A few days later.
The continuous mountain range was already beneath her feet.
Spirit Mountain.
Returning here again, the mountains were lonely, having lost some of the demonic aura of the past.
Jiang Yuechu stood still amidst the clouds and began to investigate carefully.
From the mountain peaks to the valley floor, from the dense forests to the deep ravines.
Every blade of grass, every tree, every stone, and every stream was taken in at a glance.
Aside from a few trembling minor demons hiding their heads and tails, there wasn't even half a trace of a Demon Emperor's aura.
It seemed that the battle back then had truly terrified these fellows.
"They really are cowardly enough..."
She had originally thought about giving the Demon Emperors who dared to return a surprise...
Shaking her head helplessly, Jiang Yuechu withdrew her gaze and looked beneath her feet.
With a flicker of her figure, she landed on a certain peak of Spirit Mountain.
She casually exterminated a few demons entrenched there before beginning to calculate.
That old crone only said the Lightless Cave was beneath Spirit Mountain, but didn't specify the exact location.
Where was she supposed to find it?
Was she supposed to just burrow straight into the ground?
While thinking so resentfully, Jiang Yuechu suddenly noticed a pit that had appeared in the distance at some unknown time.
The pit wasn't particularly large, about the width of a few people.
Logically speaking, in a place like Spirit Mountain, pits of all sizes were perfectly normal, so Jiang Yuechu hadn't noticed it at first.
However...
A faint, almost imperceptible scorching heat drifted toward her face along with the mountain wind.
Jiang Yuechu's footsteps paused.
This aura... the Pure Yang True Fire that burned the heavens and boiled the seas above Wangchuan Valley had exactly this scent.
People from Yujing Tower had been here?
She slightly restrained her presence and silently approached the pit.
As she drew near, that crimson yang aura became increasingly dense, even carrying a hint of a burnt smell.
The soil at the edge of the pit was dark red, as if it had been repeatedly scorched by intense fire.
She lowered her eyes to look inside.
The inside of the hole was pitch black and bottomless.
Only that Pure Yang aura seeped out from the darkness in thin wisps.
Jiang Yuechu remained silent.
A moment later.
She composed herself and her body streaked toward the bottom of the pit.
Inside the pit, it was foul and hot.
The four walls were smooth as glass, appearing to have been melted by high temperatures and then forcibly chiseled open by some Sharp Weapon.
Jiang Yuechu's figure descended silently until her feet touched solid ground without making the slightest sound.
Beneath her feet was a vast underground cavern, with the ceiling hanging high and stalactites dangling.
However, this place had long since lost the tranquility a cave should have.
The ground was cracked, with bone-deep ravines crisscrossing from beneath her feet all the way into the depths of the cave.
The four walls were also covered in dense holes and claw marks.
A sharp intent that had yet to dissipate permeated the air, stinging the skin.
Even though she had now entered the Chess Master Realm, Jiang Yuechu could still feel the brutality of that slaughter from these residual traces of Qi.
The person who took action was definitely not below the Late Stage of Ascending the Tower Realm.
She focused her mind and walked slowly toward the direction where the destruction was most severe.
After walking about a hundred zhang.
Her footsteps stopped.
At the end of the cave, a collapsed mountain of flesh and blood lay quietly among the rubble.
The snow-white fur was stained dark red and had long since coagulated.
The head was nowhere to be seen, and the massive body was covered in hideous wounds.
The most fatal was a massive cavity in the chest cavity.
It looked as if something had been forcibly gouged out by someone.
Jiang Yuechu's brow slowly furrowed.
She stood indifferently on the spot, her gaze sweeping over the mangled corpse.
star palace atlas.
What does this mean?
Someone beat me to it?!!!
...
The heart of the Eastern Region.
Yujing Heaven.
Inside the Purple-Gold Bronze Hall, it was as gloomy as usual.
True Lord Xuan Yang still sat cross-legged in mid-air.
His bright red dharma robe fluttered gently in the windless air; his face was gaunt and his eyes were tightly shut, making him look like a secluded old monk in dry meditation.
Suddenly.
On the face that had been silent for an unknown number of millennia, the corner of his mouth suddenly twitched.
A sense of joy truly surfaced from behind his skin.
But alongside the joy was an even greater sense of astonishment.
How could it be so fast?
True Lord Xuan Yang frowned slightly and silently calculated in his mind.
He had handed the Great Derivation Pure Yang Supreme Chess Condensation Record to her in Wangchuan Valley.
Until today.
It had barely been a dozen days.
A dozen days.
No matter how much of a Prodigy she was.
The path of Condensing the Chess Piece had nothing to do with brute force, nothing to do with talent, and... only a slight connection to one's foundation.
It was a long process that required gaining a thorough understanding of the Chess Condensation Method, completely refining the object of dao integration, and then pushing one's own Qi Sea to the limit before the central palace could be constructed.
If anything went wrong in any step, one would at best suffer Qi Deviation, and at worst, the central palace would collapse, leading to the destruction of both body and soul.
But this girl.
In ten-odd days.
She fucking succeeded.
Are you kidding me?
True Lord Xuan Yang chewed over this matter dozens of times in his heart.
Ultimately.
A long sigh slowly dispersed in the empty hall.
"What a pity..."
What a pity that such Heaven-Defying Aptitude and such shocking cultivation speed existed.
True Lord Xuan Yang closed his eyes.
He made a pinching gesture in the void.
In a dark corner of the hall, three jade-colored Dao plaques quietly floated up.
The Dao plaques were warm and translucent, their edges shimmering with a hazy light.
The three Dao plaques trembled in unison.
Each emitted a completely different aura.
Without exception, all were at the Chess Master Realm.
These were not items that ordinary people could possess.
In the entire Eastern Region, the number of beings qualified to resonate with these Dao plaques could be counted on one hand.
On the Dao plaques, the faint light flickered.
A moment later.
The first voice emerged from the Dao plaques.
"Xuan Yang, for what reason do you disturb us at such an hour?"
True Lord Xuan Yang remained silent for a while.
After a long time.
He finally spoke slowly.
"I have something to tell you... That girl has stepped into the Chess Master Realm."
As soon as he finished speaking.
The light on the three Dao plaques froze simultaneously.
An unknown amount of time passed.
A voice like the low humming of distant mountains was the first to break the silence.
However, this time, the laziness was completely gone, replaced by an irrepressible gravity.
"The girl you mentioned... is the one from the Great Tang?"
"Yes."
"..."
"When the matter regarding Wang Canglan reached me, I only thought you, Xuan Yang, were playing some tricks... Later you said you were changing people, someone who wasn't a direct descendant or from the main lineage, using an unknown person who popped up out of nowhere to take that position. I thought it was absurd at the time."
"But now you tell me... from the time you gave her the Chess Condensation Method until now... how much time has passed?"
True Lord Xuan Yang said calmly, "Just over ten days."
"..."
After a brief silence.
That voice rang out again, its tone suddenly rising several notches.
"Do you think we are old and easy to fool?"
In the sinister tone, there was already a hint of anger.
"Successful Chess Condensation in just over ten days? Xuan Yang, do you think I would believe such nonsense, or are you using such talk to test the bottom line of the three of us? We have already stopped pursuing the matter of Wang Canglan being killed, and changing the candidate can also be discussed... but if you use fabricated stories to deceive us, then is there any need for this game of chess to continue?"