Lord of Guyuan

Hearing Tianye's smiling words, Xu Yuan instinctively opened his mouth to say something, only to find that nothing would come out. His mind had short-circuited. This time, however, it was not shock born of a shifted worldline, nor fear of supreme might, but rather the sheer volume of implications behind the White Emperor appearing in Thousand Thorns Gorge at this very moment. In truth, Xu Yuan had always been baffled by one thing. Why had so many pinnacle experts converged in such a desolate backwater? He had rotten luck and had stumbled headfirst into a nest of Saints—Xu Yuan took no issue with that—but there had to be a reason all these figures had gathered here, didn't there? And the White Emperor's appearance filled in the final puzzle piece in Xu Yuan's mind. A rough conjecture regarding the events unfolding within Thousand Thorns Gorge had already formed in his thoughts. Now, however, was clearly not the time to ponder this. He and Tianye had to clear the boss in front of them first. In Cangyuan, even with the expressive limitations of a 2.5D pixel-art style, the entrance of the White Emperor, Lord of Guyuan, as a boss had still carried an overwhelming sense of oppression. The reinforcements from the Prime Minister's Manor had not yet arrived. Relying solely on the cards in his hand right now was visibly insufficient to even sit at the table, let alone go all-in. Tianye was undeniably strong, but there was no getting around the fact that this enchantress ran out of power after bursting for only a moment. After a brief contemplation, Xu Yuan suddenly asked, "Tianye, are you certain the White Emperor is nearby?" Tianye raised a brow at his question and offered an ambiguous smile. "If my senses weren't mistaken when that Little Dragon Maiden used her dragon seal to escape just now, then the Lord of Guyuan is indeed nearby." Xu Yuan furrowed his brow, his tone grave. "A dragon seal? Don't dragon seals exist independently?" Tianye cast Xu Yuan a mildly surprised glance. "It seems you only know what dragon seals are, but not how they work." With that, she tapped her chin with a finger, tilting her head as she weighed her words before explaining with a grin, "Well... dragon seals do exist independently, but you can think of them like your modern communication crystals. Paired like mother and child, disconnected under normal circumstances, but whenever one is activated, both ends produce fluctuations in qi dynamics. Just now, I sensed another pulse of dragon seal qi dynamic nearby." Having heard this, Xu Yuan hesitated no longer and spat out two words to Tianye: "Let's retreat." “……” Tianye blinked, the mischievous smirk on her lips freezing. After a brief silence, her red lips parted slightly. "Huh?" "What? Do you have other plans?" "My saber is still in the hands of those two down there." "Striking now will give the White Emperor an opening. Let them have that ghost blade for now." "Tsk." Tianye curled her lip, turning her gaze aside with furrowed brows, her reluctance plain as day. Xu Yuan tried tugging at her, but she didn't budge an inch. At this sight, Xu Yuan felt his head beginning to throb again. Likely out of habit, he could guess what Tianye was thinking. The moment the Meishen Calamity was resolved, this enchantress had settled her debts to humanity. Now living for herself, all she wanted was fun. Watching the young woman who showed not the slightest inclination to compromise, Xu Yuan opened his mouth to persuade her. You're practically Ultraman right now, flashing a red warning light after fighting for two seconds. If we don't run now, are you really planning to stake Tianyan's life on going toe-to-toe with the White Emperor when he arrives? Yet the words stayed on the tip of his tongue, and he swallowed them back down. Because this enchantress wouldn't listen to him at all. Among all the women, even someone as headstrong as the breast-binding princess would heed his commands once the stakes were clearly laid out. But Tianye was different. Reasoning with Tianye was utterly pointless; she only wanted amusement. Xu Yuan suspected that Tianye's favor toward him was not based on romantic affection at all, but rather on her quest for amusement. Because inside the Charm God Illusion realm, he and Tianyan had been the only "living people," and Tianye didn't fancy women like Li Junwu did, so she had no choice but to pester him. Now that the thrill-seeker was denied her thrills, her temper naturally flared. If she couldn't play, then nobody gets to