The situation was originally controllable. Li Ye carried hardly any killing intent and hadn’t planned to make another move. But under these circumstances, for the Heavenly Diviner to still play mind games with him was nothing short of provocation.

He raised his sleeve, and a fierce wind rose in the Thorny Forest. Leaves rustled loudly, the sound drowning out everyone’s voices like crashing waves.

Taihe anxiously opened his mouth, but his words didn’t reach Li Ye’s ears.

“This is terrible,” he transmitted to Chu Yuan through soul voice. “Quickly find Er’er—there’s still a slim chance!”

Chu Yuan was flying above another part of the Thorny Forest. Receiving the transmission, he paused briefly in confusion. The next instant, a scarlet mist exploded in the sky over the western Thorny Forest, spreading like cinnabar dropped in water, dyeing a large swath of forest red in an instant.

Even from far away, Chu Yuan could feel the thick bloodthirsty aura.

It’s over, he frowned. Li Ye ultimately couldn’t control himself.

He had already tricked that little girl into sharing half her cultivation with him, yet this man could still be so powerful?

Heavy-hearted, Chu Yuan looked around and finally spotted a set of chaotic footprints on the wetland ahead.

He went over for a closer look, examining them for a while. He could faintly smell a trace of immortal energy in the wind.

It was Er’er, but why would she run to this deserted corner?

The footprints went a few steps in one direction and then disappeared. Chu Yuan took a deep breath and pursued in that direction.

***

Er’er hadn’t meant to wander. Thinking back now, she realized she had fallen into a trap.

The Thorny Forest contained numerous formations. Though many killing formations had been broken, some bewildering formations remained, and Zhu Yan likely knew their locations.

So when she took a step forward, he withdrew the protective barrier given by Li Ye.

Being suddenly thrown to another part of the Thorny Forest wasn’t a coincidence—it was Zhu Yan’s careful calculation.

More frightening still, he had anticipated her every subsequent move—that she would run toward the sounds of fighting, that she would deploy her protective barrier out of fear.

So the direction from which strange battle sounds continuously emanated was exactly opposite to the direction in which the Heavenly Diviner was fleeing.

Her protective barrier carried Li Ye’s immortal energy, so when they met from afar, the Heavenly Diviner captured her into his Eight Trigrams Plate without a word.

Er’er hadn’t expected the Heavenly Diviner to possess such a magical device. No matter what spells she cast or how much immortal power she used, she couldn’t break through the surrounding solid walls.

Now, she sat hugging her knees in a patch of chaos. Lava flowed continuously around her, while above her head spread an incredibly brilliant starry sky.

She couldn’t escape.

Moreover, strange energies kept drawing on her spiritual power—one hour drawing Water Dao energy, the next hour drawing Fire Dao energy. But these energies seemed to know that “to receive without giving is not proper,” so when they took one type of spiritual power from her, they always compensated with another type of opposing power.

Thus Er’er understood that this place was a prison specially designed to contain Supreme Gods.

A Five Elements Supreme God, even someone like Xin Wu, couldn’t survive having their elemental energy stolen and replaced with opposing energy—they would die from internal bleeding. Yet coincidentally, this place worked on everyone except her, who had dabbled in a bit of everything, leaving her largely unaffected.

In fact, for several types of spiritual energy she originally lacked, not much was taken, but quite a lot was returned during the next cycle.

“Where does it all come from?” After receiving a strong infusion of Earth Dao energy, Er’er couldn’t help muttering.

The surrounding lava bubbled and gurgled. At first glance, it looked like molten iron, but as she gazed around in boredom, she suddenly glimpsed the remains of a divine soul.

Er’er: “…”

The stars in the sky moved across the dome, occasionally two extremely bright ones shining down, casting her face in a ghastly white light.

How many Supreme Gods had died in this place?

She remembered her master Taihe saying that the Heavenly Diviner was compassionate, that the Nine Heavens only had prisons for the living, not for the dead. Even gods who committed great disrespect would only face the Heavenly Punishment thunderbolt after all gods deemed them guilty.

Watching the remnant souls occasionally surfacing in the lava before sinking back down, Er’er clutched her head.

She was still a child,x not even nine hundred years old—she couldn’t handle this shock.

The previously stable space suddenly shook violently, rocking as intensely as an earthquake.

Er’er reacted swiftly, flying up into the air and looking around in bewilderment.

What was happening outside?

Before she could think further, the starry sky above suddenly split open, and two wisps of divine soul fell through. They seemed extremely weak, without even a cloud to ride, plummeting straight down.

Quick-eyed and quick-handed, Er’er reached out and grabbed.

She caught a familiar whisk. The two souls still tumbled below.

“Wow,” she lifted the whisk to examine it. “This looks like the one my master carries.”

A muffled thud came from below. After a moment, someone laughed bitterly in extreme anger: “That is indeed the one I carry.”

Huh?

Er’er quickly looked down to see Master Taihe lying on the ground, his face ashen, lips bloodless. He seemed so exhausted that he didn’t even want to rise, just lying there cursing her: “You certainly know how to hide!”

Scrambling down to his side, Er’er helped him up and checked his pulse: “What happened?”

Taihe blew angrily at his beard without answering her, instead looking toward the person who had fallen on the other side, saying gravely: “You said you wouldn’t trouble yourself with a minor immortal.”

The Heavenly Diviner struggled to sit up, glanced at Er’er, and frowned deeply: “When did she come here?”

“Even now, you still lie to me?” Taihe was heartbroken. “I’ve defended you for so many years, so many years! It’s not that I don’t know your character, but I have never betrayed you. How can you, even at this point, not speak a single truth?”

“Truly, it wasn’t me,” the Heavenly Diviner sighed. “As you said, things have come to this point—what would be the purpose of lying? I don’t know when she entered.”

“You…” Taihe was so angry that he began coughing violently.

Er’er helped ease his breathing and said softly: “Master, he really might not know about this.”

Two pairs of eyes turned to her simultaneously.

Er’er turned her hand, first covering Master Taihe with a complete Five Elements protective formation to shield him from the strange energies of this place, then squatted down and said: “Help me get out of here, and I’ll go find Li Ye to clarify everything.”

Taihe closed his eyes with a complex expression and shook his head: “It’s too late.”

Er’er’s brow twitched. After a moment of silence, she looked toward the Heavenly Diviner.

The Heavenly Diviner wore a wry smile. Glancing at the protective formation she had cast, he simply lay back down on the ground: “This is the safest place now. After a few hundred years, when he calms down, we can leave.”

A few hundred years? Er’er was stunned: “Isn’t there still fighting outside?”

“It’s precisely because the fighting continues that he brought this soul of mine in here,” Master Taihe lowered his eyes, his tone part mockery, part sarcasm. “In this world, no one can truly kill him.”