Chapter 113: The Price of Recklessness

“If the three of you proceed with such a state of mind, I fear you will not even reach Penglai to raze it.

Instead, you will personally condemn her to an abyss of eternal damnation.”

The trio whirled around abruptly.

Ripples shimmered in the nearby void, from which a woman, clad in dark blue Sitian robes, slowly emerged.

Her figure was slender, her aura cool and distant. Her ink-blue short hair starkly contrasted with her exceptionally fair skin.

Her left eye shimmered like a galaxy, seemingly holding the entirety of the night sky, while her right was delicately veiled by a pristine, silver-white gauze band.

In her hand, she held a bronze disk no larger than a palm. The disk was intricately carved with complex star charts and runes, emanating a faint, ethereal glow.

Heavenly Derivation Pavilion, Yan Wusheng.

This name flashed simultaneously through the minds of the three.

Whether immortal, demonic, or demon race, all held an exceedingly complex attitude toward this mysterious sect, which remained aloof from both the Immortal and Demonic Realms and was devoted to observing the secrets of heaven.

It was a mixture of apprehension, exploitation, and even genuine revulsion.

Interacting with these ‘fortune-tellers’ often left one with the unsettling sensation that their life was a pre-written script, and they merely puppets on strings.

“A running dog of the Heavenly Derivation Pavilion?” Ling Shuangjue’s blood-red eyes narrowed, her killing intent instantly locking onto the newcomer. “Begone, or this Venerable will not hesitate to offer your life as a sacrifice to my Abyssal Slaughter Sword.”

Yan Wusheng appeared utterly unaffected by the murderous aura, which was potent enough to freeze the Divine Souls of Soul Transformation cultivators.

She even offered a slight nod to Ling Shuangjue, a gesture of respect.

“Demonic Venerable, please calm your wrath. I am not here as an enemy to the three of you. On the contrary, I am here to show you a path to survival.”

She paused, her gaze calmly sweeping over the trio, before enunciating each word carefully: “Shen Zhaoqing’s journey to Penglai is destined by fate. The death calamity in her destiny is also her sole chance to become the one who overcomes this tribulation.”

“Destiny?” These two words ignited Ling Shuangjue’s long-suppressed fury, which had already reached its breaking point.

“My fate is my own, not heaven’s! And her fate, even more so, is mine!”

Before her words fully faded, a searing blood-red sword beam tore through the air, carrying a world-destroying demonic might capable of severing mountains and rivers, and descended directly upon Yan Wusheng.

Facing a strike that would make even Void Return cultivators blanch, Yan Wusheng did not even bat an eyelid; she simply stood her ground.

An invisible, transparent barrier materialized before her.

*Clang*—a dull, thunderous crash.

The blood-red sword beam collided with the barrier, shattering into countless fragments of crimson light that dissipated into nothingness.

The barrier, however, remained untouched, not even a ripple disturbing its surface.

Effortless. Utterly effortless.

Gu Chang’an and Yuange’s pupils constricted in unison.

“Please do not exert yourselves. Within my array, all attacks are ineffective.”

They saw clearly that it was neither a Magic Tool nor an array, but rather a manifestation of fundamental laws.

Yan Wusheng could effortlessly summon and wield certain rules of heaven and earth.

“Perhaps you should open your eyes and look closely.”

*Clang!* A resonant chime.

Gu Chang’an, Ling Shuangjue, and Yuange abruptly opened their eyes. There was no Myriad Misty Waves Array, no Penglai.

They were clearly still above the Azure Water Cold Pool.

Unbeknownst to them, the three had fallen into the Heavenly Derivation Pavilion’s ambush.

“Dog slaughterer,” Gu Chang’an spat coldly.

Ling Shuangjue, her attack thwarted, found her demonic energy surging even more violently, clearly preparing to unleash a stronger divine ability.

“Demonic Venerable.” Yan Wusheng’s voice remained calm and unperturbed, as if nothing had transpired. “As I said, I bear no ill will. I know the three of you are consumed by anxiety, but some matters are best decided after witnessing them with your own eyes.”

As she spoke, she raised the secondary Heavenly Mechanism Plate in her hand.

With a gentle tap of her fingertip on its surface, the bronze disk instantly erupted with brilliant light. Countless star-like runes flew forth, interweaving in the air before the trio to form a vast and clear light screen.

Within the light screen, the scene shifted.

It depicted an immortal mountain shrouded in mist—Penglai.

In the image, a cool sword beam, a blood-red demonic flame, and a golden stream of light imbued with demonic power—three of the world’s most formidable forces—were relentlessly bombarding an enormous, vibrant seven-colored light shield.

