Yun Qianxue, Lin Xinyao, Lan Hanyu, and Yue Yun stood together, their expressions unreadable.
They had known this was the end from the beginning.
There was no sorrow—only rage.
Nian Shi studied them, intrigued.
"No tears? No pleas for mercy?" He chuckled. "How admirable."
He raised the Blade of Eternity.
"Let's see how long your resolve lasts."
Lin Xinyao stepped forward first, her silver robes fluttering like ghostly banners in the wind. Blood trickled from the corner of her lips, but her posture remained regal—every inch the Moon God inheritor.
"You think you've won," she said, her voice trembling not with fear, but with restrained fury. "But it's uncertain who will win in the end."
"Oh? What are you trying to say?" Nian Shi chuckled. "Are you saying that Yun Lintian has a chance to defeat me?"
Lin Xinyao ignored him and closed her eyes. For a fleeting moment, she remembered—Yun Lintian's laughter, the warmth of his hand in hers, the way he'd once promised to always return to her.
"I'm sorry, Lintian," she thought. "It seems I won't be here when you come back."
Her moon blades materialized in her hands, their edges humming with celestial energy. She poured every last drop of her divine power into them, until they shone like twin fragments of the moon itself.
"Of course, he will win… Because he's the man I love."
She vanished in a flash of silver light, appearing behind Nian Shi in an instant. Her blades arced toward his neck—
Nian Shi didn't even turn. The blades shattered against an invisible barrier, the recoil sending cracks spiderwebbing up Lin Xinyao's arms.
"Pathetic," Nian Shi sighed.
The impact sent her crashing to the ground, ribs shattering on impact. Blood pooled beneath her as she struggled to rise.
Nian Shi loomed over her, his foot pressing down on her chest.
"Any last words?" he asked mockingly.
Lin Xinyao smiled through bloody lips.
"You... will... never win... because you have no one."
Nian Shi's expression darkened. His foot came down—
However, Lin Xinyao had already detonated herself.
The explosion of Lin Xinyao's self-detonation sent shockwaves rippling across the battlefield. Silver moonlight mixed with temporal energy in a cataclysmic storm, the force enough to vaporize mountains. Yet when the dust settled—
Nian Shi stood unharmed, merely taking a single step back.
"Hahahaha!" His laughter echoed cruelly across the ruined landscape. "After centuries of cultivation, after all your struggles... this is all you could manage?" He shook his head in mock disappointment. "What a waste."
His silver eyes turned toward the remaining three—Yun Qianxue, Lan Hanyu, and Yue Yun. "Who's next?"
Yun Qianxue stepped forward, her expression frighteningly calm. The numbness of watching her sisters, disciples, and friends die one after another had settled deep in her bones. There was no fear left—only cold determination.
Her gaze flickered to Lan Hanyu's flat belly that didn't seem to carry any fetus, and for the first time, her composure cracked slightly.
"Lan Hanyu... you...?"
The realization struck her like a blade to the heart. Of all people, it was Lan Hanyu—the aloof Ice Phoenix who had rarely shown affection toward Yun Lintian—who carried his child. The irony was almost unbearable.
"Lan Hanyu," Yun Qianxue said, her voice hoarse. "You need to leave. Now."
Lan Hanyu didn't move. Her frost-blue eyes met Yun Qianxue's squarely. "I won't."
"You must!" Yun Qianxue's voice cracked. "That child is—"
"I know what she is," Lan Hanyu interrupted softly, one hand resting on her belly. "Which is why I won't run."
Yue Yun's golden-tinged black eyes also locked onto Lan Hanyu's abdomen. A strange emotion flickered across her face—something between protectiveness and sorrow.
A childish voice, bright with innocence, rang out from Lan Hanyu's belly:
"Big Sister, are you my big sister?"
The voice was so unexpectedly cheerful that it momentarily froze the battlefield.
Yue Yun's breath hitched but she didn't say anything.
"Mom told me about you!" The unborn child's voice bubbled with excitement. "She said you're my big sister! Are you really? Do you—"
Nian Shi's cold laughter cut through the moment like a blade. His silver eyes gleamed with malicious delight as he studied Lan Hanyu and Yue Yun.
"How touching. Yun Lintian's women are precious enough... but his children?" He licked his lips. "Even better. I can already imagine his despair when he learns what happens next."
"BAD MAN!" Bing'er's voice shrieked from Lan Hanyu's womb, so fiercely that even Nian Shi blinked in surprise. "DADDY WILL KILL YOU!"
Nian Shi's smirk widened. "Oh? Feisty little thing, aren't you? Let's see how loud you scream when—"
Yun Qianxue's aura exploded.
The sky darkened as Yun Qianxue's power surged. The remnants of her Chaos Goddess Sutra—once thought extinguished—rekindled in a storm of frost and destruction.
She had no more words.
Her shattered sword reforged itself from ice and chaos, crystallizing in her grip. She didn't wait for Nian Shi to react—she simply attacked.
The first strike split the earth.
Nian Shi blocked it effortlessly, but Yun Qianxue didn't stop.
Each slash carried the weight of her grief, her fury, her love for the man who wasn't here to protect his family.
Nian Shi actually had to take two steps back.
"That's it?" he taught as the Blade of Eternity flashed.
Yun Qianxue's sword shattered again—but this time, she didn't stop.
She lunged forward, abandoning defense entirely.
Her hand, wreathed in chaotic frost, pierced Nian Shi's temporal barrier and gripped his throat.
"Hmm?" Nian Shi's eyes widened in surprise.
Yun Qianxue smiled. A bloody, broken smile.
She detonated her core.
The explosion dwarfed Lin Xinyao's by tenfold. A pillar of frost and chaos erupted into the heavens, swallowing Nian Shi whole.
The world turned white.
In that infinite moment between life and death, as Yun Qianxue's body disintegrated in a storm of frost and chaos, time itself seemed to pause.
Memories—countless, precious memories—flashed before her fading consciousness.
A young Yun Qianxue stood in the Misty Cloud Sect's courtyard, her breath forming mist in the winter air. In her arms, wrapped in celestial silk, lay a baby—tiny, fragile, his dark eyes staring up at her with innocent wonder.
"His name is Yun Lintian," Yun Ling, who was cloaked from head to toe, said gently. "Raise him well."
The baby grasped her finger with surprising strength.
Something in Yun Qianxue's heart shifted.
"I'll protect you," she promised silently.