Crescent Moon Shines on Reflection

The night wind of Zhongnan Mountain, carrying a bone-chilling cold, swept through the forest, making a whimpering sound. Ying Zheng's back, clad in black robes, had already disappeared around the bend of the mountain path leading to the temporary camp, and the steady footsteps gradually faded into silence.

Cheng Xi stood alone, gazing up at the starry sky stained by the blood-red Mars, but his heart held no trace of relief after surviving the ordeal. Instead, it was filled with a heavy, oppressive gloom. The Human Cultivation, Lu Buwei, the Underground Devil Claws, Mars Guarding the Heart... and Ying Zheng's unfathomable thoughts, along with the slumbering Ancestor Dragon within him, felt like a giant, invisible net tightening around him from all directions.

He opened his palm. The Jianmu Fragment remained warm and smooth, emitting a faint life aura that soothed his weary body and mind. The dark gold scale clinging to it shimmered with an eerie luster under the blood-red starlight, the lingering aftermath of chaos and destruction like a parasite. The immense power of the Breathing Soil crystal lay hidden deep within the fragment, his greatest reliance for now, yet it also felt like a bomb ready to detonate at any moment.

[System Energy: 15% (Stable)... Passive Scan Range: 50 Zhang... Detected faint spatial fluctuation residue... Direction: 9 o'clock, Distance: 20 Zhang... Attributes: Mirror Scrying / Moonlight Power... Correlation Judgment: Yin Yang School Inheritance Mark...]

A cold notification sound echoed in his sea of consciousness, like an alarm bell!

Yin Yang School?!

Cheng Xi's internal alarm bells blared! Almost simultaneously with the System's notification, he suddenly turned his head, his gaze sharp as lightning, shooting towards the old, gnarled tree swaying in the night wind at the nine o'clock direction!

There, only a deep shadow twisted and swayed under the blood-red moonlight, showing nothing unusual.

But Cheng Xi's intuition told him that something had just been watching him there! Moonlight Power... Mirror Scrying... Was it the Yin Yang School's Sky-Peering Mirror? Or some profound illusion technique?

Was it Eastern Emperor Taiyi? Or... that mysterious Moon Goddess?

He calmly put the Jianmu Fragment back into his embrace, his fingertips subtly gripping a talisman – the very "Spirit-Attracting Talisman" he had painstakingly drawn with cinnabar, obtained at the risk of his life! Though tattered, the malevolent energy it contained could now be barely activated after the System's energy recovery!

Taking a deep breath of the cold air, Cheng Xi suppressed his turbulent thoughts and turned to walk in the direction Ying Zheng had left. The camp was not far ahead, in a leeward mountain valley, where the flickering light of a bonfire could be vaguely seen.

After taking just a few steps, an extremely faint yet exceptionally clear sound of fighting, mixed with suppressed groans of pain and the crackling of burning flames, drifted intermittently on the night wind! The direction was not towards the camp, but from a deeper mountain ravine to his side and rear!

Cheng Xi's footsteps faltered. This sound...

[Audio Analysis... Voiceprint Match... Target 1: Young female (pain/anger)... Target 2: Unknown creature (roar/non-human)... Environmental Sound: Flame explosion...]

Female? Non-human creature? Flames?

Cheng Xi frowned. Were the Mountain Folk in danger? Or... a trap? He instinctively glanced towards the camp; Ying Zheng's figure was long gone.

Go? Or not go?

The suppressed cry of pain from the woman came again, carrying a desperate shrillness from the brink of death, instantly striking a chord within Cheng Xi's heart. He gritted his teeth fiercely, his figure flashed, and he moved like a phantom towards the source of the sound, stealthily advancing! System energy flowed through his body, his aura concealed to the extreme, blending into the shadows of the forest.

Rounding a dense thicket, the scene before him made Cheng Xi's pupils contract sharply!

A clearing in the forest was illuminated as if by daylight by the raging flames! Seven or eight corpses in black tight-fitting clothes lay scattered about, their deaths gruesome; some were torn apart by immense force, others were charred black. In the center of the clearing, a petite figure was staggering and fighting a monster!

The monster resembled a giant ape, but was covered in dark green scales, its fangs protruding, eyes blood-red, and it spewed hot, sulfuric breath from its mouth. Every pounce brought with it a foul wind! Even more bizarre was that the monster was entwined with viscous, ink-like black energy, emitting a nauseating, sinister aura!

The woman fighting it was slender, dressed in fiery red tight-fitting clothes, but they were torn in multiple places, revealing blood-stained skin. She wore a silver mask covering the upper half of her face, revealing only her tightly pursed pale lips and sharp chin. Most striking were her hands – her fingers were long and slender, and at their tips danced lively, scorching orange-red flames!

These flames were no ordinary fire; they were exceptionally agile, sometimes transforming into long whips to strike, sometimes condensing into fire shields to block, and sometimes exploding into a sky full of fire arrows to shoot! Every collision with the monster's scales produced a sizzling burning sound, leaving behind scorched marks!

