Lu Ziyin, covered in dust, along with Rulan and the others, had narrowly escaped death. Spitting out dirt and shaking off the dust from their clothes, a streak of light flashed from below towards the sky, quickly moving to join the main force.
Besides those two, Dan Ya reacted faster. With a flick of his moon-white sleeves, he conjured an ice barrier, shielding him from the dirt and grime. His serene face, elegant like ink on white paper, remained fixed on the deep, dark abyss beneath the underground palace, his hands clasped behind his back, his robes billowing. The depths were not only intensely cold and dark but also faintly illuminated by a scorching red glow.
It was so bottomless, as if dug into the core of the earth. A moment ago, a world-destroying, boundless power had surged from that hole straight into the heavens, its diameter widening and cracking the surrounding ground, causing it to continuously collapse. Its destructive force was incredibly astonishing.
They had almost been engulfed by it then, buried by the chaotic falling stones.
They had escaped unharmed without a care, but Gu Er had truly been buried. However, being a zombie, even without using any protective power at the critical moment, his resilient corpse could withstand the crushing blows.
He dug himself out from the buried rubble, still lying on the ground. His head instinctively looked up. Not far from him, amidst a patch of ruins, a flawless and beautiful nine-tailed white fox was swaying its nine fluffy, cloud-like tails. It stretched its neck upwards, its posture graceful and captivating in every way.
Beneath the grayish-blue sky, its nine loose and soft fox tails lazily swayed back and forth beneath it, resembling a lavishly ornate and retro oil painting rendered in dark, rich hues.
This one, no, this creature almost as tall as a building, should it be called a "head"... he thought, stunned, was it the fox demon that insisted on following his sister earlier? He never imagined it would have nine tails!
He was no longer the naive and ignorant village youth he once was. He had heard of a type of fox cultivation in the demon realm called the Qingqiu Fox. The Qingqiu Fox had a celestial fox known as the Nine-Tailed Fox. These celestial foxes were different from ordinary fox spirits; they possessed innate cultivation constitutions from birth.
Everyone knew that although demons cultivated more smoothly than human cultivators, without needing to deal with inner demons or probing their hearts, the heavenly tribulations they endured during advancement were particularly perilous. Naturally, spirits had extremely long lifespans, but most demons did not die of old age, internal strife, or external battles. Instead, when their realm and cultivation accumulated to the point where they needed to ascend to a higher stage, they were unable to withstand the heavenly tribulation and were pulverized into ashes.
But celestial foxes were different. They could ascend to immortality without undergoing tribulation. Merely this fact alone made celestial foxes incredibly enviable.
Gu Er knew that whatever his sister set her sights on could not be an ordinary, unremarkable fox demon.
Thinking of his sister, Gu Er immediately came back to his senses.
Since being separated from his sister, he had tried his best to recall what his sister had said to the fox demon before. He was also desperately eager to find her, but before he could find her, the underground palace was shaken by an earthquake, suffering a "catastrophic disaster."
He was half-dead, utterly bewildered, not knowing where his sister had gone. But he had a subconscious premonition that the great commotion in the underground palace this time was definitely related to his sister.
---
Upon hearing Cheng Hong's solemn murmur, Yan Tianjiao's defiant and gloomy eyes tightened. His thin, moist red lips parted, "What did you mean by that?"
Cheng Hong's robes rippled in the wind, and his voice was deep and resonant, "After the True Dragon God perished on the Twenty-Eighth Heaven, he scattered his cultivation. But for some reason, a fragmented divine soul consciousness also remained, distributed throughout this Dragon Island Secret Realm. They all inherited a portion of the True Dragon God's power. The one in the underground palace... was previously imprisoned within the Demon Subduing Formation."
"Similar to the previous remnant soul?"
Beside the "Eye of the True Dragon," there was also a remnant soul of the True Dragon God guarding it. At that time, seeing the battle between the remnant soul and the black-robed figure, Yan Tianjiao could tell that this remnant soul probably didn't even possess one-ten-thousandth of the True Dragon God's power. Perhaps it was also because the Twenty-Eighth Heaven restricted divine power that did not belong to this realm.
In any case, its demeanor was imposing, but in reality, it was like a child wearing adult clothes, completely lacking the heavy pressure emanating from the black dragon that manipulated clouds and rain in the dense clouds. The invisible tremor it emitted spread deep into people's hearts, as if before the battle even began, it had already imprinted absolute submission onto their hearts.
