The Blackening in Progress

At the mountainside.

Qing Ye gazed outside.

Tonight, Heavenly Sword Peak was especially dark.

And especially quiet.

Of everyone on Heavenly Sword Peak, only three people were still awake.

"Waaah—"

A baby's cry suddenly rang through heaven and earth.

A cloud of auspicious color appeared on the horizon.

A celestial omen descended, auspicious signs arose of their own accord—a new prodigy had been born.

"Baby, remember—your nickname is Yangyang, and your full name is Dao Yan. You take my surname, and mine alone."

I straightened my clothes, cut the baby's umbilical cord, then casually stowed the placenta in my spatial storage. I had just wiped her clean and tucked her into the swaddling clothes I'd prepared when an explosion suddenly sounded outside.

A thunderous boom rang through heaven and earth, as if the whole world were shaking.

I stumbled out of bed with my daughter in my arms. Before I could even open the door, a fierce gust of wind had already blown the wall in front of me down.

A black-clad figure, gaunt as a skeleton, stood quietly beneath the Ginkgo Tree. His wolf-like eyes stared at the infant in my arms.

My heart lurched. Before I could react, my arms suddenly felt light. The sleeping baby had been forcibly taken from me.

He hadn't even moved a step, yet the baby was already gone.

No, my daughter—

Unimaginable pain spread through my heart.

I stared at my empty arms, my mind instantly thrown into chaos, so muddled I couldn't think straight. An intense pain burst forth without warning.

"She is not someone you can lay a hand on." The High Priest looked down at me impassively, standing above all others. "In consideration of your merit in bearing her, I will spare your life."

Merit, merit, spare my life?

Not someone I could lay a hand on.

I stood there, stunned. My body, weakened by childbirth, trembled faintly in the wind.

Not someone I could lay a hand on...

I repeated the words to myself. After a long while, I finally understood what they meant. My frail body swayed, and two streams of tears spilled uncontrollably down my cheeks.

I knew I was no match for him, so I did my best to keep my voice calm as I pleaded with the black-clad man. "Please, give her back to me." My bitten lips were deathly pale.

"Keep dreaming."

The moment I heard those words, my mind exploded. I went mad in an instant and charged at him without a thought for anything else.

Thud—

Reality was cruel. I couldn't even get close to him before his protective energy blasted me away.

Only then—

Did I notice the scattered array formations on the ground, and Qing Ye, already unconscious.

I rolled across the ground where I had landed, unable to think about anything anymore. All I could do was clutch my head in agony and scream again and again.

"Yangyang."

"My daughter—"

I fought through the pain, which felt as if it would split me apart, and fixed my gaze on the plump, pale infant in the swaddling clothes before me. There was only one thought left in my heart: I couldn't let anyone take Yangyang away.

She was my daughter, the baby I'd just given birth to.

Even if I was an egg throwing itself against a stone, even if I was wildly overestimating myself, I still charged at the black-clad man again, heedless of everything.

The black-clad man looked at me with contempt, standing firmly beneath the tree. He didn't even deign to move.

Behind him, countless figures seemed to sink into darkness. He was like a god gazing down upon the vicissitudes of the mortal world, coldly watching me over and over as I threw myself at him in vain.

Thud—

He didn't even need to lift a hand before I was blasted away again.

The impact left my whole body feeling as if it had fallen apart.

My body spasmed twice on the ground. I couldn't get back up.

I didn't raise my head. My fingertips inched slowly across the ground toward where my baby was.

"Could you... give her back to me?"

I begged between coughs.

But no one answered me, and no one pitied me.

Just like the fate I'd been destined for, a tiny miniature of my first half of life.

The agony kept me from lifting my head. The strong, earthy taste of the ground filled my mouth again and again as I writhed in a wretched heap.

I couldn't even lift my head to look at my daughter one last time.

All I could do was helplessly accept that someone was taking her away, leaving me forever.

I couldn't accept this.

For the first time, I hated my own weakness so much.

Why?

Nothing ever went the way I wanted.

Why...

No matter what I did, why did things always end up like this?

A deep sense of helplessness spread through my heart. All I could do was keep weeping.

