35: Chapter 35 Destroy your destiny, grant her a new life

The atmosphere of the entire venue was completely ignited by Shen Xiao's light yet earth-shattering words.

The air seemed to solidify into substance, and tens of thousands of eyes converged on that thin yet upright figure, filled with disbelief, horror, and a trace of morbid excitement.

"He's crazy, this Shen Xiao is absolutely crazy!"

Who is Lin Yun?

The Child of Destiny, the Sect Master's former beloved Disciple; even if he has now been reduced to a prisoner, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse.

You are just an Outer Sect Disciple at the Foundation Establishment Initial Stage; even if you have all the reason on your side, where do you get the confidence to challenge a monster who was forcibly raised to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage by the "Heavenly Dao Compensation"?

This isn't a duel, this is suicide!

On the high platform, the brows of the Qingming Sect Sect Master knitted into a knot.

His deep gaze swept back and forth between Shen Xiao and Lin Yun, as if trying to see through the secrets deep within their Divine Soul.

After a while, his voice, like eternal ice, slowly sounded: "Granted."

Two words, spoken with resounding force.

"Sect Master!"

Nangong Xuan on the VIP seats could no longer sit still; he stood up abruptly, and the pressure belonging to a Golden Core Stage powerhouse spread out without any concealment.

"Lin Yun is the one to whom destiny belongs. Even if he has minor faults, he should be punished by the Sect according to the rules. This Shen Xiao is merely a clown, framing a loyal and good person with conspiracies and tricks. Now, he even wants to commit violence in public, insulting my Nangong Family's future son-in-law. How can you allow him to be so presumptuous!"

His words were half-questioning, half-threatening, clearly intending to use the name of the Nangong Family to suppress others.

However, the Sect Master didn't even lift an eyelid, only saying indifferently:

"A life-and-death duel, witnessed by the Heavenly Dao; this is the rule of our ancestors. If Special Envoy Nangong feels that the rules of the Qingming Sect are not as important as the face of your Nangong Family, you may personally enter the arena and take on this battle for Lin Yun."

Nangong Xuan's face instantly turned the color of a pig's liver.

Let him, a Golden Core Stage cultivator, fight someone at the Foundation Establishment Stage?

If word got out, would he still have any face left for his Nangong Family!

He could only sit down resentfully, casting a venomous glare at Shen Xiao, as if looking at a dead man.

"However,"

The Sect Master changed the subject, and a stick of sandalwood incense as long as an arm appeared out of thin air at his fingertips. With a flick of his finger, it was inserted into the incense burner at the edge of the arena, and green smoke curled upwards.

"One stick of incense is the limit. When the incense burns out, regardless of life or death, the duel ends, and Lin Yun must be taken to the prison."

"Thank you, Sect Master, for your benevolence." Shen Xiao bowed slightly. When he turned his head, the playful smile on the corner of his mouth had turned into cold killing intent.

The Disciples in charge of enforcement received the signal and released their suppression of Lin Yun.

"Roar!"

As soon as the restraints disappeared, Lin Yun was like a prehistoric Vicious Beast that had broken free from its cage, letting out a roar that did not sound human.

His eyes were blood-red, Spiritual Qi surged throughout his body, and the pressure belonging to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage exploded without reservation, whipping up a gale that blew the low-cultivation Disciples under the stage to sway unsteadily.

"Shen! Xiao!"

He roared word by word, and the crimson longsword in his hand emitted a piercing hum,

"I will tear you into ten thousand pieces, light up your Divine Soul as a heavenly lamp, and ensure you never reincarnate for all eternity!"

Before the words had even faded, he had already turned into a blood-colored afterimage, the tip of his sword dragging a long trail of fire as he thrust straight at Shen Xiao's heart.

This sword strike was no longer a sword technique of the Qingming Sect, but a Demonic Path sword move filled with violent and destructive aura—fast, accurate, and ruthless, leaving no room for anything else!

Facing this thunderous strike, Shen Xiao's pupils suddenly contracted.

Too fast!

Lin Yun, who had been forcibly instilled with power by the Heavenly Dao, exceeded the normal range of the Foundation Establishment Late Stage in both strength and speed.

He exerted force with his feet, his figure retreating violently backwards, while his hands quickly formed seals in front of him.

"Bang!"

An ice shield hastily condensed from Spiritual Qi formed instantly, but the moment it touched the tip of the sword, it shattered with a boom, as if it were made of paper.

