flstandardbreds Chapter 932: Sparks of Old Friends
Chapter 932: Sparks of Old Friends
Yun Yao's fingertips brushed against the gilded pillars of the Twin Temples, the cool touch paling the ripples of emotion in her heart. The clamor of war in the Three Thousand God Realms echoed in her ears, and at that moment, the crisp sound of a bell from outside the temple was like a rusty knife, carving open centuries of dusty memories.
"Empress!" A tender, tearful voice burst through the palace gates. As Yun Yao turned, a young woman in an emerald gown stumbled to her knees, the lily-of-the-valley crown in her hair rustling. Her pupils constricted at the familiarity of her features—it was Xiao Cui, the timid servant who had always hidden behind the prince in the cultivation world's palace. Now, she wore the emerald robes symbolizing a priestess of life, her pale face stained with fresh blood.
Chu Mochen had already drawn his sword, blocking Yun Yao's path. Twelve pairs of battle wings stretched out behind him like a golden curtain. Yun Yao, however, raised her hand to hold his wrist, her gaze fixed on the young man who slowly emerged from behind Xiao Cui. He wore a bronze token from the Tempering Body Sect at his waist, and the black iron sword he held in his palm was inscribed with intricate patterns, the hallmarks of the Body Tempering technique she had personally refined in the world of cultivation.
"This is..." Yun Yao's voice trembled slightly. The young man suddenly knelt on one knee, the red mark on his forehead touching the ground. "Master of Lan Realm, my name is Mo Yuan. Three hundred years ago, you saved me on Cangwu Mountain with a healing pill." His voice choked. "If it weren't for the body-tempering experience you left me, Mo Yuan would have been nothing more than a beggar frozen to death on the roadside."
Suddenly, a heavy crash could be heard outside the hall. Yun Yao peered over the crowd and saw Liu Yan'er slumped on the white jade steps, her arms clutching the book "Lanjie Zhiyi" scattered across the floor. The normally arrogant Lord of Karma Hall now looked pale, his fingers trembling as he clutched a page. Yun Yao's mind shifted, and the pages of the book moved without a breeze, revealing a passage written on the yellowed paper:
"In the winter of the 732nd year of the Xiuzhen calendar, Princess Yun Yao rescued a dying boy on Cangwu Mountain and gave him the name Mo Yuan. At the time, the boy's bones were twelve years old, his meridians were completely severed, but his eyes were as bright as stars..."
"So you're the kid from back then," Yun Yao whispered. Mo Yuan suddenly looked up, tears welling in his eyes. "That's right! After you left, Priest Xiao Cui introduced the laws of the Lan Realm into the Tempering Body Sect. Now, our sect is able to physically resist even Nascent Soul cultivators!" As he spoke, he crushed the stone lamp beside him with his bare hands. As the debris flew, pale golden lines flowed on the surface of his skin.
At that moment, Xiao Cui suddenly coughed violently. Drops of blood seeped from between her fingers and dripped onto the ground, transforming into blue flames. Yun Yao's heart tightened. She probed her body with her divine sense, only to discover that Xiao Cui's Nascent Soul was rapidly disintegrating. "This is... Void Invasion!" Chu Mochen frowned, his fingertips gleaming with golden light as he tried to help, but Yun Yao stopped him.
She stared at the dark mist swirling in Xiao Cui's eyes, and suddenly remembered the light cocoon she had seen in the Hongmeng Secret Realm—in every parallel universe, there was a Xiao Cui who died for her. "Tell me, what happened all these years?" Yun Yao's voice was as cold as ice. Xiao Cui laughed bitterly and pulled out a half-bloodstained jade token from her bosom. "My Queen, during the beast tide three days ago, we found this at the ruins of the ancient battlefield..."
The moment the jade token was in her hand, Yun Yao's sea of consciousness exploded. Shattered images sliced through her soul like sharp blades: on the pitch-black altar, countless cultivators were chained through their collarbones. The gray-robed figure in the lead removed his hood, revealing Liu Yan'er, who was supposed to be dead! Meanwhile, Xiao Cui, bloodied, was stuffing the jade token into the gap between the beasts. A sneer from behind made Yun Yao's hair stand on end: "Yun Yao, do you think that creating the Lan Realm can sever causality? The seeds of nothingness were planted a hundred years ago..."
"Impossible!" Liu Yan'er's scream interrupted the scene. She stumbled forward, her nails digging deep into her palm as she snatched the jade token. "I clearly already..." Her words trailed off as she stared in horror at her bleeding fingertips—where the characteristic gray streaks of the Void Heavenly Dao were emerging.
Yun Yao suddenly recalled the truth she had witnessed during the causal reversal in Chapter 918. She abruptly grasped Liu Yan'er's wrist, a primordial purple aura entwining it like a chain. "You said that the Void Heavenly Dao used fragments of my soul to create you. So, do these remaining fragments still retain my perception?" Without waiting for a response, she forcibly activated the laws, countless memories flooding into her mind.
