Red Dragon Clan Leader Chi Hong arrived a bit late.
She pushed open the door to the seclusion chamber at Vast Sea Residence and was startled by the scene before her.
On the Lotus Platform, five heads were clustered together like a five-petaled flower.
Black, white, red, yellow, and blue—five colors of dragon horns intertwined, and each of the five faces was dotted with white.
They crowded around a center, jostling each other, none willing to give way.
The center was Jiang Huai.
His eyes were covered with a black cloth. He couldn’t sense anything, only heard the door being pushed open.
Later, the door was pushed open again, and after a while, it was pushed open once more.
Things got even more excessive later. Someone took out a rope and tied his wrists as well.
His mouth was also stuffed with something that carried a faint fragrance.
This night was too long.
Even with his Yin-Yang Body, he couldn’t hold on much longer.
People came in wave after wave.
It seemed someone would rest for a while and then come back.
When Chi Huang got tired, she stepped down. When Qin Xuange had rested enough, she squeezed back in. Cang Ling and Cang Jing took turns merging and separating, neither willing to fall behind.
White Dew left once in between but returned in less than half an hour.
Su Yingman, Zhu Siyao, Chi Lian…
They kept going, kept going, kept going.
By dawn, Jiang Huai collapsed on the Lotus Platform, unable to speak.
The voices of the women passed by his ears one after another, each one placing a kiss.
“Cultivate well.”
“I’ll come see you next time.”
“Adjust your state well. I’ll be waiting for your return.”
“Don’t miss me too much.”
Jiang Huai pulled off the blindfold.
Morning light streamed in, falling on the Lotus Platform.
Everyone was still gathered around him, not yet gone.
Chi Lian was quietly cupping her face and watching him. Chi Huang was tying her belt.
Ao Yao was helping Qin Xuange tie her hair. White Dew was already fully dressed. Su Yingman was yawning.
Zhu Siyao, on the other hand, had a look of resentment in her eyes. She was the last to arrive.
They were all looking at him.
Jiang Huai opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but then closed it.
White Dew walked over, gently stroked his face, and said softly, “Seclude yourself well.”
Then she straightened up and left.
The Immortal Realm, the Wasteland.
Wu Zhaohua had finally fully recovered and stood side by side with Qin Qingyue.
Her injuries had healed completely, her original source was restored, and her aura was even stronger than before.
The Yin-Yang power flowed within her, white and black immortal essence interwoven, faintly overpowering Qin Qingyue.
She stood there, white robes fluttering, her sword intent fierce, like a sharp sword drawn from its scabbard.
If it had been before, Qin Qingyue might have felt competitive.
But now she had no such feelings.
After all, everyone was heading toward the same destination, and internal conflict was the most taboo.
Moreover, the other had lost her original source to save her, so she had nothing to say.
“There are many fewer extraterrestrial demons. Did you kill them all last time?” Qin Qingyue asked in confusion, her black dragon tail lightly flicking behind her.
Wu Zhaohua looked around.
That day, there had indeed been a sky-full of demons surging in, dense and countless, impossible to kill or cut down completely.
But now, there were almost no traces of them on the wasteland.
“Strange. Could this wasteland be coming to an end?” Wu Zhaohua frowned.
The woman and the dragon transformed into streaks of light and rushed forward.
On the wasteland, the extraterrestrial demons had almost disappeared.
The grayish-brown land stretched out, with cracked riverbeds and withered trees. Occasionally, wind blew, raising fine dust.
No sound, no life, only deathly silence.
Qin Qingyue and Wu Zhaohua flew for a long time, passing through a very bizarre process. Space was twisting, time was disordered.
Sometimes they felt they were flying forward, but the scenery around them seemed to flow backward. Sometimes they stopped, only to find they had already flown very far.
“There seems to be someone ahead?” Qin Qingyue asked uncertainly.
They finally encountered a land of life.
It was a vast land with mountains, rivers, fields, and houses.
Smoke from cooking fires rose gently.
Children played in the fields, women washed clothes by the stream, and old men played chess under the trees.
There were roosters crowing, dogs barking, and cows mooing.
“How does this place seem like a mortal world?” Wu Zhaohua was puzzled.
“How can such a place exist in the Immortal Realm?”
Almost no one had ever come to the depths of this wasteland.
Only she and Qin Qingyue, two heavenly immortals connected to the Yin-Yang Body, had fought their way through to see this place.
This land of life was not very large. With the speed of two heavenly immortals, they quickly passed over it.
Then came an even stranger scene.
Adjacent to the land of life was a dead land.
Black soil, cracked riverbeds, withered trees.
No cooking smoke, no sound, no trace of life.
The air was filled with a decaying smell. Ash formed small mounds on the ground, scattering with the wind.
By instinct, Qin Qingyue and Wu Zhaohua knew that this dead land was the same as the land of life they had just seen.
“How can this be? What does it mean?” Qin Qingyue didn’t understand.
Wu Zhaohua didn’t answer. But she already had a vague guess in her heart.
They continued forward.
Another land of life appeared.
It was the same size as the previous land of life.
There were cultivators, sects, sword immortals flying on swords, and alchemists concocting pills.
Palaces and pavilions floated in the air, filled with abundant qi. Divine cranes circled.
After Qin Qingyue and Wu Zhaohua passed over, it became the same place fallen into nirvanic extinction.
The land was scorched black, buildings collapsed, corpses littered the ground.
Those former cultivators turned to dry bones, divine cranes became white skeletons, palaces became ruins.
Qin Qingyue and Wu Zhaohua passed over another land of life, then extinction.
One more life, one more extinction.
Each time it was the same area, yet each time it was different.
Life, extinction. Life, extinction.
It seemed they were passing over different areas, but in truth, they were witnessing the cycle of life and death of this region over time.
Until they reached the final area.
This land of life was already four-fifths eroded by extraterrestrial demons.
Black demonic qi surged in like tides from all directions, devouring the land, rivers, and forests.
Extraterrestrial demons, dense and crowded, filled the eroded area.
They kept multiplying, kept expanding, madly charging toward the final fifth, as if sensing some crisis.
On that final pure land, there were still people resisting.
Cultivators formed formations, swinging swords to cut down demons. Mortals knelt on the ground, praying to the heavens.
“It seems this world is a microcosm of the Five Provinces Continent,” Qin Qingyue said to Wu Zhaohua, her tone heavy.
“The life and extinction we saw before are the past that the Five Provinces Continent once experienced.”
Those scenes of life and extinction trace back to the beginning.
Qin Qingyue’s gaze fell on the eroded area: “Now it’s heading toward extinction again. It seems Jiang Huai must have made a great breakthrough, finally making these extraterrestrial demons unable to hold back.”
“From what I see, none of those previous incarnations of the Five Provinces World avoided extinction. Is it impossible to avoid? Will it definitely end in extinction?”
Wu Zhaohua nodded with a grim expression, gripping the sword in her hand tightly.
“That might be the case.”
Looking up, there was a massive door ahead.
The door towered into the clouds, completely black, covered with ancient runes.
A dim light seeped through the crack, as if something was staring at them from the other side.
Qin Qingyue and Wu Zhaohua exchanged glances.
“Should we go in?” Qin Qingyue asked.