The full moon, like a disc, hung suspended in the sky, illuminating the shattered heavens and earth below.
Hundreds of li of mountains, influenced by Si Xuanji’s Moon Spirit divine ability, had transformed into floating islands, only to be shattered into fragments by Sun Juehu’s Ice Dragon Spear.
“Si Danyue!!! Hah—!!”
“Tch—Moon Eradication Seven Paths!! Decree!”
Boom—!!
Purple spiritual light rained down like a torrent, pulverizing everything within a hundred li, stirring up hurricanes and surging mountains.
***
“Amitabha…”
On the peak of the only intact mountain a thousand li away, Taishang Wusun, who was meditating with prayer beads, clapped his hands together and projected spiritual energy, forming a giant hand to catch the fleeing mountain and toss it aside.
Roaring—
Zu Yuan, clutching the Ancestral Spirit Ganoderma, hid behind him and watched the two women fighting fiercely in the sky. He inexplicably felt a sense of awe towards women.
He had to admit now that his assumptions about the relationship between Si Xuanji and Sun Juehu had been far too optimistic.
From the death of Sun Juehu’s biological father and master in Si Xuanji’s hands, to Sun Juehu’s millennia-long animosity towards Si Xuanji, Zu Yuan had witnessed it all.
Zu Yuan had originally come out of curiosity, thinking the two women would just “spar,” exchange a few harsh words, and exchange perhaps a dozen moves.
Who would have thought they would now be fighting in earnest, each strike aimed to kill the other?
Neither Sun Juehu nor Si Xuanji were on their home turf, and Void Realm cultivators rarely made mistakes in combat. After only a few hours, they had already demolished hundreds of li of the Eastern Domain’s territory.
If they were to continue fighting until their spiritual energy was depleted, they might very well destroy half of the Eastern Domain, and the immortal families and sects entering the Eastern Domain would definitely be affected by the aftermath of their battle.
These two women were truly terrifying…
Zu Yuan shivered and quickly patted Taishang Wusun’s shoulder.
“Taishang, it’s time to act. If they continue like this, there will be serious trouble. They are already damaging the Eastern Domain’s spiritual脉…”
Taishang Wusun actually didn’t want to come, and he didn’t want to participate in this attack on the Eastern Domain. His only desire was to stay on his small island, chanting scriptures for those seeking Buddha, and comprehending Buddhist dharma himself.
The prayer beads in his hand stopped, he let out a long breath, and looked up at the two women a thousand li away, projecting his voice with his spiritual sense:
“Amitabha… Two benefactors, the past is the past. Why continue fighting? What good will it do if you both end up defeated…”
Boom—!!!
The sound of spiritual light shattering mountains and rivers drowned out his words.
Neither Si Xuanji nor Sun Juehu even glanced at him. They continued fighting as before…
Seeing this, Taishang Wusun shook his head slightly and turned back to Zu Yuan. His gleaming scalp shone white under the moonlight, as if to say:
—This old monk cannot dissuwade them.
?
Zu Yuan’s eye twitched slightly. He looked at Taishang Wusun expressionlessly.
“Are you going to give me that thousand-year-old Hundred Spirit Flower, or not?”
Taishang Wusun shook his head and sighed, his face full of sorrow. He rubbed his prayer beads a few more times.
“This old monk has done his best…”
“Alright, alright…” Zu Yuan rolled his eyes. “I’ll add another ten-thousand-year-old Hundred Spirit Flower to the deal.”
Taishang Wusun clapped his hands together and nodded.
“Amitabha, then this old monk will try one more time…”
“Brahma-pama…”
Accompanied by a Buddhist chant that lasted hundreds of words, waves of Buddhist aura and golden light surged from Taishang Wusun’s body. Above his head, a colossal, thousand-faced, thousand-armed golden Buddha phantom instantly appeared.
The thousand golden hands clasped together, their myriad expressions—surprised, suspicious, joyous, sorrowful—all looking at the two women fighting fiercely in the shattered heaven and earth.
Boom—
Two giant hands emerged from the ground beneath Si Xuanji and Sun Juehu, reaching out to grab them.
