System: After the fortune telling, my cultivation level skyrocketed.

Within the immense array of the God-Demon Melting Mountains, where the sun and moon had vanished, towering structures had crumbled into ruins. Though they were merely remnants of ancient architecture, traces of ancient symbols still lingered on the massive, crimson rock surfaces.

However, after countless years of erosion, the true essence of these ancient divine and demonic runes has long since dissipated, and their once terrifying power is no more.

Inside the ruins, cracks crisscrossed. In a small space at the deepest part, a peerless fairy in a blood-stained long dress sat cross-legged with her eyes closed. Her face was pale, and her breathing was disordered. She was none other than the candidate for the next Palace Master of the Heavenly Purity Palace—the Heart-Slaying Fairy.

Once the ethereal beauty who slayed hearts, she was unparalleled in the world, untouched by worldly affairs, her figure and temperament both breathtakingly beautiful. Yet now, she was constantly emanating a black aura of death, creating a stark contrast with her innate celestial aura.

"puff!"

The Heart-Slaying Fairy failed to regulate her breathing; her dantian and meridians were violently impacted by the surge of qi and blood, causing the insidious poison within her body to erupt instantly. She abruptly opened her eyes, spitting out a mouthful of black blood, and her aura plummeted.

"This is bad. My aura has weakened significantly and is leaking out. I am completely unable to resist the erosion of the Fairy Gu. Those people have probably already discovered my hiding place."

The Heart-Slaying Fairy's face turned deathly pale. She immediately clutched her chest with one hand and used the other to support herself, trying to get up and escape. However, the Fragrance Poison suddenly flared up, sealing her meridians for a short time and preventing her from mobilizing the spiritual energy in her Purple Mansion. She staggered and collapsed back onto the boulder.

"Could it be that I, the Heart-Slaying Fairy, am destined to perish here today?"

The eyes of the Heart-Slaying Fairy were filled with resentment and hatred. She had brought four fellow disciples from her sect with her when she entered the core super array. They were among the first to enter and, fortunately, had acquired many rare and precious natural treasures along the way.

Later, a junior disciple found a copper piece in a divine and demonic ruin. As the spiritual energy was refined, the true essence of this world fluctuated violently, and a four-sided copper furnace, ten thousand feet tall, rose from the ground.

With a tremendous opportunity right before her, Fairy Zhanxin was quite confident in her strength, so without hesitation, she led her fellow disciples to ascend the ancient divine and demonic bronze furnace.

However, just as they were struggling to climb the first step, the group suddenly launched a sneak attack. In a single exchange, three fellow disciples were brutally murdered. Fairy Zhanxin herself was also ambushed by one of the female cultivators using insidious methods, suffering severe injuries. Helpless, she had no choice but to temporarily abandon the opportunity there and turn to flee for her life.

Upon learning that she couldn't reach the top of the smelting furnace without the token, her pursuers immediately began their attack. In the end, Fairy Heartbreaker had no choice but to reluctantly take out the most important escape technique her master had bestowed upon her before she descended the mountain, barely managing to shake off their pursuit.

She had intended to find a place to rest and recuperate until her strength returned to its peak before returning to avenge her fellow disciples. However, she never expected to be poisoned by the Fairy Zhe's Gu.

This type of mother-child Gu is extremely difficult to refine. Once successfully refined and applied to a person, no matter where the person afflicted by the Gu escapes, the owner of the mother Gu will know their location. The Heart-Slaying Fairy disregarded everything and hastily found this place, setting up multiple layers of arrays and going into seclusion in an attempt to force out the Immortal-Slaying Gu, but unfortunately, she ultimately failed.

Recalling her experiences over the past few days, Fairy Zhanxin was filled with resentment: "My master once said that if we encounter a furnace opportunity in the ancient road of the Immortal Realm, there is a high probability that there are embryos of divine weapons with natal bloodlines forged by the true blood gods and demons of ancient times."

