The chaotic turbulence seemed to devour time and space, giving only a sense of confusion. Yet that aura was so profound and so familiar.

The moment Jian Chou cast her gaze, this great array formation that had been set up six decades ago by the combined forces of the Yama Kings slowly revealed its appearance.

It was a layer of faint radiance.

Like a transparent glass shell, spherical in shape, reaching up to the dome of the entire eighteenth layer of hell, and extending down into the depths of the countless miles of wasteland.

Upon it flowed patterns of wind, thunder, rain, snow, and lightning, with several faint wisps of gray qi vaguely gathering from the periphery toward the center.

“Boom!”

The moment those gray wisps gathered, heaven and earth suddenly changed color!

With the center of that array formation as the focal point, with the gathering place of those gray wisps as the center, all directions above and below were completely shrouded by purple lightning.

But in the blink of an eye, it transformed into boundless wind and snow.

One could vaguely see ice-blue or gray-black wind blades circling within, as if capable of cutting through all things.

After three breaths, all these strange phenomena completely disappeared from Jian Chou’s sight.

What remained in her vision was only that tranquil great array, only those gray wisps that reappeared at the array’s edge, beginning to gather toward the center again…

Gathering, exploding, destroying, then gathering again…

Repeating endlessly without end!

Jian Chou stared blankly, feeling that heart-palpitating aura of destruction.

She couldn’t sense any trace of array cores or formation lines, as if this Heaven-Releasing Creation Array was naturally formed, originally appearing here…

Everything disappeared here, leaving only that aura belonging to the Yin-Yang battlefield still flowing within.

Legend said the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array was built upon the Yin-Yang battlefield, covering the entire battlefield.

Now the battlefield no longer showed the dense white bones, nor the mighty scenes of both sides battling, nor the flashing of blades and swords, but that unique gloomy and bleak aura of the Extreme Domain still remained, surging toward Jian Chou…

Moreover, mixed within was a familiar aura…

So familiar it made Jian Chou’s blood flow backward and her body tremble!

That was—

The aura from Jiushijiu Zhou!

The Yin-Yang battlefield was originally at the boundary between the two realms, naturally connecting the Extreme Domain within and Jiushijiu Zhou without, which is why war broke out here.

The Heaven-Releasing Creation Array covered the entire Yin-Yang battlefield—how could it only cover the Extreme Domain side?

So, apart from the endless earth force and yin essence wandering in the array formation, she actually sensed long-missed spiritual energy!

Since entering the Extreme Domain, Jian Chou’s cultivation seemed bound by something. Except for wind-riding, she could neither use the various techniques learned in Jiushijiu Zhou nor sense even a trace of spiritual energy around her.

Thus forced, she had turned to cultivating Extreme Domain techniques to seek some self-protection.

But at this moment, the invisible “restriction” that had originally limited her cultivation actually loosened when she approached the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array, and she could even feel that attractive force from within the array…

Cultivators with achievements could sense heaven and earth spiritual energy.

And Jian Chou’s affinity for heaven and earth spiritual energy was rare even in Jiushijiu Zhou—even Fudao Shanren was shocked by this!

She could sense heaven and earth spiritual energy, and likewise, heaven and earth spiritual energy was also attracting her, calling to her, or rather…

Calling to every Dao Seal she had ever cultivated!

Even though she currently had no physical body.

“Rustle…”

Slight movement came from within her sleeve.

Jian Chou stood in midair, not even needing to look down to clearly sense it was that stone bead, the stone bead given by Immortal Wuzhong, the stone bead containing her physical body!

The words she had heard when visiting Immortal Wuzhong with Zhang Tang echoed in her ears again.

“This stone contains your physical body. When you leave the Extreme Domain and reach the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array, it will naturally sense the power of Jiushijiu Zhou, release your body, merge body and soul, with no damage to your cultivation.”

As for the method of departure…

“When your body and soul reunite, you will naturally know.”

Naturally know…

At the time, Jian Chou hadn’t fully understood these words.

Now, standing before the array, it was like parting mists to see clear blue sky—she understood everything: The Heaven-Releasing Creation Array prevented Jiushijiu Zhou cultivators from entering the Extreme Domain and Extreme Domain cultivators from going to Jiushijiu Zhou because their cultivation methods differed. But if she safely reached the array’s edge, the formation would naturally sense her true identity and send her back to Jiushijiu Zhou!

