Lu Shiyuan ultimately stepped into the teleportation array.
Her cultivation had always lagged behind powerhouses like Shang Si and Lin Xiao. Even with the array’s aid, she arrived a full half-day after those who had departed ahead of her. By the time she reached Kunlun, she hadn’t caught up to the vanguard.
For years now, Shang Si had been her constant companion through every trial, great or small. Suddenly, Lu Shiyuan found herself a solitary wanderer.
Yet the devastation she witnessed along the way painted a grim picture: the demons left no survivors in their wake. Even remote roadside hamlets had been reduced to blood-soaked ruins. Clearly, the Jiao Dragon Demon had spared no ruthlessness to silence any leaks, heedless of the reckoning to come.
From the hush of sunset to the silver moon suspended in the inverted sky, brooding clouds and mist shrouded the luminous orb like a gossamer veil across a beauty’s face—truth and illusion blurring into enigma.
The daytime demon assault had left the Kunlun Sect battered, with nearly every disciple on guard duty wounded. Still, the moment Lin Xiao and his group passed through the gates, the defenders redoubled their vigilance, bracing for a potential second strike.
At Kunlun’s peak loomed the grand gates—a forbidden sanctum no ancestor, not even one like Lin Xiao, could breach without express command. This ironclad rule, forged at the sect’s founding, bound every generation without fail.
The sect’s barriers lay shattered now, its defenses far looser than in peacetime, but stealth was beyond Lu Shiyuan’s means. To reach the ancient ruins within, she had only one path: the bold, open approach.
Fortunately, she had devised her strategy en route.
Upon arrival at Kunlun, Lu Shiyuan held back from revealing herself. She first cast a concealing spell to mask her aura, then shed her dress for a black cloak and donned the signature ghost mask of Yedu’s Ghost Messengers, retrieved from her spatial ring.
Clothes make the man, as they say. This guise stripped away every hint of an immortal sect cultivator’s righteous bearing.
Instead, it evoked dread on sight.
Yet the outfit was mere window dressing. The true linchpin was the Black Iron Token she kept against her skin, imprinted with three threads of Shang Si’s divine sense.
The token offered a glimpse of the Ye Lord’s formidable authority—the perfect credential.
Preparations complete, Lu Shiyuan cast aside all concealment.
She soared toward the Kunlun Sect’s mountain gate with brazen flair, her spiritual power amplifying her voice to cleave the silent night, resounding across the peak—
“Kunlun’s guardian elder! Show yourself!”
“Kunlun’s guardian elder! Show yourself!”
“Kunlun’s guardian elder! Show yourself!”
Three resounding calls jolted the watch disciples awake. In a flash, several auras hurtled toward her.
“Insolent wretch! Who dares raise such a clamor at our gate?” A vigorous shout of outrage preceded a sword strike brimming with spiritual power.
Lu Shiyuan met the respectable assault with a casual flick of her sleeve. Where sword qi clashed against her cloak in the night sky, ghostly blue flames bloomed, dissolving the attack into nothingness.
The assailant’s face drained of color.
Moments later, two more figures materialized beside him, arraying themselves in a triangular formation to encircle Lu Shiyuan. They bristled like foes on a hair trigger, poised for combat.
In truth, taking on all three at once would strain her sorely.
That sword strike owed its dissipation not to her prowess, but to the defensive spirit talisman Shang Si had bestowed upon her.
Fine for intimidation, but a real brawl would expose the ruse.
Clashing openly held no appeal for Lu Shiyuan. She lifted her chin with imperious disdain, fixing her gaze on the lead youth. “This Messenger hails from Yedu’s Ghost Messengers. Summon your sect elder at once. We have urgent matters to discuss.”
Those from Yedu carried themselves thus—no less would suffice.
Prolonged exposure to Shang Si had rubbed off on her. Feigned humility would ring hollow.
“What Yedu Ghost Messengers? Never heard of them. You’re just another filthy demon itching for a fight!” Her hauteur evidently rankled the other two; tensions spiked toward violence.
Lu Shiyuan tensed, lips compressed, channeling her full spiritual power.
Then—
“Xun Yang, you three—stand down.” A deep, authoritative elder’s voice cut through, quelling the spiritual pressure the pair had mustered.
