But time was the most merciless thing of all.
It would not halt its steps for anyone's strength, nor slow its flow for anyone's sorrow.
In the blink of an eye, fifteen years had passed.
Over those fifteen years, the balance of power on the shattered Central Continent underwent several more sweeping upheavals.
Old powers fell, and new overlords rose.
To fight over the limited resources for cultivation, bloody battles erupted in the outside world every day.
But no matter how savage the fighting became, even when pursued to the end of their rope, not a single cultivator dared take so much as half a step within ten thousand li of Barren Mountain.
This was a true forbidden zone.
Fifteen years turned, spring departing and autumn arriving.
Fifteen snowfalls blanketed Barren Mountain; the snow melted, and fifteen new crops of green grass grew.
That morning, the cold dew of early autumn condensed into white frost on the blades of grass.
Su Yueli slowly opened her eyes.
The meridians in her body had been completely reconstructed, and the fatal wound that the Fifteenth Realm Demon Venerable had punched through her body had healed completely under the powerful vitality of her longevity physique.
Not even a trace of a scar remained.
Her skin was still fairer than snow, her beauty unmatched.
But her snow-white hair had never turned dark again.
The mark left by Life Burning had become permanently fixed in her body.
Her longevity physique could repair physical wounds, but it could not reverse the fundamental changes to the rules brought about by burning away her lifespan.
Su Yueli turned her head, her gaze passing over two burial mounds to settle beside a crude thatched hut nearby.
The instant she made out that figure.
Su Yueli's heart abruptly sank.
Han Yu