The crisis weighing upon the mountain had reached an absolute boiling point. The Sect Master was dead, the Divine Beast had been thoroughly subdued by an otherworldly force, and now, one of their own core disciples was actively drowning in the depths of demonic deviation.
To the remaining elders of the righteous factions, the path forward required immediate, merciless execution.
"Slay this wretched creature before he completely turns!" an elder bellowed, pointing a trembling blade at the center of the hall. "He may very well have been a hidden spy planted by those unorthodox dogs all along!"
"No, Martial Uncle! Zhang Fan would never!" Lu Xueqi cried out, stepping forward to shield him.
"Xueqi, back down!" Master Shuiyue barked, her voice laced with sharp authority. "You have absolutely no say in this matter. I know your heart wishes to plead for his life, but he has already succumbed to the dark path. Do you wish to plunge into the abyss alongside a demon?"
Faced with her master's fierce rebuke, the white-clad girl trembled. She looked back at the young boy, whose body was currently engulfed in a towering column of malevolent black energy. Memories of their shared past flashed through her mind, tearing at her resolve.
Yet, just as she prepared to defy her master's orders to save him, a slender figure swept through the ruined entrance of the hall.
"You blockhead! If you want to live to seek your revenge, run now!"
Zhang Fan, whose consciousness was rapidly fracturing under the weight of his demonic awakening, froze. He stared blankly at the black-clad girl who had suddenly materialized at his side.
The boiling madness within his mind settled slightly, anchored by a sudden clarity. Yes... I still have her. In this entire hypocritical world, she is the only one who truly understands me.
As his heart found a singular focus, the chaotic dark energy surrounding his body began to stabilize. However, caught in his own emotional relief, he failed to notice the faint, mocking glint of amusement dancing deep within Biyao's eyes.
The Cruel Theatre of Sacrifice
The sight of the unorthodox witch openly conspiring with their disciple drove the remaining elders into a state of absolute frenzy.
"And you still dare to claim this wretched boy is innocent?!" Master Shuiyue hissed, her eyes blazing with fury. "He is openly trysting with an unorthodox demon within our most sacred ancestral hall! We cannot allow this vile seed to insult our ancestors. Men, cut them down!"
"Martial Sister Shuiyue, wait!"
"Slay them!"
The righteous cultivators unleashed a combined torrent of sword-qi, determined to obliterate Zhang Fan on the spot and capture the unorthodox girl. They reasoned that even if the main mountain fell to the otherworldly invaders outside, holding the daughter of the unorthodox Sect Master would give them a vital bargaining chip for their survival.
Faced with the incoming storm of lethal blades, Zhang Fan stood entirely paralyzed.
To his horror, the black-clad girl did not dodge. Instead, she threw herself directly into the path of the primary strike, intercepting Master Shuiyue's descending sword with her own physical body.
Shuiyue's eyes widened in sheer bewilderment. "You..."
She could see the truth clearly: the unorthodox girl had intentionally collided with her blade. It was a calculated act of suicide.
But to the manic, grief-stricken eyes of Zhang Fan, the scene carried an entirely different weight. He saw only a desperate, tragic sacrifice to ensure his survival.
"No... Biyao!"
Zhang Fan unleashed a guttural roar of absolute agony, the sound tearing at his throat. His entire world collapsed into ash in a single instant. His family, his friendships, his honor, his sect, and now, the singular person who had accepted his broken existence—everything was stripped away, leaving nothing but an empty, howling void.
Coughing a bright spray of blood, the phantom Biyao collapsed against his chest, shoving a burning, strange talisman into his hands. "Run... I will save you... run!"
The moment the talisman ignited, a blinding, cataclysmic explosion tore through the center of the Ancestral Hall.
The Wicked Kitsune's Amusement
"Hahaha... Well, little lady, what did you think of that performance? Did my wild-fox illusion play her part to perfection?"
On a distant, mist-shrouded peak, Hanachirusato turned to the real Biyao, a deeply teasing, wicked smile playing upon her lips. Her expression carried the absolute peak of a manipulative kitsune's malice.
