Chapter 820: The Eternal Enigma
The Calamity Glass Bird, a powerful demon beast from the Divine Demon Era that lived within the Mist Calamity Demon Valley. Its body was like glass, it possessed lightning-like speed and a steel-like physique, and when its wings spread, it could instantly summon a dark storm, dragging everything into a purgatory-like calamity.
"Caw~~~"
The Calamity Glass Bird folded its wings and dove down from the sky, as swift as thunder. Wherever it passed, the dark space was instantly churned into a twisted vortex. Under the reflection of the red light emanating from Mo Li, its body shimmered with the colors of a rainbow glass... but this rainbow light did not feel gorgeous; instead, it was like the reflection of snake scales, sending chills down one's spine.
These dark demon beasts seemed to possess an extremely strong territorial awareness. Whether it was the Nine Wasteland Demon Fang just now or the current Calamity Glass Bird, they both attacked Mo Li the moment they discovered her.
The Calamity Glass Bird was so fast that Mo Li was genuinely taken aback—this might not even be the bird's utmost speed, but it already surpassed her own speed at her limits. In that moment of astonishment, the dark storm stirred up by the Calamity Glass Bird's dive was already upon her.
The red light that Mo Li had just retracted surged once more. Her small, snow-white hand reached directly into the dark storm, grasped casually, and instantly disrupted the tempest that was tearing the void apart. The direction of the Calamity Glass Bird's dive immediately deviated, and it plunged headfirst into the ground beside Mo Li, sending broken rocks flying and gouging a huge crater into the pitch-black abyss floor.
With a flicker of Star God Remnant Shadow, Mo Li appeared beside the Calamity Glass Bird. She grabbed one of its reddish-yellow toes, spun her body halfway, and hurled the bird—which was hundreds of times her size—violently away.
The Calamity Glass Bird let out a mournful cry, flying sideways for over a dozen miles like a cannonball. After it crashed to the ground, it carved a trench over a hundred zhang long into the black earth before finally coming to a stop. Its entire body of glossy scales was gradually stained with crimson blood.
"Hiss..."
The Calamity Glass Bird's cry turned angry and ferocious. It stood up, blood dripping from its entire body, its wings trembling slightly, but the aura emanating from it did not weaken; instead, it became even more sinister and savage.
"Caw—"
"Caw—!"
Just as Mo Li was about to step forward and deliver a fatal blow to the Calamity Glass Bird, two identical piercing screeches came from the darkness not far away—and there were actually two more Calamity Glass Birds!
Behind these Calamity Glass Birds, hundreds of different but equally terrifying auras of darkness were approaching at terrifying speed. Their target was clearly also Mo Li!
Given Mo Li's current condition, it was utterly impossible for her to deal with so many dark demon beasts at once. She frowned, took a step back, and without further hesitation, rose into the air, flying upward at her fastest speed. She ascended a full thousand zhang until her body passed through the critical point between two worlds.
In an instant, the dark demonic aura vanished, and the elements and laws of the surrounding world returned to normal. Mo Li halted, took one last look downward, then slashed her hand in front of her, tearing space and instantly crossing a height of ten thousand zhang, returning to the top of Jueyun Cliff.
Having left the dark world at the bottom of the cliff, Mo Li did not immediately depart. She stood at the edge of Jueyun Cliff, gazing indifferently at the dark abyss below, as if deep in thought... No one would have imagined—she herself had never expected it before arriving—that the bottom of this abyss concealed a strange world that should absolutely not exist.
If any single dark demon beast from within were to escape the abyss, then this world would inevitably fall into a nightmare of destruction, and no one could resist. Even if all the Emperor Lords of the three continents united, killing even one such beast would be a delusional fantasy.
But the Xuan practitioners of this world would never know that such terrifying things were hidden in the world they inhabited... and in great numbers!
"Since the Evil God is dead... why this dark world exists will likely remain an eternal mystery." After pondering for a long time, Mo Li whispered to herself.
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Shenhuang Kingdom, Black Moon General Headquarters.
After returning from the Supreme Sea Palace, Zi Ji's heart never regained its former calm. The Demon Sword Assembly, which had gathered the world's strongest, did not yield the secrets of Divine Xuan as they had anticipated. Instead, it made the Four Sacred Grounds, who had ruled Tian Xuan for ten thousand years, realize that there existed beings far more powerful than themselves—powerful enough to regard them as ants.
