*****Hearing what the old man had just uttered, Cassandra jolted violently, her heart skipping a beat, while Xavier finally lifted his gaze.However, Sage Myron himself could not be bothered to spare even a fraction of his attention for Xavier or Cassandra at this moment.Because the moment the swirling black smoke twisted, its face fully turned toward him, everything else ceased to exist.A violent surge of adrenaline slammed through his body, followed immediately by an icy chill that crawled down his spine like a living thing.His legs faltered, and for a split second, he nearly collapsed backward, dignity forgotten. Only sheer willpower and decades of hard-earned combat instinct kept him upright.However, he still swallowed so hard that his throat burned, his tongue feeling thick and useless in his mouth.Up close, the face was far worse than it seemed.Those eyes… if they could even be called eyes, were nothing but bottomless pits of darkness, as though they swallowed lig

*****Seeing Sage Myron in this present state, Ellen’s smirk only widened even further, the edges of her mouth stretching unnaturally, as though her face might tear apart at any moment.In the following second, a low chuckle seeped out of her… thick with mockery, and heavily soaked in contempt.“You will know soon,” she said lazily, her tone dripping with cruel amusement.Then she turned slowly, her attention shifting back to Xavier.And as soon as this happened, the temperature in the room plummeted even further.The playful malice vanished, replaced by something far darker.Ellen’s expression hardened, the hatred in her eyes condensing until it felt tangible… sharp enough to cut skin.Before long, frost slowly crept across the floor.Sage Myron and Cassandra gasped as cold gnawed at their limbs, icy tendrils crawling up their legs, stealing warmth and strength.Then Ellen’s voice sounded again, dropping this time, distorted, and heavily layered with murderous intent.“You

*****Behind Xavier, neither Sage Myron nor Cassandra fully understood what was being discussed at this moment… cultivation vessels, soul refinement, consumption, and whatnot.But did they need to understand?Of course, not. They had already understood all they needed to.And so, hearing what Ellen just uttered, a suffocating coldness couldn’t help but clamp down on their hearts, souls, and bodies simultaneously.Before they even realized what was going on, their knees had already weakened… not from yin energy or from spiritual pressure.But from pure, unfiltered terror.‘So… so evil,’ The thought echoed in both their minds, unbidden and uncontrollable.As for Xavier… his chest tightened, a heavy pressure suddenly settling behind his ribs, coiling, compressing, and turning dangerously still until finally, his eyes darkened, frost forming in their depths as his fury sharpened into something lethal.“Is that truly how you feel?” he asked quietly.The spirit responded immedia

*****At this moment… at a place very far away from Riverton City, at least hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.There existed a desert.It wasn’t just any desert. Instead, it was a complete, merciless wasteland where life itself seemed to have been outlawed.As far as the eyes could stretch, there was nothing… no plants, water, animals, or people.Only endless dunes of scorched sand, stacked like the graves of civilizations that never stood a chance.This was the kind of place no sane man would ever step into, because the probability of survival here wasn’t slim… it was laughably nonexistent, closer to zero percent than one.This was the kind of land reserved for people whose sins were so heavy that even death would feel like mercy… a place of exile and a sentence without appeal.The sun burned overhead like a furious god with nothing better to do, its heat so intense that it could melt glass, warp metal, and cook flesh in seconds.As for the sand beneath… it wasn’t sof

*****Inside one of the cultivation chambers, a pale elderly woman sat in a lotus position atop a straw mat.She looked no younger than seventy, yet her features carried an unnatural beauty, preserved by cultivation.Her posture was calm, her expression serene, and almost gentle… like an ordinary grandmother who wouldn’t even scare a fly.Her eyes were closed at the moment, seemingly fully immersed in cultivation, when suddenly, they snapped open, and…“Pft!”A mouthful of blood violently sprayed from her lips, splattering across the floor.At that very instant, her body jerked as pain twisted her face, the calm shattering in an instant.“What… what just happened?!” she shrieked, her voice sharp with disbelief.Her expression contorted, rage and confusion flooding her eyes at the same time. “Is this… a backlash?” she growled, the words trembling with suppressed fury.In the following second, however, she frowned deeply, her mind racing, until suddenly…A memory surfaced in