Even if that person has been battered relentlessly by your Savage Hongru for over three hundred years, nearly turning into your personal fluffy ball.
At this moment, Qingyang Peak seemed to plunge into an abyss of deathly silence, every sound stilled.
Xuantian Zhenjun collapsed to the ground, coughing up fresh blood, his face pale, his internal cultivation completely drained, and his Nascent Soul disintegrating—hundreds of years of painstaking cultivation destroyed in an instant.
He struggled to turn his head and looked back at Su Bai, confusion thick in his gaze.
Su Bai held a bloodstained, eerie black blade, without the slightest fluctuation of spiritual power on her body. The Golden Core seal on her lower abdomen remained intact, yet she wielded a force eerily similar to spiritual energy.
It was precisely this strange force that, in the brief moment Xuantian Zhenjun let his guard down, landed a fatal strike and shattered his Nascent Soul!
“I never expected it—renowned Xuantian Zhenjun would fall at the hands of a woman one day.” Li An walked over slowly, his face pale, clearly still wounded from before, speaking with a tone both of sighing and relief.
Xuantian Zhenjun did not respond, only staring at Su Bai.
“When?”
“I clearly isolated you completely from the outside world, sealed your cultivation, confiscated your divine artifacts—you couldn’t possibly communicate with Dao Tian, let alone Tianxu.”
Su Bai looked down at Xuantian Zhenjun, silent, then shifted her gaze toward Li An and Fang Xiu. Fang Xiu spoke at this moment: “It was the Eightfold Great Dread Blood Sea Visualization secret technique that I taught.”
“Eightfold Great Dread, from the Nine Nether Homeland.”
“Visualize my Nine Nether, imagine my Blood Sea—it’s not only a Golden Core formation method but also our sect’s secret communication technique. It requires no spiritual power, instead harnessing the power of the Nine Nether, linking the Five Domains and Two Heavens, allowing communication anywhere from the far south of Heaven to the distant north of the sea.”
“I see.”
Xuantian Zhenjun’s expression darkened bitterly. “No wonder during the Immortal Alliance era, the Nine Nether Sect could not be eradicated despite repeated exterminations. They’d flourish again like spring grass after the wind.”
Hearing this, a complex feeling welled up in Su Bai’s heart. During those hundreds of years of house arrest, she had tried every means to break free, even to the point of humiliation and voluntarily seeking love.
Until one time, after a failed attempt at breaking out and being dragged back by her own cursed son, nearly on the brink of mental collapse, she happened to come into contact again with that Golden Core formation manual. By chance, she connected with these two famed Nine Nether demon cultivators from outside.
In that moment, a beam of light called “hope” shone into Su Bai’s heart.
How long had this strike been planned?
Five years? Ten years? Or twenty?
Su Bai had forgotten.
She only remembered that the amount of Yang Essence she had consumed through all her efforts could rival the volume of Qingyang Peak beneath her feet, her entire body nearly transforming into a creamy puff—a personal fluffy ball.
“Stop wasting words on him. Kill this cursed son quickly before the night grows long and the dream lingers.” Su Bai urged.
“The Demonic Blood Refining Great Formation belongs to me!”
“Xuantian Zhenjun belongs to me. I shall offer him to the Nine Nether.”
Fang Xiu and Li An moved simultaneously. One completely nullified Xuantian Zhenjun’s cultivation, making recovery impossible, while the other swiftly captured him.
“As per the previous agreement, it should be like this.” Su Bai turned and bowed deeply to the two of them. “I hope both of you will honor your prior promise and escort me. The life-protecting formation my cursed son set on me can only be broken by a Nascent Soul.”
“Do you really wish to seek death so wholeheartedly, Dao friend?” Li An frowned.
“I, Su, am already a withered flower and faded willow, unworthy to linger in this world. It’s better to end it all at once.”
“In that case, I shall escort Senior Brother Su on his journey later.”
Hearing this, Su Bai turned toward Fang Xiu and respectfully bowed. “Thank you, Junior Brother Fang.”
“Wife, you seek death like this—over three hundred years, have you never once felt a stir of affection for me?” Suddenly, a faint whisper broke through the silence, entering everyone’s ears.
