The Arena of Conflict Is Coming

The night was thick, like undissolvable dark ink.

The Emperor Boat hovered quietly above a dark and deep valley to rest. The hull emitted a faint spiritual light that dispelled the surrounding night mist.

Inside the luxurious cabin, a warm fragrance floated in the air.

Ye Xuan was lying comfortably on Ying'er's soft lap, letting the little girl massage his temples with her slender fingers, enjoying this stolen moment of brief peace.

Suddenly.

A deafening roar tore through the dead silence of the night sky!

The defensive array on the top level of the Emperor Boat, claimed to be able to withstand a strike from a Body Integration realm mighty figure, erupted with blinding fire in an instant, savagely torn apart like fragile paper.

The massive boat shook violently, and the precious ornaments in the cabin shattered into pieces instantly.

"What's going on?"

Ye Xuan turned pale with fright, his heart skipping a beat. He sat up abruptly from Ying'er's lap, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks out of instinctive fear.

Before he could circulate his spiritual energy to react, the surrounding space twisted like water waves. Two terrifying figures carrying a suffocating sense of oppression ignored the laws of space and teleported directly into his room.

The door exploded under the violent air currents, and fine wood chips flew everywhere like hidden weapons.

Wu Lingxiao and Zi Yao stood on the left and right, like two door gods in charge of slaughter, firmly blocking all routes of retreat.

The usually lofty Empress of Great Xia and the Sovereign of the Demon Sect now had slightly messy hair. Their luxurious robes bore glaring, still-wet dark red bloodstains.

Those were the marks of being desperately stabbed by Ye Jiuhuang. However, this bloody smell did not make them look wretched; instead, it pushed their world-destroying murderous aura to its peak.

"It's you two?"

Looking at the two aggressive women before him, whose killing intent was almost tangible, Ye Xuan's heart clenched tightly.

But in the next second, his formidable psychological resilience kicked in. His face immediately piled on Oscar-worthy surprise and concern, his facial muscles perfectly cooperating with his performance:

"You... what happened to you? Are you hurt? Who did this?"

"Quick! Ying'er, bring the medicine!"

He stood up without hesitation, trying to step forward to check their injuries, his eyes full of anxiety and heartache.

However.

"Slap!"

A crisp and loud slap echoed in the cabin. Wu Lingxiao waved her hand expressionlessly, mercilessly swatting away Ye Xuan's outstretched hand.

Her strike was so forceful that it left a red mark on the back of Ye Xuan's hand.

Wu Lingxiao's eyes were as cold as ten-thousand-year profound ice. She slightly raised her chin, looking down condescendingly at this man she had once deeply loved, her gaze revealing a chilling clarity:

"Stop acting, Ye Xuan."

"We know everything."

Ye Xuan's heart skipped a beat, but he clenched his back teeth tightly, maintaining a look of innocence and even slight astonishment on his face: "You know... know what?"

Hearing this, Zi Yao let out a spine-chilling sneer.

She approached step by step, her high heels clicking on the floor like the grim reaper's countdown.

A cluster of deep purple demonic fire danced wildly at her fingertips, illuminating her originally devastatingly beautiful and bewitching face, making it look sickly and twisted:

"Don't think we don't know what good deeds you did in the secret realm."

"Did you think that by hiding her in the Sword God Palace, we wouldn't be able to find her?"

"Bai Qianqiu."

Zi Yao parted her red lips, enunciating each syllable as if she were chewing on bones as she uttered this name.

Ye Xuan's expression changed drastically. No matter how stable his Dao heart was or how good his psychological resilience was, his pupils uncontrollably contracted violently at this moment, and his breathing paused for half a second.

It was over.

He was completely exposed.

But he knew he absolutely could not admit it. He couldn't admit it even if beaten to death.

"Bai Qianqiu? Who is that?"

Ye Xuan quickly adjusted his breathing, his eyes shifting to a blank, thoughtful look. His eyes even reddened slightly, carrying a bit of the grievance and pain of being wronged for no reason:

"The Holy Maiden of the Sword God Palace? I've only met her once and barely spoken a few words to her! Did you listen to some slander?"

"Heh..."

Seeing Ye Xuan still being stubborn at death's door, Wu Lingxiao let out an extremely sarcastic sneer.

Looking at Ye Xuan's 'I don't know anything' appearance and recalling the injuries she had suffered to verify her suspicions, the jealousy and fury in her heart finally erupted completely like a volcano.

