Mei Ji was no match for Chu Lingwei. After only two rounds, Mei Ji was already on the ground.
"I didn't expect you to be so powerful after not seeing each other for ten years," Mei Ji's voice was filled with helplessness and sorrow. The junior sister who once needed their help had become so strong.
"Mu Shuyang, tell me, why must you kill me? I don't want to hear your so-called heavenly secrets." Chu Lingwei had never believed in heavenly secrets.
Seeing Mei Ji fall, Mu Shuyang immediately stepped forward to help her up, his eyes full of guilt. "Mei Ji, I've dragged you down."
"Mu Shuyang, I don't regret it," Mei Ji looked back at him, realizing that this man had long since taken root in her heart.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have stayed with him here for ten years.
"I saw that one day, Bing Ji Cliff will be filled with a sea of blood, and you will be the cause of it. I saw you standing on the snowy peak, holding a long sword, with no life left on Bing Ji Cliff."
Mu Shuyang helped Mei Ji up and told Chu Lingwei the vision he had seen.
Cultivators on the verge of tribulation could already glimpse heavenly secrets. In their hearts, these were revelations from heaven.
"But you didn't say that before." Previously, when Mu Shuyang wanted to kill her, his reasons were very grand.
"You stand on the mountaintop, with an uncertain tribulation behind you. You are the variable of the Xuantiian Continent," Mu Shuyang sighed. At this moment, he finally understood that no matter how high his cultivation was, he could not contend with heaven, let alone defy the will of heaven.
This was destiny.
This was also a variable.
Mu Shuyang raised his eyes and gazed at Chu Lingwei. In the beginning, he had wanted Chu Lingwei dead, so he had gathered snow spirit beasts to surround and kill her. However, because of the trace of a variable behind her, he had let her go again and again.
"Hmph."
Chu Lingwei had heard from more than one person that she was that variable. She didn't believe in variables; she only believed in her ability to change her own destiny.
"Let's go."
Stepping out of the cave, Chu Lingwei flew out of Bing Ji Cliff on her spirit sword.
"Wei Wei, aren't you going to kill him?" Feng Ming asked with a puzzled expression. That Mu Shuyang had almost killed Wei Wei several times, and it was a shame not to kill him.
"He will never be able to leave that cave dwelling in his lifetime, so let him stay there forever."
Mu Shuyang was currently unable to step out of his cave dwelling, nor could he break through the last barrier. His fate was now to wait for death.
Whether to kill him or not made no difference to her.
"But..." Feng Ming turned his head and glared at Mu Shuyang's cave dwelling. Wei Wei was truly kind to let that bad guy go.
"Aunt, you're back so soon."
Long Ziqian, having received Chu Lingwei's message, rushed over. He had thought Chu Lingwei would take much longer.
"Mm."
Chu Lingwei nodded, feeling a faint worry but helpless.
This was the grudge between her senior brother and that Xuan Shang. She was merely a cultivator at the Hua Tian realm and could not help at all.
"How is it at Linglong Stream?" Long Ziqian was confused about Chu Lingwei's return. Thinking about the anomaly above Linglong Stream earlier, something major must have happened there.
"There's a powerful being there, we can't get in."
Chu Lingwei casually offered a reason.
"So that's how it is,"
Long Ziqian realized, "Just an hour ago, several powerful beings returned from the inner regions of Bing Ji Cliff."
Chu Lingwei remained silent. Those powerful beings were likely the ones thrown out of Linglong Stream by her senior brother and the others.
Just then, Chu Lingwei received a sect communication talisman.
"All disciples of Xiuling Academy, return to the sect immediately. No delay."
Chu Lingwei looked at the communication talisman in her hand. This was a sect order personally issued by her master. Normally, sect orders were not issued by the sect leader himself. Now that this order was issued by her master, something big must have happened.
"Wei Wei, the disciples of other sects in Bing Ji Cliff are all withdrawing from Bing Ji Cliff," Shui Yi's divine sense scanned the cultivators of other sects in Bing Ji Cliff. Everyone was leaving. "It seems they have all received sect orders."
At this moment, Long Ziqian also received a communication talisman.
"Aunt, my grandfather has summoned me back. I must return as quickly as possible."
Chu Lingwei's heart sank. Something big had happened.
"Wei Wei, are we going back?"
Huan Mao looked towards Linglong Stream in Bing Ji Cliff. They couldn't see anything, but her senior brother should still be fighting that cultivator.
"Wei Wei, return quickly."
Chu Lingwei hesitated. She didn't want to leave her senior brother alone here.
Just then, her second senior brother's sound transmission talisman flew into Chu Lingwei's hand, his voice urgent.
"Something major must have happened at the sect. Let's go back." Chu Lingwei's heart tightened. She summoned her divine-grade magic weapon and, with them, flew back to Xiuling Academy at her fastest speed.
As they passed Lingzhou City, she dropped Long Ziqian off. "After you return, no matter what happens in your clan, you must tell me immediately."
"Okay."
As Chu Lingwei returned to the academy, she sent transmission talismans to her parents and eldest uncle. They didn't tell her what had happened, but their attitudes were consistent: they hoped she would return to Xiuling Academy.
Three days later.
Chu Lingwei returned to Xiuling Academy.
"Little junior sister, you're back."
Second senior brother Nangong Luo was waiting at the academy gate.
"Second senior brother, has something happened at the academy?" She had been traveling back, and the entire Xuantiian Continent was unusually quiet. In the last day, she had rarely encountered any cultivators.
"Yes, let's go back to Wuhui Mountain first. Master is waiting for you."
Chu Lingwei followed Nangong Luo back to Beichen Tong's cave dwelling in Wuhui Mountain.
"Wei Wei, how is your senior brother?" Beichen Feng sat at the head of the table, his expression stern, very different from usual.
Chu Lingwei's heart sank. Had her master known her senior brother's identity all along? It seemed unlikely. "He is in critical condition."
Upon hearing this answer, Beichen Feng did not look at Chu Lingwei's eyes. Instead, he gazed through her gaze to the Wuhui Mountain outside. After a long silence, he sighed.
"The Demon Realm has a new ruler. They are now joining forces with the Demonic Realm and the Ghost Realm to attack our Xuantiian Continent."
"What?!"
Chu Lingwei cried out in shock.
Beichen Feng waved his hand. All the cultivators of the Xuantiian Continent had been recalled, preparing to face this great battle. "I didn't expect this day to come so soon."
"How could this happen?"
It was almost without warning.
"Currently, the Ghost Realm, the Demonic Realm, and the Demon Realm have formed an alliance and are pressing towards our Xuantiian Continent. As a sect of the Xuantiian Continent, we must maintain the peace of the Xuantiian Continent."
Beichen Feng stood up and looked at his youngest disciple.