Dusk closed in on all sides, and the peaks of the You Mountain Grand Vein faded into the vast gloom.
Outside the ruined hall, autumn insects chirped.
Jiang Yuechu stood in the gap in the hall's wall, arms folded, her gaze cast toward the darkened horizon.
She was hardly panicking.
Her deductions of the Chess-Condensing Method were progressing steadily. The demon souls in the Heavenly Demon Martial Training were arguing themselves hoarse, and progress was actually a little faster than she had expected.
But no matter how fast it went, she still needed a Dao-Union Relic as a foundation. Otherwise, everything would be a castle in the air.
Surely that old thing wasn't actually stringing her along.
After all, if the Supreme Seat of breath soil wanted to escape, she truly couldn't find a more suitable candidate than Jiang Yuechu right now.
An old creature who had lived for who knew how many tens of thousands of years couldn't possibly fail to weigh those interests.
But if she wasn't stringing her along... then something must have gone wrong.
Just as Jiang Yuechu was considering whether to seek out that old thing herself and hurry her along-
A long streak of green light suddenly tore across the horizon.
The light approached at tremendous speed, looking less like ordinary flight and more like someone fleeing for her life.
It swept in from the northeast of the You Mountain Grand Vein, trailing a long tail, its green glow flickering uncertainly and its aura breaking off and returning.
Jiang Yuechu narrowed her eyes.
The green light circled once above Azure Parasol Mountain before abruptly contracting thirty feet in front of the hall.
The old woman stepped out of the radiance.
She was as hunched as ever, a few strands of silver hair hanging loose,