While Chu Lian was dealing with her own affairs, in another world, the person who had been striving for her sake was also undergoing a tremendous change...
"Have I arrived?" The slender blade in her hand tilted slightly. The woman in fiery red robes gazed at the tall tower ahead and revealed a faint smile. How long had it been since she last returned? This place, the Thousand Demon Tower, the faction that had once sworn to hunt her to the ends of the earth... Had they ever imagined that one day, she would return here again?
"Who goes there?" Within a three-kilometer radius, the Thousand Demon Tower's patrols were already maintaining constant vigilance. If extending the perimeter any farther would not have provoked resentment and backlash from the surrounding factions, they likely would have expanded their patrol range to ten kilometers.
Even with only three kilometers, however, the overlapping patrol network was airtight. There was not a single so-called blind spot that an intruder could exploit. Every second, three separate squads would be watching the same direction.
Unless someone truly possessed the skills of a master-class assassin, infiltrating the area was impossible. The only alternatives were long-distance spatial teleportation or simply forcing one's way in through sheer violence.
But what kind of place was the Thousand Demon Tower? Ever since that battle a hundred years ago, its fearsome reputation had become known to everyone. Unless someone truly had a death wish, no one had ever dared to storm the place single-handedly.
Today, however, that was about to change. The woman whose long red dress burned like fire carried only a single blade, yet she carved straight through those so-called elite patrol squads all by herself.
Whether they were squads of peak Spirit Rank cultivators, Earth Rank captains, or even Heaven Rank elders stationed as guardians, every last one of them became a departed soul beneath that willow-leaf blade.
"She... she's... Hurry and inform the Tower Master! She's back! Our nightmare has returned..." A white-haired, white-bearded elder stared at the woman ahead as she moved as though no one stood in her way, and his eyes immediately widened.
How many years had he lived by now? Even though this woman had vanished for a full century, her figure and that invincible bearing remained etched into his heart as vividly as if it had all happened yesterday.
And now, seeing her peerless figure in that signature fiery red dress with a willow-leaf blade in hand, watching her stroll leisurely into the Thousand Demon Tower as though walking through an empty courtyard, how could he possibly fail to recognize her?
Yet none of the people who heard him dared to move, because the woman's eyes had already turned toward them. The calmness and depth within them resembled an ancient well reflecting a crescent moon, making the emotions hidden inside utterly impossible to discern.
"It's been a long time, everyone. I didn't expect you would still remember me." The woman spoke. Her beautiful face was cold, yet the voice accompanying it was unexpectedly seductive, so alluring it seemed to seep into one's very bones.
Looking at the plum blossom makeup on her forehead, then at the eyes fixed upon them, none of those so-called elders dared to answer. Every one of them lowered their heads, unwilling to meet her gaze directly.
"Still just as cowardly as ever. Where did all that courage from a hundred years ago go, when you hunted me down? When you saw me standing against the entire Otherside, your Tower Master said something about taking advantage of the momentum, then took the lead in opening the hunt against me and brought every expert you had to kill me. Back then, you weren't nearly as spineless as you are now..." She smiled sweetly, yet not the slightest emotion changed in her eyes. Every expression on her face seemed no more genuine than an act performed for the occasion.
"We..." Silence stretched on and on. Only in the end did the white-haired elder finally dare to raise his head slightly and look at half of her face. As for those eyes, he absolutely did not dare meet them. Doing so was equivalent to death—an unavoidable, absolute death.
"Now that you no longer have the entire Otherside behind you, you don't dare act like that anymore, do you?" The willow-leaf blade spun in circles in her hand. After speaking coldly, she shook her head and sighed.
"How many years has it been? Yet you're still so pitiful it's almost surprising. The Thousand Demon Tower may be renowned among many factions, but before the truly great powers, it amounts to little. A hundred years ago, you were pawns. A hundred years later, you're still pawns. The only difference is that back then, you were important pieces. Now, you're nothing more than abandoned pieces discarded by everyone. And I think you already know what fate awaits an abandoned piece."
