Meanwhile, the mysterious masked Purple-robed Person suddenly appeared in front of Xue Dangdang and sat down opposite her. However, the two Peak Powerhouses of the Emperor Martial Realm present remained completely oblivious to his presence.
Xue Dangdang also didn’t feel the slightest anomaly, still coldly sweeping her gaze over Bai Luobing in the distance.
The Purple-robed Person sat on the bluestone opposite Xue Dangdang, hands clasped, quietly watching her.
His eyes, as dazzling as the stars, carried a trace of sorrow and confusion.
The lake resembles your gaze, dreaming of a starry sky;
This feeling is a legend, an eternal, unchanging wait...
A faint and ethereal sigh echoed, sounding as if it came from the edge of the sky, or perhaps from the depths of the Cosmos.
"The love of a past life, the debts of this one—the Reincarnation within the Hongchen is but a dream. The boundary between past and present is so difficult to distinguish... If everything before me is just a dream, then let me continue to slumber.
"Dingdang’s soul has long scattered in the Endless Void. She cannot enter the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Even a race as mighty as the Pangu Divine Race could not retrieve her soul. I have roamed All Heavens and Myriad Realms, exhausting my mind and bitterly cultivating for countless eras, all just to surpass that unpredictable Celestial Realm, retrieve her soul fragments, and resurrect her...
"Yet I never expected her soul to split in two and appear in a tiny world among the Billions of Little Worlds. Who exactly is controlling and manipulating all of this behind the scenes? Could it truly be the Celestial Dao playing tricks?
"Hmph!
"In our previous life, I could not keep you safe. In this life, I will give everything I have to never leave your side!
"Whether it is so-called destiny or the Celestial Dao, if they dare provoke me, I will wipe them from existence!"
The Purple-robed Person looked up at the sky. His gaze seemed to pierce through endless planes, reaching the very depths of the Cosmos.
A moment later, he retracted his gaze, letting it fall back onto Xue Dangdang.
Seeming to sense something, Xue Dangdang looked around with a strange expression.
"What’s going on? Why did such a weird feeling suddenly pop into my heart? It feels... it feels like Brother Lang is right beside me, watching me.
"Impossible. Even though he’s formidable, he only advanced to the King Martial Realm a short while ago... There’s no way he could appear here without Sister Lin and Bai Luobing noticing a thing!
"But why is this feeling so intense? So real? It makes my usually calm heart feel a bit uncomfortable, yet somewhat happy at the same time... Why is it like this?"
Xue Dangdang subconsciously swept her gaze left and right.
However, if the two Emperor Martial Realm Powerhouses were completely oblivious, how could she discover anything out of the ordinary?
Yet that strange feeling at the bottom of her heart surged like an overflowing flood, spiraling out of control!
Blurry images flashed rapidly through her mind.
They seemed vivid, yet incredibly elusive.
They felt deeply familiar, yet unparalleled in their strangeness...
Xue Dangdang closed her eyes and focused her attention, trying to capture those fleeting scenes.
However, it was as if an invisible force was preventing her from chasing these memories. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t see a single image clearly.
Meanwhile, the sorrow deep within her heart grew increasingly uncontrollable...
At that moment, the Purple-robed Person sitting opposite Xue Dangdang gently waved his hand. Thousands of colorful motes of light emanated from his palm, completely enveloping Xue Dangdang’s body.
Then, one by one, they seeped into her.
Instantly, the sorrow in Xue Dangdang’s heart slowly dissipated, replaced by tranquility and peace...
And an indescribable joy.
"Dingdang, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Noticing Xue Dangdang’s strange behavior, Lin Yafeng couldn’t help but ask.
Xue Dangdang opened her mouth, pausing for a long moment before replying, "Sister Lin, I feel like someone is peeking at me. It seems... it seems to be Brother Lang."
"Peeking at you? That kid named Shen Lang, who I saw when I found you earlier, is peeking at you? That’s impossible!" Lin Yafeng was greatly startled.
The earth-shattering Divine Thought of a Peak Powerhouse of the Emperor Martial Realm swept out, enveloping a radius of fifty miles.
Aside from a few areas where powerful Restrictions bounced her Divine Thought back, everything within this fifty-mile radius appeared with absolute clarity in Lin Yafeng’s mind.
Birds and beasts, flowers and insects, the dewdrops dripping from the leaves...
For an existence capable of overturning seas like the Emperor Martial Realm, how terrifying was their Divine Thought?
But under the sweep of this Divine Thought, absolutely everything was perfectly normal.
Lin Yafeng chuckled softly. "Dingdang, you must just be missing your Brother Lang too much, right?"
"Am not." Xue Dangdang turned her body away somewhat shyly, putting her back to Lin Yafeng.
"When you mentioned him to me before, you kept saying you were going to kill him, didn’t you? How is it that after being apart for only a few days... you miss him this much?"
"Sister Lin!" Xue Dangdang whined playfully, her face flushing bright red.
Lin Yafeng smiled, but suddenly restrained her amusement and said, "Dingdang, when it comes to matters of the heart, only you know yourself best. I originally didn’t intend to say anything to you.
"But since I have been through it myself, I can’t help but offer a few words. I hope you don’t think I’m being too nosy.
"If you love, please love deeply...
"Don’t mind what anyone else around you thinks. Trust your own heart and love boldly. No one can stand in your way...
"Just like me. I like Candle Dragon, and I don’t care about the stares of others. I just like him, even if he’s a scoundrel.
"As long as I can be with him, I wouldn’t hesitate even if it meant perishing!"
