This Upper Void immortal realm had few incompetent people.

Even though he was certain that Jian Chou was merely a small earth immortal who had just ascended, and by all logic should not have been able to escape his sneak attack, Sun Cheng had been a bold yet cautious person during his time in the lower realm, and prudence had already become a habit.

So even before making his move against Jian Chou, he had already stored a message in his star pearl.

If he succeeded, naturally all would be well; if he failed or even met his demise, then Jian Chou’s divine consciousness imprint would spread from this star pearl across this desolate Ang Su Star, using light as a medium, falling into the hands of many immortals interested in this death warrant.

This kind of transmission had no specific target.

Which meant it would be quite widespread, reaching everywhere it could possibly reach!

Only Sun Cheng never expected that this female cultivator listed on the death warrant would show not the slightest panic of someone newly arrived, appearing meticulous and calm, with remarkable courage, unexpectedly turning the tables to probe him first.

Not to mention that sword that came from behind…

Forget Sun Cheng—even if several more experienced golden immortals were substituted in, they would have been caught completely off guard!

Under such circumstances, his meaningless death was entirely normal.

Jian Chou casually killed him without feeling anything improper about it.

She didn’t know what message this glowing star pearl had transmitted, but even if she couldn’t restore its contents, to be safe, she should first leave that place.

The more uncertain things were, the more cautious she needed to be.

What Sun Cheng had said earlier wasn’t wrong. From the star domain map recorded on the iron slip from his body, this star was indeed called Ang Su Star, located at the edge corner of the Haotian Star Domain. Its most prosperous area was indeed in that desert oasis, called “Jiangnan Shore.”

Looking at its scale, it was just like a town.

Jian Chou’s original plan upon arriving at the Upper Void immortal realm was to first gather information about this realm, then search for the seniors from Yashan and Fu Chaosheng who had disappeared from the Nineteen Continents. But the death warrant she found on Sun Cheng’s body completely disrupted her original plans.

Racing out from the desert where she killed Sun Cheng, Jian Chou concealed her aura but didn’t run too far, maintaining some distance from the incident site while quietly observing the surroundings.

Sure enough, within two quarters of an hour, brilliant lights began flashing across the sky!

One after another, with swords and blades, boats and carriages!

The newcomers wore different clothing and had different appearances—some in Daoist robes, some in bizarre costumes, and there were even some who didn’t look human, with peacock feathers hanging from their heads, or furry big tails behind them…

One could tell at a glance that these weren’t just human cultivators.

When Jian Chou practiced in the Nineteen Continents, the ancient era had already passed. A great war between various demon gods and cultivators, combined with excessive derivation of natal dao seals, had resulted in extremely few spiritual creatures and demon fiends being seen in the Primordial Realm. Even if there were any, their cultivation was generally not very high and couldn’t amount to much.

But within the scope of the entire universe, there were quite a few spiritual creatures who had cultivated the great dao.

It was just that different races rarely appeared in the same place, as friction was inevitable. Yet now, after Sun Cheng’s death when the star pearl transmitted its light message, they had all gathered here…

Jian Chou hid in the distance watching, her brows deeply furrowed.

She saw dozens of people arrive one after another, landing beside Sun Cheng’s corpse, but perhaps because of the delicate relationships between them, not a single person stepped forward to examine it first.

The star pearl had been crushed, scattered in the yellow sand.

After two quarters of an hour, the wind-blown sand had already buried more than half of the corpse, leaving only that face with wide-open eyes still exposed above the yellow sand, revealing the terrifying sword wound that had penetrated from the back of the skull through the brow!

A scholar holding a wooden sword looked around in all directions. Seeing that no one moved for a long while, he laughed: “Ah, everyone came for the death warrant, so why be so reserved? I imagine the killer has already vanished without a trace, but this wrongfully dead fellow daoist has already transmitted Jian Chou’s divine consciousness imprint through light signals. Before long, it will spread in various forms beyond the Haotian Star Domain, perhaps across most of the Upper Void. We are all just bottom-feeders on this small Ang Su Star. If others get involved, I fear we won’t even get a sip of leftover soup. Since you won’t look, this Jiang will look first.”

Having said this, he walked forward.

Because the one lying on the ground was Sun Cheng, not the female cultivator who appeared on the death warrant, the others all frowned but didn’t step forward to stop him.

So they watched as the scholar picked up the star pearl.

