The Girl from Another World, Exterminating the Otherworldly Sky Demons
The Girl from Another World, Exterminating the Otherworldly Sky Demons
The hunting grounds weren’t particularly large, merely covering a radius of several hundred thousand li.
For Cultivators with profound cultivation, a single sweep of their divine sense could envelop it entirely in an instant, perceiving everything that transpired within.
Gu Changge stood with his hands clasped behind his back atop the pavilion, gazing into the distance through the window, his eyes deep and far-reaching.
“Interesting.”
Yu Feiya was taken aback, not understanding what Gu Changge meant by those words. Her mind was heavy with thoughts, and she seemed somewhat distracted.
Gu Changge smiled, showing no intention of explaining to her.
Before coming to the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty, he had learned that an unopened ancient world had seemingly appeared in the borderlands of the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty.
However, this news had been well concealed by the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty, making it difficult to discern truth from falsehood.
Among this batch of prisoners transported from the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty’s borders, he had sensed an unusual aura.
To be precise, it was the aura of entirely different heavenly and earthly laws.
If it had merely been picked up through contact, that kind of aura would fade with time. But from what he could see, this was no simple contamination—it was more like something formed by being born and raised within another world entirely.
Could it be that she was a native of another world? Then how had she ended up stranded in this world, and become a prisoner no less?
Gu Changge’s divine sense swept out, landing upon that small, frail figure.
From her appearance, she was merely a girl of fifteen or sixteen dressed in coarse hemp clothing, her face grimy and disheveled. Her long hair was stained with blood, clumped together, some parts even matted into knots—one could only barely make out her gender.
Heavy shackles were locked around her ankles, making every step laborious and producing loud clanking sounds.
Even under such circumstances, she was still desperately fleeing through the desolate forest. On her filth-covered face, her eyes were extraordinarily calm, revealing an immense will and desire to survive.
Whatever her cultivation had been before, whatever her origins, she was now nothing more than a prisoner.
The only way to survive was to run with all her might, to not let the hunters behind her catch up.
Gu Changge’s divine sense swept over the other prisoners, but he did not sense this same anomalous aura of foreign heavenly and earthly laws on any of them.
This girl had suddenly piqued his interest.
If she truly came from that ancient great world the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty was so desperately hiding, perhaps he could learn quite a bit of information from her lips.
Gu Changge’s Inner Universe was currently at a critical juncture of transformation, and the Epoch Dao Fruit was also on the verge of ripening.
He urgently needed to find a suitable World Source to fuse with.
Although there were billions upon billions of Overworlds surrounding the Beyond, the level of those worlds was far too low.
Even if he fused with their World Sources, it would do little for the metamorphosis of his Inner Universe.
Moreover, he was planning a bit of fishing enforcement—setting out bait to lure in the various forces and orthodoxies of the Beyond. If he could use an ancient great world as bait, that would be quite fitting indeed.
Thinking of this, Gu Changge was in no hurry. He simply kept his divine sense fixed on the girl’s movements.
The hunting enclosure was vast, with dense forests stretching boundlessly without end.
There were quite a few prisoners fleeing for their lives within it—several hundred in total—scattering in all directions.
Some were pursued along the way by several princes riding ferocious beasts, and in their despair were shot dead by a few arrows.
Even more were bitten to death by the ferocious beasts within the hunting grounds, reduced to feed. Others stumbled into dangerous areas, triggering perilous Restrictions, and in an instant exploded into mists of blood and ash.
“Three thousand li ahead lies a deep pool, and within it hides a venomous flood dragon. If she keeps fleeing in that direction, she’ll likely lose her life to its maw.”
Gu Changge raised an eyebrow. He had originally wanted to see whether the girl could survive, but from the current situation, she was about to encounter a life-threatening crisis.
With her cultivation sealed and shackles on both her hands and feet, facing a Sacred Realm venomous flood dragon, she was absolutely doomed beyond any hope of survival.
If she died just like that, it would be difficult for him to find another lead regarding that ancient world.
“Since I’ve nothing better to do anyway—Ah Da, come with me.”
Gu Changge had originally been uninterested in this hunting game, but now he changed his tune, instructing Ah Da behind him to pick up the bow, arrows, and other items nearby, preparing to set off.
Yu Feiya was somewhat astonished, not expecting Gu Changge to suddenly change his mind, but she didn’t ask too many questions.
In her view, perhaps Gu Changge felt that staying here with her was rather dull and tedious—not as entertaining as this hunting game.
“Since Young Master Changge wishes to participate, why not let Feiya accompany you?”
Yu Feiya thought for a moment and took the initiative to speak.
But before she could finish, Gu Changge had already smiled and waved his hand in refusal. “I won’t trouble Princess Feiya. Having Ah Da accompany me will suffice.”
Naturally, he would not let Yu Feiya tag along for something like this. That girl was clearly hiding some secret—she didn’t seem like an ordinary prisoner.
“Alright.”
Yu Feiya hadn’t expected Gu Changge to refuse so cleanly and decisively, and she felt a faint trace of embarrassment in her heart.
However, as the Eldest Princess of Great Yu, her excellent upbringing kept her from showing the slightest hint of anything amiss.
She knew that the Ah Da Gu Changge spoke of was a subordinate at the Quasi-Nirvana Realm, whose strength was incomparably terrifying—he had once revealed a dreadful aura back in Kunwu City.
Gu Changge didn’t say anything more to her. He then left the pavilion with Ah Da, heading into the dense forest of ancient trees.
