In years past, he had searched through countless records and learned of the existence of the Killing Red Small Realm left behind by Luye Laozu, which contained the bones of Dijiang. He calculated that he could obtain a Dao Seal of the Wind Thunder Wing, so he allowed Gu Qingmei to enter the realm to explore. At that time, he only knew there were powerful enemies within the realm, but didn’t know who they were. It wasn’t until he heard that the new female disciple taken in by Yashan possessed a Wind Thunder Wing Dao Seal that he learned the identity of the one who had opposed him within the realm.

But by now, this Dao Seal had become irrelevant.

Whether for him or for Jian Chou, after their cultivation had climbed to a level where they could be called “Great Powers,” the might of Dijiang’s Wind Thunder Wing was truly inadequate.

After Xie Buchen destroyed the seal, he also showed no intention of taking action.

Jian Chou and he had spent past years—whether in mortal times or through the seasons of the cultivation world—in mutual suspicion, while constantly familiarizing themselves with each other’s changes.

The strongest nemesis, the deepest understanding.

After hearing these words, her gaze flickered slightly, but just as when she had previously heard Xie Buchen say she was “confused by concern,” she made no comment and only asked: “Fellow Daoist Xie seems to wish to offer guidance?”

Xie Buchen merely lowered his eyes in an ordinary manner, his voice without any fluctuation: “Without emotion, there are no weaknesses; with emotion, one is constrained by others. Fellow Daoist Jian Chou, I’m afraid you’ll have to be careful in all matters from now on.”

It sounded like advice that was remarkably similar to genuine counsel.

This was his most personal experience, wasn’t it?

But Jian Chou was ultimately not him.

She didn’t respond to Xie Buchen with another word, only turning to look back at this moment. During that exchange that couldn’t really be called very long, the Kunwu group had already bypassed the spatial rift barrier she had set up and arrived in great numbers in pursuit.

Wang Que, Wu Duan, and the others were all present.

Seeing from afar the standoff between Jian Chou and Xie Buchen across the massive crater, everyone became alert.

Only Wang Que glanced at the wound on Jian Chou’s back and frowned slightly.

The Kunwu disciples naturally sided with Xie Buchen.

Before anyone else could speak, Wu Duan of the White Bone Dragon Sword, remembering his old acquaintance with Jian Chou, advised her: “Senior Sister Jian Chou, we have come this time under orders. If Senior Sister insists on obstructing us, I fear it will damage the harmony between our Kunwu and Yashan sects…”

“Is there still any harmony left between the Kunwu and Yashan sects?”

Though she could see Wu Duan was reluctant to draw his sword against her, this time she stood firmly on Fu Chaosheng’s side no matter what, and truly could not agree with what True Person Hengxu had done.

“Life and death don’t matter—just attack as you will.”

At this point, there was no way to end this peacefully.

Wu Duan wanted to persuade her, but seeing Jian Chou’s demeanor, she truly didn’t seem like someone who could be persuaded. With the White Bone Dragon Sword in hand, for the first time he found it difficult to draw.

In truth, True Person Hengxu’s actions had also exceeded their expectations.

But master’s orders were difficult to defy, and moreover, there was indeed something strange about Fu Chaosheng…

Though everyone knew the person before them was Yashan’s eldest senior sister, she had already nearly declared war on True Person Hengxu and Kunwu back in Eight Directions City. With words spoken to this extent, not taking action would be unreasonable.

Thus, the clear sound of swords being drawn rang out!

Half of the Kunwu disciples were already preparing to form a sword formation again, since none of them individually possessed the cultivation to contend with Jian Chou.

But just at this moment, a thunderclap suddenly came from the sky!

“Crack!”

Scarlet lightning abruptly tore through the sky, rushing from above the eighteen levels of hell into the underground depths, heading straight for the Kunwu group!

It was actually a thunder message!

Now that the war between the Yin and Yang realms had ended, regardless of internal conflicts, Shijiu Zhou had grasped the overall situation, so methods like wind and thunder messages could naturally be employed in this realm.

But they had only ever seen blue and white thunder messages—when had they ever seen red ones?

Jian Chou couldn’t determine the depth of this thunder message, but at the sight of it, the Kunwu group’s faces changed in horror!

Wang Que’s brow immediately furrowed deeper. With a single raised hand, he gathered the scarlet lightning between his five fingers and extended his divine consciousness to read it.

His face suddenly showed shock and anger.

