321: The beauty of the world

"No, no, no! You can't do this!"

"I only have the cultivation of a God King now, you can't do this! It's not fair!"

The old man shouted, filled with terror.

"In Great Chu, I am the rules."

As the words fell, Chu Yuehua raised her jade hand and then gently made a grasping motion with her crystalline white jade fingers.

"Aaahhh!"

The old man suddenly felt himself being squeezed by an incredibly terrifying force; he couldn't move, and intense pain radiated throughout his entire body.

"No, no, no... No!"

"Spare me! Your Majesty the Chu Yuehua... I was wrong, please don't kill me! I was really wrong!"

Suspended in mid-air, he pleaded.

Bang!

Chu Yuehua didn't hold back at all, directly clenching her hand and crushing him to pieces.

A mist of blood rose as a Saint Venerable powerhouse fell.

She slowly descended, landing in front of Qin Wushang, her beautiful eyes sweeping over him.

To the side, Chu Yuer hurriedly lowered her head in a formal salute.

"Greetings, Your Majesty!"

The words were spoken, but for a long while, there was no response.

Chu Yuer felt that things were very bad.

For a moment, she didn't know what to do and couldn't help but reach out to pull at Qin Wushang beside her.

Qin Wushang also stood there, motionless.

It wasn't that he didn't want to move, but that he couldn't.

He had frozen.

With just one glance, Chu Yuehua had turned him into an ice sculpture.

"Your Majesty... this..."

Chu Yuer looked up, her gaze meeting that cold and indifferent look.

At this moment, she felt as if she were looking at a piece of ice.

To think there was such a cold person in this world.

"Watch this place."

Chu Yuehua finally spoke, uttering brief words.

"Ah..."

Chu Yuer was stunned for a moment.

Before she could react, the figures of Qin Wushang and Chu Yuehua had already vanished... to the Imperial Palace.

The Chu Heaven Palace.

This was the most majestic palace in Great Chu.

The palace roof, paved with gold bricks, pierced the clouds, and the glazed tiles shimmered with an amber glow under the daylight; standing by the railing, one could see thousands of miles of mountains and rivers at a glance.

To the north were continuous verdant mountains like black pigment, and to the south were city walls with curling cooking smoke.

The prosperity and grandeur of Great Chu were all spread out like a scroll at this high vantage point.

Qin Wushang and Chu Yuehua appeared here.

"Revered Master! Why did you bring me here?"

The cold Qi surrounding Qin Wushang's body melted like ice and snow in the warm wind outside the palace, his eyes full of confusion.

"What do you think of Great Chu today?"

She opened her vermilion lips, her voice as clear as a cold spring, her gaze passing over layers of palace buildings to look at the distant horizon.

The wind blew slowly, carrying the crisp sound of copper bells from the palace corners, gently lifting her plain white silk long dress.

As the hem of her skirt fluttered, a pair of straight, slender jade legs were faintly visible, their lines as smooth as if carved from the finest mutton-fat white jade.

Extending down from the waist, there wasn't a single redundant curve; the curves of her calves were tight yet soft, and her ankles were slender and delicate. Standing on the gold bricks, she was like a crane perched on a branch, possessing a natural, otherworldly elegance.

Her skin was a very pale porcelain white, shimmering with a delicate moonlight under the sky's light, as if fine pearls were covered with a layer of gossamer; even the traces of the wind passing over were clearly visible, untainted by a speck of dust.

When the hem of the skirt was blown higher by the wind, one could see that section of exposed calf skin, a sight of incomparable beauty.

Even more impossible to look away from were her bare jade feet.

They were a pair of feet that could be called a masterpiece of nature!

The arch of the foot was perfectly curved, as if carrying the most exquisite rhythm of heaven and earth; the toes were rounded and full, with a faint pink hue, like unblossomed flower buds on a branch in early spring.

Looking at them, Qin Wushang felt his breath hitch, his gaze seemingly drawn by a magnet, unable to move away even half an inch.

These legs, these feet, were actually such a peerless sight!

Standing here and looking... it seemed to have even more of a feeling!