"Are you still pretending?"

"Just now, when we went to investigate, we were stabbed twice by that crazy woman Ye Jiuhuang!"

"If you two had no relationship, would Ye Jiuhuang risk her old life to protect her? Would she not hesitate to offend our two major powers?"

Terrifying bloodshot lines appeared in Wu Lingxiao's eyes. She didn't waste any more words and violently waved her wide imperial robes.

In an instant, spiritual energy went berserk in the void. A giant golden hand condensed from pure imperial dragon aura appeared out of thin air, carrying an overwhelming pressure that could crush everything, and grabbed directly at Ye Xuan's throat:

"Come back to the palace with me! Once you're in the heavenly prison and tortured, I'll see how stubborn your mouth still is!"

On the other side, seeing this, Zi Yao showed no weakness.

She snorted coldly, and the monstrous demonic energy around her instantly transformed into dozens of thick black chains. Hissing like poisonous snakes, they coiled over, trying to snatch Ye Xuan:

"Trying to hog him? No way! He is mine!"

Seeing the giant hand and chains, both carrying a destructive aura, grabbing at him simultaneously, the veins on Ye Xuan's forehead bulged.

He knew that in the face of irrefutable evidence, any smooth talk was pale and powerless.

These two women, whose love had turned to hate and who were burning with jealousy, had completely concluded that he had cheated. Their current consensus was to capture him, torture him severely, and monopolize him!

Since that was the case, he could only use that move.

"Don't come over!"

Ye Xuan suddenly burst into an extremely mournful roar, like a lone wolf weeping blood.

He staggered back a step abruptly, and at some point, a sharp dagger gleaming with a cold light had appeared in his hand.

Without any hesitation, the tip of the blade pierced his outer garment, pressing firmly against his heart.

His expression instantly became desperate and poignantly beautiful, his eyes filled with a deep sense of brokenness, as if he had suffered the greatest insult and injustice in this world.

"Since you don't believe me..."

"Since in your eyes, I am just a scumbag who leaves his affections everywhere..."

"Then what is the point of me living?"

With perfectly timed hot tears in his eyes, Ye Xuan raised his head, looked at the lone moon outside the broken ceiling, and let out a desolate, long cry:

"In my life, although I, Ye Xuan, have acted frivolously, I have always been completely sincere to you, yet now I face such suspicion!"

"Forget it! Forget it!"

"I might as well just die."

Following his explosive shout, an extremely tragic aura of burning his life essence to perish together erupted unreservedly from Ye Xuan, shaking the surrounding air until it wailed.

However.

This time.

The expected exclamations of the women panicking, crying and begging him to stop, and lunging forward to snatch the knife did not happen.

The surroundings were dead silent.

Wu Lingxiao stood there quietly, looking coldly at Ye Xuan's tragic appearance of facing death without flinching.

There was no longer a trace of panic or heartache in her eyes; instead, they were replaced by an apathy that had seen through his lies.

Her cheeks puffed slightly, and deep within her gaze hid a trace of teeth-gnashing hatred from being played for a fool.

"Suicide?"

Wu Lingxiao looked at him coldly, the corners of her mouth slowly curling into a cruel arc:

"Can you really bear to?"

Ye Xuan's wrist, which was about to stab down, suddenly stiffened as if hit by an immobilization spell.

Braving that tragic aura, Wu Lingxiao calmly took a step forward.

She stared dead into Ye Xuan's slightly dodging eyes, ruthlessly and directly piercing through his deepest disguise:

"Before, you dared to commit suicide because you had no attachments, because you felt there was nothing left to long for in this world."

"But it's different now."

"You just slept with a pure and flawless woman, you just gave her a promise, and you just got a silly girl bitterly waiting for you to marry her."

"You have hope and attachments in your heart."

Wu Lingxiao's voice was very soft, yet it was like the whisper of an abyssal demon. Every word was a fatal blow to the heart, constantly echoing and magnifying in Ye Xuan's ears:

"The current you... values your life more than anyone else."

"How could you bear to die? How could you bear to leave her alone as a living widow?"

"You still need to keep this life to reunite with her, don't you?"

Ye Xuan's painstakingly constructed psychological defense completely and utterly collapsed under this single sentence.

He was seen through.

Even the most hidden corners deep within his soul were thoroughly seen through.

The hand holding the dagger trembled violently. The tip of the blade was clearly pressing against his skin, yet it felt as heavy as a thousand pounds. No matter what, he just couldn't stab it down.

