*Roar!*

The sound was a deafening, guttural vibration that shook the very foundation of the cave, echoing off the jagged stalactites and sending tremors through the earth.

The dozens of tiger-type demonic beasts, their fur bristling with elemental energy and their eyes glowing with a feral, murderous light, lunged forward with reckless abandon.

"Damn beasts!"

The Nascent Soul Shadow Hall experts gritted their teeth as they fought back against the tigers who were trying to tear them apart.

One expert, clad in the standard obsidian-colored cloak of the Shadow Hall, swung a heavy iron staff, attempting to shatter the skull of a crimson-furred tiger.

But the beast didn’t flinch. It just took the blow to its shoulder, bone popping audibly, and it used the momentum to bury its fangs deep into the man’s thigh.

He screamed, a high-pitched sound of agony that was quickly drowned out by the collective cacophony of the melee.

Another cultivator unleashed a flurry of poison needles, but the tigers moved with an uncanny, coordinated grace, weaving through the projectiles as if directed by a single mind.

The air in the cave grew thick with the metallic scent of blood and the scorched ozone smell of clashing spiritual energies.

Shadows danced wildly against the walls as fireballs and ice shards erupted from the fingertips of the Nascent Soul experts, only to be met by the raw, physical brutality of the feline guardians.

But just then, one of them actually broke through the Tigers’ onslaught and rushed towards Zhu Ziyan.

He was a lean man with a face like a hatchet, his eyes filled with a sadistic glee as he saw the opening in the defensive line.

One tiger, sensing the breach, roared and tried to pivot its massive body to intercept him, its claws outspread.

However, the beast was stopped by another enemy who laughed, throwing a heavy chain that wrapped around the tiger’s neck, yanking it backward.

"Your opponent is me, kitty!" the chain-wielder mocked.

The lean expert, seizing the moment, closed the distance to Zhu Ziyan in a blur of motion, and she barely had time to raise her arms in a defensive posture before he was upon her.

"You bitch..." He cursed before he slapped her, causing to slam to the wall of the cave.

The force of the blow was immense, infused with the concentrated power of a Nascent Soul cultivation that Ziyan’s head snapped back, hitting the stone with a sickening thud, and the world spun in a dizzying haze of gray and red.

"Your fucking beast bit me! I, Hei Yi, will never tolerate this!" He held up his left hand, showing a jagged, bleeding wound where a tiger had managed to graze him during his charge.

To a man of his pride and rank, being wounded by a mere beast, and a Golden Core level one at that, was an unforgivable insult.

Ziyan gritted her teeth, her vision slowly clearing even as blood began to trickle down her forehead.

She looked up at Hei Yi, her breath coming in ragged, painful gasps. Although her beasts were all at the peak of Golden Core Realm, she herself was just at the 6th stage of Golden Core realm.

The gap between them was not just vast, it was a bottomless canyon!

One should know that the difference between the Golden Core and the Nascent Soul realm was the difference between an adult and a toddler.

She was no match for a Nascent Soul realm expert!

But... she was no longer the girl who waited to be saved.

"Nether Tiger Claw!" she roared, pushing every ounce of her remaining spiritual energy into her fingertips.

A purple, ethereal glow erupted around her hands as claws made of solid, vibrating qi covered her arms.

Her cat ears twitched with heightened sensory input as the air around her grew cold, the "Nether" attribute of her technique drawing heat from the surroundings.

"Shadow Cat Steps!"

In an explosion of dark smoke, she disappeared from the spot.

Hei Yi blinked, surprised by the sudden burst of speed from a girl he deemed a "weakling", before she appeared directly before him, her eyes wide with desperate fury, and slashed her claws at his throat.

But Hei Yi was a seasoned killer of the Shadow Hall.

He didn’t even move his feet, and with a contemptuous sneer, he simply caught her arms mid-swing.

His grip was like a hydraulic press, crushing through her qi-claws and reaching the bone beneath.

With a sickening crack, he broke her arm.

"Ah!" She cried out in pain, a sharp, piercing sound that echoed through the tunnel as the agony was threatening to plunge her into unconsciousness.

But before she can finish processing the lai, Hei Yi grabbed her face with his other hand and slammed her to the ground, causing the floor of the cave to fracture under the impact.

But surprisingly, Ziyan managed to grit her teeth and ignored the pain.

