Amidst the splashing red springs falling from the sky, the Mirror of Truth fragment , which had originally lain dormant in the depths of the altar, seemed awakened by the blood dripping from Jiang Li's heart. It emitted a shrill and ecstatic screech.
The fragment did not streak across the sky like a falling star. Instead, it paused eerily in mid-air for a heartbeat, then transformed into countless fine grains of silver sand etched with ancient runes, swirling frantically toward the wound at Jiang Li's heart.
"Ngh...!" Jiang Li's body jolted upright, her pupils instantly filled with a silver mirrored reflection.
With every grain that embedded itself, the turbid qi in Jiang Li's meridians surged in a desperate counterattack. Her internal core was on the verge of exploding, but under the suppression of the Buddhist essence left by Cang Yaochen's strike, these violent forces were crushed and compressed, swirling together with the mirror shards.
Silver patterns rapidly spread across her skin like chains, binding her soul inextricably to this ancient relic.
Cang Yaochen's hands trembled as he held her. He could feel Jiang Li's life force draining away.
"I said... give her... back to me!!!"
The mysterious woman hovering within the black rift spoke with a voice that held the power to tear through one's consciousness. Her long hair cascaded like a waterfall, and the black chains wrapped around her lashed out, sending the Great Elder—who was attempting to intervene—flying hundreds of meters away.
She arrived in a flash, landing before Cang Yaochen.
Cang Yaochen's aura was unstable, having just suppressed the awakening of the "Eros" godhead. He looked at the face that was nearly identical to Jiang Li's, a trace of unprecedented gravity flashing in his eyes.
"Who are you?" Cang Yaochen's voice was raspy.
The woman did not answer. She merely looked down at Cang Yaochen with the disdain of a superior being. "The one who will kill you in the future."
With a flick of her finger, a pitch-black vortex instantly separated Cang Yaochen from Jiang Li. This power was incredibly strange, ignoring the protection of his Buddhist light and directly severing the spatial connection.
"Li'er!" Cang Yaochen's fingers were left with nothing but a torn scrap of her plain robe.
Black qi enveloped Jiang Li like a massive cocoon. The woman pressed her palm against the cocoon, and then her entire being turned into a long black rainbow, piercing through the crumbling Nine-Turn Exquisite Array and vanishing into the vast night.
Amidst the ruins of the altar, dust and smoke billowed.
"Holy Monk! Do you know what you have done?!" The Great Elder crawled out from the debris, his compassionate face now hideous. He had plotted for so long, yet not only was the fragment lost, but even the perfect vessel, Jiang Li, had been abducted!
Cang Yaochen walked down the steps slowly, each step echoing the heartbeats of the crowd. Though his heart was with Jiang Li, the absolute pressure of the Buddha-God he exuded made the disciples feel as if they were suffocating.
"My strike was to slay the rampaging evil within her," Cang Yaochen's voice rang out like a great bell, imbued with an unquestionable sense of justice.
"But Jiang Li..." The Second Elder clutched his chest, his face deathly pale.
"The demoness being taken by a more powerful evil is a misfortune for the sect and a failure of my own salvation," Cang Yaochen folded his hands, his expression one of sorrowful mercy. "But the lives of everyone here have been preserved. Does the Great Elder not believe that is worth celebrating?"
"You...!" The Great Elder's beard shook with rage, but he couldn't find a single word to argue.
What could he say? In the eyes of the disciples, Cang Yaochen was the saint who had to personally "exorcise" the demoness to save everyone.
Late that night, inside the Gui-Xu Hall , the lantern flames flickered.
The Great Elder had dismissed all the disciples, facing Cang Yaochen alone. He knew the monk before him was certainly connected to the prophecy.
"Holy Monk, there are only the two of us now." The Great Elder's voice was low, carrying a hint of deathly exhaustion. "You've been into the Pavilion of Whispers; you know Jiang Li's constitution. Who exactly was that woman? Why could she control turbid qi so directly?"
Cang Yaochen sat there, clicking his beads, his expression terrifyingly cold.
"Heh." Cang Yaochen looked up, his gaze piercing. "Beneath Juling Island, what is suppressed isn't some spiritual vein, but the bones of those from the great war between gods and demons ten thousand years ago, isn't it? You wanted to use Jiang Li as a medium to absorb the grievances in the dark rivers, reassemble the Mirror of Truth, and thus gain control over the power of this continent... am I correct?"
The Great Elder's hand trembled, the teacup clattering against the table. "You... you."
"I not only know this, but I also know that the woman who took her was supposed to be the vessel you used to store the Mirror of Truth, correct? For some reason, she actually developed her own consciousness, and you lost control over her! Which means we were targeted the very first day we stepped into this sect!" Cang Yaochen stood up, his body shimmering with faint gold light. "Tell me, what exactly is your plan? How many fragments have you collected? And that one thing in your sect's scrolls—the true prophecy concerning the 'Return of the Buddha-God'."
The Great Elder closed his eyes in despair. He realized that before a true deity, all his plans were nothing but a clumsy farce.
"At first, we didn't notice Jiang Li. But that day you entered the sect, the sacred beast Suanni submitted to her, so I began to observe her in secret. I saw her shatter Zhao Hu's life-wheel. The Chaos Jade fragment in his life-wheel was also placed there by me in advance. Of course, I also saw your actions, Holy Monk."
After a pause, the Great Elder added: "Including what happened at the spiritual pool on the island..."
Cang Yaochen interrupted him with a cold laugh. "The Great Elder is quite the schemer. Ever since we entered the sect, we've walked right into the trap you set." He looked out at the pitch-black sea, feeling the faint feedback from the Buddhist Covenant brand at Jiang Li's wound. "Continue. Tell me about the prophecy of the Buddha-God's true return."