Qin Qingyue grabbed Jiang Huai’s lapels, her dragon eyes filled with worry that could no longer be concealed.
Her whole body trembled, her voice trembled, the entire dragon trembled.
“Say something! Jiang Huai! Say something! Don’t scare me, you’re not allowed to scare me!”
Qin Qingyue cupped Jiang Huai’s face, patted his cheeks, and looked straight into his eyes.
Those crimson dragon eyes were full of tears, and her voice quivered.
“Say something. If you don’t talk, I’m going to get angry!”
“Tell me quickly, tell me it’s not what I’m thinking!”
Jiang Huai recognized her. The one occupying Qin Xuange’s body was Qin Qingyue—there was no mistake.
His eyes were full of guilt. He lowered his head. “I’m sorry, Qingyue. I’ve failed you.”
“I can’t just watch them die, and I can’t accept all these living beings being completely wiped out for my sake.”
When Qin Qingyue heard this, her gaze went blank. Her slender hands slowly slipped from his face and hung limply at her sides. She seemed dazed.
“I won’t allow it… I won’t allow this to happen. Why should it?” she murmured, her voice hollow.
Tears streamed down her face. She cried out in grief, “When I was little, people from the Five Provinces bullied me, made me wander for a living, forced me to flee everywhere! Everyone bullied me. I was the unlucky one!”
“After I achieved the Dao, why should the one I love have to protect them? What do the Five Provinces have to do with me? I don’t want the Five Provinces at all. I don’t want them!”
Qin Qingyue, a Heavenly Immortal Sovereign, beat her chest and stamped her feet like a common mortal woman, wailing and sobbing.
Her long hair was disheveled as she cried heart-wrenchingly, her whole body shaking.
Jiang Huai gently embraced Qin Qingyue, patting her back. His own eyes reddened, and his voice choked.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want this ending, Jiang Huai! I don’t want this kind of Jiang Huai!” Qin Qingyue hugged Jiang Huai tightly, clutching him fiercely, burying her face in the hollow of his neck.
Tears soaked his collar.
“I don’t want this… Please, Jiang Huai, please… I don’t want this, I don’t want this!”
She wept in anguish, holding Jiang Huai as if he would never come back if she let go.
Jiang Huai’s eyes reddened as he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t leave… anything for you either.”
How could he bear to part with Qin Qingyue? But what choice did he have?
He turned his head and looked at those watching him. Tang Zhaoxue and Zhu Siyao stood in the distance. Chi Lian and Ao Yao huddled together.
There were also the severely wounded cultivators clinging to life.
They were all looking at him—hope, reluctance, fear, and trust in their eyes.
Su Yingman struggled to prop herself up, covered in injuries.
Her pink dress was soaked in blood, her face pale as paper. She had Tang Zhaoxue carry her.
“Carry me over. I want to see the main wife. I need to see her.”
Tang Zhaoxue carried Su Yingman on her back and flew toward Jiang Huai with Zhu Siyao.
Qin Qingyue shook her head, holding Jiang Huai tightly.
Gritting her teeth, she said, “I don’t want anything. I don’t care about any of this! You are not allowed to die!”
Jiang Huai did not answer. He just patted her back, over and over, savoring their final moments of warmth together.
“Main Wife? Is that the main wife?” Su Yingman was badly injured and breathing with difficulty as she was helped to kneel before Qin Qingyue.
She leaned against Tang Zhaoxue’s arms, but a smile hung on her face.
Qin Qingyue turned her head, her voice tearful. “Yingman…”
“I managed the Nine Heavens Palace pretty well.” Su Yingman grinned.
“I was just waiting for the main wife to come back. I didn’t let you down, did I?”
Qin Qingyue stared blankly at Su Yingman’s pale, beautiful face. For a moment, she couldn’t speak, only letting tears flow.
Jiang Huai pulled away and waved at Jianjia, a warm smile on his face.
Jianjia quickly ran over and threw herself into his arms, tilting her little face up to ask, “Dad, what is it? Have you reached the Great Ascension Stage?”
Jiang Huai hesitated, then nodded with a smile. “I’ve reached the Great Ascension Stage. I can protect you now.”
“Dad is amazing.” Jianjia revealed a pure smile, her small white dragon horns rubbing against Jiang Huai’s chin.