She knew that if she stopped now, she was dead, and worse, the person behind her would be defenseless.

Driven by a primal survival instinct, she wrapped her legs and her unbroken arm around Hei Yi’s arm like a vice.

Then, with a scream of exertion, she stabbed her claws aiming for his eye.

However, Hei Yi was able to react quickly, his head tilted just an inch to the side, his reflexes sharpened by centuries of cultivation.

The claw missed the pupil but sliced across his cheek and brow, only causing the claw to graze his eyes as blood sprayed across his face, blinding him momentarily in one eye.

"Bitch!" Hei Yi’s voice was a guttural snarl of pure rage as he raised his arm, with Ziyan still clinging to it like a parasite, and slammed her back down to the ground with enough force to crater the stone.

Ziyan coughed up blood, the crimson liquid splattering the dark earth as she felt her strength fading, her muscles turning to lead and her grip loosened.

She felt so weak that she had let go of his arms.

She lay there, broken and defeated, looking up at the ceiling of the cave through a blur of tears and blood.

Hei Yi stood over her, breathing heavily, wiping the blood from his eye with his sleeve as he stared at her, gritting his teeth so hard they threatened to shatter.

"Hehehe! You actually got injured by some little girl!"

"What a shame, what a shame! Hei Yi, the great expert, scarred by a kitten!"

Hei Yi turned his head, his face contorted in fury, and saw his comrades.

They had already finished dealing with the tigers, having killed them all as the floor of the cave was littered with the bodies of the noble beasts, their fur stained dark with blood, their spirits extinguished.

The Shadow Hall experts stood over the carcasses, cleaning their blades with mocking smiles.

"Shut it. Now, let’s go get that bitch Huo Yue so we can return." Hei Yi spat on the ground near Ziyan’s head.

He took a step forward, his boots crunching on the gravel, but at that moment, he felt a tug.

Ziyan had reached out with her good hand, her fingers trembling, and grabbed his ankles.

"You’re not... going... anywhere!" She let out despite the injuries, her voice a mere whisper, yet filled with a terrifying resolve.

"How annoying! You just don’t know when to die, do you?" Hei Yi kicked his feet away, sending her sliding across the floor. "Just fucking die!"

He raised his heavy, steel-toed boot high in the air, his foot glowing with dark energy, and right as he was about to crush her skull, ending her life right there.... they felt it.

The temperature suddenly rose to unnatural degrees, and the damp walls began to hiss as moisture evaporated instantly.

The chilling "Nether" energy Ziyan had summoned was burned away in a heartbeat, replaced by a heat so intense it felt as if the sun itself had descended into the earth.

Then, from the depths of the cave, blue flame suddenly appeared.

It wasn’t a normal fire, but a deep, cobalt brilliance that seemed to consume the very shadows themselves.

The flames licked the ceiling, lighting up the entire dark cave with a haunting, ethereal glow before it blew towards Hei Yi and the others in a massive wave of incineration.

The Shadow Hall experts reacted quickly and retreated, leaping back dozens of meters, feeling extreme danger from that flame.

But even from a distance, the heat threatened to melt their armor and sear their lungs.

Then, footsteps echoed.

They were slow, methodical, and carried a weight that seemed to silence the world.

At that moment, from the depths of the cave, Huo Yue walked out.

She looked like a goddess of destruction emerging from a funeral pyre, her crimson hair was swaying with each step, flowing behind her like a river of blood.

Her crimson silk dress, embroidered with patterns of rising phoenixes, was glistening from the reflection of the blue flames dancing around her.

Her red eyes, burning with a quiet, terrifying intensity, stared at Hei Yi and the others and looked at them as if they were nothing more than dust to be swept away.

But then, her gaze shifted and landed towards Ziyan, who was lying broken on the floor.

Instantly, her cold, indifferent gaze that became common after her master was taken, suddenly softened.

She ignored the enemies who were staring at her warily and just knelt beside the fallen girl.

She gently reached out, her touch surprisingly cool despite the heat she radiated, and took a healing pill of exquisite quality from a jade bottle.

"Take it. It will heal you," Huo Yue whispered, her voice like silk over glass.

She carefully placed the pill in Ziyan’s mouth and fed it to her, her eyes reflecting a profound, hidden sadness that was quickly being replaced by an inferno of rage.

"You’ve done enough, Ziyan. Leave the rest to me."