His expression held several parts of disbelief!

“What is it?”

The scarlet thunder message was Kunwu’s summoning signal for times of utmost crisis—Wu Duan knew this clearly. Seeing Wang Que’s expression after reading the message, he became anxious.

Wang Que’s voice carried a few traces of hoarseness. For some reason, he looked deeply at Jian Chou once before replying: “Something has happened…”

This sudden change was truly unexpected, even for Jian Chou.

Something happened?

She couldn’t help but turn to look at Xie Buchen.

It seemed Xie Buchen’s brow moved slightly, his brow creasing as if he too was somewhat surprised. But somehow, Jian Chou actually felt there wasn’t a trace of fluctuation in his heart, as if he had known this would happen all along.

The Kunwu disciples were suddenly filled with dread.

Wang Que didn’t specify what had happened, but the situation was clearly dire.

Knowing there was considerable enmity between Xie Buchen and Jian Chou, he turned to say something to Xie Buchen.

But unexpectedly, Xie Buchen spoke before he could, as if knowing what he was about to say: “We’ve already let one Shaoji escape; letting Fu Chaosheng go as well is not impossible. The matter should prioritize Kunwu. My sparring session with Fellow Daoist Jian Chou has already reached a suitable conclusion. We should return to the mountain gate with all the senior brothers with haste.”

The words that hadn’t been spoken were swallowed back. Wang Que only felt that this Junior Brother Xie’s thoughts were ultimately unfathomable. Though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what, there was always that subtle sense of something being amiss.

However, this wasn’t the time for deep investigation.

He ordered everyone to sheathe their swords and withdraw, leaving this seventh level of hell they had just hurriedly reached moments ago at an even faster pace than their arrival!

Sword lights flew one after another toward the crack at the top of the firmament.

Xie Buchen also didn’t linger, only glancing at Jian Chou once before flying away on clouds.

It was Wang Que who lingered for a moment longer.

Jian Chou’s brow furrowed deeply. She thought Wang Que had something to say to her, but in the end he said nothing, turning with resolute determination to catch up with his Kunwu sect brothers ahead, disappearing in the blink of an eye among the vast layered clouds.

What great matter had occurred?

True Person Hengxu clearly held the attitude of “better to kill wrongly than let escape” toward Fu Chaosheng. Now with a thunder message’s swift arrival, this group of Kunwu disciples had been summoned away, truly causing her some suspicion.

The wound on her body had already healed.

From start to finish, she had only lost a single Dao Seal.

Jian Chou recalled Xie Buchen’s supremely strange mystical ruler, feeling several parts of deep wariness. Even if she had been distracted and careless, she shouldn’t have been successfully schemed against by a Return to Void cultivator. At root, to have even stripped away her Dao Seal—this ruler had great strangeness.

She could still deduce where the Nine Doubts Cauldron had come from, but this ruler left her completely without clues.

However, now wasn’t the time to contemplate this. She merely stored this doubt away for later, thinking to herself that her feud with Xie Buchen would last long into the future—there was truly no rush for this moment.

Her cultivation was higher; finding another opportunity to kill him would be as easy as turning her hand.

Currently, the most important matter was Fu Chaosheng.

After confirming the Kunwu group had departed, Jian Chou unhesitatingly descended along the crater. The massive fracture was like a cliff, and she moved close to the cliff wall, only vaguely remembering that during the cauldron competition years ago, the nine-headed bird had taken her somewhere near here.

There should be an originally extremely hidden space.

After descending for another half moment, she indeed found it.

It appeared to be a hollow cavern within the rock, actually not very large, located deeper at the bottom of the crater. But now that the crater had collapsed, this rock cavern had also partially caved in, as if someone had sliced away half with a sword, opening diagonally on the cliff face.

The eighth level of hell—the Ice Mountain Hell—below could be seen clearly at a glance.

Jian Chou landed in the rock cavern and immediately saw the spring eye had dried up, the river had disappeared, and even the cave entrance that had always blown with endless black wind no longer bore the snow-white emblem condensed from the nine-headed bird’s remnant soul.

Arriving here, she didn’t see Fu Chaosheng’s figure, only saw a large mass of black energy coiled at the cave entrance, violently trembling as if enduring tremendous pain and torment!

“Chaosheng—”

The words “Fellow Daoist” remained stuck in her throat, unable to emerge no matter what in this instant.