Si Xuanji’s immortal robe remained as spotless as ever, and the ethereal ribbon behind her shoulders glowed with five-colored spiritual light under the moonlight. A hundred zhang away, Sun Juehu also remained unharmed.
Looking at the Buddha hands emerging from beneath them, the two women simultaneously chose to redirect their spiritual attacks and spearheads.
Clang—
Boom—
The divine lightning summoned by the Moon Spirit divine ability pierced the palm of the golden Buddha’s left hand from above, dissipating it into golden light almost instantly.
The Xuanbing Spear danced, summoning an ice dragon’s head that coiled around the golden Buddha’s right hand, then strangled it into nothingness.
““Taishang bald donkey!!! Mind your own business!!!””
Two female voices, one mature and one young, merged into one and echoed a thousand li to Taishang Wusun’s ears, causing him to cough up a mouthful of blood.
“Cough—cough—”
Zu Yuan took a deep breath, feeling a bit troubled.
He knew that Taishang Wusun, as a formation cultivator, was at less than ten percent of his full strength in the Eastern Domain. But if even he couldn’t dissuade the two women, then who else in this world could?
Young Master Ye?
If Ye Anping had come to mediate before the fight, there might have been a chance.
But with this current momentum, Ye Anping, at the Nascent Soul stage, would likely be blown to smithereens by the backlash of their fight before he could even get close.
“Hiss—”
Zu Yuan clenched his fist and decided to empty his mind, only holding the Ancestral Spirit Ganoderma tighter.
The Ancestral Spirit Ganoderma was already trembling and unable to stand from the divine might of the two Void Realm cultivators. Now it couldn’t help but cry out:
“Grand Tutor Ancestor!!! How…”
“Don’t be afraid, your Grand Tutor Ancestor is here. As for the outcome of this battle, it is all in the hands of fate.” Zu Yuan sighed and said, “Bald donkey, leave them be, protect us.”
“Amitabha…”
***
Boom—
Roughly seven hundred li north, atop an isolated mountain peak.
Suddenly, a fierce gale swept through, catching Xiao Yunluo, who was setting up a formation, off guard. She was lifted off her feet, letting out a startled cry:
“Waaah—!!”
But before she could be blown into the sky, two hands reached out and grabbed the dragon horns on her forehead, pulling her back down.
Feng Yu Die quickly took out a rope and tied herself to Xiao Yunluo’s waist, reminding her, “Senior Sister Xiao, be careful. Infuse spiritual energy into your feet…”
Meanwhile, Gu Mingxin, standing beside them, stomped the ground below her knees and crossed her arms, looking at the young dragon behind them with a playful smirk.
She couldn’t bully the one named Pei, but this little dragon seemed easy to bully…
“Heehee… Little dragon, look at you. Ye Anping’s tastes are truly strange, to be so fond of someone so short, flat, and weak… Is it just because you’re a dragon?”
Before she could finish speaking, Xue E, hovering above her, rapped her on the forehead with a wooden sword:
“Mingxin! Control yourself! Be careful Ye Anping doesn’t “stub” you to death!”
Xiao Yunluo furrowed her brows, unable to refute. She was indeed weaker, what could she do?
She had tried her best!
As long as Ye Anping didn’t mind, that was all that mattered…
Xiao Tian also flew down and said to everyone,
“Yu Die, we can’t get any closer, or things will get out of hand. Let’s stop here… It should be fine.”
“Okay!” Feng Yu Die nodded, took a deep breath, and sat cross-legged on the ground. “Senior Sister Xiao, send your spiritual energy to the black one.”
“Ah… Oh, okay!”
Gu Mingxin glanced at the two behind her, took out her master’s heart from her collar, lifted it with spiritual energy, and calmly infused her Qi Cultivation into the heart.
At the same time, Xiao Tian and Xue E sat down cross-legged, calmed their minds, and channeled the spiritual energy of Lao Jiu and A Mang to Gu Mingxin.
With Gu Yan’s flesh and blood, they could mobilize the Void Realm killing formations within this land. However, they were ultimately just a few Nascent Soul cultivators.
