Moonlight soaked the Dragon Pool.
Cai Xiaonuo was submerged in the cyan herbal broth, the old scars on her back fading into faint marks under the elixir’s nourishment.
Li Ze’s fingertip glowed with spiritual energy as he lightly tapped her crown.
“Concentrate. Guide the Astral Qi into your wing bones.”
Hum—
The angel wings suddenly unfurled, the 3-inch green Astral Qi vibrating and churning the pool water.
Cai Xiaonuo bit her lip, enduring the agony of her meridians tearing.
Sweat rolled down her forehead.
“Senior… the Astral Qi is about to break through my spiritual platform!”
“Then let it break!”
Li Ze’s sleeves billowed as the herbal broth transformed into a green dragon, coiling around her wings.
“You possess the source of the Profound Yellow Pagoda. Why fear a mere threshold of the Dao Realm?”
Before his voice even faded, golden light exploded from Cai Xiaonuo!
Her wings suddenly extended to over 10 feet, and the Astral Qi condensed into physical golden feathers, illuminating the entire bamboo forest like broad daylight.
In the reflection of the Dragon Pool, the battlefield outside was churning with blood clouds—three main vessels of the Azure Sword Sect were besieging the protective array of the Yin-Yang Sect, and Mo Zhengxuan’s profound soul manifestation was trembling within the eye of the formation.
Boom!
The Soul-Locking Banner shook violently in Li Ze’s sleeve, the chains on Li Quan’s remnant soul shattering inch by inch.
The phantom actually penetrated the fabric, his finger pointing directly at the space between Cai Xiaonuo’s eyebrows.
“A pariah of the Heavenly Dao… actually merging with the Profound Yellow source?!”
Li Ze grabbed the remnant soul by the throat with one hand.
“Your restrictions were worn away by celestial laws long ago. Do you still think you can use her to reassemble your soul?”
A dark spear pierced the phantom, and Li Quan was pinned back into the banner with a shriek.
“Senior, watch out!” Cai Xiaonuo blocked with her wings, her golden feathers acting as a shield.
Her spiritual platform throbbed with pain, spiderweb-like cracks appearing on the Level 9 barrier, yet she stared fixedly behind Li Ze.
In the reflection of the pool, Jun Zhuohua, the Sect Master of the Azure Sword Sect, was crushing a communication jade talisman, pointing toward the secret realm with a cruel smile.
“He’s found us!”
Man Xiaomin rushed into the bamboo forest carrying firewood, her face pale.
“Three layers of the protective arrays outside have been breached!”
Li Ze retracted his spear into his sleeve, and the pool water returned to clarity.
“No matter. The blood clouds shroud the sky; they cannot break the barrier of the secret realm.”
He brushed a sweaty strand of hair from her temple.
“By tapping into the Profound Yellow source just now, you have touched the doors of the Dao Realm. At midnight, follow me to the center of the pool to break through.”
Midnight frost congealed.
Cai Xiaonuo sat cross-legged on a green stone in the center of the pool while Li Ze hovered above her.
Two streaks of spiritual energy, like cyan and white dragons, coiled around the girl.
With every rotation, her spiritual sea emitted a crisp sound like cracking ice.
“Break!”
Cai Xiaonuo gave a sharp cry as her golden feathers pierced the clouds.
The pressure of the Dao Realm crushed the forest.
Man Xiaomin and the other two were blown back 100 feet, crashing into the barrier’s light curtain.
Lin Xiaoye coughed blood and exclaimed, “Junior Sister Xiaonuo’s spiritual energy… is swallowing the world’s Qi!”
The golden light in Li Ze’s eyes surged.
The golden feathers surrounding the girl gradually turned black, swallowing all the moonlight within 10 miles.
In the mud at the bottom of the pool, the forgotten green egg suddenly developed fine cracks.
‘This isn’t right!’ The spear in Li Ze’s sleeve hummed.
‘She’s invoking the rules of the Profound Yellow Pagoda!’
Before he could finish the thought, Cai Xiaonuo began to bleed from her facial orifices.
Her angel wings cracked inch by inch, and the black-gold feathers fell like rain.
Li Ze leaned down to save her, but the green egg suddenly shattered with a crack! A green shadow pounced out of the pool water, charging straight for Cai Xiaonuo’s heart.
“Vile creature!”
Li Ze’s spear tip lunged toward the green shadow.
It was a 3-inch jiao with a jade horn on its forehead and ghostly blue flames burning at the tip of its tail.
It coiled around Cai Xiaonuo’s wrist, and the blood from her wound transformed into golden threads, which the little jiao swallowed into its belly.
Cai Xiaonuo’s spiritual platform shook violently, but the spiritual energy that was on the verge of collapsing was suddenly guided back into place by the little jiao.
The black color on her wings faded away, replaced by the flowing brilliance of emerald on her golden feathers.
Her spiritual sea opened with a roar—Dao Realm Level 1!
“It’s a success!”
