144: Master's... Master?

This was the killing blow of a Mahayana Stage Cultivator, staking his Foundation and Dao Heart.

It was the materialization of the Law.

It was the highest destructive power that mortal beings within this realm could touch.

However, facing this strike capable of piercing stars, the woman in white still did not turn around.

She did not even spare it a glance, as if the attack behind her—one capable of deciding the life and death of a realm—was merely a gentle breeze passing her ear.

All her attention remained focused on Su Lin, and her clear eyes even held a hint of playful mockery.

She seemed to be enjoying Su Lin's current embarrassed and panic-stricken appearance.

The gray finger beam tore through space, arriving instantaneously.

It met no resistance, nor did it dissipate on its own like the giant palm before it.

It flew straight toward the back of the woman in white's heart.

It succeeded!

Immortal Master Xuanhe's eyes erupted with ecstasy.

The surrounding Cultivators also held their breath, wondering if this mysterious powerhouse was truly so arrogant.

But in the next moment, a scene occurred that caused everyone's Dao Heart to shatter.

That gray finger beam, which embodied the Law of Heaven and Earth's Killing Intent, vanished once again just before touching the woman's plain white dress.

Not a single trace of energy was left behind.

...

Where was the attack?

Where did that supreme strike go—the one that contained the lifelong cultivation of a Mahayana Stage Cultivator and mobilized the rules of Heaven and Earth's killing and conquest?

Everyone's brains stopped functioning. Their Divine Sense frantically swept over the area, but they could only perceive emptiness.

There were no spatial cracks, no energy residue, and the Law fluctuations were so stable that not a single ripple could be detected.

"No... No... No!"

Immortal Master Xuanhe's mind completely collapsed at this moment.

He maintained the posture of having just launched that finger strike, but his body trembled violently.

High above, the woman in white finally made a new move.

She seemed to have lost all interest in the Mahayana Stage Cultivator behind her, who had fallen into self-doubt and was on the verge of Qi Deviation.

She slowly turned her head, sweeping her gaze for the first time over the surrounding Integration Stage Great Powers who were already scared out of their wits.

Her gaze was very calm, devoid of any Killing Intent or emotion.

Yet, as her sight swept past, those powerhouses who were usually high and mighty, capable of overseeing an entire Sect, felt as though they were seen through, inside and out.

Their greed, their Killing Intent, and all the dark thoughts in their hearts had nowhere to hide under that gaze.

In the next instant, a bizarre and terrifying scene unfolded.

The expression on the face of a scar-faced man, who had just been brimming with Killing Intent and preparing to reap the benefits of the conflict, froze.

The brilliance in his eyes extinguished without warning, turning into a dead, gray pallor.

As if losing the support of his Divine Soul, his body lost all strength.

Like a stone, he plummeted straight down from mid-air, hitting the ground at the bottom of the valley with a 'thud,' never to stir again.

It wasn't just him.

All the Integration Stage Cultivators swept by that gaze,

whether from the Righteous Path or the Demonic Path, regardless of gender, age, or youth, experienced the same fate at the exact same moment.

Their movements halted.

There were no screams or struggles, not even the slightest energy fluctuation.

They were merely looked at.

Then, their Divine Souls, the very basis of their existence, were completely erased from this world.

One after another, those once arrogant figures plunged from the sky like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

"Thud."

"Thud."

"Thud."

The dull sounds of bodies hitting the ground echoed one after another throughout the silent valley.

In just a few breaths, the dozens of Integration Stage Great Powers inside and outside the Sky Rift Valley, who were capable of shaking the continent, were completely wiped out.

Their corpses lay scattered across the valley floor, maintaining the posture they held in their final moments before death.

The only ones still alive, besides Su Lin and Luo Ximei, were the Mahayana Stage Cultivator with the shattered Dao Heart high above, Immortal Master Xuanhe.

He had not been swept by that gaze; he had become the sole spectator.

He watched helplessly as those powerhouses, slightly inferior to him, were extinguished one by one, like candles being snuffed out.

Fear prevented him from even forming the thought of escape.

The woman in white, having finished all this, acted as if she had merely brushed away a few bothersome specks of dust.

She slowly turned around, redirecting her gaze toward Su Lin.

Her clear eyes held a mixture of familiarity from a long-awaited reunion and undisguised mockery.

"Oh," her voice was clear and pleasant, "Little Lin's disciple have reached the Body Integration Stage, but why are you still only in the Void Refining Stage?"

This sentence instantly snapped Luo Ximei out of her shock.

Little Lin?

She subconsciously glanced at her Revered Master beside her.

She saw that Su Lin's usually calm face now held an extremely complex, even panic-stricken, expression.

The slight reverence Luo Ximei felt in her heart due to the other party saving them turned into a hint of displeasure.

However, she dared not show the slightest disrespect toward the woman before her.

The scene that just transpired had completely overturned her understanding.

She stepped forward, once again shielding Su Lin behind her. "Senior, do you know my Revered Master?"

Upon hearing this, the woman in white finally shifted her gaze from Su Lin and focused it on Luo Ximei.

She sized up Luo Ximei.

"Great Perfection of Integration Stage. The Foundation is quite solid, and the Fusion of the Heart Demon with the self is also decent. Obsessive, possessive, decisive in killing—a good seedling for cultivating the Demonic Path."

She commented, much like a Senior examining a Junior's homework. "It's just this protectiveness; she acts exactly like your Revered Master did back then."

Her words made Luo Ximei frown even harder.

And Su Lin, upon hearing the phrase, "acts exactly like your Revered Master did back then," felt his mouth twitch uncontrollably.

He finally gave up resisting, stepped forward, pulled the still-vigilant Luo Ximei behind him, and offered the woman in white a smile uglier than a cry.

"Ma... Revered Master, how... how are you here?"

That single word, "Revered Master," was utterly earth-shattering.

Luo Ximei froze completely.

She looked at Su Lin in disbelief, then at the woman in white, her mind a blank slate.

Revered Master's... Revered Master?

Then what should she... call her? Grandmaster?

In this world, there was actually someone who could be her Revered Master's Revered Master?

The woman in white, who was Su Lin's Revered Master, finally revealed a satisfied smile as she looked at his embarrassed state.

"What? You don't recognize me?

It's only been a few hundred years; have you completely forgotten your Revered Master?"

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare."

Su Lin repeatedly waved his hands. "Disciple is just... too surprised.

Didn't you already... Ascend?"

"Ascension?" She chuckled softly. "I am indeed not in this realm. What you see before you is merely a phantom I left behind in this realm when I was bored back then."