Ye Jiuzhou Comes to Crash the Wedding

Southern Frontier, Cloud Smoke Pavilion.

South of the colorful clouds, a land where spiritual veins converge.

Built atop the ten-thousand-foot-tall Bixiao Peak, the Cloud Smoke Pavilion was shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, with immortal cranes soaring about, like a paradise on earth. This pavilion possessed a heritage of over thirteen hundred years. Its successive pavilion masters were all leading figures in the alchemy world, and their disciples were spread all over the world, bringing them great fame.

And today, the Cloud Smoke Pavilion pushed this immortal atmosphere to its absolute peak.

Gongs and drums deafened the sky, and immortal music played in unison. From the foot of the mountain to the peak, a red silk ribbon winding for dozens of miles was like a burning fire dragon, wrapping the entire Bixiao Peak in a sea of passionate celebration.

Ten miles of red dowry, vast and mighty.

Hundreds of disciples dressed in uniform wedding attire lined both sides of the road, holding gold-threaded red lanterns. They stretched from the mountain gate all the way to the front of the grand hall, resembling two flowing rivers of golden red.

The lanterns were painted with auspicious patterns of mandarin ducks playing in the water and dragons and phoenixes bringing prosperity. They spun gently in the breeze, radiating brilliant colors.

Inside the grand hall, it was even more magnificent and breathtakingly beautiful.

The hall was filled with carved mahogany banquet tables, piled high with rare delicacies and exquisite food: Nine-Turn Lingzhi Wine, Thousand-Year Snow Lotus Soup, Phoenix Marrow and Dragon Liver Feast...

Every single dish was an immortal treasure that mortals could never taste in their entire lives.

And the guests seated at these banquets had even more astonishing backgrounds.

The patriarchs of the seven great families of the Southern Frontier were all present. The Penglai Pavilion of the Eastern Sea sent two Grand Supreme Elders at the Mahayana realm to personally offer congratulations. Even the Heavenly Sound Temple of the Western Regions, which was always isolated from the world, sent a scroll of handwritten Buddhist verses as a congratulatory gift.

The hall full of guests toasted each other with smiling faces. Voices of congratulation rose and fell, elevating the entire Cloud Smoke Pavilion into a prosperous atmosphere like blooming flowers and roaring fires.

In the very center of this highly anticipated wedding hall.

Ye Xuan, dressed in a gold-threaded wedding suit, stood on the highest red carpet like the moon surrounded by stars.

He was extremely handsome.

With sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, a straight nose, and a chiseled face, his heroic spirit was overwhelming.

His figure was tall and straight, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. The custom-made gold-threaded brocade wedding suit accentuated his already outstanding posture, making him look even more elegant and striking.

That face, which usually carried a bit of arrogance and unruliness, was rarely softened at this moment.

Between his brows was full of high-spirited vigor. The slight upward curve of the corners of his mouth overflowed with an undisguised, blissful smile he had never experienced in his life.

Beside him, Liu Ruyan wore a phoenix coronet and robes of rank. Her golden step-shake hairpins trembled slightly, and the draped red veil obscured most of her face. But just the exposed delicate, petite chin and her snow-white, slender neck were enough to capture the imagination.

A gentle breeze brushed past, slightly lifting a corner of the red veil, faintly revealing a flawlessly exquisite face. Willow-leaf eyebrows, phoenix eyes, and a cherry-like small mouth, as delicate and dripping with beauty as a budding peach blossom on a branch in March, so beautiful that one could not look away.

The two stood side by side. The man was extraordinarily handsome, and the woman was devastatingly beautiful. They were truly a match made in heaven, drawing the endless envy of the guests filling the hall.

What a pair of immortal lovers!

Ye Xuan has already reached the Body Integration realm at such a young age; his future is limitless. And Miss Liu Ruyan is the only daughter of the Cloud Smoke Pavilion. With her world-shaking beauty and Pure Yin Physique, her talent is one in ten thousand. The union of these two is truly a perfect match!

I heard Ye Xuan started as an itinerant cultivator but became close friends with Ye Jiuzhou, the Palace Master of the Sword God Palace. However, that Palace Master went into seclusion three hundred years ago and hasn't been heard from since...

Don't mention that person. Today is a day of great joy, don't spoil the mood!

The guests' whispers rose and fell amidst the immortal music, but Ye Xuan turned a deaf ear to them. His entire attention was focused on the person beside him covered in the red veil.

At this moment, he felt he was the luckiest person in the world.

The auspicious hour has arrived!

First bow to Heaven and Earth!

The master of ceremonies' loud and festive voice, accompanied by the music of the nine heavens, resounded through the clouds, piercing through the layers of auspicious clouds above Bixiao Peak.

