"What are you doing here, Sijin?"
She tilted her head slightly, her long silver hair cascading like a curtain around her pale face.
"Why the suspicion? I'm obviously here to dwell on the past."
PanGu closed his eyes for a moment. Talking to her was an exercise in exhaustion. Her cold, expressionless tone made every attempt at conversation energy-draining and uncomfortable. Especially since he was one of the few people who knew her true nature.
"I don't have time for your whims, Sijin."
She gave a fleeting, almost imperceptible smile.
"Alright, let's get to the point…"
Her gaze suddenly shifted toward the horizon.
"What are you looking at, old dog?"
Millions of kilometers away, a Heavenly Emperor who had been discreetly observing the scene spat blood before collapsing, unconscious.
PanGu furrowed his brows.
"Still as radical as ever…"
Sijin finally turned her attention back to him, and in the blink of an eye, she vanished.
He had only a fraction of a second to react. She appeared in front of him, her claw extended, ready to slash his face. He blocked her wrist, applying such force that a crack echoed. He had just broken her bone.
But she didn't flinch.
Without hesitation, she dislocated her arm with a sharp movement and delivered a roundhouse kick.
PanGu leaped back, but she was already there.
"Too fast…" he muttered.
She suddenly disappeared, her image blurring like an illusion. PanGu just had time to raise an arm to block a strike aimed at his throat. But the real blow came from elsewhere. A knee shot into his abdomen with terrifying force, nearly cutting him in two.
He spat a stream of blood and was thrown backward, shattering the walls.
With a sharp movement, he regained his balance mid-air and launched a wave of black ice projectiles.
Sijin dodged them with insulting ease, pivoting slightly, ducking, moving without the slightest effort.
He blocked a punch by raising his forearm, but already a claw was slashing at his side. He pivoted to avoid it, feeling the cutting wind whistle against his skin. His elbow rose to counterattack, aiming directly for Sijin's temple. She tilted her head at the last moment, letting the blow pass millimeters from her skull.
"You haven't changed, Sijin…"
"What did you tell Bai'er?"
She immediately retaliated with a powerful roundhouse kick. PanGu had no choice but to cross his arms to absorb the impact. The force of the blow propelled him backward, carving a furrow into the marble floor of the pavilion.
Before he could recover, Sijin was already on him. She unleashed a series of rapid strikes. PanGu blocked. He tried to take control of the fight by grabbing her wrist and twisting it brutally, seeking to unbalance her.
But Sijin used his momentum against him. She let herself be carried by the twist and executed a flexible rotation before sending her heel directly under his chin.
PanGu took a step back, stunned by the violence of the blow.
"Oh, you want to know? What should I tell him? What you really are? What you did to become Matriarch?"
An invisible weight descended upon the area. She tilted her head slightly to the side, her empty eyes wide, staring at him like a vicious predator eyeing its prey.
Not to devour it, no... A predator who wanted to play with its target.
"Just like old times, then. PanGu, would you like to suffer for me?"
PanGu clenched his teeth. Her eyes, her words, hadn't changed in thousands of years and reminded him of memories he wanted to forget.
PanGu lunged at her, his silhouette blurring as she appeared behind him.
She pivoted to the left, thinking she had dodged his attack.
But his hand touched her forehead. She furrowed her brows.
"Do you want to destroy your sect?"
But PanGu's gaze remained resolute.
"Ashkharsh: Stasis."
*Crack*
*Crack*
Time froze.
The black mist stretched as far as the eye could see, enveloping the world in an oppressive silence. Frosty starflakes fell slowly, shimmering with a dark glow. PanGu stood atop the snow-covered hill, his gaze fixed on Sijin, who stood a few steps away, her empty and unfathomable eyes staring at the frozen landscape.
"Your inner world hasn't changed," she observed calmly.
PanGu did not respond.
The silence was broken by a deep rumble. With a simple hand movement, PanGu summoned hundreds of black ice pillars that burst from the ground in a devastating explosion, surging toward Sijin. The massive columns whistled through the air, each capable of crushing an entire mountain under their force.
But Sijin didn't move.
At the last instant, her image blurred.
*Boom!*
The pillars crashed violently onto her… or rather, onto the space she had occupied a fraction of a second earlier. The next moment, she reappeared behind PanGu, her fingers almost brushing his neck.
A shiver ran down the sect master's spine. He pivoted immediately, but she had already vanished, leaving a fleeting shadow behind.
The ground suddenly began to tremble.
Dozens… no, hundreds of Sijin emerged from portals, encircling PanGu from all sides. They weren't mere illusions. They were real, each radiating the same crushing pressure as the original.
"Clones?"
PanGu closed his eyes for a moment, then gestured with his hand.
*Frosty Weather*
Time froze. The entire space seemed to tremble under the effect of his technique. The air became heavy, dense, as if every particle crystallized under his power.
But something was wrong.
The Sijin clones didn't disappear.
They kept advancing.
"Impossible!"
PanGu took a step back. In his inner world, he was the god. Only a Law entity could break his Stasis… but these clones were mere fragments of Sijin.
One of them suddenly drew closer and extended a hand toward him.
"You've made a mistake, PanGu."
Her finger lightly touched his shoulder.
The world changed.
In an instant, the black snow vanished.
PanGu felt an indescribable force tear him from his own inner realm. He was pulled, sucked into an infinite spiral, a distortion that obeyed no rules. Only Sijin's voice echoed.
"They weren't clones. They were Void Walkers. If they touch you, the void seizes your soul."