Just a Bit of Wind and Frost

At the sight of this scene, every single female Dao Ancestor who was still locked in battle froze on the spot.

After a brief, dead silence, a bloodcurdling scream erupted that was so furious it threatened to flip the entire heavens apart.

"You lowly wretch! How dare you harm him?"

"My husband belongs to me!"

"No! He's mine!"

The next instant, countless tattered yet still overwhelmingly powerful female Dao Ancestors charged toward Fang Yuan like rabid beasts, completely unhinged.

Countless hands stretched out toward him—some to save him, others to snatch the last wisp of his breath before this man breathed his last, determined to claim even a scrap of his flesh and blood as their own.

Fang Yuan was swallowed whole by the sea of supremely powerful, utterly mad palms.

But in that final, fleeting moment right before his being was fully engulfed and his life force was snuffed out.

Fang Yuan's fading gaze pierced through the endless River of Time and Space, cut straight through that dark red rift, and locked eyes on the figure standing on the other side of time and space... Ye Xuan.

It was an uncanny, almost impossible gaze that crossed dimensions and defied all karmic fate.

Fang Yuan's eyes brimmed with endless agony, remorse, and a faint warning that stretched across eons.

"BOOM!"

The vision shattered completely at that very moment, and the rift snapped shut instantly.

High above the Sword God Palace, the heavenly thunder tribulation dispersed completely, and warm sunlight fell on Ye Xuan once again.

Yet at this moment, Ye Xuan, who stood suspended in midair, was frozen solid like an ice sculpture, a fine layer of cold sweat prickling all over his body.

His usually unfathomable, ice-cold state of mind, which had never been shaken before, was now roiling with raging waves.

"That person..."

Ye Xuan's breathing turned ragged and fast. He stared intently at the spot where the rift had just vanished, replaying over and over in his mind the apocalyptic scene he had just witnessed, and the man who looked almost exactly like him.

"This man named Fang Yuan... who on earth is he?"

High up in the sky, the tribulation clouds were gone, and the howling gales between heaven and earth gradually died down.

Ye Xuan stood motionless in the void like a statue, the horrifying images of worlds being destroyed and Dao Ancestors falling still flashing wildly through his mind. Those slender hands that could rip apart entire star rivers, those blood-soaked, despairing screams, and that gaze that pierced through eons from the dying man named Fang Yuan—all of it sent an unprecedented, shuddering jolt through his very soul.

But Ye Xuan was Ye Xuan after all. He was a monster so ruthless that he would even treat his own seven emotions and six desires as bargaining chips, all for the sake of the supreme Great Dao.

"Hah..."

Ye Xuan let out a long, slow breath of stale air. The shock and suspicion in his eyes were forcibly suppressed by a will of absolute reason.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, countless sharp glints flashing across the depths of his gaze as his mind raced at full speed, picking apart every detail of what he had just seen.

"Fang Yuan..."

As he silently mouthed the name to himself, he suddenly seemed to recall some extremely ancient, long-forgotten secret, and his pupils snapped wide with realization.

"This Fang Yuan... he is very likely the legendary Emotion-Refining Demon Venerable!"

"The very first being across all the myriad realms to ever awaken the [Eternal Conquest Upon First Conquest] talent!"

A sneer of realization curled at the corner of Ye Xuan's mouth.

No wonder that man shared such a similar aura with him—it was the resonance of Great Dao principles that originated from the same source.

"He carries an aura similar to mine, but he is not my past life. I hold no memories of him whatsoever."

Ye Xuan shook his head, banishing the last of the churning thoughts in his mind. His gaze turned cold and overbearing once more. "Fang Yuan, Fang Yuan... you held a hand of cards powerful enough to overturn every realm, and yet you played yourself straight into a tragedy."

Far from being terrified by Fang Yuan's miserable end, Ye Xuan felt a surge of condescending, mocking disdain.

"Your one fatal mistake was that you actually fell in love with them. You foolishly tried to use your true heart to move a group of monsters who wield the power of destruction. You laid your soft, vulnerable heart bare before them, and so it was inevitable that you would end up torn apart and devoured."

"But I am nothing like you."

Ye Xuan raised his hand, gazing at his flawless palm as he felt the vast, surging Tribulation Transcendence stage true essence coursing through his body.

"I have no need for their love. All I want is their submission, their origin power, and their utility. As long as I never allow myself to be swayed by affection, no one in this world can ever use the blade of emotion to kill me."

Having sorted out all his thoughts, Ye Xuan was left with not a sliver of doubt. He closed his eyes, fully immersing himself in the terrifying, earth-shaking transformation that his cultivation base had just undergone.

The Tribulation Transcendence stage!

