Volume One: The Misty Immortal Palace Chapter 134: Farewell

This blue dragon was the manifestation of Luo Tianyi's primordial spirit. She had detached her soul and entered her own body for the sole purpose of slaughtering Yu Nan to vent her burning hatred.

She had not expected that Zhou Hao, whom she had previously swallowed, would reappear. Not long ago, Zhou Hao had forced his cultivation to the Great Immortal Realm using the lingering immortal intent left by Deng Tulang, and with the aid of the peerless "Slaying Void Gourd" and a strange black stone sword, he had managed to kill her—partly because she had just broken free and underestimated her opponent. Now that Zhou Hao was once again thwarting her plans, Luo Tianyi felt as if she were losing her mind; the figure that had always haunted her thoughts became even more impossible to banish.

"Deng Tulang, I have been betrayed by you my entire life. Even if you are dead, I will have your disciple buried with you. Don't try to scare me with some secret weapon; I am someone who has already died once. What else could possibly frighten me?"

Above, Zhou Hao, holding Yu Nan, had flown to the base of Luo Tianyi's throat. Embedded in the wall of flesh there was a translucent blue bead, the size of a dragon's eye.

"Found you—the Sea-Suppressing Bead!"

Zhou Hao began to chant, and the yellow-skinned gourd hovering above his head spun rapidly, its mouth aimed directly at the blue bead.

"Absorb!"

At his command, the Sea-Suppressing Bead was forcefully pulled from the flesh wall. The blue dragon below sensed this immediately and cried out in alarm, but it was already too late.

At such close range, the bead was sucked into the gourd in the blink of an eye. The process seemed effortlessly simple.

However, a horrifying transformation immediately gripped her body. Her blood withered, her flesh rotted, her bones fractured, and her aura collapsed, as if she had suddenly been struck by the Five Decays of Heaven and Man. Outside, Luo Tianyi's body began to decompose and dissolve at an alarming rate.

"Ah! You dare to steal my Sea-Suppressing Bead? I will slaughter you! You will pay a price ten, a hundred times more miserable than this!" The blue dragon roared in fury as she felt her immortal power dissipating along with her crumbling body.

*ROAR!*

With a final dragon cry, Luo Tianyi's entire physical form exploded. Ripples of energy surged through the vast starry void, causing nearby asteroids to shatter and fall like a dazzling rain of starlight.

Three figures remained in the void: the blue dragon, Zhou Hao, and Yu Nan. None of them had been harmed.

"My apologies. I guessed you would self-destruct, but since this body belonged to the leader of Yuhu, such an explosion means nothing to Yu Nan." A red energy shield surrounding Zhou Hao and Yu Nan slowly faded away.

The blue dragon arched her back, glaring at the man and woman before her. However, her gaze soon shifted to the distance; her Great Immortal-level consciousness instantly sensed others watching from afar.

"The Sea-Suppressing Bead is stolen and my body is destroyed. I am now only in my primordial spirit state. This brat is the new master of the Slaying Void Gourd, and the woman beside him is at the mid-stage of the Great Immortal Realm. If I fight now, I won't gain any advantage. I should find a body to possess first!" Luo Tianyi’s mind raced, and she reached a decision.

Swishing her dragon tail, she abandoned Zhou Hao and Yu Nan, surging toward the distant direction at a speed exceeding light, moving like a teleportation. In a single breath, she reached her destination.

On a small asteroid, the ten remaining leaders of the four major factions were facing their doom. They had witnessed the Yuhu leader's head being swallowed by the dragon manifestation earlier, and terrified, they had fled. After escaping to a distance, they had slowly returned, reluctant to abandon the Sea-Suppressing Bead—a treasure of an Immortal King.

When they had intended to return to the Cloud-Misty Immortal Palace to investigate, they had encountered the battle between Yu Nan and Luo Tianyi. They decided to watch from the sidelines, hoping to scavenge the spoils, but instead, they had invited their own destruction.

The blue dragon, now radiating a fierce golden light, her true form stretching a hundred feet long like a mountain, blocked the path of the ten leaders.

"Spare us, Great Immortal! We were blind and failed to recognize your power. Please, let us live!" Despite their usual arrogance, the ten leaders were quick to realize the gravity of their situation.

