182: Chapter 182 Without Him, How Can There Be Perfection?

But that brilliant heavenly majesty, which commanded the eight directions and suppressed all things...

...still caused the purple spiritual light around Li Yingran to stall.

"Human Emperor's Providence?"

"Hmph, a spent force!"

A hint of contempt flashed in Li Yingran's eyes.

Even if the Hehuan Sect was only a mortal sect, it was still a cultivation sect.

How could it be harmed by the national providence stirred up by mortal ants?

Even if the power of countless ants gathered together, they were still just ants!

She lightly raised her jade hand and made a grasping motion; the falling snow instantly froze, turning into countless ice crystals.

Behind the ice crystals, the Hehuan Sect's unique power of charm and soul-disruption was also carried.

As long as one was hit, they would instantly fall into a state of sluggishness, waiting to be pierced into a sieve by the sharp ice crystals.

"Protect the King!"

The three Secret Guards forced a breath, ignoring the massive gap in cultivation levels, and channeled their internal spiritual power, using various means to meet some of the ice crystals.

After all, there was a master-servant contract between them and Su Chen.

If Su Chen died, they would definitely not survive.

For a moment, blade light, fist shadows, and talismans flickered.

These offensive methods were like a mantis trying to stop a carriage, shattering one after another in the purple ice storm.

The three of them spat blood and were sent flying.

Although they didn't perish, their bodies were riddled with bloody holes from the ice crystals, and they had completely lost their fighting capacity.

Seeing this, Su Chen's expression turned grave as he danced with the Human Emperor Sword in his hand.

The sword light transformed into barriers, blocking and shattering the incoming ice crystals one by one.

This was not Zhaoge City, after all.

His cultivation was not much higher than that of the three Secret Guards.

At the moment, he could barely protect himself and truly couldn't afford to rescue the three of them.

Su Chen's sword moves were grand and majestic.

They were vaguely accompanied by dragons and tigers, and the cries of phoenixes.

Every strike resonated with the surrounding worldly energy, appearing extraordinarily brilliant.

However, the Human Emperor's lineage excelled at governing, maintaining, and soothing the mountains and rivers, but was weak in individual combat and breaking through sharp defenses.

If Su Chen were in a city defense situation with hundreds of thousands of troops...

Let alone Li Yingran, as long as the immortals didn't violate taboos to act against him...

There was almost no one in the mortal realm who could do anything to him.

Unless it was the King of the Ji Dynasty, who also invoked the Zhou Dynasty national providence.

But in this one-on-one situation...

Facing Li Yingran, the Vice Sect Master of the Hehuan Sect, who was proficient in slaughter and had a higher cultivation...

Although Su Chen's sword momentum seemed grand, he was inevitably at a disadvantage.

His straightforward gentlemanly tricks were somewhat inadequate against the opponent's tricky and ruthless charm-based killing moves.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The sound of metal clashing rang out incessantly.

After another collision, the web of Su Chen's thumb and forefinger split open, and blood flowed down his wrist, staining the sword hilt red.

He retreated step by step, leaving deep marks in the snow beneath his feet.

More and more blood spilled from the corners of his mouth, and his aura became increasingly chaotic.

Li Yingran's offensive, however, was like a maggot on a bone, becoming faster and more dangerous.

People of the Hehuan Sect were naturally skilled in versatility.

At this time, around her body, there were not only the main attacking weapons...

But also various weapons like sabers, swords, daggers, and whips formed into near-solid forms by her powerful cultivation.

All eight types of armaments were deployed.

It could be called a weakened version of the "Return of the Lord of War."

And the many weapons she condensed had extremely flexible attack patterns.

With one moment of carelessness...

A purple whip shadow bypassed the sword light and lashed heavily at the vulnerable spot under Su Chen's ribs.

"Pfft!"

Su Chen's body shook violently; he staggered back several steps and only managed to stand firm by leaning on his sword.

Blood instantly soaked his clothes, and his vision darkened.

He could feel that the national providence he had forcibly mobilized was rapidly draining, and the golden light on the Human Emperor Sword was also dimming.

"It's over, Tyrant."

Li Yingran gave a charming laugh, her figure appearing before Su Chen like a ghost.

Her fingertips, painted with bright red nail polish, were surrounded by a deadly purple-black energy as they pierced toward Su Chen's brow.

"The head of an ordinary mortal emperor in exchange for a bright future for my Hehuan Sect—it's an honor for you!"

Su Chen gritted his teeth, trying to raise his sword to block.

"System, System!"

"Your Host is about to die, the investment is going to fail!"

"Can you make another temporary exception?"

The System's lazy voice sounded.

[Host, you've done quite well.]

[To think you've already uncovered the truth of little Demon Concubine Su Daji's background.]

[Since you've reached this point, don't you realize that besides the four of you and Li Yingran...]

[...there is actually one more person here?]

Su Chen was stunned.

Su Daji?

That "weakling" he had been protecting behind him, who was out of her wits?

Almost at the same moment this thought appeared...

...a familiar yet exceptionally powerful aura suddenly erupted from behind him.

A voice that was charming and pleasant, yet much more ethereal and clear than her previous purely seductive and sweet tone, rang out.

"Martial Aunt."

"You said I was indecisive and stubborn."

"You said I wasted this physical shell and failed the sect's great cause."

She slowly raised her head, her fox-like eyes—once hollow and lost—now reflecting the falling snow and Su Chen's blood-stained back.

"But did any of you ever ask me..."

"...who exactly I am?"

"Who exactly... do I want to become?"

The moment the last word fell...

...the sound of something shattering suddenly echoed in the air.

The "Supreme Forgetting Joy and Union Canon."

Only when one is moved to the point of true sincerity can it be awakened.

When did she fall in love with Su Chen?

She couldn't remember clearly.

Her memories kept rewinding.

The frost on the carriage window, the confession on the Star-Picking Terrace, the tenderness in the Zheng Territory...

It wasn't that late.

Perhaps it was when Su Chen said those words:

"In three days, Su Daji shall be enfeoffed at the Deer Terrace; violators will be executed."

At that moment, the seed in her heart had quietly sprouted.

And the strongest layer of shackles that restricted the growth of this fragile seed was called hatred.

Today...

...at this moment when the truth was revealed, when she recognized her love, and when she made her choice...

...it collapsed and disintegrated.

The cultivation technique instantly reached perfection.

With Su Daji as the center, an unimaginable and majestic suction force suddenly erupted.

The pores all over her body opened, and countless visible pale purple light spots emerged from the void, flooding into her body frantically.

Her cultivation aura also soared wildly like a rocket.

Peak Qi Condensation... Early Houtian... Mid Houtian... Late Houtian... Houtian Perfection...

*Crack!*

The sound of an invisible barrier breaking rang out.

Xiantian Realm!

The moment Su Daji broke through, a powerful spiritual pressure exploded outward with her at the center.

Li Yingran's sharp, lethal finger strike was actually forced several inches off course by this impact of spiritual pressure.

It only grazed Su Chen's ear, bringing with it a trail of blood droplets.

"What? This is impossible!"

Seeing this, Li Yingran turned pale with horror.

For the first time, she felt...

...that things had gotten out of control.

What she had originally envisioned was that, under their framing of Su Chen...

...even if Su Daji didn't have a sky-high hatred for Su Chen, she at least shouldn't have any good feelings for him.

But this man before her, who had been beaten to the point of coughing up blood on the ground and seemingly had nothing but a good-looking face...

(The climax of Volume 3 begins...)