After witnessing the earth-shaking spectacle outside, Fa Hua and Lan Ge remained silent for a long time before finally exhaling and coming back to their senses.
“Do you think the Ruby Queen is dead?” Lan Ge asked.
Fa Hua shook his head. “I don’t know. But at the very least, she shouldn’t pose any immediate threat to us anymore.”
The facts proved that their decision to enter Wild Monster City had been the right one. The Tiger Demon King, as the city lord, truly possessed the strength to contend with the Ruby Queen.
After watching that battle, the only thing they felt was their own insignificance. Compared to beings of that level, they were still far too weak. This trip into the Demon Domain was not merely about cultivation. It had genuinely broadened their horizons.
Once, in the Law Domain and the Blue Domain, they had been hailed as heaven’s chosen, praised as rare geniuses. Yet only after stepping into the wider world did they realize just how vast the Land of Miracles* truly was, and how many terrifyingly powerful figures it contained.
(T/N: Land of Miracles — is the title of the series and refers to the world as a whole—the combined realm of the Seven Domains and Seven Seas.)
Neither of them spoke again. They calmed their minds and began cultivating. After an hour inside the Peerless Pearl, they had already recovered to peak condition. By then, the scorching heat lingering in the valley below had finally faded.
After leaving the Peerless Pearl, they did not dare to linger for even a moment. They immediately set off once more toward the Ancestral Court.
Even if the Tiger Demon King had failed to kill the Ruby Queen, he had undoubtedly bought them a great deal of time. If she had survived, she must have been seriously injured.
The Demon Domain was truly vast. The two pushed their speed to the limit, moving as though they could compress distance itself. They raced through forests and surged over hills. Yet on the map, their progress appeared little more than a slow crawl.
The sky gradually darkened. The horizon glowed orange as evening approached. They had already been traveling for an entire afternoon.
“Let’s rest for a bit. Let’s eat something, then keep going,” Lan Ge suggested.
Day and night no longer affected them much. When exhausted, they cultivated inside the Peerless Pearl. They had grown so familiar with that space that they practically treated it as a spatial tent. Nothing could be safer.
“Mm,” Fa Hua replied.
Lan Ge withdrew the Wind Element, and the two landed on solid ground.
They chose a small hill with a clear view, making it easy to observe their surroundings.
“I heard there are plenty of demon beasts in the Demon Domain, but we haven’t run into a single one,” Lan Ge said, glancing around with clear anticipation. With the Ruby Queen no longer looming over them, his restless nature began to surface again.
Fa Hua gave him a sideways look. “I hope you don’t have any special talents.”
Lan Ge blinked. “What kind of talents?”
"Having a crow’s mouth.”*
(T/N: Crow’s mouth — 乌鸦嘴 is a Chinese idiom for someone who always seems to jinx things.)
“Tch!” Lan Ge scoffed. He couldn’t even be bothered to argue. Experience had taught him that getting angry with Fa Hua was pointless. Besides, Fa Hua never really got angry. He just leaves others to stew on their own.
At that moment, both of them suddenly felt a brief wave of dizziness, as though a surge of heat had rushed straight into their minds. Their bodies swayed almost simultaneously.
Immediately afterward, the golden patterns on their foreheads lit up. Two beams of golden light shot outward, converging in midair and forming a milky-white sphere — the Peerless Pearl.
Seeing the Pearl manifest of its own accord, both of them tensed instantly.
They remembered all too well that the last time this cursed pearl had acted on its own initiative, it had devoured the Ruby Queen’s heart.
Compared to before, the Peerless Pearl now appeared even more crystalline and translucent. Inside it, bands of flowing light intertwined like strange, luminous ribbons.
Whoosh—
The Peerless Pearl shot off in a certain direction.
“What now?” Lan Ge asked blankly, turning to Fa Hua.
Fa Hua glanced at him. Then, almost in unison, they said, “Let it go.”
With the Peerless Pearl no longer at their side, their mutual connection vanished. Even so, their tacit understanding remained just as strong.
But the moment the words left their mouths, a powerful pulling force suddenly surged out, yanking their bodies forward toward the Pearl.
This damned Backstabbing Pearl—again?!” Lan Ge cursed, hastily summoning the Wind Element to support both himself and Fa Hua. At the very least, they couldn’t let themselves be dragged along the ground.
The Peerless Pearl flew with incredible speed, hauling them through the air before plunging straight into a forest.
That was when the real trouble began. Trees rushed toward them in a blur, forcing them to dodge constantly. Even then, they couldn’t avoid every collision. Fa Hua repeatedly deployed the Wisdom Shield, deflecting impacts and preventing serious injury.
“You think it’s taking us straight to some Great Demon this time?” Lan Ge muttered.
