Zhi Xi was flustered and embarrassed. This was the worst moment of her life. She couldn’t find her usual calm expression at all. She stepped back several times before hurriedly lowering her head, her voice trembling: “I… I’m sorry, I disturbed you. I was just passing by unintentionally.”

She turned to leave. Her movements were too hasty and she nearly crashed into the wall. She only wished there was a hole she could crawl into.

Shao Yi’s voice sounded behind her again: “Is Senior Sister also coming to the Wuchen Division?”

Zhi Xi nodded randomly: “Yes… I’m busy. I’m leaving.”

She had long forgotten the way she came and ran around wildly in the warrior palace. With great difficulty, she found the hall door and went out. She only felt cold sweat soaking through her clothes layer by layer on her back, and the heart in her chest became especially heavy, beating especially fast.

She stood there in a daze for a while. Just as she was about to mount her xiezhi, she suddenly heard footsteps coming from inside the palace. Shao Yi’s smiling voice suddenly rang out: “Senior Sister, ah, good thing I caught up.”

He had chased after her? Zhi Xi turned her head to look at him. After so many years apart, his stature had grown much taller. The brightly colored and luxuriously styled long robe on him no longer carried that affected debauched energy from before. His matured handsomeness was as sharp as strong wine and a knife blade.

Shao Yi leaned against a stone sculpture in front of the palace with a smile: “Why would Senior Sister come to the Wuchen Division? This is hardly a relaxing place.”

But she felt he was living quite comfortably, always having goddesses by his side to accompany him and flirt.

Zhi Xi was silent for a while, then told a difficult lie: “Warrior… duty changes. I was transferred here.”

Shao Yi smiled slightly: “Are all the senior and junior brothers well?”

Zhi Xi nodded silently.

“How is Little Loach doing now?” Shao Yi seemed to have completely failed to notice her awkwardness, chatting intimately like family gossip. “Oh, she probably hasn’t reached forty thousand years old yet and can’t become a warrior. I wonder if she’s been studying and cultivating properly?”

Little Loach? Zhi Xi was stunned for quite a while before understanding he meant Xuan Yi.

“…Xuan Yi has now been brought to Yuhua Hall by Great Emperor Qingyuan, requesting warriors to guide her in martial arts and sword dao cultivation.”

Shao Yi couldn’t help but sigh: “Guiding Little Loach in martial arts and sword dao sounds much more interesting than guarding here.”

Zhi Xi could no longer hold back and said urgently: “You… didn’t you say before that you wanted to guard the Sea of Parting Regret and restore it to its original state?”

Shao Yi tilted his head and thought: “Did I say that?”

Seeing Zhi Xi’s face turn green, he couldn’t help but laugh twice. He gazed at the formation’s clear light in the distance and said leisurely: “Just joking, Senior Sister. Of course I said it. It’s touching that you still remember.”

Of course she remembered. It was precisely because she remembered too deeply that she had also fallen too deeply, always believing that frivolousness and debauchery were just his exterior, and that his heart must have a proud and upright side.

Just as Zhi Xi was about to speak, she suddenly felt an abrupt gust of wild wind strike her face. The ice and snow covering the ground of the Extreme Northern Abyss were blown up and scattered. Her hair was also blown into disarray, and she hurriedly covered it with her hands.

This strange gale grew stronger and stronger. She couldn’t help but turn her head toward the horizon. She saw the distant sky gradually take on an extremely demonic dark purple color, clumping together in masses, squeezing apart the sea of clouds.

It was demon fog!

The giant bell sound of the Lunyin technique echoed across the sky. Shao Yi’s long sleeves vibrated like wings as he rose on the wind. Zhi Xi hurriedly rode her xiezhi to catch up, exclaiming in alarm: “Are there often demon clan attacks here?”

She had just arrived—it couldn’t be such a coincidence, could it?

Shao Yi said: “Every day. But what’s coming today seems not simple.”

Ever since learning that the Sea of Parting Regret was in the Extreme Northern Abyss, the demon clans of the lower realm had all coveted and salivated over it, often risking death to break through the formation to obtain more power. The Wuchen Division had therefore been allocated a full three thousand warriors, making it the division with the most warriors among the sixty divisions.

The warriors were obviously accustomed to this situation. Each reacted extraordinarily quickly. A barrier like copper walls and iron ramparts was instantly erected a hundred miles outside the formation. The churning demon fog crashed against it, rippling in waves. The warriors blew out hurricanes, dispersing the demon fog and revealing four staggered giant fangs hidden behind it, a thousand zhang high, piercing straight into the clouds.

Zhi Xi gasped: “What a gigantic demon body!”

