Yunmeng VS Yehongling.

"Next, please welcome the contestants for the second semifinal match to the stage! The Holy Maiden of the world's number one demonic sect, the Netherworld Demonic Cult, Ye Hongling! Facing off against the Holy Maiden of the Illusory Sea Immortal Sect, Yun Meng!"

Chief Eunuch Wei Zhongxian's shrill voice was like a ladle of cold water poured into a boiling pot of oil, instantly detonating the boiling point of the hundred thousand spectators in the Royal Colosseum.

"Boom!"

Above the dome, a blinding crimson pillar of light crashed down onto the center of the arena.

The ground, forged from magic-sealing black iron, was forcibly smashed, forming web-like cracks. As the dust cleared, Ye Hongling stood proudly, dressed in a blood-red gown. She wore no veil, and her aggressively beautiful, bewitching face bore undisguised arrogance and brutality. Her long, straight, and fair legs were faintly visible beneath the high slits of her red dress. Her entire body exuded a deadly temptation that made one's blood boil yet sent shivers down the spine.

On the other side of the arena, Yun Meng stepped through the air, lotus blossoms seeming to bloom beneath her feet. Starlight flowed around her, and clouds obscured her face. Dressed in a spotless snow-white gauze dress, she looked like a peerless fairy from the highest heavens who had never tasted mortal food—unattainable, sacred, and inviolable.

Since ancient times, the orthodox and demonic paths could never coexist. This ultimate contrast of red and white, demoness and fairy, instantly pushed the atmosphere in the stands to a climax.

"The Holy Maiden of the number one orthodox sect against the demoness of the number one demonic cult! This ticket is worth it!"

"I bet a hundred thousand taels on Ye Hongling! The demonic path is invincible within the same realm; that's an ironclad rule of the martial world! How could a greenhouse flower like Yun Meng fight Ye Hongling, who crawled her way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood?"

Listening to the clamor outside the arena, Wang Hao leaned comfortably against his dragon throne on the main viewing platform, unable to suppress the joyful curve of his lips.

On the arena right now, there were no pleasantries or probing attacks.

"Fairy? Bah!" Ye Hongling licked her crimson lips, her eyes filled with a morbid excitement. "The thing I love doing most in my life is trampling you self-righteous, hypocritical orthodox holy maidens under my feet, tearing off your masks of fake benevolence, and watching you howl in the mud like female dogs!"

Before her voice even faded, Ye Hongling ruthlessly attacked!

"Netherworld Blood Sea, Ten Thousand Ghosts Devouring the Heart!"

Ye Hongling's hands rapidly formed hand seals. In an instant, a sickeningly thick stench of blood soared into the sky. The space above the arena was instantly dyed a dark red. Countless mournful and malicious spirits roared in the sea of blood, transforming into hundreds of thick, blood-colored chains. Like vipers striking from their dens, they crazily lunged toward Yun Meng to strangle her.

Yun Meng furrowed her elegant brows, a trace of disgust flashing in her eyes. She gently raised her jade-like hand, and starlight gathered at her fingertips.

"Star Guidance, Spatial Fold."

The space in front of Yun Meng distorted, attempting to directly banish those blood-colored chains into the void.

However, she underestimated the foundation of the Netherworld Demonic Cult, and she underestimated Ye Hongling's madness even more.

"Trying to run? Inside my Netherworld Blood Domain, even space will be corroded by my foul blood! Lock!" Ye Hongling let out a sharp cry, forcefully clapping her hands together.

With a few harsh, sizzling sounds of corrosion, the spatial rifts Yun Meng summoned were actually plastered over and melted down by the bloody water carrying extreme resentment and malice!

"What?!" For the first time, a trace of shock flashed through Yun Meng's normally placid, beautiful eyes.

In that single moment of hesitation, three blood-colored chains broke through her starlight shield, tightly wrapping around Yun Meng's ankles, wrists, and waist!

"Bang!"

Yun Meng's ethereal figure was violently yanked downward by a massive force, falling heavily into the bloody water of the arena. Her snow-white gauze dress was instantly stained with glaring, foul blood, and her originally flawless fairy image was shattered in an instant.

"Hahaha! Caught you, my aloof fairy!"

Ye Hongling laughed wildly, her figure moving like lightning as she instantly appeared above Yun Meng. She stepped on Yun Meng's wrist, which was trying to resist, and the blood-colored long whip in her hand turned into an afterimage. With a sharp crack, it whipped the ground beside Yun Meng, sending crushed stones flying and leaving a very fine, bloody scratch on Yun Meng's fair cheek.

Absolute suppression!

