This punch burned her very life.
Any ordinary cultivator burning five hundred years of their lifespan would instantly drain their spiritual energy and wither into an old person.
But the thing Su Yueli feared least was burning her lifespan.
She possessed an immortal body. Lifespan, to her, was nothing more than a string of meaningless numbers.
Her meridians, which had been somewhat withered from her injuries, were instantly filled with towering crimson blood qi under the conversion of the massive life force.
That power was so immense that it even forcibly squeezed the cracks in her golden bones back together.
“Break for me!”
Su Yueli gritted her teeth and threw a punch!
This punch carried no fancy intent, only unreasonable, brute force exchanged for five hundred years of her life.
Wherever her fist passed, the void chains laid down by the Ancestor using the immortal mirror shattered inch by inch, making a crisp sound like breaking glass.
“How is this possible?!”
The Ancestor was struck by the oncoming fist wind, and his entire body was sent flying back as if hit by a heavy battering ram, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
He stared at the scene, his eyes filled with disbelief.
This masked madwoman had self-detonated half her Martial Soul and burned at least several centuries of her lifespan. Why, instead of decaying, was her blood qi even more violent than before?
By the time he finally stabilized his footing, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and looked up, a massive, pitch-black tear had already appeared in the void before him.
Su Yueli's figure had long since transformed into a crimson streak of light, instantly vanishing into the distance through that spatial rift.
“Cough, cough...”
The Ancestor trembled all over as he held the immortal mirror, which now had fine cracks running across it.
He looked around. The main peak of the Cangyun Sect, which had once been shrouded in immortal mist and filled with towering pavilions, had now turned into a barren ruin.
More than half of the mountaintop had been cleanly sheared off. The screams and wails of the sect's disciples rose and fell amidst the ruins.
The Sect Master was dead, the Young Sect Master was dead, and the Grand Elder was dead.
The Cangyun Sect, which had been passed down for thousands of years, had its roots completely severed overnight.
“A Ji Dao Thirteenth Realm... Who on earth are you?!”
The Ancestor roared at the sky, his voice filled with frustration and terror. Ultimately, he spat out a mouthful of black blood and collapsed straight backward.
The news spread faster than the wind.
In just half a day, the news of the Cangyun Sect being flattened by a mysterious Thirteenth Realm expert swept through the entire cultivation world of the Great Li Dynasty like a massive earthquake, spreading toward the neighboring Great Wei Dynasty at a terrifying speed.
The Great Li Dynasty, Imperial City.
Inside the imperial study, the jade cicada paperweight on the desk was smashed to pieces by a palm strike from the Emperor of Great Li.
“The Cangyun Sect has been destroyed? Even with the immortal mirror, their Ancestor couldn't keep them there?”
The Emperor of Great Li's face was dark. “Investigate! Investigate this thoroughly! Since when did a Thirteenth Realm martial artist loose cultivator appear within the borders of Great Li?!”
One had to know that the martial path only reached up to the Tenth Realm, and could not compare to cultivators.
Yet now, a Thirteenth Realm martial artist had suddenly appeared out of nowhere?
His heart was filled with mixed emotions. If such a powerful individual harbored ill intent and was allowed to grow, they would likely threaten the dynasty...
The balance of power would very likely be reshuffled!
At the same time, inside the Heavenly Sword Pavilion, a first-rate sect of the Great Wei Dynasty.
The Sect Master of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion stood beside the Sword-Washing Pool, which overflowed with towering sword intent. As he listened to the elder's report, his grip on his sword hilt tightened slightly.
“Shattering the lockdown of an immortal artifact with a single punch, and escaping safely even after self-detonating half of their Martial Soul... Their physical body has probably reached the realm of legends.”
The Sect Master took a deep breath, his eyes filled with dread. “Pass down the order: recall all disciples of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion currently traveling outside. If they encounter a masked Thirteenth Realm cultivator, they must keep their distance and absolutely avoid provoking them!”
He knew that the unknown was always the most terrifying.
