Chapter 677 554: When the Bad Woman Dies, Forgiveness Begins (Part 2)

"And..."

Shang Miaoyan finally turned her head back slowly. She tried to force a comforting smile for him, but her eyes could no longer hold the tears welling within them. A single, clear stream trickled down unexpectedly, leaving a glistening trail on her pale cheek.

"When the time comes... Xiaohan, you must teach me... how you're supposed to treat someone you love."

The corners of Shang Miaoyan's lips lifted slightly. Even without a trace of makeup, she was so beautiful that Pei Yuhang knew he would never be able to forget her smile.

"I really, really want... to become a good woman... one you could learn to like!"

...

High in the sky.

Yuan Tianming stood on the deck of a Yin Yang Sacred Land warship, gripping the railing before him so tightly his knuckles turned white.

He gazed down at the Dao Sect, which was wreathed in the smoke of battle. The flickering flames of war cast his profile in shifting light and shadow, and the gloom in his eyes was so deep it seemed ready to drip ink.

'Pei Yuhang, where in the world are you hiding?'

'And that woman, that ant! She's so weak, so how could she manage to screw me over at the most critical moment?!'

VMMMM—!!

A clear, sonorous ring of a sword tore through the sky without warning.

The warship beneath Yuan Tianming's feet groaned under an unbearable strain, then began to splinter and break apart!

His expression changed in an instant. Tapping his foot hard against the deck, he shot backward just as a peerlessly sharp blast of Sword Qi utterly shredded the spot where he had been standing!

As the ship's hull collapsed around him, he looked up in disbelief.

There, in midair, a figure in white stood alone and elegant. His robes fluttered in the howling wind, untouched by a single speck of dust.

His face was like cold jade, his eyes like deep pools. The longsword in his hand shimmered with a clear, rippling light, but from its tip, a single, crimson bead of blood slowly dripped.

"She isn't disgusting."

Pei Yuhang's voice was calm, but the Sword Qi roiling around him churned the very heavens.

"You are."

Yuan Tianming looked at Pei Yuhang, a smirk suddenly tugging at his lips before he burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha—Yuhang, as your master, I must say I'm truly impressed. You carry great fortune with you. Even when you're cornered, a woman will always appear to save you, fearing not even death."

"Could you teach me how you use that pretty face to bewitch them so completely? Hmm?"

Pei Yuhang didn't respond. He simply thrust his sword, a strike that harnessed the power of heaven and earth. It was as if the entire world had become his blade, a move identical to the one used when Qing Yueqiu fought Ji Shenyun.

"First, you are not my master. You're nothing but some crooked demon from who knows where!

Second, stop trying to stall for time and bewitch me!"

"I, Pei Yuhang, am in a hurry to cut you down and rescue her Nascent Soul!"

Watching the overwhelming wave of Sword Qi crash down upon him, Yuan Tianming's expression grew grim.

He lifted a finger. Behind him, on the warship, countless disciples of the Yin Yang Sacred Land exploded into clouds of blood mist. Innumerable streams of Essence Blood converged and wove themselves into a Blood Sword.

"I taught you everything you know about the Sword Dao. If you want to cross blades, then by all means, let's see what you've got!"

...

...

「In the Abyssal Sea Palace, on the ninety-ninth floor of the Inner Palace Tower.」

A blood-red skull floated in midair.

An invisible force connected it to the God King's Remains behind it, causing waves of blazing white divine light, shimmering with a multicolored spectrum, to bear down and pin Ji Shenyun firmly to the floor.

The divine light seemed formless, yet it carried the weight of a hundred thousand great mountains, pressing down on Ji Shenyun so hard she couldn't move an inch.

Even so, though her bones groaned in protest, Ji Shenyun showed no sign of giving up.

'I have endured tens of thousands of years of suppression.'

'I will not fall here!'

Ji Shenyun's heart began to beat in overload, like a rocket engine. Her blood boiled, and her skin turned a deep crimson. Her internal temperature rose so high that dazzling flames began to lick across her body.

But through this reckless, frenzied effort, she actually managed to push her upper body up, little by little, against the pressure of the white light.

While Ji Shenyun struggled, Lin Qianyan and Nangong Jin had not given up on the outside.

They furiously attacked the network of vein-like roots that Yuan Tianming was using to channel energy to the God King's Remains. However, they discovered that the power of just the two of them was nowhere near enough to stop the seemingly endless, bloody tendrils.

So they rushed around, gathering all the Cultivators in the Abyssal Sea Palace and showing them the evil conduits that were siphoning and transporting their Essence Blood.

At that moment, all the Cultivators of the Abyssal Sea Palace came to a sudden, horrifying realization: they had been trapped and were being used as fuel.

"Hahaha, to think that I, Zhang Qula, who have roamed unchallenged my whole life, would nearly meet my end here. It seems that all-devouring blood mist wasn't a natural disaster after all, but a man-made one."

Zhang Qula sighed, then approached Lin Qianyan on behalf of the assembled Cultivators.

"Saintess Lin, what should we do if we don't want to be refined alive in this place?"

