Patriarch Ye's eyes were twin crimson furnaces.
The death sphere between his palms howled like a million vengeful ghosts, devouring light itself.
"I have endured enough!"
His voice cracked the sky.
"Three years ago the Zhen Clan promised Zhen Rou to my Lingxiao! Three years I bled spirit stones, bribed the Imperial Court, crushed rival governors—all so Heavenly Sun and Moon Cities could unite! A federation that would swallow the Central Heartland's resources whole! And now? Now a peasant dares spit on my son's face and you expect me to swallow it?!"
King Realm pressure detonated.
The floating Golden Sun Arena screamed.
Golden chains snapped one by one.
The entire island tilted like a ship struck by a leviathan.
Li Qingmu tried to step back but his knees buckled.
He couldn't even take one step.
The pressure was an invisible mountain range crushing his bones into the stone.
High above, Ye family patriarch rose like a blood-robed god of death.
"Die, insect."
The death sphere shot forward.
It grew mid-flight, swelling into a flaming comet a hundred zhang wide. At its heart, a lich-face of molten bone laughed as its jaws unhinged to swallow the world.
The arena split in half.
"NO! HUSBAND!!"
Zhen Rou's scream tore out.
She vaulted over the eastern dais railing as her blue robes fluttered like a desperate butterfly while she raced straight toward her trapped dear husband.
"Rou'er, come back!"
Zhen Mei reached out.
But her little sister was already gone.
Ten Nascent Soul elders flashed into the sky.
Golden spiritual chains whipped out to wrap Patriarch Ye's arms, legs, torso.
They were trying to drag the comet off course.
Song Yan's golden sword light joined Patriarch Zhen's golden sun wheel as both slammed into the lich-comet from opposite sides.
Too late.
The King Realm strike shrugged off their restraints like it was wet paper.
Ye family patriarch's lips peeled back from his teeth.
"Insolence, hmph!"
He twisted his bound hands so his fingers could form a single crushing seal.
"Thousandfold Death Amplification!"
BOOM!
The comet tripled in size.
The backlash hurled Nascent Soul elders like ragdolls.
Zhen Rou was caught mid-air by Zhen Mei as both sisters tumbled across the broken stands.
Li Qingmu's eyes flashed crimson.
Nine Heavens Tyrant Physique!
An illusory two-armed Asura a thousand zhang tall roared behind him.
One punch shattered half the King Realm pressure locking him in place.
From his spatial ring, a royal scroll treasure flew out.
Map of the Nine Mountains!
He bit his tongue, spat essence blood, and poured every drop of spiritual energy he had left.
Nine continent-shaking spiritual mountains erupted from the void to layer into a fortress around him. Each mountain glowed with Grandmaster-level runes as they worked to protect him and amplify his immortal robes.
The lich-comet collided.
Mountains shattered like porcelain.
The fortress collapsed.
The explosion swallowed everything.
When the dust finally settled…
The Golden Sun Arena was gone and only half an island floated drunkenly in the sky.
At its center is a massive crater.
And in that crater…
Li Qingmu lay inert in shredded robes as blood pooled beneath him like a puddle.
Zhen Rou broke free from her sister and slid into the crater on her knees.
"Qingmu… Qingmu, please… wake up…"
She cradled his head against her soft chest as tears fell onto his pale cheeks.
"Don't do this to me now…!"
Patriarch Ye hovered above.
His chest heaved with eyes wide in disbelief.
"Still breathing? After a direct King Realm strike?"
It was impossible.
Patriarch Zhen looked at his weeping daughter.
He flicked his sleeve furiously.
"The marriage is dissolved."
His voice rang across the broken sky.
"I will not ally with a mad dog who attacks juniors the moment he loses face. Even if the boy is a peasant… he is under my Zhen Clan's banner."
He snorted coldly.
"You have insulted me, Ye Tiannan."
Patriarch Ye's lips trembled with rage.
