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“Sure enough, am I nothing more than a pawn to you?” Liana murmured softly, her face filled with sorrow. Then, without any further hesitation, she pointed a finger at Landon.

Spiritual energy circulated. The wind stopped. Time seemed to freeze. The flickering flames all around dimmed beneath the faint glow at her fingertip. That finger was as slender and delicate as a scallion, yet at that moment, it was as sharp as a drawn longsword, pointing straight at Landon’s brow.

“Godstream Finger?” Landon’s expression finally changed. “When did you learn this?”

“I’m a genius, aren’t I?” Liana said softly. “Even if it’s one of the Ye family’s secret arts, I only need to see it once to learn it. And you haven’t stopped me from entering the Grand Library all these years.”

Since he had never prevented her from entering the Grand Library, that meant she had seen even the Ye family’s most profound techniques. Once she saw them, she learned them. Even when using one for the first time, its power remained undiminished.

“As expected of the Netherfiend Physique. Such talent is truly frightening.” Landon’s expression finally turned solemn. Faced with this finger, even he had to treat it with caution.

His hand emerged from his wide sleeve, his five fingers forming a palm as he pressed it toward that jade-like finger. There was no violent surge of spiritual energy, nor any earth-shaking aura. That palm appeared utterly plain and ordinary.

In truth, it was exactly that, an ordinary palm strike. Its name was Mountain-Cleaving, an introductory cultivation technique of the Ye family. Every member of the Ye family could practice it, and it had virtually no requirements whatsoever. Yet Landon was using it to oppose the Godstream Finger, one of the Ye family’s foremost techniques.

Had it been anyone else, Liana would certainly have thought he was underestimating her. But the person standing before her was Landon. Landon had never underestimated anyone. Therefore, if Landon had chosen to use this palm, it meant that, in his eyes, this palm was more than enough. And in fact, that was exactly the case.

The instant the Godstream Finger met that seemingly ordinary palm, Liana’s expression changed abruptly. It was as though she had not struck a palm at all, but an entire mountain. No matter how violently her spiritual energy surged or how brightly the light at her fingertip flickered, that mountain remained utterly unmoved.

To cleave a mountain, one first had to turn oneself into a mountain. Thus, that palm possessed the might of a mountain. No matter how supreme the Ye family’s technique was, how could it possibly contend with an entire mountain?

And so, Liana retreated. She retreated again and again. One foot stepped beyond the edge of the altar and into the thick, foul-smelling bloodwater.

Something in the bloodwater seemed to be tugging at her ankle. Its touch was icy cold, like a vengeful spirit trying to drag someone beneath the water. Yet she dared not let herself be distracted, because the Landon before her was far more terrifying than any vengeful spirit.

“If this is the extent of your ability, then we’ll end things here today.” Landon returned to his usual calm. It was as though the panic he had shown moments ago had merely been an illusion in the eyes of others.

He raised his other hand. Similarly, he extended a single finger. The Godstream Finger. As the head of the Ye family, how could he possibly not know this technique? He had even used the Godstream Finger countless times. The difference in experience was not something a so-called genius could make up for. Thus, even though they were both using the Godstream Finger, Landon’s execution of it was several times more terrifying.

Liana’s expression changed drastically. She finally felt the pressure. An overwhelming pressure. If the Mountain-Cleaving Palm had been a mountain crashing down upon her, then the Godstream Finger before her was an abyss that devoured everything.

A mountain could still be shifted. But how could one possibly resist an abyss? Naturally, it was impossible to resist.

Liana’s body was instantly transformed into a tattered sack and hurled away with tremendous force. She smashed through several walls, flying from the central courtyard of the Wang family residence all the way into some unknown room. Dust and shattered stone swallowed her whole.

She struggled to crawl out from the rubble, wiped the dust from her face, then coughed up a mouthful of blood. “Ugh… So… this is why I don’t like… fighting… It hurts…”

Her eyes were slightly red. The pain radiating from her chest made it almost impossible for her to breathe. But in truth, if she had not deliberately allowed herself to be sent flying to disperse the force of the attack, that finger would have probably punched a hole straight through her chest.

She rose from the ground and looked around. Only now did she have the chance to properly take in her surroundings. She discovered that it was actually a very large room, and there were many people inside.

Those people seemed completely unprepared for her to suddenly crash through the wall. They simply stared at her in stunned silence. However, most of them were curled up in the corners, their fates unknown.

The faint light spilling through the hole in the wall illuminated parts of the room, and Liana found the people strangely familiar.

“Ah… Liana!” Liana heard a familiar cry. A woman struggled to crawl out from among the crowd. She reached out with a scaly hand and desperately clutched Liana’s ankle. “Liana, Liana, it’s me! It’s your Second Mother!”

The woman’s cries were pitiful, while her shrill voice sounded as though her throat had been scraped by a knife.

By the light, Liana finally recognized who she was. She was indeed her Second Mother, the Second Madam of the Ye family, Bianca, who had always wanted to marry Liana off to her own nephew.

Yet this woman had long since lost the dignity and elegance she once possessed. Her entire body was covered in blood, and she reeked of a foul, fishy stench. Most importantly, uneven scales covered her entire body. Between the fingers clutching Liana’s ankle was a thin layer of translucent skin that connected them. Her legs had already degenerated into two feeble hind limbs, leaving her only able to flail helplessly before Liana like a fish stranded on land.

“Liana, please… Please go and talk to your father for me, will you? Tell him… I’ll be obedient from now on. I’ll never secretly pass any more information about the Ye family to Big Brother. I’ll definitely be a good wife from now on, so… please tell him. Can he turn me back? I don’t want to become like this. I especially don’t want to become a demon…”

“What a pity. The transformation between human and demon is irreversible.”

A figure dressed in blue robes walked into the room through the opening Liana had smashed through. With Landon standing against the light, his expression was impossible to make out, but Liana somehow felt that there was an eerie smile on his face. It sent a chill down her spine.

“So you can’t change back anymore.” Landon spoke seriously to his own wife. “Just resign yourself to being a demon.”

“No!” Bianca struggled to lunge at Landon, viciously clawing at him. “If you’re going to turn me into this, you might as well just let me die!”

“Then go ahead and die.”

“Huh?” Bianca, who had been sobbing and screaming, suddenly froze. She raised her head and stared at Landon in disbelief. “What… did you say?”

“I said…” Landon gently placed a hand on Bianca’s head and said, “You should die.”

**Smack!** Blood and white matter exploded outward, bringing to mind an overripe watermelon bursting open. The headless body collapsed limply to the ground.

Liana’s face turned deathly pale, and she nearly vomited. “She was your wife…” Liana could not understand his actions.

“Of course she was my wife. That was precisely why I showed her this much mercy.” Landon took out a handkerchief and slowly wiped the filth from his hand, his tone remaining as calm as ever. “Did you not notice? Her human-demon transformation had already failed. If I hadn’t killed her, I would only have left her to die after enduring endless suffering.”