"I don't know." Ye Chen shook his head in silence. The deepest secret in his heart was that he was a reborn soul; having crossed over with his consciousness, in a sense, his previous life was the very person bitten to death by the Blood-Horned Beast. He had been ordinary and unremarkable. If he were truly the reincarnation of some mighty figure, how could he have died so easily in his last life?

He frowned, his eyes flashing with light, gazing out at the distant night sky through the porthole, lost in thought.

The Ice and Snow Empire, in the dense forest west of the small city of Wellman.

Silver-white snow coated the entire hillside, cloaking the distant world in a blanket of white. A vast, snow-like mist permeated the slope, possessing a hazy, ethereal beauty.

The biting, cold wind whipped Silkfilan's long robes, making them billow wildly. Her tall, slender figure stood amidst the snow, her fingers trembling, her pupils quivering as she stared in disbelief at the black-robed woman before her. The woman’s snow-white complexion held an eerie allure; her intensely red lips stood out vividly against her pale skin, curved into a slight, upturned smile.

The two women stood intimately close. The harsh wind sent their garments swirling, and within the fluttering fabric, a hand as smooth and pale as congealed fat emerged, slipping beneath Silkfilan’s soft, silver-white robe to caress the yielding flesh of her chest.

The black-robed woman smiled with an air of intoxicated pleasure. "True Essence Silk, such incredible elasticity, and it even jumps up..." Her smile was somewhat perverse and vacant, sending a shiver down the spine.

Silkfilan felt as if she were wrapped in thorns, experiencing an indescribable agony. The color had drained from her face as she stared at the black-robed woman in terror. "This... is this the power of the Four Emissaries of the Heart Realm?"

"You've witnessed a fraction of it," the black-robed woman chuckled slyly, though her smile was cold and unnerving. "A pity that those who witness it all end up dead..."

She gently kneaded, then suddenly squeezed with vicious force.

Silkfilan's heart felt as if it had exploded like a balloon. Her eyes snapped wide open for an instant, and then the light within her pupils rapidly dimmed. With a soft thud, she crumpled to the ground.

The black-robed woman flicked her wrist. Her pale hand, seemingly carved from white jade, shook off the clinging blood onto the thick snow beside her feet, where it settled like opened plum blossoms. Then, she raised her head, fixing her gaze on Zero, who was hiding behind a giant tree, his chest heaving violently nearby. Her smile deepened. "Little thing... your turn now..."

Her hair danced in the wind as she approached Zero with graceful steps.

"Ding—"

A crisp sound of bell-like armor chimed, like an insignificant ripple spreading across a tranquil lake before expanding outward.

The composed and elegant smile on the black-robed woman's face vanished in an instant. She whipped her head around, staring in horror at Silkfilan, who was now slowly rising from the snow. Silkfilan stood encased in her flowing, silver-white robe, which draped over the snow like a voluminous cloak. She straightened up, delicately brushing the scattered snow from her body with her long, pale fingers, smoothing her disheveled hair. Then, she turned her head, fixing the black-robed woman with a captivating smile. "Your sweet dream has gone on long enough; perhaps it's time for it to end?"

She snapped her fingers in mid-air.

"Snap!"

The world before the black-robed woman shattered like a mirror. She instantly felt as if she had plunged into boundless darkness, her limbs turning ice-cold. When she regained her bearings, she felt the sharp, cold wind biting her cheeks. Lifting her gaze, she saw an exquisitely perfect face, adorned with a mesmerizing smile, looking down upon her.

A sudden, excruciating pain seized her chest, acting like an invisible shackle, pulling her head down. She immediately saw it: a sharp, silver-white dagger plunged deep into her sternum. The spiral pattern on the hilt was blindingly clear. Her throat convulsed, blood oozing from the corner of her mouth. Intense fear gripped her body like the transparent hand of Death, rendering her motionless.

She was no ordinary person, however. Gritting her teeth, she reached out, attempting to pull the silver-white dagger free. She had realized something desperate and terrifying: the silver-white dagger held a mysterious power that sealed away every drop of flowing energy within her. At this moment, she couldn't muster even a sliver of strength—not enough to will a single snowflake to fall from the sky.

As she tried to wrench the dagger out, her hands felt unresponsive, as if numb. She couldn't help but turn her head, her pupils contracting instantly to pinpricks. Her arms, from the elbows down, were gone—they had been severed at some point...

"Your hands are missing..." Silkfilan looked at her with pure, guileless eyes, full of curiosity. "What should we do now? Does it hurt terribly? Ah, yes, being pinned by this [God-Sealing Dagger]—even the supreme beings of your Heart Realm would struggle to break free, let alone you. What a predicament—truly bothersome..." She furrowed her brow slightly, sounding genuinely vexed, as if she were the one impaled by the silver-white [God-Sealing Dagger].

