69: Forget each other in the rivers and lakes

In the white light, only Jiang Xun's black silhouette could be seen.

He stood there, his long hair loose and dancing behind his head.

The surging power within him was dissipating outward.

He clenched his hands.

He could feel the power rushing through his veins and roaring within his bones. The Laws of the world were revealed before his eyes without reservation; he could control everything, he could destroy everything.

Jiang Xun had finally obtained the power to resist.

"Only three minutes?" he whispered to himself.

But he was already very satisfied.

Yan Qingning looked at Jiang Xun, at that familiar face, and into those bottomless eyes.

She understood.

"So that's how it is," she said softly, her voice carrying a sense of almost numb realization.

"So... this was your goal all along."

Jiang Xun did not deny it.

"So now," Yan Qingning tightened her grip on her sword, her tone desolate, "are you going to save this fox?"

Jiang Xun shook his head.

"The one I want to save is you."

Yan Qingning smiled.

"Is that so?"

Suddenly, a bolt of ice-blue Sword Qi tore through the air, aimed straight at White Fox Jiu, who was lying on the ground a hundred meters away!

The Sword Qi was incredibly fast; this strike was intended to kill White Fox Jiu.

But Jiang Xun was faster.

With a flicker of his figure, he appeared in front of White Fox Jiu.

Then he raised his hand and dispersed Yan Qingning's incoming Sword Qi with a single sword strike.

The sword in Jiang Xun's hand was Han Hong.

The very sword Yan Qingning had given him.

The blade hummed softly. With just a casual wave, that sharp Sword Qi shattered into a sky full of ice crystals with a "puff," like water crashing against a mountain wall.

Yan Qingning looked at that sword and the man holding it, her body beginning to tremble uncontrollably.

Her voice shook with rage.

"Using the sword I gave you... to protect another woman?"

"Fine! Good!"

She stared intently at Jiang Xun:

"And you still say... you're not here to save her?"

Jiang Xun's voice was calm. "You have already been ensnared by a Heart Demon; you've stopped being yourself."

Yan Qingning roared and wept as she slashed out with her sword!

A cluster of blooming ice flowers was stamped into the ground by her step.

"You're the one who made me like this!!"

This time, she held nothing back.

The Frost Bloom Sword erupted with a blinding ice-blue light. Wherever the blade passed, even space itself was frozen into fine cracks!

The black energy around her surged frantically like thick ink, no longer able to be suppressed.

"You have been deceiving me all along."

She struck again and again, each blow carrying a hysterical madness:

"Always, always, always deceiving me!"

"From the moment we met, you've been lying to me. Your honesty is always hidden within deception!"

Jiang Xun did not speak.

He simply parried, evaded, and occasionally counterattacked.

The two swords collided in mid-air, each time exploding into blinding sparks and ice shards.

They fought from the ground to the air and back again. Sword Qi overflowed, plowing deep furrow after furrow into the already desolate world.

The entire Cangwu Secret Realm was trembling.

"That is because," Jiang Xun finally spoke, his voice clear amidst the humming of the swords, "the one you love has never been me."

He forced Yan Qingning back with a strike, the blade leaving a shallow bloodstain on her shoulder.

"What you love is your own obsession."

Jiang Xun had also wanted to try to love Yan Qingning, but it was too suffocating.

Every time a hint of affection for her rose in his heart, it was immediately extinguished by her terrifying desire for control.

Yan Qingning retreated three steps and steadied herself.

She looked down at the wound on her shoulder, then up at Jiang Xun, and suddenly smiled.

A wound had also appeared on him.

"If you truly liked me, how could I have an obsession?"

Yan Qingning said, "Your power... you can't maintain it for long, can you?"

Jiang Xun said, "It's enough."

Yan Qingning charged once more.

But this time, Jiang Xun did not use his sword again.

He was already well-acquainted with the power.

He simply raised his left hand and lightly clenched his fingers toward the Void Realm.

"Restrict."

The moment the word fell, everything around Yan Qingning—the air, the falling ash, the overflowing Sword Qi, even the light—all came to a standstill.

