Chapter 839

Jian Fan stood at the center of the sinkhole, the Man‑Slaying Sword absorbing the surging cyan‑gold fortune. The golden patterns on her face grew denser, gradually forming an ancient totem.

That was the mark on the forehead of the primordial precious beast.

When the sixth person‑dwelling tower began to collapse, Jian Fan suddenly spat a mouthful of golden blood. The backlash from over‑Devouring fortune finally erupted, and the tips of her left hand began to turn into points of light and scatter. But at this moment the sky of the Nan Ting Mountain Region had changed color; the once‑clear firmament now bore a huge phantom of chains.

The foundation of human fortune is loosening.

The last two person‑dwelling towers, located in the Profound Qian and Profound Kan Dao Institutes, simultaneously raised a great protective formation. Jian Fan wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, pointed the Man‑Slaying Sword northward. She sensed that an even older aura was awakening there; beneath the ice layer of the Netherworld Abyss, the seal on a certain bronze coffin had been loosened to a critical point.

"It's still in time." She murmured to the deer‑head carving on the sword's body, as if speaking to her clansmen from three thousand years ago. Cyan‑gold fortune swirled around her, forming a vortex; the spatial rift opened again. This time the target is the Profound Qian Dao Institute, where the First Sage personally laid out the "Qian Tian Wuji Formation", which is also the core nexus linking all the person‑dwelling towers.

When Jian Fan's figure vanished into the rift, the surviving Harmony Dao cultivators finally dared to approach the ruins. They horrifiedly discovered that on every collapsed person‑dwelling tower site, a tender green strange spiritual grass—antler grass—had sprouted.

This spiritual grass, long extinct, is now covering the entire Nan Ting Mountain Region at a speed visible to the naked eye. And in the dewdrops rolling on the leaves, all reflect Jian Fan's pair of pale‑gold pupils.

Soon after.

The sky of Profound Qian Dao showed an eerie cyan‑gold hue, with chain‑like patterns drifting in the clouds. As Jian Fan stepped out of the spatial rift, the entire Qian Tian Wuji Formation had already been fully activated. Nine bronze giant pillars rose from the ground, their shafts wrapped in suppressing‑demon vines irrigated with cultivators' essence blood—a prohibition specifically aimed at the precious beast's bloodline.

"Finally willing to show yourself?" the Profound Qian Sect Master stood atop the highest bronze pillar, holding a jade seal in his palm. The seal's underside bore the four ancient seal characters "Received Mandate from Heaven", each stroke flowing with dark‑red liquid.

As he raised his hand to form a seal, the nine bronze pillars simultaneously shot out blinding golden light, intertwining in the air into a gigantic Bagua diagram covering a hundred li.

Jian Fan's Man‑Slaying Sword suddenly shuddered violently, and the deer‑head carving on its hilt oozed cyan‑gold blood beads. She lowered her gaze to her arm, where the skin was surfacing with the same inscription as on the bronze pillars—the "Beast‑Binding Seal" left by the First Sage, specifically designed to restrain the spatial talent of the Minglu clan.

"You thought we didn't know you'd come?" the Profound Kan Sect Master stepped out of the void, holding a bronze lamp. Countless tiny points of light floated within the flame, each a refined memory of the Minglu. "From the moment you destroyed the first person‑dwelling tower, Sect Master Chu has been waiting for you to walk into the trap."

Jian Fan suddenly laughed. She loosened her grip on the Man‑Slaying Sword, letting it hover before her. This motion caused both sect masters to retreat half a step simultaneously, for they knew all too well the terror of this demonic sword. But Jian Fan merely raised her left hand, which was undergoing light‑transformation, and lightly pressed it against the deer‑shaped mark on the back of her neck.

"Do you know..." her voice suddenly turned into a triple echo, as if countless voices were speaking at once, "Why did I first destroy the other six person‑dwelling towers?"

