Symbiotic Bone

Snow had fallen over Kunlun Ruins for three thousand years, freezing the Demon-Locking Pagoda behind Tianyan Sect into a forest of icicles. Ling Xi clutched half of a bloodstained jade pendant, her nails digging deep into her palm. The chains on the top floor clinked again. The sound was just like three years ago, when Senior Sister Ling Zhao was dragged inside and the chains scraped against her immortal bones.

As the last Devouring Spirit Body in Tianyan Sect, Ling Xi had been confined within a barrier since birth. Her spiritual power devoured every living thing that came near, with one exception: Ling Zhao. But three years ago, Ling Zhao had taken the blame for “colluding with the demon clan” to protect her. She was nailed into the lowest level of the Demon-Locking Pagoda, where she was sentenced to be gnawed by ten thousand souls.

The snow tonight carried a bloody stench. Ling Xi had just taken out the unlocking talisman she'd hidden when a sword's wind suddenly swept in behind her. A woman in black robes patterned with demonic markings approached through the snow. Ice crystals clung to her silver hair, and she toyed with the other half of the jade pendant in her hand. “Want to save Ling Zhao?” The woman's sword pressed against her throat, yet her fingertip gently brushed the birthmark on Ling Xi's collarbone. Its shape matched the demonic markings on the stone wall at the bottom of the Demon-Locking Pagoda exactly. “Then first admit that you two were carved from the same bone.”

Ling Xi looked up sharply. She recognized the woman: Ye Li, the demon clan's young mistress, who had watched Ling Zhao get captured three years ago and done nothing. But now, as the red markings in Ye Li's eyes lit up, Ling Xi's spiritual power suddenly ran out of control, surging along the sword toward Ye Li as if it had found its true home.

The chains in the Demon-Locking Pagoda clinked again, this time with a clear knocking pattern: three long, two short. It was the distress signal Ling Xi and Ling Zhao had agreed on. Ye Li suddenly sheathed her sword and turned toward the pagoda gate. “One moment later, and demonic fire will have refined her immortal bones into a key.”