Survivor of the Great War

Wu Lingxiao was utterly stunned. In her mind arose an extremely absurd, deeply shocking scene: a group of supreme beings who controlled the birth and death of the Great Dao were actually fighting fiercely over a single man.

"How... how is this possible?" Wu Lingxiao stammered.

"Why wouldn't it be possible?" The Time Dao Ancestor spun around abruptly, her voice shrill like a vengeful ghost. "We are a group of female Dao Ancestors who have cultivated for millions of years, even several epochs. We had already severed all seven emotions and six desires, achieving supreme detachment! To us, worldly love and romance were completely trivial. It was impossible for us to ever fall in love with anyone!"

"But..."

The Time Dao Ancestor's body trembled violently, as if recalling the most terrifying nightmare. "That man appeared. He used all kinds of despicable means, even going so far as to drug and ambush us, forcing himself upon us."

"The moment the Law took effect... our Dao hearts collapsed instantly."

"Can you imagine?" The Time Dao Ancestor pressed forward step by step, closing in on Wu Lingxiao, almost roaring: "Those female Dao Ancestors who usually regarded all living beings as dust and had severed all desires suddenly turned into the craziest, most jealous shrews! To fight for just one glance from that man, to spend one more night by his side, they unhesitatingly summoned their natal divine weapons and began slaughtering each other like mad!"

"The star seas were torn apart, the Great Dao was worn away! Former closest friends ambushed each other, all because the other carried the scent of that man. They even destroyed each other's legacies just to stop others from having him!"

"The entire celestial realm, because of a group of women gone insane, turned into a hell on earth. This... is the Calamity of Fallen Immortals."

Listening to this earth-shattering secret buried in the river of time, Wu Lingxiao's worldview suffered a devastating blow.

She had originally thought that her feelings for Ye Xuan were a unique, world-shaking exception.

Now it seemed—under a pure Law like the Eternal Conquest even the lofty Dao Ancestors were no different from she-dogs in heat.

"What about you, then?" Wu Lingxiao looked at the Time Dao Ancestor before her. "You said just now that only you broke free from the Law..."

The Time Dao Ancestor was silent for a moment. Then, the mist around her completely dissipated, revealing a face of peerless beauty.

A complex glint flashed in the depths of her eyes—fear, humiliation, and even a deeply hidden, spine-chilling lingering sentiment.

"Of course. I was also one of the survivors of that great calamity."

The Time Dao Ancestor took a deep breath, her tone carrying a cruel calmness. "I was one of the strongest Dao Ancestors in the celestial realm at the time. After he forcibly took me and I was afflicted with the Eternal Conquest, I became the most frenzied killing machine at his command."

"To protect him, to make him look only at me, I crushed the Dao fruits of two other Dao Ancestors with my own hands and killed eight female Dao Ancestors who tried to approach him! Who let those damn women dare to compete for my man?"

When she spoke the last sentence, the Time Dao Ancestor's originally chilly tone inadvertently took on a jealous, shrewish edge.

Wu Lingxiao's scalp tingled. The exalted Time Dao Ancestor had actually once, like a madwoman, slain eight figures of the same level for a man!

The Time Dao Ancestor seemed to realize she had lost her composure. She closed her eyes, calmed her emotions, and continued: "Unfortunately, during that chaos, I was grievously wounded by the combined attacks of five female Dao Ancestors and nearly perished, body and soul. Seeing I had lost my usefulness, that man fled with the other women."

"On the verge of death, to save myself, I had no choice but to detonate my Time Origin, forcibly regressing my physical state back to a million years ago."

"This was originally just a desperate measure to survive. But who would have thought? As my body regressed to before I met him, the Eternal Conquest brand attached to my soul unexpectedly disintegrated, having lost its coordinate on the timeline!"

"When I woke up, only then did I realize how absurd and foolish I had been for those tens of thousands of years!"

The Time Dao Ancestor's eyes snapped open, fixing on Wu Lingxiao with a burning flame of revenge. "I have been recuperating in the river of time in this lower realm, vowing to completely eradicate this evil legacy. And now, Ye Xuan is the host of this generation!"

"Wu Lingxiao, this is your only chance. Accept the baptism of the Time Dao Body, wash away the filthy imprint of that Law. Then, we join forces—to completely erase Ye Xuan, this demon who toys with hearts, from all the heavens and myriad realms!"

"Otherwise, once he fully matures and cultivates the Law to its perfect state..."

"The Calamity of Fallen Immortals will repeat in this epoch. And you... will be nothing but the most insignificant among his countless playthings!"

Facing the hand extended by the Time Dao Ancestor, Wu Lingxiao lowered her head.

Her body trembled violently as two completely different wills clashed fiercely within her mind.

On one side was the pride and reason of the Empress of Great Xia.

On the other was the pathological infatuation with Ye Xuan, etched into her soul by the Eternal Conquest.

After a long while.

Wu Lingxiao slowly raised her head. In her bloodshot phoenix eyes, there flashed a chilling madness.

"Dao Ancestor..." Wu Lingxiao's voice was hoarse. "After all you've said... you're just proving that he has many women, aren't you?"

The Time Dao Ancestor frowned. "Don't you understand yet? The point is that he has controlled you!"

"No... the point is, he has other women."

Wu Lingxiao suddenly let out a cackling laugh, shrill as a nightjar. "Since this Law is so powerful... then as long as I don't break it, as long as I gain the Time Dao Body and become stronger than you were back then..."

"Then I can go back in time and kill every single woman by Ye Xuan's side, one by one! That way, he'll be mine alone, won't he?"

Looking at the Empress of Great Xia, now completely corrupted beyond the reach of reason, the Time Dao Ancestor's eyes finally showed a profound helplessness and shock.

This was the Eternal Conquest.

Once conquered, even knowing it was poison, one would drink it willingly, unto death.

Staring at the Empress, now nearly deranged, preferring to cling to this false love rather than wake up, the Time Dao Ancestor's face, shrouded by the river of time, revealed a deep pity and sorrow.

She let out a soft sigh, her voice piercing through the vicissitudes of a thousand epochs.

"It seems you truly understand nothing. You not only fail to grasp the horror of that man, but you also don't realize how pitiful a role you yourself are playing."

The Time Dao Ancestor slowly raised her hand, silver time-sand swirling at her fingertips. "Very well, then. No matter how much I say, I cannot wake someone who pretends to sleep. I will personally take you through this River of Time."

"You will witness the scenes of the past with your own eyes. Once you have seen all of it from beginning to end, you will understand that the Consort Xuan you cling to, this so-called Ye Xuan, was never a man of deep affection. He is a master puppeteer pulling the strings behind everything, a heartless devil!"

Wu Lingxiao bit her bloodless lips stubbornly, shaking her head with a pathological obstinacy shining in her eyes. "I don't believe it… Ye Xuan loves me! It was I who, during my tour of the Jiangnan region, was captivated by his looks and abused my imperial power to forcefully bring him into the palace. It was I who forced him, I who destroyed his dream of the martial world! I am the sinner here—how could he be the puppet master?"

"Whether he is or not, you shall see for yourself," the Time Dao Ancestor interrupted her coldly. "Then come with me to the River of Time. But remember this one thing: you may only observe. You must never attempt to change anything. Otherwise, the backlash of the laws of time will instantly shatter your soul into nothingness."

As his words faded, the Time Dao Ancestor's form dissolved into countless streams of silver light that surged violently into Wu Lingxiao's brow.