“Fortune-Bearer?” Ancestor Sui Bian and the other two looked stunned, while Yu Zhao’s body trembled as she stared at the goddess in disbelief.

She had only ever heard that term from one person’s lips, and that person was none other than Ye Cong Xin, who had been dragged into the Spatial Passage with her. For an instant Yu Zhao’s mind overlapped the goddess’s figure with Ye Cong Xin’s, then she shook her head and denied the thought: [It cannot be Ye Cong Xin. Even if she changed her face, the moment she stood before me I would recognize her.] Their eyes shared the same blend of ambition carefully masked as serenity, but they could not be the same person. Even so, there was certainly some unexpected link between them. The goddess’s tricks of beguilement and blessing were very much like the dark arts Ye Cong Xin had once used.

“Ancestors, seniors, capture her alive, I have questions for her,” Yu Zhao sent a voice transmission to the three.

Hearing the gravity in Yu Zhao’s tone, the three reined themselves in and fixed the goddess with cold gazes.

The goddess showed no fear. She tapped the floor with her Jade Staff, and the ground, the walls, even the ceiling lit up one after another as countless runes knit into a vast net that enveloped the entire chamber. She said with a smile full of pride: “Did you think I was merely a charlatan playing at divinity? I have been watching you for some time. The power of fortune on your bodies is denser than that of all the cultivators in Little River Realm combined.”

Ancestor Sui Bian stamped his foot in fury and snapped: “So you did have ulterior motives. All that talk of blessings and helping people break through was just a smokescreen to hide your real purpose.”

The goddess gave a derisive laugh and said: “How could such good fortune exist for free under heaven? Their willingness to believe only proves their foolishness. As for you, your original sin is greed.”

Only then did they understand why she had flaunted a Jade Core so ostentatiously. It, too, had been bait. She said coolly: “Since you are here, do not think of leaving.”

Ancestor Sui Bian’s heart tightened, but his mouth remained sharp as he barked: “You think you alone can trap the four of us? Dream on. Watch me smash this shabby altar of yours.”

“By all means, try,” said the goddess.

With a flick of his right hand, a razor streak of light shot for the goddess’s face, yet before it could approach it was swallowed by the runes on the walls and vanished without a trace.

“I told you, you will not escape today,” she said.

Old Black Daoist and Elder Xiu Yu launched attacks of their own, but every strike dissolved into spiritual power and was absorbed by the runes, whose glow grew ever brighter. Inside the room, Yu Zhao and the others felt their own spiritual power slowly bleeding away, while the goddess’s aura climbed higher and higher. The goddess frowned, a sound slipping from her lips that was equal parts pain and pleasure.

“Stop her!” Ancestor Sui Bian cried, aghast.

Elder Xiu Yu lifted a finger and drew a line through the air, but space did not budge. In the same instant, the runes on all sides flashed and spat out a storm of spatial blades. Elder Xiu Yu’s pupils shrank. The runes did not merely absorb spiritual power; they could even swallow her space-rending arts. Seeing Old Black Daoist draw his sword, she shouted: “Do not use sword qi, it will be absorbed!”

Old Black Daoist changed tack at once. He kept the sword sheathed and used the blade itself to bat aside the whirling spatial edges one by one.

Standing at the rear, Yu Zhao had been studying the runes the whole time. Suddenly her eyes locked on the Jade Staff clenched in the goddess’s hands; the Jade Core set at its crown pulsed with a faint light. Inspiration struck and she called out: “The Jade Staff. Take her Jade Staff!”

“We will cover you, you seize the staff,” the others answered.

“Good,” Yu Zhao replied.

Her figure flashed and she shot straight for the goddess. The goddess snorted, the Jade Core flared, and a screen of spiritual power sprang up before Yu Zhao. Yu Zhao was prepared. Her hands flew through hand seals, then she brought her five fingers together and chopped down on the barrier like a blade.

“Your spiritual power cannot possibly—” the goddess began, and then bit off the words as a silky-smooth cut opened across the screen. Yu Zhao’s figure slid cleanly through and appeared in front of her.

“You have some skill,” the goddess said, a flicker of surprise in her eyes that quickly smoothed back into calm, “but with only that, you will not take the Jade Staff from my hands.”

She slammed the staff against the floor. A powerful suction erupted from all directions. Yu Zhao felt her legs bound tight by some invisible force; rending pain tore through her body. In her sight she could clearly see her spiritual power being dragged out and funneled into the goddess in an unending stream.

The goddess laughed wildly. Yu Zhao suddenly shouted, “Ye Cong Xin!”

The goddess froze and asked: “Who is Ye Cong Xin?”

She did not seem to be faking. Yu Zhao only grew more certain that there was a link between them. “You do not know Ye Cong Xin? Then why does she cultivate the same art as you?” she said, watching the goddess’s face closely, unwilling to miss the slightest reaction.

The goddess’s eyes darkened, a vicious glint passing between her brows. She opened her mouth as if to speak, then her expression cooled and she snarled: “So you would stall for time? Die.”

The Jade Staff swept through the air. Chains of spiritual power rose from the floor like living serpents and coiled toward Yu Zhao from every side.

“Careful,” Ancestor Sui Bian cried, but the warning came a heartbeat too late.

The chains wrapped along Yu Zhao’s limbs and bound her fast. Like a lamb trussed for slaughter, she was pinned in place. The chains tightened; Yu Zhao’s face flushed, her eyes bulged, and a ragged scream tore from her throat.

“Let her go. Come at me if you dare,” Ancestor Sui Bian roared, his face iron-blue as he glared at the goddess, as if he could tear a hunk of flesh from her with his teeth. Old Black Daoist and Elder Xiu Yu looked equally grim.

The goddess curled her lip and said: “Since you care for her so much, then watch as I drain her spiritual power and let her die.”

Her will moved. The chains cinched tighter, as if they would sink into Yu Zhao’s flesh. The next instant Yu Zhao’s body exploded without warning with a muffled bang, scattering into a spray of glittering gemstones.

“Illusion arts?” The goddess’s face changed and she looked around instinctively.

In that moment a cold whisper drifted through the hall: “Found you.”

The goddess jerked her head up. Yu Zhao had already appeared in the great hall where the statue had stood earlier. She straddled the statue’s neck, both hands clamped hard around its throat. That statue was the goddess’s incarnation, bound to her breath and aura. As Yu Zhao choked it, the goddess felt a wave of suffocation, as if her own throat were caught in that iron grip.

“How is this possible?” she gasped.