The blazing sun scorched the reddish-yellow Gobi until it burned. What little moisture remained in the ground evaporated, sending wisps of white smoke curling upward.
The Master of the Netherflower Workshop walked ahead, her black gauze gown fluttering in the wind. Her waist was slender, her breasts and hips full and proud. Strands of dark nether divine qi drifted from her body, forming a divine river that flowed forward, probing for spatial traps and divine runes.
God Caoyi followed behind, completely unafraid of the dangers here. His narrow eyes stayed fixed on her, their gaze intensely predatory.
He asked, “How many years has the Workshop Master been cultivating?”
Knowing God Caoyi’s cultivation was profound, the Master of the Netherflower Workshop dared not be remiss and quickly replied, “Sixty thousand years.”
“What a pity, truly a pity. Sixty thousand years of cultivation, yet you remain only at mid-stage Median God. I fear the Workshop Master will never reach High God,” God Caoyi said.
Her innermost worry exposed, her eyes darkened and her mood sank.
God Caoyi continued, “Even if you do reach High God, surviving the Yuanhui tribulation is far from certain. Only at mid-stage High God does one have some chance of success. A true god who lives only one Yuanhui, how is that different from a false god?”
For a moment the Master of the Netherflower Workshop froze, a bitter look on her face, yet she pretended indifference. “All lives have their length, and birth and death are predestined. Since my talent caps at Median God, that is my fate.”
Although she planned to comprehend the Dao through music and break through to High God, the odds of success were minuscule. In truth, she harboured little hope.
“Wrong, utterly wrong! Such thinking is nothing but self-deception. A cultivator must fight with everything they have. No matter how small the chance, as long as it can make you stronger, you must seize it, even if it means sacrificing what you treasure most. You must press forward and grasp every opportunity,” God Caoyi declared.
The Master of the Netherflower Workshop stopped abruptly and asked, “What is the opportunity the senior speaks of?”
God Caoyi revealed a smile that said “I knew you would bite”, placed his hands behind his back, and, though his frame was neither tall nor imposing, exuded an evil and overwhelming presence. “Do you know who this seat is?”
Each word boomed like thunder, making her eardrums ring and her divine soul tremble as if it might leave her body.
The man before her seemed to contain power enough to shatter star rivers. His gaze burned. Though his features were ugly, his demonic eyes somehow made him appear irresistibly charming, peerless in the world.
This was merely an avatar, yet it possessed such might.
There was no need to guess. He must have an extraordinary background, certainly not just some Supreme Protector, but an overlord of Heaven or Hell.
Satisfied that he had overawed her, God Caoyi nodded and said, “This seat is the Lord of the Yin-Yang Realm.”
“God Caoyi!”
The words burst from the Master of the Netherflower Workshop’s lips, shock written across her gorgeous face.
He truly was an overlord, one who stood at the very pinnacle of the universe.
The Yin-Yang Realm was a first-tier great world under Heaven, with many large worlds dependent upon it. The name “God Caoyi” thundered through the ears of gods everywhere. It was little wonder she lost her composure.
“God Caoyi?”
He shook his head. “Very few know this seat’s true name. Ignorant fools see me travelling in seven-coloured robes and call me thus.”
“Xinghuan Heaven has become a place of calamity and will surely be destroyed in this war. With your peerless beauty and considerable cultivation, if you become my concubine, this seat can take you to the Yin-Yang Realm and keep you safe from disaster.”
“This is a heaven-sent opportunity for you! You should know that dual cultivation of yin and yang with me brings enormous benefits. Reaching High God would be no difficulty at all.”
God Caoyi’s eyes blazed with seductive light.
Having become a god in the Twelve Divine Maiden Workshops, the Master of the Netherflower Workshop possessed some resistance to such temptation and quickly regained clarity. She knew dual cultivation with God Caoyi would indeed bring benefits.
But she also knew those benefits were fleeting. To him, she would be nothing more than yin medicine to harvest.
The title of concubine was a lie.
Once she dual-cultivated with him, the relationship would be master and slave. In the end, her consciousness would degrade until she became a slave living only for desire.
Yet God Caoyi was an overlord of boundless cultivation. Here in the Yuhong Mountains, did she dare refuse him?
Even at the Heavenly Divine Maiden Tower, she probably would not dare. She knew Queen Bai could not save her.
Otherwise, how could God Caoyi have become Supreme Protector of the Twelve Divine Maiden Workshops?
Even Queen Bai must have yielded to him.
As she wavered, God Caoyi grew impatient. His eyes turned cold, his hands formed claws, and he reached for her, sneering, “This seat is not giving you a choice. I am commanding you. You have no right to choose!”
