Ye Fan held the Yao Guang Holy Maiden in his arms, feeling that warm softness — from the outside it appeared extraordinarily intimate, yet his divine sense was like a cold wind sweeping up remnants of snow, his killing intent without end.
This was a divine sense battle. The blazing golden sun transformed into flames, enveloping and surrounding Yao Xi’s spiritual consciousness, burning away without cease, seeking to reduce it to ash and smoke.
Though the two of them spoke in pleasant enough tones, when their hands moved, both sought nothing but to destroy the other utterly.
The Yao Guang Holy Maiden let out a pained gasp. In moments, more than ten wisps of spiritual consciousness had been melted away — she had grown noticeably dimmer.
“Yao Guang Holy Maiden, you haven’t the slightest chance!” Ye Fan pressed in step by step.
At the same time, his two hands encircled her heavenly jade form, moving freely without restraint — warmth and softness filling his palms — disrupting Yao Xi’s state of mind, stoking her shame and fury so that her spiritual consciousness could not properly concentrate.
Yet at this very moment, Ye Fan suddenly felt an enormous danger. The Yao Guang Holy Maiden smiled beguilingly — ten thousand forms of grace and charm blooming in an instant, profoundly captivating.
“Little man — go to your death.”
Her words were extremely gentle, like a spring breeze upon the face, like the rippling of soft water — yet the killing intent within them was heart-stopping.
After grinding through dozens of wisps of spiritual consciousness, Ye Fan was shocked to discover that the innermost core of her divine sense had erupted with a blinding brilliance — like a sun bursting apart.
“Boom!”
And truly, it did shatter. The spiritual consciousness fractured and crumbled, burning like a nebula — and from that most primordial point, a terrifying pulse erupted outward, causing everything around it to collapse rapidly.
Ye Fan’s divine sense was powerful, but it too instantly sustained severe damage. He had not imagined that Yao Xi would be this utterly resolute — in the final moment, shattering the source of her own consciousness, seeking mutual destruction.
He felt the threat of death with absolute clarity. His divine sense scattered in every direction, fleeing the heart of the storm — but it all happened too suddenly. Even though he had been somewhat prepared, his divine sense was still violently shaken.
“Boom!”
Ye Fan nearly fell unconscious. The powerful blazing golden sun was shattered into several pieces and nearly extinguished altogether, leaving him feeling deeply weakened.
The one thing he could be grateful for was that the source of his sea of consciousness had not been damaged. Given some time to recover, everything could be restored.
The golden divine sense rushed together rapidly, reforming as a single blazing sun — though dimmer than before, no longer as brilliant and dazzling.
“Yao Guang Holy Maiden…” Ye Fan’s voice turned cold. He shook the soft jade form in his arms.
At this moment, Yao Xi’s upper body was bare — like congealed, flawless jade, a perfect work of art — yet she lay completely motionless.
“Has she truly died like this?” Doubt and uncertainty roiled within Ye Fan.
Just now it had reached the extreme of danger. He had nearly perished himself. Had his counterpart truly shattered her divine sense, ceasing to exist in this world entirely?
“Yao Guang Holy Maiden — I don’t believe you’re dead.” Ye Fan’s lips curved in a cold smile. His large hand closed around her and moved freely.
Yet sacred ground was desecrated, and the Yao Guang Holy Maiden had absolutely no reaction.
Ye Fan could not be certain. His hands moved across her body, striking and patting — but he found that the divine power fluctuations within her were slowly growing still, approaching complete extinction.
The jade body was no longer supple — it was turning cold and stiff. The entire person truly lacked vital energy now. The fluctuations of life were gradually ceasing.
“Rip!”
Ye Fan removed the rest of her garments, letting this alluring form be completely exposed to open air — ice-skin and jade-bone, flawless and immaculate, breathtaking to behold.
His counterpart still showed no reaction, still as a jade carving — motionless, sitting quietly on his lap.
Ye Fan released a thread of spiritual consciousness, probing into the depths of Yao Xi’s sea of consciousness. He truly could not believe that she would simply die like this.
“Boom!”
