The memories of all humanity are awakening, except for mine.

In the sea of ​​souls, Jiang Chuan's voice pulled Xu Jingting back to reality.

"This memory... must be painful, right?"

Xu Jingting's spirit sighed softly.

"Painful, but worth remembering."

She made me understand that spiritual practice is not simply black and white.

"Then what about her now?"

"do not know."

Xu Jingting gazed into the depths of the Sea of ​​Souls.

"Perhaps they have become ghost immortals, or perhaps they have already been reduced to ashes by the heavenly tribulation."

The spider lilies along the Firelight Road are blooming in full glory, their crimson petals swaying eerily across the windless wasteland.

Three savage behemoths lay prostrate at the edge of the sea of ​​flowers, their massive bodies covered in sword marks, their dark golden blood seeping into the soil and nourishing the eerie blossoms.

The behemoth's breathing grew weaker and weaker, and the muscles beneath its scales twitched intermittently; it was only a matter of time before it was burned to ashes.

"Roar--"

One of the giant beasts suddenly raised its head and roared, the sound of which shook the spider lilies within a hundred miles.

But as it exhaled its last breath, its enormous body began to ignite with eerie blue flames from within, turning into a pile of ashes in the blink of an eye.

The battles on the wasteland grew increasingly fierce, and the stench of blood permeated the air as if it were a tangible reality.

The ground began to tremble slightly, as if some enormous creature was awakening underground.

The clouds in the sky were dyed dark red, which contrasted with the sea of ​​flowers on the ground, creating a bizarre yet spectacular scene.

Just then, two figures broke through the clouds and descended from the sky.

The fairy from Luoyang was dressed in white, her clothes as white as snow, and the jade pendant at her waist made a crisp clinking sound.

Lu Chen was dressed in a black robe, his brows furrowed with seriousness.

They had just passed through a spacetime turbulence, and traces of spatial tearing still remained on their robes.

"This aura"

The fairy from Luoyang suddenly stopped, a hint of surprise in her beautiful eyes.

"It's Lin Xiao's sword energy!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen's face darkened further. He placed his right hand on the hilt of his sword at his waist, his knuckles turning white from the force.

"Not only that, the Path of Fire has been fully opened, and the Realm of the Other Shore Flower is a place that can be entered but not left. We must proceed with caution."

Five dragon-shaped phantoms suddenly rose from the depths of the wasteland, swirling and intertwining in the air, emitting deafening dragon roars.

Lu Chen's pupils suddenly contracted.

"Five dragons obey! Lin Xiao actually used this!"

An even larger black shadow rose from the horizon. It was a dragon-like creature with nine heads, each of which spewed flames of a different color, distorting and deforming the space in its wake.

"Nine babies!"

The fairy of Luoyang cried out in surprise.

"Come on!"

Just as the two were about to turn around, a figure in a green robe suddenly appeared not far away.

The man in the blue robe on Zuowang Peak looked anxious and immediately used telepathy to communicate.

"Lu Chen! Luoyang! Leave this place immediately, the spacetime of the sinkhole has been disrupted!"

Lu Chen and Lin Xiao exchanged a glance. Although neither of them spoke, they both understood the seriousness of the situation.

Lu Chen grabbed Luoyang Fairy's wrist.

"go!"

Just as they turned around, a deafening explosion came from the depths of the wasteland, and a spatial-temporal turbulence swept in.

Lin Xiao's figure went against the current, transforming into a sword light and heading straight for the core area of ​​the Fire Illumination Path.

Deep within the path illuminated by fire, a young man in white and a young woman in red embrace quietly.

She reached out her trembling hand, wanting to touch the boy's cheek.

Xu Jingting

Ning Jing called out softly, her voice filled with a longing that had remained unchanged for eight hundred years.

The boy merely smiled slightly, a smile that held a mixture of tenderness and aloofness.

Ning Jing's hand froze in mid-air, then she suddenly understood something, her eyes filled with pain.