Xue Dangdang was visibly moved. "Sister Lin..."
Lin Yafeng gave a bitter smile and continued, "I truly don’t know what happened between you two before. It’s said that when Master brought you back, you had already lost your memories... But even without your memories, you can still feel your own heart, can’t you?
"When I saw you two together that day and saw the look in your eyes, I understood... In this world, aside from that kid Shen Lang, I’m afraid no one else can move your heart.
"Since that’s the case, cherish him well... That kid really isn’t bad at all."
"Mhm!" Xue Dangdang pursed her lips and nodded.
The Purple-robed Person opposite them quietly listened to their conversation, his gaze shifting from Xue Dangdang to Lin Yafeng.
Under a pair of eyes that seemed capable of seeing through all things, Lin Yafeng’s extraordinarily ugly appearance slowly faded away, revealing a completely different visage...
Radiant and enchanting, a peerless beauty!
Such a drastic contrast caused even the Purple-robed Person to pause in slight surprise.
What he saw was Lin Yafeng’s soul, not the reality of a Disguise Technique or an Illusion Technique.
For a woman with such a breathtakingly beautiful soul to possess such a hideously ugly face—the contrast was indeed a bit too vast, and a bit too bizarre.
The Purple-robed Person flipped his wrist, his fingers beginning to pinch together as if he were a fortune teller divining someone’s fate.
A moment later, the Purple-robed Person sighed softly. "So that’s how it is. An accident occurred during her third Phoenix Nirvana. She chose power and abandoned her original Qingcheng appearance.
"A woman adorns herself for her beloved. For the sake of love, she should have chosen to keep her Qingcheng appearance. Yet, in the end, driven by the desire to protect her beloved and the clansmen of the Phoenix Race, she chose power..."
In an instant, the Purple-robed Person had seen Lin Yafeng’s past and future.
Even an existence like him, who roamed All Heavens and Myriad Realms, couldn’t help but be somewhat moved.
This was a woman who shouldered far too much. Originally possessing a Qingcheng beauty, she took on the greatest mission of the Phoenix Race.
She should have spent her life together with the man she loved, but instead discarded her beauty for power.
As for her future...
"What a pity. Even after sacrificing so much, she still cannot fight against fate. A beautiful woman suffering a tragic end... Is this so-called Celestial Dao truly meant to make all kind-hearted people endure endless torment until they finally end in Soul Scattering?!
"Hmph, I laid down the chessboard of heaven and earth precisely to rebel against this Celestial Dao and slaughter this injustice!
"If the heavens want you dead, then I insist on giving you a sliver of survival!"
The Purple-robed Person’s voice was loud, but it sounded as if it originated from another dimension. The two Emperor Martial Realm Powerhouses present remained completely unaware.
As he spoke, the Purple-robed Person’s ten fingers suddenly blurred in rapid motion, instantly forming hundreds of golden characters. Like a golden dragon, they shot directly into Lin Yafeng’s forehead.
Lin Yafeng was just speaking with Xue Dangdang when she suddenly felt a chill on her forehead. Her hairs stood on end, and she sprang to her feet in a flash!
Because of Lin Yafeng’s exaggerated reaction, both Xue Dangdang and Bai Luobing sitting opposite her were taken aback.
"Sister Lin, what’s wrong? Did you discover something?" Xue Dangdang asked anxiously.
Lin Yafeng sat back down with a grimace. "I don’t know how to explain it. I just felt someone peeking at me too... But I kept thinking it was just an illusion, until just now..."
"What happened just now?" Xue Dangdang subconsciously scooted closer to Lin Yafeng, her gaze rapidly scanning their surroundings in an attempt to find something.
Lin Yafeng’s expression looked incredibly terrible as she said, "Just now, I felt a bizarre Energy enter my body through my forehead. But when I tried to search for it, I couldn’t find a trace of it anywhere..."
Opposite them, Bai Luobing merely smiled without saying a word, clearly not taking Lin Yafeng’s words to heart.
Both Lin Yafeng and he were powerhouses at the Emperor Martial Peak Realm. Even though the Great Emperor Martial Realm was still far beyond their reach, they were already regional supremes no matter how you looked at it.
Unless a terrifying existence like the Five Directions Emperor arrived, what other powerhouse possessed the strength to do what Lin Yafeng described?
Even if the Five Directions Emperor had the strength to instantly paralyze him or Lin Yafeng, they wouldn’t go so far as to let their power slip into her body without leaving a trace to be found, right?
Bai Luobing didn’t believe a single word of what Lin Yafeng said.
He just assumed she was fooling around again, just like before.
When dealing with such pranks, the best approach was to quietly observe—her antics would naturally defeat themselves.
At this moment, the Purple-robed Person slowly stood up, gazing up at the sky.
Wherever his gaze reached, the wind surged, the clouds churned, and earth-shattering thunder boomed.
The entire world completely changed its appearance. An apocalyptic scene materialized above the Dragon Scale Divine Hall in an instant!
An incomparably massive black hole slowly emerged, looking as though it were about to devour heaven and earth. It was enough to shatter anyone’s courage!
Any mighty Fierce Beast or even Divine Beast, any evil entity or Demon God, would be nothing more than an ant before this black hole...
In the center of that black hole, a Small Cauldron faintly flickered, appearing as if it were the very center of the Cosmos!
This celestial phenomenon immediately captured the gazes of all the powerhouses and myriad living beings within the Dragon Scale Divine Hall...
Lin Yafeng and Bai Luobing shot to their feet at the same time, staring at the sky in inexplicable horror.