These words rang softly in his ears, like the whispers of a bedtime story from long ago.
Zhang Mingyuan shuddered instantly, goosebumps erupting all over his body.
In his daze, he felt as if he had plunged into a soft place, a place filled with a wonderful fragrance.
Although it was cold, it evoked an intense, lingering longing within him.
The sound of countless ice-cracking echoes reverberated through his world.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself tens of thousands of feet in the air above the Myriad Snow Palace.
And Su Jinxue was holding him by his shoulders, her crimson eyes staring at him with deep concern.
Just now... had he wanted to slash the heavens?
Yes!
He wanted to cleave this damn heaven apart!
“Get lost!”
Zhang Mingyuan's rationality was swallowed by rage once again.
He shoved Su Jinxue aside, his eyes blood-red as the golden flames of his burning Dao Fruit flared up from his body once more.
“Don't stop me!”
He roared, his voice hoarse and barely human.
Zhanxue, which had been lying quietly below, flew into his hand at his summons.
Holding the sword in his right hand, he suspended himself beneath the vault of heaven and pointed his blade straight at the gates of heaven!
“Today, I shall open the heavens' eyes!”
In an instant, the sword shadow of Zhanxue in his hand swelled dramatically, multiplying from one to a thousand, a thousand to ten thousand, and ten thousand to billions!
Billions of pitch-black sword shadows blotted out the sun. Each shadow carried the absolute resolve and destructive intent of a Mahayana cultivator burning his Dao Fruit.
The resentment of his grief and sense of injustice was so intense that even the vast snowy plains stretching for thousands of miles below began to melt.
The Heavenly Dao sensed this.
Above the nine heavens, the clouds and winds churned violently.
The clear blue sky, which had just been washed clean by the snow, was instantly covered by endless dark clouds. The clouds were as thick and dark as ink,
with violet-gold lightning serpents churning within them, each one thicker than a mountain range.
A vast, divine pressure proclaiming the inviolability of the Heavenly Dao descended, suppressing the entire Xuanling Realm.
Cultivators within a radius of millions of miles looked up in horror at this moment, staring at the apocalyptic scene above the Myriad Snow Palace, their hearts shaking violently.
“That figure... it's Sacred Lord Zhang of Qingyun Heaven!”
“Why is he trying to defy and attack the heavens?! Has he gone mad?”
“Wait, didn't the Heavenly Dao just bestow a Heavenly Marriage upon him and the Myriad Snow Immortal Lord two days ago? Why are they pointing swords at each other today? Could he have succumbed to Qi deviation?!”
Countless questions exploded in everyone's minds, but no one could answer them.
Boom—!
Heaven's punishment descended.
A violet-gold divine lightning bolt, thick enough to pierce through heaven and earth, carried the majesty of judging all creation.
It tore through the sea of clouds and struck straight down toward the center of the billions of sword shadows!
Clang—!
The torrent of billions of sword shadows clashed violently with the violet-gold divine lightning!
Yet, how could the power of a mortal cultivator contend with the Heavenly Dao?
In just an instant, the sound of breaking swords echoed endlessly across the sky.
The billions of sword shadows shattered inch by inch under the divine lightning like fragile glass, turning into a sky full of glittering light.
Zhang Mingyuan had lost.
After crushing the sword array, the violet-gold divine lightning did not lose its momentum, continuing its downward plunge!
It was heading straight for the crown of Zhang Mingyuan's head!
Right at this moment.
An invisible ripple spread outward with Su Jinxue as the center.
The terrifying lightning in the sky, capable of destroying an entire small world, actually melted away like spring snow just three feet above Zhang Mingyuan's head.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no clash of laws—it simply vanished into air.
Then, her crimson lips parted slightly, and her voice, filled with unquestionable authority, rang across the horizon:
“Since Zhang Mingyuan is throwing a tantrum, this seat will naturally discipline him. There is no need to trouble the Heavenly Dao.”
The moment these words were spoken, every single cultivator in the Xuanling Realm who was watching the situation was utterly dumbfounded!
This voice... it was the Myriad Snow Immortal Lord!
The Myriad Snow Immortal Lord was defying the Heavenly Dao for Sacred Lord Zhang?
And her tone was so disrespectful?
This wasn't a negotiation; it was an outright notification!
This completely shattered their worldview.
In their thousands of years of understanding, Heaven was supreme and inviolable!
How was the Immortal Lord's action any different from outright rebellion?
However, what happened next shocked them even more.
The thunderclouds above the nine heavens began to churn even more violently, and countless terrifying lightning serpents flashed through the sea of clouds,
as if the Heavenly Dao were gathering an even more terrible wrath to wipe out both the mortal cultivator who dared to provoke it and the arrogant Red Dust Immortal below.
But in the end, the thunderclouds merely let out a few rumbling peals.
And then...
The Heavenly Dao retreated.
The dark clouds that blotted out the sun slowly dispersed just like that...
What was going on?
No one could understand it.
The Heavenly Dao looked like a gang leader who had been insulted and lost face,
but since he couldn't do anything to the strongest powerhouse on the scene, he could only grumble and back down, leaving the premises.
They were completely dumbfounded.
Within their bodies, their Dao Hearts began to sublimate. At this moment, they all understood a single truth—
So... Heaven was not absolute!
Inside the Myriad Snow Palace, after a brief, dead silence,
all the disciples burst into cheers that resounded like a mountain tsunami. They shouted in unison at the peerless, red-robed figure in the sky:
“May the Immortal Lord live forever and ever!”
After the Heavenly Dao's thunderclouds dispersed, only the two of them remained high up in the sky above the Myriad Snow Palace.
Zhang Mingyuan's eyes had clearly cleared up a bit, shocked by that terrifying strike from the Heavenly Dao earlier.
However, the inner demon entrenched deep within his soul had not yet completely receded.
He stared blankly at Su Jinxue, then looked down at the charred Zhanxue in his hand, which had been struck by lightning.
A more violent rage and despair flared up from his heart once more.
“Why! Why?!”
Roaring like a madman, he swung his broken sword, slicing the sky until not a single cloud remained for ten thousand miles!
However, just as Zhang Mingyuan was about to be completely consumed by his inner demon,
he suddenly felt himself pulled by a force, crashing into a familiar, soft embrace filled with a cold fragrance.
He froze.
This cold fragrance was like melting snow in early spring, carrying a touch of crispness that gently melted the raging fire in his heart bit by bit.
His wild movements ground to a halt.
The blood-red frenzy in his eyes began to slowly recede, restoring his clarity.
Coming back to his senses, he found his cheek resting against a snowy-white softness, as gentle as cotton clouds.
A cold, orchid-like fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose.
The back of his head was being gently stroked, over and over, by a cool yet delicate hand.
“Zhang Mingyuan, I now know most of your past.”
“Remember, you are not alone in this world. You have your sect, your disciples, your friends...”
“And... me.”
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