Central Tongye Continent.

It should have been the season of Grain Rain, a time of pristine clarity, but alas, like the previous year, the tender toon sprouts, as delicate as silk before the rains, remained unpicked. Countless verdant tea mountains gradually lay desolate, overgrown with weeds. In every household, rich or poor, not a trace of the aroma of pre-rain spring tea lingered.

The Northern Jin Kingdom had enjoyed peace for too long, and unfortunately, was situated in a strategically vital location. Previously, with the Yao family’s iron cavalry of the Great Quan Dynasty separated by the eight-hundred-li Pine Needle Lake and the Jinhuang Mountain Divine Residence, they had maintained a semblance of peace. But with the cataclysmic changes, all strategies and diligent governance became fleeting smoke. The Northern Jin Kingdom was now a kingdom in name only, its myriad mountains and rivers shattered and broken. The Southern Qi Kingdom, north of the Great Quan Dynasty, fared no better than Northern Jin. In the end, only the Great Quan Dynasty, whose emperor had been absent for a long time, remained, ruled by a regent prince and an empress dowager participating in governance from behind a screen. They were still locked in a desperate struggle with the demonic armies from the desolate lands, but victory remained elusive, and they retreated step by step, with the Yao family’s border cavalry reduced to a mere tenth of its former strength.

The old capital of Southern Qi had become a garrison encampment for the Tuoyue Mountain army. The Great Quan Dynasty had lost most of its territory, its border troops decimated. Troops from various states and prefectures could only retreat to the capital region to defend it. It was said that once the renowned Mirage City was captured, the military encampment would relocate there.

The demonic armies from the desolate lands had landed on the western coast of Tongye Continent years ago. The thirty-odd military encampments each had a specific objective, proceeding in an orderly manner. They primarily targeted the deeply rooted immortal mountain strongholds, generally advancing along two routes: one spreading from west to east, and the other pushing from south to north. They paid little attention to the human dynasties and vassal states along the way, merely inundating and devastating them. There were no attempts at surrender or pacification. After a city fell and its people died, the powerful demon cultivator under the command of the Great Demon Bai Ying of the Bone Throne would refine them into armies of bleached bones, using the dead to kill the living, ultimately resulting in only death.

Above the old mountains and rivers of the Northern Jin Kingdom, six rainbows of light suddenly halted amidst a vast golden sea of clouds illuminated by the sun, then plunged swiftly towards the earth.

A great wind from the heavens whipped the temples of the six, all young in appearance, three men and three women.

They pierced through the cloud sea, their vision suddenly opening up.

Among them was a black-robed man with snow-white silk ribbons binding his hair.

Descending from the heavens to the mortal realm, he resembled a banished immortal.

Below the cloud sea was a massive city, its walls towering yet damaged in many places.

It was the seat of a prefecture, one of the few remaining Northern Jin cities that had not yet been plundered, almost an isolated city within a devastated nation.

The city’s mountain and river grand formation was even more solid than the capitals of many vassal states. It was said that this was because two transcendent beings, experiencing the mortal world, resided within the city: a Golden Core cultivator proficient in formations and a Nascent Soul cultivator with considerable power, who had contributed greatly to barely holding the dilapidated city. However, this was not the fundamental reason. What truly allowed the city to survive was that an immortal-realm great demon from the military encampment had been suddenly attacked and killed not far from here by Xun Yuan, an Ascension-realm cultivator stationed in the celestial canopy, responsible for the operation of the Three Enclosures and Four Symbols Grand Formation. Therefore, some great demons considered this place too unlucky and were unwilling to show their faces here.

If it weren’t for Xun Yuan and Jiang Shangzhen, those troublesome devils of the Jade Decree Sect, who relied on the Grand Formation that gathered the fortune of the continent to specifically target the encampment’s immortals and ascending demons, Tongye Continent would have been destroyed much earlier. Xun Yuan was high in realm, and he treated the entire continent as his own little world, making several ascending demons quite wary. Although Jiang Shangzhen was only in the immortal realm, his natal flying sword was too fierce and treacherous. He never sought trouble with the ascending demons, and he was even unwilling to fight too hard with immortal-realm cultivators. Relying on the advantages of timing, location, and circumstance, with a superiority equivalent to one and a half realms, he specialized in killing those Jade Prime realm demonic cultivators.

Under a single sword strike, a Jade Prime realm cultivator, who could have single-handedly reaped the merit of destroying half a kingdom, would either die or fall in realm.

After returning from the sea between the Treasure Bottle Continent and the Northern Reed Continent, the two Great Throne Demons, Yang Zhi and Fei Fei, had specifically searched for traces of Xun Yuan and Jiang Shangzhen in the celestial canopy.

Among them, Yang Zhi had engaged in an all-out battle with Xun Yuan, each suffering injuries. After that, Xun Yuan became even more elusive.

Only Jiang Shangzhen occasionally thrust a sword into the mortal realm. Fei Fei had tried several times to follow the clues and intercept this person’s retreat, but Jiang Shangzhen had countless illusions, and his escape methods were even more unpredictable, making it impossible to kill him.

In contrast, each time the Mountain Lord of the Great伏 Academy made a move, it was more to protect the mountain and river grand formations of the dynasties and academies, slowing down the advance of the desolate lands.