While trying her best to stabilize the rampaging Immortal-Slaying Gu within her body, Fairy Heartbreaker couldn't help but think of her future Daoist partner, Chen Xuan, who mainly cultivated the Dao of Divine Demon Body Refinement.

"If I could obtain an ancient blood-forged divine weapon embryo and give it to him, he would surely be willing to become my Daoist partner, right?"

As she spoke, Fairy Zhanxin shook her head and smiled bitterly: "I never imagined that our parting in Qingtian City would be our last."

In less than a few breaths, as the Zhe Xianzi Gu within Zhan Xin Fairy's body released a special aura towards the mother Gu, several of the people who had previously ruthlessly attacked Zhan Xin Fairy and the others had already found this place.

Outside, high in the sky.

Several figures streaked through space as they sped towards them. Leading them was a young girl whose face was veiled in black gauze, her entire body almost entirely wrapped in a black robe. The girl was barefoot, with a black collar around her ankle, two golden bells jingling crisply with her slightest movements.

"Having been poisoned by my Immortal-Destroying Gu, where can you possibly escape to?" The girl flipped her hand, holding up a saucer-like object that shimmered with strange runes. Strands of black death energy were continuously gathering into the saucer from the vast ruins in the distance below.

"She's at her last gasp. Go down and bring her back." The girl wasn't tall, but her words were chillingly cold.

"Yes, young master!"

Beside the girl in black stood four men, their bodies also shimmering with strange runes. Their eyes were vacant, seemingly devoid of any intelligence. Upon receiving the order, they immediately swooped down towards the massive ruins of the building below.

Before they even rushed into the ruins, the leader threw a punch from a distance.

Rumbling--

Boulders shattered, and dust billowed into the sky. The vast ruins of gods and demons were instantly blasted to pieces. In a small space in the center of the ruins, the Heart-Slaying Fairy, pale-faced, barely managed to support herself, coldly staring at the girl in the sky whose jade hand gently held a jade butterfly.

"Who exactly are you? Why did you launch a sneak attack and kill my fellow disciples without cause?" Fairy Zhanxin stared intently at the girl and asked, enunciating each word clearly.

"Hee hee hee--"

Seeing the Heart-Slaying Fairy staring at her so coldly, the girl in black feigned great fear. However, paired with the fairy's icy gaze, the action seemed particularly awkward.

"Having been afflicted by the Immortal-Folding Gu, you will become my Gu puppet sooner or later. Considering your strength is not bad and you can serve me in the future, I will reluctantly tell you." After playing around, the girl said casually, "Remember, I am the Holy Maiden of the Heavenly Dao Gu God Sect of the Nine Turns Star Region, and my name is Gu Yingying."

"Nine-Bend Star Domain..." The Heart-Slaying Fairy had cultivated for nearly two hundred years and had never heard of this region before, leaving her utterly shocked. No wonder she could be driven to a dead end by Gu poison alone.

"Hehehe, just by looking at you, I can tell that the sect behind you is nothing special. Even my Nine Turns Star Domain doesn't know about it." Gu Yingying chuckled, lowered her head and carefully fiddled with the jade disc in her hand, and said, "This time, the Ancient Road Secret Realm of the Immortal Domain is not only for your Flame Dragon Star Domain, but also for my Nine Turns Star Domain, and even countless great worlds and medium worlds in the Big Dipper Star Domain and the Vermilion Bird Star Domain."

Gu Yingying shook her head as she spoke: "It's just unfortunate that you ran into me, Gu Yingying, so you can only blame your bad luck. I happen to be close to breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage and I'm still lacking some decent Heaven-rank Gu puppet embryos. I wonder if there are any promising young talents in your Flame Dragon Star Region that I might take a liking to?"

Upon hearing this, Fairy Zhanxin couldn't help but stare intently at the four lifeless men not far away in the sky.

"These are the Gu puppets you spoke of?"

Facing the dying Fairy of Heartbreak, Gu Yingying was completely unguarded and nodded with a smile: "That's right, but these four Earth-rank Gu puppets have too poor a foundation, and no matter how much they are trained, they are of no value."