Heavenly Sword Prince Sharpens His Blade

Bai Qiangu slowly lowered her head. Her long hair veiled half her face, revealing only a sliver of her pale, almost sickly jawline.

She stared at the trace of Dao aura belonging to Ye Xuan on the invitation. Little by little, her eyes reddened.

“I searched for you for so long…”

She spoke in a low voice, yet the corners of her lips slowly curled upward, forming an eerily strange smile.

“On countless nights, I thought of you.”

“I wondered when you would return, when you would stand before me again, when you would be like you were before—pat my head and say, ‘Qiangu, stop fooling around…’”

When she reached this point, she suddenly fell silent.

In the next moment, the smile vanished from her face completely.

In its place was a hideous expression that made it difficult to breathe.

“And yet now, you’re actually going to marry someone else?”

Boom!

The ground beneath the White Bone Throne exploded, splitting into countless cracks.

The invitation in her palm creaked under her grip. It was even corroded by demonic energy, wisps of black smoke rising from it.

“Why?”

“Why does it have to be Ye Jiuhuang?”

“Why not me?”

Bai Qiangu abruptly rose to her feet. Her wide sleeves swept across the armrests of the throne, shattering several ancient demonic skulls on either side into dust.

Her already pale and stunning face had taken on a sickly flush from her loss of control.

She breathed rapidly, her eyes wild. She looked like a madwoman whose most precious possession had been forcibly taken from her, as though even her soul were trembling.

“No one is allowed to take him from me.”

“No one.”

“He is my husband. He can only be mine…”

She murmured, her voice growing lower and hoarser, while the obsession within it grew ever more intense.

Just then—

The void behind her suddenly twisted slightly.

A slender, graceful, and breathtakingly beautiful phantom slowly emerged from the darkness.

The moment it appeared, the temperature throughout the White Bone Hall seemed to plummet.

Killing intent.

Pure, absolute killing intent descended upon the hall.

It was the phantom of a woman.

She wore an ancient and luxurious blood-red Dao robe. Her beauty was almost demonic, with long, narrow eyes and a gaze sharp as a blade. Merely standing there, she radiated a terrifying might, as if mountains of corpses and seas of blood lay beneath her feet.

She was none other than—

The Killing Dao Ancestor, who had once dominated an entire era, proven the Dao through slaughter, and massacred the eight directions.

She looked at Bai Qiangu, who seemed on the verge of madness. Her red lips curved faintly, her eyes filled with icy mockery and seductive temptation.

“There’s no need to wallow in self-pity.”

“Since Ye Xuan wants to marry another woman, just kill her and take him back.”

“Besides, this isn’t the first time you’ve done something like this.”

Simple.

Brutal.

Completely unreasonable.

And yet, it was precisely what suited Bai Qiangu’s current state of mind.

Bai Qiangu abruptly turned toward the phantom. The madness in her eyes was ignited completely in an instant.

That was right.

Why suffer?

Why be so distraught?

Why remain here, repeatedly confirming like a lunatic that her husband belonged to her?

Since he was hers, she simply had to take him back.

Anyone who stood in her way would die.

If Ye Jiuhuang stood in her way, then she would kill Ye Jiuhuang.

If the Sword God Palace stood in her way, then she would crush the Sword God Palace beneath her feet.

Everyone in this world who had taken her husband from her deserved to die.

The corners of Bai Qiangu’s mouth slowly spread apart.

Her smile grew wider and more deranged, until she looked like a beauty who had descended into utter madness.

She nodded forcefully, the motion so exaggerated that the bones in her neck gave a faint crack.

“All right.”

Her voice was hoarse and feverishly excited, as if she had finally found the only correct answer.

“I’ll take my husband back.”

“Once I have him back, I’ll lock him in the deepest part of the Infinite Demon Palace. I’ll bind his hands and feet with my white-bone chains and stay with him day and night…”

Her breathing gradually grew heavier, and her gaze became increasingly infatuated, as though she could already see the scene unfolding before her.

“No one but me will be allowed to see him.”

“No one but me will be allowed to touch him.”

“He can only look at me, hold me, kiss me, and speak to me…”

By the end, she had begun to chuckle softly.

Her laughter was light and gentle, carrying the sweetness of a young girl in love.

Yet every word she spoke sent a chill down the backs of the demons in the hall.

Bai Qiangu was completely sick.

Or perhaps she had never been normal to begin with.

She suddenly raised her hand and pressed the invitation against her cheek, caressing it as tenderly as though she were touching her lover’s hand.

Then she closed her eyes, an intensely twisted satisfaction appearing on her face.

“Husband…”

“Wait for me.”

“I’m coming to take you home.”

At the same time—

The Sacred Land of the Nine Heavens.

This place was worlds apart from the demonic soil of the Infinite Demon Sect.

Cloud seas surged, immortal mountains stretched endlessly, and rays of light filled the heavens.

At the deepest part of the Sacred Land stood Heavenly Maiden Peak, where the snow never melted throughout the year. Beside the cliff grew an ancient pine that had lived for tens of thousands of years. The mountain wind gently swayed its branches, producing a soft, rustling sound.

