Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

Azure frost climbed along the broken obsidian walls, transforming the entire underground cavern into an eternally frigid ice prison. The extremely cold Yin laws formed a colossal net that blotted out the sky, sealing the River of Time, which had attempted to devour the Central Continent, deep underground.

Su Chang'an stood quietly amidst the ravaged ruins, holding the Taiyin Sword upside down in one hand.

Above, the pitch-black tribulation clouds, which had been brewing the Nine Heavens Tribulation, descended into a violent chaos after losing Li Changgeng and the River of Time as their targets. The thick clouds churned and pressed against each other, and muffled thunder echoed across the dome, causing dust to fall from the surrounding remaining rock walls. Under the indiscriminate crushing force of the Heavenly Dao's will, the spatial structure of the entire tribulation zone was extremely unstable and on the verge of collapse, with dark cracks frequently appearing in the void.

Su Chang'an did not look up at the tribulation clouds in the sky.

She turned slightly to the side, her cold gaze falling on the three Taiyin Ice Crystals behind her, radiating a bone-chilling cold. Inside the ice crystals, Gu Xiang's aged and decaying face, Chen Xuan's frantically flickering lifeline, and Bai Yin's continuously turning dark gold bones were all forcibly frozen at the boundary between life and death by the Taiyin Law.

The rules of Heaven are always strict and unyielding; these three unexplained messes must be thoroughly cleaned up before anything is done.

Su Chang'an knew very well that the Taiyin Ice Crystal could only temporarily isolate her from the pull of time. As long as these three anomalies who defied the laws of heaven and earth remained in this tribulation zone locked tightly by the Heavenly Dao, even with the protection of the Extreme Cold Law, they were always in danger of being annihilated, body and soul. Carrying these three burdens, she simply could not step into the river of time to settle scores with Li Changgeng without any scruples.

At that moment, the will of Heaven above seemed to realize the reality that the River of Time had been forcibly blocked.

The churning, pitch-black tribulation clouds abruptly ceased their aimless roars, the massive cloud layer twisting and turning wildly at an irrational speed. Deep within the clouds, an aura even more chilling than the previous world-destroying purple lightning was rapidly gathering. Three bolts of blood-red lightning, each as thick as a water bucket, gradually took shape in the darkness, their crimson light piercing through the heavy tribulation clouds, illuminating the entire sky of Central Continent in a blood-red hue.

The three bolts of blood lightning did not target Su Chang'an, but instead bypassed her and locked onto the three dying people below who were sealed by the Taiyin Ice Crystal.

Outside, in the Central Continent.

The old monsters who were peering in with trembling fear through their remaining energy fell into a deathly silence the moment the crimson lightning took shape.

Deep within the Wang family compound, the Supreme Ancestor's withered lips trembled violently as he crushed the jade ruyi in his hand, crying out in alarm, "A blood-red heavenly punishment! The Heavenly Dao has locked onto those three dying individuals; this is a karmic calamity that points directly to their very origin!"

In the ancestral land of the Ji family, several powerful figures who had been in slumber for years were ashen-faced, their breaths even momentarily halting. One of the elders shook his head repeatedly, his voice filled with profound helplessness: "Cause and effect are obliterated, ignoring all defenses. Even the Great Emperor couldn't protect these three lives. These three will ultimately meet their end in ashes."

Inside the cave, crimson lightning crashed down.

Three blinding red rays ignored the thick rock layers at the top of the cave and even pierced through the indestructible Taiyin Ice Net on the outside, carrying a terrifying aura that annihilated all cause and effect, and headed straight for the three Taiyin Ice Crystals.

Su Chang'an's eyes suddenly turned extremely cold.

She didn't swing the Taiyin Sword in her right hand to block. The Karmic Tribulation was different from ordinary heavenly punishment; it targeted the soul and destiny, making it impossible to sever with any weapon or spell. The only way to block this kind of annihilation that went straight to the source was to use an even stronger source to withstand it head-on.

"Those I protect, even Heaven cannot take away."

Su Chang'an snorted coldly, his clear voice carrying an undeniable arrogance amidst the rumbling thunder.

Without hesitation, she forcefully activated the newly reconstructed Celestial Fox essence within her body. Accompanied by a clear and arrogant fox cry, a nine-tailed fire fox phantom that blotted out the sky rose from the ground behind her.

