Bao Gu, Yu Mi, and Qu Yirou rushed to Cangdu City via a teleportation array. Before setting out, Bao Gu had already used a sound-transmission jade slip to contact the Demon Saint and Zi Tianjun, agreeing to meet them at the Kan Gang branch hall in Cangdu City.
After parting ways with Bao Gu, the Demon Saint, Zi Yunshu, and Zi Tianjun headed toward the new headquarters the Xuantian Sect had chosen in the Canglong Mountain Range. Because the Canglong Range was very close to the Kan Gang’s main hall in Shadowveil City, they stopped over there first.
When Wang Ding received Bao Gu’s order, he happened to run into the Demon Saint, Zi Tianjun, and Zi Yunshu, who had come to him asking to borrow the Kan Gang’s teleportation array to go to the Yue Kingdom branch hall. Wang Ding had been feeling deeply uneasy about tossing a teleportation domain gate at the Desolate Ancient Mountains, so he took the chance to consult the Demon Saint about the pros and cons.
By the time Wang Ding finished explaining the whole sequence of events, the Demon Saint’s face had gone green.
Zi Tianjun and Zi Yunshu also clearly disapproved.
When they reached the Kan Gang branch and finally waited out the slightly slower Bao Gu’s arrival, the Demon Saint saw her, flicked up her sleeve, and pinched her slender jade fingers right onto Bao Gu’s soft, delicate ear.
The fearsome, infamous, awe-inspiring Kandao Order Master had just stepped into the Kan Gang branch hall when, before everyone’s eyes, she got hauled up by the ear by her own master—and didn’t even dare resist.
Seeing her always-composed, serene, never-lifts-a-hand Demon Aunt so furious she was yanking her ear, Bao Gu was terrified.
Under the stunned—no, outright horrified—gazes of the inner-hall disciples of the Kan Gang, she was dragged into the council hall by her Demon Aunt. Bao Gu could see clearly how furious she was. The hand pinching her ear wasn’t actually using much strength; it didn’t hurt. But it was trembling. And it wasn’t just her hand—the Demon Saint’s whole body was shaking.
Once she had dragged Bao Gu into the council hall, the Demon Saint finally let go, clenching her fists hard to suppress her surging emotions.
“You ordered a teleportation domain gate thrown at the Desolate Ancient Mountains?” she scolded. “Did you even think about the consequences? Once the cultivation world of the Desolate Ancient Mountains spreads across the land, the first to suffer won’t be the leaders who started this war. It’ll be the countless weak and innocent people with shallow cultivation or no cultivation at all!
“If the evil things in the Desolate Ancient Mountains spread across the world through that teleportation domain gate you tossed, if they recreate the catastrophe of building city walls out of corpses, Bao Gu, you’ll be an accomplice to that slaughter. That karmic debt of blood is not something you can bear!
“You’re diverting the disaster eastward and dumping it on the innocent. How are you any different from those selfish bastards who started this war and then chose this moment to tear each other apart?”
She jabbed a finger against Bao Gu’s forehead and cursed, “You’ve let your anger blow your brains out!”
Wang Ding and the Kan Gang members who had followed him shrank outside the council hall, not daring to so much as stick their heads in. Their hearts were full of awe toward the Demon Saint. In all the world, how many people would dare lecture the Kandao Order Master like their own child?
Bao Gu asked, “Demon Aunt, then what should I do? The cultivation world is pressing us hard in front; Yue Kingdom and the Kan Gang are on the brink of destruction. Behind us there’s the Ba calamity rampaging… are we supposed to just sit here and wait to be cornered to death by them?”
The Demon Saint had never expected there would come a day when she would lose her temper like this. She drew in a deep breath, steadied herself, and said,
“The Ba disaster is right at the door. Yue Kingdom has cities to rely on. As long as the walls hold, who will be the first to meet the Ba disaster head-on—Yue Kingdom, or the various forces attacking Yue Kingdom?
“As for your Kan Gang, your territory is a hundred-thousand-plus li from Yue Kingdom, scattered all over the world. Can those factions really wipe out your Kan Gang so easily?
“Hold the walls. Hurry up and forge weapons and talismans to deal with the Ba, and refit the city-guarding arrays—that is what’s urgent now.
“As far as the evil things coming out of the Desolate Ancient Mountains are concerned… what isn’t food to them? If there are soft persimmons to bite, why would they pick the hardest bones, heavily fortified and fitted with things specifically made to restrain them? They have intelligence too!”