A mad thought was born in my heart. Once it appeared, there was no stopping it.

If—

This was the world's malice directed at me alone—

Then I'd rather take everyone down with me.

An unimaginable aura of fury continued to swell within me.

Rumble—

Streaks of red lightning tore through the sky, lashing wildly across every corner of the mortal world.

The eternal, unbroken clouds scattered.

A Blood Moon appeared in the sky.

The moment the Blood Moon's crimson light fell upon the mortal world and bathed my entire body, the black-clad man's gaze changed for the first time.

He hadn't left because he'd been enjoying the struggle of an ant.

Now, for the first time, a flicker of emotion appeared in his eyes.

Propping myself up with one hand, I slowly climbed to my feet. My head drooped, my disheveled hair hiding the eyes beneath.

The instant the Blood Moon appeared, the night, which should have been pitch-black, was swallowed up by countless blinding red lights.

I stood barefoot and took a step forward.

As that simple step fell, heaven and earth turned dark once more.

It wasn't real darkness. It was more as if everyone's perception had been distorted, leaving them unable to respond to anything that changed in the world.

I couldn't make a sound anymore. My face was twisted, as terrifying as an evil spirit's.

Drip—

A jade-white little foot emerged from beneath the hem of my long skirt.

Now it touched the ground, yet it was as if it were stepping onto a lake.

I took another step forward.

Five slender streaks of red light burst forth.

The attack erupted without warning and without any discernible trajectory.

It was as if space and time no longer existed.

Like a fruit whose ripening had already been ordained, once the attack was unleashed, it was certain to hit.

The black-clad man's pupils contracted.

He couldn't react.

He couldn't defend himself.

And counterattacking was impossible.

Crack—

The left arm holding the baby split apart on the spot.

Along with the countless phantoms behind him, part of the silhouette of an entire era was forcibly erased.

He spat out a huge mouthful of blood.

This was nothing like an attack a human could unleash.

If it had to be described in a word, it was more like an eraser, rubbing away a piece of his Dao Fruit.

What kind of attack was this?

Its realm couldn't be discerned—or perhaps it had no realm at all.

There wasn't even the slightest fluctuation of energy.

It seemed more like the ultimate power of the flesh alone.

As the attack faded, heaven and earth returned to a sea of red.

Ahead, the little girl stood where she had been, head lowered, her face hidden behind a dense curtain of disheveled hair.

It was as if she had never taken a step forward, let alone attacked. Only the blood dripping from her right hand told everyone what had just happened.

The black-clad man panicked. For the first time, he felt fear.

This was eerie. Far too eerie.

"Y-you... who are you?"

He was no longer the composed man he'd been moments ago. He took a step back.

If word of that step got out, who knew how many people it would shock?

An invincible Quasi-Supreme had actually faltered in battle.

I didn't speak again—or rather, I had lost the ability to speak and was acting only on instinct.

He had no intention of staying any longer. Now that he'd achieved his goal, why remain here?

"Madwoman." He cursed.

He took another step back. It wasn't an ordinary step, but one that folded infinite expanses of space.

The moment his foot came down, he was already in another, different supreme dimension.

The distance between her and the enemy wasn't just an infinite expanse of space. It was also weighed down by the vastness of an entire age of Supreme Heaven.

If the enemy couldn't break through the seal of an entire era, there was no chance of ever seeing him again.

That was the power of a Quasi-Supreme.

Every gesture and movement was the glorious silhouette of an age of Supreme Heaven.

Yet—

Today, his perception was overturned.

I took another step forward. Everyone's ordinary understanding was distorted. Even a whole age of Supreme Heaven, vast and weighty as it was, was merely a reflection in the lake beneath my bare feet. Everyone's gaze became something that didn't exist, and all divine senses were annihilated into nothingness.

Nothing could be seen.

Nothing could be sensed.

Nothing could be defended against.

My black-and-red skirt fluttered in the wind.

Five blood-red shadows flashed into being, cleaving straight through the world's barriers.

The ordained result crossed the barriers of light and time, crossed the constraints of time itself, crossed the divide between dimensions—and struck his other arm once more.