Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Ning Clan
Seven Treasure City, the city owned by the Ning Clan.
At this moment, the atmosphere within the grand hall of the Ning Clan was shrouded with a tension so palpable it felt as though the very air had turned into lead.
High atop the mahogany dais, Patriarch Ning Xiao sat upon his seat of authority, his knuckles white as he gripped the armrests.
His face was wrinkled, as if they have been carved with the weight of leadership and the brewing storm of a continental conflict.
To his left and right stood the twin pillars of the Ning Clan's martial might—two men whose names were whispered with reverence and terror throughout the Eastern Region.
The first was the Sword Saint, known simply as Old Jian. He stood as straight as the blade he carried, his aura sharp enough to pierce the skin of any lesser cultivator who dared to look him in the eye.
As a 6th Stage Spirit Ascension Realm expert, he was a living disaster, a man who could cleave mountains with a flick of his wrist.
Beside him stood the Bone Dragon, Old Hu, a 5th Stage Spirit Ascension Realm expert whose body seemed to hum with the primal, skeletal power of ancient drakes.
His presence felt heavy, oppressive, and suffocating, as if standing near him could suck the air out of your lungs.
In front of them stood three figures draped in the most exquisite silks and furs the Eastern Region could provide.
These were the Kings of the Big 3—the three strongest and largest kingdoms in the region and they were also the leader of the Allied Forces, the desperate coalition formed to halt the relentless expansion of the Spirit Hall.
"Patriarch Ning, I'm sure you know why we came here for, right?" the King of the Azure Sun Kingdom spoke, his voice echoing through the vaulted ceiling.
Ning Xiao knew. Of course, he knew. He could see the desperation hidden behind their regal facades like cracks in a porcelain mask.
They had come to beg, though they dressed it in the language of diplomacy, after all, the power of the Spirit Hall had grown beyond anyone's darkest expectations.
Their armies were disciplined, their experts were numerous, and their ambition was absolute.
Even with the combined strength of the Big 3 and several of the Seven Great Clans, the Allied Forces were barely holding their ground, trading lives for inches in a war of attrition they were destined to lose.
To even the odds, they needed the Support of the Ning Clan.
The Ning Clan's Spirit was the ultimate force multiplier, and could really turn the tide of war.
A single Ning disciple could boost the speed, strength, and Qi capacity of multiple combatants simultaneously, so in a war of this scale, the Ning Clan was not just an ally; they were the difference between a crushing defeat and a miraculous stalemate.
As for victory?
That requires more than miracle.
"Your majesties..." Ning Xiao finally spoke, his voice low and resonant as he stared at them straight in the eye, "We, the Ning Clan, have already expressed our intention to remain neutral. We will not participate in this war. Our disciples have almost little to no combat power, going to war would simply be sending them to their graves."
The King of the Iron Blood Kingdom slammed his fist onto a nearby table, the wood splintering under the force of his frustration. "Patriarch Ning, we personally came to ask you! We, the rulers of millions, have lowered ourselves to stand in your hall! Are you still doubting our sincerity!?"
"The Spirit Hall has already shown their fangs!" the King of Yellow Jade Kingdom added, his eyes narrowed. "They have burned academies and assimilated sects! Do you truly think they will spare your Ning Clan next? Once we fall, you are merely the final dessert on their plate! You have no choice but to ally with us! Neutrality is a fantasy for the dead!"
Ning Xiao stared at them, his eyes distant.
Two years ago, he might've agreed to this, in fact, he almost certainly would have.
After all, two years ago, the rise of the Spirit Hall kept him awake at night, and the fear of a unified Eastern Region under a single, tyrannical banner was a shadow that haunted his every decision.
But the world had changed in ways these Kings could not possibly comprehend.
His daughter, Ning Xueli, was no longer just the pampered princess of a regional clan, instead, she was now currently receiving the inheritance of a Supreme Emperor, a legacy that transcended the petty squabbles of the Eastern Region.
Furthermore, she would soon accompany Haoran to the Central Region—a place where the "Big 3" were nothing more than backwater villages in comparison.
The fate of the Eastern Region, and whoever ultimately sat on its blood-stained throne, meant nothing to the Ning Clan now.
For them now, they were looking at the stars while these men were still fighting over handfuls of dirt.
That's why...
"Forgive me, your majesties," Ning Xiao said, his posture relaxing into a state of absolute certainty. "My answer remains the same. The Ning Clan will not draw its sword, nor will it offer its light to your cause."
Silence fell over the room—a silence so profound it was deafening.
The three Kings looked at one another, their expressions shifting from indignation to a cold, dark resolve that chilled the air.