"You came to kill me."

This is not a question, but a statement.

Ning Jing smiled sadly, then suddenly pushed the boy away, tears streaming down her face.

"For eight hundred years, all you've ever cared about is the common people of this world. You've never truly loved me, have you?"

Xu Jingting remained silent, but his eyes gradually turned cold.

Ning Jing suddenly burst into laughter, his laughter filled with sorrow.

She suddenly drew her long sword from her waist, and the spider lilies grew wildly in response to her emotional fluctuations, instantly forming a sea of ​​flowers that pushed Xu Jingting away.

"We met in that dilapidated temple back then. I've been with you for half a hundred years, and we've fought together for another half a hundred years."

Ning Jing looked at Xu Jingting through the sea of ​​flowers.

"I'll repay you with my life and stab you with my sword; you killed me eight hundred years ago, and now we're even!"

Xu Jingting seemed to realize something, and panic suddenly appeared on his usually composed face.

"Ning Jing! Don't do anything foolish!"

He wanted to cross the sea of ​​flowers, but was blocked by the wildly growing spider lilies.

The eerie flowers seemed to have a life of their own, wrapping around his limbs and preventing him from moving forward.

Ning Jing looked at Xu Jingting's anxious expression and smiled with relief.

She plunged her longsword into her heart, and blood gushed out, staining the spider lilies at her feet red.

"Ning Jing!!"

A heart-wrenching roar came from outside the flower field.

The Blood Demon, residing within Xin Gui's body, broke through numerous obstacles and rushed in. His eyes were bloodshot, and he grabbed Ning Jing, who was slowly collapsing.

"The Prison of Demons. For you."

Ning Jing laboriously threw a jet-black short sword into the sea of ​​flowers, and the Path of Firelight immediately began to tremble violently, with countless cracks appearing in the space.

Xin Gui kicked Xu Jingting, who was trying to approach, away and then roared while holding Ning Jing.

"Xu Jingting! You deserve to die! You should have died eight hundred years ago!"

Ning Jing lay in Xin Gui's arms, her breath growing weaker and weaker, yet she still stubbornly looked at Xu Jingting.

"There is no future for us in the Stone of Three Incarnations. Who are you waiting for in the cycle of reincarnation?"

This sentence struck a chord with Xu Jingting.

He swayed, looking somewhat bewildered.

Just then, a phantom suddenly burst out of his body—it was Xu Jingting's remnant soul.

The remnant soul left behind a key with a faint glow in Jiang Chuan's sea of ​​souls, its voice ethereal.

"This item can activate the Aurora Sword Seal."

Before the words were even finished, the remnant soul completely vanished.

Jiang Chuan—or rather, the dominant Jiang Chuan consciousness at this moment—felt a violent tremor in his soul sea as countless fragments of memory surged forth.

He saw a huge cliff, and Li Muzhi stood with his hands behind his back, slashing at him with his sword.

The sword energy was incredibly sharp, but it mysteriously dissipated just before it touched him.

The scene changed, and he saw Xie Xuan holding a baby, with a white-haired sword immortal standing beside him.

Xie Xuan gently stroked the baby's cheek and said softly.

"From now on, your name will be Jiang Chuan."

Jiang Chuan tried desperately to get closer, but he could never touch the baby.

The scene shifted again, and he saw Ning Jing—no, it was Zhang Bailu, who smiled gently at him.

"My name is Zhang Bailu, and you gave me that name."

In a daze, he saw again on the desolate northernmost plains, Ning Jing holding a long sword, plunging it into Xu Jingting's back, and then running towards Eternal Night without looking back.
"what!!"

Jiang Chuan had a splitting headache and roared to the sky.

His consciousness wandered through countless fragments of memory, unable to distinguish which were real and which were illusions.

He saw on the summit of Longhu Mountain that Celestial Master Zhang Jiuling and his disciples were respectfully sending off a sword immortal to heaven.

