At the border between the East Sea and the Central Continent, there stood a storyteller’s teahouse.
“Hahaha! Brother Wu, I owe you a massive favor.”
“Infiltrating the Central Continent to blow up the **[Heavenly Sovereign Spirit-Locking Formation]** and snatching so many treasures… Refreshing! It’s just too refreshing!!”
“I see that Xuan Tian brat is nothing more than that!”
Bai Changsheng’s face beamed with joy as she sat at the table, feasting. She sipped her tea while tearing apart a piece of beggar’s chicken, her expression filled with smug satisfaction.
Seeing her like this, Wu Ji shook his head helplessly.
Suddenly, a glistening,诱人 piece of meat appeared before his eyes. It was a golden beggar’s chicken leg, radiating a mouthwatering aroma.
“Brother Wu, for you.” Bai Changsheng’s eyes curved into crescent moons, and the faint dimples on her cheeks flickered like those of a crafty little fox. “It was all thanks to you that the mission went so smoothly this time.”
Looking into those lovely eyes, Wu Ji’s heart skipped a beat, and he froze for a moment.
“What’s wrong? Brother Wu, aren’t you going to eat?”
Seeing his dazed look, Bai Changsheng couldn’t help but playfully stick out her tongue.
“Right… right.” Only then did Wu Ji snap back to his senses. He hurriedly took the chicken leg and took a bite.
In the midst of the moment, a crisp female voice abruptly rang out in Bai Changsheng’s ear.
[Top priority. Go to this location and meet someone. It doesn’t matter who they are. Use the transport formations to cover all directions. Also, bring more people!!]
Bai Changsheng’s brow furrowed slightly.
Though she had some complaints about how her original body assigned tasks in such a mysterious, riddle-like manner, she still carried them out diligently.
The next moment, she looked at the man in front of her, and an idea immediately formed in her mind. However, two True Monarchs were a bit few; she needed to add more people.
As her eyes scanned the room, her gaze suddenly landed on the storyteller on the stage. Her eyes flashed, and she waved for the storyteller to look over, sending a secret transmission.
‘True Monarch Hongyuan, do me a favor.’
***
“Quick, quick, quick! An explosion just occurred in the Heavenly Sovereign’s bedchamber!!”
“Emergency assembly! Emergency assembly!!”
“Activate Plan A! The **[Heavenly Sovereign Spirit-Locking Formation]** is open! Do not miss a single corner!!”
Upon hearing the order, the God-Emperor Soldiers moved like a golden tide, surging urgently toward the Qing Emperor’s palace.
However, amidst this surging golden flow of people, a white figure walked against the current. A mutton-fat jade hairpin was gently pulled out, and three thousand strands of white hair cascaded down like a waterfall, spreading over her shoulders and reaching the ground.
“True Monarch Wuqing, by the Heavenly Sovereign’s decree, the Divine Palace is under lockdown. Anyone attempting to leave will be killed without exception!” True Monarch Anyan suddenly flashed forward, blocking True Monarch Wuqing’s path.
But the person before him turned a deaf ear, offering no response. Her expression didn’t even flicker. The white-haired female cultivator seemed to have fallen into a deep state of absent-mindedness, with only a series of low whispers drifting from her mouth.
“The moon of Qin times… the pass of Han times. The long expedition of ten thousand miles, yet the men… have not returned…”
Each soft whisper was like a small pebble tossed into water, yet those pebbles stirred up monstrous waves!
Gong Qianxue’s eyes closed lightly. When she opened them again, they were filled with a bone-chilling, cold flame of absolute heartlessness.
She raised her hand to tuck her messy white hair behind her ear. Her moon-white palace dress accentuated her peerless beauty, making her look like a deathly Shura emerging from the depths of the Underworld.
An invisible force erupted from her body, a momentum so powerful that even True Monarch Anyan felt a sense of suffocation.
“But should the Flying General of Dragon City be there…”
She slowly drew her longsword. The blade glinted with a freezing light, a somber coldness that pierced straight into the heart. The chill was bone-deep.
“The nomad horses shall not cross—”
The white-haired female cultivator’s crimson lips parted slightly.
True Monarch Anyan immediately felt a sense of impending doom.
The instincts forged through countless life-and-death crises saved him. Seeing this scene, before his brain could even react, his feet had already moved. He retreated four or five steps, and his defensive barriers instantly unfolded.
“—THE YIN MOUNTAINS!”
