Losing My Beloved, Desolation All Around

Ice and snow stretched as far as the eye could see, with scarcely a trace of human life.

No one knew what kind of grand spectacle was unfolding in this nameless land of the extreme north.

Five of the strongest beings alive had joined forces for the sole purpose of killing a brat who had not even reached the Void Refining stage. If word of this got out, no one would believe it. It was as absurd as a Dragon King sleeping in a kennel or refusing to pay his workers.

And yet, this was an undeniable fact.

The five supreme experts merely stood there, and the entire icefield instinctively submitted to them.

The wind and snow roared for them, while heaven and earth bowed their heads.

Upon the snow lay a solitary figure, holding the lifeless body of his beloved in his arms. In a voice filled with grief, he uttered a cold declaration.

“You’re all going to die.”

Yan Kuang and the others froze for a moment before bursting into laughter.

“Us? We’re all going to die?”

Liu Shuyan pointed at Ye Shu, wondering if there was something wrong with his ears. “Brat, have you lost your mind? You’re merely at the Void Returning stage. Even if you used some method to forcibly fight Yan Kuang to a draw, that doesn’t mean you’re a match for the five of us combined.”

“You should know that this is nothing like what happened in the Eastern Wasteland.”

“Our true bodies have come here, and we’ve joined forces. Even if that old fool Lin Heming were here, he wouldn’t dare make such a boast.”

“And you!”

Liu Shuyan pointed at Liu Ruyi, whom Ye Shu held in his arms, and sneered. “You couldn’t even save the woman you loved just now, and yet you dare say something like this?”

“That we’re all going to die?”

He suddenly flung back his sleeve, and the pressure of a Mahayana cultivator poured out without restraint.

“Arrogant fool! You’re utterly lawless!”

Boom!

The entire snowfield collapsed in an instant. The soft snow was compressed into solid layers of ice, cracking loudly as fissures spread in every direction.

The snowfield had transformed directly into an icefield.

“Heh…”

Holding Liu Ruyi in his arms, Ye Shu shattered the ice beneath his feet and walked forward step by step. The wind and snow could not touch him as he murmured softly, recalling the promise he had made.

“I told you that I would help you transcend.”

“Now, it’s time to fulfill that promise.”

At the same time, directly above Ye Shu’s head—

A chubby, exquisitely carved little baby had been struggling to hold on. He kept his eyes tightly shut. His Daoist robe had originally been white on the left and black on the right, but the black had now devoured most of the white.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes. Forcibly raising his hand, he seized the karmic thread connecting Ye Shu and Liu Ruyi and gave it a gentle tug.

Twang—

The sound of a plucked zither string rang out across heaven and earth.

Then, wisps of black-and-red mist suddenly streamed from the top of the long-dead Liu Ruyi’s head. As though guided by some unseen force, they swayed unsteadily toward Ye Shu’s left shoulder.

At the same time, on Ye Shu’s left shoulder—

A chubby little baby with crimson lips and pearly teeth, dressed in a black robe, sat cross-legged atop a six-petaled blood-red lotus platform. His eyes were closed as he meditated and cultivated in silence.

The wisps of mist drifted down and settled upon the lotus platform.

In an instant, crimson light blazed brilliantly.

The little baby abruptly opened his eyes. Countless fragmented scenes were reflected in his black pupils. At the same time, the lotus platform beneath him began to grow at astonishing speed.

One petal… two petals… three petals…

Just how powerful was the karmic burden of a Holy Maiden of the Demon Sect?

It was no exaggeration to say it was comparable to mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Because Ye Shu had not personally ended Liu Ruyi’s life, he could not obtain the corresponding merit. Instead, he could only bear the purest karmic burden.

The black mist was the condensation of all the bloodshed, resentment, and karma Liu Ruyi had accumulated throughout her life. This caused the balance between good and evil within him to be shattered at an incredible speed. On top of that, his Benevolent Body had self-destructed, and the white portion of the little baby above his head was already on the verge of disappearing completely.

