Song Wanníng fell silent for a moment, a cold smile flickering across her face as she processed the jagged fragments of the man's final thoughts.
"This guy was already dying, and he still wanted to screw me over," she said, her voice echoing in the golden expanse of her mind. "His heart deserves condemnation."
"What do you mean, Sister?" Xiao Jin asked, his golden form shimmering with confusion. He shook himself, his small hands on his hips as he looked at her. "Didn't that man already die? His soul is part of yours now."
The other little ones—Long Ling and the Bodhi Tree Spirit—were just as lost, their spirits swaying in the spiritual wind of her consciousness.
A chill gathered in Song Wanníng's eyes, her gaze sharpening as she sifted through the stolen memories. "He could have been scattered to nothing by the thunder if he had fought to the end, but he deliberately leaked the news that he knew about a secret region. He calculated that I would definitely be curious and that I would choose to devour him to get that information. But that secret region is extremely dangerous. He wanted to lure me there to die as a final act of spite."
With just a slight shift in her perspective, the man's intentions became obvious. Someone who had reached the rank of Daluo Jinxian at such a young age, someone that proud and arrogant, would never truly beg for mercy from an early Dixian. It was nothing more than a smokescreen, his final unwilling scheme to ensure his killer followed him into the grave.
"Huh? But how did he know you would definitely go? We could just not go," Xiao Jin said, puffing out his cheeks in annoyance. Whether they went or not was up to Sister anyway; she held all the cards now.
Hearing that, Song Wanníng smiled helplessly, her fingers twitching at her side. "He was counting on the fact that I would definitely go. In that sense, we're alike. Even knowing it's dangerous, I can't turn away from the chance to grow stronger."
If you didn't know about a treasure, that was one thing. But once you knew an opportunity was right there, hidden behind a veil of risk, it was impossible for a cultivator like her to give it up.
Xiao Jin fell silent, his light dimming. The little ones finally caught on to the dark logic of the high-level world and started cursing under their breath. That man was way too vicious, even in his final moments.
A cold glint flashed through Song Wanníng's eyes as she withdrew from her sea of consciousness, returning to the physical world where the campfire had burned down to white ash. She looked into the dark distance, her gaze gradually firming. Since she knew about the place now, she had to make the trip.
With that, she finally had a clear goal and headed straight for the secret region.
-
At the same time, the upper echelons of the Immortal Realm had recently learned a shocking piece of news, stirring up a massive wave of concern through the Great Sects. Even Hunyuan Daluo Jinxians, who had long stayed out of worldly affairs to meditate on the void, had emerged from their deep seclusion. The high-level figures gathered together in a floating palace to discuss the impending invasion of the Mùsù star system.
Many of them had old grudges with each other, spanning thousands of years, but when it came to the survival of the Immortal Realm, no one dared cause trouble. Still, since nothing had actually happened yet and the sky remained clear, some of the big shots remained skeptical, their expressions guarded. No one brought up their doubts openly, however. If something really did happen later, whoever they doubted would become a sinner of the entire Immortal Realm.
Ling Wushuang of the Wuji Sect, a Hunyuan Daluo Jinxian whose presence made the air in the hall vibrate, looked at the gathered masters with a heavy expression.
"Right now, we can't verify this matter with absolute certainty, but the abnormalities at the Heavenly Chasm are something all of you should have felt over the years," she said, her voice carrying the weight of stone. "In the past, suppressing the rift once would last thousands of years without issue. But in recent years, the Monsters have been acting up frequently. That has actually been a warning to us from the world itself.
What we need to do now is raise our cultivation as much as possible and have every faction put forward their hidden resources to fully nurture their disciples," she continued. "That's the only thing we can do at the moment."
None of them had ever experienced a battle between entire worlds. Naturally, they didn't know what to do to prevent it. All they could do was give their people more ability to protect themselves, so that when disaster struck, they could preserve as many cultivators as possible. Besides, nurturing their own disciples wasn't a loss; it only strengthened their respective sects.
