Glazed tiles covered the roof. White jade paved the floor.
Purple-gold immortal cranes held ten-thousand-year spiritual springs in their beaks. Clear streams fell into the white-jade pool, raising layered spiritual mist.
Above the dome the stars of the ten directions sprinkled starlight, illuminating the great hall until it resembled a sacred land of immortals.
A woman in a deep-purple palace dress stood by the edge of the pool.
Her hair was coiled high, adorned with pearl and jade hair ornaments that swayed with each step.
The long train of her skirt trailed upon the ground. Upon it dark-golden threads embroidered the fierce patterns of a gluttonous beast that could devour all things.
Two young children no more than seven or eight years old knelt quietly before the woman.
The girl on the left possessed delicate features and pure, clear eyes.
“Heaven and earth are like a single furnace. All things and all affairs are merely the firewood within that furnace.”
The woman in the palace dress spoke in a clear, cold voice.
“The orthodox path of the Nine Provinces cultivates following the mandate of heaven and seeks ascension in broad daylight.”
“Yet our sect stands firm among the Three Realms and cultivates the supreme Great Dao of plundering creation and devouring cause and effect.”
“If the Heavenly Dao has deficiencies, we shall borrow them and regard all living beings as the fruits of the dao.”
The woman slowly paced and stopped before the girl on the left, looking down upon her from a height.
“You have been adopted by the sect since childhood, granted techniques, refined spiritual bones, and stripped of the seven emotions and six desires of the mortal world.”
“Today is the day you enter the game.”
The girl kneeling on the left did not raise her head.
“The heavenly book states that upon Shen Cang Mountain of the Eastern Continent, red strings bind lives and intertwine cause and effect.”
The woman’s gaze passed over the great hall, as if looking toward the distant horizon.
“That place is a breeding ground for poisonous insects established by a certain Dao Lord.”
“Your mission is to seal your own origin, conceal your true cultivation, and infiltrate it. Follow the guidance of the red string and seek out… your ‘fated vessel.’”
“Go disguise yourself. Go show weakness. Go display your purity and infatuation.”
“Make that fated person lower all defenses toward you. Make his dao heart completely sink into the web of affection you have woven.”
“Emotion is the firmest chain in this world, and also the sharpest blade.”
“When they are willing to give everything for you, when they are devoted unto death and even willing to die for you…”
The woman’s footsteps stopped. Her tone suddenly turned icy and severe.
“That will be the day you harvest the fruit of the dao and seize his destiny!”
“Only by stepping upon the withered bones of the fated one and devouring all of his origin can you forge a truly Flawless foundation and become the next generation’s blade that protects the dao of the sect. This is your destiny.”
“If there is any obstruction, whether fellow disciples or passersby, kill without mercy.”
“The Great Dao is heartless. Your heart must not hold even half a measure of softness. Any trace of weakness will become the tribulation fire that rebounds upon yourself.”
The girl prostrated upon the ground and spoke in a crisp voice.
“Disciple Sang Zhi will strictly follow the master’s order.”
***
Gray fog surged like a curtain that swallowed everything between heaven and earth.
Sang Zhi abruptly opened her eyes.
The residual dark-golden light in her pupils rapidly faded.
“Strictly follow the master’s order…”
She murmured the words in a low voice.
At this moment her figure was light and agile as she shuttled back and forth among the branches and vines of towering ancient trees.
Her movements flowed like clouds and water.
Her expression was utterly cold and indifferent.
Where was even half the appearance of that innocent farm girl in the thatched hut of Shen Cang Mountain whose speech carried a soft trailing tone?
Those few freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose and cheeks were merely the “simple and rustic” marks she had deliberately left for the sake of disguise.
“Hell… truly lives up to its name.”
Sang Zhi glanced backward and rapidly calculated her next plan in her heart.
While patrolling the outer perimeter of Shen Cang Mountain she had heard that several disciples at the boundary had been forcibly dragged away by turbid beasts that burst out of the mist.
At first she had paid no attention to such matters.
Those so-called disciples were, in her eyes, nothing more than lambs raised in captivity by Shen Cang Mountain. What did their life or death have to do with her?
