“Why were you so angry just now?” Jiang Huai gently held Qin Qingyue’s slightly cold hand and asked in a soft voice.
Qin Qingyue lowered her gaze, her thick, long eyelashes hiding the surging fierceness in her eyes.
Her teeth itched with hatred, but looking at Jiang Huai’s pale and confused face, a deep sense of powerlessness welled up inside her.
What dragon? How could there be such a dragon in this world? It’s a total disgrace to the Dragon Race!
If not for Jiang Huai’s severe injury this time and urgently summoning White Dew to discuss important matters, the next time they met, she would probably have to directly face that already-born child, wouldn’t she?
How could this possibly be the act of the legendary aloof and noble Qinglong Hall Master, who was supposed to be above all dust?
What difference was there between such methods and those despicable scoundrels?
Wasn’t this just candied fruit?!
“It’s nothing.” She forcefully suppressed the revulsion surging in her chest, her voice slightly muffled, deliberately flat.
“It has nothing to do with you.” Qin Qingyue steeled her heart, but knew that things had already come to this point, and it was difficult to turn back.
She didn’t want Jiang Huai to acknowledge that child—why should she?
He didn’t even know when he “became a father”!
This act of near-theft was so vile she didn’t even want to imagine it.
For her, Qin Qingyue, to accept White Dew and that child? Absolutely impossible!
Qin Qingyue quickly straightened her expression, as if to forcibly bury all her negative emotions deep inside. She gently patted the back of Jiang Huai’s hand:
“You just need to rest well. Don’t trouble yourself over these trivial matters that have nothing to do with you.”
“You still need to spend more effort on Zhu Siyao. Her Soul is temporarily stabilized, but it’s still extremely fragile.” At this moment, a cold thought even flashed through her mind:
Should she find an opportunity to thoroughly “settle accounts” with White Dew and make that piece of flesh in her belly disappear? But this idea only flickered for a moment and passed.
From a longer-term perspective, if the Outworld Heavenly Demons truly invaded the Five Provinces Continent on a large scale, just she and Wu Zhaohua alone might not be able to protect Jiang Huai until he grew strong.
White Dew might be able to rally everyone to defend the Five Provinces Continent; at least, Qin Qingyue herself didn’t have that kind of influence.
“I’m fine.” Jiang Huai propped himself up, trying to sit straighter. A faint, relieved smile appeared on his face.
“After waking up, I can feel the vitality in my body recovering rapidly.”
This is where the terror of the Yin-Yang Body lay—as long as he wasn’t instantly obliterated, if even a single breath remained, that boundless life force would circulate on its own, endlessly regenerating. No matter how severe the injury, with time, it would gradually heal.
Once he made it through the most dangerous stage, his recovery would multiply in speed. In just a few days, he’d be lively and energetic again.
Sitting on the bed, Jiang Huai’s thoughts drifted afar.
He recalled the many cultivation methods and secret arts inherited from the previous generation with the Yin-Yang Body; almost all of them came with immense consumption of one’s own essence or blood vitality—practically Forbidden Techniques.
Did this mean that as long as he controlled the degree and didn’t let himself be killed instantly, he could boldly practice and use these immensely powerful, but costly, Forbidden Techniques?
Trading injury for life, origin for time—as long as he didn’t die, he’d always recover.
Thinking this, he looked up at Qin Qingyue and said earnestly, “Qingyue, do you have any records of powerful Forbidden Techniques or arts that consume one’s origin or burn blood vitality? I want to study them.”
Qin Qingyue’s expression shifted slightly, a strong disapproval flashing in her eyes. She said immediately:
“There’s no need! You don’t have to walk such an extreme path!”
“Maybe some people are right.” She glanced meaningfully at Wu Zhaohua, who had been silently standing by.
“You don’t need to go through endless life-and-death battles, nor must you become a powerhouse crawling out from piles of corpses and seas of blood. As long as you’re safe and sound, we’ll go to the Immortal Realm together.”
In her eyes, the Immortal Realm was the ideal pure land, free of Outworld Heavenly Demons’ threats.
With her Heavenly Immortal Realm cultivation, she could stand her ground there and live a peaceful, happy life with Jiang Huai.
