An ill-fated bond-you're not the one getting married, so why are you so worked up?

The Yun Family, an Emperor Clan.

Within a pool brimming with divine essence.

Shenkong Ye had sat motionless for a hundred years.

For those hundred years, he had been like a dead man, speaking to no one, never taking a single step.

He was waiting.

Within his two hollow eye sockets, those two strands of dark-gold sword intent had never gone out.

They were the lingering traces of sword intent Su Linxian had left inside him all those years ago. Far from dissipating over the past century, they had torn at his soul and flesh every moment, honing his pain to its utmost limit and tempering his hatred to its utmost intensity.

For a hundred years, he had used those two lingering traces of sword intent as whetstones, tempering every inch of sinew and bone, every strand of his soul, thousands upon thousands of times.

And then, this moment came.

"Break!"

Boom!

Within his sea of consciousness, that bottleneck shattered.

Shenkong Ye snapped his eyes open.

Dark-gold sword intent surged from his two hollow eye sockets, forming two nearly solid pillars of dark-gold light that shot into the sky.

The pillars pierced the vault overhead and plunged straight into the highest heavens, shredding every cloud within ten thousand miles and exposing the profound Star Sea above.

Countless rays of starlight poured down, flooding back along the dark-gold pillars into Shenkong Ye's body and erupting within him.

Yun Qi's pupils trembled violently.

"This fellow... broke through?!"

He felt a pressure, a pressure from the depths of a higher order of life.

That youth who had lost his eyes, that cripple who had lost his Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, now exuded an aura that sent a chill through him.

"The Saint Realm... no, this aura is stronger than an ordinary Saint Realm cultivator's," Yun Qi murmured.

"Little sister, this fellow is rather interesting."

"Not only did he refuse to let us restore his eyes, he overcame his inner demons in just thirty years and broke through to the Saint Realm in seventy. Though our Yun Family's nurturing played a part, his talent is truly exceptional."

"And with the tempering from those two lingering traces of sword intent... his future achievements will likely be considerable."

With a complicated expression, Miao Yin Yun nodded.

Shenkong Ye slowly descended through the air. The storm gradually subsided, and the dark-gold pillars dispersed.

"Finally, the Saint Realm..."

He raised a hand and touched his hollow eye sockets. As his fingertips brushed the scars along their edges, the corners of his mouth slowly curved upward.

"Su Linxian..."

"Until I return what you left me, I will never restore them."

In the skies of the Ziwei Domain.

Su Linxian's Spirit Boat had just passed through a bank of gray clouds when a violent surge of spiritual energy suddenly came from ahead.

He looked up, and the corner of his mouth involuntarily twitched.

A beautiful woman was being pursued by a group intent on killing her.

It was Ming Qingshu again.

She was covered in blood, her long hair plastered messily against her face, her clothes slashed to tatters by Sword Qi.

More than ten red-clad figures pursued her, their auras ranging from the early Supreme stage to the Hunyuan Realm.

As Ming Qingshu fled, she looked up and spotted the white-robed figure aboard the Spirit Boat.

Her eyes instantly lit up, and she called out at once.

"Senior!"

Su Linxian's expression turned strange.

"Being hunted again?"

"Yu Yao."

"Understood!"

Yu Yao had already charged out.

Her golden dragon horns traced a streak of light in the sunlight. Her small figure flashed through the air three times, each time appearing precisely behind someone.

Dragon-scale patterns flickered across her palms. Three muffled impacts almost merged into one as heads burst apart and headless bodies fell from the sky.

The remaining red-clad pursuers' expressions changed drastically, and they all retreated in haste.

Yu Yao swept her golden, slit-pupiled eyes over them. Apparently unsatisfied, she chased after them again.

She left a string of golden afterimages in the air, and with every strike of her palm, another corpse fell from the sky.

A dozen breaths later, peace returned to the world.

"Ha..."

"Finally... I'm saved..."

Ming Qingshu slumped on the ground, gasping for air, her chest heaving violently.

Watching Su Linxian walk down at an unhurried pace, she struggled to rise and bow.

"Senior..." Her voice was hoarse and heavy with exhaustion. "I never thought we'd meet again. Thank you so much for saving my life twice."

Su Linxian looked at her wretched state.

He had encountered her twice, and both times she had been fleeing for her life.

He recalled the first group of red-clad people he had encountered upon leaving the Ziwei Domain. Their auras were identical to those of these pursuers.

"People from the Great Ascension Dao Domain?"

Ming Qingshu nodded with a bitter smile. "Yes."

"I couldn't stay in the Ziwei Domain anymore. I was planning to head north to find a distant relative, but I was intercepted along the way."