Cheng Hong shook his head, a hint of strangeness in his raven-colored eyes, "This one is different. It swallowed the Dragon Pill..."
The Dragon Pill was the crystallized cultivation energy of the True Dragon God. Although the True Dragon God had scattered his cultivation when he perished, that single Dragon Pill still possessed astonishing power.
All the information Cheng Hong knew came from the abbot's casual conversations with him about the "Newcomer Rankings." Many secret details were glossed over. When he asked about the top ten entering the "Dragon Island Secret Realm," the abbot inadvertently mentioned a few things about White Tower City and the underground palace. He didn't go into detail, but perhaps fearing he would act rashly, he had sternly warned him:
The remnant soul consciousness of the True Dragon God in the underground palace was not to be approached. While other remnant souls were pure, this one inherited the True Dragon God's indelible malevolence. After swallowing the Dragon Pill, it was suppressed, making its good and evil indistinguishable, and it was unknown when its demonic nature would be fully catalyzed.
For many years, they had tried various methods, setting up the Demon Subduing Formation to continuously purify the demonic energy on it. Every fifty years, they would inspect and reinforce the sealing barrier.
However, this stable and balanced remnant soul suddenly succumbed to demonic tendencies at this very moment. Before the top ten disciples of the "Newcomer Rankings" entered, the Void Sect's Tai Xuan and the presiding elders had investigated all potential hidden dangers. At that time, everything was normal. The True Dragon God remnant soul in the underground palace showed no abnormalities, and the Dragon Pill was still in a state of white clashing with black, with neither side gaining the upper hand.
Now, it was desperately trying to break free from the underground palace, even if it meant destroying the "Dragon Island Secret Realm" and attracting the attention and vigilance of the major sects of the Twenty-Eighth Heaven. Either it couldn't hold back and was planning to go all out, or it felt the time was right and chose to abandon the light and embrace the darkness, willingly falling into demonic ways.
But no one could have imagined that due to Gu Junshi's arrival, a calamity that should have been delayed for centuries had been brought forward so much. And because of her intervention, the fate of the "Son of Heaven's Mandate," Long Aotian, had also begun to become enigmatic.
In the original storyline of "Dragon Island Secret Realm," Liu Jiang Fusheng obtained the "Eye of the True Dragon." Thus, Gu Junshi only took the "Eye of the True Dragon" and did not intend to completely possess it.
However, she had not dreamt of the subsequent plot. It had directly jumped to Long Aotian's adventure in the "Dragon Island Secret Realm," his mutual assistance with everyone, and his encounter with the "Eye of the True Dragon." A large portion of the specific plot had been skipped, leading to the storyline in the Void Sect with the male supporting character, Xiao Chenmu.
And that skipped section, concerning fortunate encounters and Liu Jiang Fusheng's advancement to Nascent Soul and skipping several cultivation levels after leaving the "Dragon Island Secret Realm," was quite intriguing.
When Lu Ziyin and Rulan arrived, they happened to overhear Cheng Hong's words. No one could maintain a relaxed and composed demeanor. The spiritual energy on "Dragon Island Secret Realm" was being gradually depleted due to the demonic fall. The spiritual energy floating upwards from the ground like white mist was visibly dissipating into the air, fading away. The sky was no longer clear, and the earth no longer green.
The surging waves that rushed from all directions, layer by layer, climbed over the coastline, "thousands of troops and horses" continuously invading and engulfing the land. Their exceptionally violent momentum seemed as if they were about to drag the entire Dragon Island into the sea.
"Can we, who are mortals, deal with the fall of a god?" they asked, bewildered and terrified.
At this moment, Dan Ya also arrived. He had heard their entire conversation. Unlike them, he had witnessed the cruelty and inhumanity of various semi-demonic and demonic cultivators. He said with extreme coldness, "If we sit idly by and do nothing, the entire Dragon Island Secret Realm will become its hunting cage. Don't forget, we have no escape. Once the spiritual energy on this island is completely depleted, we will be corrupted by demonic energy and turn into monsters."
Dan Ya recalled his state when he was once affected by demonic energy: the feeling of being drained from the bone marrow, the excruciating pain, and the lack of control over his life and death...
Life worse than death, and yet unable to die a swift death—experiencing such a disgusting and hateful event once made it impossible to imagine going through it a second time.
"Do you know what that fallen dragon wants to do?" Liu Jiang Fusheng asked Cheng Hong.
Cheng Hong naturally did not know; his surprise and confusion were no less than theirs.
