Chapter 72 (3/3): Qingqiu Locked Down, Permanently Closed

Inside the Peach Grove of Qingqiu, night deepened.

Candidates from various Divine Pantheons sat around a campfire, the flickering flames casting soft light over their relaxed faces.

“So, what do you think Su Fu’s next target will be?”

“India, Egypt, or maybe the Paradise Pantheon map?”

“Whatever it is, it won’t be Qingqiu.”

“That’s for sure. This is her home base, and there aren’t even many anomalies here.”

“Speaking of which, isn’t it strange there are so few anomalies? Do you think this really is the Qingqiu map?”

Laughter broke out.

“You’re really stretching your imagination. If this isn’t Qingqiu, then what? An illusion? Have you ever seen such a massive Illusion Array?”

“Well, yeah, that’s a bit ridiculous.”

As the discussion went on, suddenly someone looked up and spotted a flock of birds flying overhead.

“Huh? Birds? At night?”

Everyone immediately tensed, sensing something was off.

“Wait,” someone swallowed nervously, voice trembling, “doesn’t Su Fu have a Divine Skill to control birds?”

“She… she can’t be spying on us through those birds, can she?”

The crowd immediately grew alert.

Even though they were confident Su Fu wouldn’t collapse the Qingqiu map, it didn’t mean they weren’t afraid of her.

Besides, who knew what a madwoman like her was capable of?

Who could have guessed she would cause Olympus to collapse?

“No way… you’re overthinking it,” someone laughed nervously, trying to reassure himself.

“They’re probably just birds returning to Qingqiu.”

“Maybe we’re just being paranoid…”

Before anyone could finish, a cold voice suddenly echoed through the Peach Grove, ringing in everyone’s ears:

“Uninvited guests are thieves.”

“Are there really this many thieves in Qingqiu now?”

The campfire flickered violently, and everyone’s expressions froze, their scalps tingling as they stood rooted to the spot.

They had just been discussing who would be Su Fu’s next target—and now they realized they were it.

“This… this is Su Fu’s voice!”

“How did she come back to Qingqiu? Wasn’t she supposed to be collecting anomaly points?”

“This is bad…” someone’s legs turned weak, “She can’t be ignoring points just to deal with us, can she?”

Fear instantly filled the crowd—they knew this woman was crazy.

Hidden in the crowd, Xiao Chen hadn’t found Bai Yu nor any anomalies in Qingqiu.

His expression darkened.

‘What was going on? Why had Su Fu returned?’

This was bad.

Everything was thrown into chaos the moment she came back.

At that moment, Su Fu’s voice sounded again, casually:

“How about this—I’m not unreasonable. For 10,000 Contribution Points, I’ll let you leave Qingqiu safely.”

The crowd burst into uproar.

“What kind of joke is this? You’re charging toll fees now?”

“You’ve got to be crazy! We’re the ones with legs; if we want to leave, we leave—why pay?”

“Exactly! Are you throwing money away? Who do you think you are…”

Amid the clamor, Ichá from the Mayan Pantheon was seriously considering it.

Soon, he exchanged glances with other Mayan candidates and seemed to reach a conclusion.

Then he looked up and declared:

“I agree. Mayan Pantheon agrees to pay and leave.”

“Are you insane?” someone nearby whispered, “That’s 10,000 Contribution Points!”

“If you really wanted to leave, why not just walk out without paying?”

“Ichá, are you crazy?” a friend from the Amaterasu Pantheon asked in disbelief.

“Are you rich and don’t know what to do with money? Or just stupid?”

Ichá’s face paled slightly as he lowered his voice and said, “It’s not like that. Leaving costs money. And for Su Fu, charging money is a good thing—it shows she’s making concessions. In other words, she expects us to leave. This is a kind of clear message—she’s giving everyone a way out.”

Some candidates wavered at this, but one grumbled, “10,000 points is way too expensive.”

“Yeah, and why do we have to pay to walk?”

Ichá responded, “You all are really stubborn, aren’t you? Not afraid of what might happen next. In any case, that’s all I have to say. This money won’t be wasted.”

Su Fu’s voice came again: “Good. Then Mayan Pantheon, you may leave.”

Upon hearing this, Ichá immediately gathered his pantheon’s candidates and quickly left Qingqiu’s boundaries.

It was so sudden it felt like something terrifying was chasing them.

Seeing them really leave, the remaining candidates started to panic.

“That’s odd… the Mayan Pantheon must have foreseen something, right?”

“No way, they didn’t even use any Divine Skills.”

“Then why was Ichá so scared?”

“Pfft, those gods and immortals are all cowards. A little disturbance and they run scared.”

“I think Su Fu’s out of options, just bluffing to scare us away.”

“Exactly. Everyone knows how cunning she is. Half truth, half lie. Who knows if this is her plan?”

“Otherwise, if she was so powerful, why not just act?”

This eased the tension slightly.

Maybe Su Fu had already run out of divine power and was only bluffing.

Someone nervously shouted into the sky, “Su Fu, stop bluffing! If you dare act, you’ll be destroying your own land!”

“Careful, the one biting the mouse is yourself.”

“This isn’t even our map. You really think we’re scared?”

But no response came from Su Fu.

Only silence.

They looked at each other.

Had Su Fu really run out of words and fallen silent?

“She’s… scared?” someone whispered.

“I think she chickened out. I told you she wouldn’t burn us.”

“Qingqiu is her lifeline; she wouldn’t dare.”

“Tsk, what a pity. The Mayan Pantheon cowards got scared and wasted 10,000 points.”

