“Passing… through… this… area… leads to… the central region… of God-Demon Island.”

Huang’s voice echoed in the silent world.

His massive body moved forward slowly, pausing for a long time with each step.

Looking carefully, He wasn’t deliberately pausing—His steps were continuous without breaks, but the movement was infinitely slowed.

“Do you… want to know… the true reason… for the gods and demons’… fall? This involves… the greatest secret… since the creation… of heaven and earth… It’s also why… I brought you… here.”

After Huang talked to himself for a while without getting a response from the Supervisor, He fell silent before saying:

“You seem… unhappy…”

The Supervisor’s irritated voice came from within the horn:

“The mortal realm isn’t worth it…”

“The mortal realm isn’t worth it… hmm, that’s… quite reasonable…” Huang considered seriously before agreeing.

You’ve never taken disciples, what do you know… The Supervisor sneered:

“Stop probing… Since we’re already here… whether I am… a Gatekeeper… will soon become… clear…”

“Once I obtain it… even without fate… I can contend with… Beyond-Mortal realm experts. If I then… devour your spiritual essence… I can overpower the Beyond-Mortal realm… Of course, I will first… destroy Great Feng… and seize… the Central Plains’ fate.”

After speaking, He fell silent, moving forward slowly but steadily.

The flow of time was slow in this area—one day here equaled ten days in the outside world. The best way to overcome this was to devour the local spiritual essence.

But doing so would force Him into hibernation.

Usually, this wouldn’t matter, but now Xu Qi An and the Nine-Tailed Fox were on the island. If He went into hibernation, it wasn’t His safety He worried about, but rather that the boy might get there first.

That’s why He had earlier left this area to try hunting down Xu Qi An.

Unfortunately, that old thief of a Supervisor had seen through His weakness and warned Xu Qi An, allowing him to escape.

…

The desolate wilderness—bleakness and death were the main themes of God-Demon Island.

Hidden in the Great Void for countless years without seeing sunlight, and affected by the powers of dead gods and demons, no living creature could survive here.

Walking across the wilderness, they heard only seductive sounds, soft and alluring, accompanied by illusory beauties posing provocatively everywhere. Men without strong willpower would already be burning with desire by now.

Wanting only to engage in the most primal activity.

Xu Qi An admired the illusory beauties. Though he was submissive, except for being unable to control himself before the Flower God, most of the time his upper head remained in charge.

The soul-stealing magical sounds, I saw the Nine-Tailed Fox use them last time in the Southern Border… The beautiful illusions must be manifestations of seductive power. The Nine-Tailed Fox has quite a few talents… After watching the illusions for a while, Xu Qi An couldn’t help but turn to examine the Nine-Tailed Fox beside him, unconsciously comparing her with those illusory beauties.

The silver-haired beauty demon said charmingly:

“Which figure is better—this Kingdom Master’s or theirs?”

“Each has their own merits,” Xu Qi An replied objectively.

The fox spirit didn’t hear his flattery and was somewhat unhappy, snorting:

“You’re only able to control your desires because you have the love poison with you. Otherwise, you’d have gone mad by now.”

“And then whip you?” Xu Qi An said with a smile.

The Nine-Tailed Fox felt something seemed wrong with those words but couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Xu Qi An continued admiring the beauties. Observing, one could see they had nine different appearances:

Shy and delicate like a sheltered maiden; noble and cold like an immortal; dignified and reserved like a noble lady; passionate like a young mare; seductive and enchanting like a bewitching beauty; gentle and mature like an elder sister; valiant and heroic like a female warrior; wanton and alluring like a courtesan; pure and romantic like the girl next door.

He suspected these images were the nine tails of that Qingqiu Fox from the past.

Each one was a world-toppling beauty.

“Haven’t you noticed something strange about the Supervisor?” the Nine-Tailed Fox suddenly said.

“He’s always strange… Hmm, do any of your tails resemble that lady?” Xu Qi An replied casually.

The Nine-Tailed Fox followed his gaze to a woman of flawless beauty, her lips slightly curved, eyes bewitching, seemingly on the verge of speaking, her posture alluring yet not vulgar—a seductive and enchanting beauty.

“None of your romantic partners are like this,” the Nine-Tailed Fox understood and promptly shot him down:

“No, but you could cultivate Bai Ji into this type of woman. She’s very malleable, and being cute, she won’t be inferior to Ye Ji or Xue Ji in the future.”

“Are all demon tribes so depraved? I’m raising Bai Ji like a daughter.”

Xu Qi’an spat and wore an expression of shame to be associated with her. Before the Nine-Tailed Fox could get angry, he said seriously:

“The Supervisor can utilize the power of God-Demon Island. At this point, I’m afraid even Huang can’t match.”

That butterfly was the best proof.