Until finally, the King of the Azure Sun began to laugh. It wasn't a laugh of humor, but a mocking, jagged sound that grated against the ears.
"Hahaha... Ning Xiao," he said, his eyes glowing with an ominous light. "I hope you don't regret this choice. Truly, I do."
Ning Xiao frowned, his instincts screaming of a trap. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Before the King could answer, the heavy double doors of the hall were thrown open with a violent crash as a Ning Clan disciple barged into the room, his robes torn and his face pale with terror.
He didn't even stop to bow, instead sliding across the floor as he dropped to his knees, gasping for air.
"Patriarch! Emergency!" the disciple wailed, his voice cracking. "Our clan! Our city! We are surrounded! There are... there are more than a million troops at our gates!"
"What!?" Ning Xiao stood up in shock, his chair toppling backward.
The Sword Saint and the Bone Dragon stepped forward instantly, their auras erupting like volcanoes, shaking the very foundations of the manor.
Ning Xiao whirled toward the three Kings, his face contorted in a mixture of disbelief and fury. "What is the meaning of this, your majesties!? You dare bring an army to my doorstep while negotiating under a flag of peace!?"
The King of the Iron Blood Kingdom didn't flinch. Instead, he straightened his robes, looking at Ning Xiao with utter contempt. "Ning Xiao, mind your tone. We are Kings! We do not negotiate with those who would see our kingdoms fall through their own cowardice."
"That's right," the Azure Sun King sneered. "This is merely reaping what you have sown! None of this would've happened if you had obediently joined us. If you will not be our shield, then you are an obstacle that must be cleared so your resources can be seized for the greater good."
Ning Xiao gritted his teeth, his Qi beginning to flare in golden ripples. "You fools! Do you realize what you are doing? Aren't you afraid that you'll push us to side with the Spirit Hall out of spite!?"
"You won't have the chance," the King of Yellow Jade Kingdom whispered, his form beginning to shimmer and blur. "We'll make sure of it. By tomorrow morning, the Ning Clan will be a footnote in history, and your wealth and resources... don't worry, we will put them to good use."
"Bastards! Old Jian!" Ning Xiao roared.
Old Jian didn't need further commands as he was already in motion, and a silver sword, thin as a needle and glowing with the light of a dying star, materialised in his hand.
In a blur of motion that bypassed the laws of physics, he appeared before the three Kings and swept his blade in a horizontal arc, intending to sever their heads in a single strike.
However, as the blade passed through their necks, there was no resistance, nor were there blood sprayed, instead, the bodies of the three Kings simply dissipated into blue motes of light, like mist caught in a strong wind.
"A projection!?" Old Jian's eyes widened, his sword vibrating with unspent energy.
To project an image so lifelike that even a Spirit Ascension expert didn't immediately detect it required a top-tier formation or a specialized treasure.
Ning Xiao's face went pale. They had been played, while they were talking, the noose was being tightened. "Old Jian, Old Hu, let's go out and see the situation. They wouldn't dare claim a million troops unless they were prepared to back it up."
The two old experts nodded solemnly, their expressions grimmer than they had been in decades.
They followed Ning Xiao as they sprinted out of the main manor, leaping across the rooftops of the inner estate until they reached the massive, reinforced walls of the Seven Treasure City.
As they reached the ramparts and looked out, even the stoic Bone Dragon let out a sharp intake of breath.
The horizon was gone, and in its place was a sea of steel and flickering torchlight as hundreds of thousands—no, the disciple was right—it looked like over a million Cultivators were gathered in perfectly disciplined squares.
The majority were at the Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment stages, the foot soldiers of the great kingdoms, but their sheer numbers made the earth tremble.
Mixed amongst the masses were the glittering armors of Core Formation commanders, the imposing silhouettes of Golden Core generals, and the oppressive, floating presences of Nascent Soul elders.
And at the very front, suspended in the air like dark omens, were two Spirit Ascension Realm experts leading the vanguard, their auras clashing against the Ning Clan's city wards like waves against a cliff.
"The Allied Kingdoms..." Ning Xiao whispered, his heart sinking into his stomach. "Instead of using this army for something useful, they wanted to use it on us!? How utterly foolish!"
But even so, the air grew cold as the realization set in.
The Ning Clan, the greatest support clan in the region, was now the target of the very people they were meant to protect.
Despite being one of the Seven Great Clans, they cannot withstand the combined might of the kingdoms.
Now, the survival of the clan hung by a single, fraying thread.
