After walking for the time it took to brew several pots of tea, their view suddenly opened up before them. Shao Yi stopped in front of a cluster of cotton rose hibiscus. These mortal realm flowering trees had been infected by turbid energy and turned pitch-black, their branches and leaves writhing as if alive. Not far ahead shone the radiance of the Purity Barrier formation, and within the formation lay the pitch-black, profound Sea of Regret.

This was Xuan Yi’s first time seeing it at such close range. It was truly difficult to imagine just how formidable her great-grandfather had been. She had never seen such massive Zhuyin darkness before.

“The battle generals guarding the formation are somewhat troublesome. I’ll help draw them away.”

Shao Yi closed his eyes, and the fiery red jewel on his forehead suddenly began to flicker. After a long while, his complexion grew increasingly pale. Finally, he opened his eyes, sweat sliding down his face: “All right, just wait.”

Without a word, Xuan Yi crouched behind the cotton rose hibiscus, quietly watching its pitch-black writhing leaves being gently blown by the wind. Slowly, the wind grew stronger and stronger. She raised her head to look toward the horizon, where clusters of ochre-yellow demonic fog were gathering. She finally couldn’t help but draw in a breath.

“I’ve summoned Zichou Dajun.” Shao Yi’s lips curved into an indifferent smile. “Several great lords absorbed fragments earliest and have now been eroded by obsession almost completely. This great lord is probably the last one I can control. The connection with the obsession is about to be severed completely.”

So that’s why the extermination of Hushen and Shangmao had been so strange—why Hushen kept fixating on Qing Yan, and that final mouthful of black waves had clearly been deliberately sprayed to send him far away. It had indeed been Shao Yi’s doing.

The Wuchen Division was now in complete chaos, with the battle generals guarding the formation all rushing to meet the enemy. Seeing that they had withdrawn sufficiently, Xuan Yi immediately circled around the cotton rose hibiscus and flew toward the Sea of Regret.

A clear, refreshing wind rushed toward her face. Xuan Yi suddenly sensed danger and immediately erected an ice wall. With a thunderous “clang,” an enormous golden dragon shattered her ice wall and opened its brilliantly glowing golden maw, actually intending to swallow her whole.

Sword energy transformed into a dragon!

She hastily dodged and erected another ice wall. Another thunderous sound rang out, but this time the ice wall only trembled and didn’t shatter. Xuan Yi stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around, meeting a pair of profoundly dark eyes.

Alas, he was the very last person she wanted to see right now.

The white-robed divine lord’s sleeves fluttered as he walked gracefully toward the ice wall. Xuan Yi stared into his eyes. Don’t come closer, don’t come closer—she was going to her death here, so what was he doing? How could he have come to the Sea of Regret?

Her gaze was almost pleading, as if begging him to leave quickly. Fucang didn’t stop. He had pursued her all the way from the heavens to the earth, not to hear her tell him to leave, nor to see this kind of expression on her face. He truly disliked this expression of hers.

His hand gently touched the ice wall, and a voice even colder than the frigid ice transmitted through: “Take down the ice wall.”

The heart in her chest felt as if it was about to split open again. This pain even made Xuan Yi wonder if her heart injury had relapsed. She lowered her head with a smile, drifted over, and pressed her palm against his through the ice wall.

“Don’t look.” She who had always been sharp-tongued paused for a long while, yet could only utter three words.

If he didn’t look at her, who else could he look at?

Their gazes intersected. After a long time, Fucang’s line of sight finally shifted to behind her. Beside a cluster of pitch-black cotton rose hibiscus, a figure in dark black robes flashed past. He spoke: “He ordered you to enter the Sea of Regret?”

Why wasn’t Shao Yi coming over now? Come help her stop him, drive him away! Wasn’t he supposed to be very powerful? What about that emperor’s power—couldn’t he beat Fucang half to death and throw him far away?! Wasn’t he supposed to be especially vicious and especially cold-blooded? Why wasn’t he being cold-blooded now?

Xuan Yi was practically grinding her teeth. Suddenly, she brought both hands together, and several invisible ice walls surrounded Fucang, trapping him completely within an ice box. She turned and suddenly drifted far away, leaving behind only one sentence: “If you watch, don’t regret it.”

