They only care whether you have cultivated demonic techniques.

Master Rongyao said:
“Things have come to this. If you still harbor a desire to repent, and want to atone for your past misdeeds, then hand over the Spirit Sword Sect’s cultivation technique and surrender, to avoid worsening your sins.”

Lin Mo sneered coldly:
“Since all of you already believe I’m a demon, then what’s the point in talking about repentance?”

Ye Kai supported the young girl Wanwan. Wanwan, upon hearing those words, couldn’t help but think:
“What a beautiful declaration.”

Now, the more Wanwan looked at Ye Kai, the more useless she found him—completely like a total and utter good-for-nothing. She had long known Lin Mo’s temperament, and back then, she never would’ve believed Ye Kai was any better. As expected, Ye Kai was only fit to be nourishment. What a pity. Why hadn’t she met Lin Mo a little earlier?

At that moment, Lin Mo inexplicably received another wave of Regret Points, though he couldn’t understand who would still be regretting because of him at this point. At this moment, Master Tianchen shook his head and sighed:
“It seems you’ve truly fallen into demonic cultivation. What a pity, with all your talent and fortune. Heaven gifted you with spiritual roots, yet let you stray onto the wrong path. Your luck and fate far surpassed others.”

Although he thought highly of Lin Mo, it was also true that Lin Mo had become a demonic cultivator. No matter how extraordinarily talented Lin Mo had appeared before, his future would only pit him against righteous cultivators as a demonic enemy. If a demonic cultivator this gifted were allowed to keep growing, he would absolutely become a major threat to the cultivation world. Lin Mo only sneered coldly, without replying to Master Tianchen’s words. Their worldviews had long since clashed—no amount of argument would be of any use now. It would be better to beat them into submission.

In the crowd, Shen Ke’er heard this exchange, her expression grew complicated. There were still many things she hadn’t fully figured out. She hadn’t expected that her Senior Brother really had cultivated demonic techniques. Even now, she wasn’t entirely sure—was the one who harmed Li Hua yesterday really her Senior Brother? If it was him, then the guilt weighing on her heart wouldn’t be so heavy… No—that’s not right. Even if it wasn’t him, she shouldn’t still feel guilty. Clearly, it was her Senior Brother who had ignored and neglected her from the start, and humiliated her in public again and again. Moreover, it was indeed true that her Senior Brother had cultivated demonic techniques. From the moment she had stepped forward to identify him, there was no turning back from this path. With this in mind, determination gradually returned to Shen Ke’er’s eyes.

As the great battle was about to begin, Lin Mo sent a private voice transmission to Zhu Shiyao:
“Zhu Shiyao, I need to trouble you with one more thing.”
Zhu Shiyao responded:
“As long as it’s something within my ability, I’ll help you.”

Lin Mo considered that Ye Kai was still hiding in the shadows. That beast was very likely to do something to Gu Qingxue and Duan Susu. Even if Ye Kai didn’t make a move, this group of so-called righteous cultivators might still attack to force his submission. So he asked Zhu Shiyao to go protect those two. Zhu Shiyao indicated there was no problem. Soon, she arrived and sat down beside Gu Qingxue. Seeing this, Lin Mo finally relaxed.

At that moment, Qu Ruyan also came to his side. She wasn’t nervous at all. Instead, she asked playfully, “Master, master—will there be sweets after this fight?” Lin Mo patted Qu Ruyan’s head and promised, “After we win, I’ll let you eat your fill.” Upon hearing that, Qu Ruyan excitedly swung her little “meow-meow fists,” full of fighting spirit.

Lin Mo glanced around the area, but still couldn’t spot any trace of Ye Kai. He had no idea who was helping Ye Kai, to be able to conceal him so cleverly. Demonic energy surged all around Lin Mo. Looking at the people in front of him, he said, “Enough with the nonsense. Let’s fight.” Those words instantly ignited the battlefield.

Except for Master Fengqing, the other ten peak masters all moved in to besiege Lin Mo. At this point, it was no longer a matter of whether Lin Mo is a junior, they didn’t care about saving face. They had all already witnessed Lin Mo’s strength. Aside from Master Fengqing, not a single one of them had any chance of winning in a one-on-one fight. Besides, when facing a demonic cultivator, are we really still talking about fairness?

Lin Mo looked toward the disciples of Qingling Sect who were also about to charge onto the platform and said:
“Look at the peak masters up on the stage—they’re a full generation above you, yet I don’t hear them telling you to stay off the dueling platform.”

Lin Mo’s words clearly had some effect, and for a moment, the disciples of the ten peak masters actually stopped in their tracks. Lin Mo’s strength was still truly terrifying. But among them, a few hot-blooded junior disciples still sneered and said:
“There are so many of us. Are we really afraid of just two of them?”
“Don’t listen to that demon. We’ve still got our peak masters ahead of us. Even if he’s already at the Golden Core stage, could he really defeat all of us?”

As the words fell, many of Qingling Sect’s disciples began rushing toward the arena. Seeing this, Lin Mo said nothing more. It’s hard to reason with someone who’s already dead in the head. Demonic energy wrapped around the Liuli Sword, and then the sword slashed out a streak of pitch-black sword qi. The sword qi split in two, then four, then eight—until the entire sky was completely covered by black sword qi, plunging all of Xuanlan Peak into darkness.

This move—the demonic version of the Three Thousand Sword Technique—was several times more powerful than the one he’d used earlier in the duel against Zhu Shiyao. Apart from Master Fengqing, the other ten peak masters each unleashed their powers to carve out small safe zones, blocking the black sword qi that fell like raindrops. Though they had already seen Lin Mo’s extraordinary sword qi during the duel, receiving it directly was an entirely different experience. Even though each of them had cultivation at the mid-to-late Nascent Soul stage, they were all shaken to the point of numb arms and disrupted spiritual flow.