Chapter 62: Chapter 62: Crisis
Ning Xiao, Old Hu, and Old Jian stood upon the high ramparts of the Seven Treasure City, their gazes locked onto the two figures hovering with nonchalant arrogance in front of the massive, undulating sea of the Allied Army.
The sky itself seemed to buckle under the weight of the collective Qi being released by the million-strong force, but it was the two men at the vanguard who truly commanded the terror of the moment.
"They are... The Grand Archer, Dai Xuan, and The Undying, Buo He. Those two are still alive!?" exclaimed Old Jian, his voice carrying a rare tremor of disbelief.
As the one hailed as the Sword Saint who had lived through a century of shifting powers, he knew these names not as contemporary rivals, but as legends that should have been buried by time.
The Grand Archer, Dai Xuan, was a name that had echoed through the Eastern Region a hundred years ago where he had gained immortal fame in a single night when a rogue meteorite, burning with celestial fire, threatened to obliterate one of the region's largest metropolitan hubs.
Dai Xuan had stood atop the highest peak and loosed a single shaft of light that shattered the star-stone into harmless dust.
However, shortly after that feat, he had reportedly ventured into the perilous transit zones leading to the Central Region, believing himself talented and powerful enough to stand at the peak.
But when no news returned for decades, the world assumed the central region had claimed him, so to see him now, standing vibrant and lethal, was like seeing a ghost draped in martial splendor.
And the other one, the Undying Buo He was a darker legend altogether where two hundred years ago, he was a man driven to the brink of insanity when his entire bloodline was butchered by a sect of demonic cultivators.
In his grief, he became a butcher himself, slaughtering more than a hundred thousand demonic practitioners in a decade-long crusade of blood.
And back ck then, it was whispered that he was truly immortal; blades shattered against his skin, and spells slid off his soul like water off a lotus leaf.
The history books claimed that because he eventually lost his mind and began slaughtering the common populace, the Big 3 Kingdoms had united their ultimate experts to execute him.
"It turns out," Ning Xiao hissed, his eyes narrowing as he realized the depth of the deception, "they didn't kill him, but had subdued him, and worse, they turned a madman into their ultimate hidden weapon, waiting for a day like this to unleash him."
Dai Xuan stepped forward in the air, each footfall creating a ripple of golden light as he looked down at the Ning Clan leadership with a cold, aristocratic disdain.
"Ning Xiao! Know that this outcome is the result of your own stubbornness!" Dai Xuan's voice was amplified by his Qi, sounding like rolling thunder that shook the city's foundations. "If you hadn't insisted on this pathetic, self-righteous neutrality, if you had simply chosen to side with the kingdoms that birthed you, none of this blood would need to be spilled! But the basic rule of the Cultivation World is simple: Do unto others before others do unto you! We will not wait for you to be tempted by the Spirit Hall's promises. Before you can join them to destroy us, we will ensure you are erased from the map!"
Without another word of parley, a massive black bow, carved from the wood of a Lightning-Struck World Tree, appeared in Dai Xuan's hands.
Suddenly, the air around him began to scream as the atmospheric Qi was sucked into a single point on the bowstring.
"Let this arrow be the sign of the day of your doom! Fall Star Arrow!"
An arrow of pure, condensed Starlights flew from the string with a speed to fast it warped the space around it, flying like a comet compressed with the absolute Dao of Archery that Dai Xuan had spent a century refining in the shadows.
A hundred years ago, when Dai Xuan had watched that meteor falling toward the earth, his first thought hadn't been heroics, nor has it been fear, but it had been awe at the sheer, unbridled momentum of a celestial body.
He had realized then that a true arrow should be like a god's judgment—inevitable and crushing.
And with that realization, he had gained enlightenment in that moment of catastrophe, breaking through to the Spirit Ascension realm by mimicking the 'Law of the Falling Star.'
As the arrow streaked toward the city, the Seven Treasure City's defensive array, a masterpiece of formation art fueled by millions of spirit stones groaned into life.
A massive golden dome of Qi erupted, covering the entire city in a protective shell that was supposed to withstand even the siege of a Great Clan.
But the Fall Star Arrow was not a mere physical projectile, so the moment it made contact, the laws of 'Impact' inherent in the arrow clashed with the 'Stability' of the barrier.
With a sound like a thousand mirrors shattering at once, the arrow pierced through the golden dome as if it were parchment, sending cracks spiraling across the sky and shattering the primary defenses of the Ning Clan in a single strike.
"Old Hu, watch out!" Ning Xiao barked.
Old Hu, the Bone Dragon, didn't wait for the order as he vanished from the rampart and reappeared in mid-air directly in the path of the arrow's remaining trajectory.