Lin Qianyan looked at the Cultivators gathered before her and declared in a loud, clear voice, "Fellow Daoists, we now share a common fate! We either thrive together or fall together!"

"I, Qianyan, ask you all to join forces and destroy the evil roots above the eighty-ninth floor that are siphoning our Essence Blood!"

"Alright!!"

Fueled by the rage of their betrayal, tens of thousands of Cultivators sprang into action.

In an instant, the entire Inner Palace Tower began to tremble violently as Yuan Tianming's intricate preparations were destroyed one by one.

Perhaps Yuan Tianming had never imagined that the very ants he treated as kindling would be the ones to deliver the most fatal blow.

On the ninety-ninth floor of the Inner Palace Tower.

As Ji Shenyun watched the bloody tentacles enveloping the ninety-ninth floor begin to wither, she knew that the women at Pei Yuhang's side had succeeded.

With the supply of Essence Blood energy to the God King's Remains dwindling, the degree of Yuan Tianming's fusion with the remains plummeted.

The blazing white divine light that had enveloped her began to fade, allowing her to finally get to her feet.

'It seems I must admit, I underestimated those women I dismissed as mere decorations.'

'And as for you, Yuan Tianming, you old fiend... It's time for us to settle our accounts.'

WHOOSH—

Black-gold flames so terrifying they began to warp the space around them engulfed Ji Shenyun's hands. She walked step-by-step toward the blood-red skull and brought her fists down with a resounding crash!!

...

...

「In Pei Yuhang's Sea of Consciousness.」

Yuan Tianming, locked in a fierce battle with the White-clothed Sword Immortal, felt his pupils constrict. His immense aura receded like a swift tide.

He stared down at his hands in disbelief, muttering, "Something's happened outside... But... how is that possible? Just those ants—"

VMMMM—!!

A dazzling silver Sword Qi tore through the air, giving him no chance to recover.

A cold glint flashed in Pei Yuhang's eyes. Seizing the fleeting opening, he unleashed his sword with the force of a cascading galaxy, instantly piercing through Yuan Tianming's chest.

"Go to Hell and repent to those you've killed!"

Gripping the hilt with both hands, Pei Yuhang became a living meteor, driving Yuan Tianming in a plummet from the heavens. The intense friction of their descent set Yuan Tianming's robes ablaze, streaking a grimly beautiful arc of light across the sky.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Pei Yuhang drove Yuan Tianming through several mountain peaks before finally coming to a stop in a cloud of dust and smoke on the snowy plains before the Cold Palace Sword Mansion.

Amidst a spray of snow, Yuan Tianming lay bathed in blood, his aura as faint as a candle flickering in the wind.

He struggled to lift his eyelids, his unfocused gaze landing on the grim-faced Pei Yuhang.

'Pei Yuhang alone could never have injured me this badly. My real body... my real body outside... was shattered by Ji Shenyun...'

'It seems I've lost everything in this life.'

His lips trembled as he spoke, attempting to bargain.

"Yuhang, don't kill me! Without me, you would have just been the lowliest Cauldron Slave in the Yin Yang Sacred Land! I was the one who saved you from that sea of misery, you—"

SQUELCH!!

A single, clean sword thrust slit his throat.

Yuan Tianming's pupils contracted, his expression one of disbelief that the final blow had come so decisively.

Bright red blood gushed forth, blossoming across the snow like dazzling red plum flowers.

He opened his mouth, but only a final wisp of white breath escaped his lungs, mingling with the swirling snow before vanishing completely.

Pei Yuhang stood with his sword in hand, his body suddenly swaying.

A tidal wave of memories flooded into his Sea of Consciousness—

It was the torrent of memories from Yuan Tianming's Split Soul, which he had absorbed after it was annihilated in its failed possession attempt.

He forcibly suppressed the roiling chaos in his Divine Sense and spun around, rushing toward the Cold Palace Sword Mansion.

When he saw the tiny figure curled into a ball on the ice platform, Pei Yuhang's heart clenched violently.

Before Pei Yuhang had left, the Nascent Soul had looked identical to Shang Miaoyan herself. Now, it had regressed into the form of a small, doll-like girl.

This was a sign that the origin of her Nascent Soul was continuously weakening and on the verge of collapse.

If Pei Yuhang had arrived any later, she might have dissipated completely.

Pei Yuhang stumbled forward and carefully gathered the tiny form into his arms.

The moment his fingertips made contact, the child-like Nascent Soul trembled slightly, letting out a faint whimper like a kitten.

"I just barely made it..."

Pei Yuhang pressed his cheek against the tiny Nascent Soul's, his voice filled with lingering fear. "She can still be saved."

Snowflakes landed on his trembling eyelashes, melting into tiny droplets of water.

This woman, whom he once hated to the very marrow of his bones. This nightmare who had wedged herself between him and Qianqian, and between him and Liyuan.

Now, he held her tightly against his chest, as if cradling the world's most fragile treasure.

'Only after you died could I forgive you.'

'This feeling... is so painful.'