The Death of Major Luo and the Inverted World

Among the few pastimes in Wancheng, there was a game called xiangqi. The move where a piece posed a direct threat to the enemy general, heralding victory, was called— "Check!" The moment the blood-red gleam shot forth, Bai Zhou murmured softly, a sense of immense relief washing over him. Revealing Senior Zhou's identity and brandishing the Sky-Thunder Bow for Major Luo to see had been part of Bai Zhou's plan all along. By using this to lower Major Luo's guard and cause him to misjudge Bai Zhou's threat, he had then played on Major Luo's arrogance to draw him into facing him directly. Next, the attack from the Ascension Demon directly provoked the spear tip to unleash its ultimate might. Furthermore, the two ranked rituals that Bai Zhou had continuously studied and deduced since coming down the mountain had been quietly set in motion the moment his feet touched this battlefield. Every step interlocked—countless hidden trickles converged the instant the glacier collapsed, swelling into a tempestuous sea surging forward across thousands of miles! The patient hunter had finally waited until his prey stepped into the trap. At this very moment— A crimson flash surged against the current! Having plunged into the chaotic army to assassinate the sovereign, Bai Zhou thrust his most breathtaking spear at the master of this world, a half-Saint. *Whoosh!* Time seemed stretched to infinity, everything frozen and motionless. Amidst a vast, blinding white cataclysm of apocalyptic ruin, a tiny speck of red light became the center of the world. Hundreds of devastating pillars of light scrambled to fall, which should have reduced everything around Bai Zhou into a pure, void-white abyss... Yet this spear was faster. It was meant to be faster. It hailed from an unfathomably glorious civilization, used two millennia ago by a Living Saint to impale a powerful demon seeking Ascension to Sainthood. This moment was just like that one! Even the spear tip itself buzzed with feverish excitement. Vibrating at high frequency, it crossed the distance to Major Luo in a mere ten-thousandth of an instant. Utmost sharpness converged into a single point, illuminating the stunned expression on the Saint known as Luo Tunan. *Crack!* A holy barrier invisible to ordinary eyes—yet having enveloped Major Luo all along—manifested before him, coalescing into countless crystalline, intricately engraved layers of sacred ramparts. Then, a hole was punched straight through the center. Treating the defense as though it were nothing, the spear drilled through with a spiral screech. *Squelch!* The spear plunged into his chest. Carrying an unstoppable, majestic momentum, it impaled Major Luo right through the heart. *It worked!* Bai Zhou's eyes remained fixed on Major Luo's figure, his heart jolting the moment he witnessed the strike. In a single instant, the tough skin, powerful flesh, and immortal heart of Major Luo's perfect physique were carbonized, turning into pitch-black rotten meat. Though this was not the spear of that ancient era, the demon ascending to Sainthood was likewise not that ancient demon. An embryonic demon, a halved Ascension... a mere wisp of the spear's sharpness was more than enough. The thorn spear was blood-red throughout because its thorns had been nourished by demon blood. Across the two millennia spent pinning the demon, its tip had long been steeped in a lethal bane against demonic kind. Major Luo flew backward like a battered ragdoll. An irresistible force surged from the spearhead, the inertia of the throw hurtling him across the sky like a meteor. Trailing eighteen deafening sonic booms in succession through the air, Major Luo crashed violently down. *Boom!* Under the shocked gazes of Fang Xiaoxia and the Gem Witch in the distance, a colossal mushroom cloud billowed at the end of the highway. At the center of a crater spiderwebbed with cracks, Major Luo was pinned firmly in place. The translucent thorn spear was thrust deep into his chest, pulsing with red light like a steady heartbeat. His body squirmed and struggled unconsciously, his hands clutching desperately at the scarlet shaft in his chest. Major Luo's unwilling gaze slowly turned glassy. Amidst agonized roars, countless half-bodied monsters collapsed in droves, the light fading from their eyes as their vital signs rapidly ebbed away. In the sky above, the hundreds of world-ending light pillars ground to an abrupt halt. Deprived of their master's command, they spontaneously dissolved across the horizon, transforming into a sea of wandering spirituality. A sea suspended in the heavens. Then the sea dissipated, and milky-white motes of light rained down in dense sheets, weaving an ethereal, dreamlike scene. *Hum...