His eyes turned a sickly, necrotic green as he released his Spirit as s massive, skeletal Bone Dragon, made of the remains of ancient Earth-Drakes, erupted from his back, coiling its massive, calcified body into a defensive spiral to block the arrow before it could strike the inner manor.
BOOM!
The explosion was blinding as a mushroom cloud of dust, bone fragments, and residual starlight billowed hundreds of feet into the air.
"Old Hu!" Ning Xiao and Old Jian shouted in unison, their hearts freezing.
As the smoke began to subside, the sight that greeted them was grim as while Old Hu was still hovering, but he was breathing in ragged, wet gasps.
His Bone Dragon spirit was heavily damaged, its ribs shattered and its skull cracked, acting as a mangled shield that had barely saved his life.
The impact had pushed him back hundreds of meters, his feet carving deep grooves into the air itself.
"CHARGE!" Dai Xuan roared, his voice the signal for the end of the world.
The million-man army responded with a roar that literally shook the heavens and as the ground groaned as hundreds of thousands of cultivators rushed toward the city walls like an unstoppable tide of steel.
"Fire the Spirit Canons! Blast these people back to the hell they came from!" Ning Xiao roared, his voice finally losing its regal calm and adopting the grit of a desperate general.
The Ning Clan disciples and the city guardians, though trembling, moved with the precision of long-drilled experts.
They pulled back the heavy tarps covering the ramparts, revealing Rank 3 Spirit Canons—massive, tube-like artifacts forged from Spirit Iron.
These weapons were designed for one purpose: to convert raw Spirit Stones into high-density explosive bursts of Qi, and each shot carried enough power to vaporize a Core Formation expert and send shockwaves through an entire battalion.
The air was filled with the thoom-thoom-thoom of the cannons, and for a moment, the front lines of the Allied Army were obscured by a wall of fire and screaming.
But then, a sound deeper and more terrifying than the cannons echoed across the battlefield.
"RAAARRRHHHH!"
It was a primal, guttural scream as Buo He, the Undying, was no longer standing still. His body began to swell, his muscles bulging until his size had doubled.
His skin turned a violent, bruised red, and his eyes rolled back until only the whites were visible.
This was his Berserk State—the very state that had allowed him to survive a hundred thousand enemies.
The aura of a 7th Stage Spirit Ascension Realm expert—a full level higher than Old Jian—burst out of his body like a shockwave, flattening the grass for miles.
He didn't use a weapon; he used himself, as if he became a living wrecking ball, charging toward the city gates with a speed that created sonic booms in his wake.
"Old Jian!" Ning Xiao shouted in worry, his eyes darting between the charging monster and his wounded friend.
Old Jian, hearing the call, felt the sheer, oppressive weight of Buo He's power.
He knew that if that monster hit the city walls, the battle would be over in minutes, so he didn't waste a second as he reached into his robes, pulled out a jade bottle of High-Grade Healing Pills, and tossed it to the gasping Old Hu.
"Recuperate and guard the Patriarch!" Old Jian commanded, his voice returning to its sharp, sword-like clarity.
Without waiting for a reply, Old Jian flew, as if he became a streak of silver light, a sharp contrast to the bloody red aura of Buo He.
"Old Jian, stop Buo He! Do not let him reach the gates!" Ning Xiao ordered, his voice echoing with the authority of the Ning bloodline.
Old Jian didn't hesitate and even though he could feel that Buo He was an entire minor realm stronger than him, a gap that was usually insurmountable at the Spirit Ascension stage, he was a Sword Saint.
He had spent his life seeking the one true strike and he released his Spirit, a translucent, ethereal Greatsword that seemed to hum with the very concept of [Redacted] and charged headlong into the path of the Undying.
"You want to destroy the Ning Clan?" Old Jian hissed, his silver Qi flaring like a sun. "You'll have to cut through the Sword Saint first!"
The silver light and the red shadow collided in the sky, creating a vacuum that sucked the very breath out of the soldiers below.
Chapter 63: Chapter 63: Little Boy
It was chaos.
The air of the Seven Treasure City, once filled with the serene scent of incense and the rhythmic hum of cultivation, was now a thick, suffocating slurry of smoke and copper-scented blood.
Ning Xiao stood upon the command pavilion which was situated in the city wall, his hands trembling as he stared in grief at the sight before him.
The city he had spent his life governing, the sanctuary he loved with every fiber of his being, was being overrun by the Allied Kingdom soldiers like a plague of locusts.
He saw his clansmen—men and women he had known since they were children—getting cut down in the streets.
He saw young disciples, barely past their Body Refining stage, being trampled under the boots of seasoned killers.
