At the same moment, in the vast void, Chi Boqian, along with Chi Ninghua, Chi Zhihan, and Chi Zhiwei, continuously traversed the gaps between layers of space, returning to the main city of the Chi Lineage.
As he sped along, Chi Boqian slowly raised his hand, and a Soul Sound Talisman condensed from his palm. His expression was calm as he slowly sent out a wisp of his will.
"The big fish have been eliminated; the remaining small fish will be dealt with on the spot." As soon as he finished speaking, the Soul Sound Talisman transformed into an invisible stream of light, piercing through countless layers of void and rapidly heading towards the Chi Lineage.
Inside the main hall of the Chi Lineage, where Chi Tongyue was in charge, Chi Tongyue calmly raised her palm as she handled various clan affairs. The Soul Sound Talisman steadily landed in her hand. After listening to the message from Chi Boqian, she slowly closed her eyes.
After a few breaths, he opened his eyes again, his gaze now devoid of any emotion. "The big fish has been captured, so it's time for this little fish to be caught." As soon as he finished speaking, his figure blurred, leaving only a faint afterimage as he vanished without a trace.
Before long, in a secluded courtyard of the Chi Lineage, green bamboo swayed in the wind, and the aroma of spirit tea wafted from the stone table.
Chi Junyi sat to the side, relaxed and at ease. In his mind, as long as Chi Qianyuan successfully intercepted and killed Chi Zhihan brother, all clues would be cut off, and he could hide forever without ever being exposed.
At that moment, ripples appeared in the space above the courtyard, and a tall, slender figure slowly descended to the mortal realm—it was Chi Tongyue.
As soon as Chi Junyi looked up, he quickly stood up, a respectful smile plastered on his face, and swiftly clasped his hands in a salute. "Disciple Chi Junyi greets Elder Tongyue. May I ask what brings you to my humble abode, Elder?"
Chi Tongyue approached slowly, her face solemn, without a trace of a smile. Her sharp gaze fell heavily on Chi Junyi, as if she could see through all the secrets hidden in the depths of his heart.
The entire courtyard fell into a deathly silence. After a long while, Chi Tongyue slowly spoke, her tone calm yet carrying an invisible weight. "The task I personally assigned you that day, did you complete it?"
With just a few words, Chi Junyi's forehead instantly broke out in a fine layer of cold sweat, and his heart pounded wildly. But he still forced down his fear and stammered out a sentence.
"Brother... I suddenly fell ill on the way, and had no choice but to entrust the task to another steward to complete." As soon as he finished speaking, he knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly.
"This disciple knows his sins! Please forgive me, Elder Tongyue! It was only because my body suddenly developed an abnormality that I had no choice but to resort to this desperate measure." Chi Tongyue looked down at him quietly, without uttering a single word of response.
The next instant, a vast aura slowly spread out from her body, and the majestic power of the Void Emanation Realm pressed down like an ancient divine Divine Mountain, making the entire courtyard so heavy that it was hard to breathe.
Chi Junyi's body suddenly sank, his knees sinking deep into the rock and soil. Chi Tongyue's eyes were filled with icy coldness, her voice devoid of any emotion. "Still dare to utter lies? The person you rely on is already dead and gone, utterly Annihilation. Chi Junyi, how long are you going to continue this pretense?"
Boom! These words exploded in Chi Junyi's mind like a thunderclap. His body froze, his eyes widened suddenly, and his pupils contracted violently. "Impossible!..." Thoughts churned wildly in his mind: Damn it! The Second Elder is dead! This woman may have already known everything I did!
The psychological defenses that had been held up for so long completely collapsed at this moment. Chi Tongyue coldly stared at him. "What, are you already scared out of your wits?" Chi Junyi's body trembled uncontrollably, and then he frantically kowtowed, his voice trembling with sobs.
"Elder, spare me! This was not my intention! I was forced! It was all Chi Qianyuan who coerced me! If I didn't comply, he threatened to slaughter my entire family! And Ju Zhongying of the Ju Lineage, it was he who colluded with Chi Qianyuan to force me to secretly pass on clan intelligence for years!"
Upon hearing this name, Chi Tongyue's eyes narrowed sharply, and she repeated in a low voice, "Ju Zhongying..." A figure immediately appeared in her mind—an elder of the Ju Lineage's Divine Cultivation Art Hall, who was in charge of a vast number of ancient books and held a high position of power in the Ju Lineage.
A chill ran through her. "So this is the traitor hidden within the Ju Lineage." Just as Chi Tongyue paused for a moment, a mad glint flashed in the eyes of Chi Junyi, who was bowing his head to the ground.
An opportunity! Her mind relaxed slightly! If she could escape, there was still a glimmer of hope! Boom!
He abruptly looked up, his killing intent surging. The dark dagger hidden in his sleeve slid into his palm, and using the momentum of his kneeling, he suddenly shot out with lightning speed, the dark killing light aimed straight at Chi Tongyue's brow! "Die!!" This strike was ruthless and decisive, leaving no room for retreat.
Just as the short blade was less than three feet from Chi Tongyue, she slowly raised her eyes, her gaze icy and devoid of any emotion. "A mere hypocrite dares to recklessly draw his weapon."
She merely raised a slender, jade-like finger and gently pointed it forward. "--The Stillness Void Life-Severing Finger." Buzz!
A wisp of silver-white spatial Dao pattern quietly bloomed at the fingertip. There was no earth-shattering roar, no surging turbulent energy, only a spatial light trace as thin as a hair, quietly sweeping across the void.
The next moment, time seemed to stand still, and Chi Junyi's forward-moving body suddenly froze.
