Blue Whisper

Chapter 10 - Blood Sacrifice

Ji Lisa arrived in front of the normally grand and majestic Hall of Discipline and saw it had mostly collapsed. Jisoo still wore handcuffs on both of her hands, but the link in between was torn apart.

Li Taehyung was carrying her in his arms, and her shoulder was wounded.

The body of a demon master sprawled out on the ground beneath their feet.

Ji Lisa did not feel good about this.

"Jisoo." Standing opposite Jisoo and Li Taehyung was Lin Mingyu. "Your cat demon killed my man. If you keep harboring him, you will become a traitor of the valley and will be alienated from all demon masters. I can strip you of your demon master status and both of you will die today." Lin Mingyu raised his sword and pointed it at them.

"This is your last chance."

"Ha!" Jisoo let out a cold laugh. "No thanks!"

Although Jisoo was drained of her power, her intentions were clear, and her eyes were fearless. She was not backing down.

Li Taehyung looked at Jisoo, and the hand wrapping around her shoulder tightened.

Lin Mingyu smiled. This was exactly what he wanted. He could now blatantly cut off Ji Lisa's right hand, left arm.

"Good, then don't blame me for what I am about to do."

"Young valley master!" Ji Lisa shouted.

His eyebrows sank slightly. "Master Warden, you are not here to protect this traitor and her demon, are you?"

All the demon masters looked at Ji Lisa. Who did not know about her relationship with Jisoo? Lin Mingyu and all of his men had kept their eyes open for quite some time now, waiting for this perfect opportunity...

Ji Lisa made eye contact with Jisoo and gave her a silent look. Then she turned to Lin Mingyu and whispered into his ear, "Young valley master, you and I both know that this cat demon is not so simple. If we fight with them today, we will definitely suffer serious losses."

The corners of Lin Mingyu's mouth lifted slightly. He turned his face sideways a bit and whispered back into Ji Lisa's ear, "How about we stop pretending?"

Ji Lisa paused and looked at the soundless movements of his lips. "Today, she must die."

Ji Lisa's eyes widened. Jisoo read his lips as well and sneered, "Young valley master, how many years have you been waiting for this?" She gripped her sword and pointed it straight at Lin Mingyu, standing firmly with the support of Li Taehyung. "Cut the crap. Ji Lisa, if you dare to get in my way, I will kill you too."

Of course Ji Lisa understood. Jisoo had no hopes of surviving today, so she wanted to cut her ties with Ji Lisa. She did not want to drag Ji Lisa down.

Ji Lisa clenched her fists, bit her teeth, and her mind raced. There had to be a way to save her; Jisoo must not die here...

The cat demon, who remained silent this whole time, suddenly raised his eyebrows, and his eyes glowed. His demonic energy sprawled out all around him, chilling the air inside the hall.

The warm spring breeze turned cold.

Ji Lisa had always known that the cat demon could not be weak. But right now, the overwhelming demonic force he exuded had exceeded her imagination.

All of the demon masters stirred uneasily. Even Lin Mingyu was taken by surprise.

Upon enslavement, the demon would give a good portion of his power to the master both as a gift and as a symbol of his submission... Being this strong even after giving up some power was something Ji Lisa did not expect.

Li Taehyung rarely talks. Ji Lisa had almost never seen him say anything to anyone other than Jisoo.

But now he opened his lips and said, "Jisoo, you've always wanted to leave the valley. Now you can."

Jisoo looked at Li Taehyung; her expression showed she was also caught off guard.

He looked back at her as if he knew this day would come. "I will destroy this Demon Valley for you."

Lin Mingyu snorted. "The Demon Valley has a foundation of over a hundred years. It is not something a demon such as you can just destroy."

Even though demon masters had been settled into four quarters across the land under imperial orders, unlike the other three, the Demon Valley was not established by imperial will.

A hundred years ago, a giant jade phoenix appeared in the sky. The bird's demonic power was so strong that it disturbed the entire world.

A great demon master, together with nine world-renowned demon masters, lured the bird into the valley and fought with it for ten days. They finally won by using the blood sacrifice of all ten people to form a Ten Square Formation and sealed the bird with their lives.

The world named the emergence of the giant jade phoenix the Green Feather Rebellion, after which no more demons dominated the world again. Demon masters later built the Demon Valley here in order to pay tribute to the ten demon masters and to guard the Ten Square Formation, keeping the bird from escaping.