It was like a heavy iron door; even with a key, it couldn’t be opened without everyone combining their strength.
Ye Anping had told them before that even if they exhausted all their spiritual energy, they could only activate Gu Yan’s formations once.
Therefore, this time, they needed to find the best opportunity.
That is, strike when they are unprepared.
Although Sun Juehu doesn’t have testicles…
“Ha…”
“Black one, don’t let us down.”
“White one, do you think I’m like you? Humph—”
Gu Mingxin calmed herself, extended her gaze, and focused on the back of the spear-wielding woman seven hundred li away…
***
Dong—!!
The Dragon Spear twirled ferociously, summoning an ice dragon that attacked Si Xuanji’s protective spiritual barrier, pushing her ten thousand zhang into the sky.
Si Xuanji leaned against her full moon, gritted her teeth slightly, and flipped her hand, holding up a Yin-Yang totem.
With a wave of her sleeve, a speck of Moon Spirit in her palm transformed into a spiritual arrow, which shot into the ice dragon’s mouth, pierced through, and shattered it into ice shards, exploding into white, cold mist.
However, in the next instant, her Yin-yang eyes flickered to the side.
Clang—
The dragon spear’s tip pierced through the purple spiritual barrier behind her, stopping only three cun from her brow.
Sun Juehu was almost pressed against her face, looking at those eyes that remained as calm as ever. A surge of annoyance rose in her heart.
“Si Danyue, you’re so perfect. Those eyes are always the same, you’re always so aloof, as if everything is within your grasp… What? Do you think Young Master Ye will come to save you? Or do you think I can’t kill you?!”
“I was born this way, don’t you like it? Then gouge your own eyes out.”
“Yes!!! I don’t like it—”
The dragon spear transformed into a long whip and lashed out, sending Si Xuanji flying towards a floating mountain peak.
The ball of light enveloped by Moon Spirit instantly pierced through the mountain.
Si Xuanji let out a heavy sigh, stopping herself. But in the next moment, Sun Juehu once again advanced, her seductive eyes widened, and she thrust her spear forward.
Boom—
“You killed my master the same way back then, and I hated that look in your eyes!!! After acting for a thousand years, did you never predict you’d die by my hand?!! Hah—”
Another thrust pushed Si Xuanji back a hundred zhang.
However, this time, Sun Juehu did not pursue.
She raised her spear, looking at the faint trace of blood on its tip, and her eyes instantly lit up with joy. She then looked up again at Si Xuanji, who had stopped a hundred zhang away, encased in a spiritual barrier.
After hours of fighting, the first trace of blood had finally appeared.
The jade hairpin that had been holding Si Xuanji’s hair shattered abruptly. Her black and white hair cascaded down like a waterfall, and a shallow bloodstain appeared on one side of her Yin-yang eyes.
Si Xuanji raised her hand and touched the stinging area on her left cheekbone, seeing a smear of blood on her fingertips. She frowned slightly, but her expression remained calm.
Previously, although her fights with Sun Juehu had split the heavens and earth, neither had actually injured the other.
Sun Juehu couldn’t break her protective spiritual barrier, and she couldn’t pierce Sun Juehu’s blood qi as a body cultivator.
But now it was different. If Sun Juehu could injure her once, she could do it again.
Even if each injury was minor, over thousands or tens of thousands of subsequent clashes, her injuries would accumulate, and she would eventually be defeated by Sun Juehu.
“Hahahaha—”
Laughter echoed through the air.
Sun Juehu flicked away the bloodstain on her spear tip and looked at Si Xuanji, her hair now disheveled. The ferocious expression she had worn earlier softened.
“Si Danyue, you look much better like this!!”
“Tch…”
“Oh, right. Ye Anping, wasn’t it… I quite like that kid. He’s such a handsome young man. The first time I saw him in the Northern Region, I thought about taking him into my harem. I even thought of a title for him, wanting him to be my Imperial Consort…”
Sun Juehu tilted her head slightly and smiled.
