Chapter 19: Assault on the Ancient Forbidden Zone

“Saintess, there’s no need for such sorrow; some things cannot be stopped!” Luo Yan did not push her away, allowing her to weep on his shoulder.

“To become immortal, to become immortal? Can one truly sever everything for immortality?” The Saintess of Tianxuan choked back her tears. No one could have imagined that this unparalleled beauty of the Eastern Wilderness, prodigious and surpassing all the young elites, would one day cry until her eyes were red.

Luo Yan spoke gently, “It is normal that the Saintess does not yet understand the two great realms of the Immortal Terrace. In time, when you reach the third realm of the Immortal Terrace—the Severing Path realm—you will look back and understand the elders’ decisions.”

Severing Path—severing one’s desires and emotions, severing the ties to one’s past.

Though an exaggeration, passing through this realm indeed alters one’s state of mind, causing emotions to fade.

The Saintess of Tianxuan was nearing this realm.

“Saintess? Saintess?” Luo Yan called softly twice, but the beauty in his arms did not respond. Looking down, he found her asleep.

He gently carried her onto a sofa made from beast hide and watched quietly. This was not the first time the Saintess of Tianxuan had confided in him.

Beneath her immaculate appearance, she was merely a young girl, powerless in the face of certain situations and forced to soothe her pain in a mortal way.

Even the Empress, a figure of unparalleled talent, had been helpless in her youth; how much more so this girl.

Three years passed in the blink of an eye.

During these three years, the entire Tianxuan Sacred Land had united, preparing thoroughly and ever ready to assault the Ancient Forbidden Zone.

During these three years, he and the Saintess of Tianxuan had become rare friends. As the only two cultivators of the entire Tianxuan Sacred Land not participating in the assault on the Ancient Forbidden Zone, they sometimes strolled beneath the Can Peak, sometimes sailed around the sacred land, sometimes admired the blossoms and the moon.

Some said they were a celestial couple; others said they were kindred spirits.

With the path to immortality ahead, no one cared about the Saintess’s feelings anymore, only occasionally hearing disciples mention the mysterious relationship between the two.

Not lovers, but soulmates.

One day, countless Tianxuan disciples rode divine rainbows into the sky, elders wielding kingly divine weapons, flawless sacred artifacts, and supreme sacred implements, supporting the Taihua Imperial Arms as they charged toward the Ancient Forbidden Zone.

The momentum was overwhelming, like heavenly soldiers and generals, tens of thousands of elders and disciples of the Tianxuan Sacred Land rushing resolutely toward the southern region, swords pointing to the Forbidden Zone.

In an instant, the once bustling sacred land fell silent.

The Saintess of Tianxuan came to Can Peak one last time, gazing distantly toward Luo Yan across the mountainside. She said nothing, but her eyes betrayed her unwillingness to yield.

Finally, she sighed deeply, “I’ve lost. You truly are a heartless man!”

To offer oneself as a bargaining chip while the other refrains from intervening—that was a cruel man indeed.

She lingered no longer and turned to enter a small world.

After three years, she still had not moved that man, and the Tianxuan Sacred Land had ultimately reached this point.

“Saintess, it is time to enter the Divine Source,” an elder from the Hidden Merit Pavilion reminded her from behind.

This was the agreed plan: only after the elder witnessed the Saintess sealing herself within the Divine Source could they catch up with the Tianxuan Sacred Land’s forces.

Leaving a sage behind to watch the Saintess seal herself ensured she would not change her mind at the last moment.

The Saintess looked back unwillingly at the figure outside the small world. He could have easily intervened with but a slight effort to resolve this matter. Even if it was a temporary fix, as long as she persevered to sever the Path and become a Saint, gaining the power to guide the sacred land’s decisions, she could change everything.

But he knew everything, understood everything, yet refused to act, watching the sacred land march toward ruin with open eyes.

The Saintess stepped into the Divine Source, her flawless body gradually engulfed by it. A tear fell on her pure cheek, freezing into an eternal mark.

A faint voice echoed within the Divine Source: “I hate you.”

Power without action breeds a restless heart.

The elder of the Hidden Merit Pavilion looked helplessly toward the figure on Can Peak. “You have disappointed her greatly. You know why she humbled herself to approach you so unreservedly.

She is the favored daughter of heaven; never before did she lower herself to any man as she has to you. She was even willing to give herself to you. Yet from beginning to end, you refused to intervene.

It was merely a transaction.”

The Saintess’s actions had been tacitly approved by the elders. If the Saintess and Luo Yan truly came together, the others could attack the Ancient Forbidden Zone with greater peace of mind.

Perhaps their thoughts were distasteful, but if they could find the Saintess a refuge, even if the sacred land were to fall entirely, facing mortal enemies, she would not stand alone.

Did the Saintess have feelings for him? Perhaps. After three years, even if it began as a transaction, some personal feelings inevitably mingled.

Friendship or something else—who could say?

The figure on Can Peak was silent for a moment. “Every family has its difficult scriptures.”

“And what can I do to stop it?” he retorted, bitterness in his tone.

“But you don’t even have a stance,” the elder lamented, perhaps out of pity for the Saintess, the girl he had watched grow.

The elder glanced once more at the Divine Source sealed with the first Saintess of the Eastern Wilderness, then closed the entrance to the small world, sealing it away. Without a trace of hesitation, he turned and flew toward the horizon.

On Can Peak, the Time Mirror floated beside him, its deity long since awakened, but Luo Yan had yet to leave.

...

Outside the Ancient Forbidden Zone.

Led by the Ancestor Nanyang, wielding an ultimate imperial weapon, flanked by two Great Saints, they were prepared to do everything in their power to revive the deities within the Taihua Imperial Tome, ready to face any unforeseen dangers within the Forbidden Zone.

The Tianxuan Sacred Lord produced a jade stone inscribed with forbidden methods capable of resisting the temporal forces within the Ancient Forbidden Zone. This jade was a divine jade the Ancestor Nanyang had discovered inside the Forbidden Zone, and it was thanks to it that he had managed to exit the zone safely twice.

The jade transformed into a colossal divine pattern, blotting out the sky and sun, nearly enveloping half the Forbidden Zone and imprisoning the temporal forces there.

This item could only be used once; after that, it would be useless unless an identical divine jade appeared in the world.

“Disciples, follow me... charge!” the Tianxuan Sacred Lord shouted loudly.

Countless disciples surged into the Ancient Forbidden Zone, clashing fiercely with the ferocious beasts within.

“Aran slaves! Aran slaves!”

From the abyss below, figures appeared, standing on the cliff’s edge.

Their pupils were lifeless, as if puppets, yet somehow still alive.

“These were once mighty rulers, their strength unmatched, now turned into Aran slaves after death! Like that one—once the unrivaled old emperor of the Xia dynasty! A peerless powerhouse who had several audiences with the Azure Emperor!”

“I recognize another—an ancestor of the Ji family from the Ancient Aran clans. I thought he had already ascended, yet he fell to become an Aran slave. In his day, he was a match for Ancestor Nanyang!”

“And that one, once a great adversary on the path of the Azure Emperor, he too perished in the Ancient Forbidden Zone...”

The elders recognized some of the Aran slaves’ former identities, while others had been lost to time.

Without a doubt, these individuals had illustrious statuses and unsurpassed power in life, yet in death became slaves of the Forbidden Zone.

“Could it be... they will truly suffer a crushing defeat?” The three Great Saints wore grave expressions, unable to suppress such a thought. During Ancestor Nanyang’s previous two visits, so many Aran slaves had not appeared!

This time, over a dozen emerged at once, all former peerless strongmen.