The crimson spirit array spread like a blood-red canopy, as if to swallow the entire South Sea.

Chiliao whipped its tail like a storm lash and roared, dread first, rage after. If the woman on the surface completed that array, centuries of its lurking would be ashes.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Deafening divine thunder hammered down from the bruise-dark clouds.

The bolts meant to break the seal turned traitor, the very storm that now barred Chiliao from stopping Nesting Phoenix.

Thunder fell and bit into Chiliao’s scales like iron fangs, and the crushing spirit pressure pinned it like a mountain.

The array Nesting Phoenix laid flared brighter, a sunrise over ink. Bound atop Oceanward Tower, Chiliao could only roar, a peal like heaven’s drums.

“What is that!”

On the South Sea coast, many had already noticed the omen-choked horizon.

The once-furious surface lay flat as glass; under Nesting Phoenix’s array, tens of thousands of fiend beasts raged beneath, their howls like boiling brine.

Their maws twisted with savagery and terror, a reef of faces—feral, ruthless, afraid of death.

Above, the sea was calm as a mirror; below, beasts packed like a black tide, churning up invisible storms.

They rammed the surface with claws, fangs, and armored scales, again and again, like rain hurling itself at stone.

The placid skin of the sea held like an unseen wall. No ripple answered, no wave confessed their frenzy.

Claws snapped like twigs, fangs shattered like porcelain. Blood-soaked beasts drove over the bodies of their kin and slammed the South Sea again and again.

It was as if some flood-beast of legend lay penned beneath the waters, straining at its chains.

“Human! Stop!”

Blood spilled from Chiliao’s jaws, hot as copper rain. Heavenly tribulation had flayed it; phoenix fire clung to its body like holy thorns.

It lunged from Oceanward Tower with a dying beast’s last fury, Spirit Energy flaring to the very edge, and plunged for Nesting Phoenix.

At the same time, a world-splitting blast rose from beneath the sea. It was like standing inside a mountain and watching the volcano burst.

For everyone across the South Sea, sight became a single endless red.

The shockwave nearly peeled the coast from the earth; air split and screamed in their ears like saws on bone.

Countless cultivators and beasts were flung skyward and then slammed down hard, their fates swallowed by dust and spray.

When the crimson blaze faded from their eyes, heaven and earth sank back into hush.

Hiss...

Crash—crash—

Crash—crash—

Great walls of water fell from the sky and broke into fields of spray, pearls scattered from a giant’s hand.

The whole South Sea felt like a sunshower, fine threads of rain stitching the light.

Dazed, the cultivators on the shore watched the clot of storm-clouds loosen, and spears of gold pour through.

The abyss-black sea turned bright under that light, glittering scales over jade-green swells.

They stood there hollow and wet, as if waking from a fever dream; cool brine ran down their faces, and the weariness of survival sank deep.

A few fiend beasts still twitched along the strand, but nearby cultivators finished them like pulling weeds.

The coast was all severed limbs and broken wings, a stink of iron and rot; beast corpses piled in mounds, wounds glaring in the sun.

From far off, the South Sea shore looked like a battlefield’s hell, cooled but not cleansed.

Oceanward Tower by the waterline hung in ruin, red timbers sagging section by section, like snapped lotus roots still trailing fibers.

“Not bad.”

Nana Toki, soaked like a drowned chicken, glanced at Nesting Phoenix—back at her side—and actually smiled.

A big shot from the Immortal Realm, alright. The power to match the legend.

Side quest? Drop one big move and it’s cleared.

Unlike Nana’s muddy, battered mess, Nesting Phoenix stepped up from the sea spotless, not a drop on her, white as a new page.

She looked like a fairy walking out of ink-wash mountains, a purity that quieted breath.

“...”

“What is it?”

Nana brushed sticky hair from her cheek, touched her face, and blinked at Nesting Phoenix staring. “Do I look weird?”

“...”

Without a word, Nesting Phoenix lifted a pale jade hand and gently rubbed at the clotted blood on Nana’s face, touch warm as spring water.

“Nothing. You’re just dirty. Let me wipe it.”

She didn’t mind the grime at all; she cleaned like tending a cherished toy, gentle and wholly focused.

Heat climbed under Nana’s skin at that touch. The feeling was familiar and strange, unlike the Shrine Water’s warmth—purer than kin, sharper than comfort.

It pulled her in. It made her want to pull away.

“You won’t get it off. I can do it.”

Catching herself, Nana leaned back on purpose and dodged the hand.

Nesting Phoenix was stubborn. She tugged Nana close, peeled away the crusted blood with care, and spoke as if about weather. “Leave killing to me from now on. I don’t want you stained again.”

She kept cleaning as she said it, oblivious to Nana’s face twisting toward a full-on you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me.

Nana: “...”

So this is the classic: you slay beyond the borders, I just stay pretty?

Once Nesting Phoenix had tidied her up, Nana swiped a palm over her cheek, then led her toward Oceanward Tower to find Guo Wentao.

Side quest done, but the Soul Pearl wasn’t in hand. The System hadn’t told her where to get it. So she’d ask the big uncle.

Maybe he’d talk.

They found Guo Wentao at a small inlet near the Tower.

He stood there alone, all the air gone from him. Dozens of bodies lay before him; Nana couldn’t name them, but Oceanward Tower robes told enough.

Their skin was pale, some puckered by seawater; wounds gaped on chests, bellies, skulls—some to the bone, some spilling gut like ropes.

Guo stood motionless, hair loose, artifacts torn and hanging. In a day he’d aged decades.

Even when Nana came near, he barely stirred, an empty shell holding a breath.

Oceanward Tower’s roots were torn; their strength was broken; elders and disciples lay in heaps.

Even if it recovered, it would likely fall from the South Sea’s great sects.

Nana didn’t care. She had no ties to the Tower.

She’d handled the South Sea mess—that was merciful enough. Though, to be fair, she’d been a prime cause of that mess.

“What are you here for.”

At last, as Nana’s patience wore thin, Guo Wentao turned toward her.

The old authority and vigilance were gone. Only fatigue and fog lingered in his eyes.

“I’ll say it again. I want a Soul Pearl, Tower Master.”

She knew what he was thinking and didn’t plan to explain.

She glanced at the bodies behind him, face calm. “You have one, don’t you? The South Sea Soul Pearl that mends a soul.”

“...”

If he said no, would they believe him?

Since they’d come, they clearly knew the score.

And with Nesting Phoenix standing there like a thunderhead, what resistance existed?

They all knew the answer.

Helpless, Guo Wentao nodded.

He drew out a palm-sized, crystal-clear pearl from his storage ring. Nana didn’t need to guess. Soul Pearl.

Didn’t expect the Tower Master to keep private stock. Scandalous.

I should report him by name to his own elders. Got to stamp out corruption.

“Sigh.”

Watching Nana take the Tower’s only Soul Pearl, Guo Wentao let out a long, wind-through-reeds breath.

A woman like this is a walking calamity, wherever she sets foot.

He only wished she’d leave the South Sea, return to the Central Mortal World, and spare them further torment.

“Many thanks, Tower Master Guo.”

Nana accepted the pearl, tossed him a polite lie, and turned away with Nesting Phoenix.

Done was done. No reason to linger on the South Sea.

Getting back to the sect was the proper move.

As for whether Chiliao lived or died—uhhh, not her problem. Let the South Sea people deal with it.

Heartless? Maybe. Nana Toki wore it like a devil’s smile.