* Such a rich spiritual environment offered a rare nourishing effect even to Bai Zhou and the Gem Witch, rapidly revitalizing the spirituality within them. For Fang Xiaoxia, who had yet to awaken a Fate Principle, it was an even more extraordinary stroke of fortune. With just a few breaths, she felt light as a feather, unknowingly laying a robust spiritual foundation. "...Is this for real?" Fang Xiaoxia stared blankly, just as dazed as the two plush dolls clutched against her chest. "We... we're saved?" "To be precise..." The Gem Witch's voice carried an equally complex mixture of bewilderment and shock. "Bai Zhou saved us?" What had just happened? When hundreds of light pillars rained from the sky, the Gem Witch had thought she was doomed. She had never imagined that after roaming the occult world with impunity for so long, she would end up dying alongside Bai Zhou and Fang Xiaoxia, without even the chance to leave a final word for her parents... Yet—what was that sudden scarlet light? It had been too fast for the eyes to follow. Even that brief flash of red had set her heart pounding and stung her eyes to the brink of blindness. Where had Bai Zhou summoned it from? He still possessed a trump card like that? Wasn't this ally of hers a bit too mysterious, a bit too monstrously strong? The Gem Witch couldn't fathom it at all. Though she was only of graduate school age, she suddenly felt old, unable to keep pace with the changing world... *Rustle...* Yellowed exam papers peeled away from the guardrails on either side, drifting across the highway. The aged sheets rustled like heavy snow filling the air, resembling white funeral paper fluttering in mourning for Major Luo's death. *Tap...* Footsteps stepped onto the gravel and rubble of the highway. Amidst the rustle of the raining test papers, Bai Zhou's elongated shadow appeared at the rim of the massive crater. Moments earlier, Bai Zhou had taken advantage of an opening to revert from his colossus form to his original body. Physically and mentally exhausted, he endured the tearing pain in his muscles, using a ritual to veil the surrounding view and cleanly changing back into his previous outfit. Now, he gazed at Major Luo in the center of the crater. Blood wound across the ground, and unstable scarlet light flickered everywhere. Every thread of that ruinous glow sent a chill running through Bai Zhou. Major Luo lay there. Gone was his usual arrogant composure, as well as his aloof, compassionate demeanor of a Saint. His pale face and carbonized, withered body could only be described as wretched. The rich, vibrant hues of his operatic robe had become an all too fitting burial shroud, his flowing blood merging seamlessly with the red fabric. With a single glance, Bai Zhou knew... Major Luo was truly dead. Because scarlet final words were gradually taking shape above Major Luo's head. To Bai Zhou, this was the most direct and certain proof of Major Luo's death. The Saint's life had been utterly extinguished. What lay there now was merely a struggling, empty husk, the shriveled corpse so emaciated it looked pathetic, draped in vibrant red like a monkey dressed in costume. It was almost comical. The haughty quasi-Saint had ultimately been reduced to this state. Yet Bai Zhou realized that a Saint was truly a terrifying existence. Even in death, impaled by the spear, he had not completely vanished. A stubborn wisp of resentment kept the corpse squirming in faint spasms, its wide, unblinking eyes still glaring reluctantly up at the sky filled with white spirituality. When Bai Zhou appeared, Major Luo's gaze locked onto him almost instantly—as if he had held on until now solely to wait for Bai Zhou's arrival. *He refused to breathe his last without seeing me...?* Staring at the blackened, desiccated "living corpse," Bai Zhou felt an odd sensation in his chest. Even now, he remained on full alert, standing cautiously at the edge of the crater, utterly unwilling to step inside. "I..." "I don't under... stand..." With every word Major Luo spoke, his chest heaved violently, causing the translucent spear lodged in it to wobble. His voice was hoarse and grating, stripped of its former arrogance, carrying only a stubborn confusion. With every syllable, the wound in his chest flickered, releasing more black dust into the wind. "For today, I went to sleep at four and woke at eight every day... I worked myself to the bone, calculating everything in advance." "I deceived my eldest brother's suspicion, deceived my father's scrutiny, deceived my superiors and subordinates, deceived the eyes of the entire world." "Even you, Bai Zhou... you were deceived..." Major Luo's face aged at a rate visible to the naked eye. The pale, bloodless corners of his lips curved in a bitter sneer. "Killing the demon, preventing the demon embryo from successfully gestating and descending... was always part of my plan." "Because I had no way to control a fully descended demon... Only a weakened demon whose power and status had plummeted was the ritual material