With the successive destruction of the太平 Mountain and the扶乩 Sect, Tongye Continent no longer had the Three Enclosures and Four Symbols Grand Formation. The celestial timing had changed. Especially after the Ascension-realm Xun Yuan had been ambushed and killed once by Yang Zhi and Fei Fei together at the end of last year, it was rumored that Xun Yuan had fled Tongye Continent and遁入ed into a secret realm in the sea, followed by a “little girl with pigtails.”

The black-robed man, holding a long sword, first broke open the mountain and river grand formation with one sword strike, then shattered several incoming offensive magical treasures with another.

Within the city, a golden-armored divine being, worshiped in the Martial Temple with incense offerings, strode away from the threshold. Apparently, a celestial master had warned him not to leave the ancestral temple, but this heroic spirit, once loyal to the kingdom and steeped in the incense of hundreds of years, still raised the treasured blade and actively appeared to meet the enemy, rising on the wind. However, the black-robed man shattered his golden body with his natal flying sword. The golden-armored divine being, his body covered in spiderweb-like cracks, roared in anger and still gripped the blade with both hands, stepping heavily in the void and slashing at that young sword immortal whelp. However, the flying sword circled back, and the golden body shattered with a roar, and the human city seemed to be raining gold.

The other five demonic cultivators landed in the city. Although the city’s protective grand formation had not been completely destroyed, it ultimately failed to prevent their powerful intrusion.

A demonic pure martial artist, over ten feet tall, landed, looked around, and chose a direction, choosing a straight line to traverse the city’s many neighborhoods and markets. Large and small walls, all kinds of buildings, were all knocked down. Occasionally, unlucky people were smashed to pieces, their corpses and bones gone. He continued to ram into the outer city wall, then changed direction, using his tough body as a blade to cut through the city in a straight line, thoroughly enjoying himself.

A sword cultivator chose a densely built area, walking slowly. Wherever he passed, within a hundred zhang radius, he absorbed the souls and essence blood of living people, turning them into shriveled corpses.
A demonic entity, coveting the city’s Chenghuang Pavilion, revealed its true form: a colossal serpent, three hundred zhang in length. Its scales shimmered, unleashing a wave of pestilent miasma that corroded wood and stone. The serpent encircled the pavilion, then smashed its head against a high point, shattering a spirit-infused plaque bestowed by a monarch of Northern Jin. It disregarded the torrent of alchemical arts and powerful treasures hurled at its body. Even the City God and his minions – the day and night patrol deities, the underworld officials – dispatching countless specters to hack and slash, were met with the serpent’s indifference.

A maiden, clad in a verdant dress, possessed a graceful figure. With a swift sword incantation, she summoned her Natal Sword, “Peacock Screen.” Behind her, like a peacock unfurling its plumage, eighty-one resplendent sword-lights materialized, forged from peacock feathers. The feathers glowed, their colors radiant.

Each slender sword-light contained flowerets with eyes resembling a maiden’s, rippling and generating further miniature flying swords – the Natal Magic of her “Peacock Screen,” the “Eye-Light Dividing Swords.” Finally, the sword-lights vanished in a flash, leaving countless trails of emerald fireflies in the air. She headed directly towards the provincial government mansion, the dense sword-lights scouring the buildings on either side, leaving them in ruins, dust billowing, obscuring the heavens.

Another sword cultivator, similar in appearance, landed upon a city wall teeming with armored soldiers, her feet resting on a vibrant, multicolored longsword.

Yu Si landed on the rooftop of a grand manor, part of an established lineage. He did not partake in the wanton slaughter like his companions.

He had merely been invited by friends to relieve his boredom, traveling from the Southern Qi capital for some amusement. The other five were all familiar acquaintances.

The Sword Immortal seedlings from the Jia Shen Account, battle comrades in arms, were also Yu Si’s friends, though they had not originally been close.

The small, scattered cities beneath Yu Si’s feet, mostly spared by the flames of war, included very few provincial capitals. Surviving strongholds belonging to great powers like Northern Jin were especially scarce. Most were remote prefectures and county seats of vassal states, used for practice by the military camp cultivators, who even fought amongst themselves, competing for battle merits. Otherwise, they would not be afforded such opportunities.

Yu Si sat on the rooftop, his sword laid across his knees, glancing at the chaotic mansion below, paying it no mind.

Since the Sword Qi Great Wall had been severed in two, the cities “ascended” and moved to the Fifth Heaven, and a path had been carved at the old site of the Upside-Down Mountain to pave the way for the army at sea, the conquest of the Fuyu Continent and Tongye Continent of the Grand Azure World had been slower than expected by two or three years. Otherwise, the Desolate World should have already secured half of the Golden Armor Continent, rather than be moving to seize the entire Treasure Bottle Continent.

The losses at the Sword Qi Great Wall were too severe, exceeding the original projections by thirty percent.

In fact, the Jia Zi Account understated it; Yu Si knew the truth: the losses were closer to forty percent.

A single strand could move the whole body; how much more so the carnage of the Sword Qi Great Wall battlefield!

The Jia Zi Account’s strategy of dividing the army into three was accurate, but it was merely a small contingent of top-tier forces, such as Liu Cha and three to four other Daemon Sovereigns, leading a portion of the army to contain the Posa Continent, a mere show of force. As for the Fuyu Continent, it had to be taken, but there was no rush with the Golden Armor Continent. The earliest established main offensive route of the Jia Zi Account was to push north along the Tongye Continent, taking the Treasure Bottle Continent and the Northern Ju Lu Continent in one fell swoop. Then, in at most four years, to quickly swallow and digest the mountain and river Qi of the southeastern Tongye Continent and the southwestern Fuyu Continent, especially Tongye Continent, which should have changed hands in the year before last, becoming a territory of the Desolate World.

