Who... Who said I'm your person

The smile on the white-robed woman's face was evident.

She was about to mock Su Ji for his utterly chuunibyou line when—

No sound escaped her lips.

Su Ji moved.

With a casual flick of his spirit-energy sword, he swung forward.

No technique.

No form.

Not even a clear target.

Yet this utterly ordinary swing—

Devoured even light and sound.

A suffocating silence.

In a fraction of an instant, the mockery and composure in the white-robed woman's eyes were drowned by primal terror, rising from the depths of her soul.

She tried to move.

Couldn’t.

She tried to scream.

No voice came.

A Nascent Soul cultivator who had schemed for millennia, luring generations of fools with "legacies," refining her soul with countless resources—

All her experience, all her divine arts, all her pride—

Meant nothing before this sheer, unreasonable force of "ending."

So this was true death?

She had once stood at the pinnacle of immortality, gazing down upon mortals, dispensing death as reward or punishment.

Even after failing her ascension, she had endured.

But only now did she truly "see" the shape of death.

An indescribable, incomprehensible streak of gray-white.

It tore through laws.

Severed causality.

Where it passed—

All things withered.

Returned to nothingness.

Her soul, split cleanly from brow to dantian, offered no resistance as the gray-white trajectory pierced through.

Pop.

A soft sound, like bursting a bubble.

And yet—

The gray-white sword scar didn’t stop.

It crashed into the hall’s unyielding floor with undiminished force.

BOOM—!!!

The entire Nascent Soul cave abode—no, the entire Xuanhuang Mountain—shook violently.

A bottomless fissure, originating from the white-robed woman, tore toward the far end of the hall.

Stone pillars, walls—all were silently split, their cross-sections mirror-smooth.

Hiss—!

Deathly energy erupted from the fissure, flooding the hall in an instant.

The cave abode was collapsing.

Far away, Su Jiu stood frozen, her mind shattered by the scene.

This… is the true power of the "Great Xia Imperial Clan"?

A fifth-layer Qi Refiner… one-slashing a Nascent Soul?

Even if it was just a soul—

This went beyond mere "challenging above one’s level."

Suddenly, she understood.

Why the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan, who only followed "Supremes,"

Were plucked like cabbages by the Great Xia Imperial Clan.

She looked at Su Ji again.

Now, he seemed both unfamiliar and… dazzling.

Meanwhile—

Su Ji exhaled slowly.

The spirit-energy sword in his hand dissipated.

The world-rending aura faded.

A wave of exhaustion hit him.

Damn… side effects?

That one strike had drained him dry—spirit energy, mental focus, everything.

But that was all.

So this "permanent option" was just a "badass attack" at the cost of emptying his mana bar?

He glanced at the white-robed woman’s soul.

Still there, motionless.

The bisected halves were visibly dispersing.

But she wasn’t completely gone yet.

Nascent Soul cultivators—tenacious to the end.

"…Why…?"

A faint, fragmented whisper.

Then, like smoke, she was gone.

Su Jiu rushed over, her face still etched with shock—and worry.

"Su Ji… are you okay?"

She scanned him, resisting the urge to pat him down.

Seeing only his pale complexion, she relaxed slightly.

"I’m fine," Su Ji said offhandedly.

"But your trip might’ve been for nothing…"

The white-robed woman got one-shot.

He couldn’t have held back even if he tried.

Su Jiu shrugged. "It wasn’t a must-have anyway."

She might’ve been consoling herself, but Su Ji was blunt:

"Yeah, trash techniques aren’t worth learning."

Not that he looked down on Nascent Soul legacies—he just figured a failed ascender wouldn’t have anything good.

Why learn from someone who couldn’t even ascend?

As he spoke, the hall trembled harder.

CRASH—!

The ceiling split open, raining fist-sized rubble and dust.

"The abode’s collapsing! Let’s go!" Su Jiu snapped into action.

She summoned a barrier of demonic energy, shielding them both.

Su Ji pointed at the scattered corpses nearby.

"Little sister, check if they’ve got anything valuable."

Su Jiu blinked.

Now? Really?

But his expression said he was dead serious.

"…You don’t want it?"

Then again, it made sense.

His money-grubbing antics in the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm were unforgettable.

"You’ve got a better eye. Take what’s useful—I’ll settle for the leftovers."

Su Ji’s tone brooked no argument.

The real reason?

Su Ji was cultivation-illiterate.

He couldn’t tell treasure from trash.

And unlike idiots like Wang San, he had a brain.

These artifacts probably had "steal me" written all over them—marked by sects, just waiting to get him killed.

"Wouldn’t want my own people to suffer. You’re hurt—you need resources to recover."

A simple line.

But it sent ripples through Su Jiu’s heart.

My own people…

Is that what he meant?

"W-Who’s yours?!"

Her cheeks flushed crimson. She turned away, voice barely audible, heart pounding.

RUMBLE—!

The ground cracked, dark fissures spiderwebbing beneath them.

No time to dawdle.

Su Jiu shoved down her swirling thoughts.

"Fine. I’ll grab a few high-value items, then we leave!"

In a flash, she darted toward the corpses.

Her movements were swift—her divine sense instantly pinpointed the best loot.

An ancient jade pendant.

A gleaming dagger.

A few high-grade pill bottles.

As she turned to leave, a glint caught her eye—

Near where the white-robed woman’s soul had vanished, a pristine white ring lay amidst the rubble, pulsing faintly with spirit energy.

A storage ring!

Her heart leapt as she snatched it up.

But there was no time for anything else.

Su Jiu returned to Su Ji’s side.

“We need to go, now!”

Before Su Ji could react, a warm hand clasped tightly around his, fingers interlacing.

The two rushed to the edge of the cave abode.

Because the cave abode was suspended in the sky, forming its own isolated realm,

the exit’s position was somewhat precarious.

Su Ji, still at the Qi Refining stage, couldn’t fly…

Su Jiu abruptly halted, hesitated for a brief moment, then turned back.

“Hold me.”

And then—

Before the words had even fully left her lips,

Su Ji lunged forward like the unruly Monkey King charging into the Little Thunder Monastery.

Su Jiu bit her lip.

She didn’t resist.

Fine.

After all, he had come to save her.

Consider it repayment.

A fox shouldn’t repay kindness with ingratitude.

There was no time left for hesitation.

She leaped off the edge with Su Ji in her arms.

The wind howled past their ears as Su Jiu instinctively tightened her grip around him.

Su Ji could hear the rhythm of her heartbeat.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Behind them, the Nascent Soul cave abode let out one final mournful cry before collapsing entirely,

swallowed by billowing clouds of dust.