In the secret chamber back in reality, Bai Qingran’s aura had already weakened to the brink of collapse.
The fragile, tottering sense of breakage made Chu Mo’s heart twist like a knife.
Her normally steady steps turned frantic and restless as she paced back and forth inside the chamber.
Every glance at Bai Qingran’s deathly pale face made the violent possessiveness inside her surge higher.
A voice screamed madly in her mind, urging her to step forward and forcibly interrupt everything.
Yet Lin Rou’s earlier warning acted like a tightening band around her skull, forcing her to clench her palms until her fingertips pierced her own flesh.
Blood dripped steadily between her fingers.
Finally, a fierce and tyrannical aura erupted from within Yan Qingge’s body—the gu had been destroyed, and the phoenix nirvana had begun.
Because her divine sense was still merged with Bai Qingran’s, Lin Rou clearly sensed the gu turning to ash and smoke inside the scorching phoenix flames.
She wiped the fine beads of sweat from her forehead.
Her voice was hoarse and exhausted from overexertion, yet it carried irrepressible excitement and joy.
“They succeeded!”
The taut string inside Chu Mo suddenly slackened.
She flashed to Bai Qingran’s side in an instant.
Right then, Bai Qingran slowly stirred awake.
His long lashes trembled, revealing a pair of red pupils so hollow they broke the heart.
He was so weak he no longer had the strength to move even a fingertip, like a dying candle that had burned its final drop of wax in the cold wind and could extinguish at any moment.
The sight filled Chu Mo’s eyes with aching tenderness.
Trembling, she pulled Bai Qingran tightly into her arms.
Yet before joy could even spread through the air, an anomaly erupted.
Yan Qingge’s aura did not stabilize.
Instead, it climbed at a terrifying speed.
A vast, oppressive pressure rolled out from her body, making the air hum and vibrate.
All three faces paled in an instant. Yan Qingge was breaking through!
“Oh no…” Lin Rou’s pupils contracted violently. She murmured in a daze, “The gu is gone, but the poison hasn’t been cleared yet. Breaking through right now is no different from suicide. All our earlier efforts have been wasted…”
Bai Qingran lay against Chu Mo’s chest. Double vision layered before his eyes as waves of dizziness crashed through his mind.
Looking at Yan Qingge, who hung on the edge of life and death, the image that surfaced in Bai Qingran’s mind was the unfilial little sister from the illusion—the one who had followed behind him as she grew up and finally confessed her feelings to him.
Even though you won’t remember those thirteen years inside the illusion, I remember them!
I said it back then. This time, I will save you.
A final thread of strength appeared from nowhere. Bai Qingran actually pushed Chu Mo away.
He staggered to his feet, body swaying with every step. He raised an ice-cold, bloodless hand and slowly removed the black veil from his face.
In that instant, every ray of light inside the secret chamber seemed to be stolen by that single face.
It was a beauty capable of making gods fall and all living beings lose their breath.
Lin Rou froze completely. Even as a Spirit Emperor Stage powerhouse, her Dao heart shattered like glazed tiles in this moment.
Nothing else could exist in her eyes—only the man before her, whose beauty was beyond words.
“Peak Master Lin.”
Bai Qingran spoke. His voice was clear and cold, yet carried the resolve of one offering a sacrifice.
Lin Rou snapped back to herself.
Her aged face flushed red. She felt ashamed for losing her composure, yet her heartbeat quickened uncontrollably because of the breathtaking beauty so close at hand.
“Please… lend me your spiritual power one more time.”
Bai Qingran knelt on one knee before Yan Qingge and took her hand.
An eerie technique began circulating wildly inside his body.
Lin Rou’s brows furrowed.
She had seen this technique once beside Pei Yunqing.
The peerlessly beautiful person before her was using it far more skillfully than Pei Yunqing ever had.
Why does he know Pei Yunqing’s family medical arts?
No… this person looks somewhat like Pei Yunqing. Then… Lin Rou’s beautiful eyes flicked between Bai Qingran and Chu Mo.
What secret are these two hiding?
She pressed the question down, because she could feel that Bai Qingran had begun to fight with everything he had.
He was racing against time.
He was racing against death itself.
Bai Qingran’s soul burned.
