Chapter 83: The Ravine of Buried Souls

Accompanied by a sweeping wave of pale silk ribbons surging toward Jiang Min, Jiang Ziyi’s aura—more formidable than that of an ordinary early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator—suddenly erupted, stirring a violent wind.

“What a powerful presence! She must be only a step away from mid-stage Foundation Establishment!” Jiang Min’s brows knitted tightly.

The moment Jiang Ziyi began forming hand seals, Jiang Min sprang backward, toes barely touching the ground, and slashed her sword at the encroaching celestial silks.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several razor-sharp sword lights, imbued with thunder and fire, tore through the air and struck the ribbons head-on. The silk was forced back but remained entirely unscathed. This disparity caused Jiang Min’s gaze to grow grave.

“The grade of this silk treasure must be quite high. I cannot afford to be entangled!”

Without hesitation, she activated her invisibility veil. As her form faded and vanished, Jiang Ziyi’s eyes widened in surprise. The ribbons lunged at where Jiang Min had disappeared, only to wrap around empty air.

“Invisibility?!” Jiang Ziyi’s willow brows knitted. She hadn’t expected a poor, low-born outer-sect disciple like Jiang Min to possess such a rare means. Nor had she guessed that Jiang Min’s displayed cultivation had reached the twelfth layer of Qi Refinement. Now, Jiang Ziyi was more determined than ever to eliminate her. She issued a cold command: “Tian Ji, find her for me.”

“Chee~”

The gray bird perched on her shoulder immediately spread its wings, flying west—precisely in the direction Jiang Min had slipped away under her cloak of invisibility.

Jiang Ziyi followed, controlling her celestial silks to keep pace with the gray bird.

Amid the forest, Jiang Min, still hidden, glanced back and saw Jiang Ziyi in relentless pursuit, riding her celestial silks through the air at incredible speed, drawing ever closer. The gray bird, too, seemed to track her movements unerringly, confirming Jiang Min’s suspicions.

“So it’s that little bird that’s following me.”

“Then I’ll kill it first!”

Without breaking stride, Jiang Min raised her arm and slashed behind her. Several arcs of thunderfire sword energy shot toward the gray bird.

“Chee! Chee! Chee!”

The bird shrieked in terror and fled. Just as the sword energy was about to strike, several silk ribbons whisked over, shielding the bird from harm. More ribbons darted ahead of Jiang Min, cutting off her path and forcing her, teeth clenched, to change direction.

“With mere Qi Refinement, you think you can escape my grasp?” Jiang Ziyi’s voice was cool and emotionless. Standing atop the celestial silk, she formed increasingly complex seals, causing more ribbons to spread in every direction, tightening the encirclement. The gray bird no longer dared draw near, hiding behind layers of silk while still indicating Jiang Min’s position, enabling Jiang Ziyi’s ribbons to intercept with chilling accuracy.

“Damn it! Even with my artifact suppressing my aura, I can’t shake that strange bird. How is it finding me?”

Jiang Min darted through the woods, but Jiang Ziyi’s encirclement never relented, making it impossible for Jiang Min to lure her toward Feng Qiu’er’s cave. Instead, they drew farther and farther away from it…

She could only be grateful they were in the forest; Jiang Ziyi’s ribbons were often obstructed by towering trees and couldn’t fully deploy. Otherwise, Jiang Min would have already been caught.

“Is there any chance left to kill Jiang Ziyi…?” she thought as she leapt from the trunk of an ancient tree, covering several yards in an instant—only to suddenly freeze, her pupils shrinking.

Before her, the path abruptly ended at a cliff.

Below, a strange black mist churned without end, stretching as far as the eye could see, shrouding a bottomless gorge.

The gorge was vast, the opposite side invisible, and it extended to the horizon.

“This is…the Soul Burial Gorge…”

Jiang Min let out a breath, disbelief clouding her face. Fleeing as she was, she had been forced by Jiang Ziyi into this dead end at the edge of Soul Burial Gorge.

She was being driven to her doom.

Soul Burial Gorge. As its name suggests, the final resting place of souls.

Legend had it that countless wronged souls had been buried in the gorge below, and over millennia, their seething resentment had coalesced into a strange, deathly black mist. Any ordinary cultivator who touched it would die instantly.

Many had tried to defy the legends and enter the gorge to glimpse its mysteries.

None had ever returned.

To all cultivators, Soul Burial Gorge was a place of unspeakable evil and mortal peril. If someone claimed to have returned alive, they would be dismissed as a liar—no one would believe it.

Jiang Min gazed at the impassable abyss, then slowly turned and dispelled her useless invisibility.

