A single scroll of the Great Compassion Sutra, its merit guiding the souls of the departed.

The sacred text, compassionate and merciful, spread outward carried upon the sound of bells, extinguishing the heavy sins and karmic obstacles of countless lifetimes, and with the merit of compassion, it knocked open the Ghost Gate of the Underworld, drawing the wandering souls who had lingered and refused to disperse into the Yellow Springs.

The soul-ferrying underworld official bowed from afar toward Lang Jiuchuan, then quickly disappeared along with the Ghost Gate.

The vengeful souls had entered the Yellow Springs, but the corpses left behind in the Eight Trigrams City could not simply be left to rot in the open air and weather away. If that happened, there was every chance new corpse poison and plague would form and spread outward.

Lang Jiuchuan lightly tapped her toes, standing suspended in midair, gazing down from on high at the layout of the Eight Trigrams City below. She found a sack of beans, and with a mere thought, the power of her Core Formation condensed in her palm. She grasped a handful of beans and scattered them downward.

Where the beans landed, each one transformed into a spectral soldier. Following Lang Jiuchuan’s will, they moved to collect the scattered corpses from every corner of the city and piled them outside the walls.

Handful after handful of beans were cast down, and countless spectral soldiers bustled busily through the city. Lang Jiuchuan stood with her hands clasped behind her back, her gaze calm and unruffled.

Gong Tinglan and the others witnessed this scene and felt their hearts surge with awe. The legendary technique of scattering beans to summon soldiers — they had lived to see it with their own eyes. This was the power of a Core Formation Zhenren.

As the spectral soldiers finished gathering all the corpses, the mountain-like piles of the dead chilled the heart and filled it with grief.

Lang Jiuchuan formed hand seals, her talisman brush flying across the empty air with lightning speed, drawing several thunder-fire talismans and casting them upon the mounds of corpses. Her lips moved slightly, and a string of incantations flowed from between them. Thunder clouds began to gather in the sky.

“Wind, fire, thunder, lightning — incinerate evil and destroy all that is wicked. Let the thunder come.” Lang Jiuchuan’s talisman brush hovered above the piles of corpses, and a bolt of lightning crackled down, following the brush to ignite the thunder-fire talismans.

Rumble, rumble.

Several thunderous booms rang out, and the mounds of corpses suddenly erupted in roaring flames. Beyond that, several fire serpents wound through the city, and the entire Eight Trigrams City blazed with fire reaching toward the heavens. Those flames, burning with pure righteousness and yang energy, swallowed and dispersed the pervasive energy of the death-demons that had saturated the air.

An infernal sea of fire — nothing more than this.

Lang Jiuchuan sat quietly at the mountain’s peak, watching the sea of fire below. The firelight illuminated her face — clear, cold, and utterly still.

Gong Tinglan watched her silhouette and felt as though her entire being was enveloped by sorrow. He lifted his foot, about to go to her.

“Don’t. Let her be alone.” Feng Ya called out to stop him, shaking his head slightly.

Gong Tinglan pulled his foot back. He was somewhat in awe of Feng Ya — though the physical body belonged to Tantai Wuji, the soul within commanded a reverence from deep within him.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Self-reproach. She has nearly brushed against her inner demon.” Feng Ya gazed at the sea of fire below.

Gong Tinglan’s pupils contracted. “How could that be? She is at the Core Formation realm — she has long transcended the mundane world.”

Feng Ya turned to look at him. “Just because she is at the Core Formation realm, does that mean she is no longer human? She does not cultivate the Dao of Indifference. Her breakthrough to Core Formation — she actually needs time to fully solidify her foundation. But the enemy will not give her that time. If she dares to retreat to some corner to shore up her foundation, countless more dead cities like this Eight Trigrams City will appear across the land. And even now, they were already one step too late.”

Gong Tinglan fell silent.

Feng Ya continued, “She has placed the blame for all of this on herself — the fact that removing the formation-eye artifact that had suppressed the demonic hollow space led to its escape, and that Tantai Wuji turned this place into the Eight Trigrams Death City. This is precisely her compassionate heart.”

To be selfish and heartless might perhaps lead one toward a more solitary Dao — but it would probably be easier to bear.

