Shrouding the Heavens: Empress, I am truly not the Desolate Heavenly Emperor!

The black lightning was not a punishment from Heaven, but a manifestation of the eternal curse of the forbidden land.

It transformed into a silent, roaring dragon, locking onto the alien creature beneath the peach tree that was trying to steal a sliver of life.

The lightning reflected on Ye Chen's face, revealing his bloodless skin and his frantically twitching eyelids.

The smell of death, with its unique burnt odor, filled my nostrils.

He didn't look at the sky; instead, he used all his strength to stare intently at the white-clad figure with her back to him.

This was the biggest gamble of his life.

The stakes are life.

The bargaining chip was the obsession she hid deep within her Dao heart.

"What are you looking at! Why aren't you making a move?"

His voice was hoarse and distorted under the pressure of the thunder, yet it exuded an undeniable madness.

"Do you want to live like a widow?!"

His words fell silent.

The laws of the peach orchard froze instantly.

The ferocious, cursed black dragon stopped eerily less than three inches from Ye Chen's crown.

The image freezes at this moment—

A violent, destructive force was separated from a tiny mortal by a single hand.

A delicate hand, so perfect it seemed unreal, reached out from the void and effortlessly gripped the thunder dragon's neck.

It was as if he had only pinched an insignificant earthworm.

The empress had turned around at some point.

There was no anger in her eyes, only an indifference that seemed to see through eternity, and a trace of emotion that she herself could not comprehend, which she had forcibly suppressed.

"Noisy."

She spoke coldly, her voice like shattered ice.

The five fingers suddenly clenched together.

"Click."

With a barely audible crack, the curse lightning, powerful enough to obliterate a powerful being at the Sendai level, shattered silently in her palm.

The black rain of light scattered across the sky, only to be greedily absorbed by the surrounding peach trees, transforming into even more eerie patterns on their petals.

The air in Ye Chen's lungs was instantly sucked out, and he collapsed to the ground, his fingertips twitching.

Cold sweat mixed with blood dripped onto the ground.

This is the Great Emperor.

Crushing the curse of the forbidden land is easier than a mortal extinguishing a candle flame.

As the crisis subsided, Ye Chen's soul felt as if it had been repeatedly crushed, causing him excruciating pain.

The Empress withdrew her hand, staring at the wisp of black light remaining in her palm, as if puzzled as to why she had lost her composure just now.

"There will be a next time..."

She turned her head to the side, her gaze like tangible icicles, stinging Ye Chen's skin.

"I then plucked out your tongue, made it into a wind chime, and hung it on the cliff."

Ye Chen took a deep breath, suppressing the metallic taste in his throat.

A wind chime...?

He gleaned a contradictory signal from this blood-soaked, artistic threat—her failure to act directly implied that the value of the "tool" temporarily outweighed the offended imperial dignity.

He won the first step of this high-stakes gamble.

……

Within Peach Blossom Valley, time loses its meaning.

Ye Chen honed his senses to the extreme.

He learned to distinguish the subtle differences in the sound of the wind in Peach Blossom Spring—

When the wind carries the stench of blood, and even the peach trees shrink back in fear, he will turn into a lifeless stone.

Only when the wind turns cold, carrying an eternal loneliness, will he breathe carefully, playing the role of a qualified "catalyst".

Now, the wind has stopped.

The surrounding void was constantly generating fine folds with the breathing of the figure not far away, and then being smoothed out.

The once vibrant peach blossoms are withering and turning to ashes at a visible rate.

A precursor to loss of control.

It was the wounds of the Great Dao that were backfiring on her Dao heart.

Ye Chen forced himself to sit up despite his aching body.

He knew he had to act. Otherwise, once the "demon fetus" fully descended, this place would become a true hell.

"Are you bothered by those noises again?"

Ye Chen's voice was soft and reassuringly magnetic, like an old friend chatting casually.

The Empress did not turn around, but the void around Ye Chen suddenly distorted, as if a pair of invisible blood-red eyes were locking onto him from all directions.

An aura of violence and confusion surged in like a tangible tide, piercing his soul.

