Bang!
A spiritual projection shattered. The last traces of its spiritual energy dissolved into nothingness… making the great hall silent.
Floating in the air, men and women with different colorful robes of every big sect and powerful clans were all stiff. It was as if time itself had locked them in place, leaving them unable to move or sp.eak.
At last, one of the faceless individuals tremblingly managed to ask.
"…Is… is that really the only way? To defeat her?"
No one answered at first. So he gulped, his Adam's apple bobbed. And he continued.
"To go back in time… all the way to the mortal world? To kill her before she ever becomes the Demon Queen? When she's nothing but an ordinary girl?" His voice rose, trembling. "There's no way we can do that with our cultivation! Impossible!"
The silence that followed was heavy. But then, another cultivator snarled.
"That damn Demon Queen! Back when she first emerged, when her cultivation realm was still low, we should have taken action!" His voice turned hoarse. "Now, because of our negligence, we allowed her to grow, and she has overturned the cultivation world with nothing but a blade of bone and a mouth!"
Bam! His palm slammed into the void, shattering a ripple of qi.
Another growled through clenched teeth, "We exhausted every resource, every divine treasure, every forbidden technique, and this is what Heaven reveals to us? That the only path left… is to kill her mortal self? Using time travel?"
A cultivator with flowing white sleeves let out a cold, hollow and bitter laugh. "How ironic. We, at the peak of existence, have no idea how to do it…"
But even bitterness could not hide the despair that dripped from his words.
None of them possessed cultivation high enough to touch the laws of time. To go back in time. Go back to the lower mortal world.
The chamber grew restless. Their robes flapped with agitated qi. Some muttered, others bit their tongues till they hurt. Then, suddenly—
"Wait!"
The word stopped them all.
Dozens of faceless cultivators turned their heads and narrowed their eyes towards him. The speaker was thin, sharp-eyed, and his long beard was trembling.
"There is hope," he said, his tone carrying the force of conviction. "I heard our fellow Daoist Ji has been researching the mysteries of time for years. Is it not so? Perhaps… he has a method."
The hall fell silent again. Every gaze changed their directions at once toward a single figure at the edge of the gathering.
Wei Ji.
He had been silent the whole time, arms folded, looking serious. Inside, though, his heart felt like it was dropped like a stone into a cold bottomless ocean.
You bastard!
He didn't know how the one who spoke found out about it, but considering these old monsters had lived for countless ages, it was only natural they'd sniff out what their peers were doing.
After all, throughout his life, he had devoted himself to finding a way to travel back in time. It was his backup plan for when his aging, immortal body could no longer live, he wanted to create a way to return to Earth—his home world—long before reincarnation brought him to this world of Immortals.
Despite his extensive studies, he was uncertain if his method would work. After all, he had never dared put it into practice. Worse still, the mortal world of the Demon Queen wasn't his Earth at all.
So his method was useless and can only be used as a last resort.
Still, under their burning gazes, Wei Ji needed to come up with an excuse. He knew these old dying fools were desperate. They wouldn't care if there was only a one percent chance out of a hundred; as long as there was a chance, they'd look into it.
His face remained calm and coldly spoke. "I haven't made a breakthrough yet," he said. "My enlightenment is too shallow. My research is not complete."
His words should have been the end of it. But no. Not here. Not now.
The floating cultivators suddenly moved closer, with their robes trailing streams of spiritual pressure behind them.
Wei Ji's eyes twitched.
"You bastards…" he muttered under his breath.
One of them chuckled darkly. "Come now, Daoist Ji. Don't be selfish. This is a time of need. Why cling to this important knowledge of time alone? Why not share it with us?"
Wei Ji's fingers twitched behind his back. A sly incantation slipped between his knuckles, glowing faintly. If he could cast it fast enough, he could escape—
"Don't let him flee!"
Swoosh! The pressure in the hall snapped shut. Several nets of spiritual chains lashed out, clamping onto him. His entire body froze. The light of his hidden technique fizzled out like a candle drowned in water.
Wei Ji's teeth were bared in fury. "You old fools! Release me, or when I break free, I'll bury you all!"
"Hahaha!" Their laughter boomed. "Let us see you try while we look into the depths of your very soul!"
Wei Ji cursed. "Damn it!"
But before they could perform a soul search there was a massive explosion.
The world itself shook. The floor cracked like an eggshell. The ceiling groaned. Outside, the heavens howled.
Wooooooo! Wooooooo!