Unless absolutely necessary, it was best to avoid any conflict.
The major cultivation families and secluded sects of both the Great Li and Great Wei Dynasties were thrown into complete chaos.
A “masked demon” of terrifying strength, completely unscrupulous in action, and of entirely unknown identity, was currently hiding in the shadows.
Most importantly, this person had exchanged dozens of blows with the Cangyun Sect Ancestor, self-detonated her Martial Soul, and burned her lifespan to break through the encirclement. She was bound to be heavily injured and on the verge of death right now.
A heavily injured Thirteenth Realm loose cultivator possessing the Ji Dao inheritance, and moreover... someone who had stepped onto an unprecedented martial path.
What did they possess?
Love? Heaven-defying cultivation methods? The secret to an imperishable physical body? Or perhaps a supreme treasure capable of rivaling an immortal artifact?
Instantly, countless greedy and fearful eyes turned toward the endless wilderness at the borders of the Great Li Dynasty.
Countless high-level cultivators, spies, and assassins mobilized, searching the wilderness like madmen for any trace of her.
A storm was brewing over the entire cultivation world of both dynasties.
Meanwhile, inside a hidden cave in the endless wilderness.
Su Yueli leaned against the stone wall, her expression calm. The golden light on her body had long since faded, and she looked weak to the absolute extreme.
Every single breath she took agitated her wounds.
“I took a huge loss this time.”
Xiaohei licked the blood on her hand from the side, its eyes filled with deep worry.
“Don't lick it, it's dirty.”
Su Yueli pulled her hand back, fished out a few of the most ordinary healing pills from her storage bag, and swallowed them.
Feeling her battered meridians and her bones that felt as if they were about to fall apart, a helpless smile played on her lips.
A shattered Martial Soul could be slowly nurtured back to health, and broken bones could be reconnected using blood qi.
As for the five hundred years of burned lifespan?
She closed her eyes, sensing her lifespan, which remained as vast as a boundless ocean with no end in sight, and sighed helplessly.
“What a pity. If I could have burned another five hundred years, that punch probably would have smashed that old fogey's immortal mirror to pieces.”
The one thing she did not lack was time.
As long as she didn't die, she could hide in this wilderness for eight or ten years. Once her injuries healed, she would return and settle every single debt.
...
A desolate mountain, an unnamed stone cave.
The stone cave was extremely crude, filled with old cobwebs and accumulated dust, with not even a single draft of wind blowing in.
Su Yueli leaned against the cold rock wall, pulling open her tattered black robe.
In the dim light, she could clearly see golden specks of light flickering irregularly beneath her fair skin.
It was the broken, misaligned golden bones inside her body clashing against each other.
The full-strength strike of a late stage Thirteenth Realm expert was indeed not easy to withstand.
Had she not made a prompt decision back then, exchanging five hundred years of her lifespan for that unreasonable brute physical force, she would likely have been left on that mountaintop today, reduced to nourishment to extend that old monster's life.
“Phew...”
Su Yueli took a deep breath.
She did not retrieve any high-grade cultivation healing pills from her storage ring.
For ordinary martial artists with broken bones, a cultivator's pills were indeed miraculous medicines.
But for a body cultivator like her who had already stepped into the Imperishable Realm, these gentle, gradual spiritual elixirs could not penetrate her physical defense, which was a hundred times harder than dark iron.
Her injuries could only be treated in the most primitive, brutal, and physical way.
Su Yueli gritted her teeth and suddenly grabbed both sides of her ribcage with her hands.
Crack! Crack!
The sound of bones grinding instantly echoed within the dead-silent stone cave.
Under the forced driving of her Myriad Tribulations blood qi, those broken and misaligned golden ribs were pressed back into their original positions by her hands.
This agonizing pain acted directly on the deepest depths of her soul.
Veins bulged on Su Yueli's forehead, yet her beautiful face remained completely placid, without even a single groan escaping her lips.
With her bones back in place, next was the realignment of her blood qi...
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