C625 One Step to the Divine Altar One Step to the Abyss!

The Palace of Bones set its sights on Ochre Mountain and began its oppressive advance.

It was akin to a grand and towering peak, wielding a brutal demonic force capable of crushing all life and quelling malevolent spirits, piercing straight through Ochre Mountain!

As soon as the Palace of Bones emerged, Yu Yuan's Mindscape felt an immense pressure.

He realized that the fate of the independent cultivator Liang Jingyin was likely sealed.

Thump!

A muffled cry echoed from within the mountain.

Then, nearly three thousand strands of golden lightning were seen either soaring toward the heavens or burrowing into the deep recesses of the earth.

These golden lights were the remnant souls of Liang Jingyin, frantically bursting forth in a last-ditch effort to flee as his Solar Spirit was shattered.

A rogue cultivator like Liang Jingyin, sensing doom, had made a swift and ruthless decision, seeking a slim chance of survival.

Alas...

Dusk Raven let out a cold snort, channeling his fury toward Yu Yuan into his assault on Liang Jingyin. With a piercing shriek, he unleashed a cacophony that seemed to rip through the sky and earth, making mortal souls quiver.

Liang Jingyin, the focus of this sonic onslaught, bore the brunt of the attack and met a gruesome end.

The golden bolts of his fleeing remnant soul were obliterated by the shrill screams.

Each strand of golden light represented a flicker of hope for survival, extinguished one by one, drawing him closer to death.

Not a single one, whether high in the sky or deep within the earth, was spared.

They were all systematically extinguished.

At this juncture, the Palace of Bones seized the opportunity to settle atop Ochre Mountain.

Boom!

The ground seemed to plummet abruptly.

"Crack!"

Within the mountain, Liang Jingyin's five-tiered pagoda and his real body were shattered, unable to withstand the ferocious demon energy of the Palace of Bones.

Dusk Raven burst forth, streaking like a beam of light into the heart of the mountain.

"Liang Jingyin won't survive."

Python Queen Xu Zixi, witnessing this, saw Dusk Raven depart from the "Sunsilver Holy Mountain" and quickly sought to reassure Yu Yuan, "A solitary cultivator remains just that, with very limited worth if he hasn't attained the Solar Spirit level. For the three great upper sects, Shadow's Keep, and the Devil Palace, the death of a cultivator below the eighth level or a Solar Spirit is inconsequential."

"What about a solitary practitioner?"

Tong Laoqian was visibly the most uncomfortable upon hearing this.

Like Liang Jingyin, he too was a solitary practitioner with no strong sect to support him.

Liang Jingyin, on the verge of condensing his Solar Spirit, had Chong Xiao of the Ethereal Void Sect pleading on his behalf, yet he was still slain by an enraged Dusk Raven. Tong Laoqian, even less accomplished than Liang Jingyin, stood little chance against the might of the upper sects like Shadow's Keep and Devil Palace. What could he possibly do if they decided he was their next target?

With a heavy heart, Tong Laoqian chuckled bitterly at the thought.

He was secretly contemplating whether he should cling to Yu Zhu as a lifeline within the Forgotten Ruins.

"Alas."

Concealed in the mountain's shadow, Chong Xiao's Lunar Spirit let out a forlorn sigh, whispering, "With things as they are, there's little left to say. If the Solar Spirit's condensation has failed and all future hope is lost, he's nothing but a useless waste."

Chong Xiao's Lunar Spirit vanished into the earth, traversing hundreds of miles beneath the surface.

Xu Zixi, Tong Laoqian, and Zhu Peining, all of counselor rank, observed closely and discovered that Chong Xiao was aiding Lord Dusk Raven in capturing and extinguishing each of Liang Jingyin's fleeing remnant souls.

Liang Jingyin was now truly beyond the reach of death.

"One step from the divine altar, one step into the abyss."

Gao Qin of the Skyreach Consortium cast a sidelong glance towards Ochre Mountain and casually stated a harsh truth, "Had Liang Jingyin actually succeeded in refining his Solar Spirit and been formally accepted by the Ethereal Void Sect, becoming a counselor on their genealogy, Dusk Raven would have had to weigh his actions carefully."

Among the upper sects, Shadow's Keep, and Devil Palace, there's an unspoken agreement: those who have reached the Solar Spirit level are deemed worthy to contend in the Star River.

Such individuals, unless they breach the stringent edicts of the upper sects, Shadow's Keep, or Devil Palace, are typically given a pass for past transgressions and are not pursued for their mistakes.

Had Liang Jingyin truly succeeded, his past misdeeds against the Skyreach Consortium could have been erased.

