The territory of the Taiming Sect bordered the Hall of the Wild Dragon.
It wasn’t far; after a few minutes on the Cloud Boat, they arrived.
Jiang Ke’er stepped off the Cloud Boat and suddenly gripped the railing beside her tightly, her expression contorted with pain.
Ever since she obtained Qingcheng, she had frequently heard voices that didn’t belong to her, and seen bizarre visions.
She heard songs from ancient times, sung in unison by many people, their voices filled with sorrow and helplessness.
—On a desolate land, the sky was a deep, purplish-black.
Emaciated creatures stacked their companions’ bones into an altar, then gathered around it, praying and weeping.
The vision shifted—another altar appeared.
Around every altar, countless beings prayed, so many that their number could not be seen at a glance… They weren’t all human, nor did they speak the same language, yet they all chanted the same word again and again.
—epsilon
Epsilon?
At first, Jiang Ke’er couldn’t understand their chanting, but after hearing it so often, the meaning emerged naturally in her mind, and with it came a deep, inexplicable grief.
—We welcome you, Creator God, Supreme Lord of the Void Myriad Worlds, Epsilon.
—We have been waiting for you.
The chanting and visions grew ever clearer.
Jiang Ke’er often saw two dark purple diamond-shaped runes appear on the back of her hand.
She didn’t know what was happening, nor whether it was good or bad.
At any other time, she would have made it her top priority to figure out this change, but right now, the Taiming Sect was in grave danger, the Sect Protecting Array had already been breached… She simply had no time to investigate.
She ran forward at full speed, and soon saw the outline of the Taiming mountain range, and among the ridges, countless cultivators and sword-lights crisscrossing the sky.
Even breathing felt painful amid such a suffocating, murderous atmosphere.
Jiang Ke’er looked out from the outskirts toward the mountains of the Taiming Sect.
She vaguely saw corpses hanging from the branches.
Her eyes reddened, her heart twisted with pain.
Hiding within the Underworld Province Cauldron, she dashed desperately toward the Taiming Sect.
The outermost peak was Qingjin Peak. On that once lively, bustling summit, there was no longer a trace of the craftsman’s presence—only scattered molten iron, and corpses.
Jiang Ke’er transformed into her fox form and released the Underworld Province Cauldron.
A wave of blood mixed with the stench of burning flesh assaulted her.
Jiang Ke’er darted among the corpses, letting out mournful cries as she tried to identify each face.
She saw the senior brother who once handed her the flute.
She still remembered, when she received the Black Jade Flute, this same senior brother had congratulated her with a beaming smile for being chosen as the personal disciple of Yiqin Shifu.
Now he was dead, his dantian smashed to pieces, still clutching an unfinished magic sword to his chest.
He had poured all his possessions into making this sword, hoping it would help him become a respected Refining Master—or perhaps… just to earn one word of praise from his shifu.
“Senior brother?”
Unwilling to accept it, Jiang Ke’er nudged the corpse’s hand with her nose.
The hand was cold, and the body had already begun to show faint signs of decay—he had died long ago, not today.
In truth, the massacre of the Taiming Sect had already begun the moment she entered the Secret Realm.
A group of elite vanguards seized the gatekeepers at lightning speed, and before the Sect Protecting Array could be activated, stormed in and took Qingjin Peak.
Though the peak master of Qingjin Peak fought desperately to buy time, lasting until the Sect Protecting Array successfully activated and shrank to cover all the other peaks…
Qingjin Peak itself had already been wiped out, with no survivors.
Jiang Ke’er panicked, her mind numb.
She feared seeing a familiar face beside the next corpse she approached.
With her claws extended, she leapt across the ground, leaving scratch marks behind. The pads of her paws were already bloodied, and on the shattered white marble, she left a trail of vivid red Falling Flower Marks.
Qingjin Peak was not the current battlefield.
The explosions were coming from Starfall Peak. Jiang Ke’er saw an endless storm of flying swords and spells, as if bullets whistling through a battlefield; she couldn’t imagine how anything alive could survive such slaughter.
In the next instant, the fires of Starfall Peak went out, and the overwhelming army of cultivators, like a swarm of locusts, surged toward Lingyin Valley.
Jiang Ke’er went mad.
Ignoring her torn claws, she leapt over ruins and debris, racing toward Lingyin Valley at her fastest speed.
But she couldn’t fly yet, and there were several li between the two peaks.
Her mind racing, Jiang Ke’er lunged at a nearby Six Harmonies Stage Dan Sect Alliance cultivator, holding a dagger between her teeth and pressing it to his throat.
“Where did this demon… uh…”
Her dagger had already sliced through the skin at his neck, wedged between his artery and muscle—one wrong move and his throat would be torn open.
This speed was totally unnatural for the Four Symbols Phase; the cultivator was terrified.
“Fly me over, get me to Lingyin Valley as fast as possible. Fly low, don’t draw attention. Otherwise, I’ll kill you.”
With the blade at his neck, the cultivator had no choice but to obey.
But as soon as they reached the boundary of Lingyin Valley, Jiang Ke’er did not hesitate to swing her dagger, slitting both his throat and artery in a single stroke.
Ignoring his convulsing, hateful gaze, Jiang Ke’er dashed up toward the peak of Lingyin Valley.
The mountain was ablaze.
Someone had set a fire—every peach tree on the mountainside was turned to ashes amid crackling explosions, their usual fragrance transforming into the stench of burning.
Small animal corpses fell constantly from the forest above.
Jiang Ke’er slathered herself in fireproof oil, gritted her teeth, and endured the searing pain as she ran through the flames.
Her tears evaporated the instant they left her eyes, scorched by the heat.
So why was she so sad? Why such worry?
She could have escaped—going forward was just throwing her life away.
Was it gratitude for the Taiming Sect’s shelter? Was it guilt for bringing disaster upon them?
No.
Jiang Ke’er shook her head, her gaze firming.
It was because, when she was at her loneliest and most helpless, Yiqin Shifu had given her a haven for her soul.
For someone as weary as she was, that was no less than a lifesaving grace.
And I…
I, Jiang Ke’er, a fox!
I will repay this kindness!
No matter the cost!
That dark purple stream of light had already pierced through six worlds, like a steel spear stabbing through a thin sheet of paper—effortlessly penetrating, its momentum undiminished.
All the Jiesian of the Tribulation Immortal Hall pursued it madly, trying desperately to stop it, but no matter what they did, their attacks vanished like stones thrown into the sea.
They were not even the same order of energy—their foe was innately stronger, and utterly determined.
“We must take it down before it enters the Fan Mortal World! We cannot set foot in the Fan Mortal World—if this thing gets inside, it will be over!”
“This… can’t be!”
The meteor trailed a long tail behind it, making no response at all to the attacks around it.
Because… it was beneath its notice.
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