Man Xiaomin slumped to the ground, but the Daiyu pointed at the pool’s surface and screamed, “Master, look!”
The ripples in the Dragon Pool reflected a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood outside.
The Azure Sword Sect had torn a gap in the Yin-Yang Sect’s protective array, and Jun Zhuohua descended upon the sect gate atop blood clouds.
Luo Yi’s profound soul manifestation was crumbling, and the protective jade monument collapsed.
“Ten years is too long.”
Li Ze crushed the jade talisman in his sleeve, and the external image shattered.
“The Azure Sword Sect intends to slaughter the Yin-Yang Sect before the secret realm opens.”
Cai Xiaonuo retracted her wings and landed, the little jiao coiling around her shoulder and flicking its tongue.
“Senior, we can’t get out…”
“Who said we can’t?”
Li Ze held up the Soul-Locking Banner.
Li Quan’s remnant soul was struggling and actually managed to condense into a physical form.
“By borrowing the final providence of a pawn of the Heavenly Dao, we can tear a gap in the secret realm.”
Man Xiaomin threw herself at Li Ze’s feet.
“Master, you mustn’t! This remnant soul is vicious. If you let it out…”
“Vicious?” Li Ze chuckled, poking his finger toward Li Quan’s forehead inside the banner.
The remnant soul let out a piercing howl as a partial sword scar emerged on its crown.
“Jun Zhuohua planted his own sword intent in this soul. This is the source of the Azure Sword Sect’s confidence in their attack.”
He suddenly withdrew his hand, and Li Quan’s soul transformed into green smoke, rushing into the space between Li Ze’s eyebrows.
The others watched as his pupils turned into crimson gold, and two voices rumbled in his throat: “Little beast… you dare to refine my divine soul?!”
“Refine?”
Li Ze wiped the space between his eyebrows with two fingers, and the crimson gold faded.
“I am sending you back to your source.”
The green smoke spiraled back into the Soul-Locking Banner, and a phantom of Jun Zhuohua holding a sword appeared on the fabric.
Li Ze slapped the banner into the Dragon Pool.
“This banner will trigger a backlash of sword intent. Within 3 months, the Azure Sword Sect Master’s Dao heart will surely be clouded.”
The pool water boiled, and Jun Zhuohua’s enraged roar echoed from the banner before being swallowed by the sound of the water.
“Let’s go!” Li Ze grabbed Cai Xiaonuo’s wrist.
“While Jun Zhuohua’s Dao heart is unstable, we’ll fight our way out!”
At the edge of the secret realm, a bloody mist drifted.
The five of them stood before a canyon, the spatial turbulence churning beneath their feet.
The little jiao on Cai Xiaonuo’s shoulder flicked its tail anxiously.
“Senior, this gap can only allow one person to pass at a time…”
“I’ll go first.”
Li Ze took a step forward, his robes snapping in the astral wind.
“Bring Xiaonuo and follow me.”
“Wait!” Man Xiaomin suddenly pulled open her collar, revealing a jade pendant at her waist.
“Do you recognize this, Master?”
The pendant was carved with the Yin-Yang fish, their eyes embedded with two grains of Star sand—the heirloom of the Yin-Yang Sect.
Li Ze’s pupils constricted.
He had seen this pendant in Luo Yi’s room; it was her late husband’s.
“My mother said before she died…” Man Xiaomin wept.
“If I ever met a silver-haired cultivator carrying the Soul-Locking Banner, I should use this jade to identify him. Master, are you… the Young Sect Master of the Yin-Yang Sect who disappeared 300 years ago?”
The mountain wind stopped.
The little jiao whimpered, and Li Ze’s knuckles turned white.
300 years?
He had clearly only been inside Cai Xiaonuo’s body for about a month!
“Absurd.”
He brushed her off, the astral wind in the canyon whipping up fallen leaves.
“Follow me, quickly!”
As he vanished into the mist, a charred photo slipped from his sleeve—under the neon lights of a modern city, he was smiling broadly while holding a girl in a white dress.
On the back of the photo was a line of small text: 2023, with A Ruan at Tokyo Tower.
‘Luo Yi…’ Li Ze crushed the photo, the fragments mixing with the blood mist.
‘Just what did you do to me?’
On the other side of the canyon, the Azure Sword Sect’s army of corpse puppets was besieging the Yin-Yang Sect’s forbidden grounds.
Li Ze stood in the air, the pressure of his Dao Realm status weighing down like a mountain.
As Man Xiaomin and the others crossed the gap, they saw him pierce three puppets with his spear, the tip pointing directly at the center of Jun Zhuohua’s back.
“Sect Master of the Azure Sword Sect.”
Li Ze’s voice shook the heavens.
“Do you still remember the infant thrown into the Soul-Locking Banner 300 years ago when you slaughtered my entire family?”
Jun Zhuohua spun around, his eyes filled with shock.
The Banished Immortal Sword in his hand buzzed and trembled, its blade reflecting Li Ze’s face—where a crimson sword scar, identical to Li Quan’s, had emerged on his forehead!