It was over.

The moment Liang Tingyu was deceived by Jian Chou, this battle that had to be fought to the death was already finished.

Though the spectators didn’t know exactly what method Jian Chou had used at that moment to make Liang Tingyu retreat a step in the midst of such a favorable situation, pointlessly losing her advantage, the result was already obvious.

“The Dijiang Wind Thunder Wing…”

A labored voice echoed from some corner of the White Silver Tower.

Finally, someone had dug up memories related to this from those somewhat distant years sixty years ago, sighing in an indescribable tone.

The Dijiang Wind Thunder Wing Dao seal—that was a “natal Dao seal” that had disappeared from the Nineteen Continents for a long time and hadn’t appeared for ages.

In the past, when Jian Chou was still at the Golden Core stage, bearing this seal and fighting fiercely above the empty sea, she had drawn everyone’s attention. Though most of them had never seen it with their own eyes, they could imagine—

Today at this moment, this Yashan eldest senior sister’s magnificence must surely surpass the past.

The massive wing, carrying golden phantoms, spiraled with ancient runes. On every smooth feather, one could still see the wind it carried and the thunder it wrapped…

Just now, with this single wing beat, it had returned clarity to heaven and earth.

How could Liang Tingyu, who had already developed thoughts of retreat and lost her previous advantage, be her match?

In an instant, she was utterly routed.

The reversal of the situation happened in the blink of an eye.

How many people still hadn’t recovered their senses? Even including Liang Tingyu herself.

The mandarin duck battle-axes were her natal magical artifacts cultivated for many years. After killing her beloved from the past, she had even used secret methods to refine his spirit and soul into the axes.

It could be said that the pair of mandarin duck battle-axes bound her life and his soul.

Now that Jian Chou had risen with the Dijiang Wind Thunder Wing, she had already shattered this pair of mandarin duck battle-axes to pieces.

The male cultivator’s phantom that had originally floated behind her was instantly torn to shreds, and even she herself only felt her five organs burning like fire, her brow pierced as if by lightning, as though even her soul was about to be split apart!

Pain!

Pain that could drive one mad!

If it were any person of weak will, they would probably have been unable to endure and would be rolling on the ground under the assault of multiple injuries. But Liang Tingyu still stood.

Within her body, there seemed to be a strange power supporting her.

Though she was trembling and swaying, on the verge of collapse!

Yet she had not fallen!

Her eyes, now cleared of gloom, gazed at Jian Chou at this moment, yet her heart was filled with countless feelings of absurdity: Lost, she had actually lost just like this?

All because of that moment’s hesitation regarding Jian Chou’s sword strike!

One wrong move, and the entire game was lost!

By the time she realized something was wrong, there was no longer any possibility of turning the tables.

In this battle, she had not been defeated in cultivation, nor in magical artifacts, nor in any other external things. She had only been defeated by herself…

Or it could be said, she had been defeated by Jian Chou as a person.

Carefully recalling this battle, it could be said that the scene where she had been calculated by her was almost unavoidable. From the very beginning, she had already been scheming!

Her every step, every reaction, was all within the other party’s expectations.

Looking back afterward, it might seem simple.

But if truly placed in that position, if she were Jian Chou at that time, she probably couldn’t have done it so seamlessly, with such deep scheming, taking such desperate risks!

“If I had retreated and withdrawn, delaying even a moment, the one facing the butcher’s blade now would be you.”

“Indeed.”

Jian Chou was noncommittal, her entire person had already relaxed. Because she had already determined that Liang Tingyu at this moment was at her wit’s end—even if she didn’t kill her, she wouldn’t last much longer.

“So perhaps sometimes luck might also be a kind of strength.”

“Luck?”

Upon hearing this, Liang Tingyu couldn’t help but laugh, as if she had heard the world’s most amusing joke.

Jian Chou remained silent.

After Liang Tingyu had laughed enough, she gradually stopped.

The look in her eyes as she regarded Jian Chou again carried a kind of mockery, yet also faintly a different kind of admiration, only letting out a cold laugh: “I am already fish and meat on your chopping block—why must you still be so hypocritical?”

If at that moment Jian Chou hadn’t been completely confident in her “retreat,” how could she possibly have risked everything to gamble?

It was because she had determined that she would retreat that she had calculated thus.

From beginning to end, where was there any talk of “luck”?

Jian Chou only smiled.

The phantom of the Dijiang Wind Thunder Wing had gradually faded from behind her, but that golden feather suspended before Liang Tingyu remained solid, showing no signs of disappearing.

“Ceremonial Wine Liang’s schemes and methods are one in a thousand, but unfortunately, conspiracies and calculations violate my greatest taboo—this life ultimately cannot be spared.”