"Stop arguing...kill them...kill them all..."

She pressed her forehead; the Emperor's power was out of control, and the entire valley was filled with mournful cries.

"come over."

Ye Chen didn't retreat; instead, he patted the empty space beside him.

This action was tantamount to courting disaster.

But his eyes were clear, without fear, only a kind of indulgent doting.

The empress's body stiffened.

No one had ever dared to treat her like that before.

But drawn by that strange aura from the depths of her soul, a certain instinct that she had suppressed for millennia was awakened.

That was "Nannan's" obsession.

The bloodshot in her eyes receded like the tide, leaving only a humble hope.

Barefoot, she moved timidly to within three feet of Ye Chen, like a child trekking through endless darkness who suddenly saw a tiny light.

Then, she hugged her knees and curled up there.

The transformation from an eternal supreme being to a frightened young girl caused Ye Chen's heart to tremble slightly.

This thigh is so hot it could melt divine metal.

"Don't listen to those voices," Ye Chen softened his tone. "They couldn't beat you in life, and in death, they only deserve to wail in the shadows."

The empress looked up at him, her eyes filled with confusion.

Have you forgotten the stories I told you before?

"story?"

"Yes, a story."

Ye Chen looked at this living legend and slowly spoke.

"Long, long ago, in the deepest part of the North Sea, lived a mermaid princess."

He began to tell a fairy tale that he had distorted beyond recognition.

"She is the daughter of the sea god, born with the ability to command thousands of sea creatures."

One day, she rescued a mortal sword cultivator who had fallen into the water.

"In order to be able to go ashore and see him one last time, she made a deal with an ancient demon in the abyss, exchanging her voice, which could resonate with the Great Dao, for a pair of legs that could walk on land."

The Empress listened attentively.

This kind of exchange, willing to pay any price for a single purpose, triggered her logic.

"But the price was that every step she took felt like walking on a red-hot knife."

Ye Chen observed her reaction.

When she heard "the tip of a knife," the Empress's eyelashes trembled violently.

She had walked that blood-stained path to becoming emperor as well.

"But that swordsman was ultimately to marry the goddess of the holy land."

"The ancient demon gave her a choice: before midnight, pierce the sword cultivator's heart with a demonic dagger, bathe her feet in his blood of Dao Fruit, and she can turn back into a mermaid, even stronger than before."

"Otherwise, when the first ray of sunlight illuminates the sea, she will turn into foam and vanish into nothingness."

Ye Chen lowered his voice: "If it were you, what would you choose?"

The Empress's eyes, which seemed to pierce through eternity, were filled with bewilderment.

She tilted her head and said in a domineering tone that seemed to take it for granted:

"This mermaid is too weak and too stupid."

"If it were me, I would refine that North Sea, extract the soul of that sword cultivator, and keep him by my side, so that he would sing for me for eternity."

Why turn into bubbles?

Ye Chen remained completely unmoved; this was exactly the answer he had expected.

How could an emperor who could climb to the top by stepping over mountains of corpses and seas of blood understand the fairy tale of self-sacrifice?

But that's not important. What's important is that he has successfully steered the conversation to the very point that matters to her most.

"Stories are told to those who still have hope."

Ye Chen looked into her eyes, his tone suddenly becoming serious.

"You think she's weak because you're strong enough to refine the ocean."

"But what if you can't find that person either?"

"What if you refined all the heavens and slaughtered all the gods and Buddhas, only to find that the person you long to see had not even left behind a wisp of their soul?"

"By then, wouldn't you also want to turn into a bubble, so you could at least drift away on the wind and see the scenery he once saw?"

Dead silence.

A deathly silence so profound you could hear a pin drop.

The Empress's aura, which had just calmed down, suddenly went berserk.

She stared intently at Ye Chen, as if trying to see right through his soul.

After a long while, she slowly lowered her head and looked at her bare feet, which were as clear as jade.

"I will not turn into bubbles."

Her voice was soft, yet it carried a resolute determination that made heaven and earth tremble.

"I will reverse time and dig him out from those endless ruins."