Innate Religion.
Autumn Altar territory.
Night hung low, the air thick and heavy.
Killing intent loomed all around. A roc beat its wings, whipping up a biting gale. Pei Ling came to his senses, instantly enraged, his murderous intent surging!
But just as he was about to strike, the scene around him abruptly changed.
The night sky and the sea of white robes vanished without a trace, replaced by a magnificent, imposing hall.
The hall gleamed with gold and jade. On the dais at the far end stood an ornate, lavish throne. A graceful woman in red sat upon it, holding a round fan. She lightly veiled her face with its gauzy silk, revealing only a pair of limpid, sparkling eyes as she gazed down at him.
Pei Ling saw that he stood below the dais, with a screen of mermaid silk behind him. Its panels were soft and light as drifting clouds, and vague figures seemed to stand beyond it, men and women alike, all dressed in fine clothes. They stood with their hands lowered, deferential in posture, as though they dared not enter the hall alongside him.
And Pei Ling was walking, step by step, up the dais...
He suddenly realized where he was: at the bottom of the lake in the deep valley of the Chongming Sect, in the place where Si Hong Qingyan had once lived!
Jue Xinzi and the other Eight Sects True Inheritance were behind the screen!
Then, right now... Pei Ling raised his head and looked toward the woman in red. Dignified and elegant, devastatingly alluring—she was none other than Si Hong Qingyan!
But at that moment, Si Hong Qingyan was nothing like the composed demonic overlord she usually was. Her face had gone pale with shock, her expression furious, and one arm