Ao Shuang stopped in front of a black Jade Wall at the deepest part of the Dragon Palace, its surface covered in ancient runes.
She bit her fingertip, squeezing out a drop of Essence Blood filled with surging Dragon Essence, and pressed it to the center of the Jade Wall.
The Essence Blood was instantly absorbed by the runes, and the Jade Wall slid open soundlessly, revealing a swirling vortex of darkness that devoured all light.
A thick, ink-like chill rushed out, carrying a heart-stopping sense of decay and ominous foreboding.
“Is this the Secret Realm? Why does it look so creepy?” Jiang Huai asked cautiously.
This was his first time entering a so-called Secret Realm, and it was already the highest difficulty—a Heavenly Immortal-level Secret Realm.
“This is the place. Qin Qingyue, remember your promise!”
Ao Shuang took a few steps back, the aura of ruin from the entrance already making her uncomfortable.
Qin Qingyue didn’t look back. Her Dragon Tail coiled even tighter around Jiang Huai, Profound Armor covering her whole body, Spear held horizontally, and her Red Vertical Pupil locked onto that abyssal entrance.
“Hold on to me.” She called out in a low voice, a pitch-black Dragon Power Shield erupting around her, and she stepped into the vortex without hesitation.
“Okay.” Jiang Huai hugged Qin Qingyue’s waist tightly.
The world spun wildly. Even for someone as strong as Qin Qingyue in the Great Ascension stage, the Secret Realm made her feel as weak as she once was, unable to withstand the chaos of heaven and earth.
It was as if they were thrown into a lightless deep sea, or plunged into eternal void.
Cold, viscous darkness with a rotten stench instantly enveloped the two of them.
The glow of Qin Qingyue’s shield was rapidly compressed, like a candle flickering in the wind, emitting a strained “zzz” sound.
Countless sharp, venomous, malicious whispers exploded directly in the depths of their Souls:
“Misfortune… Ominous…”
“Whoever gets close to you… will ultimately be destroyed…”
“Loneliness… is your eternal fate…”
“Look, that person beside you is going to die because of you again.”
Qin Qingyue felt as if she’d been struck hard, inner demons swirling at the bottom of her heart, mocking her fate with every word.
She tightened her tail fiercely, wanting to pull Jiang Huai into her embrace, to prove he was still by her side.
He was the only one she hadn’t brought to ruin.
But suddenly, her Dragon Tail loosened, and Jiang Huai vanished into the air.
“Jiang Huai! Jiang Huai?!” Qin Qingyue called out anxiously.
Within this Secret Realm, she had lost her Great Ascension power and could no longer fully control the situation.
Illusions grew in the darkness: a young Black Dragon was driven away and despised by her kin, her scales ripped off, blood streaming.
“Don’t drive me away! I’m not a bad dragon.” The little Black Dragon ran as she cried and shouted.
Her Dragon Horn was different from other Black Dragons, flickering with an Aura of Misfortune.
But no one cared about her. Some even believed that killing her would bring them misfortune, so they drove her far away.
From then on, the little Black Dragon left the Dragon Palace.
The Benefactor who once briefly took her in was struck to ashes by Heavenly Tribulation Lightning when she approached.
The little Black Dragon could only cry in guilt as she buried the corpse herself.
Friends who often fought beside her in the Secret Realm ultimately died under a rain of blades because of her.
A once-prosperous underwater city became a Dead Domain because of her, countless Resentful Spirits reaching out with withered claws.
…….
The past forcibly replayed in her mind, all those she’d brought to death seemingly turning into Resentful Spirits, their voices filled with hatred.
“Our family took you in out of kindness, so why did you kill us all! Why didn’t you say you were cursed by Misfortune?!”
“Why did you want to be my friend?! Didn’t you know you were cursed by Misfortune?! You killed me! It was you who killed me!”
“Why don’t you just die, why don’t you just die, why don’t you just die!”
Qin Qingyue breathed heavily, staring at these vengeful spirits, retreating step by step while gripping her Spear tightly.
