“Has the fairy chosen?” Luo Yi asked with a beaming smile.
Wu Yue said, “Princess, please take this one for now.”
Luo Yi accepted the bronze cup.
Wu Yue then lifted the middle bronze cup and handed it to Bai Qing’er. Bai Qing’er reached out and took it.
Wu Yue lifted the last bronze cup with both hands, graceful and poised, and smiled. “My two sisters truly wish Ruochen and me well. Shall we drink together?”
With that, Wu Yue drank first.
Luo Yi and Bai Qing’er held their cups, exchanged a glance filled with wry smiles and apprehension, then drained them in one gulp and withdrew.
As expected of Wu Yue. She was too formidable. For now, they were no match for her.
While many of the gods present were still bewildered, Zhang Ruochen had already grasped the truth. With Luo Yi and Bai Qing’er’s intelligence, how could they possibly challenge Wu Yue on illusions and runes?
They would surely play to their strengths and avoid her weaknesses.
All three cups contained real wine.
This was not a contest of mastery in illusions or runes, nor a test of Wu Yue’s mental strength. It was a battle of hearts.
They had never intended to reclaim the Heavenly Venerable Treasure Gauze through a mere drinking game. The purpose of staging it was to put Wu Yue in her place and make her lose face in public.
They were betting on Wu Yue’s pride.
There was no need to guess who had devised the plan. It had to be Luo Yi. Only after conceiving the strategy did she draw in Bai Qing’er, using Bai Qing’er’s unique status to create the illusion that the illusions and runes had been set by mental-strength cultivators above the ninetieth order.
From the moment Luo Yi declared that the real wine was poisoned and that choosing correctly meant Wu Yue had to drink it, she had already begun digging the trap, deliberately lulling Wu Yue into complacency while waiting for her to bargain.
In truth, every cultivator present had believed it.
Yet in the end, they still lost to Wu Yue.
Even so, losing to her should not have made Luo Yi and Bai Qing’er wary. They had long anticipated the possibility of being seen through and had prepared countermeasures.
What truly frightened them was that Wu Yue had seen through their intentions yet still gave them a graceful way out, preventing the atmosphere from becoming too awkward. It rendered all their follow-up strategies useless.
When the gods present finally realised what had happened, how would they view the matter?
They would only think that the two women were petty, which in turn highlighted Wu Yue’s extraordinary magnanimity.
In this battle of hearts, they had lost utterly.
None of the gods present were ordinary. One by one, they discerned the subtleties, and their gazes turned to Wu Yue, some filled with astonishment, some deep in thought, some wary, and some silently mourning for Zhang Ruochen.
Ban Ruo stood at a distance, watching Zhang Ruochen and Wu Yue walk into the Temple of Destiny surrounded by gods. She was slightly dazed. She envied Wu Yue, and she also envied Luo Yi and Bai Qing’er.
At least Luo Yi and Bai Qing’er had the courage to act in such a setting.
She did not even have the courage to step forward and set up the drinking game.
Just as they were about to enter the Temple of Destiny, Zhang Ruochen seemed to sense her gaze. He glanced back, but Ban Ruo was already walking alone down the mountain, leaving only a desolate silhouette.
In this life, he owed too many debts.
What he owed Ban Ruo was at least a grand wedding. He still remembered travelling to the Chen family in the Eastern Region with three betrothal gifts, promising that his bond with Senior Sister Yanchen would remain unchanged through three lives, three worlds, and three cycles of reincarnation. Those words still echoed in his ears from time to time.
When he was young, he could promise anything for love, could swear the fiercest oaths for love. But as he grew older, such words became harder to say. Only later did he understand that the more promises one made, the more debts one incurred, and the harder they were to repay. (Some readers may associate this with overdue updates; I clarify that no such implication is intended.)
Memories of the past inevitably surfaced.
The God of Fortune and Wealth stood in for the Void Heaven to officiate, manifesting a colossal divine form. Behind him hovered the three-million-li-high Gate of Destiny, radiant with divine light.
The old clan leader, the Bloodshed War God, the Blood Empress, and other elders took their seats one after another.
The Yin-Yang Divine Master stood atop the Yin-Yang Platform, suspended in mid-air, and proclaimed, “Welcome the bride and groom. Offer sacrifice to Heaven and Earth.”
Boom!
A magnificent altar appeared above the Temple of Destiny, constructed from countless stars, breathtaking in its grandeur. Ancient secret runes covered its surroundings, emanating a thick aura of blood.
Horns, conch shells, reed pipes, and various other instruments sounded together, their music spreading across Destiny God Mountain.
Below the mountain, banquet areas had been set for saints. Billions of them revelled in the music, prostrating toward the altar in the sky.
Zhang Ruochen had assumed it would be an ordinary sacrifice and paid it little mind.
But to his surprise, the sacrifice involved the living beings of an entire macro-world.
At that moment, under the guidance of divine generals, a macro-world billions of li in length emerged from space and rapidly approached the altar.
A brief probe with mental strength revealed that the world was filled with flesh-and-blood beings, their numbers incalculable, perhaps trillions.
Zhang Ruochen’s expression darkened. “Is such a large-scale sacrifice really necessary?”
His voice did not carry beyond them; Wu Yue blocked it with her mental-strength domain.