What seemed impossible to others became easy as turning a palm for her!

“Body and soul merge, body and soul merge…”

Four words, one voice, echoing continuously, growing ever more resounding…

Jian Chou’s gaze also brightened accordingly, gradually becoming like ocean stars.

The cultivators outside the entire eighteenth layer of hell began to feel confused.

They could also see that Heaven-Releasing Creation Array, but being “distant observers,” the shock and impact they received couldn’t compare to Jian Chou who was there personally, sensing that aura. Moreover, they were originally Extreme Domain cultivators and couldn’t feel that shock of standing at the convergence of two realms.

So they found Jian Chou’s long standing in midair extremely puzzling.

“What’s she doing? That Shang Lu from the seventeenth layer is about to come down!”

“Good heavens, can the array formation trap Sima Languan for long?”

“Shouldn’t she take this chance to finish them off?”

“What’s wrong with her, is she possessed?”

…

Tidal waves of discussion and curses soon flooded the seventy-two cities of the Extreme Domain.

But the next moment, all voices suddenly fell silent. Everyone watching the dark rings or the Eight Cauldrons Screen couldn’t believe their eyes!

“Crazy!”

“Is she insane?”

“Why is she running toward the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array!”

“What’s wrong with this person?!”

After a moment of silence came overwhelming exclamations and roars, almost everyone suspecting they had seen wrong.

But Jian Chou, within the eighteenth layer of hell, couldn’t hear any of this and had no need to care. Her body originally suspended in midair suddenly became a streak of afterimage, like flowing light, flying toward that massive array formation!

Below was that vast ruined city; in the distant view, endless miles of wasteland; at the very end was her destination…

It looked like some distance remained, but Jian Chou knew it was merely inches away!

This journey through the Extreme Domain had reached its complete finale!

The stone bead in her sleeve was constantly trembling.

The closer she got to the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array, the more obvious and intense this trembling became, even emanating a burning sensation from within the stone bead, filling her wide sleeves.

Her figure grew more and more distant.

Soon she had flown over most of the city and was about to reach that final stretch of wasteland. The attractive and summoning force from the array at the end had become too strong to ignore!

Even invisibly, wisps of barely visible spiritual power came from the cracks in the ruined city, from the fissures in the wasteland, flowing into her soul body…

At that moment, Jian Chou felt certain existences awakening: those long-dormant techniques…

Heaven-Flipping Seal, Black Wind Blade Lotus, Dragon Scale Dao Seal, even the Dijiang Wind Thunder Seal!

Though she hadn’t yet achieved soul-body unity, these things she had once cultivated kept appearing in her mind—every Kunxian line, every Dao character, every Dao Seal they formed, and the spiritual energy pathways they represented through the meridians…

Every bit, completely unforgettable!

In just a few breaths, the collapsed city gate below had been left behind, the broken streets had become background scenery, even the huge dust-covered plaza in the city had shrunk to a gradually distant black dot…

The oncoming wind reduced her body temperature but couldn’t extinguish the burning in her heart!

Still flying!

After the plaza came row upon row of buildings, platforms built of stone, even several collapsed towers, and…

A snow-white temple!

Tall stone pillars stood before and behind the temple.

Like the heaven-piercing stone pillars around this city, they were extremely tall and abrupt, completely different from the surrounding ruins’ decay.

They were intact, even giving an eerily fresh feeling.

That was a kind of sanctity standing in desolation, as if the only clean place in this chaotic ruins…

Jian Chou’s flying speed from above was too fast, so that the moment she formed this understanding, she couldn’t control her body to stop immediately!

Continue forward!

“Buzz!”

At that instant, a vague sound rang out, as if crossing some boundary, as if pulling threads connected to bells and drums, thus triggering something—

The entire ruins, even the entire eighteenth layer of hell, at this moment actually burst forth with dazzling golden light!

The city was shrouded in radiance, terrifying cracks in the wasteland seemed to flow with golden rivers, even the withered seasonal grass behind Jian Chou was gilded with golden light…

In the earthbound array, Sima Languan, who had pushed his human skin lantern to the extreme and was preparing to escape Jian Chou’s array formation to take revenge, suddenly found his piercing lantern light covered by this sudden golden radiance, dimming like a firefly.