The searing Sword Qi, its momentum undiminished, grazed past Shen Xiao's chest.

"Sshhh..."

His clothes tore, and a wound deep enough to see the bone extended from his left shoulder to his right abdomen, blood instantly dyeing half his body red.

The intense burning pain and the numbness from the erosion of Devilish Qi surged into his nerves at the same time.

"Dodging? Let's see how long you can keep dodging!"

Having succeeded with one strike, Lin Yun's offensive became even more frantic.

The sword light rained down like splashed ink, turning into a sky full of fire rain, sealing off all of Shen Xiao's retreat paths.

Each Sword Qi contained explosive power, smashing into the hard granite floor of the arena, exploding into charred pits, with stone fragments scattering everywhere.

Shen Xiao was like a small boat in a storm, dodging in embarrassment within the airtight sword net.

His predictive ability was brought to its limit; each time, at the very moment the sword edge reached his body, he twisted his body to avoid vital points with the minimum cost and at the most incredible angle.

But even so, the wounds on his body continued to increase.

The Disciples under the stage were already stunned.

In their eyes, Shen Xiao was completely suppressed and beaten, with no power to fight back; his defeat was only a matter of time.

On the VIP seats, a smug sneer reappeared on Nangong Xuan's face: "Do you see, Lengbai? This is the difference between a firefly and the bright moon. In the face of absolute strength, any conspiracy or trick is a joke."

Xia Lengbai did not speak. Under the light veil of her bamboo hat, her originally cold eyes were now burning with a flame she herself could not understand.

It was restlessness, it was anger, and it was even a strong palpitation originating from the depths of her Divine Soul, an unwillingness to see him fall.

This man, who had stolen her memories and trampled on her engagement, had also personally broken the shackles of fate for her.

She hated him, yet she couldn't help but... hope he would win.

On the arena, Lin Yun had been attacking for a long time without success, and his patience was gradually exhausted.

"It's over! Scum!"

He let out a wild laugh, and all the Spiritual Qi in his body was poured into the sword body without reservation.

The crimson longsword emitted a high-pitched Dragon roar, transforming into a flaming Dragon several Zhang long, opening its bloody maw, and with the terrifying momentum of burning everything to ash, it engulfed Shen Xiao, who was already covered in blood and tottering.

This strike was his strongest killing move.

This strike was unavoidable!

Everyone held their breath, as if they had already seen the scene of Shen Xiao being swallowed and turned to ash by the flaming Dragon.

However, just at this critical moment, in the eyes of Shen Xiao, whom Lin Yun regarded as "dying," a flash of resolute madness suddenly flickered in those eyes that had always remained calm.

Success.

This is exactly what I wanted, this last strike of yours without reservation.

In his heart, he gave an order to that cold, mechanical voice.

[System Function: Destiny Burnout, activate!]

[Warning: The host will permanently reduce Luck by 10 points, confirm?]

"Confirm!"

[Cost paid. Beginning to unseal... millennium cold marrow, 100% power, activate!]

"Boom—!"

An extreme cold that could not be described in words erupted from the center of Shen Xiao's body!

That was not ordinary ice-type Spiritual Qi, but an absolute zero that originated from the Origin of the world, capable of freezing rules and solidifying time and space!

In an instant, the wind and clouds over the entire Martial Arts Arena changed color.

The searing fire elements in the air were instantly drained and solidified, turning into crystalline ice shards dancing all over the sky.

That flaming Dragon with its terrifying momentum, the moment it touched this cold air, seemed to have been pressed with a pause button. Its ferocious expression froze on its face, and starting from the Dragon head, it froze inch by inch, finally with a "crack," turning into a sky full of gorgeous ice crystal powder, drifting down gracefully.

The cold air swept across the entire arena like a tsunami, and then spread to the area under the stage with unstoppable momentum.

"Crack! Crack crack!"

The hard granite ground, the towering spectator stands, the horrified faces of the Disciples, and even the dust floating in the air were all covered by a thick layer of white frost.

The entire Martial Arts Arena, in just three breaths, turned into a dead, icy, snow-covered world!

Everyone was shivering with cold, and the Disciples with weaker cultivation had icicles hanging from their eyebrows and hair.

And in the center of that ice and snow world, Lin Yun, maintaining the posture of charging forward with his sword, was completely frozen into a lifelike human ice sculpture.

Only his head could barely turn, and in those blood-red eyes, they were filled with extreme horror and bewilderment.

