The Supreme Harmony Sect stood tall above the Eastern Sea, built upon towering immortal islands amidst the ocean, surrounded by water on all four sides.
As the sun sank in the west, a bright moon rose, chasing the waves.
The pure moonlight sprinkled across the shimmering sea waves, where countless severed arms and limbs bobbed up and down with the swells, as if in a gentle dream.
And at that moment, a fierce battle raged above the sea surface!
Liu Qiao’e swung the Blood Rakshasa, trailing a streak of smoke as she swiftly retreated. She raised her almond-shaped eyes and coldly glared at the more than a dozen figures encircling her from above!
“You righteous folk, do you only know how to rely on your superior numbers, bullying the weak and ganging up on a lone woman like me?”
These dozen or so figures stood atop the clouds, their robes fluttering in the wind. Under the moonlight, they resembled immortals descending to the mortal world, silently looking down at Liu Qiao’e in the center of the formation.
They were all Mu Daoying and his colleagues, every one a mainstay of the current Immortal Alliance.
At first glance, it seemed the Immortal Alliance held the upper hand, overlooking from above. But Mu Daoying, stationed at one position in the formation, knew things were far from that simple.
He had anticipated that Liu Qiao’e, wielding the Mountains and Rivers Sword, would have advanced her cultivation even further.
Yet he had not expected that after just over a year apart, she would have reached such a terrifying level. Her cultivation was as profound and unfathomable as the sea, chilling him to the bone.
Every time the Blood Rakshasa was unsheathed, it reaped over a hundred heads, dyeing the sea surface red.
With the coordination of these demonic soldiers and generals, it was undoubtedly a one-sided slaughter.
They had no choice but to form a spell formation, surrounding her completely and minimizing the damage to barely hold her back from breaking through the battle lines and charging into the sect master’s hall.
Seeing that they did not respond, Liu Qiao’e let out a cold laugh and leaped forward again! The Blood Rakshasa stirred up towering waves, sweeping toward them like an overwhelming sky, relentlessly battering the formation!
Mu Daoying and the others quickly pinched their fingers to form seals, striving to dissipate the massive waves within the formation.
The waves echoed back and forth among their group, each splash carrying the force of ten thousand jun!
The splashing water droplets instantly pulverized the rocks on the shore, and when they struck the people—including Mu Daoying—many felt their ears ringing, their qi and blood surging in their chests, with blood trickling from the corners of their mouths.
Even so, they dared not slacken. They rapidly shook their fingertips, reinforcing the trapping formation time and again!
With every surge of the waves, Liu Qiao’e’s cold laughter echoed in all directions: “Lan Shuying, you cowardly turtle hiding behind closed doors—sending them to their deaths instead. Do you dare to face me yourself?!”
“You think this can stop me?”
“Once I break this trapping formation right now, it will be your doom!”
“I advise you to think carefully about how you want to die! Beheading and disembowelment? Or torn to a million pieces? Which one?”
Liu Qiao’e had read few books and was indeed not skilled in formations. Once inside, she flailed about like a headless fly.
But her cultivation was too high. Relying purely on brute force, she battered it repeatedly, actually shaking the formation.
Combined with the Demonic Sect’s secret arts to amplify her voice, penetrating deep into their minds and unsettling their spirits.
Her voice boomed like thunder one moment, whispered like a lover’s murmur the next, now distant, now near.
When distant, the crowd could slightly relax. When near, they thought she had suddenly appeared before them, their courage shattered and souls fleeing!
The originally smooth flow of spiritual energy in the formation became sluggish and difficult due to her demonic incantations invading their ears, nearly interrupting several times and teetering on the brink of collapse.
Mu Daoying, having spent days and nights with her in the past, was extremely familiar with her voice and naturally gained an extra layer of immunity.
But the others were not so fortunate.
Mu Daoying was the first to notice the crowd’s daze. While continuously channeling spiritual power to the formation’s core, he quickly reminded them: “Fellow Daoists! Concentrate your minds, do not let this demonic incantation disturb your spirits!”
He also silently circulated Qingming spiritual energy, repeatedly flushing out the influence of the demonic sound.
Though faint under the suppression of the demonic incantations, this spiritual energy was like a seed of grass. With a breath of spring wind, it could spread boundless new greenery.
The other cultivators soon recovered under the guidance of his clear voice.
Only the youngest youth among them, due to his tender age and unstable mind, fell into a daze after being lured and threatened by Liu Qiao’e several times, his eyes glazing over.
Liu Qiao’e and Mu Daoying’s gazes flashed simultaneously!
—Exactly this spot!
—
Trouble!
Harboring their own thoughts, Mu Daoying freed his left hand and quickly formed a spiritual crane, which fluttered straight toward the youth’s heavenly heart.
But he was one step too slow! Liu Qiao’e simultaneously realized this youth was the key to breaking the formation. The Blood Rakshasa shot out, smashing straight toward his heart and lungs!
The youth’s face paled. Under the dual assault from inside and out, he finally could not hold on. With a “puh,” he spat out a mouthful of blood!
The position he guarded cracked open, and spiritual energy surged out like a flood from a breached dam!
Crack! The trapping formation shattered.
The formation broke!
The massive backlash from the impact struck the formation’s casters!
Mu Daoying and the other formation colleagues all retreated in haste, vomiting blood, flung away by the shockwave into the sea!
Salty seawater eagerly poured into their mouths and noses. Mu Daoying’s internal injuries were too severe. He struggled, leaped out of the water, and stood ready to fight.
But suddenly, a pair of large hands steadied his shoulder.
A mild yet forceful voice suddenly rang out:
“Young friend, you’ve worked hard. I truly did not misjudge you.”
