Chapter 49: Chapter 49: 2 Years, Huo Yue
Two years.
It has been two years since the silver gates of the Bright Silver Emperor’s tomb first groaned open, and in that ti, the Eastern Region has been remade in fire and blood.
The fragile peace that once held the desolate lands together has shattered, replaced by a landscape of shifting loyalties and escalating war.
The catalyst for the chaos had occurred exactly one year ago, during the finals of the Youth Regional Battle Tournant where the world watched in horror as one of the mbers of the renowned Ogre Academy was exposed as a reincarnated Demonic Beast.
And that revelation was t with cold, clinical brutality; the "student" was slaughtered on the spot, her essence refined into pills and her bones forged into artifacts.
In the ensuing madness, Tang Shan, the leader of the Ogre Seven, tried to save her and had even revealed himself as a survivor of the Tang Clan—the forr strongest power of the Eastern Region.
But it was for naught.
If his father, Tang Mao, was still alive, perhaps things would’ve been different. But unfortunately, he died in the hands of Qinq’er.
So Tang Shan was suppressed and was about to be killed as well, but just as the executioner’s blade was about to fall, the hidden remnants of the Tang Clan staged a daring rescue, whisking him away into the shadows.
Enraged by the presence of "monsters" and "rebels" in her domain, the Queen of the Spirit Kingdom, who doubled as the Supre Pope of the Spirit Hall, issued a decree of absolute extermination.
The Ogre Academy was razed to the ground.
Those who remained loyal were slaughtered while those who fled were scattered like dust in the wind, forced to seek refuge in the dregs of lesser academies.
Angered by the overbearing tyranny of the Spirit Hall, the remaining Kingdoms and Sects ford the Grand Allied Front to wage war against the Pope.
Truthfully, they expected a swift victory through sheer numbers, but they had underestimated the depth of the Spirit Hall’s foundations.
It was during this war where the Pope unleashed twenty Spirit Ascension Realm experts—monsters who swept through the battlefield like a force of nature, suppressing the Allied Front at every turn.
The Allied Kingdoms turned to the Seven Great Clans, said to possess strength comparable to the Spirit Hall when combined, but the response was bleak.
Two had already knelt to the Spirit Hall.
The Tang Clan, the strongest of the Seven remained in hiding and were hunted down by the Spirit Hall for harboring Tang Shan.
And the Ning Clan—the richest of the seven—clung to a precarious, profit-driven neutrality.
Only three clans joined the Front, leaving the war in a brutal, grinding stalemate where only the cultivators bled, while the common folk watched from the sidelines in terror.
Amidst this geopolitical storm, far away in the scorching expanse of the Great Tao Desert, a figure walked across the shifting dunes.
She was an incredibly beautiful woman with hair as red as a sunset, her silhouette obscured by a heavy brown cloak.
Strapped to her back was a weapon that defied logic: a massive, obsidian-and-crimson ruler that seed to pulse with a low, volcanic heat.
This girl was Huo Yue.
Two years had transford the girl into a woman, her cultivation, once stunted and "trash," had surged forward with a terrifying montum, reaching the 7th Stage of the Core Refinent Realm—a speed that dwarfed her previous reputation as a child prodigy.
"Master, are you absolutely sure there is a Heavenly Fla located in this furnace of a place?" Huo Yue asked, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow.
Just then, her ring pulsed with a soft, ethereal light as a voice echoed in her mind. "Of course! Centuries ago, I discovered the aura of the ’Blue Lily Earth Fla’ in a hidden ruin buried beneath these sands. Since I already possessed my own Heavenly Fla at the ti, I left it as a gift for a future fated one."
"You better be right," Huo Yue muttered, her eyes scanning the horizon. "I don’t want to damage my skin with all this dry heat. What if Haoran doesn’t want
anymore because I look like a piece of sun-dried leather?"
"You..." Fairy Liu, the remnant spirit hidden within the ring, was left montarily speechless. "You are already a Rank 4 Alchemist! Forging Beauty-Retaining Pills or skin-soothing elixirs is as easy for you as breathing! Why are you worrying about such trivialities?"
"Eh? But then I won’t be all-natural! What if Haoran dislikes artificial beauty?"
"You... You unfilial disciple...!" Fairy Liu retreated into the depths of the ring, refusing to dignify the comnt with a response.
Huo Yue humd a cheerful tune as she continued her trek.
Despite her constant teasing, the bond between her and her master was the bedrock of her strength.
Every step she took was for her own ascent, but every breakthrough was a tribute to the man and woman who had set her on this path.
BOOM!
A massive explosion erupted from the far eastern side of the desert, sending a pillar of sand and fire screaming into the violet sky.
Huo Yue stopped, her hand instinctively drifting to the hilt of the red-and-black ruler, her expression turned thoughtful. "Master, should we go check it out? That didn’t sound like a natural sandstorm."
"...That is up to you, child. But where there is conflict, there is often opportunity," the voice replied tiredly.
"Let’s go!" Huo Yue grinned, her eyes flashing with a predatory excitent.
She had a feeling that whatever—or whoever—was causing that commotion would definitely be more interesting than counting grains of sand.
*
*
*
Deep in the eastern expanse of the Great Tao Desert, where the shifting dunes hold secrets of both life and death, a desperate hunt was nearing its end.
Zhu Ziyan sprinted across the scorching sands, her breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps.
Her long black hair, streaked with subtle strands of purple, whipped behind her, and her feline ears twitching frantically to catch the sounds of her pursuers.
Her black, skintight bodysuit was torn and soaked with crimson; a deep gash along her side bled heavily, painting the golden sand with her life’s essence.
Behind her, six n followed with the relentless persistence of desert jackals, with all of them being seasoned cultivators at the 4th and 5th stages of the Foundation Establishnt realm, their auras flared in a sickening display of predatory greed.
Zhu Ziyan gritted her teeth as she thought about how she ended up in this situation.
Two years ago, she had been a rising star of the Ogre Seven, one of the most talented youths in this era, but when the Spirit Hall’s shadow fell over Ogre Academy, she had be the first to flee the academy.
Her fiancé, Tai Yuhao, had pleaded with her to stand and fight for their "honor
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