Floating directly before them was a pristine spiritual projection displaying the unfolding chaos within the Ancestral Hall.
Through the violent shockwave of the detonation, the young boy had been hurled completely out of the collapsing structure. A timely, gentle gust of wind had caught his falling form, depositing him safely onto the thick canopy of a ancient tree far below the cliffside, ensuring his survival.
But the righteous cultivators left inside the hall had not fared well. Several monks from the Celestial Temple, caught directly in the blast radius, were obliterated instantly. Master Puhong barely managed to deploy a protective barrier, escaping the ruin as a blood-drenched, broken remnant.
Master Shuiyue and the surrounding elders were heavily wounded, their cultivation bases destabilized by the sudden influx of chaotic energy. Only Lu Xueqi and a few distant disciples remained physically unscathed.
"We must retreat immediately," Shuiyue gasped, coughing blood as she leaned heavily against Xueqi's shoulder. "The Qingyun Sect is finished... this entire sequence of events was a calculated snare."
"Master, what are you saying?" Xueqi whispered, her face pale with horror.
"That unorthodox witch intentionally forced herself onto my blade to trigger that catastrophic detonation," Shuiyue explained, her voice trembling. "We must leave this place. Our foundations have crumbled entirely."
Interception by the Ten-Tailed Sovereign
Shuiyue and Puhong led the broken remnants of their factions into the open sky, desperate to flee the ruined mountain range. Yet, before they could travel the distance it took for a single incense stick to burn, a colossal, terrifying presence materialized directly in their path.
Lu Xueqi's entire body went rigid, her breath catching in her throat.
Floating gracefully amidst the storm clouds was an entity displaying ten magnificent, celestial fox tails that fanned out like a shroud of violet starlight. In the ancient records of their world, a nine-tailed fox was considered the absolute mythic pinnacle of spiritual beasts. To see an entity possessing ten tails was an existential horror that defied the very laws of their cultivation.
"My, my... calling me an esteemed senior now?" Yae Miko chuckled, her voice carrying a smooth, melodic cadence that vibrated through their souls. Her violet eyes locked onto the trembling survivors. "If my memory serves me correctly, before your grand mountain was sheared in two, your pristine sects were quite fond of referring to our kind as wretched, vile beasts. Am I mistaken?"
Faced with a powerhouse of this caliber, the survivors felt their blood run cold. Defiance meant instant execution.
Master Shuiyue stepped firmly in front of Xueqi, shielding her from the crushing spiritual pressure. "What is it you desire from us? The Qingyun Sect has already been systematically dismantled. If you wish to execute us, do so swiftly. But I beg of you, spare my disciple. She has committed no sin in this war."
"Innocent?" Yae Miko purred, tilting her head with a deceptive gentleness. "And if I spare her, she will simply cultivate, grow stronger, and eventually come seeking my life to avenge her master. Do you truly take me for a fool? And you, old monk over there... what clever little movement are you trying to hide beneath your robes?"
Miko's eyes turned ice-cold in a fraction of a second.
Master Puhong, who had been covertly preparing a forbidden spatial escape talisman within his sleeves, froze as a spectral green lantern burst cut through the air. The attack pierced his crown with absolute precision. His physical shell dropped like a stone into the abyss below, while his screaming soul was violently wrenched from his flesh and sealed directly into the Locust Wood Box. The Fourth Heavenly Tome hidden within his mind was now secure.
Stripping the Heritage
The remaining cultivators watched the instantaneous demise of a grand master, their minds collapsing into absolute terror.
"There we go," Yae Miko said, her gentle, smiling demeanor returning as if she hadn't just shattered a man's soul. "Getting rid of that sanctimonious old monk makes my spirit feel much lighter. Now, Shuiyue... that is your name, yes? You and your pristine disciple shall accompany me as my personal captives. The remaining remnants of your sect may leave this mountain alive."
