As Wei Yuan fled for his life, he finally pieced together the truth. These Mirage Demons had not charged over to attack; rather, after being stunned by the Xuanhuang Bell, they had been swept back by the raging floodwaters. Some of the weaker ones had perished, while the sturdier ones clung tenaciously to life.
Yet among this horde were three demons at Scenery Command. Though the strongest was merely in the mid stage, taking turns crashing against the heavenly dome had Wei Yuan in a frantic scramble, suppressing one only to lose hold of another.
While suppressing the Mirage Demons, Wei Yuan did not slacken his escape. The Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World hurtled forward in a wild dash, gradually nearing the edge of the battlefield.
Right then, two fishing lines drifted down from Immortal Heaven, both snagging upon the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Wei Yuan was instantly immobilized. Moments later, three or four blue grotto-heavens converged around him, clearly with foul intent.
Meanwhile, the Mirage Demons' Star Forest Grotto-Heaven was a scene of utter devastation. The white-haired Mirage Demon materialized on a plateau a thousand li away, setting down several thousand demons hidden within her hair. The flood had spread across a full thousand li; even within a mindscape world, the sight was chilling and dreadful.
She looked out over the lands battered by the deluge. The corpses of her kin were strewn everywhere, and many more had vanished without a trace, presumably swept away by the raging torrent. Fortunately, the waters had receded as quickly as they had surged, allowing many Mirage Demons to survive.
She let out a deep sigh. This great battle had severely drained the vitality of the Mirage Demon clan; it would likely take thirty to fifty years to recover.
Moreover, the inundation had slightly altered the natural Dao of the entire grotto-heaven. For a grotto-heaven, this was akin to damaging a building's load-bearing pillars—an immense hazard. The road to repairing it in the future would be arduous and long.
Yet it was finally over. After this battle, they should be able to rest and recuperate for several decades, right? At that thought, another sigh escaped her lips.
The Mirage Demon clan had already reached its absolute peak. So long as they remained under an immortal's banner, this was the end of the line, with no possibility of advancing further. The thousands and tens of thousands of years ahead would be an endless cycle of recovery, battle, injury, and recovery once more, until the immortal fell and their grotto-heaven collapsed along with him. By then, the people of the world might not even know such a clan had ever existed.
To alter their fate, there were only four words: defying heaven and changing destiny.
While lost in thought, her gaze suddenly fell upon a young Mirage Demon several hundred li away. Though only lightly wounded, she was staggering as if drunk, and her entire body burned scorchingly hot—a stark contrast to the icy flesh of the Mirage Demons, which could freeze water into ice!
As she stumbled along, the demon abruptly collapsed, continuously coughing up fresh blood, unable to rise again.
The surrounding Mirage Demons noticed and rushed over to support her, carrying her to a level spot to lie down. The tribal shaman tried several spells and medicinal herbs in succession, but none had any effect. Her body temperature continued to rise, and her consciousness began to fade into a haze.
Beside the white-haired Mirage Demon, the brash young demon also witnessed this scene and wanted to fly over to inspect it. But no sooner had she taken off than the white-haired demon caught her with strands of hair.
"You cannot go!"
"Why? Our kin is sick!"
"It is precisely because she is sick that you are forbidden to go! This illness gives me a terrible feeling."
"But I am already in late-stage Scenery Command! What do I have to fear—"
"That will not do either! Wait until the Immortal Venerable is free."
"Do you mean... it might be an immortal plague that even Scenery Command fears?"
The white-haired Mirage Demon's expression turned grim to the extreme. She said slowly, "I hope not. Otherwise, our clan's catastrophe has only just begun..."
Before her voice had even faded, several Mirage Demons tending to the sick one suddenly shivered, and their body temperatures began to climb. They stared at themselves in panic, bewildered as to what was happening.
The tribal shaman spun about in a frantic frenzy, deploying ancestral shamanic arts, innate secret techniques, and rare herbs one after another, yet none produced any effect.
All of a sudden, the shaman spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, collapsing to the ground with a scorching hot body!
The white-haired Mirage Demon swept her divine sense across the land, only to discover that across the flooded grounds, demons were falling ill everywhere. And as soon as a single demon collapsed, the surrounding demons would succumb one after another. This pestilence spread with astonishing speed and struck with savage ferocity; its deadliness was utterly unprecedented.