Su Linxian asked no further questions. Just as he was about to turn back toward the Spirit Boat, Li Junhua, who had been standing behind him, suddenly moved. He stepped off the boat and crouched down, a strange expression appearing on his youthful face. His gaze fixed firmly on Ming Qingshu, as though trying to recognize something.

He stared for a long time.

So long that Ming Qingshu grew uneasy under his gaze and instinctively shrank back a little. Only then did Li Junhua finally speak, his voice carrying a trace of uncertainty and suppressed tremor.

"Little girl, do you possess the Great Calamity Divine Body?"

Ming Qingshu froze and turned to look at this young-looking man.

Little girl?

"The Great Calamity Divine Body? What's that?"

Su Linxian also turned to look at Li Junhua.

Li Junhua had once stood at the peak of the Emperor Realm, and his knowledge far surpassed that of ordinary people. Anything that could make him lose his composure like this had to be extraordinary.

"You know about it?" Su Linxian asked.

Li Junhua did not turn around. His gaze remained on Ming Qingshu, as though he were looking through this blood-soaked woman at someone else.

His voice was very soft, tinged with an indescribable melancholy.

"I sensed a familiar aura from this young girl. Someone I once knew had this physique too."

He paused and lowered his eyes.

"This physique is plagued by misfortune. Wherever its bearer goes, calamity follows. Those close to her, the places she stays, and everything she encounters are all affected by her ill fortune. The world calls it the great calamity and fears it like a tiger."

At those words, Ming Qingshu went completely rigid.

She parted her lips and said in utter shock.

"Such a physique actually exists?"

Su Linxian focused his gaze on Ming Qingshu, and a system panel silently appeared.

[Name: Ming Qingshu]

[Title: Heaven-Destined Heroine]

[Physique: Great Calamity Divine Body]

[Cultivation: Zhaoxu Realm, ninth level]

[Age: 24]

She did indeed possess the Great Calamity Divine Body, and like Miao Yin Yun, she was a Heaven-Destined Heroine.

Su Linxian narrowed his eyes but did not rush to speak.

Li Junhua remained silent for a long while before speaking again, his tone much more cautious than before.

"Is your surname Ming?"

Ming Qingshu raised her head and stared blankly at him. After a long moment, she nodded. "Yes. My surname is Ming."

Li Junhua's body tensed slightly for an instant.

"What relation is Ming Suwen to you?"

Ming Qingshu froze.

She looked at the tension, anticipation, and a trace of fear she could not understand that he could no longer suppress on his youthful face. After a long while, she said softly, "She's my great-grandmother."

For an instant, Li Junhua looked desolate.

His lips twisted into a bitter curve, and he murmured under his breath.

"So you are from the Ming Family..."

"I've only ever seen this physique among members of the Ming Family."

Yu Yao blinked her golden, slit-pupiled eyes, looking from Li Junhua to Ming Qingshu with gossip written all over her face.

"You know her?" Su Linxian had noticed the change in Li Junhua's expression.

For an old monster who had lived seventy-six thousand years to show such an expression upon hearing news of an old acquaintance's descendant, there was probably an ill-fated bond behind it.

Li Junhua said, "Our paths crossed once."

Su Linxian did not inquire further, merely saying calmly, "Since you're the descendant of an old acquaintance, come along with us."

At his words, Ming Qingshu's eyes reddened slightly.

She struggled up from the ground, barely managing to stand this time, and bowed deeply to Su Linxian before nodding to Li Junhua.

"Thank you for taking me in, Senior!"

Li Junhua looked up and asked her, "Since you're from the Ming Family, what happened to them?"

Ming Qingshu bit her lower lip and remained silent for a long while before slowly speaking.

Her great-grandmother, Ming Suwen, had been forced into marriage back then. In a fit of anger, she had fled alone, and nothing had been heard of her since.

A thousand years ago, the Ming Family had been wiped out, and she had escaped alone to the Ziwei Domain.

Only recently had she happened upon news of her great-grandmother.

"In the Blazing Extreme Dao Domain." Ming Qingshu raised her head. "The You Family of the Ancient Saint Clan found out about my great-grandmother. They want to capture her and take her back to get married."

Li Junhua abruptly clenched his fists.

"Bastards!!!"

He roared in fury, his aura surging as his Dengxian Realm cultivation erupted uncontrollably.

"Thousands of years! Thirty thousand years have passed, and they still won't leave her alone!"

Ming Qingshu was startled by his sudden rage and instinctively stepped back. Yu Yao was startled too.

"You're not the one getting married! Why are you so worked up?"