The Demon Kingdom Master made a sound of agreement and said:

“That’s why you probed him, asking if he deliberately let Huang seal him just to use His power to come to this island.”

Xu Qi An didn’t deny it, sighing:

“But he didn’t answer me directly, which means this matter concerns core secrets he doesn’t want to tell me yet.”

“You’re slightly better than a crude martial artist.”

The silver-haired beauty demon evaluated with pride.

In their previous conversation, filled with probing and veiled meanings, Xu Qi An had ultimately failed, gaining no additional intelligence beyond what the Supervisor wanted to tell him.

That’s why at the end of their conversation, he had revenge by telling the Supervisor about Chu Caiwei taking over his position.

Deliberately annoying him.

“So the Supervisor is most likely a Gatekeeper,” the Nine-Tailed Fox concluded.

“Probably!” Xu Qi An pinched his brow and said:

“He still has many secrets. The First Generation’s rise was unusual—if he’s a Gatekeeper, then everything makes sense. But looking at the current situation, it seems the current generation are the Gatekeepers, which leaves the First Generation’s rise unexplained.”

“Never mind, we’ll know eventually, I have a feeling.”

After a pause, he remembered something else and said in a casual tone:

“I suddenly recalled something—when the Dao Sovereign drove the god-demon descendants out of the Nine Provinces continent back then, why did he uniquely spare your Nine-Tailed Fox lineage?”

The Nine-Tailed Fox lineage was powerful, definitely a thorn in the Dao Sovereign’s side.

The fox spirit frowned and shook her head:

“When I learned that the Dao Sovereign drove out the god-demon descendants from the Nine Provinces, I felt something was wrong.”

“However, my mother never spoke about the reason.”

“Besides, while the Demon Kingdom lineage remained, the rest of our clan members were still driven out of the Nine Provinces.”

Xu Qi An’s heart stirred, and he said, “Could it be that one of the Demon Queens was the Dao Sovereign’s lover?”

“That’s quite possible,” the Nine-Tailed Fox said frankly.

The Nine-Tailed Fox clan was seductive and admired the powerful—having some entanglement with the Dao Sovereign before he achieved the Dao would be normal.

Of course, that was another story altogether.

They encountered no dangers along the way, after all, at Xu Qi An’s rank, almost nothing on God-Demon Island could threaten him except for Huang.

After walking for who knows how long, they finally saw their destination—the Qingqiu Fox’s remains!

Ahead on the wasteland stood a huge skeleton, shaped like a canine but sized like an adult elephant. It lay helplessly on the wasteland, its skull covered in cracks but otherwise intact, while the bones of its body were scattered in pieces.

Fragments lay scattered in disorder.

Xu Qi An noticed that this skeleton had no tail bones, and the cracked skull was carved with profound and complex patterns. Just glancing at it made him hear seductive sounds, and he felt the skull was so attractive he wanted to take it home as a wife.

“The Qingqiu Fox’s spiritual essence is imprinted on the skull?” he asked in surprise.

Wasn’t the innate divine ability supposed to be in the nine tails?

But he quickly understood—the tails were just vessels, the key to the substitutes was still the nine soul fragments.

The Demon Kingdom Master bent down to pick up the skull, holding it high above her head with an entranced expression.

She had longed for this day for a very long time.

Though the spiritual essence was incomplete, it was enough for her to advance to First Rank, as she had long been at the peak of Second Rank, stuck at this level for many years.

Only by advancing to First Rank could she truly catch up to her mother’s level and become the undisputed Demon Kingdom Master, preventing others from saying each generation of Demon Kingdom Masters was inferior to the last.

Only by advancing to First Rank could she protect the demon tribe and seek survival in the catastrophe.

Only by advancing to First Rank would she be qualified to participate in the catastrophe and have the power to influence its outcome.

The Nine-Tailed Fox took a deep breath and slowly put the skull on her head. During this process, the skull automatically shrank to a size suitable for her to wear, covering her head and eyes, and leaving only the lower half of her snow-white, delicate face exposed.

Silver hair slid out from the skull, falling smoothly down her back.

In terms of aesthetics, this adorned Nine-Tailed Fox gained a “tribal” wildness, adding to her charm.

As the hat settled in place, the patterns on the skull lit up, flickering with a dim green light.

The Nine-Tailed Fox sat cross-legged and spoke quickly:

“The fastest way to advance is to keep the skull and merge with it, taking three to five days. If I want to thoroughly digest the spiritual essence within the skull, it would take two months.”

Xu Qi An pondered for a moment and said:

“The first method.”

The Supervisor had given them a ten-day deadline. In ten days, Huang would pass through that area of slow time flow and reach the core of God-Demon Island.

If they wanted to intercept, they had to cross that area within five days.

They didn’t have much time left.

The Nine-Tailed Fox fell silent, focusing on refining and absorbing the spiritual essence within the skull.