Dantai Xue
Dantai Xue was born into a demonic cultivation family.
From childhood, she displayed astonishing talent in cultivation.
At the age of seven, she was found to possess a supreme spiritual root.
By thirteen, she had completed the Qi-eating stage and was chosen by a Golden Core elder from the White Bone Demon Sect, who brought her back to the sect and had her apprentice under the foremost cultivator of the present age, the Seven Slaughter Demon Lord.
At sixteen, she established her Dao Foundation.
She selected the White Bone Relic, ranked first among the ten great artifacts of the White Bone Demon Sect, as her life-bound treasure.
By twenty-four, her Dao Foundation was perfected.
She had intended to enter seclusion to break through to the Golden Core stage, poised to become the youngest Golden Core cultivator in the nine thousand years of the Void Abyss Continent. However, the Seven Slaughter Demon Lord sealed her dantian, commanding her to temper her powers for another ten years.
Over the following nine years, she mastered the Profound Yin Water Command, the Blood Demon Scripture, and the Sixfold Demon Sword of Heaven and Earth.
These three arts were all top-tier inheritances of the demonic path, equal in power to the White Bone Demon Sect’s Nether Bone Canon.
In her tenth year, Dantai Xue challenged every cultivator on the Hidden Dragon List.
Starting from the hundredth rank, she fought her way to the very top, breaking through the entire list with unstoppable force.
The Anti-Demon Alliance, fearing she would become another Seven Slaughter Demon Lord, sent three Golden Core cultivators to assassinate her in secret. All failed.
One Golden Core cultivator was even slain by Dantai Xue while she was still at the Dao Foundation stage.
The cultivation world bestowed upon her a resounding title: the Snow Empress.
...
Nine Nether Underworld River.
Dantai Xue, clad in white robes and wearing a scholar’s cap, appeared in the guise of a learned gentleman, standing upon the river.
Though dressed as a man, her beauty remained unmatched.
Above her head hovered a crystalline snowflake-shaped divine talisman, casting a dazzling, glassy light that enveloped her.
Within the flickering blue depths of the Underworld River, countless demonic monsters surged, spitting ghostly flames and cold fire, launching attacks against her.
The talisman’s light spread wide; any attack that came near was instantly dissolved into nothingness.
Dantai Xue’s jade hands formed incantations, sending a fist-sized white bone orb spinning and weaving among the monsters.
This was the prized White Bone Relic of the White Bone Demon Sect.
The white bone orb pierced through one monster’s body, then swiftly flew into another.
In an instant, the monster shriveled, its flesh, bones, and blood devoured entirely.
In less than half an incense stick’s time, over a thousand monsters lay dead.
The White Bone Relic, brimming with demonic energy, returned to Dantai Xue’s side.
The treasure glowed with purity, possessing an aura of sacred clarity, having already transcended the artifact level to become a first-tier magical treasure.
Yet Dantai Xue, because of her master’s command, had remained at the Dao Foundation stage, sharpening her powers without advancement.
She stepped forward, and a bridge of white bone materialized beneath her feet, ready to carry her away.
Suddenly.
A peculiar wave rippled from afar!
Dantai Xue’s exquisite face tensed, her brows furrowed as a warning flashed in her heart.
Having cultivated four of the most supreme demonic arts, and possessing myriad supernatural abilities, her sense for danger was keen and unfailing.
“Let’s go take a look first.”
With a shake, she transformed into a stream of dark blue water, merging into the Nine Nether Underworld River, silently drifting toward the distant disturbance.
...
The depths of the Nine Nether Grand Rift.
In the boundless darkness, a colossal crack opened suddenly!
Blinding silver light poured in, illuminating the surrounding hundred miles as if it were day.
Countless silver runes, like snowflakes, danced and gathered around the rift in the void.
The crack slowly widened, releasing a chilling, terrifying wave, as if probing for something.
After the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
The rift expanded into a massive gateway, with innumerable silver runes forming its frame, a faint silver radiance swirling within like a nebula.
Hissing sounds echoed!
Dozens of yard-wide silver metal spheres emerged from behind the gate, swirling through the rift.
The spheres split open, revealing enormous eyeballs that scanned their surroundings, emitting dense, low sounds.
At the bottom of the gorge.