"You will regret this, Zhen Guang. Heavenly Star City has already sent envoys. The federation will be born with or without your pathetic Sun City."
He spun away furiously.
"Ye Clan!"
He gave Li Qingmu one last glare.
"Prepare the airship! We depart now!"
Hundreds of Ye disciples bowed in unison.
"Yes, Patriarch!"
Song Yan ignored the politics.
She drifted down like a rose petal falling in reverse to land softly in the crater.
Then she knelt.
Grand Elder Song Yan of Fenghuang Peak is the untouchable ice phoenix who had not bent her knee in four hundred years now knelt in the dirt beside a half-dead peasant.
She truly adored this young man!
Gasps rippled through the surviving immortals.
"In a hundred years… I've never seen Grand Elder Song Yan kneel!"
"Even when the Emperor visited, she only nodded!"
"Tch. Still just a pretty boy. If he dies, he dies."
Song Yan paid them no mind.
Her slender hand pressed against Li Qingmu's badly wounded chest.
Pure, phoenix-like spiritual energy as warm as summer dawn poured into his ruined meridians.
Zhen Rou knelt opposite her.
She clutched Li Qingmu's hand as she sniffled.
══════
Five months later.
Deep in Fenghuang Peak…
There was a luxurious healing tent.
Li Qingmu lay on a bed in fresh white robes and a face as peaceful as sleeping beauty.
Zhen Rou sat beside him, gently wiping his forehead with a silk cloth dipped in spirit spring water.
Her eyes were red from crying too many nights.
"Five months…"
She wiped some of her tears.
"When will you wake up, stupid husband?"
She leaned closer, voice trembling.
"I miss you so much… I keep baking cakes in hopes you wake up. They're all cold now…"
Her gaze drifted to his lips.
So close.
Just one little kiss wouldn't hurt, right?
She bit her lower lip as her cheeks flamed.
She slowly leaned in for his pale lips.
That's when a voice floated from the tent flap.
"Little Rou'er, I hope you're not trying to steal a kiss from my precious disciple while he's unconscious. That's simply unacceptable, dear."
Zhen Rou jolted upright like a startled bunny.
Song Yan stepped inside as her elegant red robes flowed like liquid fire.
She carried the faint scent of flowery sweetness.
Song Yan is very sweet to smell and look at.
There is no denying it.
Li Qingmu's nose twitched.
Two heavenly scents filled his clogged nostrils.
One sweet peach, one cold plum blossom.
His eyebrow rose a millimeter.
『…What kind of paradise did I wake up to?』
But he kept his eyes closed. Perfectly still.
Zhen Rou immediately planted herself between Song Yan and the bed, arms folded under her chest in a way that made the largeness of her breasts spill out.
They bounced like two rolling jade melons.
One stare and you can tell they're full of milk.
This is a healthy and curvaceous fairy.
She puffed her cheeks.
"I can kiss my own husband whenever I want! Since when did he become your precious disciple, huh? And don't call him that again you're practically retirement age! Go rest your old bones and let the young and pretty wife take care of her hardworking man!"
Her breasts bounced with every righteous word.
Song Yan's breasts are not as big as Zhen Rou's but they're round like big oranges and so perky you'd think they're taped to her slender jade body.
Song Yan lowered her head as long lashes put shadows on her porcelain cheeks.
She smiled confidently.
You can clearly tell she is a mature woman.
"Oh my. Someone hasn't been told about me and sweet Qingmu, has she?"
Zhen Rou's face exploded crimson.
"What relationship?! You shameless old witch—!"
To call her husband "sweet Qingmu" is a sin.
Li Qingmu almost opened his eyes.
Almost.
His mind was filled with so much confusion.
『…I was unconscious and somehow became the disciple of the sect's most terrifying beauty AND got caught in a wife-vs-master shuraba?』
He shook his head like an old man.
Surely the grand elder isn't also charmed by him?
『Heh. I, Li Qingmu, am too irresistible.』