She flew for a day and a night. Along the way, she passed through several towns and villages, and saw some scattered black marks on the ground, but none of them were serious. It seemed that after the boundary wall around the Ziwei Sect was repaired, the infiltration of Demonic Qi had basically stopped. She was slightly relieved and quickened her pace to continue her journey.
At dusk the following day, she landed on the mountainside of a desolate mountain. The pulse of the earth's veins became exceptionally clear here, as if something was deep within the mountain beneath her feet. She probed the ground with her Spiritual Power, slowly exploring downwards along the chaotic pulse. The deeper she went, the stronger the pulse became, carrying an obscure yet immense sense of oppression. She cautiously continued to delve deeper, and finally, at a depth of several hundred feet, she touched something hard.
It was a palm-sized stone, completely black, with a faint gray sheen on its surface. Inside the stone, Power of Chaos surged and churned like a pot of boiling water, emanating a chilling aura.
This is the Source of Chaos.
Snow Empress opened her eyes and let out a long breath. She had found it. It went more smoothly than she had expected; she had locked onto her target in just two days. The next step was to remove the stone from the ground and then destroy it completely. But she knew things wouldn't be that simple. The power of the Source of Chaos was so concentrated that it was impossible for it to go unnoticed.
Sure enough, as she stood up from the mountainside, a black shadow appeared on the distant horizon. The shadow moved with incredible speed, closing in by hundreds of feet in the blink of an eye. A long black robe fluttered in the wind, and an enigmatic smile graced his handsome, pale face.
The Demon Venerable has arrived.
Snow Empress gripped the hilt of her sword. Her face was still pale, and her arms were trembling slightly; the blood she had lost repairing the barrier had not yet recovered. She now had only about 60% of her strength left, and her chances of defeating the Demon Venerable were very low.
The Demon Venerable landed atop the desolate mountain, looking down at her. His gaze shifted from the Snow Empress's face to the mountain beneath her feet, and his smile deepened.
"You found it after all," the Demon Venerable said. "I sensed the pulse of the Source of Chaos gathering in this direction, and I knew you would come. You were even faster than I expected."
The Snow Empress drew her longsword, its tip pointing at the Demon Venerable: "You want to seize the Source of Chaos?"
The Demon Venerable shook his head. "No. I didn't come here today to fight you. After the Chaos Pearl incident, I've come to understand some things. Power is important, but if I'm consumed by power, I won't be myself anymore. I've come to you to discuss a deal."
"Trade?"
The Demon Venerable took out a yellowed scroll of silk from his robes and unfolded it, revealing a complex map. He said, " The Source of Chaos lies deep underground. After you retrieve it, you need to seal it. But in your current physical condition, sealing it alone will take at least three days. During these three days, you will have no strength left to fight off external enemies. And I know that besides me, there are others coveting the Source of Chaos. Even within the Heavenly Dao Alliance, not everyone is of one mind with you. Believe it or not, news of your attempt to retrieve the Source of Chaos has already spread, and it won't be long before uninvited guests come knocking."
Snow Empress stared at him. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
The Demon Venerable rolled up the silk scroll and tucked it into his robes. "I want to say that I can protect you. For the next three days, I will shield you from anyone who tries to seize the Source of Chaos. In exchange, I will give you half of the Source of Chaos —no, I'll give you seven and you three. I need that thirty percent of the Power of Chaos to recover the essence I lost when I broke the seal, and after you get the other seventy percent, you can use most of it to seal it again, and keep the rest for yourself to replenish your own resources. You won't lose out."
The Snow Empress fell silent. She looked into the Demon Venerable's eyes, trying to find a trace of deception on his face. But the Demon Venerable's expression was calm, and there was indeed no trace of the madness in his dark eyes from last time.
"How can I trust you?" Snow Empress asked.
The Demon Venerable chuckled softly, "You may not believe me. But I can tell you one thing: if you try to obtain the Source of Chaos alone, your success rate is no more than 30%. But if I'm outside blocking those with ulterior motives, the success rate is at least 70%. Which do you choose?"
Snow Empress gripped her sword tightly, then released it. She closed her eyes and thought for a long time, and when she opened them again, her eyes held a resolute expression.
"Alright. I promise you. But if you make any move, my sword will show no mercy."
The Demon Venerable nodded, turned around, and stood with his back to her at the edge of the mountaintop, like a silent black statue.
Snow Empress took a deep breath, walked to a crack halfway up the mountain, placed her hands on the ground, and began to channel her Spiritual Power into the ground, carefully breaking through the soil and rock layers to pull the Source of Chaos upwards.
The mountain wind howled past, and the sky gradually darkened. On the distant horizon, several faint points of light were rapidly approaching. The Demon Venerable tilted his head slightly, a smile playing on his lips, and with a flash, he met the points of light head-on.
On the mountainside, halfway up the desolate mountain, the Snow Empress knelt in the soil, her hands pressed against the ground. Her Spiritual Power, like threads, seeped deep into the earth, carefully peeling the black stone from hundreds of feet below. The unhealed wound on her wrist reopened, golden blood meandering down her pale forearm, seeping into the cracked soil and instantly evaporating into wisps of barely visible golden mist. This mist didn't dissipate; instead, it swirled and condensed spontaneously into fine runes, then sank back into the ground, reinforcing the pathways of her Spiritual Power.
Her forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, and her lips were pressed into a bloodless line. The vital essence she had consumed while repairing the boundary wall of the Ziwei Sect was far from recovered, and now she was forcibly pushing her remaining Spiritual Power hundreds of feet underground, as if she were digging an irrigation canal in a dry riverbed. Every wisp of Spiritual Power she transmitted affected her meridians, and the tiny blood vessels bulged out beneath the panel, their blue and gold hues intertwined, like a spider web covering her entire forearm.
But she couldn't stop. From the moment the Source of Chaos was disturbed, it surged violently deep underground like a Ferocious Beast awakened from its slumber. The Power of Chaos, like molten iron, crashed against the Spiritual Power channels she had constructed. If she let go at this moment, the Spiritual Power channels would collapse, the Source of Chaos would sink even deeper, and it would be difficult to find it again. Moreover, the Power of Chaos would trigger a violent earthquake, causing mountains and rivers within a hundred miles to collapse.
"Stay calm," Snow Empress whispered to herself. Her voice was hoarse, as if squeezed from the depths of her throat. She took a deep breath, readjusted the rhythm of her Spiritual Power output, and no longer tried to pull the Source of Chaos up with brute force. Instead, she guided it along the direction of the earth's veins, like drawing water from a deep well, pulling it upwards in circles.
The sky darkened inch by inch above her head. The orange-red sunset that was once visible on the horizon was now swallowed up by the deep purple twilight.