"If you want to blame someone, blame yourselves for delivering yourselves to me. My body is gone, so I will make do with yours!" the blue dragon sneered, her voice resonant.

With that, she transformed into a beam of golden light and dove into the leader of the Yuhu third faction.

Before he could react, the Yuhu third leader was successfully possessed.

Just like that, all three leaders of Yuhu had perished!

Watching this, the remaining nine leaders had only one thought: *Run! Run as fast as you can!*

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...* The nine scattered in three directions. From behind them came a thunderous vibration.

In the sky above each of the three groups, massive deep-blue dragon claws appeared, blotting out the sun like a mountain range.

The leaders of Fengmo were the first to face the attack. The third leader, Qiefeng, unleashed his "Soul-Devouring Palm," a jade-green hand the size of a hill, striking the dragon claw. The other two leaders followed suit. A gale whipped through the cosmos as the three jade palms combined to resist the scaled claw.

It was in vain. The difference between a Great Immortal and a High Immortal was like heaven and earth. The palm strikes were like tickles. With overwhelming force, the dragon claw crushed the jade palms, shattering the leaders' hands on the spot. Then, the claw grabbed their heads as if they were mere chicks and dragged them back to the possessed Yuhu leader.

Almost simultaneously, the same fate befell the six leaders of Huoyuan and Leishan. Facing such a powerful enemy, even these notorious space pirates fell into despair. Resistance was useless.

"I am not reconciled! I am so not reconciled!" the leader of Huoyuan roared, even as his head was gripped by the claw.

"I haven't become a king yet! I cannot die! I cannot die!"

The "Yuhu third leader" stepped on the dragon's back and laughed. "If you want to be a king, then merge into my body! Your power will be combined and used by me—that is what it truly means to be alive! Hahahahaha!"

As soon as he finished, a massive dragon head manifested, opening a bloody maw with fangs like swords. The nine leaders were tossed into the dragon's mouth like feed.

The process was seamless. The "Yuhu third leader" swelled, then rapidly shrank, revealing the form of a beautiful young girl, her left hand clutching a trident.

"Indeed, the primordial spirit and the physical body are both indispensable. I am filled with power now, and I cannot wait to begin the slaughter!"

Luo Tianyi held the trident in one arm and lightly stabbed the three-pronged tip into the ground. The asteroid instantly ruptured; brilliant red light burst through the crust, shattering the planet into countless fragments until it disintegrated with a deafening boom.

***

Cloud-Misty Immortal Palace!

The sky collapsed and the earth sank; the sun and moon dimmed. Lightning intertwined in the dark firmament. The once-splendid immortal peaks, filled with auspicious colors, disintegrated one by one, turning into rubble. The surviving elders and disciples fled toward the cosmos. The rare beasts and birds met a tragic end—some struck by lightning, some incinerated by magma, others crushed by falling boulders. The scene was too horrifying to behold.

Amidst this apocalypse, a few figures walked through the world. They seemed to be bidding a final farewell to this holy land of immortality that had once been prosperous, lively, and filled with love.

"I lived here for three hundred years. The Cloud-Misty Immortal Palace was my home. From now on, I am a person without a home," said Xiao Shanshan. Dressed in water-green robes, she looked as pure, cute, and kind as the day Zhou Hao first met her, but now her eyes were filled with sorrow, drained of their former spirit.

"Although I awakened my memories and know I was once the Fire Rakshasa, I am even more Yu Nan—the Yu Nan of the Cloud-Misty Immortal Palace. I will always remember the days spent here." Yu Nan, clad in fiery armor with crimson flames rising around her, still held a strong aura. She had returned to the palace with Zhou Hao, her wounds significantly healed due to the Rakshasa's natural regenerative abilities; as members of the ghost-demon race, their bodies were inherently resilient.

"Me too. I will always remember the days spent here. I cannot forget the first day I came to the Immortal Realm, I cannot forget meeting my master, I cannot forget every little detail of the Cloud-Misty Immortal Palace. This was the place where my path to immortality began. Though the palace is destroyed today, it will live on in my heart forever!" Zhou Hao stood amidst the desolate landscape, bowing sincerely.