His blood-stained handsome face suddenly showed surprise, couldn’t help but look toward that ruined city…

On the ancient altar, ripples suddenly flashed.

Shang Lu, previously blocked from the seventeenth layer of hell by Jian Chou’s array formation, appeared on the altar. His body was covered with deep wounds, no longer showing his previous ease. Pale white blood had stained his robes, making him look extremely disheveled.

The brilliant golden light entered his eyes almost as he stumbled to the ground.

In the depths of broken alleys in the City of Wrongful Deaths, an old man sat withered on a wooden stool, holding a rough stone, slowly and carefully carving its patterns with a knife.

At the moment golden light filled the eighteenth layer of hell, his hand movements paused slightly, then he looked up toward the sky that would never be clear outside.

In his turbid eyes, dark light vaguely flickered.

But in an instant, they returned to their initial calm, seeming to perceive everything yet seemingly indifferent, only his lips suddenly showing some stagnant bitterness.

“She too is from Yashan…”

The vague voice gradually faded.

In this currently boiling Extreme Domain, almost no one noticed such a sigh that hid earth-shaking information…

Everyone’s sight, everyone’s attention was now completely captured by the strange phenomena in the eighteenth layer of hell.

Those golden lights were completely different from the Extreme Domain’s gloomy and dim aura—they were bright and clean, yet in the eighteenth layer of hell, they had an indescribable sense of harmony.

As if they naturally belonged here.

The snow-white temple had now completely turned golden.

Every snow-white stone, every snow-white pillar, every snow-white step seemed covered in gold foil. But this golden light wasn’t dazzling; instead, it was like flowing clear springs, pure and transparent.

The midair where Jian Chou currently stood was almost directly in front of this temple.

Only hearing a “dong” sound, the surrounding world seemed to have morning bells and evening drums ringing, and chanting voices suddenly appeared, constantly echoing in her ears, in this heaven and earth!

“Om mani padme hum…”

Amid myriad golden lights and countless chants, a compassionate and clear six-syllable mantra suddenly descended like thunder!

Jian Chou, who was closest, immediately shook, feeling her spiritual platform instantly clear, her mind filled only with the golden light before her eyes—continuously flashing, continuously changing golden light!

Countless golden lights flew from all directions on the ground like waterfalls, like flowing springs!

In the blink of an eye, they actually gathered and condensed into a strange scene.

A thousand-petaled golden lotus platform rose within the golden light.

A compassionate Buddha statue slowly revealed its form in the golden light.

Loose robes with detailed textures, left hand holding a precious pearl, right hand holding a staff, face full of solemn dignity, yet gently closing both eyes without opening them.

The entire Buddha statue stood solemnly upon the lotus, manifesting above the temple.

Head touching heaven, feet standing on earth.

Jian Chou, who barely stopped five feet in front of the Buddha statue, only felt that surging Buddha power strike her face. At her position several hundred zhang high in midair, she was only level with this Buddha statue’s outstretched arm!

How tiny was she compared to this massive Buddha statue?

Jian Chou had been rushing toward the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array—how could she have expected to encounter such changes midway? She must have inadvertently triggered some restriction in this ruined temple.

Shocked and angry, she furrowed her brows.

Though she held her position, her body tensed with extreme wariness.

This Buddha statue appearing here for no reason would surely cause some change.

Jian Chou dared not act rashly, waiting for changes; outside the eighteenth layer of hell, countless people held their breath, watching what would happen next.

However, unexpectedly, nothing happened.

The golden giant Buddha statue still stood in place.

It seemed merely a clay or wooden puppet, having no perception of its surroundings. Even with Jian Chou right in front of it, it made no movement.

This couldn’t help but confuse people.

Between the Extreme Domain and Buddhism, there were indeed various hidden connections, and many Buddha statues had appeared in the Prison Bureaus along the way.

But this vast stretch of ruins beneath Jian Chou’s feet obviously wasn’t formed in recent years.

The snow-white temple formed a stark contrast with the entire ruins’ antiquity.