A woman stood at the edge of the cliff.

Bai Ningbing.

She wore a plain white dress. Her slender back looked cold and solitary, while her ink-black hair fluttered gently in the wind.

She stood there alone, holding the invitation she had already read countless times, her empty gaze fixed on the ceaselessly churning sea of clouds in the distance.

She had been standing there for a long time.

So long that mist had dampened the hem of her dress.

Yet she seemed not to feel it at all.

She simply stood there.

The wind swept past, lifting one corner of the invitation.

The two traces of Dao aura upon it were so glaring that she almost dared not look again.

And yet she could not bear to look away.

That was Ye Xuan’s Dao aura.

The Dao aura she had thought of day and night, the one that had nearly become an obsession.

She had imagined countless times what it would be like if she met him again one day.

She had thought of many possibilities.

She had wondered whether he would still look at her the way he once had.

She had wondered whether she could still summon the courage to say “I’m sorry” to him.

She had even thought that if there were still a way back, perhaps… perhaps she could set aside her pride and try to take one step toward him.

But she had never imagined this.

That the next news she received of him would come in the form of a wedding invitation.

That it would be an invitation to his wedding with Ye Jiuhuang.

“That’s fine…”

Bai Ningbing finally spoke, her voice soft.

She slowly lowered her head and looked at the names on the invitation. Somehow, she managed to pull her lips into a smile.

But the smile was so bitter that it broke the heart.

“Only you are worthy of the Sword Sovereign.”

Her tone was remarkably calm as she said this.

As though she were truly offering him her blessing.

Yet if anyone had been standing before her at that moment, they would have seen that the eyes which had always been as cold as ice were already terribly red.

Deep within them, layer upon layer of tears trembled on the verge of spilling over.

It was not that she felt no pain.

She was in so much pain that, in the end, she could no longer even cry.

Bai Ningbing slowly closed her eyes.

Yet scene after scene rose uncontrollably in her mind.

It was Ye Xuan’s face.

The more she tried to forget him, the clearer he became.

The more she tried to let go, the more impossible it was.

“I’m not worthy…”

She repeated the words once more.

Yes, she was not worthy.

What kind of person was Ye Jiuhuang?

The Number One Sword Under Heaven, the True Immortal Sovereign, the Master of the Sword God Palace—peerless in beauty, transcendent in strength, pure and exalted, renowned throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

A woman like that was worthy of standing beside Ye Xuan.

But what about Bai Ningbing?

What had she ever done for Ye Xuan? Nothing but betray him, leaving behind only a bloodstained past.

By all rights, she should have offered him her blessings.

And she truly had wanted to.

But why…

Why did her heart hurt so much?

Why did merely imagining Ye Xuan taking Ye Jiuhuang’s hand on their wedding day, imagining the tenderness in his eyes as he looked at her, imagining him lowering his head to kiss that woman…

Why did it feel as though an invisible hand had reached into her chest and torn her heart out alive?

The wind grew stronger.

Bai Ningbing stood at the edge of the cliff, the color slowly draining from her lips.

Her grip on the invitation tightened and tightened.

The corners of the invitation had even been crumpled slightly beneath her fingers before she realized it.

“I’m not worthy.”

“I know.”

“I know it all…”

She murmured in a low voice, and at last, her tears fell soundlessly.

One drop.

Then another.

There were no sobs, no cries.

Only tears quietly sliding down her pale cheeks before dripping onto the cold stones at her feet.

She looked even more pitiful than someone weeping hysterically.

Because even her breakdown was so restrained.

She was like someone who had finally realized that she had lost everything, yet did not even have the right to go mad. All she could do was stand alone at the edge of the cliff and force herself to accept this ending.

It was only a wedding invitation.

Yet it had already begun to shatter the reason of so many women, bit by bit.

Some were going mad.

Some were turning to darkness.

Some were forcing themselves to smile and pretend to give their blessing, while secretly crying until their hearts were nearly broken.

Ye Jiuhuang knew some of this, guessed some of it, and simply did not care about the rest.

In fact, she was glad to see it happen. Because she understood perfectly.

Once the invitations were sent out, this wedding would no longer be merely a wedding.

It would be a public execution aimed at all those who coveted Ye Xuan, all the old causes and consequences, and all those who refused to accept their fate.

It did not matter who went mad.

All she needed to do was stand beside Ye Xuan that day, don the phoenix crown of his rightful wife, take his hand, and, beneath the gaze of countless people across the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, complete the wedding rites with him.

At that moment, everyone’s delusions would be severed completely.

At the thought, Ye Jiuhuang slowly set down her teacup in the reception hall and lifted her eyes toward the distant horizon. The corners of her lips curved into a faint yet breathtaking smile.

There was tenderness in that smile, but also a sharp edge.

There was anticipation, as well as the absolute confidence unique to the Sword Sovereign.

Come.

She spoke softly in her heart.

Come, all of you.

This is the perfect chance to see… who among you dares try to steal my husband.