Two shouts were drowned out by the sudden appearance of altars brought out by Old Ryan and the leader of the Black Witch Organization.

These two old bastards each controlled a White Witch and a Black Witch altar, forcing a sacrifice!

A floating array, a bloody altar.

Ancient, cruel, yet mysterious.

Because all these attacks stopped outside the platform.

They were two massive energy barriers.

Barriers formed by drawing energy from the spirit veins below.

Every inch of Wang Jiu’s skin was covered by shifting sacrificial totems. From her flesh to her pupils, she had completely entered a state of imminent sacrifice.

This time, she didn’t resist. She just stood high in the sky, drawing in frenzied witch energy. Behind her was a massive sacrificial vortex, and below, several thick spirit veins throbbed.

In the sky, dark clouds gathered, and lightning crackled.

Such a celestial phenomenon, if not a natural disaster, must be the work of a demon.

Wang Jiu lowered her gaze to the body in the coffin on the platform below. It was lifelike, but what was the use?

The old woman wasn’t coming back.

She pursed her lips, subconsciously reaching for a cigarette, but then she remembered that old bastard Qian Cheng’s psychological analysis—was she hoping the old lady would climb out of her coffin to scold her for smoking?

Heh.

Wang Jiu’s fingers curled slightly, then straightened. Her expression was blank.

She stood high above, her clothes whipping in the wind. She looked battered and decadent, flawed yet graceful, like a ghost that had crawled out of hell but couldn’t find its way home.

In the end, she let out two self-mocking laughs.

Then, in that instant, silently, the spirit power and aura released from Wang Jiu’s body transformed into terrifying threads, madly piercing through space—hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of meters—to pierce and kill.

From beginning to end, not a word was spoken. Only slaughter, and extermination.

At the same time, Yin Lao began to devour Wang Jiu’s spiritual body in reverse.

When she was at her most desperate, her killing intent at its peak, this sacrifice was perfect—a perfect fit for the Black Witch Dao.

A heart devoid of sunlight, where darkness descends—that is true corruption.

It was also the best opportunity for Yin Lao to completely devour her.

It really wasn’t easy.

Such a stubborn sacrifice, finally…

The leader of the Black Witch Organization was overjoyed. “The master is finally returning!”

“I’m afraid she’s about to perform the sacrifice.”

“Go!”

In that moment, with reason prevailing over grief, several leaders decisively shouted, “Retreat!! That’s an order!”

Everyone had no choice but to retreat rapidly. Even Xie Lu could only grit his teeth and leave.

With their experience, qualifications, and sense of responsibility, they wouldn’t do something as foolish as dragging their feet and making a pointless sacrifice.

Because they all knew they couldn’t stop Wang Jiu.

To Wang Jiu, what were they?

The enemies, of course, also wanted to retreat, but they no longer had the chance.

Of course, the Icebound Undead King had been terrified just moments ago and had fled underwater with his people, but it was useless. Countless azure threads plunged into the water.

A boundless sea, seen in a lifetime; in the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of floating corpses.

The various kings hadn’t fled far when they suddenly received news from the official intelligence department.

“The territories where the Black Witch Organization’s followers gathered have erupted in internal strife. They’re being slaughtered.”

“Part of it is internal rebels, likely people planted inside like Yan Hui. Others are elites who’ve made a name for themselves. Their specific identities are still unknown, but we recognize some of them. Every one of them has a mecha. They’re strong, really strong. The entire Black Witch Organization is being slaughtered. It’s a one-sided massacre.”

“And it seems they’re preparing some kind of ritual by killing those followers.”

What?!

Three messages, dense with significant information.

Everyone was stunned. Some were more perceptive, like the people from Gobi who knew about Wang Jiu and Yan Hui’s past.

Qing He was thoughtful: Wang Jiu wasn’t just reselling things in the Fourth Spacetime. Before returning, she bought not only starships but also a large batch of mechas, obviously for these people to use.

Xie Lu had been broadcasting a video feed, so even Wang Shu and the others back on the three islands knew the general situation.

They were burning with anxiety, wishing they could sprout wings and fly over. But Xie Lu and the others were being forced to retreat?

Master must be charging up a big move!

Wang Shu was worried sick. “Master earned so much money before, hundreds of millions of US dollars. Did all that funding go to training these people? After the apocalypse game started, these elites were all capable. Master must have supported them with resources, like those mechas later on…”

This was a setup, very much in Wang Jiu’s style.

