"The Empire has fallen!!!"
"The Emperor no longer has any authority here! We'll receive extraordinary rewards for killing Bai Tianheng!"
"I'll become a disciple if I can kill even one of them."
"What is that?"
"W-Why is he trembling?"
"What's happening? Are they melting?!"
"It's that damn Emperor! He's doing it again! He actually dared to kill his own people! We must kill his family and loyal servants!"
"The Emperor is a murderer! Kill the Emperor's servants!"
...
"Han Yucheng has been killed... The Han Family has practically been annihilated..."
"The Tian Family is no different. Only the Elders and the current Patriarch remain."
"Strange... Everyone who died was below the Core Formation Realm..."
"Our losses are severe. We must beg Elder Qin Xue for help."
"Good heavens, what has this city become?..."
As chaos descended upon Qingyao, with thousands of people mysteriously dying, the Bai Family hid inside a cave directly beneath the Bai Estate.
Hiding from the Spiritual Sense of a Soul Transformation cultivator was useless without a Formation, and Bai Lanyue knew this.
"Darling! You must call for help from your Master, or we'll die without even a proper funeral!" Bai Tianheng was agitated. He regretted going against these people, and deep down, if he could turn back time, he would have been far wiser when dealing with forces far beyond their ability to resist.
"We must wait," Bai Lanyue replied.
"Wait for what?! If your Master is truly willing to help, then call her already!"
"Father, calm down!" Bai Lanyue was forced to raise her voice to calm him. Only after he apologized did she continue. "She won't be the one coming. Master can only move within a Formation. If she leaves... the consequences will be terrible. That's why she'll send someone else—one of her oldest disciples, Jiang Taixuan."
The cave was packed with members of the Bai Family, including cousins and uncles. There were also loyal servants, such as the Luo Family of Luo Zixuan.
Inside the heavily guarded storage chambers, countless treasures had been placed inside Spatial Rings, along with several interesting artifacts. The atmosphere was tense, and a hint of suspicion could be seen in Bai Lanyue's eyes.
"For now, we should hide within this Formation. We'll be safe for a few days. Meanwhile—"
As she explained, Bai Lanyue was interrupted by her father.
"I don't understand, my daughter..." He called her to a more secluded place and lowered his voice. "What are you hiding? You should have already activated that Jade Pendant in a situation like this. Be honest with me."
Bai Tianheng narrowed his eyes as he spoke. He feared the worst.
On the other hand, Bai Lanyue clenched her fist, her body trembling slightly. On the surface, she appeared to have everything under control, but deep within, she was filled with fear and uncertainty.
A bead of sweat trickled down her face. She looked at her father and silently asked for a little more understanding.
She did not tell him, but she had already activated the Jade Pendant...
And there had been no response.
Thus, in a more secluded part of the cave, she searched for a narrow passage. She subtly made a grasping motion, and after crossing the fissure that had opened there, she entered a place that was completely different from any cave.
This was her Master's Minor World.
With her heart pounding, she ran toward the enormous Temple.
"Master!" she shouted.
"I'm here."
Suddenly, Bai Lanyue found herself standing atop the enormous Temple. Ye Xianrong stood beside her.
"Master, I—"
"I know. Look at this..."
Before them, an image was being projected, showing something happening somewhere outside.
"T-That..." Bai Lanyue's eyes widened, and her body trembled as she witnessed the scene.
Within the image, Jiang Taixuan was being tormented within his Divine Cultivation. He appeared to be trapped by some kind of Karma that had been deliberately imposed upon him.
Bai Lanyue stared at the karmic thread wrapped around her Senior Brother.
For the first time in her life, she felt true terror.
That was no ordinary seal.
It was a prison formed by the very Dao of Karma itself.
"I-I feel something terrible!"
Bai Lanyue's consciousness grew heavy. Her body was slowly being pulled toward a place beyond even death itself.
Her Master did not allow it to continue and immediately pulled her soul back.
