Because the impact was too great, Liu Jiang Fusheng hastily bid farewell to Gu Junshi and left after returning to reality from the illusion Gu Junshi had created.
Gu Junshi did not rush to press her advantage. It was good to give him some space to think at this moment.
Gu Junshi was discussing with the Heavenly Dao: "Why does he think I am not on the side of justice? Where did this idea come from?"
The Heavenly Dao replied: "From your aura, which does not seem like that of a righteous and benevolent person."
"Is that so?"
Gu Junshi looked at her reflection in the water. The eyes of the woman from the Dayan Sect were either brimming with clarity or naive intelligence, but her gaze was dark and serene, hinting at a deep and calculating mind. With a slight squint, the image of a cunning, powerful, and majestic elder lady sprang to life on paper.
Changing her personality now was futile. She decided... to quickly build good relationships, making others overlook her aura and define her as a good person through her actions.
"The quickest way to leave a deep impression on others is to first create a disaster for them, and then save the world from peril," she mused.
Anyone who has watched superhero movies understands that once someone is labeled a hero or savior, they are undoubtedly a good person.
The Heavenly Dao criticized her disapprovingly: "Why don't you think about working steadily and accumulating favor gradually? You always resort to such devious methods."
Gu Junshi replied: "Perhaps it's because I am inherently this kind of person. It's just that I grew up in a peaceful and healthy family, deeply influenced by that law-abiding society, respecting human life and adhering to ethical boundaries. Therefore, I will use any means necessary to achieve my goals, but I will not lose myself in the process."
The Heavenly Dao remained silent for a moment after hearing this, then said: "What is the use of making everyone think you are a good person? You are already perfect in merit. You appear to be a bad person, but in reality, every action you take, when calculated carefully, is an act of upholding heavenly justice. You only need to focus on influencing Liu Jiang Fusheng's impression."
Gu Junshi quietly watched a tree of purple cherry blossoms sway in the wind, pursing her lips in a slight smile: "I thought, what I couldn't give him in the previous life, I would make up for him in this life. Even if it's just a fleeting journey through time, where I perform good deeds in his world, blessed by the elders of the immortal sects, I can fulfill his unfulfilled love from his previous life filled with war and turmoil."
The Heavenly Dao had no teeth, but it felt as if its teeth were about to rot.
"Is it necessary to pamper him this much? Besides, you've resolved the hidden dangers of the demon realm all by yourself. Where are the enemies?"
Gu Junshi replied: "It's enough to create a fake one."
The Heavenly Dao had a vague premonition: "...You're not planning to do it yourself, are you?"
Gu Junshi's eyes turned deep and luminous, her smile faint: "I've always found being the main villain of a book quite enjoyable. This time, I have a rare opportunity to try it."
The Heavenly Dao was momentarily speechless. Seeing that her mind was made up, it silently began to pray for the protagonist group.
It prayed that she was truly just playing around, otherwise, the outcome for them would be annihilation.
---
A great catastrophe descended so silently. However, it wasn't entirely Gu Junshi's doing. Following the trajectory of the world's will, the various realms at this time needed a cataclysm to be reborn. Previously, it was the demon gods who faced this calamity. Now, Gu Junshi had seen through the heavenly secrets and struck first, intending to go with the flow.
Although the demon realm was cleared by Gu Junshi in advance, the closing of the underworld and the lack of a place for wandering spirits to return to their souls ultimately caused a great catastrophe in Fengdu. Everything erupted, and various places were attacked by evil spirits.
Even the Yin energy obscured the sky, and barriers spontaneously formed ghost cities, within which demon spirits awakened.
Several months later, a force calling itself the Demon Spirit Army was reportedly seen in the Land of No Escape.
Feeling the situation becoming increasingly dire, the immortal sects began sending disciples to scout the enemy's movements. However, every group sent out disappeared without a trace, causing increasing fear in their hearts.
On this day, Liu Jiang Fusheng and Dan Ya, along with others, watched as the Demon Spirit Army attacked the Dayan Sect. The entire sect fought against the demon spirits, but they were outnumbered and outmatched. Even the Sect Leader, Wei Li, was taken away by the Demon Spirit Emperor while severely injured.
The Demon Spirit Emperor was the leader of the demon spirits. He appeared with a mass of black mist, his gender indistinguishable, dressed in black armor with a helmet and a red cloak, his body filled with dark energy, making his strength unfathomable.
"Surrender to me, or all the great immortal sects will be blood-bathed!"
After delivering this ferocious threat, the Demon Spirit Army poured in through spatial gates and eventually vanished without a trace.
The mountain lords and elders convened an emergency meeting to discuss how to rescue the Sect Leader, and whether they should abandon resistance and submit to the Demon Spirit Emperor's rule.
