The scene suddenly twisted.
Time advanced within the illusion.
Zhang Mingyuan found himself standing in a dark, damp underground cave.
Ahead of him, Su Jinxue, dressed in white robes, was staring at him coldly.
The sword in her hand dripped with blood, a clear sign that she had just been through a fierce battle.
Decades had passed.
In this illusion, they had already fought for decades.
The moment Su Jinxue saw Zhang Mingyuan, she swung her sword at him without a single word.
Ice spikes filled the sky, pouring down like a torrential rain and sealing off all his paths of retreat.
That desperate posture, as if she were determined to take him down with her, made Zhang Mingyuan's scalp tingle.
“Are you sick in the head?!”
Zhang Mingyuan scrambled away in a disheveled manner to dodge the fatal blow, cursing loudly.
“There are so many treasures in this secret realm that you aren't grabbing, so why are you staring at me and trying to chop me to pieces?! You crazy woman!”
Su Jinxue didn't reply at all. Every strike was lethal, a completely reckless and suicidal style of combat.
Zhang Mingyuan cursed her ancestors in his mind as he ran.
What was wrong with this woman?
Back then in the real world, although she was also cold, she at least possessed some rationality and would run if she couldn't win.
Why was the Su Jinxue in this illusion so insanely crazed?
It was as if she had been programmed with a rule that she must kill Zhang Mingyuan, completely devoid of any logic!
The scene shattered and reassembled once more.
This time, Zhang Mingyuan stood on a massive arena floating in the clouds.
He looked down at the Qingyun Heaven Daoist robes he was wearing.
Soul Formation Stage.
He was now the direct disciple of the Qingyun Heaven Sacred Lord.
The arena was surrounded by cultivators from all walks of life, all fighting to seize a stone radiating a seven-colored glow in the center of the stage.
Beside Zhang Mingyuan stood several geniuses of Qingyun Heaven.
One of them, dressed in white and holding a fly-whisk, was squatting on the ground, muttering to himself as he studied the spatial array runes at the edge of the arena.
Lingxuzi.
“Old Ling, stop looking and hurry up and help me fight!” Zhang Mingyuan kicked Lingxuzi.
Lingxuzi didn't even look up. “What's the rush? This array is incredibly exquisite. Once I crack it, we can just carry the entire arena away.”
Zhang Mingyuan rolled his eyes.
Just then, an incomparably sharp sword light descended from the heavens, slicing the arena directly in half!
Su Jinxue trod through the air, descending upon them.
The aura around her was cold to the extreme, and she released the pressure of the Soul Formation Stage without reservation.
The ruthlessness of her swordplay and the sharpness of her moves were truly chilling.
Zhang Mingyuan raised his sword to meet her.
“Clang, clang, clang!”
The two clashed frantically in midair, each collision triggering a violent storm of spiritual energy.
The longer Zhang Mingyuan fought, the more alarmed he became.
Something was wrong.
This swordplay of Su Jinxue's was not something a Soul Formation Stage cultivator should be able to display.
Every move carried a determination to kill, with no wasted motion whatsoever—it was born purely for slaughter.
He couldn't help but mutter in his heart, “Was Su Jinxue really this fierce back then?”
...
The flow of time in the illusion became completely chaotic.
Zhang Mingyuan could no longer remember how many times he had fought Su Jinxue.
They fought from the Golden Core Stage to the Nascent Soul Stage, and from the Soul Formation Stage to the Void Refining Stage.
Every single meeting was a life-or-death struggle.
Under the progression of the illusion, Su Jinxue's hatred for him had reached an unimaginable level.
No one knew how many more years passed.
At the Qingyun Heaven Sacred Ground, Zhang Mingyuan was drinking tea and discussing the Dao with his close friend Lingxuzi.
“I say, Old Zhang, you should know that female devil has gone into death seclusion, right? If she succeeds, she will attain the Dao and become an immortal!”
Zhang Mingyuan sneered. “So what if she does? Is she going to kill me?”
“You, you're already five thousand years old, yet you still have this same attitude.”
Lingxuzi shook his head and let out a heavy sigh.
“Be careful. That female devil is not to be trifled with. Don't play around too much one day and end up not even knowing how you died.”
“Oh, fine, fine, I get it!”
Zhang Mingyuan replied, then raised his teacup, just about to take a sip.
Suddenly.
The wind stopped.
The clouds stilled.
A wisp of extreme cold descended from the nine heavens without any warning.
This coldness was overbearing to the extreme, instantly spreading throughout all of Qingyun Heaven, and even the entire Eastern Territory.
Countless crystalline snowflakes drifted down from the sky.
Every single snowflake contained the power of laws capable of freezing the soul.
Then, a rift opened in the sky, and countless golden lights poured down like molten glazed glass.
The golden glow carried faint traces of immortal music, drifting down in threads...
Zhang Mingyuan suddenly stood up, staring intently at the sky.
This was not the path of a Red Dust Immortal.
This was the sign of ascension into a Heavenly Immortal!
In this illusion, Su Jinxue had actually chosen not to attain the Dao as a Red Dust Immortal, but was instead about to directly ascend to become a Heavenly Immortal!
Right at that moment, the void above Qingyun Heaven tore open.
Su Jinxue, dressed in white robes, slowly descended.
The aura around her had completely transcended the realm of mortals; it was the law of the true Immortal Dao.
In the next instant.
She crossed the distance of space, appearing directly in front of Zhang Mingyuan.
A cold, fair, and completely emotionless hand tightly choked Zhang Mingyuan's neck, lifting his entire body into midair.
Before this law of the Immortal Dao, Zhang Mingyuan's Mahayana Stage soul had absolutely no power to resist.
Su Jinxue's crimson eyes, devoid of any emotion, stared coldly at him.
“Zhang Mingyuan, how do you plan to die?”
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