***
Just now, Wu Guanyue had experienced an utterly realistic brush with death.
Yan Shouyi’s arrival had been within her expectations. She had also expected that, after obtaining the Merit Jade, Yan Shouyi would kill her with a single palm strike.
She had already prepared herself for it… But when Yan Shouyi’s palm truly struck her, the terrifying sensation of her heart shattering in an instant was still so real that she cried out in panic and struggled upright in the hospital bed—
She was back.
That’s right. She had returned to the modern world.
The essence of death was the departure of the three souls and seven spirits from the body. Whenever Wu Guanyue played the game, the gaming helmet merely provided a thin passageway between the two worlds while maintaining the vital signs of her real body.
The gaming helmet was, of course, an extremely rare magical artifact. Wu Guizhen possessed the ability to see through the secrets of Heaven, which was how he had managed to obtain such a treasure.
Thus, when the Eastern Radiance Spirit Puppet she was using in the immortal world had its heart shattered in an instant, Wu Guanyue’s three souls and seven spirits had passed through the gaming helmet and returned to the modern world—to her real body.
She sat bolt upright, clutching her chest and gasping desperately for breath. The caregiver had just stepped out, and there was no one else in the hospital room, so no one noticed anything unusual.
Her heart was still beating steadily. It had not been crushed into eight pieces by a single palm strike… Yet that horrifying sensation, a terror that seemed to reach deep into her bones, remained embedded in her soul. Every hair on her body stood on end, and she trembled uncontrollably.
So this was what death felt like.
And she… she had to return to the immortal world immediately.
Wu Guanyue stiffly lowered her head and stared at the gaming helmet in her hands, dread filling her eyes.
The moment she put on the helmet, her three souls and seven spirits would immediately return to the spirit puppet whose heart had been shattered. Because she had used the “Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell” technique taught by Wu Guizhen, the body could still be used. But…
But it would hurt.
Wu Guanyue suddenly touched her chest again.
At this critical moment, she suddenly thought of Wenren Ying—thought of the moment he had resolutely driven his long saber through his own heart.
Brother Ying… It must have hurt terribly then, too…
Wu Guanyue stared blankly ahead.
Brother Ying wasn’t afraid… So Little Yue wouldn’t be afraid either!
Her gaze suddenly hardened. She glared fiercely at the gaming helmet in her hands and forcefully put it on her head.
In an instant, heaven and earth spun!
Her three souls and seven spirits were pulled back into the immortal world. Wu Guanyue felt an immense wave of pain crash over her, making every breath feel like she was being flayed alive. Thunderclaps exploded incessantly beside her ears, each one pounding against her eardrums until it seemed they would burst and bleed.
It hurt so much… It hurt so much…
Wu Guanyue wanted to scream. She wanted to curl herself into a ball to ease the agony of her grievous wounds. Yet, supported by some unknown determination and willpower, she remained lying where she was, forcing herself not to move an inch.
She tried to observe her surroundings.
This was no longer a game. She had only one chance to succeed, so she had to remain calm—she had to concentrate.
She saw countless corpses, charred black by the heavenly lightning, scattered throughout the enormous crater it had blasted open. Very close to her, Yan Shouyi sat with his legs crossed and his hands forming a seal, channeling his energy with all his might as he broke through to a new realm.
He was comprehending the Dao.
A villain like him actually possessed his own unique understanding of the Great Dao. Of the three thousand paths, had even someone like him been left a path of his own?
But Wu Guanyue did not care.
She was not Heaven. She did not need to leave everyone a single thread of life. She had no patience for lofty principles. She was utterly disgusted that the Heavenly Dao had left a way out for a man like Yan Shouyi.
All she knew was that the happy life she and Brother Ying should have shared had been destroyed by that bastard.
For Brother Ying to recover, that bastard had to be brought to justice!
A blazing fire had already ignited in Wu Guanyue’s eyes.
The thirty-sixth bolt of heavenly lightning struck down!
The sky was completely smothered beneath dark clouds, and the entire city of Meishan seemed to have been plunged into night. Even the edges of the clouds flickered faintly with blue-violet arcs of electricity. Countless people were scrambling to flee Meishan City. They could not understand why a revered master would choose to ascend within the city, or why he would bring such a disaster upon its people.
Verdant Cloud Adept shouted sharply. A large palm-leaf fan suddenly flew from his sleeve. By the time it reached the sky, it had expanded to the size of an ark, sheltering more than a dozen people beneath it. With a deafening crack, a stray bolt of lightning triggered by the heavenly tribulation struck the ark-fan, reducing the treasured magical artifact to dust.
The people beneath it, however, were completely unharmed.
“Fall back, now!”
Verdant Cloud Adept’s stern command rang out. With a sweep of his sleeve, he sent the dozen or so people twenty zhang away.
Then Verdant Cloud Adept leaped up again, rushing toward the place closest to the heavenly lightning.
The disciples of Verdant Cloud Grotto also arrived in force, following their master and rescuing people wherever they could.
Bai Yunsheng came as well. He touched his Severing Immortal Saber, Primordial Return Sword, Heart-Guarding Mirror, Soft Hedgehog Armor, and the rest of his treasures. Gritting his teeth, he plunged into the rescue effort.
Chu Yingfeng arrived too. He had just returned from pursuing evil cultivators outside the city, only to discover that the scene before him was even more devastating than anything those evil cultivators and demonic creatures had created.
Without the slightest hesitation, Chu Yingfeng charged straight toward the center of the heavenly tribulation.