The final, greatest hurdle on the path of cultivation, the most critical step that would elevate him beyond mortality and turn him into an immortal.

Right now, the true essence inside him was a hundred times thicker and more concentrated than it had ever been before, and his divine sense spread out like a tide, instantly covering tens of thousands of miles in every direction.

With a single thought, he could stir the fundamental principles of heaven and earth, and moving mountains or filling seas would be no more than a trivial feat to him.

Ye Xuan slowly opened his eyes, the ambition and wild ecstasy in his gaze impossible to contain any longer.

"Hahaha..."

A low, rumbling laugh spilled from his throat, growing louder and wilder by the second, until it burst into a raucous, unbridled cackle that echoed across the heavens.

"Hahaha! The Tribulation Transcendence stage! I've finally reached it!"

The wind whipped at the hem of his dark robe as Ye Xuan stood atop the clouds, looking down at the tiny, insignificant mountains and rivers below. The countless scenes of his long, arduous journey flashed through his mind one after another.

He had worked so tirelessly, bided his time for so long!

There had been days when he scraped by like a stray dog in the lowest rungs of society, suffering every bitter trick and scheme imaginable.

To seize fortune and amass resources, how many women had he leant on for support, playing the part of a doting lover?

He had put on a false mask, played along, and smiled through every humiliation. He had endured so much mockery and cold stares from the world, wearing the label of a kept man for years.

But so what?

The last one laughing is the real winner.

Those proud, high and mighty female talents who once crushed his dignity under their feet were now either groveling at his feet like loyal dogs, or soon to become the nourishment he would use to forge his supreme Dao fruit.

"Now, I am no longer that lowly ant that anyone could crush at will!"

Ye Xuan clenched his fists tight, the knuckles popping with sharp cracks. The space around him even split open into tiny fissures from the sheer force of his grip.

"With my current power, I am already a match for Xia Lengyue of the Qingyun Sect from back then—no, I am even stronger than her!"

He was no longer an ant. He was a true, peerless great power, strong enough to subjugate an entire region.

"BOOM!"

With that final peal of wild laughter, Ye Xuan's figure turned into a streak of black lightning that tore through the sky, crashing down from thousands of feet above to land precisely in front of the half-ruined cultivation chamber.

The dust settled.

Outside the cultivation chamber, Wu Lingxiao and Ying'er were kneeling on either side of the jade steps, which were strewn with crushed spirit stone dust, bowing their heads in utmost reverence.

Wu Lingxiao in particular, her white hair disheveled in the wind, her humble concubine's gown soaked through with the blood of her own origin essence. She had pushed her Time Dao Physique far past its limits, and was now so weak that she was even frailer than an ordinary mortal.

But the moment Ye Xuan's towering, godlike figure descended, two blazing, fanatical bursts of light erupted from her dead, ashen eyes.

"Congratulations, my husband, on breaking through to the Tribulation Transcendence stage!"

Wu Lingxiao and Ying'er spoke in unison, pressing their heads deep against the ground, their voices brimming with utter awe and submission.

Ye Xuan looked down at them from his lofty vantage, and as he caught sight of Wu Lingxiao's haggard state, where she had nearly burned through every last drop of her life force for his sake, not a single ripple stirred in his icy, unyielding heart. Yet in an instant, a gentle, warm smile that felt like a spring breeze spread across his face.

"Rise."

Ye Xuan stepped forward, a faint smile playing on his lips, and stretched out his long, powerful arms to pull both of the kneeling women into his embrace at the same time.

The moment Wu Lingxiao pressed against Ye Xuan's broad, warm chest, which radiated the terrifying, virile aura of a Tribulation Transcendent realm cultivator, her entire body trembled violently.

She greedily buried her face deep in his embrace, her hands clutching his robes tightly.

When she lifted her head, her pale, tear-streaked face was etched with a nearly pathological level of adoration and infatuation.

"My husband..." Wu Lingxiao's voice was hoarse and shaking, her eyes shining with uncontainable pride. "You are unquestionably the most monstrous prodigy in all the myriad worlds under heaven! You have reached the Tribulation Transcendent realm before you even turn two hundred. This is a miracle that has never been seen before through all of time! My husband is the greatest figure from the ancient past to the present day!"

Ye Xuan was very pleased by Wu Lingxiao's fanatical praise, though on the surface he still maintained that aloof, unfathomable air of transcendence.

He gently reached out to tuck a strand of blood-matted white hair behind Wu Lingxiao's ear.

Ye Xuan gave a slight nod, his tone so calm it sounded as if he was talking about something completely insignificant, as he smiled and said,

"It's nothing more than a bit of wind and frost."