?

"Not good! I need to leave, now!"

The moment he sensed Ye Lingyue's aura, Chu Chen did not hesitate. With a sweep of his hand, he stored the Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, the Heaven-Swallowing Magic Jar, into his Sea of Consciousness. Without a backward glance, he bolted from the cave and plunged deep into the dense forest.

His eldest sister, Ye Lingyue, was an extraordinary figure.

As the eldest daughter of the immortal Ye Clan, she possessed heaven-defying talent and a peerless temperament.

At a young age, she had already ignited her Divine Flame, standing as a powerhouse at the Eighth Heaven of the Divine Fire Realm.

Even rarer was her innate affinity for the Dao of divination and the Eight Trigrams. In theory, she was the flawless inheritor of the Ye Clan's Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, the Heaven-Reaching Mirror.

When the Divine Calculator wandered the continent and passed through the Ye Clan, a single glance at Ye Lingyue's aptitude was enough for him to take her as his disciple.

To comprehend the esoteric arts of divination, Ye Lingyue spent most of her time in Secluded Cultivation, observing the celestial bodies by night to deduce the past and future.

In the three years since Chu Chen's cultivation was crippled, the siblings had only met once.

Yet that single encounter had plunged Chu Chen's heart into a bottomless abyss.

Leaving it completely frozen over.

"Damn it. I've already fled into Sky Demon Gorge, so how did she still track me down?"

Pulling Spirit Stones from his Storage Ring to absorb their Spiritual Qi, Chu Chen raced through the ancient woods, desperate to shake off Ye Lingyue's pursuit.

Because his Meridians were shattered and his cultivation destroyed, even after refining the Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, the Heaven-Swallowing Magic Jar, he still could not cultivate or store any Spiritual Qi within his body.

He could only draw upon the Spiritual Qi within the Spirit Stones to temporarily fuel his movements.

"If they truly push me to the brink, I don't mind slaughtering my way back to the Ye Clan!"

A ruthless glint flashed through Chu Chen's eyes. Borrowing the Spiritual Qi from the stones, he bounded and sprinted across the massive trunks of the towering ancient trees.

Though he was now a mere mortal devoid of cultivation, he had, after all, achieved initial refinement of this Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon.

If he was willing to burn his soul and overdraw his life force to forcibly activate the Heaven-Swallowing Magic Jar, he could briefly unleash a fraction of its world-shaking might!

If driven to an absolute dead end, he would throw his life away, charge straight into the Ye Clan, and command the Heaven-Swallowing Magic Jar to initiate Self-Destruction.

The Self-Destruction of an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon-just how apocalyptic would that be?

Even with the Ye Clan's own Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, the Heaven-Reaching Mirror, standing guard, the terrifying shockwave of such a blast would level the entire clan in an instant.

It would shatter the void and extinguish heaven and earth.

Aside from the Ye Clan's Ancestor, Patriarch Ye Ding, and a few Elders who had stepped into the Saint Realm and Saint Emperor Realm under the Heaven-Reaching Mirror's protection, every other member of the Ye Clan would be wiped out.

Ye Xuan, Ye Ling'er, Ye Han, and the rest of the direct descendants would never escape!

Naturally, if it came to that, Chu Chen himself would have no path to survival.

It was a tactic of mutual destruction. Unless forced into a corner, he was unwilling to resort to it.

After all, he had not yet gone to the Divine Flame Imperial Palace.

He had not yet seen the Empress, Lin Shuwang.

He still had unfinished business in this life.

He still had regrets!

...

"Strange. Chu Chen's residual aura is clearly lingering in this cave. How could..."

Inside the cavern, Ye Lingyue gently pinched her fingers in calculation, her willow-leaf brows knitting together.

Less than ten breaths after Chu Chen had fled, Ye Lingyue had already descended upon this place with overwhelming force.

Yet the cave was completely empty. There was nothing inside, let alone any trace of Chu Chen's figure.

If anyone else had arrived and seen this vacant space, they would never have deduced its connection to Chu Chen.

But who was Ye Lingyue?

She was a heaven-chosen prodigy of the mystical arts, a disciple of the Divine Calculator, and an Expert in the Dao of the Eight Trigrams and divination.

With a mere pinch of her fingers, she captured Chu Chen's residual aura within the stone walls.

"The defensive Formation and the aura-concealing Formation at the entrance were both forcibly destroyed. Could Chu Chen have encountered danger?"

"No! This is Sky Demon Gorge. I must find him as quickly as possible!"

As she spoke, Ye Lingyue's ten fingers danced gracefully. Milky-white Spiritual Qi flowed from her fingertips, forming an Eight Trigrams array that hovered in mid-air.

To locate him swiftly, Ye Lingyue once again invoked her divination arts to deduce his path.

"This... how is this possible?"

Staring at the empty Eight Trigrams array before her, Ye Lingyue's face filled with disbelief.

She... she could not deduce a single trace of Chu Chen's whereabouts.

Chu Chen's cultivation was crippled; he was nothing but a mortal. Meanwhile, she was a disciple of the Divine Calculator and a powerhouse of the Divine Fire Realm.

At such a close distance, tracking a mortal should have been as effortless as plucking a leaf from a branch.

Unexpectedly...

"This Sky Demon Gorge is truly bizarre!"

Ye Lingyue did not overthink it, merely assuming that the mysterious environment of Sky Demon Gorge had isolated Chu Chen's aura.

"There are countless Demon Beasts in this gorge, even Saint Emperor Realm and Emperor Realm Demon Emperors. If I don't find Chu Chen quickly, he..."

