Chapter 502: The Natural Spirit Womb! The Great River Flows East, Waves Wash Away All

The great river flows eastward, waves washing away all things, crushing three parts of the moonlight, spilling across a thousand li of mountains and rivers.

The mournful wind seemed to bid farewell to the Fanwang , the Youyou night seemed to mark the end of gods and demons.

Yet, at this very moment, when that ethereal voice rang out, just as in the days of Zhenwu Mountain, it shattered the mystery within the womb, revealing a sliver of heavenly light in the endless night.

“Jiang Lai… Jiang Lai…”

Zhang Fan struggled to lift his head, gazing at the bright-eyed girl, his spirit trembling.

He had never expected that, at this moment of life and death, she would stand before him again.

“Let him go!”

Jiang Lai’s voice rang out once more, blending into the river wind—soft in volume, yet crystal-clear to every ear present.

“Hm!?”

Yuan Tian’s brows furrowed slightly as he stared at the girl standing atop the ruined embankment; the moonlight outlined her slender frame, the river breeze stirring her shoulder-length hair.

With his cultivation as a【Tianshi】, Yuan Tian could plainly see that this girl possessed little to no cultivation—on the surface, she looked like an ordinary person who had accidentally wandered here.

“Little girl, do you know him?” Yuan Tian said coolly.

“Mm!” Jiang Lai gave a soft hum.

“Don’t know him. Go away,” Zhang Fan gritted his teeth and whispered sharply.

Feng Anping and Sui Chunsheng had just died before his eyes—he didn’t want Jiang Lai to suffer any harm.

Even though Zhang Fan knew Jiang Lai was no ordinary person, the one standing before her now was a true Tianshi, a being at the pinnacle of cultivation.

“Rest assured, sorting out your connections is the job of local authorities—we won’t interfere lightly.” Yuan Tian’s words revealed a majesty as vast as heaven itself.

Men like him stood far above, like national treasures; they rarely left the capital, let alone ventured out to handle such mundane tasks.

That he had deigned to act at all was already a tremendous favor granted to the four characters “Wuwei Sect Master.”

“Little girl, go home. Someone will come to investigate you shortly.”

Yuan Tian’s tone was indifferent, even too lazy to ask about her origins—he treated her as merely some naive mortal girl.

To a Tianshi, ordinary people were no more than ants; to speak to them at all was an act of great mercy.

“If you won’t release him, then I’ll have to act myself,” Jiang Lai whispered.

Such an ignorant, death-defying words first stunned Yuan Tian, then sparked clear impatience in the eyes of this Tianshi from Baihe Temple.

“Girl…”

Boom…

Before he could finish, Jiang Lai’s form suddenly blurred—without warning, without sound!

No sign, no noise.

She appeared before Yuan Tian, less than a zhang away, faster than lightning, even beyond the Tianshi’s visual perception.

“You—”

At that instant, Yuan Tian’s expression changed—his casual disdain and impatience froze, replaced by unprecedented shock and gravity.

He could plainly see: in that single step, the girl’s body emitted no cultivation fluctuation—she had become part of the river wind; as the wind rose, so did her form.

Boom…

Before he could react, Jiang Lai raised her fist.

In an instant, a vast, primal, terrifying aura—like a primordial beast awakening from eons of slumber—exploded forth.

Boom…

The ground beneath trembled faintly, as if a subterranean dragon had rolled over.

Splash…

The waters of the nearby Yangtze surged without wind, wild waves churning violently.

In the night sky, clouds gathered furiously, with faint sounds of thunder and wind echoing.

Zhang Fan’s eyes widened, his pupils filled with disbelief.

“This is…”

Jiang Lai’s plain, unremarkable punch had stirred changes in the heavens.

This power had nothing to do with Dao techniques or cultivation—it was the purest manifestation of natural phenomena.

“Unity with Heaven and Earth? No… not that!”

Yuan Tian’s heart shook violently—she bore none of the Tianshi’s harmony with the Dao, no seamless fusion… instead, it was more like…

Heaven and Earth instinctively surrounded and defended her!

“Who are you?”

Yuan Tian roared, his Tianshi-level cultivation surging instantly to its peak.

He extended two fingers like a sword, summoning the vast waters of the Yangtze; the rolling waves split clearly, the river roared, and in an instant, transformed into a colossal, lifelike water dragon—scaled, fanged, clawed, radiating overwhelming heavenly power as it charged toward Jiang Lai’s slender fist.

Fist met water dragon.

No sound.

Or rather, the sound was annihilated before it could form by even more terrifying energy.

At the point of impact, a semi-transparent force field erupted outward—wherever it passed, air warped, light refracted, stones and mud on the riverbank vanished instantly into dust, erased by invisible hands.

At the edge of the field, the river water was pushed back, forming a massive depression.

The next moment—

“Dong!!!”

A deep, thunderous boom—like a clap from the highest heavens—finally exploded, sending shockwaves in concentric rings that crushed the distant river surface into a giant bowl-shaped depression, which took long moments to recover.

Jiang Lai swayed slightly, stepping back half a pace, the ground beneath her feet cracking in every direction.

In contrast, the mighty water dragon shattered from its head downward, segment by segment, dissolving back into mist.

“This… is Jiang Lai!?”

Zhang Fan’s gaze trembled, filled with disbelief—this Jiang Lai was utterly unlike the one he knew; now, she possessed power rivaling a Tianshi!?

“Who are you?” Yuan Tian demanded again.

Just now, though he hadn’t used his full strength, his strike had achieved Unity with Heaven and Earth, drawing the full force of the Yangtze’s flow—and yet, this girl had shattered it with a single punch!?

Realizing this, the Tianshi-level master dared not underestimate her even slightly.

Yet he was baffled—how could such a powerful cultivator have emerged in this vast world? She looked so young, yet already possessed Tianshi-level power!?

Jiang Lai still gave no answer; her cold eyes locked onto Yuan Tian as her form moved again.

Her aura surged once more, undergoing a mysterious, unfathomable transformation.

“Hm!?”

Yuan Tian’s gaze sharpened into a single line—in his perception, Jiang Lai’s form grew indistinct, as if she were no longer an independent being, but fused entirely with the ceaselessly flowing Yangtze, the boundless night sky above, and all the energies of this world…

She was the river!

She was the night!

She was a part of this natural world!

The surging waters of the Yangtze seemed to answer her call, roaring with joy and reverence; invisible heavenly forces gathered like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, rushing toward her.

At that moment, a flash of lightning struck Yuan Tian’s mind—a long-forgotten, terrifying legend surfaced, freezing his blood, his pupils shrinking to needle points.

“Born of Heaven and Earth, following the Dao of Nature… you are…”

Yuan Tian’s face turned ashen; his cry of shock trembled with an unacknowledged fear, filled with disbelief and horror.

…

The night deepened.

Outside the capital, in the distant suburbs.

An abandoned steel plant, overgrown with weeds, like a ruin.

Deep within its rusted, sealed underground chambers, the long-idle furnace still churned; the surrounding temperature was at least twenty degrees higher than outside, the air visibly warped and blurred.

Creak… creak…

Gulp… gulp…

In the firelit darkness, the sound of dragging chains pierced the air.

A furry arm reached into the furnace, grasping a glowing copper ball and shoving it straight into its mouth, chewing voraciously.

Beside it, a basin of molten iron glowed dark red; it casually lifted the basin and poured the molten metal down its throat, gulping it down.

Suddenly, its movements froze; its massive head snapped up, gazing southward, toward Yujing City.

In its crimson eyes, a flicker of utter shock passed, then transformed into boundless ecstasy and brutality.