Slender but not weak, fair but not pale, they looked extremely smooth... although he had played with them many times and controlled them many times, in this current situation and setting... they had a different flavor!

Qin Wushang's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed his saliva, almost subconsciously uttering a single word, his gaze still glued to that section of exposed jade leg and foot.

"Beautiful."

"Do you want a taste?"

Chu Yuehua's brow suddenly darkened, and her clear voice was instantly tinged with icy coldness.

In an instant, Qin Wushang felt his surroundings become incredibly cold.

"Cough, cough, cough... Revered Master has misunderstood, I meant that this mortal world is very beautiful!"

Qin Wushang snapped back to his senses, hurriedly waving his hands, a stiff smile forced onto his face.

"Look at these vast mountains and rivers, the continuous city walls, and the cooking smoke in the fields, the lights in the city—is this not the breath of the mortal world?"

"Year after year, the mountains and rivers remain safe, and the world is at peace; this is true beauty..."

"Yes, right, I was saying the mortal world is very beautiful!"

He spoke very quickly, as if making an excuse.

"The mortal world is not beautiful."

Chu Yuehua's voice remained cold, her gaze falling on the distant mountains and rivers, a trace of undetectable loneliness flitting through her eyes.

"How could the mortal world not be beautiful?"

Qin Wushang asked in return.

Chu Yuehua's gaze was still fixed on the distant mountains and rivers, the hem of her plain white skirt trembling as it was lifted by the wind.

"The beauty of the mortal world is all fleeting shadows, gone in an instant."

"Mountains and rivers will collapse, the cooking smoke will dissipate; all the beauty seen by the eyes is, in the end, nothing but a reflection in a mirror or a moon in the water, shattering at a touch."

She looked up, her eyelashes drooping slightly to hide the surging gloom in her eyes, her bare feet gently grinding against the gold bricks.

That touch of nature-sculpted white made the surrounding palaces lose their color, and her tone became even flatter.

"Moreover, the beauty of this mortal world has always been wrapped in bone-chilling cold, hiding bone-eroding darkness."

"The 'year after year' of beauty in your eyes is merely because someone has blocked all the world's ugliness for you."

The wind carried her words as they spread, and the copper bells on the eaves of the Chu Heaven Palace rang softly, complementing the coldness in her words that flooded the steps of daylight.

Qin Wushang looked at her profile as she gazed at the distant mountains, raising his hand to brush away a strand of hair blown before his eyes. His gaze fell toward that stretch of connected mountains and rivers, and also toward her plain white figure.

"Revered Master, but there is no such thing as complete beauty in the world."

"If mountains and rivers collapse, there will be new peaks rising again."

"If the cooking smoke dissipates, there will also be sparks reignited; those shattered reflections and moons in the water, when pieced together, are the true appearance of the mortal world."

He took half a step forward to stand side-by-side with her, his fingertips lightly touching the railing. His gaze swept over the flowing clouds in the sky, then fell back to her bare jade feet, his tone softening a bit.

"With the chill at one's side, one knows the value of the warm sun."

"With shadows hiding on the path, one understands the brilliance of the starlight."

"Those uglinesses and chills were never things outside of beauty, but the background that makes beauty feel more real."

"The part that is not beautiful is originally the most vivid stroke within the beauty of the mortal world."

The wind wrapped his words and dropped them by her ear; Chu Yuehua's eyelashes trembled slightly, and her fingertips inadvertently curled.

"Where there is hope, there is a beautiful mortal world."

Qin Wushang added softly, his gaze fixed on Chu Yuehua's plain white profile, his tone softening with a touch of warmth.

"Just like you."

Chu Yuehua nodded.

"Being able to give people hope is enough; it doesn't have to be perfect."

"Occasionally tasting it even provokes Life Qi; this is the truest you, the beautiful you."

The two stood shoulder to shoulder, discussing the heart and also the Dao.

Chu Yuehua's Dao.

"Revered Master, have you decided to merge your body with the Dao of Great Chu?"

Qin Wushang asked.

"No... that is the final path; before that, I have another path to choose."

"Before that, I need to clean out the people."

"Chu Tianhai has made a move; Acquired, take this token and go to the Border Wasteland."