Ultimately, no conclusion was reached. They could only decide to report the matter to the Twelve Heavens' supervisory immortal sects on one hand, and send more disciples to the Land of No Escape to investigate the situation and act when opportunities arose on the other.
The mountain lords had to guard their respective mountain gates, so they could only send elite disciples from their sects to accompany them.
Dan Ya and Liu Jiang Fusheng were naturally among the team. In this life, there were no demon gods as a world-ending tribulation, and therefore no ghost infants. Gu Junshi had taken his place. Over the past few months, she had subtly showcased her different abilities to others.
After winning first place in the disciple ranking competition, her "Nameless" persona began its path of counter-attack from the bottom ranks. Therefore, she was also among the elite disciples dispatched this time.
Since this world lacked the demon gods and the world-ending tribulation, the Heavenly Dao's avatar in this world had not entrusted Liu Jiang Fusheng with great responsibilities since childhood. However, he still possessed the Heaven Spiritual Root and unique cultivation talent.
She cultivated the path of detachment, breaking through tribulations with killing, and he, in this life, had not cultivated the Great Dao of Detachment manual. The Heavenly Dao said in a mysterious tone that no matter what manual he cultivated, as long as his resentment dissipated, he could ascend to immortality smoothly.
This seemed related to his origins before reincarnation, but Gu Junshi did not delve into it.
When their group arrived at the Land of No Escape, they saw everyone imprisoned beneath the fiery flames, suffering the torment of burning. Evil spirits swirled in the sky above, with wails and cries, resembling a scene of the apocalypse.
The Heavenly Dao asked: "You've led them here, what do you plan to do?"
Gu Junshi replied: "To die for righteousness, to sacrifice oneself for a noble cause."
"Look quickly, there are people below!"
A red river, like a trickle, emerged from the mountain valley. It was scalding lava, and the dark red "water flow" left countless scratches at the bottom of the cliff. The sea of fire flowed everywhere, a shocking sight.
Looking into the deep canyon below, black smoke mixed with flames erupted. On the steep cliffs, many people were hanging from chains, including the Sect Leader of the Dayan Sect.
"It's the Sect Leader! Quickly, go down and save him!"
Relying on their cultivation, they leaped down without hesitation. However, they discovered that the deeper they went, the less spiritual energy there was, until even their aerial maneuvering spells became unstable, and they began to sway precariously.
"This is bad! There must be spiritual-suppressing artifacts or formations down here. If this continues, we will all run out of spiritual energy and fall into the lava!" cried a disciple in panic.
"Quickly insert sharp objects into the cliff face and use them to stabilize yourselves!" Dan Ya shouted.
Upon hearing this, everyone immediately complied, drawing their sharp weapons and slashing them against the cliff face. The downward force dragged them tens of meters before they could barely stabilize themselves.
However, this would not last long, as the cliff face was extremely hot from the flames and black smoke. If they lost all their spiritual energy, they would be burned to a crisp.
"Climb up!"
In the end, they decided to go up first, lest they fail to save anyone and end up as dried corpses themselves.
But man proposes, heaven disposes. At this moment, a deafening roar from below pressed down on them. Red-hot rocks were pushed high into the sky and then plummeted down rapidly. They felt an unavoidable impact, their bodies lost balance, and they fell like dumplings.
"Ah—"
"Hold on—"
Liu Jiang Fusheng wanted to save them and reached out to pull the disciple closest to him, but was dragged down by the disciple's descending momentum.
The Heavenly Dao exclaimed: "Aren't you going to act?!"
Gu Junshi remained as steady as an old dog and replied: "Still a little bit."
"A little bit of what?" the Heavenly Dao was bewildered.
At this moment, Liu Jiang Fusheng suddenly looked back towards Gu Junshi. Perhaps he had been secretly paying attention to her, allowing him to find her figure without wasting a moment.
The look in his eyes at that moment was indescribable. Perhaps believing he would never see her again, his eyes held nothing else, deeply imprinting only her.
Gu Junshi stated: "That's enough."
The Heavenly Dao questioned: "?"
"There's a spirit-sealing stone down here. You all go up first. I'll go down alone to investigate the situation."
A clear whistle brushed past their ears, landing in the ears of everyone who was shocked and terrified. It was like a sharp cry, awakening them. In the next second, the force of their rapid descent slowed down.
Their bodies were lifted by a gust of wind and finally delivered safely and completely to the edge of the cliff.
Having survived a disaster, everyone was still somewhat dazed.
"Who saved..."
"It's Nameless!"
Liu Jiang Fusheng stared fixedly below, the words seeming to be squeezed out from between his teeth.
Upon hearing this, they looked at each other, feeling both moved and worried.