"Green mountains, clear waters, and white clouds; the purple mist rises to welcome the immortals!" Old Guo suddenly recited, his tone neither happy nor sad, as if he had seen through the vanity of the world.

"Is this... the couplet from the main gate of the Cloud-Misty Immortal Palace?" Zhou Hao instantly recalled the day Yun Fang brought him to the palace for the first time.

"I wrote it," Old Guo said softly.

"It... it was written by you, Senior? A fine poem... a fine poem..." Zhou Hao was momentarily speechless, feeling embarrassed as he remembered mocking the couplet back then.

"Haha, you must have thought it was doggerel, didn't you? Back then, when Yun Miao took over as the new Palace Master from his predecessor, he felt the mountain gate needed a couplet—something with an 'immortal aura.' He thought for a day and a night, reciting hundreds of couplets, but he wasn't satisfied. Finally, he ran down the mountain to ask me. I casually made up those two lines. Who knew he would slap his thigh and call them 'superb' three times and 'marvelous' six times? That day, I realized: this guy had been pretending to be cultured, but he lacked talent and was just a pretentious phony," Old Guo reminisced with a hint of a smile.

Zhou Hao and the others listened quietly.

"But now, seeing this scene, much like the destruction of the Qingyun era, I think... I was wrong. These two lines of doggerel are quite down-to-earth, aren't they? Green mountains, clear waters, and white clouds; the purple mist rises to welcome the immortals. What a beautiful painting that is! Perhaps that was the very scene Yun Miao longed to see and was able to see every day. No, not 'perhaps'—it was. The Cloud-Misty peak is ten thousand feet high; isn't that the perfect place to admire the green mountains and clear waters? Three hundred disciples dancing with their swords every day amidst the swirling purple mist—doesn't that perfectly match 'the purple mist rises to welcome the immortals'? It turns out that old fellow was quite talented! Hahahahaha..." Old Guo laughed until tears streamed down his face, shaking his head as if he had gone mad.

"That was the Palace Master's wish. It is truly admirable. He was a true master!" Zhou Hao, Yu Nan, and Xiao Shanshan exclaimed in unison.

With the mountains collapsed, they could no longer visit their former training peaks. Moreover, the enemy was right outside the gates. Whether they would live or die remained unknown; they could only offer a brief farewell.

"We sense that Luo Tianyi’s aura is growing. This battle is inevitable. She is at the late stage of the Great Immortal Realm. Besides Yu Nan and myself, no one here can stand against her. So..." Zhou Hao looked at everyone, trying to memorize every face.

"So you want us to run, while you two face Luo Tianyi alone, right?" Huohuo asked, her large eyes brimming with tears, her lips trembling.

"Huohuo! Be good." Zhou Hao walked over and patted her head, stroking her soft, silky red hair.

"You big liar! You promised, you promised you would take me to explore the Immortal Realm, but now... you're breaking your word. What kind of man are you?" Huohuo clenched her fists and "forcefully" hit Zhou Hao’s chest, her voice choked with sobs.

"Who said I was lying? You silly girl, I’m only worried the battle will reach you. You go with Old Guo to a safe zone. As soon as we win, we will meet up with you," Zhou Hao said gently, taking her small fist in his hand.

"Really?" Huohuo looked up, her sparkling eyes fixed on him.

Zhou Hao crouched down. "If you don't believe me, ask them."

Huohuo looked at the others.

The group, having already realized the situation, understood. This red-haired, red-clothed girl, usually so eccentric, had lost all logic since falling in love—a common ailment for young girls in first love.

"Huohuo, don't worry. With Zhou Hao and my Senior Sister joining forces, even a late-stage Great Immortal is no match for them. We don't even need to cheer for them; we just need to wait," Xiao Shanshan said, feigning a relaxed tone.

"Oh, little Huohuo, you’re so cute, why don't you use your head? Little Hao has incredible luck, infinite potential, and rich experience. He’s always won against stronger opponents. Just rest easy," the Turtle boasted, as if he were talking about himself.

"Huohuo, don't worry. Unlike this turtle, Zhou Hao won't lie to you," said the green snake, Qingqing.

