Chapter 166: Heart Demon Trial

The air was filled with a pungent smell of blood and scorched flesh, making one want to vomit.

The chubby old man Wang Shu at the village entrance, who always cheerfully gave him candy, had half his body rotted, lying in a pool of blood, his eyes fixed stubbornly on the gray sky.

Next door, the talkative warm-hearted Aunt Li Shenzi had a broken spear lodged in her chest, her face frozen in disbelief and terror.

There were also several half-grown boys whose faces were familiar but whose names he couldn't recall; usually mischievous, they now lay silently in the mud, their bodies twisted beyond recognition.

They seemed to be clinging to their last breath, painfully reaching out their hands toward Zhang Jun, helpless and desperate.

"Jun kid…… save me……"

"You're not strong…… hurry up and act! Watch us die!"

Wails, screams, deathbed howls—sharp and piercing—stabbed fiercely into Zhang Jun's ears, igniting his heart with fire, an uncontrollable surge of violent killing intent rushing upward.

The pure yang energy within his body instantly boiled, surging tumultuously, almost about to burst out of his body and blast the invisible entity causing this tragedy into powder!

But as soon as the thought arose, he clearly felt that this power was too fierce and fierce; if fully unleashed, the first to be burned to ash would be himself!

The surrounding dying villagers could hardly withstand even a fraction of this pure yang's might; they would instantly turn to flying ash!

To save, or not to save?

How to save?

"Damn!" Zhang Jun snarled, his fists clenched tight, joints cracking under the strain, veins bulging on his arms.

His eye sockets turned completely red from extreme anger and struggle.

What the hell kind of trial is this!

On the other side, Lin Xue's vision before her eyes likewise shifted abruptly.

She found herself inside a huge, tattered tent that stretched beyond sight.

A heavy mix of medicinal herb scent, bloodiness, and the stench of rotting flesh assailed her, churning her stomach.

The ground was covered with moaning wounded, densely packed, layered upon each other.

Some had missing hands or feet, wounds oozing pus and festering; others were covered in strange-shaped, oddly colored ulcers and diseases, many of which were merely mentioned in passing as fatal or bizarre ailments in the Medicine Sect inheritance she had just received, shocking to behold.

Wails, coughs, despairing sobs merged into a heavy, chaotic wave of sound that struck her ears, making one agitated and unable to focus.

She instinctively tried to mobilize her Profound Yin Internal Force to examine and heal.

But there were simply too many patients, with myriad bizarre illnesses, extremely complex. Diagnosing each and attempting treatment exhausted her mind, consuming vast amounts of internal energy.

Her power seemed laughably tiny before this hellish scene of human suffering.

With great effort, she focused all her mind, her fingertips flowing with pure internal energy, using an extremely exquisite and complex technique from the inheritance, barely managing to sustain the life of a withered old man in a corner whose breath was fading and who seemed about to die.

That old man had just caught a breath, laboriously evening his breathing, but his cloudy old eyes rolled around.

Seizing the moment when Lin Xue slightly turned her body to check the next patient, that skin-and-bones withered hand shot out like a poisonous snake, grabbing at the medicine pouch hanging from her waist.

The movement was abrupt; a wave of icy malice instantly froze her heart, a strong nausea surging straight to her throat.

The internal energy she had barely steadied nearly lost control because of it!

At that moment, the Yin Yang Jade Pendant clenched in her palm, her half of the ice‑blue crystal, exuded a tiny yet unusually clear chill.

This chill, like a mountain‑top spring, quietly flowed along her meridians into her heart‑field, forcibly suppressing the surging emotions.

"Hold to your original heart…… a healer's benevolent heart, not for reward……" a muffled voice echoed deep in her consciousness, ancient and weary.

On Zhang Jun's side, being pressed by this dilemma almost drove him mad.

Watching helplessly as familiar people suffered, he wanted to roar, wanted to smash this damned place!

The warm half of the jade pendant on his chest transmitted steady heat, like a calm hand pressing on his racing heart, letting him calm down a bit.

"Power…… protection…… not destruction…… control…… mastery……" the old weary voice returned, carrying a hint of guidance.

Zhang Jun gritted his teeth hard, slammed his eyes shut, forcing himself not to look or listen to those gruesome sights and pleas.

The pure yang energy within his body still surged, but he no longer let it crash about.

He began to try, with extreme difficulty and effort, to guide, condense, and compress this power—like walking on a cliff's edge, carefully seeking that subtle line where he could exert power to save people without losing control and burning everything to ashes.

This process was tens of thousands of times more exhausting than a dead‑lock with Zhou Qian! His mind was intensely focused, his spirit nearly drained dry.

The illusion did not stop; instead it kept shifting, each iteration more cruel, directly striking at the most fragile corners of the human heart.

One moment it forced him to choose by threatening those he cared most about; the next it presented a cruel scenario of sacrificing the few to save the many, or compelled him to use self‑harming forbidden techniques.

Each decision felt like a heavy hammer slamming hard onto his heart.

Lin Xue's side was no better.

The patients she encountered grew stranger, their conditions more complex, and human hearts more treacherous.

There were those feigning illness to scam medicine, those acting out of jealousy, and even some she had saved who turned around to bite her and spread slander.

Each response deepened her understanding of the word "medicine" amid painful struggle, making it feel ever heavier.

Whether to save, how to save—these questions seemed to transcend mere medical technique, touching a deeper level.

Both felt they could barely hold on, their spirits exhausted to the extreme.

At that moment, the jade pendant in their hands would periodically send a faint yet clear trace of the other's presence—sometimes warm, sometimes cool.

It was as if silently saying, "Hold on, you are not alone."

In this repeated torment, Zhang Jun's rash, head‑strong vigor unknowingly retracted. He began to learn finer control of his power, seeking the most effective and steady way. His impatience lessened, replaced by a weighty sense of responsibility.

Lin Xue remained cool and aloof, but when faced with ugly human hearts and endless suffering, that instinctive dislike and detachment gradually gave way to more complex, compassionate, and resilient feelings; the chill flowing from her fingertips seemed to gain a bit of toughness and vitality.

Just at the moment when their spirits were nearly broken.

A gender‑indistinguishable thought, its voice sticky and exuding a strange allure, slipped silently into their weary minds.

"Look at what you've saved!" that voice sneered at Lin Xue, "Human hearts are utterly corrupt, not worth saving! No matter how high your medical skill, what good is it? Better join us, control their life‑death cycle, make them kneel like dogs at your feet—wouldn't that be delightful!"