play. If she wasn't happy, then you could just die right here. Unless you could offer her even greater amusement. With this thought, Xu Yuan suddenly glanced toward the collapsed Dragon Burial Valley. There, a husband and wife stood quietly on the valley floor. Mu Xingyi and Madame Wan had not resumed their attack, but they showed no intention of leaving either; they were likely waiting for that old insect to arrive. Xu Yuan's gaze swept past Mu Xingyi and ultimately settled upon Madame Wan—or rather, upon Madame Wan's slightly swollen belly. Staring at her, he suddenly spoke in a low voice to Tianye beside him, "Let's leave first. I can find you far greater amusement." "Hm?" This time, Tianye responded. She glanced at Xu Yuan, and after noticing where his gaze rested, an enigmatic smile curved the corners of her lips, her golden eyes faintly alight with excitement. Yet just as this spark of excitement rose, Tianye suddenly extended the moist, tender tip of her tongue to lick her red lips. Seeing this, Xu Yuan's heart sank abruptly. Almost instinctively, whenever he saw that expression on this enchantress, he had an ominous premonition that something terrible was about to occur. Sure enough, a breath later, Tianye slowly cast her gaze toward the vault of heaven: "What a pity, Brother Changtian. You spoke a little too late. He's already here~" “……” Xu Yuan. At first, it was merely an inconspicuous swirl of wind rising high in the firmament. Yet as the faint vortex began to expand rapidly, howling violently and pressing relentlessly down toward the sandstorm below, a silent, haughty sensation of being looked down upon suddenly seized Xu Yuan's heart. Looking up instinctively, he saw that the colossal vortex had already descended upon the earth like a pillar propping up the heavens. The moment the sky-blotting sandstorm touched it, it was shattered and swept away like dry twigs. The eye of the storm seemed to connect heaven and earth, pure and devoid of any debris. Looking up through this clear tunnel, Xu Yuan saw the red desert sun hanging in the firmament— and a figure bathed beneath that crimson rising sun. The moment their eyes met, Xu Yuan felt as if a dragon head as massive as a mountain were coiled right before him. With the red sun rising behind it, its dragon eyes were indifferent, gazing down from above. The colossal pressure was so stifling it made one forget to breathe. Under this gaze of despairing suffocation, a fair, slender hand suddenly reached out from behind him, its delicate index finger tapping lightly upon the mountain-sized dragon head. "Buzz—" The instant the two made contact, the immense aura dissipated, and the dragon head shattered and dissolved like foam. Clarity returned before his eyes. The prior feeling of suffocation caused Xu Yuan to knit his brows involuntarily, only to find another crisis arising before the first had subsided. Everything around him seemed frozen in place. The swirling dust, the patterns of the wind vortex, the fluttering sleeves. He felt as though he had stepped into a time-stopped space. When time halted, all things stood still. Except for the girl beside him. He could see her smiling gaze fixed upon the figure in the sky. He could also see that figure quietly gazing back at her. A single instant, an eternity. The aura radiating from the two was so dazzling that no one could look directly upon them. Amidst the absolute silence, Xu Yuan closed his eyes involuntarily. When he opened his eyes once more, the flow of time had already returned to normal. The gale poured like a waterfall, yellow sand billowed as before, and everything just now seemed like an intensely vivid dream. The two stood suspended in the void amidst the yellow sands. Xu Yuan lowered his eyes to look at his trembling hand. Recalling the eerie sensation of stillness, he murmured, "Just now... what was that?" Tianye smiled, reaching out with her delicate hand to clasp his, feeling the tremor within it. "One of my Dao domains." "And the White Emperor?" "Left, of course." "You didn't fight?" "He came all the way here—do you think he'd just leave without crossing hands?" "But..." Xu Yuan was about to ask about what happened, but suddenly realized the terrain of the valley below had changed. The sandy valley was gone. The collapsed cliff top that Mu Xingyi and his wife had caused was now replaced by a circular abyss. Within that desolate, massive crater, a few leaping arcs of lightning still crackled. The White Emperor had annihilated the terrain in a single strike.