Yun Che didn’t move. He pointed a finger at the barrier and made it blue so that Yun Shang couldn’t look inside. Then, he put his hands behind his back and said, “Do it yourself.”

“What’s wrong? You’re not interested?” Qianye Ying’er asked while looking at him sideways.

“You were the one who changed your mind in the first place, and she gave us three hundred years of leeway with little resistance. So why do we still need to do this? Aren’t you afraid that it’ll trigger the exact opposite of what we wanted?” Yun Che let out a soft snort before his voice cooled. “Are you really trying to ‘take back control’ as you claim, or are you just venting on a woman who’s similar to you because of your own situation?”

“Similar? She!?” Qianye Ying’er sounded disdainful, but her teeth tightly clenched for a moment. Staring at Nanhuang Chanyi, she eventually said, “Fine, it’s not like doing this myself… is the worst idea in the world!”

She extended her palm and pointed her fingers at Nanhuang Chanyi, causing profound energy to circulate soundlessly like the wind. It might look gentle to another person, but it was really as firm and sharp as a blade. It instantly sliced Nanhuang Chanyi’s clothes to bits.

She made a swiping motion with her finger, and the sliced golden fabric scattered to the side at once. Finally, Nanhuang Chanyi’s face and body became fully exposed.

As expected of a Witch of the Northern Devil Queen; Nanhuang Chanyi was definitely the prettiest woman of the Five Nether Ruins. Her face looked like it was sculpted by the heavens, and her body was as precious as immortal jade. Although she was currently naked and asleep, she didn’t appear obscene in the slightest. On the contrary, she looked as transient and beautiful as the dancing snow, and the impression she left in the mind was one that lasts for a lifetime.

In the Northern Divine Region, not even a devil emperor would dare to violate a member of the Nine Witches like this.

“What a perfect woman,” Qianye Ying’er said in a leisurely tone while her eyes roamed across Nanhuang Chanyi’s body, “It’d be a shame if a man were to defile her.”

That was what she said, but the glow in her eyes was clearly ill in some way. When she turned sideways and saw that Yun Che was taking his time to savor the sight of Nanhuang Chanyi’s naked body, she immediately taunted him, “I thought you didn’t want her?”

“It’d be a shame to not look at something this perfect,” Yun Che replied.

“Is that really all you’re going to do?” Qianye Ying’er asked in a seductive voice.

“I’m not planning to die anytime soon,” Yun Che replied coldly.

“Heh…” Qianye Ying’er shot him a cold smile before muttering in a clearly crazed manner, “She’s such a perfect woman, a Witch of the Devil Queen no less. It’d be a shame if she was defiled by a man, but it’d be an even greater shame if she isn’t defiled by you. Don’t you agree?”

“...” Yun Che frowned slightly at her remark. He knew that Qianye Ying’er was saying all this because she was driven by a cruel fact; the fact that she, the Brahma Monarch G.o.ddess had become his tool and toy.

Although she was the one who made the choice herself, it didn’t mean that she had completely accepted the fact. Quite the contrary, it was clear that the knowledge sat so heavily in her that it had even warped her personality… after all, even G.o.d emperors were beneath her attention in the past.

Qianye Ying’er raised her palm, and several Profound Imagery Stones appeared between her fingers. One flash later, Nanhuang Chanyi’s naked body became completely captured inside the stones… Not even Qianye Ying’er herself knew if she was doing this to take back control from Nanhuang Chanyi, or to vent the dark emotions sitting inside her heart.

Qianye Ying’er threw two of the stones to Yun Che before drawing a circle in front of her. It was a simple Glazed Sound profound formation. She spoke arrogantly as the profound formation recorded her voice, “My Witch, cooperation should be built between balanced sides, don’t you agree? You know our secret, and now we have your weakness.”

“You better not try to track, monitor or disrupt our operations during these three hundred years… or I’ll make sure that every man in the Northern Divine Region gets to savor your naked form.”

When the recording was done, Qianye Ying’er turned around uncaringly and said, “Let’s go.”

To a righteous person, it was one of the most despicable and shameless methods of blackmail in the world. To Qianye Ying’er, it didn’t even count as sinister.

Yun Che shot Nanhuang Chanyi one final look before leaving the barrier with Qianye Ying’er.

He had no grudge with Nanhuang Chanyi. On the contrary, they’d both given each other what they needed, and that Nanhuang Chanyi had only ever shown him goodwill so far. If he was his old self, he would never have allowed Qianye Ying’er to do what she did. Now, he ridiculed Qianye Ying’er, but did nothing to stop the blackmail.

“What were you doing, senior?” Yun Shang asked curiously.

It wasn’t an unfamiliar situation. Every time Yun Che and Qianye Ying’er cultivated, they would erect a barrier and leave Yun Shang outside. The girl had no choice but to wait patiently even when she ran into something she didn’t understand during her cultivation... sometimes, the wait even lasted several days.

“It’s nothing,” Yun Che replied, “we’re going to take you back to your clan now… there’s still time to change your mind.”

Yun Shang’s eyes lit up, and she declared firmly and excitedly, “I want to go back!”

“Your clansmen won’t like your decision.” Yun Che tried one last time to persuade her. “The reason they took you away in the first place is so that you won’t get caught up by the ‘deadline’.”

“But they lied to me when they took me away. They told me that they found Daddy…” Yun Shang shook her head and said, “I’m not running away. I promised Little Rong and Little Yi that I’d protect them when I grow up. I can’t break my promise like Daddy did.”