The Master of the Netherflower Workshop had been on guard. The instant he moved, her figure blurred, dozens of after-images scattering in flight.
Rip!
God Caoyi grasped only empty air and a black lace gauze skirt. Failing to seize her, his eyes narrowed.
Then a cruel smile spread across his face. “Very good, amusing! Since you want to play, this seat will play with you, slowly.”
Still shaken, she retreated far away. Her upper body now wore only a bandeau, revealing vast expanses of snow-white skin. She immediately released her divine realm world. “I know I am no match for you, but if you keep forcing me, I will detonate my divine source and perish together with you.”
God Caoyi sniffed the fragrant gauze skirt, smiling as he approached. “Perish together? With my avatar?”
“You are mistaken, foolish girl. Detonating your divine source can indeed threaten gods stronger than you. Even early-stage High Gods might back off. But before this seat, even before my avatar, it is utterly meaningless.”
He drew closer.
The Master of the Netherflower Workshop summoned her supreme sacred artefact, the Myriad Tribulations Floral Zither, and hurled it forth.
The zither was both her musical instrument and her weapon of war.
Once released, the Myriad Tribulations Floral Zither grew enormous, becoming a square palace. Countless supreme inscriptions blazed under divine qi, unleashing heaven-shattering power.
“Haha, as expected, you cannot bear to die. When a person refuses to die at the moment they should, their fate becomes far worse than death.”
God Caoyi extended a palm. Divine qi surged from it, forming a black hand hundreds of metres long that seized the descending Myriad Tribulations Floral Zither and claimed it.
“How is this possible?”
She could not believe that a full-power strike with her supreme sacred artefact had been neutralised so easily, and her weapon taken.
How vast was the gap in cultivation?
She dared not think further. Burning her divine blood, she fled deeper into the reddish-yellow Gobi.
Only by heading into ever greater danger could she seize a sliver of hope.
“I absolutely cannot fall into his hands.”
The mere thought of the consequences made her shudder.
If captured by God Caoyi, she would become his slave and even her spirit and will would be stripped away.
God Caoyi pursued at a leisurely pace. Scooping up a handful of sand, he spread his palm and laughed. “Girl, you cannot escape. Flowing Sand World!”
As she fled, the ground beneath her feet vanished. The reddish-yellow Gobi disappeared, and she plummeted into flowing sand.
Sand pressed in from all sides, impossibly heavy. With her Median God strength she could not resist. She realised this was a world formed by God Caoyi’s order divine runes.
Buried in the sand, breathing was impossible, circulating divine qi was impossible, even her divine soul and thoughts were imprisoned, as though heaven and earth themselves crushed her.
Just when the agony became unbearable, her body fell to the ground. Looking up, she found herself sprawled before God Caoyi.
The divine qi and order divine runes he released pressed invisibly upon her.
“I told you, you cannot escape.”
God Caoyi turned his palm. The sand within it scattered over her, falling onto her hair, her face, her shoulders.
At that moment she felt worse than if she had died. She wanted to break free and fight, but could not move at all.
God Caoyi lifted her chin with a finger, studying her closely. “If you had submitted at once, why suffer like this? Now even detonating your divine source is no longer possible.”
Slap!
His smile vanished. He struck her across the face, sending her sprawling to the ground. Coldly he said, “That is the punishment for disobedience. If you dare defy this seat again, you will… who goes there?”
God Caoyi looked up. At some unknown moment, a white-haired old man had appeared atop a barren hill, watching him.
How strange!
With God Caoyi’s divine soul, he had not sensed the man’s arrival.
Without hesitation, God Caoyi joined two fingers and fired a powerful beam of blazing flame.
Whoosh!
The beam was as thick as a bowl, its force rippling space in circles.
Zhang Ruochen raised a wrinkled hand. In an instant the sky changed. The blazing sun vanished, day turned to night, and stars revolved beyond the heavens. With a sweep of his arm, every star plummeted, becoming massive fireballs that hurtled toward God Caoyi.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The flame beam was instantly swallowed by the falling stars.
At first God Caoyi thought it mere advanced illusion, but when the stars struck, he discovered they were real, each dozens or even hundreds of li across.
“This is an array, a spatial divine array, the Ascending Kan Alignment Grand Array.”
God Caoyi was formidable indeed. His multicoloured robes blazed with stellar brilliance, incinerating every falling star into droplets of molten lava that rained down.
Yet when he looked down again, the Master of the Netherflower Workshop had vanished. She was now in the arms of the old man across from him.