Then, as a counselor of the Ethereal Void sect, he was taken to the Star River beyond our world to battle Sky Fiends and Otherkin.

Should Liang Jingyin accumulate enough glorious achievements, he might even be hailed as a hero and receive rewards from the three upper sects, the Devil Palace, and Shadow's Keep.

In that case, he would ascend to godhood.

Without having condensed a Solar Spirit, Liang Jingyin lacked the qualifications to leave the extraterrestrial realm. A lone cultivator without a sect's backing would die unnoticed and unmourned.

This was the precipice of the Abyss.

"No more of this."

Yu Yuan nodded contentedly. He shared a smile with Xu Zixi before gesturing to Zhan Tianxiang, "Take me further on my journey; I wish to visit Asvetaesi."

"Brother Yu?" Tong Laoqian hesitated.

When Yu Yuan's gaze fell upon him, he gestured toward Ochre Mountain, "This, that, the mountain is mine. If Liang Jingyin were to die, would I...?"

"We'll discuss it upon her return," Yu Yuan responded.

"Understood!" Tong Laoqian beamed.

Zhan Tianxiang resumed control of the Sunsilver Throne, soaring past Ochre Mountain toward Gavanas.

"Master, oh Master..."

At the mountain's base, Su Che mourned as if he had lost everything dear to him, his cries subdued, his face devoid of life.

Yu Yuan glanced down but remained silent.

With a whoosh, a withered bone flew like a sword. Su Che, who hailed from the Su family and had been entrusted to Liang Jingyin by Su Xiangtian, fell silent in his grief.

"Insufferable."

The grumbling voice of Lord Dusk Raven echoed from within the mountain.

His irritation stemmed from Yu Yuan's audacity in addressing him, yet he was constrained by the potential of Yu Zhu becoming a Dark Deity and could not retaliate against Yu Yuan.

Liang Jingyin's demise served as an outlet for his pent-up frustration.

As for Su Che, his death was a mere consequence of Dusk Raven's irritation with the incessant weeping.

He was indifferent to Su Che's family background. After all, he had already killed Liang Jingyin himself; what was a mere disciple to him?

"Su Che..." Zhan Tianxiang murmured, standing atop Gold Mountain, his expression tinged with complexity.

Within the same empire, Su Che of the Su family had once been a peer, a young talent on par with himself. Su Che had missed the Moonfall Sanctuary trial, occupied with a breakthrough at the time.

In the blink of an eye, years had passed.

Zhan Tianxiang, now a direct disciple of the Golden Elephant God, soared over Ochre Mountain aboard the Sunsilver Holy Mountain. Figures like the Python Queen Xu Zixi and the Dusk Raven showed him great deference.

Yet Su Che, of equal birthright, had done nothing more than annoy the Dusk Raven with his crying, and for that, he had met his end...

It was then that Zhan Tianxiang truly grasped the gravity of Gao Qin's words: One step to the divine altar, one step to the abyss.

He had ascended to the divine altar, while Su Che had plummeted into the abyss.

Such was the cruel and wondrous nature of human circumstances.

In less than fifteen minutes, the Sunsilver Holy Mountain arrived at Gavanas, hovering midair.

"The Sunsilver Throne! The Divine Throne of the Golden Elephant God!"

"The one at the helm appears to be Zhan Tianxiang, who visited a few days ago!"

"The Python Queen is present as well!"

Cultivators from the seven lower sects within Gavanas looked up at the Gold Mountain in the sky, their exclamations filling the air.

Sky Chariots from other sects might hesitate to dock at Gavanas, wary of provoking the Shadow's Keep and incurring the wrath of its archdemons.

Naturally, this concern did not apply to the Shadow's Keep itself.

"That body... it seems to be..."

Zhao Yafu narrowed her eyes, taking a longer look at the edifice of Winter's Bite, "There's a frozen corpse that appears to be Lin Zhuyun's father."

Yu Yuan had noticed it earlier. His father-in-law had repeatedly sent Yin Jue to assassinate him.

After his repeated failures, the man had brazenly come to Asvetaesi, stirring trouble in the grand hall of the Yu family.

Lin Hanyu, now encased within a massive block of ice, had long since lost all signs of life; he had been dead for quite some time.

"My apologies, please forgive me," Elder Weixian of Winter's Bite said with a respectful bow, his hands clasped in front of him as he nodded to Xu Zixi and Yu Yuan. "I've heard rumors that Lin Zhuyun, who hails from our sect, still possesses spiritual wisdom. I can't confirm its veracity, but regardless of whether it's true or not, Winter's Bite must make our position clear."

He gestured towards the body of Lin Hanyu's father and declared, "This is the stance of Winter's Bite."

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