Hearing the Demon Saint’s words, Bao Gu finally settled her mind. She raised her voice.
“Wang Ding!”
Wang Ding hurried into the council hall in a few quick steps and cupped his fists.
“Order Master!”
He was a bundle of nerves, cold sweat beading on his brow. After all, he was the one who had complained about the Order Master in front of the Demon Saint.
Bao Gu said, “Do as my Demon Aunt says.”
Wang Ding froze for a moment, then came back to his senses and asked,
“Then… do we still fight? Do we still fight the alliance army?”
Bao Gu looked toward the Demon Saint.
The Demon Saint frowned and asked, “I really don’t understand. With outside enemies at the gate and disaster looming overhead, you humans don’t all turn your blades outward. Instead, you go on hacking each other to the death. Are you really not afraid of being wiped out as a race?”
“Order Master!”
A handsome man in a black robe strode anxiously into the council hall, bowed, and said,
“Shadow Pavilion Master Zhang Jing greets the Order Master.”
Bao Gu asked, “What is it?”
Zhang Jing replied, “Order Master, it has already been fully confirmed. The matter of a million alliance troops disappearing has been investigated. It’s not a false alarm.”
Bao Gu asked, “Explain in detail.”
Zhang Jing said, “Order Master should know that the cultivation factions of the world have always fought and hated each other. Though the alliance army was formed as an alliance against the Kan Gang and Yue Kingdom, the various forces within it are far from united. Before this, they were fighting among themselves and even had blood feuds.
“That one million troops originally headed for Cangdu City were mainly formed by the Golden Crow Holy Dynasty, along with more than twenty large and small factions. Heavenly Pool Palace and the Golden Crow Holy Dynasty have a blood feud—an irreconcilable blood feud.
“Heavenly Pool Palace’s spies planted inside the Golden Crow Holy Dynasty secretly changed Cangdu City’s teleportation coordinates to those of the Desolate Ancient Mountains. Because the Desolate Ancient Mountains lie not far from Cangdu, the coordinates were similar, so no one noticed. As a result, the million-strong army that was supposed to teleport to Cangdu… never appeared outside Cangdu City.
“They disappeared…”
Bao Gu: “…”
Demon Saint: “…”
She turned her head to look at Zi Yunshu.
“Shu’er, I want to go back to Tranquil Lake Residence.”
Zi Yunshu answered without hesitation, chopping the words off clean.
“We’re going back.”
A Kan Gang guard came to the doorway and cupped his fists.
“Reporting to the Order Master, Her Majesty the Empress of Yue requests an audience.”
Bao Gu thought, “So fast? Did she have people staring at the city gate this whole time, and the moment we walked in she got word?”
She ordered, “Invite her in.”
Having just heard about the cultivation world’s business, her head was a complete mess.
It wasn’t just the Yue Empress Si Ruo who had come. More than a dozen important Yue ministers had come with her, several of whom Bao Gu knew well—ministers who had gone to the Desolate Ancient Mountains with her, and the old Virtuous King as well.
Seeing Bao Gu, the Demon Saint, Zi Yunshu, Zi Tianjun, the Kan Gang’s Left Envoy, and the Shadow Pavilion Master all present, the people from Yue all secretly let out a breath of relief. At least they were still in the Kan Gang branch hall in Cangdu City, not withdrawn somewhere hiding.
Bao Gu invited them to sit and ordered tea to be served.
The situation was urgent; none of them could bother with formality. Everyone took seats as they pleased.
Si Ruo went straight to the point.
“We have just received confirmation. It has been verified that one million alliance troops have indeed vanished in the Desolate Ancient Mountains.”
Bao Gu said, “I just heard as much myself.”
Si Ruo looked toward the Demon Saint.
“Demon Saint, you are knowledgeable and well-traveled. Si Ruo earnestly begs your guidance. This concerns the common people’s very lives. Yue knows it is hard for us to resist, but we still hope to do everything in our power to save as many as we can.”
The Demon Saint said, “Your Majesty, do you still remember those bones in the Heaven-Sealing Forbidden Domain?”
Si Ruo nodded.
“I remember.”
The Demon Saint said, “Why did the Ba leave those bones? And why, after so many tens of thousands of years, have those bones not rotted into dust?”
Si Ruo had already had her own guesses and conclusions, but she still hoped to confirm them with the Demon Saint. She said,
“Please, Demon Saint, speak plainly.”
