Escape

Within the clear, pure beam of light, the goddess draped in radiant rainbow robes drifted down gracefully. Her phoenix eyes flashed like lightning as she swept her gaze across the cabin. Upon laying eyes on the disciple she had not seen in a millennium, Sect Master Chunyang’s expression twisted violently, her lovely eyes flashing with revulsion, dread, and towering hatred. The aura of a peak Dominator… Even though what had descended before them was merely an avatar, the Third Protector and the Sixth Elder still braced their bodies instinctively, on guard as if confronting a mortal enemy. Empress Sandao locked her gaze onto the voluptuous flight attendant, her voice chillingly calm: “Master, after all these years apart, you still resemble neither human nor ghost. Your disciple’s heart aches. Allow me to send you into the cycle of reincarnation so you may start anew as a proper human.” *Who knew the old crone had such a sharp tongue? That was a top-tier taunt…* Zhang Yuanqing kicked off his Sliding Tackle Shoes as he edged closer to the Empress. Sure enough, the deranged Sect Master Chunyang’s face instantly turned hideous, and she shrieked at the top of her lungs: “Zhao Youqing, you treacherous wretch who betrayed your own master and ancestral teachings! Don’t think cowering in the Spirit Realm will keep you alive forever. Sooner or later, I will return to my peak and step into the Human Immortal Realm. When that day comes, I will hunt you down from the highest heavens to the depths of the underworld!” *Zhao Youqing. So the Empress is named Zhao Youqing.* Zhang Yuanqing quietly committed the name to memory. Empress Sandao uttered a soft scoff. Combining her fingers into a sword, she sent a piercing ray of golden light streaking forward. Sect Master Chunyang’s tone abruptly pivoted: “…Protector, save me!” The Third Protector reached into the blazing sun behind his head, drew out a greatsword forged of concentrated golden light, and stepped forward with a slashing stroke. Gold clashed against gold, both collapsing simultaneously. A turbulent blast of scorching heat ripped through the cabin, instantly melting tables, chairs, and carpeting. When the thermal wave brushed past Zhang Yuanqing, his skin flushed scarlet, turning him as red as a boiled shrimp. Backing away, Sect Master Chunyang barked, “She is only an avatar and cannot last long! Wear out her avatar’s strength, and do not let Yuanshi Tianzun escape!” Before her voice had even faded, the Sixth Elder raised his head. Deep, transparent vortexes surfaced within his eye sockets as he attempted to pull Empress Sandao into a dream realm. His opponent was a high-status Day Wanderer, innately endowed with purification effects. Manipulating emotions, weaving illusions, or magnifying obsessions stood virtually zero chance of taking effect in the short term. Nor could mental strikes work against a Day Wanderer, for the class possessed an exceptionally formidable primordial spirit of its own. A level-nine Illusionist’s Primordial Annihilation could indeed inflict grievous wounds on a Day Wanderer, but had he been a peak Dominator, matters would never have devolved to this state. At present, the only viable method against Empress Sandao was dreamcraft. Within a dream realm, he had absolute confidence in suppressing her. Empress Sandao’s eyes transformed into pools of molten gold, flashing with brilliant light. The Sixth Elder groaned, reeling as though struck over the head with a cudgel, two streams of blood erupting from his nostrils. Without sparing him a second glance, Empress Sandao spun around and reached out to catch the golden greatsword slashed toward her by the Third Protector. *Crack!* She effortlessly shattered the golden greatsword with one hand, while her other hand struck his palm in a barrage of rapid, fierce blows. With a booming reverberation like a colossal bronze bell, the Third Protector went flying backward. Empress Sandao swept her voluminous sleeve, flinging out the Demon-Subduing Pestle. This supreme treasure of the Pure Yang Sect transformed into a straight beam of flowing light, rocketing toward Sect Master Chunyang and warping the air within the cabin in its wake. Empress Sandao’s objective was clear—slaying her master! Given the limits of her avatar, she could suppress two Dominators, but killing them was out of the question. Yet her master, who had not