Meanwhile, as the battle for the Spirit Stone mine was raging, another war was unfolding on the opposite side of the Jade Pure Sect’s territory.

Yet, unlike the conflict at the mine, the outcome of this confrontation did not favor the righteous forces.

Only minutes after the clash began, the defenses of the righteous coalition crumbled entirely.

Demonic cultivators breached the border and entered the righteous territory, wreaking havoc and relentlessly pursuing the retreating Jade Pure Sect disciples.

To buy the fleeing disciples enough time to escape, the Elders and the Peak Masters were forced to hold the line.

Tang Yuechen, being the strongest cultivator remaining on the battlefield, bore the brunt of the enemy’s assault.

"Bleurgh!" she spat out a mouthful of blood, her expression grim. "It’s all my fault for listening to that witch’s orders and leaving the sect for no reason!"

"Why did I have to involve myself in this mess in the first place? Damn it!"

Cursing under her breath, she swung her giant hammer, crushing the nearest enemy to death.

With her Middle Stage Nascent Soul cultivation base, she single-handedly tore a wide path through the enemy ranks.

Unfortunately, her situation remained dire. She was severely outnumbered.

The death of their companions didn’t deter the demonic cultivators; instead, it only made them more frenzied and determined to take her down.

A barrage of spells, demonic weapons, and even cursed bones rained down on her from all directions.

Faced with wave after wave of attacks, Tang Yuechen was constantly forced to defend.

Desperate, she withdrew several Spirit Weapons from her storage and, copying Chen Xuan’s reckless method, detonated them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The resulting explosions instantly vaporized the closest attackers. Yet, the aftermath severely injured her as well.

Minutes later, Tang Yuechen felt her vision grow increasingly blurry.

Wounds accumulated rapidly across her body, while her Nascent Soul grew dangerously fragile, as if it might shatter at the slightest touch.

Sensing her strength rapidly fading, Tang Yuechen cast a final glance over her shoulder.

Seeing that most of the disciples had successfully evacuated, a wave of relief washed over her. Her duty was fulfilled.

"I did everything I could. The rest is up to you all...", she whispered weakly.

As her consciousness slipped away and her body plummeted towards the earth, the image of a certain man involuntarily flashed across her mind.

"Senior Brother Chen, it seems... we were never destined," she whispered bitterly before blacking out entirely.

Seeing her fall, the enemies erupted in cheers. The demonic commander raised his hand, intending to capture this woman alive.

But right then, a sharp tearing sound echoed through the air.

A pitch-black rift ripped open the space directly in front of him. Like a ravenous beast, it tore apart and swallowed his arm.

The commander froze in shock, though he quickly recovered.

"No! A Secret Realm has appeared! Step back!" he screamed, retreating frantically.

Unfortunately, his reaction came half a step too late.

The expanding void caught up with him, tearing his body to pieces before expanding further to devour the surrounding demonic cultivators.

Within moments, only Tang Yuechen was alive on the entire battlefield.

The spatial rift gently wrapped around her unconscious form and pulled her into the void.

The entrance of the Secret Realm snapped shut the next instant.

No one knew what had taken place here, nor that the seemingly lifeless body of a young man lying nearby had also been swept away by the spatial rift.

--

Though Chen Xuan pushed his Nascent Soul to its absolute limit without regard for the strain, it still took him half a day to reach the coordinates where Tang Yuechen’s connection had severed.

Looking down at the devastated landscape, where mangled corpses and severed limbs littered the ground, his expression turned dark.

He could clearly detect Tang Yuechen’s residual aura—evidence that she had been here.

At the same time, he caught traces of a power that faintly surpassed the Nascent Soul realm.

’Did the demonic faction violate the unspoken agreement and deploy an ancestor? Did Tang Yuechen fall into their hands?’

The more he speculated, the uglier Chen Xuan’s expression became.

He was about to descend to search for clues when his divine sense picked up an approaching aura.

It was a Core Formation cultivator. Shrouded in a thick aura of bloodshed, it was clear he was a demonic practitioner.

Chen Xuan’s eyes narrowed. Mobilizing his Nascent Soul, he created a massive hand of Spiritual Energy and swiped downward, plucking the cultivator out of the sky.

The man was utterly unable to resist.

His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as the crushing pressure squeezed him tight, dragging him directly before Chen Xuan.

Terror filled his face, which only grew more prominent when he sensed the unfathomable, righteous pressure radiating from the man in front of him.

"Wait! Don’t kill me! I’ll tell you everything! Don’t—"

Before he could finish, the illusory hand clenched tightly, squeezing him to death.

Under normal circumstances, Chen Xuan would have preferred to slowly interrogate the other party.

However, with Tang Yuechen’s fate completely unknown, he knew he could not afford to waste a single second.

He had a far more efficient—albeit brutal—method of extracting information.

The moment the demonic cultivator died, Chen Xuan’s blue eyes shifted to a deep red.

Demonic energy surged from his body as he activated a spell he had only just recently learned from the Myriad Demons Art.

Soul Search—a taboo spell that inflicted agonizing pain on the enemy once cast. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Very few righteous cultivators would be willing to master it, as it directly defied the Way of Heaven.

But Chen Xuan did not care. Gripping the ethereal soul of his deceased opponent, he forced his way into his memories, ignoring the soul’s shrill shrieks.

His brows were furrowed tightly at first, but as he dove deeper into the memories, his tense posture gradually relaxed.

Finally, he exhaled a long breath of relief.

’It seems the worst-case scenario didn’t happen. It was not a Soul Formation expert intervening. Even the demonic faction does not know what happened here.’

’In fact, this person was sent to investigate why their forces disappeared.’

This eliminated his biggest worry. Chen Xuan believed that Tang Yuechen would not easily perish unless she was surrounded by an army or faced an expert of that level.

With his mind at ease, he touched down on the blood-stained earth. Spreading his divine sense, he meticulously scanned the battlefield for any anomalies.

He cast a series of righteous and demonic spells, intending to use Tang Yuechen’s residual aura to track her down.