Outside the Ghost Realm, in the vast domain of the Sighing Mountains.
This vast domain is characterized by endless gray mountain ranges, with steep peaks. Gray air currents frequently sweep through the mountains, grinding anything they touch into dust and creating terrifying howls, like the sighs of giants.
This is how the "Sighing Mountains" got its name.
This domain borders the Falling Star Domain and is relatively young, only a few hundred years old. Compared to Falling Star, the Sighing Mountains have a harsher environment, and fewer and weaker human forces have migrated here.
To this day, the Sighing Mountains still lack a super oasis. However, the local overlord, "The End of All Things," is a Level 6 Great Oasis guarded by a Seven-Awareness Myth, possessing the qualification to advance and contend for super oasis status.
The Myth of "The End of All Things," Banluo, is also the absolute supreme ruler of this domain.
He is a middle-aged man with a rough, unshaven beard, adorned with many treasures radiating a special halo, making him appear divine and holy.
Banluo is a person of considerable pride.
He rose from humble beginnings, without much backing or connections, yet he led the previously ordinary "The End of All Things" to a quasi-super oasis level through his own capabilities. He indeed has reason to be proud.
However, looking at the Myth before him, who is as cold as snow and like a fairy from the moon, he dares not be proud; he can only feel profound admiration.
Yi Yue Luxi!
Hailing from the Great Oasis Black Stone Alliance, she is already a Seven-Awareness Myth at the age of thirty, and her combat power is far superior to his.
Based on this alone, Banluo the Myth had to show her respect.
The Myth Realm has always valued strength over seniority; the strong are always first.
Moreover, the Black Stone Alliance is a force with two Myths, making it more powerful than some super oases.
The Black Stone Alliance is also a staunch ally of the Blazing Fire Merchant Association, and this Lord Yi Yue Luxi holds a significant position within the merchant guild.
"Lord Banluo, there's no need to be so formal. The Blazing Fire Merchant Association's principle is win-win cooperation."
Yi Yue Luxi said.
The one who came here was her most skilled combat avatar, possessing a cool and aloof personality.
She was here, naturally, because of her organization's mission.
She utilized the channels of the local overlord, "The End of All Things," to gather important information and ventured into perilous areas, enduring numerous hardships to obtain a fragment of a Law treasure.
Negotiating cooperation with "The End of All Things" was also within her mission scope, making this trip a double success.
Yi Yue Luxi was undertaking more than just two missions simultaneously. Her main body and avatar possessed independent thought processes. Another "her" was engaging in her usual work.
—Locating and entering the shallow Ghost Realm to guide new worlds that had just connected with the Ghost Realm and were being mysteriously influenced.
She was exceptionally suited for this role.
However, unlike before, she was no longer merely engaging in transactions with new outer worlds.
She bore the title of "Savior."
Or, to be precise, she was the Savior's envoy.
Her mentor had said that to combat the unspeakable evil gods, all available strength must be gathered.
Population and manpower were invaluable resources.
Having undergone cultural training within the organization, Yi Yue Luxi attached great importance to these aspects.
And to date, they had helped five ordinary outer worlds establish resistance fronts and repelled multiple descending servants of the evil gods.
As a key member of the rescue team, Yi Yue Luxi had personally confronted servants of the evil gods multiple times.
They were not indigenous humans of these worlds, and fighting in outer worlds placed them at a greater disadvantage than the evil god faction.
Servants of the evil gods could manifest avatars through divinity and descend into outer worlds, but she could not. Her divine descent avatars could not enter, and most of the time, she could only form a divine sense avatar with only Six-Awareness power and limited energy through divine sense and anchors.
The disadvantage was significant.
However, with her "fragile" divine sense avatar, Yi Yue Luxi still managed to decimate those descending servants of the evil gods.
With the assistance of Six-Awareness geniuses within the organization, their defenses were as solid as gold.
It was just that,
they were only facing a few servants of the evil gods.
A negligible force within the entire evil god faction.
Yi Yue Luxi deeply understood the terror of the evil god faction, not just from the organization's cultural lectures but also from her own memories.
Whenever the evil god faction was mentioned, her soul trembled.
This was fear.
Since advancing to the Myth Realm, Yi Yue Luxi had been experiencing fragmented memories from time to time.
She had begun to speculate about her origins, or rather, her "past life."
...
"In my past life, I must have fallen at the hands of the evil god faction, but I don't know if it was an unspeakable evil god that killed me, or just a servant of an evil god."
At the base, in the rest area.
Yi Yue Luxi's main body reclined gracefully with her legs together, as dignified as a lady. She possessed an ethereal and otherworldly aura, like a fairy walking out from under the moon.