"Wan Hongling... I know nothing we say will make any difference, but the Thousand Demon Tower did, after all, share some ties with you back then. Even though we later rose against you and carried out the order to hunt you down, we never forgot you..." Another man raised his head and had only just begun to speak when the willow-leaf blade in the woman's hand swept across his throat. Every word that remained was swallowed forever, never to be spoken.
So-called Heaven Rank experts were like the frailest dolls before the woman once she fully unleashed herself. They possessed no ability to resist whatsoever. If she wanted them dead, they died.
"It seems you still don't understand why I came here." After saying that, the woman simply walked forward without another word.
But as she passed one person after another, and each one's head rolled to the ground in turn, everyone understood exactly what fate awaited them.
She had slaughtered every patrol soldier immediately. The only people she had not yet killed were the Heaven Rank elders before her.
Yet beneath the hands of a woman who no longer wished to speak, they too were no different from the frailest clay figurines. There was nowhere to flee, no way to resist. They could only die where they stood.
Creak. Reaching out, the woman pushed open the tower doors, now left completely unguarded. She stepped inside with graceful, swaying strides and looked toward the highest floor, where several figures sat. A faint scoff escaped her lips. "What? Do you still think you're the same outstanding figures from back then, the ones who only dared surround and kill me after bringing countless experts along?"
Her words were like a cloth wiping dust from porcelain, brushing across those statue-like figures and awakening them one by one. Their gazes fell upon the woman in red standing a hundred meters below, and their expressions were extraordinarily complicated.
"You still came back." "The moment you left safely, we knew this day would eventually come." "You're someone who always repays grudges. No matter how much time passes, you would never forget what we did." "We were young and arrogant. We thought killing you would make us famous, but we never imagined we wouldn't even be able to harm a single hair on your head."
The four figures atop the tower each spoke a sentence, yet their voices overlapped in an eerie manner, sounding at once like a single person speaking and several people talking simultaneously. It was deeply uncomfortable to hear.
"Tower Master of the Thousand Demon Tower. One person, four souls. Four souls, four bodies. Nominally, you're one person, but in reality, you're four different people. It's merely that your lives are linked together, so no matter which one of you is injured or dies, the others will suffer an enormous impact as well."
As the woman spoke, she spun the willow-leaf blade in her hand. Her phoenix eyes regarded those bizarre-looking figures as a faint smile appeared on her lips. "Of course, I have no particular curiosity about that. It's simply time for me to settle accounts with you."
"Wan Hongling, Daughter of Fate of the previous generation, your fate came to an end before it could ever be completed. That means all grudges between you and the Otherside should have been wiped clean. Why return?" "Although you're one of the most outstanding geniuses in the history of the Otherside, that doesn't mean we're afraid of you." "Even if we're at a considerable disadvantage in strength, if all we want is to preserve our lives, there's nothing you can do to us." "So how about we each take a step back and leave one another in peace? As for your return, from now on the Thousand Demon Tower will remain merely an observer and absolutely will not interfere."
"No need. Even if the entire Thousand Demon Tower acted, what could you accomplish? With only the four of you left, rebuilding the Thousand Demon Tower to the point where it can influence anyone again would be far too difficult. I think it would be better to let the Thousand Demon Tower become history today." The Tower Master's proposal sounded reasonable enough, but Wan Hongling treated their words as though she had never heard them at all. There was only one person she cared about now, and that person was extremely, extremely safe.
Since she had already returned once, and certain people had also been constantly causing trouble for her lately, it was time to take action and give them a warning. Otherwise, did they truly think she would never strike back?
Perhaps realizing that further words were useless, the Tower Master chose to attack first. Four black dragons formed from pitch-black energy emerged from their hands like living creatures and lunged toward Wan Hongling. After the first four came more black dragons, one after another in an endless stream.
The moment they attacked, this space had already transformed into another world. Within this world, they could draw upon limitless quantities of energy and had no fear of exhausting themselves. Naturally, every attack they unleashed was as powerful as they could possibly make it.
Roar. Amid an unending chorus of dragon cries, the ground around Wan Hongling repeatedly erupted with overwhelming explosions of energy. The blasts caused the ancient Thousand Demon Tower, which had stood for a millennium, to tremble violently, as though it could no longer bear the strain and might collapse at any moment.