I needed." So the death of the demon in the Inverted Ruin Realm had also been part of Major Luo's scheme. Though he had long suspected as much, Bai Zhou's heart still tightened. He slightly narrowed his eyes, studying Major Luo. No wonder Bai Zhou hadn't been able to find any trace left by Major Luo when searching through the Yuanmeng Middle School in the Inverted Ruin Realm... Otherwise, the higher-ups would have discovered Major Luo's abnormalities long ago. While hoodwinking all the high-ranking figures of Tinghai, this madman had even managed to deceive a demon renowned for its cunning. He had not made deals with the demon to seek mutual destruction like historical conspirators seduced by power... This audaciously mad man had engaged in demon worship and summoning solely to turn the demon into his own ritual material. If not for Bai Zhou, he might have nearly succeeded. "I bestowed a name upon Liu Zhen, using him as the skeleton, and guided Liu Jia to the Inverted Ruin Realm so the demon would plant a cocoon of rebirth within him." "Liu Zhen and Liu Jia, one real and one false, served respectively as the husks of flesh and soul to contain the demon." Major Luo's voice came in halting gasps. "Finally, through a ritual of inversion, using the old self, the new self, and the inverted demon as a Trinity, I constructed an ancient ritual." "Invert a demon, and you have a Saint." "Ascension to Sainthood is the most perfect advancement of evolution..." Perhaps because death was near, Major Luo—who had harbored these conspiracies his entire life without daring to tell a soul—clung to his final breath to lay it all bare. If he did not speak now, every proud effort he had made toward his ideal blueprint would be buried forever with him, known to no one. That was something he could not abide. Even if the listener was Bai Zhou, the very person who had crushed all his schemes with his own hands. Yet perhaps, in Major Luo's eyes, Bai Zhou was precisely the person most qualified to know. "I did so much... patient, unhurried, cultivating the groundwork for years. I was only one step away—by merging Fang Xiaoxia, I could have completed the demon core, becoming a true natural-born Saint, advancing to the infantile form of a Saint..." His throat rattled with raspy gasps. Major Luo stared with dead-fish eyes, speaking in broken murmurs to Bai Zhou: "Why... when I worked so hard..." "Why is the loser me, and not you?" By this point, half of Major Luo's body had drifted away on the wind, his carbonized lower half dissolving into ash. In the end, Major Luo uttered a question from the depths of his soul: "Could it be... simply because of fate? Because of that so-called... 'justice prevailing over evil'?" After a brief silence, Bai Zhou shook his head. "Justice prevailing over evil? If such a wonderful thing truly existed in this world, Big Brother Liu Zhen wouldn't have died, and you wouldn't have remained at large until today." "Whether justice arrives in the end or not, the moment they died, justice was something that simply did not exist." "However." Bai Zhou paused, his voice carrying clearly through the howling wind: "Your efforts were meant to secure a glorious and dazzling future for yourself. My efforts were simply to survive." "Giving my all just to stay alive, wringing out every ounce of my talent—it was with that resolve that I made it this far." Recalling every late night spent curled on an outdoor air-conditioning unit, recalling how he, despite his neat freak tendencies, had transformed into a cat and hidden in trash heaps to sleep after being grievously wounded, Bai Zhou asked in return: "With all that, why shouldn't I win?" Bai Zhou had never felt that his life—chased by fate and dancing on the edge of a blade—had been easy in the slightest. Though he had to admit that without the ability to see final words, and without the "Old Days: Jurassic" Pass they granted him, he could never have made it to this point. Yet there were no 'what-ifs' in this world, just as Major Luo could not pretend he hadn't been born into the Zijing Group, nor pretend he hadn't possessed starting points and resources beyond ordinary imagination. Every extraordinary being in the occult world encountered secret opportunities to varying degrees, but whether one could seize them and soar into the sky depended on the individual. Just as moonlight illuminated everyone walking in the dead of night with equal grace, whether one reached daybreak was entirely up to oneself. Without the achievements he had forged in battles between life and death, he would have perished a thousand times over in the malice of others. Working hard and risking one's life could not be compared in the same breath. He was an evil ghost who had fought his way out of death time and time again; naturally, he was beyond the imagination of a noble scion like Major Luo. "So that's it..." At the