Night slowly descended over Xuliang City.
Oil lamps lit up one by one, human voices mingling with the sound of footsteps returning home.
No one realized that above the city, the direction of fate was quietly shifting.
Yunxihua stood atop a tall building, gazing into the distance.
Her face was calm, yet her eyes no longer saw the city—she was seeing the currents of the world.
In another dimension, the ancient god body walked alongside her. Invisible.
Undetectable.
Yet its very existence rendered the void into absolute silence.
Tianlan chose to withdraw,
so they would be tested by time.
The ancient god body did not answer.
But the feeling it sent was clear—
it did not care about sects, alliances, or principles.
It only cared about Yunxihua.
Yunxihua lowered her gaze.
"It's time to cut the roots," she murmured softly.
Far to the northeast, in a region even birds were reluctant to cross, the Soul Refining Sect remained tightly sealed.
Its black walls stood like an old wound in the world, absorbing light and sound.
In the deepest hall, the elders sat in a circle.
Soul fire pulsed at the center, revealing shadows of faces no longer entirely human.
"The Devouring Star Alliance is moving," said one elder in a hoarse voice.
"But Tianlan refused," another responded.
A brief silence followed.
Then an elder chuckled softly.
"Good. Let them stand alone."
The laughter was cold.
"A frog that refuses to hide in the mud… will be easier to swallow."
The soul fire flickered.
"It's time to open one eye," said the oldest elder.
"Send the Soul Shadows."
At the same moment, Yunxihua opened her palm.
A faint symbol appeared there—not Dao, not a technique, but a trace of existence.
The symbol pulsed slowly, like a heart.
"Start with the quietest ones," she whispered.
The symbol shattered into seven thin lights and vanished in different directions.
Not to attack.
Not to kill.
But to shake the balance.
In the distance, the ancient god body halted.
For a moment, it turned its head—as if sensing the same thing.
They move,
and so do you.
Yunxihua smiled faintly.
"Yes," she replied in her heart.
"And this time… no one stands outside."
The night wind blew.
The sky remained calm.
Yet beneath that calm, the world began to feel something long forgotten—
fear that did not come from the Dao,
but from human will that had surpassed it.
In the northeastern region, black mist slowly crept out from cracks in the earth.
Not thick, not conspicuous—yet every place it touched became silent.
Birds refused to fly.
Wild beasts hid.
Even spiritual qi circulated more slowly, as if afraid to move.
These were the Soul Shadows.
They did not walk.
They did not fly.
They infiltrated.
In a small sect loosely affiliated with Sacred Tianlan, the night felt ordinary.
Disciples stood guard while chatting softly, unaware that beyond the protective formation walls, shadows were already standing.
Without a sound, one shadow merged into the ground.
The formation did not react.
Because what entered was not a body—but intent.
A few breaths later, an elder of that small sect opened his eyes from meditation.
He felt a chill in his chest.
When he looked down—his soul was already incomplete.
He did not die.
But from that night on, all his decisions began to go astray.
And he never knew why.
Mount Qingshui remained tranquil.
Yunxihua sat cross-legged once more, but this time her eyes were open.
Before her, the air rippled faintly, revealing fragments of events from various places.
She saw one shadow succeed in infiltrating.
She saw another fail and dissipate.
She did not stop anything.
Because this was not an attack.
This was a trial of the world.
"Soul refinement always begins from within," she said softly.
In another dimension, the ancient god body stood before a void that was beginning to crack.
Those cracks were not destruction—but instability of laws.
It raised its hand.
Once.
The cracks stopped spreading.
If the world collapses too quickly,
you won't have anything left to reconcile.
Yunxihua felt the tremor.
She smiled faintly.
"I know."
Meanwhile, at Sacred Tianlan Sect—the old elder stood at the edge of a cliff, gazing far to the northeast.
The night wind carried a scent he did not recognize.
Not blood.
Not death.
But disharmony.
His brows furrowed.
"Is this… worldly karma?" he murmured.
He did not know that the small sects under Tianlan's influence were beginning to change.
Not destroyed. Not attacked.
But slowly, one by one, their decisions began to go astray.
And when enough decisions go wrong—even a sect that wishes to stand outside the world will be dragged in.
In the deepest hall of the Soul Refining Sect, an elder opened his eyes and smiled.
"The seeds are planted."
The others nodded.
"Now," said the oldest elder, "we wait to see who rots first."
The soul fire pulsed strongly.
Yet at that instant—the flames flickered strangely, as if something untouchable was watching them from afar.
The oldest elder frowned.
"Hmm?"
The feeling lasted only a moment.
Then vanished.
But far beyond their reach—the ancient god body of Yunxihua stood still, its gaze calm.
They planted the seeds, but the soil… no longer belonged to them.
Yunxihua opened her eyes fully.
She stood.
And for the first time in ten years—she stepped toward the world,
not as a cultivator,
not as the leader of an alliance—
but as a walking point of balance.
In the distance, the clouds began to move.
Very slowly.
Yet nothing could stop them.
And behind all of it,
two existences with one soul
finally stepped onto the same path.