In the darkness, Liu Yan'er's voice was cold and mechanical: "Find Yun Yao's weakness and make her collapse completely in pain." But the scene suddenly distorted, and the girl clutched a blood-stained hairpin against her throat: "Why must I be a shadow forever? I want to see what's so good about that Yun Yao!" Then came the roar of a beast tide. Liu Yan'er, covered in blood, pushed the monk to a safe passage, but her ankle was entangled by a tentacle of nothingness...
"I see." Yun Yao released her hand, and Liu Yan'er slumped to the ground, her eyes filled with bewilderment. She turned to Xiao Cui, who was forcing a smile. "My Lady, when you taught me to identify herbs three hundred years ago, I already knew..." Before she could finish her words, her body had transformed into tiny specks of fluorescent light. Yun Yao hurriedly reached for them, only to catch a wisp of the lingering scent of lily of the valley.
Mo Yuan suddenly jumped up, pointing the black iron sword at Liu Yan'er: "It's you! The beast tides have been frequent in recent years, it must be you who is making trouble in secret!" Yun Yao raised her hand to block the sword, looking at the faint gray lines on Liu Yan'er's wrist: "No, she is also a victim. The Void Heavenly Dao is using everyone, and our real enemy..." Her gaze penetrated the dome of the temple and fell on the gray clouds rolling in the distant sky.
Chu Mochen suddenly grasped her hand, his golden wings spreading out to envelop everyone. "Yao'er, your fundamental laws are fluctuating." Yun Yao was startled to realize that the primordial purple energy within her body and the power of nothingness were violently clashing. Liu Yan'er suddenly let out a bitter laugh. "Indeed, although the Void Mirror is shattered, the Lord's will has long since permeated every inch of the Lan Realm. Do you think that creating a new world can rewrite your destiny? How naive..."
Before he could finish his words, the ground suddenly cracked like a spiderweb. Mo Yuan reacted quickly, swinging his sword at the emerging tentacles, only to see the blade begin to corrode the moment it made contact. Yun Yao took a deep breath and forcibly activated the Principle of Heaven's Defying Dao. The light emanating from her fingertips was no longer purple, but pure silver-white—a new power that merged the power of will and the laws of life.
"Back in the world of cultivation, I taught you how to use herbs to save people." Yun Yao looked at the disappearing image of Xiao Cui and injected silver-white light into the ground. "Now, let me use the same method to cure the world's illness." Wherever the light passed, the tentacles of nothingness turned into light spots, and what gushed out of the cracks was no longer a chaotic aura, but a fresh spiritual power with the fragrance of lily of the valley.
Liu Yan'er stared blankly at the fading gray lines on her wrists, then burst into tears of laughter. "So I can do this..." Her words were interrupted by a violent tremor. A cultivator's cry of surprise rang out in the distance. Yun Yao looked up and saw a massive shadow looming above the temple—the distorted face of Xu Wu Tian Dao, yet with a hint of Xiao Cui's features.
"Yun Yao, do you think that you can become a perfect Heavenly Dao by saving them?" The shadow's voice sounded like thousands of people speaking at the same time, "Look behind you, at that young man named Mo Yuan, what's flowing in his meridians?" Yun Yao's pupils shrank suddenly, and her mind swept over Mo Yuan, and she discovered that there was a gray seed hidden in his dantian, which was absorbing the vitality of the surroundings.
"No!" Mo Yuan suddenly clutched his head and screamed, "I clearly..." His body began to turn transparent, and the moment the black iron sword in his hand fell to the ground, he transformed into a phantom of the void. Chu Mochen reacted extremely quickly, and the sword slashed out with a golden arc of light, but it was easily dispelled by the phantom. Yun Yao suddenly smiled. She took out the wooden box Liu Yan'er had given her, and the cover of the old novel lying inside suddenly glowed.
"You said I wrote in my book, 'True strength lies in giving every life the freedom to choose.'" Yun Yao tossed the novel toward the shadowy figure, and the pages transformed into a sky of flowing light. "But you forgot that the ending of a story is always written by the author and the reader together."
Amidst the dazzling light, Mo Yuan's figure regrouped. He gazed at his undamaged hands, suddenly realizing something. He drew his black iron sword and plunged it into his chest. The gray seed was forced out, only to be annihilated the moment it came into contact with the Law of Will. "So I've always been a chess piece," he laughed bitterly. "But at least I can choose where to place my pieces."
Yun Yao walked up to him and injected the silver-white light into him: "No, from today on, you are one of the guardians of Lanjie. Just like Xiao Cui hoped." She looked up at the sky, where the empty shadows were dissipating, but the gray clouds in the distance were still surging, foreshadowing a greater crisis.
Chu Mochen put his arm around her shoulders, his golden wings rustling behind him. "Looks like we'll have to bring our journey to the Chaos Sea forward." Yun Yao nodded, her gaze sweeping between Liu Yan'er and Mo Yuan, a plan already in mind. As the first rays of morning light illuminated the Twin Temples, she knew this battle with the void had only just begun. And the spark left by the old friend would eventually ignite a prairie fire.