Volume 1, Chapter 12 – The Old Evil Cultivator Arrives

While Gu Han was sketching out the grand blueprint of her future sect in her mind,

a life-and-death crisis was quietly closing in on Liu Ruyan in the Tianjue Mountain Range a hundred li away.

After failing to find the Yaochi Immortal Palace in Wanshan City, Liu Ruyan did not lose heart.

Instead, she chose to join a hastily assembled team of cultivators and venture into the peril-ridden Wanjue Mountain Range.

There were several Foundation Establishment cultivators in the group. Their goal was merely the outer region, where they could gather some low-grade spiritual herbs, hunt a few second-rank demonic beasts, and earn a bit of spirit stones.

Although Liu Ruyan was only at the peak of Qi Refinement,

no one raised any objections on account of her striking beauty. On the contrary, they took especially good care of her.

Yet in the mountains, danger often came without warning.

That evening, the team found several stalks of fairly mature “Condensed Dew Grass” beneath a hillside.

Just as everyone was preparing to harvest them,

a sudden change erupted.

“Roar!”

A tiger’s roar that shook the entire forest exploded out of nowhere, making their eardrums buzz and filling them with terror.

A giant tiger nearly ten meters long, its entire body covered in flame-like markings, sprang out from the depths of the woods like a streak of scarlet lightning.

“It’s a third-rank demonic beast, a Crimson Flame Tiger! Run!”

Reаԁ οո KatRеadіոgСаfе

The leader of the group shouted and immediately turned to flee.

A third-rank demonic beast was equivalent to a human Golden Core cultivator, while the strongest among them was only at Foundation Establishment. How could they possibly escape?

In just a few breaths, three of them were overtaken by the Crimson Flame Tiger and swatted to death on the spot.

As for Liu Ruyan, her reaction could not have been any faster.

The instant the tiger’s roar rang out, she had already activated her movement technique and shot toward the dense forest.

She knew full well that sticking together in front of a third-rank demonic beast would only make them live targets. Only by scattering and fleeing would they have even the slightest chance to survive.

But fate seemed determined to play a cruel joke on her.

A panicked first-rank demon wolf suddenly burst out of the bushes at her side and slammed straight into her.

She was not injured, but the collision made her blood and qi churn, and her body stalled for a moment.

That brief delay was enough for a searing stream of flame to streak past her back, barely missing her.

The clothing on her back instantly turned to ash, and a sharp, skin-splitting pain tore through her flesh.

“Ugh!”

She let out a muffled groan, cold sweat instantly soaking her brow.

But she did not dare stop for even a moment. Driven by the instinct to survive, she desperately rushed into an area strewn with jagged rocks.

Rеaⅾ оո КatRеαdіոɡСαfе

Behind her, the Crimson Flame Tiger’s roars and the screams of her companions intertwined, then gradually faded into the distance.

Whether the vicious beast had gone off to chase someone else, or whether the complicated terrain had made it temporarily abandon the pursuit, she did not know.

Staggering forward and nearly spent of her last ounce of strength, Liu Ruyan finally found a hidden cave.

Without the slightest hesitation, she practically crawled and rolled her way inside.

The cave was not large, but it was enough to hide in for the moment.

She collapsed onto the ground, her chest heaving violently. Every breath tugged at the wound on her back, sending waves of burning pain through her.

Her spiritual power was nearly exhausted, and her long dress was torn in many places, stained with dirt and blood.

But before she could even catch her breath,

a cold, sinister divine sense swept over the area like a venomous snake and instantly locked onto the inconspicuous cave.

“Oh? Such pure primal yin energy, and a little beauty too… Heh, heh. Fortune really is smiling on me today.”

A hoarse, low voice echoed through the surroundings.

The light at the cave entrance dimmed, and an old man in a dark red robe drifted in like a ghost.

A powerful frigid aura radiated from his body, and his cultivation was unmistakably at the Golden Core realm.

Judging by the sinister fluctuations of his power, he was clearly no decent sort.

“Little girl, you run pretty fast.”

Rеаⅾ оո ΚαtRеadіոɡCαfе

The old man in the red robe bared his yellowed teeth in a grin.

His gaze greedily swept over the glimpses of snowy skin visible beneath Liu Ruyan’s torn clothes.

“If you come with this old man, I can guarantee your safety.”

Liu Ruyan’s face turned deathly pale when she heard that.

One look at this old bastard was enough to tell he was nothing good.

But she was only at Qi Refinement now. Against him, she had virtually no chance of winning.

“Senior… this junior had no intention of offending you. I beg Senior to show mercy…”

Her voice was dry as she made one last attempt to struggle.

“Show mercy?”

The red-robed old man let out a strange laugh.

“Why would I let a delicacy at my lips slip away?”

He flicked a finger, and a strand of dark red spiritual power shot out like a rope.

In an instant, Liu Ruyan was bound tight. No matter how hard she struggled, she could not move.

Then, unhurriedly, he took out a jade bottle, poured out a pill, forced open Liu Ruyan’s mouth, and shoved it in.

Rеαⅾ οո КatRеаⅾiոɡСаfе

“Cough, cough… you… what did you make me swallow?!”

Liu Ruyan was shocked and furious, trying to force it out with her cultivation.

But under the suppression of a Golden Core cultivator, her feeble spiritual power vanished like a stone sinking into the sea.

“Naturally, it’s something good to make you behave. A ‘Hehuan Pill,’ a hundred times more potent than those ordinary hehuan powders.”

The red-robed old man licked his lips, the lecherous gleam in his eyes growing even stronger.

“Once the medicinal effect fully spreads, even a chaste and virtuous woman like you will turn into a wanton creature desperate for a man.”

“This old ancestor likes seeing that half-resistant, half-willing look of yours most of all…”

The pill entered her stomach, and in the span of an instant,

a blazing heat exploded from Liu Ruyan’s lower abdomen and swept wildly through every limb and bone.

Her cheeks flushed an alarming red at once, her breathing turned hot and ragged, and her gaze quickly became dazed and unfocused.

An intense sense of emptiness gnawed at her reason like countless ants, drawing an unbearable moan from her lips.

Her entire body went limp and weak, and even the strength to struggle was rapidly draining away.

“Heh, heh, heh… the medicine’s taking effect pretty fast.”

“Let this old man take good care of you…”