The scattered fragments retained not a trace of remaining aura, as if this pearl hadn’t been crushed by immortal power, but purely by physical force.

Surprise immediately flashed through the scholar’s eyes.

Next, he pulled Sun Cheng’s corpse from the sand. Seeing no other wounds on his body, he reached toward the sword wound at Sun Cheng’s brow.

But the moment his finger approached, a stern sword qi suddenly shot out from that bloody hole!

“Poof!”

It was exactly like an iron blade stabbing into tofu!

The scholar’s fingertip was immediately pierced through, and the sword qi penetrated even his palm, causing fresh blood to flow across his entire hand!

“Such fierce sword qi!”

The dozens of people around all felt their hearts jump with shock, involuntarily crying out in alarm.

The scholar himself hadn’t expected that merely wanting to examine the characteristics of this wound would result in such a loss. His previously smiling expression immediately darkened, and with somewhat gloomy undertones he said: “It seems what the death warrant says may not all be accurate. This person may have just ascended, but her abilities are definitely not small. If we underestimate her, we might pay with our lives!”

Everyone felt a chill in their hearts, falling into an eerie silence.

A corpse in the yellow sand, a few drops of fresh blood—within the roughness brewed an intense killing intent.

Before long, everyone dispersed one after another.

No one collected Sun Cheng’s body either.

Once someone was dead, the corpse was just an empty shell. Whether to keep it or not, bury it or not, didn’t have much meaning. Moreover, this was just a small earth immortal whom none of them knew well—no one bothered to care.

Hidden in the dark recesses of the desert, Jian Chou gazed at the empty wasteland after everyone left and remained silent for a long time.

Having stayed in the Primordial Realm for nearly four hundred years, her strength had long exceeded ordinary people’s imagination.

How could she possibly come to the Upper Void immortal realm without making complete preparations?

The Upper Void cultivators she had just observed couldn’t even detect her existence, so they shouldn’t pose much threat to her. It was just that one sentence the scholar had said that made Jian Chou feel the approach of heavy crisis!

Divine consciousness imprint!

For cultivators, all external appearances could be freely changed, not to mention that among demons and evil ways there was even the concept of “body snatching.”

But souls could not be changed.

Divine consciousness imprints were the key to identifying a cultivator’s soul and existence!

That death warrant didn’t contain her divine consciousness imprint, since she hadn’t ascended to the Upper Void before, so it only depicted her appearance and indicated her identity. But when she came up from the Immortal Ascension Pool, Sun Cheng had made contact with her and learned her divine consciousness imprint. What the star pearl transmitted to the surroundings after his death was none other than the imprint that could accurately identify her!

This meant that if several high-cultivation individuals came who could detect her existence, all her disguises would be seen through!

What would follow would be endless pursuit!

All because the reward listed on that death warrant seemed truly enticing, difficult to refuse.

The Upper Void immortal realm was incredibly complex. Jian Chou searched through her mind for a long time and had some guesses about who wanted to put her to death, but there was more than one person with whom she had direct or indirect conflicts, and her guesses might not be accurate.

Moreover, hiding was not a long-term solution.

She had her own plans to complete and had to arrive before the Desolate Domain opened. She absolutely had to think of an excellent method to resolve the current predicament.

After considering for a moment, Jian Chou felt she was somewhat isolated and alone. Although Ang Su Star was where Sun Cheng had transmitted the light signal and would surely have many people gathering in the near future, making it very dangerous, the most dangerous place was also the safest place. She had to quickly establish contact with Yashan or Fudao Shanren, or Zheng Yao, to see clearly what the current situation in the Upper Void was.

After making a rough plan, she disguised herself.

Her appearance changed, her aura concealed, and she even put away her Yixiantian sword, transforming into the appearance of Lian Zhao whom she had once impersonated in the Extreme Domain. Pretending to be an Upper Void cultivator who had also come from elsewhere in the Haotian Star Domain upon hearing the news, she swaggered toward the distant oasis.

This small Ang Su Star had become the center of the entire Haotian Star Domain within the past hour.

The barren earth covered by yellow sand made it look very dim.

But the radiance from Sun Cheng’s star pearl shot out in all directions from within that dim light, flowing past surrounding stars, streaming through rotating nebulae one after another, being captured by some cultivators who were looking at the death warrant. And new messages continued to transmit outward from these cultivators’ hands, transmitting and transmitting…

Clearly just a drop of water, yet it was like a crack exploding open in the deep sea.