A few days earlier she had, in front of Shen Ci, easily twisted off the head of a turbid beast the size of an adult fierce tiger.
In her cognition these beasts that only knew how to tear and bite by instinct and possessed no dao-method structure whatsoever could never pose any threat to her.
Her true cultivation at present was by no means the eighth layer of Qi Refining registered by Shen Cang Mountain, but a solid…
middle stage of Foundation Establishment.
Among this group of disciples who had not even touched the threshold of Foundation Establishment and merely cultivated crude techniques.
If she unsealed herself, she could slaughter every disciple of Shen Cang Mountain with a wave of her hand.
Out of a trace of curiosity toward the formation barrier of Shen Cang Mountain, and a desire to probe in advance the true situation of this gray fog called “hell.”
She had deliberately shaken off Yun’er and Cui’er who were traveling with her and alone followed the traces left by those turbid beasts, stepping beyond the barrier.
Yet she had miscalculated.
The moment she crossed the edge of the barrier, an irresistible force instantly swallowed her.
By the time she stabilized her form she was already deep within this forest of unknown distance from Shen Cang Mountain.
If it were merely losing her way, that would still be fine.
She carried within her body a soul imprint secretly transmitted by the sect. With only a bit of time she could naturally deduce the direction of return little by little.
But the unexpected change occurred in the very first instant she landed.
In the gray fog behind her a colossal creature that refused to let her go was tightly pursuing her.
It was a turbid beast, yet… not an ordinary turbid beast.
Its body was like a small mountain. Thick gray-black turbid qi coiled around its entire form.
This turbid qi continually interwove upon its surface, forming a barrier similar to protective gang qi.
From its back even several pairs of wings extended. With every vibration the surrounding gray fog collapsed for a moment.
According to her estimate this turbid beast was at the late stage of Foundation Establishment, or even already had one foot in the perfect stage of Foundation Establishment.
Moreover, from the experience of their previous exchanges she discovered that this monster seemed to possess no meridians or dantian in the ordinary sense.
Every movement and every pounce was purely venting a certain instinct of destruction and assimilation.
“Beyond the barrier of Shen Cang Mountain there actually lurks such a fierce creature that ignores the laws of the Heavenly Dao…”
Sang Zhi lightly tapped a tree trunk with the tip of her foot. Her figure rose higher once more, avoiding a black wave of qi that swept across from below.
She did not fear combat, yet this battle was meaningless.
Her trump cards were reserved for self-protection when she eventually harvested Shen Ci’s fruit of the dao. They absolutely could not be wasted in this worthless gray fog.
To expose her strength ahead of time for the sake of dealing with a mindless monster.
If she were detected by that unfathomable Mountain Lord of Shen Cang Mountain, her mission would inevitably fall short at the last step.
Her current strategy was clear: rely upon her movement techniques to circle within this deep forest and use the complex terrain to exhaust the patience of this monster.
Once she completely shook it off she would disguise herself as severely wounded and exhausted, then return to the edge of Shen Cang Mountain’s barrier.
At first the plan proceeded very smoothly. Everything was within calculation.
Yet very soon an abnormality came from the red string upon her wrist.
In the gaps of her movement Sang Zhi lowered her head and glanced at her left wrist.
That red string which ordinarily was like a dead object and would only reveal its solid form under specific formations was at this moment emitting red light.
That red light trembled slightly.
It did not point toward the direction of Shen Cang Mountain, but… straight toward her side-front.
Moreover the taut arc of the red string continually changed.
This meant that the person at the other end of the red string was continuously approaching her.
“Shen Ci… has come looking for me?”
Sang Zhi’s brows abruptly furrowed.
A trace of astonishment flashed through her clear and cold eyes, then immediately transformed into deep disgust and irritation.
That piece of trash who had spent a full half month under her every possible urging and deliberate guidance before barely drawing qi into his body?
In Sang Zhi’s eyes Shen Ci was nothing more than a mortal skeleton with dry meridians and utterly dull comprehension.
If not for the rules of Shen Cang Mountain that could not be violated, if not for that damned red string that forcibly bound the cause and effect of the two of them.
