“You’re not even qualified to speak with me.”
Jiang Xuezhi tossed the Divine Spear, Pojun, toward Xie Wang with a casual yet decisive motion, without the slightest hesitation.
Her attitude left Xie Wang somewhat uncertain.
He didn’t reach for it himself but instead shot a glance at Xiao Jin beside him. Xiao Jin immediately leaped into the air to catch the spear.
He succeeded, and the process seemed relatively smooth.
But the moment his hand touched the divine artifact, it was as if a colossal boulder had crashed down upon him. In an instant, he plummeted into the yellow sand.
Xie Wang narrowed his eyes sharply, noticing the faint smile that had appeared on Jiang Xuezhi’s face. He hadn’t even seen her move, yet she had already vanished from sight.
He quickly scanned the area and finally spotted her at the spot where Xiao Jin had fallen.
She was still clad in the black disciple robes of the Xuantian Sect, though her clothes were torn and stained, and her once-neatly styled hair was now a disheveled mess.
Standing tall beside Xiao Jin, her waist-length hair whipped wildly in the wind and sand. Holding the other end of the divine spear, she twisted it lightly, and Xiao Jin’s agonized screams followed immediately.
Xie Wang snapped back to reality and shouted sharply, “Stop! Jiang Xuezhi, do you even know what you’re doing? Are you trying to kill your senior brother and make an enemy of the entire Xuantian Sect?”
“Turn back before it’s too late, you still have a chance! You rose from a mere mortal to a cultivator. The Xuantian Sect and your senior brother have shown you immense kindness. How can you be so ungrateful?!”
Though Xie Wang claimed Jiang Xuezhi still had a chance, the truth was that he and Xiao Jin had pursued her here and witnessed her obtaining Pojun. They had long since decided not to let her live.
His words were nothing more than a temporary tactic to placate her.
If it were the old Jiang Xuezhi, she might have believed him, clinging to the hope of staying with these scum and succumbing to his moral blackmail.
But not anymore.
Jiang Xuezhi looked down at Xiao Jin from above.
Crushed by the weight of Pojun, he was no match for the divine artifact.
She gripped the spear and drove its tip into his chest, twisting it to churn his internal organs.
He writhed in unbearable pain, sweating profusely as he cried out.
Jiang Xuezhi said indifferently, “Weren’t you asking me earlier what I amounted to?”
She took a step forward, applying more force. Xiao Jin’s energy sea shattered, his dantian destroyed, and his cultivation rapidly dissipated.
“Now you should have your answer.”
“I am the one who will take your life.”
His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the completely unfamiliar woman before him.
She was nothing like the Jiang Xuezhi he knew.
Not the woman who would stay up all night preparing a birthday gift just to earn a smile from him.
Not the woman who refused to back down even after countless rejections.
Not the woman he had toyed with as a substitute, who remained blind to the truth and lost herself in delusion.
She was absolutely not that person.
“You’re not her! Who are you?!”
Xiao Jin mustered all his strength to demand, “What have you done to Jiang Xuezhi?!”
“Good question.” Jiang Xuezhi didn’t deny her identity. She replied casually, “You conditioned this body to be the perfect vessel for possession. Did it never occur to you that someone else might take it first?”
Xiao Jin’s eyes nearly burst with rage.
Xie Wang, in a desperate attempt to save his head disciple, was already preparing for the worst.
He was unwilling to lose this medicinal vessel, he had invested too much effort into Jiang Xuezhi’s body.
Her spiritual root was destroyed so that when Lin Wanwan took over this body, she could reshape a spiritual root more suited to her soul.
Her meridians were clogged and sluggish to control her cultivation progress, preventing her from reaching too high a level, otherwise, it would also make it difficult for her junior disciple to seize the body.
In short, he had painstakingly nurtured her for so long that even if Lin Wanwan couldn’t use her anymore, he didn’t want to simply discard her.
Unfortunately, Jiang Xuezhi didn’t know when to stop. Though her previous submissive demeanor had been irritating, it was still far more likable than the monstrous state she was in now.
Xie Wang didn’t hear the whispered conversation between Jiang Xuezhi and Xiao Jin, but he saw Xiao Jin’s condition suddenly deteriorate drastically. Under Jiang Xuezhi’s control, he wouldn’t last more than three breaths.
A barely Qi Refining disciple, overnight, could cut down his head disciple like chopping vegetables, wasn’t this all thanks to the divine artifact and inheritance?
How she had gained the divine artifact’s recognition was something Xie Wang no longer cared to investigate.
The urgent matter now was to prevent her from truly gaining momentum and, even more critically, from actually escaping the Desolate Abyss Purgatory.
Given her deep-seated hatred for the Xuantian Sect, if she were to escape, the consequences in the future would be unimaginable.