At that very moment, an overwhelming suppressive force came pressing down upon him. The Moon Palace was shaking — descending, pressing toward his spiritual consciousness.
“I knew you weren’t dead!” Ye Fan’s spiritual consciousness retreated rapidly.
“Inconceivable — I burned away so much spiritual consciousness, even the puppet-seal core I spent years refining was shattered, and still I could not kill you.” The Yao Guang Holy Maiden’s expression was solemn: “The strength of your divine sense surpassed every expectation I had of you.”
A cold wariness rose within Ye Fan. Just now, the source of his sea of consciousness had nearly been shattered. This Yao Guang Holy Maiden still had hidden means he did not know about. He was glad he had stayed clear-headed throughout.
“Yao Xi — tell me what else you have in reserve. If you have nothing left, then I won’t stand on ceremony.” In the outside world, his fingers moved across that jade form.
Within the sea of consciousness, the Yao Guang Holy Maiden’s expression shifted. She sensed every bit of it, and her voice went cold: “In that case, let us perish together.”
Her spiritual consciousness began to burn. The Moon Palace trembled continuously, slowly flying out — pressing down toward Ye Fan in suppression.
“I burn my spiritual consciousness, bring forth the Moon Palace — and shatter your sea of consciousness!” Yao Xi cried out softly.
Seeing her willing to risk everything for mutual destruction, Ye Fan stepped back decisively. His spiritual consciousness burst forth entirely, blocking at the outer edge of her brow.
“Wish to emerge? Impossible. Even if you burn every last wisp of spiritual consciousness, I will not let you bring out the Moon Palace!” Ye Fan used his divine sense to seal her brow, preventing her from breaking through.
“Boom!”
The Yao Guang Holy Maiden’s sea of consciousness shook. She was preparing to strike a life-or-death blow.
“If you keep pushing, don’t blame me for being unrestrained.” Ye Fan moved across her body with his hands, roaming freely: “Let me see what is so different about this so-called Holy Maiden…”
The Yao Guang Holy Maiden was seized with shock and fury. The thing she feared most had finally come to pass — Ye Fan was truly preparing to “go through with it.”
His fingers glided lightly. Every inch of that heavenly physique’s tender, delicate skin was touched — warmth and softness filling his palms, a fragrance like orchid filling his senses. Except for the very last threshold, the Yao Guang Holy Maiden’s jade form held no more secrets from him.
“If you won’t compromise, I truly don’t mind letting something wonderful happen.” Ye Fan paused, then continued: “Now — I’ll give you a third choice: recite the ancient scripture of the Yao Guang Holy Land for me.”
He knew that if he had proposed such a demand from the very beginning, she would certainly have refused. But now, in this moment of utter desperation, giving Yao Xi a sliver of hope — she might very well yield.
Yet the outcome went beyond Ye Fan’s expectation. The Yao Guang Holy Maiden did not even hesitate: “You can abandon that fantasy entirely!”
She understood clearly that at this point, yielding would only mean letting him gain benefit for nothing. She refused swiftly and decisively.
“In that case, let something wonderful happen.”
Ye Fan held the Yao Guang Holy Maiden in his arms, no longer holding back. His hands moved freely across her jade form, then he stood up, positioning her on the stone table within the pavilion.
At this point, only the very last threshold remained. Yao Xi’s white jade form lay before him — every secret laid completely bare.
The Yao Guang Holy Maiden — her jade skin, her heavenly body, her lines of exquisite beauty tracing a breathtaking silhouette — now utterly without a single thread of covering. Flawless and immaculate, crystalline and captivating — enough to mesmerize all living beings.
Long lashes, eyes like black gemstones, cheeks of jade, a graceful slender neck, a full and ample bosom, a waist that a hand could encircle, rounded and full proportions, long and straight jade legs — any man who beheld her would have his blood rushing.
The Yao Guang Holy Maiden, who in ordinary times stood high above all, enveloped in an endless sacred halo — wherever she went, the focus of every eye, looked up to by many men — was now laid upon a stone table, stripped bare in a way utterly beyond imagination.