"Will surely die!"

Desperate to find Chu Chen and bring him back to the Ye Clan, Ye Lingyue cast aside all hesitation. A ruthless glint flashed in her eyes as she spat out a mouthful of essence blood, burning nearly ten years of her lifespan in a single breath to force another deduction.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Fueled by a decade of her life force, the illusory Eight Trigrams array finally revealed Chu Chen's figure sprinting and leaping through the dense forest.

Though the image remained blurry, it was more than enough for a Divine Fire Realm powerhouse.

In an instant, Ye Lingyue pinpointed his direction and successfully locked onto his position.

Her body transformed into a streak of light, tearing through the air.

Boom!

Less than three breaths later, as Chu Chen was still racing through the ancient woods, a resplendent, jeweled bracelet suddenly plummeted from the sky.

This was Ye Lingyue's Saint Artifact, the Thirteen Star Radiance Bracelet.

Thirteen rubies were embedded along its surface. Accompanied by a terrifying Saint Realm Pressure, the bracelet expanded explosively against the wind as it fell.

In the blink of an eye, it magnified thousands of times, transforming into an endless, unbreakable circular wall that sealed off an area of several hundred meters, trapping Chu Chen within.

Drawing a circle to form a prison!

"Chu Chen, it's me, your eldest sister!"

Having trapped him, Ye Lingyue descended from the sky. Her graceful figure and delicate features were marred by deep worry as she looked at him.

"Come back with me quickly! It's dangerous here!"

Even with the protection of a Saint Artifact like the Thirteen Star Radiance Bracelet, it was far from enough in Sky Demon Gorge, a domain ruled by Saint Emperor and Emperor Realm Demon Beasts.

"Dangerous? Is it more dangerous here than in the Ye Clan?"

Staring at Ye Lingyue's anxious face and her desperate eagerness to drag him back, Chu Chen remained on high alert, a cold sneer curling his lips.

"To me, no matter how terrifying the Demon Beasts are, they will never be as terrifying as you people of the Ye Clan-spouting benevolence and righteousness while hiding the hearts of wolves and dogs!"

Ye Lingyue's expression changed instantly.

Looking at this completely unfamiliar Chu Chen, whose eyes brimmed with pure hatred, Ye Lingyue felt the world spin in a dizzying blur.

Was this... was this still her own younger brother, Ye Chu Chen?

Wasn't he always the softest-hearted?

The one who always listened to his eldest sister the most?

How could he now...

At this thought, an inexplicable surge of anger flared in Ye Lingyue's heart.

"Ye Chu Chen, stop throwing a tantrum! This is Sky Demon Gorge!"

"Come back with me right now. Apologize to Father and your sisters, and I promise they won't make things difficult for-"

Before she could finish, Chu Chen ruthlessly cut her off.

"Ye Lingyue, I have already defected from the Ye Clan. I have severed my father-son relationship with Ye Ding, and my name has been struck from the Ye Clan genealogy!"

"Do not call me Ye Chu Chen anymore. My surname is Chu, my given name is Chen. I have absolutely nothing to do with the Ye Clan!"

"You chased me all the way into Sky Demon Gorge just to drag me back. It's nothing more than because I killed that maid, Die'er, and you want to capture me for punishment."

"..."

Ye Lingyue's expression shifted slightly.

She wanted to argue! She wanted to explain! She wanted to say it wasn't what he thought!

But...

Before she left the great hall of the Ye Clan...

Father, Ye Xuan, and her younger sisters had explicitly stated that once Ye Chu Chen was captured, they would sever his tendons, lock him in the stables, and teach him a brutal lesson.

Ye Lingyue lightly bit her red lip. Meeting Chu Chen's contemptuous, hateful gaze, she suddenly found herself at a loss for words.

"Chu Chen, you are my blood brother. I said I would protect you, and I will definitely protect you!"

"An elder sister is like a mother. I, Ye Lingyue, swear to the Heavenly Dao..."

An elder sister is like a mother?

Hearing those words, Chu Chen burst into laughter.

"Ye Lingyue, you seem to have forgotten that three years ago, you threw me off a cliff. My hands and feet were shattered, and I lay paralyzed in bed for over half a year, hovering on the brink of death..."

Threw him off a cliff?

Ye Lingyue froze. How could she have no memory of such an incident?

"Chu Chen, what nonsense are you spouting? No matter what you think, come back to the Ye Clan with me first!"

Worried about alarming the Demon Emperors lurking in Sky Demon Gorge, Ye Lingyue decided to suppress him with force. She would drag him back to the Ye Clan first and sort out the rest later.

With her cultivation at the Eighth Heaven of the Divine Fire Realm and the power of the Thirteen Star Radiance Bracelet, capturing a crippled, powerless Chu Chen would be as easy as flipping her hand.

"Thirteen Star Radiance Bracelet, restrain him!"

With a soft hum from Ye Lingyue, the Thirteen Star Radiance Bracelet contracted sharply. A terrifying Saint Realm Pressure erupted into the sky, sweeping across the surroundings.

Roar!

The moment the Saint Artifact's aura flared, a dragon's roar that could shatter the nine heavens erupted from the deepest abyss of Sky Demon Gorge, echoing across the land.

Two eyes, massive as blood-red lanterns, snapped open. A colossal dragon, its body stretching for hundreds of zhang, tore through the ancient forest, shattering towering trees in its wake.

It hurtled straight toward Chu Chen and Ye Lingyue.

A Demon Emperor had awakened!