Legend had it that one could peer into the events of their past lives by standing at the edge of the Reincarnation Pool and gazing down.
The reincarnation grounds, once under the Underworld’s control, had now fallen into Yedu’s hands. Over repeated visits to this place, Tang Mo had stood by the pool’s edge and glimpsed his own past lives, as well as Lu Yue’s. But for someone like Shang Si—uniquely favored by the Heavenly Dao, having transcended the Three Realms with neither past nor future—gazing into the pool revealed nothing at all.
Aside from the Shang Family, Lu Shiyuan was the second person Tang Mo had ever seen standing motionless by the pool, utterly unmoved.
No reflection appeared on the water’s surface, which meant Lu Shiyuan had no past life whatsoever.
But what kind of person had no past life at all?
The bird flapping its colorful plumage toward Shang Si shattered like a fractured mirror before it could draw near, fragments scattering in all directions. Mei Meng’s illusion had been broken from the outside.
Shang Si felt the searing heat in her heart dissipate in an instant. She opened her eyes to see a familiar figure charging straight toward her.
“Don’t speak. Stabilize your mind and guard your spiritual sea. The Ghost Chariot Clan’s illusion arts are unlike others—they strike directly at the divine sense once you’ve been ensnared.” With no time for explanations, Lu Shiyuan shattered the illusion and reached Shang Si’s side. She retrieved a spiritual medicine from her storage space and fed it directly into Shang Si’s mouth.
The pill melted on her tongue, and within moments, Shang Si sensed spiritual power surging through her depleted meridians at several times its normal speed.
This medicine… She looked up at Lu Shiyuan in astonishment. Even the rarest treasures in her private stores paled in comparison. Where on earth had Lu Shiyuan gotten it?
But this was no time for questions. Following the instructions, Shang Si closed her eyes and began channeling the fresh spiritual power to perform basic healing.
Lu Shiyuan didn’t idle in the meantime, either.
The others nearby, trapped in their own illusions, varied in fortune. The lucky ones—like Lin Xiao and Qingzhi—had held out with injuries that were still manageable. The less fortunate, such as Qin Xinying, had already overextended themselves battling the Jiao Dragon Demon earlier. After Mei Meng’s illusions battered her further, she emerged clinging to life by a thread.
Some hadn’t been so lucky. They’d perished outright, body and soul extinguished, reduced to perfect nourishment for the Ghost Chariot Clan.
No one knew what horrors Qin Xinying had witnessed in her illusion to leave her in such a state.
Lu Shiyuan found the situation deeply troubling, but before she could act, Qingzhi—having patched herself up with basic healing—approached.
“Sister Qingzhi…” Lu Shiyuan felt surprised, yet not entirely so.
Qingzhi nodded to her, her words brief and to the point. “Leave her to me. You all focus on dealing with Mei Meng.”
Those words eased Lu Shiyuan’s tension at last.
Before Qingzhi departed, Lu Shiyuan handed her two potent healing pills. “This isn’t a place to linger. Take her and go—the southeast path is clear; I opened it on my way in.”
Yedu’s elite forces had come here with victory assured in their minds, only for Mei Meng to appear out of nowhere midway through. Now, more than half their strength lay crippled or lost.
Pushing forward with brute force in this state would only lead to needless losses.
Any clear-eyed observer could see that continuing the fight now would be nothing short of moths hurling themselves into the flame.
After seeing Qingzhi and Qin Xinying off, Lu Shiyuan returned to Shang Si’s side.
Shang Si was still regulating her breathing, but Lu Shiyuan could clearly sense that her aura had strengthened considerably since emerging from the illusion. She must have recovered somewhat.
It was deep into the night by now. In mere moments, thick fog rolled outward from the heart of Fog Moon Shoal, expanding its reach. Visibility, which had started at five meters, shrank to just two. Any ordinary cultivator stumbling into this place would find no way out.
Lu Shiyuan stood guard beside Shang Si, sweeping the surroundings with her divine sense. She detected no trace of Mei Meng. Just as she prepared to withdraw it…
“The same old trick won’t work on me. I’d advise you to save your energy.”
Lu Shiyuan’s eyes snapped open, her gaze locking firmly onto one direction.
A woman’s clear, chilling voice echoed across the empty shoal, piercing straight through the dense fog.
Moments later, a graceful silhouette materialized hazily from the mist. “No wonder you looked so familiar. You’re that little girl who follows Ye Lord around.”
“Interesting—you actually broke my illusion.” Mei Meng advanced step by step, her alluring eyes brimming with amusement.
“You’re strong.” Her vermilion lips parted, delivering that succinct assessment.
From their brief clash just now, Mei Meng had already gauged Lu Shiyuan’s power in broad strokes.