As for the fate of the Five Provinces Continent? How many worlds have already been destroyed by Heavenly Demons—countless, really. What did that have to do with her, Qin Qingyue?
“It’s not like that, Qingyue.” Jiang Huai slowly shook his head, his face still pale.
“You have to prepare for the worst. You can’t just leave yourself with a seemingly safe retreat. I have a feeling the Heavenly Demons won’t let me go easily.”
“I can’t stay this weak forever. Even if I do go to the Immortal Realm in the end, I can’t just sit and wait, placing all my hope in others’ protection.”
“Power is the root of everything.”
Just then, the Ancestor of the Red Dragon, who’d been swimming in midair, suddenly popped up from behind Qin Qingyue’s head, blinking dragon eyes and interrupting:
“The Yin-Yang Body wants to go to the Immortal Realm? I’ve never heard of a Yin-Yang Body making it there.”
“If you leave, who will handle the Five Provinces Continent? Do you really want to be the first Yin-Yang Body to abandon the masses and run off alone?”
“That’s no good, little Jiang Huai.”
Qin Qingyue’s beautiful eyes rounded instantly, her fury reignited. She pointed at the door and shouted:
“You, get out too!”
Clearly, the Ancestor of the Red Dragon had no face to show here.
Little Red Dragon shrank its neck at her shout, slunk away with its tail drooping, still muttering discontentedly: [“Tsk, how did the Yin-Yang Body end up with a wife like you? No sense of the bigger picture at all.”]
Beyond the Five Provinces Continent, endless void.
In this absolute emptiness where even time and space seemed blurred, countless twisted, eerie wills gathered together.
“I think we should discuss activating the ‘Demon Extinguishing Grand Array’ ahead of schedule.” An impatient female voice rang out first, breaking the silence.
“We’ve spent so many years laying out and infiltrating—haven’t we accumulated enough power? Isn’t it time to pull the net tight?” Her voice was full of resentment.
“Too early, too impatient.” Another woman’s voice sounded, soft and alluring, unhurried.
“We’ve waited patiently for so many years, so why are you rushing now?” Her words held a hint of barely noticeable sarcasm.
“Is it because you recently lost a few important Avatars in the Five Provinces Continent and can’t keep calm?” She knew that the other’s key hiding spots in the Five Provinces Continent had been uprooted in succession—a considerable loss.
“Just wait a bit more.” The alluring voice continued.
“There are still a few remnant minor worlds left to erode and assimilate. Once all of them have been transformed into array bases, leaving only the Five Provinces Continent—”
“The power of the Grand Array will reach its peak. Taking the Five Provinces then will be even easier than devouring those little worlds, nearly foolproof.”
“You’d better activate the Grand Array now!” The earlier sharp voice suddenly sharpened, carrying a chill.
“Because that Yin-Yang Body—he’s already at the Golden Core!”
“What?!”
“Wasn’t the Yin-Yang Body supposed to have been completely wiped out?! There’s a successor?”
“What do you mean?! Make yourself clear!”
“Impossible!”
These words were like a splash of cold water into a boiling oil pot; the void exploded into chaos at once.
Countless hidden wills lashed out wildly, intertwining, full of shock, anger, and a soul-deep terror.
All sorts of noisy, chaotic voices rose in succession, as if a hundred demons were dancing.
“Hmph!” The sharp voice now brimmed with vengeful glee.
“Not only that, he has two Great Ascension Stage cultivators at the Heavenly Immortal Realm protecting him. You’d better think carefully.”
She didn’t bother to mention that one of those Heavenly Immortal Realms was her own handiwork.
At these words, the noisy void went momentarily still.
The alluring female voice that had opposed before, after a brief dead silence, completely reversed her stance, her tone now decisive and icy:
“Activate! Activate the Grand Array immediately!”
“Start now, begin the all-out invasion of the Five Provinces Continent!”
“Agreed.”
“Seconded.”
For a moment, the void was filled with voices of all kinds, but all were in complete agreement—to activate the Grand Array at once.