The trio, fierce as cornered beasts moments before, fell meek as chicks before a hawk, hushed and compliant.
In mere breaths, the elder arrived on the scene.
Lu Shiyuan gauged his profound cultivation and marveled inwardly at the Kunlun Sect’s hidden depths.
For now, though, the charade demanded continuance.
The elder turned a sidelong glance her way. “You wished to see me?”
As soon as the elder finished speaking, Lu Shiyuan instantly felt a powerful divine sense probing toward her from all sides, attempting to invade her body.
Unfortunately, it was repelled by the Black Iron Token she carried.
The elder was startled. He had only intended to probe her true strength, but he encountered another strand of kingly aura several times more powerful than his own.
He had no choice but to take the newcomer seriously.
“This envoy is a Ghost Messenger from Yedu, dispatched by the Ye Lord herself to accompany you. I was delayed earlier today by some sudden matters that required my attention along the way,” Lu Shiyuan declared. With a wave of her hand, the Black Iron Token at her waist floated into the air and landed before the elder. “This is the Black Iron Token bestowed by the Ye Lord. Take a good look.”
Bluffing with borrowed authority came naturally to Lu Shiyuan.
Without resorting to combat and exposing her true cultivation, she was confident she could fool these people.
“It truly is the Black Iron Token.” The elder was no stranger to such artifacts, and having met the Ye Lord just earlier that day, he immediately recognized the aura unique to Shang Si emanating from it.
A token like this could only be granted to the most trusted confidants—far more convincing than any clever words.
Satisfied that she had convinced him, Lu Shiyuan curled her fingers like claws and summoned the token back.
She continued in a deep voice, her tone still arrogant: “Demons and fiends are rampant now, and Yedu has joined forces with the Kunlun Sect to safeguard the Three Realms. Are you not going to lead this envoy to the peak of Kunlun?”
The elder did not take offense at her attitude. Instead, he cupped his hands toward her. “The juniors of our sect were ignorant and offended you. Please follow me, Ghost Envoy Lord.”
With just a few words, she boldly slipped into Kunlun.
Beneath her cloak, a fine sheen of sweat had broken out on Lu Shiyuan’s back. She quietly exhaled in relief.
She had to admit, the Black Iron Token Shang Si had left her was incredibly useful.
The gates had been sealed for thousands—even tens of thousands of years. Now, amid these great upheavals, they had opened once more.
Besides spiritual energy so thin it was barely detectable, Lu Shiyuan sensed a faint familiar aura in the air. She had no idea what it was, only that the sense of familiarity felt strangely bewildering.
Under the elder’s watchful gaze, she soon vanished into the barrier of the forbidden area.
Only after setting foot in this desolate site—sealed for over ten thousand years, devoid of any human presence—and confirming no other eyes watched her back did Lu Shiyuan finally relax.
She tossed aside her cloak and let out a heavy breath. Then, closing her eyes slowly, she focused her mind and released her spiritual power in all directions, probing the place where immortals had once gathered in abundance ten thousand years ago.
Yet her seemingly vast spiritual power dispersed like a drop of water into a vast river or sea, stirring not the slightest ripple. She gained nothing.
Lu Shiyuan quickly abandoned the futile effort.
“Strange,” she murmured, furrowing her delicate brows.
It was strange indeed. Logically, entering this forbidden land alone, fraught with hidden dangers, her first instinct should have been utmost vigilance. But from the moment she arrived until now—a mere half incense stick’s worth of time—she felt no anxiety or tension. Instead, an inexplicable sense of calm washed over her.
If she had to describe it… it was like returning to a long-lost homeland. The feeling of coming home.
Her spiritual power had extended far without detecting a single living creature or concealed threat. The cataclysm had truly wiped out all life in this realm, including those former exiled immortals, who had perished one by one.
Yet in that instant, Lu Shiyuan had felt something summoning her from a distant corner of this world.
That was the most perplexing part of all.
Lu Shiyuan lifted her gaze once more, carefully scanning the dilapidated houses and palaces around her. At that moment, the summoning pull deep in her heart grew even stronger. “Could it be… that I’ve been here before?”