But Ye Shu no longer cared.

Liu Ruyi’s sins were naturally not enough to allow him to ascend to immortality in a single step. But if all he sought was the Mahayana stage—if all he needed was this one day—

Then it would be effortless.

The lotus bloomed with three petals, each one as red as blood. Dense crimson energy coiled around the little baby, while the entire lotus platform radiated a murderous aura that made the heart tremble.

“What’s happened to Father?”

Medusa and the others, being the closest to Ye Shu, were the first to notice something strange. They saw his aura rising steadily in a bizarre manner, and they could not understand it at all.

Merit was something ordinary people could never perceive.

Thus, to Yan Kuang, Medusa, and the others, it appeared that Ye Shu’s aura had inexplicably risen by a considerable degree.

“How is this possible?”

Liu Shuyan’s pupils contracted, and his face filled with shock.

This was even more outrageous than what had happened at the Azure Profound Sect. At least that time, there had been some explanation for it. This time, Ye Shu was not even bothering to pretend.

“There’s nothing impossible about it,” Ye Shu said indifferently.

Flames had already begun to burn across his body. The fire was both illusory and real, colored a strange pink. Every passing second brought him immense agony, forcing him to experience the same suffering as those who had been killed by Liu Ruyi.

Yet his expression remained blank.

At this moment, he had only one thought.

Kill!

Ye Shu raised his head and coldly stared at the five figures suspended in the air. The killing intent in his eyes was almost solid enough to touch. The nine-petaled lotus platform slowly revolved, burning with crimson flames…

“Arrogant fool!”

“A mere ant dares to spout such nonsense!”

“You’ve merely used some depraved technique to forcibly raise your cultivation. Your realm is nowhere near as stable as ours, which we reached step by step!”

“Let this Daoist test your strength!”

Yan Kuang rolled up his sleeves. The flame patterns on his robes instantly came alive, and countless strange flames merged into one, draping him in a burning suit of armor.

He stamped one foot against the ground, and the void shattered.

His entire body transformed into a red shooting star, carrying the force of ten thousand jun, as he smashed downward.

Boom!

A powerful shock wave instantly spread in every direction.

Gurgle, gurgle…

The icefield, which had been covered in snow and ice, melted in an instant. The resulting meltwater vaporized in the blink of an eye. The rock strata beneath were exposed to the air, only to be melted by the intense heat into seething lava, bubbling and churning with a gurgling sound.

Ye Shu caught Yan Kuang’s fist firmly.

“What?”

Yan Kuang’s eyes widened in disbelief.

He stared fixedly at the hand gripping his fist and demanded, “What kind of flame is this? Why have I never seen it before?”

He stared deathly at the pink flames covering Ye Shu’s body, his shock even greater than before.

He had originally thought the flames were merely some kind of visual effect.

But after clashing with them, he was utterly stunned.

He had roamed the world for countless years and prided himself on having collected every strange flame there was. Yet he had never seen anything like this.

“The Red Lotus Karmic Flame. Never heard of it?”

Ye Shu smiled contemptuously.

Then the pink flames rapidly spread along his arm, climbing onto Yan Kuang’s body and blazing fiercely.

“Burn away your sins!”

“This flame shall never wither.”

“Ahh!”

The moment the flames touched him, Yan Kuang let out a miserable scream.

It hurt.

It hurt unbearably.

Countless scenes suddenly flashed through his eyes. In every one of them, he was killed by a man clad in a robe of flames.

And that man was himself.

“Brother Yan, I’ll help you!”

Seeing Yan Kuang suffer, the others did not hesitate. They immediately rushed over to support him, attacking Ye Shu together.

Ye Shu showed not the slightest fear. He charged straight into the fray.

Six supreme experts battled in that place, fighting until heaven and earth collapsed and space shattered. Even the Great Dao itself was on the verge of being ground into nothingness.