Wan Hongling did not retaliate, nor did she move a single step. She merely stood there, raising her head to look at the four of them until black waves of energy completely swallowed her within the tower.
"Is that all you've got?" The dragon cries and explosions continued for a long time, until even the Thousand Demon Tower showed signs of collapsing. Yet at that moment, the woman's voice rang out, sounding as though she had not suffered the slightest injury.
"You're still the same... invincible." "Although that wasn't our strongest attack..." "It was still the attack capable of inflicting the greatest damage upon you." "And yet it did nothing."
"Then you may die." Space and time condensed. The woman suddenly appeared directly at the center of the four Tower Masters. A genuine river of stars flowed within her eyes as her blade swept forth, beautiful and captivating like the trail of a falling meteor, yet incomparably lethal.
There was no response, not even a sound. The four Tower Masters, who had always hidden their bodies beneath black armor and exposed only their strange torsos and mismatched limbs, had their lives taken by Wan Hongling with a single slash.
Perhaps this was a strike that should have fallen long ago, a blade delayed for far, far too many years.
"From this day onward, the Thousand Demon Tower will cease to exist." As she spoke those words, the Thousand Demon Tower, which had endured countless storms and weathered innumerable energy attacks, gave a faint tremor before collapsing with a thunderous boom, passing into history.
Perhaps because the battle had ended, or perhaps because the Tower Masters were dead and the Thousand Demon Tower had collapsed, cracks began spreading across the outermost edges of this isolated space. Then, like shattered glass, it vanished with a sharp crash.
Returning to true space, Wan Hongling watched as the Thousand Demon Tower beneath her feet slowly sank downward, disappearing bit by bit...
"An old acquaintance returns, yet refuses to meet with old friends like us. Isn't that a little too heartless?" After the Thousand Demon Tower vanished without a trace, Wan Hongling, still standing where she was, heard a frivolous male voice. She turned toward him, lightly pursed her lips, and replied softly, "Young Master Zui, it's been a long time. A hundred years have passed, yet you're still as carefree as ever."
"You're too kind. Aren't you the same? What was it I heard? In the real world, you took on the name Ayase, and now you even have a girl you've grown attached to. Looking at you now, your appearance hasn't changed, but your heart no longer belongs to an invincible expert." Young Master Zui waved the folding fan in his hand, his handsome bearing elegant and refined, yet the gaze he directed at Wan Hongling was filled with naked possessiveness.
Shaking her head, she looked toward the black crescent moon hanging over the Otherside and smiled faintly. "In the past, I was alone. No matter how strong I became, I could never find a reason to keep living. But after meeting her, I rediscovered the ultimate goal of my entire life. I was invincible before. Now I have a weakness, but that still doesn't make me someone the likes of you can rival, does it?"
"Well said. That's the confidence I like. Women like you are exactly my type. So, how about it? Have you considered becoming my wife? As long as you agree, the terms I'll offer you will be even better than they were a hundred years ago." Young Master Zui snapped his folding fan shut, and his gaze toward her grew even more unrestrained.
"Oh my, Young Master Zui, those words truly wound this poor girl's heart. I've chased after you for so long, asking only for a single night of passion, yet you always refused me. But the moment you see this slut, you become so proactive, even willing to dismiss every beauty in your harem just to have her. Oh my... just thinking about it makes me unbearably jealous. I can't keep thinking about it, or I'll get so angry I'll want to kill her."
The one who answered Young Master Zui was not Wan Hongling, but an alluring voice seductive to the very bone. Hearing it, the others shifted their gazes slightly and saw a woman dressed in an outrageously revealing outfit.
Most of her body remained bare, with pink fabric covering her breasts and a scrap worn below that could scarcely be called concealment. The tight underwear molded against her intimate flesh, tracing the soft swell and feminine folds beneath the thin material. The covered shape proved more provocative than simple nudity.
Her feet rested in seven-inch heels whose steep arches lengthened her legs and thrust her hips into a more provocative curve. Each step made her tail sway behind her and sharpened the wanton impression created by her near-naked attire.
Compared with a human, she had an additional gray rune on her forehead, pointed ears, and a long tail swaying behind her, giving her an extraordinarily seductive air.
