Chapter 186: Luo Li's Demonic Fire Deterrence

The moment Shen Yan’s command reached the communication channel, Luo Li was already in motion.

As she leaped down from the cliff wall, the six Shadow Erosion Guards simultaneously raised their hands, forming a semicircular formation with their Black Scale Shields in front of them. The surface of those shields shimmered with an oily sheen, like the skin of a living creature, and with a slight tremor, they completely swallowed the probing flames she had thrown.

“Indeed, low-level demon fire is useless,” she muttered, landing steadily and shaking her cat ears, immediately detecting the spiritual power fluctuation frequency between the shields. “This thing can absorb demon power, but there’s a latency in its reaction.”

A smirk curled at the corner of her mouth. She brushed her fingers over the silver bell at her waist and suddenly charged forward.

Her first kick struck the leftmost guard’s knee. The guard grunted and knelt, cracks appearing on his shield. Without retracting her momentum, her demon tail swept out, directly flinging the second guard into the cliff wall. The remaining four quickly adjusted their formation, closing their shields into a sealed ring. Runes on the ground lit up, and a circle of frost patterns spread toward her feet.

“Trying to freeze me?” Luo Li sneered, forcefully leaping into the air with both feet while forming hand seals. Her purple-red hair fluttered without wind, her pupils turned vertical, and the demon core within her body violently trembled.

“Since you’re so fond of formations—I’ll burn right through it!”

Deep purple flames erupted from her palms, the temperature skyrocketing. The frost on the cliff wall instantly vaporized, and even the rocks began to crack. The flames spread in a fan shape, forcing the guards to retreat repeatedly, leaving scorched marks on the surface of their shields.

“This is… high-level demon flame?!” one of them exclaimed in shock.

“Enough talk, hold the line!” roared the leader-like figure. “Initiate the countermeasure program within three breaths!”

The runes on the ground lit up again, this time with blue frost patterns, attempting to form a temperature reduction domain. But Luo Li was already prepared. Her demon tail suddenly lashed out, the silver bell emitting a high-frequency vibration that resonated with the flames, creating ripples like a data stream. Wherever it passed, the frost patterns completely collapsed.

“You call this a countermeasure?” She took a step forward, the flames advancing with her, directly blasting into the face of one guard. Before the man could even scream, his entire body ignited, and his shield exploded into fragments.

The remaining guards retreated two steps in fear, their formation completely disrupted.

Luo Li did not pursue them. Instead, she turned to face the eastern node stone platform. It was a black crystal engraved with encrypted runes, flashing red light continuously—clearly, it had already begun to refactor its defenses.

“Time is running out,” she whispered.

Just then, a sudden surge of killing intent came from behind.

A guard had circled around to her back, thrusting a short blade straight toward her heart. The tip of the blade was only half an inch from her clothes when a fiery whip precisely wrapped around his wrist. Without even turning her head, Luo Li yanked backward, sending the man flying into the air before smashing him into the fiery wave she had raised.

Flames consumed everything.

The remaining guards were completely stunned, none daring to step forward again.

Luo Li stood in place, demon fire swirling around her like an inviolable sovereign. She raised her hand, a concentrated purple fireball forming at the tip of her finger, and slowly pressed it against the surface of the crystal.

“To cut the connection, a blood pact is needed,” she said, biting her fingertip and drawing an ancient rune in the air. “Sky-Burning Pact, open!”

The rune fell, instantly merging into the crystal. Dark red light seeped from the cracks, as if some kind of seal was being forcibly pried open. She pressed her palm against it, demon power pouring in like a torrent.

The terminal trembled slightly.

【Eastern Node: Decryption Progress 30%】

“Too slow,” she frowned.

Yu Xiaotang’s voice came from afar: “Keep it up, Sister Luo Li! I’m almost at the west side!”

“Don’t get distracted,” Shen Yan’s voice followed immediately. “Maintain stable output, don’t let the System restart.”

Luo Li nodded, increasing her Demon Power output. Her Demon Core began to heat up, and fine beads of sweat formed on her forehead, but her gaze remained resolute.

The decryption progress jumped to 60%, and fine cracks appeared on the crystal’s surface.