yet recovered to the Dominator stage, could be extinguished with a flick of her wrist. Had this avatar possessed the skills of a Stargazer or a Night Walker rather than solely the divine power of the sun, she would already have slain her master with her own hands. “Insolent traitor!” Sect Master Chunyang cried in terror. Skidding backward, the Third Protector recalled the scorching sun behind his head—its traits were useless against another Day Wanderer. Opening his mouth, he spewed out a swarm of spirit servants in a suicidal assault against the Demon-Subduing Pestle. Like moths to a flame, the spirit servants shrieked as they smashed themselves apart against the incoming golden light, dissipating into wisps of black smoke. Yet this bought the Third Protector enough time. Quickly steadying himself, he produced a wrought-iron ghost-face mask and thrust it toward the pestle. Within the dark eye sockets of the ghost-face mask, two crimson gleams ignited. Its fanged mouth parted wide, snapping down squarely upon the brass pestle. A thick, fiercely corrosive black mist spewed from the mask’s maw, sizzling as it churned with the pestle’s golden radiance. The golden light of the Demon-Subduing Pestle visibly dimmed. The ghost-face mask was a Dominator-grade item belonging to the Witchcraft Master profession. Its sole function was to corrode and contaminate items. The Demon-Subduing Pestle, capable of purifying all things, naturally had nothing to fear from corrosion or pollution, but this diametrically opposed power did succeed in holding it at bay. On the other side, the Sixth Elder flung out six black paper talismans, sticking them respectively onto the cabin’s walls, ceiling, and aisle. Chains extended from each talisman, lashing out toward Empress Sandao’s limbs, waist, and throat. The old crone flicked her fingers in rapid succession. Six beams of golden light shot out like lightning, blanketing the paper talismans and trapping the newly extended ethereal chains within them. *Is this a Day Wanderer who specializes in the sun? No flashy spells or intricate tools, yet the divine power of the sun seems to suppress everything!* Watching the fight, Zhang Yuanqing felt a surge of envy. Suppressing the Sixth Elder’s item with a flick of her fingers, conjuring the sharpest sword in the world with a sweep of golden light, shattering a dream spell with a mere glance—the old crone’s mastery of the divine power of the sun had reached the realm of profound simplicity. Seeing his item suppressed, the Sixth Elder threw his head back and shrieked, unleashing a Mental Strike. This time, his target was Yuanshi Tianzun. Zhang Yuanqing’s brain jolted as though a steel spike had been driven straight into his cranium, his soul feeling torn asunder. Fortunately, upon reaching the peak of level six, his primordial spirit had grown considerably stronger. Even a Dominator could not hope to insta-kill him with a single Mental Strike. Enduring the agonizing pain, he activated Blue Face while reaching for his Five Elements Power trial card. The reason Empress Sandao had not shattered the board game’s restriction was that breaking it would also allow Sect Master Chunyang to flee via Star Escape, making it far harder to kill her. Just as Zhang Yuanqing was about to activate the card, he paused. He had caught onto the Sixth Elder’s scheme—the man was deliberately forcing him to play this trump card. Once the Five Elements Power was unleashed, his mind would fall into a frenzied state, becoming violent, combative, and unhinged. The Sixth Elder would only need to give him a slight push to turn him into a berserker who attacked Empress Sandao indiscriminately. “Empress, hurry…” Zhang Yuanqing covered his bleeding nose. “I can barely hold on.” Fortunately, the physically frail Sixth Elder dared not draw close. Although the old crone could not use the powers of Taiyin or the stars, close combat remained the exclusive privilege of a Day Wanderer. Empress Sandao’s gaze hardened, her hands swiftly forming seals. In the distance, the Demon-Subduing Pestle, which was being corroded by the black mist, suddenly blazed with light. Strands of gold extended from the dharma treasure, weaving together to carve an intricate circular array beneath the feet of the Third Protector and Sect Master Chunyang. The next second, pure, crystalline solar fire erupted upward, engulfing both