Inside the Secluded Village, Ji Wuqing was once again pestering Ji Baiming, demanding to be let out.
"Dad! Thirty years! A whole generation has been born in that time, just let me out!"
Ji Baiming tossed the latest issue of the Celestial River Monthly Report at her face.
"See for yourself!"
Ji Wuqing felt like she was looking into a mirror when she read the report.
The wanted notices for you and Ji Baiming had long since disappeared, but Ji Wuqing remained the front-page headline.
In the early years, it was "capture alive," but now it had become "dead or alive."
On this very day, strange black mist drifted over from the distance.
Not just on the ground, but in the sky as well.
The black mist blanketed everything, stretching on without end, and soon covered the entire Secluded Village.
At first, the village's powerhouses assumed it was some kind of phenomenon caused by a cultivator cultivating nearby.
A bunch of big shots were still pretending to be mortals, letting out all sorts of exaggerated exclamations.
"Oh my, what is this?"
"Wow, so scary."
"Scared me to death!"
After a while, everyone, including you, realized something was wrong.
This black mist could seep into your body through every opening!
Once inside, it would neutralize the immortal energy within a cultivator's body, including primordial energy, divine power, and immortal power.
The neutralization wasn't fast.
But if they didn't restore their energy in time, once all their internal energy was neutralized, no one dared to imagine the consequences.
Just as everyone was hesitating over whether to circulate their energy to recover, someone stepped forward and identified what this thing was.
"It's pollution!"
You and many others still had question marks hovering over your heads.
"Pollution?"
Everyone's gaze turned to the old man at the village entrance. His hair was pure white, and he had a full white beard so thick that only his eyes were visible.
This man was said to be the ancestor of some faction, possibly even an Immortal King of the Ji family.
"I once came across a record in my family's ancient texts. Legend has it that in the prehistoric era, this black mist appeared on a massive scale throughout our universe.
Its origins are unknown, but it has two types of harm.
The first is what you're feeling now. It neutralizes a cultivator's cultivation level, eventually turning them into a mortal!
The second is, if a mortal comes into contact with the pollution, they will descend into madness!"
The Secluded Village also had many mortals.
Everyone observed for a moment and felt that the village's mortals showed no abnormalities.
The white-bearded elder also noticed this.
"The pollution appearing today seems to be at a relatively low level. Its effect on mortals isn't obvious."
The Secluded Village quickly organized a meeting for cultivators above the Immortal Lord realm.
Relying on your connection to Ji Wuqing, you also participated in this meeting.
An important decision was made at the meeting.
The Secluded Village would be temporarily disbanded. Each family would take their subordinate mortals back to their respective factions. If madness broke out later, they could use their faction's resources to contain them.
If these mortals were left out in the open, the inhuman Alien Races might simply slaughter them to deal with the problem.
As for those like Zhang Beihai who had no faction affiliation, every family extended an olive branch to him. He could go to whichever family he pleased.
Everyone present wore grim expressions.
What the appearance of this pollution meant, no one could say for certain.
Only Ji Wuqing was overjoyed.
"Does this mean I can cultivate now?"
Ji Baiming smiled bitterly.
"Silly girl, the Secluded Village is temporarily disbanded, so naturally, the village's rules no longer apply."
You raised an eyebrow.
"Does that mean we don't have to have our memories erased either?"
Zhang Beihai nodded.
"There's no need for that anymore. If the pollution subsides, we'll find another place to establish the village in the future."
You were quite satisfied.
After all, you still didn't like having someone mess with your memories.
The households of the Secluded Village each returned to their own homes, finding their own people.
You, Ji Wuqing, and Ji Baiming, the three wanted criminals, couldn't go back.
Because the Ji family was still under heavy surveillance. A large number of Peace Force troops were currently stationed in the Ji Family Ancestral Land, conducting strict inspections of everyone coming and going.
Although you had many methods of disguising your identities, the enemy was always one step ahead. The Peace Bureau, and even the Holy Dragon Society, had numerous ways to counter such tricks.
For the sake of the bigger picture, Ji Baiming chose not to return home.
The three of you wanted criminals could only form a temporary team and wander outside.
In recent years, Ji Wuqing had stopped bringing up the topic of marrying you.
She felt that as a top-tier wanted criminal, she would only drag down whoever she married.
A few days later, through the Celestial River Monthly Report, you learned that the pollution hadn't only appeared on Vermilion Violet Star.
Nearly half of the Southern Star Realm had been polluted!
These things couldn't be observed while floating in the vacuum of space.
Only when they entered a planet's atmosphere did they manifest in the form of this pitch-black mist.
Currently, the Holy Dragon Society's investigation team had personally stepped in to look into the source of the pollution.
Multiple organizations under the Holy Dragon Society were joining forces with local powers across various planets to find a way to eliminate the pollution.
The only method available so far was to use formations, treasures, and similar things to seal away some of the pollution.
But what was truly disheartening was that whether it was formations or artifacts and spiritual treasures.
Though they could seal away some pollution, before long, these formations and objects would also become polluted, lose their spirituality, and turn into piles of scrap metal.
In other words, it was treating the symptoms, not the root cause.
To cure the root of the problem, it seemed the only option was to let the pollution be passively neutralized through contact with immortal energy.
But no one knew how much pollution there was, or how long the neutralization would take.
"Even the Immortal Qi is becoming thinner."
Under the sky full of black mist, you and the father-daughter pair of Ji Wuqing and Ji Baiming walked along desolate mountain paths.
The pollution caused the immortal power within your bodies to continuously weaken, and you could only offset it by circulating your energy.
But with the Immortal Qi growing thinner, the speed of recovery slowed down.
Now, you would avoid using immortal techniques whenever possible to conserve power.
The good news was that this black mist not only reduced visibility but also hindered spiritual perception abilities like Divine Sense.
Because the moment Divine Sense was released, it was neutralized by the pollution.
For the three wanted criminals, this was undoubtedly good news.
It would be much harder for the Peace Bureau to find you.
But you estimated that with the pollution affecting nearly half of the Southern Star Realm, the Peace Bureau must be scrambling right now and probably didn't have time to hunt you down.
The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was carried on your back. This was at Old Wan's strong insistence, as he absolutely loved the pollution.
"Oh! Buddy, look at that! This pitch-black heaven and earth fits my aesthetic perfectly!"
"Have you forgotten that you're currently glowing with golden light?"
Before you even finished speaking, the golden light on the Ten Thousand Souls Banner suddenly shifted, transforming into pitch-black smoke.
"When I'm out and about, glowing gold is for the sake of looking respectable. But I still prefer my original skin!"
Ji Wuqing grabbed the banner's surface and tugged at it.
"Chen Yi, this spiritual treasure of yours is so much fun, let me play with it!"
The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was yanked back and forth by Ji Wuqing, panicking as he shouted.
"Woman! Don't put your hands on me! Ah!! Don't kiss me!!! My first kiss!!!"

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