Especially that Master Rongyao—Lin Mo had made sure to give him some extra. Master Rongyao’s robe had already been slashed open by sword qi, leaving it full of cuts and tears. Streak after streak of black sword qi pounded his head, each strike leaving a new bump. In no time, his whole face was bruised and swollen, making him look like a pig’s head.

At this moment, no one had noticed that there was another white figure hovering above in the sky. When Gu Qingxue arrived above Xuanlan Peak, she happened to see Lin Mo fall into demonic cultivation and defeat Zhu Shiyao with a single move. She stared at Lin Mo’s figure, just as confused. Clearly, just recently, her external clone had gone to the Lin family to annul the engagement with Jiang Manran, and there hadn’t been even the slightest trace of demonic energy on Lin Mo. How had Lin Mo already fallen into demonic cultivation in just a few short months?

Seeing there was no immediate danger, she continued watching from above for quite some time. Seeing Lin Mo surrounded and besieged by those old fossils of Qingling Sect, she didn’t find it strange at all. After all, immortals and demons have always been irreconcilable. And she herself greatly despised demonic cultivators.

But when she saw Lin Mo use the Three Thousand Sword Technique, she couldn’t help showing a trace of surprise. She was a cultivator at the Body Integration stage, and could more or less tell Lin Mo’s level with a single glance. This move — the Three Thousand Sword Technique — was able to suppress ten Nascent Soul cultivators with overwhelming force, and Lin Mo still hadn’t gone all out. According to her judgment, aside from Master Fengqing, among these ten Nascent Soul cultivators, there probably weren’t many who could withstand Lin Mo plus his spirit pet. However, she was puzzled—why wasn’t Lin Mo going all out? Could it be because of Gu Xin and the other Qingling Sect disciples?

Gu Qingxue couldn’t be bothered to think about it too much. She had only come back this time to retrieve her external avatar. Her gaze swept toward the audience seating area. And she saw that her external avatar was looking at Lin Mo in the arena with a worried expression. She couldn’t help but frown. It seemed that her external avatar and Lin Mo had quite the close relationship. She was very curious.
“During the time I lost contact with my external avatar, what exactly happened?”

As she thought about it, a stream of spiritual light within her body quietly merged into her external avatar’s body without anyone noticing. At this point, she and her external avatar could no longer be considered separate entities—they were now one and the same: the true body of Gu Qingxue.

Suddenly, Zhu Shiyao looked toward Gu Qingxue and saw the light fade from her eyes. She couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?” Gu Qingxue was at that moment processing the memories of her external avatar from this time period. She shook her head and replied, “It’s nothing.” Her voice was extremely cold and detached, nothing like the gentle warmth it had before. More importantly, the current Gu Qingxue gave off an overwhelming presence that made Zhu Shiyao feel stifled. She couldn’t understand it at all—clearly it was the same person, so how could the change be so drastic?

Gu Qingxue, who was still absorbing her clone’s memories, looked increasingly grim. It started when her external avatar accidentally entered the secret realm—then was rescued by Lin Mo, shared braised flood dragon meat with Qu Ruyan, and then… ended up having relations with Lin Mo…

These fragments were originally just the memories of her external avatar. And between her and the avatar, there really wasn’t any difference. To her, merging with the memories of this external avatar was exactly like personally experiencing everything in those memories again. From the initial loneliness and confusion upon entering the secret realm, to the fear when being chased by demonic beasts, and then the sense of survival after Lin Mo saved her. These emotions etched themselves into her heart, moment by moment.

After she ate the flood dragon meat and was poisoned by the gu, that lustful sensation surged through her entire body and mind. Duan Susu had seen her senior brother’s partner’s face turning red and pale in turns, and eventually even trembling slightly—she understood clearly that this was because she cared about Lin Mo, who was fighting. She softly reassured her, “Don’t be afraid, Gu Qingxue. Lin Mo is so strong—he’ll be perfectly fine.” In Duan Susu’s heart, she was also just trying to comfort herself. After all, the one Lin Mo was facing… was the entire Qingling Sect.

If he really were captured by Qingling Sect, the consequences… Just thinking about it—she herself didn’t even dare to go further. “Mmgh.” Gu Qingxue suddenly let out a soft, delicate moan. Duan Susu was startled—something didn’t seem right with Gu Qingxue. Her body was trembling even more intensely. “Qingxue, are you feeling unwell?” Gu Qingxue didn’t respond to Duan Susu’s question. At this point in the memories, it had already reached the moment when she and Lin Mo merged as one. That intense, pounding sensation—like waves crashing against stone—kept washing over her body again and again.

Gu Qingxue’s face was tinged with an extremely unnatural blush as she stared fixedly at Lin Mo on the stage; He… he actually did something like that to me?? Even after living for several hundred years, at this moment her Dao heart began to waver. Even though it was only her external avatar who lost its purity, the feelings and memories were all very real. The feelings her external avatar had for Lin Mo had completely merged into her main body. In the end, Gu Qingxue couldn’t hold it in anymore and smacked her own thigh hard, ashamed and furious, she flew straight toward the dueling arena.

At this moment, Lin Mo was fighting fiercely alongside Qu Ruyan against the ten Nascent Soul-level peak masters in front of them. When Lin Mo saw her flying over, he hadn’t had time to react. “Qingxue, you—” Before he could finish his sentence, a terrifying surge of spiritual energy burst outward from Gu Qingxue’s body. The faces of all the peak masters present suddenly changed. Under the immense pressure of her spiritual aura, they couldn’t move, not even speak.