The night sky was as bright as day!
Qin Sang crawled out from a heap of mud, brushed off the loose twigs clinging to his clothes, spat out the blood and rotting leaves from his mouth, and turned his head, staring in horror toward the Yuanzhao Sect.
A giant sun hung suspended at the horizon, casting Yuanzhao Peak in razor-sharp relief.
The entire mountain range was bathed in broad daylight.
Peaks collapsed, and birds and beasts fled in panic.
Several furious roars rang out one after another, brimming with boundless rage and desolation.
Then, brilliant light swallowed everything. The earth shuddered ceaselessly, and nothing more could be seen.
Qin Sang squeezed his eyes shut, shaken to his core. He did not know what was taking place over there, but from that golden sun, he could sense ripples of power that were terrifying to the extreme.
As the brilliance gradually faded and his vision returned, Qin Sang discovered that Yuanzhao Peak, which had once soared into the clouds, had been severed straight through the waist. Even several surrounding mountains were now noticeably shorter, sheared off out of nowhere.
Such was the destructive might of a Core Formation stage cultivator. A wave of dread and longing could not help but surge in Qin Sang's heart.
His eyes shifted slightly. He had originally intended to find a spot to wait and watch.
He had never truly rejected the demonic path, nor did he hold any visceral feelings about the struggles between the righteous and demonic factions in the cultivation world; he felt no deep-seated revulsion toward it. Especially after hearing that youth in tight-fitting clothes reveal the truth behind the Ascension Assembly in the Eight Trigrams Forbidden Ground, Qin Sang had come to understand that the righteous path was not necessarily clean either.
He simply wanted to keep his little life intact so he could survive a bit longer, which was why he had been so determined to break away from the Kuiyin Sect.
Between the righteous and demonic paths, there was always a distinction.
At least the Yuanzhao Sect knew to use the Ascension Assembly to bait rogue cultivators into the Eight Trigrams Forbidden Ground to conceal their true aims, rather than sending their own disciples to die.
Had it been the Kuiyin Sect, Sect Master Yi likely would not have hesitated for an instant even if it meant filling the pit with the lives of his own disciples. Just thinking of the dead souls in the Yin Baleful Abyss, they numbered countless times more than those in the Eight Trigrams Forbidden Ground.
There was a saying about sparing no expense, paying any price. In the cultivation world, if a minor Qi Refinement stage cultivator lacked a backer, when disaster struck, they might very well become part of that "price." In a demonic sect, one was all the more likely to become the cost paid.
One had to be like Liang Yan, who was close to Yue Wu so that no one dared provoke him, or like Yue Wu himself, a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator who served as a powerful combatant for the sect, to have any hope of keeping their life.
Unfortunately, he was merely an expendable pawn living from hand to mouth.
Yet, as circumstances shifted, times changed.
After getting his hands on the mysterious orchid, Qin Sang had begun to waver. If the Kuiyin Sect won an overwhelming victory, then no matter how wondrous the orchid was, even with ten thousand times more courage, he would never dare embezzle a spiritual herb eyed by a Golden Core Master and run.
Even if he rode the wind and fled for his life for an entire day, a Golden Core Master could catch up in the snap of a finger. With a single sweep of their spiritual sense, there would be nowhere left to hide.
With Zhao Yan dead, leaving behind no witnesses, if he presented the mysterious orchid to the sect master and claimed such extraordinary merit, even if Sect Master Yi did not reward him lavishly, granting a few Foundation Establishment Pills should not be difficult. At the very least, it would earn him a protective talisman to safeguard his life.
As long as there was a chance to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, he would not mind walking the demonic path all the way to the bitter end.
However, the Yuanzhao Sect did not seem utterly defenseless. After that giant sun exploded, dead silence had hung over the direction of the Yuanzhao Sect.
Demonic flames, grand formations, ghostly apparitions, cultivators...
All of them were gone without a trace!
The night sky was deathly still!
Suddenly, an earth-shattering roar of grief came from the distant horizon: "Senior Brother!"
A streak of fiery-red escape light surged forth aggressively, sweeping across the sky like a meteor. In the blink of an eye, it tore over the Yuanzhao Sect, revealing the figure of a black-robed young man.
The youth stared in disbelief at the ruined Yuanzhao Sect, his expression laden with profound grief.
Just then, a tremendous crash resounded.
