Even If the Gods Oppose Us, I Still Do!

"G-Gao Yang... do you know what you're saying?"

Ning Rongrong's expression was torn between joy and resistance.

"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is gone. I'm not its little princess anymore."

"Spirit Hall wants to wipe us out. From now on, I'll be hunted without end."

"I'm not worthy of your love anymore, Gao Yang... mmph..."

The girl kept talking herself down. Gao Yang had no patience for words; he showed her how he felt.

He pulled her soft body into his arms and kissed her with almost rough urgency.

Only when she struggled to breathe did he reluctantly let her go.

"I, Gao Yang, have been drawn to Ning Rongrong since the moment I first saw her!"

Gao Yang looked straight into her shy, beautiful eyes.

"I spent my whole youth becoming certain of one thing."

"In this life, I'll marry Ning Rongrong or no one!"

"Even if the road to her is full of thorns, even if my sword heart gathers dust and my methods grow filthy, I won't turn back!"

"With things as they are, I have to ask myself whether tonight is my only chance to confess!"

"Even if I die tomorrow, I want you to be my bride today!"

"That is how I, Gao Yang, feel. Heaven and earth are my witnesses. I won't change, not until the seas run dry and the rocks crumble!"

As she listened to his embarrassingly sentimental proposal, Ning Rongrong's brave expression began to fall apart.

"I... I'm sorry..."

Her voice caught. She held back her tears and tried to harden her heart.

"Gao Yang... I really want to say yes..."

"If the sect were still here, if my father were still here, I would say yes without hesitation..."

"No, I might have proposed to you first! I'd have begged you to marry me!"

"Because my love for you is almost overflowing too!"

"But I can't. Not now. I really can't!"

"A daughter must put her father first! I would gladly give my life for him!"

"But once a woman marries, she must put her husband first. For your sake, however much it hurts, I could never let you risk your life helping me save Father!"

"Gao Yang, Rongrong isn't clever. I can't think of a way to have both!"

"You're young, with a boundless future ahead of you! You shouldn't throw your life away!"

"Go. Forget Rongrong. There must be another girl in this world worthy of your love!"

By the end, she was sobbing too hard to speak. Moonlight caught her crystalline tears, lending her a fragile beauty.

"Rongrong, my sword heart lets me run when I can't win. It won't let me shirk my duty because I'm afraid to die!"

"Even if you try to stop me, I'm going to save the sect master and Third Grandfather!"

"So look into my eyes, Rongrong!"

Gao Yang cupped Ning Rongrong's face. Barely a hair's breadth separated their noses.

"Gao Yang..."

"I'm not proposing because I might die tomorrow, or for any other muddled reason," Gao Yang said with a smile. "I'm proposing because I love you. Now tell me your answer!"

"I... I..."

The expression Ning Rongrong wore as a mask shattered completely.

Even if she died tomorrow, she had to answer the man she loved now!

Yes! Yes!

Gao Yang could ask ten thousand times, and her answer would always be yes!

Yet somehow, she could not make herself say the word!

In the next instant, her vision blurred, and Gao Yang vanished from her side.

White stretched all around her. There was nothing else.

The empty surroundings sent Ning Rongrong into a panic.

"Gao Yang! Gao Yang, where are you? Where are you?"

"Where is this? Where am I?!"

When no answer came, Ning Rongrong wiped her tears away, summoned the Godly Zhuge Crossbow, and gripped it tightly.

As a support-type Soul Master, she had no other means of protecting herself.

"Who's there?"

Ning Rongrong spun to her left. A bank of mist had appeared there, with something strange lurking inside it.

"Reject Gao Yang!" An empty voice rang out, carrying an authority that brooked no argument.

"What?"

Thinking she had misheard, Ning Rongrong asked without meaning to.

"Reject Gao Yang's proposal!"

"Why?"

"Ant, how dare you question me?"

Blue flames erupted across Ning Rongrong's body. Strangely, they did not burn her clothes, yet the pain brought her collapsing to the ground.

"Why?!"