of them. “Ahhh—” Heart-wrenching screams tore from Sect Master Chunyang inside the array. As a fellow Day Wanderer, the Third Protector possessed extraordinary resistance to solar fire. While he was far from as helpless as Sect Master Chunyang, the array Empress Sandao had unleashed exceeded his limits, and the blazing sun scorched him severely. Right at that moment, upon the ethereal tabletop in the center of the aisle, the dice came to a stop at a three. As the figurine moved forward, the mist parted, bringing it to a halt on a tile marked with a small wooden mallet crossed out in red. A line of information materialized above the round table: [Tools and items are prohibited!] The black talismans plastered to the cabin walls drifted downward, while the Demon-Subduing Pestle and the ghost-face mask clattered to the floor, stripped of their vitality. Losing the empowerment of the Demon-Subduing Pestle, the circular array roasting the Third Protector and Sect Master Chunyang dimmed rapidly, its patterns turning translucent and faint. Seeing this, golden light flared in Empress Sandao’s eyes. She formed hand seals with blinding speed, and the fallen pestle erupted with a radiance even more dazzling and fiery than before. From the verge of extinction, the circular array roared to life again with clear solar fire. Under the searing brilliance, Sect Master Chunyang’s voluptuous figure and soul rapidly disintegrated. “Traitorous wretch! Traitorous wretch—” Amidst her unwilling shrieks, Sect Master Chunyang’s body reduced to ashes. Empress Sandao’s avatar had now turned nearly transparent, hovering on the verge of fading away. The successive high-intensity clashes had completely drained the power she had invested in the Demon-Subduing Pestle. Twisting her hand seals, Empress Sandao gathered her final ounce of strength, driving the pestle into a narrow window. *Bang!* The restriction forged by the board game item ripped apart instantly. The cabin wall breached, and the pressurized air inside rushed outward, generating a terrifying gale that swept through everything. “Go!” Empress Sandao shouted coldly before vanishing entirely. Zhang Yuanqing did not bother snapping his fingers this time. The moment the restriction tore open, he unleashed Star Escape to burst out of the cabin. Starlight flashed repeatedly through the sky as he caught up with the streaking Demon-Subduing Pestle, grasping it tightly in his palm. Simultaneously, a roar erupted from the direction of the airplane. The cloaked Sixth Elder broke through the hull in pursuit, while the Third Protector executed Star Escape directly in front of Zhang Yuanqing. —Having suffered severe burns from the circular array, he had been unable to pursue Yuanshi Tianzun right away. Facing the abruptly appearing Third Protector, Zhang Yuanqing, having already crushed his teleportation jade talisman, curled his lips into a mocking smirk: “Once I ascend to Dominator, I’ll be sure to slaughter—” Before the word “you” could leave his mouth, he vanished into thin air high above the clouds. *** Rooftop of the Fujia Bay Villa. An intricate, profound circular array radiated a dreamlike starlight. The illumination stemmed from tiny, ant-sized motes of astral energy. These motes alternately drifted in stillness and shifted across paths, assembling into various astrological patterns. At the center of the array lay a pair of black boxer briefs that had not yet been washed. Clad in a white undershirt and black trousers, Elder Sun sat cross-legged before the array. Starlight trembled in his eyes as he stared intently at the formation. Beside Elder Sun stood a curly-haired toy poodle. Behind the poodle stood Guan Ya, Sun Miaomiao, Queen, and Xie Lingxi. None of them dared to breathe loudly. With taut faces, they waited in nerve-wracking suspense. After a long while, the astral motes within the array ceased their movement, and the starlight in Elder Sun’s eyes faded away. “How is it?” Elder Dog voiced the question weighing on all the women’s hearts. Elder Sun shook his head and sighed. “He appears to be dead.” Elder Dog’s expression shifted instantly. Guan Ya’s body swayed, her face draining of color. Xie Lingxi’s eyes brimmed with tears at once, while Queen bit her lip, her eyes reddening. Sun Miaomiao cried out, “What do you mean, ‘appears to be dead’? Dead is dead, alive is alive! Stinky old man, don’t talk