Their ancestral buildings, repositories of thousands of years of knowledge, were getting burned and destroyed, the parchment of ancient scrolls fluttering in the air like charred butterflies.
He looked toward the sky and felt his heart shatter. There was Old Jian, the Sword Saint, a man who had been a pillar of the clan for a century, already missing an arm, the stump cauterized by his own fierce Qi, yet he remained insistent on fighting Buo He.
Blood matted his white hair, and his breath came in ragged, wet gasps, but he swung his sword with a desperation that defied his age.
Then he looked at Old Hu, the Bone Dragon, who had only just recovered from the first star-arrow.
He was currently locked in a frantic aerial dance with Dai Xuan, his skeletal dragon spirit chipped and cracked, struggling to keep the Grand Archer from firing another world-ending shot.
Does the heaven want my Ning Clan to be destroyed!? Ning Xiao screamed internally, his eyes welling with tears of pure, helpless frustration.
"Roar!" The sound that was less human and more beast came from Buo He, his skin glowing a sickly, demonic red, as he found a gap in Old Jian's defense.
With a speed that distorted the air, he lunged forward and pierced through Old Jian's chest with his bare fist, the sound of ribs snapping was audible even over the din of battle.
Old Jian stiffened, coughing up a fountain of blood that painted Buo He's grinning face.
But before the light could leave his eyes, a small, vibrant blue orb—a soul—flew out of Old Jian's body.
This was the ultimate survival mechanism of those who have reached the Nascent Soul realm or higher; they can leave behind their physical husks when they feel the tether of mortality snapping.
Unfortunately, even though they can survive this way, the path forward is treacherous as unless a cultivator knows the forbidden, evil techniques of body possession—which the righteous Sword Saint would never stoop to—the only way for them to live is to undergo a painstaking process to create or find a new, compatible body.
Without one, the soul would eventually dissipate unless they can find some treasures that strengthens the soul.
"Old Jian!" Ning Xiao screamed in worry, his voice cracking.
Thankfully, Old Jian's soul was able to flicker and escape through the air with the speed of a lightning bolt.
Unfortunately, Buo He was not finished, as the Undying monster turned his head, his white eyes fixed on the fleeing blue orb, and began to chase it with predatory hunger.
Just then, BOOM!
A heavy object was thrown with such force that it shattered the upper city wall and when Ning Xiao rushed to look, his eyes widened in horror.
There was Old Hu. The Bone Dragon was bloodied and broken, his limbs pinned to the stone rampart by several arrows made of solid, vibrating light.
He was alive, but he was like a butterfly pinned to a board, unable to move as the light-arrows burned through his meridians.
"Old Hu!" Ning Xiao's voice was a whisper of despair.
He turned slowly toward the sky, where Dai Xuan hovered, and the Grand Archer's black bow was already drawn to its limit, the tip of a starlight arrow aimed directly at Ning Xiao's heart.
"Farewell, Clan Master Ning," Dai Xuan said, his voice cold and devoid of pity. "Be honored that you will get to die by my arrow. Not many in this Desolate Region are worthy of being my target."
As he spoke, Dai Xuan released the string.
The arrow flew like a meteor, trailing a tail of white fire that vaporized the moisture in the air.
Ning Xiao stood still. He didn't try to run, after all he knew that he couldn't outrun the speed of a falling star.
And in those final seconds, his mind didn't dwell on his clan or his titles, but instwad, his last thoughts were merely for his daughter.
Xueli... please, live a good life. That person... ah, I hope he takes care of her...
BOOM!
An explosion occurred right on where Ning Xiao is, causing a shockwave of heat and light so intense that it knocked the surrounding soldiers off their feet.
"Patriarch!"
"Patriarch!"
The clansmen and disciples who saw the flash screamed in grief, falling to their knees as they assumed their leader had been vaporized.
Even Dai Xuan grinned, lowering his bow as he watched the smoke billow. To him, the head of the snake had been cut off, so the battle was essentially settled.
But as the wind swept the smoke away, the battlefield fell into a stunned, eerie silence.
Ning Xiao was standing there, completely unharmed, his eyes were wide with shock, staring at the two women who had appeared out of thin air to stand beside him.
One of them was an incredibly beautiful woman with long, flowing black hair and piercing red eyes.
She wore a sleeveless, black, skin-tight bodysuit that seemed to absorb the light around her, and she hovered just an inch above the stone floor, her aura so vast it felt like the ocean itself was pressing down on the city.
Beside her was a beautiful young woman with short black hair and deep purple eyes, wearing a blue dress that fluttered in the cooling breeze.