The dark clouds continued racing through the sky. That inky-black mass resembling seaweed ran desperately across the ground, carrying the survivors farther and farther away.
Yet within its enormous, round, copper-bell-like cat eyes, tears had gathered. It kept turning back, again and again, looking toward the center of the heavenly lightning.
That was the inn.
That was its home with Little Shopkeeper Wu.
The inn was gone.
Little Shopkeeper Wu had told it to go farther away because she had something very, very important to do.
“Meow… meow…”
The dark cloud let out a mournful cry and slid forward even faster.
Everyone was busy rescuing people, but no one went after Yan Shouyi. They all knew that before they could even reach him, the heavenly lightning would strike them into ash.
That was why Yan Shouyi had been so utterly fearless.
Even if Verdant Cloud Adept wanted nothing more than to chop the bastard into pieces, all he could do was pray that Yan Shouyi would fail to withstand the eighty-one bolts of the tribulation.
But according to Wu Guizhen’s predictions, Yan Shouyi would ultimately survive the heavenly tribulation. Amid the hateful gazes of everyone in Meishan, he would laugh uproariously, ride the wind into the air, and vanish into the Ninth Heaven.
The Great Dao was fifty.
Heaven’s Evolution was forty-nine.
One had escaped into the world.
One had escaped into the world.
One had escaped into the world.
At that very moment, Wu Guanyue moved.
Now—!
Yan Shouyi’s breakthrough had reached its most critical moment, and also its most dangerous!
Wu Guanyue suddenly raised her head, her eyes fixed intently on the Merit Jade hovering before him. Then—
[Using proficiency skill—Master Pickpocket!]
Her body shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. She stretched out her hand, reaching with all her might—
[Obtained: [Taibai Jade] ×1!]
Yan Shouyi’s pupils contracted sharply in an instant!
A dreadful roar erupted from his mouth. He wanted to leap up and tear that wretched bitch to pieces, but the merciless thunderbolt had already descended again. It struck Yan Shouyi squarely on the head, and the roar surging from his throat turned into a scream of agony—
“AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Without the protection of the Taibai Jade, the thunderbolt struck him without the slightest deviation, knocking him flat on the ground. Spiritual energy ran rampant through his meridians, like ten thousand red-hot brands, as though they would roast his internal organs alive!
That was right—this was Wu Guanyue’s plan!
On her own, there was no way she could stand against Yan Shouyi… But what if she had the heavenly thunder on her side?
The Heavenly Thunder Tribulation could be the stepping stone Yan Shouyi needed to ascend—or it could become the fatal tribulation that reduced him to ashes!
She had already planned to die once. After dying, she could simply revive. Since she did not belong to the laws of Heaven in this world, the heavenly thunder ought not to strike her. Was this not the perfect opportunity?
The only thing she had not anticipated was that the entrance to the seal would happen to be inside the inn’s well.
She had thought the Sword Lord Taibai would hide the seal’s entrance deep in some remote mountain wilderness. She had never expected him to believe in the principle that “the greatest hermit hides in the city.”
Wu Guizhen had not known about this either. After all, the hiding place of the Merit Jade was a secret among secrets of Heaven’s secrets. By the time Wu Guizhen cast the divination, he was already at the end of his strength. It was perfectly normal that he could not calculate its location.
And that damned Yan Shouyi had actually chosen to ascend right in Meishan City!
Wu Guanyue’s fury burned like a raging flame. Enduring the pain in her body, she forcibly swallowed down the sensation that her heart was about to shatter. Then—then she performed the finest act of pickpocketing of her entire life!
The Taibai Jade was hers!
In an instant, heaven and earth changed.
A single thunderbolt had left Yan Shouyi disheveled and hideous. He looked utterly insane, his blood-red eyes glaring viciously at Wu Guanyue, as though he wanted nothing more than to bite her to pieces!
That wretched woman was still alive?! Still alive?!
She had tried to ruin him! That bitch really had been plotting against him!!!
No… Yan Shouyi had endured so many days already. How could he fail at the very last moment? Kill her—take back the jade!
A murderous glint flashed in Yan Shouyi’s eyes. He sprang forward like a hare startled into flight, using every last ounce of strength in his body. This time, he would tear her completely to pieces!
Yet Wu Guanyue was utterly unafraid.
Staring at Yan Shouyi’s lunging body, she shouted, “This is your enemy! This is the mastermind behind the Blood Moon of Donghua!!!”
She was speaking to the soul flames. She was speaking to the source of her power.
In an instant, countless ghostly blue soul flames flew out from her body and shot straight toward Yan Shouyi—
They—they, all of them, had willingly formed contracts with Wu Guizhen and willingly become soul flames for the sake of this very day!
The countless soul flames completely surrounded Yan Shouyi, finally allowing him to experience what it truly meant for one’s soul to be burned. He let out a dreadful scream, and his entire body plummeted from midair.
But it was not over yet.
Suddenly, countless wisps of black vapor emerged from his body.
Karmic sin. It was karmic sin.
The karmic sin transformed into twisted human faces, clinging to his flesh like facial tumors. Each of those human faces gnawed and chewed… gnawed and chewed… biting away mouthful after mouthful of flesh from his body.
“Ah! Ah—! Get off me! Get off!!!”
Yan Shouyi finally experienced pure terror. He fell to the ground and rolled about like a dog.
And that was when Wu Guanyue struck.
Smack!
She swung her arm in a wide arc and delivered a solid, deeply humiliating slap across the face of this self-important dog of a scoundrel!
