Chapter 852: Are We Really That Close?
Ouyang Che, who had been pressing a relentless, suicidal offensive just moments prior, suddenly tore a jagged rift through the fabric of space.
He didn't hesitate. He fled.
Gu Yunchi's usually placid expression fractured into rare urgency. Her silhouette blurred into the void as she surged after him, desperate to close the gap.
Yet, only a few breaths later, the spatial distortion rippled and spat her back out onto the ruined earth. She landed lightly, her face a mask of absolute frost. The ambient temperature plummeted, a thin layer of ice creeping over the shattered stones at her feet. It was abundantly clear her mood was foul.
She had failed to catch him.
Hiding in the debris, Zhao Hao swallowed hard, bitterly cursing his wretched luck. When the two terrifying cultivators had vanished into the rift, he thought the heavens had finally thrown him a lifeline. He hadn't even managed to crawl two steps before this icy goddess reappeared out of thin air.
"You have quite the fortune..."
Gu Yunchi's chilly gaze swept over Zhao Hao, carrying a flicker of genuine surprise. Earlier, when she and Ouyang Che were locked in their death match, she naturally hadn't spared a fraction of her attention to protect a mortal. Yet, despite the apocalyptic crossfire, this ordinary man hadn't been reduced to bloody mist. He was truly a favored child of luck.
"Fairy Gu, please spare my life! I didn't see anything, I swear!" Zhao Hao stammered, cold sweat soaking his back under her oppressive stare.
"I am not one to slaughter the innocent." Gu Yunchi sighed softly, the sound carrying a dismissive weight. She raised a slender, jade-like finger and tapped the empty air. A deep ripple of spiritual energy shot forth, striking Zhao Hao squarely between the eyebrows to wipe the recent horrors from his mind.
Zhao Hao's eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the ground, instantly unconscious.
Gu Yunchi immediately dismissed the mortal from her thoughts, her delicate brows knitting together in deep contemplation.
'Ouyang Che is gravely wounded. He even detonated his False Core... but he might not be dead. If he survives this, he will become an endless nightmare.'She glanced at the fading spatial ripples.'Fortunately, the passage to the Xuanhuang World, while not as dangerously chaotic as before, is far from stable. After the two of us forced our way through, the spatial turbulence will take at least several months to settle enough for safe transit.''He cannot return to the Xuanhuang World anytime soon, unless he miraculously stumbles upon another hidden tear. I must hunt him down and sever this loose end before that happens.'Her eyes narrowed with cold resolve.'Perhaps I can use the Gu Family's influence in the Secular World...'
Having made her decision, Gu Yunchi transformed into a streak of brilliant white light, tearing across the distant horizon.
...
Long after the icy pressure of Gu Yunchi's aura had faded, a gentle breeze swept through the devastated clearing, coalescing into an elegant figure.
Shen Anyu surveyed the scarred earth, a dark, amused smile playing on his handsome face. He raised his hand, and a Super-Nanometer Monitoring Robot—a speck of metallic dust so infinitesimally small that even a Foundation Establishment realm divine sense would sweep right past it—floated obediently into his palm.
He accessed the surveillance feed.
Following his silent command, a crisp holographic screen projected into the air, replaying the exact moment Gu Yunchi drove her blade into Ouyang Che's back.
Watching the betrayal unfold in high definition, the smile on Shen Anyu's lips widened into something distinctly predatory.
'Fairy Gu, you wouldn't want the world to know you so ruthlessly backstabbed your own companion, would you?'
This was a heaven-sent use. If he let such a golden opportunity slip through his fingers, he wouldn't be Shen Anyu. He locked the footage away, determined to keep this devastating secret in his back pocket.
With his prize secured, Shen Anyu's gaze drifted down to the unconscious Zhao Hao.
'Although he has been stripped of his Child of Destiny status and drained of his destiny value, his innate luck still eclipses that of a normal man. He truly lives up to his past as a darling of the heavens...'
Shen Anyu's eyes darkened with cold calculation. Through the microscopic lens of the drone, he had watched perfectly lethal streaks of sword qi inexplicably curve just inches away from Zhao Hao's vital organs.
Even as a former protagonist, the lingering embers of his destiny were stubbornly vigorous. Had he still possessed his full aura, encountering two warring cultivators might have resulted in a miraculous fortuitous encounter rather than a near-death experience. Given enough time, the heavens might even try to crown him the Child of Destiny once more.
Shen Anyu pondered for a brief moment. To prevent any powerful entities from tracing the karma of a direct murder back to him, he opted for a more natural solution.
A subtle pulse of his aura lured a starving leopard from the dense treeline.
After all, Ouyang Che and Gu Yunchi possessed extraordinary backgrounds. While he might be overly cautious, absolute preparation was the hallmark of survival.