Desperate and gasping for breath, Bai Lanyue clung to Ye Xianrong's arms. It was as though she had witnessed something far beyond mere terror.
Her body trembled uncontrollably, and her soul had been severely damaged simply from looking at the Karmic Seal.
Her widened eyes revealed the immense trauma that followed. Her mind was clouded, and she seemed incapable of thinking clearly. Even if she tried not to think about it, that image would never allow itself to be forgotten.
Ye Xianrong used Memory Erasure on her disciple, making her forget what had happened.
Afterward, she placed her index finger against Bai Lanyue's forehead to heal her soul and, at the same time, ease her pain.
Then, sitting on the ground, she embraced her disciple until she calmed down.
"It's alright, my dear. I'm here... It's over now."
Ye Xianrong had always been affectionate toward her disciples. To her, they were no different from her own children.
Allowing her disciple to be exposed to such an experience at such an early stage could certainly be considered cruel. But it was also part of her mental training.
There were far worse things in the world.
An experience like this could strengthen the inner walls of her mind and allow her Sea of Consciousness to develop a defensive mechanism.
A cultivator's Sea of Consciousness could learn from spiritual invasions.
When an external force attempted to penetrate it, the spirit itself would record the nature of that force. After surviving the confrontation, it could develop a corresponding resistance.
Although Bai Lanyue no longer remembered what had happened, her body and mind remained on high alert.
At the same time, the walls of her mind were growing stronger.
"A karmic thread is connecting Jiang Taixuan's Divine Soul to the Divine World, imprisoning him within it..." Ye Xianrong explained. There was a trace of sadness in her eyes. "As long as this Karma exists, every attempt he makes to leave the Divine World will cause his Divine Soul to return to it... At the same time, the Karma binds him within his own mind."
"M-Master?... I-I don't understand..." Bai Lanyue was still frightened, even though she no longer remembered what had actually happened.
What she had seen was something that could neither be spoken of nor witnessed by ordinary people. Otherwise, their ability to see and hear would be destroyed. Their brains would atrophy, and they would lose the ability to walk or speak, becoming crippled for the rest of their lives.
Only death could cure them.
Bai Lanyue felt as though she had escaped from something terrible. Despite the lingering fear, she soon straightened herself before her Master.
"Master, I—"
She seemed about to say something, but was abruptly interrupted.
"Disciple, return!" Ye Xianrong exclaimed.
Bai Lanyue stared at her in shock. She was still waiting for the promised assistance.
She swallowed hard and said, "Yes, Master!"
But of course, Ye Xianrong was not so heartless.
"Don't worry. He will come to you shortly."
There was no time for Bai Lanyue to thank her. She was quickly sent back by her Master.
Ye Xianrong remained motionless, her expression solemn.
She slightly raised her head and gently clasped her fingers together, staring at the image of her precious disciple trapped within the Karmic Threads.
"They never give up... Persistent and irritating."
She slowly walked toward the projection.
"But they always forget... who I am!"
With the tip of her index finger, Ye Xianrong tore open space—and, at the same time, tore open an invisible place that could not be seen by those who did not comprehend Divine Essence.
Her hand passed through the rift in the next instant...
...on the other side, in a place that did not belong to the Secular World, a place a thousand times brighter, a thousand times purer, a thousand times more beautiful, and a thousand times more powerful...
...was the Divine World.
Gigantic floating islands were scattered in every direction across the sky, each larger than many continents combined.
If not for the gaps separating the islands, many would have believed they were living inside a massive cavern.
There were approximately three hundred and thirty-three floating islands throughout the entire Divine World.
Below them, a city stretched as far as the eye could see.
Despite the shadows of the gigantic islands swallowing the entire landscape, there was no concept of day or night in this place.
And the people of the city seemed completely unconcerned by it.
Even the greatest capital of the Southern Region, the Empire, would appear as small as a pea beside a mountain if placed next to this city.