This was divine presence.
Not the presence of a Myth, but rather, a kind of awakening characteristic.
It subtly carried a hint of Law's essence.
Mentor Fang had already grasped the Law of Wood Growth, allowing him to perceive it faintly. However, this did not mean Yi Yue Luxi could easily grasp a Law. If all went as planned, this girl might take decades or centuries to grasp one.
But if there were accidents, for example, observing the Law stele of the 'Moon,' she might grasp it within days.
In response to her mentor's question, Yi Yue Luxi pondered and said,
"I might indeed be a reincarnation of an ancient god. However, I don't believe I am my past self; I am human now, and I will remain human in the future."
"And my past life's memories... are very, very fragmented, but I remember that 'my' divine name was Yin Yue, and people called 'me' the Silver Moon Goddess. Some people even held sacrifices for me."
"In that era, the Ghost Realm was completely different from now. There was no gray fog, no ghostly evils, and the land was full of vitality..."
"Later, the ghostly evils... how did the evil gods appear? Did they come from beyond the heavens?"
Fang You asked.
"Beyond the heavens" referred to realms outside the Ghost Realm and other outer worlds.
He was unsure if such realms existed, but the clues pointed in that direction.
He looked at Yi Yue Luxi, the "person concerned."
Yi Yue Luxi shook her head, "I don't have memories of that period."
He asked again, "Then what was the reason for the fall of the Kandra Empire?"
She also shook her head, "I don't have these memories either o(╥﹏╥)o."
Oh, right.
Fang You recalled that in the copycat space-time, he had heard rumors of the 'Silver Moon Goddess's' demise.
Ancient gods had all perished before the empire's fall, so naturally, she wouldn't have any related memories.
Yi Yue Luxi said, "In the ranks of ancient gods, my past self was not particularly strong, but I was still a high-level existence of the Ninth Realm."
She wasn't boasting.
True primordial ancient gods were born as Ninth Realm quasi-gods.
Only some ancient god offspring would be merely Myths or demigods.
"Ancient gods are naturally very powerful and wield authority, but it seems extremely difficult for ancient gods to improve. In contrast, despite being born weak, we humans possess infinite possibilities."
"I am confident I can surpass my past peak~"
"However, the Silver Moon Goddess was quite ordinary among ancient gods, but she had a very powerful older sister. She seemed to be a top-tier ancient god, the 'Moon God' or 'Empty Moon Goddess,' who wielded the authority of moonlight and darkness."
And this Moon God sister had likely been active in the mysterious era long ago.
Yi Yue Luxi thought about the legendary Ghost Artifact, the Tower of Infinity, which she had "luckily" obtained during her exploration. After reaching the Myth Realm, she had long suspected it.
However, even her Moon God sister couldn't have predicted her current strength.
Looking at her own very impressive status panel, Yi Yue Luxi thought with glee.
...
At the same time, in the Phoenix Fire Academy of the Falling Maple Domain, some job transitions were taking place.
"Staying in this region doesn't mean you can't contribute to the continuation of humanity. Humanity's future requires everyone's collective effort."
In front of the academy square, Liu Feng was propagating the Phoenix Fire ideology.
The academy needed some of these instructors and senior students to remain in the Cloud Radiance Domain to act as a bridge between the organization and the seven great nations.
The selection of stationed instructors had long been finalized within the organization.
The main focus was on the students, particularly core students who had already advanced to the Myth Realm.
Whether to leave with the academy's secret realm or remain in the Cloud Radiance Domain was a personal choice, with no requirements from the academy.
The students appeared conflicted.
Because once the academy left for distant lands, it was uncertain when they would be able to return to the Cloud Radiance area.
However, they were even more reluctant to part with the academy's various training secret grounds.
"Vice Principal, must the academy leave?"
"The purpose of our Phoenix Fire Academy is to spread cultivation methods, recruit and nurture geniuses, to cope with the impending disaster. Therefore, the Cloud Radiance Domain is not the destination, nor will the next one be. Perhaps only when the catastrophe ends will the academy truly find a place to settle."
The impending departure of the Phoenix Fire Academy for its next prosperous destination caused quite a stir in the Cloud Radiance Domain.
Especially within the seven great nations.
Ordinary awakened individuals were reluctant; they wished they could challenge the enrollment assessment another hundred times.
The Myths of the seven great nations were surprised.
Although the Phoenix Fire Academy had clearly stated it wouldn't stay long, its departure after less than a year seemed too hasty.
Initially, they had been less welcoming of the Phoenix Fire Academy, but out of respect for its power, they had avoided outright conflict.