Watching the beast sink its fangs into Zhao Hao's throat, Shen Anyu thought dryly, 'Dying in your sleep. At least I spared you the pain. You wanted to see my Shen Family bankrupted and begging on the streets, but unfortunately, you simply lacked the strength to enforce your will.'
Moments later, the leopard, heavy with its meal, was ambushed and dragged into the brush by a massive, territorial tiger. The food chain neatly erased the evidence.
His eyes calm and indifferent, Shen Anyu's figure dissolved smoothly into the void.
...
The moment Shen Anyu stepped back into the serene confines of the Baiwu Mountain Valley, he was greeted by the imposing presence of Chen Yuhua.
She stood tall and graceful, exuding a dignified, majestic aura that commanded the space around her. At an astonishing height of one meter ninety-eight, she towered over him by a full head. If Shen Anyu were to step closer and speak, his gaze would rest squarely against the generous swell of her bosom.
'With proportions like that, she must be a perfect ten-heads tall,' he mused inwardly.
Outwardly, Shen Anyu kept his gaze perfectly respectful, the very picture of a refined gentleman as he offered her a warm, polite nod.
Despite her towering height, Chen Yuhua was anything but bulky. Her physique was an exquisite balance of slender grace and striking curves. Even the loose, unassuming men's robes she wore failed to completely mask the captivating line of her long legs and narrow waist.
"Was there a battle?" Chen Yuhua asked, her voice a smooth, resonant melody as she returned his nod.
She had been in deep seclusion, preparing her body for the final push into the Foundation Establishment realm. Backed by an abundance of millennium-old spirit herbs, she faced absolutely no bottlenecks; the breakthrough was merely a matter of days.
However, right at the critical juncture of refining her Foundation Establishment Pills, the violent shockwaves of a battle dozens of miles away had rippled through the earth. Because the alchemy required her undivided focus, she had ignored the disturbance, only emerging now that the furnace had cooled.
Shen Anyu could still catch the elegant, lingering fragrance of medicinal pills clinging to her skin.
"I arrived late and didn't catch sight of the participants," Shen Anyu lied smoothly. "But judging from the residual spiritual pressure and the devastation, it was likely two Quasi-Core Formation cultivators. One of them was pushed far enough to detonate their False Core."
"Quasi-Core Formation?" Chen Yuhua's elegant brows lifted in surprise.
The Secular World was notoriously barren. Its spiritual energy was far too thin to naturally birth a cultivator of that caliber. The only exceptions were anomalies like Xiao Fan's master, Xiao Qingtian, who possessed the backing of an ancient sect and carried mountains of spiritual pills and Spirit Stones.
Even she, a reincarnated Heavenly Venerate with centuries of combat and cultivation experience, was currently bottlenecked at the twelfth level of the Qi Refining Stage purely due to the world's impoverished resources. It was a stark reminder of why the orthodox immortal path had nearly gone extinct here, forcing humanity to branch into lesser disciplines like martial arts, ninjutsu, and sorcery.
The sudden appearance of False Core realm combatants triggered memories of the ancient texts she had scoured over the past year—texts detailing the elusive Xuanhuang World.
Catching the shift in her expression, Shen Anyu smiled knowingly. "I suspect they crossed over from the Xuanhuang World. There might be an active spatial tear hidden deep within the Qinling Mountains."
"You wish to travel to the Xuanhuang World?"
Chen Yuhua looked down at him, a flicker of genuine surprise in her eyes. Are we really that close? she thought, wondering why he was sharing such critical intelligence so freely.
still, she didn't bother hiding her intentions. She gave a slight nod. "The spiritual energy in this Secular World is suffocatingly thin. It is entirely unsuited for my restoration. If I can locate that spatial passage, I will undoubtedly cross over."
She paused, her tone softening just a fraction. "If you and Yu Guannan wish to make the journey, I will send word when the time comes."
Shen Anyu smiled warmly and offered his thanks. Inwardly, he praised his own foresight. Thank the heavens Yu Guannan was there to act as the perfect bridge between them. Without that connection, the famously proud and indifferent Heavenly Venerate Chen would never have been this approachable.
Watching Chen Yuhua's graceful, statuesque figure retreat back into the depths of her seclusion chamber, Shen Anyu finally withdrew his gaze.
He summoned Liu Ruyan and the other girls, issuing a few crisp instructions to secure the valley, before turning on his heel and leaving Baiwu Mountain.
Just because Gu Yunchi had lost Ouyang Che's trail didn't mean he would.
Controlling the icy Fairy Gu would be impossible without Ouyang Che as a catalyst. Not to mention, a former protagonist like Ouyang Che was a walking treasure trove, and Shen Anyu had every intention of claiming the spoils.
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