Turning back, Mu Daoying could not help blurting out, slightly moved: “Senior Lan!”
Liu Qiao’e’s charging figure paused. She glanced over, her lips curling into a thin smile. “Hm? Palace Lord Lan, not content to be a dog behind closed doors—you finally dared to come out and bark?”
Lan Shuying was older after all and did not take Liu Qiao’e’s taunts to heart.
She glanced back at Mu Daoying, who glistened with water under the moonlight like a mermaid, and instructed:
“Young friend, leave the rest to me. Please guard my back.”
With that, she stepped onto the long waves, her robes fluttering, and leaped toward Liu Qiao’e!
–
The moment he saw Lan Shuying, Mu Daoying subtly breathed a sigh of relief.
Because the Lan Shuying now appearing before everyone had clear energy circulating around her body. Independent amid the waves, her sleeves revealed colorful clouds, her bearing lofty and pure, ethereal like a deity.
She had clearly broken through the seventh layer of the Cave Nether Realm, stepping toward the eighth layer—the Breaking Delusion Realm!
Hearing Lan Shuying’s words as well.
Mu Daoying did not dare be negligent. He quickly focused his mind and went all out to protect Lan Shuying.
The other cultivators who had fallen into the sea also activated their escape lights at that moment, bursting out of the surface to join him in aiding Lan Shuying.
A streak of smoke rolled in from the horizon.
After Lan Shuying’s breakthrough, Zhao Yange, Shen Chengyin, and the others who had been guarding also arrived with a team of people right behind.
With the battle situation critical, the two had no time to greet Mu Daoying. They merely exchanged a quick glance and nodded slightly before throwing themselves back into the fray.
Liu Qiao’e’s expression darkened.
Knowing a great enemy was now present and that a bitter battle was inevitable, her face turned ashen as water. She pressed her lips slightly and no longer sought advantage through words.
She exerted force underfoot and leaped high! Her body turned into a rainbow glow, releasing the Blood Rakshasa to charge straight at Lan Shuying!
Lan Shuying steadied her form. In an instant, the two had exchanged over a hundred palm strikes.
They stirred the sea surface into surging waves, with hundred-foot swells rising higher and higher!
In the midst of their fierce entanglement, Lan Shuying first spotted an opening. She swiftly retreated a dozen feet and flipped her palm to summon a shimmering silver round object.
The item flew into the air and spun on its own without wind, continuously casting brilliant, silvery divine light in all directions. In a flash, it illuminated the sea surface like molten silver, bright as daylight.
Liu Qiao’e also retreated a dozen feet at the same time. The Blood Rakshasa flew to her back, buzzing and vibrating, splitting into hundreds and thousands of red threads like frayed strands!
She looked up, and her heart skipped a beat.
The Trace World Mirror!
She had long heard that Lan Shuying did not trust the Immortal Alliance’s guards.
Previously, a Supreme Harmony Sect elder had suggested swapping the Trace World Mirror and secretly transporting it out of Supreme Harmony, but Lan Shuying had firmly rejected it, saying the method was too unreliable.
“There are still spies lurking in the Immortal Alliance. I don’t know who this person is, but they must hold a high position.”
With that, she overruled the crowd and insisted on carrying the Trace World Mirror with her day and night.
Now, it seemed that was no bluff.
Liu Qiao’e could not say Lan Shuying was wrong. She did indeed still have an inside agent in the Immortal Alliance. If Supreme Harmony had truly transported the Trace World Mirror out back then, it would have made things easier for them—why else would she come to snatch it by force today?!
The Trace World Mirror leaped into the air. Those illuminated by its mirror light, righteous or demonic, all showed dazed, bewildered expressions.
This was due to the Trace World Mirror’s property: its light projected one’s past memories, previous and present lives, refracting them into fragmented, independent small illusions.
Those with higher cultivation could struggle free with effort.
But those with inferior cultivation and unstable minds often lost themselves in the whirlpool of memories, becoming soulless puppets.
Even Mu Daoying could not help but daze slightly.
Childhood in the misty rains of Jiangnan, the endless snowfall day and night at Little Cold Mountain, the blood endlessly spilling from the lips of the young man he held, the falling petals of Joyous Union Palace…
Scene after scene, frame by frame, rapidly interweaving before his eyes.
He briefly lost himself for a moment until he saw the cold, gloomy figure of the woman in his memories, her snow-white skirts fluttering.
Only then did Mu Daoying snap back like surfacing from drowning, cold sweat pouring down his back!
In the blink of an eye, Liu Qiao’e had turned into a streak of escape light, leaping through the air toward the Trace World Mirror!
Trouble. His heart tightened. He released Encounter Spring and, together with Zhao Yange and the others who had also recovered, pursued fiercely!
Liu Qiao’e did not spare them a glance from the corner of her eye, merely releasing the Blood Rakshasa to let the red threads splash out.
The red threads seemed to be ahead one moment, behind the next—now fast, now slow, now tight, now loose.
As if possessing their own consciousness, they spun out ten thousand zhang of red light, continuously repelling the attacks from Mu Daoying, Zhao Yange, and the others coming from all directions.
Lan Shuying’s expression was solemn. She quickly pinched her fingers in a spell, gathering the Trace World Mirror’s glow into beams of light pillars that shot one after another toward Liu Qiao’e.
Wherever the light pillars enveloped, the seawater seemed burned through with holes. Fine waves boiled, white foam constantly pushing dead fish belly-up to the surface.
Liu Qiao’e treaded the waves with her toes, dodging and weaving, doing her utmost to avoid the mirror light.
At this moment, her eyes held only that silver treasure mirror hanging in the night sky.
Its brilliant radiance even dimmed the moonlight beside it!