Tens of thousands of flying swords soared into the sky, forming a staircase leading to the heavens. The sword immortal rode a crane away, heading straight into the Heavenly Gate.
"Jiangchuan."

A familiar female voice rang in her ears; it was Yu Youwei. She asked softly.

"If one day you discover that I'm a bad person, will you kill me?"

Jiang Chuan's heart tightened, and he was about to answer when Yu Youwei suddenly transformed into a mermaid, tears like pearls streaming from her eyes.

"do not want!"

Jiang Chuan reached out to grab her, but grasped only air.

Suddenly, countless wails filled his ears. He saw the East Sea stained red with blood, Qingzhou's naval warships covering the sky, and merfolk chained together, forced to shed tears that turned into pearls.
A man who looked like a general laughed greedily.

"It is said that mermaid oil extracted from the bone marrow of merfolk is equivalent to a hundred years of cultivation!"

"fart!"

The advisor beside him retorted.

"Mermaid oil is made from the tears of merfolk, so where does the talk of bone marrow come from? However, merfolk flesh and blood are indeed very nourishing."

Jiang Chuan felt as if his soul was about to be torn apart, as these fragments of memory shattered his consciousness.

The path of fire crumbled beneath his feet, the sea of ​​red spider lilies began to wither, and the whole world was about to be annihilated.
Dark clouds loomed over the East China Sea.

Raindrops pounded on the sea, creating countless splashes.

Amidst the surging waves, an elderly merman stood on the water, his white beard and hair dancing wildly in the sea breeze.

Behind him, dozens of merman corpses floated on the sea, their pearl-like tears mixed with blood, turning the seawater for miles around pale red.

"Qingzhou Navy!"

The old man's eyes were bloodshot as he slammed his trident heavily into the sea, creating a towering wave.

"I swear to the Sea God that I will make you pay for your blood debts and turn the Qingzhou Sea into a raging torrent!"

The sea suddenly split open, and a waterspout shot into the sky, tearing several warships that couldn't retreat in time to pieces.

The old man's roar mingled with thunder, echoing for a long time over the East China Sea.

Meanwhile, an even more terrifying storm is brewing within Jiang Chuan's soul sea.

Countless fragments of memory were cutting into his consciousness.

He saw Xie Xuan sitting in the study, with Yu Youwei sitting opposite him.

The woman wore a blue dress, and her eyes held a resoluteness that Jiang Chuan had never seen before.

"I can give you true freedom."

Xie Xuan tapped the table lightly with his fingertips, his voice low and deep.

"But the price is that you have to leave Jiangchuan forever."

Yu Youwei bit her lower lip, and pearl-like tears rolled down her cheeks.

Why does it have to be this way?

"Because he was destined to go down that path."

Xie Xuan sighed.

"And you will become his stumbling block."

The scene suddenly distorted, and Jiang Chuan saw Yu Youwei slowly nod, her eyes filled with shattered starlight.

An excruciating pain erupted from the depths of his soul, and Jiang Chuan let out an inhuman wail before completely losing consciousness.

In the embers of the Fire-Illuminated Path, the sea of ​​red spider lilies had withered by more than half.

A charred behemoth crawled out of the ashes, half of its body burned to a skeleton.

"Roar--"

The Behemoth twitched its nose and quickly locked onto the unconscious Jiang Chuan.

It dragged its broken body forward, saliva dripping from between its fangs.

"Eat this, and your energy and blood will be restored."

Not far away, Xin Gui held the dying Ning Jing in his arms, emanating a terrifying aura that was suffocating.

The Behemoth glanced at them warily and decided to strike first at Jiang Chuan, who was powerless to resist.

Just as the Behemoth lunged at Jiang Chuan, a sudden change occurred!

Suddenly, dazzling sword light burst forth from Jiang Chuan's body, and one, two, and a total of nine sword energies soared into the sky, intertwining in the air to form a phantom image of a vast sea.

The Behemoth was terrified and tried to retreat, but Jiang Chuan was already suspended in mid-air, his eyes closed, but he held a phantom longsword in his hand.

