The Nine-tailed Fox rolled her eyes at the trickster, but still couldn’t help lowering her altitude. While staying vigilant against Xu Qi An’s potential attacks, she asked, “What did you step on?”

Without answering, Xu Qi An plunged into the magma, feeling around for a moment before retrieving something from its depths.

The silver-haired enchantress gracefully descended, hovering above the magma. Peering down, she saw Xu Qi An holding a fire-red bone the size of a copper basin in his palm, its surface covered in irregular flame-like patterns.

“This appears to be a vertebra from some large creature—specifically, one of its vertebrae,” Xu Qi An examined the basin-sized bone in his hands, analyzing it. “Its owner must have been over fifty feet tall, though that would make it rather short among the God-Demons. Could this be where this particular God-Demon met its end?”

Based on his experience, this vertebra should be the core of that God-Demon, storing its innate spiritual essence.

“With the bone here, this magma-covered area is likely where this God-Demon fell. This island is one of the ancient God-Demon battlefields, so naturally, this would be where it perished. Did you expect some kind-hearted God-Demon would give it a proper burial?” The Nine-tailed Fox felt his questions were pointless.

“But I still can’t understand why God-Demons undergo such dramatic transformations after death. Some become islands, others turn their surroundings into seas of fire… If you’re telling me their combat power rivaled Supreme-rank cultivators, I don’t believe it. They weren’t even my equal, yet if I were to perish, I’d leave nothing but an indestructible corpse.”

Xu Qi An looked at her, hoping for an answer.

The silver-haired enchantress’s beautiful eyes glanced upward in contemplation before she shook her head. “No one can answer that question. God-Demons are unique beings—just consider it an innate ability of theirs.”

After Xu Qi An nodded, she continued, “Keep the bone. It’s an extremely rare material. Give it to an artificer, and they might forge it into a divine weapon of unparalleled power.” Bones imprinted with God-Demon’s spiritual essence were nearly impossible to find elsewhere.

Xu Qi An didn’t hesitate to take it.

After passing through this flame-wreathed zone, they encountered several more areas where God-Demons had fallen: a region of lightning as devastating as heavenly tribulation; a swamp where stone golems wandered; an area that rapidly drained moisture until they both nearly became mummies when emerging.

The Nine-tailed Fox’s beast-hide chest wrap had grown loose.

Fortunately, these situations were manageable crises that posed no fatal threat to either of them.

This ancient God-Demon relic site was vast. Xu Qi An estimated they had traveled at least fifty kilometers but still hadn’t crossed the God-Demon Island.

After breaking through another zone left by a fallen God-Demon, they encountered a black wasteland ahead—no vegetation, just desolate emptiness.

The Nine-tailed Fox and Xu Qi An exchanged glances. Places without obvious dangers were often the most perilous. When you couldn’t see the threat, you couldn’t defend against it specifically.

“Those look like footprints,” the Nine-tailed Fox said softly, her keen eyes pointing toward something in the west.

They rose on the wind for an aerial view. Indeed, they were footprints—goat hoofprints. Judging by their size, their owner must have been taller than the city walls.

“Only one footprint?” Xu Qi An frowned, wanting to gain more height, but a slowly flowing mist already blocked the sky above.

They immediately returned to the ground, and Xu Qi An said, “Same as usual—I’ll scout ahead!”

If Huang had passed through safely, there was no reason he couldn’t. In terms of physical defense and regenerative abilities, Xu Qi An believed he wasn’t inferior to that former Supreme-rank God-Demon.

“Be careful,” the Nine-tailed Fox offered a token warning, confident in his abilities.

Xu Qi An walked toward the barren black plain. One step, two steps, three… During this process, the silver-haired enchantress watched him intently, but nothing happened.

Four steps, five steps… When Xu Qi An took his sixth step, he suddenly vanished—disappeared mysteriously.

“Xu Ning Yan!?” The Nine-tailed Fox immediately extended her divine sense to probe the surroundings while calling out his name.

Her voice echoed across the wasteland with no response.

Huang’s footprint was also singular, and he had vanished without explanation too. The silver-haired enchantress pondered briefly, formed a hypothesis, and decisively flew toward the black wasteland.

She had barely covered any distance when her vision blurred, the scenery shifted, and she felt something collide with her chest.

She heard Xu Qi An’s muffled voice: “What’s blinding my eyes?”

The silver-haired enchantress’s lips twitched as she looked down, just as Xu Qi An raised his head from her chest. Their eyes met, and he grinned: “How gracious, how gracious!”