This city could only be described as being as vast as the Shanyue Continent.
Suddenly, an even larger hand—delicate, yet carrying an untamed ferocity—tore through the heavens above one of the floating islands.
An old man with white hair and a long beard sighed angrily.
"That old hag!"
He formed eleven hand seals.
Suddenly, eleven unknown presences emerged beside him.
Together, they activated the Twelve Divine Matrices positioned at the four cardinal directions of the Divine World.
Countless Formations, layer upon layer, rose into existence.
Everything seemed to merge into an enormous sphere that swallowed all the islands.
The energy concentrated within that sphere was unbelievably savage, as though millions of Black Lands had exploded within a single point...
...but all of it was useless!
The palm descended upon the floating island, shattering every Formation in existence.
The impact was more than devastating.
Gigantic clouds of dust surged in every direction, destroying the vegetation and every living creature that inhabited the island.
The island was pushed downward in a terrifying scene as it crashed toward a section of the immense city...
...billions of people died in that instant.
Dust filled the sky.
A catastrophe of this magnitude would make many believe that there was no longer anywhere left to live.
After all, ordinary people who survived such a disaster would need decades just to escape the affected region.
The cloud of dust that had been expelled could easily swallow the Shanyue Continent and Tianlu.
But it did not end there.
The force contained within that palm was so overwhelming that it transformed the island and everything in its path into a sea of sand that continued to disintegrate without end.
In the end, all that remained was a crater shaped like a palm.
And at its center were Sanskrit symbols that read:
"I sever the Heavens. I walk beneath them."
A majestic and unfathomable aura radiated from the Sanskrit symbols, interfering with the plans of a certain individual...
Even though everything had been reduced to ashes, life along the edge of the affected region had become extremely difficult.
An incalculable amount of dust and debris, resembling meteors, flooded every area surrounding the site of the catastrophe.
"Mother!!!"
An eight-year-old child was lost, endlessly screaming for his parents.
"Father! No! Stay awake! Stay awake!"
A son who had always been loving toward his family was forced to watch the most important people in his life die.
"Big Brother?... B-Big Brother... wake up."
A poor orphaned girl had lost the only family she had left.
"Patriarch! Are you alright, Patriarch?"
A powerful Clan that rivaled even the Immortal Sects of the North had been obliterated by the disaster, leaving only an Old Immortal and his grandson alive.
"Xiao Wei! Xiao Wei!"
A father desperately screamed for his only three-year-old daughter...
"M-Master, am I going to die? Urgh! A-Am I going to die?"
Master and disciple had wandered the world in search of inheritances and fortuitous encounters, challenging rivals and punishing the unjust.
But unfortunately, the Master could only watch his beloved disciple die in his arms.
"I was... so close to the truth... Whoever those Ancestors offended... they should—"
An old Nascent Soul cultivator who had become a rogue cultivator had crossed continent after continent in search of the Truth...
And there, he met his tragic end.
Above the Immortal who had just died in agony, in the High Heavens, a terrifying yet enchanting sight could be seen.
The dust did not prevent the citizens from witnessing what was happening.
The entire floating island was gone.
And an even higher Heaven, above the Heavens themselves, could now be seen.
Incredibly, that sky was an intense golden color, resembling Pure Gold, and it radiated throughout the entire Underworld.
The people finally understood...
They had been imprisoned without ever knowing the truth.
Until this fateful day.
...
The Threads of Karma that bound Jiang Taixuan between the Divine World and his mind were suddenly severed.
At that moment, he slowly opened his piercing eyes and immediately understood the situation.
Grateful, he bowed toward his Master before disappearing from sight.
However, although the matter had been resolved, Ye Xianrong's situation had become somewhat precarious.
She was not even allowed to move in the outside world.
She had to resort to unconventional means to alleviate her pain, and even then, they only provided temporary relief.
Her body trembled slightly.
