No More Ye Jiuzhou in the World

Ye Xuan looked at the stunningly beautiful woman before him, whose eyes were filled with deep affection.

"So that's how it is..."

Ye Xuan murmured to himself, his voice so low it was almost swallowed by the wind and snow:

"So you've suffered so much... So you really are..."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his chest heaving violently for a moment.

When Ye Xuan opened his eyes again, that fleeting trace of tenderness was ruthlessly snuffed out, as if he had personally extinguished the last remaining lamp.

"Draw your sword."

Ye Xuan spat out these words coldly.

The smile on Ye Jiuhuang's face froze. "What did you say?"

"I said, draw your sword."

"Clang!"

The longsword in Ye Xuan's hand left its sheath, its edge tearing through the air with a sharp, whistling shriek.

The tip of the sword pointed directly at Ye Jiuhuang's throat, hovering steadily right over her pulsing vein. Even when facing the true appearance of his beloved, his hand did not tremble in the slightest.

"Ye Xuan! Are you crazy?"

Ye Jiuhuang looked at him in disbelief, taking a half step back:

"I am a woman now! We can rightfully be together! Why do you still want to fight?"

"So what?"

Ye Xuan's eyes were cold and ruthless:

"What does it matter to me whether you are a man or a woman?"

"All I know is that you killed Gu Luan. You killed my friend. You ruined my life."

"Today, either you die, or I do."

"You..."

Ye Jiuhuang's heart instantly plummeted from heaven to hell.

Why?

I have already humbled myself so much, I have already told you my deepest secret, why do you still only remember hatred?

"Fine... Fine!"

Tears streamed down Ye Jiuhuang's face as she roared:

"Since you are so determined to die, I will grant your wish!"

"Since we cannot be husband and wife, then we shall be mortal enemies!"

The great battle erupted.

Two figures soared into the sky, clashing tens of thousands of feet above the peak of the Heavenly Mountain.

Sword qi crisscrossed, tearing the thick clouds to shreds. The entire Heavenly Mountain trembled violently under this power. Billions of tons of snow poured down from the cliffs, and an avalanche like a white waterfall swallowed everything below the mountainside.

This was a completely unequal battle.

Ye Jiuhuang was at the Peak Mahayana realm and possessed the True Blood of the Heavenly Phoenix; her cultivation was unfathomably deep. Ye Xuan, however, was only at the Peak Tribulation Crossing realm, an entire major realm below her.

But Ye Jiuhuang held back at every turn.

Whenever her sword was about to pierce Ye Xuan's vitals, she would instinctively deflect it by three inches. That three-inch distance was a chasm she could not cross, even using all her willpower.

"Just surrender! Surrender and I'll take you home!" she cried out, her tears shattering into a sky full of light specks amidst the sword qi.

But Ye Xuan did not.

He sneered, seized the opening left by Ye Jiuhuang's hesitation, and with a backhanded strike, viciously thrust his sword into her left shoulder.

Blood splattered, dyeing a patch of the snow red.

"Still holding back at a time like this? Ye Jiuzhou, you really are a coward!"

Ye Xuan's words were like knives, and every move he made was lethal. Every strike of his sword was aimed at mutual destruction.

He was using his own life to trade for her injuries.

The severe pain, coupled with the verbal humiliation, finally became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

The Severing Emotions Sword Intent within Ye Jiuhuang lost control.

That was the demonic art she had cultivated for a thousand years, founded upon severing all emotional ties.

Once her emotions ran too deep, the backlash would cause her to succumb to inner demons.

The deeper the love, the heavier the demonic possession.

"Ahhhhhh!"

Ye Jiuhuang looked up and let out a long howl. Her head of long black hair instantly turned snow-white again, like an ink wash painting covered by heavy snow.

Her pupils turned an eerie blood-red, and black veins crawled across the whites of her eyes. Her rationality was completely swallowed by the desire to slaughter.

"Since you don't love me... then let's die together!"

She no longer held back.

The Profound Heaven Divine Sword in her hand transformed into a streak of light that could sever heaven and earth. Its sword intent was boundlessly majestic, tearing through the void like paper wherever it passed. With a speed that could not be dodged, it thrust straight toward Ye Xuan's heart.

Facing this certain-death strike.

Ye Xuan did not dodge.

Instead, a relieved smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

His smile was so gentle it did not seem like he was going to his death, but rather as if he had finally accomplished a long-planned endeavor.