The flames seemed to draw out the ferocity deep in her bones. Though pain made her body tremble, she demanded the same answer!

"As the Evil God's successor, Gao Yang needs no love—and must have none! Do you understand, little girl? Marrying him would hold him back! It would keep him from becoming a god! A god!"

"A god... Gao Yang can actually... become a god..."

Jian Chen had told Ning Rongrong stories about gods.

They were beings millions of times stronger than even a level ninety-nine Douluo.

So Gao Yang was a god's successor. No wonder he was so strong!

Even as the fierce flames burned her, Ning Rongrong could not suppress her admiration for him.

"Little girl, if you love him, don't hold him back! Refuse him. Let him go. If you agree, I can save your father. I can even free the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda from its limits. From then on, every one of your descendants will possess a Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda!"

As the strange being spoke, he waved a hand, and the blue flames vanished from Ning Rongrong's body.

Lying on the ground, Ning Rongrong panted out hot breaths. Sweat had soaked her through.

"I don't understand. Why can't someone who becomes a god have love?"

Defiance showed on Ning Rongrong's face.

"Other gods can. The Evil God has no need for it! Just hearing the word love makes me sick!"

Ning Rongrong fell silent.

A moment later, the strange being spoke again.

"Have you decided? Your father is still suffering. Don't let a romance hold Gao Yang back and bring ruin upon your father too!"

He waved a hand, and a screen of light appeared before Ning Rongrong.

Within it were Ning Fengzhi and Jian Chen.

The Heaven Dou prison warden was subjecting them both to tortures that hurt just to watch.

Beside them, the head of the Ye family used the Nine Heart Begonia to heal them.

Knowing the two men would not die, the warden devised punishments more and more grotesque!

Even Jian Chen, hard as his bones were, let out the occasional groan.

Tears immediately filled Ning Rongrong's eyes.

"Father! Grandpa Jian!"

"Well? Once you leave here, reject Gao Yang, and I'll save them both!"

Ning Rongrong closed her eyes in anguish and let the tears run down her cheeks.

"Father, Grandpa Jian, please hold on a little longer. Tomorrow, all this suffering will end!"

"Ning Rongrong, what do you mean? Can you bear to watch the family who loves you most suffer like this?"

"The moment I accepted Gao Yang's proposal, I became his woman!" Ning Rongrong's gaze grew firm, then fierce. "Threaten me or tempt me—I won't leave his side!"

"Hah. What a devoted daughter you are. You'd abandon your own father for some damned romance!"

"I won't abandon him. Gao Yang and I will rescue him tomorrow. If we die, we die together! But don't dream of making me reject Gao Yang's proposal!"

"And what about Gao Yang's future? He's destined to become a god!"

"If love truly is a stumbling block on Gao Yang's path to godhood, then please, god, go and tell him yourself! Let Gao Yang kick me away with his own foot!"

"You..."

The strange being seemed about to say more, but another, colder voice cut him off.

"Evil God, why waste words on her?"

Ning Rongrong's vision blurred again. When it cleared, her surroundings had changed.

A blood moon hung overhead. Beneath her stretched an endless sea of blood.

She was nailed to a cross, surrounded by "Gao Yangs."

But Ning Rongrong saw at once that none of them was the real Gao Yang.

The real Gao Yang's eyes were always full of love when he looked at her!

"Who are you? Do you want me to reject Gao Yang too?" Ning Rongrong demanded angrily.

"That's right!" Thousands upon thousands of false Gao Yangs summoned the Seven Kill Sword and spoke as one. "I'll stab you without stopping. You won't die. You'll only feel pain!"

One of the false Gao Yangs stepped forward and pressed his Seven Kill Sword against her lower abdomen.

The sword energy drained all color from Ning Rongrong's face!

Still, she held firm.

"What kind of god are you? Is Gao Yang your successor too?"

"That's right!"

"My Gao Yang is incredible!"

"...Tell me. Will you suffer here, or will you reject him?"

"Stab me for ten thousand years, and I still won't agree!"

"Very well. I'll grant your wish. I hope you don't break over the next ten thousand years!"