Not to mention this giant Buddha statue that suddenly appeared after Jian Chou triggered the restriction…

Though it seemed merely a dazzling phantom, the shock it brought was no less than when Jian Chou first saw this vast ruins.

What exactly…

was it?

“Until hell is empty, I vow not to become Buddha. I thought the Buddhist great vow of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was merely legend, but now I know the words were true!”

An elegant voice suddenly crossed half the sky and reached Jian Chou’s ears.

Her tense body immediately stiffened. Standing before this Buddha statue of unknown origin, she looked back—

Somehow, a familiar figure had appeared on that ancient altar.

Wearing wide robes, face like jade.

Though disheveled, his face carried a seemingly friendly smile. Who else could it be but Shang Lu, who had battled intensely with Jian Chou on the seventeenth layer?

How…

How could he possibly appear here?

Jian Chou’s heart immediately sank.

She thought of Zhang Tang and Fu Chaosheng who had originally been on the seventeenth layer.

Shang Lu had initially been trapped by her array formation, and afterward would have faced Zhang Tang and Fu Chaosheng who had already dealt with that group of Tantric cultivators.

Logically, under the siege of Zhang Tang’s group, Shang Lu absolutely couldn’t have survived to enter the eighteenth layer of hell!

Unless something had gone wrong on Zhang Tang and Fu Chaosheng’s side…

This deduction made Jian Chou’s expression darken along with her mood.

Distant Shang Lu seemed able to see her expression and actually smiled, but his eyes showed three parts hidden viciousness!

“Seeing Shang here, Fellow Daoist Jian Chou seems quite surprised!”

Surprised?

How could she not be surprised?

Fu Chaosheng hadn’t appeared, Zhang Tang hadn’t appeared, Chen Tingyan and Gu Ling were nowhere to be seen…

Jian Chou’s brows furrowed tighter, the shadow in her heart deepening.

But matters from the previous layer were completely beyond her intervention now, not to mention she was currently only half a ruin and one wasteland away from the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array!

She couldn’t worry about so much!

There wasn’t time for so much thinking!

Jian Chou didn’t answer Shang Lu’s words at all. Almost the moment his voice fell, she directly turned and moved sideways to the right, wanting to bypass this Buddha statue and continue her journey.

But at the moment of turning, from the corner of her eye, she also saw the array formation not far in front of the altar!

That was the earthbound array she had previously set up to trap Sima Languan, but at this moment, the array was completely empty!

Sima Languan—

was gone!

Danger!

This thought almost instantly appeared in Jian Chou’s mind. She instinctively flipped and lowered her altitude, heading downward to avoid something.

However, the next moment, tidal waves of golden light enveloped her.

These golden lights all came from the Buddha statue.

Jian Chou, right in front of the Buddha statue, had no way to avoid them!

“Bang!”

A mud-covered figure suddenly flashed in the golden light, five fingers forming claws, directly striking Jian Chou’s shoulder!

“Puchi!”

The blade-sharp five fingers almost immediately sank into flesh, splashing pale white blood!

Being a soul body, Jian Chou’s half shoulder almost immediately collapsed, becoming nearly transparent, while severe pain entered her mind, almost tearing apart her entire consciousness!

Like a lifeless boulder falling from the sky.

Jian Chou, struck by this sudden sneak attack and already having downward momentum, immediately crashed down from midair!

“Boom!”

The snow-white temple, stripped of golden light, didn’t seem as solid as it appeared.

Jian Chou’s body crashed straight through!

Tall, abrupt stone pillars instantly shattered; standing high walls collapsed powerlessly; the high dome also thunderously tumbled down…

Everything in her body’s path turned to ruins!

Finally, she was deeply embedded in the upper part of the fourth thick wall. Her attacked left shoulder was almost numb with pain, her cold, stiff fingers could only touch the cold stones in the wall…

Jian Chou felt qi and blood surging throughout her body, and a strange power, starting from her shoulder like purifying light, expelled the soul power from her body, leaving the shoulder area and preventing her from repairing her body…

“Sima… Languan…”

Difficult words squeezed from her throat.

Embedded in the wall, she only looked up—

Above her head was that heaven-and-earth-spanning giant Buddha statue phantom, while she was only beneath the Buddha’s lotus platform, tiny as an ant. In front of the great Buddha, as the previously condensed Buddha light dispersed, Sima Languan’s mud-covered figure became clear.