She paused, her tone dropping into a razor-sharp whisper that echoed with thunder. "However, you must surrender every single artifact, treasure, and core cultivation manual in your possession. If you refuse, I will gladly demonstrate the exact price of defying my will."
Sparks of violent purple lightning began to dance wildly along her ten tails.
Realizing that resistance meant total annihilation for the last surviving line of her sect, Master Shuiyue closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "We accept your terms."
With a wave of her hand, she surrendered their ancient texts and remaining magical tools. Yae Miko flipped through the manuals carelessly before shaking her head in deep disappointment. "How mediocre. The structural theory of these techniques doesn't even hold a candle to the flying sword arts of the Shushan Faction. No wonder this five-star campaign belongs to the lower thresholds of difficulty."
With a flick of her wrist, she sealed both Shuiyue and Lu Xueqi into her Serenitea Pot.
Looking out over the pristine, jagged peaks of the mountain range, Miko turned to the Raiden Shogun, who had just materialized beside her. "Inazuma lacks proper mountain scenery. Since the leylines here are already broken, let's have you slice these peaks from the earth so we can take them back to adorn our islands."
Ei nodded calmly. "A reasonable request. Let us begin."
The Fulfillment of the Contract
On the outer perimeter of the mountain range, Bosacius and Ganyu were systematically containing the waves of righteous reinforcements arriving from the surrounding regions.
The desperate cultivators, realizing their primary sect was being plundered, began sacrificing their own lifeforces to fuel the broken, scattered fragments of the Zhu Xian Sword array, creating localized spatial distortions that pressured Ganyu's crystalline arrows.
"Is the primary objective not yet fulfilled?" Bosacius asked, his four massive arms crackling with ancient, destructive elemental energy as he maintained a barrier of localized thunder. "The gathering numbers of these righteous factions are beginning to swell. If we continue to hold back our strikes, it will become impossible to avoid lethal casualties."
Their explicit instructions were to shatter the sect's foundation, not commit an absolute genocide of the local populace, which was why the ancient Yaksha had restricted his output.
"It should be over within moments," Ganyu replied, releasing another arrow that exploded into a cascade of frost, neutralizing an incoming wave of flying swords. "I have just received word from Hanachirusato. Zhang Fan has completely succumbed to his demonic awakening, and the central structures have been completely dismantled. The mission parameters are satisfied."
Bosacius let out a thunderous roar, unleashing a massive dome of violet lightning that scattered the approaching cultivators, terrifying them into a state of absolute standstill.
At the apex of the central ruins, the unorthodox forces of the Ghost King Sect had fully occupied the shattered foundations of the mountain. As the Ghost King stood amidst the debris, celebrating a victory he believed to be his own, a spatial ripple manifested before him.
Hanachirusato stepped out of the rift, casually tossing the unconscious, dark-clothed form of the fully demonized Zhang Fan onto the stone floor.
"Who are you?" the Ghost King demanded, his hand tightening instinctively around his primary magical artifact as his generals, the Dragon and the Hermit, immediately took defensive stances.
"I am a servant of the Electro Archon," Hanachirusato replied, her golden eyes flashing with a serene, chilling authority. "This boy has completely embraced the dark path and possesses a spiritual potential that far exceeds your wildest imaginations. I am delivering him into your custody as promised. In exchange, surrender the second volume of the Heavenly Tome."
At the mention of the "Electro Archon"—the terrifying sovereign who had sheared their world's greatest mountain peak clean through with a single casual swing of her blade—the unorthodox leaders felt a collective shiver run down their spines.
The Dragon and the Hermit frantically gestured to their Sect Master, silently pleading with him to comply. Realizing the absolute disparity in power, the Ghost King swallowed his pride and handed over the ancient codex without a single word of resistance.
Hanachirusato secured the ancient scroll, her smile widening with satisfaction. "May our paths cross again, if the leylines permit."
With the mission parameters fully checked and completed, she stepped backward into the spatial rift, vanishing from the world as the group prepared to return to the safety of the Jade Chamber.
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