"Are you afraid?"
Above the Ascension Platform, countless bolts of tribulation lightning slithered through the clouds, their oppressive aura making it hard to breathe.
Emperor Qingyang stood with unbridled arrogance.
Nan Banruo was cradled in one arm, while his other hand gripped a sword, its tip pointed defiantly at the heavens.
Today, he would face the trial of ascension.
The howling winds whipped his black-and-gold imperial robes into a frenzy, the sheer fabric of her gown fluttering alongside, their hems tangling in the tempest.
She lifted her gaze to him.
This man bore the face of ambition—sharp, striking features, with a pair of captivating eyes and thin lips perpetually curled in a condescending smirk.
Leaning into him, she answered softly, "With you, I fear nothing, not even death."
"Death won’t touch us!" He threw his head back and laughed. "Watch me tear this sky apart for you!"
Arrogance radiated from him like a blinding light.
She lowered her lashes. "Mm."
"Banruo." He hooked a finger under her chin, commanding, "Look at me."
The hand that held her—adorned with a cold jade ring—curved around her neck, a domineering grip that left no room for refusal.
She had no choice but to meet his eyes.
On countless feverish nights, he had forced her to watch him like this, to witness the marks he carved into her skin, the declarations of possession.
His eyes, dark and narrow, reflected her peerless beauty.
A familiar haze clouded Nan Banruo’s gaze, her lips parting slightly—fragile, submissive, irresistibly tempting, no matter the circumstance.
"Banruo, oh Banruo," he murmured with a low chuckle.
There was only one chance at ascension, and of course, he would take her with him.
Live or die, she would remain by his side.
If another man ever saw her like this, he’d rage even as a ghost.
His gaze burned, as if he could strip her bare to the bone.
She trembled, biting her lip before pressing her cheek against the solid plane of his chest.
Her shy, delicate demeanor pleased him. With a rough grip, he laughed recklessly, his robes billowing behind him like wings.
The first wave of tribulation lightning struck!
Nan Banruo felt his fingers tighten around her.
"Boom!"
With a single swing of his sword, he cleaved through the descending bolt, launching them both skyward—not retreating, but charging straight into the storm.
No one had ever dared such defiance in the face of heavenly wrath.
The thunder dragons roared in fury.
Amidst the bone-chilling crackle, bolts of lightning twisted into pillars as thick as barrels, crashing down upon the two insolent mortals.
Nan Banruo heard his heartbeat.
Steady. Relentless.
One-handed, he wielded his sword, shattering thunder after thunder as they soared higher.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Deafening peals of thunder and wind screamed in their ears.
She glanced up to see his narrowed eyes, the usual smirk playing on his lips.
Then, blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
A man like him felt no fear—pain only excited him.
"Hold tight."
His voice was rough, his tone careless.
Nan Banruo knew he was about to get serious.
With a flick of his sleeve, his divine sword shot upward, splitting into two, then four, then eight—multiplying endlessly until the sky was a sea of blades.
"Break!"
The sword formation surged into the heavens, clashing head-on with the tribulation lightning.
A moment of eerie silence—then the shockwave erupted, scattering the clouds, leaving only a sky of falling thunder and ruin.
Blades and lightning annihilated each other in an endless cycle of destruction and rebirth.
Deep within the storm, a crimson glow coalesced.
The final, annihilating tribulation.
Before it even fully formed, its oppressive might locked onto the man below.
Suddenly, an invisible force slammed down!
Emperor Qingyang shifted his stance, summoning the countless swords into a massive blade to block the crushing wave.
Golden sparks flew as the residual energy spilled over, striking the Ascension Platform below.
With a muffled groan, the hundred-foot golden platform exploded into molten metal, its searing rivers sending attendants fleeing in terror.
"Ugh—"
Under the pressure, Nan Banruo coughed up blood.
Emperor Qingyang’s brow furrowed. Without hesitation, he summoned a shimmering violet robe—his own life-protecting artifact—and draped it over her.
The Donghuang Divine Robe.
Her eyes widened. "No. You need it—the lightning—"
"Quiet," he interrupted lazily. "I’m busy."
The artifact had long been fused with her essence, responding to her will.
But she didn’t obey. Instead, she murmured, "Back in the palace… so many hated me."
Without status yet drowning in his favor, she had been an easy target.
"They framed me, threw me into the glacial prison," she whispered.
By the time he retrieved her, she had been barely clinging to life.
"After that, you always left the Donghuang Robe with me when you were away." She traced its indestructible fabric, sighing. "You got used to letting it protect me."
"Boom—" Even the heavenly tribulation couldn’t harm her now.
He said, "Banruo, I made sure none of them lived."
Amidst the blinding lightning, he couldn’t see her expression.
Her voice softened. "Yes… you ‘banished’ them all."
His lips curled in a cold smile.
She was too kind-hearted to stomach bloodshed, so he had lied—those women hadn’t been exiled. They’d been slaughtered on the roadside, left for wild dogs.
Abruptly, the world fell silent.
The thunder dragons vanished, leaving only a blood-red vortex in the sky—like the eye of heaven itself, glaring down at the audacious mortals.
The annihilating tribulation had begun.
In an instant, everything was bathed in crimson.
The world itself seemed to morph into furious hands, intent on crushing them to dust.
Emperor Qingyang laughed wildly, channeling every ounce of his power to meet the divine lightning head-on.
"Hum—BOOM!"
The tribulation light detonated against his sword, the scarlet thunder seeping into every crevice.
In the blink of an eye, horrific gashes split his skin.
His obsidian crown shattered, his hair tumbling loose.
Nan Banruo had never seen him so disheveled—even at his most unrestrained, he never removed his imperial crown.