The mist was thin, drifting through the surroundings. The trees were extremely lush, blotting out the sky itself and casting great swaths of shadow below.
“Sha sha sha—”
Great swathes of withered, dry leaves were crushed beneath hurried footsteps, then trampled deep into the thick mud.
This was a thorny, bramble-covered swamp. Miasma curled through the surroundings, and one could see numerous insects and ants crawling about, along with corpses buried in the sludge—who knew how long they had been dead here.
The girl’s hair was disheveled and her face filthy. Her coarse hemp clothing was utterly tattered, and the exposed skin was covered in bloodstains and grime.
Dragging her heavy chains, she had fled all the way here. Now she glanced back and, seeing no hunters in pursuit, couldn’t help but let out a long breath. She leaned against a withered tree and gasped for air in great gulps.
But as she panted, she seemed to aggravate her injuries—her brows furrowed sharply, and her face went pale with pain.
Fortunately, her face was covered in filth, so her complexion couldn’t be seen.
After resting for a short while, the girl quickly rose to her feet. She didn’t indulge in this brief moment of comfort, instead choosing to continue her escape.
Although they had been given a full three days’ head start to flee, she knew very well that her pursuers possessed cultivation—finding her location would be all too easy for them.
So she had to seize every opportunity to flee deeper in. Only then would she have a sliver more hope of surviving these three days.
She had to survive. She couldn’t die here. She still had so many things left undone.
The girl’s gaze was heavy and calm, far beyond that of an ordinary person.
Especially now—her body was covered in wounds, she was dragging thick, heavy chains, and ever since her capture and the sealing of her cultivation, she hadn’t consumed a single bite of food, not even water.
Even though she had once been a powerful Cultivator, under these circumstances she had nearly fainted dead away several times.
Moreover, she was now no different from a mortal. Aside from her strong Physique, she held no advantages whatsoever.
In the eyes of the ferocious beasts lurking all around, she was the finest meal.
“Father fought the Otherworldly Sky Demons and his whereabouts remain unknown... Mother is still at home waiting for me to return... I can’t die here... I still have to go home...”
The girl clenched her fist, within which she gripped an exceedingly ordinary-looking short sword, less than a hand’s breadth in length.
This was her only weapon now, and her only means of staying alive.
She was not a person of this world—to be precise, she was not of the Beyond. She came from an ancient great world where everyone cultivated the sword.
Her father was one of that world’s supreme existences, one of the few remaining Earth Sword Immortals. It was only because he was indifferent to fame and fortune and disliked conflict that he had long lived in seclusion among the mountains and wilds.
She had practiced the sword since childhood, her talent astonishing. She had long since received her father’s true teachings, and at such a young age had already defeated prodigies from every land. Together with several other geniuses, she was hailed by the world as one of the Four Quasi-Sword Immortals—glorious beyond measure, with a boundless future.
But this seemingly perfect life had been destroyed half a year ago.
On that day, a terrifying rift suddenly appeared in the sky beyond, stretching across hundreds of thousands of li, as though a wound had been torn open across the heavens themselves.
Even from a great distance, mortals could clearly see the horrifying sight, trembling with fear and dread.
From that place blew ceaseless, terrifying astral winds and chaotic turbulent currents, as though it led to another dreadful world.
Even the supreme existences known as Earth Sword Immortals dared not lightly set foot near it, fearing they would be swept inside and shattered to pieces.
In their world, the lifespans of Earth Sword Immortals could already be counted in tens of thousands of years, and their power could only be described as terrifying—plucking stars and seizing the moon, moving mountains and filling seas were all effortless feats.
Yet faced with that great rift in the sky, even they were helpless.
And then something even more horrifying happened. In the days that followed, multitudes of creatures emerged from within that rift, their power incomparably dreadful.
Some elders said these were the Otherworldly Sky Demons recorded in ancient texts. They came from the distant, boundless outer realms—perhaps even from the far shore of the starry sky—and when the spatial barrier shattered, they would invade.
They wielded all manner of fearsome weapons, their appearances savage and horrifying, their slaughter boundless. They began to rampage and massacre across her world, attempting to seize it for themselves.
These creatures seemed truly inexhaustible. They would fend off one wave, only for even more creatures to come killing their way in—and with even more terrifying strength.
By the end, even the supposedly invincible Earth Sword Immortals were grievously wounded by the supreme beings among those creatures, left hovering at death’s door.
Although they ultimately forced back that group of dreadful Otherworldly Sky Demons, their own side suffered devastating losses as well.
And they knew that the Otherworldly Sky Demons who descended next would be even more terrifying—they had no possibility of resisting.
So the great orthodox sects that held the leadership of the righteous path—the Shu Sect, Sword Cliff, Kong Mountain...—began summoning Sword Immortals from every path to gather together and discuss how to jointly resist the Otherworldly Sky Demons. The solution they finally arrived at was this: since the rift could not be sealed, they would send people through it, to the source on the other side of the rift, and exterminate that source, thereby putting an end to this calamity.
Ever since the Shu Sect’s previous Old Sword Immortal perished during his tribulation, no one in their world had been able to break through space anymore—so this was the only way.
And her father happened to be among that group of Earth Sword Immortals who went to exterminate the source.
Her father had promised her and her mother that he would return after exterminating the source... But months passed without the slightest word. All the Earth Sword Immortals who had gone to exterminate the source had vanished like stones sinking into the sea, without a trace.
She refused to believe that an existence as powerful as her father could meet with misfortune. And so, disregarding her mother’s opposition, she resolutely stepped into that rift.
