Brother, how come you're a witch?

The snow-white sword tassel moved swiftly without wind, emanating a warm aura that combined with the spiritual light emanating from afar and merged into the sword's body.

A gentle power flowed along the longsword and entered Liu Baishuang's cold palm, which was cold due to the exhaustion of her spiritual power.

"This is......"

Liu Baishuang's eyes trembled slightly as she felt the immense spiritual power surging within her body. It did not come from the heavens and earth, nor was it replenished by elixirs; rather, it originated from within herself.

That single constraint has been broken.

The demonic beasts lifted her up, and she stepped onto the cliff, entering the Core Formation stage.

"call--"

Liu Baishuang exhaled softly and aimed her longsword at the dark cave entrance.

The power within the sword tassel not only allowed her to break through her current realm, but also granted her a layer of ethereal combat power, enabling her to unleash energy far exceeding her current level in a short period of time.

"......I see."

The world-destroying demoness sat cross-legged in the cave, her voice tinged with mockery:

"I betrayed myself."

Liu Baishuang remained silent, raising the sword tip forward to her brow.

She was confident that her next sword strike would bring everything to an end.

"Are you really sure? There was once a gap in the River of Time on Yan Mountain. Although it has healed itself, it is still weak. With the spiritual energy of hundreds of sword cultivators, a crack can be carved out."

The world-destroying enchantress faced the sword's edge and coldly said:

"If we miss this opportunity, and wait until the weaknesses are fully repaired before trying to connect with the future, the price will be much higher than this."

"That day will never come."

Liu Baishuang's gaze was firm.

"Dull-witted".

The world-destroying demoness gently shook her head:

"The Liu Baishuang of today and the future is based on you, and she must know that it is possible to go against the flow of time and change the future."

"Then, when the future Liu Baishuang feels regret, she will definitely do this."

"No matter the cost, no matter the method, even if it means building mountains of corpses and seas of blood, she will definitely come back from the future."

"I understand you, I understand myself, we are most afraid of being alone."

Liu Baishuang's sword trembled slightly for a moment, but she immediately steadied it:

"Then I'll stop her."

"Heh heh heh, young and arrogant."

The world-destroying demoness stared at Liu Baishuang with her pure black eyes. She was naive and ignorant of the immensity of the world, but she was still just a flower bud that had not yet bloomed. Countless possibilities could be conceived in the layers of closed petals.

"Let's get started. I will do my best to implement my ideas."

The world-destroying demoness raised her hand and pointed it into the void in front of her.

The complex array within the cave suddenly shone brightly, causing the entire Yanshan Mountain to tremble. The demons that had been surrounding the cultivators went berserk and began to attack recklessly.

The sword cultivators, who had already regained their footing, were now in a state of chaos again.

The demonic woman's divided consciousness, she didn't have time to wait for all the conditions to be met, and planned to gamble everything!

The sword of Liu Baishuang shimmered with spiritual light. She gathered all her illusory power into a single strike, while simultaneously staking all her spiritual energy.

"cut!"

A flash of sword light.

She closed in on the world-destroying demoness, swung her wrist, raised her longsword high, and slashed down fiercely.

At the same time, the demonic blood within her body was also boiling, using its shared power to dispel the black energy guarding the array's core.

The barrier in front of the world-destroying demoness suddenly shattered. Her eyes, filled with black energy, remained calm, her fingers still raised, resolutely meeting Liu Baishuang's sword.

But the outcome has already been decided.

Without the command of the Core Formation demons, even if the demon horde goes berserk now, it still won't be able to kill enough sword cultivators.

The formation failed to activate, and even the world-destroying demoness, who had poured almost all her power into the formation, could not withstand Liu Baishuang's sword strike.

"Foolish child."

The world-destroying demoness's figure was gradually torn apart by the sword light, her tone filled with curses, yet she also uttered words of blessing:

"I hope you won't make a decision you'll regret, and I hope none of your tragedies will ever happen."