Meanwhile, Su Fu chose a good spot on the outskirts of Qingqiu to start the fire.

She was too lazy to waste words with these people.

Good advice is wasted on fools.

Besides, their lives were not hers to worry about.

The Peach Grove was lush and thriving; the time had come.

She would use the Six Ding Divine Fire to turn the entire area into a sea of flames, burning it to ashes.

“Dao Tong of Laozi, assist me—burn it all away!”

“Six Ding Divine Fire, ignite!”

In an instant, blinding flames exploded forth, pouring down like a torrential firestorm.

The Six Ding Divine Fire was Laozi’s sacred flame—once ignited, all things burned.

The peach trees caught fire and roared into blazing infernos, quickly engulfing the grove in a sea of flames, spreading with unstoppable force.

Qingqiu was burning.

Around the campfire, anxiety spread among the candidates.

“Why isn’t Su Fu reacting at all?”

“Could she be plotting something bad?”

“That’s strange…”

Someone fearful stood.

“Maybe… we should leave quickly?”

“Leave?!” others immediately mocked him, “You’re really scared off by a few words? If she really had the power, she’d have acted before even finishing her sentence.”

Suddenly, he stopped.

Something was wrong.

“Don’t you guys… feel a little hot?”

Everyone paused.

“Yeah…” someone echoed, “It was cool just a moment ago.”

This was odd.

It was already night; logically, the wind should be cool.

Why was it heating up?

“Maybe the fire is just really strong?” someone tried to explain.

Then, a warm breeze blew through, and everyone’s expressions changed.

Wait…?

Not only was the wind warmer, but the air carried an indistinct, unexplainable scent.

Soon, the heat grew more intense.

Qingqiu’s once cool and beautiful atmosphere turned stifling.

“Hiss…” someone wiped sweat from their brow, “This temperature isn’t right…”

“Wait, do you hear something?”

Amid the hot wind came crackling sounds.

At that moment, a scout suddenly paled and shouted:

“Bad news! The Peach Forest is on fire!”

“What?!”

Panic erupted.

“How could this happen?”

“What is Su Fu doing while her own home burns?!”

In moments, the horizon glowed a fiery orange-red.

This was no sunset glow—it was flames.

The heatwave intensified, and the smell of burning grew thick.

Fine ash drifted down like black snow, settling on everyone’s hair and clothes.

“Sparks…?” someone caught a piece of ash, murmuring in disbelief.

Suddenly, a fierce explosion sounded from afar, followed by the crash of falling trees.

Flames soared skyward, bathing half the sky in a fiery glow.

Such a massive fire—Su Fu couldn’t be unaware.

This could only mean—

“Su Fu’s lost it!”

“She’s going to burn all of Qingqiu to ashes!”

“Run!” someone shouted, and chaos erupted as everyone fled in panic away from the flames.

But soon they realized the fire was closing in from all directions, trapping them with no escape!

The flames ravaged the Peach Grove.

Delicate petals withered and ignited instantly, turning to ash.

Panic set in—Su Fu was unleashing her full power, turning the entire Peach Forest into a cremation ground.

They had thought she wouldn’t burn her own map.

Instead, she used her actions to prove how naive that was.

The fire spread unbelievably fast.

In the blink of an eye, all they could see was a sea of orange-red flames.

“This isn’t ordinary fire!” someone screamed in terror.

“It’s Godfire! Su Fu’s Divine Skill! She’s burning this whole Qingqiu!”

Su Fu had truly set Qingqiu ablaze.

“Is she mad?”

“No one’s ever heard of anyone burning their own base before.”

The flames roared higher.

The heat was suffocating, making it nearly impossible to breathe.

Suddenly, someone gasped, “Wait, what is that…?”

As the peach trees were consumed, the burning scene began to grow transparent, like a curtain being lifted.

It was as if the world’s colors were fading away.

“No, this is… another space!”

“Wait, so we were inside an Illusion Array all along?”

“Everything was fake?”

Terrified, everyone watched as their surroundings twisted and distorted.

“How is this possible… Qingqiu is so vast… could the entire map be her…”

The sentence stopped abruptly as the space before them suddenly collapsed—not only the space they occupied but also the “anomalies” fleeing the flames.

At that moment, everyone realized why they hadn’t seen a single anomaly—because the entire Qingqiu was a massive Illusion Array.

What remained after the fire was—

The true Qingqiu.

They finally understood Su Fu’s plan.

She intended to destroy the entire testing ground, wiping out all the anomalies.

“Help! Run for your lives!”

Shouts filled the air, but the flames roared like an enraged dragon, blocking every escape route.

It was like a death trap disguised as a refuge, and they had walked right into it.

“Hurry! Put out the fire!”

Candidates from various pantheons unleashed their divine powers—water summons called forth rain, wind skills tried to control the fire’s spread, even earth powers attempted to build firewalls…

But all efforts were in vain.

Where the Godfire touched, all turned to ash.

“Su Fu, let us out!”

“You want Contribution Points? I’ll give you 100,000! How about 200,000?”

No response.

Only the ever-intensifying blaze.

The Mayan Pantheon candidates who had escaped looked back in horror.

The flames soared skyward, lighting half the heavens as if trying to ignite the entire firmament.

They stood frozen, unable to believe what they were seeing—

Su Fu had truly blown up her own map.

At that moment, the mechanical voice of the Shen Yan AI sounded in everyone’s ears:

[Warning: Qingqiu map has been locked. Access routes permanently closed.]