"Sword Nine. A Laugh at the Vast Sea".

A detached voice came from Jiang Chuan's mouth, and the nine sword energies instantly merged into one, transforming into a sword beam that stretched across the heavens and earth.

Before the Behemoth could even scream, its massive body was cleaved into countless pieces, its flesh and blood shredded into dust before it even hit the ground.

"Wang Zhihuan's signature technique?"

Lin Xiao's figure suddenly appeared at the edge of the battlefield, a look of shock flashing in his eyes.

He rushed towards Jiang Chuan and caught the boy before he fell.

On the other side, Xin Gui stared warily at Lin Xiao, while Ning Jing in his arms grew weaker and weaker.

Their eyes met, and they turned around simultaneously, speeding off in opposite directions.

"Rumble--"

The sinkhole space began to collapse on a large scale, and countless spacetime rifts spread.

Lin Xiao carried Jiang Chuan and soared into the sky, with a five-headed demonic snake bursting out of the ground behind them, relentlessly pursuing them.

"roll!"

Without turning his head, Lin Xiao unleashed a sword beam, severing the head of the demonic snake in the middle.

The remaining four heads pursued even more frantically, their venom corroding deep pits into the rocks along the way.

Xin Gui's situation is equally critical.

He leaped between the collapsing rock walls, carrying Ning Jing in his arms, with ghostly soldiers surging out behind him.

These creatures from the underworld emitted piercing shrieks, freezing the air in their wake.

"hold onto!"

Xin Gui looked down and roared at Ning Jing, only to find that the girl had fallen into a deep coma.

Just as the two were about to be driven into a corner, the green-robed swordsman and the white-clad woman from Zuowang Peak suddenly attacked from the flank.

The two swords combined to create a sword aura that stretched for hundreds of feet, temporarily blocking the pursuers.

"Let's go separately!"

The swordsman in green shouted to Xin Gui.

See you at the exit of the sinkhole!

Xin Gui nodded and took the opportunity to rush towards another passage.

The entire sinkhole, along with the Thousand Caves City, was collapsing, and the earth groaned under the unbearable weight.

With a deafening roar, the ground within a radius of a hundred miles collapsed into a huge crater, and dust rose into the sky, obscuring half the sky.

Outside, the cultivators of the Cloud Sea Immortal Sect watched this scene in horror.

Chen Yang stood on the deck of the airship, his fingernails digging deeply into his palms.

"Senior Brother Lu and the others are still inside!"

"Zhuang Yan, lead everyone to retreat!"

Ji Kui gave the order in a deep voice, his eyes full of worry.

"If you encounter Ding Shoucheng, tell him to return immediately."

Chen Yang's eyes reddened with anxiety.

"Junior Brother Jiang is also inside. If anything happens to them, the backbone of our Cloud Sea Immortal Sect will be at risk."

Before the words were finished, three figures suddenly shot into the sky from the smoke and dust.

Chen Yang took a closer look and was immediately overjoyed.

"It's Senior Brother Lin! He's holding Junior Brother Jiang in his arms!"

Before the joy could last even a moment, a five-headed demonic snake burst out of the pit and lunged straight at Lin Xiao.

A giant hand covered in blue scales suddenly emerged from the still-open spacetime rift and grabbed the demonic snake.

"hiss--"

The serpent let out a shrill scream, but was forcibly dragged back into the depths of the turbulent flow of time and space by the giant hand.

At the confluence of space and time, a large number of ghost soldiers and fifth-tier magical beasts emerged and disappeared, as if two worlds were briefly overlapping.

"go!"

Lin Xiao and Zuowangfeng's twin swords joined forces, and the five of them transformed into streaks of light, heading straight for the outer perimeter of Lonely Mountain.

The Sage Realm cultivator, using all his internal energy, moved so fast that he left a long trail of air in his wake, quickly leaving that strange place far behind. (End of Chapter)