Xie Wang gathered spiritual power in his hand and said calmly, “This farce should come to an end.”
He had indulged her long enough; it was time to put a stop to it.
Fortunately, he had always preferred to keep a trump card, so he wasn’t completely cornered now.
Jiang Xuezhi was his medicinal puppet.
That body had been modified by him.
So, what if she obtained the inheritance?
She still had to be able to use it.
Xie Wang released the spiritual power in his hand. He didn’t even need to aim it at Jiang Xuezhi before she immediately sensed something wrong with her body.
Gripping Pojun tightly, Jiang Xuezhi barely managed to stand. Her gaze swept past the dying Xiao Jin and settled on Xie Wang.
“Despicable, shameless, sinister, and cunning, how is someone like you fit to be the leader of a sect?”
Jiang Xuezhi couldn’t resist mocking Pojun: “Is this the ‘accumulated blessings’ left behind by the Xuantian Sect’s ancestors?”
Po Jun: …
Alright then, now I know why we’re so unluck, it’s because the previous owner only cared about his own enjoyment and never “accumulated blessings.”
Now karma’s come full circle, what rotten luck!
Jiang Xuezhi could clearly feel the inheritance that had previously sustained her body rapidly fading away.
Her shell was like a deflating balloon, quickly losing all traces of spiritual power.
Her spiritual root had long been corroded by drugs, unable to retain even a shred of strength.
Her bloodline, at the slightest command, immediately collapsed, docile and useless as a quail.
Jiang Xuezhi swayed unsteadily, her mind growing increasingly foggy.
Xiao Jin noticed her distress.
As one of the original male supporting characters in the story, he seized the opportunity, intending to cooperate with Xie Wang to capture Jiang Xuezhi in one fell swoop.
She held a divine artifact in her hand, so none of them dared to underestimate her again. They brought out all their trump cards, yet it still wasn’t enough.
Jiang Xuezhi’s body could no longer digest even a fraction of the inheritance’s cultivation or spiritual power, reverting to that useless Qi Refining Level One waste. Yet, there remained an inexplicable, mysterious power within her.
That power had helped her escape once and now aided her in breaking free a second time.
Amid the swirling yellow sand, Xiao Jin felt as if his heart had been pierced.
He looked down to see Pojun had run him through, and Jiang Xuezhi’s indifferent voice echoed in his ears.
“I’ll kill one first; the rest can wait.”
“Before you die, I advise you to remember: if you’re reincarnated as a human in your next life, don’t be so eager to stand out.”
“That’s a quick way to get yourself killed.”
Jiang Xuezhi abruptly pulled out Pojun, blood spraying so high it splattered across her face, yet she appeared completely unruffled.
Each drop of blood found a unique position on her face, as if meticulously applied like makeup, carrying a distinct aesthetic beauty.
“You ask me what I am? Then what are you?”
Jiang Xuezhi wiped the blood from her face, her tone flat and calm as she stated the facts.
“You don’t even have the right to speak to me.”
Xiao Jin stared at her in stunned disbelief.
He could feel his life slipping away.
Xie Wang finally arrived to save him, but Jiang Xuezhi escaped with the divine artifact. Prioritizing Xiao Jin’s life, Xie Wang couldn’t pursue her.
Considering Jiang Xuezhi’s current state, barely sustained by the divine artifact for a brief moment, he knew she would inevitably die sooner or later, so there was no urgent need to chase her.
Xie Wang calmly examined his senior disciple’s injuries. As a sword cultivator who secondary studied medicine and poison arts, his secondary skills had surpassed his primary cultivation.
He was fully confident he could save Xiao Jin, feeling not the slightest panic.
If he could devise methods to revive the dead, how much easier would it be to save someone who wasn’t yet deceased?
But once again, the situation spiraled beyond his control.
Xie Wang pressed his hand against Xiao Jin’s chest, but Xiao Jin vomited blood profusely, unable to utter a single word.
Xie Wang fell silent as well.
Though Xiao Jin appeared alive, his condition was worse than death.
His dantian, spiritual sea, and internal organs had all been corroded and destroyed.
Even his soul had been shattered into fragments.
The divine artifact, tasting blood for the first time in millennia, unleashed unimaginable power.
Xiao Jin was beyond saving.
Xie Wang stood frozen in shock.
“Jiang Xuezhi!” he gritted his teeth, “I will make you pay with your life.”
No longer restrained by their three years of shared history, he gathered spiritual power in his hand and directed it all toward the fleeing Jiang Xuezhi.
The medicine puppet’s body involuntarily provided feedback to its “master.” Soon, Jiang Xuezhi could run no further and collapsed heavily to the ground.