Sweat slid down his pale cheeks, dripping onto the floor with a heavy sound.

Because, just as Wu Lingxiao said, he didn't want to die.

He had finally found a girl like Bai Qianqiu in this cultivation world, a girl whose eyes were full of him. Having expectations for the future, how could he willingly die just like this?

"Did I hit the mark?"

Looking at Ye Xuan frozen in place with the dagger, his face as pale as death, the fire of jealousy suppressed in the bottom of Wu Lingxiao's heart instantly raged like oil poured onto flames:

"As expected! You really are doing this for that little slut!"

"Since you refuse to die, then come to me!"

Wu Lingxiao went completely mad. The majesty of the Empress vanished completely as she roared, lunging straight at Ye Xuan like a furious lioness.

"Get lost! He belongs to this Seat!!"

Zi Yao also saw completely red. Jealousy stripped away all her reason. The demonic energy on her body transformed into a monstrous sea of blood, recklessly attacking Wu Lingxiao's back.

Inside the narrow cabin, two Half-Step True Immortals standing at the pinnacle of the continent completely tore off all pretenses and directly came to blows over a man.

The terrifying collision of spiritual power and demonic energy produced destructive energy aftershocks that, in an instant, blew the entire priceless Emperor Boat into fragments dancing in the sky.

"Ah!"

Ye Xuan let out a miserable scream. His chest felt as if struck by lightning, and his entire body was sent flying by the violent shockwave, tumbling uncontrollably through the night sky.

"Master!"

Ying'er, who had been hiding in the corner shivering, screamed. She actually erupted with astonishing potential, recklessly charging forward against the turbulent currents and hugging Ye Xuan's waist tightly.

Amidst the fierce wind, Ye Xuan swallowed a mouthful of coppery blood, a beast-like ruthlessness flashing in his eyes.

Since his trump card had been exposed and he could no longer keep up the act, he only had one word in mind: Run!

He bit the tip of his tongue and, ignoring the backlash in his meridians, madly channeled his remaining spiritual power to throw out his natal magical treasure, the Purple Heaven Palace.

The Purple Heaven Palace rapidly expanded against the wind, instantly growing massive and transforming into an extremely dazzling purple stream of light.

It forcefully broke through the energy turbulence, sweeping up Ye Xuan and Ying'er, and turned into a long rainbow, fleeing madly toward the horizon.

"Trying to run?"

Sensing the spatial fluctuations, Wu Lingxiao and Zi Yao, who were fighting for their lives, stopped simultaneously with extreme tacit understanding. The two of them whipped their heads around, their gazes locked onto that fleeing purple light.

"Stay... right here for me!"

Wu Lingxiao hovered above the ruins, a trace of desperate and crazed resolve flashing in her eyes.

She violently bit the tip of her tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood containing an Emperor's life essence.

Her hands blurred into afterimages, forming an ancient, obscure, and majestic seal in front of her chest.

At this moment, she was no longer a petty woman deeply trapped in the net of love and driven mad by jealousy, but rather the Great Xia Empress who ruled over billions of miles of mountains and rivers, whose every word was law!

"Great Xia National Destiny—Nation-Suppressing Golden Dragon!!"

"Manifest!"

Roar!

A dragon's roar that shook the nine heavens and seemed to come from ancient eons ago resounded through heaven and earth.

In the direction of the distant Great Xia Dynasty, the void shattered inch by inch. A five-clawed golden dragon, ten thousand fathoms long, entirely wreathed in dazzling golden flames, and condensed purely from the faith of Great Xia's national destiny, forcefully crossed endless space and descended with a roar.

Its blazing, sun-like dragon eyes looked down apathetically upon all living beings. Carrying the will of the Great Xia Dynasty's billions of subjects and the domineering might to suppress the universe without allowing any defiance, it opened its massive maw and viciously slammed into the stream of light formed by the Purple Heaven Palace.

This was Wu Lingxiao's ultimate trump card.

Near these territories bordering Great Xia, as long as she utilized the national destiny at all costs, she was an absolute, unrivaled, and invincible existence!

The Purple Heaven Palace, known for possessing the world's extreme speed and being indestructible, was like a fly struck by a giant hammer under the savage impact of the ten-thousand-fathom national destiny golden dragon. It let out a mournful wail and was swatted away directly.

The purple light on the palace's surface instantly dimmed to the extreme, rapidly shrinking in mid-air and reverting to its palm-sized, dilapidated appearance.