At that moment, however, her entire Minor World, as well as the Floating Island Region, trembled violently, frightening everyone who lived there.
"Master?!"
"What happened to the Palace Mistress?!"
"Are the Spiritual Kings attacking us?!"
"Everyone, calm down! Nothing happened to Master. She is undergoing a Tribulation as usual!"
"But this time it's worse... Master."
"We must send our Faith to the Goddess of the World! Quickly!"
External threats turned their gazes toward the Region at that moment.
They all seemed to be salivating like wolves staring at a piece of fresh meat.
At the same time, they were furious and prepared to continue.
They dared to test the limits of their old enemy.
But, of course, they would never cross a certain boundary.
Something made them afraid.
Within the Minor World, the Tribulation was about to descend.
For the body of a Spiritual King, even if the entire Secular World fell upon their heads, they would still emerge unharmed.
Thus, within the Divine World—known as the Invisible World—the Will of the Heavens gathered an unprecedented Tribulation using Divine Essence, along with the necessary authority to attack Ye Xianrong.
The Will of the Heavens formed a Black Lightning using the Ninth Law of Time, One Under All, something even Spiritual Kings were incapable of comprehending.
It struck Ye Xianrong's body head-on.
No one could say what it truly was.
Not even she knew.
For a moment, the Palace Mistress of the Cloud Palace lost consciousness.
Her body shattered like glass, and even her Divine Soul was broken into a thousand fragments.
But before everything could collapse, something even greater awakened and preserved her existence.
The Divine Consciousness within her opened and swallowed both her body and the Minor World, preventing it from becoming destabilized and falling into Limbo.
At the same time, her Divine Soul was healed, and all of her senses returned.
A smile appeared on her lips, as though she were mocking the Will of the Heavens.
However, it did not end there.
Within the Invisible World, the space of the Minor World split open, and an immense rain of Black Lightning pierced Ye Xianrong's body.
At this point, the concept of pain could no longer describe the sensation.
Even the most horrific torture and curses would seem like a child's game compared to the fury of the Heavens.
"Urgh!!!"
She screamed in agony.
But when her Divine Consciousness descended, Ye Xianrong seemed like an entirely different person.
Her senses had become sharper.
She could now effortlessly perceive every living being within the Secular World.
At the same time, she could sweep her senses across every corner of the Spiritual World, the Divine World, and even a place that could be described as Beyond All Worlds.
With the exception of other Spiritual Kings, there were no longer any secrets hidden from her eyes.
In a deeper place, as invisible as the Divine World itself, an enormous Formless Mass was gathering strength and slowly expanding.
That was the birth of a New World.
Possibly one as astonishing as the Divine World.
And this massive structure was absorbing the Faith Energy of every living being, including the souls awaiting Judgment, and even those souls that had been erased or destroyed.
That meant it included the souls of the Divine World!
"The Will of the Heavens used something I do not understand..."
For the first time in a very long time, Ye Xianrong felt intimidated.
In the blink of an eye, she devised a plan.
She performed seven hand seals representing the Seven Laws of Space, and afterward formed three more hand seals that established a structure of Karma, Cause, and Effect.
"It has never done anything like this before. What is happening?!"
The Heavens had used the Ninth Law of Time, One Under All, together with a Profound Domain of Divine Essence, causing the Tribulation to reach Ye Xianrong through all of her temporal and causal manifestations.
Normally, Ye Xianrong could easily escape a temporal threat.
Although the Laws of Time allowed for deviations and even complete immunity—as was the case for Transcendents and Spiritual Kings—the Ninth Law of Time was different.
The Ninth Law allowed an attack to reach the "One" behind all versions.
Thus, Ye Xianrong swiftly altered the causal relationship of the Tribulation and redirected it toward the Formless Mass in the deepest reaches of the Worlds.
She escaped the Tribulation completely.
The Will of the Heavens seemed prepared to continue.
But something stopped it.
And so, it vanished completely.