Ye Xuan gazed at Ruyan beside him, his eyes full of tenderness.

Boom!

Just then, the sky collapsed.

Without any warning, without any sign.

The previously cloudless, crystal-clear blue sky was, in an instant that caught everyone off guard, violently torn apart from the very center by an unreasonable, tyrannical force!

And from within the rift.

A massive gray hand made of spiritual energy that blotted out the sky and the sun, carrying a terrifying pressure capable of destroying the heavens and the earth, violently slammed down from the highest heavens!

This hand was unimaginably large.

The grand array! Quickly activate the sect-protecting grand array!

Liu Tiancheng, the Pavilion Master of the Cloud Smoke Pavilion, had a drastic change in expression and sprang up from the main seat.

When this veteran expert at the early stage of the Tribulation Transcendence realm felt the terrifying power contained within the giant hand, his pupils shrank violently, and the color drained completely from his face.

A massive light barrier flowing with seven-colored radiance rose simultaneously from all directions around Bixiao Peak, enveloping the entire Cloud Smoke Pavilion within it.

This was the ultimate trump card that the Cloud Smoke Pavilion had never used in the thirteen hundred years since its founding, the Seven-Colored Glazed Sect-Protecting Grand Array! It was said that when this array was fully activated, even experts at the Mahayana realm could not easily break through it.

However, that giant gray hand did not even slow down.

It just slammed straight into the Seven-Colored Glazed Grand Array in an extremely tyrannical and domineering posture that crushed everything.

Crack!

Just a single strike.

This Seven-Colored Glazed Sect-Protecting Grand Array, regarded by everyone in the Cloud Smoke Pavilion as their final barrier, was as fragile as paper before that giant gray hand. Countless spiderweb-like cracks burst forth from its very center.

Immediately after, the entire grand array shattered and collapsed! Countless seven-colored fragments poured down like a torrential rain, and the blinding light illuminated the terrified faces of everyone present.

An extremely domineering, suffocating aura of destruction instantly descended!

Before this peerlessly terrifying pressure, all the guests present, without a single exception, went weak in the knees and fell to the ground in unison!

Some turned pale with fright, their bodies trembling like leaves; some went deathly pale, unable to mobilize even a fraction of their spiritual energy; some simply could not withstand this pressure, bleeding from their seven orifices and fainting on the spot.

Who is it?

Ye Xuan's expression changed drastically, his pupils shrinking violently.

His reaction was faster than anyone else present. The moment the sect-protecting grand array shattered, he instinctively summoned his natal flying sword, Green Rainbow.

The three-foot green blade was unsheathed, and a faint green sword aura flowed over the blade, emitting an endless humming sound.

Ye Xuan gripped the hilt tightly with both hands, fiercely protecting Liu Ruyan behind him, and assumed a posture of all-out defense.

However, the disparity in strength was simply too great.

Even if it was just the residual aftermath after the giant hand dissipated, it was absolutely not something Ye Xuan, who had just stepped into the Body Integration realm and whose foundation was not yet stable, could contend with.

A wave of aftermath seemed invisible, yet it was like an invisible iron wall, violently crashing into Ye Xuan's sword aura defense.

Green Rainbow let out an extremely mournful cry. The green sword aura on the blade flickered wildly like a candle in the wind before shattering with a loud bang!

Immediately after...

Pfft!

Ye Xuan was struck as if by a thunderbolt of ten thousand tons.

An irresistible, massive force smashed solidly into his chest and abdomen through the shattered sword aura.

He felt the internal organs within his chest violently churn and dislocate in that single instant. A mouthful of boiling blood burst past his throat and spewed out.

Along with his sword, he was sent flying by the shockwave.

His body tumbled through the air several times, like a withered leaf swept up by a gale, completely defenseless.

His luxurious gold-threaded wedding robe was torn open in several places by the astral winds during his violent tumbling, revealing the protective spiritual armor beneath that had already been fractured by the impact.

He crashed heavily at the end of the red carpet.

His internal organs had shifted. At least three of his ribs were broken.

Dozens of his meridians had ruptured. If not for the tyrannical physical body of his Body Integration Realm taking the brunt of this strike, he would likely have been completely obliterated in body and soul by now.

However, Ye Xuan felt no pain at all.

His first reaction was not to check his own injuries, but to...

"Ruyan! Ruyan!!"

He struggled to lift his head, his bloodshot eyes frantically searching for that figure adorned in a phoenix coronet and bridal cape.

Then, he saw her.

The sky full of smoke and dust gradually dispersed like an ebbing tide, revealing a gray-robed figure floating in mid-air like the Grim Reaper.