The ground suddenly shuddered violently, and the suppressing‑demon vines on all nine bronze pillars snapped apart at once. The Profound Qian Sect Master horrifiedly discovered that the "Heaven" character on the jade seal was melting; those dark‑red liquids were not cinnabar but diluted Minglu essence blood! The six person‑dwelling towers that Jian Fan had previously destroyed each contained a portion of that essence blood, and now these bloodlines are resonating.

"No! Quickly activate..." the Profound Kan Sect Master's warning was cut short. His bronze lamp suddenly exploded, and all the memory points of light within the flame flew toward Jian Fan. These points merged into her left arm, which was dissipating into light, actually causing the light‑transformation process to begin reversing!

The Man‑Slaying Sword flew back to Jian Fan's hand on its own, the demonic inscriptions on its blade having spread to her right arm. At this moment sword and wielder had become one; where the blade passed, it no longer produced spatial rifts but directly erased Existence itself. The three protective treasures hastily offered by the Profound Qian Sect Master could not even block it for a moment, vanishing like ink wiped away.

"This is... Sever Fortune!" the Profound Kan Sect Master finally understood the sword's true terror. It does not sever fortune; it directly removes Existence from the heavenly and earthly destiny. But it is too late—Jian Fan's blade has already touched his brow.

There was no blood, no wound; this Harmony Dao grandmaster was like a sand painting blown away by the wind, not even his soul able to escape.

The Profound Qian Sect Master frantically formed seals, trying to detonate the Qian Tian Wuji Formation to take everyone down with him. Yet he discovered that the formation's core—that jade seal—had somehow ended up in Jian Fan's left hand.

As each fraction of her fingertip melted away, the jade seal faded a layer; when her entire left hand had fully turned to light, the seal became a translucent cyan‑gold.

"Thank you for preserving my clan's essence blood." Jian Fan pressed the jade seal to her chest, where the same demonic inscriptions as on the Man‑Slaying Sword appeared. The nine bronze pillars abruptly reversed direction, their tips now pointing at the Profound Qian Sect Master.

Boom—

In the earth‑shaking roar, this sect master was pinned in midair by the very formation he guarded.

When the last person‑dwelling tower began to collapse, Jian Fan was already standing at the edge of the sea.

As the person‑dwelling towers collapsed, the Nan Ting Mountain Region erupted like a volcano that had been building up for years; half of the land in the eight dao realms sank, and the sky, seemingly summoned, unleashed the most terrifying rainstorm in tens of thousands of years!

In this downpour, the submerged land gradually leveled out, and some strange objects drifted up from beneath the Nan Ting Mountain Region.

It was a massive iceberg!

Shards of ice from the shattered berg spread for ten thousand li, encircling the entire Nan Ting Mountain Region as if one had arrived at the Beichuan ice realm.

Jian Fan leapt onto the sea foam and landed on the iceberg.

Beneath the ice here lie some strange corporeal remains, and this is also the nexus of the Eight Dao Soul‑Locking Grand Formation. Her left arm, which had been turning to light, has returned to normal, but the golden patterns on her face have spread to her neck—a backlash from overusing Sever Fortune power.

The bronze coffin at the center of the ice abyss was violently shaking, the eight‑trigram seal on its lid broken save for the last two lines. Jian Fan raised the Man‑Slaying Sword, then suddenly turned her gaze southward. From the direction of the Wan Dao mountain range, seven auras that could turn heaven and earth pale were approaching; Chu Shanhe finally led the remaining Void‑Reaching cultivators into action.

"It's still in time." Jian Fan's blade pierced the ice, cyan‑gold ripples spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The entire iceberg began to sink, the bronze coffin beneath the ice emitting a grating, teeth‑grinding sound. As Chu Shanhe's figure appeared on the horizon, the final seal gave way just then.

The bronze coffin lid exploded upward, and in the soaring cyan‑gold light column, a strange corpse slowly rose to its feet. The body, which ought to have rotted, was covered in the same golden patterns as Jian Fan, with a half‑broken antler lodged in its chest—the fatal wound left from the hunt of the Minglu king years ago.

"I see now..." Chu Shanhe hovered in midair, finally understanding Jian Fan's true purpose.