The World formed from the Formless Mass underwent a transformation.
Slowly, it became something even more astonishing.
Now, it no longer absorbed only Faith Energy.
It also absorbed Prayers, Despair, and every negative and malignant emotion.
This was particularly strange in Ye Xianrong's eyes.
But there was no need to worry anymore.
The Will of the Heavens had been suppressed by her Father.
The Palace Mistress of the Cloud Palace was relatively battered.
A thread of Golden Blood trickled from her nostrils.
Her eyes stared into the void as she theorized about what she had witnessed.
For beings like Ye Xianrong, Spiritual Kings, and Transcendents—the only beings capable of comprehending Divine Essence—the Secular World was actually known as the Central World.
And the Divine World, despite being a place formed purely from Divine Essence, had only become what it was because of the Central World.
At the beginning of Time, the only thing that existed was the Central World.
All other Worlds emerged afterward.
It was common knowledge among those called Gods that a World of such caliber must have been constructed from higher Laws of Space and Time.
To create a Minor World, one needed the Fifth through Seventh Laws of Space.
Meanwhile, the Laws of Time required varied between the Sixth and Eighth Laws.
The Secret Realms of Nascent Soul cultivators, the Grotto-Heavens of Soul Transformation cultivators, and the Black Lands of Transcendents all used much lower Laws compared to those of Spiritual Kings.
Well, the Minor World could be described as a Spiritual King's Secret Realm.
But the difference was so ridiculously vast that comparing the two was practically meaningless.
Ye Xianrong believed that the Central World as a whole had been created using the Eighth Law of Time, Sea of Eras...
...but with this recent discovery, perhaps that was not the case.
There was still one particular thing she could not understand.
If the Central World had been created using the Seventh Law of Space, why did it appear so unfathomable compared to a Minor World?
"This deserves further investigation. Perhaps... we have been wrong all this time."
She pondered deeply.
Before the unquestionable power of the Heavens, Ye Xianrong neither knelt nor felt intimidated.
But it had given her new knowledge.
"The Ninth Law of Time... could it really be?"
The deep gaze of the Spiritual Queen swept across her entire Domain.
After sighing in relief, she sent a message to her disciples to reassure them.
With a simple glance outside the Minor World, she counted twelve pairs of eyes that immediately hid from her sight.
"You old bastards! You're still trying to provoke me?"
Her fury surged.
"Just wait and see. It is written in Destiny that one day I will tear out your throats and hang your heads at the entrance of my Palace!"
Her rage was so immense that a dense, murderous aura swept across the entire Secular World, causing it to tremble faintly.
On the other side, in Qingyao, Bai Lanyue was explaining something to Feng Qi when a faint tremor could suddenly be felt.
"What is that?!"
"It's those bastards! They've found us!"
Some people at the scene screamed in desperation, while a minority prepared themselves for the battle of their lives.
Feng Qi seemed unable to believe Bai Lanyue's words.
She looked at him once more and handed him a Spatial Ring containing numerous resources and techniques, as well as several herbs that would allow him to understand the principles of Pill Refinement.
It was strange at first, but Feng Qi did not mind and gladly accepted it.
She wanted to bring him into her Master's arms, but Ye Xianrong herself had stopped her, telling her that Feng Qi had a Destiny he needed to fulfill.
Thus, there was nothing she could do.
Amid the chaotic farewell, everything happened so quickly that Bai Lan burst into tears.
Feng Qi's arrival and departure from the estate had been so sudden, and she felt deeply sorry for the trouble she had caused him.
Of course, Feng Qi did not care about such things.
In fact, he was grateful.
He had been fortunate enough to meet people as virtuous as them...
Even if something had been planned behind the scenes, these people had always been thinking about the well-being of Qingyao.
"There's an exit up ahead," Bai Lanyue said.
She was still shaken by what she had witnessed.
Her cultivation had destabilized at that moment, but her Master had helped her, and now she felt that she could break through to the Fourth Layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm at any moment.