bottom of the pit, the rate at which Major Luo's carbonized body dissolved accelerated sharply. Ash peeled away like shifting sand. In the center of Major Luo's hollow chest, where the spear had impaled him, an incomplete core woven of dense formulas and runes could be faintly seen collapsing. Having heard Bai Zhou's words, the paleness on his face deepened, yet it was tinged with a hint of release. Slowly tugging at the corner of his lips, his hollow, dead-fish gaze drifted past Bai Zhou toward the sky raining exam papers like funeral money, and toward the precarious countdown floating at the zenith. [Time remaining until the exam ends...] [2:20:37] "This exam..." The Major's voice was a faint murmur, nearly inaudible. "It turns out... I was the one who failed it." With those words, a soft *snap* sounded, and the intricate core in Major Luo's chest shattered. His entire body crumbled into powder. The haughty quasi-Saint fell completely silent, leaving behind no sign of life. *Roll, roll...* His head tumbled along the ground, leaving a trail of blood, his wide eyes unblinking in death. Unwilling to his final breath! Understandably so. No matter what, Major Luo had plotted for so long, only to be inexplicably thwarted by Bai Zhou—a "talent" he had personally unearthed from Wancheng... It would be strange if he died content. To the end, he likely never understood where Bai Zhou had pulled that spear from. Speaking of the spear... Bai Zhou focused his gaze and saw that, having lost its locked target, the already translucent spear was fading into nothingness. *Buzz...* After a moment, with a contented, drawn-out chime, that wisp of sharpness hailing from Zhuluoji vanished entirely. Bai Zhou felt a pang of regret, though he had anticipated this. It was a one-time item to begin with; achieving victory in a single strike was already the best outcome he could hope for. *Buzz...* At the same time, as the Major's lingering obsession departed, the scarlet final words he left behind fully congealed. The final words squirmed at the bottom of the pit, their scarlet light blinking intermittently. Standing at the edge of the crater, Bai Zhou squinted into the distance and found the Major's final words: [Take command of Tinghai; my journey to the sea of stars begins with becoming the Master of Tinghai!] *The Major really is dead,* Bai Zhou thought to himself. Leaving behind final words meant he had truly perished. Thus— [Adventurer] Bai Zhou had successfully slain a Saint. Although he had no interest in fulfilling the Major's final words on his behalf, Bai Zhou was certainly interested in the rewards for doing so. After all, Major Luo possessed plenty of good things. Even if he didn't know whether Major Luo would be willing to grant him such a reward. Yet when Bai Zhou clearly read the Major's final words, he immediately dismissed the thought. "Take command of Tinghai, and a sea of stars to boot... Quite a romantic ambition," Bai Zhou scoffed. Having only just stepped onto the stage, Bai Zhou harbored no such ambition. He understood even better how difficult it would be, and how many factions one would make enemies of. After pondering a moment, Bai Zhou pulled the Slumbering Totoro Backpack from the Wooden Horse. Unzipping the backpack, he could faintly see the radiant streams of many final words lingering within. "..." Major Luo's final words were stored inside. What if they came in handy later? Although Bai Zhou had no intention of becoming an ambitious warlord, his principle of avoiding waste meant he never passed up any final words he saw. "..." Gravel crunched beneath her feet as Crow landed beside Bai Zhou. Amidst the rain of light born of sacred spirituality, the wind ruffled the loose hair by Crow's ears. She spoke softly into the howling gale: "Major Luo... just died like that?" "Yeah." Bai Zhou nodded. "Major Luo is dead." As he said this, his voice was very low, like a whisper afraid to disturb a sweet dream. Joy at killing the Major was only natural. Yet to Bai Zhou's own surprise, he felt a strange sense of loss after the Major's death. Ever since leaving Wancheng, his life had been like a runaway tractor, chugging relentlessly forward across an endless wheat field, leaving behind a swathe of flattened, battered crops. Major Luo had constantly threatened his life, pursuing him from underground to the heavens—literally hunting him from an underground base to a pocket realm in the sky. While fleeing to the ends of the earth to evade the Major's pursuit, Bai Zhou had spurred himself on every waking moment to seek vengeance—not just for himself, but for many others. All along, it was this pressure that drove Bai Zhou to grow. He had grown accustomed to being pushed by Major Luo, moving from exhaustion to habit, from habit to the counter-kill, even gradually taking pleasure in it, finding endless delight in the struggle against heaven. It