"Nameless, it was truly Nameless. We owe her so much this time, otherwise, I don't know if we would have made it back alive."
"But will she be..."
At the same time, they were also puzzled: why were all of them experiencing spiritual energy blockage, yet she could send them up and even fly into the flame abyss herself?
"The Sect Leader said she has a five-element spiritual root, but she excels due to her peculiar cultivation method, being able to cultivate all five elements, and can use her spiritual energy with just a little effort. Since she said she can, let's wait here patiently." He said coldly.
Seeing that Liu Jiang Fusheng, who was always close to Nameless, said nothing, they no longer insisted. They all sat down on the ground and began to regulate their spiritual energy.
After an unknown amount of time, a stream of dark blue light leaped out from the bottom of the cliff. Before anyone could notice, a strong gust of wind had already brushed past their hair and robes, reaching the cliff edge.
"Nameless!"
When Liu Jiang Fusheng saw Gu Junshi emerge safely, his anxious heart finally settled.
At this moment, the others heard the commotion and opened their eyes, only to discover that Liu Jiang Fusheng, who had pretended to be calm and ready, had actually not entered meditation or sat in repose but had been eagerly watching the cliff edge, waiting for Nameless's return.
Dan Ya's gaze swept over the two of them, then she stepped forward: "Junior Nephew Nameless, how are things below?"
"Nameless, are you alright?"
"Thank you for saving us. We have treated you poorly all along, yet you do not hold a grudge."
"Nameless, we are ashamed. From now on, you can rest assured, we will absolutely not treat you as an outsider. If you need any help, I, Lei Chaosheng, will not hesitate."
"Me too."
"Me too."
They all eagerly crowded around. After this incident, their attitude towards Gu Junshi began to change. She had saved them in a moment of danger and taken on the heavy responsibility of going down to assess the situation. Everyone present, whether sincere or feigned, expressed their gratitude and indebtedness to her in person.
Gu Junshi maintained the social facade, smiling at them one by one, declining their grateful promises, appearing both humble and upright, displaying a completely open and honorable demeanor.
Finally, she said to Dan Ya: "The situation below is quite complicated. It is difficult for Nameless alone to rescue the Sect Leader. The Sect Leader told me that all these people are top cultivators from various sects. They have all been sealed by spirit-sealing stones, and after seven days of being scorched by the sun's heat, they will be completely refined into Yang Dan Crystals."
"Yang Dan Crystals? What is that?" they asked in surprise.
Gu Junshi explained: "Simply put, it is like Buddhist sarira, but it can allow the demon spirits of the underworld to behave like normal cultivators, no longer fearing extremely yang and sacred objects, while still retaining their sinister abilities."
Upon hearing this, everyone turned pale with shock.
"Then we must not let them succeed! We must report this immediately."
"It's too late. With this back and forth, the seven-day period will likely have already passed." Dan Ya said with a heavy expression.
"Then what should we do?"
They immediately became anxious, like ants on a hot pan.
Gu Junshi hesitated for a moment, then made an important decision: "You have no spiritual energy and cannot go down. Therefore, I must go and destroy the spirit-sealing stone. This way, once they regain their spiritual energy, they can escape on their own."
"What?"
They looked at Gu Junshi in astonishment.
For a moment, they didn't know how to respond. Everyone knew how dangerous it was to undertake such a task. However, if they didn't let her go, then everyone below would die, and even after death, they would become nourishment to strengthen the demon spirits and yin soldiers.
The stakes were clear.
However, one person couldn't afford to think so much: "No."
At this moment, a voice from behind spoke simultaneously: "This fellow Daoist is truly righteous and benevolent. Lu Ziyin admires you greatly and wishes to befriend you."
Lu Ziyin appeared elegantly in yellow robes, fanning himself with a graceful demeanor, followed by a group of Lu family guards.
It turned out that many immortal sect cultivators had already arrived in the vicinity and were waiting. However, they were at a loss when faced with the matter of the spirit-sealing stone below. Now that Gu Junshi had appeared as an unexpected variable, Lu Ziyin couldn't help but step forward.
Gu Junshi was already aware of the presence of these people. She had deliberately transformed into the Demon Spirit Emperor and captured people, specifically those who were highly respected and influential, to attract these people to watch.
She ignored Lu Ziyin's overtures of friendship and said to Liu Jiang Fusheng: "Will you wait for me?"
Liu Jiang Fusheng did not respond at this moment.
He still believed that she had ulterior motives for doing this. She never did thankless tasks. What concern were the lives of those people to her? Why would she risk herself to do this?
At this moment, fueled by anger and sudden jealousy, he did not hesitate to speculate about Gu Junshi's intentions with the greatest malice.