Hearing the deity call out for him, Qinghe began walking towards the cliffs without a change in his expression.

But before he could take more than a few steps, the twins leapt forward and clutched each of his arms. “Senior Brother, don’t! That person obviously doesn’t bear any goodwill towards you!”

Hearing the barely-hidden anxiousness in those words, Qinghe sighed. “I know, but even if he’s a deity, I’m still confident that I won’t be completely powerless against him. Jin-er, Yin-er, go to where Master and Senior Brother are and help them protect the others. I can take care of myself.”

The twins wordlessly shook their heads, their fingers only holding on to him more tightly.

Qinghe sighed once again, then firming his expression, he commanded, “Fei Jin, Fei Yin, let go of me at once!”

The twins immediately released their hold on him with miserable expressions.

Softening his tone and patting his junior brothers’ bowed heads, he spoke, “I won’t take any unnecessary chances with my life, do you believe me?”

Fei Jin and Fei Yin sullenly nodded.

“Then go and help the others.”

The twins hesitated, but still obeyed their senior brother’s instruction and left, their hearts heavy with worry.

Qinghe let out a breath, then calmly continued forward.

From his position on the ledge, the deity could see a white-clad figure steadily making his way towards him and guessed that he was the one called Feng Qinghe.

Just as his lips began to curl up at the corners, the deity sensed a strong gaze with killing intent directed towards him. Flicking a finger, he deflected a bright white crescent of energy that had been heading towards his location, only for more crescents to shoot in his direction.

“How annoying. Lord Zheng, would you mind engaging them for me?” the deity asked his dragon companion.

With obvious unwillingness, the dragon shifted restlessly.

As if understanding its misgivings, the deity reassured in a soothing voice, “I will be fine. There aren’t any cultivators even at the demigod stage here, much less a deity. I can handle all these people combined quite easily.”

Reluctantly convinced, the dragon uncoiled itself from around its beloved and shot down towards the cultivator who had been sending out attack after attack all this time.

Seeing the giant black dragon gliding down towards her on its massive leathery wings, Liu Xue only grinned sharply. “You bastards, how dare you make my Xiao Xiao get hurt! And now you’re even targeting Xiao He! Come and let me give you a proper beating!”

The dragon shot an annoyed look at the fierce little cultivator, who immediately clutched her spiritual weapon tight and charged forward to attack.

Liu Xue’s weapon was shaped like a large, semi-circular saw, with a thin arc-shaped blade stretched between the tips of a straight handle. One side of this flat blade was serrated with sharp teeth, while the handle of the weapon was a smooth gold, its ends extending into thumb-sized spikes.

As Liu Xue focused her spiritual force on the serrated outer curve of the blade, its edge began to glow a bright white. With a wave of her hand, she sent several luminous arcs shooting towards the dragon, whose dull scales seemed to deflect all attacks.

The scales of a dragon also doubled as its armor and were not that easy to breach. It would take a lot of concentrated power to make even a single scale crack.

And yet, Liu Xue pressed on unrelentingly.

Sighing helplessly at their sect master’s recklessness, Jing Shui and several other senior disciples from the Golden Sun Sect also joined Liu Xue in her offensive against the dragon, causing a chain of explosions to soon sound out with thundering booms.

In the meantime, Lu Feiyu led a few senior disciples from the Drifting Clouds Sect and reached the edge of the new barrier of demonic energy that the deity had cast. Though it would be nigh impossible to break it, it should be feasible to at least make a small hole through its surface.

“Those of the offensive arts, surround and defend us from the ghouls. Those of the musical arts, get your instruments ready,” Lu Feiyu commanded.

The disciples who could use their abilities to attack and defend directly formed a circle to shield the others from the rampant ghouls.

 On the other hand, after taking out their various musical instruments, the disciples who cultivated with music awaited their sect master’s instructions with intent expressions.

With a warm smile and a graceful posture, Lu Feiyu spoke to them, “Please prepare to play the eighth section of the score to the ‘Echo of Stars’ in the destruction phase, and don’t forget to synchronize with each other to attain convergence at the same point on the barrier.”

A chorus of “Yes, Sect Master”s sounded in reply.

Nodding, Lu Feiyu instructed, “Good, then please begin.”

