The bone fan wrapped in black spiritual energy clashed with the giant sword wrapped in blazing red energy.

The collision instantly triggered a violent spiritual storm that swept outward in all directions.

Fortunately, the medicinal garden and the stone chambers were located to the south and north of the miniature Fate Turning Pagoda and far from the center of the battle.

Even so, everyone was battered by the raging spiritual storm, stumbling and struggling to remain standing.

Because Xiao Shou had taken the Ripple Transformation Pill and turned into an air-like state, he was affected the most.

His gaseous form was violently blown upward by the storm, and in the blink of an eye, he was carried to the uppermost reaches of the underground space created by the fallen pagoda.

From this new vantage point, everything happening within the damaged Fate Turning Pagoda came into clear view.

Jian Li and Zhong Kui exchanged more than a dozen blows in an instant.

The resulting spiritual storms caused the entire place to tremble on the verge of collapse.

Near the stone chambers, the cultivators clung tightly to anything sturdy to avoid being swept away.

The five children were being protected by the severely injured middle-aged man within a defensive formation, but the barrier was already on the verge of shattering.

At the same time, the formations in the east and west continued shrinking until they condensed into two mysterious patterns, one black and one white, which shot into two different people.

The white pattern that was radiating a sacred aura entered the body of a girl in blue.

Her appearance was familiar.

It was Xiao Ran whom he had not seen for more than six years.

The black pattern that was filled with sinister energy entered the body of a middle-aged man in white.

From his appearance, Xiao Shou recognized him as the one he had seen on the surveillance screen, the person who had been challenging the miniature Fate Turning Pagoda and whom he had suspected to be the one capturing the children and activating the Fate Devouring Array.

It seemed he truly had an affinity with that array.

The Fate Devouring Array had actually entered his body.

And the other formation?

The Fate Bestowing Array?

Recalling the words of the Heaven Seeker Peak disciples of the Celestial Truth Sect, Xiao Shou froze.

The one destined by heaven?

So they had been referring to Xiao Ran?

The Fate Turning Pagoda and the Fate Bestowing Array...

He felt a surge of frustration.

How had he never realized the connection between the two?

He had missed such an opportunity for nothing.

Perhaps within the entire tower, the Fate Bestowing Array was the most important thing.

But what about the Fate Devouring Array?

Aside from their differing attributes and auras, its scale was clearly equal to that of the Fate Bestowing Array.

Before he could resolve his earlier questions, new doubts arose.

Coupled with the regret of missing such an opportunity, Xiao Shou felt a mix of emotions that he could hardly put into words.

As he was still immersed in that bitterness, the black and white patterns fully merged into their respective hosts.

The light then faded and the formations vanished completely.

At that very moment, a deafening roar echoed like the heavens collapsing and the earth splitting apart.

The Fate Turning Pagoda’s main body began to tear apart piece by piece.

Countless pitch-black cracks appeared in every direction, above, below, front, back, left, and right.

From those cracks surged an overwhelming suction force, pulling in everything, including all the people and the fragments of the pagoda itself.

In the end, everything was swallowed into the void.

If anyone had been watching from above, they would have seen that a small mountain near Endless Grief Mountain suddenly collapsed for no reason, sinking into the ground and forming an enormous pitch-black crater.

Aside from a few startled birds flying out, there was no other movement.

A short while later, several hundred miles away, a young man in black robes, with blood-colored star patterns embroidered along the hem, stood among more than a dozen corpses.

He calmly took out a handkerchief and gently wiped the blood from his fingers.

From the arrangement of the bodies, it was clear that in life, there had been a slightly overweight master equipped with damaged magical treasures, surrounded by guards and servants.

Now, all of them were dead.

After cleaning his fingers, the black-robed young man tossed aside the bloodstained handkerchief.

With practiced ease, he casually cast a fireball into the pile of corpses, destroying all evidence as if it were routine.

At that moment, a pitch-black crack suddenly tore open in the sky.

It spat out a middle-aged man dressed in white before vanishing without a trace.

The black-robed young man who had maintained a blank expression suddenly broke into a bright smile as he looked at the struggling white-robed man climbing to his feet.

"You saw it, didn’t you? Looks like today I have to make a loss-making deal."

Flashes of combat light erupted.

A moment later, the black-robed young man stood with one foot on the corpse of the white-robed man.

He stroked his left arm thoughtfully and muttered to himself, "The Fate Devouring Array... interesting. This is far more entertaining than being an assassin. With this, my wish no longer seems so distant and unattainable."

Far away, within a vast stone forest, stone beasts gnawed on rocks.

Suddenly, a black crack tore open in the sky.

A blue-clad girl, Xiao Ran, along with the two brothers from Heaven Seeker Peak of the Celestial Truth Sect were thrown out.

The crack closed instantly.

The three figures fell to the ground and struggled to sit up.

The previously calm stone beasts immediately surrounded them and opening their massive jaws lined with huge fangs.

Even the smallest of these creatures stood at least five meters tall, their enormous bodies exuding a terrifying and aggressive presence.

The two similar-looking young men exchanged no words.