“After you die by my spear…”
At this point, Si Xuanji’s Yin-yang eyes suddenly widened, her anger seemingly manifesting, causing the black and white hair cascading behind her head to ripple.
Sun Juehu narrowed her eyes slightly and added the rest of her sentence:
“He’ll be mine!”
The moment these words fell, a purple spirit sword suddenly appeared in Si Xuanji’s right hand, and she instantly lunged forward, heading straight for Sun Juehu.
Boom—
But Sun Juehu immediately raised her spear and blocked with the shaft.
The air currents rippled, forming a shockwave that severed the surrounding floating mountains.
“Sun Juehu!!!”
“Ahahaha… That’s more like it!!!”
This was the first time Si Xuanji had charged forward on her own in hours.
Before, she had been mostly evading Sun Juehu’s attacks while looking for opportunities to counter. Sun Juehu had grown tired of it.
As a body cultivator, what she loved most was the vibration transmitted to her arm from clashing swords, the satisfaction of direct, flesh-to-flesh combat.
Spells? Spirit Arts?
They could illuminate the heavens and earth, cause the cycle of the four elements, and were beautiful to behold, but were they as satisfying as a solid sword strike or fist?!!
Sun Juehu’s eyes widened again, and the moment she saw her gaze, Si Xuanji suddenly realized her mistake.
She was a law cultivator, how could she get into close combat with a body cultivator of the same level?
Previously, while evading Sun Juehu and counter-attacking, although she was still at a disadvantage, she could at least fight on par, a 40/60 split. But now, in close quarters…
—How could I make such a foolish mistake?!
Si Xuanji gritted her teeth, regretting her impulsiveness, and as Sun Juehu swung her spear, she could only tightly grip her spirit sword to block.
Clink clink—
Metal struck metal, but Sun Juehu’s strength was clearly far greater than hers.
Clang—
The purple spirit sword was directly knocked out of Si Xuanji’s hand, and then the tail of the dragon spear struck her abdomen.
Sun Juehu sneered and pressed down with force.
Boom—
The air wave pierced through her already small abdomen, scattering Si Xuanji’s black and white hair behind her back. Then, carrying her delicate body, she was instantly slammed from ten thousand zhang into the ground.
“Cough—”
Her back hit the ground, like a fallen star.
The impact was like the earth rolling over, and hundreds of fissures spread outwards from Si Xuanji’s back, weaving a giant spiderweb across dozens of li on the earth.
Zu Yuan and Taishang Wusun, watching this from a thousand li away, were filled with disbelief.
Void Realm cultivators, with their divine senses connected to heaven, rarely made mistakes in combat. While it seemed instantaneous, before each strike, they would inevitably calculate hundreds of steps ahead in their sea of consciousness.
Neither of them could understand why Si Xuanji had charged forward…
Zu Yuan sensed that something was wrong and urgently shouted:
“Bald donkey!”
Taishang Wusun also saw that Si Xuanji was in trouble and quickly summoned the golden Buddha image again.
However…
“Bald donkey!!! If you meddle again, I’ll kill you too! This is between me and Si Danyue! It has nothing to do with you!!”
Sun Juehu roared, then let out a long breath, looking down at Si Xuanji, who was struggling to get up from the ground ten thousand zhang below. A look of disdain appeared on her face.
She raised her dragon spear above her head, preparing to throw it.
Hum hum—
Ice-blue spiritual energy flowed across her body, radiating an endless chill.
“Haa…”
Sensing Sun Juehu’s divine ability, Si Xuanji gritted her teeth and pushed herself up from the ground. However, perhaps due to lack of exercise, her legs completely refused to obey, and there was a foul, metallic taste in her mouth.
“Cough cough—”
Sun Juehu had only mentioned Ye Anping, why had she fallen into her trap?
A hint of helplessness appeared in Si Xuanji’s eyes.
She had lived for thousands of years, how could she fall for such a straightforward provocation?
—I… I can’t believe…
Si Xuanji slowly lifted her head, propping herself up against the ground, and looked up at the sky.
But now, only a disc-like moon obscured the sky; the black star she often admired was nowhere to be seen.