He willingly opened his arms and welcomed the sword.

"Pfft!"

The sharp blade pierced his heart.

The sword edge entered his chest and thrust out from his back, bringing with it a mist of dark red blood. The fresh blood dyed the white snow of the Heavenly Mountain red, and also stained Ye Jiuhuang's crimson robes.

The wind and snow stopped. A deathly silence fell between heaven and earth.

As the boiling hot blood sprayed onto her face, the blood-red color in Ye Jiuhuang's eyes receded instantly like the tide, and her rationality returned.

She stared blankly at her own hand, the hand that still gripped the sword hilt. Following the blade forward, she saw the edge that had pierced through Ye Xuan's chest, the shocking wound, and the gushing fresh blood she least wanted to see.

"No... No!"

Ye Jiuhuang let out a miserable, shrill scream and frantically threw the sword away.

She desperately pressed down on Ye Xuan's wound, pouring her spiritual energy into his body as if it cost nothing, yet her hands could not stop trembling:

"Ye Xuan! Don't scare me! I won't kill you anymore... I'll take you home... I have medicine! I have divine pills!"

Ye Xuan grabbed her trembling hand.

His face was as pale as paper, his life draining from his body at a visible rate. But those eyes had regained the clarity and gentleness from when they first met.

There was no more hatred.

"Don't waste your effort..."

Ye Xuan coughed up a clot of blood, his voice weak:

"Under the Severing Emotions Sword... soul and spirit are extinguished... I cannot be saved."

"Why..."

Ye Jiuhuang wept bitterly, her tears mixing with his blood and dripping down her chin like a helpless child:

"Why didn't you dodge? Why did you force me? We... we clearly could have..."

"If I didn't force you... how could you achieve great mastery in the Sword Dao?"

Ye Xuan struggled to raise his hand, his icy fingertips gently stroking Ye Jiuhuang's breathtakingly beautiful, tear-stained face.

His eyes were full of longing, as if trying to carve her image into his soul to take with him:

"Silly girl... Actually, I knew everything."

Ye Jiuhuang's entire body jolted. "What did you know?"

Ye Xuan gave a tragic smile, the blood at the corners of his mouth making the smile look exceptionally desolate:

"I knew you were Jiuhuang... I knew you loved me..."

"But I also knew... behind you, there has always been a pair of eyes watching you."

"What?" Ye Jiuhuang was terrified beyond belief.

"It is your father, Ye Qingtian."

Ye Xuan's voice grew lower and lower, every word seeming to be squeezed from his throat with his last bit of strength, yet they exploded like thunder in Ye Jiuhuang's ears:

"He came to find me many times. He told me that you are his pawn, and that he wants to refine you into the Supreme Emotionless Pill to help him ascend to immortality."

"To forge this pill, you must cultivate the Severing Emotions Sword, you must personally sever all emotional ties, and finally... personally kill the person you love the most to prove your Dao."

"I refused to cooperate with him... so he threatened to kill you and destroy your Dao foundation."

A teardrop slipped from the corner of Ye Xuan's eye, drawing a transparent trail down his pale face:

"So I could only put on an act. I could only make you hate me, make you feel that I didn't love you..."

"I secretly practiced the Sentimental Sword Manual, hiding all my love and all my cultivation within this flesh and blood."

"Now... you have killed me, and your Heartless Sword Intent has achieved great perfection."

"But I also die in your arms. My blood, my Sentimental Sword Intent, will merge into your body, neutralizing your heartlessness..."

"This way... you won't become an emotionless monster... you will be able to break free from his control..."

"No... it's not like this... No!"

Ye Jiuhuang felt as if the sky had collapsed.

It turned out that for these two thousand years, all the hatred, all the torment, all the harm she thought was cold-blooded and ruthless, was borne by him alone.

He played the villain for two thousand years, enduring two thousand years of misunderstanding, just for this moment, to use his death to buy her life.

It turned out he loved her more than anyone else.

"Don't cry..."

Ye Xuan's vision began to blur, those clear eyes losing their focus.

He used the last trace of his strength to slightly prop up his body, leaning close to Ye Jiuhuang's ear, his breath as weak as a dying wind:

"Jiuhuang... you are so beautiful."

"If there is a next life... let me... be the one to marry you..."

Ye Xuan's palm fell weakly, sliding down from her cheek, leaving a shallow trail of blood.