But something felt a little strange.

Just then, they suddenly heard two screams.

Huh?

The old men and women turned their heads to look, greatly surprised. Suddenly, they didn’t want to flee anymore.

“Congratulations, Master! Felicitations, Master! You…”

Swish! The leader of the Black Witch Organization, who had been a devout and excited lackey just a moment ago, looked down in utter shock at the azure thread piercing his body.

“You!!”

Everyone: “???”

They didn’t understand how Wang Jiu could still be rational. With Lin Zi’s resurrection having failed, Wang Jiu should have been mentally devastated, her will shattered. A wisp of Yin Lao’s soul should have been able to devour her spiritual body in reverse, control her physical body to complete the sacrifice, and finally return in her complete form.

But Wang Jiu now…

Everyone was a bit baffled. Wasn’t Lao Wang being controlled? How could she counter-kill the two of them?

Could this be?

The reason was unclear, but Qing He and the others suddenly realized something else: Wang Jiu had probably known two other secrets for a long time.

The leader of the Black Witch Organization subconsciously looked at Old Ryan, who had also been pierced.

Just moments ago, the two of them had intended to merge, but Wang Jiu killed them directly.

An instant kill.

Because they were killed, the bodies of Old Ryan and the Black Witch Organization leader reverted to their original forms.

Old, ugly, and weak.

Everyone saw it and was exceptionally shocked.

They… how could they look so alike, as if they were the same person!

“They were one and the same all along!?”

Old Ryan was the leader of the Black Witch Organization, or rather, the leader of the Black Witch Organization was Old Ryan!

Their two contacts back in the Ming Dynasty must have led to this secret.

A crafty rabbit has three burrows; one scheme linked to another. Even the central government didn’t know the truth.

But none of that mattered anymore, because Wang Jiu remained motionless, witch energy raging, endlessly devouring the surging spirit veins below and expanding infinitely.

Is she Wang Jiu now, or Yin Lao?

Since they weren’t directly under the central government, the people from Cai Market hadn’t participated in this secret operation. However, they had noticed the commotion, and after investigating, they knew it was related to Wang Jiu. But they also discovered other things.

“Should we join in? Where’s Lin Xiaoniang?”

“That bastard Sword Cultivator from Qingcheng hasn’t replied either. No idea what he’s doing.”

“Forget them for now. Get ready. The Devil’s Eye sea area has been torn to shreds. Those double-standard dogs in North America are howling. Several of them have been secretly messaging me, asking us to go over.”

“Forget it. If it weren’t for Wang Jiu’s starship, they would have been wiped out. Now that the Icebound Undead are too scared to come ashore, they don’t want us to go over, afraid we’ll take their resources. But damn, she’s amazing. Lao Wang is a monster.”

The people from Cai Market were incredibly excited. Amidst their chatter, Cai Wujun, frowning in thought, received a private message from the second-in-command. The other party’s intention was direct.

1. Are you going to the Devil’s Eye sea area?

2. Be cautious. Wang Jiu’s situation is unstable right now.

3. Participate in the situation, but do not interfere rashly when the situation is unclear.

Cai Wujun: “The coldness of a politician?”

He already knew Song Yuanqiao was dead and that Lin Zi’s soul had scattered.

These two had an excellent relationship with the second-in-command. Song Yuanqiao had even been a classmate of his; they were from the same political faction.

Second-in-command: “I can only say that if you were in my position, you would understand that emotions are secondary.”

Cai Wujun: “I know. That’s why I’d rather sell vegetables than go into politics.”

Second-in-command: “Then, you, who acts out of emotion, what are your thoughts on some of the core members of your team joining the rebel force formed by Yan Hui?”

Politicians have dirty hearts.

Cai Wujun had already discovered this fact.

The “missing” Lin Xiaoniang and the Sword Cultivator from Qingcheng were among the forces slaughtering the Black Witch Organization.

Through this fact, he also realized two things that had long been forgotten.

Back then, a young Wang Jiu applied to join Cai Market. She joined out of curiosity and then went dormant for a long time because she looked down on Cai Market’s rustic style. Was that really it?

What if she joined to use Cai Market as a cover to train her own people?