This life ultimately cannot be spared!

At this moment, Jian Chou had already raised her right hand, light flowing between her fingers. With just a thought, just a movement of her fingertip, that golden feather hanging before Liang Tingyu’s throat would instantly take her life!

But at this time, after hearing Jian Chou’s words, Liang Tingyu threw back her head in laughter, then let out a long sigh: “Since I decided to set foot on this path, I never thought there would be a day I could retreat unscathed. Today, being defeated by your hand, I submit willingly…”

Halfway through her words, her voice suddenly paused.

The black energy and runes around her body had all dissipated, and her eyes, now restored to clarity, slowly looked along the circle of open or closed carved windows of the White Silver Tower, as if looking at each person behind those windows.

Then she slowly continued: “However, I also don’t like being utterly defeated.”

Don’t like being utterly defeated?

Jian Chou was startled, momentarily not understanding the meaning of this phrase.

Liang Tingyu didn’t explain to her either, only suddenly hanging a three-part eerie smile at the corner of her lips, actually asking what seemed like a completely unrelated question: “You’ve never fought with a Nascent Soul old monster before, have you?”

“…”

Indeed she hadn’t, especially this kind of life-and-death combat.

But why was Liang Tingyu asking this?

Wait, Nascent Soul stage?!

In this instant, Jian Chou’s tightly furrowed brow suddenly raised, a trace of alarm appearing in her eyes for the first time, her mind already flashing like lightning through those things she had read in ancient texts.

“Careful! She’s going to self-destruct!”

Before Jian Chou could confirm further, a sharp and experienced cultivator in the White Silver Tower had already detected Liang Tingyu’s abnormality at this moment, shouting at the top of his lungs without thinking!

“Hahaha…”

Liang Tingyu’s laughter had already become frenzied. Her severely injured body trembled continuously with this laughter, yet in her dantian, a somewhat dim golden light began to shine, continuously moving toward her head.

In the blink of an eye, that mass of golden light emerged, transforming into a small figure three inches tall.

Observing its form and appearance, it was exactly the same as Liang Tingyu herself!

The Nascent Soul stage was called a “qualitative change” stage precisely because of the appearance of the “Nascent Soul.”

Once a cultivator achieved the Nascent Soul, it was equivalent to having an extra life. For cultivators still in the Nascent Soul stage, this benefit wasn’t yet prominent, but in the next realm—the Soul Separation stage—cultivators could manipulate their Nascent Soul to leave their physical body.

Even if the physical body was gone, as long as the Nascent Soul remained, the cultivator would not die.

Though Liang Tingyu had not reached the Soul Separation stage and her physical body and Nascent Soul could not yet separate.

Her late Nascent Soul stage cultivation was genuine. The tiny Nascent Soul condensed the essence of her lifetime’s cultivation—even severely injured, it still contained enormous energy.

And “Nascent Soul self-destruction” could release this lifetime’s essence and power in an instant!

How terrifying would such a disaster be?

Even this White Silver Tower, standing a hundred zhang tall, would probably be razed to the ground!

At this moment, seeing Liang Tingyu’s mad state with her Nascent Soul already separated from her body, all cultivators who knew the stakes couldn’t help but gasp in unison, their gazes fixed on Liang Tingyu’s Nascent Soul figure filled with terror!

“Dodge quickly!”

“Run!”

“She’s truly mad!”

…

Countless cultivators in the White Silver Tower were already in danger, and even Shen Yao, the Grand Marshal from Tongguan Station in the southeastern wilderness, couldn’t help but change color in horror.

But all these changes happened far too quickly.

Not to mention that after the Nascent Soul broke free from the shackles of the physical body, its speed only increased. In the blink of an eye, it had already risen to mid-air, blazing with light.

Thousands of piercing golden rays, like sharp arrows, penetrated through the tiny Nascent Soul.

In that moment, a terrifying fluctuation spread outward in all directions with Liang Tingyu’s Nascent Soul as the center!

Jian Chou, who had originally been standing on the Across-the-Shore Platform, would definitely bear the brunt. But at such close distance, how could she avoid it even if she wanted to?

Not to mention there was still Zuoliu trapped in the cage on the platform, having lost all his power.

Jian Chou had no intention of retreating even half a step. Golden dragon scales instantly covered her entire body again, and she once more gripped the Deer-Cutting Knife!

Seeing this, Bai Yin in the elegant room upstairs nearly went red-eyed with anxiety.

At this moment, he couldn’t care about much else, diving down directly from above, grasping a vertical bar on the left side of the cage with one hand, lifting it while shouting “retreat first,” wanting Jian Chou to avoid this oncoming impact.

