A sharp chime rang in Ye Xuan's mind.
[Ding.]
[Dao Fragment detected.]
[Host must touch or remain within a one-meter radius to initiate system upgrade.]
Her pulse quickened.
One meter.
It was right there—
Then—
Footsteps.
Branches cracked. Cloth rustled. Low voices approached from the far side of the clearing.
Ye Xuan reacted instantly and slipped behind a thick tree trunk, suppressing her breathing and presence.
A group emerged from the woods.
They wore dark robes and identical masks. At the centre of each mask was a star-shaped Sigil, etched in dull silver.
Ye Xuan's eyes narrowed.
Peak Qi Refining… every one of them.
And those clothes… not the Star Demon Cult's standard uniform.
Why are they here this early?
And why set up a blood formation around a Dao Fragment?
One figure stepped forward from the group.
He carried a skull in both hands; its surface carved with writhing symbols. A faint black mist seeped from its eye sockets.
Ye Xuan's expression tightened further.
Foundation Building stage.
Initial level… but still Foundation Building.
A direct pressure rolled off him, heavier and more condensed than the others.
This is bad.
She assessed herself coldly.
My cultivation hasn't restarted yet.
My combat experience from my past life lets me handle peak Qi Refining opponents—maybe several.
Her gaze fixed on the skull-bearing leader.
But facing Foundation Building head-on in this weakened body…
That's not bravery.
That's a burial arrangement.
The demonic formation pulsed.
The golden inscriptions around the Dao Fragment flickered slightly.
The scene shifted back.
Wu Shuang sat cross-legged on the floor, the manual open beside her. With steady resolve, she swallowed the Supreme Yin Pill.
The effect was immediate.
A surge of glacial energy burst outward from her body like a silent storm. Frost spread across the floor in branching patterns. The air crystallized. Windows filmed over with ice.
The room temperature plummeted.
Ye Xiu looked around as breath began to fog in the air.
"If this continues," he murmured, "the house will turn into a polar continent."
He lifted his hand.
A transparent barrier unfolded around the cultivation area, sealing the space. The freezing aura stopped at the shield's edge, contained and stabilized, allowing Wu Shuang to continue without disturbing the surroundings.
Time passed.
An incense stick's worth.
Then—
A pillar of pure white light shot upward from her body, piercing the ceiling barrier and projecting into the sky like a frozen sunbeam. The light trembled with clean Yin energy, vast and noble.
Ye Xiu smiled faintly.
"Success," he thought.
But the smile faded almost immediately.
Something changed.
The white radiance darkened at its edges. Threads of eerie, malevolent cold began to leak from within the light, like ink spreading through snow. The atmosphere turned oppressive. Silence thickened.
This was no longer pure Yin.
This was corrupted Yin.
Ye Xiu's eyes sharpened.
"What is this…"
He stepped forward instantly and reached her side.
Wu Shuang's face was pale as paper. Her brows were tightly drawn, her body trembling violently. Thin veins of dark frost crept along her skin. Pain twisted her expression.
Her breathing was breaking apart.
Ye Xiu spoke firmly, close to her ear.
"Wu Shuang. What's happening?"
Wu Shuang's lips trembled as she forced the words out.
"T-this… this is a Nether Curse," she said with great difficulty. "Stay away… if you come closer, you'll be implicated too."
Her voice broke under the strain.
"You'll be marked… and cursed…"
Inside her mind, despair surfaced like a long-buried memory.
So, this is why I failed my tribulation in my past life.
It was never my cultivation.
It was this.
Is this… the end again?
Ye Xiu's gaze hardened.
"What kind of filthy curse dares root itself in your consciousness," he said quietly. "Let me see."
His consciousness descended inward with surgical precision.
He found it instantly.
A coiled brand of black law, nailed directly into the consciouness, feeding on Yin energy, waiting for breakthrough moments to detonate. Its structure was viciously clever. Any reckless removal would tear the soul apart—
No reincarnation.
True erasure.
The air around Ye Xiu grew still.
Then heavy.
Rage rose in him like a star collapsing.
Whoever planted this…
Will not be forgiven.
His emotion moved reality.
Outside, the sky darkened in a single breath. Daylight vanished behind rolling black clouds. Thunder gathered—not white, not violet—but ink-dark, crawling across the heavens like cracks in existence.
Across the world, cultivators looked up in shock.
Every instinct screamed the same conclusion:
Catastrophe.
Not weather.
Something far worse.
Back inside the sealed space, Ye Xiu stood beside Wu Shuang, eyes cold as absolute zero.
"Relax," he told her softly.
The scene shifted back to the forest clearing.
The demonic formation pulsed. The Dao Fragment glowed at its center, golden inscriptions rotating like restrained suns.
Then the sky changed.
Light vanished.
A ceiling of black thunderclouds rolled across the heavens, dense and suffocating, threaded with veins of dark lightning that did not flash—only crawled.
Ye Xuan looked up, her breath catching.
What is that…
An instinct deeper than memory answered her.
If even one strike falls… only ashes remain.
The world.
Across the clearing, the masked cultivators also noticed. Their laughter faltered. Several stepped back unconsciously.
"What is this phenomenon?" one muttered. "Is someone undergoing a tribulation?"
The skull-bearing leader snorted coldly.
"Hmph. Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with us," he said. "Our task is to open the Demon Realm Gate. When the Demon Emperor descends, we will stand at the front of the new order."
A few followers laughed harshly.
"Yes—future rulers of the—"
"Shut up!"
One of the older masked members stared at the sky, trembling.
His voice came out hoarse.
"T-this isn't tribulation thunder…"
They turned toward him.
He pointed upward with a shaking hand.
"This is recorded in the forbidden chronicles of our sect," he said. "The sign that appears when chaos reaches its peak… when judgment descends…"
His throat bobbed.
"World Annihilation Thunder."
Silence slammed into the clearing.
Even the demonic formation flickered weaker, as if afraid.
"That thunder," he whispered, "does not test cultivators."
"It erases worlds."
The laughter did not return.
And above them, the black lightning continued to gather—
as if waiting for permission to fall.