nonsense!” Elder Sun retorted testily, “I cannot divine his location, nor can I glimpse his future. What else could that mean if not dead? Of course, if you refuse to accept this conclusion, you can pray he is inside an instance dungeon. The Spirit Realm isolates divination, stargazing, and prophecy alike.” “I’ll contact Secretary Lyu.” Elder Dog took a deep breath, spat out a mobile phone, and dialed a number. Secretary Lyu was the secretary to Elder Jiange. Although the ten elders of headquarters were generally not fond of Yuanshi Tianzun, their degrees of dislike differed. Elder Jiange was the Grand Elder of the White Tiger Guards and harbored the greatest goodwill toward Yuanshi Tianzun, who belonged to the same faction. To Scouts, obeying orders was a sacred duty, whereas Yuanshi Tianzun had repeatedly defied commands and clashed with superiors, which naturally soured Elder Jiange’s opinion of him. The call connected quickly. Elder Dog simply asked, “How are things?” and listened patiently. The longer he listened, the heavier the look in his beady eyes became, until fury flared within them by the time he hung up. “What happened?” Being a Scout, Guan Ya realized there was likely bad news, yet she could not hold back her question. A savage gleam flashed through Elder Dog’s beady eyes before he quickly reined it in, saying in a heavy voice, “The Investigation Department is obstructing the Patrol Department’s search-and-rescue efforts. Citing an investigation as an excuse, they are restricting items and rescue personnel. They cannot stall for long, but for Yuanshi, every single second could be the difference between life and death.” The women gritted their teeth in rage. Steeling herself, Guan Ya asked, “Has there been any word from the two elders dispatched to the disappearance site?” Elder Dog gave a slight shake of his head. “They contacted me before arriving. There was no plane crash in the area where contact was lost, nor did Elder Huangsha Baizhan detect any seals in that airspace.” Yet another piece of grim news. Elder Sun offered some comfort: “At least for now, neither the evil factions nor the Dark Night Rose have announced a successful hunt of Yuanshi Tianzun.” These words did nothing to reassure them; Sun Miaomiao ground her teeth in frustration. Suddenly, Elder Dog and Elder Sun lowered their heads simultaneously, their gazes seeming to pierce straight through the ceiling toward a certain room below. Elder Dog’s expression underwent a visible transformation, bursting with ecstatic joy: “Yuanshi is back!” *** The next second, Zhang Yuanqing returned to his bedroom inside the Fujia Bay Villa. The room was neat and tidy. The sheer curtains were drawn, filtering the blinding sunlight while filling the space with gentle brightness. The bedsheets had been freshly changed, and a bright yellow silk duvet lay smoothly spread across the mattress. The Scorpio plush toy previously used to prop up Guan Ya’s shapely hips had also been washed and was currently hanging out on the balcony to dry. “Phew, a close call…” Back in familiar surroundings, Zhang Yuanqing let out a long, heavy breath and sank onto the edge of the bed. Having weathered countless life-and-death crises, the grand Lord Tianzun felt lingering dread over an ambush by mere Dominators for only a few seconds. By comparison, the rewards of maxed-out level-six experience and a Dominator-grade weapon thrilled him far more. On top of that, he had eradicated that thorn in his side, Sect Master Chunyang. *I’ve been out of touch for over an hour. Guan Ya, Xiao Yuan, and the others must be worried sick, probably thinking I’m dead.* He had plenty to attend to afterward: gathering materials for the summoning ritual, clearing a Spirit Realm instance to return the Demon-Subduing Pestle, letting Xiao Yuan know he was safe, investigating whether Little Fatty had betrayed them, mounting reprisals to purge the Southern Sect Illusionists, and more. Just as Zhang Yuanqing was about to head out and find Guan Ya, he sensed two high-level gazes descending from above. The scrutiny of these lofty beings triggered an instinctive alert and stress response. *One should be Elder Dog, but who is the other?* Realizing who it was a moment later, his tense muscles relaxed. The bedroom door was thrown open with a loud bang, and the resident seasoned temptress came storming inside with furious momentum.