“Sea-devil Jiao.” The dragon-girl finally identified the beast. The aura had felt wrong because she’d forgotten that the Desolate Sea also held demonic sea-beasts.

“Get up here first!” Ye Liuyun had no idea how far the Jiao were; he could only yell for her to surface.

She believed her draconic bloodline would cow any Jiao, but at Ye Liuyun’s shout she kicked upward anyway.

The fifty devil Jiao had already locked on. True-dragon pressure was impossible to hide in deep water, and with no guardians around they weren’t about to waste the chance. The instant she started to rise they erupted with yuan-force and shot after her.

She sensed the surge, roared to scare them off.

The Jiao answered by cloaking themselves in rolling demon-qi, blunt­ing her dragon-fear, and kept coming—faster.

Realizing the danger, she poured on speed and released every shred of power of bloodline she had. Too late; the pack was on her.

Through golden pupils Ye Liuyun glimpsed countless slender black shadows streaking toward the girl.

The next heartbeat, battle-flares exploded beneath the waves.

He had no choice: he wrapped the area in time-law and dove. Anyone else would arrive too late.

In the single breath that followed, the dragon-girl was shredded—scales split, blood clouding the sea. A Unity-Seventh-Layer devil Jiao had clamped its jaws around her neck and was dragging her off like fresh prey.

Teeth clenched, Ye Liuyun slashed with the Demon-Slayer sabre, hacking that Jiao’s head off, pried the jaws open, and pulled her free. He whisked her into his inner world, sank her into a pool of life-spring, and sent the women to watch over her.

The headless corpse he stowed as meat; the severed head he tossed beside the pool so she’d see it when she woke.

Then he used the remaining seconds of time-law to behead more Jiao. When his own power ran out he swapped to two clones. The creatures’ bones were iron-hard; many needed two cuts. Afraid the law would fade, the last clone simply lopped the final few heads with white light.

Time snapped back to normal. The dragon-girl, still wired for combat, flinched before she realized she floated in warm life-spring—Ye Liuyun had saved her. She shifted to human form and let the water knit her wounds.

Only when the other women saw she would live did they drift away.

Her senses reached outside the pool: fifty Jiao heads lined up like trophies.

She understood at once—Ye Liuyun was furious, and the price would be genocide. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

“Hah... the Jiao clan dug their own grave. And me—why did I show mercy? Served me right.”

She winced, felt fresh blood on her scalp, and slid completely under the surface to heal.

Outside, Ye Liuyun had already moved everyone into his world. He sent a mental order to every beast that could wield black-white light—Thunderclap, Nine-Head Demon Dragon, Black Tiger, Vespera, Xenocide, Phantom-Hand—ready them for war.

He also called the blue whale, demanding it guide them to the Jiao lair. The whale only circled, moaning—calling for the dragon-girl or mourning her, impossible to tell, but going nowhere.

Ye Liuyun thought a moment, then told Thunderclap to strip a Jiao tendon and string the fifty heads like beads.

When Thunderclap arrived the dragon-girl had already mended enough to speak.

“What are you doing?” she asked, watching the girl skewer demon heads on a spear.

“Big brother wants to wipe out the Jiao. He told me to thread their skulls on a tendon necklace.”“Why string them up?” the dragon girl asked, more puzzled than ever.

“No idea! Little Brother just told me to. I guess he’s mad and wants to warn those devil-jiao—like back when the Death Legion skewered demon corpses and left them dangling to scare the rest. His face looked awful; I didn’t dare ask!”

After Lei Ming punched a hole through each devil-jiao head, he threaded them all onto a single jiao tendon.

The dragon girl lowered her voice. “Do you think he’s angry at me?”

“Why would he be mad at you?” Lei Ming asked, honestly baffled.

By now the other women saw that the dragon girl was mostly healed and that Lei Ming was acting weird, so they hurried over to find out what was going on.

Only then did the dragon girl tell them how she’d begged Ye Liuyun not to attack the devil-jiao clan—and ended up nearly killed by them.

The moment the women heard Ye Liuyun had sent out the six beast generals, they knew he was furious; he clearly meant to wipe the devil-jiao off the map.

Lei Ming tried to comfort her: “Probably not. I think seeing you hurt made him furious—with himself for not protecting you. You know him—he never stays mad at us. Apologize later and he’ll be fine.”

The others chimed in, assuring her Ye Liuyun wouldn’t hold a grudge, and the dragon girl finally breathed a little easier.

Lei Ming hoisted the grisly necklace of heads and carried it out to Ye Liuyun.

When Ye Liuyun saw it, he summoned the nine-headed dragon.

He still remembered the general direction of the devil-jiao territory. Since the blue whale refused to guide them, he left it behind and had the dragon lift him higher into the sky.

As they flew toward the jiao lands, Ye Liuyun ordered the dragon to clutch the string of heads in its talons—both to terrify any sea beasts below and to lure the devil-jiao into showing themselves.

Lei Ming thought the whole display hilarious and begged to stay outside, so Ye Liuyun let her shift into her pet form and perch on his shoulder.

He told both her and the dragon, “The moment you spot a devil-jiao, hit it with white light—no survivors.”