West Ox Continent.
A land that had always been rough and untamed had grown even more so.
Rampaging evil spirits and beasts seemed to have blanketed West Ox Continent overnight, a region whose people were already fierce and hardened by nature.
It was as though great chaos had descended in the blink of an eye.
The Buddhist Sect, which treated most of West Ox Continent as their exclusive domain, had for some reason turned a blind eye to all of it.
Whether it was because the bulk of their forces were busy hunting the Evil Spirit Sect and couldn't spare the manpower, or because they actually wanted West Ox Continent to descend into chaos — that was anyone's guess.
Most of the Buddhist Sect only protected the territory right outside their own doors. Only a handful of temples sent people out to tend to the devastated common folk.
But that effort was pitifully weak — like a dying candle in the dark, ready to be snuffed out at any moment.
Most people would never be touched by that feeble flickering light.
West Ox Continent was, in the end, a wilderness. The great calamity of that year had truly shattered this land to its core, and after Xuanqing Heavenly Sect carved up its spiritual veins, this scarred earth had long since become what others called a barren wasteland.
The poverty of spiritual energy destined the cultivators here to be few in number and shallow in cultivation.
With the Buddhist Sect looking the other way and the cultivators barely able to protect themselves, the hoes in the hands of ordinary folk looked ever more laughable in the eyes of demons.
Xu Jin stood in midair, his divine sense sweeping across all four directions.
Wherever the beasts had rampaged, not even bones remained.
Ruined mud-brick walls still stood, but no people were left.
A young man beside Xu Jin glared with hatred, his teeth clenched as he said:
"Senior brother, what exactly is the Buddhist Sect playing at? What kind of sick scheme is this, slaughtering innocents? Chanting compassion on one hand and killing like butchers on the other — it's truly despicable."
"Jing Qing, calm yourself."
Xu Jin turned his gaze back to his junior brother. "Word has come back from the sect. Those beasts can resonate with the demon crystals Chu Xingchen distributed."
"The beasts have no real intelligence. They only know blood and slaughter — they've clearly been driven."
"This is the work of demons. They must have been cornered by what happened last time, so now they're stirring up trouble here to divert our attention."
"The beasts have no minds of their own, so they can't be used to pin the blame on the Buddhist Sect."
Jing Qing's face remained iron-gray as he said coldly:
"The entire Buddhist Sect turning a collective blind eye like this — the whole lot of them have probably gone over to the demons. If they don't want West Ox Continent, then we'll take it. If they won't govern it, we will!"
"Or better yet — we march straight into their gates and make that Buddha come down and see for himself whether this place is the mortal realm or hell itself!"
Xu Jin glanced at Jing Qing, thinking his junior brother was being a bit foolish. He sighed inwardly, but the reason he'd brought this hot-headed boy along — aside from his solid combat ability — was that he followed orders without question.
Even if Xu Jin's instructions ran completely counter to what Jing Qing wanted to do, the young man would carry them out without hesitation.
Xu Jin had been about to say something reassuring to placate his impulsive junior brother. But looking down at the dried bloodstains on the empty, ruined mud houses below, the words died in his throat.
"Let's move forward and see if we can gather more intelligence."
Xu Jin's expression sharpened. "I don't care whether the Buddhist Sect is truly innocent or not — I'm holding them accountable for this!"
Jing Qing's eyes lit up with admiration as he looked at his senior brother.
Xu Jin led Jing Qing toward the place most likely to have someone with answers — Huangliang City.
Along the way, they encountered scattered demons lurking about. Whenever they found one, they showed no mercy.
For cultivators at the Unity Realm, a swift flight covered the distance to Huangliang City in no time.
When Xu Jin's divine sense reached Huangliang City, he breathed a sigh of relief — there were still survivors.
The Huangliang City of the past had never been grand, but in a place like West Ox Continent, it was considered a major hub and a key junction for merchant goods.
Its population had always been far greater than anywhere else in the region.
But now, Huangliang City's gates were tightly shut. Dried, dark-red bloodstains were everywhere. Rotting beast carcasses lay outside, but no human corpses were to be seen.
Xu Jin extended his concealed divine sense and detected several Foundation Establishment cultivators standing atop the walls, seemingly on guard duty.
Cultivators could be proud, and most of the time they looked down on ordinary mortals.
But when true disaster or demonic corruption struck, even the proudest cultivators understood the basic decency of being human.
Xu Jin felt a measure of relief, though he didn't reveal himself. Instead, he led Jing Qing and slipped inside.
For Xu Jin to expose himself now would be an absolute catastrophe for this precariously hanging city.
Inside Huangliang City, desolation reigned.
Xu Jin hadn't come here without a clear purpose — he was looking for someone.
A Unity Realm cultivator didn't need many concealment tricks. With his techniques alone, anyone below the Golden Core realm would be unable to detect his presence.
Xu Jin's divine sense swept through the city in rapid concealment, and he quickly found the person he was looking for.
In a rundown room, Xu Jin pushed open the door with Jing Qing behind him.
Xu Jin's gaze fell upon Lizhi, who was half-sitting on a wooden bed. Most of her body was wrapped in yellow linen bandages.
Lizhi still couldn't sense the two figures standing in the doorway. Her eyes, somewhat vacant, gazed toward the broken window.
Her bandages bore both dried bloodstains and fresh blood dripping slowly from her fingertips.
Lizhi's once fair left cheek now bore an unhealed scar — the dark-red wound looked as though it had begun to fester.
Looking at Lizhi's condition, Xu Jin understood. This girl, who used to wear a constant smile and bounce around with infectious energy, was now waiting to die.
Lizhi was already a Foundation Establishment cultivator. To reach that realm at her age in West Ox Continent was proof of extraordinary talent.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator might not survive being stabbed through the heart, but they could at least chat and laugh normally.
What cultivators feared most wasn't raw brute force — it was the insidious methods that followed. It could be spiritual energy, it could be intent, or it could be something as straightforward as poison.
That was what was truly terrifying.
Ordinary wounds that would be fatal to most people were usually nothing more than surface injuries in a cultivator's eyes.
So for a Foundation Establishment cultivator like Lizhi to be in this waiting-to-die state, it meant she had sustained far worse internal injuries. Some insidious force had to be entangled in those wounds.
Xu Jin hadn't come to find Lizhi because he truly trusted her. He'd come because Chu Xingchen trusted her.
But seeing her now, in this condition...
To put it in livelier terms — Chu Xingchen hadn't misjudged her after all.
Xu Jin stepped forward, his tone gentle:
"Lizhi, it's been a while. Do you remember me?"
Lizhi's somewhat glazed eyes shifted slowly, as if by instinct alone. When that vacant gaze landed on Xu Jin, her hollow pupils gradually focused.
She quickly recognized who had come. Her cracked lips moved, but no sound came out.
Xu Jin walked toward Lizhi, pulling a healing pill from his ring and preparing to place it in her mouth.
Lizhi raised her bandaged hand and grabbed Xu Jin by the wrist.
Xu Jin felt how light her grip was — and yet how impossibly heavy.
Lizhi's once-round eyes were now dry and red-rimmed. Her voice was barely a rasp:
"Save... save..."
"Them..."
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