All the Gao Yangs stepped forward, raising their Seven Kill Swords to stab her.

A single round of thrusts left the girl drenched in blood.

"Haha... hahaha... hahahahaha..."

Blood trickled from her lips, but she kept laughing.

"One round, and you've already had enough?" a false Gao Yang said. "For the next ten thousand years, this pain won't stop for a minute or a second!"

"So what?!"

"What did you say?"

"I said, so what?!" Ning Rongrong raised her head, pride undimmed. In that moment, she was still the most beautiful princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. "If you can trap me for ten thousand years, why bother torturing me? After I've been here long enough, Gao Yang will forget me. Then whether he becomes a god will have little to do with me, won't it?"

"..."

"But you keep insisting I reject him. Let me guess: ten thousand years in this place—even a hundred thousand years—would be no more than the blink of an eye for Gao Yang. Am I right?"

"..."

"You're gods, with such formidable powers. You could just kill me, so why do you need my answer? It seems even gods can't kill me without a reason."

"..."

"Hahaha! I guessed right, didn't I? Gods? Hah... how useless!"

"...A sharp tongue and a little cleverness won't help you. I'll ask once more: will you reject him?"

On that last question, thousands upon thousands of Gao Yangs spoke together, their voices deafening, their presence overwhelming.

"Ask ten thousand times. You'll get the same answer!"

Facing another imminent storm of sword strikes, Ning Rongrong did not flinch.

"I, Ning Rongrong, say yes!"

The next instant, Ning Rongrong was back on the mountaintop. Gao Yang stood before her and heard her words.

Excitement lit his eyes.

"Rongrong, why wait for another day? Let's hold our wedding right here, today!"

The familiar voice. The familiar gaze. The familiar presence.

It took Ning Rongrong only a second to cast the dreamlike ordeal behind her.

"Yes!"

The girl nodded hard!

Gao Yang swept out his hand, carving a large rock into a stone table with his sword energy. Then he took several things from his Soul Tool.

At the sight of red candles, fruit, and red cloth, Ning Rongrong burst out laughing.

"You rogue, Gao Yang! You've been planning this for ages. You even came prepared!"

Gao Yang smiled at her without answering. He took her hand, and they knelt before the stone table.

Facing the bright moon above, the clear wind on the mountain, the grass and trees, the rivers...

"I, Gao Yang..."

"I, Ning Rongrong..."

"With my Seven Kill Martial Soul as my foundation, and the mountains, rivers, sun, and moon as my witnesses, I vow to Ning Rongrong:"

"With my Nine Treasure Martial Soul as my foundation, and the mountains, rivers, sun, and moon as my witnesses, I answer Gao Yang's vow:"

"Whatever cold or warmth life brings, I will keep you safe. I will not resent life's small burdens, but share them with you. I offer my body as your shield against wind and rain."

"As the years pass, I will stay with you until our hair turns white. Whatever changes the world brings, I will face them with you and smile. With these hands, I will cook for you and keep your meals warm."

Divine Realm!

At the sight, the God of Love burst into unrestrained laughter!

"You botched it. Both of you botched the whole thing!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Two gods taking turns bullying a little girl!"

"Not only did you fail to make her submit, you got mocked for it!"

"Pah!"

"Disgusting!"

"If you wanted that little girl to leave Gao Yang, you could've used your brains!"

"Just a little! You could've at least learned from Gao Yang!!"

"And you call yourselves gods? You're two stupid pigs—no, worse than pigs!"

"After threatening his wife, you still expect Gao Yang to inherit both your divine legacies? Dream on!"

"One word: disgusting!"

"You've got no chance with Gao Yang now! Find another successor!"

"Disgusting. So disgusting!"

After the God of Love left, the God of Evil and the Sword God exchanged looks.

"You really are a little disgusting!"

The Sword God patted the God of Evil on the shoulder, then vanished.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Wasn't it your idea, Sword God? Don't leave! Come back and explain yourself!" The God of Evil's voice echoed through the empty hall. "Who's disgusting, huh? Who?"