Over these years in the Xinyou Division, she had mostly slain scattered demon clans. The demon bodies she saw were often not even as large as the catfish body of Immortal Wujiang back then. Seeing this demon body as magnificent as heaven and earth this time, she was so shocked her face changed color.

Clearly, she wasn’t the only one shocked. The battle-hardened warriors of the Wuchen Division also changed color one after another. Great Emperor Gouchen, who rushed over from the warrior palace in haste, immediately darkened his face upon seeing this situation and said sternly: “Old Jade Rat! Even you want to cause trouble?!”

He was naturally hot-tempered. When he said he’d attack, he attacked. Raising both hands, ten thousand rays of golden light smashed toward the four staggered fangs. The warriors also immediately suppressed their timidity. For a time, various techniques thundered, winds rolled and clouds surged, flying sand and walking stones, almost shattering this corner of heaven and earth.

After the earth-shattering attack, those four fangs shattered all over the ground. Before the gods could rejoice, they suddenly healed back together in an instant.

Great Emperor Gouchen gnashed his teeth: “How dare you toy with the upper realm!”

Originally there were many ancient demon clan great lords in the lower realm, but not every one took advantage of the Sea of Parting Regret disaster to cause trouble. Great Lord Jade Rat had always had good relations with the divine realm and had even explicitly stated he would never fall into becoming a demon. But what was this now? That strange healing ability was precisely the result of absorbing Sea of Parting Regret fragments. These demon clans really were one way to your face and another behind your back—utterly detestable!

Great Lord Jade Rat’s low and hoarse voice came from behind the demon fog: “Although I wish to avoid the world, I am unable to help myself. This disaster is the evil karma that you of the upper realm brought upon yourselves. I am caught between my own clan and the upper realm and truly cannot bear it. I cannot help but accomplish one more portion of evil fruit for you. Give me half of this Sea of Parting Regret, and I will not annihilate your souls.”

As soon as the words fell, those four fangs suddenly opened. From the pitch-black giant mouth, endless black fog poured out like a waterfall. Upon hitting the ground, it transformed into palm-sized white jade rats that charged toward the barrier in overwhelming numbers.

Great Emperor Gouchen darkly chanted an incantation. Dense golden light pierced through the Extreme Northern Abyss’s dim firmament, splitting in midair into countless fine golden needles that pinned those snow-white rats one by one to the ground. After a burst of squeaking cries, the pinned rats all transformed into masses of black fog. They rolled on the ground, then condensed back into bodies and pounced toward the barrier, about to bite through it.

Great Emperor Gouchen flew into such a rage he couldn’t choose his words: “It’s all a mess stirred up by the Zhuyin Clan and the Qingyang Clan! The Zhuyin Clan won’t even come over until now, and the Qingyang Clan only sent a young junior! A whole pile of rotten accounts left to us!”

…So his temper really was bad.

Zhi Xi found it amusing while smashing the white jade rats at the barrier. She heard Shao Yi call from behind: “Senior Sister, fall back.”

Scorching wind and waves came at her. Beneath the barrier, several zhang-high deep blue flames silently rose up. The white jade rats crashed into the fire like a tide, squeaking wildly as they burned, transforming into wisps of blue smoke that dissipated in the air, no longer condensing into bodies.

Shao Yi waved his long sleeve. The deep blue flames suddenly surged over ten zhang higher, encircling the barrier in the blink of an eye, leaping brilliantly in the cold wind.

This was… the Flames of Destruction used against the locust demon back then? Zhi Xi was both surprised and admiring. Back then he could only summon a small cluster! She couldn’t help but turn her head to look at Shao Yi. His face was completely calm and composed, as if it took no effort at all.

“Except for this Qingyang Clan member, everyone else go up and fight! Beat them to death for me!”

The hot-tempered Great Emperor Gouchen roared while impatiently charging up first. The warriors and the demon horde brought by Great Lord Jade Rat fought in a tangled mass. Half the sky was illuminated by auspicious light.

After Shao Yi laid down the third layer of Flames of Destruction, he suddenly heard laughter like silver bells ring out nearby. Then an alluring female voice spoke: “Shao Yi, you heartless one, you said you’d come to the lower realm often to see me, but only came to find me after so long.”

In the next moment, the white jade rats scurrying on the ground suddenly condensed into a figure—feathered garments and rainbow dress, extraordinarily seductive.

Shao Yi’s eyes narrowed slightly. He felt a flash of cold light. This beautiful figure held a pitch-black blade in her hand, thrusting it toward his face.

He tilted his head to let it pass. From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a silver dragon-like soft sword carrying wind and thunder energy sweeping over. Not far away, Zhi Xi’s long sleeve vibrated, and the soft sword bound this female demon up tight.