The state of the Mystic Immortal was truly unstable.
The entire world was real, but Xu Jinghong in the tavern was false.
Before Xiuzhi appeared, he was merely a mortal stripped of all his magic—useless Old Xu, the owner of Hongxiu Tavern, anything but Xu Jinghong.
Yet after Xiuzhi appeared, this world became the illusion, and Xu Jinghong in the tavern became real!
Slowly, he ceased to be a mortal, no longer the useless Old Xu. Bit by bit, he regained himself. The tides of heaven and earth turned in his favor—the world was him, or perhaps he was the world. Everything was improving, and his strength gradually returned.
But now, Xiuzhi was fading away, vanishing forever... His newly restored heart shattered in an instant, and the entire world plunged into chaos!
If Xiuzhi truly died before his eyes a second time, he wouldn’t survive the blow. At best, he’d explode on the spot; at worst, he’d lose control, sinking into a mindless, ominous state as the world collapsed into an abyss, madly devouring the true universe beyond!
In other words, he would become a Half-Cosmic Aberration—unlike ordinary demonic fiends, he’d be devoid of reason, drowning in agony, tormenting himself endlessly, driven purely by instinct!
"Yi... Yi'an, don’t... don’t waste resources anymore. It’s useless... Just seeing you again, Xiuzhi is already content..."
In the tavern’s backyard, Xiuzhi—her body half-transparent—mustered the last of her strength to reach out, gently caressing Xu Jinghong’s cheek as she murmured, "Yi... Yi'an, can you promise me one thing?"
Xu Jinghong said nothing. Tears blurred his vision as he frantically poured precious soul-nurturing immortal energy over Xiuzhi, desperate to slow her dissipation.
But it was futile.
Once a lingering will faded, the scattering of a remnant soul was irreversible!
"Yi... Yi'an, do you hear it? The wind chimes..." Xiuzhi’s consciousness was already scattering, her voice barely a whisper.
Xu Jinghong despaired, his heart cleaved in two. Watching his beloved grow ever more translucent, his tears burst forth like a flood, his voice choked with sobs. "Xiuzhi, I... I hear it. I’ll promise you anything, just don’t leave me. I truly... I truly can’t live without you..."
"Silly..." Xiuzhi forced a faint, beautiful smile. "Yi'an must promise me... after I’m gone, you’ll be alright. I... I broke my vow. If there’s a next life, you..."
Before she could finish, her hand slipped limply away, her body dissolving into motes of starlight, slipping through Xu Jinghong’s embrace...
"NO!!!"
"AAAAAH!!!"
Xu Jinghong’s heart-rending roar shook the heavens, the entire world trembling in response!
Yet at that very moment—
A calm figure strode into the backyard and, without hesitation, slapped Xu Jinghong across the face.
SMACK!
"Why are you shouting so loudly?!"
Xu Jinghong’s crimson eyes snapped toward the sudden intruder, a terrifying sword intent erupting from him. Above, a colossal sword shadow—Xu Jinghong’s legendary blade—materialized in the sky!
Without Xiuzhi, nothing could restrain the peerless slaughter of the Jinghong Sword!
It harmed others—and itself!
Everything in sight: Kill! Kill!! KILL!!!
"I can save her."
Quick as lightning—
Xu Jinghong’s crimson eyes cleared instantly.
Like a drowning man clutching at straws, he wouldn’t relinquish even the faintest hope!
"Please, save Xiuzhi. Whoever you are, whatever the cost, I’ll pay it. Even my life—a life for a life. I beg you..."
The once-proud Sword Immortal of Jinghong now knelt humbly on the ground, forsaking all dignity for the slimmest chance to revive his beloved.
"A man’s knees bear the weight of gold! Kneeling is beneath you!" Chen Yi scowled, his voice sharp. "A Sword Immortal groveling—do you think she’d be happy seeing this?"
Xu Jinghong remained silent, still kneeling.
"Tch, you’re hopeless..."
Chen Yi sighed, waving a hand to gather Xiuzhi’s scattered remnants, condensing them into a divine statuette before speaking slowly:
"The dead can reconstitute their true spirit through faith. But your Xiuzhi is only a remnant soul—reforming her will take time. Are you willing to wait?"
Seeing that Chen Yi could truly stabilize Xiuzhi’s fading soul, Xu Jinghong answered without hesitation: "However long it takes—even if the seas dry and the suns burn out—if she can return, I’ll wait. I’ll wait forever!"
The greatest fear is hopelessness. With even a sliver of hope, one finds the strength to press forward.
Gazing at the delicate statuette of Xiuzhi in Chen Yi’s hand, Xu Jinghong felt vitality surging through his decayed body, as if boundless strength welled within him!
"You’re quite the character." Chen Yi smirked. "I’ll tell you this—your Xiuzhi will become a local earth deity in the Purple Star Continent’s immortal realm. Only you, who knows her best, can call her back. Come to Purple Star. You’ll know what to do when the time comes."
Currently, the Purple Star’s Heavenly Dao couldn’t formally bind this wandering Mystic Immortal. After all, Mystic Immortals were formidable—especially someone like Xu Jinghong, whose "Invincible Sword Domain" manifested as a miniature cosmos. Unleashed recklessly, the current Purple Star Continent wouldn’t survive!
So for now, he’d be relegated to menial tasks until the Heavenly Dao ascended enough to grant him a proper title.
As for whether he’d flee... Unless he abandoned Xiuzhi—and could defeat Chen Yi—he wouldn’t escape!
Xu Jinghong agreed instantly: "Deal!"
If it meant saving Xiuzhi, he’d do anything!
Chen Yi grinned. "Good. Welcome aboard. But first—you must reclaim your true self."
Raising a hand toward the sky, he declared, "Go. Defeat your inner demon, and reclaim who you truly are!"
"Understood!" Xu Jinghong surged to his feet, his sword intent erupting like an unsheathed blade—sharp, unstoppable!
Yet beneath his overwhelming edge lay a trace of tenderness. After one last glance at Xiuzhi’s statuette, he slowly drew the long-buried Jinghong Sword from the earth, his aura skyrocketing as he ascended step by step into the heavens!
"You’ve finally come. I’ve waited long."
Atop the sky, a figure wreathed in majestic sword energy turned—revealing Xu Jinghong’s own face!
Yet Xu Jinghong showed no surprise. He merely raised his sword and uttered coldly:
"Peerless Sword Immortal, Jinghong Sword—I challenge you!"
This was his inner demon, the greatest obstacle to reclaiming his blade. Without defeating it, he could never regain control of this sword-forged world—nor break free from his aberrant, ominous state!
Meanwhile, back in Hongxiu Tavern...
After taking the last sip of immortal wine, Chen Yi slowly set down his cup, his gaze profound and distant:
"Come on, you big dumb dragon. I've taken the bait—now let's see your hook..."
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