When one’s compassion ran too deep, it became chains and shackles. Lang Jiuchuan had not yet learned to look upon these things with detachment. And yet this very quality proved, from another angle, that she was a person of flesh and blood and genuine feeling.

Gong Tinglan let out a long sigh. “This is who she truly is.”

“Give her a little time. She will make peace with herself on her own and accept all of this.” Feng Ya furrowed his brow. “What I fear is that she will devise some extreme method in order to eliminate Tantai Wuji.”

Gong Tinglan’s heart lurched. Was it possible? Was it not?

This was the somewhat unpredictable Lang Jiuchuan — what was there she would not dare to do?

Lang Jiuchuan sat at the mountain’s peak, her gaze composed, until a presence appeared behind her. She said, “Fuqi — no matter how we wind and turn, you and I will still return here in the end to put a stop to all of this. Do you dare to walk this path with me?”

Fuqi looked out at the sea of fire below and said, “Why would I not dare? It is nothing more than dying once again.”

“Good. Then let us speak no more of right and wrong, nor of guilt and regret.” Lang Jiuchuan rose to her feet, gazing at the demonic energy being consumed by the righteous yang flames. “I, Lang Jiuchuan, accept all things as they must unfold.”

She turned and walked to where Feng Ya and the others stood. “The Eight Trigrams City has become a dead city. Even though the vengeful souls here have been guided to their rest and much of the demonic energy has been purified, there is still residue — and beyond that, it has now accumulated immeasurable death energy. Even the blood on the ground can transform into blood-borne miasma. This place fits our conjecture for the core of the demonic domain. He will not pass up this opportunity.”

“You mean he will double back for another strike?” Gong Tinglan said. “But this place has already been substantially purified by you, and it has been burned through by righteous yang flames. The upright vital energy will assault the demonic energy. If he wants his demonic arts to reach their peak, this place bodes ill for him.”

Yice shook his head. “The young master of the Gong Family has forgotten one thing. This is the farthest west. As the old saying goes, when one departs on a crane, one goes westward. This shows that those who ascend to paradise all travel toward the western heavens — and in the western heavens dwell all manner of gods and Buddhas. In other words, this is the place closest to the heavens. Look.”

Gong Tinglan was startled. He followed the direction of Yice’s gaze, and saw that the distant horizon and the vast untamed wilderness outside the walls merged into one, making the sky appear remarkably low — as though one could reach up and touch it.

Where the earth met the sky — the closest point to heaven.

Lang Jiuchuan nodded. “Precisely. I did not understand before why he chose this place in particular. Beyond it being a frontier stronghold that has witnessed countless battles and is heavy with death energy — it is also the place nearest to the heavens. If I were to undergo the heavenly ascension, I too would choose this place to lay down an Ascension Formation.”

Everyone’s hearts gave a start.

Feng Ya said with a grave expression, “Even if there were a grand formation here, it has already collapsed. He would find it difficult to construct a demonic domain.”

Lang Jiuchuan looked at him. “Feng Ya — when his power reaches its zenith, he himself can become the demonic domain. Do you think it was for nothing that he turned this place into a dead city and then roamed outward? It is nothing more than wanting to create more death energy and negative emotions, transforming the dark and murky energy of the world into demonic power to serve as his source of strength. Unable to obtain the vital energy of the dragon vein and the national fortune, he can only draw upon this negative energy to transform it into demonic power and forge himself into something greater.”

Negative energy encompassed death energy, yin energy, resentment energy, terror, and more — all of it could serve as his source of power, just like the invisible force of merit and faith.

He was like the corpse-phantoms of old — constantly propagating emotions of panic, completely transforming the energy of the world, turning it into its darkest hour. Thus his demonic arts would reach their peak, and he would be able to achieve the demonic domain of nothingness.

He would not even think of seizing her physical body ahead of time, devouring her divine soul, and taking all her power as a Core Formation Zhenren — because what he wanted was a single decisive blow.

When all was said and done, this was the ultimate confrontation belonging to them alone.

How then would Lang Jiuchuan break this situation?

Feng Ya’s gaze burned as he looked at her and asked, “What is your intent?”

A cold arc curved at the corner of Lang Jiuchuan’s pale lips. “How about a final, ultimate hunt?”

Let him be the beast. Let them be the hunters.