But at this moment, Jian Chou didn’t retreat.

And suddenly didn’t need to retreat either.

In the void, a slightly rough, slender palm gently extended.

As if treating it as nothing, silently and unharmed, it passed through the various terrifying spatial fluctuations produced the moment before Liang Tingyu’s Nascent Soul self-destruction, passed through that golden light that could easily penetrate human flesh and blood…

Just like casually catching a tender fledgling, it caught that Nascent Soul about to explode in mid-air!

What an inconceivable scene this was?!

All who witnessed this scene, including Jian Chou, hadn’t reacted at all and couldn’t imagine—to achieve such ease, what terrifying cultivation would be required!

“Wanting to die? How could it be so easy?”

A voice that was neither light nor heavy, carrying emotions that were neither laughing nor mocking.

After this hand appeared, a sleeve of black fabric with gold thread quickly appeared in the void, followed by a heavy, oppressive long robe, and a tall, distinguished figure.

Sharp-cut features and long eyebrows like ink paintings, after experiencing these years of commanding wind and clouds, had condensed several parts of imposing pressure; a pair of deep eyes still faintly showed traces of the old marks carved by Yashan’s wind and moon from the past, as if they could contain mountains, rivers, sun and moon, the turning of stars and shifting of constellations.

Only compared to those years, they were deeper and more inscrutable.

The moment they saw his face clearly, countless cultivators in the White Silver Tower nearly jumped up from the ground in shock, momentarily forgetting even to flee and hide!

Jian Chou was even more stunned.

All movements paused at this moment, all words also vanished at this moment.

Only her hand gripping the Deer-Cutting Knife trembled slightly beyond her control.

Qu Zhengfeng looked over at exactly this moment.

No one knew whether he had detected something. Everyone only saw that though he had caught Liang Tingyu’s Nascent Soul with one hand and firmly imprisoned it, he didn’t even spare it a glance.

As if even looking once would be a waste of effort.

Just like this…

Applying force with his five fingers, he gently squeezed!

“Pop!”

That Nascent Soul, which had originally stabilized again, was actually crushed to pieces by Qu Zhengfeng with his bare hands!

Thousands upon thousands of blazing rays of light, accompanied by terrifying fluctuations surging like tidal waves, spread wildly in all directions, but after spreading not very far, they quietly dissipated…

One of the three Ceremonial Wines of the Night Navigation Ship, the female cultivator with the most prominent reputation in Mingri Xinghai in recent years, Liang Tingyu—

Had thus perished!

All who witnessed this scene felt bone-deep chilling coldness crawl over their entire bodies, and at this moment, they dared not move at all.

A late Nascent Soul stage cultivator!

And it was even Nascent Soul self-destruction!

What terrifying power was this? Yet in his hands, it was so worthless, so casually dismissed!

The violent fluctuations produced when crushing the Nascent Soul didn’t even damage half a corner of his clothing!

Dark light flashed through his eyes. He had already understood all of Liang Tingyu’s memories from her lifetime, and a faint smile slowly appeared at the corner of his lips, though it was completely impossible to judge whether it was sincere or distant.

His gaze had been on Jian Chou from beginning to end, never moving away.

“Not seen for a full sixty years, little junior sister, you’ve made considerable progress…”

Little junior sister.

These three words sounded perfectly normal, yet falling on Jian Chou’s ears, they were so jarring. Scene after scene from that frustrating battle atop Yashan’s Huanqiao Peak in the past, every word and phrase, emerged one by one.

“I just wanted to tell you that you’re not yet qualified to be Yashan’s eldest senior sister.”

“Little junior sister’s ‘eldest senior sister’ position came too easily, too pampered…”

“If you don’t submit, I’ll beat you until you do.”

…

In the past, in front of others, he had always properly addressed her as “eldest senior sister.” Only in private would he use that almost indifferent attitude to call her “little junior sister.”

Now, in front of these cultivators of Mingri Xinghai, this “little junior sister”—was it mockery, or was it mockery?

Jian Chou looked back at him, seeing the familiar features carrying an unfamiliar aura, suddenly feeling an indescribable sensation in her heart.

When entering the star sea, she had heard all kinds of strange and wonderful rumors.

But only now did those countless rumors truly overlap with the person before her, making that feeling of an old friend being no more so real, so concrete.

His name, his identity—

Over these sixty years, throughout Mingri Xinghai, there was no one who didn’t know, no one who wasn’t aware!

Yet Jian Chou only felt strangeness.

After a long silence, a long gaze, she finally slowly nodded, using a tone she couldn’t even explain herself, slightly reserved, smiling as she returned the courtesy: “Your Majesty the Sword Emperor, I have long admired your reputation.”