I risked my life, using the butterfly effect to shatter the immortal realm.

The rust and the stench of corpses assaulted my nostrils.

Inside the enormous cavity, the carrion worms crashed into the protective shield of spiritual energy, causing it to shake violently.

Yu Liang stepped into the mud, which was up to his ankles and was both cold and sticky.

He carried a stove in his arms—Mo Yuan wrapped around his waist like a demonic spider, with eight broken mechanical spider spears propped up in the mud, creaking with every movement of their joints.

"Senior sister, we've arrived."

Yu Liang's voice was hoarse, as if he had swallowed coarse sand. "Loosen it a bit, it's making my back hurt."

Mo Yuan didn't move, burying her face in his neck, her breath hot.

His porcelain-like face was flushed with an eerie red, and the outer shell of the mechanism behind him was overloaded with spiritual energy, hissing and emitting white smoke. He looked utterly exhausted, yet also somewhat satiated.

The battle was fierce in the center of the cavity.

Xiao Wufeng's ruthless sword had lost its luster, but his swordplay was swift and clean, and the thin layer of sweat on his forehead was cold.

Ye Aotian's long hair was a mess, and Tuoba Ye's voice was hoarse.

Qian Duoduo waved the abacus, and his face twitched.

It was inlaid with a top-grade spirit jade bead, but her eyes kept drifting towards Xiao Wufeng. Seeing his handsome swordsmanship, her heartache lessened considerably. She deliberately softened her movements while wielding the abacus, hoping that Xiao Wufeng would glance at her.

Bai Lian'er's Hundred Flowers Rainbow Dress was now tattered, revealing her shoulders stained with the blood of black and green insects. In between wielding the poisonous ribbon to kill the insects, she took out a small bronze mirror from her sleeve to apply lip rouge, afraid that Xiao Wufeng would turn around and see her in such a disheveled state.

pat.

A piece of mud fell off Yu Liang's trouser leg.

The sound was soft, but it exploded with the smell of the sword demon's stomach acid.

The swarm stopped.

The prodigies froze, dozens of tired and astonished eyes turning to the entrance.

Two "conjoined twins" stand at the entrance.

Yu Liang's Taoist robe was torn to shreds, exposing his chest, which was covered in red marks—marks inflicted by Mo Yuan's armor when her spirit was in turmoil.

The two were covered in a sticky substance, which shimmered with an ambiguous glow.

Mo Yuan clung to him, her legs wrapped around his waist, her eyes unfocused, a sliver of something glistening on her lips, looking as if her soul hadn't returned to its place. The little pig in Yu Liang's arms poked out half its pink head, chewing on half a piece of the Demon Eye Crystal, its beady green eyes filled with disdain.

Dead silence. Only the crunching sound of carrion beetles chewing on a tattered sword.

"Yu Liang... Mo Yuan?!" Bai Lian'er screamed, her voice so shrill it sounded like her tail had been stepped on.

She stared at the red marks on Yu Liang's chest, then at Mo Yuan's flushed face, her fingers trembling: "Shameless! This forbidden area is dangerous, how dare you do such a shameful thing?!"

After saying that, she glanced at Xiao Wufeng, afraid that he would misunderstand and think that she would do the same thing.

"Clang!"

Ye Aotian muttered absentmindedly, "How did I end up clinging to this sleazy bastard? Has this scoundrel really won over Iron Rose?"

Xiao Wufeng's face turned ashen.

In his deduction, Yu Liang had long since become the residue in his stomach.

Now, this variable is not only alive, but has also brought back a Mo Yuan whose aura has drastically changed and who has clearly been "subdued," becoming an unexpected stain on the calculation.

Yu Liang remained unfazed—as long as he wasn't embarrassed, it was others who were.

He raised his hand and patted Mo Yuan's armored backside with a crisp thud: "Senior Sister, come down when you've rested enough, we have guests."

Mo Yuan slid down slowly, her hand still clutching his clothes tightly, her cold eyes sweeping across the entire room.

"What are you looking at?"

Yu Liang raised his head, his face arrogant: "Haven't you ever seen fellow disciples exchanging ideas and life force? We were just practicing a sophisticated combined attack technique!"

