Yang Hao felt like crying but couldn’t shed a tear. After killing Wang Tao, he felt no sense of relief at all, as if he had merely done something absurd, something that did nothing to halt the relentless passage of time.
Indeed, Yang Hao had killed Wang Tao, completely disintegrating his body into drifting molecules that vanished entirely into the wind. This disappearance was so complete that no one knew Wang Tao had activated the nuclear detonation device, nor did anyone realize how close they had all come to death. None of them had sensed any danger at all.
Yang Hao originally had no way of penetrating the protective shield. Though he fully understood this himself, he still launched his full-force attack, as if he were going to accompany Shi Ming’ai into death, not even considering the consequences for himself.
But just as Yang Hao flew toward Wang Tao, right before touching the protective shield, an extraordinary transformation occurred in his body, visible to outside observers. In midair, he transformed into a sword—a golden longsword. At that moment in this world, Yang Hao the man disappeared, but a sword appeared in his place, a sword named Yang Hao. Yang Hao was that sword, and its energy far surpassed Yang Hao’s original strength. Like a hot knife slicing through butter, it effortlessly cut into the protective shield and made contact with Wang Tao’s body.
Then, the body that was still in the Super Warrior state completely disintegrated. There was no explosion, no loud noise, everything happened so naturally, as if it were normal for a physical body to instantly sublimate into gas upon encountering a sword. Everyone watched helplessly as Wang Tao’s living body transformed into transparent gas within a mere tenth of a second, and then vanished into the cold wind, leaving nothing behind.
Yang Hao collapsed in despair. He had killed Wang Tao, so simply, so effortlessly that the entire scene seemed unreal. Yet there was no joy in his heart, not even a trace of happiness. Finally, his tears poured out unrestrainedly. All the tears he had ever held back in his life now flowed freely. Before Yang Hao, the massive flame continued to burn, as if it could burn forever, until the end of the world.
Of course, the flame could never burn forever, even if it was a miracle created by the Divine Dragon Sword. When Yang Hao’s tears slowly flowed into the fire, the blazing fireball, as radiant as the sun, gradually extinguished.
It was a miracle happening right before people’s eyes.
Yang Hao stopped moving. His eyes were filled with infinite sorrow. He had already prepared himself to face whatever scene might appear next, even if it were a charred corpse, or even an empty void where nothing remained.
His grief had prepared him to face everything. He could only tell himself that the woman who had stayed by his side and wished to remain with him forever had already died for him.
The flame finally extinguished completely.
But inside, the scene everyone expected did not appear. Shi Ming’ai’s body was still intact, though she had no breath, her body stiff. Her face remained as beautiful as ever, but anyone could see that her soul had already departed. Though her body remained unscathed, the pillar supporting her life as a human had already vanished.
Shi Ming’ai lay there motionless, tightly hugging the Wang family’s ancestral sword to her chest.
She did not move, her body intact, yet without breath.
Silence enveloped the surroundings. No one dared to make a sound, as if any noise might cause the scene before them to vanish like an illusion.
A long time passed—so long that even the cold wind began to carry raindrops that beat against people’s bodies, chilling them to the bone—but no one moved an inch. They had all been stunned into silence by the endless miracles of this world.
Finally, Yang Hao spoke, his voice choked with emotion: “Is she… still alive?”
No one answered.
The vast universe, as white dwarf stars or tiny satellites passed by at the speed of light, felt like standing beneath a pale sky with snowflakes swirling in all directions, a world so desolate and silent it was beyond words.
Yang Hao was sitting on the top observation deck of the Doomsday-class battleship. This was the most special area of the ship, a place where one could directly observe the outside through a dome made of high-strength transparent material. Even the shuttles specially designed for sightseeing rarely had such equipment.
It had been nearly half a month since they left Laymon Star. During these fifteen days, Yang Hao’s life had undergone earth-shaking changes once again.
During the palace conflict on Laymon Star, Yang Hao had suddenly unleashed his Mind Sword, instantly killing Wang Tao. This act resolved the internal turmoil within the royal family. Empress Ming led the royal guards to quickly quell the unrest, expelling all royal family members secretly loyal to the Empire and ruthlessly executing all imperial spies and moles.
In just three days, Laymon Star had fully stabilized. The Empress Ming’s young son smoothly ascended the throne as the first heir, and Empress Ming naturally began ruling behind the scenes.
For Empress Ming, although this palace conflict had cost her her husband, the outcome was still relatively satisfactory. The throne had not been lost, the planet remained stable, and although the Empire was angered, its vast size made it difficult for it to exert control over distant colonial planets, so there was no immediate cause for concern.
However, Yang Hao, the great hero who had quelled the rebellion, faced the greatest pain of his life. Although he had killed Wang Tao and cleared his name of the false accusations, his beloved Shi Ming’ai remained on the brink of death.
Just as Yang Hao was about to die under the Divine Dragon Sword in Wang Tao’s hands, Shi Ming’ai used the electricity in her body to draw the attack toward herself. In the end, the full force of the Divine Dragon Sword was absorbed by Shi Ming’ai. Although after the fire extinguished, it was discovered that Shi Ming’ai had not truly died thanks to her electrical defense, she was practically indistinguishable from the dead.
Empress Ming summoned nearly all the best doctors from across Laymon Star, and their unanimous diagnosis was that Shi Ming’ai was on the verge of death. Although her bodily functions continued, her brain was in a dormant state. If she could not be awakened within a short period, she would ultimately perish.
Of course, Yang Hao did not believe the doctors’ diagnosis. He believed that if Shi Ming’ai had survived the Divine Dragon Sword, that itself was a miracle, and the result of this miracle absolutely could not be failure. Yang Hao believed that someone injured by a cultivator’s sword must be treated by a cultivation method, so he drove away all the doctors and stayed alone by Shi Ming’ai’s side.
Of course, there was also Hun Yuanzi.
For three whole days, Shi Ming’ai lay there as beautiful as if she were merely sleeping. Hun Yuanzi exhausted every effort but achieved nothing. Three days later, Hun Yuanzi was nearly ready to give up. Unable to bear seeing Yang Hao on the verge of collapse, he offered Yang Hao a last-ditch method.
“If you can quickly reach the next stage of cultivation, there might still be a chance,” Hun Yuanzi said. “The next stage is called the Harmony Stage, a dual cultivation stage between man and woman. It might bring a miracle.”
Although even Hun Yuanzi felt this method was very slim, Yang Hao clung to it like a drowning man clutching at a straw: “How can I reach the next stage? What medicine do I need?”
“To reach the Harmony Stage, you must cultivate the primary pill called the ‘Zong Dan He Ti Xiong Dan Yin Lu Dan.’ This pill requires two main ingredients: Yin Lu (Silver Dew) and the gallbladder of a sacred bear. It’s extremely difficult—far too difficult.” Hun Yuanzi originally thought that if they spent several decades searching for these two ingredients, they might eventually find them. But now, they had to refine it within three months. This was practically an impossible task.
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