Chapter 10: Blood Sacrifice

Ji Yunhe arrived in front of the normally grand and majestic Hall of Discipline, and saw it had mostly collapsed. Snow March still wore handcuffs on both of her hands but the link in between was torn apart. Li Shu was carrying her in his arms, and her shoulder was wounded.

The body of a demon master sprawled out on the ground beneath their feet. Ji Yunhe did not feel good about this.

"Snow March." Standing opposite of Snow March and Li Shu was Lin Haoqing. "Your cat demon killed my man. If you keep harbouring him, you will become a traitor of the valley and will be alienated from all demon masters. I can strip you of your demon master status and both of you will die today." Lin Haoqing raised his sword and pointed it at them.

"This is your last chance."

"Ha!" Snow March let out a cold laugh.

"No thanks!" Although Snow March was drained of her power, her intentions were clear and her eyes were fearless. She was not backing down. Liu Shu looked at Snow March, and the hand wrapping around her shoulder tightened.

Lin Haoqing smiled. This was exactly what he wanted. He could now blatantly cut off Ji Yunhe's right hand, left arm.

"Good, then don't blame me for what I am about to do..."

"Young valley master!" Ji Yunhe shouted. His eyebrows sank slightly. "Master Warden, you are not here to protect this traitor and her demon, are you?"

All the demon masters looked at Ji Yunhe. Who did not know about her relationship with Snow March? Lin Haoqing and all of his men had kept their eyes open for quite some time now, waiting for this perfect opportunity...

Ji Yunhe made eye contact with Snow March and gave her a silent look. Then she turned to Lin Haoqing and whispered into his ear, "Young valley master, you and I both know that this cat demon is not so simple. If we fight with them today, we will definitely suffer serious losses..."

The corners of Lin Haoqing's mouth lifted slightly. He turned his face sideways a bit and whispered back into Ji Yunhe's ear, "How about we stop pretending."

Ji Yunhe paused and looked at the soundless movements of his lips, "Today, she must die." Ji Yunhe's eyes widened. Snow March read his lips as well and sneered, "Young valley master, how many years have you been waiting for this?"

She gripped her sword and pointed it straight at Lin Haoqing, standing firmly with the support of Li Shu.

"Cut the crap. Ji Yunhe, if you dare to get in my way, I will kill you too." Of course Ji Yunhe understood. Snow March had no hopes of surviving today, so she wanted to cut her ties with Ji Yunhe. She did not want to drag Ji Yunhe down. Ji Yunhe clenched her fists, bit her teeth and her mind raced. There had to be a way to save her, Snow March must not die here...

The cat demon, who remained silent this whole time, suddenly raised his eyebrows and his eyes glowed. His demonic energy sprawled out all around him, chilling the air inside the hall.

The warm spring breeze turned cold. Ji Yunhe had always known that the cat demon could not be weak. But right now, the overwhelming demonic force he exuded had exceeded her imagination. All of the demon masters stirred uneasily. Even Lin Haoqing was taken by surprise.

Upon enslavement, the demon would give a good portion of his power to the master both as a gift and as a symbol of his submission... Being this strong even after giving up some power was something Ji Yunhe did not expect. Li Shu rarely talked. Ji Yunhe had almost never seen him say anything to anyone other than Snow March.

But now, he opened his lips and said, "March, you've always wanted to leave the valley. Now you can." Snow March looked at Li Shu, her expression showed she was also caught off guard. He looked back at her as if he knew this day would come.

"I will destroy this Demon Valley for you." Lin Haoqing snorted.

"The Demon Valley has a foundation of over a hundred years. It is not something like a demon such as you can just destroy."

Even though demon masters had been settled into four quarters across the land under imperial orders, unlike the other three, the Demon Valley was not established by imperial will. A hundred years ago, a giant jade phoenix appeared in the sky.

The bird's demonic power was so strong that it disturbed the entire world. A great demon master, together with nine world-renowned demon masters, lured the bird into the valley and fought with it for ten days. They finally won by using a blood sacrifice of all ten people to form a Ten Square Formation and seal the bird with their lives.

The world named the emergence of the giant jade phoenix the Green Feather Rebellion, after which no more demons dominated the world again. Demon masters later built the Demon Valley here in order to pay tribute to the ten demon masters and to guard the Ten Square Formation, keeping the bird from escaping.

Then the Grand Master developed a frost poison which was used by the court to suppress demon masters, thus turning the valley into a site under imperial rule.

Later on, the royal court followed the model of the Demon Valley and built the Demon Terrace in the north, the Demon Island in the east and the Demon Mountain in the west. Any child born with demon mastery powers would be separated from their parents and sent to one of these four places, so the court could keep an eye on them.

To this day, almost no one still cared to remember how the Demon Valley came to be. People only knew that these four places were where demon masters lived. In Lin Haoqing's words, the century-old foundation was the legendary Ten Square Formation, suppressing the demonic energy of demons entering the valley. It made the entire place similar to a cage filled with talismans written by the Grand Master.