When a purple-black spatial rift burst open in the center of the wormhole, Xiao Yi Xian's poisonous Dou Qi barrier was the first to ripple. Her purple dress billowed as Dou Zong-level Dou Qi surged into the barrier like a tide. Countless phantom poison vines instantly appeared across the dark green curtain of light, trying to entangle the black tentacles tearing through space.
"It's a Spatial Curse left behind by the Otherworldly Demons!" Xiao Yi Xian's voice carried a trace of gravity. Poison Pills condensed at her fingertips and exploded one after another, each blast driving back several tentacles, yet more rifts kept forming. "This isn't a naturally occurring Spatial Storm. Someone tampered with the outside of the wormhole!"
The mysterious yellow earth-core flame throbbed violently in Xiao Yan's palm. He had pushed his Peak Dou Wang Dou Qi to its limit, and golden-green flames formed a spinning shield around him. He could clearly feel the spatial fragments within the storm striking his fire shield a thousand times a second. Even with defenses comparable to a Dou Zong's, his arms still went numb.
"Nalan! Hold on to my clothes!" Xiao Yan shouted over his shoulder. Nalan Yanran's wind Dou Qi seemed especially fragile within the storm. Her pale green shield was already riddled with cracks, and an invisible suction was dragging at the Dou Wang expert, leaving her slender figure swaying precariously in the gale. Gritting her teeth, she flung out the Wind Spirit Sword. Its tassel wound around Xiao Yan's wrist, only for the spatial turbulence to pull it abruptly taut, nearly tearing her arm apart.
"Brother Xiao Yan!" Nalan Yanran's voice was shredded by the storm. The Wind Spirit Sword suddenly gave a mournful cry, and its tassel snapped. Just as she was about to be swept into a rift, Xiao Yi Xian's poison vines wrapped around her waist in time, and Dou Zong Dou Qi temporarily steadied them both.
"We can't hold out much longer like this!" Fine beads of sweat appeared on Xiao Yi Xian's forehead. The collisions between her poison vines and the spatial tentacles sent the Dou Qi within her churning violently. "The wormhole's spatial nodes are collapsing. We have to find stable teleportation coordinates!" She took a faintly glowing Compass from her Storage Ring, but its needle spun madly, unable to pinpoint anything.
Xiao Yan suddenly remembered the Spatial Jade Slip the Han Family elder had given him and hurriedly crushed it. A pale blue curtain of light unfolded, revealing a densely packed star map, with one golden point flashing rapidly. "These are the Emergency Refuge Coordinates in the Central Plains!" He poured the mysterious yellow earth-core flame into the Jade Slip, trying to expand the curtain of light. "Follow the light!"
The three drew together in a triangular formation. Xiao Yi Xian's poison vines formed a barrier around the outside, Nalan Yanran's wind Dou Qi redirected the air currents, and Xiao Yan used his two heavenly flames to melt through the incoming spatial fragments. The auras of a Dou Zong, a Dou Wang, and a Peak Dou Wang intertwined, holding open a fleeting pocket of safety within the raging storm.
Yet the instant they approached the golden light, the top of the wormhole suddenly collapsed. A pitch-black vortex a thousand feet across appeared with a thunderous roar. Countless bony claws reached out from within it, carrying the heart-chilling aura of Otherworldly Demons. They were phantom Otherworldly Demon Warriors like those they had seen in Black Wind Valley!
"It's the power of the Otherworldly Demon Altar!" Xiao Yan's eyes strained wide with fury, and the mysterious yellow earth-core flame surged thirty feet high. "Xiao Yi Xian, corrode the vortex with your poisonous Dou Qi! Nalan, sever the claws with wind blades!" He charged ahead first, his heavy sword tracing a golden-green arc that sheared through every bony claw in the foremost row.
Xiao Yi Xian formed seals with both hands, turning her dark green poisonous Dou Qi into a vast net that clamped tightly over the bottom of the vortex. The moment the Otherworldly Demons' bony claws touched the net, they hissed with corrosion. Black fluid dripped through the mesh, igniting into eerie blue flames in space. Meanwhile, Nalan Yanran's Wind Spirit Sword became a streak of green light, darting through the gaps between the claws. Every swing sent a string of spatial ripples spreading outward.
