig-head mask—wielding a butcher knife that looked utterly plain and unpretentious yet was exceedingly ordinary in appearance.

The moment he saw the young man’s figure and the pig-head mask, Dugu Jue felt neither surprise nor anger at the sudden intrusion.

He felt only sheer terror.

If...

If his eyes did not deceive him,

the young man wearing the pig-head mask before him ought to be that terrifying god of slaughter hailing from Beiming, known as the "Butcher Asura"...

So the friend whom Solitary Star Seven had befriended was connected to Beiming...

What the hell...

Dugu Jue felt like cursing his ancestors in frustration.

Could his Solitary Star Sect possibly be any more unlucky?

How could such a heavyweight figure from Beiming end up getting tangled up with Ling City and Solitary Star Seven?!

Dugu Jue now wished he could turn back time and swallow his regrets.

Since you, Solitary Star Seven, had formed ties with such a colossal figure, why on earth didn't you say so earlier?!

"Who is Chuxue?"

The pig-faced youth at the entrance asked in a muffled, blunt voice.

Chuxue looked at the youth who had blasted open the hall doors with brute force and radiated a terrifying murderous aura, and asked:

"Who are you?"

The youth did not answer, but instead countered:

"Are you Chuxue?"

Chuxue nodded.

"Yes."

The youth walked toward her, twirling the blood-stained butcher knife in his hand:

"I'm taking you away from here."

Watching the youth approach, Dugu Jue scrambled on his hands and knees toward a pillar in the grand hall, steadying himself against it as he stood up. Not daring to utter a single sound, he could only watch silently.

In his heart, he prayed—praying that the pig-headed youth would ignore him just as he had done last time, and thus spare his life.