The Demon Saint said, “If I haven’t guessed wrong, those bones were left by the Ba to refine corpse ghosts and corpse fiends. In other words, that one million troops who entered the Desolate Ancient Mountains are essentially a million servings of fresh blood and future soldiers being delivered to the Ba for free.
“It will devour the flesh and blood of that million-strong army to strengthen itself, then keep the bones to refine into corpse ghosts and corpse fiends. Once those are released, they’ll capture even more living creatures for the Ba to use…”
She let out a low sigh.
“A whole million troops, served up as blood food…”
Everyone present grew grim.
As if unsealing the Ba wasn’t enough, now they had even sent a million cultivators as a gift…
Si Ruo asked, “What should be done now?”
The Demon Saint said, “I don’t know. This is the cultivation world’s business; it isn’t my place to intervene. I also don’t know how to deal with the Ba. I only know that if you make your defenses ready and hold your cities, corpse fiends and corpse ghosts will still find it very hard to breach your walls.
“As for what to do if the Ba itself breaks free… I truly have no way.
“In ages past, there were upper-realm demon immortals, countless earth immortals, the Blood Lotus that Broke the Prison, the Nine-Dragon Ascension Ground, and the cultivation world joining hands with the demon race, united as one to resist the Ba calamity.
“What do you have now?
“Do what you can and leave the rest to fate.”
With that, she rose and said, “Shu’er, we’re going back to Tranquil Lake Residence.”
Zi Yunshu hesitated.
She wanted to stay in the cultivation world with the Xuantian Sect and do what little she could. But she knew that if she stayed, A-Sheng would not go back. And if A-Sheng stayed… she would almost certainly be targeted.
The thought that the Demon Saint might be seized by the cultivators and used as a tool against the Ba made her decide at once.
“Alright, we’ll go back. Father, Bao Gu, Yu Mi—if anything happens, contact us with sound-transmission slips.”
The Demon Saint gave a slight bow, took Zi Yunshu by the hand, and left.
Those one million troops who vanished in the Desolate Ancient Mountains became the final straw that crushed the Demon Saint’s last shred of hope for the cultivation world. With the cultivation world in this state, how could an outsider like her possibly save it?
No one present tried to stop her. Bao Gu, Yu Mi, and Zi Tianjun understood her temperament very well. They knew the Demon Saint had always liked to stay away from worldly dust and refused to get dragged into struggles. This disaster was one the cultivation world had brought on itself. It was not something the unworldly Demon Saint should have to wade into.
They all felt that if she stayed, she would not only fail to save the cultivation world—she would be harmed by it. With the Demon Saint’s heart, if she could help, how could she possibly stand by and watch?
The people of the Kan Gang and Yue had even less face to ask her to remain. The Demon Saint had already gone above and beyond for the cultivation world. She had done everything she could.
After thanking her, Si Ruo led the Yue entourage away.
That very day, the Empress of Yue issued an imperial decree across the nation, ordering all citizens of Yue to move into heavily garrisoned, fortified cities. At the same time, Yue continuously dispatched craftspeople and cultivators of refining materials to Cangdu City to focus all efforts on forging tools to counter the Ba. Array masters hurried to the major key cities across Yue to refit the city-guarding formations.
Not many citizens actually migrated into the great cities. The alliance army used the chance to disguise themselves as Yue citizens and slip into the cities of Yue all over the realm. Garrison troops and infiltrated alliance soldiers clashed fiercely inside city after city.
Bao Gu was enraged.
The Blade Order went out.
Through the Kan Gang inns’ public posting boards, she called out to all rogue cultivators under heaven.
The alliance army had broken the seal of the Desolate Ancient Mountains and unleashed the Ba disaster. Even with the Ba at their very doorstep, they completely ignored the life and death of the common people and still started a war. They had even sent a million troops into the Desolate Ancient Mountains as blood food for the Ba, aiding its rampage. Their actions were utterly monstrous.
When the Ba calamity broke loose, the first to suffer would be the weak and innocent under heaven, the rogue cultivators without protection from great sects.
Yue Kingdom, taking all living beings under heaven as her own concern, had opened its city gates wide to shelter rogue cultivators and the weak. The alliance army not only ignored the lives of rogue cultivators and offered no protection to the weak, it even took the chance to slaughter cities.
This was intolerable.
At this life-or-death juncture, all rogue cultivators of the world had to stand together and carve out a living path for themselves.
This time, the Kan Gang was offering no bounty.