"Pfft!"

Hiding inside the palace, Ye Xuan and Ying'er suffered heavy injuries, both violently coughing up a mouthful of blood at the same time.

The two fell from thousands of meters in the sky, plunging powerlessly toward the abyss like kites with broken strings.

"Caught you."

At this critical moment, Wu Lingxiao's figure flashed, incredibly fast under the blessing of the national destiny.

She steadily caught the falling Ye Xuan in mid-air. At the same time, her eyes sharpened, and with a backhand strike, she unleashed an Emperor's palm print wrapped in dragon energy, heavily swatting away Zi Yao—who was lunging forward like a mad dog to snatch him—hundreds of fathoms away.

"Zi Yao! This is the Great Xia border!"

Wu Lingxiao held Ye Xuan by his torn collar with one hand, as if holding a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

With her other hand, she grasped the void, controlling that massive golden dragon of national destiny to coil above her head, its dragon eyes deadlocked on Zi Yao.

Wu Lingxiao looked down from above, coldly watching the Demon Venerable who had wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and chased after them. Her voice rang out like a great bell:

"Under the shroud of my national destiny, you are no match for me."

"Scram back to your Demon Sect! Otherwise, I will mobilize an army of millions today and leave you buried right here!"

Zi Yao was forced to stop in mid-air. The demonic energy around her churned violently, and her face was so gloomy it seemed ready to drip black water.

She gritted her teeth, glaring at the golden dragon radiating terrifying pressure coiled above Wu Lingxiao's head. She knew very well in her heart that Wu Lingxiao was telling the truth.

This place was too close to Great Xia. The Empress's home-field advantage was too great, and fighting head-on would only result in her own loss.

"Good... very good."

Zi Yao's gaze slowly shifted downward, fixing intently on Ye Xuan, who was being held in Wu Lingxiao's hand like a trophy.

The possessiveness in her eyes did not fade in the slightest because of this defeat. Instead, as if dipped in poison, it became even more maddened, paranoid, and twisted:

"Wu Lingxiao, you have won this once."

"But remember this."

"He is mine. Sooner or later, I will personally lead the demon army, trample your imperial palace to the ground, and snatch him back!!"

Having said that, Zi Yao took one last deep, greedy look at the ashen-faced Ye Xuan. Then, she abruptly turned around, transforming into a piercing streak of blood-red light. Carrying monstrous hatred and reluctance, she tore through the night sky and departed.

The wind stopped.

The dark clouds filling the sky gradually scattered.

Holding Ye Xuan, Wu Lingxiao grasped the fainted Ying'er in her other hand like a little chicken. She slowly descended from the sky, stepping onto the devastated earth.

At this moment, Ye Xuan was covered in dirt and grime, his clothes in rags, and blood continuously trickled from the corner of his mouth.

His natal magical treasure, the Zixiao Palace, had been completely ruined, its spiritual energy dissipated. Beside him, Ying'er's face was as pale as paper, her fate unknown.

An escape calculated to the finest detail had only resulted in a complete and utter defeat.

He struggled to raise his head, looking at the Empress before him—crowned by a golden dragon, majestic, domineering, and as inviolable as a deity.

Wu Lingxiao also slowly lowered her head to look at him.

At this moment, her eyes no longer held the tenderness of a woman in love or the hesitant probing of someone afraid of loss. All that remained was a suffocating coldness, absolute authority, and a morbid desire for control.

"Ye Xuan."

Wu Lingxiao slowly reached out her jade-like hand adorned with finger armor. Her movements were surprisingly gentle as she carefully wiped away the dirt and blood staining the corner of his mouth, bit by bit.

However, the tone of her voice, whispering right next to Ye Xuan's ear, was chilling to the bone:

"This time."

"You cannot run away."

Ye Xuan quietly looked into her temperatureless eyes, and all the lucky hopes in the bottom of his heart were utterly crushed in this instant.

He let out a desolate, long sigh in his heart, slowly closed his eyes, and gave up all resistance.

This time... he had truly overplayed his hand.

"Move out! Return to the palace!!"

Following the Empress's majestic and ruthless command, the ten-thousand-foot golden dragon of national destiny let out a long roar.

The golden dragon transformed into a streak of golden light that pierced through heaven and earth. It vanished into the edge of the horizon in an instant, heading straight for the unfathomable Great Xia Imperial Palace—a place that devoured people without spitting out their bones.