What better petri dish was there than Cai Market, which had an official license and was endlessly protective of its own?

National resources, resources from both the legitimate and underworld—it was second to none in the country.

Her application back then was a front, just to understand Cai Market and use herself as a cover for others.

Lin Xiaoniang, the Sword Cultivator from Qingcheng—were they all survivors who had been harmed by the Black Witch Organization but were later rescued by Wang Jiu and Yan Hui?

Cai Wujun remembered that both of them were from an orphanage and were later adopted…

But their pasts before the orphanage couldn’t be traced.

If all of this was premeditated, then perhaps today’s situation wasn’t so bleak after all.

Second-in-command: “National politics doesn’t consider probabilities. Things an emperor can do, I cannot.”

Two sentences summed up his helplessness regarding the matters of Lin Zi, Song Yuanqiao, and Wang Jiu.

It also spoke to the occasional coldness of national politics.

Cutting losses in time and re-planning was the correct choice.

Cai Wujun knew this, of course. Click. With his resources fully equipped, he took out a teleportation array and replied to the second-in-command.

“A nation’s family does the nation’s business. But personally, I’d like to ask her if it was unethical to borrow my vegetable market to raise her fish.”

Then, he had the others from Cai Market teleport to the three islands, while he himself took the coordinates for the Devil’s Eye and teleported to that area.

As soon as he teleported, he saw the facial outline of a woman appear in the sacrificial vortex behind Wang Jiu.

For an ancient-level big shot like Yin Lao, she could look like a pig and people would still overlook her appearance, because her terrifying aura was enough to crush all superficial perceptions.

This face was really just an outline, black as ink, but in the details, one could faintly discern a hint of seductive beauty and heartlessness.

Even her voice carried a hint of cruelty.

“It’s come to this, and I still can’t devour you. There are only two possibilities.”

“It turns out you are not my sacrifice.”

This statement shocked everyone!

Even Cai Wujun was stunned.

He arrives just in time for two bombshells?

Xie Lu and the others were completely shaken. Far away in the central Huaxia City, the think tank watched the scene on the screen. Qian Cheng was still grieving Song Yuanqiao’s death, but the psychologist was quite composed. As a member of the think tank, he controlled his emotions. Upon learning this, he was so shocked he shot to his feet, his expression strange.

Not a sacrifice?

That can’t be. All their previous judgments and assumptions about Wang Jiu, as well as her subsequent experiences, all pointed to her being the sacrifice from Miao Mountain. How could it suddenly be revealed that she wasn’t? But could the Black Witch big shot’s own final verdict be false?

If not, how could Wang Jiu resist being devoured by Yin Lao?

By the very nature of the relationship between sacrifice and master, the former naturally cannot refuse the latter.

The fat old man was also a bit baffled.

This was a bit outside his area of expertise.

“If she’s not a sacrifice, if she’s not…” Qian Cheng muttered to himself, his mind flashing through scenes of his first meeting with Wang Jiu, the countless psychological tests he’d given her, and his constant probing and speculation…

Finally, he froze.

He thought of a terrifying possibility.

Wang Jiu was not the sacrifice.

“Her mother was!”

The second-in-command frowned.

But for some reason, her mother’s sacrificial brand appeared on Wang Jiu… there was still only one possibility.

The fat old man from the ancient cultivation department, who was on the line with them, said gravely, “It should be that her mother, in turn, forcibly sacrificed herself to Wang Jiu, not to her true master. Then Wang Jiu devoured…”

After a pause, the fat old man continued, “After devouring her mother, she completely possessed all the characteristics of a sacrifice, but without the need to be completely subservient to the master. However… Wang Jiu clearly went along with some of the properties of a sacrifice as a disguise.”

Everyone: “…”

Disguising herself as a sacrifice, was it all to one day escape her fate?

“But if she’s not a sacrifice, why is she still entangled with that Black Witch? Couldn’t she just get away directly?”

The fat old man: “You’re naive. From the moment she was sacrificed to, she could only become another Black Witch. But the Black Witch Dao belongs to Yin Lao. As long as Yin Lao is not dead, she can never be free.”

It was like when she was trapped in the basement. With no one to save her, she chose to escape by bewitching Zhou Shanren and the others into skinning and butchering…

From this, one could see Wang Jiu’s style.

A psycho!

Xie Lu thought of it too. He thought of the old lady’s memorial hall at the funeral home.

