I Was Forced to Marry a “Trash” Cultivator, But She Turned Out to Be a Reborn Empress!

Boom—

A colossal skeletal palm blotted out the sky, descending with the crushing force of a collapsing mountain.

Shen Xian’s pupils contracted.

The space around him was locked down by the sheer weight of the attack. Even the defensive light of his Profound Heaven Golden Silk Armor was compressed into a paper-thin layer.

Late-Stage Nascent Soul power.

Shen Xian had no way to resist. He couldn’t even move a finger to escape.

Just as the giant palm was about to close around him, a searing heat erupted from his left arm.

The Void Rope tattoo coiled around his skin blazed to life. Silvery-white light spread over his body like flowing water.

Whoosh—

A streak of silver shot out from his arm, transforming into a crystalline chain hundreds of feet long. Wherever the chain passed, space shattered like a broken mirror.

The colossal skeletal palm disintegrated instantly.

CRASH.

The debris rained down, missing Shen Xian completely.

He stared at his arm, heart racing. Since obtaining this ancestral treasure, he had never used it. He knew it was powerful, but this exceeded his wildest imagination.

It was just a fragment of an Immortal Venerable’s Dao Artifact. A simple eruption of power had annihilated a Nascent Soul-level attack.

If he could find the Void Essence Soul and fuse it with the Void Guiding Jade Pendant held by his brother… recreating even a third of the Void Measuring Ruler would result in terrifying power.

ROAR—

An ear-splitting bellow erupted from the earth. The entire sea of bones churned violently.

The gray mist dispersed, revealing a nightmare.

A skeletal giant, over a thousand feet tall, burst forth from the ground. Its body was a patchwork of countless cultivator skeletons. Inside its ribcage, a pitch-black demonic heart pulsed, the beat shaking the heavens.

“A Nether Bone Demon?!”

Shen Xian sucked in a sharp breath.

This was a calamity recorded in ancient texts—a monster that required three Nascent Soul cultivators working in unison to suppress. In this ruin, it was invincible.

Blood-red flames ignited in the giant’s empty sockets. Its maw opened, gathering a beam of pitch-black death light.

The space around its mouth began to corrode and twist.

Shen Xian’s gaze remained calm. He glanced at the glowing tattoo on his left arm. He didn’t retreat. He still had the Substitute Death Doll and other life-saving treasures.

But right now, he wanted to test the limits of the Void Rope. He wanted to see if he could hunt a monster of this caliber.

Shen Xian swung his left arm.

Spiritual power surged wildly. The Void Chains instantly wove into a massive silver net.

The death light fired.

BOOM!

It crashed against the silver net—and was reflected straight into the sky, tearing a massive gash through the gray mist.

Seizing the opening, Shen Xian bit the tip of his tongue. He spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the Li Fire True Seal.

Crimson light erupted from his forehead. A pillar of fire shot straight toward the giant’s chest.

But the pitch-black demonic heart merely trembled. It absorbed the Li Fire completely.

Thump.

The giant raised a foot the size of a mountain and stomped down.

At the critical moment, the Void Chains split into thousands of strands, coiling around the giant’s ankle like silver serpents.

CRASH—

The massive giant was yanked off balance. It fell backward, smashing into the sea of bones with earth-shattering force.

Shen Xian leaped into the air.

The Traceless Sword, wrapped in the last vestiges of his Li Fire essence, stabbed straight for the exposed demonic heart.

Pfft!

The sword pierced the heart. A crack appeared on the black surface.

The Void Chains surged inside the wound, grinding the organ to dust from within.

Crack—

The giant disintegrated.

As the massive skeleton collapsed, the entire sea of bones erupted.

“This is…”

Shen Xian’s eyes widened.

Countless crystalline, translucent bone crystals burst from the earth, refracting a dreamlike, dark blue halo in the mist.

Each crystal was pure and flawless, containing liquid Yin Fiend essence. The natural patterns on their surfaces aligned perfectly with formation principles.

“Third-grade, top-quality Yin Fiend Bone Crystals! And over three hundred of them!”

Shen Xian’s breathing quickened. A single one of these could start a war at an outside auction.

The Void Chains acted on instinct, splitting into eighty-one branches to snatch every crystal from the air. As the chains retracted, a small mountain of shimmering blue treasure piled up in his storage pouch.

Boom!

Suddenly, a pitch-black light shot out from the giant’s remains.

“A fifth-grade Ghost King True Spirit Bead!”

Shen Xian’s voice cracked.

A pigeon-egg-sized black bead hovered in mid-air. Five blood-red patterns writhed on its surface like living worms. Every pulse distorted the space around it.

If fused into a puppet, this bead could grant it power equivalent to an Early-Stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

“Struck it rich!”

Shen Xian suppressed his racing heart and grabbed a specially crafted jade box.

As he sealed the bead, the five blood patterns projected an image into the air—a blood pool surrounded by nine bronze pillars, where a humanoid puppet was slowly taking shape.

“Is this… the Bronze Blood Hall of the Godfiend Battlefield?”

Shen Xian’s eyes flashed. He recognized the location from his intel.

If he could obtain that puppet body and combine it with this bead… the power would be unimaginable.

The bone realm around him began to collapse.

Shen Xian leaped into a spatial rift, unable to suppress the grin on his face. The gains from this trip were enough to make a Nascent Soul True Lord weep with envy.

Water Moon Illusion Realm

Deep within the realm, Wei Zhaoli stood on the surface of a crystal-clear lake.

Ripples spread slowly beneath her feet. Three pale blue jade slips hovered beside her, emitting a soft glow that illuminated her cool, elegant features.

This was a legacy site left by an ancient Water Cultivator. Every wisp of mist here contained pure spiritual power, perfect for her Mystic Water True Art.

She should have been focusing on cultivation.

Instead, her gaze drifted to the talisman hanging at her waist for the third time.

The token, exchanged with Shen Xian upon their parting, was silent. It was supposed to flash every twelve hours.

It had been dark for five days.

“Five days…”

Her fingertips brushed over the cold surface. The last message—[Entered Northwest Sector. All is well]—had come three days ago. Since then, nothing.

The lake rippled unnaturally.

An illusion beast formed of pure water broke the surface behind her.

Wei Zhaoli didn’t turn.

Her eyes flickered slightly. The three jade slips shot out, tracing streaks of azure light through the air. They wove into an impenetrable net, instantly shredding the beast into mist.

Pure water spirit power flowed into her dantian. A perfect harvest.

She felt nothing.

“Northwest Sector…”

She stared at the silent jade pendant. That area bordered several death zones. Shen Xian was smart, but his cultivation… could he really survive there alone?

A crisp bell chime rang out from the depths of the realm.

The core of the Water Moon Illusion Realm was summoning her. A once-in-a-millennium opportunity.

Wei Zhaoli took a deep breath. She retied the pendant securely to her waist and turned toward the summons.

Her steps, usually calm and measured, were noticeably faster than before.