Ripples swirled into whirlpools, spreading outward from Ang Su Star as the center!

The silent void boiled soundlessly.

Saint immortals—the supreme realm of the Upper Void immortal realm.

Those outstanding among saint immortals who had considerable reputation and could dominate the “Three Heavens” were qualified to receive the title of Immortal Venerable.

There were millions of earth immortals and golden immortals, but only a few dozen saint immortals.

The allure of a saint immortal’s promise was enough to drive countless people to flock to it.

The death warrant from the Non-Evil Heaven had long ago spawned a group of “immortal hunters.” Most were golden immortal realm powerhouses who specialized in hunting those marked for death on the death warrants to obtain generous rewards.

Some immortal hunters formed teams, while others preferred to act alone.

The killing reward for this death warrant could rank in the top three among all death warrant rewards throughout history. It could be said that as soon as it was issued, it caused a sensation among all immortal hunters.

But the Upper Void was vast, and searching for a Jian Chou with only her appearance was truly like fishing for a needle in the ocean.

Many people found nothing.

But this spreading message from Ang Su Star completely changed the originally quiet situation, opening a crucial breach for all immortal hunters.

The Haotian Star Domain was only considered middle-tier among the Upper Void’s hundred-plus star domains.

Adjacent to the Haotian Star Domain was the Cangya Star Domain, closer to the center of the Upper Void, with nebulae connecting to nebulae, vast and boundless. Among them, the Disun Star was the most prosperous, with mostly golden immortals in the realm and great renown. But this wasn’t just because this realm was vast—it was more because this realm was occupied by the largest and strongest force among the immortal hunters, called “Li Xieyang” (Setting Sun)!

Most of the time they remained within the realm without coming out. They didn’t necessarily take on all death warrants issued by the Non-Evil Heaven, only acting when the killing reward was generous enough to move their hearts.

And every time they acted, they never failed!

If ordinary cultivators who acted for death warrant rewards were called “immortal hunters,” then they were the immortal hunters among immortal hunters. When pursuing targets, if they encountered obstructing immortal cultivators, they generally killed them without mercy.

Over thousands of years, Li Xieyang had grown ever larger, and their reputation ever more terrifying.

Their main pavilion was located on Disun Star in the Cangya Star Domain.

On the vast ice plains covered by verdant snow pines, the setting sun always hung on one side of the sky, shining on the ice and snow. The pavilions on the cliffs were like something from an exquisite landscape painting.

At the cliff’s edge, a male cultivator stood gazing at the sky.

Purple-black fox fur draped over his body, but he wore white underneath. His features carried a hint of refined sickliness, yet his eyes showed no trace of weakness.

On the contrary, he gave off an extremely unpredictable sense of strength.

When a certain light signal transmitted from the edge of the Haotian Star Domain, he merely raised his eyes to look at the void, and all those intangible light rays poured into his pupils, overflowing into precise information that automatically appeared in his mind.

He rather interestedly stroked his chin.

Xieyang Sheng considered himself not an uninteresting person. He had long since stepped into the saint immortal realm, but his nature was free-spirited and he was too lazy to get involved in the Great Luo Heaven, so he managed his own little plot of land called “Li Xieyang.” Regarding that “saint immortal’s promise” death warrant from years ago, he actually had no interest—he was just curious about who this “saint immortal” hiding behind the scenes really was.

But now…

A earth immortal who had learned of Jian Chou’s whereabouts was already dead, and even the golden immortals who had gone to investigate nearby hadn’t detected this female cultivator’s traces. This was truly intriguing.

It seemed this person the saint immortal wanted to kill wasn’t so simple either.

After pondering for a while, Xieyang Sheng’s eyes flashed with dim light. Thinking of those earth immortals and golden immortals blindly rushing toward Ang Su Star like headless flies, he already sneered “all fools” in his heart.

No matter how strong one’s abilities, there were limits.

Moreover, this female cultivator would surely realize something was wrong with her situation after killing someone and naturally wouldn’t dare use teleportation arrays to travel and escape, only relying on her own power.

Calculating this way, in this amount of time, no matter what, she couldn’t possibly have left the Haotian Star Domain.

So why would catching and killing her be so difficult?

Turning around, he was already touching his chin, laughing once before decisively ordering: “Send people out, depart immediately, directly blockade the Haotian Star Domain!”