"Huh? Isn't that person... the black cloak?" Rulan suddenly exclaimed in surprise.
Black cloak?
Liu Jiang Fusheng and Cheng Hong's expressions changed simultaneously. They looked sharply towards the direction Rulan pointed. In the midst of the dark, swirling clouds, a remarkably small black figure floated amidst the fallen dragon's massive body.
Its wide cloak shimmered and swayed in the wind, standing alone in the vast sea of clouds, like a lone peak amidst the azure layers of clouds.
Upon seeing her at that moment, for some reason, everyone present felt a strange yet excited emotion arise in their hearts.
"You sent a message earlier saying... who is that black cloak?"
Lu Ziyin's heart skipped a beat at the words. He subconsciously looked at Liu Jiang Fusheng, and for some reason, seeing him made Lu Ziyin's heart flutter.
The others were all captivated by the question and looked at Lu Ziyin collectively, clearly very interested in the true identity of the black cloak.
Only Liu Jiang Fusheng did not look at Lu Ziyin; his gaze was fixedly locked onto the direction of the black cloak.
But at this moment, a sense of nervousness occupied Lu Ziyin's entire mind. His mind went blank. He didn't continue to act foolishly. Gu Yi's bulging belly... could she be pregnant?
After all, who in this world would get pregnant after being poisoned...
He thought of how he had inadvertently discovered her secret in the maze. He thought she would kill him to silence him, but in the end, she didn't.
She hadn't harmed them.
Her face alone was enough to make Lu Ziyin unable to harden his heart towards her—
He was conflicted and had a headache. Should he really... expose her in front of so many people, in front of Liu Jiang Fusheng?
*Boom—*
Before Lu Ziyin could stammer out Gu Yi's identity, the sound of mountains collapsing and the earth cracking reached his ears. The entire sky trembled. They all turned their heads in astonishment.
They saw that the black cloak had engaged in combat with the fallen dragon god. The clouds were like waves, surging and churning. The scene of their battle was so magnificent that words could not describe it. They all shivered.
Only the sea roared, and the wind howled. Waves after waves rose from the sea surface and rushed towards the cliffs. The vast sea seemed to connect with the sky. The turbulent air currents from their battle roared, and the air waves, carrying a chilling aura, knocked them all away.
There was no need to mention the fallen dragon. The giant, ferocious ghost that appeared behind the black cloak stunned them. Recalling the group of lesser ghosts that the black cloak had summoned earlier to fight them, it felt as if she (he) was just playing with them.
Lu Ziyin gasped: "..."
Holy crap, so (he) she was really that formidable, daring to confront the fallen dragon god alone?
Rulan was also so shocked that he couldn't speak clearly, "He, he, isn't the black cloak a demon? Why is he fighting the fallen True Dragon remnant soul—"
Yan Tianjiao's mood was also very complicated. He gritted his teeth and sneered, "Who says demons and the fallen can't be enemies?"
But Lu Ziyin suddenly remembered something. His eyes widened, and he blurted out, "Her current situation... is she crazy?!"
Or perhaps... it was all his wishful thinking, and he had guessed wrong. She wasn't pregnant at all?
Otherwise, how could she dare?
---
Gu Junshi soared out of the underground palace together with the fallen dragon. They each occupied a part of the sky. It wanted her life, and she didn't intend to let it go.
Dark, complex, multi-layered formations emerged beneath Gu Junshi's feet. Dozens of formations were combined and superimposed. This formation instantly expanded to several feet, like a disk of black moonlight. She summoned a Hellish Ghost.
The ghost was still bound by black chains, which clanked with every movement. It grappled with the fallen dragon, and two different black energies clashed. The Formless Weapon in her hand transformed into a long mace. There was not a single cloud in the sky; due to the powerful airflow, a circle was formed, creating an area within a hundred-mile radius that no one could approach.
The dragon coiled around the ghost, its powerful constricting force causing the ghost to scream.
Gu Junshi panted slightly and whipped out a lash.
"The more power you use, the more pain your child will suffer—"
She heard the fallen dragon's voice telling her this.
As it spoke, the slight pain in her abdomen intensified.
But so what? If it hurt... she would endure the pain with it.
Fu Bao, Mom knows you're in a lot of pain, but who told you to choose a bad person to be reborn into? You chose me. I'm also a first-time mother. Besides doing my best to save you and seize this opportunity, I have no other way.
After it tore apart the ghost, it coiled tightly around her body.