Assault on the Desolate Forbidden Zone

"Why do this, Saintess? There are some things you cannot stop!" Luo Yan did not push her away, letting her cry on his shoulder.

"Immortality, immortality... Does seeking immortality really justify severing everything?" the Tianxuan Saintess sobbed. No one could have imagined that this peerlessly gifted woman, the greatest beauty of the Eastern Wasteland who overshadowed all its proud young geniuses, would one day cry her eyes red.

Luo Yan merely chose his words with care. "You are currently a Great Power at the second level of the Immortal Platform, Saintess. It is only natural that you do not understand. Once you reach the third level of the Immortal Platform, Severing the Dao, you will look back on this moment and understand the elders' actions."

Severing the Dao, Severing the Dao-severing one's seven emotions and six desires, severing one's past.

Though that was an exaggeration, passing through this realm did indeed affect one's state of mind, causing emotions to fade.

The Tianxuan Saintess was not far from that realm.

"Saintess? Saintess?"

He called twice, but the beauty in his arms did not answer. Luo Yan looked down. She had fallen asleep.

He carried her onto the sofa made from demonic beast hide and watched her quietly. This was not the first time the Tianxuan Saintess had come to pour her heart out to him.

For all her immaculate appearance, the Tianxuan Saintess was, frankly, just a young girl. When faced with something beyond her power, she could only ease her suffering in the ways ordinary mortals did.

Even someone as incomparably gifted as the empress had been helpless in her youth, let alone her.

Three years passed in the blink of an eye.

Throughout those three years, everyone in the Tianxuan Holy Land stood united, making every preparation and remaining ready to assault the Desolate Forbidden Zone at any moment.

During those three years, he and the Tianxuan Saintess became rare and treasured friends. As the only two cultivators in the entire Tianxuan Holy Land who would not take part in the assault on the Desolate Forbidden Zone, they sometimes strolled at the foot of Brilliant Peak, sometimes sailed around the holy land, and sometimes admired flowers and gazed at the moon.

Some called them an immortal couple; others called them kindred spirits.

With the Road to Immortality before them, no one paid any further attention to the Tianxuan Saintess's romantic affairs. They only occasionally heard disciples mention the curious relationship between the two.

They did not seem like lovers, yet they seemed very much like confidants.

On this day, countless Tianxuan disciples rose on divine rainbows. Elders from every faction wielded king-grade divine weapons, flawless saint artifacts, and supreme saint artifacts, escorting the Taihua Emperor Weapon as they charged toward the Desolate Forbidden Zone.

Their mighty host resembled heavenly soldiers and generals. More than ten thousand elders and disciples of the Tianxuan Holy Land rushed toward the Southern Region without hesitation, their swords pointed at the Desolate Forbidden Zone.

In an instant, the bustling holy land fell silent.

The Tianxuan Saintess came to Brilliant Peak one last time, gazing toward Luo Yan from afar across the mountainside. She said nothing, but her eyes held an unwillingness to accept it.

In the end, she left only a long sigh. "I lost. You truly are a heartless man!"

She had offered herself as the price of a bargain, yet he had never intervened. A man like that was far too ruthless.

She lingered no longer, turning to walk into a small world.

After three years, she had ultimately failed to move that man. The Tianxuan Holy Land had ultimately still reached this point.

"Saintess, it is time to enter the divine source," the old man from the Scripture Pavilion reminded her from behind.

This was what they had agreed upon. Only after personally witnessing the Saintess being sealed within divine source could he catch up with the Tianxuan Holy Land's forces.

They had left a Saint behind to personally watch the Tianxuan Saintess seal herself, preventing her from changing her mind at the last moment.

Utterly unwilling to accept this, the Tianxuan Saintess looked toward the man outside the small world. All he had to do was intervene a little, and he could resolve this matter. Even if he only treated the symptoms rather than the root, as long as she could hold out until she severed her Dao and became a Saint, gaining the strength to direct the holy land's decisions, she could change everything.

Yet that man clearly knew everything and understood everything, but simply refused to act, watching with open eyes as the holy land marched toward destruction.