Jia Shen Account was not the leader of the Sword Cultivators, the young man with wooden sandals, had once used an analogy: The army of the Desolate World pouring into the lands of the two continents was like scattering beans into tilled fields.

Initially, before dividing the troops, the vast and mighty force seemed unstoppable, but compared to the land of an entire continent, the manpower was still too small, requiring a continuous stream of reinforcements to fill the riddled landscapes of the two continents.

After that, it was to “transplant rice seedlings into paddy fields,” as Mr. Zhou had said, avoiding treating the two continents as a dried-up lake for exhaustive fishing. After the initial intimidation, the focus had to shift to pacifying the shattered dynasties, and drawing in the surviving mountain cultivators, striving to transform a portion of the human forces of the two continents into a northward fighting force for the Desolate World within ten years. The focus was on those desperate mountain cultivators, unfulfilled pure martial artists scattered throughout the world, cowardly officials from fallen dynasties, and all sorts of figures, initially gathered into a single military account, selecting one or two people to enter the Jia Zi Account, valuing the opinions of these people.

This would allow the Desolate World to secure its footing after taking the Treasure Bottle Continent and the Golden Armor Continent, at most handing over the Fuyu Continent or half of the Golden Armor Continent, returning it to the Grand Azure World, in exchange for the Northern Ju Lu Continent.

At that time, the Desolate World would hold the Tongye, Treasure Bottle, and Northern Ju Lu Continents.

As for the so-called return of the Fuyu Continent, in fact, the Jia Zi Account had originally planned to have many Daemon Sovereigns join forces to completely sink the entire continent. The Desolate World would not receive the continent’s Qi, and the Grand Azure World would only recover countless broken “islands” resembling shards of porcelain. In this way, repairing the old mountains and rivers closest to the Desolate World’s point of attack would consume a great deal of the Central Earth Literary Temple’s energy, wealth, and people’s hearts.

Yu Si, due to his special status, far from being a simple Jia Shen Account cultivator or a Sword Immortal seedling from Mount Tuoyue, knew these shocking secrets.

A female sword cultivator changed her mind and came to Yu Si’s side,

Her longsword was of excellent quality, drawing a captivating sword-light of seven-colored glass in the air.

Her name was Xian Zao, and with her elder sister, Yin Su, they were a pair of sisters, both sword cultivators. Although not listed among the hundred Sword Immortals of Mount Tuoyue, they were direct disciples of the Guanghan City, a great sect of the Desolate World, and female officials of the Snow Frost Department. Her face was young, but she was actually a three-hundred-year-old female cultivator.

Guanghan City was one of the sects under the Daemon Consort Fei, who had fought for many years with Yang Zhi, the Lord of the Yiluo River. The Snow Frost and Willow Branches, including the six departments of female cultivators in Guanghan City, had contributed greatly.

Xian Zao’s human form was a delicate woman with a pointed chin and a charming appearance. She lifted the corner of her skirt, performed a Wanfu salute, and called out, “Young Master Yu Si.”

Yu Si did not rise, but simply nodded with a smile.

In the Desolate World, hierarchy was strict. Excessive politeness would be counterproductive.
Xianzao sheathed her sword and sat not far from Yu Si, but dared not get too close. She rested her chin in her hands, gazing at the chaotic city, and said softly, “Young Master Yu Si, I’m getting a little tired of killing. How can the Grand Azure World have so many cities? Capital cities, provincial cities, prefectural cities, county towns… so many cities, and even more people. Luckily, they’re all too timid and scare themselves half to death first, offering little resistance. At first, I was happy, thinking I wouldn’t have to risk my life like I did on the Great Wall of Swords, but after killing so many, wave after wave, it’s become rather tiresome.”

Yu Si smiled, “This is the Grand Azure World. Prosperous. As long as there are no wars, no major droughts, floods, or locust plagues, people will live harmoniously with each other, rarely fighting to the death. So there are more people. It’s quite different from our homeland.”

The Desolate Wildlands, before the appearance of the Great Ancestor of Mount Tuoyue, was a world of ten thousand years of chaos.

Truly, the world was in utter disarray, with great demons rampaging across the lands. In such a world, there was no concept of “indiscriminate killing.”

Xianzao pointed to a spot within the city and asked, “I’ve seen these archways again. They’re everywhere. My sister and I don’t recognize the characters on them. Young Master Yu Si, you’re well-read and know a lot about the Grand Azure World. What are they for?”

The writing of the Desolate Wildlands was ancient.

It was said to have originated from the same source as the Grand Azure World, but diverged in its evolution. However, due to this “shared origin,” even if only barely, the core glyph of a Confucian Sage was still feared by all great demons. About a thousand years ago, a type of writing called “Water Cloud Script” began to circulate in the Desolate Wildlands. It was created by Mr. Zhou, the “Literary Sea of the World.”

Yu Si explained, “These are unique to the Grand Azure World. They’re used to commend men and women of great learning and high moral character. I read in a book that a sage here once said, ‘We suffer great ills, and pure customs are waning. Even a single act of kindness should be publicly praised.’ Roughly, it means that archways can be used to commend virtuous deeds. In the Grand Azure World, when a family raises an archway, their descendants will prosper.”

