The Demon God, in full public view, had exposed Gu Junshi's every last trump card with almost no mercy.
The mystery, cunning, and power Gu Junshi had displayed before them, like a constantly shifting prism, proved utterly fragile against His blunt force.
Even though she had gathered all the malevolent souls the demons used to create the Sea of Sin and returned them to the Netherworld, breaking the cycle of withered vegetation and depleted spiritual energy.
But it was all too late.
By this point, with blood energy surging for twenty-eight days, He had gained enough vitality and strength to repair Himself, making whatever Gu Junshi intended to do futile.
And the cultivators of the Spirit Realm who heard the Demon God’s words looked at Gu Junshi with utter shock and astonishment.
“The Immortal Body as the price… so does that mean her previous death at the Demon God’s hands was a pre-planned scheme, solely to sacrifice her Immortal Body, and use her亡魂 (wánghún - departed soul) to enter the Netherworld… but why would the Heavenly Dao endorse her succession as the ruler of the Netherworld?”
“Are you stupid? Have you forgotten what she did before?! To stand against the Demon God single-handedly, speaking plainly, she was eliminating evil to its roots; speaking grandly, she was saving a realm. Such a person with great merit, upon dying, would have her merit alone be enough to bypass reincarnation and ascend directly to immortality.”
“Holy hell, the King of the Underworld… she, with a mortal body, achieved immortal ascension in mere decades, and now she’s become the ruler of a realm? Is this something a human can do?”
“…She can even figure out unconventional cultivation methods like killing her husband to achieve enlightenment, what else is there she can’t do.”
Was it that she was too monstrous, or were they too ordinary and mediocre!
If anyone else had said these words, they would have likely been considered mentally unstable for speaking such absurdities.
But the Demon God was an unfathomably supreme being; He disdained babbling nonsense without basis.
They all cultivated in the Spirit Realm and absorbed spiritual energy. Was this Gu Junshi, who had appeared out of nowhere, intending to crush them, the slow-progressing cultivators, or to frighten them, the so-called great figures and geniuses of immortal sects?!
Fang Rui was pushed to the back of the crowd. Those of lower seniority and insufficient cultivation to stand on their own were generally gathered together with little presence.
She was injured, but not fatally. Yet, her entire spirit and vitality were drained, making her resemble a wilted flower.
She looked at Gu Junshi as if in a dream, bewildered and dazed, “Where did she even come from? She was just an ordinary mortal at the start, how has she suddenly reached a position where everyone looks up to her? Does her junior brother Fusheng know all of this?”
Clearly, he did not. Otherwise, who would dare provoke such a woman? To be the husband of the King of the Underworld, was that not seeking death at an accelerated pace?
Back at the Great Yan Sect, Gu Junshi’s simple, plain clothes and her quiet, steady demeanor seemed as vivid as yesterday. Fang Rui could never have imagined that one day their positions would be completely reversed, one in the heavens, the other in the earth.
“We used to think she wasn’t worthy of our Uncle-Master Liu Jiang, who had the Heavenly Spirit Root, and we kept badmouthing her behind her back…” A female disciple from the Great Yan Sect shivered in terror, trying her best to hide behind others, fearing that the current Gu Junshi would seek retribution.
As the saying goes, if the King of Hell tells you to die at the third watch, he won’t let you see the fifth.
She did not want to die. Although with the Demon God threatening to destroy the world, survival seemed impossible, but… better to delay it for a moment. What if Gu Junshi was magnanimous and forgot her old grievances, what if Gu Junshi could perform a miracle and defeat the Demon God to save them…
Several heavily injured Mountain Lords, supported and protected by Dan Ya, had all survived.
The Mountain Lords were utterly dumbfounded, especially Daoist Zhiyang, who had previously declared Gu Junshi to be a harbinger of death with sinister origins.
He was Liu Jiang Fusheng’s former master. He could calculate fortunes but was only a half-baked practitioner, solely concerned with his beloved disciple’s future. He treated Gu Junshi with cold glances and disdain. What happened later did indeed occur as he predicted: she was specifically there to bring about Liu Jiang Fusheng’s downfall.
In the end, Liu Jiang Fusheng died because of her.
Before, he had only thought Liu Jiang Fusheng’s mind was clouded by emotion, falling victim to her schemes. His hatred and disgust for Gu Junshi had reached its peak.
In his mind, Gu Junshi was ruthless, cruel, unfeeling, and treacherous. But now, everything was developing in a way that left him utterly confused.
He did not understand why Gu Junshi was opposing the Demon God. Previously, with her clever words, she had used Liu Jiang Fusheng, the Son of the Heavenly Dao, as a stepping stone to pledge allegiance to the Demon God and switch sides.
After that, she could have soared to higher realms by relying on the Demon God, perhaps even becoming an immortal or a god.
But now, she was fighting alongside them against an impossibly powerful behemoth. What was she thinking?
What was she aiming for?