She would even feel that looking at him one more time was dirtying her own eyes.
“Truly a burden who does not know whether he lives or dies.”
Sang Zhi coldly spat in her heart.
She recalled everything she had done in that crude thatched hut over this past half month.
Every morning she rose early and carried steaming spiritual porridge.
She sat by the bedside and, with that innocent smile she herself found nauseating, urged Shen Ci spoonful by spoonful to drink it down.
She pretended to casually touch the back of his hand. She pretended to become so anxious that her eyes reddened because his cultivation made no progress at all.
Even every time he uttered that gentle and courteous “thank you,” she had to perform an appearance of shyness mixed with stubbornness.
She had endured with patience, bit by bit constructing this cage named “affection.”
She could sense that although Shen Ci’s attitude toward her remained restrained and polite.
Under her day-after-day erosion those restraints would sooner or later collapse completely.
Once Shen Ci fell, she could naturally complete the mission of the sect.
Drain the destiny of this piece of trash and use it as a stepping stone for herself to ascend to a higher realm.
She had originally planned that after shaking off this turbid beast.
She would make herself look a little more wretched, even deliberately leave a wound of moderate severity upon her arm.
Then, following the guidance of the red string, she would appear before Shen Ci in a stumbling manner.
Under Shen Ci’s startled and panicked gaze she would weakly collapse into his arms and tell him that she had persisted until now only for his sake.
This was the script she had written.
A bitter-meat scheme sufficient to make Shen Ci lose his reason.
Yet now this script had been broken by Shen Ci on his own initiative.
A piece of trash at the Qi Refining stage who had not even properly cultivated the first layer of the Purple Yang Profound Record.
Without the protection of elders, he actually dared to run around everywhere inside gray fog where turbid beasts ran rampant?
Moreover, looking at the speed of the red string’s deviation, he was clearly racing with all his strength toward her direction.
“Has he gone mad?!”
Anger within Sang Zhi’s heart instantly surged upward.
She was angry that Shen Ci had escaped her control.
The red-string system of Shen Cang Mountain was extremely harsh. Sharing life and death was by no means empty words.
Once Shen Ci, in the process of a reckless rescue that did not know whether he lived or died, was torn apart by even the weakest turbid beast.
The rebound from the breaking of the red string would instantly affect her as well.
Even if she could withstand the rebound, after returning to Shen Cang Mountain, having lost her fated one she would immediately be sent back by the enforcement team.
Her life had actually been suspended by a single thread because of a piece of trash’s stupid actions…
“Why did it have to be him…”
Sang Zhi had more than once suspected.
Before leaving the sect a senior sister had secretly warned her: “The red-string system of Shen Cang Mountain is in reality based upon a great formation of cause and effect.”
“When it assigns fated ones it binds together two people whose aptitude, comprehension, and destiny trajectories highly coincide.”
“Only when destinies are close will there be no rejection from the laws of the Heavenly Dao when one later devours the fruit of the dao.”
Since the red string followed this rule of equal binding, then why…
As a genius of the sect had she been bound to a mortal skeleton who took half a month just to draw qi into his body?
Could it be that the formation of Shen Cang Mountain, after ten thousand years of operation, had already become incomplete and defective?
Or perhaps… upon Shen Ci’s body was hidden a shocking secret that even she had not seen through?
This thought only floated for an instant in Sang Zhi’s mind before she immediately crushed it.
She had once, under the pretext of treating wounds, carefully examined Shen Ci’s meridians and dantian with the secret methods of the sect.
They were dry and blocked, without any hidden fluctuations of true essence, and without the slightest residual dao rhythm of a great power’s reincarnation.
He was a thorough and complete mortal.
“It can only be that the formation made an error.”
Sang Zhi gathered her mind and forcibly suppressed the irritation in her heart.
She could not allow Shen Ci to come over.
With Shen Ci’s pitiful cultivation, once he collided with this late-stage Foundation Establishment monster behind her he would not even last a single breath.
She had to change her escape route and, before Shen Ci entered this region, lead the monster in a completely opposite direction.
Yet when facing a fierce creature of higher realm than oneself, any trace of distracting thought or divided attention was a fatal flaw.
