Qin Shuyan and I didn’t delay but immediately returned to see Xi Wang Mu.

Lao Qin reported everything Zhu Lian had said.

Upon hearing this, Xi Wang Mu couldn’t help but lower her head and sigh: “For thousands of years, the other deities and I never understood how the evil god would return. So, he borrowed the power of mountains and rivers… Xie Zhuo returning to the past, being fortunate enough to witness the evil god’s technique and comprehend this method, was also heaven’s will…”

“Xi Wang Mu,” Lao Qin, somewhat anxious, couldn’t help interrupting her reflection, “when Jiu Xia and I returned, we saw the malevolent energy outside already surging violently, almost breaking through the Kunlun barrier. If Xie Zhuo could absorb all the malevolent energy in the world after comprehending this method and return it to the mountains and rivers, couldn’t we emulate this?”

Xi Wang Mu nodded: “Return to your posts and manage everything within Kunlun. I will contact the other deities through the spirit stone mirror to discuss this matter.”

Lao Qin bowed his head and immediately turned to leave.

But I hesitated for a moment and looked at Xi Wang Mu: “Xie Zhuo used himself as a vessel to contain all the malevolent energy in the world, then transferred it to that snowy forest, finally perishing along with the malevolent energy. You…”

“I am only doing what should be done, just like Xie Zhuo and the departed deities before us.”

Xi Wang Mu spoke plainly, but her words felt heavy in my ears.

I knew I shouldn’t say more, so I turned and left to attend to my duties.

From that day on, I strictly ordered the Kunlun defense forces to stand guard day and night. Before each watch, they had to have their souls examined by companions to ensure they were clear-minded and untainted by malevolent energy.

Every day, I patrolled all the connection points of the Kunlun barrier, not daring to be negligent for even a moment.

I had to watch both the malevolent energy outside the barrier and be wary of my comrades, fearing they might suddenly manifest signs of malevolent energy…

In just over ten days, without having fought any battles against the malevolent spirits, my mental state was already struggling to endure.

I had been trying my best not to think about how Xie Zhuo had endured such days in the past.

But whenever I closed my eyes and relaxed for a moment, I would vaguely see Xie Zhuo’s figure standing beside me. When we were outside, he rarely focused his gaze on me; he was always vigilant, always alert, always watching over me.

After a month of such anxiety, the temporary barrier in the sky above Kunlun finally broke, as if the judgment day had finally arrived.

All the connected formations shattered completely, injuring the immortals guarding them to varying degrees. Worse still, some were directly infected by the malevolent energy.

The Kunlun barrier formations fell into chaos.

I tried to focus on what was happening around me, but I was too overwhelmed to handle everything.

When everyone was in extreme panic, I saw a massive formation unfold from the peak of Kunlun. Xi Wang Mu’s voice chanting spells was carried by the wind to everyone’s ears.

The main deity of Kunlun was fulfilling her duty at this moment.

Just as she had mentioned before, she was using a massive channeling formation to emulate Xie Zhuo, attempting to draw all the malevolent energy into her body.

Like countless immortals and spirits in Kunlun, I could only pray in the face of such immense divine power.

The malevolent energy came in vast waves, gathering at the peak of Kunlun. The malevolent energy from infected people also flew out successively, heading toward the same place. It seemed as if all calamity was about to end.

But soon, I noticed the malevolent energy flowing toward the peak of Kunlun was slowing down.

Something was wrong. I had seen through that stone mirror how quickly Xie Zhuo had absorbed the malevolent energy from the world—it had happened rapidly, even accelerating, like a vortex that gave all malevolent energy no chance to escape.

But the situation at the peak of Kunlun was not promising.

As if confirming my suspicions, the massive formation in the sky above Kunlun suddenly shattered. The channeling power at the peak rapidly disappeared, and all the malevolent energy, like gathered waves of the sea, surged down from the peak, instantly engulfing all of Kunlun.

In an instant, it felt as if I had returned to the City of Immortals, with everyone submerged in black malevolent energy.

Some soldiers, in such dense malevolent energy, had their skin immediately consumed into complete blackness, and their eyes lost all white.

Soon, only the sounds of killing surrounded us.

In such dense, malevolent energy, the soldiers of Kunlun actually… directly turned into evil spirits.