Jiang Huai picked her up and looked her in the eye. “Little Jianjia, from now on, you must listen to your mother.”
Jianjia pouted and complained, “Which mother? These past few days I’ve found out that Dad has quite a few wives.”
“I can’t even call all of them ‘mother’! Dad is so fickle.”
“Listen to all of them. Take care of them for me. Be stronger in the future, okay?” Jiang Huai stroked her head, his palm pressing against her soft hair.
Jianjia didn’t understand, but nodded blankly.
Jiang Huai set her down, bent over to pat her head, and looked down at her. Softly, he said, “Be stronger in the future.”
“I broke my promise, but this is all I can do.”
“Take good care of your mother.”
With that, he turned and walked away.
Jianjia stood there, staring at Jiang Huai’s retreating back.
That silhouette—black robe like ink, black hair like a waterfall.
She didn’t know why, but her nose suddenly felt sore. She wanted to cry, yet didn’t know why.
A towering pillar of Yin and Yang light shot up from beneath Jiang Huai’s feet.
Black and white interwoven, piercing straight through the clouds.
That light was brighter than the sun, fiercer than thunder, more powerful than any cultivator present.
It illuminated the entire gray sky, tearing and dispersing the demonic qi covering everything.
But Jiang Huai felt his inner world burning fiercely, like a fire blazing in his dantian, searing his meridians, his flesh, his soul.
Inside the small world, flames raged.
Heaven and earth burned, mountains burned, rivers burned, grasslands burned.
Trees turned into torches, lakes evaporated into steam, the earth cracked into scorched soil.
The small animals fled in all directions—white rabbits, gray rabbits, fawns, fledglings—but as they ran, they turned to ash.
Ji Xi stood on the highest mountain peak.
She could see her own body burning.
Her green robes turned to flying ash, her long hair became sparks, her skin cracked, revealing the blazing white light beneath.
As a remnant soul, she added fuel to this burning world.
“Little Jiang Huai, I really am sorry,” she murmured, her phoenix eyes gazing at this world being destroyed.
“I won’t have a chance to make it up to you in this life. If there really is a next life, I’ll make it up to you.”
Jiang Huai glared at the three pitch-black figures before him. His voice boomed like thunder, shaking heaven and earth.
“You killed my comrades, annihilated my living beings, and occupied my land.
Today, if I do not slay you, how can I call myself a man?!”
The Yin-Yang longsword gathered in his hand once more. Black and white flowed on the blade; the sword hummed, as if all the light in heaven and earth had coalesced upon it.
He took a step forward and charged into the extraterrestrial demons.
One swing of the sword sent forth a mighty sword qi.
A black-and-white sword light several hundred yards long swept across, turning large swaths of demons to ash. Their screams filled the sky.
Where the sword light passed, demonic qi melted away, revealing the blue sky beneath.
The demons that had been dense and covering the sky now scattered in all directions, as if they had met their natural predator, like mice seeing a cat.
The tide of battle had turned.
Jiang Huai swung again. Another several hundred demons vanished into ash.
He cut, cut again, and again—carrying his hatred, carrying his reluctance to leave those behind him.
The demons fell like wheat under a scythe, accompanied by anguished screams. Black ash covered the earth.
The sky visibly recovered its brightness. The gloom dissipated, and sunlight spilled down.
The Northern Plains came back to life. The frozen earth thawed, grass and trees sprouted, and water once again flowed in the dry riverbeds.
Jiang Huai charged out from the White Dragon Secret Realm, walking through the void. Each step crossed a hundred miles.
The demons were like paper before him; one sweep of his sword cleared a vast expanse.
A few Great Ascension Stage demons tried to block him, but he cut them in two with a casual sword stroke, leaving only dying curses behind.
In moments, he had reached the Central State.
Along the way, the demons fled at the sight of him, offering almost no resistance.
The three powerful demons—Ji, Jue, and Wu—retreated repeatedly, not daring to challenge him.
They turned into black shadows, fleeing swiftly through the void, but they could never shake off the black-and-white sword light behind them.
Jiang Huai stood with his sword, hovering above the Central State.
He looked down at the ruined land beneath his feet, took a deep breath, and continued forward.
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