Several yards away, Jiang Ziyi hovered atop her celestial silk, blocking any chance of retreat.

“This is the end.” Jiang Ziyi’s voice was icy, her eyes devoid of emotion. She raised her hand and formed another seal. The celestial silks at her feet spread in all directions, encircling Jiang Min like a vast net, closing in for the kill.

“Damn it all, I’ll fight you to the end!” Jiang Min gritted her teeth, slinging her sword across her back with her right hand and waving her left. Five talismans, glowing with spiritual light, floated before her. She poured all the spiritual power from her core into them.

These were talismans she had obtained from Lin Mingyue.

Low-grade Dao Talismans—the Five Commanders’ Demon-Subduing Seals!

With a whoosh, the talismans instantly burned away, bursting into five beams of colored light that rapidly coalesced into five mighty avatars, each several yards tall, brandishing their weapons at the encroaching celestial silk.

“Dao talismans?” A flicker of surprise crossed Jiang Ziyi’s frosty eyes. Such things were far beyond the reach of a powerless outer disciple like Jiang Min.

Nevertheless, she dismissed them, her resolve to eliminate any future threat only strengthened.

Jiang Ziyi’s hands shifted through new seals. The ribbons encircling Jiang Min glowed with treasure-light, each one coming alive as phantasmal spirit-jiao appeared along their lengths, their roars chilling to the bone.

Heavenly Net Jiao Spirit Art!

Empowered by the spirit-jiao, the celestial silks clashed with the five avatars’ weapons.

Boom!

The silks were knocked aside, but the avatars trembled violently, forced back several steps. Jiang Min’s eyes flashed with determination as she willed the avatars to charge at Jiang Ziyi.

Boom! Boom!

The avatars advanced with terrifying might, each step shaking the earth. Yet Jiang Ziyi remained calm, her hand seals growing ever more intricate. Her lips parted, and she uttered cold, emotionless words:

“Overestimating yourself.”

Buzzing filled the air.

With Jiang Ziyi’s shifting seals, the countless silk ribbons quivered, transforming into formidable spears. Razor-sharp tips gathered at their heads, the lethal aura making Jiang Min’s heart pound. Even a low-grade Dao talisman would be useless against this; even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would be hard-pressed to withstand such an attack.

Heavenly Net Soul-Piercing Spears!

Jiang Ziyi looked down at Jiang Min with icy arrogance, certain of her victory. As an inner disciple of East Spirit Sect, she had inherited countless legacies; even defeating a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator above her level was not beyond her.

Let alone a Qi Refinement cultivator who hadn’t even reached Foundation Establishment.

Standing at the cliff’s edge, Jiang Min realized that Jiang Ziyi’s attack far surpassed the strength of early Foundation Establishment.

“The avatars cannot withstand this blow.”

Jiang Min gripped her Starfrost Sword, lips pressed tight.

The talismans were her strongest means of attack and defense. And the peach branch? With the net of celestial silk Jiang Ziyi had woven, there was no way the peach branch could get close, let alone shield her from this storm of spears.

Jump into Soul Burial Gorge?

A place where others found only death—how could she survive…

Just then, the little grass slipped into her sleeve, tugging her wrist, signaling her toward the cliff.

“Hm?” The grass swiftly traced a single character on her palm.

Lightning!

“What does that mean?” Jiang Min wondered, but there was no time to ask. Jiang Ziyi’s Soul-Piercing Spears were already hurtling toward the avatars standing before her.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

In an instant, the spears met the avatars and exploded, scattering the avatars into a mist of stardust. The spears, now unimpeded, shot straight at Jiang Min.

Jiang Min had known her talismans might not withstand Jiang Ziyi’s attack, but she hadn’t expected them to be so utterly crushed. This attack, which the avatars could not hope to block, would mean certain death if it struck her.

“Heh, so it’s like this again… How pathetic.”

A self-mocking smile tugged at her lips.

“If I die, let it be at the bottom of Soul Burial Gorge—not at the hands of someone like you!”

If the little grass said she could jump, she would gamble on it—better than dying at Jiang Ziyi’s hands.

As countless spears formed from celestial silk closed in, Jiang Min’s face set with determination. She pushed off the ground and leapt.

Head thrown back, she plunged from the cliff.

The sky was filled with the afterimages of spears and Jiang Ziyi’s faintly astonished gaze.

Her eyes burned with crimson resolve and hatred.

“Jiang Ziyi, if I survive,

I swear I’ll make you regret the day you set foot on Flowing Cloud Peak as the worst mistake of your life.”