Standing or sitting with poise, the disciples closed their eyes and gently ran their fingers over their instruments, suffusing them from the inside out with their spiritual energy.

And then, as one, melodies slowly drifted out as the disciples began playing their instruments.

The delicate strings of silvery notes floated up hesitantly before slowly entwining with one another. The scattered melody gradually came together and began to resonate in synchronicity, mixing with and empowering one another as they combined to form a powerful tune that progressively gained momentum and rushed forward like an unstoppable wave.

The air grew dense and distorted as the musical notes charged with spiritual power made the space around them tremble. The vibrations of the various melodies danced together like twisting tornadoes and began to converge on a small point on the deity’s barrier.

And so, as a result, a small piece of the barrier, smaller than the palm of a hand, slowly crumbled with a shudder under the onslaught of the disciples’ music, forming a brief gap.

Reaching up to puck a pure white feather from his headdress, Lu Feiyu sent it flying through the small gap with a twitch of his wrist, the feather shooting out a mere fraction of a moment before the barrier completely closed again.

Lu Feiyu heaved a silent sigh in relief. His message would hopefully reach the Sentinels in time so that the Sentinel Grandmaster could be notified of their situation. Since they were being besieged by a deity, only another deity would stand a chance.

By this time, the other disciples had long since begun mounting their own offensives to clear out the pesky ghouls.

Under the instruction of An YaLing, the remaining senior disciples from the Drifting Clouds Sect joined forces to play together in such a way that the power of their melodies amplified each other, pulling the meandering ghouls towards them and causing them to still as if in a trance.

Meanwhile, An YaLing wielded a long and thin white ribbon, with an evenly-spaced row of small silver bells stitched across the entire length of one of its edges.

With an elegant swish, An YaLing whipped the ribbon in an arc, making the small bells chime in a single, clear tone that sent gentle ripples through his surroundings. The noise in the vicinity seemed to have abruptly become muted, the vibrating air held in place by some great force as a heavy, crushing pressure seemed to emanate from the slender stretch of ribbon.

The ghouls that stood entranced by the disciples’ music immediately clutched their heads and groaned. One by one, they collapsed to the ground and lay unmoving as bloody mush began leaking thickly from their ears.

At a fair distance from this scene, Li Yingzi sat perched at the edge of one of the white pillars where the third stage’s battle had taken place.

He had separated from his senior brother’s side to cover more ground a while ago, and now sat with the mouthpiece of his bone pearl flute pressed to his lips, his long fingers dancing elegantly over the finger holes of his vertically held instrument.

The eerie dirge-like melody produced by the flute was weighed with mourning as it slowly wound through the ghouls milling underneath. As with all dead things, the ghouls were also unable to resist the lure of this heartfelt tune played by this strange creature who seemed like a cross between a human and an unearthly being.

But Li Yingzi’s goal was not to capture the ghouls’ attention.

As he kept on playing his melody, the atmosphere on top of the pillar gradually turned strangely still and blurry as the world of the living and dead superimposed over each other. A thick miasma of yin energy spread outwards like a blooming flower, pulling in both ghouls and ghosts alike.

As the sound of his flute continued, indistinct apparitions slowly materialized in the air around him, their translucent forms fluttering despite the lack of wind. They threw back their heads and laughed in joy, their ghostly figures whirling in dance as if to express their excitement.

His eyes brightening at this scene, Li Yingzi brought down the flute from his lips and smiled. “Did you all enjoy today’s performance?”

The wraithlike ghosts nodded their heads with gusto.

His smile widening affectionately, Li Yingzi asked, “Then if I make a request, will you please consider fulfilling it?”

Once again, the ghosts immediately nodded, their expression still filled with simple, child-like joy.

In a soft voice, Li Yingzi spoke, “I would like it if you could take possession of as many of those empty shells running around as you can. Once you succeed in possessing them, I hope you will listen to my instructions and bring them to where I ask so that we can dispose of those shells. They are being controlled by an entity that uses demonic energy, but for those of the other world like you, it wouldn’t pose much of a hindrance, would it?”

The ghosts nodded yet again as their smiles stretched wide on their faces, almost splitting their cheeks into two, the edges of their lips reaching their ears. As their cheeks were pushed up due to their smiles, their hollow eyes that were comparable to deep abyssal pits formed gleeful crescents on their faces.

