Yu Mi was instantly furious at that. She let out a cold laugh.
“You think I can’t recognize my Dao companion’s tomb? And you want me to produce evidence? Do you also need me to—”
Before she could finish, an icy chill swept through her entire body. It was as though some overwhelming terror and danger had descended. Years of fighting for her life in deadly places had honed her instincts, and she shot into the sky at top speed, fleeing the area.
The instant she rose into the air, blinding light erupted from the enormous crater behind her. A moment later, the boundless five-element sword qi unique to the Xuantian Swords spread outward. Still shaken, she turned to look and saw that the huge crater was now densely packed with Xuantian Swords. Tens of thousands of blades had formed a sword formation that turned the crater into an absolute killing ground.
As for the people from the Heavenly Dao Sect…
Yu Mi swept her gaze around, but the few members of the Heavenly Dao Sect who had been there just moments ago were nowhere to be seen.
The cultivators who had been surrounding the site all paled in terror. Without a word, they retreated several dozen miles in unison.
Yu Mi stared at the Xuantian Swords inside the immortal tomb, which had transformed into countless blades and arranged themselves into a sword formation. Fear still lingered in her heart, but excitement surged through her, leaving her trembling from head to toe.
It was Bao Gu’s tomb. It really was Bao Gu’s tomb!
She hovered above the immortal tomb and cried out:
“Bao Gu!”
Tears burst uncontrollably from her eyes and streamed down her face. She had never thought she missed Bao Gu all that much; she had grown accustomed to Bao Gu’s absence. But at this moment, a tidal wave of boundless grief mixed with boundless joy surged through her.
The ten-thousand-sword formation in the enormous crater continued changing, as if completely unaffected by anything happening outside.
Suddenly, it changed shape again. A row of words appeared at the bottom of the crater:
“Who hit me just now?”
The successive upheavals made all the nearby cultivators’ expressions change.
The members of the Heavenly Dao Sect in the distance looked especially grim. The few who had approached the immortal tomb had been shredded on the spot when the sword formation appeared.
Suddenly, powerful attacks from all directions slammed toward the immortal tomb.
The attacks were so violent that the sky itself twisted. The dazzling light was so intense that no one could keep their eyes open. Not even divine sense could penetrate it.
Because Yu Mi was extremely close to the immortal tomb, she could not tell whether she had merely been caught in the crossfire or someone had deliberately targeted her. Several blasts unleashed through Saint Artifacts came hurtling toward her.
Fortunately, her reactions were sharp, and she dodged in time. The dozen or so blasts continued to pursue her. The attackers seemed afraid of exposing their locations, changing positions after every attack.
Far too many cultivators and factions had rushed to the immortal tomb, and their forces were all mixed together. There was no way to determine who was attacking from the shadows.
After fleeing several times in succession, Yu Mi activated a Void Concealment Technique and erased her presence.
By then, she understood that someone—or perhaps several factions—did not want Bao Gu to return. They wanted to destroy Bao Gu here, preferably taking Yu Mi with her.
When Yu Mi thought that Bao Gu might well have been killed by the attacks on her tomb, then saw those people brazenly attacking Bao Gu in the open, grief and fury surged through her together.
She gripped the Nanming Lihuo Sword and followed the energy fluctuations of the attacks, beginning to reap heads.
An early-stage Tribulation Transcendence cultivator wielding a Saint Artifact had just changed positions when Yu Mi tracked him down. She appeared beside him in an instant. The razor-sharp Nanming Lihuo Sword swept across his neck and severed it in a flash. Nanming Lihuo flared from the wound, and in the blink of an eye, it turned him into a human torch…
A powerful spatial fluctuation rolled out from the immortal tomb under attack.
Yu Mi looked up and saw, to her horror, that the space around the tomb had been blasted apart.
The space where the immortal tomb stood shattered. The surrounding mountain rocks crumbled into dust. Even the formation pillars of the tomb cracked. Under the tremendous spatial force, the formation covering the tomb broke into pieces, followed by the jade platform.
Yu Mi let out a shriek of utter anguish:
“Bao Gu!”
Suddenly, someone attacked Yu Mi at close quarters.
Yu Mi went berserk and hacked at the attacker. Her sword formed an impenetrable storm, cutting the person into pieces. She then rushed toward Bao Gu’s coffin at top speed, intending to rescue her.