The enormous, dark red fox shadow nearly filled the entire underground cavern. Nine massive fox tails suddenly unfurled in the darkness, sweeping away the surrounding turbulent spatial currents with overwhelming power. Three of the tails swept downwards, tightly coiling and supporting the three heavy Taiyin ice crystals behind them.

The other six fox tails went against the tide, meeting the three descending crimson lightning bolts head-on in the most direct and violent manner.

boom!

Crimson lightning slammed into the nine-tailed fox shadow, unleashing blinding light and destructive shockwaves powerful enough to rip eardrums. The entire cavern shook violently from the impact, and large swaths of obsidian turned to dust. However, the phantom carrying the essence of the celestial fox remained unyielding under the frenzied onslaught of the causal lightning tribulation.

Su Chang'an stood beneath the fox's shadow, his white robe fluttering in the wind, his back ramrod straight.

This terrifying sight of the physical body resisting divine punishment caused the powerful beings who were watching from the outside world to be greatly shaken.

"Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox Dharma Form! Has she gone mad? She actually used her own essence to shield those three people from karmic calamities!" The Wang family patriarch was horrified. This kind of protective behavior, bordering on madness, completely overturned the ironclad rule of the cultivation world of seeking advantage and avoiding harm.

Just as Fox Shadow was desperately resisting the lightning tribulation's obliteration, Su Chang'an made a move.

She formed a sword shape with her left hand, the extreme cold of the Yin energy and the fiery essence of the Heavenly Fox intertwining at her fingertips, creating a terrifying sharpness of gray-white and dark red. She targeted a weak point in the void caused by the impact of the lightning tribulation and slashed fiercely at the void beside her.

With a piercing tearing sound, a pitch-black void passage was forcibly ripped open by her peak Quasi-Emperor power. The other end of the passage pointed precisely to the edge of an absolutely safe forbidden area in the Central Continent—the desolate zone of the Fallen God Ruins. Not only was it sparsely populated, but it also contained concealment formations left behind by Chen Xuan and others in the past.

"Walk."

Without the slightest hesitation, Su Chang'an unleashed the power of his nine fox tails, which coiled around the three heavy Taiyin Ice Crystals and hurled them precisely into the spatial rift.

Just as the Taiyin Ice Crystal disappeared into the void, the three people frozen inside, though in a state of unconscious slumber, had wisps of their primordial energy emanating from their bodies during a subconscious battle.

Gu Xiang's exquisite heart within his chest emitted a faint yet resilient golden aura of righteousness; Chen Xuan's fingertips, gripping the jade pendant, overflowed with a pure, dark killing intent; and a violent, dark red Gengjin aura rose from Bai Yin's remaining dark gold bones.

Even if the thoughts of these three men were frozen in an ice block that would never melt, their competitive and jealous nature still seeped out through the cracks in the ice, and it was quite irritating.

These three opposing forces instinctively clashed and repelled each other beneath the ice, none willing to yield. However, under the forceful envelopment and suppression of the Heavenly Fox's essence on the outer edge of the ice crystal, they were forced to retreat into their respective corners, achieving a strange and tense balance.

This brief clash of energy once again horrified the powerful beings outside. They watched helplessly as the three auras, originally locked by the Heavenly Dao, completely broke free from the Tribulation Zone's lock under Su Chang'an's powerful intervention and disappeared into the depths of the void.

The spatial rift closed rapidly behind Su Chang'an, erasing all spatial coordinates.

She was the only one left in the looted area.

The powerful beings of Zhongzhou stared intently at the white-robed figure, a nameless terror welling up within them. They suddenly realized that this terrifying woman had not only forcibly removed the burden right under the nose of the Heavenly Dao, but had also used this opportunity to completely clear the area.

With no worries left, the killing intent emanating from her body no longer diminished in the slightest. That pure, chilling killing intent spread along the earth's veins, freezing the spiritual energy of the entire Central Continent.

Su Chang'an slowly withdrew his Nine-Tailed Dharma Form.

She stood alone in the deathly silent center of the cave, slowly turning around to face once more the entrance to the River of Time, completely sealed off by azure frost. The Taiyin Sword in her right hand emitted a low, resonant chime, its chilling light reflecting in her cold, unwavering eyes.