Following Qing Xuzi's dissolution into ash, a deathly silence clung to the bottom of the canyon.
Jiang Li discarded the tattered crossbow bolt in her hand and rubbed her numbed wrists. Beside her stood Cang Yaochen, his spine locked dead straight; the War God's vertebrae had completely integrated into his flesh, no longer showing any signs of rejection. The solid blackness in his eyes receded as his double pupils recovered their clarity, yet the demonic aura surrounding him was far more condensed than ever before.
Without the Mirror of Profound Inquiry, the faint, ephemeral tether of karma between them had vanished entirely.
"How much of what Qing Xuzi said before he died do you believe?" Jiang Li asked, her boot lightly nudging the pile of ash on the ground.
"None of it." Cang Yaochen sheathed his demonic blade back onto his frame and pulled a final, intact longsword from the scorched earth, tossing it to Jiang Li. "Whether this heaven is a cage or not, since they orchestrated our ambush, it's going to have to change masters."
Jiang Li caught the longsword and tested its weight. Though mortal iron lacked spiritual sentience, it possessed an unyielding sharpness. She spun the blade into a flourish and pointed it toward the highest reaches of the canyon.
With the thunderclouds scattered, a gargantuan rift had torn open across the firmament. Beyond it lay no mortal sky of blue and white, but rows of pristine steps carved from white jade, stretching upward through the void until they vanished into a blinding, golden divine light.
This was the Heaven-Ascending Ladder—the sole passage from the mortal realm to the Sacred Ground.
"Let's move. The remaining Divine Thrones of the Sacred Ground surely know by now that Qing Xuzi is dead." With a flicker of her red robes, Jiang Li was the first to vault toward the rift.
Together, they ascended the Heaven-Ascending Ladder.
The higher they climbed, the more the natural pressure of the mortal realm waned, replaced by a cold, unyielding divine power. Every hundred yards along the steps stood a stone statue of a golden-armored guardian. As the two drew near, the stony husks of the statues began to flake away, exposing the dark-gold divine bodies within.
"Sacred Ground Sequence. Trespassers shall PERISH."
A dozen golden-armored guardians snapped their eyes open in unison. The greatspears in their grips churned up waves of divine thunder, completely sealing off the white jade steps.
Cang Yaochen didn't even break his stride. Stamping his right boot violently against a step, he transformed into a dark-gold cannonball, plowing directly into the cluster of guardians. He did not draw his demonic blade, choosing instead to engage in brutal hand-to-hand combat using his reforged body.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The dull, heavy impacts of flesh against metal echoed through the void. A ten-foot-tall guardian had its breastplate caved in by a single punch from Cang Yaochen, its internal divine core detonating on the spot. Catching two greatspears mid-air, Cang Yaochen hurled them back, pinning two more guardians firmly against the white jade walls.
Jiang Li skimmed past his flank, her longsword trailing behind her. Having absorbed the energy of the Divine Marrow, the flaring light from the cinnabar mark on her brow was no longer malice, but a dark-crimson Nirvana fire. Her blade sliced across a guardian's throat—there was no blood, only a violent spray of cascading golden dust.
Within mere moments, the dozen guardians were reduced to a field of shattered debris.
The two reached the summit of the ladder, where a hundred-foot-tall gate of bleached bones blocked their path. This gate was not made of common bone; it was constructed from the stacked skulls of ancient gods who had fallen in battle ten thousand years ago, with golden divine light relentlessly bleeding from the seams.
This was the portal to the Sacred Ground—The Divine Gate of Bleached Bones.
"I sense the presence of three Divine Thrones behind this gate," Cang Yaochen halted, his double pupils fixed on the massive doors as his hand came to rest on the hilt of his blade.
"I don't care how many there are. We smash it open regardless."
Jiang Li stepped forward, slamming both palms against the freezing bone doors. The Evil God origin within her and the Nirvana power Cang Yaochen had transferred to her erupted simultaneously, sending torrents of dark-crimson fire roaring into the gate from her hands.
RUMBLE—!
Dust-laden for three millennia, the Divine Gate of Bleached Bones slowly began to part under their combined might.
A blinding, golden light rushed out to meet them, accompanied by three terrifying waves of divine pressure that caused the surrounding void to collapse in rhythmic ripples. Three Divine Thrones, draped in radiant ceremonial robes, sat high upon celestial arrays, looking down coldly at the two rebels crossing their threshold.
"Cang Yaochen, Jiang Li... you actually dared ascend," the central Throne spoke, his voice reverberating through the Nine Heavens.
Cang Yaochen drew his demonic blade, pointing the edge directly forward.
"We're here to collect."