"You win!" Ye Fan said. His body trembled uncontrollably, as he had yet to escape the Life and Death Reincarnation.
"You aren’t weak either," Qiu Ji said. "It’s just that you couldn’t defend against a severe soul attack! If you had focused solely on defense, perhaps you would have found my opening."
Ye Fan was filled with regret. He had been so intent on defeating Qiu Ji that he had forgotten something so important. Back then, he had been able to withstand the Thirteen Heroic Swords of the Little God Monarch with nothing but his physical strength. That had been a perfect combat style, but this time, he had neglected it, and so, he had failed. His soul spiraled into an endless decline, and it felt as if his body could no longer support him.
At this point, Ye Fan asked, "Can you promise me one thing?"
"What is it?" Qiu Ji asked.
"Let my wife go!" he said with great difficulty.
"Impossible. She is a calamity on my path of Life and Death Reincarnation. I must use her as a stepping stone to become a Main God. Therefore, she must die!"
In truth, Qiu Ji was also shocked. How could someone exist in this world whose fate and birthdate matched hers so perfectly? She had a premonition that Su Qingxue was a trial she had to overcome on her path. Only by conquering this calamity could she become a Main God, and perhaps even reach the realms beyond. For that reason, Su Qingxue had to die.
"Don’t force my hand!" Ye Fan roared.
Qiu Ji lashed out with a kick, sending Ye Fan flying backward. He crashed heavily to the ground, and in that instant, felt as if he was on the verge of annihilation.
"It’s about time," Qiu Ji said. "Let’s end this!"
As she raised her hand, Ye Fan saw what looked like a butterfly tattoo—a black butterfly. No, it wasn’t a tattoo; it seemed to be a birthmark. Regardless, it was a butterfly. In response, Ye Fan took out the Jade Pendant.
When she saw the butterfly Jade Pendant, Qiu Ji was stunned. The aura she had just unleashed completely vanished, and she stood frozen on the spot, dumbfounded.
"Tell me where this jade came from, or I’ll kill you!" she said coldly.
"First, release me from the Life and Death Mysterious Skill’s restraint!" Ye Fan said, trembling.
"Release you? At most, I’ll only delay your death. If your answer doesn’t satisfy me, I will still kill you!" she retorted coldly.
"Fine!" Ye Fan said immediately.
Qiu Ji partially lifted the Life and Death Reincarnation from Ye Fan’s body. He finally let out a sigh of relief, but the other half still lurked within him, ready to erupt at any moment. He didn’t dare act recklessly.
"You can speak now, can’t you?" Qiu Ji demanded.
"I found this Jade Pendant in the Outer Realm, in the mines destroyed by the Hu Ben Main God," Ye Fan explained. "An old acquaintance gave it to me."
"Where is he?" Qiu Ji asked, her voice like ice.
"He’s dead," Ye Fan replied.
"What?"
Qiu Ji’s aura exploded, and the remaining half of the Life and Death Reincarnation began to surge. Ye Fan quickly added, "His remains are still there!"
Qiu Ji halted the attack. Ye Fan breathed another sigh of relief. This was incredibly difficult; he had come so close to a truly miserable end.
He quickly continued, "He was the guard captain. I was there too, under the oppression of the Hu Ben Main God! One of his subordinates, the Jingnan Divine Captain, wanted to complete his mission, so he sent a small squad to escort a group of slaves to the cursed land deep within the mines. He was the squad leader. Deep in the mines, we were attacked by ominous creatures. We fought with all our might, but in the end, everyone else died."
"Then why didn’t you die?" Qiu Ji stomped on Ye Fan’s chest.
Gasping, Ye Fan said, "Because my strength was already considerable back then, I survived the ordeal. I did everything I could to save him, but he said he couldn’t make it out alive. He gave me this Jade Pendant and asked me to find his sister!"
In reality, the pendant’s owner was just an ordinary guard, not the squad leader, but Ye Fan knew there was no time to explain such details. He had to pin the title of squad leader on him.
"That’s your answer?" Qiu Ji said coldly.
"That’s right," Ye Fan replied.
"Do you think I don’t know you’re lying? Perhaps you were the one who summoned those ominous creatures!" She knew that Ye Fan had the ability to control them.
"I didn’t have that ability back then!" Ye Fan said hurriedly. "Otherwise, why would I have let myself be pushed around by a mere Divine Captain?"
Qiu Ji seemed half-convinced. "Is my brother really dead?" she asked.
"He is," Ye Fan confirmed, delivering the unfortunate truth.
Instantly, tears streamed down Qiu Ji’s face. She wept with profound sorrow, vaguely remembering an oath from long ago when her brother left their mountain village. He was taken by a group of men, and she and her parents waited for the day he would return, a day that never came. In that era of rampant chaos, her parents were killed by bandits. She narrowly survived by hiding in a cellar, and when she emerged, she found only their cold bodies.
Later, she was discovered by an Old God Monarch from the God Monarch Palace who happened to be passing by. He found her weeping in despair and took her in as his Closed-door Disciple. She threw herself into cultivation, driven by two goals: to get revenge and to find her brother. Her revenge was now complete; she had found those bandits and torn them to shreds. But she had never found her brother. Now, this was the news that awaited her.
She had become the most renowned genius in the Divine Domain, a talent so great that even a prodigy as heaven-defying as the Little God Monarch could only be her shadow and foil. Yet, for all her power, she couldn’t save her own brother’s life.
Ye Fan felt helpless as well. Perhaps this was the tragedy of an Evil God. She clearly had the power to save her brother from that perilous place, but they didn’t recognize each other. That was the real tragedy of it all.
"The dead can’t be revived," Ye Fan said gently. "If your brother could see your accomplishments from the afterlife, he would be very proud."
"Proud? I only hope he doesn’t blame his useless little sister!" Qiu Ji said, her voice filled with despair. She then turned her gaze back to Ye Fan. "He’s dead, and you have no right to live. You should have died with him in that mine! At least then I would have had a memory to hold on to. But you... you destroyed that last sliver of hope for me. So, you must die!"
Ye Fan was speechless. "Can’t you be rational for a moment?" he pleaded. "I fulfilled my promise, and you repay my kindness with hostility! People like you deserve to be trapped in a dream forever!"
At that moment, Ye Fan swiftly activated a Divine Talisman, using its power to shatter the Life and Death Reincarnation and find a glimmer of his own light amid the infinite darkness of the cycle.
Unfortunately, Qiu Ji had already charged forward.
"Even living in a dream is better than this!" she snarled. "Die!"
"BREAK!"
In that instant, Ye Fan shattered the cycle of life and death and stood facing Qiu Ji.
She was shocked, but in her current state, she was completely devoid of reason. She had no interest in a standoff and immediately lunged at him, intent on killing him.
Faced with such an unreasonable woman, Ye Fan had no choice but to fight for his life. This time, however, he wasn’t as reckless as before. He was diligently searching for an opening in Qiu Ji’s defenses. With Qiu Ji at her most irrational, Ye Fan believed he had an opportunity to exploit.