She had indeed targeted Lu Shiyuan moments earlier with the exact same technique—one that had plunged Shang Si, Lin Xiao, and the others into heart demons and illusions. Yet on Lu Shiyuan, it had failed utterly.
The young human cultivator standing before her now was no less formidable than Lin Xiao—even Shang Si herself.
This was an unprecedented wonder, one rarely seen since ancient times.
“But it’s quite strange. How is it that you, at such a young age, possess such formidable cultivation?” A faint trace of puzzlement crossed Mei Meng’s beautiful, smiling face. “Would Miss Lu be willing to clear up this little mystery for me?”
With that, she took a few more steps forward.
In that instant, a spiritual sword gleaming with icy light shot out from behind Lu Shiyuan, thrusting straight toward Mei Meng’s face. Caught off guard by the sudden assault, Mei Meng’s expression shifted. She raised her hand to block it while retreating two steps.
“Don’t come any closer,” Lu Shiyuan said calmly, standing her ground as she gazed at the woman.
The spiritual sword was knocked flying by Mei Meng’s strike and plummeted into the vast fog. Yet within moments, it flew back into Lu Shiyuan’s hand on its own.
This was the Azure Frost Sword that Shang Si had given her that day.
The power of a spiritual artifact depended entirely on its wielder.
Once, Lu Shiyuan had wielded a top-grade spiritual artifact and could barely hold her own against Qin Xinying. Now, the Azure Frost Sword in her grasp was a force that even made Mei Meng wary.
Having taken a covert hit, Mei Meng grew vigilant.
What was going on?
According to the intelligence she had gathered before, Lu Shiyuan—the woman by Shang Si’s side—was merely an ordinary cultivator from the Mortal Realm, her strength utterly unremarkable… Could she have been concealing her true power all this time?
Mei Meng did as told and advanced no further, though her smile lingered as her eyes drifted to Shang Si, who sat nearby with eyes closed in meditation. “Miss Lu, your bond with the Ye Lord is truly enviable. But guarding me like this… isn’t it a tad excessive? I’m no venomous scorpion, after all, am I?”
Lu Shiyuan let out a soft hum and replied with a smile of her own. “If anything, you’re worse.”
Those words finally caused the mirth in Mei Meng’s eyes to fade away.
Seeing her reaction, Lu Shiyuan spoke slowly. “The Ghost Chariot Clan’s ability to devour living souls is formidable indeed, but it comes with its own flaws. You’ve swallowed Cheng Yan’s soul and can’t fully refine it just yet. If you’re willing to leave now, we can go our separate ways in peace. But if you insist on pressing the issue, I’m more than happy to test your skills firsthand.”
Mei Meng wavered at those words.
For one thing, she couldn’t quite gauge Lu Shiyuan’s true level of cultivation. For another, Lu Shiyuan had struck at the heart of the matter: Mei Meng couldn’t refine Cheng Yan’s soul anytime soon and could only borrow his strength temporarily.
It was akin to a balloon inflated several times—or even dozens of times—over a short span: fearsome to behold, yet always on the verge of bursting.
However—
“…We can’t let her go.” Shang Si had risen to her feet at some point. Gritting her teeth, she took up Lu Shiyuan’s words with a heavy tone. “The Ghost Chariot Clan has revealed itself today for Cheng Yan’s soul. If we allow her to leave now, the next time we meet, there may be no one left in the Three Realms who can stand against her.”
Shang Si’s aura remained feeble. Though she had consumed the spiritual medicine Lu Shiyuan had given her and patched up her wounds as best she could, her strength had recovered to only about thirty percent.
Lu Shiyuan had discerned as much with a single probe of her inner breath.
Shang Si’s words furrowed Lu Shiyuan’s brow, leaving her at a loss for words.
In times of peace, Yedu had never meddled in the Three Realms’ strife. But now, with calamity befalling all living creatures, Yedu could no longer afford to stand aside.
These were matters that should have fallen to the immortals of the upper realms.
Yet the Immortal Realm had long been annihilated, those exalted immortals reduced to dust. And no one had ever claimed that the full burden of such duties should rest solely on the shoulders of Yedu’s Shang Family.
Immortals…
The word—one long unspoken—left Lu Shiyuan momentarily dazed.
She clenched her fist tighter in silence. But Mei Meng had already responded to Shang Si’s declaration. “The Ye Lord speaks true. To release a tiger back to the mountains is to court endless peril. And since you’ve already taken wounds today, I suppose…”
Her words trailed off mid-sentence as her figure vanished. In its place loomed a nine-headed monster bird, swollen to a hundred times its size. It blotted out the sky and moon, engulfing the whole of Fog Moon Shoal. Even the dense fog that had shrouded the area was scattered by its colossal wings.
Lu Shiyuan and Shang Si exchanged a glance. In each other’s eyes, they saw something they had never beheld before.