Only half an incense stick of time into the match, Yun Meng, ranked first on the pseudo-Heavenly Secrets Board, was actually suppressed on the ground by Ye Hongling in an almost humiliating posture!

The entire arena was dead silent; everyone watched this scene in disbelief.

"You... insolent!" The power of the stars surged crazily around Yun Meng as she tried to break free from the foul, blood-colored chains, but the chains only tightened the more she struggled, even beginning to drain the spiritual energy from her body.

"Insolent? You call this insolent?"

The smile on Ye Hongling's face grew increasingly twisted. She was in no rush to deal a fatal blow to Yun Meng. Instead, she suddenly turned around, leaving her alluring and fiery back to Yun Meng. She tilted her head back, and her watery, supremely captivating peach-blossom eyes stared straight at Emperor Wang Hao in the center of the main viewing platform.

The next second, under the dumbfounded gazes of a hundred thousand people in the audience, this murderous demonic cult holy maiden actually stuck out her tongue, gently licked her lips, and threw a flirtatious, enchanting wink at Emperor Wang Hao in the VIP box!

Not only that, she even deliberately twisted her slender waist, causing the slit of her red dress to slip, revealing a large swath of snow-white skin. Her voice was coquettish, carrying three parts charm and seven parts audacity, piercing through the entire colosseum:

"Your Majesty, do you think Hongling is fighting beautifully? This high and mighty Holy Maiden of the Illusory Sea Immortal Sect is now crawling at Hongling's feet. If Your Majesty likes it, Hongling will strip her naked right now, cripple her cultivation, tie her up with a dog collar, and send her into the palace tonight. Then, us two sisters can... properly 'serve' Your Majesty together. What do you say?"

Silence.

Deathly silence.

Immediately after, the entire grandstand erupted into wolf howls that threatened to flip the dome!

"Awooo!!! Holy shit! Holy shit! This is too thrilling!"

"Demonic cult demoness! This is what a true demonic cult demoness is! So exciting!"

"Strip her! Strip her! I'll go bankrupt just to see it! This ticket was so worth it!"

Countless male martial artists were so stimulated by Ye Hongling's wild words and the highly visually impactful scene that their eyes turned red, their noses bled wildly, and they frantically slapped the railings.

However, inside the supreme VIP box, the air pressure instantly dropped to the freezing point.

"Crash!"

Empress Dowager Lady Sun trembled with anger. The precious blue-and-white porcelain teacup in her hand was ruthlessly smashed onto the ground, shattering into pieces.

"Shameless! Indecent! Slutty! This is an absolute corruption of public morals!" Empress Dowager Lady Sun pointed at Ye Hongling's alluring posture outside the glass screen and cursed loudly. "A cheap wench with the manners of a brothel whore dares to call herself a Holy Maiden? In broad daylight, she actually dares to make a joke of the royal family's reputation in front of a massive crowd! Men! Note this down for me. Even if this demonic cult demoness dies in the arena, she can forget about ever stepping half a foot into my Great Zhou's inner palace! Does she really think the royal inner courtyard is some filthy place?"

The princess beside them, Wang Rou, was also flushed with anger. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Royal Brother! I absolutely look down on her seductive, fox-like appearance! She is clearly trying to seduce you! She even wants to use such despicable methods to humiliate Yun Meng. I absolutely cannot let such a vicious woman enter the palace! She disgusts me to death!"

Facing the frantic complaints of his mother and sister, Wang Hao's younger brother, Wang Xuan, looked as if his soul had been snatched away, staring blankly at Ye Hongling in the arena. Catching sight of this from the corner of her eye, the Empress Dowager was instantly furious. For her youngest son to show such a perverted, lustful expression at such a young age—could he have taken after the late Emperor? This was unacceptable! Furious, she slapped him across the face, delivering a harsh parenting lesson. Immediately, the wails of a son being beaten echoed from the supreme VIP box.

Wang Hao stared fixedly at Ye Hongling's long white legs down below and the suppressed Yun Meng, wiping away a glistening trail of drool that had slipped from the corner of his mouth.

"Good! Good! My beloved concubine is right! Strip her naked! I shall reward you heavily! Hai Dafu, note this down for me. Tonight, if Ye Hongling is willing, she must bring Yun Meng along. Hehehe... a threesome... No, I want to spar with the two of them! A deep, intimate sparring session!"

Hai Dafu rolled his eyes. The Emperor had even conferred the title of 'beloved concubine' upon her already, but the key question was, did she even agree? Helplessly, he voiced his acknowledgment.

