The Most Ridiculous Thing Is Unrequited Devotion

Ye Xuan’s expression did not change. He stood perfectly still as he slowly raised the Sun-Slaying Divine Sword, its crimson-gold radiance suddenly flaring.

“Great Luo Infinite Sword Qi.”

He uttered the five words softly, his voice as calm as still water.

In an instant, countless streams of crimson-gold sword qi erupted from his body, blazing like a resplendent sun and illuminating the heavens.

Containing an incomparably rigid, yang-infused, and tyrannical force, the sword qi collided with Gu Jingchen’s rain of pink swords, unleashing a deafening roar.

The two torrents of sword qi clashed violently across the arena, sending a colossal storm surging outward.

The white-jade arena trembled violently. Countless runes lit up across its surface, desperately resisting the terrifying impact of energy.

On the viewing platform, the weaker guests were forced back again and again by the shockwaves, their faces deathly pale.

The sword qi dissipated.

Ye Xuan still stood where he had been, his white robes immaculate. The Sun-Slaying Divine Sword pointed diagonally toward the ground, and his expression remained composed.

Gu Jingchen’s rain of swords, however, had vanished without a trace.

His face instantly became horribly grim.

“How is this possible?!” He stared at Ye Xuan in disbelief, his voice filled with shock. “Your cultivation… your sword intent… How could they possibly be this powerful?”

He had clearly sensed that Ye Xuan’s aura was only at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage. Yet the power of that sword strike had far exceeded what a cultivator at that level should possess.

That tyrannical sword intent had made even him, a peak Tribulation Transcendence cultivator, tremble inwardly.

Ye Xuan said indifferently, “Did you think everyone was like you—possessing cultivation without any actual combat strength?”

“My cultivation was built up bit by bit by being a kept man. Compared to your hollow and unstable cultivation, mine was forged through steady progress.”

Before his voice had even faded, his figure abruptly vanished from the spot.

Heaven and Earth Heartless, Severing Emotion Slash!

Ye Xuan’s figure became a streak of white lightning, appearing instantly before Gu Jingchen.

The Sun-Slaying Divine Sword drew a dazzling golden arc through the air, carrying the momentum of splitting heaven and earth as it viciously slashed toward Gu Jingchen’s neck.

The strike was swift beyond the extreme and ruthless beyond measure.

There were no unnecessary movements, no flashy flourishes—only the purest killing blow.

Gu Jingchen’s pupils contracted sharply. He instinctively raised the Infatuation Sword to block.

Clang!

The two swords collided, bursting with blinding sparks.

Gu Jingchen felt a terrifying force surge through his sword. The web between his thumb and forefinger split open, and blood spurted out.

The strike sent him flying backward, slamming him heavily into the arena’s protective barrier with a muffled boom.

Pfft!

He opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood, his face turning as pale as paper.

“You…”

He tremblingly raised a finger toward Ye Xuan, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

In just two moves, he—a dignified peak Tribulation Transcendence cultivator—had been beaten to the point of vomiting blood by a junior at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage.

How was that possible?

Yet Ye Xuan gave him no chance to catch his breath.

His figure vanished once more. This time, he used the Kunpeng’s Free Roaming.

This movement technique had been created by an ancient mighty expert after observing the Kunpeng transform and soar through the nine heavens. Its speed was simply inconceivable.

Countless afterimages of Ye Xuan appeared across the arena, each one so lifelike that no one could distinguish the real one from the false.

Gu Jingchen frantically swung the Infatuation Sword, slashing at the afterimages around him. Yet every strike cut only through empty air; he could not even touch the hem of Ye Xuan’s robes.

Ye Xuan suddenly appeared behind him and struck him in the center of the back with one palm.

The force of the palm was not particularly heavy, but it contained the razor-sharp power of the Great Luo Infinite Sword Qi. It directly tore through Gu Jingchen’s protective true essence.

Gu Jingchen spat out another mouthful of blood and staggered forward. Before he could steady himself, Ye Xuan appeared in front of him again and kicked him in the chest.

Crack!

The crisp sound of breaking ribs rang out clearly.

Gu Jingchen screamed as he was sent flying backward, crashing heavily onto the arena and smashing a human-shaped depression into its surface.

Throughout the entire battle, Ye Xuan had maintained an utterly crushing advantage.

Every sword strike, every palm, every step he took was calm and unhurried, as though he were not engaged in a life-or-death battle but merely instructing a junior in cultivation.

Meanwhile, Gu Jingchen—a peak Tribulation Transcendence cultivator who had been famous for several thousand years—could not even fight back in his hands.

Everyone on the viewing platform was dumbfounded.

“My heavens… He’s far too powerful!”

“That Ye Xuan really is not even two hundred years old?”