was this that had allowed Bai Zhou to master "battle intent." And now—Major Luo was finally dead. Yet Bai Zhou suddenly felt as though he had lost his goal, as if life had emptied out in an instant. Like a hero who had finally vanquished the Demon King, where was the hero supposed to go next? For a moment, Bai Zhou felt at a loss. He stood silently at the edge of the pit, staring thoughtfully at Major Luo's head lying on the ground. "Bai Zhou, killing Major Luo isn't the end for you. It's a new beginning." Crow turned toward him, seemingly seeing the reason for his uncharacteristic silence. "The world is vast. The occult world is far more unfathomable than you imagine..." "You're only a Level 5 Adventurer. You haven't even finished the first major phase of an extraordinary being." Crow's voice was soft and gentle: "This Major Luo was never the Demon King to you—he was just a massive achievement blocking the entrance of the starter village." "You have every right to be proud of what you've achieved so far, because you saved the millions of people in Tinghai." Slowing her pace, Crow looked at Bai Zhou and said softly, "But if you grow careless and complacent over killing a mere chicken, thinking you can relax... death will quietly creep up on you from the shadows." The girl looked earnestly into Bai Zhou's eyes. "Killing Major Luo means a new journey lies beneath your feet. With his blood, he proved that you can achieve anything." "A new challenge is about to begin, Bai Zhou." "Phew..." Crow's voice drifted into Bai Zhou's ears, blending with the mounting wind. Bai Zhou blinked. Just as he was about to speak— "Bai Zhou!" Urgent shouts came from behind. Bai Zhou turned to look. Past the grotesque monster remains and the swirling exam papers, two figures were sprinting toward him. A girl in a denim jacket over a fluttering white dress clutched her plush dolls tightly, stumbling across the messy ruins. Beside her, holding her wand and covered in blood, the Gem Witch smiled brightly despite the chipped corner of her mask, waving toward Bai Zhou from afar. The horizon was bathed in a hazy white glow. Milky motes of light formed a magnificent downpour, amidst which yellowed exam papers fluttered like dancing butterflies. Stepping across shattered rubble and passing through lingering smoke, two distinct young women eagerly ran toward the exhausted youth. The hunted girl had survived, and the comrade who fought alongside him was safe and sound. After a perilous decisive battle, the rescued girl and his stalwart ally ran across the ruined wasteland toward the triumphant hero. Just as it was written in the script, the dreamlike scene manifested in reality. A perfect conclusion welcoming a radiant picture; time ought to freeze at this very moment. A truly happy ending for all. *A happy ending... is it?* Bai Zhou blinked. Amidst the falling rain of light and the rustling test papers, Bai Zhou turned to the black-clad girl beside him. "I understand everything you said," he remarked. "Actually, I was only lost for a moment just now." "Soon enough, I felt this ought to be a tale worthy of the history books once more, just like when I shot that demon before." "Because that way, my legendary renown can increase again." Bai Zhou paused briefly. "But afterward, another doubt crossed my mind." "A doubt?" Crow turned back, her tone puzzled. "You don't think killing Major Luo was too easy and that he might still be alive, do you?" "No, no... Major Luo is definitely dead. I can essentially confirm that." Bai Zhou waved a hand. "That's not what puzzles me." Major Luo had turned to ash before Bai Zhou's eyes, even leaving behind his final words. That was practically undeniable proof of death. The spear's sharpness carried a bane against demons; its historical record was verifiable, so there was no reason it wouldn't kill a mere Major. Moreover, Bai Zhou didn't think killing the Major had been easy at all. Only he knew how much effort he had poured in just to stand here today. Without being a Level 5 Heavenly Mandate [Adventurer] and without his gear, he wouldn't even have had the right to fight his way out of the siege. The final, lethal spear sharpness had been a precious gift obtained from the Xiluo Empire only after he repaired the city wall with Celestial Pivot. He had prepared so much solely for a single instant of burst power; the hardships along the way were beyond words. "Then what are you confused about?" Crow asked. "Well..." Bai Zhou looked up at the sky. "Don't you feel the wind here is getting stronger and stronger?" The countdown above continued to tick down: [Time remaining until the exam ends...] [2:20:32] Bai Zhou withdrew his gaze and looked at Crow. "Five minutes have passed since that Luo guy died." "This place is the womb meant to gestate a Saint. Now that the Luo fellow has been miscarried, shouldn't the womb have been destroyed along with him?" Bai Zhou asked earnestly, "Why does this world still exist? Why... is the countdown still going?" At those words, Crow's pupils constricted, and she immediately looked up. *Right... The proctor is gone, and there isn't even anyone to collect the papers. How can the exam continue?