With their seamless coordination, the three could have seized the chance to escape the vortex's reach. At that moment, however, a suction force far beyond the Dou Zong level suddenly erupted from its center. Xiao Yi Xian's poison net collapsed first. She cried out as half a foot of her purple dress was sucked into the vortex. "Go! This is an Otherworldly Demon Spatial Trap!"
"If we leave, we leave together!" Xiao Yan reached back and seized her wrist. The mysterious yellow earth-core flame and green lotus core flame erupted simultaneously as he tried to pull her back. At that very instant, another spatial rift suddenly opened beneath Nalan Yanran's feet. Her wind shield shattered, and she fell screaming into the darkness.
"Nalan!" Xiao Yan and Xiao Yi Xian reached out at the same time, but caught only empty space. The vortex's suction abruptly intensified, completely dismantling Xiao Yi Xian's poisonous Dou Qi barrier. Looking at Xiao Yan's anxious face, she suddenly turned her hand and pushed him away. "Xiao Yan, stay alive! Find Nalan, and find your father!"
The woman in purple resolutely turned, condensed all her Dou Zong Dou Qi into a dark green Poison Pill, and hurled it toward the vortex's center with all her strength. The violent explosion briefly blocked the suction, but its backlash also pushed her toward another rift. Xiao Yan watched helplessly as that flash of purple vanished into the darkness. A beastlike roar tore from his throat, and the mysterious yellow earth-core flame erupted beyond his control, burning every spatial fragment around him to ash.
"Aah-!" His Peak Dou Wang Dou Qi broke past its limits at that moment. Faint purple-gold patterns appeared within the golden-green flames, a sign that he was about to touch the Dou Huang Realm. Seizing that momentary power, Xiao Yan aimed his heavy sword straight at the vortex's core, trying to tear open a passage. But just as the sword tip was about to touch the vortex, the entire wormhole suddenly shook violently, and countless spatial fragments rained down like a meteor shower.
A meteorite a thousand feet across struck him head-on. His mysterious yellow flame shield shattered on impact, and his body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, slamming into the wormhole's rocky wall. As his consciousness blurred, Xiao Yan thought he saw a purple light flare in the direction of the rift Xiao Yi Xian had fallen into, and a green gleam flash in the darkness where Nalan Yanran had vanished. He himself was dragged by an irresistible force, plunging toward a deeper golden vortex...
After an unknown length of time, Xiao Yan awoke amid scorching sand. The mysterious yellow earth-core flame had automatically dwindled to a small tongue of fire, flickering weakly in his palm. Struggling to sit up, he found himself in a boundless desert. The sky was an uncanny crimson, and enormous skeletal remains were faintly visible atop the distant dunes.
"Xiao Yi Xian... Nalan..." he called hoarsely, his voice fading across the empty desert. The communication Jade Slip in his Storage Ring had long since shattered, leaving him unable to contact his companions. Xiao Yan examined his condition and discovered that more than half his Peak Dou Wang Dou Qi had been depleted. Fragments of the Spatial Storm remained in his meridians, sending stabbing pain through him whenever he circulated his energy.
"Where in the Central Plains is this?" He took the star map the Han Family had given him from his Storage Ring, only to discover that the Jade Slip had already been ruined in the storm. Just as his anxiety reached its peak, a sudden rush of movement sounded in the distance. Three sand scorpions, each thirty feet long, were crawling rapidly toward him. Their tails gleamed an eerie blue, clearly carrying deadly venom.
Xiao Yan tightened his grip on his heavy sword, and the mysterious yellow flame ignited once more. "A good chance to test my strength now." Rather than strike first, he waited until the sand scorpions were within a hundred feet, then suddenly sidestepped a venomous tail stinger and swept his heavy sword across. Golden-green flames instantly burned the leading sand scorpion to charcoal. The other two lunged at him with shrieks when they saw it, only to be slain with ease.
"Just ordinary sixth-rank magical beasts." Xiao Yan frowned. These three sand scorpions were weaker even than the mutated wolf packs in the Black-Corner Region. "Looks like this isn't the heart of the Central Plains." He was about to retrieve the sand scorpions' magic cores when he noticed their charred corpses rapidly weathering away, until they became nothing more than handfuls of yellow sand.