The sky suddenly turned white!
It was all light.
A white light.
The light flooded the heavens and the earth, existing everywhere, illuminating the universe and searing the soul. It filled the sky and the ground, all four directions, and the vast cosmos.
The white light consumed the entire battlefield, covering everything without mercy, regardless of friend or foe!
In an instant, countless God-Emperor Soldiers fell like harvested straw. The field was suddenly strewn with corpses, and blood poured out like a flood, flowing for a thousand miles.
The beautiful and exquisite buildings of the Qing Emperor’s Divine Palace collapsed into ruins under the devastation of the intense light, leaving broken walls scattered everywhere.
“True Monarch Wuqing, you must be insane!!” True Monarch Anyan roared. He felt as if his body had been pierced by countless icicles. Waves of bone-chilling pain spread instantly, causing his entire body to tremble and convulse. Cold sweat poured down, and his black hair was instantly transformed into a weathered white.
As a fellow True Monarch, how could he not see that Gong Qianxue’s fierce strike just now came at the cost of burning her Nascent Soul essence? For a cultivator, choosing to burn their essence meant a fight to the death.
Gong Qianxue ignored him.
She held her longsword high, her three thousand strands of snow-white hair dancing wildly in the bitter wind. She was like a peerless, malevolent weapon. Fathomless blue demonic flames burned fiercely around her, and a dense, bone-chilling killing intent tightly enveloped everyone present!
“EIGHT TRIBES IN GREAT FEAR, THE UNDERWORLD IS HOME!!”
True Monarch Anyan’s pupils shrank!
“The Underworld Cult?! That’s impossible! Hundreds of years ago, Heavenly Sovereign Xuan Tian personally took action and annihilated the Underworld Cult. For hundreds of years, not a single trace of the Underworld has remained in the world!!”
His questioning words received no reply. The only response was a cold, piercing sword light that froze the marrow and extinguished all desire!
“Brother Shanming, watch out!”
An exclamation came from the distance. A black-robed Daoist rushed over at high speed, grabbing True Monarch Anyan and retreating rapidly to dodge the rampaging sword light.
It was True Monarch Youying.
Both were elders from the Three Mountains Sect. Although they had belonged to different factions in their youth and fought constantly, after so many years, they had developed a deep friendship.
Currently, one was ranked tenth, and the other was sixth.
Now, True Monarch Youying—the former elder of the Three Mountains Sect and one of the vice-lords of the Underworld Cult, Meng He, who had successfully cleared his name—looked at the white-haired female cultivator shouting “Eight tribes in great fear, the Underworld is home,” and his expression changed slightly.
“Brother Shanming, True Monarch Wuqing is a remnant of the Underworld Cult.”
“Yes, she has already fallen into the demonic path…”
The two looked at each other and secretly circulated their magic power.
Suddenly, a large hand emerged from the void and lightly tapped the white-haired female cultivator’s forehead. In an instant, her eyes lost their focus, and her body fell stiffly to the ground.
A figure slowly stepped out from the void, wearing a white robe with golden patterns. His face was as dark as water. Who else could it be but Zhou Xuan, who had just stabilized the grand formation and hurried back after hearing about the trouble at his home?
Zhou Xuan grabbed the unconscious Gong Qianxue from the ground like he was picking up a weak kitten. But as soon as he lifted her, her body rapidly shrank. In the blink of an eye, she turned into a white-haired young girl who bore a ninety percent resemblance to Gong Qianxue.
‘This is…’
Zhou Xuan’s brow furrowed slightly.
***
Escape!
Quick, escape!
Escape with everything you have!
Taking advantage of the chaos caused by Gong Qianxue that drew everyone’s attention, she had to escape the Qing Emperor’s Divine Palace. Escape this sea of bitterness and run toward freedom!!
From time to time, God-Emperor Soldiers searched the area, but Blood Ji used invisibility and breath-concealment techniques to dodge them. Above the firmament, the **[Heavenly Sovereign Spirit-Locking Formation]** searched the four directions and sealed the universe, but it was countered by the **[Heaven-Deceiving Stone Plate]**.
They were only one step away from the exit of the Qing Emperor’s Divine Palace.
The Empress in her verdant imperial robes tightly held the hand of the red-haired, red-eyed girl as they fled for their lives. The dawn of escape was right before them.
At that moment, a somber male voice suddenly rang out.
“Masters, where do you think you’re going?”