111: Chapter 11 finally came to me.

Ni Chang nodded.

She stood up and straightened her robes.

"Then in three days," she said, "we will find her and take our revenge."

Chu Ye looked at her.

Ni Chang met his gaze and said word by word:

"They dared to scheme against you; they must pay the price."

Chu Ye remained silent for a moment.

Then, he smiled.

That smile was very light and faint, yet it carried a dangerous, almost doting tenderness that was more lethal than any killing intent.

"Alright."

He said.

In the distance, deep within the bamboo forest.

Witch Queen Jiu You heard that single word, and the corners of her lips curled up slightly.

On the grass by the stream.

Su Qingyue rolled over, mumbled something, and fell back into a deep sleep.

At the highest point of the valley.

Madame Hua Yu gently closed her eyes, and the rhythm of her breath regulation finally returned to normal.

On the opposite bank of the stream.

Li Yue and Cold Moon exchanged a glance; within the zither music, a faint brightness emerged, like the first light of dawn.

Three days later.

Deep within the Hundred Phoenix Diagram World, seven auras awakened simultaneously.

Those auras were stronger, more solid, and more perfectly rounded than before.

The stream gurgled and the birds chirped; everything was as it had been.

Except that by the stream, those eight figures had already disappeared.

In the distance, atop a certain nameless mountain Peak.

Xuanji stood there quietly.

The ancient bronze coin in her palm was currently trembling slightly.

The glow of that sword scar was no longer piercingly bright, but had turned into a warm, soft light like the morning sun.

Deep within the ancient coin, that blurry human silhouette had completely solidified.

Xuanji lowered her head, looking at the ancient coin.

Then, she raised her head and looked into the distance.

In that direction lay the Goddess Palace.

The corners of her lips curled up slightly.

The light veil covering her face remained perfectly still.

But those eyes were shining.

Beyond the ninth level of the Heavenly Road, there was still a path.

Chu Ye forged ahead alone.

Ni Chang and the other women were left by him within the hundred phoenix diagram.

"Wait for my return."

He only said those four words.

Then he turned and stepped deeper into the Heavenly Road.

This road had no end.

Or rather, the end was hidden behind endless killing intent.

Chu Ye didn't know how long he had walked. There was no time on the Heavenly Road, only eternal silence and suddenly descending slaughter.

When the first monster appeared, he thought it was the resentful soul of some fallen expert.

But he soon discovered it wasn't.

It was the will of the Heavenly Road itself, a creature condensed from the power of the world, possessing no intellect, only instinct: to obliterate any living being that dared to venture deep.

They were born from the Void Realm, crawled out of cracks, and rose from shadows. They took various forms—some like humans, some like beasts, some just a mass of twisted light. But each one carried the Origin power of the Heavenly Road world.

Chu Ye had no way back.

He drew his sword.

The sword was temporarily condensed; his Life Sword had already been incinerated during the sacrifice.

But his insights at the Peak of the Heavenly Immortal Dao remained, and the world power of the hundred phoenix diagram could still be invoked. He used world against world, Origin to slash Origin.

In the first battle, he slew three monsters, gaining seven wounds on his own body.

Golden blood flowed along the blade, burning scorch marks into the Void Realm. Chu Ye did not stop and continued forward.

In the second battle, he slew nine monsters, and his left arm was nearly torn off. He used world power to forcibly reconnect it—aligning bone to bone and pressing flesh to flesh—the pain so intense he nearly fainted.

The third battle.

The fourth battle.

...

He didn't know how many he had killed.

He only knew that with every step forward, the monsters grew a bit stronger.

From the initial Saint Realm, to the Saint Peak, then to Quasi-Emperor, Great Emperor, and the Peak of the Emperor Dao. When he shattered a giant beast that had almost touched the threshold of the Immortal Realm, his sword finally broke completely.

Chu Ye stood upon the corpse of that giant beast, covered in blood and panting heavily.

Ahead, a light appeared.

It was a door.

To be precise, it was a door condensed from light, floating at the end of the Heavenly Road, rotating quietly. The light was soft, yet it could not illuminate anything behind the door.

Chu Ye stared at that door, gripping the broken half-sword in his hand.

He took a step.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

The distance grew shorter, and the light on the door became more brilliant. He couldn't see what was behind it, only vaguely sensing an extremely ancient and vast aura waiting for him on the other side.

Then...

An irresistible suction suddenly descended.

Chu Ye's pupils constricted as the world power within him surged frantically, attempting to resist.

But that suction was too strong—so strong his resistance was like an ant trying to shake a tree. He only had time to see the door rapidly enlarge in his vision before he was swallowed whole in the next instant.

Weightlessness.

Endless weightlessness.

And then...

Feet hitting solid ground.

Chu Ye snapped his eyes open, holding his broken sword across his chest, his whole body tense like a drawn bow.

Then he froze.

This was a world.

A complete, vivid, breathing world.

In the sky, the sun and moon shone together, their light soft and not piercing. The land was vast, mountains rose and fell, and rivers surged.

Birds flew in the distance, and unknown flowers swayed in the breeze nearby.

The air was as fresh as the very first breath taken at the dawn of creation.

Chu Ye slowly lowered his broken sword, his pupils narrowing slightly.

This world...

How similar it was to the world within his hundred phoenix diagram.

Equally complete, equally vivid, and equally—growing.

But the difference was that this world was even more ancient. That antiquity wasn't the agedness of accumulated years, but a divinity that had existed since its birth, coeval with heaven and earth.

"You have come."

A voice rang out.

Chu Ye's whole body jolted, and he looked toward the source of the sound.

Not far ahead, there was a mountain.

The mountain was not high, yet it seemed to be the center of heaven and earth. Atop the Peak stood a figure.

It was a woman.

She wore a veil, making her face unclear. She was shrouded in a hazy light that wasn't blinding but perfectly concealed all her details. However, what couldn't be hidden was her peerless grace.

Above the veil were a pair of eyes.

What kind of eyes were they?

Across the endless light and through untold tens of thousands of years, Chu Ye caught just one glimpse and felt the entire world grow quiet.

There was no emotion in those eyes, no warmth, only a near-indifferent calm—the gaze of a god looking down from above upon a mortal thing.

Beneath the veil, the vaguely visible silhouette was already enough to make any words in the world pale in comparison.

She stood there, with not a single trace of aura leaking out, yet she naturally became the center of this world.

The mountains and rivers went silent for her, the sun and moon paused for her, and all things in heaven and earth seemed like mere foils to her presence.

Divinity.

That was the first word that surfaced in Chu Ye's mind.

And the only word.

His knuckles turned slightly white as he gripped the broken sword. Not because of fear, but because...

The Hundred Phoenix Diagram World within him was trembling.

It wasn't a tremor of fear, but...

Resonance.

The woman seemed to perceive something, and her gaze shifted slightly. In that instant, Chu Ye felt as if his entire world had been seen through by those eyes.

"The hundred phoenix diagram."

She spoke, her voice as indifferent as a divine chant from beyond the heavens:

"Finally, you stand before me."

As the woman's voice fell, heaven and earth became utterly still.

Chu Ye's hand holding the broken sword slowly lowered.

Not because he relaxed, but because he suddenly realized that in this world, this sword—along with the hundred phoenix diagram within him and everything he had gained by burning his Sword Immortal Origin—had lost all meaning.