But before she could get close to Bao Gu, countless waves of Saint Artifact energy crashed down upon her.
The protective barrier created by the defensive treasure Xue Qing had given her shook violently and was on the verge of collapse.
Yu Mi plunged into the area where space had collapsed and felt powerful spatial forces tear at her. She summoned a teleportation array platform, but it shattered instantly. She had no choice but to channel all her energy into protecting herself, yet she could feel her body being ripped apart.
Suddenly, something slammed into her waist. A powerful force shoved her away, and immediately afterward she felt someone’s arms wrap tightly around her waist.
Her mind went blank. For an instant, she subconsciously assumed that Bao Gu had sensed her danger and emerged. A surge of wild joy rose in her—but then she saw Qu Yirou, and the joy froze.
Qu Yirou feared that Yu Mi would throw her life away, so she did not release her. She shouted:
“What’s the point of charging over there now? Come with me and kill the attackers. Don’t let them bombard Bao Gu again! The Xuantian Swords are guarding her. What are you afraid of?”
Qu Yirou’s reminder snapped Yu Mi awake.
*That’s right. Bao Gu crossed the void back then without incident. She should be fine this time too… right?*
The attacks converging on Bao Gu stopped abruptly. The cultivators who had launched them concealed their whereabouts one after another.
The rift in space above the immortal tomb slowly closed.
The enormous crater, already dug out to a great size, became more than ten times larger in the upheaval.
An ancient coffin radiating an archaic aura hovered within the crater. Countless demon-race runes covered it, emitting a deep, somber glow in the darkness.
A soul-shaking aura slowly seeped from the coffin, pressing down on everyone until they could barely breathe. Some weaker cultivators could not withstand the pressure and vomited blood on the spot before hurriedly retreating.
Anyone with even modest strength could tell that the coffin was most likely an immortal coffin from the Upper Realm. Both the runes carved upon it and the aura imprinted within it were completely different from anything in this world.
Seeing that the coffin was unharmed, Yu Mi finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Silence fell over the surroundings.
Everyone stared at the ancient coffin hovering in midair.
Not far away, the Chop Gang’s fleet of Daluo Scarlet-Gold warships emerged from the void. All several hundred warships were in full combat readiness. The moment they appeared, they arranged themselves into a battle formation, frightening the various groups of cultivators into retreating.
The Chop Gang’s flagship appeared above the immortal tomb like a golden city pressing down over everyone’s heads, radiating an indescribable might.
Bao Nianhui had received word that this had been confirmed as her Master’s tomb. Many cultivators were bombarding it, and some had even attacked her Martial Uncle. Terrified, she had rushed over at top speed to reinforce them, but she had still arrived a step too late.
Seeing that her Master’s tomb had been blasted apart until only a coffin remained, Bao Nianhui was shocked and enraged. Then she remembered that the feng shui of the Immortal Burial Tomb had been destroyed. Her Master could no longer rely on the tomb’s feng shui to heal her injuries, and her life or death was now uncertain.
Her mind buzzed. She stepped onto the teleportation formation aboard the flagship and charged toward the coffin, shouting:
“Master!”
Qu Yirou saw Bao Nianhui rush forward and sent out a wave of energy that dragged her back.
Bao Nianhui understood that Qu Yirou must have stopped her because of some hidden danger. She was worried about her Master’s safety, but she also noticed the countless people with ulterior motives watching their side. She merely gave Qu Yirou a slight nod and stood there in silence.
Qu Yirou, Bao Nianhui, and Yu Mi stood outside the enormous crater, watching the hovering coffin without exchanging a word.
Before long, Si Ruo arrived.
“Is this really Bao Gu’s tomb?”
When she saw what the tomb had been reduced to, her expression changed completely.
“Who did this?”
None of the three answered.
Si Ruo released her divine sense and carefully examined the situation. She quickly understood what had happened. Looking at Bao Nianhui’s stern, cold face, she said:
“If the Yue Kingdom can be of any help, just say the word.”
The destruction had severed Bao Gu’s last avenue of recovery. If her injuries had not healed by now, she could no longer remain in closed-door cultivation. Forced to emerge early, she would have little chance of recovering completely, and all her efforts might even come to nothing.