Xianzao asked doubtfully, “These people sound impressive, but after fighting these years, they don’t seem to be of any use at all.”

However, she had encountered some strange people. There was an old woman with white hair holding a cane, standing at the entrance of her family’s ancestral hall. Although she would eventually die like a tattered piece of cotton, she wasn’t afraid to die. Could it be that she had lived long enough? She had also seen an old man in a Confucian robe. Though he was facing imminent death, he could only await his fate. But he died at a desk piled with books, holding the hands of two young children, urging them to “speak loudly.” The old man listened to the children’s trembling, tearful words, perhaps a family motto or words from a sage’s book?

Regardless, the old man’s expression was more serene than that of many mountain cultivators who offered up magical treasures and immortal coins, or many emperors and generals who groveled on the ground.

But what was the point? Xianzao saw no point. Old or young, they were all going to die anyway.

On the other hand, many places that were originally considered “easy targets” by the military camps, battlefields, defense lines, and passes, with tens of thousands of gleaming elite cavalry and infantry, were all just for show, collapsing at the first touch, disappearing with a single blow.

Some towering, imposing fortresses were often breached in just a few attacks.

The armor was too new, the veteran soldiers too few.

However, some immortal families with the “Sect” title, and the elite troops of seven or eight dynasties, did cause some trouble for the Desolate Wildlands army.

Especially during the attack on a place called Mount Taiping, the casualties were heavy. Two military camps were wiped out entirely, forcing them to transfer two more large armies over.

Yu Si smiled wryly, finding it difficult to explain the usefulness and uselessness of these ethereal things to her. They served to educate the hearts of the people, but naturally, they were of no help in fighting and killing. In peaceful times, each archway was worth a thousand gold pieces. But in times of chaos, they seemed worthless.

Yu Si watched as an old cultivator with the aura of a nascent soul realm could no longer restrain himself and left the protection of the formation to fight alongside Yin Su and the others. It was because Yin Su had killed too many along the way, and intentionally killed for him to see. That pure martial artist had even deliberately torn off some heads, casually throwing them at the formation, causing ripples as if blood were smeared on the walls. As for the one who had revealed his true form as a giant python, he had returned to human form but grabbed two City God Pavilion spirits, pressing them against the outer wall of the formation, crushing their golden bodies bit by bit.

Being able to chat with him for a while had already made Xianzao happy. She stood up and said apologetically, “Young Master Yu Si, I’m going to go kill some more. Otherwise, my sister will think I’m slacking off and nag me for a long time.”

Yu Si waved his hand and reminded with a smile, “Still, be careful of those two human terrestrial immortal cultivators. Don’t be careless just because you’re a golden core sword cultivator. Human cultivators, when they’re alive, are full of tricks. And when they decide to die, they can be quite resolute.”

Xianzao nodded vigorously.

Young Master Yu Si, despite his noble status, was always so gentle and kind.

Yu Si watched Xianzao’s figure as she flew away on her sword, still not intending to make a move.

In the Great Wall of Swords, Yu Si had entered and left the battlefield too many times. He had earned many merits and suffered few losses, with only one incident that was somewhat serious.

After breaking through the Great Wall of Swords, although the Desolate Wildlands’ advance into this unfamiliar world had slowed down a little, it was like two nascent soul cultivators struggling to kill an extremely difficult golden core sword cultivator, and then easily cleaning up a group of demoralized lower-realm cultivators. Of course, it would feel very easy, even boring.

Yu Si stood up and looked down.

A young man in brocade robes and jade belt, who could probably be considered handsome according to books, was hiding by the window of a study, looking at him.

An even more interesting young man in rough clothing, seeing Xianzao flying back and forth like an immortal, ran all the way and climbed onto a nearby rooftop. He mustered his courage and asked in a trembling voice, “Are you an immortal master from the mountains who has come to save us?”

Yu Si smiled in the elegant language of Tongye Continent, “I don’t understand your Northern Jin dialect.”

Unexpectedly, the young man immediately switched his dialect to the elegant language, “Immortal master, can I cultivate the immortal arts with you?”

Yu Si shook his head, “I am a demon, not an immortal master. Naturally, I’m not here to save people, but to kill them.”

The young man was stunned.

Yu Si waved his hand, “Hurry up and hide. Endure for ten or twenty years, and you might live.”
The young man’s face abruptly shifted, his eyes burning with fervor. “I know where the manor hides its money and treasures! I’m willing to lead you there. Can I follow you from now on?”

Yu Si smiled faintly, “Of course, lead the way. I can certainly grant you a stroke of unbelievable fortune. After the world is turned upside down, it’s only natural for the old to be replaced by the new.”

He was idle anyway.

Besides, he recalled a certain theory from Jiazi Zhangmu’s wooden clogs, about when the hearts of the people in a newly conquered continent of the Savage Desolation would be truly settled. It was when all those who survived the war felt that there was no turning back, no chance to correct their mistakes. Even if these people were to return to the Great Harmony World, they would find no path to survival, because they would certainly be held accountable after the fact. Only then would these people be willing to be used by the Savage Desolation, becoming hounds who were more vicious and ruthless than the demon race cultivators. For example, within a country, a minister assassinating the ruler in the royal court, the various departments and agencies electing someone to die; the same principle applied within a family, especially when committing heinous acts in the ancestral hall. Among the immortal cultivators on the mountains, making disciples kill their own elders, brothers turning against each other, everyone’s hands stained with blood, and so on.

