The Beast Elder turned his head back, feeling that the entire contingent of the Ferocious Beast Sect disciples had fallen into a desperate struggle. He swung his iron staff, swirling sand as he closed in on the Insect Emperor, only to be met by a palm held steady before him: “Drought Demon Insect Emperor, you will pay the price for what happened today.”

“Price! The Ferocious Beast Sect and the Demon Insect Sect have been adversaries for so many years; there is no need for the Beast Elder to emphasize the word ‘price’!” The Insect Emperor deflected the Beast Elder’s attack once more, moving away to retreat behind the ant swarm. “Demon Insect Sect, heed my command: anyone emerging from Desolate Bone City shall be executed on sight!”

“Kill them all!” Receiving the order, all the demon insects attacked with renewed fervor. The Ferocious Beast Sect disciples fought desperately to break through the encirclement, the two sides locked in a bloody, chaotic fight.

On the other side, Garuda led the Bone Sect members in a continuous, retreating flight until they reached the edge of Ren Character Lake. He watched his attendants suffer grievous wounds, and his beloved younger sister, Yunxin, had vanished without a trace. “Everyone! Desolate Bone City is now saturated with poisonous fog; we have no choice but to conceal ourselves here.”

“Third Sect Master, we demand vengeance!” At this moment, some hot-blooded youths roared out, commanding their white bone skeletons with tragic determination. “The Ferocious Beast Sect slaughtered our Desolate Bone City; we cannot simply abandon the city and flee like this! The First and Second Sect Masters are nowhere to be found; we must find them!”

Jiu Liansheng saw that Garuda was also feeling isolated and immediately stepped forward. “Nonsense! We absolutely must reclaim Desolate Bone City, but not right now! That poisonous fog is still swirling inside the city; returning now would be walking straight into a trap. I support the Third Sect Master’s view; we should wait a while and devise a long-term strategy.”

Garuda straightened his posture, looking at the dust-covered crowd with deep anguish in his heart. “My people, please trust me; I will definitely lead you back to Desolate Bone City. What we must do now is preserve our strength and minimize unnecessary casualties.”

“Reporting to the Third Sect Master, our Bone Sect's elite guards have lost half their number—some wounded, some dead—and we are unsure how to proceed.” A general, dressed somewhat fashionably, stepped forward, his face etched with exhaustion and weariness. “Please issue your command, Third Sect Master.”

“Everyone, settle down. Check your injuries and remain ready for combat at all times.” Garuda had waited for this day for too long. He stood tall and resolute, commanding a force of Desolate Bone City, yet his soldiers were now looking at him merely for his status as the Third Sect Master. What more should he do to inspire morale and truly become the king in his soldiers’ hearts?

Ye Xiu and Old Liu, after a series of detours, also managed to break out of Desolate Bone City. He glanced back to see the entire sky above the city churning with viscous, oily green gas—a sight that felt deeply sinister and oppressive.

“What are you still staring at? Desolate Bone City is finished,” Old Liu patted Ye Xiu’s shoulder. In his eyes, Desolate Bone City and the Immortal Realm meant nothing. “If this world doesn't descend into chaos on its own, it will be wiped out by the Ruler of Slaughter. Who can possibly stop that?”

A breeze swept across the hills. Ye Xiu took a deep breath, his hair blown into disarray by the wind. “I truly wonder how the royal family in Desolate Bone City is faring now. A perfectly good city-state has been dragged into the flames of war like this.”

“Do you want your brothers, or do you want this dead city?” Old Liu walked up beside Ye Xiu, glancing at the Beast Flame Key in his pocket with a sigh. “I still need to figure out how to escape Long Xuan’s control. Myriad Dao Mountain is not what it used to be; perhaps the factors here are connected to the upheaval in Desolate Bone City.”

Jia Ye stood with imposing spirit, Jia Nan maintained his composure, and Garuda hid his true intentions deep within. These three Sect Masters should be capable of handling the conflagration in Desolate Bone City. The only uncertainty was the whereabouts of Princess Jia Yunxin. He weighed the situation for a long moment before deciding to accompany Old Liu back to Myriad Dao Mountain. Their purpose in entering the Immortal Realm was not to prevent the chaos of the age, but to find the answers in their hearts. “Hmph… Let’s go. The Immortal Realm is in turmoil; I will go with you to see what kind of person this Gate Master Long Xuan really is!”