However, there was no time for that.
As they ran through the cave, the tremors abruptly stopped.
Once again, everyone calmed down, but wary gazes remained fixed on the forks ahead.
After some time passed without sensing any movement, they were able to focus on the people behind them.
The deathly silence of the cave returned, broken only by the distant echo of dripping water.
It was Luo Zixuan who finally broke the silence with a simple question.
"Are you really leaving?"
He sounded sad at the thought.
Feng Qi sighed.
"That wasn't the plan. My contract still says I have a few months of work left... but I understand."
Of course, he understood.
Bai Lanyue had explained the situation to him.
Now he knew that those Sanskrit inscriptions were his Fortuitous Encounter.
Despite the cheerful conversation between the friends, Bai Lanyue desperately searched for a way to get Feng Qi out of the cave.
However, just as their hearts began to settle, another, far greater tremor shook the cave.
In the same instant, the ceiling was ripped open by an invisible force.
It was as though someone had simply lifted the roof off a hut.
Everyone screamed in terror.
Bai Lanyue's heart pounded violently.
"Run!!!" Bai Tianheng shouted.
In desperation, Bai Lanyue tried to grab her father and sister, but she could not find them.
Fear flooded her entire being...
The upper portion of the cave, along with the former Bai Estate, had been torn away by the Mental Power of a Nascent Soul cultivator.
In the next instant, countless people descended upon them using flying artifacts and various movement techniques.
Others rode exotic and powerful beasts.
Everyone from the Bai Family ran.
Some veteran cultivators remained behind, standing against the wave of enemies.
A few moments later, countless deaths had occurred, and blood covered the ground alongside bodies bearing horrific wounds.
Feng Qi found it difficult to grow accustomed to such a sight.
But there was no other choice.
The chaos sent Bai Lanyue into an even greater panic.
Combined with the recent trauma of something she could no longer remember, she ran from one side to another, mercilessly taking the lives of her enemies while desperately searching for her family.
Feng Qi followed behind her, using all his strength to fight the enemies.
Not a single person had died by his hands.
At the same time, he was heavily injured.
Strangely, however, he felt perfectly fine.
He even felt that his cultivation had improved once again.
The Eighth Layer was close.
When Bai Lanyue finally found them, she used her Mental Energy to grab her family members and rushed toward the exit.
In a battle of this level, she could not save everyone.
Her guards and loyal servants were no different from mosquitoes facing dragons.
Very few people followed her.
Only a few members of Luo Zixuan's family continued to persist, but they were soon cut down.
Bai Lanyue's goal was to find a narrow passage where she could use the Hidden World Passage Technique and escape with her family into her Master's Minor World.
However, luck was not on her side.
There were no opportunities.
More and more enemies approached every moment, keeping her constantly occupied.
She still hoped that her Senior Brother would appear at any moment and save them.
But it was becoming increasingly difficult to believe.
Could it be that Master did not allow Senior Brother to come? Or did he get diverted along the way? Or did someone interfere with him again?... Master.
High in the air, numerous imposing figures remained motionless, watching the massacre of the Bai Family unfold.
Qin Xue stood at the center.
She was the primary force responsible for the slaughter.
"A Grade Two, Spiritual-Level Concealment Formation. If it were like the ones used by those old fellows from the Empire, they would have had a considerably greater chance of surviving. But unfortunately..."
Her expression was solemn.
Qin Xue actually disliked what she was seeing.
Thanks to her innate ability to distinguish the innocent from the guilty through the scent of blood, she could tell...
There were more innocent people than guilty ones within this Family.
Only one person was truly guilty.
And that particular person was someone she absolutely could not allow to live.
"Come with me!" she ordered.
They followed the trail left by the survivors.
It was impossible to escape her field of vision.
And Qin Xue had an insatiable thirst for the scent of evil blood.
Her eyes never left Bai Tianheng.