Moreover, due to the greed of the Four Sacred Grounds, their fates were now held in the hands of others.
This time, returning to the Black Moon General Headquarters, he also carried a task of utmost importance to the Supreme Sea Palace: to prepare the congratulatory gifts for the engagement ceremony of Yun Che and the Snow Princess, which was to take place in twelve days.
The Supreme Sea Palace had never prepared a gift with such solemnity and tension—because their fate had never before been held in someone else's hands.
The seventh floor of the Black Moon General Headquarters was as quiet as ever. The only sound was the gentle trickling of water, which, far from breaking the silence, added a touch of elegance.
Just then, a girl's startled cry broke the quiet.
"Ah! You... who are you?"
"Who dares to trespass into the Black Moon Merchant Guild!"
This cry made Zi Ji frown. The seventh floor of the Black Moon Headquarters was not a place ordinary people could enter, and forcing one's way in was even more difficult than reaching the heavens. No one had ever been bold enough to do so. The panic in the girl's voice clearly indicated that this was no honored guest but someone who had broken in.
Zi Ji spun his body and, in an instant, traversed dozens of zhang to the source of the cries. In one glance, he saw three young maids who usually served him nervously blocking the path of a girl in red.
The moment he saw that girl clearly, Zi Ji's stern face twitched. His pupils contracted sharply, as if pricked by steel needles. He hurriedly said, "Qingchen, Huangque, Zixi, this is an honored guest. Do not be rude. Quickly, apologize!"
Fearing that the red-clad girl might take offense, he stepped forward quickly, bowed deeply, and said, "Senior, these three little maids have never seen your sacred countenance, so they were ignorant and presumptuous. I beg you to be magnanimous and not hold it against them."
Qingchen, Huangque, and Zixi were all stunned on the spot... As people who knew Zi Ji's true identity well, they had never seen him so terrified, nor had they ever seen him bow so humbly to anyone—not even when the Sea Emperor himself visited.
Indeed, even the Sea Emperor's arrival would not have caused Zi Ji such trepidation. But the one who had appeared before him was...
Mo Li!!
"Catch this!" Mo Li said coldly, pushing her small hand forward. A young girl's dress, adorned with a red crystal tassel pendant—both luxurious and cute—floated toward Zi Ji, wrapped in a mass of red light.
Zi Ji quickly raised both hands and received it carefully.
"This was bought seven years ago at your Black Moon Merchant Guild branch in New Moon City. It is now somewhat damaged. I'll give you three days to repair it completely!" Mo Li commanded.
"This..." Zi Ji looked utterly bewildered. He remembered that when he saw Mo Li at the Demon Sword Assembly, she had been wearing this very red floating immortal dress.
"Is there a problem?" Mo Li's voice suddenly turned three degrees colder.
Zi Ji's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately said, "No, none at all. Since it came from our Black Moon Merchant Guild, it is naturally our responsibility to see it through..."
"Good," Mo Li said coldly. "Remember! This princess wants it repaired, not for you to find an identical replacement. This princess wants only this one! You have three days. Three days from now, this princess will come in person to collect it. If it is not repaired, or if it does not satisfy this princess, I will tear down this headquarters!"
With that, Mo Li turned and vanished from the spot, leaving Zi Ji no chance to speak.
"..." Zi Ji took a deep breath, then raised his arm and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with trembling hands. It took him a considerable amount of time to calm himself before he could speak steadily. "Qingchen, Huangque, Zixi, immediately send a sound transmission to the top ten... no, the top thirty branch headquarters. Have all their directors personally bring the guild's best artisans, activate the best Mystic Ark using the finest Xuan crystals, and set out immediately. They must arrive at the headquarters as fast as possible. Not a moment's delay... Go now!"
"Yes!" The three maids asked no further questions and hurried away. Judging by Zi Ji's expression, it was clearly a matter of life and death for the Black Moon Merchant Guild.
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After circulating the Great Dao Pagoda Art through several cycles, Yun Che awoke from his meditative state. The heavy feeling in his body had lessened even more, and the slumbering parts of his Phoenix blood and Golden Crow blood showed even clearer signs of awakening.
Yun Che opened his eyes and saw Mo Li standing gracefully before him.
"When did you get back?" Yun Che asked instinctively.
"Just now," Mo Li replied.
"That's strange. I remember when you left, you were wearing the Red Smoke Floating Immortal Dress. How come you changed into a different dress?" Yun Che looked Mo Li up and down, somewhat suspiciously.
