The Heroine Must Die

Watching from a distance, Lauren understood immediately. He wasn’t an idiot.

Since he couldn’t leave the barrier to fight the Sword Cultivator head-on, he’d played dumb—baited the bastard into stepping inside and trapped him there instead.

Of course… maybe he hadn’t been entirely pretending. Seven parts genuine recklessness, three parts calculated cunning. Just enough to fool an overconfident Sword Cultivator into walking into a cage.

“Sis, let’s go find Peyton. He can take us somewhere safe to hide.”

Lauren didn’t look away from the barrier.

White added softly, “Don’t worry. Aunt’s Demon Soul Array will keep feeding Brother demonic power.”

But that Sword Cultivator was terrifyingly strong. Forget it. Worrying won’t change anything. I can’t help him right now.

“Peyton, you two go hide. I’m not coming.”

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“I’m going back to the sect.”

“Are you crazy? It’s dangerous as hell there right now.”

Lauren fell silent for a moment before answering, voice steady. “No matter how dangerous it is, I have to go back.”

She couldn’t sit this out. Not this time. “Take care of yourself,” she said, already turning away.

Without another word, she shot toward the nearest teleportation array in the South Sea.

“Edmund,” she muttered inwardly, “if we fail, stay hidden in Sky-Covering Valley. Wait for the next chosen one to bring you out. And if you ever get your godhood back… avenge me.”

“Okay,” Edmund replied calmly.

Lauren: “…”

“Damn it. You agreed way too fast,” she snapped.

“Then try your best not to die,” he said evenly.

They reached the teleportation array. Lauren didn’t bother arguing further. She stepped inside.

.......

When she emerged at the foot of Thunder Sect Mountain, chaos hit her like a physical force.

Spiritual energy churned violently in the air. In the distance, the Thunder Sect was under assault, demonic power crashing against formations in explosive bursts.

She slapped an Escape Talisman and a Hidden Spirit Talisman onto herself and slipped forward silently.

The Moonlit Sect, Divine Sword Sect, and Calculation Sect had all sent reinforcements. But the enemy had come with two people. And this side didn’t even have a single Mahayana cultivator.

The supporting cultivators were separated from their own sect formations, unable to draw on their full array power. Their help was limited.

The Divine Sword Sect had managed to bring a small branch formation—its sword array barely holding the line. The real backbone of the defense was still Gerald and his three thousand disciples.

Hidden in the shadows, Lauren summoned Briar. “That short, fat bastard looks injured,” she whispered. “Find a chance. Ambush him.”

“Got it.” Briar slipped into the earth.

At that exact moment, another figure dropped from the sky. Everyone’s faces went pale.

They had already fought to the brink, bodies wrecked and spiritual power nearly drained. If they could just kill one, they might have had a chance to gang up on the other. But now a third had arrived.

Three. They were fucked.

“What happened? Why are there only two of you?” the newcomer demanded.

“These ants are channeling energy through the mountain. It’s a pain in the ass,” someone spat. “The others are probably dead.”

“What? Landon too? Impossible!”

“I didn’t see him when I came down,” the fat man said, clutching his severed shoulder, blood still dripping. “Enough talk. Kill these ants.”

The newcomer burst out laughing. “You actually let these ants chop off your arm?”

“…”

“Move. I’ll avenge you.” Arrogant as hell, the newcomer shoved the fat man aside and charged the Mountain Protection Array.

Boom.

A massive hammer crashed down. The entire formation shuddered violently, cracks spider-webbing across its surface.

Inside, Logan and Jade gritted their teeth, shoveling spirit stones into the array core as if they were worthless pebbles.

Outside, the fat man—pushed aside “for protection”—landed heavily on the ground.

The moment his feet touched earth, vines erupted upward and wrapped around him.

His focus had been entirely on the collapsing formation and the swarm of “ants” inside. He never once considered that something was waiting beneath his feet.

A single vine crept up his face. At its tip bloomed a small pink bud.

Pop.

The flower opened, petals unfolding into a mesmerizing crimson. Fine pollen burst outward, flooding into his nostrils.

The fat man’s eyes fluttered closed. A beautiful dream swallowed him whole.

By the time his companions noticed his aura had vanished— He was nothing but a skeleton tangled in withered vines.

“What the hell?!” someone shouted.

“There’s something underground!”

They saw the earth shifting—something moving fast beneath the surface. “Where?”

One cultivator drew his sword, chanting an incantation. The blade flashed and plunged into the ground, chasing after Briar’s retreating presence.

Inside the Mountain Protection Array, someone gasped. “It’s Lauren!”

“Briar—Briar’s back!”

The red vines were shredded into pieces as sword light tore through the soil.

Briar gritted its metaphorical teeth, sacrificing dozens—hundreds—of vines to create a smokescreen, then darted into Lauren’s inner space.

Its presence vanished instantly.

“Holy shit, I almost got skewered,” Briar wailed. “He chopped off so many of my vines!”

Lauren patted it gently with her spiritual sense. “It’s fine. They’ll grow back.”

“They grow so damn slowly, and they get cut down in seconds! If he keeps going, I’ll be nothing but roots. Boohoo~~”

Briar’s sacrifice had been brutal. Lauren chuckled softly despite herself.

“Relax. Wildfire can’t burn you all away. When spring comes, you’ll grow back even stronger.”

Dead? Just like that?

The remaining man hesitated, unease creeping up his spine. It shouldn’t have been that easy.

Another cultivator—who had just forced back the Divine Sword Sect’s sword formation—shouted to the one who had chased Briar underground, “Forget him! Get over here! The formation’s about to break!”

Clang—

A metallic shriek tore through the air as new cracks split across the Mountain Protection Array.

“Pah! You son of a bitch!” Gerald roared. “You really think my Thunder Sect has no backbone?”

The Divine Sword Sect disciples fell back to recover. Gerald, still pale from earlier injuries, shoved Dorothy aside and charged forward with his sword, cursing like a madman.

His blade came down in a savage arc.

The hammer-wielding man didn’t dare meet it head-on. Steel crashed against steel, and the force of the collision sent shockwaves rippling outward. The array survived—barely.

“Hmph. Ignorant ant,” the hammer wielder sneered. “You’ve pissed me off now. Once this formation shatters, I’ll slaughter every last one of your disciples and followers.”

“That depends on whether you fucking can,” Gerald shot back.

“Where are your three thousand disciples?” the man taunted.

A unified roar answered from below, shaking the mountain.

Gerald’s body flared with blinding light. His aura surged violently upward. The hammer wielder and his companion exchanged a look—then split apart instantly.

Gerald’s strike cut through empty air. He had just begun to retreat when both men struck simultaneously. A gigantic pitch-black net descended from the sky, swallowing him whole.

“Sect Leader!”

“Gerald!”

“Master!”

“Watch out!”

Too late.

The strange black net severed his connection to his three thousand disciples in an instant.

Without their combined Qi flowing through him, Gerald dropped an entire realm in strength. Compared to the two men outside, he might as well have been meat laid out on a chopping block.

Lauren, hidden in the shadows, felt her chest tighten. If the Sect Leader falls… the formation won’t last. We’ll be slaughtered. And there are probably more coming down from above.

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