He had actually thought about it many times.

His first impression of Wang Jiu came from that eavesdropping session. He never thought that now, it would all come back to that.

Back to the beginning.

It was a bit chaotic. She became blurry, unfathomable, yet pure to the extreme. Just like after hearing Yin Lao’s words, she remained silent, merely forming hand seals.

As she formed the seals, far away, in the place where the Black Witch Organization was being slaughtered.

Yan Hui sensed it and also began to form seals. Beside him, Lin Xiaoniang, the Sword Cultivator from Qingcheng, and tens of thousands of others also formed the seals. (Initially, Wang Jiu had only arranged a few hundred people; the rest were forces indirectly controlled by them.)

They knew Black Witchcraft too.

It was just that they were once pitiful wretches tormented by the Black Witch Organization. Now, the tables had turned. The Black Witch followers before them, living and dead, were gathered in the central square.

A massive array had already been activated.

Tens of thousands of people, many equipped with mechas, possessed astonishing combat power. They had slaughtered fifteen large territories, killing countless and leaving many survivors, all just for this moment.

A spiritual sacrifice of witchcraft.

A so-called spiritual sacrifice was generally to help the master they believed in achieve a higher class.

So-called evolution, so-called ascension.

These fanatics, who constantly killed others for their faith to satisfy their loyalty with blood, seemed to see that woman high above the Devil’s Eye sea area as they were devoured by the array’s black light.

Quiet, silent, her eyes and brows still.

It was the coldness of the night after being scorched by the desert sun.

Knowing both cold and heat, extremely cruel.

It was also the desire to chat with someone and enjoy the cool air after a night of rain on the plantain leaves, only to turn around and find the courtyard overgrown, the old friend gone, with only the crisp, lonely sound of water dripping from the eaves.

Yin Lao finally understood what she was going to do.

“I thought you were just unwilling to be devoured by me. I never expected you to be so ruthless.”

“You want to devour me in return?”

Yin Lao tried to leave Wang Jiu’s body, but this time, it was Wang Jiu’s spiritual body that entangled her.

Yin Lao laughed in anger.

“Even if you’re not my sacrifice, even if your mother sacrificed herself to you, at most you’ve usurped my power of faith to become another Black Witch. If you want to devour me, on what grounds?”

On what grounds?

Wang Jiu ignored her, showing her on what grounds with her actions.

She reached out and grabbed Old Ryan’s withered body, his soul not yet dispersed.

Yin Lao narrowed her eyes.

She was, after all, not a spiritual body existing in the human world. She was ignorant of many things. The calendar of the Fourth Spacetime held the only two wisps of her soul that remained, but because they were so small, she hadn’t even detected that Wang Jiu was not her true sacrifice.

One could only say that Wang Jiu’s disguise was excellent, and also that the specifications of this betrayal-style sacrifice were high, almost perfectly transferring the traits of a sacrifice.

Unless Yin Lao’s original soul was intact, she would not have been able to see the truth, nor would she have allowed Wang Jiu to develop to this point.

But the problem was that her original soul had been severely wounded and had perished in the great war of destruction long ago. She relied solely on these two fragmented thoughts to maintain her Dao, coveting Wang Jiu relentlessly. This was the entire reason.

There was no better or stronger sacrifice than her. The power of faith gathered by generations of believers over thousands of years to maintain the Dao was all concentrated on Wang Jiu.

Yin Lao only focused on Wang Jiu.

Therefore, Yin Lao didn’t much care about the private identity of the leader of her followers, whom she regarded as no better than a pig or a dog, or what petty schemes he was up to.

Thus, she didn’t know how Wang Jiu had blown up Old Ryan’s island and severely injured him back then.

Now she knew.

Back then, after dealing with the old Benroy family patriarch, she was noticed by the Ryan family, captured, and almost “killed to prove the Dao.” At the wedding, when Old Ryan cast a spell on her, Wang Jiu drew out the sacrificial Black Witch Dao and the White Witch Dao that Old Ryan believed in.

The two Daos clashed and fought.

Wang Jiu’s goal was achieved. As for why she didn’t die, one could probably refer to her ability to regenerate from flesh and blood back then.

When Wang Jiu invaded the White Witch Dao within Old Ryan’s spiritual power while simultaneously entangling Yin Lao, Yin Lao gritted her teeth. “You lunatic.”

