I gain ten years' worth of cultivation every day, and even geniuses will only see my doorstep!

"It's looking for something." Yan Yue opened her eyes. "It keeps rummaging through my mind, trying to find something. I don't know what it's looking for, but every time it finishes, it gets disappointed. Then it gets angry."

Su Yao frowned slightly. She glanced back at the direction outside the tent, where she could vaguely see a white-haired figure sitting at the edge of the campsite in the darkness.

"You should get some rest." Su Yao stood up and tucked the blanket around Yan Yue. "I'll go talk to Qin Yuan."

"Wait a minute," Yan Yue called out to her.

Su Yao turned around.

Yan Yue looked at her, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she only said, "Thank you."

Su Yao smiled, said nothing, lifted the tent flap and went out.

Outside the tent, Qin Yuan sat on a rock at the very edge of the camp, facing the direction of the sealed palace. The bone blade was stuck beside him, the patterns on its surface flowing quietly in the moonlight.

He didn't close his eyes for a whole day and night.

Su Yao walked to his side and followed his gaze to the sealed palace. Under the moonlight, the enormous palace stood silently in the sea of ​​mist, the sealing gate on the front intact, the seven holy body marks gleaming faintly in the moonlight. But everyone knew that the real threat lay on the back—the large hole that had been forcibly carved open, the "door" leading to the remnant soul of the demon god.

"Yan Yue is awake." Su Yao sat down next to Qin Yuan. "She said that thing kept searching for something in her mind, but couldn't find it."

Qin Yuan nodded but did not reply.

Su Yao glanced at him. She knew this man too well; when he was silent, he wasn't daydreaming, but thinking. And usually, he was thinking about the worst-case scenario.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm wondering why it doesn't come out on its own." Qin Yuan's fingers tapped lightly on the hilt of the bone blade. "It can influence the Heavenly Mystery Master, it can seep power through the seal, and it can open its eyes in the cracks to see us. But it hasn't come out."

"The seal has not been completely broken yet."

"Not only that." Qin Yuan shook his head. "If I were it, sealed for countless millennia, and finally the seal loosened, the first thing I would do is rush out. But what is it waiting for?"

He turned to look at Su Yao: "It needs the seven women's sacred bodies as a 'key' to open the sealed gate. But it could have easily released a portion of its power first, just like it polluted those seventeen worlds, to disrupt the outside world before slowly dealing with the seven women. But it didn't."

Su Yao's pupils contracted slightly: "You mean—"

"It's wary." Qin Yuan's tone was calm, as if he were talking about something as ordinary as deciding what to have for dinner. "It's wary of something. Something that makes it afraid to go all out."

"Is that thing in the myriad realms? Or in the Eternal Heaven?"

Qin Yuan did not answer, but instead turned his gaze to what was behind him.

In the center of the camp, the seven women's tents formed a semicircle. A flickering fire still lingered in Yan Lingji's tent; the woman was still cultivating, not sleeping at night. Mu Hongyi's tent was quiet, but occasionally a faint sword intent would flash across its roof. A thin layer of ice had formed around Bingji's tent, the unconscious chill she released while sleeping. Hongyue's tent had her spear planted outside, a small lantern hanging from the shaft. A bunch of wildflowers sat at the entrance of Yueyao's tent; it was unclear when she had picked them. Jian Wushuang's tent was closest to Qin Yuan's. She sat at the entrance, holding her sword in one hand, her eyes open, her gaze fixed on Qin Yuan's back.

"What is your relationship with the seven goddesses who sealed the demon god back then?" Qin Yuan asked.

Su Yao remained silent for a long time.

"I don't know," she said, "but based on what I saw on the stone tablet before, and what I've been sensing within my body these past few days, I have a guess."

"explain."

"We are not the reincarnations of the Seven Goddesses," Su Yao said softly. "We are the inheritors of the Seven Goddesses' Sacred Bodies. The Chaos Sacred Body, the Heavenly Fire Sacred Body, the Limitless Sword Body... these sacred bodies are not innate; they are inherited. Every 100,000 years, the seven sacred bodies awaken simultaneously in the myriad realms. The awakened ones are guided by their origins and eventually arrive at the Sealed Palace to reinforce the seal. This is why the Heavenly Mystery Sect was able to find us under the guise of the 'Goddess Trials'—because our very existence is part of the seal."

Qin Yuan stopped knocking.

"You mean, your existence is destined to reinforce the seal?"

"right."

"And they were destined to die."

Su Yao did not answer, but that in itself was an answer.

Qin Yuan stood up, pulled the bone blade from the ground, and held it in his hand. The patterns on the blade pulsated slightly in his palm, like ten thousand hearts beating simultaneously.

"Ten thousand years ago, someone told me that the way of Heaven cannot be defied." Qin Yuan looked down at the bone blade, his voice soft. "Later, he died by my blade."

Su Yao looked at his profile and suddenly laughed.

"You're still the same as always." She stood up and patted the dew off her skirt. "But this time is different."

"What's different?"

"Ten thousand years ago you were a person, but you aren't anymore." Su Yao turned and walked towards the camp. After a few steps, she looked back at him. "Get some rest. We'll continue deeper into the camp tomorrow."

Qin Yuan stood still, the moonlight casting a long shadow over him.

As dawn broke, Yan Yue emerged from the tent, leaning on a wooden cane.

Her left leg was still not very strong, and she walked with a limp, but her back was straight, her chin slightly raised, still displaying the air of the Ninth Princess. Qin Yuan frowned slightly when he saw her come out of the tent.

Su Yao said you can't get out of bed for three days.

"She doesn't have the final say." Yan Yue limped up to Qin Yuan, looking up at him. She only reached Qin Yuan's chin, but her presence was in no way inferior. "Do you know what that thing inside is looking for?"

Qin Yuan didn't speak, waiting for her to continue.

"It's looking for a body," Yan Yue said. "When it was rummaging through my brain, I saw fragments of its memories. It originally had no physical form; it was a pure chaotic will. In ancient times, it descended upon all realms, and its first target was the eldest of the Seven Goddesses—the original possessor of the Chaotic Holy Body. It tried to possess her body but failed. Later, the Seven Goddesses joined forces to seal it away, and a wisp of its remnant soul escaped to the depths of the ruins of the Chaotic Origin Realm."

"Whose does it want now?" Qin Yuan asked.

"For everyone." Yan Yue's expression was cold. "What it wants is a perfect vessel that can simultaneously contain the origins of seven sacred bodies. So it doesn't want just one sacred body, but seven. It wants to use the origins of the seven goddesses to reshape a body stronger than the original seven goddesses."

"Then why doesn't it just come out and arrest people?"