Without giving me time to think further, a soldier who had transformed into an evil spirit lunged at me to kill. I had just raised my sword to cut him down when another person charged out from another direction!

I knew that person…

It was Meng Meng…

I froze…

Looking at Meng Meng, who had lost all reason, I couldn’t bring myself to raise my sword against her. She pounced on me, trying to tear out my heart with her newly grown sharp claws.

But the moment she touched me, a white light flashed, and Meng Meng, as if burned, had her entire hand turn into black smoke.

She howled in pain, retreated a few steps, and then ran into the black mist formed by the malevolent energy.

I looked at my palm, the faint white light emanating from beneath my skin—it was the same color as the icy lake water that Xie Zhuo had introduced into my body when he removed our blood oath.

Perhaps this was why I could remain clear-headed.

Even now, the traces Xie Zhuo had left on me continued to protect me…

With no time to think further, I suppressed all emotions and turned toward the peak of Kunlun.

I thought that if Xi Wang Mu was still there and I could find her, perhaps there might still be a way to save Kunlun…

The malevolent energy was so thick that it blocked all my vision. I stumbled and groped my way forward, finally reaching the peak of Kunlun. However, the scene at the peak made my heart tremble.

Not just Xi Wang Mu…

Master Ji and more than a dozen other deities were there!

All the main deities of the world were here. The channeling formation from earlier wasn’t solely Xi Wang Mu’s power, but rather…

Each deity seemed to have been injured when the formation shattered. They were all sitting or lying on the ground. Some were adjusting their inner breath, while others already showed signs of defeat. Xi Wang Mu, at one side of the formation, saw me approach. She wiped the blood from the corner of her lips and laboriously raised her hand.

I understood her meaning and immediately moved forward.

The deities all looked at me, and seeing me still clear-minded, they all seemed somewhat surprised.

“The channeling formation has shattered. To draw in all the malevolent energy from the world, only Xie Zhuo could accomplish this. He was crafted as the evil god’s body; only he could do this. The evil god calculated correctly.”

Hearing this, my heart turned cold.

I turned to look at the various deities and saw their expressions filled with sympathy, as if they had already accepted this as the outcome.

“Is there really… no other way?”

“In your body, Xie Zhuo left extremely pure power that cannot be tainted by malevolent energy. Go, find a remote, pure land, and leave hope.”

I remained silent, looking at all the deities. They seemed to agree that what Xi Wang Mu suggested was the only option left.

But when I looked at Master Ji, his somewhat indifferent eyes held a different expression.

“Perhaps, besides this, there is another hope.”

All the deities and I looked at Master Ji. After a moment of silence, he said: “Find Xie Zhuo again.”

I immediately asked: “How do we find him!?”

“Go back to the past, stop the separation,” Master Ji said. “Fu Jiuxia, if you can stop yourself on the eve of the separation and discuss with Xie Zhuo another method to resolve the malevolent energy in the world, perhaps this world can have a different direction.”

I was stunned…

For a moment, the peak of Kunlun also fell silent.

“I’ll go back,” I agreed without any hesitation, even feeling somewhat excited. “I can stop myself.”

A deity behind me spoke: “After the channeling formation, we have little soul power left in our bodies. How can we open a time-space passage to send her back to the past?”

Master Ji looked at me and said directly, “Indeed, without the Pangu Fu, our soul power is insufficient to send you back. But if we emulate the evil god and only send back your soul…”

I immediately understood Master Ji’s meaning and nodded right away: “That works…”

Now, without the Pangu Fu and with the deities’ insufficient soul power, they couldn’t send my entire being back to the past, but sending just my soul back wasn’t a problem.

Moreover, Master Ji had previously sacrificed his physical body to fight the evil god, actively seeking a compatible body with his soul, and had been battling the malevolent spirits in the City of Immortals until now. On the matter of separating body and soul, he was the most knowledgeable among all the deities.

“Jiu Xia,” Xi Wang Mu suddenly spoke with hesitation, frowning as she looked at me, “Destroying your physical body and leaving only your soul, do you know what this means?”

“I know.”

Xi Wang Mu continued: “Returning to the past with only your soul, finding a compatible body in a short time is almost impossible. And if you use your own body, it means you and your past self will compete for one body. One of you will disappear. You might not win. And you might not be able to convey the message we want to give to Xie Zhuo.”