All the rules and etiquette painstakingly established by Confucianism must be torn down. Raze it to the ground and rebuild, so that on the ruins, for centuries to come, the specifics of morality would only be the rules established by Mr. Zhou.

He heard that Wooden Clogs was not only following Mr. Zhou now, but had also received a bestowed surname.

Yu Si floated down to the ground, reached out and grabbed the young man, who felt as if he were floating on clouds, and brought him to his side. Yu Si deliberately ignored the sweat streaming down the young man’s face, and walked slowly, turning his head to ask with a smile, “Is there anything you want? Like a woman you never dared to dream of before? Is there anyone you want to kill, like a rich and powerful person you hate the most? Tell me what you most want to obtain and what you most want to kill, and I can help you.”

The young man gritted his teeth and nodded, “I don’t want anything. I think everything should belong to you, Master, and I wouldn’t dare to want a single thing. But I want to kill two people!”

Yu Si asked curiously, “Which two?”

The young man, following beside Yu Si, gnashed his teeth and said, “One is called Han Chengyi, the young master of this mansion, and the other is called Han Shuyi, Han Chengyi’s elder sister, who is returning home from a provincial visit.”

Yu Si laughed, “Do you have some deep-seated hatred with these siblings?”

It was clear that this person was a servant of the manor, perhaps even a hereditary slave from a lowly background.

The young man remained silent, shaking his head, then clenched his fists, his body trembling. Lowering his head, he said, “I just want them to die! One was born with a silver spoon, and the other is a shameless hussy!”

Yu Si stopped, made the man look up, and met his gaze. The young man was drenched in sweat.

Yu Si smiled faintly, “The bad guys of the Great Harmony World are the good guys of the Savage Desolation. Don’t worry, you won’t die. I will even fulfill your wishes. It’s just that with me by your side, I’m afraid you won’t be able to let go and do the things that were once considered evil. Before you kill, you can do more of the things you’ve only dreamed of doing. If killing two isn’t enough, then kill more. I’ll wait for you here. Don’t worry about me waiting too long, I’m very free.”

As he spoke, Yu Si took off a small and exquisite yellow silk pouch from his waist. As his fingers touched it, iridescent clouds emerged, and a small ink-black dragon writhed on the surface of the pouch, filling the air with mist.

Yu Si gently shook the yellow silk pouch, and the ink-black dragon fell to the ground, transforming into a burly man with pitch-black eyes. Yu Si then lightly tossed the pouch to the young man, “Keep it safe. From now on, this dragon slave will serve as your protector, teach you immortal arts, and help you become a person above others in the Tongye Continent. Don’t even mention the Han family, even the surviving emperors and monarchs of the past, the earth immortals on the mountains, when they see you, they will have to bow and scrape and call you… Oh right, what’s your name again?”

The young man received the pouch with both hands, his expression excited, and his voice trembling, “Master, my name is Lu Jianxin. The ‘Jian’ of self-examination. I once had an older brother named Lu Jiaoguang.”

Yu Si smiled knowingly, “To teach with righteousness and brilliance, to examine the heart with diligence and vigilance. Both are good names, did your father get them for you from the family tutor?”

Lu Jianxin wiped the sweat from his brow and said, “Master is truly learned and talented.”

Yu Si waved his hand, “From now on, stay by my side, do more and say less. Spare me the flattery, or you will die.”

Lu Jianxin dared not say another word, bowed and saluted, and then ran away, with the ink dragon following behind him. This filled the young man with both awe and sudden courage.

Yu Si planned to let this Lu Jianxin become the ruler of this city, to let the young man enjoy the comfortable life of a local emperor. Then, he would have the ink dragon record everything in detail, and give the changes in the customs of the city over those years to Wooden Clogs to observe.

As for why Lu Jianxin hated the siblings so much, who knew?

Perhaps it was one cold winter day, seeing a young master wrapped in snow-white fox fur admiring the snow, and feeling even more ashamed of his own humble appearance.

Perhaps it was because he had long admired the woman, but one day when they happened to pass by each other, the woman said nothing, but her casual glance said everything.

None of this was strange, and Yu Si didn’t care about the truth. What Yu Si found truly interesting was that, at that moment, Yu Si saw in Lu Jianxin’s eyes and heart the young man’s sincere gratitude, admiration, awe, and the kind of resolute determination to gamble everything, even his life. Lu Jianxin clearly wanted to vent his pent-up anger by killing all those who had long caused him displeasure. The Savage Desolation needed these pitiful people whose personalities were prone to extremes, the more the better. These people would probably become the grave-fillers of Confucianism that Wooden Clogs had spoken of. Mr. Zhou had once joked that there were too many scholars in the Great Harmony World who liked to be hypocritical, truly believing that their sanctimonious appearance was invisible to the world. In reality, that was not the case. Some were angry but dared not speak up year after year, while others were single-mindedly trying to become that kind of person, so they were actually digging their own graves all along. They had no one to blame now that there were people to fill the graves.

Yu Si suddenly looked up.

There was a grand phenomenon in the heavens and earth, spreading rapidly from a great distance, undoubtedly a great supernatural power of the Ascension Realm.

Otherwise, even he, Yu Si, wouldn’t be able to clearly perceive such a majestic aura here.
A woman with crimson eyes appeared beside Yu Si and said softly, “Young Master, please leave this place for now. Xun Yuan of the Jade Decree Sect was first ambushed by me and Yang Zhi, then chased by Xiao Xun, and then entered that hidden underwater secret realm, which was completely destroyed. With no escape, Xun Yuan appeared on the coast of the East Sea as a dharma body, intending to divide Tongye Continent in two, which is very likely to affect this area.”