The current Sima Languan was actually not much better off than Jian Chou.

His arms twisted at strange angles, the originally handsome half of his face had also disappeared, leaving only a face full of grotesqueness. Only those eyes vaguely retained their former elegance, not to mention his already tattered clothing.

All this was courtesy of Jian Chou’s array formation!

Through his cold eyes shone endless chill.

Sima Languan looked down at Jian Chou from above, just as Jian Chou had looked down at him before: “How does this taste?”

How indeed?

Sima Languan’s technique was naturally extremely strange, hiding within light. He should have escaped the array formation when the Buddha statue emitted light, concealing himself within the light, finally able to attack her without anyone knowing.

And Shang Lu…

Should have seen all this, but not being Jian Chou’s friend, wouldn’t warn her. Instead, he sat watching tigers fight, talking to her to try distracting her attention.

Though she hadn’t wasted time talking with him, she still hadn’t avoided Sima Languan’s strike.

Jian Chou was extremely calm while thinking.

But she now hung on this snow-white high wall. Thanks to Sima Languan’s sneak attack, she had actually passed through the Buddha statue’s original location from below and drawn closer to the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array…

That calling had grown stronger.

Even vaguely, wisps of power from this stone wall, from the surrounding void, from beneath her feet, began flowing into her soul body for her attraction!

This was…

Long-missed heaven and earth spiritual power!

Though the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array was vast, covering the entire Yin-Yang battlefield, her current location should be extremely close to the Heaven-Releasing Creation Array!

This heaven and earth spiritual power should all be spiritual energy from around the Yin-Yang battlefield, extremely sparse, far incomparable to Jiushijiu Zhou.

But for Jian Chou, who hadn’t contacted spiritual power for far too long, it was like sweet rain after long drought…

The earth force and yin essence flowing into her body wasn’t much, nor visible to the naked eye, but the moment it entered, it violently intertwined with the original earth force and yin essence in her body…

Thus, “crack”—a light sound.

Like an eggshell breaking.

That was the sound of the restriction born from the Extreme Domain breaking within her body!

At this moment, Jian Chou had many complex thoughts in her mind.

Like her original Dao Seals, like the trembling stone bead in her sleeve, like the physical body that hadn’t automatically appeared yet, like…

Nascent Soul!

Golden Core breaks, Nascent Soul emerges.

This meant cultivating one’s soul to have physical form, giving it the power possessed by physical bodies, thus called “body-mind unity.”

She still remembered she had the Tianxu Constitution.

Incomplete soul, dissolved meridians.

Before spirit emergence, no match for enemies; upon reaching questioning heart stage, certain death.

But at this moment, wasn’t she appearing in the world as a soul body?

Then…

If she absorbed spiritual power, without a physical body, could she use her old Dao Seals?

Jian Chou’s gaze carried ethereal haziness, still falling on Sima Languan’s figure above.

Her throat held familiar blood scent.

But her fingers were stuck in the stone wall’s crevices. In places no one’s gaze could reach, with some trembling and stiffness, she difficulty and lightly formed a hand seal…

A point of flowing light silently brightened, then silently disappeared in the crevice.

While Sima Languan ahead, believing victory certain, was flying rapidly toward her; distant Shang Lu, after some observation, was silently passing through the withered grass ahead, approaching this stretch of ruins, seeming to want to wait for an opportunity…

Truly crisis upon crisis, danger upon danger.

Logically, she should be very nervous.

But at this moment, she really couldn’t help but suddenly laugh aloud, joyful and exhilarant!

Her black and white distinct pupils were unprecedentedly bright, as if reflected by a clear sky different from the Extreme Domain, supremely vast!

Sima Languan, racing toward her, immediately furrowed his brows, only feeling overwhelming arrogance—

At death’s door, she still dared laugh!

However, the more distant Shang Lu had his pupils contract sharply, inexplicably showing some wariness as he stopped, seeming to want to observe the situation below.

But where did Jian Chou need to care about those things?

She only circulated her soul power, lightly shook, and with a muffled sound, her body originally embedded in the stone wall by Sima Languan’s strike moved outward from thin air.