Inside the box, Empress Dowager Sun almost fainted from anger when she saw her eldest son on the main platform also sporting a lustful, pig-like expression. Clutching her chest and panting heavily, she cried, "A misfortune upon our house! A misfortune upon our house! Oh, late Emperor, look at the fine son you raised! He truly is your seed, taking right after you."

Wang Rou covered her face in despair, feeling that her royal brother was completely beyond saving.

However.

In a blind spot that Empress Dowager Sun and Wang Rou could not see, when everyone thought the Great Zhou Emperor was a useless fool blinded by lust.

Beneath Wang Hao's highly exaggerated lustful facade, his pitch-black eyes flickered with a calculating greed.

"This idiotic demoness really knows how to stir up the crowd. This wave of public outrage is simply heaven helping me."

Wang Hao was rapidly whispering to Yu Huatian.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, influenced by Ye Hongling suppressing Yun Meng and her provocative remarks, the betting pools outside have gone completely mad! The retail bettors and minor noble houses who originally bet on Yun Meng are now frantically covering their positions by betting on Ye Hongling to win! Ye Hongling's odds have plummeted to an extremely exaggerated one to zero point two, while Yun Meng's odds have soared to one to seven!"

Hearing this, Wang Hao bloomed with joy. In the eyes of outsiders, this little tyrant of an emperor had been so bewitched by the demoness that he couldn't tell north from south.

"Excellent. Have our plants in the crowd continue to steer the narrative. Tell everyone that Yun Meng's spiritual energy is sealed and her clothes are about to be blown off! Squeeze out every last bit of wealth from those old perverts and gambling addicts! No matter how many buy into Ye Hongling, the Royal Casino will accept all their bets without exception! In addition, immediately open a one-sided hedging pool for 'Yun Meng's Comeback' and dump one-third of the inner treasury entirely onto Yun Meng!"

"Understood! But Your Majesty... Yun Meng is currently being completely countered by the Nether Blood Domain. That is foul blood capable of corrupting space itself. If she truly loses... won't our Royal Casino suffer catastrophic losses?"

"Losses?"

Wang Hao said rapidly, while outwardly giving a thumbs-up to Ye Hongling below.

"What the hell do you know! Those people from the Illusionary Sea Immortal Sect care most about their damn face and so-called divinity. Ye Hongling, this idiot—winning is one thing, but she just had to trample on their bottom line. She has no idea what kind of monster she is about to face. Just watch. The real show is only just beginning."

On the arena.

Seeing Wang Hao's thumbs-up, the smugness on Ye Hongling's face deepened.

She lowered her head, looking at Yun Meng struggling fiercely at her feet, tightly bound by blood-red chains. A sickly light flashed in her eyes.

"Did you hear that, Fairy Yun Meng? His Majesty has spoken. It seems your holy white garments are destined to be lost today. I really want to see, in front of a hundred thousand people, when the pure and flawless image you are so proud of is torn into shreds by me, will that eternal deadpan face of yours actually cry!"

As Ye Hongling spoke, she reached out her right hand, adorned with sharp finger guards, slowly toward the misty veil on Yun Meng's face, while her other hand reached directly for the lapels of Yun Meng's dress!

Right at the instant Ye Hongling's fingertips were about to touch Yun Meng's veil.

"Crack."

An incredibly faint shattering sound, yet one that seemed to explode in the deepest depths of the soul, echoed from within Yun Meng's body.

Ye Hongling's hand suddenly froze.

Because she realized that her proud "Nether Blood Domain"—the boundless sea of blood capable of corrupting all things and locking down space—had, at this moment... stopped.

It hadn't been broken; rather, a higher, more terrifying dimensional power had forcefully pressed the pause button on it.

Yun Meng, who had been pinned to the ground, slowly raised her head.

Those beautiful eyes, originally as clear as a spring, had now completely changed color. Deep within her pupils, it was as if countless stars were annihilating. Her originally black eyes had transformed into an incredibly demonic purple-gold!

The ethereal, elusive fairy aura she had always possessed was completely gone. Taking its place was an ancient, desolate, and tyrannical presence—an aura a hundred times more terrifying than that of the demoness Ye Hongling!

"You... just said you were going to leash me like a dog?"

Yun Meng's voice was no longer ethereal; instead, it carried a bizarre, overlapping resonance that seemed to emanate from an ancient abyss.

Alarm bells blared in Ye Hongling's mind. Her demonic cultivator's intuition for danger made every hair on her body stand on end. She instinctively wanted to retreat explosively, but she was horrified to discover that the surrounding space had somehow been completely locked down. She couldn't even move a single finger!

"This is impossible! My Nether Blood Domain clearly locked you down! How could you..."