If news of this were to spread, it would certainly shake the entire Southern Region, robbing many of sleep — impossible to accept.
Ye Fan was very calm. He stood before the stone table, making no immediate move — quietly observing her.
Though the Yao Guang Holy Maiden seemed like a demoness, at a moment like this she could not be indifferent. Her voice trembling, she said: “In that case — let us perish together!”
“Boom!”
She burned her divine sense, making the Moon Palace tremble. A diamond-shaped bloodstain appeared at her brow — like a cracked seal.
Yao Xi, regardless of any cost, finally managed to bring out the Moon Palace after all!
The Moon Palace was like a mountain — its momentum overwhelming and matchless, beyond all ability to resist.
“So in the end you’ve made this choice — refusing to spare any cost in your desire for us to perish together. Pity — I will not die.” Ye Fan drifted back in retreat.
Since he could not kill her, he would let her kill herself. As for the so-called beauty, he had no time for it now.
“From the beginning, all I wanted was to survive — to carve out a path to live. Everything I did was simply means toward that end.”
“Yao Guang Holy Maiden — lamentable, truly lamentable. I’ll burn a few sheets of paper in your memory…” In an instant, Ye Fan retreated dozens of meters.
The Moon Palace shattered the pavilion and hung suspended in the air. Yao Xi burned her divine sense, enveloping that perfect physical form.
Yet Ye Fan’s smile froze in that instant.
The cold laughter of the Yao Guang Holy Maiden came: “Though my spiritual consciousness has been burning, I have kept a shred of my source within the Moon Palace. Before long, I can recover — and now you can no longer bind me.”
“Boom!”
At that moment, an even more terrifying surge of energy came — more fearsome even than Yao Xi burning her spiritual consciousness. A destroying aura blanketed the heavens and earth.
A figure of transcendent, unmatched grace, clad in silver battle armor, stood not far from the jade platform — it was precisely the deity that had materialized from the Yao Guang Holy Maiden’s Dao Palace.
“No!” the Yao Guang Holy Maiden cried out.
Ye Fan’s expression also changed completely.
The deity had been unable to hold back Ye Fan. Now, arriving here and witnessing his attempt to desecrate the Yao Guang Holy Maiden, it had opened the domain gate in this place — and then shattered the jade platform, causing the void to collapse entirely.
The Yao Guang Holy Maiden had painstakingly devised her plan and was on the verge of escaping — only to have the deity she had manifested deploy exactly this move.
There was a brief gap in the timing — incredibly short — but the outcome was completely different, with unforeseeable and terrible consequences.
Ye Fan cursed and fled for his life. His divine power was sealed and he had no cauldron to shield his body. After the void collapsed, the obliterating force it produced was something he could not resist at all.
As he fled at full speed, he waved the Yao Guang Holy Maiden’s breast-covering in the air: “Yao Xi — if you manage to survive, come and exchange the Yao Guang Holy Land’s ancient scripture for this breast-covering in the future…”
“When the day comes, I will take your life!” The Yao Guang Holy Maiden’s jade body, bare, shimmered and glowed in the sunlight — breathtakingly beautiful to the utmost.
“I’ll be waiting! If you don’t come, I’ll auction it off to the entire world — ha ha ha…” Ye Fan laughed freely.
The two struck at each other and deployed every means as each fled for their lives.
Throughout that region, the void collapsed entirely, erupting outward and running rampant in every direction.
Boom, boom, boom!
The void’s collapse represented the annihilation of the real world. Except for great experts, no cultivator could resist this force. To be swept into it would certainly mean being reduced to fine powder.
Ye Fan could not draw on his divine power. His speed was still great, but in the end he still could not fully avoid the shockwaves at the outer edges.
It was not the region where the void had actually collapsed — only the faintest ripple of residual energy at the outermost fringe — but even that sent him flying through the air.
In this moment, even with a body as powerful as his, he could not endure it. His entire body cracked and rattled as he was sent flying hundreds of meters through the air, plunging into a mountain ravine below.
The Yao Guang Holy Maiden fared even worse than him. She had only made it to the edge when the obliterating aura behind her enveloped her — and she cried out in alarm.