Dantai Xue watched, astonished.
In a blink, a gigantic silver ship slid out from the massive gateway!
A formidable aura spread forth—it was unmistakably a magical treasure.
“Third tier...”
Dantai Xue’s heart stirred.
The silver giant ship, a hundred yards long, halted in midair after exiting the gateway.
A commanding voice rang out: “There’s a cultivator in the river below. Bring them up for questioning.”
With those words.
Nine streaks of light descended from the giant ship.
Their aura was deep; all were late-stage Dao Foundation cultivators.
Dantai Xue sensed a powerful divine consciousness locking onto her, holding her fast!
She sighed softly, realizing her earlier agitation had been detected by the Golden Core master aboard the ship.
Though the master had not appeared, the impression he gave was as daunting as facing her own teacher, the Seven Slaughter Demon Lord.
Thirty years ago, the Seven Slaughter Demon Lord had already refined his life-bound treasure to the third tier.
He himself had entered the late Golden Core stage, his cultivation earth-shattering. If not for the flaws in this world’s heavenly way, he might have begun to assault the Nascent Soul stage!
Above, the nine Dao Foundation cultivators joined their lights, forming an array that manifested as a towering mountain’s shadow, descending to suppress her.
Before the mountain even fell, its immense pressure sealed the ten-mile radius, creating a sense of inescapable fate.
The mountain, carrying the force of ten thousand tons, crashed from the heavens. Even cultivators who specialized in body refinement would be crushed to pulp by such force!
Dantai Xue flicked her fingers, sending the White Bone Relic spinning forth. It swelled in the wind, transforming into a hundred-yard-tall white bone giant demon.
The giant demon roared to the sky, punching the mountain’s base!
Boom!
The crash echoed through the rift.
The mountain’s shadow quivered, then shattered.
The nine streaks of light were blasted away.
The white bone giant demon leapt up, morphing into a blinding sword light, flashing through the nine streaks in an instant.
...
A dull thunder followed.
The nine Dao Foundation auras vanished abruptly.
Had other cultivators from the Void Abyss Continent been present, they would not have been surprised.
Ordinary Dao Foundation cultivators were like chickens and dogs before the world’s foremost Dao Foundation—easily slaughtered.
Dantai Xue summoned the sword light back, which reverted to a pristine bone orb floating before her.
“Hmm? Interesting!”
From the silver giant ship, the Golden Core master’s voice sounded again.
He seemed surprised that his nine Dao Foundation subordinates were annihilated instantly by another Dao Foundation cultivator.
Are all the cultivators in this realm so formidable?
Clearly, soul-searching was required.
On the ship, a calm aura began to descend.
Dantai Xue bit her red lips, thoughts racing, knowing she stood no chance of victory, and swiftly turned to flee into the Nine Nether Underworld River.
“Stop!”
The commanding voice boomed like the law of heaven.
Dantai Xue was instantly immobilized, frozen like a piece of invisible amber, sealed in midair.
From the darkness, a tall, slender figure appeared.
He wore a mask shaped like a leaf and stood atop a lifelike wooden puppet snake, gliding toward Dantai Xue.
The masked man surveyed Dantai Xue, sighing, “Such a beauty—it would be a shame to destroy you.”
Yet, as he spoke, his hand reached out, fingers splayed, grasping her delicate head.
The gulf in cultivation left Dantai Xue powerless to resist!
In the next moment, he was about to cast a soul-searching secret technique!
But just then, Dantai Xue cried out.
“White Bone Relic, break for me!”
A surge of demonic energy exploded.
The White Bone Relic spun, plunging into her dantian.
Dantai Xue’s aura soared, shattering her restraints, advancing to the Golden Core stage!
A shining, round Golden Core appeared in her dantian.
Power surged; the void trembled.
Dantai Xue stretched her body, breaking free from the seal!
A bridge of white bone appeared beneath her feet, carrying her away in a flash.
The masked man was momentarily stunned, feeling that this peerless beauty had given him far too many surprises today.
Being invincible among her peers was one thing, but breaking through to the Golden Core realm seemed easier for her than drinking water.
“Interesting!”
The wooden snake beneath him nudged forward, slipping into the void, carrying the masked man in pursuit of Dantai Xue.