“Ha…”
Si Xuanji let out a soft sigh. If she hadn’t come to the Eastern Domain, she wouldn’t have ended up in such a predicament…
Back then, Ye Anping had told her to believe in herself. Where was Ye Anping now…
Just then, a surge of bloody, malevolent energy arrived, instantly captured by Si Xuanji’s divine sense extending around her. Sun Juehu overhead also immediately detected it.
““Gu Yan?””
The two spoke in unison again, searching for the source of this malevolent energy.
But Gu Yan had clearly sacrificed his life-bound magical artifact and escaped. And the Demon Emperor had pursued him. Even if the Demon Emperor had accidentally fallen into a trap and been killed, Gu Yan would have had no energy left to dare return and trouble them.
Sun Juehu was confused, but Si Xuanji reacted within a second.
She bit her lip slightly, let out a sigh of relief, then sat down cross-legged and clasped her hands together.
Crack—
The sound of her palms meeting dispersed all the wind and snow within a hundred li.
Hearing the sound, Sun Juehu looked back and saw the spiritual light radiating from Si Xuanji’s entire body. She immediately understood what she was trying to do and quickly looked up at the moon in the sky.
A pitch-black shadow began to emerge from the edge of the full moon, as if devouring it.
“What good will your broken divine ability do at this time? Can you trap me?”
Sun Juehu pouted slightly and quickly prepared to use her own vital energy to block Si Xuanji’s Moon Spirit divine ability. But in the next instant, countless crimson malevolent energies surged from the ground.
“What?!”
Seeing Gu Yan’s broken formations activated again, a hint of panic finally appeared in Sun Juehu’s eyes. She quickly prepared to flee and dodge.
However, the moment she moved, two moon shadows, one black and one white, flashed in Si Xuanji’s Yin-yang eyes.
Instantly, all color in this world faded.
Sun Juehu blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, she was in a mirror-like lake. She clicked her tongue slightly and looked ahead. About twenty feet away, Si Xuanji stood barefoot on the surface of the lake, holding a common mortal’s green peak sword.
A strange feeling arose in her heart.
Void Realm cultivators all had their own divine abilities, but she didn’t know what Si Xuanji’s divine ability was.
She put her in this space, and then what?
“Si Danyue, and then what? What good will it do to trap me here?”
Si Xuanji glanced at the sword in her hand, then looked up and said, “All things change, only the sun and moon remain eternal. There is no concept of time in this grotto-heaven… Look at that tree…”
She pointed to a giant tree in the center of the mirror lake that looked thousands of years old.
Sun Juehu followed her gaze, not quite understanding, and shrugged.
“A tree?”
“Mmm… I planted it when I was fourteen.”
“Oh~~”
Sun Juehu raised her eyebrows, but the next moment, the thousand-year-old giant tree seemed to grow in reverse. Its lush branches instantly retracted, and the hundred-foot trunk rapidly shortened.
Sun Juehu narrowed her eyes slightly. Before she could react, the Empress’s long robe on her shoulders suddenly fell to her feet.
She looked down and saw her full chest instantly deflate. Her entire body seemed to follow the giant tree, growing backward through thousands of years.
“?”
Dong dong—
As her height decreased, Sun Juehu could no longer hold her dragon spear, and her cultivation instantly withered. By the time she realized what was happening, she was left with only a cultivation of Qi Refining seventh or eighth layer.
At this point, Sun Juehu finally understood the power of Si Xuanji’s divine ability.
She looked up at Si Xuanji, twenty feet away, and saw that her figure had not changed much. A hint of nervousness arose in her heart, but upon seeing that Si Xuanji was also left with only a cultivation of Qi Refining seventh or eighth layer, she burst into laughter.
“What kind of ghost divine ability is this? Your own divine ability, you’ve been hit by it too.”
“Sun Juehu, we are both fourteen years old now. Do you think you can still defeat me?”
Si Xuanji narrowed her eyes slightly and swung the green peak sword in her hand.
Swish—
“Back when I was fourteen… I was still traveling the mortal realm, dreaming of being a hero~~”