Wang Jiu was indeed a lunatic, a terrifying psycho. When the Daos conflicted, the powerful spiritual shockwave was enough to destroy or even injure every living being here. Fortunately, Qing He and the others had already fled far away. They could only see that the sky in that direction was filled with thunder at every turn, yet as still as an abyss. A wave of darkness swept over, infinitely grim.

As for this outcome, Wang Shu and the others felt it wasn’t unacceptable. As long as Lao Wang won, it didn’t matter if she became a Black Witch or a White Witch.

It really didn’t matter.

But just as they felt a glimmer of hope, they heard Yin Lao’s cold, distorted laughter.

“Wang Jiu, I am the Witch Emperor. If you devour me, you will inherit my evil karma forever.”

“If we each take a step back, there might still be a chance for survival…”

Wang Jiu didn’t speak. She spread her hands, and the Gilded Abyss staff floated between her palms. It released a pillar of black light that reached the sky. As it drew in the dark clouds, it sent out infinite azure threads, which shot out like lightning towards the three islands and the starship outside the atmosphere.

Descending, piercing, bombarding.

Just two rounds.

The followers of the Black Witch Organization in the distance, and Old Ryan’s followers nearby.

Everyone let out blood-curdling wails.

The azure threads pierced their bodies, absorbing their flesh and blood to replenish the damage to her own body from the conflict of the Daos.

So cold and brutal—this was the real Wang Jiu.

Yin Lao, who had appeared in the sacrificial vortex outside, was finally dragged unwillingly into Wang Jiu’s body, devoured by her inch by inch.

And Wang Jiu’s body also transformed inch by inch, especially her soul.

It was an extreme evolution, a sign of ascension.

The sea boiled, and thunder rolled across the heavens and earth. The Icebound Undead, many of whom had been slaughtered and were now hiding underwater to avoid the attacks, were terrified. They dived deeper and deeper to escape the terrifying aura.

Although they were already far away, they were probably the closest group. Qing He and the others stood on the water’s surface, looking up at the scene, speechless for a moment.

Oh, and there was Cai Wujun. He was also watching from a distance.

Regarding their thoughts on this scene, whether from the second or third spacetime, they all had the same assessment: the final boss undergoing tribulation.

But… Qiao Xuejing suddenly said, “The captain is lucid.”

Lucid?

What did that mean?

Her words were abrupt. Lin Guiwan subconsciously looked at her and saw deep worry in Qiao Xuejing’s eyes.

This worry came from the mindset of a daughter who, after losing her mother in an unnatural way, had been extremely unwilling to accept it and had spent nearly twenty years seeking revenge.

If, if she were Wang Jiu.

To go to such lengths to devour Yin Lao wasn’t just to escape past suffering and hidden dangers.

It was for…

Buzz. When Wang Jiu’s aura transformed to a certain level, she was surrounded by complex and ancient rules.

It seemed familiar. She should have seen it in the Fourth Spacetime.

When the Bloodthirsty Beast was about to evolve into an ancient boss, it had a similar aura of rules.

This time, she had also entered this stage, and no one could stop her.

Because all enemies had been slaughtered.

This was the last path she could choose.

The final Plan B.

When that transcendent power that ruled the world descended upon her, when she was finally about to shed her mortal coil and achieve supreme greatness.

Countless people would witness the advent of a new god.

At least Lin Xiaoniang remembered when she was young, in a dimly lit room, seeing a young girl slightly younger than herself smiling at her and conducting a hypnosis test. After that, she believed this person was destined to ascend to that supreme position, flawless and invulnerable.

Irreplaceable.

But, Lin Xiaoniang saw this person release that supreme power, drawing it out from her body. It was divinity, the very essence of a god. It poured into the platform that had been perfectly protected by a thin film of spirit vein energy.

Later, when many who witnessed it recalled that moment, they only remembered a play of light and shadow that lasted a dozen seconds, a matter of life and death in a few breaths.

It was also a clean and decisive temporal regression, as well as soul gathering, body revitalization, perfect reconstruction, and nurturing.

The soul returned to its place. Radiance re-gathered between the old lady’s brows, and the patterns on the soul-gathering coffin were once again filled with light.

Everything seemed to be reversed.

Everyone was shocked and ecstatic. Was such a thing even possible?