The Tianxuan Saintess stepped into the divine source. Her flawless body was gradually engulfed, and a single tear rolled down her fair cheek, frozen forever upon her face.

A faint, haunting voice drifted from the divine source. "I hate you."

He had the power, yet would not act. Her heart could not accept it.

The old man from the Scripture Pavilion looked helplessly toward the figure on Brilliant Peak. "You have disappointed her deeply. You knew full well why she cast aside her dignity and humbled herself to approach you.

"She is heaven's favored daughter. From childhood until now, she has never humbled herself like that before any man. You alone were the exception. For this, she was even willing to give herself to you. Yet from beginning to end, you refused to act.

"It was clearly nothing more than a bargain."

The elders had tacitly permitted the Tianxuan Saintess's actions all along. If she and Luo Yan truly ended up together, they could launch their assault on the Desolate Forbidden Zone with greater peace of mind.

Perhaps their thinking was shameful, but if they could find the Saintess a refuge, then even if the holy land's entire force was wiped out in the future and she faced a mortal enemy, she would not have no one behind her.

Did the Saintess have feelings for him? Perhaps. After all, they had spent three years together. Even if she had initially approached him for a bargain, some personal feelings would eventually become entwined with it.

Whether it was friendship or something else, who could say for certain?

The figure on Brilliant Peak remained silent for a while. "Every household has its own difficult scripture to recite."

"Besides, could I stop them?" he retorted mockingly.

"But you never even took a stand." Perhaps he felt sorry for the Saintess. She was a girl he had watched grow up.

The old man glanced back at the divine source sealing the foremost Saintess of the Eastern Wasteland, then closed and sealed the entrance to the small world. He did not linger, turning without hesitation to fly toward the horizon.

On Brilliant Peak, the Time Mirror floated beside him. The deity within it had long since awakened; Luo Yan simply had not left.

Outside the Desolate Forbidden Zone.

Ancestor Nanyang led the force, wielding the Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon, with two other Great Saints beside him. When necessary, they would spare no effort to awaken the deity within the Taihua Emperor Scripture to deal with any unforeseen dangers inside the Desolate Forbidden Zone.

The Tianxuan Holy Lord brought forth a piece of jade inscribed with a forbidden art, capable of resisting the power of time within the Desolate Forbidden Zone. This was divine jade Ancestor Nanyang had discovered inside the Desolate Forbidden Zone, and it was precisely thanks to it that he had twice managed to leave the forbidden zone safely.

The jade transformed into an enormous divine pattern that blotted out the sky and sun, covering almost half the forbidden zone and restraining the power of time there.

It could only be used this way once. Afterward, it could never be used again, unless an identical piece of divine jade appeared in the world.

"All disciples, follow me... Attack!"

The Tianxuan Holy Lord shouted, and countless disciples charged into the Desolate Forbidden Zone, clashing with its ferocious beasts.

"Desolate Slaves! They're Desolate Slaves!"

One figure after another emerged from the depths of the abyss, standing at the edge of the cliff.

Their eyes held no life. They seemed like puppets, yet also seemed alive.

"These people were all mighty rulers in their day, with strength at the very pinnacle. After death, they became Desolate Slaves! That man, for instance, was once the peerless old sovereign of the Xia Dynasty! He was a supreme expert who had been granted audiences with the Azure Emperor several times!"

"I recognize another of them. An ancestor of the Ji Family, one of the Desolate Ancient Families. I thought he had already passed away in meditation, but I never imagined he had become a Desolate Slave. Back then, he could fight Ancestor Nanyang to a standstill!"

"And that man was once a formidable enemy on the Azure Emperor's path to attaining the Dao. Even he died in the Desolate Forbidden Zone..."

The elders recognized the former identities of some of the Desolate Slaves. Others came from eras too distant to identify.

Without question, these people had possessed illustrious identities and supreme strength in life, yet after death, they had become Desolate Slaves within the forbidden zone.

Could we... truly suffer a crushing defeat? The three Great Saints' expressions grew grave, and this thought rose unbidden in their hearts. So many Desolate Slaves had never appeared during Ancestor Nanyang's previous two visits!

This time, more than a dozen had appeared at once, every last one a peerless powerhouse of bygone days.