35: "How...did she become an immortal?"

"It's a good array, and it's truly ruthless."

Chu Ye witnessed this apocalyptic scene, but his expression remained calm. He was not without fear, but rather, he had discerned the key to breaking the situation.

Standing in the center of the storm, Chu Ye was as composed as if he were critiquing a dish. "A pity, you overlooked one thing."

He looked at the Fox Immortal, his tone as light as if discussing the weather: "Your 'Ten Aspects Nine Absolutes Formation' sacrifices the northern territory—this world, its living beings, and its Luck. But my hundred phoenix diagram plus the primordial tree embryo constitute another complete world."

"How can you sacrifice something from 'outside this world'?"

The Fox Immortal's icy eyes narrowed slightly.

Chu Ye continued to twist the knife: "Furthermore, forcibly charging at the Immortal Gate through sacrifice? Fox Immortal, the chasm between an Emperor and an Immortal isn't something that can be bridged by 'spending lives'."

"This is the only path."

Hazy Immortal Qi surrounded the Fox Immortal. Her voice was cold and indifferent, without a hint of wavering: "This is my Dao. Success means transcendence; failure means Returning to the Void. There is no other way."

"Fine, communication is impossible." Chu Ye shrugged and turned to his two Immortal Empresses. "Let's get to work. Witch Queen, 'cool down' the array first to slow the erosion."

"Ni Chang, cover the northern territory with Immortal power. Not to resist head-on, but to 'give a shield' to those of the Yao Race. Tell them not to resist; there's hope."

He wasn't a Saint, but what use would it be to take over a dead land if the northern territory turned into an endless Hell?

Being an emperor with no subjects is no easy task.

Chu Ye said no more.

With a thought from him, the Witch Queen understood immediately. Her slender hands formed seals, and a deep, obscure witch power spread out. She didn't strike the array head-on; instead, like the toughest vines, she entangled and delayed the speed of the array's erosion.

Simultaneously, Empress Ni Chang took a step forward. Her vast and pure Immortal power spread out like a curtain of light. It wasn't for confrontation, but to form a protective will, covering the surviving beings of the northern territory.

"Do not resist." Her voice pierced through the wails of space, clearly reaching the ears of every terrified being.

Chu Ye was not a Saint filled with pointless compassion, but he knew well that a territory completely silent and devoid of life would be meaningless even if seized.

In the next moment, he activated the hundred phoenix diagram. The ancient scroll unfurled in the wind, transforming into a phantom that blotted out the sun. A majestic suction surged from the diagram, enveloping the remaining mountains and rivers of the northern territory.

In the next instant, the hundred phoenix diagram unfurled like a ten-thousand-mile painting, covering the heavens.

Thus, an unprecedented spectacle unfolded upon the northern territory: amidst the mountains and within the ruins, the surviving beings—whether shivering minor Yao or the dying Dragon Ancestor—were all enveloped by a gentle yet irresistible force, turning into streaks of light and plunging into that sky-covering painting.

The Fox Immortal's expression finally changed.

She had planned for ten thousand years, calculating everything in heaven and earth, yet she hadn't anticipated that her opponent could pull the rug out from under her with such a method!

The cold light in her eyes intensified as she tried to forcibly interrupt the migration. However, the Empress's Immortal majesty had already crashed down like the collapse of the Nine Heavens.

Under the absolute gap in Realm, the Fox Immortal's surrounding Immortal Qi dissipated. She was ruthlessly suppressed into the freezing snow, her white clothes soaked in blood, unable to move an inch.

She tried to trigger herself as the final sacrifice to accelerate the array, only to find she couldn't mobilize even a shred of power.

She could only watch helplessly as her ten-thousand-year scheme and meticulously crafted plan crumbled under that seemingly incredible "shifting of heaven and earth."

"The Heavenly Dao killing array... certain death... how..."

Within her cold blue eyes was a reflection of incomprehensible shock and a hint of alarm and fury at being mocked by fate.

"Heavenly Dao?"

While frantically "transporting," Chu Ye took a moment to reply, "What a coincidence. I have something here that specifically deals with all kinds of 'Heavenly Dao defiance'."

At this time, the Witch Queen, through the mark she had planted earlier, locked onto another aura originating from the same source as the Fox Immortal, which was hidden beneath the ancient Heavenly Pool at the birthplace of the Yao Race.

Joining forces with the Empress, space power flowed as they forcibly "dragged" that body, sealed by secret techniques, into the center of the array's eye.

In the next instant, another figure was forcibly shifted to the center of the array's eye.

