The ruins of the Wu Clan were now swallowed by silence. Only the sound of wind drifting through remained, brushing against broken wood, cracked earth, and the faint warmth of lingering ash in the air.
Ching!
The silver blade in Sui Yi's hand struck the mound of earth Wu Wen had created to shield the teleportation gate. The sword cut deep and clean, slicing the soil into two halves.
But when it opened, inside was empty. There was no trace of Ye Lin. No one remained.
Sui Yi stood motionless, showing not a flicker of emotion. She was silent for a moment before speaking in a calm, steady voice.
"Where did that teleportation gate lead to, Third Sister?"
Sui San, the third princess, shifted slightly before answering.
"Elder Sister, it should be connected to the Upper Realm. But the destination... is likely the Forest of Despair."
Sui Yi narrowed her eyes slightly and asked again.
"Second Sister... did you see anything?"
Sui Er, the second princess, closed her eyes immediately. Her spiritual sense spread slowly into the air like invisible threads. After a while, she slowly opened her eyes.
"He will not die," she said softly, but with certainty. "And he will return... stronger than ever."
Sui Yi nodded gently, her gaze lifting to the sky above.
"That is fine then..."
She turned around once more.
"Third Sister, where did you send the twelve women we captured?"
"I've already sent them up to the Upper Realm," Sui San replied without hesitation. "But two managed to escape. What would you have me do?"
Sui Yi paused for a moment before speaking slowly.
"Ignore them. They're just ants. The forces behind them are no different. Do not waste your time. We'll send assassination squads to eliminate them later."
Her voice grew slightly more serious.
"What matters now is that we prepare for the rebirth of Wu Zhao, and then hunt down that black-flame brat."
Suddenly, a sharp voice interrupted. It was the sixth princess, a woman with blazing red hair and eyes filled with fury.
"Tch. If it weren't for that stubborn bastard, we wouldn't have gone through all this trouble!"
As she spoke, she lifted her foot, aiming to stomp once more on Wu Wen's lifeless body.
But before her foot could touch the corpse, a force descended upon her. Her body froze mid-motion, suspended in the air.
Sui Yi turned and stared at her. The pressure in her eyes was overwhelming, impossible to resist.
Sui Yi spoke in a cold voice.
"I know you're angry... I understand. I'm angry too... but if you dare trample on his corpse, I will be even angrier."
Her tone was calm. There was no shouting, no edge in her voice, yet it pressed down on the atmosphere so heavily that no one dared to move a muscle.
"Even though he was our enemy, I must admit... he was strong."
Sui Er gave a small nod as she looked at Wu Wen's corpse, still lying in the same position, lifeless and soulless. Dried blood stained his face, and that final smile of his had yet to fade.
Sui Yi fell silent for a moment. Her gaze lifted to the sky above, which had finally begun to calm. Yet that tranquility did not signal safety at all. She spoke softly, but her voice carried conviction.
"Then... everyone, prepare to return to the Upper Realm."
"Understood, Elder Sister!"
The six younger sisters responded in unison without hesitation. No one questioned, no one argued. All held deep respect for Sui Yi.
Even the sixth sister, who had just been scolded a moment ago, showed no trace of resentment. Her eyes reflected only understanding... she understood her elder sister and the heavy consequences that were about to follow from the battle they had just survived.
Sui Qi stretched lazily and yawned widely, muttering in a weary voice.
"At last... I'll get to go back, sleep for real, and wake up to a hot steamed bun. These top-five-ranked lower realms are exhausting. They're way worse than the others, seriously."
"That's because we ended up facing so many from the Upper Realm," Sui San added with a chuckle. "I want to go bathe too, and maybe play around with those twelve beauties we captured. What about you... Seventh Sister?"
Sui Qi immediately backed away from Sui San, her face going pale as goosebumps ran across her skin.
"No thanks, Third Sister... I'm still way too young to get involved in that kind of..."
Boom!!
Before her voice could even finish, a brass-gold beam of light pierced down from the heavens. The sound of thunder crashed violently against the earth. A mysterious, destructive force exploded directly into Sui Qi's body. She didn't even have time to scream... her figure dissolved into nothing before everyone's eyes.
Not a single trace of flesh remained. Not a single drop of blood that might allow for her regeneration. The scene left her remaining sisters in stunned horror. The famed Blood Demon lineage, known for its terrifying regenerative abilities, could not save her... her existence vanished in an instant, soul and all.
"Sui Qi?!"
Sui San's cry rang out. The air around them turned so still that each could hear their own breath. Their hearts pounded violently, instincts screaming that death was closer than they could comprehend.
Sui Er, the one with the sharpest spiritual sense, felt chills cover her entire body. Without a word, she immediately summoned a translucent crystal barrier to envelop her. The crystal shone beautifully... but
Crack!