* In fact, there was one most important detail that only Bai Zhou himself knew— Inside the Slumbering Totoro Backpack lay hundreds, thousands of final words, sleeping peacefully within dreamlike bubbles. Now that the Major was dead, their vengeance should have been fulfilled by all rights. Yet why had the final words shown no reaction whatsoever? When Bai Zhou opened the backpack earlier to collect the Major's final words, he saw them sitting motionless inside. The hundreds and thousands of bubbles enclosing the final words were like countless eyes, silently peering at Bai Zhou. That sensation of being watched felt like needles against his back, even giving him the illusion that he was being rejected and loathed by them... *Why?* Bai Zhou's heart skipped a beat. He was the "avenger" chosen by these final words; why would they despise him? *Unless...* *Buzz!* Without hesitation, Bai Zhou inspected his internal state, mobilizing every shred of spirituality throughout his entire body. Everything was normal. Bai Zhou narrowed his eyes without letting down his guard, then activated the glyph "Soothe" atop the Sea of Ignorance. *Hum!* An invisible, mysterious ripple washed out, sweeping rapidly over Bai Zhou's body. Suddenly. Like a stone tossed onto water, distorted ripples erupted inside Bai Zhou's body near his brain. As if a curtain had been yanked away, a blurred, twisted scarlet shadow revealed itself from that spot. Twisted, wicked, profane, maddened... like a vengeful specter. Yet it was definitely not in the shape of the Major! It shrieked, and a chilling sensation instantly welled up from all four of Bai Zhou's limbs, as if it had lain dormant for a long time, merely awaiting this command. A piercing cold swept through Bai Zhou's entire body, frantically corroding him. A bizarre sensation struck him. Bai Zhou felt his consciousness warring with this frigid chill for control over his body, and certain parts began slipping from his ritual control. His figure froze in place, his face turning pale and dark by turns. *Patter, patter!* The sound of Fang Xiaoxia and the Gem Witch approaching reached his ears. Bai Zhou's eyes widened, and he roared, "Don't come over! Stay away from me!" "...Bai Zhou?" "What's wrong?" Their footsteps halted abruptly. Fang Xiaoxia, clutching her plush dolls, exchanged glances with the wand-wielding Gem Witch, their hearts sinking with foreboding. *Buzz...* The strange, icy feeling seemed rather wary of Bai Zhou's Fate Principle space, cleverly circumventing it and spreading only throughout the rest of his body. Unconcealed malice multiplied and spread like a virus; Bai Zhou soon lost command over most of his body. *Hum, hum, hum!* A tearing pain shot through his consciousness, as though locked in a brutal struggle with something. Then he felt his consciousness begin to scatter, his thoughts grinding to a halt. His ears went deaf to all sound, the world seemed to recede from his vision, and Bai Zhou's mind began sinking into cold darkness. Bai Zhou tried to resist and fight back, yet neither his battle intent nor the power of "heart" proved effective. That icy, bizarre sensation seemed to hail from an entity of a higher dimension, carrying a suppression Bai Zhou could not currently comprehend. His consciousness crumbled at the first touch. In the blink of an eye, the cold reached Bai Zhou's brain, launching its final assault in an attempt to dispel his last shred of clarity. However— *Chime...* Like a soft hum of confusion, something sensed the external intrusion and awoke in Bai Zhou's mind. *It's...* Bai Zhou's ability to think had slowed to a near-frozen crawl. Seven-colored radiance enveloped Bai Zhou's brain in an instant. Clarity returned. *It's the half forbidden ancient glyph!* Bai Zhou's heart jolted. At this moment, as if challenged, the half forbidden ancient glyph cast down an ancient, brilliant, multicolored divine light. With just a single sweep— The freezing sensation melted like snow before a roaring blaze. The wicked shadow let out a silent shriek, retreating again and again under the pressure of the seven-colored light. Bai Zhou regained control of his body. "Ugh... *blech!*" In reality, Bai Zhou bent over violently, dropping to one knee. Accompanied by an uncontrollable surge of nausea and revulsion that seemed to come from the depths of his soul, he dry-heaved over the messy ruins. He retched for a long time, bringing up nothing but bile at first, yet the vomiting would not stop, his empty stomach churning as if tossed on stormy seas. Suddenly. *Plop!