Yan Qingning also froze.

She remained in a charging posture, her sword still raised in mid-air, but her body was pinned in place by an invisible force, unable to move even a finger.

Only her eyes could still move.

She stared at Jiang Xun, staring intently.

"Are you now..." she spoke, her voice distorted by anger, "going to kill me?"

"Kill me, and you'll be free."

Jiang Xun coughed up blood; just a few seconds of restriction had already caused his power to fade rapidly.

He looked at Yan Qingning and shook his head:

"It is I who am returning your freedom to you."

He raised his right hand, palm facing up.

The three lives mirror flew from the distance and landed in his hand. The mirror's surface reflected Yan Qingning's frozen figure and those eyes filled with madness.

Jiang Xun said:

"From now on, you take your broad road, and I will take my single-log bridge."

He aimed the mirror at Yan Qingning.

As if guessing what he was about to do, Yan Qingning's pupils suddenly contracted.

"No..."

She began to struggle, using all her strength. But that restrictive force came from the Secret Realm's Laws and Jiang Xun's current Ascension Realm cultivation; she could not break free.

"No—don't!!!"

She screamed, her voice shrill and mournful.

At the same time, intense blue flames erupted from her body!

She was resisting.

Ice Phoenix Fire.

That was the sign of the Ice Phoenix Dao Body being pushed to its limit.

Flames poured out from her every pore, instantly engulfing her entire being!

The flames were ice-blue, yet their temperature was terrifyingly high, searing her skin, her flesh, and her bones!

She was burning herself in the most painful way possible.

"Agh!!!"

She let out a low, utterly suppressed wail.

Tears welled up from the corners of her eyes, but before they could fall, they were evaporated into white steam by the flames.

Watching this scene, a trace of blood also seeped from the corner of Jiang Xun's mouth.

Yan Qingning was torturing herself, and in doing so, she was also torturing Jiang Xun.

Jiang Xun's blood vessels were bursting inch by inch, his blood boiling and seeping from his pores, mixing with sweat and rising as curls of white smoke.

He forcefully suppressed the damage reflected back from Yan Qingning.

Enduring the intense pain, he aimed the three lives mirror at Yan Qingning once more.

The mirror's surface erupted with a blinding white light.

The moment the white light enveloped Yan Qingning, the black energy on her—those obsessions and Heart Demons that had entangled her for so very long—began to dissipate frantically, as if meeting their natural enemy!

"Sizzle..."

The black energy evaporated in the white light, making a piercing sound.

And from Yan Qingning's body, a phantom image began to emerge.

It was translucent and looked exactly like her, but its gaze was even more prejudiced and insane.

That phantom image held Yan Qingning tightly, its nails digging deep into her flesh as if trying to merge with her.

self corpse.

That was the self corpse she had severed but never truly separated from.

The self corpse looked up at Jiang Xun.

Her gaze was complex: there was madness, obsession, entreaty, and a love so thick it could not be dissolved.

"Don't..."

She spoke, her voice identical to Yan Qingning's:

"I love you... I don't want to disappear..."

She gripped Yan Qingning tightly, her fingernails snapping from the force:

"I love you... I love you, Dao Xun... I want to be with you forever..."

The blood in Jiang Xun's body was evaporating, and his entire being was shrouded in white smoke.

He could not hold on much longer.

He looked at the self corpse for a long time... "My name is Jiang Xun," he said.

Then he flipped his wrist.

The white light from the mirror's surface suddenly intensified!

The self corpse screamed.

The white light forcibly stripped her away from Yan Qingning!

She struggled desperately, her nails scraping against the Void Realm with a piercing sound, but she was still dragged toward the mirror bit by bit.

"Don't!!!"

Her figure began to blur and dissipate.

Before finally vanishing, she looked at Jiang Xun, her lips moving to silently say:

"I love..."

Then she was completely sucked into the mirror.

The mirror's surface returned to calm.

The flames on Yan Qingning's body went out.

She slumped down, caught by Jiang Xun before she hit the ground.