Screams—dozens, hundreds—echoed in the sky. They were not human screams. They were shrieks of abyssal ghouls, high-pitched and skin-crawling, like rusted blades scraping some bone. The entire hall quivered under the deathly premonition.
The cultivators froze, faces paling. Then, one by one, their pupils shrank.
"The Demon Queen's army…"
"No… no, it can't be!"
"The Demon Queen's army is here!"
Panic erupted like wildfire.
Artifacts flared—clang! swoosh!—as cultivators summoned forbidden weapons. Talismans ripped open—snap! crackle!—unleashing bursts of protective light. Some bit their tongues and spat blood, activating secret arts that would drain their lifespans.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!—they fled in every direction, shattering walls, bursting through the skies.
Wei Ji, still bound in chains, thrashed wildly. "No!" His heart quivered. His spiritual Qi blazed as he tried to get himself out, but the more he struggled, the more the chains dug into his flesh. "Shit!" He realized even if he tore the chains apart this instant, the army would descend upon him first.
Then—swash.
A swirl of black smoke materialized before him. It twisted and writhed like a living snake until it condensed—step by step—into the form of a young girl.
Her skin was pale as snow. Her eyes glowed faint crimson. Her expression was childlike, almost innocent, as if she had wandered into the wrong courtyard. But her bloody spear made a terrifying contrast to her very existence.
Suddenly, she raised it and sent it flying with terrifying speed toward the almost-fleeing cultivator. Bang! His chest was pierced through! She immediately called back and retrieved the spear in her hand and turned to him.
Wei Ji's heart pounded. He yankked at the chains, forcing himself free, his cultivation Qi burst from every pore. And he braced himself to strike.
But—
Swoosh!
Her spear darted, followed by a gust of icy wind slicing through the air.
"Guhh—!" Wei Ji choked as his stomach exploded with blood. The spear struck his chest with a bloody crack, punching straight through it thoughtlessly.
The girl tilted her head, took back her spear, and blinked at him and the other fallen immortal cultivator with a smile too sweet for such a scene. "The Queen says I need to hunt you all if I want to be one of the great generals under her command. So… I'll leave you for now!"
She turned as if to chase the others, but then paused, tapping her chin with a finger.
"Oooh, right. Both of you will die in sixty seconds. Don't destroy your treasures, okay? I need something to bring back as spoils of my hunt. Bye-bye!"
Her footsteps echoed lightly—tap, tap, tap—as she skipped away.
Wei Ji trembled, blood pouring down his robes. His vision blurred red. He felt her innocence like a knife cutting deeper than her spear. How could she smile so sweetly after gutting him? How could death be dealt with so casually? Every old man like him wanted to die in a blaze of glory, but this?
He felt small. Weak. Like a bug squashed under a child's careless hand.
"Damn it… damn it!" His teeth cracked as he bit down.
Killing intent burned in his eyes. He remembered his sect, his disciples. His proud banners were torn to ashes. He recalled the laughter of the Demon Queen as her demonic sect members trampled everything he had built.
He had not wanted fame. Not power. Not heaven-defying might. He only wanted a sect—a family—to stand tall at the peak in this upper middle heavens before he laid down to eternal rest. But just when he thought he only needed to wait for the end of his lifespan—she appeared and burned them all down.
And now, he's alone. Nothing on him. And a girl under the Demon Queen had gutted him like livestock. He didn't even last a second.
Wei Ji's neck popped as he tilted his head upward. His hands trembled as he looked up.
"Am I really going to die just like this?" His voice rasped, as if he accepted what was about to happen but still couldn't believe it. The creations, the sects he had created, and the dreams he had envisioned at the end of his life all became nothing but imagination.
Suddenly, he paused; Wei Ji remembered something, and then, eventually, he mumbled, "Then let me use that!"
His palm opened.
Fwoooom!
The orb hidden within his dantian flared, a light so bright it pierced the gloom.
Stab!
A sting shot into his very soul, searing him with agony beyond flesh. His immortal soul quivered, splitting at the seams.
"Urghhh!" Wei Ji gritted his teeth until some blood spilled from his gums. The pain clawed far deeper, sharper, until to the point it was unbearable.
Every vein on his forehead bulged as if it were screaming. His bones rattled and crackled. And when he thought he could no longer hold on—when his mind whispered in his ears to give it up—he roared.
"To hell with it all!"
Wei Ji saw his vision slowly darken and his spirit slowly crumble away. "I don't know how this will work, but if I am given another chance, I won't create a sect until I kill you, Demon Queen!"