What was just like it was in the beginning?

Uh... Come to think of it, it really was. Partners in cultivation. That year, we truly were partners in cultivation...

No, the meaning is different!

Heroine Yan clasped the Green Frost Sword, squinting her eyes, "So many years in the Eight Desolate Illusion Realm... I never knew there was such a formidable young woman here..."

"I am Yan Qingwu. Miss, what is your name?"

To be capable of deterring countless Foreign Clan Kings with a single slash. Such strength. Her abilities are unknown to the outside world. But in this place, she is no less formidable than I, an Ascension Cultivator. To possess such strength...

"Eight Desolate Illusion Realm?" Ying questioned. "This is the Dark Land... Uh... my name is Ying."

"Ying?" Heroine Yan was taken aback. In the Nine Provinces, with its many races, a single-character name like this is indeed rare. Is it more like a codename? Can it also be considered a name? Unfamiliar. So utterly unfamiliar.

With a thousand years of experience, Heroine Yan was certain this person... was not a Cultivator from the Nine Provinces.

"Yes..." the voice murmured a few times. "It sounds very nice. Dongfang Mu gave it to me."

"Don't you think it sounds nice?"

The pure voice seemed to hold no other meaning.

"..." Heroine Yan.

"..." Wang Mu.

Heroine Yan tightly gripped the Green Frost Sword. He's even given her a name.

"Nice sounding." Heroine Yan looked at Wang Mu. "Very, nice, sounding."

"You think so too?" the voice laughed.

Wang Mu glanced into the distance, reminding, "That seal..."

"What seal?" Heroine Yan said indifferently.

The seal of the Eight Desolate Illusion Realm, of course! Wang Mu thought. Even though Ying has appeared, with so many members of the Dark Alien Race, can she really hold them all off by herself? If they escape, there will definitely be trouble. I can't give Piao Miaoxu even the slightest opportunity.

"Let it break then," Heroine Yan said coldly, looking into the distance. "Miss Ying, since you're acquainted with him, could you tell me about your past with him?"

Wang Mu's pupils shrank. How can she speak of that?

Wang Mu's body jolted. Suddenly, the Evil Qi that had entered his body, as if catalyzed, boiled and surged straight into his Sea of Consciousness' Primordial Spirit.

That Primordial Spirit, originally as brilliant as glaze, was instantly dyed black by the surging Evil Qi, as if thrown into an ink pool.

A wave of dizziness washed over him, and Wang Mu fainted...

Faintly, Wang Mu heard two calls: 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Dongfang Mu..."

"You... what's wrong with you?"

In his last moment of consciousness, Wang Mu thought, Good!

「Outside.」

Piao Miaoxu, as a wisp of a Residual Soul, had escaped and now stood in the void, gazing back at the Eight Desolate Netherworld.

"Holy Master..."

Beside her, Demon Venerate Shuo Wuji spoke softly, "You... failed?"

According to the plan, after a corner of the seal was shattered using the flesh and blood of Demon Path disciples, he, Shuo Wuji, leading the remaining elite Demon Path disciples, was to rendezvous outside that breached corner and await Piaomiao Saint's emergence. Then, they would sweep across the Nine States. The plan had been perfect. However... it seemed something, somewhere, had gone wrong.

When the Holy Master had entered, her aura was unparalleled, truly possessing the kind of dominance she had when leading the Piaomiao Palace to sweep across the world a millennium ago. For a moment, Shuo Wuji had thought the Palace Master would genuinely succeed this time.

Although that absurdly powerful Dongfang Mu had ruined things back then... this time, with Dongfang Mu's Realm so low, surely he couldn't stop the Palace Master, right?

"Failed?" Upon hearing this, Piao Miaoxu, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, spoke with a piercing voice, "Me, fail? How could I possibly lose to that damn Dongfang Mu, that damn bastard?"

"No, never!"

Shuo Wuji was stunned, then fell silent. Holy Master, I didn't even say you lost to Dongfang Mu. Wait a minute... Could it be Dongfang Mu again?

"That damn bastard..."

"A scumbag who only relies on women..."

Piao Miaoxu sneered endlessly. "Without those women, he is nothing..."

Shuo Wuji remained silent.

That might be true, he thought, but now, those female confidantes of his are all top-tier Ascension Experts in the Nine Provinces. They're just one step away from true Ascension... Holy Master, you weren't his match back then. Now, I'm afraid you can't even defeat any of his women... And in this Eight Desolate Netherworld, could there possibly be yet another of his female confidantes?

Thinking this, Shuo Wuji's scalp tingled slightly.

If that's truly the case... then across all the Nine Provinces, there would likely be no place left for the Holy Master to survive.

"But Holy Master..." Shuo Wuji whispered, "Yan Sword Immortal of the Sword Sect, the Supreme Master of Fengyue Sect, Immortal Bi You of Sealing God Mountain, the Dan Saint Ancestor of Dan King Sect... then there's the one still in this Eight Desolate Netherworld... plus some others who remain hidden..."

"Under these heavens, how can you oppose him?"

Piao Miaoxu swept Shuo Wuji a cold look.

"Do you know why I retreated without fighting back then?" Shuo Wuji said helplessly. "It's because I knew that in that battle, Palace Master, you had no chance of winning. Besides those female confidantes he brought with him... he had countless other female confidantes behind him who had yet to appear...

"So, I knew you were doomed to fail...

"I chose not to fight to leave the Piaomiao Palace and preserve some of our strength...

"After the cataclysmic changes in heaven and earth, Dongfang Mu mysteriously disappeared. I thought then that the Piaomiao Palace might have a chance to re-emerge. So, I cultivated the Demon Skill, planning to revive your ambitions from back then... However, not long after I began my cultivation, I heard that his female confidantes, one by one, had become the supreme Ascension Experts of the Nine Provinces...

"What could I do?

"I could only fake my death to escape... Otherwise, I would never have been able to see you today...

"Even if he has disappeared... I am still no match for him..."