The spirit boats that had intended to leave Tianyuan City were bound by some sort of power, completely unable to move forward. Nearly 100 spirit boats were squeezed into the same area.
At the moment Wu Yan stepped out of the cabin door, a sinister and terrifying giant bone claw, large enough to cover all of Tianyuan City, suddenly tore through the sky.
There were no rising winds or surging clouds, nor any ghostly wails or howling wolves.
It happened without warning.
The once-clear sky turned crimson the moment the giant claw tore it open, emitting a stench like the scent of a long-decayed corpse being discovered.
In the center of the crimson firmament, the giant bone claw clenched its fingers, and the surrounding space distorted and deformed with its movement.
“What… is that?”
Gu Jian’s voice was trembling.
From the distorted space in the palm of the bone claw, overwhelming black Qi surged out frantically. Countless strange faces struggled within the black Qi—neither human nor beast, looking like ghosts or demons.
With a casual swing of the bone claw, a dozen or so spirit boats that were unable to move were swept away, instantly turning into powder.
The cultivators within didn’t even have time to scream before they turned into a puff of dust between heaven and earth.
“Master, save me!”
“Ancestor! Ancestor!!”
Panic-stricken cries from all directions flooded Wu Yan’s ears. Aside from snippets in her memories, she had never seen such a demonic scene with her own eyes.
‘Wu Yan, do you know what’s going on?’
There was no response.
Since last night, the inner Wu Yan seemed to have hardened her heart and ignored her completely.
“Activate the spirit boat defense arrays! All personnel, listen to my command! Pour your spiritual power into the deck to take the helm and activate the defense arrays!”
However, not every sect had such calm leadership.
Some cultivators on the spirit boats tried to abandon ship and escape, leaping into the air. But as soon as they left, the black Qi in the center of the bone claw turned into spikes, instantly piercing through them.
The shrill screams those cultivators made before they died sent chills down everyone’s spine.
This level of power was definitely not Soul Transformation, nor was it Void Refinement.
It was a realm above Body Integration—the Mahayana Realm.
How could the Five Sects Tournament attract a Mahayana Demonic Cultivator? Furthermore, in today’s world, even the Sect Masters of the Five Great Sects were only at the Body Integration Stage. How could a Mahayana powerhouse appear among demonic cultivators?
“What monster dares to act so insolently here!”
Even when facing a terrifying Mahayana existence, the elders of the Five Great Sects still charged forward without looking back. Leading them was the Taiqing Sect Master.
The radiance of spiritual power, magical treasures, and cultivation techniques soared into the sky, briefly tearing through the dark red clouds.
But in the next moment, the bone claw casually swatted them, and those cultivators were knocked to the ground like duckweed, their lives uncertain.
After one strike, the bone claw did not continue attacking. Instead, it grabbed the shattered space at the edge of its palm and forcefully tore it to the other side.
Rrip —
A huge rift was torn into the sky.
Within the rift, a swirling black door suddenly opened.
Vast amounts of black Qi poured out, hitting every surviving spirit boat. Immediately afterward, an extremely domineering suction force erupted from the doorway.
This suction was terrifyingly powerful. In just a short moment, it swallowed the entire suspended Martial Arts Arena.
Naturally, the spirit boats in the sky could not escape either. That black doorway was like a giant whale swallowing the sea, absorbing everything in sight. The Piaomiao Sect’s spirit boat was among them.
The defense array couldn’t even last a moment before it completely collapsed.
“Qingyao, grab me!”
Wu Yan instinctively reached out to grab the person closest to her. She caught Yu Qingyao’s hand, but the suction force suddenly intensified. The world turned upside down, and she didn’t even have time to react.
Her fingertips only managed to brush across Yu Qingyao’s palm before she watched Yu Qingyao be sucked into that black doorway in the next instant.
Everything had only just begun.
Before the methods of a Mahayana Demonic Cultivator, all things were but ants.
Wu Yan could only use all her remaining spiritual power to protect herself, hoping she would still be able to move after being sucked into the gate.
As her body flew uncontrollably toward the gate, she saw many familiar figures.
Ji Xuerou, Bai Zhiqiu, Lin Xiao, Zhao Wuji, Xie Wenyuan…
With a whirl of the world, intense dizziness hit her, and darkness instantly swallowed her consciousness.
—
In the haze, she seemed to hear a gloating voice.
‘You stubborn blockhead, it’s time you suffered a bit!’
In the pitch-black Sea of Consciousness, the inner Wu Yan sat with her legs crossed, watching the scene of Yu Qingyao being sucked into the black doorway with great interest over and over again.
‘Haha, serves her right! That little white-eyed wolf actually wanted to snatch things from me!’
However, as she laughed, her smile gradually froze.
In the image of Yu Qingyao’s receding back as she was sucked away, that Snow Lotus Hairpin was particularly eye-catching.
The inner Wu Yan took out a small figurine with black hair and black eyes from her bosom. She pulled its hands apart with both her own and said crossly, ‘Stubborn blockhead! Big idiot! You just had to ignore my words! You just had to give the hairpin to that white-eyed wolf and even put it on her yourself!’
‘Why don’t you just fly up to the heavens!’
She was so angry she wanted to rush out and eat Yu Qingyao alive right then and there. But she couldn’t.
‘I can only understand what happened in the previous life through your memories.’
The inner Wu Yan couldn’t help but think of that night. When Wu Yan learned that it wasn’t she who had brought in the demonic cultivators to massacre the Piaomiao Sect, her face had been incredibly serious.
‘I suspect there are deviations in your memory, so I cannot make a final judgment based on that. But in this life, if you do anything that harms kind people or slaughters the innocent—’
‘I will immediately use the Soul Governance Art to make this body return to the heavens on its own.’
The inner Wu Yan had never seen Wu Yan so serious, so much so that she could only dryly ask a question back then:
‘Then will you die too?’
‘Yes.’
The inner Wu Yan had nothing to say.
She should have understood long ago. Wu Yan was the type of person who was strict with others and even stricter with herself.
There was no other way; she could only agree. After all, the control of this body was currently in the other’s hands. She just had to accept it.
—
A tearing pain suddenly surged from deep within her body.
Cough, cough, cough!
Wu Yan abruptly sat up from a pile of rubble, instinctively gasping for air.
However, the first breath of air she inhaled almost made her suffocate on the spot.
The air rushed down her trachea into her lungs, carrying a pungent metallic smell and a strong burning sensation, as if it were going to ignite her internal organs from the inside.
‘Where… is this?’
Fortunately, Wu Nian was still by her side. Using the sword for support, she managed to stand up and began to scan her surroundings.
Everywhere she looked was desolation.
The sky was no longer a familiar azure but a murky yellow. Not a single ray of sunlight peeked through, only thick dust and haze flowing slowly.
The ground beneath her feet had a scorched black texture, filled with huge, dried-up fissures.
The continuous mountain range in the distance was composed of countless bizarrely shaped black rocks. Under the murky yellow light, the silhouettes of those peaks looked like rows of hideous skulls, staring deathly still at the land.
In such an unknown environment, she had to ensure she had sufficient spiritual power to deal with any emergencies.
Wu Yan circulated her cultivation technique, attempting to draw spiritual power from the air.