Currently, within the sector of the World-Domain Battlefield where Ji Qingyue fought.
This woman, who had once stood at the pinnacle of the Star-Sea World as its strongest expert and the possessor of the Myriad Law Celestial Physique, was in a state of unprecedented wretchedness.
Her entire body was stained with a mixture of dried and fresh blood. Her appearance was beyond description, her form marred by countless wounds of every size and type—toxic burns, jagged lacerations, spell-scorched flesh, and the corrosive marks of curses.
Most horrific of all was a savage, piercing wound through her chest. It had nearly split her body in two. In truth, it actually had split her, but she had used her profound spells and self-healing abilities to force the halves back together.
Yet, a stubborn and bizarrely eerie power still clung to the edges of the wound, defying her every attempt at recovery.
This injury had been inflicted just moments ago by two King-rank Void Refinement demons working in tandem with three ordinary Void Refinement demons.
By the time Ji Qingyue was besieged by such a lineup, her supply of healing pills and recovery resources had long since been exhausted.
What did it mean to face a lineup of this caliber? Even the Little Stone Spirit, a Void-grade lifeform renowned for its defense, would have parts of its body shattered in a one-on-one fight against such foes, requiring the consumption of vast quantities of Spirit Tools and ores to facilitate a full recovery.
A King-rank Void Refinement demon was a top-tier existence in any world of cultivators. The terrifying lethality displayed by the Winged Demons of Heaven made this fact painfully clear.
Facing two such kings and two other formidable Void Refinement demons simultaneously while completely drained of resources, one could only imagine the pressure Ji Qingyue endured. Any single lapse in concentration would have resulted in her absolute death.
In fact, it nearly did. During the clash with the two King-rank demons, her Myriad Law Domain was completely torn asunder. Immediately following that, a deluge of attacks crashed into her. By the end of the exchange, her physical body had been cleaved entirely in two.
The demonic power that split her erupted with an unimaginable destructive force, frantically ravaging her flesh. This was the closest she had ever come to death. At that moment, even her soul suffered irreversible damage.
In such a state, the slightest error would have caused the former number one expert of the Star-Sea World to perish for good.
But it seemed Ji Qingyue had anticipated this. While using spells to mitigate the damage as much as possible, she maintained control over her strongest attack, successfully obliterating one of the King-rank Void Refinement demons.
This was the only strategy she could devise to break the enemy's formation: paying the ultimate price to permanently kill one King-rank demon so that she would only have to face one in the aftermath. As for the other two ordinary Void Refinement demons, she had already slain them earlier in the struggle.
However, after delivering that strike, the moment of her life-or-death gamble arrived.
First, she had to ensure she survived the killing blow of the remaining King-rank demon. Second, she had to find a way to defeat that very same demon—who remained at nearly peak condition—while she herself was hovering on the brink of death.
The first goal was relatively easier for her.
Due to the unique properties of the Myriad Law Celestial Physique, she was proficient in numerous life-saving arts. Among them was a Soul-Splitting Method that allowed her to evade critical hits, and the Myriad Manifestation Shift, which minimized physical trauma.
It was these two specific arts, chosen precisely to counter the characteristics of the demonic assault, that allowed her to negate the brunt of that lethal strike.
Yet, the demon's attack was simply too powerful. That horrific offensive force still inflicted massive damage upon her. Though she did not perish, she remained in a state of critical injury.
At that moment, Ji Qingyue realized more profoundly than ever the importance of cultivating a single Daoist art to its absolute pinnacle.
And yet, a persistent cultivation dilemma had always plagued her. It was the very reason she had been unable to break through to the Unity stage: the limitation of the Myriad Law Daoist Body itself.
Ever since she stepped onto the path of cultivation, any manual or technique that fell into her hands was mastered instantly upon study, reaching the state of Great Completion with ease.
Furthermore, as the only daughter of the Sect Leader of the Misty Immortal Sect—a hegemon-level power in the Star-Sea World—she never lacked for Spirit Stones or secret techniques.
With her Myriad Law Celestial Physique, her cultivation journey had been akin to cheating.
In less than a century, she had repeatedly shattered the breakthrough records of the Misty Immortal Sect. The geniuses of her generation were like flickering fireflies before her brilliant moon.
Let alone being invincible among her peers, even the experts of the older generation were systematically defeated by her.
Ji Qingyue's entire path of cultivation had been a road where she could sweep aside all other geniuses as easily as drinking water. With her father's support as Sect Leader, she never had to worry about the awakening of her physique or the consumption of resources.
Thus, Ji Qingyue had swept her way all the way to the Void Refinement stage, becoming one of the most powerful Supreme Grand Elders of the Misty Immortal Sect.
However, after reaching that peak, she encountered an impassable mountain... and the flat, empty void of stagnation.