He has been reincarnated through countless worlds, adorned with billions of mythological terms!

The valley floor suddenly fell silent.

The chewing stopped, the piano music stopped, and the battle between light and shadow also stopped.

The Goose Return Valley is no longer the same Goose Return Valley it once was—the ground at the bottom of the valley has been thinned by three feet, the insect tunnels on the mountain walls are as dense as spider webs, several old trees have been gnawed down to half stumps, and the stream has long since dried up, replaced by dark green slime seeping from the insect tunnels.

The air was filled with the stench of burning insect corpses and the sweet, fishy smell of eroded earth veins.

The moonlight shone down again, silvery-white and cold.

The moon is still the same moon, but half of the area that covers Yan Hui Valley has been shattered.

The old man stood at the bottom of the valley, his back still straight, his wooden cane transformed into black hair, still locked in a fierce battle with the mountain and the swarm of insects.

His gaze shifted from Shen Qingqing, sweeping over Helian Rong, who was moving his right arm; over Xiao Yanzhi, who was pale and barely able to stand; over Liu Xier, whose mental energy network had shattered and then reformed; over Su Zhong, whose bowstring was broken and who only had a short knife in his hand; over Qin Yu, who was still continuously healing everyone; and finally settled on Xu Youlan, who was sitting cross-legged and plucking the three remaining blood strings on the broken ancient zither.

"You are all very good."

This is a genuine review.

Then he raised his right hand.

The wooden staff had turned into threads of light, and his hands were empty.

But when he loosely clenched his right hand, the air at the bottom of the valley suddenly froze—blue light gathered from all directions, condensing, shaping, and solidifying in his palm.

A new wooden staff appeared in his hand.

This wooden staff is exactly the same as the previous one, but it is not a physical object; it is a scepter formed entirely from the power of the domain.

The beast head at the base of the staff has eyes that glow with azure light like flames, and countless extremely fine mountain veins flow across the surface of the staff, each one a ley line of earth energy compressed to its limit.

This is the old man's true strength.

Long ago, this world also welcomed a group of extraterrestrial demons.

That time was far more terrifying than this one; he almost died in that apocalypse just by watching from afar.

In order to survive, he connected himself with the Yan Hui Mountain Range and slept for a thousand years. He originally thought he could use the power of the earth veins to prolong his life for a few hundred more years, but he never expected to be forced to use his full strength by a group of teenagers.

The wooden stick touched the ground for the sixth time.

The sound of the ground being struck this time was different from the previous five times—the previous five times were a muffled "thud," but this time it was a long "hum," like striking a bell, like an earthquake, like the whole mountain resonating.

The ground of Yan Hui Valley exploded outwards in all directions from the wooden staff as the center.

The ground unfolded like a flower, each "petal" being a huge rock with smooth, mirror-like edges, traces of being cut by azure light.

Helian Rong was the first to be blasted away.

He was standing closest, so he suffered the greatest impact.

Xiao Yanzhi's body was already at its limit, and he died on the spot from this blow.

Liu Xier's mental energy network was torn to shreds like paper in the shockwave.

Qin Yu dodged in mid-air and caught her.

Su Zhong survived by chance because he was standing far away.

Xu Youlan stood up.

She stood up after everyone else had been knocked away.

She held the broken guqin in her arms—the body of the instrument was cracked in two, and she had barely tied it together with a belt; four of the seven strings were broken, and the remaining three were made from her own hair, each one soaked in her blood and essence.

Her physical strength had been pushed to its limit.

If the fighting continues, this avatar will be completely destroyed.

But she still didn't give up—it was just an avatar, so what if it was destroyed?

This avatar was originally intended to test the alliance.

It's just that it's a different person now.

Her fingers pressed onto the strings again, new strings forged from her hair and blood.

She plucked the first blood-red hair string.

The sound of the piano was very soft, as soft as the wind passing through the eye of a needle—but the world was still for a moment.

She turned on the second one.

She plucked the third one.

Three strings, three questions.

She was using the sound of her piano to ask the old man a question: Where is your limit?

The old man understood.

He gripped the newly formed wooden staff, a blue cocoon of light swirling around him, the power of the earth's veins flowing through his legs and connecting with the entire mountain range.

He finally saw the true colors of his opponents: they belonged to different camps and even had irreconcilable conflicts with each other, but when facing him, they all temporarily put aside their differences.

