Myth Beyond Heaven

Si Junyi didn't dwell on it further. "Regardless, you should consolidate your power here first. This isn't energy you can master through battle experience alone."

Yun Lintian nodded slowly. "But my wives...it's been months. I don't even know what's happening outside."

The Netherworld trembled slightly at his distress, the balanced energies rippling.

Si Junyi's crimson gaze didn't waver. "A few more days won't change anything. But leaving now without full control? That could destroy everything." He placed a cold hand on Yun Lintian's shoulder. "Consolidate first. Then go."

For a long moment, Yun Lintian wrestled with the decision. The Beyond Heaven King's Crown on his head pulsed gently, its eight jewels glowing in steady rhythm. Finally, he nodded.

"Alright."

***

Six months had passed since the Primal Chaos Wall shattered.

The Realm of Chaos' forces had flooded through the broken barrier like a swarm of locusts. The Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Expanses all burned under relentless attacks. Countless sects and clans raised their banners, joining the desperate defense against the invaders.

In the Eastern Expanse, amidst a battlefield littered with corpses and broken weapons, two women faced each other across a frozen wasteland.

Yun Qianxue stood tall in her white robes, the Misty Cloud Divine Sword gleaming in her hand. Her long white hair fluttered despite the absence of wind, each strand carrying traces of frost. The air around her shimmered with elemental energy - fire, water, earth, and wind all awaiting her command.

Opposite her floated the Fifth Chaos Knight - a woman clad in jagged black armor that seemed to drink in the light. Her face was hidden behind a horned helmet, but her mocking voice carried clearly across the frozen ground.

"So you're Yun Qianxue," the knight sneered. "The woman who went from being Yun Lintian's foster mother to his wife. How...interesting."

Yun Qianxue's expression remained impassive.

The knight continued, twirling a wicked curved blade. "Tell me, did you seduce him when he was still a child? Or did he grow up first before you decided to—"

A glacier erupted beneath the knight's feet.

Yun Qianxue hadn't moved, but the temperature had plummeted instantly. Jagged ice spikes shot toward the knight from all directions.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The knight blurred into motion, her blade deflecting each icy projectile with contemptuous ease. "Touched a nerve, did I?"

Yun Qianxue finally spoke, her voice colder than the ice she commanded. "You talk too much."

She raised her sword, and the battlefield transformed.

The clouds above darkened and unleashed a barrage of ice spears, each one sharper than a master-crafted sword.

The knight laughed and spun, her blade becoming a black whirlwind that shattered the falling ice. "Is this all the famous Yun Qianxue can muster?"

Yun Qianxue's sword glowed blue-white. She slashed horizontally, and a wave of paradoxical fire-ice swept outward - burning cold that froze while it seared.

The knight's armor blackened and cracked. For the first time, she staggered back. "Alright, that's more like it!"

Yun Qianxue stabbed her sword into the ground. The earth itself erupted in a spiraling column of frozen debris, swallowing the knight whole.

Yun Qianxue stabbed her sword into the ground. The earth itself erupted in a spiraling column of frozen debris, swallowing the knight whole.

For a long moment, there was silence.

Then—

BOOM!

The ice explosion shattered outward as the knight emerged, her armor now half-destroyed, revealing pale skin covered in glowing chaos runes. "Good! Now let me show you what true power looks like!"

She raised her free hand, and the surrounding corpses twitched before rising - reanimated by chaotic energy. Dozens of dead warriors from both sides lurched toward Yun Qianxue.

Yun Qianxue's eyes narrowed. She could easily destroy the puppets, but that would mean desecrating the dead further.

The knight laughed. "What's wrong? Too soft-hearted to—"

A blade of pure ice materialized at her throat.

Yun Qianxue had moved faster than sight, her real body still standing twenty paces away. The ice clone whispered in the knight's ear:

"Chaos isn't the only power that can create duplicates."

BANG!

The clone exploded.

"AH!" The knight screamed as freezing shrapnel tore through her remaining armor. She crashed to the ground, her weapon skittering away.

Yun Qianxue approached calmly, her sword ready for the finishing strike. "Any last words?"

The knight coughed blood, then grinned viciously. "Just one...brother."

The frozen battlefield trembled as a figure descended like a falling star. The Fourth Chaos Knight—Ming Jun—landed between Yun Qianxue and his wounded sister with graceful lethality.

His long black hair swayed behind him, and his emerald-green robes fluttered despite the absence of wind. In his hand gleamed the Abyssal Devourer Sword, its blade pulsing with dark energy that distorted space around it.

Yun Qianxue didn't retreat. Her icy gaze remained steady as she observed him.

"Ming Jun," she said calmly. "The loser who couldn't even force my husband to use his true strength."

A flicker of cold fury passed through Ming Jun's eyes, but his smile remained elegant. "Yun Qianxue. The woman who clings to her past titles because she has nothing else to boast of."

Behind him, his sister—the Fifth Chaos Knight, Ming Jie—struggled to her feet, clutching her bleeding side. "Brother… keep her alive. Yun Lintian will come for her."

Ming Jun didn't look back. "I know."

His killing intent exploded outward, turning the frozen battlefield into a domain of suffocating pressure. The corpses around them disintegrated into black mist, absorbed by his sword.

Yun Qianxue didn't flinch. She adjusted her grip on the Misty Cloud Divine Sword, its blade shimmering with frost.

"Let's see if you've improved since last time," she said.

Then—

Ming Jun moved first. His sword flickered, and a crescent of black energy tore through the air, devouring everything in its path.

Yun Qianxue countered with a single thrust. A glacier erupted from her blade, intercepting the abyssal slash. The two forces collided—

BOOM!

The shockwave shattered the frozen ground for miles.

Ming Jun didn't pause. He blurred forward, his sword dancing in a deadly rhythm. Each strike carried the weight of a collapsing star, space itself warping under its edge.

Yun Qianxue met him head-on.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Their blades clashed at speeds beyond mortal comprehension. Frost spread from Yun Qianxue's sword, attempting to freeze Ming Jun's movements, but the Abyssal Devourer Sword corroded the ice before it could take hold.

Ming Jun smirked. "You rely too much on that ice."

He raised his sword, and the world darkened. The Abyssal Domain activated—a space where all light and energy were devoured. Even the air itself withered.

"You better use your true strength. Otherwise, you will die under my sword."