An earth-shattering sound of shattering reverberated in her ears. Xuan Yi didn’t look back, erecting ice walls one after another behind her. That she could still be so ruthless today—she truly admired herself.

The radiance of the Purity Barrier formation was right before her eyes. She fell upon it like a shooting star. The calm, pitch-black Sea of Regret seemed to sense a divine being approaching, as those thick black mists began to undulate gracefully. She flew swiftly toward that enormous expanse of black fog. The sounds of ice walls shattering also stopped ringing out. Yes, just leave like this.

A clear wind gently descended at her side as a hand tightly grasped her arm. Xuan Yi turned her head in shock—only to see that the ice walls she had erected behind somehow had all silently shattered without her knowing. He actually possessed such ability?!

That hand yanked her violently, and the back of her head crashed heavily against Fucang’s chest. Immediately after, another hand forcefully covered her mouth and nose. Fucang’s voice could simply be described as sinister: “If you’re so eager to throw away your life, why don’t I escort you partway?”

All her supposedly formidable Zhuyin Clan abilities seemed to lose their effect when encountering him. Xuan Yi struggled to pull at his hand, but when it came to competing in strength, she had never won against him—every time ended in miserable defeat.

Fucang dragged her around and was about to take flight when suddenly the calm Sea of Regret surged high. The pitch-black, bitterly cold black fog, like a gaping maw, swiftly lunged toward them. He hastily retreated, but the dragon princess in his arms began to surge with divine power, trying once again to push him away.

Why must she always push him away? To save her father and elder brother, she had silently run here to brave the Sea of Regret alone—did she want him to praise her as great and glorious? Where was that dragon princess who had always been so selfish? He had never longed as much as at this moment for her to be more selfish.

If she must go, then let them go together! His sword path had originally become sharper and sharper time after time because of her. If he didn’t have her, what use was this Chun Jun blade?

Fucang moved the hand covering her mouth and nose, locked his arms tightly around her in a death grip, and instead of retreating, rushed forward. Amid Xuan Yi’s cry of alarm, their figures were swiftly swallowed by the black fog.

It was like falling into a paste of bone-chilling cold, so thick it bordered on madness. The turbid energy suddenly enveloped them, immediately causing them to feel suffocating pain. All sounds seemed to stop, and even time nearly froze. Chun Jun emitted a humming sound thick with killing intent. Such surging turbid energy made it sense the same threat as when dealing with Gonggong Dajun back then. It couldn’t wait to leave its sheath.

Fucang pressed one hand against it while circling Xuan Yi with the other. Nothing could be seen here—the black fog was bitterly cold, yet the sand grains beneath them were scalding hot. He was about to stand up when she in his arms clutched at his collar, trembling and forcefully shaking it twice. She said nothing, only her heavy breathing pierced through his eardrums.

He released Chun Jun and covered her face with his palm. Countless tears like ice particles were sliding down from her lashes one by one.

He lifted the dragon princess up, kissed her on her cold, damp cheeks, but then forcefully knocked her on the head, producing a loud “thunk.”

Xuan Yi was crying her heart out when his knock instead stunned her into stillness. With her dragon scales, it didn’t hurt, but he had actually hit her…

Fucang pulled her to her feet, his tone still icy cold: “We’ll settle this account slowly when we get back.”

Chun Jun suddenly left its sheath and transformed into an enormous golden dragon. Its piercing radiance illuminated the surrounding scenery, but left them both stunned.

They had originally thought the Sea of Regret should be a barren sandy wasteland, but who knew there would actually be shadowy clusters of tall, slender, round palace complexes, seemingly built from sand grains. In this pitch-black deathly silence, they appeared exceptionally eerie.

Xuan Yi wiped away the tear stains on her face. She really wasn’t suited to crying—after crying for a while, even she couldn’t stand it herself. Her gaze swept around that cluster of sand grain palace complexes, and she spoke with a nasal tone still in her voice: “This is the appearance of Qiongsang City.”

Since Fucang had already followed her here, she had absolutely no need to conceal anything. She swiftly recounted the entire matter with eloquent clarity.

Shao Yi’s obsession was to stay alive. The scene left behind here was probably the root source of that obsession’s emergence. He had originally chosen to fight to annihilation for the pride of the Qingyang Clan. This sand grain Qiongsang City should be the deepest attachment in his divine soul.