Because the moment she spoke, Fu Chaosheng had already sensed her arrival. That black energy gathered together with all its might, but even with maximum effort, it couldn’t form the complete appearance of old.

He only condensed half a form, while the remaining half was shrouded in black energy.

Two powerful forces gnawed and tore at each other within his body, causing his pale half-face to reveal endless savagery!

“Where is Kun…”

The hoarse voice was completely unrecognizable as his former sound, as if another entirely different voice had been cast into this voice, mixing together.

He looked at Jian Chou, nearly red-eyed as he asked her.

Before Jian Chou could answer, when she looked down at her wide sleeves, she saw nothing but crimson red.

At some unknown time, blood had stained her sleeves.

The Kun that had been hidden in her sleeves could no longer endure and slipped from her sleeve—a small black fish that had lost one of its fins, with fresh blood flowing from the wound.

Its true form was the Kunpeng, originally the most massive thing in this heaven and earth. Maintaining its transformed state also required mental energy.

Now having fallen out, its fish body trembled.

With a weak, sorrowful cry, it struggled to move its fish tail, swimming weakly toward the outside of the rock cavern!

“Kun!”

Fu Chaosheng extended a hand, wanting to catch it, but only grasped a handful of blood!

Jian Chou felt desolate in her heart, already knowing that this ancient demon god who had accompanied Fu Chaosheng since the Great Dream Reef in the Western Sea had reached the end of its life.

“Splash, splash”—the sound of flowing water and surging seas.

The moment the black fish left the rock cavern, it revealed its incomparably massive Kun form.

Missing one fin, it still gave an impression of magnificence.

In the void outside, it floated in the sea of clouds like a massive island floating on the Western Sea. Having dreamed greatly for years, its back had accumulated sea sand and reefs, grown with corals and seaweed, faintly showing the magnificent grandeur of its past dominance between sea and sky.

“I have existed in this world for long—going has no regrets.”

It seemed able to sense the emotions of the two people watching from the rock cavern, its ancient voice hiding a deep weariness.

“Awakening from a dream on the Great Dream Reef, sleeping is also boring. Living tired of it all, seeing the world’s scenery can also be considered a beautiful thing…”

His cultivation was nearly reduced to only one-tenth of its original strength, and moreover, at this moment his body was engaged in an internal battle between heaven and man. If he had been at full strength, he might not have been unable to defy heaven and act, but now he was powerless to rescue Kun!

He could only watch helplessly like this!

Watch this friend who had accompanied him all the way grow weaker and weaker, watch it walk toward death, yet be powerless to help!

The more obvious his mental fluctuations became, the heavier his physical pain grew. Deep ink-green eyes showed dark silver surging like tides at the bottom, and he only roared hoarsely at Kun: “Come back, come back—”

But how could it return?

When Kun looked at mayflies, it was the supremely great looking at the infinitesimally small. Though it now knew that he seemed to be more than just a simple mayfly, it still regarded him like an elder watching a junior.

Being a great demon, how could it not see through even life and death?

It truly wanted to mock him with “fool” as in the old days, but its injuries were too severe to spare the energy for persuasion. It only slowly smiled, inevitably tinged with the sorrow of parting.

Its tail fin struck, and its heavy, massive body began falling downward.

Before crashing through the layered clouds, it slowly smiled and only sighed deeply: “The nine-headed bird originally had ties with me, but seeing it again today, it’s truly like not recognizing it. You must all be extremely careful…”

The final words gradually faded into nothingness.

As the voice scattered into the void, its sky-covering body could no longer sustain itself for even a moment, completely falling from before the eyes of Jian Chou and Fu Chaosheng toward the eighth level of hell below!

“Rumble!”

With a tremendous crash, ten thousand zhang of glaciers shattered!

Fu Chaosheng suddenly lunged forward, but the force within his body that was extremely similar to Shaoji surged uncontrollably, swallowing half his form.

Intense pain caused him to collapse at the broken edge of the rock cavern!

Demon blood dripped down!

He desperately grasped those sharp fragments of stone, looking down below—where could any trace of Kun still be found?

In the past, it had been lord of the sky, ruler of the seas.

Striking the water for three thousand li, soaring nine thousand li, bearing the azure sky on its back, with wings like clouds hanging from heaven!

Now, Kun’s death became the sea.

Its massive island-like body, upon falling and crashing onto the glaciers, transformed into boundless azure seawater that flowed and gathered in the low places of the eighth level of hell, reflecting the wordless firmament…