Fa Hua’s mouth twitched. “Then we’re done for.”
They truly had no way to deal with the Peerless Pearl.
Just then, the pearl suddenly slowed. Fa Hua and Lan Ge instantly lost control of their bodies.
Bang! Bang!
They slammed hard into a massive tree and slid down the trunk, landing heavily on the ground.
Before either could complain, the Peerless Pearl split into two beams of light and sank back into their brows, vanishing once more. Their connection was immediately restored.
“A curse. This is absolutely a curse!” Lan Ge groaned, clutching his aching body. “What kind of trash did our ancestor make? If this ruins my handsome face, I’m going to fight him!”
“Narcissist,” Fa Hua said flatly.
He brushed the dust from his clothes and immediately summoned the Divine Codex, flipping it open to the Seventh Page—Unravelling the Truth.
The instant the page appeared, Fa Hua’s entire body shuddered. His pupils shrank sharply.
The countless threads that made up the page—normally golden—had all turned blood-red.
“Go!” Fa Hua said in a low voice, activating teleportation without hesitation.
He had no idea what an entirely red Unravelling the Truth signified. The unknown was the most terrifying thing of all, and his instinct was to leave immediately.
The teleportation failed.
Lan Ge reacted without the slightest delay, but in the next instant they were still standing there, staring at each other, exactly where they had been.
They hadn’t moved at all.
“This is unbelievable…” Lan Ge muttered.
Fa Hua fell silent, his expression stiff.
The two quickly moved back to back, reconnecting their energy through physical contact. At least that function still worked.
They extended their spiritual senses outward, carefully probing their surroundings. For the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, nothing happened.
“What’s going on?” Lan Ge asked quietly.
Fa Hua shook his head. “I don’t know either. But the premonition from Unravelling the Truth doesn’t feel like danger.”
“Then… should we look around?”
“Alright.”
Lan Ge lifted his right hand, summoning a gentle current of wind that carried them upward. From the air, their field of vision widened considerably.
Almost at once, they noticed something unusual.
This was an ancient forest, dense with vegetation. The canopy overhead nearly sealed off the sky, except for one spot. In the midst of the greenery was a conspicuous gap, an open area roughly a hundred square meters in size.
Lan Ge guided them toward it. The distance was short.
When they hovered above the clearing and looked down, both of them instinctively sucked in a sharp breath.
The clearing was not just empty. At its center was a deep pit.
And within that pit lay a person.
More importantly, the body was completely shrouded in long, dark-red hair.
Fa Hua and Lan Ge exchanged a glance, the same thought surfacing in both their minds.
“No way…” Lan Ge murmured.
Among all the humanoid beings they had encountered, only one fit that description.
“I’m eighty percent sure that’s her,” Fa Hua said gravely.
Lan Ge swallowed hard. “What do we do?”
Even gravely injured, she was still a Moon God–level powerhouse, far beyond anything they could hope to handle.
“If the Peerless Pearl brought us here, then it must have its reasons,” Fa Hua said. “Let’s go down and take a look.”
The Pearl had dragged them here and blocked their teleportation. It clearly wanted them to find the Ruby Queen, though what it intended next remained a mystery.
Lan Ge carefully guided them downward with the Wind Element. Fa Hua did not dare relax. He immediately activated Holy Spirit Protection and placed the Wisdom Shield in front, shielding Lan Ge behind him.
When their feet touched the ground, they saw fragments of dark-red armor scattered throughout the pit. Though their glow had faded, the gem-like sheen was unmistakable.
They were pieces of the Ruby Queen’s armor.
Fa Hua summoned the Wisdom Sword and advanced slowly. Lan Ge pressed both hands against his back. Maintaining peak readiness, they moved forward at the slowest pace imaginable.
They were genuinely afraid that the Ruby Queen might suddenly strike.
When they drew close enough, Fa Hua glanced back. Lan Ge nodded once. “Go on.”
Fa Hua shot him a look. “Idiot.”
Even so, he extended the Wisdom Sword. Its tip neared the motionless figure, which showed no reaction at all.
The slow approach alone was enough to leave both of them sweating. The pressure the Ruby Queen exerted on them was simply too great.
The Wisdom Sword slipped gently into that curtain of dark-red hair.
Fa Hua took a deep breath and carefully lifted it.
The hair was smooth and fine, gleaming with a wine-red luster.
The moment it rose, Fa Hua’s gaze froze.
White.
A patch of snow-white skin—unmistakably a thigh.
Fa Hua instantly withdrew the Wisdom Sword.
“Do not look at what is improper. Do not look at what is improper,” he muttered reflexively.
He turned around at once and shoved the Wisdom Sword—still formed of holy power—into Lan Ge’s hands.
“You do it. You do it.”
Lan Ge stared at him, completely dumbfounded.