Hearing Su Bei's words, Dan Wulan gently furrowed her brows before carefully straightening her clothes. Several spots had been torn and damaged by him, but they were well concealed and hard to notice. She then spoke, "Mmm... I didn't sense the Eastern Emperor, but I did detect my sister's presence, seemingly around North Zhi Mountain..."
Hearing her response, Su Bei was visibly agitated. He forcibly suppressed his inner impulse and said, "Then let's go to North Zhi Mountain and take a look. It won't be too late to et up with your sister and then head to the Northern Border Pass together."
"Mhm," Dan Wulan acknowledged.
With that, the two of them hurried towards North Zhi Mountain.
...
BOOM—
A countless number of Star Swords rained down from the skies above North Zhi Mountain, enveloping Ji Tongzhi's camp. The entire North Zhi Mountain was filled with the roaring sounds of wind and thunder. All the cultivators felt the tremors of North Zhi Mountain as a torrent of stars surged down from the peak, and the entire camp seed to groan in muffled agony.
As the sword rain slowly dissipated, the camp was riddled with sparkling Sword Qi, the clear blades glistening in the sunlight. At this mont, the camp looked like a giant beast bristling with feathered arrows, lying prostrate amidst the great snowy mountains, whimpering in pain.
Ji Tongzhi's face turned ashen as he watched the vanishing sky. A surge of inexplicable anger flared in his chest, burning hotter and hotter, and his expression darkened.
At this ti, an elderly figure slowly appeared behind him, silently raising his head to gaze at the rain of swords in the sky.
Ji Tongzhi turned his head to glance at the elder and respectfully bowed, saying, "I greet State Preceptor Wanyan."
The newcor was Wanyan Zuoquan. Having just left Mount A'Zu, he had imdiately co here after sensing the formidable aura from North Zhi Mountain. He had lived in the Twenty-One Provinces for many years and was familiar with its land. On this occasion, he had been commanded by the Emperor to co to the Twenty-One Provinces and prepare the groundwork for a counteroffensive.
In the sa season, when the sharp chill of early spring had not yet fully receded, the ground in the Western Wasteland was still cold and hard as iron. Even a hoe striking down would only leave a shallow mark. The land of the Western Wasteland was bitterly cold, starkly different from the temperate Twenty-One Provinces. There were no gentle willow breezes that caressed the face, only the knife-like western winds from beyond the border. There were no soft, fertile lands and flowing waters, only the iron-hard sand and deserts.
Only on such land could Wilderness Cultivators stomp out an imposing aura as powerful as thunder. If the Western Wasteland were to rise again, and tens of thousands of Wilderness Cultivators set foot in the Twenty-One Provinces, it would be like ten thousand thunders resounding, shaking the heavens and the earth.
Treading upon the Twenty-One Provinces was the dream of the people from the Western Wasteland.
"Ji Tongzhi!"
Wanyan Zuoquan turned at the sound and saw a white-haired woman descending from the sky, her purple robe faintly visible.
He knew her na: from the Sword Sect, Dan Wuque.
Ji Tongzhi clenched his right fist tightly, his teeth gritted, and he said coldly, "State Preceptor Wanyan, please help capture that woman later, but keep her alive."
Wanyan Zuoquan nodded.
As the two spoke, Dan Wuque was already just several thousand feet away from them. Dan Wuque pursed her thin lips tightly, looked at Ji Nanjue concealed behind her, and asked, "Nan Ji, are we really going to fight them?"
Ji Nanjue stared intently at the old man standing beside Ji Tongzhi, finding him sohow familiar. Sensing the terrifying aura emanating from him, her phoenix eyes narrowed slightly as she said in a deep voice, "Do you know who the old man standing next to Ji Tongzhi is?"
Dan Wuque shook her head.
As the two conversed, Wanyan Zuoquan had already swung his palm towards the sky. This palm carried an infinite montum with not a trace of Spiritual Energy, yet it bore a colossal weight, as if to shatter the very space.
Dan Wuque hastily dodged the palm strike, her eyes gravely watching the person before her.
But a sword still found a slight flaw, passing through Wanyan Zuoquan's attempt to block it, and stabbed directly towards Ji Tongzhi. The Sword Qi slashed a bloody mark across his cheek, a glaring crimson.
Ji Tongzhi covered the wound on his face, his palm stained red with his own blood. His eyes turned cold and harsh as he snarled, "Kill her."
Ji Tongzhi was the most important chess piece for the Western Wasteland's advance into the Central Plains, and Wanyan Zuoquan would not allow him to suffer the slightest mishap. Thus, he stepped into the air without hesitation, his fist feigning a grab, intending to capture the woman in his palm.
At the sa ti, another figure burst out from behind him.
It was also a woman, with the sa white hair, the sa purple gown, and the sa three-foot Qingfeng sword in her hand. Beside her stood a white-haired man.
Wanyan Zuoquan's face changed instantly, and he frowned. "Dan Wulan? Didn't she run off with Su Bei?"
Could all of this... have been preditated, calculated in advance?
Ji Tongzhi's gaze was coldly fixed on the approaching Dan Wulan. He naturally heard Su Bei's na in Wanyan Zuoquan's words. Without ti to ponder why this man, dead for three hundred years, had suddenly revived, he frowned and said, "Su Bei? How is it you?"
Ji Nanjue, hidden in the shadows, felt a surge of emotion. She struggled to suppress the urge to et him as she silently watched everything unfold before her.
Su Bei slowly stood in the sky, his expression calm as he looked at Ji Tongzhi, and sneered, "Ji Tongzhi, I didn't expect to see you here either. It seems what Mo Li said was indeed true."
"We haven't seen each other for hundreds of years, have we? A prince of great stature, yet you've regressed to beco a lapdog of the Western Wasteland?"
Ji Tongzhi laughed indifferently. "And how much better are you? In the end, if it hadn't been for you stirring up that blood calamity, how could the Twenty-One Provinces have beco such a ss? What? Did you waste your ti following Ji Nanjue?"
"Right, speaking of Ji Nanjue, since you've awakened, I suppose she isn't completely dead either..."
Su Bei said indifferently, "That's no concern of yours. I know you've always been envious of Nan Ji. You hate that the Old Eastern Emperor didn't hand over the reign of the Eastern Country to you. But ask yourself, do you deserve it?"
"For the sake of the throne, you would even collude with the Western Wasteland. Are you worthy of this Eastern Country?"
The smile slowly faded from Ji Tongzhi's face, a vein throbbing on the back of his hand. "Hundreds of years ago, I traveled the entire Eastern Country with the Emperor, my father. Back then, the Eastern Country had just suffered the Great Desolation Calamity. Everywhere I looked, there was nothing but devastation and ruins. I told my father many things, including my desire to one day restore this place to its original state. My father smiled and said, 'Good.'"
"But before he died, he entrusted everything I wanted but couldn't obtain to Ji Nanjue. She's just a woman—why her?"
Su Bei looked at him expressionlessly. "Because you refused to accept your fate, you conspired with the Western Wasteland?"
Ji Tongzhi laughed self-mockingly. "The throne, the world—these are all things I desired, yet none of them beca mine. Such is timing, such is fate. Since I cannot have them, then I will destroy everything!"
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