chapter 5

Life in the celestial army was either completely idle or brutally exhausting.

During the quiet years, I focused on cultivation and ignored the world.

When trouble came, it drained every scrap of strength.

The divine clans often intermarried. Any quarrel between husband and wife could ignite a war between their clans and bring disaster to the Three Realms. Once matters escalated, the celestial army had to intervene.

First, we separated the clans. Then our commanders tried to reason with both sides.

I knew how to fight. I was hopeless at talking people down.

Mingling often teased me about it.

I remained expressionless and never took offense.

Whenever I did, he asked, “Why are you always so cold? Is there truly nothing in this world that makes you happy?”

How could I be happy while looking at a world in such chaos?

Over the years, the young Phoenix princess finally understood that I had transcended romantic desire and cared only for cultivation. Her hostility gradually faded. She still took verbal jabs whenever we met, but at least she stopped attacking me.

Xixuan spoke little in my presence. He silently kept watch when I cultivated and charged farther ahead than I did on the battlefield, though I was the vanguard.

Most divine clan heirs despised mortals, but a few enjoyed mortal life. Some lived below for long stretches, and some even fell in love with mortals.

Love bred selfishness. Unwilling to accept only a few decades together, the gods personally guided their beloveds onto the path of cultivation.

Yet mortals had to sever worldly attachments before they could ascend. If the lovers refused to let go, the mortal could never become immortal. So the gods sought ways to defy the natural order.

For the sake of his mortal lover, a young prince of the Celestial Clan cut all nine tails from a princess of the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan. She escaped by leaping into the Weakwater River and survived long enough to return to Qingqiu only because a spirit pearl protected her.

The loss of her tails and the river’s corrosive power left her beyond saving by the time her clan found her.

The Nine-Tailed Fox Clan rose in fury, surrounded the Celestial Palace, and demanded that the Emperor hand over the prince.

It became the greatest civil war the Celestial Realm had seen in years.

It was also the opportunity I had waited so long to find.

While the palace descended into chaos, I took the Fusheng Sword and climbed to the Ninth Heaven.

The Ninth Heaven housed the Celestial Emperor’s private palace. Above it stood a barrier formed by the Heavenly Dao.

The Celestial Realm was home to many gods who had existed since ancient times. Their power was terrifying.

Although I had comprehended the Heavenly Dao’s intent and cultivated faster than others, I did not know how many ages it would take to surpass them.

So I could only borrow the power of the Heavenly Dao itself.

War drums thundered beyond the palace gate.

The screams of celestial soldiers shook the heavens.

Every soldier sent to fight was a minor immortal ascended from the mortal realm. Their purpose was to die beneath the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan’s blades and bleed away its rage.

The more soldiers the foxes killed, the greater their guilt. The Celestial Palace would gain more leverage at the negotiating table.

As the soldiers screamed, my Dao heart hardened.

I raised the Fusheng Sword, summoned the Heavenly Dao within my sword intent, and drove it into the barrier.

The instant my blade touched it, the sword convulsed. A terrifying pressure descended upon me.

A bolt of golden punishment lightning traveled through the sword and struck my immortal body. My organs tore beneath the force. Blood filled my mouth and spilled from my lips.

The barrier was rejecting me.

Golden sparks flashed within the lightning and crackled across its surface. If the palace had not been consumed by war, someone would already have noticed.

I endured the agony, tightened my grip on the Fusheng Sword, and poured every trace of my immortal power into the barrier.

“The selfish passions of the divine clans have thrown the Three Realms into endless turmoil. Heavenly Dao, return peace to the world!”

My plea seemed to enrage it.

Punishment lightning flooded through me with terrifying force. My soul nearly tore into pieces.

Pain.

So much pain.

But I was not the one who deserved to suffer.

The innocent beings struggling to survive did not deserve it.

I refused to yield.

My eyes reddened. Gritting my teeth, I sent the last thread of divine power into the barrier and prayed the Heavenly Dao would answer.

Without power to protect me, the lightning would erase both my body and soul.

I did not regret it.

Even if I died, the will of mortal cultivators to resist the divine clans would never vanish.

As the lightning tore at me, I felt death approach. My soul drifted out of my body. My vision blurred, and my mind sank into darkness.