Should he raise the white flag and surrender?
The Great General had never fought a battle where the power levels were so disparate. The outcome was certain before it even began.
He forced his body to move, barely managing to press a button. The Ghost Realm still had its Boundary Stone and its invincible world barrier. It wasn’t time for their front lines to be breached just yet. The repelling force belonging to a Great World swept forward like an incoming tide, wave after wave.
Xi Zhiruo curled her lip, looking on with disdain. It was practically impossible for ghost cultivators to advance to the Source level. This world was simply too desolate, comparable to a place where birds wouldn’t even stop to lay a passing shadow. If an evil cultivator invaded, there would hardly be anyone to kill and no resources to plunder; otherwise, this place would have been the first to fall long ago.
“Do I need to kill them all?”
Before she committed any slaughter, Xi Zhiruo politely sought my opinion.
My gaze didn’t waver as I stared at her small face. “It’s up to you.”
Was ‘up to you’ really just ‘up to you’?
The pressure on Xi Zhiruo instantly surged.
‘Oh my goodness, is Mother testing me?’
In a single instant, the little girl’s mind filled with countless possibilities. Consequently, she simply threw a single punch forward.
It was a return to simplicity. There wasn’t even a ripple of energy. Only a sufficiently powerful Source-level expert could see clearly. At this moment, countless rules were condensing upon that one punch.
Those in the Emperor Realm were capable of rewriting the rules of heaven and earth. Within their domain, they were peerless.
*Rumble!*
The entire Ghost Realm trembled under the force of that punch. Countless confused ghost cultivators fell prostrate on the ground with vacant eyes. For a time, the earth shook and the mountains swayed. The sky turned dark and the sun was obscured. It was as if the end of the world had arrived.
*Crack—*
*Crack—*
The world barrier, originally meant to release the repelling force, appeared as fragile as paper under the weight of that punch. Countless cracks appeared, and chunks began to peel away like shattered glass. In the next second, a terrifying, massive hole exploded open right before the horrified eyes of the Great General and his lieutenant.
It was already a world-renowned horror that the Sixth World had a broken hole in its barrier. Today, however, a massive and deep breach had appeared in the barrier of the Ghost Realm. Furthermore, this was completely different from the accidental incident in the Sixth World.
This spatial gap, which looked like an abyss, had been punched open from the outside by a little girl who was only a few years old.
It was an unbelievable feat.
Even the legendary six-Source powerhouses—the strongest recorded forces to ever forcibly invade another world—wouldn’t dare claim they could shatter an entire world barrier from the front with a single punch. At most, they would rely on their immense combat power to forcibly kill the cultivators guarding the Boundary Stone, using the stone’s own power to complete the cross-realm transit.
In a general sense, the defensive power of an entire world barrier—the world repulsion force the Great General had just used—would naturally reject foreign cultivators. This was the fundamental reason why the defending side could often defeat a stronger enemy while being weak themselves.
However…
Today, this repelling force, along with the entire world barrier, had been shattered from the outside by a single punch. This was a monumental event worthy of being recorded in history books.
*Rumble!*
The sound of glass shattering echoed in every corner of the world. Countless ghost cultivators guarding the entrance couldn’t withstand the aftershock and fainted. Xi Zhiruo looked at the open hole ahead and turned to the young woman beside her, speaking happily. “Mother, eighty! It’s done!”
My expression was strange. ‘How did this girl suddenly become so merciful today? Didn’t I tell her she could do whatever she wanted?’
Xi Zhiruo came to my side. Her fluffy head looked very tempting to pat as she waited to be praised. “How was my performance on the mission?”
I gave a serious evaluation. “Not bad.”
The spirit boat set sail once more, swaggering grandly into the territory of the Ghost Realm. I looked at the shattered space nearby and asked casually, “Will this gap stay here even after we leave?”
Xi Zhiruo froze again.
‘Is Mother testing me again? This is the first time I’ve traveled far with her, so she must be worried about my mischievous personality. It’s completely understandable that she’d give me a few more tests.’
After careful consideration, Xi Zhiruo replied, “Theoretically, it would stay there forever. But well, I can already rewrite the rules. Therefore, I can help patch it up on our way out.”
I fell silent for a second. I had only… asked casually.
Why…
I always felt like there was something strange about Zhizhi. Was she really this kind in her bones? The original intention of coming to the Ghost Realm was to seek revenge, right? It would have been perfectly reasonable to kill a few more people.
Yet here was Xi Zhiruo, breaking the door down to get her revenge and then offering to fix the door on her way out. Talk about strange.
Though I found it odd, this was the first time my daughter was making a formal decision. I didn’t say anything else and handed over full authority to her.
“What do you think?” Having not received an immediate answer, Xi Zhiruo looked at me, blinking her eyes expectantly.
She was very nervous. ‘Will I be scolded in the next second?’
In all her years, she had never been scolded by her mother.
*Sob, sob, sob.* Xi Zhiruo was already weeping silently in her heart.
‘As expected. No matter how well-behaved a baby is, can they never escape this part of the process?’
Glistening tears swirled in Xi Zhiruo’s eyes. I stared at the increasingly pitiful-looking Little Dumpling, wondering why she had suddenly become so aggrieved. After thinking it over, I gave a balanced response. “It’s quite good.”
The little girl immediately breathed a sigh of relief, her small face beaming with a smile once more. “I didn’t let Mother down today, did I?”
Hearing this, I blinked my eyes—which were identical to my daughter’s—in a cute manner. I hadn’t given her any requirements. How could I be disappointed? Where exactly did the communication break down, causing my brainwaves to be on a different frequency than my daughter’s?
I rubbed my chin, pondering the question.
“Mother.” Xi Zhiruo tugged at my sleeve. Her recently stabilized emotions were becoming nervous again.
“Theoretically, there’s no problem.” Since I didn’t know what she was talking about, I could only give such an ambiguous answer after some thought.
“Theoretically?” Little Zhizhi tilted her head. “Doesn’t that mean that, in practice, there are still many shortcomings?”
Now it was my turn to be dumbfounded. What kind of imaginative power was this? I couldn’t keep up with it at all. Whose genes did this girl inherit? I didn’t think I was ever that prone to worrying about gain and loss. I had always thought of myself as a strong-willed woman who never overthought things.
Well… Actually…
Maybe that wasn’t true. In other words, had she inherited my bad habits?
I was speechless for a second. What else could I do? She was my daughter; I had to coax her myself. At this moment, I finally understood Su Liumeng’s feelings and why she so often wore a helpless expression. I pulled my daughter into my arms, playing with her warm, soft hands. After a while, her uneasy emotions finally stabilized.
“Ah—”
“So, was I just overthinking things?”
—
Meanwhile, at the highest peak of the Ghost Realm, countless figures in black were filing out. Deep within the pitch-black hall, there sat a single, high-hanging throne. It was the supreme seat, symbolizing glory and power.