Lin Xiaoyue’s voice was as light as a feather, yet every word pierced the heart, each sentence was a pearl of wisdom.
The most fatal aspect of this speech lay in the weakness of cultivation she actively displayed, in the location she chose—right in front of Yun Heng, where Ling Yao had fought tooth and nail to stand after her first rebirth—and in the deliberately chosen posture of a rival who was neither ordained by the heavenly dao nor destined by fate, delivering her judgment.
Triply layered, it was like a blunt knife dipped in poison. Not sharp, initially unnoticeable, but with repeated pulling, the wound gradually tore open, and pain slowly seeped through the numbness.
Ling Yao wanted to say it wasn’t like that, it wasn’t true, she had never thought those things…
But she couldn’t speak.
Not just because she was bound and couldn’t move, but more because she didn’t know how to deceive herself about this matter.
It was instinct.
It was impulse.
It was an uncontrollable “nature.”
Just as Yun Heng himself had complained, as someone blessed with great fortune, every inch of his skin, every wisp of his aura, was as attractive to the demon race as the legendary “Tang Monk’s flesh.”
Among them, the flood dragon clan, who dreamed of ascending to become true dragons, were even more drawn.
Ling Yao’s deep purple eyes gradually lost focus. All her anger, defense, and strength slowly drained away under this mental torture. Like a porcelain doll whose soul had been stolen, she slowly sank into the weak water.
“Young lady, the rain is pouring. I merely wish to take shelter in this pavilion for a moment. Why resort to violence without cause?”
“…Human, can’t you tell I’m a demon?”
“So?”
“…Aren’t you afraid I’ll eat you?”
“Terrified, absolutely terrified. Now hurry up and make some room. I’m going to catch a cold.”
“Get away, human. My blood is filthy.”
“Blood is blood. Since when does it have distinctions of high and low, noble and base? If it hurts, you can cry out. There’s no one else here.”
“…Hypocrite. My mother once said you humans are most adept at using gentleness as a trap.”
“Then, will you jump into my trap?”
“On the condition… you can get me out of here alive.”
“Hey, human.”
“Hmm?”
“…Don’t always call me ‘Xiao Jiu.’ That’s… that’s something only very close elders can call me.”
“Hmm… ‘Ling’ to transcend the masses, ‘Yao’ for the breaking dawn. How about ‘Ling Yao’? It carries the ambition to soar above the clouds, yet retains the gentle luster of jade. I think it suits you.”
“Passable, I suppose. Hmph, I’ll take it.”
“Preparing such a grand ceremony for a demon… Aren’t you afraid of being ostracized by the humans?”
“What, don’t you like this wedding?”
“I like it, but…”
“My family likes it too. That’s enough.”
“Then what you said before… that… just… that thing… about only marrying me in this lifetime or something…”
“One lifetime, one pair. A gentleman does not jest. Xiao Jiu, could it be you want to take a concubine for me?”
“You dare!”
“Hahahaha… Ouch, wife, your grip is too strong, you’re hurting your husband’s waist. How am I supposed to enter the bridal chamber with you tonight?”
“Who agreed to enter a bridal chamber with you?!”
“If we succeed in quelling this rebellion, I will become the shared ruler of the demon race. Ah Heng, will you always stand by my side?”
“I will always stand where your gaze can reach. When you need guidance, I will be the lamp; when you soar high, I will be the wind that lifts you.”
“…Weirdo. Then… what if one day I fall from the sky?”
“Then we fall together. Conveniently, I have connections with the King of Hell. I can be your guide~”
“What ghostly connections could you possibly have?!”
“…Don’t look at me with those eyes. Yun Heng, I’m doing this… for the demon race.”
“I can understand. But, Xiao Jiu, I want to ask you one last question.”
“Ask.”
“You… are you really sure about this?”
“Yes.”
“…Then, Demon Immortal, let us part ways here.”
***
Yet, after the extreme silence and emptiness, an even deeper darkness suddenly counterattacked.
Ling Yao’s hand tightly grasped the flowing patterns of the heavy water, not as if grabbing water, but more like clutching a lifeline.
Her aura began to climb steadily. Her deep purple eyes grew increasingly profound, and incredibly, flames even ignited within the weak water.
Crack.
Crack.
Cracks like ice crystals spread one after another through the weak water prison.
With a deafening BOOM, Ling Yao, relying on some strange, unknown force, actually broke through both the weak water and the domain!
“Who are you to judge me?! You know nothing! This is a private matter between him and me… it’s not your place as an outsider to point fingers!”
Her roar echoed through the mountains and forests.
“Precisely because I have suffered for ten thousand years… precisely because I reversed time and space… that proves I am not without that thing! My pain, my regret—that is my ‘conscience’!”
