It's done.
Lin Fan weighed the dark cyan stone in his hand. It was cold to the touch, hard in texture, and had faint, intricate patterns of laws flowing inside, like a solidified core of an undercurrent.
He nodded in satisfaction and casually remarked, "Not bad, saves me the trouble of going down to retrieve it myself."
He glanced at the aura that was rapidly drifting towards them, then turned and walked towards the opposite bank without lingering.
With each step he took, a faint ripple would spread across the black water beneath his feet. The Chaos Qi separated him from the river, as if he were standing on an invisible layer of thin ice.
Behind her, the woman in the green dress watched the white-clad figure walk further and further away. She opened her mouth, wanting to call out to him, but in the end, she only managed to utter two words: "Wait..."
But Lin Fan had already walked quite far away and didn't look back.
The woman in the green dress stood on the stone slab, watching the figure disappear into the gray mist on the opposite bank of the river. A trace of undisguised bewilderment finally surfaced in her clear, moon-like eyes.
She glanced down at the few remaining black scorch marks on her left wrist, the imprints left by the milky-white flame that had swept past; the edges of the burn marks were extremely smooth.
A question popped into her mind: What kind of fire was that?
A wisp of white flame, not yet extinguished, still lingered on his fingertips. The aura of that flame caused her blood to tremble slightly; this fire could suppress the power of the netherworld.
She had thought that falling into the water would attract some clueless suitors, and she had even prepared how to reject their advances.
But he didn't even spare her a glance. After rescuing her and taking his things, he turned and left, as if she were less important than the stone in his hand.
Jiang Li.
" Jiang Li of the Jiang Clan, may I ask your name, my benefactor?"
She finally uttered her name, her voice soft, which drifted in the night breeze before being swallowed by the river.
There was no response.
This was the first person to disregard her beauty and status.
She was the Holy Maiden of the Jiang Clan, and held a high position among the younger generation in the Emperor Pass. No one had ever ignored her thanks, let alone bothered to mention her name.
She paused for a moment, then raised her hand, looking thoughtfully at the faint burn mark on her wrist.
Celestial Fire.
This person possesses celestial fire.
Moreover, it was an extremely pure celestial fire, powerful enough to suppress the Dark Origin.
In the entire Emperor Pass, only a handful of people possess such a flame. But she had never seen this white-clad figure before.
"Interesting."
Jiang Li said something in a low voice, then looked away, gently pulled the sinking gray stone slab towards the shore, and stepped onto the solid riverbank.
She raised her hand to straighten her sleeves, which were damp with moisture.
She looked up again in the direction Lin Fan had disappeared, memorizing the silhouette of that figure in white.
She turned and walked along the riverbank in another direction. She didn't linger.
Half an hour later, a figure in white emerged from a patch of gray mist on the opposite bank of the river.
The man was dressed in a moon-white robe, with a handsome face and a cold demeanor, like an ancient sword that had been sheathed for many years.
He strode to where Jiang Li had just stood, his gaze sweeping over the remaining traces of the laws on the water's surface and the lingering scorching heat on the shore.
"Li'er, are you alright?"
He spoke, his voice carrying just the right amount of concern.
Jiang Li turned around, glanced at him, and shook her head. "It's nothing."
"I heard a commotion over here, but it had subsided by the time I got here." The young man in white glanced around, his gaze lingering for a moment on the scorch mark on the water that hadn't completely faded. "Did something happen?"
Jiang Li paused for a moment, then shook her head. "It was a small problem, but it's been resolved."
She didn't mention the Nine Netherworlds Devil Stone, nor did she mention the figure in white.
The young man in white didn't press further, simply nodding. "It's good that you're alright. There's still some lingering ghostly aura ahead; let's go around it."
"Um."
Jiang Li responded, but as she turned around, her gaze involuntarily lingered for a moment in the direction where Lin Fan had disappeared.
That brief glance did not escape Gai Jiuyou's perception. But he said nothing, only slightly turning his gaze in that direction, a barely perceptible fluctuation flashing deep in his pupils.
Let's go.
Gai Jiuyou withdrew his gaze, his tone calm.
Jiang Li withdrew her gaze and followed his steps.
The gray mist on the riverbank closed in again, slowly engulfing the two figures. Only the ripples on the black river surface continued to spread slowly, like ashes casually flicked away by someone.
On the other side, Lin Fan had already walked several miles away.
As he walked, he played with the dark blue stone. It was cool to the touch, and there were fine, flowing patterns of dark currents inside, like a solidified core of dark currents.
A system notification softly sounded in his ear: [Ding! The host has seized the Nine Netherworlds Devil Stone, ruining a crucial opportunity for the Son of Fortune Gai Jiuyou, and has gained 800,000 Villain Points!]
[Ding! The host has seized a crucial opportunity on the Other Shore of Death, triggering an event reward: Villain Points x200,000!]
[Ding! The host has triggered the "Divine Prediction" achievement, seizing a crucial opportunity from the Son of Fortune without being detected by the target. Bonus reward: 100,000 Villain Points!]
Lin Fan glanced at the panel and a slight smirk appeared on his lips. "Breaked a million? Not bad."
He weighed the Nine Netherworlds Devil Stone in his hand again, then casually put it into his storage ring, before looking up into the distance.
The outline of the Emperor Pass city wall was getting closer and closer, glowing with a faint dark golden light under the gray sky, like a sleeping behemoth slowly awakening.
The ancient and intricate array patterns on the city wall appeared and disappeared, each one flowing slowly, like a star map that had been rekindled, silently waiting for some passerby.
"That guy named Gai Jiuyou from earlier..."
He muttered to himself, recalling the rapidly approaching presence he had sensed along the riverbank, "We'll run into it again sooner or later when we reach the Emperor Pass. We can take our time then; there's no rush."
He glanced again at the newly appeared notification on the system panel: [The host is currently the first Quasi-Emperor- level cultivator to cross the Other Shore of Death and enter the core area of Emperor Pass, triggering hidden conditions... The first-stage reward is being evaluated.]
"A first-level reward?" Lin Fan raised an eyebrow. "This thing even has a KPI?"
He quickened his pace, heading towards the Emperor Pass city gate. A gust of wind rose, his white robes fluttered, and his figure disappeared into the depths of the gray mist.
Behind them, the surface of the water on the Other Shore of Death had completely returned to calm, like a black mirror that had been flattened again.
The first glance at that figure in white has been etched in the memories of more than one person.
The dark golden city walls resembled a lurking beast in the twilight, and the array patterns above the city gates were slowly flowing, exuding a heavy, oppressive feeling.
Lin Fan stood outside the city gate, looking up at the two powerful characters above the gate. " Emperor Pass!!"
The handwriting is ancient, the strokes sharp as a knife, as if carved by someone with their fingertips, each stroke carrying a kind of majesty accumulated over time.