By the East Sea.
The three Yun Xiao sisters looked behind them, still shaken.
Only after confirming that Venerable Yuanshi hadn't pursued them did they finally breathe a sigh of relief and collapse onto the beach.
"We... we made it..." Bi Xiao gasped for breath, her face full of relief at having survived the ordeal.
"That was too close... I really thought we were going to die..." Qiong Xiao said, patting her chest, still shaken.
Yun Xiao said nothing. She looked up toward the Ninth Heaven.
Though separated by an endless void, she could still sense that the two terrifying waves of Saintly Might above Xiqi had vanished.
In their place was a will even more vast and imposing, one she didn't even have the courage to look up at.
"It was Dao Ancestor... Dao Ancestor intervened..." Yun Xiao murmured.
She knew they had escaped not because they were fast, nor because Empress Nuwa had truly been able to stop Venerable Yuanshi.
It was because Dao Ancestor Hongjun had intervened.
"Big sis, what do we do now? Go back to Golden Ao Island?" Bi Xiao asked, having caught her breath.
"Exactly. Let's hurry back to the island! We'll tell Master and all our senior and junior brothers what happened here! The people from the Sect of Explanation are such bullies!" Qiong Xiao added indignantly.
Go back to Golden Ao Island?
Yun Xiao's brows drew together slightly.
For some reason, that mysterious thought rose in her heart again.
No, they couldn't go back to Golden Ao Island.
Golden Ao Island wasn't a safe place anymore.
The thought came to her with startling clarity and certainty.
Yun Xiao herself couldn't explain why.
It was an instinct, a calling from deep within her soul.
She felt that if they went back to Golden