The peril of the Immortal Realm, the chaos of Desolate Bone City—before the Ice-Sealed Sumeru Mountain in the northern heartland, the Witch stood alone in a snow-white skirt before the body of the Ruler of Slaughter. Her eyes were closed, and a faint, shallow smile touched the corner of her lips.

“Aow… Ji…” From the Xuan Heaven, a long dragon coiled out, its form summoned by the Soul Soldier Talisman—a serpentine divine beast covered in scales of golden light, standing on four sharply hooked claws. Its cry pierced the nine heavens, resounding like a mighty bell that shook the very earth. This dragon was Pulao, the fourth of the Nine Sons of the Dragon.

“Jia Ye, the First Sect Master of Desolate Bone City—what kind of desperate situation forced you to reactivate the Soul Soldier Talisman?” The Witch smiled gently, admiring the Ruler of Slaughter before her with a hint of appreciation. “I hadn't expected you to fulfill my promise so quickly. With the divine beast descending upon the Immortal Realm, the situation of chaos is set. Whoever can end all of this will be my perfect candidate, hehe!”

“Whoosh…” A flash of red light shimmered from the ice seal. The eyes of the Ruler of Slaughter briefly opened, and his voice, accompanied by the beat of a heart, suddenly echoed across the desolate surroundings. “Has the Extinction True Essence found its master?”

The Witch nodded, her dialogue with the Ruler of Slaughter sounding remarkably mundane. “I have successfully infused the Extinction True Essence into his body, but that fellow seems less willing to obey your command now. There is another power residing within him.”

“Oh? Then where is he?” The Ruler of Slaughter’s tone was peculiar, showing genuine surprise at the Witch’s words. “You didn’t bring him?”

“With the Extinction True Essence entering his system, he completely fainted. I don't think he’ll wake up so quickly.” The Witch gazed at Pulao swirling in the heavens above, a feeling of bliss rising from her heart. “The person you wanted was taken back to the Heavenly Cloud Machine by that fellow from the Sun-Blind Clan. What is inside him is far more than just your demonic power from the Ruler of Slaughter. Awakening his memories with the Extinction True Essence might not be so easy.”

The Ruler of Slaughter blinked. Even the intensifying frost could not conceal the pride in his heart. “The power of the Soul Soldier Talisman has been activated. I only wish to know the secret of the Celestial Revelation Passage. Can you tell me?”

“If I told you that the Celestial Revelation Passage requires the strength of the entire Immortal Realm, what would you do?” The Witch casually spread her long sleeves, her figure exquisitely graceful, beautiful as a white lotus in the snow.

“I would crush the entire Immortal Realm,” that strong light was faint yet distinct, the Ruler of Slaughter’s voice handsome and his bearing extraordinary. He intended to lead the demonic forces into the Mortal Realm; the power of the Celestial Revelation Passage was indispensable. The glory of the Demon Realm required stepping over the corpses of those from all other realms.

The Underworld was foul and stagnant, yet above the clouds, the sky was vast with rosy light. Various beautiful floating islands were connected by chains, but one island stood isolated. The soil on its surface was uneven and scorched black as charcoal. A series of massive steel chains wrapped around it, locking the entire island down, giving off a chilling and desolate sensation.

“Ah… Let me go, you despicable bird-men!” Jun Bugu shook his head, his other limbs restrained by thick chains riddled with tiny steel needles. Every movement he made drove the needles into his flesh. This island, it turned out, was the prison of the Heavenly Cloud Machine. “Damn it, let me out!”

Jun Bugu kept his single eye tightly shut, desperately trying to recall the experience that led him here. At this moment, his two personalities were locked in opposition within his mind, unable to communicate as they had before. He only remembered traveling alone to the vast Beast Territory in search of the boiling beast flame, only for a woman to appear inexplicably. Who was this woman…?