The remaining half of Yuanzhao Peak collapsed with a roar. Amidst the rising dust and smoke, over a dozen battered figures flew out. Catching sight of the young man standing suspended in midair, every one of them was ecstatic: "Martial Uncle! You've finally arrived!"
Only Yu Hua looked dazed, as if frightened out of his wits, his gaze blank.
Yet the moment they met the youth's icy eyes and saw the devastated ruins of their sect, it was as though a basin of freezing water had been dumped over their heads.
*Crack!*
A rift suddenly split open across the sky, and a wisp of black qi drifted out from the fissure...
The young man jerked his head up, glaring fixatedly into the depths of the rift, madness and hatred welling in his eyes in an instant.
"Die!"
...
The fiery-red divine sword possessed an earth-shattering aura capable of rending all things, while a rather faint wisp of black qi fled desperately toward the north ahead of it, daring not pause for even half a moment.
Qin Sang watched the scene in terrified awe. Could this person who had suddenly arrived be reinforcements for the Yuanzhao Sect? The Yuanzhao Sect's gates had been besieged and their grand formation breached, yet had they managed to turn the tables from the brink of defeat?
This far exceeded Qin Sang's expectations.
Pursuing and fleeing, the divine sword and the black qi vanished past the horizon.
Qin Sang's expression shifted unpredictably, but he soon made his decision. He pulled out the Four Clouds Divine Restriction and discarded it. Cradling the jade casket, he hesitated for a long while, but in the end, he still could not suppress the greed in his heart.
A trace of self-mockery surfaced on his face. He swiftly rummaged through Zhao Yan's mustard seed bag, pulling out the useful items and leaving behind everything he did not recognize.
To his surprise, he found a familiar bead. Qin Sang was overjoyed; the bead's terrifying power was still fresh in his memory. Even if he ran into a formidable enemy at the Foundation Establishment stage, hurling the bead might not kill them, but it would certainly throw them into disarray for a while.
Qin Sang gripped the bead in his palm and pushed the Void-Traversing Wind with all his might. Only a single thought filled his mind: flee, the farther the better.
Relying on spirit pills to suppress his injuries, Qin Sang dragged his wounded body and fled on the wind, heading west at first. A few days later, he found a cave where he disposed of Zhao Yan's mustard seed bag, then altered his course to the south.
Whenever his spiritual power was depleted, he would find a cave to recover, and then continue running, subsisting on wild fruits and drinking from mountain springs while avoiding people entirely.
He fixed his course firmly toward the southwest.
Back when he was confined to Huiyang Valley in the Yuanzhao Sect, Qin Sang had longed to buy a map of the cultivation world, but never had the chance. It was only when listening to Yue Wu expound the Dao in the Kuiyin Sect and conversing with his fellow disciples that he gained some understanding of the cultivation world. Even then, they were all Qi Refinement stage disciples with limited horizons.
Their location was in the northwestern corner of the entire continent, a region known in the cultivation world as the Lesser Cold Domain. Legends spoke of a continent of vast proportions enveloped at its borders by a boundless ocean, but as to how far it stretched to the east and south, or how many great sects existed out there, one would likely have to ask Nascent Soul stage cultivators to find out.
Even the western and northern borders closest to them had rarely been reached by anyone, for the far west of the Lesser Cold Domain was the territory of the demon clan, while to the north lay the Ancient Immortal Battlefield!
Reputedly, the Ancient Immortal Battlefield was exceedingly perilous, yet it also held heaven-defying opportunities, concealing countless ancient immortal abodes and remains.
Regarding the Ancient Immortal Battlefield, Yue Wu had been tight-lipped, while his fellow Qi Refinement disciples knew very little, merely parroting hearsay from various rumors.
The Lesser Cold Domain was divided primarily among three powers: the west was held by the demon clan, the northeast was controlled by demonic sects, and the direction Qin Sang was currently fleeing toward was aimed straight for the sphere of influence belonging to the righteous sects.
The Kuiyin Sect and Yuanzhao Sect happened to be situated in the buffer zone between the righteous and demonic factions of the Lesser Cold Domain. Both had once boasted Nascent Soul patriarchs presiding over them, flourishing for a time. Though they had gradually declined, a starved camel was still larger than a horse, and they still commanded no small renown throughout the Lesser Cold Domain.
Chapter 97