He looked down in disbelief at his chest, where a hole the size of a thumb had appeared out of nowhere. There was no blood or torn flesh at the edges of the wound, as if that space, along with his life force, origin, Fate Soul, had been completely erased.
"No..." The last glimmer of hope in Chi Junyi's eyes was completely extinguished.
With a soft boom, his body began to turn to ashes inch by inch from the hollow. His Fate Soul, foundation, divine consciousness, origin—all existence was annihilated under this one finger, leaving not even a trace of reincarnation.
Qingfeng swept through the courtyard, scattering scattered ashes. All was quiet once more. Chi Tongyue slowly withdrew her jade-like fingers, her expression still serene. She raised her head and gazed in the distant direction where the Ju Lineage resided, murmuring softly, "Ju Zhongying... Next, it's your turn."
The Heavenly Desert Ancient Forest stretches across the northwestern edge of the Annihilation Continent.
Towering ancient trees pierced the sky, their trunks as black as iron tempered for millions of years. Their dense branches and leaves obscured the heavens, shrouding the entire forest in a deep gloom. Thick primordial mist drifted through the forest, and the ground was covered with dried beast blood and countless broken bones. A faint, lingering scent of blood permeated the air.
Two streaks of light slowly descended from the sky into the woods; they were Qin Yu and Chi Xiyue, who had changed their appearances.
Both of them concealed their true strength. Chi Xiyue firmly sealed her Void Emanation Realm origin, suppressing her cultivation to the Eternal Silence Realm Initial Stage; Qin Yu also concealed his Fate Soul fluctuations to an unremarkable degree. With the forged scroll on their shoulders, they looked like two ordinary cultivators from the Chi Lineage on a long journey.
As soon as he stepped into the ancient forest, Qin Yu stopped abruptly, his gaze slowly sweeping across the surrounding dense woods.
This place is too quiet, so quiet that you can't hear the chirping of insects or the singing of birds. The only sound is the rustling of the cold mountain wind through the branches.
Chi Xiyue frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "Something's not right here. Within this hundred-mile territory, we can't detect the aura of any ordinary demonic beasts."
Qin Yu nodded slightly. "Such a vast ancient forest couldn't possibly be so desolate. Unless... all the creatures in the forest instinctively fear a certain being."
Before the words had even faded, a deafening roar suddenly erupted from the depths of the ancient forest!
The roar was like billions of thunderbolts booming in unison, with layers of sound waves sweeping across the land. The entire ancient forest trembled violently, countless towering ancient trees shook wildly, and withered leaves fell like a torrential rain.
Immediately following, a vast and boundless source of all beasts shot straight into the sky, its aura domineering, violent, and filled with endless ferocity. Even a mere wisp of its oppressive power caused the mountains near and far to tremble slightly.
Deep in the ancient forest, flocks of birds took flight in panic, and ferocious beasts let out terrified cries, fleeing in disarray toward the edge of the forest. This roar was like the lord of all beasts announcing the arrival of his own territory.
Chi Xiyue's gaze sharpened. "The Myriad Beasts Origin Dao Lord." Qin Yu looked towards the depths from which the roar came, his eyes gradually sharpening. "Let's go and take a look."
Without further hesitation, the two rippled slightly beneath their feet, transforming into two faint shadows as they sped rapidly into the depths of the ancient forest.
Before they had covered a hundred miles, deafening collisions echoed across the land ahead—boom! boom! boom!
Mountains collapsed one after another, the earth was torn apart into crisscrossing abysses, and flames shot straight into the sky. Qin Yu and Chi Xiyue found a shadowy spot on a mountaintop to hide themselves and looked towards the center of the battlefield. Even though the two were very knowledgeable, their eyes narrowed slightly.
A colossal beast stood between heaven and earth, its body hundreds of feet tall, resembling a moving lava Divine Mountain.
Its entire body is covered with thick, ferocious black rock armor. Each scale has been forged in endless lava, making it rough, hard, and covered with barbs. Between the cracks in the rock armor, rolling crimson gold flames slowly flow, as if what surges in its veins is not blood, but the earth's core flames that incinerate all things.
On its broad shoulders and back, three enormous beast heads rose simultaneously, their faces ferocious and terrifying, their white fangs several meters long. Burning molten lava dripped continuously from between their teeth, each drop scorching the earth and creating huge, deep craters.
The three pairs of scarlet beast eyes were like three blazing blood suns; wherever their gaze swept, the air was distorted and wrinkled by the intense heat.
Its thick limbs tread the earth, each step causing landslides and cracks that spread wildly in all directions. Countless sharp bone spurs extend from its spine to its long tail, each burning with flames, like lava spears piercing the heavens and the earth.
Its massive tail, hundreds of feet long, swept wildly, stirring up towering waves of fire. Ancient trees along the way were crushed and burned to ashes. The giant beast roared to the sky once more, and its three heads opened their blood-red maws at the same time.
Boom! Three torrents of crimson-gold flames erupted forth, and wherever the flames passed, the void was scorched and collapsed inward. An overwhelming aura of primordial power permeated the heavens and earth, standing quietly here, like a monarch of all beasts awakened from the primordial lava era.
In front of the behemoth, a figure was fiercely battling it, the deafening sounds of clashing supernatural powers echoing one after another, each clash causing the Heavenly Desert Ancient Forest to tremble continuously.
Qin Yu narrowed his eyes slightly. "Could that person be the Ju Lineage's traitor?"
Chi Xiyue nodded slightly, lowering her voice. "For now, conceal your presence and observe the situation. Let's see who this person is. We don't know if this person is the Ju Lineage's traitor. If he's just a passing cultivator, we can lend a hand. If he's the traitor, we'll just watch from the sidelines."
The two figures disappeared deeper into the shadows of the ancient forest, silently observing the earth-shaking battle that was about to erupt.