Zhang Mingyuan looked down.
A porcelain-carved little girl had appeared in his line of sight.
She had two high pigtails pointing to the sky, and wore a violet-gold bellyband.
The little girl looked up, her two large eyes watery, desperately tugging at his clothes.
Zhang Mingyuan was stunned.
“Little sister, who are you?”
Nearby, Su Jinxue's eye twitched violently.
Her usually cold face almost lost its composure, her features nearly twisting.
Her left eye was wide open, while her right eye squinted into a slit.
She had seen it with her own eyes.
Just a breath ago, he was a majestic, middle-aged man in violet-gold robes surrounded by Dao laws.
The next breath, he shrank directly into a three-foot-tall little loli!
This contrast ground the three views of a grand Red Dust Immortal right into the dirt.
“I'm your little Heavenly Dao sister, big brooo~”
The little loli squeezed her throat, her voice cloyingly sweet, as she rubbed her two small hands together in front of her chest.
“Can you share just a little bit of that source energy with me?”
Zhang Mingyuan's scalp went numb.
His stomach churned.
“Holy crap!”
He cursed loudly, took three steps back, and pointed at the little loli's nose.
“Change the hell back right now!”
To be fair, the little girl was indeed adorable.
But at the thought that beneath this skin lay a gross old man of a Heavenly Dao who had lived for countless millennia, Zhang Mingyuan wanted to draw his sword and slash.
“Big brooo, don't be like that.”
The little loli pouted pitifully, tears welling up in her eyes.
“I'm naturally genderless and formless, able to transform into anything.”
“I only transformed into the appearance that is most suitable and most likely to move you right now.”
The veins on Zhang Mingyuan's forehead throbbed.
He stepped forward, raised his hand, and bent his finger.
Thump!
A solid flick to the forehead was delivered ruthlessly to the little loli's head.
“Shut up!”
Zhang Mingyuan gnashed his teeth fiercely. “If you talk in that squeaky voice again, I'll chop you to pieces along with the rest!”
The little loli clutched her head, grimacing in pain.
With a flash of violet-gold light, the majestic middle-aged man stood there once more, except now he had a large, red, swollen bump on his forehead.
The Heavenly Dao rubbed the bump and coughed dryly, trying to save face.
“Worthy brother, your elder brother is also doing this for your own good.”
He pointed to the immortal Dao source energy pouring down like a waterfall from the vault of heaven.
“With such a massive amount of source energy, and you having just stepped into the Immortal Realm, your foundation is still unstable. You won't be able to handle it!”
“Take your brother's advice, let me help you share some of the burden.”
Zhang Mingyuan sneered.
He stabbed the Dog Slaughterer into the ground in front of him and crossed his arms.
“Cut the crap.”
“It's my stuff. Even if I can't absorb all of it, it's not your turn to share it.”
“Wait until I'm done absorbing, then we'll talk!”
The Heavenly Dao's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly while rubbing his hands.
“Alright! Worthy brother, you go first, you go first!”
Zhang Mingyuan wasted no more words and sat cross-legged in the void.
Above his head, the Taiyuan Annihilation Samsara Great Dao transformed into a massive black hole.
A violent suction force erupted.
The endless immortal Dao source energy turned into a massive white dragon, roaring as it surged into the black hole.
Time passed.
Forty-nine days flew by in the blink of an eye.
The cultivators of both Myriad Snow Palace and Qingyun Heaven stared up at the vault of heaven, their necks aching, yet not a single one was willing to leave.
Chu Jinghong stood at the very front of the crowd, hands on his hips, his face full of pride.
“See! I told you Master had a backup plan!”
“He's been absorbing this source energy for a full forty-nine days, and there's still some left over!”
For once, Bai Yao did not argue. She merely gripped the Chixia Sword tightly, her eyes filled with awe.
Above the vault of heaven, Zhang Mingyuan suddenly opened his eyes.
Two divine rays of interwoven black and white light pierced through the void.
He stood up.
His entire aura had completely transformed.
It was no longer the spiritual energy of a mortal cultivator, but the immortal Dao laws that reigned supreme over all other Daos.
However, his state of immortality was entirely different from ordinary people.
Ordinary immortals possessed an otherworldly air, holy and flawless.
Yet by Zhang Mingyuan's side, black and white Dao rhymes lingered.
An aura of annihilation, decay, and ominousness followed him like a shadow.
Looking from afar, he resembled a peerless demon god crawling out of the abyss.
The cultivators below exchanged glances.
“Our Sacred Lord's immortality... why does it look a bit sinister?”
“What do you know!”
Chu Jinghong barked, “This is called being so righteous that it looks sinister! Master cultivates the Dao of Annihilation, so of course he is different from the rest!”
Realization dawned upon everyone, and they shouted in unison.
“The Sacred Lord is mighty!”
“Two immortals in one lineage of Myriad Snow Palace and Qingyun Heaven! Invincible!”
“What Sacred Lord? He is an Immortal Lord now!”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
The cheers shook the heavens and earth.
Standing amidst the clouds, Zhang Mingyuan felt the surging immortal energy within his body.
