Chapter 173

Leaving the sect's range, Shi Ran did not head straight for the Southern Border; instead, she first detoured thousands of miles, changing her appearance and aura several times, and only after confirming no one was following did she rush southward.

Now, when she travels, she no longer relies entirely on her flying sword. With a thought, the space around her twists slightly, dark-golden spiritual light enveloping her, her speed becoming several times faster than before—this is the initial use of the strange speed granted by demonic intent and the way the Extinction Dao partially "dissolves" spatial resistance.

Along the way, she studied the jade slip given by Lingxiao, gaining a deeper understanding of the Southern Border. In the Ten Thousand Great Mountains of the Southern Border, miasma spreads everywhere, poisonous insects swarm the land, and numerous shaman tribes live, venerating natural spirits and ancestral spirits; their cultivation system differs greatly from that of the Central Plains, placing more emphasis on bloodlines, totems, and spellcraft. Many treasures are said to grow only near the shaman holy land known as the Reincarnation Secret Realm, and even the shaman themselves regard that secret realm as a forbidden place they dare not enter lightly.

After several days, Shi Ran reached the edge of the Southern Border. The spiritual energy in the air grew mixed, carrying a damp, fishy-sweet, primitive scent. Looking out, layered peaks rose, ancient trees towered, and a faint colored miasma drifted through the dark-green forests.

Following the jade slip's instructions, she arrived at the "Miasma Rain Forest" mentioned in the final message of the hidden outpost. It is a vast rainforest, year‑round shrouded in hot, humid miasma, with towering trees, dim light, thick layers of humus on the ground, and all kinds of strange poisonous insects and ants weaving through.

Shi Ran restrained her aura and walked through the forest. She noticed that whenever the miasma came within about a chi of her body, it was silently dispelled by an invisible force—a minor application of the Extinction Dao, since all things meet their end, even such trifling miasma is no exception. Moreover, the poisonous insects in the forest seemed to instinctively fear that strange aura on her, giving way.

She carefully searched for any battle traces. After about an hour, in a relatively open clearing, she finally found some clues. Several ancient trees bore clear weapon slashes and scorched marks, and the ground showed pits from spiritual‑force impacts; though blurred by rain and time, faint traces of sword qi and icy spiritual power remained, which Shi Ran could barely recognize as belonging to Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue.

"Indeed, a fight took place here." Shi Ran crouched, her fingertip brushing over a blackened sword scar, trying to catch a finer scent. She stirred the wisp of strange demonic intent within her, heightening her perception. Demonic intent is extremely sensitive to auras and traces, so she soon extracted from the remnants several extremely faint threads of spiritual power, cold and bloody in nature.

"It's these people…," Shi Ran's eyes turned slightly cold. This aura of spiritual power made her feel very uncomfortable, full of violence and decay.

She followed that faint sensation deeper into the rainforest. The deeper she went, the thicker the miasma grew and the darker the light became, and strange shaman totems and traps began to appear around her—but before Shi Ran's powerful spiritual sense and her uncanny abilities, they amounted to nothing.

After traveling another hundred‑plus li, she reached the mouth of a valley filled with giant ferns and twisted vines, where she stopped. The aura emanating from the valley made her threefold power quiver slightly within. There lay intense death‑qi, resentment‑qi, and… a disturbance resembling spatial fluctuations.

She concealed her form and slipped into the valley soundlessly.

The sight in the valley was shocking. Scattered across the ground were many bones—human and various demon beasts—and the air reeked of nauseating rot. In the valley's center stood an ancient altar, collapsed nearly halfway, built of black megaliths and carved with now‑blurred strange patterns. Around the altar, space was abnormally twisted, as if a transparent film lay over it; behind that film was a bizarre, riot‑colored scene—an unstable spatial rift!

Beneath the altar, Shi Ran saw several fresh corpses. They wore uniform black battle outfits, their cuffs embroidered with a blood‑red skull pattern—exactly the attire of the unidentified cultivators described in the jade slip. Their deaths were gruesome, as if torn apart by some immense force or shattered after being frozen by extreme cold.

Shi Ran's heart tightened; she rushed forward to examine. From a relatively intact corpse she sensed a lingering, familiar chill of sword qi—Mei Ruoxue's "Frost Blossom"!

"Senior sister and the others must have fought a fierce battle here with those people…," Shi Ran's gaze swept over the altar and the spatial rift, "Could it be… that they were forced into this rift afterward?"

She approached the spatial rift; its chaotic spatial force sliced everything nearby. Ordinary cultivators drawing near would likely be torn apart in an instant. Shi Ran circulated her spiritual power, and the Extinction Dao's resonance formed an invisible barrier on her surface; when the chaotic spatial force struck this barrier, it quietly dissipated part of itself like snow meeting sunlight, greatly reducing the pressure.

"Can the Extinction Dao even 'end' part of spatial force?" Shi Ran wondered secretly, gaining a new appreciation of this power's profundity. She tried to extend her divine sense into the rift, but it was shredded by the chaotic spacetime torrent, leaving her unable to perceive what lay beyond.

But Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue might be right on the other side—she could not retreat.

Drawing a deep breath, Shi Ran adjusted her state to peak condition, her threefold power circulating faster within to form a solid defense. She stepped forward, her figure vanishing into the bizarre, variegated spatial rift.

The moment she entered the rift, a tremendous tearing force came from all sides, as if it would grind her to powder. Before her eyes, chaotic colors streamed rapidly and invisible spatial fragments drifted. Shi Ran exerted the Extinction Dao Principle to the utmost, dissolving the most violent portion of spatial power; meanwhile the Nirvanic Fire blazed within her, swiftly repairing the wounds inflicted by minute spatial rifts; demonic will endowed her with extreme toughness, resisting the omnipresent pressure.

How long this process lasted she did not know; it felt like an instant, yet also like ten thousand years.

Finally, a stable point of light appeared ahead and rapidly expanded.

"Pfft—"

As if passing through a membrane of water, Shi Ran fell out of the chaotic spatial passage and landed on a solid stretch of land.

She immediately steadied her form and warily surveyed her surroundings.

This is a dim, gray expanse of space; the sky is a oppressive dark red, with no sun, moon, or stars. The land is barren, covered in cracks, and in the distance twisted mountain ranges loom. The air is filled with pure yet chaotic demonic qi, and an ancient, desolate, deathly aura. Spiritual qi is scarce to the point of pity, instead the place is brimming with various negative energies.

"Is this… a secret realm? Or a small plane attached to the main world?" Shi Ran frowned; this environment was not friendly to her. Though the demonic qi was pure, it was overly chaotic and violent, and long-term absorption was harmful and useless. The Extinction Dao Principle thrived here like a fish in water, but the Nirvanic Fire appeared somewhat dim, its vitality suppressed.

She extended her divine sense, cautiously exploring the surroundings. This space seemed not large, but her divine sense was inexplicably suppressed, limiting its range.

Not long after moving forward, she again found traces of battle, even more intense than outside. The ground bore huge claw marks, corroded pits, and familiar sword scars and frost. She also saw corpses of cultivators clad in blood-red skull robes, as well as several strangely shaped demonic corpses that looked like they were assembled from sludge and bone.

"They too have endured a bitter fight here…" Shi Ran felt heavy-hearted and quickened her search pace.

Following the traces all the way, she arrived before a ruin. This place seemed to have once been a palace or altar; now only broken walls and remnants remained. At the center of the ruin, she sensed two weak yet familiar auras!

Shi Ran felt a surge of joy and immediately rushed over.

Amid several huge broken stone pillars, Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue sat back-to-back on the ground; both were pallid, their breathing feeble, bearing wounds and bloodstained clothes. Gu Yusheng's cyan robe was torn in many places, his mouth corner marked with dried blood, his eyes once full of vigor now filled with fatigue and vigilance. Mei Ruoxue's white robes were also stained with grime and blood, her hair somewhat disheveled, her icy pretty face all the more pallid; her sword rested point-down on the ground, its luster dimmed.

Around them a simple protective formation had been set up, but its light was already extremely faint, obviously the energy was about to run out.

Outside the formation, several grotesque demonic beasts emanating the aura of late Golden Core to early Nascent Soul ceaselessly assaulted the formation's barrier; their claws and corrosive energy made the barrier ripple, and it looked ready to shatter.

"Gu Junior Brother! Senior Sister Mei!" Shi Ran cried out, her form like lightning, instantly appearing outside the formation.

Her appearance immediately drew the demons' attention; several beasts switched targets, howling as they lunged at her, a foul stench blowing in her face.

Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue heard the shout, jerked their heads up, and upon seeing Shi Ran's figure, their eyes simultaneously burst with incredulous joy.

"Shi Ran, you're not dead?!" Gu Yusheng exclaimed in disbelief.

That sounded hardly courteous; Shi Ran pursed her lips, but seeing that he was about to die, she let it slide.

"Watch out for these demons! They can corrode spiritual power!" Mei Ruoxue also urgently warned, her voice weak.

Faced with the lunging demons, Shi Ran's eyes turned cold; she didn't even bother with a weapon. She merely raised her right hand, fingers slightly spread, and lightly pressed against the lead beast—a creature resembling a hunting hound but bearing bone spurs.

There was no earth-shaking explosion, no dazzling spell radiance. Only the demon beast's forward momentum stalled abruptly; the demonic qi swirling around it vanished as if wiped away by an invisible hand, and immediately its sturdy body withered and rotted at visible speed, as if it had undergone centuries of aging in an instant, finally turning into a puff of ash that drifted down.

Extinction–Return to Dust!

Several other demons, seeing this, instinctively felt extreme terror, let out uneasy howls, and actually stepped back a few paces.

Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue stared dumbfounded at the scene. They had tangled with these demons for days, knowing how tough they were—especially that strange demonic qi's extreme corrosiveness against spiritual power. Yet Shi Ran… she merely flicked a finger, and a demon equivalent to late Golden Core instantly turned to ash? What a terrifying method!

Shi Ran did not pause; her form flickered like a ghost as she weaved among the remaining demons. Her fingertips flickered with dark-gold demonic will, like the sharpest blade, easily slicing through the beasts' defenses; or she drew upon the Nirvanic Fire, shaping it into a pure-white fire line that ignited the deathly demonic qi within the beasts, causing them to burn from inside out; sometimes she simply pressed the Extinction Dao Principle upon them, crushing them into oblivion.

In just a few breaths, the several powerful demons besieging the formation were reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye by her gestures.

Having easily dealt with the demons, Shi Ran walked up to the formation and saw the two inside, stunned speechless; she gave a warm smile: "Gu Junior Brother, Mei Senior Sister, long time no see. I've come."

The protective formation's light finally exhausted and silently faded.

Gu Yusheng struggled to rise, but the movement tugged at his injuries and he let out a muffled groan. Mei Ruoxue quickly steadied him.

"How… how did you get here? Your body…" Gu Yusheng looked at Shi Ran, sensing the profound and utterly different aura emanating from her, his heart filled with shock and questions.

When he left, Shi Ran's life or death was unknown, but now her power had reached a level he could not fathom!

"My problem has been temporarily resolved." Shi Ran stepped forward, her palm emitting a soft white-gold light brimming with vigorous life, which she placed on Gu Yusheng's and Mei Ruoxue's backs. "As for you two, your injuries are serious. Let me first stabilize your wounds."

Pure Nirvanic power surged into their bodies; at once they felt a warm current spread through their limbs and bones, their previously sluggish spiritual power began to accelerate, and the hidden wounds and negative effects from demonic qi corrosion were swiftly dispelled and healed. This life force's mighty purity far surpassed any healing holy medicine they had ever seen.

After a moment, their complexions regained much of their rosiness, and their breathing steadied considerably.

"What miraculous healing power!" Mei Ruoxue felt the changes within her; her clear, cold eyes could not hide her astonishment. "You now…"

Shi Ran withdrew her hand, briefly recounting her journey to find the Five Directions Immortal Treasures and the initial fusion of the powers within her, merely omitting many of the perilous details and the alliance patrol specifics.

After hearing Shi Ran's account, Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue remained silent for a long time. The fusion of three utterly different supreme powers—Extinction, demonic will, and Nirvana—was nothing short of a miracle unheard of! Looking at Shi Ran, they felt as if they were beholding a walking legend.

"I never expected that, after leaving the sect for this period of time, so many things would happen." Gu Yusheng looked at Shi Ran, "You could also be considered fortunate despite misfortune; you weren't killed by the Red Silk Entanglement."

"Now... is the Red Silk Entanglement completely fine?" Mei Ruoxue still asked worriedly.

"It's fine!" Shi Ran raised her hand to let the two see the red silk wandering around her wrist, with a faint layer of gold on it, looking not eerie at all, instead complementing her snow-white skin.

"If it weren't for seeking the Five Directions Immortal Treasure, you wouldn't have fallen into such a dangerous place." Shi Ran apologetically said, then looked around, "Just what place is this? How did you get trapped here?"

Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue exchanged a glance, both showing solemn expressions.

Mei Ruoxue spoke: "This place, if our guess is correct, should be a ruined secret realm node of the ancient Netherworld Sect. We tracked the cultivators wearing blood-colored skull attire here; they seem to be searching for something and are battling the demonic beasts guarding this place. We originally wanted to seize their leader to ask for clarification, but unexpectedly got swept into the space rift they forcibly opened, ending up here."

"Netherworld Sect?" Shi Ran searched the information on the jade slip given by Ling Xiao; it seems recorded that it is an already extinct evil cult that worships the Netherworld Demon Lord, its followers practice a sinister and vicious cultivation art, adept at commanding demonic beasts.

Gu Yusheng said: "Not bad. Those people are very likely remnants of the Netherworld Sect. They seem to be conducting some kind of ritual here, trying to summon or communicate something. We have fought them and the summoned demonic beasts many times; although we have slain many enemies, their leader's cultivation is profound, already at late Nascent Soul, and with numerous demonic beasts, we are outnumbered, fighting and retreating to this point. If you hadn't arrived in time..."

He hadn't finished speaking, but the meaning was clear.

Shi Ran's eyes narrowed slightly: "Netherworld Sect remnants... ritual summoning... what exactly are they trying to do?" She felt that deep in this secret realm, there seemed to be a massive, unsettling dark current surging.

At that moment, a mighty will, extremely evil, icy, as if able to freeze souls, suddenly awoke from the depths of the secret realm, sweeping over the entire barren land like a tide.

At the same time, from afar came the fervent cries of the Netherworld Sect remnants and the ancient sacrificial incantations!

"Welcome the arrival of the Holy Demon!"

The entire secret realm space began to shake violently!