worries

He met an old farmer carrying a bag on the side of the road.

The old farmer's face was pale, as if his soul had left him. Wu Yi still felt something was wrong, so he went up to him and asked him a few questions. When he came to his senses, he pulled his sleeve and started crying:

"Master! Please save Qingxi Village! There are monsters! So many people are gone!"

Wu Yi's heart tightened and he rushed towards the village in the direction indicated by the old farmer. However, as soon as he stepped into the village entrance, a strong smell of blood choked him and made him cough.

The village, once shrouded in smoke, was now reduced to shattered ruins. Thatched huts had been burned down to blackened frames. Scattered on the ground were hoes, bamboo baskets, and a rag doll, a child's toy, its face obscured by blood. He followed the trail of blood to the back of the village and saw a vast expanse of blackened earth in the threshing ground, shrouded in a faint black aura. When the immortal power at his fingertips touched the aura, it felt like red-hot iron touching water.

"Is anyone there?"

He shouted, his voice echoing in the empty village, but no one responded. He squatted down and touched the coagulated blood on the ground. It was still warm, obviously it had just happened.

He searched around the village and finally saw a dying old woman under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village. The old woman clutched the corner of his clothes and said something intermittently, but he could not hear a word.

That night he stayed in the village, waiting for the man in the black cloak to come back, but he could only wait until the dew at dawn.

The next day he walked west and soon met a peddler. The peddler said that something had happened in Luoxia Town ahead. All the people in the town had disappeared overnight, leaving only blood all over the streets.

Wu Yi ran faster, his immortal power condensed into wind under his feet, even the tips of his shoes were rubbed with sparks, but when he arrived at Luoxia Town, it was still too late.

The town gate was split in half, and the blood on it had turned black. Walking inside, the doors of every household were open, there was unfinished food on the table, chopsticks fell on the ground, but there was no one in sight.

Wu Yi's heart sank little by little, until he reached the pharmacy in the west of the town and suddenly stopped.

Lying on the ground was a figure in a plain immortal robe, the hem embroidered with the unique bird feather pattern of Yaoxi Mountain. It was Ah Yan, a junior outer disciple. Ah Yan lay sprawled on the ground, a wound deep enough to reveal the bone on his back. The wound was surrounded by the same dark aura as that of Qingxi Village. He clutched a wooden plaque with the name of Yaoxi Mountain tightly in his hand, the words blurred by the blood.

A Yan came down the mountain earlier than him. He probably heard that something happened here and rushed to rescue people, but was killed.

Wu Yi squatted down and carefully turned Ah Yan over. The little apprentice brother's eyes were still open, pupils filled with fear, and his lips were still in the shape of a cry. He felt Ah Yan's pulse, but he was already dead. His fingertips probed into the wound, but only touched a trace of residual...

What is this? Strange... unfamiliar, yet somehow connected to my own immortal power...

Wu Yi instinctively retracted his hand.

"Ayan..." He took the wooden sign from Ayan's hand and said softly, "I'll take you back."

He found a clean piece of cloth, wrapped A Yan's body, and carried it on his back.

That power...

He suddenly realized that this wasn't just some evil spirit wreaking havoc; someone was slaughtering the village. Their purpose was unknown, as was the number of people involved. He wanted to return to the mountain immediately, to tell his master and fellow practitioners what was happening. If he couldn't do it alone, at least he could call for help.

That evening, he returned to Yaoxi Mountain. As soon as he had settled Ah Yan, he saw a crowd gathered in front of his master's bamboo house. Yingtang, Yuwei, and Yan Xiu were all there, and the atmosphere was so gloomy it looked like rain was about to fall. Just as he was about to walk over, he heard Yan Xiu's voice, with a solemnity he had never heard before:

"Master, Yunxiu...she possesses the divine power of the Ancient God within her body. She is the vessel for the Ancient God's resurrection. She previously killed many of her fellow disciples from Yaoxi Mountain in order to absorb their immortal power. Now, she is going to the back mountain, open the Ancient God's lair, and work with the Ancient God to...destroy the human world."

What...

What about the power of an ancient god, a vessel for resurrection? Killing fellow disciples... destroying the human world? Who is this referring to? Is it really Yunxiu?

Divine power... Wu Yi suddenly thought of the power that killed A Yan.

For no reason, Wu Yi felt that it was divine power.

"What did you say?"

Wu Yi rushed over and grabbed Yan Xiu's wrist.

"Brother, what nonsense are you talking about! How is this possible? Why on earth do you say that?"

He tried to look at everyone else, hoping to hear the same question, but all he got was silence.

Yan Xiu frowned and pushed his hand away.

"I saw with my own eyes that she used her cold white divine power to kill the fairies at the foot of the mountain. I also saw her collecting their power. Master, if you don't stop her now, it will be too late."

Yu Wei, with a cloth covering his eyes, turned around and said only one sentence: "That man has supernatural powers... and killed Jing Er."

Is it... Yunxiu?

Wu Yi didn't believe it. The Yunxiu he knew wouldn't even step on a wounded bug, so how could he kill a fellow disciple? How could he destroy the world? He turned and ran to Yunxiu's bamboo house. He pushed open the door, but it was empty.