“A two-hundred-year-old Tribulation Transcendence cultivator with this kind of combat strength? How is that possible?”

“No wonder he was able to marry the Sword Sovereign. Such talent is simply unheard of!”

“That cultivation speed is terrifying. In a few hundred more years, won’t he be attempting to break through to the True Immortal Realm?”

On the arena, Gu Jingchen struggled to rise from the ground.

His clothes were tattered, and his entire body was covered in blood. He looked utterly wretched. Yet the madness and obsession in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest.

“I refuse to accept this… I refuse to accept this…”

He roared, his voice hoarse beyond recognition. “How could I lose to a kept man like you…? How could I lose…?”

He swallowed the blood at the corner of his mouth and forced himself to stand upright once more. The sword qi around him surged again, even more violent than before, though also more chaotic.

He was staking everything now, burning his vital essence and Nascent Soul in exchange for a temporary surge in combat power.

“Ye Xuan! You’re not worthy of Ye Jiuhuang! Only I am worthy of her!”

He howled like a madman as he swung the Infatuation Sword, transforming into a streak of pink sword light that charged toward Ye Xuan.

This strike contained all the cultivation he had accumulated throughout his life, as well as the full force of his obsession.

The pink sword light blotted out the sky and covered the earth, enveloping the entire arena. Its sword qi contained an extremely dense power of the Dao of Emotion, enough to plunge anyone with an unstable state of mind into an emotional tribulation and leave their soul in a daze.

Yet Ye Xuan’s expression remained as calm as still water.

“Heaven and Earth Heartless, Severing Emotion Slash.”

He unleashed this deadly technique once more. This time, however, the sword intent he poured into it was far more terrifying than before.

The crimson-gold radiance of the Sun-Slaying Divine Sword erupted completely, becoming like a true blazing sun and engulfing every strand of pink sword light across the arena.

The two sword intents collided once more.

But this time, the outcome was without suspense.

The pink sword light collapsed in an instant, like snow exposed to the blazing sun. The crimson-gold sword qi continued onward without losing momentum, slamming viciously into Gu Jingchen’s chest.

Slash!

The sound of the blade entering flesh rang out clearly.

The clothes over Gu Jingchen’s chest turned to ash. A savage sword wound stretched from his left shoulder to his right ribs.

Blood gushed from it like a spring, splattering across the white-jade arena in a shocking display.

“Ah!”

Gu Jingchen let out a shrill, agonized scream. The Infatuation Sword flew from his grasp, and his entire body staggered backward before collapsing.

He crashed heavily onto the arena. A pool of dark-red blood quickly spread beneath him.

He tried to crawl back up, but his body no longer obeyed him.

That single strike had not only severed his breastbone—it had also severely wounded his Nascent Soul. Several thousand years of cultivation had nearly been destroyed by that one sword.

Ye Xuan slowly sheathed his sword and looked down at Gu Jingchen lying in the pool of blood.

His gaze was as indifferent as water, without the slightest trace of pity or excitement.

“A person like you mistakes being deluded over someone for true devotion. How laughable.”

His voice was calm and cold. “True devotion isn’t clinging to someone and refusing to let go. It isn’t self-indulgence, either. And it certainly isn’t using so-called ‘deep love’ to bind someone to you.”

Every word Ye Xuan spoke struck Gu Jingchen’s heart like a heavy hammer.

Gu Jingchen lay in a pool of blood, gasping for breath. Each breath brought a fresh wave of excruciating pain.

His consciousness was beginning to blur, and his life was fading away at an alarming rate. Yet his eyes remained fixed on Ye Xuan, filled with resentment and hatred.

No. He couldn’t die.

He still hadn’t obtained Ye Jiuhuang.

He still hadn’t made Ye Jiuhuang understand the depth of his feelings.

How could he die?

But at that moment, he felt the Nascent Soul within him beginning to collapse.

The golden fragments scattered like shattered glass, drifting out of his body before dissolving into specks of light in the air.

Thousands of years of cultivation were disintegrating before his very eyes.

“No… No…”

His eyes widened in terror. He reached out with a bloodstained hand, trying to seize those fragments, but all he grasped was emptiness. His body began to grow cold, his vitality pouring away like floodwaters bursting through a breached dam.

“Jiuhuang… Jiuhuang…”

He repeated her name over and over, his voice growing weaker with every utterance.

With great difficulty, he turned his head toward the viewing stand, searching for the figure who had haunted his dreams.

Ye Jiuhuang stood there in a green robe, her beauty beyond compare.

Yet her gaze remained fixed on Ye Xuan.

The tenderness and pride in her eyes were emotions he had never seen directed at him.

From beginning to end, she had not spared him a single glance. Not even now, as he lay on the brink of death, did she look at him.