Yun Che, “...”

“Besides, I’ve become much stronger during my time with Senior,” she said while clenching her hands tightly. “I now have the power to protect them. I’m sure the Chief, Big Brother Xiang and everyone will be very happy to see me.”

Qianye Ying’er listened quietly to her musing before commenting, “For your own sake, I hope your naivety can last forever.”

Yun Che didn’t waste anymore words after that. He said, “tell me where the Thousand Desolation Realm and your clan are.”

Yun Shang tapped her finger against Yun Che’s forehead, and they were flying toward the north immediately after.

The Central Ruins Realm was still surrounded by storms, but it was a lot calmer compared to before. In fact, it would all disappear in just a few years’ time. However, no one would ever know how the storms began or died.

Nanhuang Chanyi continued to sleep peacefully inside the barrier. She couldn’t possibly antic.i.p.ate that someone at her level could still be put to sleep by an external force. Since the barrier completely isolated all noises from outside, it would take her at least several hours before she awoke naturally.

“How big is your clan right now?”

“About… six hundred thousand people, give or take.”

“To think that a former realm king clan would decline so far. This population doesn’t even match up to a minor sect of an average realm.”

“We… we used to be a strong clan. Not anyone could bully us however they liked,” Yun Shang’s voice grew weaker even as she tried to defend her clan. It was clear that she was aware of the current state of her clan.

“Who’s the strongest expert in your clan?” Yun Che asked another question.

“That would be Chief Grandpa,” Yun Shang answered. “Chief Grandpa is over twenty thousand years old already. Daddy told me that Chief Grandpa used to be a G.o.dlike Divine Master, but after the incident he was punished severely by the king realm and forced to drop to the Divine Sovereign Realm. Not only that, I think it was made so that he can never recover his cultivation, and his health became much worse after that.”

“Although Chief Grandpa is still really strong, he won’t fight unless he has no other choice. It’s because his lifespan is shortened every time he fights… before Daddy left, he said that Chief Grandpa is almost at the end of his life already.”

“How many people in the clan have purple colored ‘Heavenly Handle Divine Power’ like you?” Yun Che asked again.

“I’m the only one. Daddy and Chief Grandpa said that I’m the last ray of hope the heavens have gifted to the clan before the deadline. However…” Yun Shang bowed her head after she trailed off. She didn’t know how long it would take for her to live up to everyone’s expectations.

“...I see,” Yun Che muttered.

Yun Qinghong once told him that the strongest profound handle to ever appear in the Yun Family was blue. Although there were stories about a purple colored profound handle, it was less of a reality and more of a legend to look forward to.

However, Yun Shang’s profound handle was without a doubt purple in color!

Both Lu Bubai and Beihan Chu were clearly agitated when they saw Yun Shang unleas.h.i.+ng a purple colored profound handle that day. This meant that even outsiders knew what a purple colored profound handle signified.

It was no wonder that the Heavenly Handle Yun Clan had tried everything in their power to send Yun Shang away.

Besides that, judging from Lu Bubai’s excessive reaction and Venerable Hidden Sword ditching his duty to chase after the Sinful Yun Clan… it would appear that the Nine Lights Heavenly Palace was plotting something sinister.

……

Thousand Desolation Realm was one of two hundred upper star realms that existed in the Northern Divine Region.

The sky here was even darker than normal, and the concentration of darkness aura was several times thicker than the Five Nether Ruins. In certain locations, the difference was ten times or more. This place was a heaven to “devil people”, and an inescapable h.e.l.l to all those who didn’t cultivate darkness profound energy. Their life force, their profound energy, and even their soul would be consumed in almost no time at all.

So far, Yun Che’s experience inside the giant prison that was the Northern Divine Region was all about its cruel laws of survival… In this world, a weakling without backing was practically synonymous to a piece of meat just waiting for someone to snap up and devour it in one gulp.

Yun Che and Qianye Ying’er were attacked dozens of times while they were traveling from the Central Ruins Realm to the Thousand Desolation Realm… and of course, what the attackers were repaid with was immediate and utter annihilation.

As they traveled north, they eventually encountered rows of meandering mountain ranges covered in thick, thunderous clouds. The clouds looked like they had existed since ancient times, and every one of them contained a terrifying amount of power.

They looked like they would erupt into lightning destruction at the slightest provocation.

“Is this the place?” Yun Che asked as he stopped in his tracks. It was clear that this region was surrounded by a gigantic and powerful lightning formation.

“Mn!” Yun Shang answered while nodding strongly. She was only sixteen years old, and it had been half a year since she had last seen her clan. She missed her clan so much that her eyes were clouded with tears. She said, “Chief Grandpa and the others must be very worried about me… Senior, thank you. I’m sure everyone will thank you as well.”

“Don’t forget what I told you earlier,” Yun Che said seriously. “Don’t tell anyone that I refined your profound art and improved your cultivation level and talent.”

“I promise I won’t forget,” Yun Shang promised.

After that, she finally couldn’t control her excitement any longer and flew toward the lightning formation. Her cheerful cry immediately filled the air. “Chief Grandpa, Big Brother Xiang, Little Yi, Little Rong… I’m home!”

Yun Shang crossed the uncrossable line, but the lightning formation didn’t activate. It didn’t attack Yun Che or Qianye Ying’er either.

“This is my clan’s lightning formation. No bad people can invade us while it’s working,” Yun Shang said cheerfully. “Don’t worry, Senior, Sister Qianying. It won’t attack you two while I’m close to you.”