However, the woman was clearly at the end of her rope. Her movements were sluggish, and her flames flickered dimly. A claw mark on her left shoulder, deep enough to expose bone, was oozing black blood, and the black energy was like a living thing, encroaching into her body through the wound! Every time she channeled her flames, her body trembled in pain, and suppressed groans escaped from beneath her mask.

"Roar!" The scaled monster seized an opening, its giant claws whistling as they tore through the air, slamming down towards the woman's head! The woman weakly raised her flame-wreathed arms to block!

Boom!

The flames were scattered by the immense force! The woman flew backward like a broken kite, crashing heavily against a large tree. Her mask was shaken off, and she spat out a mouthful of blood with a cry, revealing a pale yet stunningly beautiful face beneath the mask! Especially her eyes, which were now burning with pain and anger, like two dancing flames!

The monster roared and pounced, its bloody maw biting towards the woman's fragile neck!

Now!

Cold light erupted from Cheng Xi's eyes! He had been waiting for this moment when the monster's old strength was spent and its new strength had not yet arisen!

"Take this!"

With a low shout! The tattered Spirit-Attracting Talisman he had been gripping was instantly ignited!

There was no earth-shattering display! Only a cold, violent, condensed-to-substance dark red malevolent energy, like an arrow shot from a bow, shot out soundlessly and with pinpoint accuracy into the scaled monster's gaping maw!

"Awooo--!!!"

The monster's forward momentum froze abruptly! It let out a shrill, distorted howl of agony! It writhed violently as if thrown into boiling oil! Beneath its tough, dark green scales, the dark red malevolent energy surged like countless tiny venomous snakes, swelling! Its eyes bulged, its blood-red pupils instantly covered by crimson, filled with chaos and pain!

Puff! Puff! Puff!

The hard scales could no longer contain the violently clashing malevolent energy within, cracking inch by inch! Dark green blood mixed with foul-smelling mucus shot out like a fountain from countless fissures!

Rumble!

Its massive body collapsed like it had been drained of bones, falling to the ground with a thud. It twitched a few times before becoming completely still. Dark red malevolent energy still flickered like embers on its surface, emitting faint sizzling sounds.

In the clearing, only the crackling of burning flames and the woman's suppressed breaths remained.

Cheng Xi then emerged from the shadows, approaching cautiously. His gaze swept over the black-clothed corpses on the ground, then fell on the woman's pale, blood-stained face.

The woman struggled to stand, but it aggravated her wound, and she gasped in pain. She raised her flame-burning eyes, staring intently at Cheng Xi as he approached, her gaze a mixture of vigilance and dazed relief after surviving. Her voice was hoarse from weakness, yet still carried a strange rhythm:

"Who... are you?"

Cheng Xi did not answer. His gaze passed over the woman and fell on the trunk of the large tree behind her, which had been hit, causing leaves to rustle down.

There, next to the woman's splashed blood, was a rudimentary, yet ancient and wild-looking totem drawn with some dark red pigment – a dancing flame, with an abstract eye symbol at its center!

A Witch Mark! And it was... a Fire Witch's insignia!

This woman... is from the Witch Clan?!

Cheng Xi's heart trembled violently! He remembered the Jianmu Fragment with spatial coordinates from Ying Xi's box, the strange mist in Zhongnan Mountain, the warning of "Tongtian Road is cut off" from the cave remains... and the System's analysis of the woman's flames, the hint of "not pure fire element spiritual energy, containing faint bloodline power"!

All the clues seemed to be subtly connecting at this moment!

Just then!

"Chiiii--"

A cold, sharp sound, like it could cleave souls, tore through the air from the extremely high night sky without any warning!

Cheng Xi and the Fire Witch looked up in terror simultaneously!

Beside the blood-red crescent moon hanging in the western sky, a stream of light, as thin as a hair yet dazzling to the extreme, like a sword of judgment descending from the heavens, tore through the dark red night sky. With indescribable speed, it slashed ferociously towards the depths of the Zhongnan Mountain range—towards the direction of the collapsed grotto!

Wherever the green light passed, space seemed to freeze and be cut! Leaving behind a void rift that lingered for a long time!

A majestic, vast sword intent, yet one that carried the power to destroy everything and sever a sliver of life, swept across the heavens and earth like a tsunami!

This sword intent...

In Cheng Xi's sea of consciousness, the dormant System, as if thrown into boiling lava, suddenly erupted with an unprecedented, almost reverent, sharp ringing:

[Detected ultra-high dimensional law fluctuation! Attribute: Sword Dao Law (Ultimate)! Related judgment: Supreme Clarity Immortal Light / Sky-Severing Sword Intent!... Match Rate: 99.99%!... Warning! Energy level exceeds scan limit!...]

Supreme Clarity Immortal Light! Sky-Severing Sword Intent!

Lord Tongtian?!