Above the heavens, the bronze ancient tree's vines rooted in the Taiyin (Lunar Essence) were rapidly withering. As a vessel of celestial fortune, this was rely a seed of the bronze ancient tree—ultimately incapable of rivaling the Rivers and Mountains Scroll.
Once the decline began, there was no turning back.
The delicate balance of Heavenly City between destruction and rebirth was instantly overturned.
The crowd below could not see what was happening in the skies, only witnessing nine ferocious dragons soaring majestically from the blazing sun, exuding an aura of indomitable authority.
"Has the imperial court finally intervened?"
Many faces lit up with hope.
Yet they did not know that this manifestation of the nation's fortune was, in truth, the root of calamity.
......
Ying Bing stood alone before the Taiyin, the three soul-essences of the Primordial Phoenix flickering at her brow—the Blood Phoenix Essence, the Radiant Phoenix Aura, and the Jade Phoenix Spirit—all gleaming brilliantly, pulling the incomplete Heavenly Phoenix Domain toward wholeness. For others, this would be a matter of life and death, but for her, it should have been effortless.
Yet at this critical mont, she also had to face an external foe.
The Lunar Yin in Ying Bing’s palm tilted slightly, its sword tip rising to carve a flawless full moon. The blade moved like ti reversing, intercepting the nine dragon shadows.
Ti flowed like water, yet the nation’s fortune was ceaseless—ebbing and flowing, vanishing only to gather anew.
The dragon shadows continued their descent.
Crack—
They pulled at the firmant itself.
"Heaven and earth unite, all things return to one. The immortals pity mortals, and the far shore descends..."
The voice seed to issue from hundreds of millions of souls, a thunderous murmur incomprehensible to mortal minds.
As the voices grew louder, more chaotic, the stars within the Rivers and Mountains Scroll blazed with radiant light!
The unfolding scene stirred a ripple in Ying Bing’s tranquil heart.
That ripple ca from familiarity.
As if, long ago, she had witnessed this very mont.
"Are you trying to repeat this again?" Her tone was calm, but inwardly, she searched for the source of that déjà vu.
Strange—she had no mory of such an event in her past life.
"Heh..."
Empress Chuge’s voice dripped with vindication, as if her suspicions had been confird. "It seems you rembered your true self long ago. No wonder... no wonder you not only possess exceptional talent but also know things far beyond your realm."
"No wonder you went to the Southern Border in advance, took the Jade Phoenix Spirit, and thwarted Han Zhen."
"Heaven and earth are unkind, treating all beings as straw dogs. The Great Dao is impartial. You claim to have truly died—you lie! You are the most hypocritical deceiver in all existence! Because of you, I must now wear this human skin with utmost caution..."
Ying Bing remained aloof, as if unmoved by Empress Chuge’s outburst.
A deceiver?
What had she deceived her about?
Was this the reason Empress Chuge was so determined to destroy the Heavenly Phoenix Domain and keep her here?
No...
Ying Bing recalled a figure she had glimpsed in the Jade Phoenix Spirit and her dreams—one long vanished.
Ying Huang?
What had the First of the Nine Immortals ant by "Those who learn from her live, those who imitate her die"?
Her thoughts grew tangled.
"Oh, and that pawn of yours is nearly spent. Surely you’re not still counting on him to aid you?"
Empress Chuge’s voice rang out once more.
"Him..."
"Hm?"
Empress Chuge paused, sensing a shift in Ying Bing.
Flecks of phoenix feathers materialized, then ignited—an unquenchable True Phoenix will, her aura growing ever more terrifying.
"He is no pawn."
A jade-white hand lifted, pointing toward the portion of the Heavenly Phoenix Domain now occupied by the Rivers and Mountains Scroll—the blazing sun in the sky.
The Heavenly Phoenix Domain now resembled a taut rope in a tug-of-war.
Both sides strained with equal might, locked in stalemate.
But the Heavenly City’s realm could endure no more.
Before either force prevailed, nothing might remain.
"If all else fails, you may surrender your body to ... or rather, the other you."
A thought not her own surfaced in Ying Bing’s mind.
She knew whose voice this was.
Ying Huang.
The Heavenly Phoenix Domain had always belonged to the Nine-Colored Primordial Phoenix. No one could wield it better than Ying Huang.
But...
At what cost?
Would she cease to be herself thereafter?
......
At the edge of the Heavenly City’s realm.
A tempest raged, a swirling vortex of ten-thousand-zhang winds.
The storm annihilated all in its path—even granite vanished without a trace beneath its fury.
"So... it has cycled countless tis already..."
Feng Zhi stood alone at the storm-lashed border of the human city, her gaze deepening with realization.
These cycles had not begun with the Heavenly Trial. They stretched back to a far older past—one she now rembered.
The Great Shang.
Standing here, facing this choice, had happened innurable tis before.
"But this is the first ti I’ve had a sister... and a brother-in-law."
She glanced back.
In the ruins of the Heavenly City, a crimson giant stood unyielding. None knew why he still resisted, but all knew he was once the Son of the Wilderness.
The Taiyin still hung in that sky, long stripped of freedom.
Even from this distance, it was as if she could still see them by the hearth in the King’s Village, just by turning her head.
"Let this be the last ti."
Folding her red-flowered cotton-padded coat neatly on the ground, Feng Zhi vanished.
The next instant, she reappeared within the eye of the storm—dissolving into the wind itself.
She had found her ho.
And she would guide the storm to its final rest.
......
"I cannot escape... and neither can you."
Amid the ruins, Li Mo’s vision blurred. The Blood God’s words still echoed in his ears.
The power of the masses still flowed into him from the outside world—the only reason his blood-soaked, immobilized form could maintain his Heaven-Earth Manifestation.
He lacked the strength to ponder the words’ deeper aning.
Through the dissipating blood clouds, his wavering gaze first took in the shattered remnants of the Heavenly and Earthly Cities.
Crumbled walls, scattered wreckage, countless corpses.
He stood so high now that the sounds below were inaudible, yet he could see the devastation unfolding afar.
As heaven and earth converged, calamities erupted everywhere.
Volcanoes spewed crimson debris, their ash-choked skies plunging lands into eternal night.
The withered earth cracked like rotting biscuits, torn apart by writhing leviathans before colliding and compacting anew.
A ten-thousand-zhang storm rampaged like a shredder, grinding all into its whirling maw.
Soon, even silence would cease to exist here—only void would remain.
The proud Celestials were returning themselves to the abyssal embrace of heaven and earth.
How reminiscent it was of the moths plunging into flas that Li Mo had once witnessed in the Heavenly Phoenix Domain.
That gentle gaze, transcending ti, t his once more.
Silently waiting.
Waiting for him to make his choice.
Waiting for him to awaken to his inner truth.
"Looks like we might not make it to the wedding after all..."
Li Mo murmured, gripping the Ruyi Golden Staff embedded in his dantian—and wrenching it free.
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