If Wan Hongling, simply by standing there, resembled a red plum blossom blooming amid the bitter cold of a snowy winter night—piercingly cold, yet so beautiful that one could not help yearning for it—then this woman was like an entire wall of red apricot blossoms blooming along a sunlit avenue, her beauty displayed openly for anyone to feast their eyes upon.
Everyone present, however, knew that while she appeared irresistibly enticing on the outside, within she was an out-and-out queen of draining men's essence. If the number of men who had died between her thighs was not ten thousand, it was at least eight thousand.
In the Otherside, she was a wanton woman regarded with even greater contempt than a common prostitute. Yet her strength ranked among the very best in the world, leaving others utterly helpless against her.
Seeing her and hearing her words, Wan Hongling's gaze flickered slightly. "I didn't expect you to come as well, Su Qing."
"Tsk, tsk. So you still remember this poor girl's name. Looks like even a shameless woman like me still has a place in your eyes." Whether Wan Hongling's gesture had been intentional or merely casual, Su Qing refused to accept the goodwill. The look she gave her remained filled with the same hatred and disgust as before.
"You two can love and kill each other all you like, but that can wait until you've both joined my harem. Su Qing, my offer remains the same. As long as you help me obtain Wan Hongling, I'll give you anything you want. What do you say?" After watching the spectacle for a while, Young Master Zui knew it was time for him to step in. Otherwise, if things escalated further, they might become troublesome.
"Hmph. Do you really think the two of us can defeat her? She caused far too much commotion with this return. Counting the Thousand Demon Tower, this is already the seventh faction she's destroyed. Everyone who once moved against her is terrified now, and countless experts have already prepared to come here. All we need to do is hold her in place. There's no reason to fight her head-on. Unless you can contend with those Starry Sky Eyes of hers, you'd better cooperate with me obediently. With me here, I may not be able to rival the Starry Sky Eyes, but at the very least, I can keep her eyes from harming us."
Su Qing's words made Young Master Zui grow serious as well. The two of them had arrived before everyone else because one had a deep entanglement with Wan Hongling, while the other harbored very different fantasies about her. Of course, they also understood that the enemy before them, even after a hundred years and even though she had changed, was still unquestionably the most dangerous person in this world.
"I want to ask you something. Is Wang Hao one of your pawns, or what?" Wan Hongling held her willow-leaf blade but made no move to attack. She was not concerned about how many people came against her, because numbers meant nothing before her. There were simply some answers she wanted, and she hoped they could provide an explanation.
"Wang Hao? That guy? Oh my, he's certainly made quite a name for himself among the undead. The Seven Undying Emperors have jointly placed him on their wanted list. In my opinion, no matter how many schemes he has or how many people he treats as pawns, this time he can only become an abandoned piece himself." Young Master Zui had always been well-informed. Hearing Wan Hongling mention the man, then remembering the face of that fellow he inexplicably disliked, he immediately laughed with obvious schadenfreude.
Regardless of whatever relationship Wang Hao had with Ayase, Young Master Zui himself had never gotten along with the man. At the same time, he knew full well that it was Wang Hao's attack against the person Wan Hongling cared about that had triggered her violent retaliation and driven her to charge back into the Otherside.
Come to think of it, Wang Hao was the true source of this entire upheaval. If Wan Hongling still could not be subdued this time, then he would inevitably become the target upon whom every major faction vented its fury. When that happened, no matter how grand his ambitions might be, he would find it nearly impossible to take a single step within the Otherside.
"Is that so? Wang Hao, just what are you thinking..." Wan Hongling's delicate brows furrowed. She had always felt an inexplicable fear toward this man. It was not fear of his strength, but some other kind of fear she could not explain.
And it was precisely that fear that drove her to eliminate Wang Hao, this dangerous enemy. Destroying these factions was also something she had done deliberately.
After all, they had not only participated in the mission to hunt her down back then. Many of the incidents occurring in the real world lately had also been manipulated by them from behind the scenes. If she did not remove them now, there would only be more trouble in the future.
As the three of them remained locked in confrontation, more and more people began arriving.
Dressed entirely in red with a willow-leaf blade in hand, she looked just like the invincible Daughter of Fate who had once roamed the world unhindered, standing alone before an army of thousands without the slightest fear...