Startled, Su Bai’s mouth twitched into a cold smile, then she suddenly kicked the man on the ground hard. “You cursed son! I treated you like my own child, taught you everything, and you repay me with treachery—imprisoning your master for over three hundred years and committing such heinous acts!”
“If there’s a next time… or a next life, I’ll make sure to thoroughly spank your behind.”
“So that’s how it is~”
The last glimmer of light in Xuantian Zhenjun’s eyes finally extinguished, like a candle flickering in the wind, cruelly snuffed out.
At that moment, it was as if he had lost all trace of life.
He froze like a stone statue, motionless.
“Not good!”
“Run!”
Li An and Fang Xiu’s faces changed drastically, both sensing something wrong and attempting to escape—but it was already too late.
Within the pitch-black shadows, a spectral long banner flickered faintly, restless souls swirling, blood soaking through time and space, the entire world suddenly hushed.
They all felt like insects trapped in amber for ten thousand years, frozen instantly in this [space]. Li An and Fang Xiu, faces pale with terror, remained rigid mid-escape stance.
Only Su Bai could still move within this [space].
Xuantian Zhenjun did not stand, instead transforming into a pool of eerie black water, which, along with the nearby Su Xiao, the young boy, flowed into the shadow behind them.
A figure slowly stepped out from the darkness. Clad in a golden-patterned robe, his handsome visage seemed godlike descending to the mortal realm. He did not look at Li An and Fang Xiu but fixed his cold gaze squarely on Su Bai’s icy face.
“Wife, this time your husband is truly angry.”
“For three hundred years, you never gave your husband even a trace of love, yet you dared conspire with outsiders to harm your own husband. It seems I have been too lenient with you all these years.”
“Do you know?”
“This time, I will punish you harshly. First, I will seal your memories, then use soul-entangling arts to weave a memory of ‘you loving me.’ After five hundred years, I will erase that false memory and break the seal.”
“I am very eager to see how the ‘truth’ born from this falsehood will clash with reality—whether you will continue as you are, or finally fall in love with me.”
Zhou Xuan’s voice drifted like a sinister whisper in their ears.
Su Bai’s expression remained unchanged. She glanced deeply at the stiffened Li An and Fang Xiu, as if sighing slightly. “Sure enough, others cannot be relied upon.”
Seeing Su Bai so composed, seemingly still holding cards up her sleeve, Zhou Xuan’s brow lifted slightly, interest piqued.
For a bird so desperate for freedom, to turn her completely into a caged canary, one must crush her hopes without mercy when she is most full of them, break her spine, and strip away her pride!!
A blade stabbed into her lower abdomen, sharply tearing open the Dantian. A shining green Golden Core was dug out by a bloodied jade hand.
Su Bai coughed up several mouthfuls of fresh blood, growing ever weaker, seeming on the verge of death at any moment. Yet the various formations the “cursed son” had inscribed on her jade body suddenly roared to life, rapidly repairing the damage she sustained.
“Wife, why are you doing this? Digging out the Golden Core? Even if it’s just removed, or even fully unsealed, you’re no match for me. Even if you self-destruct, I can save you.”
“In my opinion, wife, you should stop. Go back to bed and rest properly. If it pleases me, perhaps I might shorten the sealing of your memories from five hundred years to four hundred.”
Zhou Xuan’s face was full of pity and regret as he coaxed her. Although he didn’t understand her intentions, he knew she couldn’t die with those formations. But seeing his wife and master like this pained him deeply.
Su Bai’s face twisted with grimace—she couldn’t help it, the pain was overwhelming!
“Cursed son, do you still remember the story I told you of the Flightless Bird? Do you know why it longs so much for the sky?!”
“Because a bird that longs for freedom can never be caged!!”
Bang!
With a roar, the Golden Core shattered! A vast sacrificial formation adorned with intricate emerald patterns emerged around Su Bai.
This formation was not as complicated and elaborate as those of the current era. Instead, it radiated a wild, primeval aura, as if it had already become one with heaven and earth.
“Great and noble Eternal Heavenly Dao, today, Golden Core cultivator Su Bai offers you a grand sacrifice!!!”