His divine sense withered.
It felt as though his brain were being crushed again and again beneath ten-thousand-pound hammers.
Two lines of bloody tears slid from those peerless red pupils, tracing down his deathly pale cheeks like red plum blossoms blooming amid a sky full of snow—heart-wrenchingly beautiful.
Pain! Heart-piercing pain! Phoenix flames scorched his meridians inch by inch.
Bai Qingran clenched his teeth and endured.
Madness and obsession burned in his eyes. He had to save Yan Qingge!
Strands of phoenix flame followed the spiritual power and attached themselves to his ruined meridians.
A strange symbiotic relationship was quietly born.
Above Yao Furnace Peak.
The enormous phantom of a flaming phoenix circled and cried out.
Its overwhelming pressure shook the entire sect.
This was no ordinary breakthrough—it was the rare, one-in-ten-thousand perfect great completion breakthrough.
In the illusion, the Heart-Questioning Gu Devouring had inadvertently touched upon that sliver of perfection.
The commotion drove Pei Ruanyan into complete madness.
The chess player who had calmly manipulated everything from behind the scenes now let out nothing but hysterical, despairing roars.
“Impossible! Inside Xuan Phoenix Sacred Sect, no one but me, Pei Ruanyan, can cure Yan Qingge! That’s right! The gu poison hasn’t been removed—breaking through now means death! Hahahaha!”
The people from Red Sun Phoenix Heaven Sect arrived above Yao Furnace Peak in a single breath.
They radiated killing intent, their divine senses spreading like a net across the entire peak.
Lin Rou sensed Elder Wang and the others attempting to force their way in.
Her face darkened like still water.
These two were at a life-and-death juncture; they could not be disturbed.
“Chu Mo! Red Sun Phoenix Heaven Sect is here! Go out and stop them! If anything goes even slightly wrong, both of them will die here!”
Chu Mo looked at Bai Qingran, whose face was streaked with bloody tears.
The madness in her eyes could no longer be suppressed.
Without a word, she turned and flashed out of the secret chamber.
On Yao Furnace Peak, the moment Chu Mo appeared, Elder Wang gave a cold snort.
“Get out of the way! Tell Lin Rou to come out and explain herself!”
The Mo Yuan Sword left its sheath.
Its ringing cry echoed across the heavens.
Chu Mo offered no explanation.
The black in her pupils was like
ten-thousand-year-old profound ice.
She spoke word by word, “Anyone who forces their way in dies!”
“Ridiculous!” Elder Wang exploded with rage.
Her Spirit Sovereign Stage pressure surged outward. The two powerhouses collided instantly.
The shockwaves made Yao Furnace Peak tremble violently.
Cracks even began to spread across the secret chamber’s ceiling, sending stone fragments raining down.
Just as the two sides were about to fight to the death, Su Yunluo arrived with Luo Na in time.
Su Yunluo looked at the phoenix phantom in the sky, then at the cracking grand protective array around Yao Furnace Peak, and stepped between the two combatants.
Elder Wang narrowed her eyes at Su Yunluo’s appearance.
She knew forcing her way in was now impossible.
Elder Wang forcibly withdrew her power.
She stared fixedly at the flaming phoenix phantom, her voice vicious and low.
“I don’t know why Peak Master Lin would risk letting Qingge break through, but if anything happens to Qingge, everyone here will accompany her to the grave.”
Su Yunluo and Luo Na exchanged a glance.
Both saw unprecedented gravity in the other’s eyes.
While the two top sects teetered on the edge of all-out war, inside the secret chamber the walls were already covered in cracks from the violent spiritual power outside.
Stone fragments fell in a steady patter as dust floated through the air.
Bai Qingran’s body had reached the verge of total collapse, yet he stubbornly held on.
Using his nearly exhausted divine soul, he guided the spiritual power to purge the poison that had coiled layer after layer around his meridians.
The sacred and noble phoenix was being reborn in flames before everyone’s eyes.
Yet few could see through the thick stone door to the half-fox youth with blood-streaked cheeks and snow-white hair draped over his shoulders, quietly withering away in the shadows.
Bai Qingran was like the last fading glow of sunset, pouring out every ounce of strength he had left just to light the path ahead for his unfilial little sister.