The agony of her physical shell vexed her endlessly, how she wished for an injection, but this place had neither treatment pods nor sedatives.
She couldn’t go much farther.
Lifting her head in the yellow sand, Jiang Xuezhi found one small consolation: she had reached the edge of the Barren Wasteland Inferno.
This wasn’t the exit, she couldn’t leave the Barren Wasteland. Xie Wang had surely sealed the exit; even if she rushed there, it would be futile, so she hadn’t bothered retracing her steps.
Instead, she headed in the opposite direction, toward the connecting point between different regions of the Barren Wasteland. Breaking out of the inferno would lead her to other parts of the wasteland.
The Barren Wasteland was one of the Lower Three Realms, alongside the Demon Domain and the Monster Realm, the three most treacherous lands.
It was the last place her current body should venture, with the substitute’s burial site nearby.
But she had no other choice.
Gritting her teeth, Jiang Xuezhi struggled to her feet and staggered toward the boundary.
Seeing the shimmering, iridescent light ahead and sensing Xie Wang closing in, she crossed the boundary without hesitation.
Instantly, fireworks exploded across the horizon. Xie Wang saw them from afar, unable to suppress his surprise.
It was the signal of a secret realm manifesting.
Judging by the level of the fireworks, the realm’s grade was undoubtedly high, one that even someone of his caliber would need to prepare carefully to enter.
How could this be? At this moment, of all times? And so coincidentally?
Xie Wang temporarily set aside Xiao Jin’s corpse and carefully confirmed the location of the secret realm’s signal, precisely where Jiang Xuezhi had vanished.
His face darkened.
Since ancient times, the Barren Wasteland had been a place of both exile and opportunity.
Many ancient secret realm entrances had appeared here before. When cultivators and desperate individuals reached dead ends or encountered bottlenecks, they all liked to come here for a stroll.
Beyond the barren desolation of the Barren Abyss Purgatory lay the City of Sin, carved up by several major black market merchants.
This was a relatively prosperous, nightly-celebrating, ruleless paradise.
As long as you had money or sufficient strength, you could enjoy boundless pleasures here and obtain everything you desired.
The black market merchants had conducted thorough investigations when choosing the location for the City of Sin, only settling on it after confirming there would be no major upheavals and that it was relatively easy to defend and set up formations.
They never dreamed that one day, this place would tear open a massive spacetime rift, and the entrance to an ancient secret realm would appear right at the very center of the City of Sin.
Jiang Xuezhi had just emerged from the Barren Abyss Purgatory when she was suddenly sucked into the abruptly opened secret realm.
Her figure was utterly insignificant compared to the vast secret realm, and neither the waiting cultivators nor the sinners around noticed her.
No one dared to casually enter a newly discovered secret realm before receiving approval from the First Immortal Manor.
Ancient secret realms were fraught with dangers—rash entry would lead to swift death. They had grown accustomed to letting the First Immortal Manor’s personnel first inspect the realm, determine its level, and then allow disciples from various sects to enter in sequence according to requirements.
This minimized casualties, and they fully trusted that the First Immortal Manor would not embezzle the treasures within the secret realm.
The First Immortal Manor stood independent of the Four Continents, located in the Central Heaven Realm where spiritual energy was most concentrated, transcendent and strength-revering.
Its internal structure was complex yet efficient, strictly controlled from top to bottom, leaving no possibility for treasure embezzlement.
They were well-informed; almost the moment the secret realm appeared, someone had already entered to investigate.
No, to be precise, the emergence of this ancient secret realm this time was itself related to someone from the Immortal Manor.
The first to enter the secret realm happened to be the very person who had triggered its emergence.
His posture was tall and straight like a lone pine or cold bamboo, dressed in a light cyan wide-sleeved robe with flowing cloud patterns, white boots treading upon the filthy ground of the secret realm without gathering a speck of dust.
Jiang Xuezhi crashed into the secret realm, dragged halfway through by momentum, and landed heavily at his feet.
Summoning her last breath, she darted behind him with inhuman speed, tightly wrapping her arms around his neck, her eyes glaring with fierce malice.
Her palm-sized face brimmed with vibrant killing intent and an overwhelming aura.
“Don’t move, or I’ll kill you.”
Her voice was hoarse yet startlingly intimidating, the bloodstains on her cheeks proving she was absolutely capable of following through.
Unfortunately, this imposing figure fainted right after speaking, collapsing straight toward the ground.
The young man in the light cyan robe politely reached out to support her, and she fell right into his embrace.
A fluffy white ball scurried out from his sleeve, hopped onto Jiang Xuezhi, and sniffed her wounds with its moist nose.
“Be careful,” the young man gently cautioned. “Don’t move recklessly. Aren’t you afraid she’ll kill you?”