Yunxi sneered at Xiao Meng's words. "This Lord has yet to go looking for trouble, and they dare jump out on their own. Do they really think I'm that easy to bully?"
Xiao Meng flickered, slipping out from between Yunxi's brows and taking on human form, her face anxious. "Zūnshàng, what should we do next?"
Yunxi's expression was calm. "Just as we planned. Draw that young cultivator into a dream. If he has committed heinous acts, make sure he never wakes. If not, let him live once I retrieve your sister's Stone Heart."
"Yes, Zūnshàng!"
With a flick of her sleeve, Yunxi opened the room's formation. Xiao Meng cupped her hands to her, then disappeared in the next breath.
Yunxi extended her divine sense, and the moment she felt herself being locked onto, she unleashed her own domain without warning, dragging Mo Jiu into the Wind and Snow Domain.
Mo Jiu had been using the Fortune Pearl to lock onto his target's luck, inwardly ecstatic, preparing to strike. In the blink of an eye, he found himself somewhere else entirely, surrounded by blizzards and ice. His heart skipped a beat. Realizing something was wrong, he swiftly recalled the hovering Fortune Pearl, grasped a spirit sword, and released his divine sense to observe his surroundings.
"Who are you, and why have you trapped this Lord?"
Yunxi concealed herself within the storm, giving no response.
Receiving no answer, Mo Jiu lashed out. A sharp sword beam cleaved the blizzard, cutting through snow and wind. Yet as he lowered his sword, the rift mended itself, and the snowstorm roared on, flakes swirling thicker than before.
Yunxi closed her eyes briefly, sensing the power behind his strike. He truly possessed late-stage Void Refinement strength, not mere bravado. Satisfied, she summoned Li Li from her Space.
Li Li twitched his ears, shivering slightly in the fierce winds. "Zūnshàng, what do you need me for?"
"Li Li, look at this man. Tell me if there is anything wrong with his soul."
With a wave of Yunxi's hand, a pocket of wind and snow parted, revealing Mo Jiu's figure to Li Li's gaze.
Li Li's dark, grape-like eyes fixed on him. As his sharp instincts sensed his gaze, Yunxi sealed the view once more, and asked softly, "Well?"
Li Li flicked his tail. "He's strange. He's not an evil cultivator, but his soul is heavily tainted. His soul strength has reached the Unity stage, but… it's like there are two of them, overlapping like a double image."
Li Li tried to describe everything he saw, though the picture only grew stranger the more he spoke.
"A double image?"
A thought flashed through Yunxi's mind. She seized it, pondered briefly, then said, "Li Li, is it like there are two similar souls fused together? One weak, the other tainted, yet both belong to him. They overlap perfectly, but your eyes can see the pure and tainted souls separately, so you perceive it as a double image."
Li Li's eyes lit up. "Yes, that's exactly it, Zūnshàng."
Yunxi felt a shock ripple through her heart. There was only one explanation. Mo Jiu had been reborn. His soul had traveled back through a temporal rift to this timeline. Naturally, his past-life soul differed from the one of this life, but since both belonged to him, they had quickly merged.
She didn't know what secret arts or artifacts he had used to send his soul back in time, but she was certain of one thing: the state of the Weiling Realm back then must have been catastrophic. Catastrophic enough for him to return and resort to filthy means to trick others out of the Fortune Pearl, all to seize luck.
The goal of stealing luck was obvious—rapidly strengthening himself, ascending to the Immortal Realm, or fleeing the Weiling Realm. But no matter his reasons, Yunxi would never allow her luck to be taken. From the moment she pulled him into her domain, she had no intention of sparing him.
She stroked Li Li's head, then parted the swirling snow, Nine Nether Dragon Umbrella in one hand, Li Li cradled in the other. Step by step, she walked toward Mo Jiu.
Mo Jiu had already destroyed everything in sight, yet his eyes remained fixed on the approaching female cultivator.
Yunxi stopped before him, her gaze calm. "Will you hand over the Fortune Pearl yourself, or shall I take it by force?"
A flicker of murderous intent passed through Mo Jiu's eyes. "You?"
"Yes, me. I don't know what method you used to send your soul back, but being reborn doesn't mean you grew wiser. You've made a very stupid choice."
Mo Jiu's face twitched. His gaze turned sharp, his voice colder. "Hmph! A man who doesn't act for himself is doomed by heaven and earth. I refuse to perish with the Weiling Realm. I've done nothing wrong!"
"Tsk. You've lived through the Weiling Realm's destruction, yet can't see the differences between this life and the last?"
Yunxi wasn't in a rush to strike. She wanted him to talk.
Mo Jiu's eyes flickered, but his tone grew more resolute. "Minor differences don't change fate. No one can stop the evil god's return. He is a god!"
Fear gleamed in his eyes as he raised his sword and struck. Since his identity had been exposed, there could be no reconciliation. Even if he had been careless and trapped in her domain, killing her would set him free.
A sharp, golden sword beam slashed toward Yunxi. Her figure dissolved into the storm.
Then came the counterattack: a flurry of shimmering ice needles rained down from every direction. Yunxi had summoned the Mystic Frost Needle from her dantian long before. Each glinted faintly with pale purple light, laced with a deadly toxin—"Soulmourne," a poison crafted by Yixian Gate. It targeted not the body but the soul itself. Once it touched a soul, even escape would not save the victim. Their soul would weaken over time until it dissipated completely. It was a forbidden poison.
Given his soul strength, Yunxi had prepared this specially. A man capable of traversing temporal rifts was no ordinary cultivator. She had no intention of underestimating him. For the first time, she wielded poison in combat.
Mo Jiu's heart clenched. He swung his sword, cutting down the ice needles that came from every angle. No matter how he struck, more appeared, piercing through his protective aura. He had lost sight of his opponent, frustration fueling his anger, sword light forming a whirling array to shield him.
Then pain lanced up through his foot. He staggered and crashed to the ground.