He had only absorbed a third of the massive source energy before reaching saturation.
The remaining two-thirds continued to churn in the sky.
Beside him, the Heavenly Dao had long since grown impatient.
Seeing Zhang Mingyuan stop, he could not wait any longer and opened his mouth wide.
The violet-gold laws transformed into a giant net, scooping up all the remaining immortal Dao source energy and swallowing it in one gulp.
“Burp—”
The Heavenly Dao let out a loud burp, his face flushed red as he grinned so wide his back teeth were showing.
“Worthy brother, how generous! You are truly generous!”
He patted his stomach, absolutely delighted.
“With this source energy, it won't be long before the Xuanling Realm's plane level restores to the rank of the Immortal Realm!”
“From now on, you are my blood brother. If anyone dares to cross you, your brother will strike them down with lightning!”
“Yes, yes, yes! Big Brother, stop talking for a second.”
Zhang Mingyuan turned his head, his gaze sweeping past the clouds to search for that familiar red figure.
Su Jinxue stood quietly not far away.
Her red robes were like fire, her beauty peerless.
She watched the immortal Dao laws flowing around Zhang Mingyuan, watching him finally fulfill his wish and ascend to the Immortal Realm.
Within those red eyes that were usually cold and aloof, the ice and snow melted away.
She blossomed into a smile.
This single smile was so captivatingly beautiful that it caused the heavens and earth to lose their color.
Zhang Mingyuan's heart skipped a beat.
In five thousand years, the number of times this woman had smiled could be counted on one hand.
He was just about to tease her with a few words.
To his surprise—
Su Jinxue's smile suddenly froze.
The light in her eyes rapidly dimmed, and her body went limp, falling straight down from the vault of heaven.
Like a red butterfly with broken wings, drifting helplessly in the wind.
“Wife!”
Zhang Mingyuan's eyes nearly split from rage and fear.
His figure flashed, tearing through the void to instantly appear beneath Su Jinxue.
With his arms outstretched, he steadily caught her light, delicate body in his embrace.
She felt freezing cold to the touch.
Su Jinxue's body temperature was terrifyingly low.
Zhang Mingyuan panicked.
Without the slightest hesitation, he channeled the newly condensed immortal energy, pouring it frantically into Su Jinxue's body.
His divine sense followed the immortal energy to inspect her.
In the next instant, Zhang Mingyuan felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
Su Jinxue's dantian was gone.
Where the Extreme Cold Frost and Samsara Great Dao should have resided, there was now only a void of ruins.
Her meridians were shattered, and her origin was completely depleted.
This was by no means an ordinary injury.
It was more like she had been forcibly holding herself together with some incredibly overbearing power until now. Once that power dissipated, her entire dantian completely collapsed and ruptured!
“How could this happen...”
Zhang Mingyuan's hands trembled.
He desperately circulated his immortal energy, trying to reconstruct that ruined space, but it was like a clay ox entering the sea—there was absolutely no response.
Violet-gold light flickered.
The Heavenly Dao's avatar appeared by their side.
He put away his previous playful grin, inspecting her with a grave expression.
“Gasp—”
The Heavenly Dao sucked in a breath of cold air.
“This girl is simply too stubborn.”
Zhang Mingyuan suddenly looked up.
“What on earth is going on!”
The Heavenly Dao sighed, pointing at Su Jinxue's shattered dantian.
“It must have been when that immortal shadow descended earlier and cast down that destructive finger.”
“Your wife knew she was no match, so she forcibly reversed her Extreme Cold Frost Great Dao.”
“She intended to detonate her Red Dust Immortal origin to block that finger and preserve your life.”
The Heavenly Dao shook his head, his tone filled with lament.
“Later, that bizarre sword of yours scared off the immortal shadow.”
“Although she didn't end up sacrificing herself, the backlash from reversing the Great Dao completely destroyed her dantian.”
“She had been holding on by a single thread of breath until she saw you ascend to immortality with her own eyes. The moment her mind relaxed, the damage completely erupted.”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Mingyuan's head buzzed.
He lowered his head, staring at the unconscious woman in his arms.
Her pale cheeks, her tightly shut eyes.
The fierce aura of her chasing him with a sword in the past was entirely gone, leaving behind only a heartbreaking fragility.
“You really are a fool...”
Zhang Mingyuan grit his teeth, his voice hoarse.
“It's been five thousand years. When will you ever listen to me just once!”
His tone was fierce, but his eyes were bloodshot and brimming with tears.
Immortal energy poured out of him continuously, turning into a cocoon of interwoven black and white light that wrapped tightly around Su Jinxue, forcibly anchoring her rapidly fading life force.
“Don't waste time talking.”
The Heavenly Dao urged from the side, his expression anxious.
“Her origin is already shattered. Your immortal energy can only keep her barely breathing.”
“Quick! Bring her to my place!”
The Heavenly Dao waved his hand, tearing open a rift leading to the Xuanling Realm's Heavenly Dao origin space.
“We don't have much time!”
Zhang Mingyuan scooped Su Jinxue up.
His figure transformed into a streak of light and dashed into the spatial rift.
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