They were Qing'er and Ning Xueli.
"Xueli..." Ning Xiao's voice was choked. He stared at his daughter in shock, and most importantly, worry and dread.
The thing he least wants to see is for Xueli to be in danger!
However, before he could say anything, Ning Xiao immediately felt a bright silver qi flared out of Xueli, and he couldn't help but take a deep breath in surprise.
From what he could sense, Xueli's cultivation had actually reached the very peak of the Core Formation Realm!
That Supreme's Inheritance actually raised her Cultivation by this much!?
"Father, sorry I'm late," Ning Xueli said solemnly, her voice was steady, and her eyes fixed on Dai Xuan in the sky with a cold, focused intensity that made her look like a different person.
Qing'er turned her head slightly toward Xueli, her red eyes indifferent to the million-man army. "Young lady, do you want me to get rid of them? It would only take a moment."
Although the orders given to her by Haoran were simply to escort Xueli back home safely, Qing'er was a peak Profound Saint Realm expert, so to her, this "massive" army was nothing more than an annoyance.
If Xueli asked, she could wipe them out as easily as brushing a speck of dust from her clothes.
"No need," said Xueli, her voice cold as ice as she took a step forward, her blue dress fluttering.
Up in the air, Dai Xuan frowned as he stared at Qing'er, feeling a primal sense of danger he couldn't explain, but then his gaze landed on Xueli, and he grinned, his arrogance returning. "Well, well, are you perhaps the daughter of Ning Xiao? That's good. Coming here yourself saves me the trouble of pulling out the roots. I'll send you to join your ancestors."
Xueli ignored his taunts entirely as she looked out over the sea of millions of soldiers currently looting her home, before turning towards Dai Xuan.
"Tell me," she asked, her voice carrying across the battlefield, "what do you think is the best weapon? A weapon you don't have to fire but can invoke fear? Or a weapon that you can repeatedly use to kill and bring fear?"
Dai Xuan's frown deepened. "The hell are you talking about, girl? A weapon that can kill is a good weapon!"
Xueli nodded slowly. "Indeed. But for me... the weapon you only need to use once is the best weapon."
From her storage ring, she pulled out a small, eight-pointed gem.
It was beautiful, translucent, with what seemed to be a miniature, swirling star sealed deep inside its core.
This was a treasure left behind by the Bright Silver Emperor, each one of these things could absorb the energy of the stars for millennia, storing it in a hyper-compressed state.
They could also be used as the ultimate spirit stones for cultivation, but they had another, more violent use where once injected with a specific frequency of Qi, the compression would fail, and it would let out all those energy at once.
"This thing doesn't have a name yet..." Xueli said, a small, haunting smile playing on her lips as she looked up at Dai Xuan. "But if I had to give it a name, well... how about... Little Boy?"
The moment she finished speaking, she snapped her fingers, injecting a sliver of her refined Qi into the gem.
Dai Xuan's eyes widened. As a Spirit Ascension expert, his sense of danger was acute, and immediately knew that whatever it is that Xueli is holding, is incredibly dangerous.
So without hesitation, he frantically fired several arrows at her in a desperate attempt to stop her, but Qing'er merely waved her hand with a bored expression, flicking the star-arrows away as if they were pesky gnats.
"Tch! Buo He! Retreat!" Dai Xuan didn't hesitate as he burned his essence and turned into a streak of light, traveling thousands of miles away in a literal heartbeat.
Buo He, hearing his call, stopped chasing after Old Jian's soul, and turned towards him who already vanished from sight, and without hesitation followed him.
"Sister Qing'er, please protect the city..." Xueli said softly as she released the crystal.
The gem didn't fall, but flew toward the center of the Allied Army still gathered outside the walls, glowing brighter and brighter until suddenly... it surpassed the sun!
In that instant, the world turned white.
There was no sound at first, only a heat that turned the sand to glass and the air to plasma.
Then came the roar—an explosion so massive it caused a mushroom cloud to billow tens of thousands of feet into the atmosphere.
The space itself began to distort and crack under the sheer thermal output.
A million soldiers, their dreams of conquest, and the very ground they stood upon were simply erased.
The shockwave leveled the distant mountains, and for a hundred miles in every direction, the night was turned into a blinding, eternal day.
Chapter 64: Chapter 64: I'll Be Your Eyes
The sky over the Seven Treasure City had ceased to be a canopy of stars and became a canvas of blinding, incandescent white.
Dai Xuan and Buo He, two legends who had survived centuries of carnage and upheaval, stood frozen in the air, their auras flickering like guttering candles against the sheer magnitude of the "Little Boy" explosion.