However, after experiencing the disaster of the evil gods, and now seeing the Phoenix Fire Academy preparing to leave, they felt a sense of reluctance.
The two vice principals of the Phoenix Fire Academy were both incredibly powerful demigods! The academy's principal was likely also a demigod, possessing more power than any of the seven great nations, making them a strong ally!
However, if the Phoenix Fire Academy wished to leave, they would not try to retain them.
Retention would be futile anyway.
In the past year, the Cloud Radiance Domain had absorbed and nurtured nearly all the talent it could.
The departure and relocation of the academy had been planned long ago.
The next destination would be the domain of the overlords of the 'Western Ghost Realm' or 'Northern Ghost Realm.'
However, given the current scarcity of Phoenix Fire resources, the Academy Secret Realm ship would not head directly to these locations. Instead, it would travel and stop intermittently in vast domains with few human oases.
These domains, due to harsh environments or other special reasons, were sparsely populated, but in return, they possessed more unexploited resources.
Unlike the Cloud Radiance Domain, where aside from perilous lands and death traps, wild treasures were rarely unearthed.
Fang Yuan, the院长, glanced at the academy's affairs and paid them no mind.
He was not at the academy at the moment but was controlling his dimensional palace, navigating through a pitch-black spatial rift buffeted by annihilation turbulence.
He was preparing to travel to an unknown place where the god-killing weapon, Shallow Red, could be repaired.
"Geographically, the unknown land is still within the Southern Ghost Realm, but it is quite close to the Central Ghost Realm. This means it will be more dangerous, with a higher chance of encountering powerful ghostly evils or servants of evil gods."
Fang You was unconcerned.
He had encountered countless servants of evil gods already, and traveling alone now meant no burdens—if he couldn't win, he could strategically retreat.
The repair of Shallow Red was his primary concern.
As a god-killing weapon, Shallow Red's combat limit was definitely far beyond the Ninth Realm. However, he had no confidence in whether he could repair Shallow Red to 100%.
He was also unsure if this clue could help Shallow Red break through the 79.9% barrier.
The dimensional palace shuttled through the spatial gaps, continuously navigating.
The distance of a domain could be traversed in a short time.
Even so, Fang You traveled for three days and three nights before nearing the location of the clue.
At this moment,
he suddenly felt a pang of dread and immediately controlled the dimensional palace to stop its navigation and enter a hidden state.
Within the spatial rift, the wind of annihilation blew, spatial cracks closed and reopened, and the surroundings were filled with bizarre sights. Almost no living beings could traverse these gaps.
Myths and demigods could not.
Either they had to be special life forms favored by heaven and earth, like ethereal spirits, or they had to be beings of immense power, standing at a higher level.
Whatever could cause him such unprovoked dread must be the latter.
After a moment of thought, Fang You burned a trace of world power to amplify his divine sense.
Immediately, he entered a mystical, higher-dimensional state.
Under the cover of the dimensional palace, he quickly surveyed his surroundings.
"Found it!"
The source of the crisis was not hidden at all.
It was three terrifying figures striding across a black, colossal river.
They were traversing the gaps at extreme spatial speeds. If Fang You hadn't been peeking from a higher-dimensional perspective, he would have lost sight of them long ago.
"High-level existences from the Black River faction, and three of them at that."
"Wait, one of them..."
The appearance of the terrifying figures was not clear, and he dared not extend his divine sense too far.
However, Fang You sensed a familiar feeling from one of the figures.
He knew a high-level existence, and from the Black River faction? It could only be Lord Yu Jin!
"This guy not only didn't perish but also quickly broke free from his封禁 and brought back helpers? That's too unfair!"
Mentor Fang found it quite troublesome.
He had already grasped the Law of Wood and could unleash significantly more power in his high-level state than before. If it were still a one-on-one fight, he was confident he could subdue Lord Yu Jin, even to the point of causing his demise.
But one against three?
He would... perish in the first encounter.
Although he could temporarily suppress a Ninth Realm existence, his strength lay solely in offense; in other aspects, he was no match for high-level existences.
Mentor Fang was self-aware.
"Ignore these three existences? That won't do. Lord Yu Jin's destination is likely the Cloud Radiance Domain."
"Since that's the case, I can only..."
He also wanted to research how to completely kill a high-level existence so that he could act more decisively and precisely in future encounters.
Therefore, it's decided, it's you, Chi Tian Zhu.
...
At the same time, in a certain location within the spatial rift.
Two blurred figures, enveloped in faint halos, exclaimed in unison,
"It's... a servant of the evil gods!"
"What are they doing?"
"This direction... oh no, could they be heading towards the seven great nations of Cloud Radiance?"
The two sages' expressions changed drastically.