He pointed to the red mark on his chest: "See that? It's the karmic mark Sister Mo carved when she saved me. It's a testament to our life-or-death friendship! Isn't that something?"

Mo Yuan stepped forward, and the broken spider spear stood up again, gleaming coldly.

She licked the spiritual liquid from the corner of her mouth and said calmly, "Anyone who dares to disturb the afterglow between me and my junior brother, I'll dismember them and feed them to the pigs."

Bai Lian'er was so frightened that she took three steps back, instinctively leaning towards Xiao Wufeng. She grabbed his sleeve and quickly let go, her face flushed.

She could sense the dangerous protectiveness of the mo kite over its food.

hiss--

Several insect kings went berserk.

The aura of high-level spiritual core overload emanating from Mo Yuan was extremely tempting to them, so they abandoned Tianjiao and turned to rush towards Yu Liang.

Xiao Wufeng's eyes turned cold; his opportunity had arrived.

His footwork shifted, his longsword trembled slightly, and several invisible sword energies failed to kill the Insect King. Instead, they precisely sliced ​​through the vortex of energy beneath Yu Liang's feet, diverting the alluring aura towards the core of the Insect King, thus shifting the blame.

"Junior Brother Yu is exceptionally gifted, so you should be the one to restrain the Insect King."

Xiao Wufeng's voice was calm, "The turbid energy of the earth veins will be washed away in three breaths. If you can hold on, I will be able to break the deadlock."

A seemingly respectable act of using someone else to do one's dirty work.

Qian Duoduo's heart skipped a beat. She wanted to tell Senior Brother Xiao not to take the risk, but she held back—Senior Brother Xiao's decision must have a reason.

Yu Liang's eyelids twitched violently. Looking at the Insect King's serrated mandibles, he cursed, "Xiao Wufeng! Your obsessive-compulsive disorder is incurable! You only feel satisfied when you've figured out a dead end for me to crawl into, right?!"

Despite the insults, the actions were extremely swift.

He grabbed Pig Lord, who was still chewing on the Demon Eye, and used him as a shield: "Pig Lord, stop eating! Block this!"

squeak--

The millstone-sized insect king bit down on Pig Lord's buttocks.

Xiao Wufeng held his sword incantation, his eyes cold—he calculated that this pig would be torn to shreds in an instant.

With a snap, the Insect King's tusks, capable of biting through magical artifacts, broke off upon touching Pig Lord's skin.

Pigsy's beady eyes were bloodshot. He looked back at the worm on his buttocks, then at Yu Liang.

snort--!!

The pig's squeal carried a savage sonic wave, and the ripples spread out, instantly cracking the carapaces of the dozen or so carrion insects that rushed in, causing them to explode into green liquid on the spot.

Yu Liang's eardrums ached from the shock, and he gripped Pig Lord's hand even tighter: "Pig Lord is mighty! Let's do it this way, let these insects have some meat!"

He turned to look at Xiao Wufeng, his eyes full of malice: "Senior Brother Xiao, you've got a good plan, but you've overlooked one thing—this pig of mine is shy around strangers."

With a loud boom, the vortex that was originally heading towards Yu Liang was reversed by Pig Lord's roar.

The third level of a scumbag's mindset: irresponsibility.

The trouble you caused, I will not only refuse to accept, but I will also pay back double.

Startled, the swarm of insects changed direction and lunged straight at Xiao Wufeng's face.

Qian Duoduo and Bai Lian'er turned pale at the same time and subconsciously stepped in front of Xiao Wufeng. One of them swung her golden abacus to knock away the first insect, while the other flicked her poisonous ribbon to entangle the insect king's mouthparts. They had long forgotten that they were just complaining about Xiao Wufeng's scheming.

Xiao Wufeng frowned slightly and took seven steps back.

"interesting."

His voice was steady. "Junior Brother Yu always manages to pull out bad cards from a dead end and throw them at the dealer, but bad cards are still bad cards."

He held his longsword horizontally, his ruthless sword intent transforming into a fine net of blades, slicing the swarm of insects into dust.

