193: Chapter 193 The Poison of Cause and Effect Corrodes the Dao Heart, and the Moon Goddess's Will Shakes

Heaven Burial Palace, Moon Goddess Palace.

The entire divine temple was constructed from ten-thousand-year-old Profound Ice that never melted. Clouds and mist swirled between the temple buildings, and every breath of air carried a coldness and deathly stillness that kept people a thousand miles away.

At the deepest part of the hall, atop a massive lotus platform made of ten-thousand-year Profound Ice, the Moon Goddess's true body sat cross-legged.

She wore a moon-white gauze dress, her long black hair cascading down like a waterfall. Her appearance was peerless, untainted by the mortal world.

But at this moment, on that face which had remained unchanged for ten thousand years like an ice carving, an extremely abnormal flush appeared.

"Pfft!"

A mouthful of golden divine blood sprayed from her mouth without warning, splashing onto the crystal-clear ice lotus.

A sizzling sound erupted as the indestructible ten-thousand-year Profound Ice was actually corroded into tiny pits.

The Moon Goddess snapped her eyes open. In those eyes that once remained as calm as an ancient well...

...there was now shock, fury, weakness, and a trace of confusion that even she herself could not understand.

"Something is wrong... something is very wrong..."

Her delicate brows furrowed as she murmured to herself.

Ever since that soul clone which had descended to the Lower Realm returned in defeat half a month ago, everything had become wrong.

The power the soul clone brought back was severely depleted, and even her Origin had developed a slight crack; this was within her expectations.

After all, that Lower Realm ant named Su Yun indeed had strange methods; even the Clone of that fool Blood Fiend had fallen at his hands.

However, what truly made her heart palpitate were the memory fragments the soul clone had brought back.

Those memories were chaotic yet incredibly clear.

They were filled with the humiliation of being forcibly suppressed, the agonizing pain of her Divine Soul being burned by purple-gold flames, and the disgust of being tainted by filthy Devilish Qi...

If it were only these things, the Moon Goddess would not have lost her composure to this extent.

As a Divine Lord who had wielded power for ten thousand years, the tortures she had seen and the hardships she had experienced far exceeded the imagination of ordinary people.

But the problem was that at the end of those memories of humiliation, pain, and disgust...

...there was actually mixed in a tiny bit of... an indescribable, eerie pleasure that made even her Divine Soul tremble!

That feeling was like falling into an endless abyss, yet at the extreme of that fall...

...experiencing an unprecedented illusion of the Soul itself sublimating.

"Crazy! This is simply insane!"

The Moon Goddess shook her head violently, trying to banish those absurd images from her mind.

She was the Moon Goddess! One of the three Divine Lords of the Heaven Burial Palace! An existence who looked down upon the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands and viewed the passions and desires of all living beings as mere playthings!

How could she possibly have such a lowly feeling?

This must be that ant Su Yun doing something to her soul clone!

It was some kind of vicious forbidden technique she didn't know about, specifically designed to pollute the Dao Heart!

Yes, it must be so!

The Moon Goddess took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

She closed her eyes and mobilized her vast, sea-like Immortal Lord Origin.

She washed over her Divine Soul again and again, trying to completely erase those 'filthy' memory fragments.

However, half a month had passed.

No matter what method she used, no matter how she activated the Lunar Divine Light to purify herself...

...that heat originating from the deepest part of her Divine Soul did not weaken; instead, it grew more intense.

Especially in the dead of night, that heat would surge frantically from the depths of her Divine Soul without warning.

Like a maggot on a bone, it instantly swept through her entire body, making it impossible for her to Cultivate in peace.

Her Immortal Lord Dao Heart, which had been frozen for ten thousand years and which she believed to be indestructible...

...actually developed a tiny crack under the day-and-night assault of this eerie heat!

What terrified her even more was that a man's figure began to occupy her entire mind more and more clearly and overbearingly.

That man wore a black robe, and an indistinct, mocking smile always played on his face.

His eyes were as black as ink, as if they could swallow everything.

His fingers pinched her chin, and the purple-gold flames burning at his fingertips made her wish she were dead, yet also...

"No!"

The Moon Goddess stood up abruptly and paced back and forth in the empty hall, her mind disturbed to the extreme.

She could feel that she was losing control.

This feeling was something she had never experienced in the ten thousand years she had held power.

She didn't even dare to look at those memory fragments anymore.

Because she discovered that every time she looked, the figure of the man named Su Yun would become a bit more deeply etched into her mind.

That humiliating title would also unconsciously whisper again and again in the depths of her Soul.

"Master..."

When those two words once again emerged uncontrollably from her heart, the Moon Goddess trembled all over as if stung by a scorpion.

She discovered with horror that her resistance to those two words seemed... not so strong anymore.

"No! If this continues, my Dao Heart will completely collapse sooner or later!"

The Moon Goddess stopped her pacing, a flash of determination in her eyes.

She could no longer sit and wait for death.

She had to do something.

"That Lower Realm ant... Su Yun... what kind of sorcery did he use?"

"No, I must figure out his background; I must find a way to break this forbidden technique!"

"Yes! Only by understanding the enemy deeply can I find his weakness!"

The Moon Goddess seemed to have found a reason to convince herself, and her originally restless heart miraculously calmed down.

"This is not for myself, but for the overall situation of the 'Purging of the Heavens'! This boy's methods are eerie; even I fell for them. If he is allowed to continue growing, he will surely become a major threat!"

"That trash Blood Fiend can't be relied upon, and the Palace Master is at a critical moment of seclusion. This matter can only be handled by me personally!"

She constantly practiced self-deception, searching for one high-sounding excuse after another for what she was about to do next.

It was as if only in this way could she make her proud self-esteem feel a bit better.

Reason, on the brink of collapse, finally chose to compromise with that desire originating from instinct.

The Moon Goddess took a deep breath and walked back to the ten-thousand-year Profound Ice lotus platform.

She no longer suppressed the heat in her body, nor did she try to erase the memories in her mind.

She simply reached out her jade-like hand and gave a light beckon toward the void in front of her.

Buzz—

An ancient bone mirror, polished from the bones of an unknown beast, appeared out of thin air before her.

Looking at this bone mirror that had once caused her soul clone to fall into an irredeemable state, the Moon Goddess's gaze was complex to the extreme.

There was resentment, humiliation, fear...

But more than that, there was a sense of... urgency and anticipation that she herself had not even noticed.

She bit her lower lip and finally reached out her slightly trembling jade hand, fiercely striking a burst of pure Immortal Lord Origin into the bone mirror.

"In the name of the Moon Goddess, forcibly open the realm passage and connect the Karma!"

"Ye Qingyu, answer me!"

She issued a cold and majestic command toward the bone mirror.

Only, even she herself did not notice that her voice, at the very end, carried a trace of an imperceptible tremor.