Just as Sang Zhi’s movement technique paused because she was thinking about Shen Ci’s actions.
In the gray fog behind her that turbid beast keenly captured this opportunity.
It opened its abyssal maw. The rolling turbid qi around it frantically converged.
Within only a few seconds a gray-black qi blade compressed to the extreme instantly sliced through the dense fog.
Wherever the qi blade passed, the ancient trees along the way directly turned into flying ash.
“Not good!”
Sang Zhi’s warning sense exploded. A threat of death instantly entangled her.
She could not avoid it.
The speed of that qi blade had already surpassed the limit that the divine sense of a Foundation Establishment cultivator could capture, and it had directly locked onto her qi mechanism, able to turn in midair.
At the critical moment Sang Zhi could only rely upon the instincts forged by years of cruel training and forcibly twist her waist.
She instantly mobilized the true essence of middle-stage Foundation Establishment that she had been suppressing within her body.
Disregarding the risk of exposure, she formed a layer of cyan protective gang qi before herself.
Sss…
That cyan gang qi which was sufficient to withstand a full-strength strike from an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator was as fragile as rice paper before the gray-black qi blade.
The qi blade tore through the gang qi and struck upon Sang Zhi’s protective magical clothing.
The impact force erupted with a roar.
Sang Zhi only felt as if she had been struck head-on by a moving mountain.
The true essence within her body was instantly scattered.
Her five viscera and six bowels nearly simultaneously transmitted intense pain.
Puff!
A mouthful of fresh blood sprayed from her mouth and transformed into a blood mist in midair.
Her body completely lost control and flew backward like a kite with a broken string.
After successively smashing through three thick tree trunks she crashed onto a patch of ground covered in moss.
Earth and withered leaves flew. Sang Zhi rolled several times upon the ground before barely stopping.
The intense pain made blackness flash before her eyes in waves.
She forced herself to try to stand, yet discovered that the turbid qi contained within that qi blade had already invaded her meridians along the wound.
That turbid qi was like a bone-attached ulcer, frantically devouring and assimilating her true essence.
In a short time she could not even mobilize a single strand of true essence.
“Shen Ci… you damned piece of trash…”
Sang Zhi covered her chest and gasped violently. Fresh blood continually overflowed from the corners of her lips.
If not for the tugging of the red string, if not for her being forced to change route in order to protect that burden and thereby creating a flaw in her movement technique, she would never have fallen into such a wretched state.
She, a true inheritor of the Devouring Great Dao, was actually going to fall in this godforsaken place?
The gray fog ahead slowly dispersed.
That turbid beast resembling a small mountain was approaching her at an unhurried pace.
It slowly spread the wings upon its back, completely blotting out the last remaining light above and enveloping Sang Zhi entirely in a sheet of shadow.
She could not escape.
Sang Zhi’s gaze finally sank.
Since there was nowhere left to retreat, then let both jade and stone be destroyed!
She drew a deep breath, closed her eyes, and prepared to forcibly burn her own dao foundation and divine soul.
Even if performing that forbidden art would cause her realm to fall, her foundation to be completely destroyed, and even invite rebound.
She would absolutely not stretch out her neck to accept the slaughter.
Her fingers difficultly formed the seal. Strand after strand of dark-red blood qi began to seep out from the surface of her skin.
At the very instant the seal of mutual destruction was about to take form.
Zheng…
A sword cry abruptly rang out within the gray fog.
Sang Zhi’s sealing fingers abruptly stiffened.
She sensed that the red string upon her wrist had suddenly lost all tension.
She understood the reason.
Because the person at the other end of the red string had already arrived at her side.
She opened her eyes and looked up. She saw a tall and straight figure that had appeared in front of her at some unknown time.
That person wore the most ordinary cloth robe of Shen Cang Mountain and held an ordinary long sword in his hand.
He stood there quietly, his back as upright as a solitary peak, blocking all the pressure of that terrifying turbid beast.
Gray fog rolled at his side yet could not stain even half a corner of his clothing.
“I’m sorry…”
It was the familiar gentle voice.
“I came late.”