There were still some uneaten banyan fruits on the table, and the quilt on the bed was neatly folded, but there was no sign of Yunxiu.

He ran to the back mountain, to the stream they often went to, and to the sycamore tree where she loved to hang out, but he couldn't find her anywhere. He asked all his fellow disciples, but no one knew where Yunxiu had gone.

Only one young disciple said that he saw Yunxiu heading towards the back mountain of the forbidden area. He was wrapped in cold white divine power and his face looked very ugly.

Wu Yi's heart sank little by little.

In Wu Yi's memory, Yunxiu watched him running like crazy towards the back mountain of the forbidden area, knocking down the grass and trees along the way, but he didn't care.

He just wanted to find Yunxiu, just wanted to ask her if what Yan Xiu said was true, just wanted to tell her that no matter what happened, he would believe her and help her.

Yunxiu didn't know if he heard it at that time, but now, he heard it clearly.

Cold, white divine energy surged outside the barrier of the forbidden area's back mountain. Wu Yi's blue shirt had long been ripped by the thorns along the way, and blood oozed from his arms, but he felt no pain at all. His eyes were focused only on the familiar figure deep within the forbidden area, and the divine energy that was surging and suffocating him.

Yes...exactly the same.

"Yunxiu!"

He shouted towards the barrier, and the immortal power around him trembled uncontrollably.

There was no response from the barrier, only the suffocatingly huge divine power of the evil god, pressing down like a dark cloud, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

He tried to use his spiritual power to impact the barrier, but as soon as his fingertips touched the cold barrier, they were bounced back by the recoil force. He felt a dull pain in his chest and almost vomited blood.

At this moment, a cold white light suddenly appeared from the gap in the barrier. It was Yunxiu.

Even Yunxiu himself, after such a long time, could feel the most obvious emotion from Wu Yi - despair.

In his memory, the Yunxiu that Wu Yi faced had blood on his white clothes and his face was as pale as paper, but his eyes were extremely firm.

When she saw Wu Yi, a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes, and then turned into determination. Her lips moved, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she just raised her hand, gathered a ray of divine power, and waved it towards Wu Yi.

Wu Yi thought she was about to explain, and subconsciously reached out his hand. But when the divine power descended upon him, it wasn't a gentle comfort, but a powerful thrust, like an invisible hand, yanking him back. He tried to struggle, to grab onto something, but could only watch helplessly as he drifted further and further away from the barrier, further and further away from Yunxiu.

"Yunxiu! What are you doing! Let me go!"

He roared, his immortal power surging wildly, trying to resist the thrust, but his strength was as small as an ant in front of Yunxiu's divine power.

Yunxiu's voice drifted over on the wind: "Don't come again."

"I won't leave!" Wu Yi shouted again, but he was powerless to resist.

"I don't believe it... I don't believe it! What nonsense they are saying, I don't believe it!"

But Yunxiu didn't respond. She raised her hand and increased her divine power, pushing Wu Yi further away until his figure disappeared into the mist. Then she slowly lowered her hand and turned back to the barrier.

Wu Yi had no idea how far he had walked. When he finally regained his balance, he had landed in an unfamiliar valley. Surrounded by dense forest, he could no longer hear the divine power of the forbidden land, nor could he see Yunxiu.

He slumped on the ground, his chest heaving violently. The fatigue brought by the loss of immortal power surged like a tide, but he had no time to rest.

He had to go back, he had to go back to find Yunxiu.

He gritted his teeth, pulled out the white jade statue from his bosom, and slowly poured his immortal energy into it. Earlier, when Yunxiu had used her divine power to push him, he had secretly attached a strand of his immortal energy to hers. Now, through the statue's induction, he could vaguely sense Yunxiu's location, the growing intensity of the ferocious divine power, and... the fluctuations of his master's immortal energy.

"What are they going to do... They can't really..."

He muttered, and with all his strength, he flew in the direction he sensed.

He was a tree, so he couldn't fly for long. He stumbled and fell, flew up again, fainted and woke up again...

After an unknown amount of time, the sky gradually grew strange. Two suns hung overhead, like blood-red pupils, staring intently at the earth. Blood rain fell from the sky, carrying a sticky, fishy smell, staining his blue shirt dark red.

He could clearly feel that the divine power in front of him was on the verge of exploding. The sound of the barrier shattering came with the wind, as sharp as shattering glass.

He quickened his pace and finally stopped in front of an open space, which was the core area of ​​the forbidden area's back mountain.

In the open space, Yunxiu was standing in front of the barrier, his white clothes engulfed in blood and fire, holding a cracked sword in his hand, and his spine seemed to be broken.

Behind her were the people from her sect—Master, Yan Xiu, Ying Tang, Yu Wei…

Without exception, those holding swords pointed their swords at Yunxiu's back, and the fluctuations of their immortal power were filled with anger and the pain of betrayal.

"Evil creature! You still refuse to turn back?!" Master's voice was filled with thunderous fury, shaking the air around him.

Wu Yi transformed and drew his sword. He wanted to rush forward, to tell them that Yunxiu was wrongly accused, that Yunxiu was protecting them. But as soon as he took a step, he was blocked by an invisible force, like a solid wall, trapping him firmly outside.