The dress Mo Li was wearing now was a large red short-skirt with polka dots, tied with a big bow at the back. Girls are naturally fond of changing clothes, and changing outfits is perfectly normal for any other girl, but it was extremely rare for Mo Li... because she had always had a special fondness for the first dress Yun Che had bought her—the Red Smoke Floating Immortal Dress.
Over the years, Yun Che had bought her many dresses in Tian Xuan Continent and the Huan Yao Realm: various princess gowns, moon-glow dresses, flowing immortal dresses, phoenix-tail dresses, qiongxia robes... all of them bright red, each one extremely luxurious. But ninety-nine percent of the time, she wore the Red Smoke Floating Immortal Dress. Occasionally, she changed just to see if a new one looked good.
Although she had worn it for seven years, her Xuan aura protected it, so the dress had not suffered the slightest stain or damage. If she wished, she could wear it for hundreds or even thousands of years without issue.
"You always say I don't like to change clothes, huh!" Mo Li snorted, turning her face away, looking as if she couldn't be bothered to acknowledge him.
The red dress Mo Li wore had a relatively short skirt, fully exposing her two jade-white calves. On her feet, a pair of small ruby-encrusted shoes reflected a ripple of flowing light against her snow-like skin, nearly making Yun Che unable to look away. He quickly shook his head, praying that Mo Li hadn't noticed where his gaze had just been, and swiftly changed the subject. "Mo Li, what did you find on the Cang Yun Continent? What is hidden at the bottom of Jueyun Cliff?"
"...When are you planning to go to the Cang Yun Continent?" Mo Li asked instead.
"If possible," Yun Che answered without much hesitation, "the sooner the better... I even want to go right now."
"I wonder what Ling'er looks like now," Yun Che murmured to himself.
If everything back then really wasn't an illusion, then Ling'er would already be sixteen years old now.
"And how do you plan to get there?"
"Of course, using the Primordial Mystic Ark."
"The Primordial Mystic Ark?" Mo Li glanced at him, then said slowly, "Do you know how far the Cang Yun Continent is from the Tian Xuan Continent?"
"The distance between the Tian Xuan Continent and the Huan Yao Realm is approximately one million three hundred thousand li." Mo Li slowly extended two fingers. "The distance between the Tian Xuan Continent and the Cang Yun Continent is exactly seven times that number!"
"Seven times!?" Yun Che was taken aback. "Over nine million li!?"
No wonder both the Tian Xuan Continent and the Huan Yao Realm knew of each other's existence and had many historical grudges. But neither continent had any detailed records of the Cang Yun Continent—only extremely rare and vague legends. It turned out that, although they were in the same world, they were nearly ten million li apart!!
A land distance of ten million li might be traversable, but a sea distance of ten million li... was almost impossible for human power to cross.
Mo Li crossed her arms and said indifferently, "With the remaining energy in the Primordial Mystic Ark, you can travel back and forth to the Huan Yao Realm a dozen times. But to go back and forth to the Cang Yun Continent... you can only do it once! If you've consumed too much of the Primordial Mystic Ark's energy before, you might reach the Cang Yun Continent and never be able to return."
"...So, I still can't use the Primordial Mystic Ark to go there," Yun Che said softly, then looked at Mo Li with a pleading expression. "Mo Li, hehe..."
"I can take you there," Mo Li said, her expression becoming serious. "But you must promise me one thing."
"Uh? What thing?"
Mo Li's delicate brow tilted slightly. The dark world beneath Jueyun Cliff had undoubtedly become an unresolved puzzle in her heart. "No matter now or in the future, when you are on the Cang Yun Continent, you must never approach Jueyun Cliff again! Even if your strength is a hundred times what it is now, enough to dominate the world and easily crush someone like Xuanyuan Wentian, do not ever try to explore what lies at the bottom of Jueyun Cliff!"
Yun Che was a person with an insatiable curiosity and never feared unknown dangers—Mo Li knew this well. Given Yun Che's rate of growth, there would come a day when he was unmatched in this world. With no enemies left, driven by curiosity, boredom, and overconfidence, he might very well try to discover what lay at the bottom of Jueyun Cliff...
That would be like walking into a dark hell from which there was no return. The dark suction there would trap him forever, the dark demonic aura would reduce him to ashes, and any single demon beast could easily tear him to shreds.
So she had to cut off that thought, starting now.