It was completely useless.
The crystal was sliced in half like a bamboo toy cleaved by a blade. Sui Er's body and soul were split in a single instant. Fresh blood sprayed against the shards of the crystal, and yet no one present could even glimpse the source of the attack.
Then, one by one, the heads of the remaining women who hadn't yet reacted began to drop. One after another, cleanly severed by something moving far too quickly to perceive.
Only Sui Yi managed to evade at the very last second. Her body twisted away from the incoming force, but it cost her dearly a single ear and two and a half fingers were severed and carried off by the wind.
Her blood poured out uncontrollably. Her body collapsed onto the ground in shock, eyes wide with disbelief. And then, in the soundless sky, among the gloom and thinning clouds, countless swords of light began to form.
Their glow did not burn, did not scorch. Instead, it was cold... like death descending in silence.
Slice!!
Just as Sui Yi was falling to dodge an unseen strike, before her body could even touch the ground, a blade of light pierced through her skull in perfect silence. It flicked lightly up and down, and in the next instant, her body was split in two. Crimson blood poured in a stream as her corpse collapsed to the earth.
"Big Sister...!"
Sui San's final cry echoed, even though her head and torso had already been severed. Her voice was filled with shock and grief but was cut short as another sword drove straight into the center of her skull.
The sixth princess was the last one still alive, but only for a few more heartbeats before another blade of light tore diagonally through her head.
All seven women died within less than a second.
None were left. Only blood, and silence.
They all perished in an instant, without even a chance to understand who or what had killed them.
Just a few breaths later, seven pillars of light descended quietly from the sky and struck the motionless bodies lying on the ground.
The pillars caused no explosions and brought no violent destruction. They simply erased their targets, removing each woman and her soul from this world slowly, one by one, until not even ash remained.
As a light rain began to fall from the sky, a voice echoed. It was hoarse and high-pitched, like something inhuman. The words were spoken with chilling coldness, devoid of all emotion.
"System, seal the area."
[Understood.]
The system's response echoed into the air before a transparent white energy barrier instantly formed, enveloping the entire region and allowing nothing to enter or escape—not even a trace of air.
Inside the barrier, a man dressed in a flowing pitch-black cloak walked slowly toward the place where Wu Wen's body lay lifeless.
The mask he wore bore a wide and haunting grin. He lowered his head and stared at Wu Wen's corpse, now split in two.
"Why didn't you just form another earth sphere to shield yourself and Ye Lin…"
He whispered quietly before taking out a bottle of dark violet liquid from his spatial ring. Slowly, he poured the thick, viscous potion over Wu Wen's body.
At that moment, the two halves of Wu Wen's body began to tremble. Bones, skin, and muscles slowly reconnected, as if some unseen force was rewriting him from scratch. A flood of spiritual energy poured wildly into him. The gaping hole in his chest began to close. The punctured abdomen slowly mended. And the power radiating from his body now seemed even more overwhelming than when he was alive.
The masked man said nothing more. He activated the teleportation array at once, and a glowing ring of light beneath Wu Wen's body began to shine.
Wu Wen slowly opened his eyes, still dazed, and asked in a hoarse, bewildered voice.
"You... the one who uses light… why did you save me…?"
The man with the smiling mask tilted his head slightly before replying softly.
"My heart told me to."
It was an answer devoid of logic, without any explanation a human could comprehend. But just before they parted ways, Han Ming spoke again.
"You recognized me? Even though I hid my face, wore a black cloak that covered everything, and even altered my voice?"
Wu Wen chuckled quietly and said,
"If anyone had seen you that day… believe me… it was both terrifying and impressive, and no one who saw it could ever forget."
And in that instant, Wu Wen's body vanished into the teleportation light in the blink of an eye. As for the man in the smiling mask… he gradually faded into delicate strands of light before disappearing from this world as well.
…
At that moment, in the Yin Yang Dynasty, homeland of Lei Chen, the first disciple of Han Ming,
Zhang Fu and Ning Xin had just barely escaped the living hell through teleportation. They had hoped to return to their homeland, to warmth… to familiar faces.
But what greeted them was a ruined city, burned and destroyed.
The land was flattened as if crushed by a giant hand. Countless corpses were strewn about. The stench of blood was so thick that even breathing felt bitter, as if death clung to every breath.
Heavy rain poured from the sky, yet it could not wash away the blood.
Amid this unbearable devastation…
Over seventy survivors from the city were kneeling with their foreheads pressed to the ground in absolute reverence toward a single man standing in the wide courtyard.
His eyes glowed white-gold, shining amid the oppressive darkness of night.
No one needed to speak his name. No one needed to say a word. Just seeing those eyes was enough to know he was no longer someone they could recognize from this world.
****************** End of Season 1 ******************