They stared in absolute, paralyzing shock at that mushroom cloud—a pillar of divine fire that touched the very heavens and seemed to mock the power of any mortal cultivator.
Goodness, is this even possible!? They couldn't help but wonder, their hearts hammering against their ribs with a frantic, primitive rhythm.
The night sky had basically turned into day, a forced dawn brought about not by the rotation of the world, but by the terrifying weapon of a young girl.
Just what kind of existence could even think of creating this kind of weapon? Does that person wanted to destroy the world?!
'Forget about Spirit Ascension like us,' Dai Xuan thought, his throat dry as desert sand, 'even Nirvana Rebirth experts would get vaporized if they took that level of power head-on, right?'
It was at that moment where he recalled Xueli's words, spoken with such chilling calmness, 'A weapon you only need to use once is the best weapon...'
Indeed, if you used this once, and the world witnessed the resulting void where a million-man army used to stand, no one would ever dare try to provoke the Ning Clan again.
It will bring fear that will be etched into the very topography of the Eastern Region.
Although a cynical part of him didn't believe that Xueli possessed another weapon of this caliber—surely such a treasure was a singular, ancient inheritance—, but "what if"?
Does he dare bet his life on it?
Does he dare assume she is empty-handed?
Absolutely not!
If he bet wrong, he'd be lucky to die instantly. What if, because of his strength, he couldn't die immediately and suffered hell before dying?
He turned towards Buo He, his face pale and his pride thoroughly shattered. "Let's retreat. This operation... is a failure."
They gained nothing but the hatred of the Ning Clan, and the loss of millions of soldiers.
They were already struggling against the Spirit Hall, now, they will really fall into an even terrible state.
Buo He nodded, after all, even a "muscles-for-brains" like him, driven by instinct and madness, knew that it was foolish to continue this mission.
There was no glory in being turned into ash.
However, just as they were about to burn their essence to flee, the shadows beneath them flickered.
It was subtle, a ripple in the darkness that shouldn't have existed in such blinding light, and before they could even scream, before a single defensive spell could be cast, they were swallowed by their own shadows—dragged down into a bottomless, silent void that left no trace of their existence in the physical world.
Back on the city wall, Qing'er slowly lowered her hand as she turned her gaze away from where Buo He and Dai Xuan had just been, her expression as tranquil as a dark lake.
It wasn't in her nature to simply cut the weeds but leave the roots; to her, a threat left alive was simply a chore postponed.
Since they were here, they didn't need to return.
With those cold, efficient thoughts, Qing'er extended her will.
Suddenly, across the scorched plains outside and inside the city, the shadows of any enemy soldiers who hadn't been vaporized by the initial blast began to move.
The darkness rose up like liquid obsidian, devouring the survivors where they stood.
Finally, when the blinding light of the explosion finally subsided and a hollow, unnatural darkness returned to the cratered earth, Qing'er had already ensured that not a single enemy soul remained.
Xueli turned towards Qing'er and nodded, a silent thanks passing between the two women.
Then, she turned her attention to her father.
Ning Xiao was still standing there, rubbing his eyes from the lingering brightness, his face a mask of confusion and dawning relief.
Without hesitation, Xueli ran towards him, her blue dress fluttering like the wings of a butterfly as she threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest.
"Father... thank goodness you're okay. I thought... I thought I wouldn't make it in time."
Ning Xiao paused, his body stiff for a heartbeat before his arms wrapped around her.
Despite his eyes still stinging and the smell of ozone and burnt earth in the air, he couldn't help but smile, his tears of grief turning into tears of joy. "Ah, daughter... you must've suffered a lot, huh? To come back with such power... to save us like this..."
Qing'er watched this reunion from a distance, her red eyes completely emotionless.
To her, such displays of sentiment were alien, but she remained a silent, lethal sentinel, ensuring that the peace bought by the bomb remained undisturbed.
*
*
*
At this same moment, countless distance away back in the Lamia Kingdom, the atmosphere was a world apart from the blood and fire of the Ning Clan.
Shen Haoran and Huo Yue were heading to their private quarters after having spent a long afternoon exploring the sandstone beauty of the kingdom.
They had walked through the markets and watched the moon over the dunes, pretty much flirting with each other in a way that made even a desert heat seem mild by comparison.
Haoran stood outside the room provided for Huo Yue by Queen Medusa as the moonlight caught the golden thread of his robes as he turned to her and smiled. "I had fun today, Yue'er. Truly."
"Really?" Huo Yue's eyes brightened, a soft blush creeping onto her cheeks.