A chill washed over the black-robed woman's heart. She suppressed the pain and spat out through clenched teeth, "What do you want?"

Silkfilan tilted her head, assuming a look of deep contemplation, then regarded the woman with a look of earnest sweetness. "I want to know your Heart Realm's operational plan. Will you give it to me? And please, don't resist. You must know that I am from the Time Realm, and you also understand what the Time Realm excels at. Therefore, resistance is futile."

What the Time Realm excelled at, naturally, was the control of time.

And the prerequisite for controlling time was, inevitably, a profound perceptive ability.

The power to sense the flow of time and subsequently command it made perceiving another person's thoughts, controlling their mind, and manufacturing illusions exceedingly simple.

The black-robed woman offered a bitter smile internally. She only regretted not thinking of this sooner—or rather, perhaps she had thought of it, but had possessed absolute confidence that she could slay the opponent before they could execute any attack! Relying on her own strength, she dared to be so bold, especially since the Time Realm envoys she had killed gruesomely were far more than just one or two; that number even included an envoy ranked third in the Time Realm.

However...

She looked at Silkfilan, her eyes flickering with an unreadable light. "I suppressed your time abilities earlier; why were you still able to conjure an illusion in my mind?"

Silkfilan flashed a sweet, captivating smile. "Because..." She leaned in close to the woman's ear, her lips moving softly. "I don't only possess time abilities..."

The black-robed woman's pupils constricted sharply.

The small city of Wellman, the tavern.

Di Zangchuan took a sip of hot tea, smacked his lips, and exhaled a plume of white mist. "This Ancient World is quite fine. Vast territory, abundant resources, capable of nurturing so many Divine Emperor powerhouses. Though they are all like ants, their sheer numbers are impressive..."

"Naturally so," Lian Guang observed indifferently, gazing out at the snow. "If it weren't for that, why would the great worlds fight to seize the Ancient World? The resources here are incomparable to any other realm. If all these resources could be concentrated in the hands of a select few, what terrifying monsters would be bred? It's simply unimaginable."

"It's a pity the resources are dispersed. No matter how many ants are produced, it's ultimately useless. It's not like our Heart Realm, where people are either the most common populace or super-strong beings like us, capable of becoming Emissaries of the Exalted Lord. Calculating it out, including the Era Realm newcomers in the preparatory camp, our entire Heart Realm has fewer than a hundred powerhouses. As for the so-called Divine Emperor experts, there are none; the minimum standard is the Era Realm. When one of our ten Emissaries falls, someone is rewarded by the Exalted Lord with our inherited abilities to replace us."

"So..." Lian Guang stared silently out the window. "Our world is too lonely..."

"Let's go." He withdrew his gaze and stood up. The light from all the lamps in the tavern seemed to instantly converge upon him. His silver-white, satin-like robe emitted a faint, soft luminescence, illuminating everyone's eyes. He moved with a straight, tall stride out of the tavern door.

Di Zangchuan finished the hot tea in his cup, a casual, mischievous smile playing on his face, and followed him out.

The tavern curtain fell, severing the view of all onlookers.

The dense forest west of the small city of Wellman.

"Splut!"

A sharp sound of tearing silk echoed. Scarlet blood, still steaming with heat, sprayed out, splashing onto the white, mirror-like snow, instantly melting the surface layer. The scorching blood soaked in, creating small crimson stains.

The black-robed woman’s body slumped like a soft snake, falling onto the yielding snow. Blood gushed from two finger-length wounds on her chest and abdomen, sliding down her robes onto the snow. Her lips trembled; her face was ghastly pale, drained of all color. She looked up at the pure, towering, god-like Silkfilan and croaked hoarsely, "You... what kind of monster are you..."

"Oh dear," Silkfilan murmured, her slender black eyebrows drawing together slightly, sounding somewhat displeased. "How can you speak of me like that? I am not a monster at all..."

She bent down, grasping a slender black dagger. The sharp tip probed the black-robed woman’s wounds, and then, with evident fascination, she plunged the dagger into the lower abdomen, stirring it gently inside. Thick, steaming blood surged out, bringing with it small fragments of flesh that were prodded loose.

The black-robed woman's entire beautiful face contorted in agony, her body twitching slightly, teeth clenched tight. She writhed and thrashed like a dying snake.

Silkfilan watched intently, as if admiring a piece of artwork, savoring the moment. She twisted the dagger in the wound with greater force, shredding and pulling out the flesh of the abdomen. Among the gore were loops of intestines, steaming faintly white, which were grotesquely hooked out and draped over the open cavity like giant, writhing earthworms, emitting a sickening, nauseating stench of blood.