This time, the only thing the Kan Gang could do was to stand side by side with the billions of rogue cultivators, with the common people of the world, and hack out a road of blood—a road to survival.
For life, for survival, for themselves, for all rogue cultivators under heaven, for all the innocent people of the world—raise your swords, cut down the alliance army, and resist the Ba calamity.
As Bao Gu issued the Blade Order and used the Kan Gang inns’ posting boards to shout her call to the world, every force the Kan Gang could mobilize moved at once, marching to Yue Kingdom and launching attacks on the alliance troops invading Yue.
The rogue cultivators of Yue and the various large and small sects established within Yue’s borders spontaneously organized to resist the coalition attacking Yue.
In short order, all of Yue Kingdom was engulfed in war.
The alliance army was dragged into a combined counterattack by rogue cultivators and small factions from all over the world.
Countless rogue cultivators and minor sects launched assaults on the alliance. The flames of war spread from Yue all the way to the territories of the factions that had formed the alliance army. Rogue cultivators “raised their banners in revolt.”
This war had started with ten million elite cultivators thrown into the field and was already the largest campaign in several thousand years. Under the looming shadow of the Ba disaster and the rallying cry of Bao Gu’s Blade Order, its flames spread like a wildfire.
Some were taking advantage of the chaos to loot.
Some, long discontent, were seizing the chance to vent their rage and stir up trouble.
Some were deliberately throwing everything into disorder.
But most were simply struggling to seize a sliver of hope of survival from the coming catastrophe. Because the Kan Gang and Yue had ways to deal with the Ba. The Kan Gang and Yue were willing to offer shelter to the people of the world.
The alliance’s strength was several times that of Yue and the Kan Gang. But did they care about the lives of rogue cultivators? No.
Did they have a way to deal with the Ba disaster? No.
Who had broken the seal and released the Ba? Who had sent that million-strong army into the Desolate Ancient Mountains?
Countless rogue cultivators and small factions flocked to the Kan Gang and Yue.
Countless rogue cultivators and small factions launched attacks on alliance territory.
The alliance forces attacking Yue were, under this great tide, surrounded and hunted, their formations shattered, their casualties massive. With their own home territories under attack, how could they spare the strength to keep besieging Yue? One after another, they activated teleportation domain gates, withdrew to defend their bases, and raised their mountain-guarding arrays in full battle readiness.
Just as the alliance army was routed, the Desolate Ancient Mountains suddenly collapsed. All nine dragon-vein ridges forming the Nine-Dragon Ascension Array crumbled.
Under clear daylight, blood qi surged to the heavens. Lightning lashed across the sky. The firmament went black as if day had turned to night.
The collapse of the nine mountain ranges of the Desolate Ancient Mountains triggered a massive earthquake. The land shook for tens of thousands of li. Blood-evil death qi erupted from the depths of the earth. Uncountable ordinary people were stripped to bone in an instant. On immeasurable stretches of land, grass and trees withered in a heartbeat. A vibrant world rapidly turned into a dead land.
In this great quake, Yue Kingdom was the first to be struck.
Fortunately, Yue had long since begun preparing. Even in the midst of battle with the alliance, they had not neglected to modify their city-guarding formations. Protected by those arrays, the cities within Yue’s borders were spared the corrosion of blood-evil death qi and escaped disaster.
Bao Gu stood in the Kan Gang branch hall in Cangdu City, looking out at this pitch-black, doomsday scene. Her heart sank into an abyss.
This Ba calamity had come even more terrifyingly than she had imagined.
She gazed up at the sky and murmured,
“Disasters wrought by heaven may yet be forgiven. Disasters wrought by one’s own hand… are not survivable.”
Yu Mi stood beside her, gripping Bao Gu’s hand, her gaze heavy as she looked into the surrounding darkness.
The Kan Gang guards around them were full of terror, their eyes all turning toward Bao Gu. In their eyes, it seemed their Kandao Order Master could slice open this darkness and save them from the brink.
But Yu Mi knew the truth.
No matter how great Bao Gu’s fortune, how high her talent with arrays and cultivation, how resounding her reputation, at the end of the day Bao Gu was just a cultivator who had been on this path barely over ten years. A girl who liked to hole up in a small courtyard and hated going out, with almost no real combat experience.
How could these shoulders bear the hope of the cultivation world?
How could she possibly stand against the Ba?
She—both of them—were only one pair of cultivators among countless others, just two lives among the masses.
