“Ye… Ye Shaohua?”
He hadn’t expected to see her again—least of all like this.
Especially when she seemed to step forward through the very mist and clouds.
The Ye Shaohua of the past had left no impression on him whatsoever.
But today, that image was gradually becoming more vivid.
The Xuanyue Sect elder beside him, hearing Xuan Yuan Che’s voice, couldn’t help asking, “You know this great cultivator?”
“Great… cultivator?” Hearing the elder’s description of Ye Shaohua, Xuan Yuan Che’s eyes instantly grew dazed.
The once-brilliant Ye family prodigy whose spiritual roots had been destroyed—everyone had assumed she was as good as dead.
But now…
An elder from Xuanyue Sect—someone he couldn’t even get an audience with on a normal day—was calling her a great cultivator?
Xuan Yuan Che stared in Ye Shaohua’s direction. For a split second, he thought he’d mistaken her for someone else. How could this radiant, awe-inspiring figure possibly be that utterly unremarkable former fiancée of his from the Ye family?
“So you’re the one who killed our Artifact Refining Peak’s elder?” The Cangyan Sect Leader could vaguely sense the terrifying aura emanating from Ye Shaohua and took a step back.
He summoned his only top-grade immortal weapon—the Annihilation Sky Spear!
Beyond the formation, the faint rays of the setting sun bled red as blood.
Ye Shaohua gazed at the spear—already imbued with its own sentience—that the Cangyan Sect Leader had summoned, and a slow smile crept across her lips. “Sect Leader Cangyan, that Annihilation Sky Spear in your hand? It belongs to our Ye family as well.”
“The Ye family? So you’re one of them,” the Cangyan Sect Leader recalled the records kept by his sect, let out a cold laugh, and his tone grew dismissive. “So you’re saying you want to take it back? Since you’re itching for a fight, don’t blame me for not holding back. Wouldn’t want the cultivation world to say I’m bullying the younger generation.”
With that, his spear shattered into countless illusions, shooting straight toward Ye Shaohua.
Crimson flames flickered in between.
The Cangyan Sect Leader was a fire-attribute cultivator—and a Transcendance-stage great cultivator at that.
He could sense something strange about Ye Shaohua. Someone her age being this powerful was simply unnatural—she could almost rival that person from Qianyuan Sect.
“Are you ready?” Ye Shaohua looked at the Cangyan Sect Leader, her destructive spiritual energy pouring wildly into “Reincarnation” in her hand. She lifted her gaze toward him. “Twenty thousand years ago, the Ye family was reduced from ten thousand members to fewer than a hundred. And your Cangyan Sect took advantage of that to seize the Annihilation Sky Spear. Twenty thousand years later, our Grand Elder has died because of your sect as well.”
“The divine weapon ‘Reincarnation’ has emerged, but it hasn’t yet shown its true power,” Ye Shaohua raised her head and flashed a cold, ruthless smile at the Cangyan Sect members. “I’m curious too—what exactly is the difference between a divine weapon and an immortal weapon?”
With that, she blurred into a golden afterimage.
A divine weapon and an immortal weapon were not on the same level.
The reason this cultivation world had no divine weapons—yet did have immortal weapons—was because divine weapons were beings of immense power that didn’t belong to this realm at all.
The gap between them couldn’t be measured with something as simple as “two is greater than one.”
“Reincarnation” had been engraved by Ye Shaohua with an impossibly complex eighth-rank formation!
Wherever it passed, space itself shattered.
Every cultivator below the Deity Transformation stage who came within a meter of Ye Shaohua was obliterated—body and soul—by the sheer force radiating from her!
“E-Elder!” It wasn’t just Cangyan Sect—even the Xuanyue Sect members standing on the sidelines, who had no part in the battle, were utterly shaken by the sheer overwhelming sight.
This was the mighty Cangyan Sect!
Especially with its Sect Leader and all its other powerhouses present.
Add to that the immortal weapon in the Sect Leader’s hands—with that kind of strength, even a Great Ascension-stage cultivator on the verge of transcendence couldn’t simply ignore all of Cangyan Sect’s attacks and turn the tables like this!
If it had been their Xuanyue Sect, this would have been an unimaginable apocalypse!
“Quick—retreat!” The Xuanyue Sect elder immediately summoned his defensive artifact.
Fortunately, Ye Shaohua had perfect control.
She was only here to kill the Cangyan Sect members today.
Even though the Xuanyue Sect members were standing very close, they suffered no harm.
However, some of the Cangyan Sect cultivators couldn’t tell friend from foe anymore, and quite a few injured Xuanyue Sect disciples—prompting the Xuanyue Sect elder to hastily activate his defensive artifact.
No one understood the terrifying extent of Ye Shaohua’s destructive power better than the Cangyan Sect Leader himself.
“I refuse to believe that even Qianyuan Sect could withstand the Annihilation Sky Spear’s ultimate strike,” the Cangyan Sect Leader wiped a trace of blood from the corner of his mouth, steadied himself, and surveyed the bodies of his fallen sect members scattered around. He felt no anger—only an overwhelming greed for the divine weapon in Ye Shaohua’s hands. “I admit you’re strong. But back then, your Ye family’s ancestor died at the hands of our Cangyan Sect Leader. And today, history will repeat itself.”
“Is that so?” Ye Shaohua gripped her spirit stones, spiritual energy surging madly into her body.
The Cangyan Sect Leader summoned his Nascent Soul—a mass of blazing fire—and fused it onto the spear. It erupted like a volcano.
The spatial distortion it created was on par with what Ye Shaohua had just done.
“Die!” he howled maniacally.
With his cry, a layer of grayish mist rose from where Ye Shaohua stood. The area around her erupted like a volcano—temperatures skyrocketing to unimaginable heights!
The entire mountain range, reduced to ash by this single strike from the Cangyan Sect Leader!
The Cangyan Sect Leader coughed, his form growing weaker. Yet he looked smugly toward Ye Shaohua’s direction. “Did you really think I became Sect Leader of Cangyan Sect without any tricks up my sleeve?”
He began walking toward where Ye Shaohua had been.
His heart burned with anticipation for the divine weapon in her hands.
He knew very well—in an explosion like this, the divine weapon and the immortal weapon would survive, but a human body absolutely could not!
No cultivator’s body could ever compare to a divine or immortal weapon.
But just as that thought crossed his mind—
From the smoldering smoke, a flash of golden light suddenly erupted. The dense fog seemed to have developed a will of its own.
It parted on its own, rolling to both sides.
Everyone could see it now—the young woman they’d all assumed was dead, standing in midair. She held “Reincarnation” in one hand, while the Annihilation Sky Spear stood firmly planted beside her.
Her gaze was sharp as blood. She curled a smile at the Cangyan Sect Leader. “An immortal weapon once used by our Ye family will always belong to our Ye family!”