When Ling Wushuang finished speaking, everyone fell into deep thought, the silence in the hall thick with tension. The Heavenly Chasm really had been off in recent years, especially for people like them who understood the Heavenly Dao's rules best. They felt the instability in the spiritual veins most clearly. Since that was the case, preparations were indeed necessary. If it all turned out to be false, the sects would simply be stronger for the effort.
"You're saying this was discovered by that disciple named Song Wanníng?" someone asked from the back of the hall.
"Yes. After she ascended, she advanced several levels in a row. She is already at the Dixian realm now," Ling Wushuang said, not hiding anything. The better Song Wanníng performed, the more credible her warnings became.
"What? Dixian?"
"She has only been ascended for a few years, right?"
Even these well-traveled big shots were stunned. They were all cultivating at a snail's pace in the higher realms, so how was it so easy for Song Wanníng, like eating and drinking? Quite a few people felt a sharp edge of envy.
"That's right. That child's experiences are complicated. She has fought her way out of danger every step of the way," Ling Wushuang added. She hadn't even met Song Wanníng yet, but from Mo Yang Xiānzūn's reports, she could roughly imagine the girl's iron will.
Once that was said, no one spoke again. Song Wanníng's experiences were indeed special. Advancing so many realms in such a short time looked like the Heavenly Dao's favor. It really looked like something big was about to happen.
"We understand. Once we're back, we will make arrangements immediately," one sect leader said, standing up.
"Right. We will go back and set things up. If the Wuji Sect learns anything new, you have to inform us right away."
Even those big shots who had been doubtful were convinced now by the sheer impossibility of the girl's growth. The group quickly dispersed, their figures vanishing into streaks of light. Ling Wushuang had thought she would need to argue more to convince the old foxes, but the smooth outcome surprised her. Her lips parted slightly in a small sigh of relief.
These old foxes were really shrewd; they knew when the wind had changed. She needed to hurry back and make her own arrangements as well.
-
From then on, the atmosphere of the entire Immortal Realm changed. All the major sects seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement. They opened up resource vaults that had been sealed for centuries and began cultivating their disciples at full force. Secret regions and library pavilions no longer required contribution points; anyone could enter directly to seek enlightenment. Whether you could gain an opportunity depended entirely on your own ability.
The disciples also felt the pressure immediately. The sects had suddenly become much stricter, keeping a tight grip on their cultivation schedules. Anyone could tell something was wrong. So most disciples buried their heads in their manuals, the scent of medicinal pills filling the air of every sect.
Many smaller sects, seeing the giants moving, also joined in and began fully nurturing their own. For a time, the entire Immortal Realm was on edge, everyone sensing a phantom danger in the air.
As for the hidden invaders, they were even more uneasy. They didn't know what was going on, but they felt as if they had somehow been exposed. That couldn't be right; awakening awareness was something that had only happened recently. They had only just learned about it themselves, so how could anyone else know?
Maybe some other danger had appeared, which was why the natives were rushing to cultivate. Still, that worked out fine for them. Everyone was busy, which meant fewer people interfering with their plans to deal with Song Wanníng.
-
Three months later, Song Wanníng stopped outside a vast sea of clouds. Ahead of her was a jagged cliff, its edge sharp and crumbling. Beyond it stretched a vast cloud sea, misty and ethereal, glowing with a faint, ghostly light. She couldn't see through what lay beneath the thick white blanket, but according to the white-haired man's memories, the entrance to the secret region was down there.
A cold light flashed in her eyes. A defensive barrier of golden light rose around her, and she leaped straight off the cliff. Endless clouds wrapped around her as she fell. The soft, billowy sensation almost made her want to close her eyes and fall asleep in the air.
Her mind jolted. She snapped awake at once, the danger sense in her soul screaming. When she looked again, there was no cloud sea at all, only endless grey miasma drilling into her body's barrier.
Her expression sank as she controlled her descent, dropping rapidly through the toxic fog. The miasma gradually dispersed as she approached the ground, leaving only a barren stretch of withered, grey grass before her.