The Demon Saint of the Demon Domain had already ascended, and there was almost no one in the current world who could save Bao Gu.
Regardless of whether anything happened to Bao Gu today, this incident was bound to unleash a wave of bloodshed across the cultivation world.
***
Inside the Immortal Coffin
Bao Gu opened her eyes and stared at the coffin lid, blinking in confusion.
*Had she just been beaten?*
Someone had entered the Immortal Burial Grounds, disturbed her tomb, destroyed the feng shui arrangement of the Immortal Burial Tomb, and then savagely pummeled her disembodied consciousness until it was driven back into her body.
Bao Gu blinked again. Then she realized that being able to blink meant she was still alive.
She raised an arm and examined her hand, finding nothing wrong with it. She quickly scanned her entire body with her divine sense and found no injuries. If anything, being buried in the Immortal Burial Grounds for so long seemed to have done her a great deal of good.
At the very least, her skin and bones had been nourished by spiritual power until they were full of vitality. She did not feel the slightest discomfort.
She circulated her qi through one complete cycle and felt an ocean of inexhaustible power within her body.
A smile rose involuntarily to Bao Gu’s face. Then, in a mischievous mood, she lay back down and waited for whoever had dug up her tomb to open her coffin.
She wanted to see who was bold enough to dig up her tomb and open her coffin.
She waited for quite a while, but nothing happened. She tried to extend her divine sense outside, only to discover that the coffin blocked it.
In the end, Bao Gu had no choice but to push open the coffin lid herself and sit up.
The moment she rose, countless gazes from every direction settled on her. She froze for a moment and looked around. She saw no one, only pitch-black darkness and steep cliffs in the distance.
She lowered her head and looked over the edge of the coffin. To her astonishment, a bottomless abyss yawned beneath it. The divine senses focused on her were coming from above.
She looked up and discovered that she was suspended in midair inside an enormous crater.
Bao Gu was completely stunned.
*Wasn’t I lying in the Immortal Burial Grounds? How had they become like this? Had someone dug up the immortal tomb until it looked like this?*
She examined her surroundings again and finally confirmed one horrifying fact: of the tomb where she had been buried in the Immortal Burial Grounds, only the coffin remained.
Forget the tomb—there was not even a single tomb brick left.
When she saw the traces left on the surrounding cliffs by attacks from various magical treasures, she understood that this was not an attempt to rob the immortal tomb for its treasures. They had been trying to destroy her here.
When she recalled how she had been savagely beaten back into the coffin, her gaze turned cold.
Bao Gu rose from the coffin and stored it inside her oversized storage bag. Then she flew straight into the sky and swept the surroundings with her divine sense.
She discovered that virtually every major cultivation force in the world had gathered around the crater. With a cursory sweep, she detected at least several hundred thousand cultivators.
The Chop Gang’s warship fleet and flagship had also come over, clearly to show their strength and keep the situation under control.
Then she saw Yu Mi standing in the distance, staring at her. Yu Mi’s eyes were filled with tears, which overflowed and streamed down her face.
Bao Gu’s heart clenched. She appeared before Yu Mi in an instant and called out:
“Senior Sister.”
For some reason, she almost did not dare reach out and wipe the tears from her Senior Sister’s face.
Si Ruo stared wide-eyed at Bao Gu, who had silently appeared before them from dozens of miles away. She looked Bao Gu up and down and discovered that not only had her injuries completely healed, her cultivation level also seemed to have advanced by leaps and bounds.
Yu Mi raised a hand and wiped away the tears on her face and from her eyes.
“I’m fine.”
She looked Bao Gu over again and asked:
“Are your injuries healed? Are you all right?”
“They’re healed. I’m fine.”
For a moment, Bao Gu did not know what to say. After finally meeting again, they were unexpectedly speechless, simply staring at each other.
Seeing that Bao Gu was safe, Bao Nianhui called out joyfully:
“Master.”
Bao Gu turned to look at Bao Nianhui beside her and saw that her cultivation had already reached the late stage of Void Tearing.
Bao Nianhui had long since shed her childish air and now possessed a reserved steadiness. Yet the noble, ethereal aura surrounding her was especially eye-catching.
Bao Gu asked:
“Has everything been all right?”
The joy faded from Bao Nianhui’s face, and her expression turned slightly cold.
“Not very well.”