Wu Yue replied calmly, “The Void Heaven has bestowed this marriage, and the ceremony is held in the Temple of Destiny. A sacrifice of this scale is required.”
“If that is the case, then let this wedding not proceed!” Zhang Ruochen said.
He indeed harboured countless reservations, which was why he had compromised with the Void Heaven and accepted the marriage. But that did not mean he had no bottom line.
Wu Yue remained composed. “The Bloodshed War God, the old clan leader, the Blood Empress, they all know of this.”
“Ruochen, if you call off the wedding over a single sacrifice, do you realise the price you would pay? Do you know how many you would offend? Could you bear that cost?”
“Even if you could, could those you wish to protect bear it? Until you stand unrivalled in the universe, you have no right to indulge in womanly compassion. As your wife, I will not allow you to take a wrong step.”
Sacrificing living beings was commonplace in Hell Realm; no one present saw anything wrong with it.
Sacrificing an entire macro-world would bring blessings and auspicious light that benefited even gods, and the gains for saints would be even greater.
“Remove your mental-strength domain,” Zhang Ruochen said, his voice suddenly cold.
Wu Yue stared deeply at him, disappointment in her eyes.
His aura surged like a divine sword unsheathed. He threw a punch, but three chi out, it struck an invisible barrier of light.
Boom!
The entire Temple of Destiny, and even Destiny God Mountain, trembled slightly.
The tremor was subtle, almost imperceptible, yet it stunned Zhang Ruochen.
He looked at his fist. He already possessed the power to shake Destiny God Mountain?
How was that possible?
Wu Yue’s brows furrowed. She voluntarily dispersed her mental-strength domain and looked outside the hall, toward the depths of the cosmos.
Without the suppression of her domain, Zhang Ruochen sensed an unusual heavenly secret and also looked toward the deep cosmos.
The God of Fortune and Wealth, the old clan leader, Di Lao, and others of sufficient cultivation all did the same, their expressions grave.
Wu Yue’s voice held no warmth. “The old Heaven Lord of the Tianchu Civilisation has fallen!”
From the heavenly secret, Zhang Ruochen had already deduced the outcome. His divine soul reeled as though struck a heavy blow; he could not accept it.
The old Heaven Lord had only recently survived a kalpic tribulation, and his cultivation was close to sealing the heavens.
How could such a figure be killed so easily?
How could he die so suddenly?
Even if a Heavenly Venerable acted, defeating him was one thing, but killing him completely would take time. If the old Heaven Lord faced danger on the starry battlefield, how could the various heavens of Heaven Court not rush to his aid?
There was only one possibility: the old Heaven Lord had detonated his divine source.
Only a detonation of that magnitude could shake the universe and cause even the distant Destiny God Mountain to tremble faintly.
What on earth had happened to force the old Heaven Lord to detonate his divine source?
The Temple of Destiny erupted in uproar. The gods of Hell Realm all knew the old Heaven Lord’s might; he was a true cosmic titan.
Soon, densely packed transmission talismans passed through wormholes layer by layer, arriving from the starry battlefield.
“Great victory! The Tianchu Heaven Lord has fallen. Heaven Court’s starry defences have completely collapsed.”
Boom!
The news was exhilarating.
The gods of Hell Realm cheered loudly, overcome with excitement.
Heaven Court’s starry defences comprised ten ancient civilisations and countless worlds, guarded by innumerable great powers of Heaven Court.
Attacking just the Tianchu Civilisation had taken decades without success, costing Hell Realm dearly.
They had estimated that fully breaching Heaven Court’s starry defences would take at least five hundred years.
Who could have foreseen such sudden great victory?
The Tianchu, Juling, Yanyang, and Cangxu civilisations were all among the top ten ancient powers. Breaching their defences would yield unimaginable wealth.
Devouring them would elevate Hell Realm’s overall strength by a significant margin.
Only Zhang Ruochen’s expression remained grim, his heart burning with anxiety. Countless possibilities flashed through his mind as he worried for the Lord of Divine Island of Death, Luo Ji, Patriarch Yuqing, and others in the Tianchu Civilisation. He wished he could leave Destiny God Mountain immediately and rush to the starry battlefield.
How had such a sudden turn occurred?
Bai Qing’er and Luo Yi both looked at Zhang Ruochen, knowing he must be consumed with worry.
Bai Qing’er transmitted, “Do not fear. The starry defences cannot collapse so quickly. There must be more to this. Wait; more news will surely come.”
Another message arrived: “The Tianchu Heaven Lord detonated his divine source. Feng Tian’s wings burned away, half her body reduced to dust, falling into void space; her fate is unknown.”
“The Nine-Death Heterodox Emperor is gravely wounded; divine blood stains the stars.”
“The Four-Yang Heavenly Lord is gravely wounded; three of his four divine light seals have extinguished.”
“The Void Heaven also joined the battle; the situation is unclear.”
…
The gods of Hell Realm present stopped laughing.
One man detonated his divine source and crippled three Heavenly Venerables, possibly four.
Zhang Ruochen keenly sensed something amiss. How could the Four-Yang Heavenly Lord, one of Heaven Court’s various heavens and the foremost powerhouse of the Yanyang Civilisation, be gravely wounded by the old Heaven Lord’s detonation?
A terrifying conjecture surfaced in his mind.
