Chapter 1364: Desperation

After Qin Lian smashed the onyx cauldron deep into the earth, she withdrew her callous and cold gaze from it. The reason why she had not immediately killed Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e was precisely because of the hatred and negative emotions that had been amplified by the corruption, choosing instead to toy with them much like a cat with a mouse. She would let them experience agonizing pain before letting them die.

Her gaze now turned towards the rest of the crowd consisting of members from the other powers. Her gloomy voice resounded throughout the dominion. "It looks like none of you plan to offer your flesh and blood up voluntarily."

Qin Beiming, Zhao Xiuyuan, and the rest’s expressions turned green. In the end, one of them gritted their teeth and shouted, "All of us should join hands and fight!"

As they watched Qin Lian slowly approach them, they knew that there was no other choice. Only by working together would they have a chance to escape.

Thus, with Qin Beiming at the lead, all of the Dukes summoned their Duke Bergfrieds. However, because they were all within Qin Lian's Worldspace Domain, their Duke Bergfrieds were unable to control worldly natural energy and thus, they were greatly weakened. The Duke Stage had nine grades, and there was a line separating every three grades, known as the low, middle, and high-grades. The high-grade Dukes were the strongest, and it was due to the Duke's Worldspace Domain. Middle-grade Dukes would have to avoid the attacks of low-grade Dukes if they fought a large number of them. Meanwhile, numbers meant nothing to high-grade Dukes. Thus, when Qin Lian appeared, everyone had thought that this madwoman had turned up at the wrong place.

If they didn't at least try to resist, they would simply turn into snacks for the flower bud. Rather than to sit back and wait for death, it was better to struggle and look for a path of survival.

Thus, the slightly dim Duke Bergfrieds began to billow out large amounts of Divine Mist, transforming into all sorts of attacks that blanketed the sky in an impressive display of overwhelming might.

The scene was both spectacular and heroic. When faced with the crowd's retaliation, Qin Lian's expression didn't change at all. She waved her sleeve, and the clear cry of a phoenix was heard.

A beam of black light shot out of her sleeve, creating a tempest in its wake. It then transformed into a hundred-thousand-feet-tall bird.

It was a Luan that burned with saturnine flames. Its wings were like hanging clouds, and when they flapped, a sea of fire unfurled across the sky. Terrifying energy undulations filled the entire sky.

Qin Beiming stared at the ebony Luan that occupied his entire vision with a hint of bitterness on his face.

Lower ninth-grade Crimson Flame Luan resonance! This was the manifestation of Qin Lian's resonance, but due to the effects of corruption, the originally tyrannical Luan fire had transformed into gloomy, saturnine flames. The Luan unhinged its beak and spewed out a sea of pitch-black flames. Wherever the flame passed, the weaker Dukes’ Duke Bergfrieds were ignited and destroyed, transforming into falling meteors that crashed into the ground.

Who knew just how many were crippled by this.

Meanwhile, countless black flame chains tunneled out of the void, directly piercing through the bodies of the injured Dukes. As they cried out pitifully, they were dragged towards the blood-red flower bud's gaping maw and were devoured, their blood splashing all over.

This was simply a massacre.

Blood flowed like rivers amidst utter desperation.

Clang!

As the ones outside were falling to Qin Lian's onslaught, Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e were in the onyx cauldron embedded in the ground. The two of them were doing their best to escape by attacking the walls. When their attacks landed on the cauldron's walls, they were immediately destroyed by the black flames, turning into nothingness.

At the same time, countless tortured expressions appeared on the walls, attempting to corrupt their minds with soft whispers. It gave rise to negative emotions and heavily affected their mental state.

Fortunately, the two of them possessed the ability to resist the effects of corruption, so they would be fine for now.

However, that was only temporary. They realized that as the black flames continued to burn, their resonant power was beginning to vanish.

Once all of their resonant power dried up, they would lose strength and even the Auric Halo or the triple ninth-grade light resonances would be unable to protect them any longer.

"That venomous bitch!" Li Luo gloomily cursed.

Qin Lian wouldn't let them die in peace either, content to torment them to the end. Jiang Qing'e's beautiful face turned a little tense as she glanced around her. Even at this critical juncture of life and death, she had kept her cool. "I'm afraid we don't have the strength to break through this cauldron right now. So..."

Her golden eyes turned towards Li Luo. "Li Luo, perhaps you should break through now."

Li Luo was taken aback by her suggestion. "In here? To become a Duke?"