This seemed like it would such a fun game! And it had been such a long time since any of them had had any fun! The Netherworld was boring, so playing with and helping this kind little ghostly being was definitely something they wanted to do!

And so, with their eerie giggles and laughter fading in and out, the unearthly apparitions swooped down and took possession of a ghoul each. Then, according to Li Yingzi’s directions, the ghosts piloted the ghouls so that they could easily be slaughtered by a group of waiting cultivators.

And then, once they were released from the confines of the dead flesh, the ghosts rose up then plunged down again to take control of more ghouls, repeating this cycle continuously.

The cultivators standing ready to take care of these ghouls felt goosebumps at the sight of these ghosts whooshing here and there, their disturbing laughter causing chills to creep up their spines. But the cultivators also couldn’t help but admit that this really was a very quick and convenient method to reduce the number of ghouls infesting the arena.

And so, they continued to swing their weapons to decimate the helpless ghouls being brought to stand under their blades by the helpful ghosts.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Battle Arena, disciples from the Silver Moon Sect, Golden Sun Sect, and Heavenly Peak Sect cooperated to bait, trap, and destroy large groups of ghouls at once.

The disciples of the Silver Moon Sect drew huge trap formations on the ground while the disciples from Heavenly Peak Sect waited nearby. In the interim, the swiftest disciples from the Golden Sun Sect gathered great numbers of ghouls and herded them towards the formation. Once the ghouls were trapped inside the boundary of the formation, the disciples from the Heavenly Peak Sect would unleash all forms of offensives and decimate the entire gathering of ghouls at once.

Using this strategy, large patches of the arena had already been cleared completely of ghouls, leading to more safe areas with defensive barriers to sprout like mushrooms after a downpour.

Throughout all this, the Elders of the various sects stood guard at the border of the arena at first to make sure that no ghouls spilled outside and made their way to any mortal settlements.

But after the demonic deity set up his barrier to prevent anything inside the Battle Arena from getting out, the Elders discussed amongst themselves and took a page from Qinghe’s book, letting the disciples hone their skills against the ghouls while watching eagle-eyed from both inside the barrier encampments and outside in the battlefield. The second a disciple got bitten or otherwise seriously hurt, an Elder would rush to take them to the medical facility in the nearest encampment for treatment.

In this way, the Elders focused completely on minimizing the casualties of this battle while the disciples slowly gained ground against the ghouls.

Due to these various efforts in retaliating against the flood of ghouls, it was obvious that the tide of this battle was slowly changing, and as long as the deity did not interfere, the cultivators would definitely win.

But even if all the ghouls were to be wiped out, the deity would still have enough power to take on the entire cultivation world on his own.

However, since it was impossible for anyone here to stand a chance against him, the only thing that could be done in this situation was for someone to engage the deity and keep him busy while help arrived in the form of the Sentinels and the Grandmaster.

But seemingly uncaring of everything, the deity continued to indifferently stand on the ledge at the cliff face, waiting silently.

From where he was standing, he gazed intently at the white-clad figure making its way towards him. His eyes roved over the young man’s face to detect any resemblance to that person he held dear, but there wasn’t much similarity.

His gaze flicking down to the young disciple’s chest, the deity’s eyes narrowed in thought. If that appearance changing talisman were to be removed, would the young man’s features match that person’s then?

Meanwhile, Qinghe calmly pressed forward, eliminating as many ghouls as he could on his way towards the deity. By now, he had realized that the deity also seemed to have noticed him, waiting patiently for Qinghe to reach him.

Suddenly thinking of something, Qinghe took the time to retrieve one of his little messenger fishes and asked it to deliver a message to Jing Shui. After sending the fish off, Qinghe continued on his way, his swords at and chopping down at as many ghouls as he could.

Another twenty minutes later, Qinghe finally reached the base of the cliff, under the ledge where the deity was standing.

As he tilted his head up, he could see the deity also looking down, their gazes colliding midair. The deity’s expression at seeing him, however, seemed somewhat complicated.

Walking to the edge, the deity stepped off the ledge and leapt down, swirls of darkness flaring behind him like a cape of smoke before he landed lightly in front of Qinghe, only a few meters separating them. The smoky tendrils of black then curled around him again, pressed tight against his robes.