The Nine-tailed Fox expressionlessly retreated, denying him any further opportunity to take advantage. While scanning their surroundings, she frowned and said, “Space?”

Still savoring the moment, Xu Qi An nodded after a delay: “That’s what I think too. The God-Demon who fell here must have controlled space-related powers. This place is filled with chaotic spatial distortions. Without its master’s control, it randomly and arbitrarily teleports any being that enters.”

The Nine-tailed Fox contemplated, “Then how do we cross this area?”

Xu Qi An shrugged: “We’ll take it step by step. Space is an extremely profound art. As far as I know, only the artificers’ teleportation and the Glazed Bodhisattva’s Colorless Barrier involve spatial manipulation.”

The Nine-tailed Fox said, “We should be cautious. Areas left by God-Demon’s spiritual essence are filled with dangers—it can’t be as simple as random teleportation. Even if it is, don’t forget that Huang might still be in this area.”

Xu Qi An smiled, “If so, my danger sense would warn me.”

The reason he’d ended up with his face in the Nine-tailed Fox’s chest was because his warrior’s danger sense hadn’t triggered. As proven, there was no danger.

It had been quite pleasant.

As he spoke, he walked forward, suddenly hearing a muffled grunt from the Nine-tailed Fox behind him.

Turning back, he was startled—the silver-haired enchantress’s lower half had vanished. She had been severed at the waist, her upper body remaining while her lower half had disappeared to parts unknown.

This… Xu Qi An’s brows furrowed: “Is space fragmented here?”

The Nine-tailed Fox looked down at her vanished lower body and said gravely, “Not just fragmented—it’s constantly shifting and moving.”

If normal space was like a stable mirror, then this place was like a mirror made of countless shards, with the pieces in constant motion.

Beings who entered would move with whatever shard they occupied as if teleporting.

But when different parts of the body occupied different shards, their movement would result in situations like the Nine-tailed Fox’s current predicament.

Bodies would be cut into pieces.

Xu Qi’an thought for a moment and asked, “Can you sense where that part of your body is?”

If it were him, his lower half would come running back on its own since it had its own “brain” (divine soul).

But the Nine-tailed Fox wasn’t a First-Rank warrior and might not have such abilities.

The Nine-tailed Fox nodded: “I can sense its location, but it’s constantly moving. Given enough time, I might lose track of it. Moreover…”

“It will instinctively regenerate, trying to repair itself.”

“We must find it before it starts rebuilding its body.”

She was maintaining her half-body state for now because regeneration consumed vital essence.

If memory served, the blood essence of the three God-Demon descendants was all in her tails… Xu Qi An had wanted to remind her, but seeing the State Master’s furrowed brows and urgent desire to recover her lower half, she seemed to have forgotten this detail.

Xu Qi An silently swallowed his words, pretending not to notice.

“Get on my back. The spatial cutting shouldn’t be able to harm me,” Xu Qi An suggested.

The silver-haired enchantress didn’t stubbornly refuse. Her upper body floated onto Xu Qi An’s back, her slender arms wrapping around his neck.

Following her directions, Xu Qi An strode forward. After experiencing several “banishments” and spending considerable time, they finally found the Nine-tailed Fox’s lower half… or perhaps that wasn’t quite accurate.

Because standing before them was a completely naked, perfectly intact Nine-tailed Fox.

Her lower body was covered by a beast-hide fur coat serving as a skirt, nine-light red fluffy fox tails trailing behind like a wedding dress train.

Her upper body was bare, skin white as jade, arms slender and graceful, collarbone delicate, body lines dramatically narrowing at her waist, the exposed navel and slim waist exuding charm.

Her body proportions were perfect—slender yet athletic—but her chest…

Such white mountains, such round mountains, such perky mountains… Xu Qi An took advantage of the moment to steal a few extra glances.

“Keep staring and I’ll gouge your eyes out,” the silver-haired enchantress on his back threatened viciously.

*I’m looking at Zhou Shuren, what’s that got to do with Lu Xun?*… Xu Qi An internally quipped, then said aloud, “She has no consciousness.”

Though the fox spirit was beautiful, her eyes were vacant, her expression wooden, like a lifeless paper flower.

After all, the lower body had no brain—the brain was in the head above. So even though the body had regenerated, it was merely an empty shell.

The Nine-tailed Fox snorted coldly, pressed against his shoulder, and flew up, diving straight into that empty shell.

Being of the same origin and originally one entity, they connected and merged without any resistance.

The next moment, consciousness returned to the Nine-tailed Fox’s empty eyes, her pupils becoming lively and clever.