Helian Rong stood up from the pile of rubble, sacrificing one of his trump cards in the process.

Xiao Yanzhi had already died, but he appeared in a strange, ghostly state, floating to the side.

Liu Xier fell from Qin Yu's arms, and her mental energy network was deployed for the third time. With Qin Yu's help, she barely recovered.

Su Zhong leaped down from the ridge, and the moment he landed, he had three old arrows that he had picked up from the rubble.

Shen Qingqing stood at the boundary between shadow and moonlight, her figure half-hidden and half-revealed, her aura switching freely between the realm of terrestrial immortals and the realm of ghosts and gods. Beside her was Yun Yi, whom she casually helped to block an attack.

That attack didn't cause her any damage.

The Gu worm reincarnator did not join the confrontation.

He stood in the center of his swarm of insects, a faint smile appearing on his half-human face.

He simply raised his hand, spread his fingers, and then clenched them tightly.

The chewing sounds from underground reached their peak at that moment—the old man groaned, his body swayed, and his hand holding the cane trembled slightly.

The tiny crack widened a little further.

The old man had fallen silent.

That last attack was already his full strength.

But in the end, not a single one was killed.

He suddenly realized a problem: if the fight continued, he would die first.

Although these extraterrestrial demons are young, they have quite a few trump cards up their sleeves.

If this drags on, he really will die.

Xu Youlan removed her fingers from the three remaining blood-stained strings, and the music faded into the night wind.

She didn't launch another attack; she just looked at the old man, as if waiting for an answer.

The old man remained silent for a long time.

Then he loosened his grip on the cane.

The wooden staff transformed into countless strands of cyan light and dispersed again—not for attack, but for repair.

Like spring rain nourishing all things, the black silk silently seeped into the mountain, filling and blocking the dense tunnels gnawed out by the insect swarm, and reinforcing the rocks that were being chewed.

The insect swarm continued to devour the mountain, but its pace was slowed down by the green silk, and the already crumbling mountain managed to stabilize its foundation.

This isn't a counterattack, it's just cutting losses.

He took a step back.

It was just one step, but that step meant he admitted defeat.

The mountain has been hollowed out by a third of the insect swarm, which means that its foundation has been eroded by 30% in this battle.

How long the remaining 70% can hold out depends on how long these reincarnators are willing to fight.

Helian Rong saw the old man retreat but did not pursue him; he simply grinned.

"Not going to fight anymore? I can still fight."

The others were not entirely relieved either, but they all breathed a sigh of relief.

If the fighting continues, it will attract other indigenous groups, and that would be truly disastrous.

Shen Qingqing stepped out of the shadows, stood beside Yun Yi, and breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the old man retreat.

"It seems we can leave alive."

"As expected, he is an old monster who has lived for more than two thousand years. We are not even able to defeat him."

Upon hearing this, Yun Yi couldn't help but roll his eyes at Shen Qingqing.

He saw it most clearly just now: Shen Qingqing not only easily dodged the attack, but also managed to lift him up with ease.

She used a third unknown system—the martial arts land immortals and gods, the ghost gods and gods, plus the one from before.

The three systems are all stronger and more insidious than the last.

That guy is so insidious.

The old man did not speak.

He knew that doing so was tantamount to releasing a tiger back into the mountains.

If these extraterrestrial demons are given the opportunity to continue growing, he will surely die next time.

But if he continues fighting, he will die now.

The Gu worm reincarnator glanced at the old man, then at Xu Youlan, before his body began to collapse from the inside out—from a complete human form into a dense swarm of worms.

The swarm of insects surged toward the valley entrance like a tide, carrying away the remaining insects that were still gnawing at the mountainside along the way.

Before retreating, his voice drifted back from the flapping of the insects' wings:

Let's play together again next time.

Seeing that the others had stopped fighting, Yun Yi made no move, but silently kept them in mind.

He glanced at the Gu worm reincarnator again—as someone who had already stepped into the realm of a true god in the mortal world, he could naturally tell at a glance that the other party also belonged to this realm, and was a Gu culprit.

More importantly, the methods the other party just used were entirely from this world, without a trace of any other world.

Such people are terrifying.

Yun Yi didn't believe that the other party, as a reincarnator, hadn't also cultivated systems from other worlds.

If someone cultivates only one path like Xu Youlan, then it's impossible for them to be part of this world's system, let alone a single path.

……