“I will win,” I told Xi Wang Mu. “I will defeat my past self.”

Xie Zhuo and I had gone through so much together. I had seen the City of Immortals, experienced life and death. All these experiences wouldn’t just pass through my life without leaving a mark.

I would defeat my past self, even if only because of this determination to overcome my former self.

I wouldn’t lose…

Xi Wang Mu looked at me and offered one last piece of advice: “If you simply leave like this, that’s also hope.”

“The Kunlun defense forces have no deserters. Isn’t that what you told me? Besides…” I looked at Xi Wang Mu, “One person facing such a world doesn’t constitute hope.”

Xi Wang Mu didn’t say anything more.

I turned to Master Ji: “Please help me destroy my physical body.”

Master Ji nodded.

What happened next was quite simple.

Master Ji drew a formation beside me and taught me to chant spells. I watched as my body gradually dissolved within the formation. In excruciating pain, I saw my body melt away like ice and snow in early spring, silently seeping into the formation.

I didn’t cry out or scream until I transformed into a ball of white mist-like light hovering in the air.

I could feel the wind of this world passing through my soul from an angle I had never experienced before.

Amazingly, freed from my physical shell, I seemed closer to the essence of this world.

The formation beside me emitted light, and the deities surrounded me as a gap slowly opened in the air.

Unlike the gap Xie Zhuo had cleaved, this gap seemed to carry the blessings and mercy of deities.

I slowly rose upward, getting closer and closer to the gap. Suddenly, the formation below flared with light, and I heard a whistling wind from the gap above me.

I didn’t know what was happening, but I heard a deity exclaim from below: “The power of the time-space tunnel seems too great.”

“It’s the power released from her body—it’s beyond expectation! It’s pushing the time-space tunnel forward!”

What!?

Even as just a soul, I suddenly felt somewhat panicked.

What did they mean!?

“With our current soul power, we can’t control it anymore!”

“She’ll be sent thousands of years back… to an unknown time, a location difficult to find…”

I had almost floated to the entrance of the time-space tunnel, but hearing these words, I only wanted to reconstitute my body and grab the deity’s collar to ask properly: Are you reliable or not!? How can you make such an error!?

But there was no chance for a mere soul to react. I was sucked into the time-space gap. Just before entering, I suddenly saw Master Ji looking up at me. His usually compassionate yet detached expression finally showed a ripple of emotion. He seemed to have realized something, staring at me as I floated into the gap.

His lips moved, and I vaguely saw him ask: “So, it was you?”

What did he mean?

I didn’t understand, nor could I ask.

The time-space gap carried me, this ball of light mist, swiftly through. It seemed like only a moment had passed, yet also like a long time. The surrounding wind gradually faded, and the light and shadows disappeared.

I appeared in a silent, snowy forest at night.

My soul form finally no longer felt the weakness and tearing sensation that followed time travel.

Without the constraints of pain, I quickly floated up.

And so, I soon discovered that the place where I had appeared was actually the homeland of the Snow Wolf tribe, that snowy forest…

In the forest, campfires flickered, but the surroundings were eerily quiet. In the silence, under the moonlight, I finally heard a cry that tore through the stillness of the forest.

I flew in the direction of the cry. The wind passed through me, leaves brushed past me, and as if summoned, I flew faster and faster. I saw the dwellings of the Snow Wolf tribe in the forest—mostly simple tents. I passed by them, and no one could see me.

Until I flew to the main tent.

The chief of the Snow Wolf tribe, whom I had seen in my dreams, emerged from the main tent carrying an infant.

I stared blankly at that infant.

Watching him cry under the moon.

“From now on, our Snow Wolf tribe must sincerely worship and nurture the evil god’s vessel.”

The Snow Wolf chief placed the infant on the ground, then condensed soul power from his own body. He fused his soul power into the infant’s chest.

Following his action, the Snow Wolf tribe members standing outside, some gritting their teeth, some restraining themselves, nevertheless all condensed soul power from their bodies and offered it to the infant.

Under the offerings of soul power, the infant opened his eyes. Lying in the snow, he seemed to feel no cold at all, his hand reaching out, grasping at nothing in the air.

I looked at him and floated to his front. His hand passed through my soul.

At that moment, even as a mere soul, I seemed to feel the sting of tears.

Xie Zhuo, so fate wanted me to meet you here.