While using her fox tails to cover her chest, she tied on her beast-hide chest wrap, not forgetting to glare at him.

After merging, they continued forward. Having learned from this lesson, the Nine-tailed Fox refused to leave his back, allowing him to carry her round, perky bottom while her long legs swayed at his sides.

“I used half the blood essence of those three!” she said.

Xu Qi An smiled, “Worth it.”

*Bastard*… The Nine-tailed Fox ground her teeth, then suddenly smiled mischievously, “When we return to the Nine Provinces, I’ll go stay at the Xu Manor. If anyone asks, I’ll say you saw me completely naked.”

Xu Qi An cupped his hands toward her: “You win.”

Walking and talking, after more than ten teleportations and divisions, they finally left this area, encountering dense fog ahead.

“What’s this about now?” Xu Qi An asked, turning his head.

The Nine-tailed Fox had just rested her pointed chin on his shoulder, nearly getting kissed by his turn. While climbing down from his back, she rolled her eyes: “How would I know? I don’t know much about God-Demon matters either. Same as usual, you go check it out.”

Xu Qi An nodded, took a deep breath where he stood, and stepped into the mist.

He didn’t go far. After entering the fog-shrouded area, he immediately stopped and remained motionless for a long time.

Just as the Nine-tailed Fox began to worry something had happened to him, Xu Qi An opened his eyes, his face showing a complex mixture of lingering attachment and trepidation.

“How was it?” she called from a distance.

“Fantastic!” Xu Qi An smiled.

*Fantastic? What’s so fantastic about it?*… The silver-haired enchantress frowned, waiting for his explanation.

Xu Qi An said, “This is a dream realm, with dreams so captivating you can’t break free. Beautiful, but also terrifying. If I weren’t a First-Rank warrior, I might have been trapped in the beautiful dream until death.”

“So what did you see?” the Nine-tailed Fox asked.

“Well, since I just saw your body earlier, my first dream was taking you right here. Don’t misunderstand—I’m not the type to force myself on others. You were the one who insisted, saying that since I’d seen your body, there was no helping it, we had to mate.”

Xu Qi An spoke matter-of-factly, sighing, “Dream-you was so understanding.”

The silver-haired enchantress laughed coldly: “What else?”

She knew Xu Qi An was telling her this to objectively describe the dream realm’s abilities.

But it was still infuriating to hear! What nonsense about having no choice but to mate? With her personality, she’d have just killed him outright.

Indeed, it was a beautiful dream!

“Then we encountered Huang, successfully killed Him, rescued the Temple Master, and returned to the Nine Provinces together. After that, I achieved supreme mastery, becoming an unparalleled Martial God, defeating the Shaman God, Curse God, and Buddha. The Nine Provinces knew peace.”

“Because my contributions were so enormous, Huai Qing felt she had no choice but to marry me to thank me for everything I’d done for the court and the Great Feng’s common people. Later, I built a palace in the capital and already had the name picked out—the Hundred Flowers Palace.”

“All my beloved beauties lived there, coexisting harmoniously. They amicably took turns sharing my bed, begging me to spread my attention equally without favoritism. Dream-everyone was so understanding…”

*Of course they were, it’s your beautiful dream!* The Nine-tailed Fox’s mind was full of retorts, but as she listened, she suddenly realized something was wrong and angrily demanded: “What about me? Did you forget about me?”

Xu Qi An shook his head: “Not at all. You and your nine tails were in the Southern Borders, waiting longingly for me. I’d visit you all every few days. Such peaceful days, tsk tsk…”

The Nine-tailed Fox stared at him expressionlessly for a moment before letting out a “Heh heh.”

Xu Qi An shrugged: “But later I realized, whether it was you, Fu Xiang, or Luo Yu Heng, Huai Qing, Lin An, and Mu Nan Zhi—none of you were pushovers.”

“Putting you all together would only result in daily scheming and fighting, even hair-pulling and face-scratching.”

“The more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt, the more unreasonable it seemed until finally, I broke free from the dream.”

The Nine-tailed Fox pondered thoughtfully, then realized: “You mean the way to break free from beautiful dreams is to keep reminding yourself that what you’re seeing in the dream is unreasonable?”

*In our terms, you just need to be a contrarian, finding things to argue about at every turn*… Xu Qi An slowly nodded: “That’s right!”

He was about to say “Come here” when he suddenly noticed the Nine-tailed Fox’s expression change as she pointed behind him and said: “Can things from dreams materialize?”

Xu Qi An froze: “What do you mean?”

The Nine-tailed Fox shrieked: “Huang is behind you!”