"No problem."
For once, Sister Bai Shuang's cold, elegant face showed a trace of ease, her expression softening as she agreed to Jian Dan's request.
Sister Bai Xia beamed, her eyes fixed on Xiao Yue. Her hands twitched with the urge to pet him.
The proud little wolf pup tilted his head high, sprawled across Jian Dan's knees, tail swishing as he shamelessly begged for spirit fruits.
Jian Dan didn't hold back. She popped a Purpleheart Fruit into his mouth, and he happily gnawed away, completely satisfied.
Meanwhile, Bai Shuang pulled Bai Xia off to the side to cover their hair color.
Jian Jun turned to Jian Dan and asked, "You plan to take those two back to our continent with you?"
"Mm. Using poison against the insect race is one of my ideas. Before I left, I dug Jin Ai out of the Jin Family. Her research has made some progress already."
"That's not bad at all. There's never just one way to solve a problem. Finding new approaches, that's your specialty."
"Senior Sister's too kind. We're only forced into it. If we don't want to end up as feed for the insect race, we've got to think of ways to wipe them out."
Jian Jun's usual gentleness faded, her expression turning grave. "I agree with your theory about their origins and invasion methods. This battle really is a fight to the death for both sides."
"Senior Sister, what do you think about the burial grounds in the outer perimeter?" Jian Dan asked.
Instead of answering, she lobbed the question back with a smile. "What do you think, Junior Sister?"
Jian Dan rolled her eyes inwardly. Her senior sister was as sharp as ever. With a sigh, she came out with it. "The Immortal Realm is fighting the insect race too."
The moment she said it, silence fell. Everyone stopped talking and stared at her.
"You mean because of those insect corpses?"
"And immortal corpses," Jian Dan added.
"But we've been here for nearly ten years, and none of the immortals inside have ever mentioned anything like that," a cultivator from Cloud Sea Sect spoke up.
"That's because they fell here along with a fragment of the Immortal Realm itself," Jian Dan replied.
"So you're saying they were avoiding the fight?" Jian Mao mused aloud.
"To sever a piece of the Immortal Realm, their enemy must've been terrifying. At least Xianjun-level strength," Jian Dan continued, fan tapping against her palm as she thought aloud. "But instead of vanishing, this place became a dumping ground for the aftermath of their war with the insect race. And they opened it so cultivators from the lower realms could enter. Why?"
"To make sure the ones who come here carry word of the insect race back to their continents," Jian Chun answered.
"Exactly. But you've been here nearly a decade. Has a single immortal passed that message along?" Jian Dan asked.
"Not at all," Su Chui replied. "They only harvest materials from the remains and recruit stranded cultivators with promises of leading them to the Immortal Realm."
Everyone fell silent, frowning, even Hou San.
"I think those immortals might've been knocked down here for exactly that reason," Jian Dan said coldly. "They avoided the battle and only looked out for their clans. Maybe they even sabotaged the war effort. That's why they were cast down."
"If that's the case, it would've been better to throw them back into the battlefield and see how they avoided the fight then," Jian Jing scoffed, disdain clear in his voice.
"Senior Sister, while you were trapped in the Tan Song Family, did you notice anything?" Jian Dan asked.
"They broke their promises and only cared about their clan," Jian Jun replied without hesitation.
"Then they've got no sense of the bigger picture," Jian Dan murmured.
"Junior Sister, have you discovered anything else since entering this place?" she asked.
"Yes. From the outer perimeter to the inner, then back to the middle, I noticed the Xianyuan energy here has grown more active and abundant."
She shared what she had found. Since only her divine sense worked here, and she carried a trace of Xianyuan energy within her body, she barely managed to stir it. That tiny edge let her notice what the others could not. At first, she'd been unsure, but the free-flowing Xianyuan energy in the air all but rushed into her body. To be certain, she'd asked Liu Chuan to check, and he'd confirmed it.
So to avoid suppressing her cultivation when they returned, she had Mó Yuè Zhǎn absorb as much as possible. Over these days, the sword spirit clung to her earlobe, silently drinking in Xianyuan energy without pause, too busy to even acknowledge her.
Jian Jun's eyes lit up when she heard this. She looked straight at Jian Dan, and when she gave a small nod, a smile spread across her face.
"Jian Lu Daoyou, what does that suggest?"
"It means this space is slowly rising, on its way back to the Immortal Realm," Jian Dan said firmly.
"Jian Jun, when the Tan Song Family said we'd be able to contact the Immortal Realm in a year, did they mean that's when this fallen land will return to its original place?" someone from Purple Sky Sect asked.
"There are two possibilities," Jian Jun explained. "Either this continent will rise close enough to communicate with the Immortal Realm, or as you said, by then the whole land will have already returned."
Everyone understood.
Jian Dan summarized with a thoughtful smile. "So right now, it looks like this fallen land was cut loose on purpose. The goal was to let cultivators from the lower realms prepare for the war against the insect race once they ascend. But the immortals who fell with it don't seem to grasp the situation. They're too busy hoarding resources, exploiting lower-realm cultivators, and eliminating rivals. The Yu Tao Family deserved what they got, but looking at it now, all of them are about the same. This fallen land is rising again. That means its mission is almost complete."