112: Chapter 111 This is my tribulation

"The Goddess Palace."

He spoke, his voice hoarse.

"You are the founder of the Goddess Palace."

This was not a question, but a statement.

The woman did not deny it.

She simply stood there quietly, light flowing around her body like the breath of heaven and earth.

Those eyes still looked down upon Chu Ye, without contempt, without anger, not even any emotion. It was like the Heavenly Dao gazing upon all living beings, not despising them for their insignificance as ants, nor pitying them for their struggles.

"You should not have been born here."

She spoke, her voice as indifferent as the wind high above the Nine Heavens.

"Your soul does not belong to this world."

Chu Ye's pupils contracted slightly.

"Your arrival has disrupted the operation of the Heavenly Dao," the woman continued, each word seeming like the manifestation of the rules of heaven and earth. "Karma has been thrown into chaos because of you, destinies have been altered because of you. Those who should have perished live, Sects that should have prospered have fallen. None of this should have happened."

She slightly raised her head, looking towards the high heavens of this world.

The light of the sun and moon shining together fell upon her, yet was completely absorbed by that hazy divine radiance.

"The Heavenly Dao is constant, all things have their order."

"Those who disrupt the order shall be executed."

As the last two words fell, Chu Ye felt the entire world tremble.

It was not a tremor of sound, but a tremor of rules. As if this world itself was echoing her words.

Chu Ye suddenly laughed.

He raised his head, looked directly into those lofty eyes, and a blood-stained arc tugged at the corner of his mouth: "So, the ancient wills awakened in the Central Region, those forces that hunted me down... you were the one pulling the strings behind it all?"

The woman did not answer.

But silence itself was the answer.

"You follow the will of the Heavenly Dao," Chu Ye said, word by word. "Then let me ask you, did the Heavenly Dao ever ask me if I was willing to come to this world?"

The woman's gaze shifted slightly.

It was the first time since her appearance that something akin to "emotion" flickered in her eyes. But only for an instant, before it vanished into nothingness.

"Does that matter?"

She countered.

"When an ant is blown off a cliff by the wind, does it ask the wind why it blew?"

Chu Ye fell silent.

The woman raised her hand.

That hand was shrouded in light, its details unclear, only a vague outline visible.

But the moment she raised her hand, the entire world moved with her.

The sun and moon in the sky suddenly stopped.

The rushing great river solidified into ice.

Distant mountains ceased their breathing, birds froze mid-flight, swaying flowers stiffened in the wind.

The entire world stood still.

Only Chu Ye and the woman atop the mountain peak remained outside of time.

"Look."

The woman spoke, her voice still indifferent.

"This world is mine to Dominate."

She raised her hand and gave a gentle wave.

The halted sun and moon began to reverse, moving from west to east, traversing the sky backwards.

She waved again.

The solidified rivers began to flow backwards, from the sea towards the mountains, retracing their source.

She waved a third time.

Distant mountains rose from the ground, birds flew backwards into their eggs, flowers shrank back into seeds. Everything was like a scroll being played in reverse, racing backwards towards the beginning of creation.

Chu Ye stood in place, watching all of this.

He did not move.

Because he knew he couldn't.

The power of this world was everywhere, like invisible shackles binding his limbs and body, binding the hundred phoenix diagram within him, binding every inch of his flesh and blood, every wisp of his soul.

He had looked down upon his own world like this countless times within the hundred phoenix diagram.

Watching the beings within struggle, multiply, die; watching them rejoice or grieve under his will; watching them believe they controlled their fate, unaware that fate had long been written by a higher existence.

Now, he had become that being being looked down upon.

The woman lowered her hand.

Everything returned to normal. The sun and moon continued their east-to-west journey, rivers continued rushing towards the sea, distant mountains stood silent, birds soared, flowers swayed.

As if everything just now had been but an illusion.

But Chu Ye knew it was not an illusion.

"Your hundred phoenix diagram is your world," the woman looked at him, her gaze still cold. "And here, this is my world."

"In your world, you are a god."

"But here."

She paused.

"You are merely my prisoner."

Chu Ye remained silent for a long time.

He lowered his head, looking at the broken sword in his hand. The blade was covered in cracks, its edge chipped and curled, the wrappings on the hilt soaked through with blood. This sword had accompanied him, cutting down countless powerful foes, slashing through monsters on the Heavenly Road, until only this remnant remained.

But now, it was just a piece of scrap iron.

Just like himself.

He raised his head, looking towards the light-shrouded figure atop the mountain peak.

"So," he spoke, his voice surprisingly calm, "you intend to kill me here."

The woman did not answer.

But her silence was clearer than any answer.

Chu Ye suddenly laughed again.

This time, the laughter held no bitterness, no despair, only a strange sense of release.

"Within the hundred phoenix diagram, I have killed countless beings who tried to defy me," he said. "Until their dying breath, they never understood why a thousand years of Cultivation could not withstand a single thought from me."

He paused.

"Now, I understand."

"That feeling is probably like... no matter how you struggle, you cannot escape your predetermined fate."

The woman watched him quietly.

Those eyes still held no emotion.

"You are very calm," she said.

"What else can I be?" Chu Ye retorted. "Weep and wail? Kneel and beg for mercy? Would you spare me?"

The woman remained silent.

"You would not," Chu Ye answered for her. "You are the Daughter of the Heavenly Dao. You have no pity. Just as I would not spare the beings in the hundred phoenix diagram because they wept and pleaded."

He slowly straightened his body.

The broken sword was thrust into the ground, standing upright beside him.

"Come, then."

The heavens collapsed.

Not a metaphor, but truly collapsed.

Chu Ye looked up at the sky. What he saw was not the firmament, but the endless power of the world pouring down.

It was the weight of the entire world, the will of the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers, the substance condensed from rules and order. It had no form, yet was more terrifying than any form.

It made no sound, yet was more deafening than any sound.

This was the Heavenly Dao.

This was the heavenly punishment.

The woman stood atop the mountain peak, the radiance around her body blazing brilliantly.

She did not even spare Chu Ye another glance, merely raising her hand as casually as brushing away a speck of dust.

And Chu Ye...

Chu Ye drew his sword.

That broken sword rose from the ground and returned to his hand.

The blade was covered in cracks, its edge long since chipped and curled, yet the moment his fingers tightened around the hilt, light suddenly shone from the sword.

Not the light of the sword.

It was the light of the hundred phoenix diagram.

Within him, that inner world, began to burn.

*BOOM—*

The hundred phoenix diagram unfurled behind him.

It was not an illusion, not a projection, but the true Origin of a world.

Within the scroll, mountains, rivers, and landscapes materialized one by one, birds and beasts ran and cried out. That was his world.

Blood began to seep from Chu Ye's seven orifices.

Burning the power of a world was equivalent to burning one's own Divine Soul.

The fall of every living being, the shattering of every inch of mountain and river, would carve irreversible wounds deep within his Divine Soul.

But he did not stop.

Nor could he stop.

"I know you are here."

He whispered, his voice swallowed by the roar of the collapsing heavens, audible only to himself.

"Old Man of Tianji, you said this was my tribulation."

"Pass it, and I stand at the peak of this world."

"Fail, and dust returns to dust, earth to earth."