This man named Ye Xuan stopped breathing in her arms, a trace of a gentle curve still lingering at the corner of his mouth.

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

Holding the gradually cooling corpse, Ye Jiuhuang let out a wail that shattered the firmament atop the summit of the Heavenly Mountain.

"Clap, clap, clap."

A sudden burst of applause sounded in the wind and snow. Unhurried and composed in rhythm, it was like polite applause after enjoying a good play.

"Brilliant, truly brilliant."

An ancient and sinister voice came from the void.

The sky split open, and an old man wearing a purple-gold robe stepped out from the air.

His hair and beard were completely white, possessing a transcendent and immortal demeanor. Faint purple-gold light lingered around him, making him look like an immortal from a painting at first glance. But in those murky yet piercing eyes, there was a sickening greed and evil.

It was the patriarch of the Sword God Palace, Ye Jiuhuang's biological father—Ye Qingtian.

"My good daughter, well done."

Ye Qingtian looked at Ye Jiuhuang as if looking at a peerless precious medicine that had finally matured, his gaze full of the urgency to harvest:

"You finally killed him. Now that your Heartless Sword Intent has achieved great perfection, it is the best time to harvest."

"Although that brat was stupid, he was somewhat useful. If he hadn't been so cooperative and willingly died under your sword, this step of killing one's husband to prove the Dao would have been truly hard to take."

Ye Jiuhuang stopped crying.

She slowly raised her head. Those eyes that were originally filled with absolute grief had now become hollow and terrifying, brewing a storm capable of swallowing everything.

She gently laid down Ye Xuan's body, straightened his white hair, and closed his robes.

Then, she tightly gripped the Profound Heaven Divine Sword that had fallen on the snow and slowly stood up.

"It was you..."

"You forced him to die?"

Ye Qingtian stood with his hands behind his back, looking as if it were a matter of course:

"Good daughter, don't look at your father like that. Father did this for your own good."

"You possess the Heavenly Phoenix Sword Bone. Only when the Supreme Forgetfulness reaches great perfection can you transform from a mortal body into an immortal fetus."

"Now, your sword intent is complete, just right to be your father's immortal medicine. As long as I swallow your origin, father will be able to break the shackles of this world and ascend to immortality!"

Ye Jiuhuang didn't say another word.

Responding to him was a blood-colored sword light capable of severing the firmament. Mixed within the sword light were her tears, her blood, and two thousand years of hatred.

"I am your daughter! Even a vicious tiger does not eat its cubs! Why are you doing this to me?"

Ye Qingtian casually blocked the sword light, his clothes not moving an inch, his eyes as cold as iron.

He said something that made Ye Jiuhuang's heart completely die:

"The Great Dao is ruthless."

"There are no fathers and daughters on the path to immortality."

"How do you think your mother died? She was killed by my own hands."

"It's just a pity that even after killing her, my sword intent still failed to reach perfection."

"I will kill you!"

Ye Jiuhuang went completely mad. She burned her life, burned her soul, her aura surging to the absolute limit, erupting into an earth-shattering battle with this so-called father.

However, the gap was too vast.

Ye Qingtian was an old monster at the peak of the Mahayana realm, having cultivated for ten thousand years with unfathomable foundations.

A terrifying pressure instantly erupted, and a massive hand that covered the sky condensed from the void, grabbing toward Ye Jiuhuang.

Ye Jiuhuang let out a shrill question, drawing her sword to meet the attack, her Heartless Sword Intent erupting to the extreme.

But Ye Qingtian was already prepared.

He had long planted a restriction within Ye Jiuhuang's body.

From the moment she was born, shackles had been buried in her meridians. Now, activating the restriction, ninety percent of Ye Jiuhuang's cultivation was instantly suppressed, her aura plummeting off a cliff.

Originally she could still fight against Ye Qingtian, but now she couldn't withstand a single blow.

"Pfft!"

Ye Jiuhuang was sent flying by a palm strike, spurting blood wildly, tumbling for dozens of feet in the snow before finally coming to a stop.

Her internal organs were trembling violently, and blood foam mixed with fragments constantly welled up from her mouth.

She despaired.

Ye Xuan was dead.

Was she also going to die at the hands of this beastly father?

"Ye Xuan... I'm sorry... I can't even avenge you..."

Just at the moment she was about to give up resisting and close her eyes to await death.

A warm, pure, yet vast as the sea power suddenly surged from deep within her body.