With curious eyes, Qinghe studied the other man carefully.

The demonic deity had facial features that could be considered only a bit above average, but still exuded a strange magnetic pull due to its exotic charm. His eyes were a dark grey framed with thick lashes, the edges of his eyelids lined with a deep black. His dark red lips were slightly wide, as if they were used to smiling often, but their corners were currently tilted down.

His long hair was pulled back loosely and tied with a cord of leather, looking neat despite the lack of care put into it. Adorning each of his ears was a single, square-cut gem, its color a clear, gleaming amber that almost appeared to glow. However, the gem on the left ear was cracked straight through, yet the deity seemed unmindful of its damage as he continued to wear it.

The most remarkable things, nevertheless, were his clothes. Though they had looked to be pitch black from a distance, Qinghe couldn’t help but notice that when the deity had jumped down, they had seemed to be the same dark grey as his irises. Yet, after he landed, the tendrils of darkness had wrapped back around him, turning his robes into the color of the darkest of nights. Even now, faint smoky vapors seemed to extend from the back and shoulders of his outer robe, trailing behind him spookily.

Slowly blinking his long-lashed eyes, the deity tilted his head and spoke, “Are you the one named Feng Qinghe?”

His voice was quiet and mellow, giving off a pleasant sense of warmth and comfort. There was no overt hostility or guardedness in his expression or tone.

Though Qinghe maintained his vigilant against this person, he still answered politely, “Yes, that is my name, although I cannot guarantee that I am the only one named as such.”

The deity calmly nodded. “Yes, that is true. Then let me ask you another question to confirm your identity. What are your parents’ names?”

Qinghe frowned warily. “I do not feel comfortable with divulging that information to someone who might mean them harm, so I will have to hold back on answering that question.”

A look of displeasure and fierceness claimed the deity’s face as his eyebrows twitched, yet he did not do anything except to say, “I…see. That is understandable.”

Wanting to divert his attention and keep him conversing peacefully for as long as possible, Qinghe quickly spoke, “May I also ask you something? You stated a while ago that you had been asked by a mutual acquaintance to take care of me. I would like to know who you meant and what their request was.”

With a strange smile, the demonic deity replied, “I do not know who that man was. He died too soon for me to ask him much, you see. But he did seem to hold a lot of grudge against you, so my guess would be that…he wanted revenge?”

“…Can you please be more specific about this person’s identity?” Qinghe nudged.

The deity looked thoughtful. “Hmm… He did seem to wear fancy clothes and appeared to have escaped from pursuers of some sort. He appeared quite terrified of the valley where I was staying before and did not look to be very brave. Does any of this help?”

Qinghe felt that this situation was really too surreal. Here he was having a polite chat with a mysterious demonic deity while behind him, chaos abounded as cultivators fought against the horde of ghouls and a large black dragon. All he and the deity needed were a couple of chairs to sit on and a table with a tea set in between them to complete the ridiculousness of this scene.

Pushing those thoughts away, Qinghe nodded to the deity. “Yes, I think I do know who you mean.”

From the small amount of information the deity had just provided, Qinghe was able to guess that the person he meant was Jing Rui, who was said to have escaped into the Valley of the Terrified Dead while being chased by the Sentinels.

But another thing the deity’s words revealed was that he, possibly along with his dragon companion as well, had been hiding in the valley before.

The deity’s contemplative voice suddenly intruded into Qinghe’s thoughts. “I keep feeling that I recognize the scent of your soul, but sealed as I was in that valley for so long, I couldn’t possibly have met you recently. Did we meet before then? But you don’t seem all that old either. Feng Qinghe, how long ago were you born into this world?”

Qinghe blinked, then honestly replied, “I’m thirty-six, but I entered this world when I was five. Why do you ask?”

“Then, thirty years ago…” Muttering to himself, the deity squinted his eyes as if remembering something, then barked out a laugh. “So it was you! I remember you! Or rather, I remember the scent of your soul, so pure and cold, like a star made of clear, crystalline ice. It was your fall from Heaven all those years ago that disrupted my seal and awakened me from my slumber, so I suppose I have you to thank for my freedom.”

With his eyes widened in shock, Qinghe looked at the deity.