Furthermore, even outside the flood zone, Mirage Demons were now beginning to fall ill!
The white-haired Mirage Demon's hands trembled slightly. "It truly is an immortal plague! How... how utterly ruthless you are..."
Her white hair suddenly began falling away in drifts, blanketing the ground like snow.
The surrounding Mirage Demons were horrified. This was an omen of impending death! Their matriarch clearly had a century of lifespan remaining—how could she be dying so abruptly?
The white-haired Mirage Demon exerted every ounce of strength to whip her remaining strands of hair, scooping up the nearby demons and sending them into the void one by one.
"Once you enter the secret realm, seal the entrance immediately to sever all connection with the outside world, and await the Immortal Venerable's intervention," she said. "Unless the Immortal Venerable opens the door, no matter what happens outside, you are forbidden from unsealing the entrance!"
"What about you?"
The white-haired demon gave no reply, merely casting the last Mirage Demon into the void.
Then, every last strand of her long hair fallen away, she stood alone at the edge of the precipice, gazing out into the world beyond the heavens, motionless.
***
In Immortal Heaven, the Star Forest Grotto-Heaven, which had turned to reinforce the battlefield, suddenly slowed. Immediately after, a dense network of fine cracks spread across its golden surface before it shattered, sending countless fragments flying.
Its radiance flickered erratically as the gold drained away entirely, finally settling into silver, though a massive dark blemish marred the silver sheen.
In an instant, Immortal Heaven trembled. Countless gazes cut across time and space, arriving from every direction to settle upon the Star Forest Grotto-Heaven.
Star Forest ranked among the top five even under the Wise King of the Left. After merely a brief clash with that pale-green grotto-heaven, how had it been battered into dropping a rank?! Could that pale-green grotto-heaven have been Immortal Yanshi's disguised Native Realm all along?
The blue grotto-heavens surrounding the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World scattered as if their tails were on fire, shooting into the distance far faster than they had pursued him.
The Wise King of the Left swept his divine sense over the Star Forest Grotto-Heaven, his furious voice resounding through Immortal Heaven. "Yanshi! How shameless you are! To use such vicious means—are you not afraid of marring your immortal path?"
Yanshi said lazily, "What nonsense are you spouting? Besides, my immortal path was already flawed; what harm is there in a little more deficit?"
"Good, good, good! Today this old man will swallow this loss, but I will surely repay it in the future!" The Wise King of the Left unleashed several bolts of thunder in succession to force back Yanshi's grotto-heavens, then began forcibly pulling back his own worlds, abandoning even the portions of the battlefield where the two sides were linked.
The Little State Preceptor also began to withdraw. He commanded few grotto-heavens, so his losses were considerably smaller.
Yet at that very moment, a sudden change swept through Immortal Heaven. A torrent of stars descended from above, enveloping the Wise King of the Left.
Then an aged, booming voice burst into hearty laughter. "Entrusted by the Silver Moon Great Khan, this seat was just about to seek you out for an exchange! No day is better than today—let it be today! Come, come, come! You and I shall battle for three years first!"
Both shocked and furious, the Wise King of the Left shouted repeatedly, "Silver Moon, how dare you collude with foreigners—"
The aged voice said, "This seat is no foreigner, nor do I have any friendship with those humans. I just happened to pass by today, happened to spot you, and decided to have this fight. Hurry up and strike; stop dithering like an old woman!"
Above Immortal Heaven, immortal light surfaced around the Little State Preceptor as he moved to flee. But unexpectedly, Yanshi appeared, catching him by the wrist and smiling. "Fellow Daoist, please hold your steps!"
The Little State Preceptor gave a cold snort and wrenched his arm away with all his might. Half of his sleeve fell into True Monarch Yanshi's hand, transforming into a treasure pouch, while he vanished entirely, leaving behind not a shred of karma.
Yanshi had not expected such a turn of events. Looking at the treasure pouch in his grasp, he chuckled and shook his head. "This makes me look like some highway brigand. But are you so certain I won't pull out something good? You might have miscalculated this time."
With a flick of Yanshi's wide sleeve, Wei Yuan appeared before him, looking around completely bewildered, unable to fathom where he was. He had been in the middle of suppressing Mirage Demons—how had he ended up outside the heavens?
Yanshi offered no explanation. He simply grabbed Wei Yuan's hand and stuffed it into the treasure pouch.
Chapter 803