Her clothing and appearance were identical to the Fox Immortal's, yet she was shrouded in an extremely eerie aura. Clearly visible to the naked eye, she was a void to Divine Thought, as if existing between being and non-being.

Seeing this figure, the last spark of light in the Fox Immortal's eyes completely extinguished, turning into a deathly grayish-white.

She felt it—the all-destroying backlash of the array was about to descend upon her.

Chu Ye walked up to her, looking down at this exquisite Yao Immortal who had once ruled the northern territory and plotted for ten thousand years. He threw down an ancient contract, dark red like blood and swirling with runes.

"The array's momentum is complete, the backlash is imminent; you have been utterly defeated."

His voice was calm and steady, stating an indisputable fact. "If you seek a slim chance of survival, then sign this blood-soul contract along with your other Incarnation. From now on, serve me as your master and never disobey."

The Fox Immortal slowly raised her head. On her blood-stained face, her eyes were startlingly bright, carrying a near-obsessive pride and indignation: "How unjust the Heavenly Dao is! We of the Yao Race possess peerless talent and have given our heart's blood, yet why is the path to Immortal Ascension always closed to us?"

"If that is the case, what is the harm in dying for my Dao! I would rather shatter this body than become a servant!"

The Fox Immortal looked up, her voice hoarse yet resonant: "The Heavenly Dao is unjust! Why can't a Yao become an Immortal? This seat would rather die... than be a slave!"

"Die? If you die, won't this trip of mine have been for nothing?"

Chu Ye really had a headache; this woman's obsession with Immortal Ascension was simply maddening. "Isn't it just becoming an Immortal? It's something that can be solved just by Dual Cultivation with me. Is there a need to make such a big scene and cause such misery?"

He didn't bother to argue further and simply waved to the Empress: "Knock her out, pack her up, and take her away."

With a flash of Immortal light, both the Fox Immortal and that mysterious body were restrained and thrown into the hundred phoenix diagram.

Chu Ye and the other two also quickly vanished into the world within the diagram.

Outside the diagram, the Ten Aspects Nine Absolutes Formation completed its final sacrifice.

The entire northern territory, ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers, turned into a silent, scorched wasteland.

The once-bustling Divine Beast Sky Arena, the towering Ice Dragon Imperial Palace, the ancient Yao Race ancestral lands... all were annihilated.

Inside the hundred phoenix diagram, the surviving Yao beings watched the land that carried the memories of generations turn completely silent. A desolate sorrow spread wordlessly.

Meanwhile, Chu Ye looked at the twin Fox Immortals who had been packed up and thrown before him, unconscious, and rubbed his brow.

Seven days later, the Fox Immortal woke up in a haze.

The moment her consciousness returned, she sensed her condition: her Meridians were sealed, her Yao power was dormant, and she was under layers of heavy Restrictions, as weak as an ordinary woman.

She opened those signature icy blue eyes, and what came into view was Chu Ye's smiling face, as if he had been waiting for a long time.

It was this youth who had ruined her ten-thousand-year scheme.

Chu Ye naturally caught the cold fury in her eyes but shrugged nonchalantly: "Don't be so resentful. The Great Dao has fifty paths; the Heavenly Dao derives forty-nine, leaving one as the 'escaping one'."

"You went too far, nearly causing extinction. The Heavenly Dao always leaves a slim chance of survival. Unluckily for you, I might be that chance."

His tone was light, yet he pushed the bloody reality in front of her: "Besides, the one you should hate now isn't me, but the entire northern territory. Your former subjects now wish they could swallow you alive."

"Using every torture in the world to make you wish for life but find only death. From the ruler of the northern territory to the public enemy of the northern territory—quite a thrilling change in status, isn't it?"

"By the way, just to inform you," Chu Ye pointed outside, "the person in charge of the northern territory has changed. It's now Empress Ni Chang. With her overwhelming strength plus the debt of saving their lives, the takeover was perfectly logical. You, the overlord of the previous era, are now a thing of the past."

The Fox Immortal remained silent, her face showing neither joy nor sorrow, as if those accusations and drastic changes had nothing to do with her.

After a long time, she finally spoke, and her first words were: "How... did she achieve Immortal Ascension?"

Chu Ye's eyebrows twitched slightly.

Good grief, this focus... No hint of guilt toward the beings of the northern territory, no remorse for the failure of her plan—only pure regret and a sense of defeat regarding her unfulfilled ultimate goal of 'Immortal Ascension'.

Truly a ruthless character.

No, this isn't just a Fox Immortal; she's practically a 'wolf-slayer'—one level above a ruthless person!