As the Demon God had said, although she was powerful enough to become the new ruler of the Netherworld, now that the Demon God had escaped his confinement, had stripped this small world of nearly half its spiritual energy and vitality, and His divine power had been restored, even the King of the Underworld could do nothing against the Demon God.
The Demon God, though a demon, was also a god.
Even if she became a high immortal, she could not withstand the vengeance of a god.
Gu Junshi’s expression remained unchanged by the Demon God’s public taunts.
Frost covered her face. Her black robe and crown, combined with her tall, slender figure, gave her a touch of a boyish, ethereally beautiful presence that defied the heavens, as well as the profound, dark aura of an emperor shaking the world in the wind.
“Demon God, if you are truly so confident, why then did you have to kill the King of the Underworld and sever the path of reincarnation and rebirth?”
“Because this small world does not need the Netherworld’s interference at all. I killed all the people of the Netherworld, including the King of the Underworld, and sealed the Netherworld, not out of fear, but because I want the Heavenly Dao to see that this small world, because of Him, will have no reincarnation, no hope of life. It will completely disappear from the Three Thousand Worlds—”
As His arrogant pronouncements echoed, half of His blood-red demonic energy surged forth, almost imbuing the heavy night with the scent of blood.
Gu Junshi could not help but be affected by this oppressive aura. She furrowed her brow, thinking to herself, if all calculations were made, yet the disparity between them could still not be bridged…
“The grudge you and the Heavenly Dao share has, unknowingly, implicated so many people.” Gu Junshi sighed with an unfathomable meaning. The next moment, the atmosphere shifted dramatically.
It was as if the preceding autumn breeze had suddenly turned into a harsh winter. Snowflakes began to fall from the sky again, but this time, they were not black, but ordinary white.
At any other time, falling white snow would not seem strange. But in the sky of eternal night, devoid of color and light, these snowflakes seemed to flutter down like they were wrapped in pearly starlight, soft and lifelike.
The feeling of beauty and romance was likely meant for those in a relaxed mood. But for those present, there was only a bone-chilling cold.
Cold.
Their faces felt cold, their limbs felt cold, their entire bodies felt cold, their marrow felt cold, and even their minds felt a suffocating stillness, frozen in place.
They checked their bodies, finding no "snowflakes" adhering to them, nor any frost or ice. But why did they feel so cold?
The Demon God, seeing that Gu Junshi’s emotions had finally stirred, laughed coldly, “Gu Junshi, you and I are the same kind of person.”
“On what grounds do you say that?” Gu Junshi replied indifferently.
“You know you are no match for Me, so you dragged this world into the Netherworld, plunging the realms of Humans, Demons, Ghosts, and Spirits into eternal night. This is because eternal night will amplify your power to its maximum. And this cleansing snow you’ve brought down, while it can annihilate the demon tribes I command, will turn this world into your battlefield of slaughter.”
“You have extinguished all emotion and desire, even capable of personally killing your beloved husband and your own flesh and blood. Your temperament and methods are such that it is truly a pity you have not succumbed to demonhood, hahaha…”
Upon hearing the Demon God’s words, cultivators, demon cultivators, ghost cultivators, and others from various realms and factions changed their expressions drastically. At this point, they finally understood a crucial matter: the undead legion appearing before them originated from the Netherworld, and more specifically, it was Gu Junshi’s private army.
She had resurrected, and in realms unknown to them, had seized control of the entire Netherworld.
And when she appeared, these skeletal armies, within the barrier of eternal night, had bravely stood on the front lines, shielding them from the Demon God’s slaughter.
Perhaps the undead army could not necessarily defeat the Demon God’s beastly legions, but fortunately, the undead army was immortal and indestructible. With Gu Junshi holding the front line, they could remain temporarily safe.
“I never imagined… it would be her in the end, saving this realm…”
The personnel of the Supreme Mansion, who had almost desperately sought revenge against Gu Junshi and the Demon God, now found themselves powerless and in despair as the momentum had shifted.
They had always believed that they, along with the cultivators of the Spirit Realm, were united as one, stepping forward to eliminate evil and uphold justice in all major affairs to protect the peace of the realms.
As descendants of divine races, they had always been incredibly proud. But before the Demon God, the stark contrast of their vulnerability made them see the reality clearly.
The Supreme Mansion was finished.
After Liu Jiang Fusheng’s death, they had completely lost their guiding spirit.
They were once the rulers of this realm, dictating how anyone who came to the Supreme Mansion had to bow to them.
But their ambition did not stop at ruling this small world; they yearned for the higher skies.
After all, they were descendants with divine blood, naturally more noble than ordinary cultivators.
However, to lead the entire clan in ascension was almost an impossible feat, until their great fate master, on his deathbed, cast a divination that revealed a prophecy.
Following destiny and awaiting the guidance of fate, their Supreme Mansion would have a descendant with the Heavenly Spirit Root in the future. This person would possess exceptional talent and luck and would lead the people of the Supreme Mansion away from this world and ascend to the upper realms.
They firmly believed in this prophecy.
Finally, after thousands of years, they got their wish and waited for the Son of the Heavenly Dao—Liu Jiang Fusheng.