Suddenly, the entire cave trembled slightly.

“Damn it,” Shen Yan’s voice changed. “The Puppet Pool is reacting—the Master Control System is attempting remote Node takeover! You must complete the final stage within ten seconds!”

Luo Li gritted her teeth and suddenly spat a mouthful of vital essence blood onto the crystal.

As the blood mist dispersed, the Runes began to Collapse at an accelerated rate.

【Decryption progress 85%… 90%… 97%…】

The final chain shattered.

【East Node: Severance complete】

Boom!

The crystal exploded, fragments scattering everywhere. Luo Li withdrew her hand and took two steps back, the Demonic Fire slowly receding but still lingering at the Tip of her Finger, ready to reignite at any moment.

She coldly swept her gaze over the remaining guards: “Tell your master—stop using human lives to refine those damn Puppets.”

The three of them slumped to the ground, not daring to move.

She turned and looked toward the depths of the cave, her brow slightly furrowed. There was a faint fluctuation of energy there, completely different from before—like something that had been suppressed for a long time.

“Shen Yan,” she spoke up. “The east side is done, but I feel there’s something else down there.”

“Received,” Shen Yan responded. “Ye Zhao’s side is almost finished too. Pei Yue is evacuating now. Don’t go deeper yet—wait until Yu Xiaotang completes the west side.”

“I know,” she said, but didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she stood at the edge of the stone platform, gently stroking the silver bell with her fingers.

During that last battle, she had used more control than ever before. In the past, her Demonic Fire was violent and unrestrained, but now it could respond to Commands within milliseconds, even the spread of the flames could be precisely calculated. This was the result of her secretly studying the “Magic Programming Logic” Shen Yan had given her.

She had originally just wanted to see if she could make her Demonic Fire more obedient, but she discovered that when Demon Power combined with Data Streams, the power actually increased by more than threefold.

“Hey, Shen Yan,” she suddenly chuckled. “Do you think if I wrote my Demonic Fire into an automatic Script, I could burn people while sleeping?”

The Communication Channel fell silent for a moment.

Then Shen Yan’s voice came through, tinged with laughter: “You could, but you’d have to pay me copyright fees first.”

“Tch, stingy,” she pouted, her peripheral vision catching sight of the puddle of purple liquid still bubbling on the ground.

It was the same kind that had sprayed from the copper pipes earlier.

She crouched down and lightly touched it with a flicker of flame. With a sizzle, the liquid evaporated, leaving behind a small patch of scorched marks.

“This stuff isn’t right,” she said. “It’s not ordinary cultivation fluid—it’s more like… Living Code.”

“Don’t touch it,” Shen Yan immediately warned. “That’s the core material Ye Shi’er uses to create Consciousness Puppets. Too much exposure will erode your Spiritual Consciousness.”

“Relax, I’m not that stupid,” she stood up and patted her hands. “But I am curious—who exactly are they trying to revive? Or… are they actually creating new ‘people’?”

“I want to know too,” Shen Yan’s voice lowered. “But one thing I’m sure of—the five of us aren’t something they can replicate.”

Luo Li froze for a moment.

The words sounded ordinary, yet for some reason, a sudden warmth bloomed in her heart.

She looked up toward the direction of the central area. Though she couldn’t see him, she knew he was standing there—one hand gripping his phone, the other directing the entire operation. He was the one who should have been protected the most, yet he always shouldered all the pressure at critical moments.

“Hey,” she said softly, “when this is over, how about you treat me to a proper meal? I’m so hungry my stomach’s touching my back.”

“Sure,” Shen Yan chuckled. “As long as you can make the Fire Protection Talisman more reliable, I’ll treat you not just once, but ten times.”

“Still holding a grudge?” She rolled her eyes. “That was an accident, got it? Whose Code was so hard to understand anyway? I was just trying to help you optimize it.”

“Optimize, my foot. You were using my Core Program as a doodle wall, weren’t you?”

Back and forth they bantered, and the atmosphere lightened considerably.

But at that very moment, Luo Li suddenly sensed something strange.

She whipped her head around, staring at the faintly visible door deep within the cave.

Between the door’s cracks, something seemed to… move.

(End of Chapter)