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Lan Xi turned around, glancing at the dense crowd below her feet.

They appeared as insignificant as ants.

And the height she stood on was unmatched by anyone.

Was this what it felt like to be a god?

To possess immense power, to look down upon all beings, was to be that far removed from life.

She sighed lightly and turned to step onto the altar.

It was a Jade Platform constructed according to the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, with intricate runes covering the entire jade stone. She walked to the very center and sat down.

Mere moments later, Lan Xi incredulously widened her eyes.

The instant she sat down, she saw the Mortal World.

She felt the torment of people afflicted by plague, heard the terrible groans, and could even empathize with their painful struggles.

The earth was a desolate yellow, with strange rock formations, the sea level rose, and beaches were covered with dead fish, the stench was pervasive.

Inside the cities, bones paved the streets, resentful spirits wandered everywhere, and even birds and beasts lay dead in their nests, some birds still in the posture of brooding eggs.

Earth’s energy was contaminated, plagues ran rampant, and not a blade of grass grew on the land...

She felt the pain deep in human bones, a suffering transmitted to her through their beliefs.

She heard the common people praying to the deities, begging for the disaster to pass soon, children crying for water, for food...

But there were hardly a few drops of clean water left in the world, where could food grow!

Humanity was on the brink of extinction!

...Everything intertwined in her ears.

Lan Xi’s lips were tightly pressed together, her expression as cold as ice, but beneath those dense eyelashes, her eyelids felt an unprecedented heat.

If she had been somewhat reluctant to sacrifice herself before,

this moment, she willingly offered her own power to trade for the happiness of all the people in the world.

And she would die without regrets!

Even Ah Qing, whom she deeply loved, she had cast far beyond the clouds.

"I, Lan Xi, have heard the prayers of the people in the world. In the name of a god, I pray for blessings for all people. Absorb the filth, devour the plagues, purify the earth’s energy, and let the Mortal World return to warmth..." Lan Xi began chanting the divine prophecy, and as her words ended.

Over six hundred regions, the sky, once obscured by dark clouds, began to clear, and the sunshine that had not appeared for thirty years shone onto the earth.

On the land, withered grass met spring and rejuvenated, growing rapidly, large trees branched out, flowers rooted and sprouted, rivers began to store water, great rivers turned from black to blue, and schools of fish came back to life, swimming in the ocean.

In the woods, the grass grew and swallows fluttered, and herds of rabbits hopped around in the mountain streams.

On the streets, people ravaged by plagues and reduced to skin and bones were completely revitalized, their flesh regenerated.

A plague had raged for thirty years, yet it disappeared at the speed of light.

The clear and tender voice of the girl from the sky, when heard, instantly made people feel completely relaxed, as if they had been given a new cycle of Reincarnation, a new beginning for their lives.

...

Mi Xi raised his head, looking towards the altar.

He too was deeply attracted to Lan Xi’s power.

How beautiful that voice was, like the joyous chirping of birds in the forest at dawn, or like the sound of wind chimes stirred by the breeze.

With her voice, he felt a power stirring inside him, as if the bottlenecks he encountered in his training and the unbreakable meridians were, in an instant, cleared.

Was this the power of a god?

The Heavenly Emperor watched enviously.

She truly was the Child of God.

Even if she wasn’t yet a god in the true sense, but such power was unattainable for others.

He, of the Heavenly Clan, who governed the order of the world, could never possess such formidable strength.

This was also why he insisted that Crown Prince Ya must marry Lan Xi.

Lan Yan’s brows were tightly furrowed, her expression grave.

She didn’t know if Lan Xi could hold on until the end, no matter the result, she only hoped her daughter would be well.

But this was the destiny of a god—if she couldn’t endure and turned into a demon, Lan Yan would have to kill her with her own hands.

Lan Xi tirelessly chanted the spell over and over again.

It had been a quarter of an hour since the ritual started.

Only when Lan Xi heard cheers coming from the Mortal World,

did a radiant smile break out on her face as old folks, children, and young people all gratefully thanked the heavens and the deities.

She had succeeded!

She had purified all the filth in the Mortal World and eliminated all of humanity’s diseases, and the earth was blooming once again, vibrant with life...

She had not let everyone down, she had fulfilled the god’s mission.

But her smile had not yet fully bloomed when it froze on her face.

A vast surge of the Demonic Qi suddenly erupted from within her, like a volcano unexpectedly erupting, and in the blink of an eye, the ritual platform was shrouded in black fog.

Lan Xi immediately tried to circulate Spiritual Energy to purify the Demonic Qi, but the demonic energy within her grew more and more abundant, eventually suppressing her Spiritual Energy so much that she couldn’t muster it.

In just an instant, she felt every cell in her body ache as if pierced by needles, followed by the sight of her hands covered with green veins and ugly black runes.

In a panic, she tore off her sleeves and saw her chest... her entire body seemed to be fracturing, crawling with ugly black runes.

For the first time, Lan Xi felt afraid, terrified.

She desperately tried to channel the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth to expel the Demonic Qi within her.

Unexpectedly, as she attempted to perform feats of strength, her body reabsorbed the dispersed Demonic Qi around her.

And with the infusion of Demonic Qi, her eyes also turned a crimson red.

When the last wisp of Demonic Qi on the ritual platform was absorbed by her,

Lan Xi looked at her hands in shock, frozen on the platform.

This was impossible—she was the Child of God, how could she be possessed by demons.

As soon as Lan Yan saw the dispersing Demonic Qi, she realized something was wrong and rushed towards the platform.

Just as Lan Xi incredulously tried to hide her hideous hands, the Goddess Sword was placed directly across her neck.

"Mother!"

Lan Xi knelt on the ritual platform, looking up at her mother before her.

She was at a loss.

She had thought that if she succeeded in purifying the Spiritual Energy of the Mortal World, she would die on the spot from the erosion of Demonic Qi and diseases.

But she never imagined she would become so hideous, to be killed by her own birth mother.

Lan Yan’s eyes were red and her hand holding the sword trembled, but if she didn’t kill Lan Xi now, her future transformation into a demon would be not just a catastrophe for the Mortal World, but also for the Immortal Realm.

Having absorbed all the malice left by humans tormented by diseases and demons, her Spiritual Energy, unable to purify, she would turn into a major demon who kills without blinking.

"Lan Xi, mother is sorry. It’s because of my incompetence that I have to sacrifice you."

But what else could she do?

Faced with the choice between her daughter and the welfare of all mortals, she knew her injuries were severe, yet she did not stop her.

Because by the time she would have healed, the Mortal World would likely have been destroyed.

Sacrifice her to save the mortals.

It wouldn’t be too late to wait another few hundred thousand years, for the next Child of God to be born.

Lan Xi knelt on the ground; she did not cry.

Because she had long calculated that she would die.

But what she hadn’t anticipated was her mother holding a sword to her throat.