He looked down at her.
The tribulation targeted him alone. Shielded by the Donghuang Robe, she remained unharmed.
But the killing intent intensified.
His sword groaned under the strain, and even the divine robe around her flickered unsteadily.
His eyes darkened. Without hesitation, he formed a seal against his forehead, chanting under his breath.
At this point, he held nothing back, unleashing the full extent of his cultivation. With a sweep of his sleeve, he released a torrent of spiritual energy to clash against the will of Heaven, like two colossal waves colliding midair.
The heavens and earth darkened, and the entire world trembled in response.
Today, it would be decided—whether the Heavenly Dao would succeed in annihilating the tribulation-taker, or whether the tribulation-taker would shatter the cage of fate.
His expression was icy as he silently calculated his final trump card.
This tribulation—he would overcome it without fail!
Just as the battle reached its most intense stalemate, Nan Banruo suddenly clutched her abdomen in agony, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
His pupils constricted. Ignoring the tribulation lightning behind him, he hastily lowered his gaze to her.
Her face was as pale as gold paper, her vitality visibly draining away.
"Banruo!"
He couldn’t immediately determine where she was injured.
"It hurts," she murmured, gesturing to her abdomen, her face dazed. "I don’t know why… but I suddenly thought of that child."
After a heavy silence, he spoke in a low voice, "Banruo, that’s in the past. If you wish, we can have many more children in the future."
He had already spoken too many words of regret before. Bringing up old grievances now was untimely, yet he felt no anger—only a dull ache in his chest.
That had been many years ago.
Xuan Heng, his former empress, had taken advantage of his absence from the palace to murder her own son and frame Nan Banruo, using the lives of the entire palace to force her to drink poisoned wine.
At the time, Nan Banruo had already been pregnant. He had saved her, but not the child in her womb.
She had been too delicate, left with lasting damage.
Now, with her life hanging by a thread, Emperor Qingyang acted without hesitation. He summoned his lifebound divine sword, transforming it into a fiery dagger, and placed it in her hand to help her protect her dantian.
With both of his lifebound treasures now gone, the Heavenly Tribulation, sensing his weakened state, roared toward him with renewed fury.
A cold smile curled his lips as an aura of majestic gold and purple energy surged around him.
The imperial dragon’s might.
This was his final card.
The deafening tribulation thunder could not drown out the metallic resonance of the dragon’s roar. The dragon’s energy soared skyward, the ultimate power of humanity clashing against the will of Heaven!
Yet he never forgot to shield Nan Banruo.
Even though she was already protected by the Xuanyuan Divine Sword and the Donghuang Robe, he still drew her beneath his wings—he would never let her suffer harm again.
The wrath of Heaven and earth was terrifying to behold.
He fought savagely, his body splitting open with deep gashes, great gouts of blood raining down.
He threw back his head and laughed, wild and unrestrained.
In this life, he had wielded supreme power, ascended to the highest throne—and now, even the Heavenly Dao would be trampled beneath his feet.
At this moment of reaching the pinnacle, she stood by his side, willing to live or die with him…
Then, in an instant, his gaze froze, his thoughts seizing.
His brow furrowed as he looked down in disbelief, his boiling blood turning to ice.
A blade had pierced straight through his heart.
His eyes twitched violently as he snapped his gaze back to her face.
She met his stare, the flashing lightning illuminating her cold, merciless expression.
"Boom!"
With his true form grievously wounded, the golden-purple dragon formed from his imperial energy let out a mournful cry before shattering under the tribulation’s assault.
Blood gushed from his mouth, yet he still frowned in denial.
"Ban… ruo?"
But it was her delicate, seemingly fragile hands—gripping the lifebound blade he had personally given her—that had driven it unerringly into his heart.
He wondered if the Heavenly Dao had taken control of her.
Yet her springwater-clear eyes were more lucid than ever, her gaze telling him plainly—she wanted him dead.
Confused, he shook his head slightly.
Stripped of all defenses, several bolts of tribulation lightning struck his crumbling body.
He felt no pain, only stared at her with a gaze that seemed to tear through her gentle beauty, piercing into her bones, her soul.
"Boom!"
Another thunderclap shattered the Donghuang Robe protecting her.
Instinctively, he raised a hand to shield her—only for the blade in his heart to twist deeper.
No matter how unwilling he was to believe it, the truth was undeniable: she was trading her life for his death.
His eyes brimmed with blood as he searched her face for even a flicker of remorse. There was none.
"Lin Qingyang," she said emotionlessly, "your concubines weren’t entirely wrong about me. I deliberately provoked hatred, deliberately let myself be hurt—all to deceive you into pitying and protecting me."
His pupils trembled, and in that moment of distraction, she drove the blade completely through his heart.
A sudden void of cold emptiness made his vision waver.
She continued, "Xuan Heng’s son really did die by my hand. I used her to rid myself of the child in my womb—how could I ever bear your offspring?"
His pupils contracted to pinpricks, his gaze sharpening into icy needles.
How dare she?!
In an instant, the fury erupting from him nearly repelled the tribulation itself.
He had given her all the tenderness of a ruthless emperor, willingly shedding his armor for her—only for her to take the lifebound sword he handed her and cleave his heart in two.
Blood flooded his throat, spilling from his eyes like crimson tears as he snarled her full name like a vengeful ghost:
"Nan—Ban—ruo!"
The heavens unleashed their final judgment, the tribulation lightning reducing them both to ashes.
Her laughter scattered on the wind.
"Father… Mother… Brother… Today, Banruo has slain this beast with her own hands. How exhilarating!"
"Banruo has avenged you all!"
