The crushing defeat at Soulfall Valley was like a basin of ice water poured over the heart of every Mulan cultivator. Granny Witchbone lay grievously wounded and near death, two Nascent Soul Middle Stage Guest Elders from the Yin Luo Sect had fallen, and even the Holy Temple's final reserve-the projection of the "Witch God"-had been smashed to pieces by the terrifying Griffin that had appeared from who knew where.
When the news arrived, the Holy Temple, already gripped by panic over the Heavenly Azure Divine Master's death, sank into the deathly silence of utter despair. Countless tribal shamans and warriors gazed at the increasingly dim phantom of the Heavenly Azure Totem. The old fanaticism had vanished from their eyes, leaving only bewilderment and fear for the future.
"The Divine Master has fallen, Granny is gravely wounded, and even the honored guests from the Yin Luo Sect... Is the Holy Temple truly doomed?" An old shaman at the Core Formation Late Stage knelt before the altar, tears streaming down his aged face.
"No! Our Mulan Sacred Temple has endured through the ages. It will never perish!" A hoarse yet resolute voice rang out. It belonged to the chief of the Sky Wolf Tribe, an old man at the Nascent Soul Early Stage. His eyes bloodshot, he sprang to his feet and roared at the altar, "We still have the Saintess! She is in seclusion in the Heavenly Azure Eye! She inherited everything the Divine Master passed down, and she is the only Mulan Saintess in ten thousand years to have communed with the Sky Wolf Ancestral Spirit! Once she emerges, she will surely slay Han Li and restore the Holy Temple!"
"The Saintess..."
The name seemed to possess a magic of its own, rekindling a faint flame of hope around