“I didn’t want you to die, I didn’t want you to die.”
“I… I don’t want to die, and I don’t want you to die either.”
But the Resentful Spirits didn’t reach for her. Instead, they turned and rushed toward the other side.
Qin Qingyue turned and saw Jiang Huai helplessly sitting on the ground, his eyes filled with fear.
She watched as Jiang Huai was swallowed by the Black Mist of Misfortune, his body crumbling inch by inch, tormented by the Resentful Spirits.
“Get away!”
Qin Qingyue let out a suppressed dragon’s roar, sweeping her Spear in a wide arc, violent power shredding the illusions.
But she could not tear apart those maggot-like whispers or the even deeper fear.
She could sense that this darkness was madly absorbing and magnifying her own Misfortune.
Even with Jiang Huai’s stubborn fate, he might not be able to withstand this Misfortune.
The shield fluctuated violently, her Dragon Tail instinctively protecting Jiang Huai at the very core, the cold scales tensing from the force.
“Jiang Huai, are you alright, Jiang Huai?” Qin Qingyue asked with concern, hugging him tightly in her arms.
She looked down, only to find Jiang Huai staring coldly at her, his eyes full of disappointment and disdain.
“You knew this place was dangerous, so why did you bring me here?”
“So you’ve killed so many people, so many people have died because of your Misfortune!”
“You’re such a selfish, damned dragon. Why did you stop me from leaving with Wu Zhaohua? She’s many times stronger than you!”
Qin Qingyue froze, slowly backing away, staring at Jiang Huai in disbelief—the only gentle man she’d ever been close to.
“You…”
Jiang Huai glared at her coldly and said, “You should have died long ago, shouldn’t you?”
“You used that tiny price to trick me, to trick my body, to satisfy desires you’ve suppressed for centuries.”
“And you still want love from me, want something you’ll never deserve, isn’t that right?”
His words were like blades, stabbing hard into Qin Qingyue’s heart.
“I… you…”
The Resentful Spirits surged forward again, cursing fate endlessly in her ears.
Venomous whispers, a millennium of accumulated loneliness and self-loathing, infinitely magnified by the Secret Realm.
“I… I should die.” Qin Qingyue murmured, slowly lowering her Spear and kneeling on the ground.
“I should die. I should have died long ago.”
She let out a heart-wrenching Dragon’s Lament, full of a thousand years of loneliness and self-hatred.
“Qin Qingyue, Qin Qingyue.”
“Qin Qingyue!”
Jiang Huai, separated by a Shallow River, looked at Qin Qingyue struggling on her knees on the other side, shouting loudly.
It was a shallow, but pitch-black river.
Though the river wasn’t deep, it seemed to block all of Jiang Huai’s voice.
The person “forcing” Qin Qingyue to her death wasn’t him—clearly, it was an illusion created by the Secret Realm.
Just like those people Qin Qingyue had accidentally killed in her early years, all of them were illusions woven by the Secret Realm.
For someone at the Great Ascension stage, this should have been an easy trick to see through.
But this Secret Realm had seized on Qin Qingyue’s weakness, infinitely magnifying the loneliness, self-loathing, and despair she’d carried all these years.
“Qin Qingyue! Wake up!”
After shouting a few times and seeing Qin Qingyue gradually collapse to the ground on the opposite shore, Jiang Huai realized that no matter how much he yelled, she couldn’t hear him at all.
He looked down at the pitch-black river at his feet, which seemed to represent ominous misfortune.
But right now, the only way to save Qin Qingyue seemed to be to wade across.
Jiang Huai first dipped his finger into the water. It tingled a little, but didn’t seem to cause any harm, so he prepared to enter the river.
No matter what, the two of them were now bound by life and death. He had to save her.
Even though a Qi Refining Stage cultivator saving a Great Ascension cultivator sounded ridiculous, right now, only he could face the unknown terror and risk everything to save Qin Qingyue.
Just as Jiang Huai was about to step into the water, a gentle female voice drifted up from the riverbed:
“This river is condensed from her Misfortune. Are you sure you want to come down?”