Then the Grand Master developed a frost poison, which was used by the court to suppress demon masters, thus turning the valley into a site under imperial rule. Later on, the royal court followed the model of the Demon Valley and built the Demon Terrace in the north, the Demon Island in the east, and the Demon Mountain in the west. Any child born with demon mastery powers would be separated from their parents and sent to one of these four places, so the court could keep an eye on them.

To this day, almost no one still cares to remember how the Demon Valley came to be. People only knew that these four places were where demon masters lived.

In Lin Mingyu's words, the century-old foundation was the legendary Ten Square Formation, suppressing the demonic energy of demons entering the valley. It made the entire place similar to a cage filled with talismans written by the Grand Master.

That was why it was shocking to see the demonic aura released by Li Taehyung here today.

The jiaoren's desperate strike in the dungeon had made Ji Lisa feel like he was the spirit of the sea, but today, this cat demon Li Taehyung...

The demon aura around him grew more and more intense, and the chill in the air was starting to feel like a blade against the skin. Weaker demon masters started to bleed.

They screamed in panic and distress.

Lin Mingyu's gaze focused. Without further hesitation, he channeled his power from his hand into his sword and swung it fiercely at Li Taehyung.

The energy from the sword turned into a magical blade. It broke through the cold wind and slashed at the cat demon.

Jisoo raised her sword to block it, but Li Taehyung gently pushed her hand down. He remained standing there, calm and still. When the magical blade reached him, it was as if it had struck an invisible wall. The blade shattered into a million pieces and dispersed all around, destroying flowers and trees as they swept across the valley.

Ji Lisa was shocked again, not by Li Taehyung this time, but by Lin Mingyu...

This young valley master, when did he cultivate such profound energy...

"Li Taehyung? What are you doing?" Jisoo lifted her head and asked.

After a few moments of silence, Li Taehyung only said two words.

"I'm sorry."

Jisoo did not know how to respond.

He suddenly conjured a dagger in his hand and plunged it deep into his own chest.

Everyone froze. Li Taehyung pulled the dagger out with blood gushing. He pushed Jisoo away, then drew a blood formation on the ground using his blood as ink and his finger as a brush. His demonic aura flickered and danced around him while his hair and robe flew with the wind.

He looked like the God of Death.

"Jade phoenix, with my body and my blood, I sacrifice myself to ten sides and assist you in breaking the seal!"

Everyone was appalled. This cat demon, Li Taehyung, was actually sacrificing his own life to the Ten Square Formation to revive the greatest demon that had ever lived!

"Li Taehyung!"

Jisoo's voice could no longer reach his ears.

The earth trembled and quaked beneath everyone's feet. In front of Li Taehyung's formation, a deep chasm suddenly split open. The wind down below sounded like the howling of a vicious ghost or the angry roar of a giant demon that had been suppressed for a hundred years.

"Listen, everyone, form up!" Lin Mingyu shouted over the howling wind. "Even if we have to lose our lives today, we must not let the jade phoenix escape!"

As of now, the betrayal of Jisoo and the conflict between Ji Lisa and Lin Mingyu were no longer important. The people here today did not see the vicious battle between the ten demon masters and the jade phoenix a hundred years ago, but they had heard of the devastation it caused...

The chasm expanded at an astonishing speed as all the demon masters formed up with their magical weapons in hand.

Ji Lisa also found it difficult to steady her feet amidst the rumbling earth. The chasm kept stretching forward, splitting the Demon Valley into two. Even the visible protective shield that usually sat above the entire valley started to crumble; magic dust and sparkles fell all around like snow.

Many demon masters fell into the abyss. Some tried to fly away riding their swords, just to be swallowed into the darkness by fierce winds and demonic turbulence. (In Chinese fantasy, people often used their swords as both a weapon and a mount where they could stand on top of it and take flight. It was a common form of transportation.)

Ji Lisa rode her sword up high into the sky. If she was not mistaken, this chasm should have cracked into the dungeon where the Jiaoren was being imprisoned. Such a force would certainly have ripped that dungeon apart, maybe even collapsed it, but that jiaoren...

Unlikely, he could escape. He had no strength left.

Before Ji Lisa could think further, she saw someone flying over on top of his sword, crooked and lacking basic balance. It was Qu Bambam, and he started shouting already from a distance, "Master Warden! Protector!"

When he got too close, Ji Lisa pushed him away and asked, "What are you doing here?!"

"I came to see... this."

Before the words left his mouth, the sharp call of a phoenix sounded from the bottom of the abyss and resonated straight up into the clouds.

The Jade Phoenix had awakened...