Yu Si shook his head and said, “You only need to protect me and Xian Zao and the others. I want to see up close how Xun Yuan divides Tongye Continent.”

The throne-level demon, Consort Fei, nodded.

Yu Si frowned and asked, “What about Xiao Xun?”

Consort Fei said, “That secret realm is very strange. It seems that Xun Yuan temporarily tricked him to another world. Perhaps Xun Yuan’s escape this time was deliberately intended to lure Xiao Xun away.”

She suddenly vanished and returned to her original place a moment later, her expression slightly changed. “Xiao Xun has finally drawn his sword.”

Yu Si looked up, and in the sky above the East Sea of Tongye Continent, a large gate was torn open in the firmament. Xiao Xun used a single sword to break through the firmament of another world, allowing him to “ascend” and return to the Great World, and then he unleashed a magnificent sword light towards Xun Yuan’s ten-thousand-zhang-tall dharma body. Its momentum was no less impressive than the first sword that Bai Ye delivered in Fuyao Continent.

That sword light, with its unparalleled momentum, had water light, fire light, and thunder light intertwined together.

Consort Fei looked up and said softly, “That old geezer is doomed.”

Yu Si smiled and said, “Compared to you, Xun Yuan is not really old.”

Consort Fei smiled slightly and then said, “I’ll go grab a few pieces of Glazed Golden Body for the Young Master.”

Yu Si was about to shake his head, but Consort Fei had already swept away. After all, she was a throne-level demon, and it did not involve the fundamentals of the Great Dao, so Yu Si could not casually scold and stop her.

Moreover, Consort Fei had said the words “be careful” in a voice transmission.

Yu Si remained calm and strolled leisurely in this wealthy mansion.

Suddenly, the river of time around Yu Si seemed to freeze for no reason.

Yu Si was not alarmed. The robe he was wearing now was a gift from Consort Fei, and it could withstand several full-force sword strikes from an immortal swordsman without him dying.

Moreover, once Yu Si’s robe was attacked by spells or flying swords, Consort Fei would be able to arrive instantly, as long as she was not across a continent.

Turning his head to look at a ridge of a house, a handsome man wearing a tall crown and a golden robe was gently tossing the yellow silk pouch in which the ink dragon was swimming frantically but unable to break free.

The man glanced at the robe on Yu Si’s body and smiled. “It’s rare to see something that I want as soon as I see it, but my little life is more valuable.”

Yu Si cupped his fists and said, “Greetings, Sect Leader Jiang.”

Jiang Shangzhen raised a hand and waved it lightly. “Don’t be so polite. What’s with the formality? It’s not easy for father and son to reunite. Just call me ‘Dad.’ Remember to have that little slave Consort Fei help your dad massage his shoulders and legs. That way, you can make up for some of your filial piety.”

Yu Si smiled wryly, remained silent for a moment, and asked, “How is the young man protected by the ink dragon slave?”

Jiang Shangzhen said with a grin, “Ah, his soul has been swapped with a handsome lad. I guess when the river of time disperses, he’ll be quite confused. ‘Who am I? Where am I? What am I going to do?'”

Yu Si asked, “Sect Leader Jiang isn’t going to save Xun Yuan? Instead, you came here to chat with me?”

“Why save someone far away when you won’t even kill someone nearby? Once I, Jiang, become smart, even I don’t know what I’m thinking. How can you predict it?”

Jiang Shangzhen curled his lips. “Besides, this bastard son of yours is just a little trash. That cheap servant Consort Fei is willing to give you her natal robe. I’m too timid. It’s not worth it to kill you and lose a sword in the process, so I can’t do anything to you. I’m already very satisfied with picking up this yellow silk pouch, which is a semi-immortal weapon.”

Yu Si remained silent.

One of the magical powers of this robe lies in “locking swords,” which is even more mysterious than Du Mao’s Swallowing Sword Boat.

Yu Si had long wanted to use himself as bait to take a sword strike from Jiang Shangzhen, who was known as “cutting immortals with a willow leaf.”

Jiang Shangzhen put the yellow silk pouch into his sleeve universe, and the stagnant river of time returned to normal.

Yu Si asked, “Why don’t you go find She Yue or Dou Kou?”

One is among the ten young people of several worlds, and the other is one of the candidates.

The key is that, unlike himself and Tan, they do not have a throne-level demon as a protector.

Jiang Shangzhen smiled without saying a word.

In a study, a handsome lad in gorgeous clothes was wrestling with a young man. Lu Jianxin, who originally could have beaten the Han family’s young master to death with his strength alone, without the protection of the ink dragon’s retinue, was now being ridden and beaten, his face covered in blood. The “handsome lad” lay on the ground, in great pain, regretting it immensely. He knew he should have gone to find that beautiful, flowery-faced woman first… And that “Lu Jianxin,” relying on his muscular body and great strength, was full of tears, but his eyes were extremely fierce. While cursing in a strange voice, he was beating the “himself” on the ground to death. Finally, he used both hands to strangle the other party’s neck.

Jiang Shangzhen smiled and said, “Alright, Sister Fei, there’s no need to hide. You’re already so beautiful. Why are you afraid to be seen?”

