Between Qingyun Heaven and the Myriad Snow Palace, there was an additional mountain.
The mountain had been moved there three hundred years ago.
Cultivators from both places had flattened the mountaintop, paved it with white jade, and erected a nine-story platform, naming it the Heaven-Gazing Platform.
There were no arrays or offerings on the platform.
Only two ever-burning lamps stood there.
One flickered with green clouds.
The other drifted with frost and snow.
For three hundred years, when disciples from both places finished their cultivation, they would always come here to sit for a while.
They would gaze at the empty sky, waiting for the two who had suddenly vanished to return.
If Lingxuzi hadn't personally appeared and resolutely told everyone that the two Immortal Lords were simply in closed-loop cultivation within the Heavenly Dao space, rumors would have long since gotten out of hand.
But three hundred years was, after all, too long.
On this day, Chu Jinghong finished his closed-loop cultivation and climbed the high platform with the Jinghong Sword on his back.
He was already in the late Void Refining Stage, his aura deep and condensed, with a few less traces of youthfulness between his brows.
Yet the first thing he did upon sitting down was still to look up at the sky.
Bai Yao sat beside the other lamp, Chixia resting horizontally across her lap.
In over three hundred years, she had gone from a mortal to the Nascent Soul realm.
Looking at the entire Xuanling Realm, this speed was enough to silence countless geniuses.
“Master and the others will return today,” Chu Jinghong suddenly said.
Bai Yao wiped her sword, not even raising her head. “You said that yesterday, too.”
“Yesterday was yesterday. Today, I have a premonition.”
“The day before yesterday, you said it was a sudden impulse.”
“That was a sword cultivator's intuition.”
Bai Yao finally looked up at him.
Very well.
Three hundred years had passed, and while this man's cultivation had risen, his brain remained exactly the same.
A Qingyun Heaven elder walked over carrying a wine flask, sat on the steps, and sighed. “I wonder when the two Immortal Lords will return.”
A Myriad Snow Palace elder whispered, “Back then, I don't know what happened to our Immortal Lord Su to suddenly make her... Even though Lord Lingxuzi vouched for it, my heart still...”
The words were left unfinished.
The Heaven-Gazing Platform fell silent.
Nian'an tilted her head back, a thin white line reflecting in her eyes.
“The sky is cracking.”
Everyone looked up in unison.
Clang!
A sword chime pierced through the sea of clouds.
A green sword light slashed out from the depths of the void, instantly splitting the sky of the Xuanling Realm for thousands of miles.
Spatial turbulence poured down as two figures charged out of the rift, one after the other.
The person in front had black hair flying wildly. Holding a long sword, his laughter echoed across both territories.
The woman behind had white hair and red clothes. Her bare feet shattered the sword light, and with a spin of the Xiyue Sword, frost and snow locked down the sky.
“Enemy attack!”
The Qingyun Heaven elder sprang to his feet.
“Activate the sect-protecting array!”
The elders of the Myriad Snow Palace also drew their swords.
Nian'an stamped her feet in anxiety. “Don't activate it! It's the Immortal Lords! They've returned! Although I don't know why our Immortal Lord's hair turned white, look at the sword in her hand!”
Everyone's movements froze at the same time.
Chu Jinghong stared intently at the familiar figure in the sky, his lips twitching several times before he suddenly rushed to the edge of the Heaven-Gazing Platform.
“Master!”
This shout shattered three hundred years of silence.
Bai Yao stood up, gripping Chixia, tears welling in her clear eyes.
She didn't shout. She merely looked at the white-haired, red-clothed woman and slowly bowed.
Both places fell silent at first.
In the next instant, cheers soared into the clouds.
“The two Immortal Lords are back!”
“They've really returned!”
“Hurry, shut down the array! Who was the one who shouted 'enemy attack' just now? Drag them out and make them copy the sect rules!”
“Wait, why are they fighting the moment they return?”
“What do you know? That's a five-thousand-year-old habit of theirs. It's a unique way of flirting!”
“So that's how it is. As expected of the Immortal Lords, even their way of interacting as Dao companions is so earth-shattering.”
Chu Jinghong nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Bai Yao turned her face away and silently took two steps away from him.
At the same time, not only were the people of both places paying attention to the two in the sky.
The moment Zhang Mingyuan and Su Jinxue reappeared in the Xuanling Realm, the powerhouses of the entire realm cast their gazes over.
Some sacred grounds were just there to enjoy the spectacle, while others secretly felt relieved that they hadn't tried anything against Qingyun Heaven or the Myriad Snow Palace while the two were away.
...
In the sky above the Heaven-Gazing Platform, ripples suddenly spread through space.
Lingxuzi stepped out, his white jade fly-whisk resting over his arm, his other hand carrying a purple clay teapot.
“This poor Daoist said long ago that they would be fine.”
A light chuckle came from beside him.
Bai Lumian descended on a green leaf, her amber eyes looking toward the sky. “When you said that back then, you were running to the Heavenly Dao space eight times a day.”
Lingxuzi's movement of sipping his tea paused. “This poor Daoist was simply too bored.”
“Sure you were.”
...
High up in the sky, Zhang Mingyuan and Su Jinxue clashed, sword light and laws filling the sky.
Originally, with Zhang Mingyuan's current strength, he could easily handle Su Jinxue.
However, when he had saved Su Jinxue in the Heavenly Dao space earlier, he had sacrificed his original Dao body and laws to her.
When Zhang Mingyuan's laws of annihilation struck Su Jinxue, they had absolutely no effect.
Thus, he could only rely on his sword techniques and other law powers to clash against Su Jinxue's vindicated Frost Law.
Even so, the two fought to a standstill.
Green clouds and ice-snow collided in the high sky, their mere aftershocks stretching across the heavens.
This battle lasted for seven days and seven nights.
The two fought from the Eastern Territory to the Northern Plains, and then from the Northern Plains into the Boundary Sea.
Before the frozen, massive waves could crash down, they were sliced into countless fragments by the sword light.
Zhang Mingyuan mastered numerous laws, and his sword techniques were endless.
Su Jinxue used only the Frost Great Dao, but she had pushed this single path to its absolute limit.
Neither could suppress the other.
On the seventh day, as dusk fell, Zhang Mingyuan swept the Xiyue Sword aside with a strike and suddenly stopped.
Wait, something's not right.
The longer they fought, the more clearly he could sense the laws inside Su Jinxue.
That power held no rejection toward him whatsoever; it would even actively respond to his thoughts.
Su Jinxue stood with her sword held horizontally. “Why did you stop?”
Zhang Mingyuan didn't answer.
Instead, he stared curiously at the location of Su Jinxue's lower abdomen, where her dantian resided.
He curled his finger lightly.
Su Jinxue instantly felt the immortal energy and laws within her body being drawn out of her control.
Furthermore, the sensation was incredibly strange!
It felt as if something inside her dantian was being tugged, sending a tingling, numbing sensation through her, causing her entire body to go soft and lose its strength.
Zhang Mingyuan suddenly saw the light!
Of course! Everything Su Jinxue has now was forged by sacrificing my own Dao body to reconstruct her!
Which means, I can control the immortal energy and laws inside her!
Instantly, a wicked grin spread across Zhang Mingyuan's face.
Seeing his expression, Su Jinxue immediately felt a sense of foreboding!
Zhang Mingyuan smirked, “Little Xuexue, now I absolutely have to ruthlessly, ruthlessly control you!”
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