This power was like a spring breeze melting snow, dispelling all the chill and restrictions in her meridians, and like the dawn breaking, illuminating the darkest corners of her soul.

This was the Power of Flawlessness.

It was Ye Xuan.

Before he died, he sealed all the origin of the Flawless Dao Body he had cultivated in his life, as well as his Sentimental Sword Intent, inside Ye Jiuhuang's body. Using himself as a sacrifice and true feeling as a guide, it completely awakened when she was in her deepest despair.

"This is..."

Ye Qingtian turned pale with fright. He felt that the restriction suppressing Ye Jiuhuang was being forcibly broken by this power.

"How is this possible? How could that trash's power break my restriction?"

Ye Jiuhuang opened her eyes.

Her left eye was an icy blue representing heartlessness, and her right eye was a crimson red representing sentiment. The two diametrically opposed powers no longer tore at each other within her body, but merged together like yin and yang fish.

Heartlessness and sentiment are not opposites.

True heartlessness is the transcendence after loving to the extreme.

True sentiment is the lack of regret after seeing through everything.

An aura that surpassed the Mahayana stage and approached the True Immortal realm explosively erupted from her body!

Ye Jiuhuang tightened her grip on the sword in her hand.

This time, the sword was no longer cold. Ye Xuan's body temperature flowed on the blade, radiating a faint warm light.

"Old thief!"

Ye Jiuhuang shouted furiously, her figure instantly disappearing.

When she reappeared, she was already in front of Ye Qingtian.

One sword strike.

Just one sword strike.

Ye Qingtian's Dharma Body, known as indestructible, was directly cleaved in two!

Purple-gold blood sprayed on the white snow, a shocking sight.

"No! I am your father! You cannot kill me!"

Only his Nascent Soul remained, and Ye Qingtian screamed in terror, that old little face full of disbelief and fear, madly fleeing toward the horizon:

"Killing one's father is a great treason! You will suffer heavenly retribution!"

Ye Jiuhuang reached out her hand.

She grabbed hold of that small, struggling Nascent Soul.

She looked at this so-called father, her eyes devoid of any ripples. It was not hatred, nor was it anger, but something far more terrifying than killing intent.

"On the path to immortality, there are no fathers and daughters."

"Those were your words."

"Ahhhhh!!"

Accompanied by a miserable shriek, Ye Jiuhuang did not directly crush him.

Instead, she summoned a cluster of eerie blue Nine Netherworld Flames, enveloping Ye Qingtian's Nascent Soul within.

The flames did not burn the flesh, only the soul.

"Death is too easy for you."

"I will place your soul in the Netherworld Flames to roast for a hundred years, making you suffer the agony of ten thousand ants devouring your soul day and night!"

"This is... what you owe Ye Xuan."

On that day, the Heavenly Mountain collapsed, and the Sword God Palace changed masters.

The generation's ruthless overlord, Ye Qingtian, fell.

The news spread across the lands, shaking the world.

But Ye Jiuhuang felt not a shred of joy.

Holding Ye Xuan's already cold corpse, she sat back down at the peak of the Heavenly Mountain. Wind and snow covered her shoulders and the tips of her hair, yet she remained motionless. She sat there for three whole days and nights.

No one dared to approach.

Because the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a hundred miles was weeping for her.

On the morning of the fourth day.

A ray of golden sunlight pierced through the heavy clouds and landed on Ye Jiuhuang's face.

She lowered her head, looking at the face in her arms that was as peaceful as if he were sleeping. With her finger, she gently brushed away a snowflake from his eyelashes.

Then, she stood up.

She sealed Ye Xuan's corpse in ten-thousand-year profound ice, sinking it deep into the freezing pool of the Oblivion Cave. That freezing pool remained unthawed year-round, its water temperature so low that no living thing could survive, ensuring his physical body would not rot for ten thousand years.

"Ye Xuan, wait for me."

"Since I have become an immortal, reincarnation must exist in this world."

"Even if I have to search the highest heavens and the deepest underworld, I will bring you back."

She turned around, her red dress snapping fiercely in the wind.

Behind her was ice that would not melt for an eternity, and before her was the boundless firmament.

She took her first step, and golden lotuses bloomed beneath her feet, carrying her straight above the sea of clouds in the Nine Heavens.

From then on, there was no longer a Ye Jiuzhou in the world.

There was only the Sword Sovereign, Ye Jiuhuang.