C110 Separation of Heaven and Earth
The Empire's General, Lee Yuchan, stood resolutely in the heart of Moonfall, her bright eyes dimming.
Within the forbidden area, her soul blade was suppressed by the formidable Moonfiend, and she was targeted by the icy moonlight. She had to race all the way to reach this point.
Afterward, the powerful Moonfiend vanished without a trace.
Lee Yuchan had only just begun to recover. Concerned, she contemplated risking a look back, only to discover she could no longer locate the stone forest she had encountered on her way.
An unknown wall forcibly separated two regions of the Moonfall Sanctuary.
Cultivators like her, attempting to cross the wall, experienced a terrifying sensation as if their soul and flesh were being torn apart.
She had not yet attained the Lunar Spirit Realm; should her soul and body separate, her fate in this fearsome land would surely be grim.
Moreover, there might still be Moonfiends lying in wait.
Lee Yuchan, after much reflection, much like Lee Yu and the others, had also considered the legend: the long, cold night, the awakening of the Moonfiend, the changing of empires...
With the Moonfiend active in the Land of Trials of the younger generation, could Lee Yu and his peers harbor any hope of survival?
Even she had been pursued by the Moonfiend, forced to flee to this place!
"Is it all thanks to him?"
With an icy breath, Lee Yuchan's gaze, sharp as a frosty blade, suddenly fell upon Yu Yuan, her voice tinged with skepticism: "Him?"
Before Yu Yuan could respond, everyone around was nodding in agreement.
No further words were necessary; Lee Yuchan could clearly see that her nephew, Lee Yu, had spoken the truth. The one who had aided their escape from the clutches of the Moonfiend was none other than the young master of the Yu family, whom she had found peculiar at the entrance to the forbidden area.
"Did you encounter the Moonfiend that had taken over Feng Xin?" she inquired once more.
"Yes," a member of the Lee family replied, "Feng Xin's physical form was shredded by Yu Yuan, and the strongest Moonfiend, transformed into countless green specks of light, seized the opportunity to flee."
Upon hearing this, Lee Yuchan's gaze intensified with astonishment.
"That Moonfiend, even I am no match for her. She forced me to retreat into this realm," Lee Yuchan's composure faltered, "and you, merely in the Soul Awakening Realm, your physical strength..."
"Hmm?"
"How is it that someone in the early stages of Soul Awakening possesses such extraordinary resilience? What kind of spell have you been practicing?"
Lee Yuchan, whose expertise reached the profound depths of the Subtlety Realm, could perceive the minutest details with her spiritual sense.
Under her perceptive gaze, Yu Yuan's flesh and bones appeared supremely refined. His veins were resilient and expansive, his bones gleamed, radiating a captivating luster akin to jade.
Even his internal organs were enveloped in robust vitality, each heartbeat resonating with strength and vigor.
Such a robust constitution was unheard of for a cultivator in the early Soul Awakening Realm.
In all her years, Yuchan had never encountered an early-stage Soul Awakening cultivator with such an inconceivably tempered physique!
Originally, she intended to question how Yu Yuan, with his modest Soul Awakening cultivation, managed to rend Feng Xin's body. But mid-sentence, she shifted the subject.
"The spell he practices is highly unconventional; it's a dark art, and an incredibly dominant and powerful one at that."
Lee Yu's thoughts echoed in her heart.
"Even for a dark art, this is excessively formidable," she responded telepathically. "I've encountered practitioners of dark arts before. Zhan Tianxiang's dark arts, inherited from the Golden Elephant God, pale in comparison to Yu Yuan's physical strength at the Soul Awakening Realm."
"Yu Yuan is shrouded in many mysteries," Lee Yu remarked.
The aunt and nephew fell into a silent exchange of thoughts.
Among those present, only Yu Yuan, who had refined his heaven soul, detected a hint of the anomaly.
Feigning ignorance, Yu Yuan continued to roam as the pair conversed in hushed tones, casting glances at the stone forest behind him.
"Hmm?"
The stone forest they had passed through was now out of sight.
Confused and intrigued, he instinctively turned and retraced his steps towards the direction they had come from, intent on verifying the stone forest's existence.
"Whoosh!"
Like passing through an invisible curtain of water, he found himself back in the stone forest in a blink.
Everything was as it had been.
The stone forest still stood, exactly as they had left it.
Behind him, Lee Yuchan, Lee Yu, and all the other trial-takers suddenly looked in his direction with a peculiar intensity, as if they were straining to discern something unclear.
Among them, Zhao Yafu leapt up, attempting to come closer. Her body soared into the air as if hitting an invisible wall and was sharply repelled back. Yu Yuan then saw Zhao Yafu rubbing her backside, wincing in confusion.
Following Zhao Yafu's attempt, Yan Lu and Zhan Tianxiang, skeptical of the barrier, tried to approach him as well but were similarly repelled by an unseen force.
Lee Yu's face was etched with seriousness as he silently drew the Gutrender, poised to strike. Lee Yuchan's face paled as she quickly intervened, cautioning him against any rash actions.
Yu Yuan then noticed the growing anxiety among the group on the other side. They were looking around, seemingly unable to see anything. Understanding the situation, Yu Yuan stepped forward, crossing into what felt like a different realm, and then instantly returned.
"Yu Yuan!"
"Yu Yuan! You've returned!"
"Why can you cross over when we can't?"
"It's as if an invisible wall is there, preventing us from crossing. If we charge at it, we just get thrown back!"
As soon as he reappeared, everyone burst into a fervent discussion. Looking back, Yu Yuan could no longer see the stone forest, just the swirling mists of rampant spiritual energy.
He grasped the situation in an instant.
"The Moonfiend that Feng Xin harbored didn't pursue me to the end. It merely forced me here, and must have known this all along," Lee Yuchan explained. "Perhaps the Moonfiend is aware that if she truly crossed over, she wouldn't be able to return. It seems she's searching for something, and I am not her intended target."
"She's looking for me," Yu Yuan declared.
"What?" Lee Yuchan exclaimed in shock.
"The one she wants to eliminate is me," Yu Yuan affirmed with certainty. "You are very powerful. For her to kill you would require too much effort and might deplete her strength excessively. She doesn't deem it worthwhile. Hence, she simply forced you here to prevent you from hindering her."
"Then, she concentrated her efforts, found me, and killed me," Yu Yuan shared his speculation.
"Why you?" Lee Yuchan inquired.
Yu Yuan offered a slight smile, choosing not to answer directly. "It's me," he stated.
Without concern for whether Lee Yuchan was content with his response, he looked back and continued, "That person should still show up. Now that I am here, all the Moonfiends will come looking."
As he spoke, he gazed upon the new realm before him, furrowing his brow. "The question is whether there are any new Moonfiends in this place."
Somehow, upon arriving, he didn't feel the sense of security he expected. On the contrary, he sensed that this novel forbidden area harbored even more unknowns.
Suddenly, he strode forward on his own. A burning sensation began to grow in his arms, as if guiding him to some form of empowerment.
"There's something nearby. I intend to eradicate it."