Not long after, in the Heavenly Phoenix Domain, the sun and moon still hung in the sky, and the mountains and rivers remained undisturbed.
The great sun returned to the ancient bronze tree, standing side by side with the moon atop its branches.
The two halves of the Heavenly Phoenix Domain pulled at each other, their clear and turbid energies mingling, and now nothing could stop them from merging into one.
Yet...
The towering manifestation of divine might had collapsed.
Though the sun and moon still shared the sky, without that crimson figure, the heavens and earth seemed dimmer.
Amid Ying Bing’s soft sigh,
both the sun and the moon lost their brilliance, as if all things had frozen in place.
.....
"How is Young Hero Li?"
"We can’t see him now. Who knows if he’s safe..."
"The cost of his technique must have been immense..."
"Because of him, that Celestial City didn’t fall. He saved an entire world—who knows what he sacrificed?"
Of course, no one else knew. The price was another world.
The streets and alleys of the imperial capital buzzed with talk of this. Though many refused to believe it, they couldn’t help but wonder if Young Hero Li had perished.
Yet countless people still hoped he was alive.
"Towering between heaven and earth" had always been just a phrase—until today, when someone truly held up the sky.
And that someone was just a young man.
What kind of conviction had driven him?
Though his figure had vanished from the Scroll of Mountains and Rivers, his image remained etched in countless hearts.
The beauties of Hundred Blossoms Pavilion fell into silence, though the pounding of their hearts seemed deafening.
"How did he go step by step from the Mortal City to this point?"
Tu Yan clenched her thighs, murmuring to herself before letting out a soft moan.
"From the very beginning, he went to the Mortal City on purpose."
"Mmm... He probably believed the path should be walked one step at a time. To truly pass the trial of the Three Cities—Heaven, Earth, and Mortal—he had to start from the very bottom, as a mere mortal."
"Young Hero Li may not lack wives, but surely he needs a maidservant or two?"
"He mustn’t come to harm..."
The girls’ attitudes had done a complete about-face, filled with awe. The sight of a mortal standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the sun and moon was too overwhelming—who could remain unmoved?
They say one should never meet someone too extraordinary in their youth. Today, they had.
Since ancient times, heroes have matched with beauties...
"Weren’t you all saying before that our patron was utterly unremarkable?"
Lan Tian puffed her cheeks, chewing as she voiced her confusion.
"But no matter when, in the eyes of our patron’s lady, our patron always seems to shine. How strange..."
"......"
Her clear, innocent question plunged the Hundred Blossoms beauties into silence.
Lan Tian hadn’t meant anything by it.
But why did it sound like she was saying they weren’t worthy?
......
Beneath the imperial canopy.
"How is that boy Li Mo?"
Emperor Jingtai’s voice strained to remain calm, yet his tone betrayed his shock.
"Your Majesty, this old woman truly does not know."
Old Granny Yantian shook her head. "If we don’t use fate-divination and rely only on our judgment, haven’t you already reached your own conclusion?"
"......"
Jingtai lowered his gaze. Yes, he had his answer—he was merely clinging to a faint, desperate hope.
To his eyes,
even if Li Mo were saved, he would likely only barely cling to life.
In this world, nothing comes without a price.
Old Granny Yantian’s clouded eyes flickered briefly before she spoke again:
"Your Majesty, that boy has always been inscrutable. Our judgment may not hold. As the saying goes, ‘those who survive great calamities are destined for greater blessings.’ A person like him won’t die so easily. As long as he lives, he may yet find his own fortune."
"Let us hope so. The Nine Heavens and Ten Lands are now seething with hidden currents, far more complex than the Celestial City. I don’t know how much time I have left."
Emperor Jingtai wiped the blood from his nose and lips.
The old woman’s voice suddenly grew fervent:
"At the very least, there is one thing you will witness today."
"The Heavenly Phoenix Domain has returned to its rightful place. She has answered the call of the mortal world and will ascend once more. The glory of the Age of Gods and Demons will reappear—you, I, and all under heaven shall bear witness!"
Ying Bing was about to break through.
The entire imperial capital knew it.
By now, the great sun had vanished, the shadow of the ancient tree fading into chaos. The true spirits of all things within the Celestial City manifested.
Buds blossomed across the ancient tree, bursting open moments later like stars and jade, breathtaking in their beauty.
The bronze tree transformed, becoming a tree of jade.
If the Moon Palace truly had a jade osmanthus, it might look like this.
Even those at the Seventh Realm—the Realm of Grasping Mysteries—couldn’t suppress their awe, struck speechless, hearts trembling.
If breaking through the Inner Landscape already brought such splendor, what heights would she reach in the future?
Whoosh—
The light of the Scroll of Mountains and Rivers shattered completely, the depiction of the Celestial City vanishing without a trace.
With the Heavenly Phoenix Domain returned to its master, it had slipped free of the Scroll’s control.
The light was gone, and Ying Bing’s form could no longer be seen.
But the light had become a sky full of stars, and at that moment, a bright moon rose to hang above the imperial capital.
....
Bathed in moonlight, all was silent.
Two women stood facing each other, like twin lotus flowers on a single stalk.
"From now on, I will no longer exist in your life," Ying Huang said softly, her gentle smile unlike that of a deity.
"You don’t intend to revive through me?"
Ying Bing frowned.
She remembered her past life, how she had gradually become someone else—a stranger. Yet now, Ying Huang seemed ready to let go without hesitation.
The other was but a remnant of will, yet she couldn’t help but wonder.
Ying Huang smiled faintly.
"Congratulations. You’ve reclaimed the Heavenly Phoenix Domain and passed my trial."
"I know what troubles you."
"Without my power, you cannot save him. But if you let me revive, you cannot stay by his side."
"Because he exists, I believe you won’t become another version of me, retreading the path of my failure."
"And I believe you and he can walk the road I left unfinished."
What unfinished road?
Even the foremost of the Nine Immortals couldn’t complete it?
Ying Bing had no time to ponder, for her thoughts were consumed by another matter.
The Ice Fairy’s jade-like face seemed on the verge of shattering:
"Where is he?"
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