He didn't understand how a piece of trash at the Foundation Establishment Initial Stage could explode with such world-destroying power!

Shen Xiao slowly straightened up. Under the effect of the cold air, the wounds on his body had stopped bleeding and were covered with a thin layer of frost, his face pale as paper.

Forcibly activating the full power of the millennium cold marrow caused a huge burden on his body, but his eyes were terrifyingly bright.

He ignored his severe injuries, stepped on the ice crystals covering the ground, and walked step by step to the frozen Lin Yun.

"I... I surrender!"

Lin Yun's Divine Soul was screaming wildly; fear had completely overwhelmed his anger.

Shen Xiao, however, acted as if he hadn't heard, simply raising his right hand.

The chilling cold air condensed on his joined index and middle fingers, turning into an incomparably sharp ice blade.

"No... don't... you can't cripple me! I am the Child of Destiny!"

Under the gaze of tens of thousands of horrified eyes, Shen Xiao's hand, without the slightest hesitation, plunged directly into Lin Yun's Dantian with a squelch!

"Ah!"

A miserable howl that did not sound human resonated through the sky.

[Destiny Plunderer, activate!]

A demonic red light flashed in Shen Xiao's eyes, and his fingers, covered in cold air, violently stirred and grabbed inside Lin Yun's Dantian!

"No!!!"

Lin Yun felt that the most important thing in his body was being forcibly stripped away by a barbaric and overbearing force.

The intense pain originating from the source of life made him struggle wildly, but his frozen body couldn't even move a pinky finger.

Under the clear gaze of everyone, Shen Xiao forcibly extracted a fist-sized light source, pulsing with golden flames, from Lin Yun's Dantian!

That was... the Fire-type Heaven-grade Spiritual Root!

It was the Foundation bestowed upon Lin Yun by the Heavenly Dao, his greatest asset that he was so proud of!

The moment the Spiritual Root was extracted, Lin Yun's aura, like a punctured balloon, decayed wildly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Foundation Establishment Late Stage, Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, Foundation Establishment Initial Stage... Qi Refining Stage... Finally, he couldn't even condense a trace of Spiritual Qi in his body.

He was completely crippled!

From a high-and-mighty heaven-favored son, he had been reduced to a useless person, worse off than a Mortal.

Shen Xiao released his hand, letting Lin Yun slump on the cold arena like a pile of mud, with more air going in than coming out.

Holding that hot, still slightly pulsing Spiritual Root, he turned around, his gaze piercing through the snow-filled sky, precisely locking onto that beautiful figure on the VIP seats who was stunned like a wooden chicken—Xia Lengbai.

"Special Envoy Nangong, you are right; a firefly, indeed, cannot compete with the brightness of the moon."

Shen Xiao's voice was not loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears.

"But now, I insist on letting the firefly shine brighter than the moon!"

"How dare you!" Nangong Xuan was both shocked and furious, almost charging off the stage.

The corners of Shen Xiao's mouth curled into an evil and charming arc; he completely ignored his shouting to stop.

He flicked his finger.

That Fire-type Heaven-grade Spiritual Root, representing supreme talent, turned into a gorgeous golden stream of light, tearing through the cold air. Under Nangong Xuan's shocked and angry gaze, and under the stunned watch of the entire audience, it submerged precisely into the center of Xia Lengbai's brow.

"Boom!"

Xia Lengbai's body shook violently, and a vast and gentle force instantly surged through all her limbs and bones.

At the same time, those plundered, broken memory fragments deep within her Divine Soul, under the stimulation of this same-Origin power, surged back!

The North Sea Ice Abyss, the millennium cold marrow, those cold eyes that also carried a trace of mockery...

She "saw" how she had been used as bait by Lin Yun, and how she had been forcibly "saved" by Shen Xiao.

She "saw" how Shen Xiao, right in front of her, had taken away the Opportunity that should have belonged to Lin Yun.

So, he was not just a simple plunderer.

While plundering Lin Yun, he had also severed his own fate as a "sacrifice."

Xia Lengbai slowly removed her bamboo hat, revealing a face so beautiful it was breathtaking, yet streaked with two lines of clear tears.

She looked at the man on the arena, covered in blood and like a Demon God. In those cold eyes, love and hate, gratitude and resentment were crazily intertwined, and finally, they transformed into a morbid, twisted obsession.

"Shen Xiao..."

Her red lips parted slightly, and what she uttered was, for the first time in her life, so clearly and profoundly, the name that had been branded into her Divine Soul.