This wasn't exactly a suitable place to make his breakthrough. Devilish whisperings inundated his ears and were disrupting his mental state. There was a possibility that he would fail and suffer a backlash. However, he also understood that this was probably the one and only way to escape. If he could break through and forge a Ten-Pillar Duke Bergfried, their desperate situation could potentially be reversed. Otherwise, the two of them would die.

Li Luo sighed deeply and his expression turned serious. "I'll have to do my best."

At this point, the tiny, black snake on his wrist began to move and Li Lingjing's voice rang out. "You can leave the corruption to me. I'll see if I can restrain it."

Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e were a little surprised to hear this. The impact of the negative emotions was so incredibly strong that even a Duke would potentially be corrupted by it, losing all sense of reason. Meanwhile, Li Lingjing had actually taken the initiative to attempt to block it?

"I'm neither human nor a devil at this point, and my heart is full of these emotions already. If not for Li Luo, I might have become an existence that would be even more feral and crazier than Qin Lian. Moreover, the crisis that my true body is in is no worse than yours. Thus, absorbing some of the effects of corruption shouldn't matter," Li Lingjing explained calmly. Li Luo's gaze turned complex. The path Cousin Lingjing had taken was more arduous than anyone could have imagined. If he had more strength, he would definitely find a way to free her from her suffering.

Jiang Qing'e fell silent for a while before finally whispering, "Thank you."

"Take advantage of the time we have."

Li Lingjing didn't drag her feet. The tiny snake floated up into the air before swiftly expanding into a giant serpent.

The pitch-black serpent coiled around Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e, enveloping them like a huge bell.

The serpent's tongue flicked before deeply inhaling, sucking in all of the corruption into her body.

Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e could clearly sense that Li Li Lingjing's serpent form had formed a barrier, preventing the low whispers from affecting them.

His heart and mind suddenly felt clear.

Li Luo didn't dare to waste any of the precious time Li Lingjing had taken pains to create for him. He sat cross-legged and took out a small, slightly withered sapling. The tree's trunk was engraved with numerous runes, and a seven-colored fruit hung from one of its branches. Majestic amounts of spiritual energy emanated from it.

This was the top-grade Foundational Spirit Treasure, the Divine Spirit Treasure Tree.

"Four years of effort will culminate here."

Li Luo's eyes were focused on the Divine Spirit Treasure Tree that flowed with glorious light. He no longer hesitated, spitting out a ball of energy that enveloped the treasure. The tree was then broken down into innumerable motes of light.

A moment later, Li Luo inhaled, sucking all of it into his body. He closed his eyes and calmed his heart, beginning the long-awaited process of his breakthrough. When Li Luo started on the breakthrough, Jiang Qing'e sighed lightly. She waved her hand, and the brownish-yellow spirit bead appeared in her hand.

This was the other top-grade Foundational Spirit Treasure they had taken from the roots of the flower bud. Although the spiritual energy emanating from it was not comparable to the completed Divine Spirit Treasure Tree, there was no other choice. Jiang Qing'e was planning to make her breakthrough as well.

Having Li Luo reach the First Duke Stage would not be enough to deal with Qin Lian, even if he formed a Ten-Pillar Duke Bergfried.

She popped the spirit bead into her mouth without hesitation. As the two began to take advantage of every precious second to break through, the interior turned silent. Li Lingjing was tightly coiled around them, providing them with the last semblance of shelter amidst this catastrophic situation.

The roiling corruption was constantly being absorbed by Li Lingjing.

Any normal individual would have been corrupted by the sheer density of the corruption. However, Li Lingjing's eyes remained as calm as a deep pool, completely unfazed. But as time passed by, Li Lingjing realized that her scales were beginning to split and break apart. This was because of the black flames in the onyx cauldron. They brought about unimaginable agony and caused her to shrink slightly. When her scales broke, the barrier she had created was penetrated little by little.

The influence of negative emotions would disrupt Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e's state of mind.

"It seems I am unable to completely seal off the influence of corruption and the negative emotions," she said softly to herself.

She had to figure out a way to resolve this.

Otherwise, the duo's breakthrough could backfire.

Li Lingjing thought about it for a moment before a thought came to mind. It would be difficult to completely prevent all of the corruption's influence from intruding into their space, but perhaps she could filter it and allow emotions that were less harmful to pass through. However, what sorts of emotions would those be?

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Li Lingjing could sense the spectrum of negative emotions and eliminate the ones that were particularly undesirable, like murderous desire, the intent to cause chaos, despair, fear, and so on...

In the end, her gaze flickered. This would work. Furthermore, the two were already engaged, so it didn't matter. The emotion she chose to let through... was lust.