He floated there quietly above Bixiao Peak, a hundred zhang above the ground. Behind him was the torn firmament, and beneath his feet lay a desolate expanse of ruins. His gray robes billowed and fluttered in the astral wind, snapping loudly.

His half-white, half-black hair danced wildly in the wind. His face was as cold and stern as ten-thousand-year profound ice, showing not a single trace of emotion.

Those gray eyes looked down from above, overlooking the myriad living beings below who were as insignificant as ants. Wherever his gaze fell, all things fell silent, and heaven and earth lost their color.

And within his strong, muscular arm...

A slender, trembling figure, pale with fright, was firmly imprisoned.

The red bridal veil had fallen off during the sudden upheaval just now, revealing Liu Ruyan's peerlessly beautiful face, which was now filled with sheer terror.

Her phoenix coronet was askew, one of its golden hairpins was snapped, and her bridal cape was covered in dust. She struggled and screamed frantically, but in that iron-like grip, all her struggles seemed laughable and futile.

"Big... Big brother?"

Ye Xuan tightly clutched the wound on his chest that continuously poured out fresh blood, and with great difficulty, inch by inch, he lifted his head that felt as heavy as a thousand catties.

The moment he clearly saw the gray-robed figure's face.

His pupils violently contracted.

And then suddenly dilated.

That person.

That face.

Those eyes that he had once been so incredibly familiar with, relied upon so much, and revered so deeply.

How could he possibly not recognize them?

That was his older brother.

That was Ye Jiuzhou, the man Ye Xuan respected and appreciated most in this life, treating him like his own flesh-and-blood brother.

"How could it be you?" Ye Xuan's voice trembled, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth along with his words of disbelief. "Big brother... why would you do this?"

Ye Jiuzhou looked down condescendingly at the wretched Ye Xuan on the ground, who looked like an ant.

His gaze slowly swept over the gold-threaded wedding robe on Ye Xuan's body, pausing for a moment on the piercing red color.

Then, his mouth slowly stretched into a curve, bit by bit.

It was not a smile.

It was a cruel, twisted crack devoid of any warmth.

"Ye Xuan."

He spoke. His voice was hoarse and low:

"I have come to congratulate you on your joyous wedding."

As he spoke, he reached out his icy fingers and, in an extremely frivolous manner, tilted up Liu Ruyan's delicate chin.

His deep eyes were brimming with mockery and ridicule, and the cruel curve at the corner of his mouth widened a fraction:

"However... I carefully sensed it just now, and this bride's physique is actually quite special."

"She possesses a Pure Yin Physique."

"She is a dual cultivation cauldron rarely seen in a thousand years. What a pity, pairing her with a piece of trash like you... is truly a reckless waste of a heavenly treasure."

He paused, a glint of icy light flashing across his eyes:

"I happen to lack a cauldron to break through my bottleneck. So, I will take her off your hands."

"No!"

Ye Xuan roared at the sky, his voice tearing, "Big brother, she is your sister-in-law! How could you..."

"Sister-in-law?"

Ye Jiuzhou repeated the word lightly, as if he had heard the greatest joke in the world.

He looked down at the shivering Liu Ruyan in his arms, then raised his head to glance at the blood-covered Ye Xuan on the ground, before letting out a very light, very faint cold sneer.

"I already said, you are not worthy!"

After saying that, he didn't give Ye Xuan any room to catch his breath or ask further questions.

He fiercely swept his large sleeve!

A gray sword light, like an untamed gray dragon, roared out from his sleeve. It swept up the still-terrified Liu Ruyan and instantly tore through the sky, leaving a gray trail stretching for a thousand miles across the azure canopy.

In the blink of an eye, this gray light vanished at the edge of the horizon, not even leaving behind a final trace of an afterglow.

The entire Yunyan Pavilion fell into a deathly silence.

"No! Ye Jiuzhou! Stop right there!"

A heart-wrenching wail exploded from the ruined wedding hall.

"Give Ruyan back to me!"

Ye Xuan's eye sockets practically tore open, his eyes so red they looked as if they would drip blood.

Ignoring the tearing agony brought by his shifted internal organs and the difficulty breathing caused by his broken ribs, he staggered to summon the crack-covered Azure Rainbow Sword and chased after the direction where the gray light had vanished like a mad demon.

His figure swayed and tottered, like a dying lamp that could go out at any moment.

Not a single trace of a living person's color could be seen on his face. Yet, his eyes were incomparably blazing.

However, Ye Jiuzhou had already disappeared.

The horizon was as vast and empty as if it had been washed clean, as though the earth-shattering scene just now was nothing but a fleeting dream.

There was only a single voice, cold and distant:

"Ye Xuan, if you want to get your wife back, come to the Sword God Palace."