At the center of Ling Yao’s brow, a faint golden crown mark suddenly appeared.
Behind her, a massive, ethereal figure similar to Ling Yao but clearly more mature slowly manifested—the very “Demon Immortal” once worshipped by millions!
The hundred-meter-tall figure merely glanced down indifferently, and the immortal king pressure, capable of crushing everything, descended like a tidal wave. Wherever it passed, sand and stones flew, and even space-time became disordered.
Yet, for some reason, even though Ling Yao wasn’t controlling it, this peerless pressure from the strongest immortal king across twenty thousand years somehow didn’t affect the meditating Yun Heng or the other three women guided by bamboo threads in the slightest.
“Trash belongs in the trash can. A mere remnant dares to act recklessly before this venerable one?”
Facing the pressure, Lin Xiaoyue didn’t dodge or evade. Her gaze grew even colder.
If it were just “Ling Yao,” she might not have overstepped, as that should be left for Yun Heng to judge. But if it was the “Demon Immortal”…
“Primordial chaos, Yin and Yang undivided.”
A seven-colored bracelet and a bamboo flute appeared out of thin air in Lin Xiaoyue’s left and right hands.
“Without self, without form, manifestable, concealable.”
The starlight in her eyes quietly faded, replaced by pupils of two colors: white on the left, black on the right.
The white pupil spewed forth supreme yang true fire, while the black pupil poured down supreme yin profound water.
Her aura soared abruptly, reaching a height equal to the Demon Immortal’s ethereal figure in an instant.
“Causal tapestry, fate’s threads weave the chapter.”
A slowly rotating Taiji diagram, like intertwined fish, materialized behind Lin Xiaoyue.
The seven-colored bracelet in her left hand disintegrated into seven-colored rainbow light, merging into the space behind her and transforming into a strange-colored vortex.
The bamboo flute in her right hand was placed by Lin Xiaoyue between her lips. An ancient melody, half-song, half-sob, emanated, forcefully repelling the immortal king’s pressure.
And that wasn’t all.
“Trace the current, seek the cause, its crime laid bare.”
Lin Xiaoyue lowered the flute, expressionlessly extended her right hand, and then… clenched it tightly!
Pfft.
A crisp sound of a phantom shattering echoed.
“Primordial selflessness, why constrain Yin and Yang?”
The ethereal figure let out a mournful cry. Just as it was about to dissipate back into Ling Yao’s brow, it was sucked into the strange vortex of chaotic spiritual energy before Lin Xiaoyue, transforming into a purple-golden sphere of light that hovered there.
Not Yun Heng’s Zhoutian Qimen, but the “Primordial Yin-Yang” that belonged solely to her, Lin Xiaoyue—or rather, Yue Wuhen.
Ling Yao spat out a large mouthful of blood with a wah sound, staggered back dozens of steps, and then fell to her knees with a thump.
Her cultivation plummeted from the early foundation establishment stage all the way down to Qi refining. Forget others; even the sleeping Wang Hongqiao over there could easily crush her now.
“Causality?! How? Wasn’t that his power?!”
But Ling Yao paid no attention to her own cultivation. Clutching her chest, she glared furiously at Lin Xiaoyue and demanded, “What have you done to him?!”
In her previous life, Yun Heng was a half-step immortal venerable who mastered causality.
Just from this title, different from the conventional “immortal king,” it wasn’t hard to see that if he could ascend, even in the immortal realm, few would dare provoke him.
And the so-called “immortal venerable” was not a simple realm title. It was the designation for a “practitioner” who had obtained the recognition of a core law’s origin and completely merged with it.
The law was him; he was the law.
This “throne” possessed absolute exclusivity. The moment Yun Heng proved his Dao through causality and took the seat of “half-step immortal venerable,” the great Dao of causality across all realms, past and present, was imprinted with the mark of “Yun Heng.”
In theory, until he completely perished and the mark dissipated, there should be absolutely no possibility of a second person touching the true “authority of causality,” let alone using it so profoundly.
Now, Yun Heng had just been reborn. The throne was not empty; his causal mark should still exist within the great Dao. So how did Lin Xiaoyue obtain it?
“Don’t assume everyone is as heartless and ungrateful as you. A mere beast, don’t even try to get close.”
Lin Xiaoyue said indifferently.
This was a relic Yun Heng had given to “Yue Wuhen.” As a practitioner of the Law of Causality, Yun Heng had actually foreseen his own tribulation long ago.
But compared to fate, he believed more in the “Xiao Jiu” he had nurtured, believing she was willing to join him in defying fate.
Yun Heng understood the cost of losing this “gamble” better than anyone. So, early on, he had transferred part of his authority to Yue Wuhen.