At this moment, a black iron spider spear pierced the air and went straight for Xiao Wufeng's throat.

Mo Yuan moved, looking at Xiao Wufeng as if he were a naughty child about to destroy her toys: "You dare to damage my collection."

The remaining five spider spears behind her became afterimages, each strike hitting the sword net and sending sparks flying everywhere.

"Senior sister, let me do this rough work!"

Yu Liang shouted from behind, but actually slipped away and ran to the edge of the cavity.

He could see it clearly: the turbid energy from the earth's veins was about to erupt.

Xiao Wufeng's "three breaths" was a time he left to escape, but a death knell for others.

"Handsome Ye! Wild Brother! Money-grubber! Senior Sister Bai! That pervert Xiao wants to use us as a sacrifice for the earth's veins!"

Yu Liang shouted at the top of his lungs, "As long as we die here, the karma of the Ten Thousand Swords Tomb will all fall on our heads, so he can take the Sword Heart cleanly!"

Ye Aotian paused.

He's not stupid. A madman like Xiao Wufeng, who is "absolutely rational," is capable of doing something like this.

"Senior Brother Xiao, is what Yu Liang said true?" Ye Aotian asked through gritted teeth.

Xiao Wufeng did not answer.

Silence means consent.

"Damn it, I knew it!" Tuoba Ye roared and charged at Xiao Wufeng.

Qian Duoduo's knuckles turned white as she fiddled with the abacus, her mind racing with calculations: Xiao Wufeng really intends to sacrifice them to the earth's veins! Five spirit jade beads have been lost, and she's also lost 80,000 spirit stones worth of life-saving talismans!

Her gaze swept over Xiao Wufeng's wrist as he gripped the sword—she had won the prize in the last sect competition, and Xiao Wufeng had personally placed a silver bell on her wrist; it was as cool as jade.

His anger subsided considerably in an instant. The golden abacus beads he had thrown missed by three inches, grazing Xiao Wufeng's clothes before landing in the mud. He snarled, "Xiao Wufeng! You've gone too far! Using us as bait!"

Bai Lian'er clutched the tattered hem of her skirt, her fingertips digging into her palms, tears streaming down her face, a mixture of anger and grievance on her face: Xiao Wufeng really wanted to throw them to feed the insects! But even with mud on his cheeks, he was still handsome; he was the man she had secretly loved for three years, and he had even helped her retrieve her flower-embroidered hairpin at the last Hundred Flowers Banquet—

She bit her lip, unable to lift the hand holding the poison needle, and cried out, "Senior Brother Xiao! How could you do this! We're from the same sect!"

The elite team immediately turned on each other.

Yu Liang hid behind Pig Master, laughing like a fox stealing a chicken, secretly cursing these two infatuated girls for being sold out and still helping to count the money.

Pigsy crunched on his food, his eyes filled with disdain, thinking that Xiao Wufeng's face deserved a beating.

Rumbling—the ground trembled violently, and dark, turbid air surged up from beneath the swampy mud.

"They're here!" Yu Liang's eyes narrowed, and he grabbed Mo Yuan, who was locked in a fierce battle with Xiao Wufeng: "Senior Sister, retreat! This place is about to explode!"

Mo Yuan grabbed his wrist with her other hand, her eyes filled with a strange anticipation: "Junior brother...are we going to die together?"

"You big idiot! I still want to go back and eat braised pork!"

Yu Liang used a backhand polishing motion to shake off Mo Yuan's overloaded spiritual core, then summoned the black pot and pulled Mo Yuan up to jump on it.

Pig Lord willingly jumped into the pot to act as a ballast.

The billowing, turbid air, like a giant pillar, lifted the black pot into the air.

Yu Liang stood on the edge of the pot, giving the middle finger to the people struggling in the mud below: "Everyone, enjoy your leyline sauna! You're welcome, this is called physical ascension!"

As the black pot rapidly ascended and crashed into the top of the cavity, Yu Liang saw a gigantic, grinning face emerge from the dark rock wall—

That wasn't rock; it was the will of the Tomb of Ten Thousand Swords, waiting for them to walk right into its trap.