It was precisely Penglai’s mountain-protecting grand array, the Myriad Misty Waves Array.

The three stared at this sight, momentarily stunned.

Was this not exactly what they had planned to do?

The ‘themselves’ in the vision were clearly more enraged and desperate than they were now. Gu Chang’an’s Supreme Forgetfulness Sword Art had been pushed to its limits, freezing space wherever her sword light passed.

Ling Shuangjue’s Myriad Flower Demonic Domain had dyed half of Penglai crimson, while Yuange had directly manifested a Golden Crow phantom.

Under their combined onslaught, even the ancient Myriad Misty Waves Array began to tremble violently. Cracks spread across its light barrier, threatening imminent collapse.

“See?” Ling Shuangjue scoffed. “A mere broken array. With the three of us working together, it can be shattered in an instant.”

Yan Wusheng remained silent, simply observing her with eyes that seemed to behold an ignorant child.

Just then, the scene within the light screen underwent a drastic change.

*Boom—!!!* An earth-shattering explosion.

The Myriad Misty Waves Array shattered.

Yet, it was not breached from the outside, but rather self-detonated from within.

An unimaginably violent torrent of energy, like a breached celestial river, surged wildly from the broken array.

The entire Penglai Immortal Palace was instantly razed to the ground by this energy storm.

However, this was not the most terrifying aspect.

The most terrifying part was that at the moment of the energy torrent’s eruption, its most core and concentrated portion did not diffuse outwards, but instead fiercely poured back into the very center of the array.

It was as if all rivers returned to the sea, or perhaps… a sacrifice.

The light screen’s perspective sharply zoomed in.

At the core of the energy storm, where the array’s eye was located, a slender figure sat quietly on a cold altar.

Her black hair cascaded like a waterfall, and her white robes were purer than snow.

It was Shen Zhaoqing!

Her eyes were tightly closed, her expression vacant, and she was bound by countless luminous energy chains, intimately connected to the array’s spiritual qi.

She was the core of the Myriad Misty Waves Array, the new ‘energy source’ that Penglai Immortal Palace used to maintain the operation of this ancient grand array.

“Junior Sister—!!!”

Gu Chang’an’s face instantly turned ashen.

Ling Shuangjue and Yuange also froze, the color draining from their faces, their eyes filled with disbelieving horror.

They finally understood: Penglai was not merely imprisoning Shen Zhaoqing with the array.

They had transformed Shen Zhaoqing into a part of the array.

Their forced attacks, far from rescuing her, had instead exacerbated the array’s burden with every strike.

They had forced Shen Zhaoqing, as the ‘energy source,’ to output more power, ultimately leading to the array’s collapse and backlash.

The pillar of light gave no one time to react, ruthlessly striking Shen Zhaoqing’s seemingly fragile body.

A blinding white light consumed everything.

After the white light faded, the altar was empty.

No, not entirely empty.

A faded, old garment slowly and silently turned into the finest dust, scattering into the air.

And the broken jade hairpin, once gifted by Gu Chang’an, also shattered into powder with a ‘snap’ after losing its owner’s aura.

Her Divine Soul had been utterly extinguished.

Not even the slightest possibility of reincarnation remained.

The light screen faded here, slowly dissipating, and the world once again returned to a deathly silence.

“Pfft—”

Gu Chang’an could no longer suppress it, and a mouthful of vital blood violently spurted out, splashing onto the scorched earth before her, like crimson plum blossoms blooming in snow.

Her body swayed, almost unable to stand, and she had to lean on her Frostbright Sword to keep from falling.

Yan Wusheng watched them silently, her expression hidden by the white gauze covering her right eye.

“Now,” she slowly began, her voice breaking the desperate silence, “do the three of you still wish to forcefully attack Penglai?”

“This is merely the most probable outcome among countless futures deduced by the Heavenly Mechanism Plate.”

Yan Wusheng put away the Heavenly Mechanism Plate and walked before the trio, her tone still utterly unperturbed.

“Your love, your anger, your power, are the sharpest blades in this world. But used in the wrong place, this blade will only stab the very person you wish to protect.

“Penglai is a cage, but it is also a ‘Cauldron’. Shen Zhaoqing’s tribulation is not in being imprisoned, but in how to break free from the Cauldron.

“And I,” Yan Wusheng’s gaze swept over the faces of Gu Chang’an, Ling Shuangjue, and Yuange, each etched with pain and unwillingness, “have a method to turn you into that ‘key,’ rather than the ‘weapon of destruction.’”

“Now, are you willing to hear me out?”

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