She felt happy, after all, this time, she wanted their reunion date to be great, so she spent great efforts in choosing the best spots.
Thank the gods she memorised the layout of the city when she and Ziyan were planning to infiltrate and commit the heist of the century.
Haoran nodded, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. "Yeah. You may not know this, but I grew up within the high walls of my clan. For me, my whole world was confined to the Imperial Capital. The politics, the training grounds, the court... that was my reality. This is actually the first time I've stepped foot in any place outside the Capital for reasons other than duty."
He paused, thinking back. Of course, those times when he was on a mission to ruthlessly get rid of Demonic Cultivators in the vast, monster-infested wilderness outside the Empire did not count.
To him, those were just "excursions to the slaughterhouse," not "seeing the world."
Huo Yue's eyes widened, her heart twinging with a sudden pang of empathy. "That's... kind of sad, Haoran."
"Sad? Not really. I had everything a cultivator could dream of," Haoran said, though a hint of introspection clouded his gaze. "Although I do think it's a pity."
That was his genuine thought.
Although he possessed power and authority many would kill to have, he had never once truly seen the world in person.
His life had been incredibly monotonous: cultivate, kill demonic cultivators, study ancient texts, and cultivate again.
Ever since he was born, that was all he knew. He was taught to always be the best, to scheme, to use others as stepping stones, and to always maintain a pride that bordered on the divine.
He was bred to be superior, and that superiority had kept him in a gilded cage of his own making.
All his knowledge of the world's beauty came from ink on parchment. And although Haoran believed there was nothing wrong with that—logic dictates that facts are more reliable than experiences, after all—he still couldn't help but feel that it was a pity.
After all, this world was so vast, with its hidden realms and celestial wonders... isn't it a pity not to see it for yourself?
That was why being here in the Eastern Region had been something he secretly looked forward to.
Even if he didn't show it, he found the chaotic, raw energy of this "desolate" place, quite refreshing.
"I'll be going back to the Imperial Capital in three days to take care of those family matters," Haoran said, his voice dropping an octave. "And after that, I will stay within the Imperial Academy for the recruitment cycle. It will probably be quite a while before I can go out and explore again."
Just then, Huo Yue reached out and grabbed his hands, her grip firm and warm.
"T-Then... I'll be your eyes!" she declared, her voice ringing with a sudden, fierce determination.
Haoran looked at her, genuinely confused for a moment. "My eyes?"
Huo Yue nodded vigorously. "The communication artifact you gave me—it has a video recording feature, right? And the image-sync? I'll call you every week. I'll take photos of everything I see. I'll explore this entire empire while you're busy in the capital and I'll show it all to you! I'll be your eyes and show you just how beautiful this world really is!"
Her excitement was infectious as she began to list the wonders she planned to find. "Did you know? There is a river in the Southern Region that reflects the starlight so perfectly it looks like you're walking on the Milky Way! And there's a legendary tree in the Western Region that stretches so high it's said to be a bridge to a floating island of Giants! There are even legends of an ice village where the Snow Spirits live and dance in the aurora!"
She stepped closer, her eyes locked onto his. "There are many, many beautiful things in this world, Haoran. And if you can't see them yet, then I will bring them to you. It might not be as good as being there, but until the day you are free to explore by my side, I will note down every beautiful place I find... so that one day, we can visit them all together!"
Shen Haoran stared at her, his eyes widening in a rare moment of genuine shock. He expected her to say many things, but never in his imagination did he expect her to offer him the world.
Slowly, the cold, clinical mask he usually wore began to crumble as a soft, gentle smile appeared on his face—a look so human it would have terrified his enemies in the capital.
He reached out and pulled Huo Yue into a firm, protective embrace, resting his chin on her shoulder.
"As expected..." he murmured, his voice laced with a strange, possessive warmth. "I really can't bear to leave you, Yue'er. You make me want to tie you up and just keep you by my side forever, just so I don't have to face that monotonous world alone."
"That's..." Huo Yue blushed furiously, her heart thumping against his chest, but she didn't know what to say to such a "Haoran-style" compliment.
He held her for a long moment, the silence of the palace hallway wrapping around them.
Then, he pulled back just enough to look into her eyes, his expression uncharacteristically soft.
"Can you... stay with me tonight?"
Huo Yue's face turned the color of a ripe spirit-peach, her breath hitching in her throat.
She looked at the man who was both a cold-blooded genius and the one who had saved her from despair.
She didn't refuse, and instead, she nodded slowly, her voice a soft, steady whisper. "...Mn. I'll accompany you. Not just tonight, Haoran... for as long as you want."