At the foot of Black Mountain, the old witch seethed with rage.
"Where did they go? I can't trace either of my prey!" she snarled. Every few seconds, she unleashed her fury, destroying everything around her with raw ghostly power.
"Emperor Orb! Emperor Orb! Where is my Ghost Emperor Orb?!" she screamed, stomping the ground. Deep cracks split the earth beneath her in response.
Far away, Ye Kaishan observed her with a calm expression from the branches of a tall tree.
Phew… Fortunately, my space manipulation has become strong enough. Otherwise, I would never have detected this group of cultivators and the witch following them.
But her words stirred unease in him.
So… her targets aren't just those cultivators. She's after Song Yan and me as well. She's sensed the Emperor Orb…
He clenched his fists.
But that orb was already refined by Song Yan and me to forge our perfect souls. If she detects the soul essence we now carry—empowered by both the Emperor Orb and the Yin Droplet—it'll be a delicacy she won't resist.
His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden surge of power.
Boom!
The hut's roof exploded. A radiant aura had shattered the concealment formation.
Ye Kaishan turned sharply.
"Umm… ahh…" Song Yan stretched her limbs lazily, waking from her half-month-long retreat.
Ye Kaishan's heart sank. The aura had exposed their location. The old witch had noticed.
"Shit…" he muttered, eyes narrowing.
The captured group—Wang Li, Yang Bing, Yang Mon, Luo Xuan, and Li Xu—watched in horror as the barrier vanished. Their hearts leaped into their throats.
Song Yan blinked. "What happened? And who are these people?"
Ye Kaishan began to explain, "They are—"
His senses flared.
"Not good!"
He raised his hand and activated his Time Freeze ability. A bluish-green light exploded from his palm.
Swoosh!
An arrow, one inch away from Song Yan's forehead, stopped midair.
Song Yan turned and saw the weapon. Her breath caught. She had been a step too late—but Ye Kaishan wasn't.
He grabbed the arrow and lowered it calmly.
A warm feeling spread through Song Yan's chest. She had suffered countless betrayals and wounds in her past life, but this sensation—of being protected—was something she had never known.
She shook her head and turned her gaze to the source of the arrow. The old witch hovered nearby.
The captured group watched in awe. That same arrow—the one Lee Xiao had once fired—was stopped without any soul power. Just raw space-time manipulation.
Wang Li and her maid Li Xu stared in disbelief. No soul power at all… How is that possible?
Song Yan now understood the tension on Ye Kaishan's face. She didn't panic—her mind remained clear.
"So you were all hiding here from the start?" the old witch sneered. Her eyes flickered with recognition and rage. "Wait… the Emperor Orb… it's been devoured!"
She tried to sense it, but found nothing. Instead, she discovered something even more terrifying—the soul aura of Song Yan and Ye Kaishan far exceeded even that of the Emperor Orb.
She vanished in an instant and appeared before them, attacking with ghost power.
But Song Yan and Ye Kaishan only smiled.
A massive formation lit up across the Black Mountain. The ghost palm attack was absorbed into the array.
The witch's face twisted in panic. She tried to flee, but an invisible force blocked her path.
"You can try all you want," Song Yan said, her voice calm and cold. "But even a Saint would struggle to escape this formation. And you… you're only a pseudo-Saint."
The witch's eyes widened. "H-how do you know I'm a pseudo-Saint?!"
Song Yan smirked. "You imitate a Saint's aura, but haven't used any real suppression. A Saint could suppress a Soul Forging cultivator with ease. You, on the other hand, have only devoured ghosts to survive. You're clearly trying to restore your cultivation. That orb was meant to seal you. But someone released you early by firing that arrow."
The old witch stepped back. How does she know so much? The only one who knew I was sealed here was… the one who imprisoned me… Could it be her?
But she shook her head. Impossible. That woman was a lone wolf and practiced the soul devil path.
Ye Kaishan interrupted, "What are you thinking about?"
The witch flinched, brought back to the moment.
"No matter!" she hissed. "Even if you restrain me, you can't kill me. This formation must be consuming vast amounts of law power. It will break eventually."
Ye Kaishan only smiled.
She's right… it consumes a lot of space law power. But just earlier, when she fired that arrow—
His Space-Time Skill Tree had shaken violently. Curious, he had used Space Explore and discovered something shocking: a Time Law Fragment was embedded inside the witch.
That fragment was what kept her alive.
He had shared this with Song Yan, who had also been suspicious of the witch's unnatural survival.
"She's from a devil clan," Song Yan had said. "But in my past life, she never appeared during my time in the Ghost Territory. She came later and was killed by a Saint soul cultivator."
"She must have been mortally wounded and accidentally found that time fragment," Ye Kaishan guessed. "She couldn't refine it fully, so it preserved her in this withered form."
Song Yan nodded. "She's desperate to break through to the Saint realm. Then she could fully refine it."
"What will you do?" she asked him.
"I'll separate the time fragment from her," Ye Kaishan replied. "Once it leaves her body, she'll die naturally."
"But how?"
"You'll see."
Together, they initiated the final phase. Song Yan deployed the Absolute Space Zone Formation, which she had designed using her "Zero Space Order" technique. With Ye Kaishan's space manipulation, it was activated within seconds.
Now, in the present—
The witch scoffed. "You can't keep me in here forever!"
Ye Kaishan's expression turned cold. He teleported directly in front of her.
She attacked again, but the Absolute Space absorbed her ghost energy.
Then Ye Kaishan raised his hand.
The witch's eyes widened. Her muscles clenched. Her blood reversed in her veins. Her body convulsed.
No…!
"Stop! What are you doing?!" she cried.
Ye Kaishan didn't answer.
Black blood poured from her eyes, nose, and mouth. The Time Fragment was reacting violently.
"You… how do you know about it?!" she screamed in disbelief. This was her deepest secret.
"You don't need to know," Ye Kaishan said, his voice ice-cold.
The others watched in silence. Wang Li's face was grim. Yang Bing stood protectively in front of Yang Mon, who peered fearfully over her shoulder.
Song Yan, controlling the formation, bit her lip in concern for Ye Kaishan.
Finally, the Time Fragment left the witch's body.
She collapsed in front of the hut, barely breathing.
With her final breath, she glanced at a faded painting inside the hut—the image of a woman with fiery eyes.
"It's all… because of you…" she whispered.
Then she was still.
Song Yan rushed to the corpse and confirmed her death. She returned to Ye Kaishan, who had closed his eyes—already absorbing the fragment's power.
She gently picked him up and laid him inside the hut.
Phew… he'll need time to absorb the fragment.
Then she remembered the others. With the witch gone, Ye Kaishan's restraints had lifted. The cultivators were free.
She stepped outside to meet them.