The Central Continent, the Mission Pavilion of the Lingxiao Sect's Outer Sect.

  Steward Wang, who usually sat around sipping from his purple clay teapot and listening to folk tunes, was now spinning in circles across the empty lobby like an ant on a hot pan. The prized teapot sat abandoned on the corner of his desk, the tea inside long gone cold.

  "What a disaster! What an absolute disaster!"

  Wiping cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, Steward Wang kept glancing toward the door in terror, his old legs trembling uncontrollably.

  Just half an hour ago, an Inner Sect Elder of The Su Family had kicked the threshold of the Mission Pavilion to splinters and cursed him out, pointing right at his nose.

  It was only then that Steward Wang realized how massive a hornet's nest he had kicked. The Su Family Patriarch had originally instructed him to assign the Mid-Yellow Tier mandate to investigate the Dark Shaman Cult to Su Wan purely as a scare tactic. They wanted to use the terrifying reputation of The Hundred Thousand Mountains to break the stubborn heiress, forcing her to hand over her Identity Token and return home for the arranged marriage.

  It was a standard pressure test used by aristocratic clans to discipline their youth. In the Su Family's calculations, a pampered young lady would hear the words "Dark Shaman Cult," turn pale with fright, and immediately cry for forgiveness.

  Who could have predicted her bones were so hard! Not only did she refuse to beg, but she actually dragged two reckless Outer Sect servants straight into the cannibalistic depths of The Hundred Thousand Mountains!

  And it didn't end there. Right after The Su Family left, the shadow guard commander of The Xie Family—the wealthiest clan in The Central Continent—stormed in, radiating murderous intent.

  Xie Changyuan, the notorious degenerate who could summon wind and rain in The Central Continent, had actually defied sect laws, forcibly commandeered the Great Sumeru Teleportation Array, and rushed to Miaojiang to chase after Su Wan!

  Steward Wang had no way to defend himself. Caught between two corporate monoliths, even breathing felt like a noose tightening around his neck.

  "Heavens above, Ancestors below..." Steward Wang's knees gave out, and he dropped directly onto the shattered bluestone tiles. Pressing his hands together, he pleaded bitterly toward the southern sky, "Please, do not let a single hair on Miss Su or Young Master Xie be harmed! As long as those two realize the danger and come back in one piece, this old man will gladly forfeit a few years of his lifespan!"

  As for the two Outer Sect servants who went with her?

  A flash of cold, mercenary indifference crossed Steward Wang's eyes. "Those cheap mud-legs can die for all I care! As long as they don't dirty the eyes of our noble guests, even if the toxic bugs of the Dark Shaman Cult chew them down to the bone, it's just their own worthless fate. They can't blame anyone else!"

  In the rigidly hierarchical cultivation world, the anger and anxiety of the higher-ups were always reserved exclusively for their own class. In their eyes, the survival of the bottom-tier assets wasn't even worth a line on the ledger.

  Miaojiang, the Dark Shaman Cult Headquarters.

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  Within the labyrinthine tunnels hundreds of feet underground.

  Unlike the hypocritical worrying back in The Central Continent, a very real, life-and-death escape was playing out right on the Grim Reaper's nose.

  Wearing a stolen black robe, Xu Nan led the squad. His round eyes were heavily bloodshot, and the abacus in his brain was calculating at a terrifying, overloaded speed.

  "Three feet ahead, toxic fire trap underground! Step on the Kan position, cross the Xun position! Senior Brother Yan, keep a firm grip on Young Master Xie! Senior Sister Su, pull back your Resurgent Fire aura, don't wake the dormant Gu bugs in the left wall!"

  Xu Nan kept his voice to a harsh whisper, every word squeezed through gritted teeth.

  His self-taught knowledge of arrays was finally paying off.

  At the rear of the formation, Yan Zheng moved like an iron tower, carrying his edgeless heavy sword in one hand and dragging the unconscious Xie Changyuan with the other. Su Wan, her red dress torn, stuck closely to Yan Zheng's side.

  They had been sprinting through the complex underground maze for half an incense stick of time. Relying on his flawless, impossible calculations, Xu Nan had miraculously bypassed five patrols of Suicide Operatives and thirteen chained poison arrays.

  The further out they went, the colder the air in the tunnel became. The faint sound of an underground river echoed ahead.

  "Almost there! The first checkpoint of the headquarters is just ahead—the Dragon-Severing Stone Gate! Once we clear that door, we can launch the Streamlight Shadow-Escaping Skiff and break out of The Hundred Thousand Mountains!" Xu Nan's heart pounded wildly. The iron abacus of life and death was finally seeing the light of a balanced ledger.

  The group scrambled and stumbled out of the dungeon corridor, mere steps away from breaking past the massive stone gate.

  Suddenly, a terrifying, suffocating Core Formation Realm pressure crashed down on them like a collapsing mountain!

  From the depths of the headquarters, the emaciated Cult Master, his eyes blazing with ghostly green fire, teleported into the air directly above them.

  "Little thieves. You thought you could leave?"

  "Get on the skiff!"

  Xu Nan's eyes went entirely red. Without hesitation, he tossed out the Streamlight Shadow-Escaping Skiff and violently shoved Su Wan, Yan Zheng, and Xie Changyuan inside.

  "Go!" Xu Nan shattered the activation jade with a slap. The skiff turned into a streak of silver light, shooting upward.

  But Xu Nan himself was deadlocked in place, pinned to the ground by the Core Formation monster's aura.

  "An ant at the third level of Qi Condensation dares to show off in front of me?" The old monster's hand formed a claw, lunging straight for the crown of Xu Nan's head. He was going to forcefully search his soul!

  Clang—!

  Right at this terminal dead end, a black silhouette leapt decisively from the ascending skiff in mid-air!

  Gripping his edgeless heavy sword with both hands, Yan Zheng dropped like a meteor, abandoning all defense to throw himself directly over Xu Nan's head!

  Crunch!

  The heavy sword shattered inch by inch. Yan Zheng's chest caved in. A massive mouthful of blood sprayed directly across Xu Nan's pale face as Yan Zheng's body crashed heavily to the ground beside him, his life completely unknown.

  Xu Nan's face froze.

  Crack. The abacus in his mind was completely, utterly pulverized.

  "Old dog..." Xu Nan's eyes widened, bordering on pure madness. "You dare touch the people on my ledger? I'll make you pay with your life!"

  Spreading his arms wide, Xu Nan let out a beast-like roar, holding absolutely nothing back as he triggered The Heavenly Crucible deep within his chest!

  BOOM—!!!

  A vast, world-shaking vacuum force erupted!

  For the first time, a human cultivator experienced the divine wrath of The Heavenly Crucible.

  A look of sheer terror stretched across the Core Formation Cult Master's old face. The newly formed Golden Core inside him trembled violently. The toxic miasma surrounding him—and even the mother of all poisons, the Linked Mother Gu within the cavern—was sucked uncontrollably toward the fatty's chest!

  Three breaths.

  That was all it took. The invincible Core Formation Cult Master's cultivation collapsed inch by inch, forcefully and brutally refined into nothingness! Only a dim, fragmented sliver of his Divine Sense narrowly managed to escape into a crack in the floor.

  With the Mother Gu dead, the backlash of the Child Gu was instantly lifted.

  As the divine pressure dispersed, Xu Nan's vision went black, and he collapsed cleanly to the ground.

  Hidden in the shadows at the roof of the cavern, the female assassin watched this heaven-swallowing scene play out. For once, she was too shocked to speak.