At that moment, Su Meier gracefully descended from the sky, landing lightly beside Mo Yu. Her elegant figure remained flawless, while her fox-like eyes carried a trace of admiration.
She smiled faintly and explained,
"Their Divine Souls escaped."
"Although Senior Sister's strength is unfathomable, that was only an Incarnation. It isn't enough to completely erase Body Integration cultivators of their caliber."
Her enchanting voice remained calm and composed.
"Besides, we're still within the Chaotic Star Region. If they were truly killed here, leaving this place would become far more troublesome."
Mo Yu nodded slightly.
She was right.
If Jun Wuhen and the others had truly died here, the Starry Sky Holy Land would undoubtedly seal every cross-domain teleportation array throughout the Chaotic Star Region.
At that point, escaping would mean crossing an entire Great Domain with nothing but their own strength.
Just thinking about it was exhausting.
Still...
Letting Jun Wuhen escape was undeniably a pity.
Right now, the only thing that could truly threaten him was the Heavenly Poison Pearl.
Unfortunately, the gap in their cultivation was simply too great.
He would likely be killed long before he ever had the chance to use it.
For now, the wisest course was to wait until Great Senior Sister emerged from the Immortal Secret Realm.
Jun Wuhen of the Tianshu Lineage...
The other two were unfamiliar, but judging by their robes, they should belong to the Tianji and Kaiyang Lineages.
Mo Yu silently committed all three names to memory.
This debt...
He would collect it sooner or later.
Murong Yi looked between the two of them before nodding slowly, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face.
"I... think I understand." Although she clearly understood only half of it, she wisely chose not to ask any further.
Xia Ningbing slowly descended from the sky.
The moment her gaze fell upon Mo Yu, the icy calm within her amethyst eyes rippled ever so slightly.
Then...
The corners of her lips lifted into a faint smile.
Though subtle, it was breathtaking.
Like frozen snow melting beneath the warmth of spring, her smile seemed to brighten the entire world.
Even Su Meier froze for a moment.
Mo Yu, however, was completely dumbfounded.
His Third Senior Sister was famous for her frosty temperament, an existence as cold and untouchable as an iceberg that had remained frozen for ten thousand years.
Yet...
She had actually smiled.
Wait...
She isn't laughing at me, is she?
Mo Yu immediately snapped back to his senses and complained with a slightly aggrieved expression.
"Third Senior Sister, you're laughing at me too! Hurry and change me back!"
"So what if I turned into a child? Is it really that amusing?"
The faint smile on Xia Ningbing's face quietly disappeared, her expression returning to its usual cold indifference, as though that beautiful smile had never existed.
She gently shook her head, her clear, tranquil voice carrying its usual chill.
"I wasn't laughing at you."
"I simply remembered something... rather amusing."
Without another word, she casually raised a slender jade hand.
A gentle stream of spiritual light enveloped Mo Yu's entire body.
He instantly felt a warm current flow through every meridian in his body.
His bones stretched.
His muscles grew.
Within moments, his childlike body rapidly matured, returning to its original form.
Mo Yu instinctively looked down at himself before letting out a long sigh of relief.
"I'm finally back..."
Being trapped in a child's body had been unbearably inconvenient.
Everything—from fighting to simply moving around—felt awkward.
Murong Yi stood rooted to the spot, her beautiful eyes filled with astonishment.
Master...
He actually grew up in an instant?
What kind of divine technique is this?
Her gaze quietly lingered on Mo Yu's now-grown appearance.
His handsome features, calm demeanor, and elegant bearing made her heart skip a beat.
A faint blush crept onto her cheeks.
It's... perfectly normal to admire your Master in the cultivation world... right?
That's how it always happens in cultivation novels...
As Murong Yi's thoughts wandered, Xia Ningbing casually flicked her sleeve.
Four storage rings flew through the air before landing neatly in Mo Yu's palm.
"They're yours."
She spoke only those two words.
Su Meier immediately puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
With a graceful sway of her slender waist, she walked over to Xia Ningbing, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and complained in an aggrieved tone.
"Senior Sister, that's so unfair."
"You're clearly playing favorites!"
"What about me?"
"I worked hard too, you know."
Xia Ningbing merely glanced at her before replying in her usual indifferent tone.
"You rarely leave the mountain."
"So you don't need them."
Her answer was concise, leaving no room for argument.
"..."
Su Meier was instantly speechless.
Before she could protest any further, Xia Ningbing's figure gradually faded into countless particles of light before disappearing completely.
Only after confirming her Senior Sister had truly left did Su Meier let out a helpless sigh.
Then, her fox ears twitched excitedly as she leaned close to Mo Yu, her beautiful fox-like eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"Quick!"
She nudged his arm eagerly.
"Open them and see what's inside!"
Verdant Mist Peak.
Xia Ningbing's consciousness slowly returned to her true body.
She opened her eyes, her amethyst-purple pupils shimmering with a trace of contemplation. A quiet sigh escaped her lips, carrying away the lingering turbulence in her heart.
Immortal Artifacts... and more than one.
A Lower Realm possessing so many Immortal Artifacts... along with Junior Sister's Nine-Leaf Fate Grass...
Piece by piece, the truth gradually came together in her mind.
The Heavenly Origin Realm had foreseen a catastrophe capable of bringing about its complete destruction.
Knowing that its doom was inevitable, the Heavenly Dao had chosen to stake everything on a single gamble, pouring countless treasures and immeasurable fortune into one final generation.
The greatest share had fallen to Mo Yu, while the remaining opportunities were distributed among several others.
Yet even after exhausting every resource it possessed, the Heavenly Dao's countless deductions still ended in the same conclusion.
Defeat.
With no other path remaining, it allowed Ling Wanqing to glimpse fragments of the future, hoping she could unite everyone against the approaching calamity.
Unfortunately...
From Xia Ningbing's experience, a disaster of such magnitude was far beyond what the inhabitants of the Lower Realm could overcome on their own.
However...
In her previous life, she had been an Immortal Emperor.
Even the Heavenly Dao of the Heavenly Origin Realm was incapable of calculating her fate or interfering with her destiny.
If that was the case...
Then as Mo Yu's Third Senior Sister, she would become the variable that even Heaven itself could not predict.
After all these years living together on Verdant Mist Peak, they had long ceased to be merely fellow disciples.
They were family.
As that thought crossed her mind, the perpetual frost on her face softened ever so slightly.
The corners of her lips curved into a gentle smile, as though eternal winter had finally yielded to the warmth of spring.
"...Little Yu really was adorable when he was a child."