The stone wall that had endured her body’s impact seemed to have some balance broken at this moment, suddenly collapsing!

After a “boom,” dust rose and spread upward.

Only Jian Chou’s body, still somewhat stiff from heavy injury, remained floating in midair.

The feeling at this moment was extremely strange.

Clearly Jian Chou was the one at a disadvantage, yet whether inside or outside the eighteenth layer of hell, almost everyone believed—

At this moment, she was extremely powerful!

Sima Languan immediately realized something was wrong, suddenly accelerating in midair, re-entering the golden light cast by that Great Vow Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva statue, rushing toward Jian Chou!

But how could his speed compare to Jian Chou’s?

Her originally clenched right hand loosened, and the white jade crown she had been holding suddenly blazed with light!

Lustrous white light, carrying indescribable intimidating intent.

As Sima Languan, riding Buddha light, had nearly reached Jian Chou, this white jade crown’s radiance was like a stone wall, forcibly knocking Sima Languan’s figure out of the Buddha light!

“Bang!”

A muffled sound!

His body violently crashed into ruins dozens of zhang in front of Jian Chou, raising new dust, with dozens of burning-like wounds falling on his body!

“Heavens!”

“Four Symbols White Jade Crown!”

“Finally used!”

Outside the eighteenth layer of hell, it boiled again.

Long ago, people knew Jian Chou held three trump cards.

Heaven-Devouring Earth-Consuming Void Demon Umbrella, Six Meridians Spirit Dividing Mirror, Four Symbols White Jade Crown.

The first two had already been used in previous battles, with the Six Meridians Spirit Dividing Mirror being Jian Chou’s common tool in the second half of the third round of cauldron competition, but the “Four Symbols White Jade Crown” had almost never shown half its power!

If Jian Chou kept not using it, they would almost forget this thing’s existence!

Originally thinking this was Sima Languan’s killing situation, but the moment the Four Symbols White Jade Crown appeared, countless people were madly shouting in their hearts—

Not necessarily!

Not necessarily!

The Four Symbols White Jade Crown was called the “Undefeated Royal Crown”!

Whose killing situation it was remained uncertain!

The snow-white crown was entirely carved from white jade.

Ancient runes were inscribed upon it. As lustrous light flowed, it carried gentleness and tolerance, yet no one could deny its supreme status, as if it could rule all living beings!

Jian Chou’s gaze fell upon it, showing only complete calm.

Five fingers lightly loosened, palm virtually closing, and this Four Symbols White Jade Crown seemed to sense something, automatically floating upward, landing exactly three inches above her head!

Whoosh!

Waterfall-like white light immediately poured down from the crown, as if draping Jian Chou in luxurious royal robes, mixed with her purple jade light after jade nirvana, carrying supreme majesty!

Her originally injured shoulder rapidly healed in the white light.

Her cultivation state, lowered by battle, returned to peak in the blink of an eye!

Jian Chou calmly watched ahead, but her right hand finally extended toward the void beside her, steadily pulling—

At that moment, an extremely terrifying aura swept across the entire ruins!

Sharp, keen.

Even the Four Symbols White Jade Crown floating above Jian Chou’s head seemed suppressed by this aura, vaguely showing signs of trembling!

That was a long sword suddenly appearing in midair.

Over three feet long, black scabbard carved with ancient patterns, sword guard and hilt both showing cold black light, yet giving an oppressive feeling of ruling the world.

Jian Chou’s five fingers gripped the sword hilt, only drawing the black blade from its scabbard. The mountain and river map inscribed on the blade also slowly became clear…

One inch.

One inch.

Each inch carried suffocating killing intent!

At this moment, inside and outside the eighteenth layer of hell was filled with terrifying deathly silence!

“Clang—”

Only that sword’s cry as it left its sheath!

The final stretch of her journey home was destined to be difficult.

But she would ultimately cross it.

Just as the longest night would eventually see dawn.

Jian Chou, wearing the Four Symbols White Jade Crown and wielding the Mountain River Human Emperor Sword, feeling the spiritual power quietly filling her body, her gaze gradually blazed.

Looking at nearby Sima Languan and distant Shang Lu, she only laughed freely—

“My time is short. If you two wish to fight, come at me together!”