“Evil spirits? What evil spirits?” All cultivators were utterly confused. Suddenly, screams erupted from the areas engulfed by the blood rain.
“What… what is this rain? How can even our magical artifacts not shield us?”
“This blood rain is corroding us!”
Amidst the clamor, cultivators drenched in blood rain began to cry out in pain. Some were in such agony that their scalps were melting away, revealing stark white skulls beneath.
Amid this chaos, a divine seal suddenly appeared above the floating palace of Daosheng Tian, shielding a portion of the sky and preventing the blood rain from entering.
“Daosheng Tian will protect this area. All cultivators heed my command: slay the evil spirits!”
The confused crowd looked up to see all the members of Daosheng Tian in action, their divine seals covering the sky like celestial beings.
Someone shouted, “We are willing to follow Daotian to eliminate evil!” Others quickly joined in, their pain transforming into murderous intent as they rushed towards the evil spirits that had plunged into the deep sea.
The surging crowd stirred up fierce winds, yet Nan Rao remained frozen in place. Elder Yinzhou approached her and asked, “Fragrant Lord, the Emperor has ascended. Should we assist Daosheng Tian in eliminating evil?”
Nan Yi frowned as she listened to the chaos around them. Seeing Nan Rao’s continued silence, she asked puzzledly, “Sister?”
“Yi Gu,” Nan Rao said, her eyes filled with inexplicable panic. She tore off the outer robe draped over her shoulders and stood up. “I’ll go check on the site of Father’s ascension. Yi Gu, stay here and monitor the situation. If anything seems amiss, order the cultivators from our state and Chen State to leave immediately.”
“Sister?” Before Nan Yi could react, Nan Rao had already leaped off the Peng beast, transforming into a crimson light that shot towards the source of the blood rain—the still-unhealed crack in the sky. The remnants of the shattered space lingered near the rift, and as she approached, she felt as if her physical body and Nascent Soul were being crushed.
Nan Rao attempted to use her divine sense to search for traces of the Vermilion Emperor through the crack. However, she discovered that even her divine sense could be crushed by the rift. As she tried to cut her wrist to use blood resonance, a force from behind suddenly pulled her back.
“The barrier between realms is different from the void within. If you’re sucked in, you’ll die without a trace,” Ying Zewei said softly, though his grip on her was uncomfortably tight.
After a brief silence, Nan Rao asked, “Ying Zewei, tell me, have the Lords truly ascended?”
“Of course,” Ying Zewei replied.
Nan Rao looked at his downcast eyes and said, “In your current position, the more lies you tell, the more unbearable your future days will become.”
Ying Zewei calmly responded, “I cultivate the righteous path of Heaven and Earth. My thoughts and actions align with the principles of the cosmos.”
“Let’s hope so,” Nan Rao said, shaking off his hand and turning to fly towards the demon-slaying crowd.
“Where are you going?”
“As you wish, to eliminate evil and uphold the Dao.”
With a phoenix’s angry cry suppressing the intense unease in her heart, Nan Rao, cloaked in phoenix fire, charged into the dense crowd without hesitation.
“Southern Fragrant Lord, you—”
“Make way for me!”
Some cultivators couldn’t dodge in time and were struck by a burst of flame. One after another, cultivators were sent flying as everyone watched Nan Rao dive into the deep sea where the evil spirit had fallen.
A moment later, a blood-red color began to spread through the deep sea. The entire ocean started to shake violently as a crimson vortex formed at its heart.
“This is bad! Retreat quickly!”
“Nan Rao! Come back!”
The aura emanating from the blood vortex was terrifyingly powerful, seemingly capable of destroying space itself. Most cultivators fled, especially those from Daosheng Tian, who retreated en masse. Several Daotian masters gathered around Ying Zewei.
“Dao Lord, we let the B… evil spirit escape.”
“With the Dao Lord’s ascension, you may now address me as Xuanzai within our sect.”
With the Dao Lord’s ascension, the title of Xuanzai was finally officially established.
“His cultivation is astounding, and he even expended his essence to perform a space-severing technique. We can’t track him. What should we do?”
The man who had finally attained this position looked down at his own hands. Hearing them refer to “him,” he took a step forward and entered the spatial rift. As he walked into the void, it seemed as if he was chasing someone else.
“It’s alright. As long as she’s still alive in this world, I’ll always bring her back.”
…
With a snap, the scroll closed, and Nan Yan suddenly awoke from this long-painted scroll. She then looked at Ji Yang, who had put away the scroll, with a hint of anger.
“Why won’t you let me see the rest?”
“There are things beyond that you shouldn’t see,” Ji Yang said, genuinely putting the scroll away and dodging Nan Yan’s attempt to snatch it back. “If you just want to see your mother’s story from back then, knowing up to this point is enough.”
Nan Yan said with a dark expression, “That’s my mother. Why can you know about it and I can’t?”
Ji Yang replied, “Because I’m not afraid of Daosheng Tian.”
Nan Yan: “I’m not afraid either!”
Ji Yang: “But I’m afraid that the more you know, the more determined he’ll be to kill you.”
Nan Yan fell silent for a moment, and Ji Yang continued:
“Masters never kill indiscriminately. When he kills, it’s always calculated. If you’re just an ignorant orphan of the Southern Fragrant Lord, he might even protect you. But if you know too much, he’ll treat you as a variable.”
Nan Yan asked, “Like how he treats you?”
Ji Yang paused briefly, then nodded slightly: “Yes, just like how he treats me.”
“Nan Yan isn’t one to act rashly, she won’t—”
“When it comes to your matters, I am.”
In the silence that followed, perhaps due to Nan Yan’s resolute gaze, Ji Yang softly said, “Alright, I’ll compromise. I’ll fill in the rest of the scroll with everything I know. But after you learn it, I’ll seal away your memories. I’ll only release this memory when the time is right after you’ve achieved significant cultivation.”