Rejected By The Sect, Claimed By The Immortal Jade

Chapter 7: The Demon-Sealing Cave

The Back Mountain of the Profound Sword Sect was forbidden for 800 years.

No disciple was allowed to enter. The elders said the first Sect Master sealed a great demon inside the Demon-Sealing Cave, and even Nascent Soul cultivators would die if they got close.

Ye Fan ran straight into it, carrying Ye Ling on his back.

His white hair flew behind him. Nineteen years of life — gone. He was 18 years old, but his body felt like 37. His broken arms screamed with every step, his Foundation Establishment cultivation was flickering like a candle after burning Lingxiao's remnant soul.

Inside his head, Lingxiao's voice was now faint, like a candle about to go out.

"Boy... you owe me... that strike burned 90% of my soul... I need to sleep... maybe for a year... maybe forever... Don't... trust anyone in that cave..."

Then silence. The jade pieces around Ye Fan's neck turned completely dim, like ordinary broken stones.

His golden finger was asleep. For the first time since last night, he was truly alone.

Behind him, bells rang across the whole sect.

"SEAL THE MOUNTAIN! CATCH THE DEMON DISCIPLE YE FAN!"

Dozens of flying swords lit up the night sky, searching.

Ye Fan didn't stop until he reached the cave entrance. It was a huge black mouth in the cliff, sealed with 99 yellow talismans, each one written with Nascent Soul blood. The air coming out was cold and smelled of rust and blood.

Ye Ling tugged his robe, shaking her head violently, writing on his back: Danger. Don't go in. Mom said don't.

Mom said don't. His mother knew about this cave?

He had no choice. Behind was death. Ahead was maybe death.

He pushed through the talismans.

The moment he entered, all 99 talismans burned to ash on their own, as if they recognized his blood.

Inside was not dark. The walls were covered in glowing red crystals, and in the center of the cave, chained by 9 dragon-shaped black iron chains, was not a demon.

It was a woman.

A woman in a tattered red wedding dress, her hair covering her face, her wrists and ankles chained. She was impossibly beautiful, but her skin was pale as paper, and from her chest, a black lotus was growing, pulsing.

She raised her head and looked at Ye Fan. Her eyes were pure black, no white at all.

"Ye Clan blood... finally... after 300 years..."

Ye Fan froze. Ye Clan blood? How did she know?

Before he could ask, footsteps came from behind. Not Elder Mo's men. Su Qingxue, bleeding, dragging her broken sword, stumbled in.

"Ye Fan! I..." She saw the chained woman and her face turned white. "The Red Lotus Demon Empress! The demon that destroyed three sects 300 years ago! Ye Fan, get away from her! She devours Nascent Souls!"

But Ye Ling did something no one expected.

She let go of Ye Fan and walked towards the chained woman.

The chained woman looked at Ye Ling, and her black eyes suddenly filled with tears.

"Ling'er... my Ling'er... you are so big now..."

Ye Ling started sobbing silently, the first sound she had made in three years — a choked, broken whimper — and hugged the chained woman's legs.

Su Qingxue's sword dropped. "What... what is happening?"

The chained woman in red looked at Ye Fan, her voice hoarse.

"My name is Ye Honglian. I am your mother's... elder sister. Your aunt. I am the last Demon Empress of the Ye Clan."

The secret that the Ye Clan had guarded for 10,000 years was not the jade.

It was her.

"300 years ago, I cultivated the forbidden Red Lotus Art to save our clan from being annexed. I became a demon. Your mother and the elders had to seal me here themselves. They told the outside world the Ye Clan was guarding a treasure... but we were guarding me. The jade was just the key to my chains."

She looked at Ye Fan's white hair and broken arms, and at Ye Ling's mute mouth.

"Who did this to you? Who turned my niece mute? Who made my nephew old before his time?"

From outside the cave, Elder Mo's voice echoed, filled with triumph:

"Hahaha! So the little rats ran into the Demon-Sealing Cave! Perfect! Sect Master, they are in there with the demon! We can kill them and say the demon killed them! The jade will be ours!"

Dozens of auras surrounded the cave entrance — Elder Mo, Liu Hao who had been healed, and finally, Sect Master Ling Tian himself, his white robe now dusty from Ye Fan's Soul Formation strike, his face cold.

Inside the cave, Ye Honglian's black eyes turned completely red.

The nine dragon chains that had bound her for 300 years...

Crack.

One chain snapped, because Ye Ling's pure Ye blood had touched it.

"Crack. Crack. Crack."

Three more chains snapped.

Ye Honglian stood up, the black lotus on her chest blooming. A terrifying aura, far beyond Nascent Soul, far beyond what the Profound Sword Sect had ever felt, rose from the cave.

300 years ago, she was a Soul Formation Demon Empress. Now, after 300 years of being sealed and absorbing the mountain's spiritual veins...

She was half-step Void Refining.

Outside, Sect Master Ling Tian's face finally showed real fear for the first time tonight.

"Retreat! Everyone retreat! That demon is not dead! The Ye Clan lied to us!"

But Ye Honglian looked down at Ye Fan and Ye Ling, her voice suddenly gentle, but full of a murderous promise that shook the whole mountain:

"My good nephew. My good niece. Auntie has been sleeping for 300 years. Tell me — who should Auntie kill first for you?"

Ye Fan, with white hair and broken arms, looked at the entrance where Elder Mo and Liu Hao were standing, trembling, and smiled. A smile that was finally not enduring, but truly cruel.

"Auntie," he said softly. "Start with the one who stole my root."

Outside, Liu Hao's legs gave way and he fell to the ground, his stolen golden root in his chest cracking wildly, as if it knew its true owner's family had come to collect the debt.