This way, even if the worst outcome occurred, his closest friend could still attain the Dao and ascend in the future, inheriting his legacy.
Unfortunately, he miscalculated. Neither the Demon Immortal nor his closest friend walked the path Yun Heng had envisioned.
Of course, Lin Xiaoyue would not say any of this.
Because Ling Yao wasn’t worthy of hearing it.
She merely toyed with the collected remnant of the immortal king, her expression disdainful.
Ling Yao gritted her teeth.
Even if she was also a reborn person, how could the other party bring cultivation from a previous life to the present world when she herself had reversed time and space?
If that were truly the case, according to paradox, both she and the original self of this world should have vanished together!
“If you also spent ten thousand years researching how to kill a person, then you could do the same.”
Lin Xiaoyue glanced at Ling Yao, formed her fingers into a sword, and with one slash, severed the last remaining immortal king origin within Ling Yao.
This way, even if Ling Yao regretted it in the future and tried to reverse time and space a second time to return to her previous life, it would be impossible.
And with her origin destroyed, forget about ascension or a godhead; even if Ling Yao wanted to use the spells and divine abilities she learned in the immortal realm in the future, it would be basically impossible.
After all, demon beasts had always been considered “filth” not acknowledged by the immortal realm. Without Yun Heng’s providence blessing her, Ling Yao in her previous life could never have tread so easily in the immortal realm.
Moreover, there was another benefit.
Dust to dust, earth to earth.
The “stolen goods” refined using plundered providence should have been returned to their rightful owner long ago.
As for what Ling Yao was shocked about, Lin Xiaoyue also knew. But in fact, her cultivation was indeed only at the foundation establishment stage, no different from Ling Yao and Yun Heng.
However, her cultivation technique was extremely special.
Special enough to cleanse Ling Yao’s origin after rebirth, special enough that… even Yun Heng couldn’t detect her “cross-dressing as a man.”
Thinking of this, Lin Xiaoyue suddenly felt somewhat vexed.
Her original plan was to explore the hidden realm with Yun Heng. But because she saw the Demon Immortal’s ethereal figure, she couldn’t hold back and used a major move.
Though there were no external signs, it still injured her origin. She needed to rest and recuperate for half a year, and for three thousand years, she couldn’t invoke her origin power again. She could no longer engage in deep exchanges with Yun Heng.
And furthermore…
Lin Xiaoyue glanced at the sky and sighed softly.
The commotion was too big. She also needed to explain a great many things to Elder Lan and Weiyang.
Waving her hand to disperse the chaotic origin energy around her, Lin Xiaoyue decisively stepped on Ling Yao’s chest, pinning her firmly to the ground.
“So, how are you any different from me? Both are just thieves.”
After saying this to Ling Yao and seeing the stubborn, defiant look on her face that said “do whatever you want, kill me if you must,” Lin Xiaoyue fell into a brief silence.
She would not kill Ling Yao.
At least, not for now.
Because the world’s restart was triggered by Ling Yao. Countless causal threads, present and future, were tightly intertwined with her.
If Ling Yao died, not to mention how much it would affect Yun Heng’s plans, just considering the butterfly effect that even Elder Lan couldn’t accurately calculate… Lin Xiaoyue didn’t dare take the risk.
Moreover, her position was merely that of a “friend who overstepped,” nothing more. In this world, the only one qualified to pass a death sentence on Ling Yao was Yun Heng.
However, what Lin Xiaoyue couldn’t understand was, even after grinding Ling Yao’s dignity into the dirt—physically and spiritually, materially and mentally—back and forth, why could she still be so arrogant?
This made Lin Xiaoyue recall the eve of Yun Heng’s grand wedding announcement in their previous life, the last time the two of them, still bachelors, drank together in the mortal realm.
Back then, she had asked Yun Heng why he chose Ling Yao as his partner.
Yun Heng had smiled and replied: Because she possesses a kind of “purity” even she herself is unaware of—like a fire, you don’t know if it will illuminate people or burn them. And I want to be that reckless person who guides the fire towards good.
From a grand perspective, Yun Heng was successful. Because Ling Yao indeed fulfilled the wish Yun Heng hadn’t completed before his death: promoting peace among the three races and reducing countless prejudices and stereotypes across the Nine Provinces.
But from a personal perspective, Yun Heng undoubtedly failed. Because in the end, he was still burned by this fire.
If not for Lin Xiaoyue’s help, even if Ling Yao reversed time and space, he wouldn’t have been able to be reborn.
“We are not the same.”
Lin Xiaoyue withdrew her foot and turned away. “Your love is about carving out the heart and taking the bones. Mine is a ten-thousand-year vigil. Tell me, which of us is more qualified to stand by his side?”
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