The Ice Phoenix Fire disappeared.

Her eyes were closed, her face as pale as paper, with only two lines of clear tears still hanging from the corners of her eyes.

Jiang Xun carried her and landed on the ground.

The wedding robe formed from ice on Yan Qingning's body was melting. She was now completely unclothed, with only a few ice crystals remaining.

Jiang Xun took out a set of ordinary Sect robes from the Jade Void Grotto-Heaven from his storage ring and put them on Yan Qingning.

He looked down at her for a long time, then reached out and untied a jade pendant from her waist.

Grandmist Fish Pendant.

The other one was in his robes. When the two jade pendants were placed together, they fit perfectly, like two fish biting each other's tails.

He gripped the jade pendants.

"Better to forget each other in the Jianghu than to struggle together in dry land."

Having done this, he turned and walked toward White Fox Jiu.

White Fox Jiu was still lying on the ground, holding Bai Ci's cold body in her arms.

She watched Jiang Xun approach and looked at the mirror in his hand, her golden vertical pupils still filled with hatred.

But there was also a hint of ambiguous affection hidden within.

"Why?" she spoke, her voice so weak it was almost inaudible.

She wanted Jiang Xun to answer why he had done what he did back then.

Jiang Xun did not answer.

He simply knelt down and aimed the mirror at her.

White Fox Jiu turned her head, avoiding the mirror's surface.

"Coward," she said.

Her voice carried a hint of mockery.

Jiang Xun activated the mirror.

This time, there was no blinding light or violent reaction. Only a ripple appeared on the mirror's surface, spreading out to envelop White Fox Jiu.

She closed her eyes.

Only exhaustion remained.

Jiang Xun put away the mirror and stood up.

At that moment, the entire Cangwu Secret Realm began to collapse.

Starting from the edges, space peeled away piece by piece like shattered glass, revealing the bottomless Void Realm behind it.

This time, Jiang Xun had completely drained the Origin of this Small World.

Not a single drop was left.

This world was already on the brink of destruction.

He felt the remaining power within him.

Six seconds.

Only six seconds left.

He cast three streaks of protective light toward White Fox Jiu, Bai Ci, and Yan Qingning. The light merged into their bodies, turning into a faint film of light that enveloped them.

This Body Protection Incantation would ensure they landed safely on the ground after the Secret Realm collapsed.

After finishing this, Jiang Xun tore open a spatial rift.

The rift was small, only wide enough for one person to pass through.

He took one last look back at this world on the verge of destruction, at the three women lying on the ground, and then tore off the final restraint around his neck.

Turning around, he stepped into the rift.

At the fastest speed of his life, he fled... Somewhere in the northwest of the Southern Region, in a certain city.

An old farmer selling vegetables on the street suddenly looked up, pointed at the sky, and shouted:

"Look! The sky... it's falling!"

People on the street looked up one after another.

Then they saw it: in the distant sky, a continent had appeared out of thin air. The continent was crumbling and falling, with massive fragments raining down toward the ground.

It looked just like... the sky was falling.

"Heavens! It's a divine punishment!"

Several figures flew up from the city and suspended themselves in mid-air.

They were several Cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage. They looked at the falling sky in the distance, their expressions grave.

"Go there quickly, it might be a great treasure appearing."

"Let's go."

"Wait for me."

Another city.

Two Cultivators stood on the city wall, looking far into the distance.

The Cultivator in green frowned: "What on earth is happening?"

The Cultivator in yellow beside him broke out in cold sweat. He stared at the center of the falling continent, his voice trembling with fear:

"A Heavenly Tribulation... is forming in there."

"A very terrifying Heavenly Tribulation."

He swallowed hard and continued:

"...It's, it's the Heavenly Tribulation pressure of the Ascension Realm."

"This is not something we can interfere with. Quickly report to the Sect Elders."

As the words fell, a dull rumble of thunder came from the distance.

Every high-level Cultivator in the Southern Region could sense that someone was ascending to immortality.

And half the sky of the Southern Region turned dark.