"That's right, Huohuo. Yu Nan and I will defeat Luo Tianyi and return to meet you. You should trust us, and don't let us worry about your safety, right?" Yu Nan said softly.

Hearing this, Huohuo felt her tense heart relax. She was terrified that this parting would be forever. Deep down, she had fallen in love with Zhou Hao—not at first sight, but from the moment she had offered her life-fire to save him.

A thousand years had passed, and upon taking human form, her feelings had taken root. In their daily life together, those feelings grew naturally.

"Good girl, Huohuo. I will always be with you. Don't forget that we are one—we have a spiritual connection!" Zhou Hao pointed to his heart, the place where Huohuo had tempered his soul with her life-fire, saving his life.

Huohuo’s cheeks flushed. She closed her eyes and stepped on her tiptoes, pressing her small lips against Zhou Hao’s. He opened his eyes wide in surprise, but he didn't pull away, letting her clumsy, earnest kiss linger.

"My heart is beating so fast... Huohuo, I can hear your heart. It says you love me. My heart... is responding. It says..."

Past events flashed before his eyes. At this moment of life and death, he foolishly realized that the girl he longed for had been by his side all along. She had cried with him, laughed with him, and fought through hardships with him. Zhou Hao smiled and closed his eyes, following his heart.

"I love you, too!"

It was as if the chaos had cleared. The roots of love sprouted. Zhou Hao’s mind experienced clarity, then chaos, and then clarity again.

"Zhou Hao, I'm so happy. You heard my heart, and I understand yours. But do you know? Long ago, the first time I saw you, when you promised to take me to see the world, I already liked you!" Huohuo pulled away, her red eyes sparkling like a rabbit’s. She smiled, her face radiant.

"I’m slow to realize things, a bit dull. After all we've been through, this fool finally realized that such a lovely girl who loves me has been by my side all this time. Just now, I realized you are not just a friend. I want to protect you forever—no, for all lifetimes!" Zhou Hao scratched his head, looking at the pure, elven girl before him, uttering perhaps the most sentimental confession of his life.

Love, whether at first sight or grown over time, was crystallized in that kiss.

They embraced, Zhou Hao holding her small face and kissing her deeply. They stayed that way for a long time, their hearts beating in unison, declaring their love to the world.

"They're showing off so much, I almost forgot I was a single dog," the Turtle muttered, smacking its lips.

"They look so happy!" Qingqing, wrapped around the turtle's back, watched with stars in her eyes.

Yu Nan smiled, a sense of resignation in her expression. She still liked Zhou Hao—otherwise, she wouldn't have gone berserk when he was swallowed by Luo Tianyi—but she would try to forget it, knowing that love could not be forced.

Xiao Shanshan, standing beside Yu Nan, watched them with a vacant gaze, lost in her own thoughts.

"Let's go."

After a long while, everyone took one last look at the ruined palace and headed outside. Soon after, the palace, which had stood for tens of thousands of years, exploded with the brightness of a star. In the dark cosmos, it bloomed like a firework, turning into cosmic dust.

The group split into two paths. Zhou Hao and Yu Nan were to lure Luo Tianyi, while Old Guo took the others to the Ascension Platform.

"Zhou Hao, you must come back alive!" Huohuo shouted with all her might as she waved goodbye.

In the distance, a blue figure was particularly striking—Luo Tianyi, appearing in the prime of her youth. She knew Zhou Hao was at the palace but had waited for them to appear, not even bothering to look at the others fleeing.

"You were waiting for us?" Zhou Hao asked, perplexed. He and Yu Nan were now a thousand miles from Luo Tianyi, the limit of his vision.

"Hand over the Sea-Suppressing Bead, and I will give you a quick death!" Luo Tianyi held her trident, looking at them with lazy contempt.

"Things that enter my gourd are hard to take back," Zhou Hao said, narrowing his eyes and shrugging.

"You reckless fools!"

Instantly, Luo Tianyi’s brows arched, her face twisted in a ferocious expression. Killing intent surged. In the space behind her, a massive wave three thousand meters high surged toward Zhou Hao and Yu Nan.

Within the wave, countless tridents, identical to the one in her hand, shot out like dragons from the sea. They were surrounded, with no way to retreat, the tips of the weapons pointed at them from every direction.