He suddenly recalled his conversation with Elder Yue a while ago in the Silver Moon Sect.

‘Your fall thirty years ago set in motion the awakening of something that Heaven wills to sleep. But you aren’t the one who set it free, so you do not bear the responsibility.’

‘I…see. Then may I ask what this awakening will bring to the world?’

‘It brings battle and the battle heads your way. The outcome is yet uncertain. But one thing I can tell is that your life and death rests solely on Heaven’s acceptance of your soul. Ah, and such a beautiful soul you have, such a pure one. I suppose it is only to be expected of a heavenly soul.’

‘Heavenly soul?’

‘Yes. You have a very good chance of being chosen by the Throne, but it is still uncertain. Heaven is after all quite an unpredictable existence.’

 ‘I’m afraid I don’t understand.’

 ‘You don’t have to understand it for now. What should happen will happen. If you do what you must, this world and everything living in it can be saved. If not… this world will simply cease to exist, consumed by him for power.’

‘Consumed by whom?’

‘The black one’s companion, of course. Ah, those two poor, lonely beings, so much do they hunger. All he wants is to meet his beloved person again and ask ‘Why?’.’

Remembering what Elder Yue had foretold, Qinghe felt complex emotions swirling inside of him.

If the ‘black one’ meant the dragon, then did it mean that it was this deity who actually wanted to consume this world? And who exactly was that ‘beloved person’ of his that Elder Yue had spoken of?

Opening his mouth, Qinghe forced himself to ask, “You… Who are you? What is your purpose in doing all this?”

The deity looked at him strangely, but with a smile full of meaning, he still chose to helpfully answer, “My name is Xie Xingye, and my objective is to devour this world and every being in it so that I can gain enough energy to climb through to the heavens again and meet the person I hold very dear. But since there are so many cultivators in this world who might oppose me and make things difficult, I thought I’d create a few ghouls and weaken them.

“However, I have to admit, I did not expect this level of cohesiveness from you all. If this were my world, all the cultivators—whether they tread the righteous or demonic path—would have been fighting amongst themselves and stabbing each other in the back to take advantage of the chaotic situation. And yet you all have been working together splendidly and are well on your way of clearing out my ghouls. It is truly commendable.

“But make no mistake, this is not enough to stop me. I will definitely consume this world and use it to break down the barriers of Heaven to enter it again.”

Hearing this, Qinghe’s expression hardened.

No matter what this deity wanted with this world, as long as they had the Grandmaster standing up for them, it would not be so easy for him to do as he wanted. But Qinghe wasn’t foolish enough to reveal their trump card this quickly and without reason.

Taking a breath, he finally spoke, “Very well then, but do not expect us to go down that easily. If you try to swallow us, we will make sure to give you as terrible a stomachache as we can.”

The deity named Xie Xingye merely chuckled. “I do not expect you to go down without any resistance. But tell me, why does it feel like all this while we’ve been talking, you’ve been trying to stall for time?”

Qinghe sighed. “I’m just trying to prepare everything in advance.”

“Prepare for what?” Xie Xingye asked curiously.

But rather than answering him, Qinghe asked another question of his own. “If I don’t keep stalling you, what would you do?”

With a humorless smile, Xie Xingye replied honestly, “Since the ghouls aren’t working, I would naturally have to step in personally to eradicate all you pesky righteous path cultivators.”

Qinghe nodded wryly. “I thought so, that is why I have chosen to delay you as much as possible.”

Just as he said this, tall geysers of water erupted in a wide circle around them like frothy pillars, pulled out from deep underground by a powerful water ability user. The geysers bent inwards and converged at the center, the water evenly distributing to form a giant water dome with Qinghe and Xie Xingye inside it.

Jing Shui had finally arrived, and as per Qinghe’s instruction in the message, he immediately initiated the most powerful water-based containment spell in his repertoire—the Water Prison.

With a smile, Qinghe summoned his spiritual artifact, the double-bladed sword, and turned to face the deity.

“Now that the preparations appear to be complete, may I ask you to accompany me for a while?”

Saying so, Qinghe immediately charged forward, his blades at the ready.

At this time, the feather with the message that Lu Feiyu had sent hadn’t even managed to travel half the distance towards Feng Huixin.