Consort Fei actually “walked out” from Yu Si’s robe and said to Yu Si, “Young Master, it’s just a secret illusion, roughly equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator. Jiang Shangzhen’s real body is not here.”

Jiang Shangzhen nodded and said, “That’s right. I never make a move without a 100% certainty, and don’t come to kill me without a 100% certainty. I came here this time just to say hello to you two. When Sister Fei wears the robe again, remember to let Young Master Yu Si obediently hide in the military tent, otherwise, it’s only natural for me, as a father, to beat my son.”

As Jiang Shangzhen’s illusion dissipated, the yellow silk pouch at his waist did not leave with it. Jiang Shangzhen was not stupid enough to do that. He was just teasing Yu Si earlier. This man, the newest and possibly the last Sect Leader of the Jade Decree Sect, was somewhat dejected. He turned to look at the East Sea, where a Glazed Golden Body of an Ascension Realm great cultivator began to collapse. No matter how magnificent the scenery at the time of the curtain call, the principle of “living badly is better than dying well” lingered in his heart, making people uncomfortable.

Jiang Shangzhen murmured, “I scolded you for so many years, you old undead, and it’s truly sad when you die. It’ll be difficult to get a scolding in the future.”
Jiang Shangzhen, with only his head remaining and a fading glimmer of sentience, gazed down upon the master and servant duo, each with an identity more peculiar than the last. He smiled faintly, “Two debts, old and new. One for bullying my woman, one for scheming against old Xun. In the future, I, Jiang, will settle them with you slowly. I’m resolved to be at odds with you for the long haul.”

It was the time of Frost’s Descent.

During this period, the yang energy descended into the earth, and the yin energy began to congeal. Autumn dryness injured the bodily fluids, so it was best to ward off the cold externally and clear the heat internally.

Thus, a custom of eating persimmons arose at the foot of the mountains, said to strengthen bones and prevent chapped lips in winter.

After a light rain, beneath a persimmon tree laden with fruits like lanterns, the misty sky and dark, gnarled branches highlighted the festive crimson color.

A young woman, appearing seventeen or eighteen years old, with a slightly plump figure and a round face, wore cotton clothes. She stood on tiptoe, straightening her back, and used a dry branch she had picked up from somewhere to knock down five or six persimmons. Then, she casually discarded the branch, bent down to pick up the red fruits, and gathered them in her cotton clothing.

Finally, she squatted in front of a county boundary marker, munching on a persimmon while examining the carved inscription. In the center, it read “Officially Established Boundary of Yongning County,” and on the left, a line of smaller characters indicated the dynastic era.

She found it remarkable that a stone tablet, barely glanced at by passersby, could delineate the borders of two neighboring territories.

In her hometown, it was not so. There was no such formality, nor could there be. The fighting was too fierce, the tempers too short, making it difficult to keep anything.

Since arriving here, she had traveled extensively, collecting official systems, gold, silver, and copper coins, writing implements, fine artifacts, books of various philosophical schools – she took a liking to everything she saw. Whenever she came across a city scarred by war, the more grand the houses, the more dilapidated they were, often without doors. She would stroll through, picking up whatever she found. It was everywhere, more plentiful than corpses. Eating persimmons required knocking them off the tree, but picking up those things that were said to be worth a lot of money was much easier.

Now, the northern part of this Continent of Tongye was less stable than the south.

Compared to the other eight continents of the Great World, the number of immortal sects on Continent Tongye was comparatively small, mostly large, established mountains. However, throughout any vast continent, for ordinary mortals to seek immortals in the mountains was still difficult, no easier than seeing the emperor himself. Of course, there were also those pitiful souls trapped by mountain and water formations, suffering from a “ghost wall” effect.

Nowadays, in Continent Tongye, the more remote and sparsely populated the mountains, the less likely they were to suffer calamity in times of chaos. Many small, secluded kingdoms, even if they had a few so-called mountain immortals who were reasonably well-informed, had long since wished they could pack up their entire ancestral halls and flee, caring little for others. Having ascended the mountains to cultivate the Dao, they severed ties early on, traveling lightly and subsisting on clouds and dew, with few attachments.

If she hadn’t preferred to travel far and wide, and hadn’t coveted military achievements, heavenly treasures, and auspicious lands, perhaps the people of this Yongning County would not have encountered someone like her from afar for decades.

She was from a distant land, but not just any outsider.

After eating the persimmon, she picked up a tree branch, stood up, leaned against the boundary marker, raised one leg, and gently scraped the mud from the sole of her shoe.

Earlier, outside the Confucian temple in the county town, probably because it was the time of Frost’s Descent, officials had led a group of scholars in chanting blessings, wishing for bountiful harvests and protection from wind and rain. “May your descendants flourish, may our granaries be filled…”

She couldn’t understand any of it, only learning some of the refined speech of the Great World. She couldn’t speak or understand the Tongye dialect, let alone any of the various regional dialects. She simply watched the scholars who had become officials and those who had yet to become officials, gathering together to do things for the people, appearing quite serious. However, wasn’t the one wearing the official robes a bit too fat, with a ruddy complexion and a neck almost invisible? Shouldn’t scholars be thin and refined like Mr. Zhou?

A group of children on bamboo horses galloped past, playing the game of carrying a sedan chair to marry a bride.

Having seen the woman standing by the stone, the children glanced at her at most, ignoring her completely. The young woman looked unfamiliar and wasn’t particularly pretty.

She continued her solitary journey.