* A large, warm, viscous mass slid up Bai Zhou's throat and struck the charred ground, squirming. "What is this...?" Bai Zhou's pupils constricted slightly. A fist-sized lump of dark red flesh writhed vividly on the ground, coated in a nauseating translucent mucus, with clear blood vessels pulsing rhythmically like breaths. Had this thing been vomited from his own body? Without the slightest hesitation, before he could even wipe the blood from his lips, Bai Zhou swung the purple-gold saber in his hand, hacking viciously at the lump of flesh. *Slash!* The blade cut through like piercing a sack stuffed with filth. Foul pus splattered outward in thick bursts, yet a scarlet shadow leaped from within, swelling in size as it flew into midair. That scarlet shadow was identical to the one Bai Zhou had seen inside his own body. In this instant, Bai Zhou had a distinct realization. The squirming lump of flesh he had vomited out was nothing other than a... "Flesh cocoon!" A demonic cocoon! *When did it...?!* *Whoosh!* The howling wind suddenly turned foul and reeking. The pure white rain of light falling from the sky ceased abruptly. Above the highway, profane red light suddenly crept up from the horizon across the pristine sky, swiftly overtaking the entire firmament. "Bai Zhou, you carry far more secrets than I imagined." A girl's faint voice drifted over, tinged with regret. "What a pity you refuse to merge with me, refuse to rule this world alongside me..." *Whose voice is that?* Bai Zhou's heart sank. The serene female voice sounded familiar to Bai Zhou. It had absolutely nothing to do with the Major, yet Bai Zhou was certain he had crossed paths with her in an unforgettable manner. She was... The school demon from the Inverted Ruin Realm! "Dammit, wasn't she assimilated by the Major?!" Bai Zhou couldn't help cursing aloud. *Rumble, rumble...* The highway trembled violently, the gravel leaping crazily across the asphalt. Under Bai Zhou's shocked gaze, and amid the gasps of Fang Xiaoxia and the Gem Witch, inverted mountain peaks suddenly grew from the dark-red canopy. Those peaks hung upside down from the sky, pointing down toward the earth. Every peak was an active volcano, coated in flowing blood on the outside, and filled with magma reeking of pungent sulfur within. The blood-red world before their eyes seemed to have been turned upside down by someone. Standing on the highway, a lightning bolt seemed to flash through the depths of Bai Zhou's mind. He suddenly recalled Major Luo's dying words: *"Invert a demon, and you have a Saint."* *Then...* Bai Zhou narrowed his eyes. *If you invert the Saint back, wouldn't that restore the demon?!* The world womb meant to gestate a Saint had transformed into a dark-red world nurturing a demon, filled with blood, sulfur, and inverted magma. Chaos and distortion were the themes of this world. The scarlet shadow finally condensed into the size of an ordinary human. Surrounded by the inverted mountains, she descended like a girl walking out from the peaks, clad in an exquisite, vibrant red gown, drifting softly down to the end of the highway and walking toward them. "What artifice has humankind? It serves only to add to our mockery." "Throughout history, humans have always believed themselves cleverer than demons, never realizing that deceit and cunning are the natural domain of demonic kind." The faint female voice, thick with both hatred and satisfaction, rang clearly in the ears of the three: "Still, I must say, I didn't misjudge you... Bai Zhou, you did well to kill that Luo fellow." "It wasn't in vain that I helped you, constantly nudging his subconscious to underestimate you and driving his mind toward chaos and madness... Damn him, the man was remarkably cautious and restrained. Even with victory in his grasp, he spent so long observing, costing me a great deal of effort." She said with satisfaction, "Fortunately, you worked in tandem with me, using your identity as Senior Zhou to let his guard down... You resolved the battle far earlier than I expected." As she spoke, she arrived near the crater and lightly drifted down to the bottom. The next second— With a loud *thud*— Like a star forward kicking a soccer ball across a green pitch, the woman's high heel booted Major Luo's severed head, sending it flying into the mountains with a resounding crash. Evidently, she truly loathed the Major. Yet she clearly didn't hate only the Major. Her murderous gaze, scarlet like a blood moon, held playful condescension as she looked toward Bai Zhou not far away. "Did you ever imagine I would return, young Demon-Slayer?" "Can you still fire that arrow this time?" "And..." Her gaze soon shifted, bypassing the Gem Witch entirely to land upon the girl beside her, who was trembling with sheer terror while clutching her plush dolls. The demon woman's eyes suddenly softened, as if reminiscing, as if sighing with emotion. She said, "Long time no see, Xiaoxia."