"What a strange place." Xiao Yan warily surveyed his surroundings. Beneath the crimson sky, the dunes moved slowly, as though the entire desert were alive. He drew a deep breath and drove the mysterious yellow flame to its utmost, spreading his Peak Dou Wang aura as he tried to sense whether any other signs of life were nearby.
Meanwhile, in the Misty Swamp of the eastern Central Plains, Xiao Yi Xian leaned against a towering ancient tree, gasping for breath. Her purple dress was covered in mud, and seventy percent of her Dou Zong Dou Qi had recovered, but the wound on her right arm still seeped blood. A spatial rift had cut her there, and the skin around the wound had turned an eerie gray-black.
"Xiao Yan should be all right." Xiao Yi Xian bit through an Antidote Pill and smeared its medicinal liquid over the wound. "His heavenly flames can purify spatial energy. No matter how dangerous the place he was swept into, he'll be able to hold on." She took the remaining half of a star map from her Storage Ring. It marked an ancient altar deep within the swamp. "First, I'll find somewhere to stay. Then I'll figure out how to contact them."
A sudden disturbance arose in the swamp. Countless green vines burst from beneath the water and reached toward Xiao Yi Xian. Her gaze sharpened, and green mist surged at her fingertips. "You things have a death wish." Her poisonous Dou Qi spread outward, and the vines withered the instant they touched the mist. A muffled roar came from beneath the water, clearly a warning from some high-rank magical beast.
Xiao Yi Xian did not linger to fight. Unleashing her Dou Zong aura, she became a streak of purple light and sped deeper into the swamp. She knew that on this unfamiliar continent, only by quickly finding an established faction's outpost could she learn Nalan Yanran's whereabouts and have a chance to reunite with Xiao Yan.
On the Frozen Plateau in the northern Central Plains, Nalan Yanran huddled inside an ice cave, trembling. Her wind Dou Qi circulated sluggishly in the extreme cold, leaving her able to wield only eighty percent of her Dou Wang strength. Wolf-like howls sounded outside the cave, where three ice wolves, each fifty feet long, prowled without leaving. Their fur glittered like ice crystals. They were clearly seventh-rank magical beasts adapted to the plateau's environment.
"Brother Xiao Yan... Sister Xiao Yi Xian..." Nalan Yanran clutched the Wind Spirit Sword, tears welling in her eyes. She had never felt so alone. In the Black-Corner Region, Xiao Yan and Xiao Yi Xian had always protected her, but now she had to face savage magical beasts and unfamiliar surroundings by herself.
The ice wolves suddenly attacked, one ramming the cave entrance. Nalan Yanran drew a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. "I can't give up. I'm the young sect master of the Misty Cloud Sect and an ally of Xiao Gate!" She leaped out of the ice cave, and the Wind Spirit Sword traced three streaks of green light, stabbing precisely toward the ice wolves' eyes.
The battle lasted an hour. In the end, Nalan Yanran killed all three ice wolves through her agile footwork, though she suffered minor injuries herself. She slumped onto the snow and gazed at the distant, unbroken range of snowy mountains. Suddenly, she spotted a faint light flickering on a summit-the outline of some kind of building.
"There's hope." Nalan Yanran tightened her grip on her sword hilt and dragged her exhausted body up toward the summit. She did not know whether opportunity or danger awaited her there. She only knew that she had to survive, and that she had to find her companions.
The sun sank in the west, spilling crimson sunlight across the desert. At last, Xiao Yan discovered signs of human activity in a valley-a trail of fresh footprints. Judging by their size, they likely belonged to an adult man. His spirits lifted. The mysterious yellow flame ignited in his palm, and he followed the footprints.
"Whoever you are, I hope you can tell me where this is." Xiao Yan's gaze was firm, and his Peak Dou Wang aura carried an unquestionable resolve. He knew the road to finding his companions was still long, and the challenges would only grow more daunting. But as long as the mysterious yellow earth-core flame still burned, he would never give up.
The winds and clouds of the Central Plains Continent quietly began to stir with the arrival of these three experts from the Jia Ma Empire. The shadow of the Otherworldly Demons had already fallen over the continent, waiting for them to step into traps laid long before. Their separation was only temporary. When the three met again, the balance of power in the Central Plains might be utterly transformed because of them.
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