Following the subtle traces of spiritual energy, she finally saw a mountain sect, a small one, not commonly found in Continent Tongye.

However, the cultivators on the mountain seemed to have gone out, so she didn’t pay them a visit. Finally, hundreds of miles away, between two mountain peaks, in a mountain mist that flowed like a gentle stream, the immortal cultivators had set up a magical net to capture a kind of bird, like fishing down below, driving the fish into the net. Several wind-riding cultivators were constantly scaring the flocks of birds, while some lower-realm cultivators who couldn’t yet ride the wind were constantly running through the mountains, making noise to deliberately startle the birds.

The woman in cotton clothes sat quietly on a branch of a low mountain, watching the scene.

It seemed that after the Barbarian World arrived on Continent Tongye, it was much the same, with startled birds constantly flying and crashing into the net.

She wondered if those mountain immortals who had once treated the earthly monarchs as puppets would come to envy the lowly ants in the mid-levels that she saw before her when they were about to die.

Probably not. In the moment of life and death, even those so-called enlightened ones would probably have a muddled brain?

She suddenly wanted to find someone to chat with, not expecting them to speak the language of the Barbarian World, but at least to be able to speak the refined speech of the Central Continent. It wasn’t easy to find someone like that now. The city god temples and mountain shrines in small places were useless, they would definitely only speak the Tongye dialect. It was a pity that the Confucian scholars had either died on the battlefield or retreated to the Jade Gui Sect and Tongye Sect. The mountain lords of the great dynasties were surely all dead, and the merchant families were too slippery, too good at making money and avoiding disaster, making them hard to catch.

As for the Upper Five Realms cultivators, she had been fortunate enough to meet one before, a recluse hiding in the deep mountains who hadn’t founded a sect. He was probably what the Great World called a hermit. She had met him then, but ignored him, mainly because she was too lazy to make a move. Because earlier, she had gone to a not-so-small immortal residence, where Golden Core and Nascent Soul Earth Immortals resided, and the conversation hadn’t gone well, so she had killed them with one punch each. Not bad, just after landing, there was also a Jade Purity Realm cultivator whose name she forgot to ask, also killed with one punch.
Several young men and women, cultivators of the Lower Five Realms of Qi Refining, slowly descended the mountain within her sight. One female immortal master held freshly picked chrysanthemums in her hands. Frost descends, killing a hundred flowers, yet this herb alone flourishes.

The woman in cotton-padded clothes leaned against a tree branch, showing little interest in the female immortal masters. Her attention was drawn to the chrysanthemums, her thoughts drifting afar. She had heard that in the Vast Expanse, there was a place called the Blessed Land of a Hundred Flowers. Among the Lords of the Hundred Flowers, it seemed this flower held a high position. It had many elegant names, each pleasing to the ear: Frost Pistil, Golden Smile, though the titles Essence of the Sun and Lunar Fullness sounded rather peculiar. The woman in cotton-padded clothes enjoyed these random, chaotic matters. During her cultivation journey in her homeland, she always felt that the Vast Expanse held too many interesting things, so she had to come here and take a look. As for fighting and killing, they held little meaning for her.

The reason she had previously “returned from the heavens to the mortal realm” in the Wildlands, and then came to this Tongye Continent, was because the lotus demoness, Lord of the Lotus Hermitage, had been slain by Dong SanGeng’s sword. After all, to some extent, she and the Lord of the Lotus Hermitage were considered neighbors, although the distance between them was vast. In the Wildlands, the three moons hung in the sky, but the moons only seemed close to each other. Only someone named Yaojia would occasionally drop by her home.

As the young men and women walked among the mountains, someone recited a verse: “The autumn clouds in the moonlit night have not fallen into the water, the pines on the cold stream burned to ashes.” Then, many others chimed in with poems, some from books, others from their own minds.

The woman in cotton-padded clothes understood nothing and felt slightly annoyed. In the past, she would have endured it. She was just a passerby, traveling across mountains and rivers. But she had just been thinking about finding someone to chat with, and this annoyed her. When annoyed, she habitually raised her hands and slapped her cheeks, making a loud sound that caught the attention of the sharp-eared young immortal masters. Some looked at her with unfriendly eyes, regarding her as a thief, while others seemed to dislike her appearance. And there were those who saw her as a bird caught in a net, which she found most annoying.

However, when she finally saw a round-faced little girl staring at her with wide, curious eyes, the woman in cotton-padded clothes grinned, her mood greatly improved. Unable to communicate with words, she raised her arm and waved, greeting the little girl.

The little girl quickly waved back vigorously, then, as her senior brothers and sisters looked her way, immediately put her hands behind her back and looked up at the sky.

The woman in cotton-padded clothes smiled, her eyes narrowed. Round-faced girls were the cutest.

The group ultimately said nothing, unaware that they had just skirted the gates of hell, and returned to the mountain.

The woman in cotton-padded clothes still leaned against the tree branch, and said with a smile, “You must be Jiang Shangzhen?”

A man stood on a treetop, smiling and nodding. “Girl Sheyue’s round face is extremely beautiful. That is why I changed my mind.”

The woman in cotton-padded clothes continued to gaze into the distance, and said, “I am not someone you can kill as easily as you think.”

Jiang Shangzhen sat beside her, waiting for the moonlight to descend upon the earth with her, and asked, “Have you seen Chen Pingan?”

She thought for a moment, “I saw him once. He’s not as good-looking as you.”

Jiang Shangzhen laughed heartily, “Nonsense.”