The reason they’d dared to scheme and erode so recklessly was their certainty that the previous generation’s Yin-Yang Body had perished, believing there was no longer such a naturally born nemesis to restrain them.
Now, news that the Yin-Yang Body still had a successor alive—and one who had already reached the Golden Core—sent true dread through these Outworld Heavenly Demons.
The Human Race’s ability to evolve and reproduce was truly terrifying—they had actually produced yet another natural predator made to hunt them.
They couldn’t afford to give him any more time to grow.
“Activate the Grand Array!” All the wills converged into a single command.
In that instant, deep within the endless void, countless strange, sinister lights flared to life.
Those remnants of minor worlds, long since eroded, devoured, and turned into dead husks, seemed now to be injected with evil life, each one igniting to become a node in a vast demonic array.
This was a terrifying formation on an unimaginable scale, with countless destroyed worlds as its foundation—and at the very heart of the array, its target was the still-vital Five Provinces Continent.
All the Heavenly Demons’ wills fused together:
“With the power of this array, twist the laws and open the gates of the Immortal Realm.” “Now, at this very moment…”
“All Great Ascension Stage cultivators of the Five Provinces Continent—ascend to the Immortal Realm at once.” No cultivator above the Great Ascension Stage could remain in the Five Provinces Continent.
The vast, evil array roared into motion, an inconceivable force crossing the endless void, beginning to affect the rules of the Heavenly Dao in the Five Provinces Continent.
Twisted laws from countless dead worlds surged like a filthy tide, starting to corrode and pollute the robust laws of heaven and earth in the Five Provinces Continent.
Longyin Hall, secret chamber.
A set of slightly hurried footsteps approached, breaking the quiet in the chamber.
Zhu Siyao, who had been reclining with her eyes closed in an enormous wooden tub, felt her heart leap, and quickly squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, her long lashes trembling slightly from nervousness as she continued to pretend to be unconscious.
The chamber’s lighting was gentle, and the air was thick with the fragrance of medicine and a unique, harmonious aura.
The huge wooden tub was filled with milky white, steaming spiritual liquid, blended from countless precious medicinal herbs to nourish her Soul.
Zhu Siyao was submerged in it, with only her neck and head above the surface.
Her black hair clung, wet, to her cheeks and neck, strands stained with the milky spiritual liquid, revealing a strange… beauty.
Her once-pale cheeks, now moistened by heat and spiritual power, had taken on a faint blush, as if she were a slumbering jade beauty—frail and heartbreakingly beautiful.
The door was gently pushed open.
Zhu Siyao’s heart leapt to her throat, a hard-to-describe anticipation mixed with shyness spreading through her chest.
She could feel that familiar aura approaching.
Jiang Huai, dressed in plain white, walked steadily to the side of the tub.
He was clearly much recovered. Although his complexion was still a bit pale, his spirit was vigorous and his eyes had regained their former clarity.
He stood quietly by the tub, his gaze landing on Zhu Siyao’s seemingly peaceful sleeping face, eyes full of complex emotion and pity.
He had come to “apply medicine.” The last few times he’d come, Zhu Siyao had still been unconscious and her Soul frail.
Now, though, she had recovered a great deal—even he could tell she was nearly fully restored.
Jiang Huai looked at her for a moment, then suddenly sighed softly and said in a low voice:
“Stop pretending. I know you’re already awake, aren’t you?”
Zhu Siyao’s lashes quivered violently, like startled butterfly wings, but she stubbornly kept her eyes closed.
She truly was awake—she had woken up not long ago.
Upon waking, she realized she was soaking in this unusual medicinal bath. With a little sense, she understood what this milky liquid was, and a wordless shyness surged in her heart.
It felt as though she was even closer to Jiang Huai now, soaking in his warmth and breathing in his most private scent.
But she had her own troubles, too—she didn’t know how to face others, especially her own mother.
“Your mother is angry at me, she refuses to see me at all.” Jiang Huai stood at the edge of the tub, his tone helpless, his voice gentle.
At those words, it was as if a switch had been flipped.
Zhu Siyao’s tightly closed lashes trembled again, more violently this time.
At last, she slowly opened her eyes, still with a hint of hesitation and nervousness.
“What did she say?”
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