"Buzz!"

Amidst the clang of swords, countless dazzling lights burst forth from within the body of Yan Mountain.

For two whole months, the world-destroying demoness had built an array around the entire Yan Mountain, and now it collapsed along with the destruction of the array's core.

Amidst a deafening roar like rolling thunder, the sky collapsed and the earth split open.

"Ugh—"

Liu Baishuang was thrown away by the enormous impact of the explosion of the array's core. She was caught in mid-air by the demonic beasts and then fell to the ground amidst the falling rocks.

Yanshan was like a giant beast writhing in agony in the dead of night.

Rocks rolled down the mountain, trees were broken, and gray-white dust surged up, turning half the sky murky.

The remaining spiritual light of the array flickered like a dying firefly among the shattered rocks, eventually fading completely.

"The mountain collapsed—!"

"Run!"

The sword cultivators no longer cared about defending against the demons, because the demons had lost control and were fleeing in chaos.

They erected a protective shield of spiritual energy, escorting the wounded as they rushed away, trying to get as far away from the area where the rubble was falling as possible.

Even though one has already entered the path of immortality through Foundation Establishment, one still appears insignificant in the face of natural disasters like landslides, especially when one's spiritual energy is almost exhausted.

"Ye Jingqiu! Quick, run! Run!"

Su Yan clutched his lower back with one hand, removed the listening device from Xiao Jianzu's ear and the ribbon covering her face with the other, and nudged her shoulder.

Both of them had exhausted their spiritual power. Even though the demoness had released the sea, she still left them with multiple injuries when facing an enemy of the same level as the World Destroyer.

They could only support each other, leaning on each other's shoulders, and grit their teeth as they ran into the distance.

Su Yan shielded Ye Jingqiu from several flying stones with his body, and then was pushed forward by the powerful force of the Little Sword Ancestor, preventing him from doing such a reckless thing again.

The deafening roar lasted for a quarter of an hour.

When everything returned to calm, the swirling dust still obscured the moonlight, making it difficult to discern what was happening in the distance.

"Cough, cough cough."

Su Yan coughed incessantly, spitting out several mouthfuls of blood:

"No, let's sit for a while first."

Your injury needs immediate treatment.

Ye Jingqiu shook his head, supporting Su Yan to prevent him from sitting down:

"Everyone is on the other side of the mountain, I'll carry you there."

"You can't even stand up straight yourself. I'm less injured than you, so I actually have plenty of energy left."

Su Yan smiled wryly:

"Speaking of which, how did you find my way here? Master Ye, you didn't install a tracking device on my flying sword, did you?"

"..."

Ye Jingqiu silently looked away.

"Are you really faking it?"

"......Um."

Ye Jingqiu subtly shrank her neck, expecting a scolding, but instead heard Su Yan sigh softly and gently pat her head:

"Never mind, thanks to you this time."

Ye Jingqiu slightly raised her chin, and a seemingly illusory smile appeared on her icy face.

"However, this will not be repeated."

Su Yan added:

"You should at least have told me in advance."

"oh."

Ye Jingqiu agreed, but it's unclear whether he actually listened.

She used her body to support Su Yan with some force, and led him around to the other side of the mountain.

The stars and moon were obscured by the dust and smoke, making it difficult to determine exactly how long they had traveled.

Su Yan could only hear the breathing of the little sword ancestor. He hadn't had time to think much in the emergency, but now that he realized what was going on, he found it strange that Ye Jingqiu would trust him so much.

Without asking a single question, he blindfolded and deafened himself and rushed over.

"..."

Su Yan had a somewhat ridiculous guess in his mind. He didn't quite believe it himself, but he had a strong urge to ask.

Even if this question is a bit presumptuous, it might be more difficult to answer.

"Ye Jingqiu, do you like...?"

"Bang!"

Before he could finish speaking, a person rolled out of the dust and smoke ahead.