“Aah! Why did you capture me, you damned things!” Jun Bugu lost control of his emotions. A woman drifted into his mind—a white-robed specter and a streak of cyan light consumed his entire focus. Battle, hatred, and the cold edge of the blade suddenly surged from his heart, and he fainted once more.

“Crack…” The massive stone door opened. A Bird-Man and another Sun-Blind tribesman walked in slowly. The Bird-Man looked strangely at Jun Bugu’s current state. “This fellow is the one who killed the Moon-Sky Mountain Man back then. I exchanged a few blows with him; his strength was very mysterious. He shouldn’t have been captured so easily by you.”

The other Sun-Blind tribesman nodded and whispered, “I was simply passing through a sector of the Corpse Demon Forest and found this fellow lying motionless in the dirt. Seeing that he was a murderer wanted by the Sun-Blind Clan, I brought him back.”

The Bird-Man knew this person was a friend of Ye Xiu, so he naturally didn't interrogate him too closely. “Desolate Bone City is in turmoil right now; Elder Tian Yuan has already led the Sun-Blind Clan elites to suppress the uprising. We should wait until the Elder returns before discussing anything.”

“This guy just screams and shouts like a lunatic; aren’t you going to do anything about him?” The tribesman in charge of guarding the area had witnessed Jun Bugu’s dual personality. “One moment he’s raging and crying, the next he’s pitifully begging to be released. Has the environment of Chain Cloud Island driven this fellow insane?”

“Hmph… Keep a close watch on him. Everything will be decided by the Elder,” the Bird-Man spread his wings and flew away. He truly couldn't understand what Ye Xiu was thinking, getting involved with such a strange person.

In the Forest of Burial, Jia Ye’s corpse lay cold against the wind. Jia Yunxin, having barely escaped with her life, was terrified into weeping hysterically by the sight before her. Falling leaves swirled around as she watched her elder brother bleed out on the ground, her heart agonizingly twisted. She knelt and threw herself onto Jia Ye’s body. “Big… Big Brother… Who, who killed you?”

The cold wind blew, vast sorrow pervaded the scene; her cries rose, filled only with the bitterness of separation. Jia Yunxin, driven to desperation by the poisonous fog, had rushed toward Desolate Bone City only to find her Second and Third Brothers already gone from the familiar grounds. Now that her Eldest Brother Jia Ye was dead, she strongly suspected that the Insect Emperor Sect, likely connected to Ye Xiu, was the culprit. “Ye Xiu, we treated you like a distinguished guest in Desolate Bone City, yet you repay our kindness with enmity! Brother! Brother!”

The wind drifted softly; where did this dust originate? Jia Yunxin, a delicate, pampered lady, dug at the hard, frozen earth with her bare hands. She intended to bury her brother and swore she would personally slay her enemy. “Ye Xiu, the Insect Emperor Sect, the Ferocious Beast Sect, the Fox Palace—whoever it is, by whatever means, I will kill you all! I will ultimately use your deaths to mourn my Eldest Brother, to mourn…”

“You seek vengeance!” At that moment, a woman’s voice drifted from the woods. The woman in red was captivatingly charming; at a glance, this woman was none other than Shuiyue from before.

Jia Yunxin reacted like a startled bird, immediately shrinking behind Jia Ye’s corpse upon hearing the voice. This was her most primal reaction when vulnerable, but now that Jia Ye was dead, she had lost her last protection. “You… Who are you?”

Shuiyue approached Yunxin, squatting down to touch the tear tracks on her cheek. “Wounded woman, do not be sad. In this world, no one can protect you; only you can protect yourself.”

“I… What should I do?” Jia Yunxin was filled with confusion. The more helpless one feels, the more comfort one craves, and the woman who arrived seemed to be pointing the way forward for her.

“Go to the Sorrowful Water River and find the Witch,” Shuiyue said earnestly, her expression gentle. “As women, the Witch will understand the hatred in your heart, and perhaps she can help you resolve your grievances.”

“The Witch of the Sorrowful Water River…” Jia Yunxin stood up dazedly, her body swaying like an animated corpse. This sudden blow was too heavy for a pampered princess.