Chapter 623: Ch 623 - Finally, I Can Rest

Funneling her true energy into the wheel, she caused the ancient runes to unleash a powerful wave of energy against the surrounding sword array. As the Moon Wheel Dharma Form expanded, its immense pressure warped the very space around the Dao Testing Pavilion. The moment the moon wheel collided with the sword array, a strange phenomenon occurred, freezing the spiritual swords of the Abyssal Sword Array mid-air, completely motionless.

Time itself seemed to slow to a crawl around the arena, and Yino froze, finding it incredibly difficult to move even a fraction of an inch. He stared in shock. Manifesting the Moon Wheel Dharma Form, Nangong Xi truly looked like the Moon Goddess herself descending upon the world. If he hadn’t known beforehand, her mastery over the Time Laws would have made it impossible to tell whether she was the main body or the avatar body.

"Yino, you lose," she said flatly. As the moon wheel before her spun, cracks began to spiderweb across his sword array. With a sharp crack, the array shattered. Her Moon Wheel Dharma Form claimed complete dominance as its terrifying temporal power threatened to freeze his very thoughts.

A faint smile touched her lips as she summoned the beautiful Moon-Cleaving Sword from her sleeve. Holding the moon wheel in one hand and the sword in the other, she stepped forward. But before she could take two steps, she turned pale and suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Blood trickled from her lips, splashing onto the stone floor and speckling the face of the kneeling youth. The coughing fit wavered her control over the time-freezing Moon Wheel Dharma Form, allowing Yino to momentarily break free. Before he could rise to strike, however, she swallowed the remaining blood, raised the moon wheel, and stabilized the Time Laws, her swift counterattack freezing him in place once again.

"I must win this match!" she declared with a trembling voice. "No one in this world will block my path home." Maintaining her grip on time had drastically weakened her aura, yet she still dragged the Moon-Cleaving Sword behind her, approaching the kneeling youth step by step like an unrelenting deity.

Standing before him with her sword raised, she sent a primal dread piercing through Yino’s soul. He couldn’t move at all, unable to even activate the True Phoenix Bloodline.

Was this really just a brainless hard-control technique? She wasn’t supposed to reveal her Time Authority until much later in the game, so how had she already mastered it at the Void Refinement stage?

As the Reincarnation of the Moon Goddess, she possessed a fraction of the power of laws over time, but that was supposed to happen ten years later. Even then, she could only freeze opponents of the same realm for thirty seconds. Now, she was barely at the Void Refinement stage, and a single blow from her could kill him. Despite his desperate struggles to activate his bloodline, his body refused to respond.

With a sharp whistle, she swung her silver sword downward. At that crucial second, however, she coughed up another large mouthful of blood, instantly losing her control over the Time Laws.

Seizing the opportunity, Yino bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, forcing the ancient True Phoenix Bloodline within him to erupt. Simultaneously, Wangziu and the Frost Chant sword flared. Nourished by his Abyssal Bloodline, their Sword Spirits broke free from the temporal bind and slashed directly at the moon wheel in her hand.

"Damn it," she hissed, trying to re-engage the Time Laws, but her energy was thoroughly depleted. The twin swords swept past, shattering the moon wheel in her grasp. At the same time, half a pitch-black, burning phoenix wing sprouted from Yino’s shoulder while a terrifying Fiendish Demonic energy erupted alongside a wave of deep-seated hatred from the abyss.

With a loud boom, the demonic flames on his shoulder detonated, blasting her several meters back. Stumbling to her feet with the support of the fading lunar energy, she refused to despair despite the frustration burning in her eyes.

"You think you’re the only one who can push their bloodline to the limit!" she snarled with growing savagery, desperately resolved to drag him down. Her aura spiked violently as a massive, towering Moon Goddess Projection manifested behind her, tearing straight through the roof of the Immortal Alliance Pavilion. ℯ

The projection radiated a holy, majestic light as it held a massive crescent moon. Merging with this colossal image, Nangong Xi unleashed an endless tide of moonlight that illuminated the entire Dao Testing Pavilion like broad daylight. Below the stage, the spectators turned pale.

"What’s going on?!"

"Run! If these two keep fighting, the entire Immortal Alliance Pavilion’s going to be leveled!"

"Help! Help!" Panic swept through the crowd.

But just as their massive attacks were about to collide, a commanding voice boomed from the very top of the Immortal Alliance Pavilion.

[That is enough!] Looking up, the crowd saw a grey-haired elder of the Spirit Immortal realm step in to suppress the clash, while beyond him, on the highest royal balcony, the White Dragon Empress stepped out from behind her curtains to oversee the arena.

"It is a blessing to see such talent in the younger generation. But if you continue, you will level everything within ten miles of the Imperial Capital. By imperial decree, the match ends in a tie. You both share first place!"

"The Immortal Alliance was founded on the principle that all Cultivators who walk the Righteous Path are one family. This tournament was meant to foster camaraderie, not conflict. Now that both of you have claimed the top spot, make peace and do not damage the century-long harmony between the Wuji Sect and the Frost Palace!"

With a wave of the elder’s hand, the Abyssal Demonic Flame surrounding Yino vanished, and the Ancient Divine Image around Nangong Xi dissolved into nothingness. Descending to the ground pale and shaken as if returning from the gates of death, Nangong Xi sank to her knees and coughed up another puddle of blood.

Looking up, she saw Yino standing right before her. "You... how did you...?" she stammered, trying to stand. With her energy thoroughly depleted, she could barely even raise her head to look at him.

From her position on the ground, she could see nothing but his boots. "Why..." she whispered, "how are you completely unharmed after your bloodline went wild? Did I really fail to force out all your cards...?" Lying defeated on the stone floor, she let out a self-deprecating laugh with a hollow gaze.

But then Yino knelt down, offering her his hand. "Get up," he said softly, "we tied for first place. You don’t have to push yourself so hard just to go home anymore." Nangong Xi stared at his hand in a daze before instinctively taking it.

He pulled her up, but she averted her eyes, refusing to look him in the face. "I... I lost..." "The Immortal Alliance elder just announced we tied for first," Yino reminded her.

"I lost..." she repeated.

"..."

"I... I lost..."

She smiled bitterly as the invisible string keeping her taut for twenty years finally snapped. Her perfect, undefeated record as the avatar body of the Silver Moon Goddess traveling the Lower Realm was shattered, yet she felt a deep sense of relief rather than despair.

"Thank you for showing me that I’m not flawless," she murmured. "You were right, no matter how hard I try, I’m ultimately just a defective copy trying to mimic the main body. Since I’m not perfect anyway, I can finally slack off a little."

Her strength vanished entirely, and her legs gave out as she collapsed into his arms. He caught her with a trace of softness in his gaze. "When I said you were an avatar body, I didn’t mean you were born defective," he said, trying to explain his words. "I was talking about your destiny." But the beauty in his arms had already closed her eyes, drifting like a puppet with its strings cut into the deepest, most peaceful sleep she had known since the day she was born.