Half a year later.
Barbarian God Continent, Ghost Soul City.
This city was unlike any immortal city Ji Yuan had ever seen.
It lay hidden deep within a Black Pine Forest whose canopy blotted out the sky.
Every black pine was thick enough for several people to encircle. Their dense crowns let through not a sliver of daylight, dark green moss covered their trunks, and wisps of gray-white mist seeped from between the moss.
Meanwhile.
Four figures had long been waiting in Ghost Soul City's great hall.
You Ji stood at the front. Today, she wore a dark purple gown cinched at the waist, with a silver-gray snake-bone chain around it. A black jade hairpin held her long hair high, exposing a stretch of slender, pale neck.
She still looked cold as frost, with an air that warned strangers to keep their distance.
Three Nascent Soul Cultivators stood behind her.
The tall, thin old man in black at the center was You Wanjun, the current chief of the Wraith Tribe.
His face was gaunt and his cheekbones prominent. Had You Ji not broken through, his Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivation would have made him the undisputed strongest in the Wraith Tribe.
But now—that was hard to say.
The other two, both at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, were the Wraith Tribe's Second Elder, You Xiang, and Third Elder, You Jiu.
Ji Yuan had barely stepped through the hall doors when You Ji came forward to greet him.
"Fellow Daoist Qiu, thanks for making the journey."
She cupped her fists to Ji Yuan, her tone cool and courteous, as one might greet an old friend.
But as she bent in greeting, she winked at Ji Yuan, a flash of mischief in her eyes that only the two of them understood.
Ji