jdhmnovel Chapter 897: The Price of Defying Fate: Soul Rift
Chapter 897: The Price of Defying Fate: Soul Rift
Torrential rain poured down, and dark purple thunderclouds rolled over the "Starfall Canyon." Yun Yao stared at Chu Mochen, hovering in the center of the "Ten Thousand Tribulations Thunder Pool," digging her nails deep into her palms. She saw the shadowy candle dragon entwined around him distorting, its golden-red scales peeling off, transforming into streams of light and disappearing into the thunderclouds. His brow furrowed, and the blood flowing from his mouth was no longer ordinary blood, but the essence of a fate-defying individual, patterned with dark gold.
"Failed again..." Yun Yao muttered, her voice shattered by the thunder. This was Chu Mochen's third attempt this month to use the "Reversal of Time and Space" ability. With each attempt, the "Mark of Fate" on his forehead dimmed a little, like a candle about to go out. She recalled the sudden warning from the Astral Realm Center three days ago: "The repulsion between those who defy fate and the New Heavenly Dao is intensifying. If you continue to forcefully use this power, your soul will completely disintegrate."
A sudden burst of lightning erupted, and Chu Mochen's figure plummeted like a kite with a broken string. Yun Yao teleported to catch him, only to feel a cold crack on his back. It wasn't a physical wound, but rather a pitch-black line emanating from the depths of his soul, crawling towards his spirit platform like a spiderweb.
"Don't touch me!" Chu Mochen pushed her away, a low growl of pain escaping his throat. He knelt on one knee, his Ni Lin Blood Sword humming as it plunged into the ground, trying to gain support. However, the blade cracked, leaving fine lines the moment it made contact with the ground. "This sword... can't hold up either?" He smiled bitterly, his fingertips tracing the faintly visible Candle Dragon totem on the blade, which was also covered in cracks.
Yun Yao suddenly grabbed his wrist and injected spiritual energy into his meridians. Instantly, countless images flooded into his mind: Chu Mochen, alone in the depths of the Dragon Abyss Sea, enduring the pressure of the Dragon Clan Elders, forcibly extracting the Candle Dragon bloodline; him at the construction site of the Star Gate, using the reversal of time and space to repair the collapsed spatial nodes; and last night, he had secretly infiltrated the "Heavenly Dao Ruins" in an attempt to find a way to suppress the rejection reaction...
"Are you crazy?!" Yun Yao's eyes were red, "Why didn't you tell me?" She remembered that a few days ago, Chu Mochen always avoided her on the grounds of "being busy with star affairs". Now she thought that he was afraid that she would discover the abnormality of her soul.
Chu Mochen turned his head away, his Adam's apple rolling: "Your 'Chaos Dao Body' has just broken through the Tianxu Realm, you can't be distracted anymore..." Before he finished speaking, he suddenly coughed violently, and when he opened his palm, he found half a broken fragment of the Heavenly Dao Fate Disk, on which the three words "Defier of Fate" were constantly emitting black mist.
A mechanical voice from the astral center suddenly rang out: "It has been detected that the loss rate of the source of anti-fate has reached 73%. It is recommended to immediately stop the use of all powers!" Yun Yao noticed that Chu Mochen's left hand was hidden behind his back - there was a simple jade slip in it, and the edges still retained the unique chaotic spiritual energy fluctuations that she had when refining pills.
She snatched the jade slip, and the moment her spiritual sense swept over it, her heart nearly stopped. The slip contained information Chu Mochen had secretly gathered: "To suppress the repulsion between those who defy fate and the New Heavenly Dao, one must reshape the soul with the essence of the astral realm. However, this process will irreversibly consume the caster's cultivation, and the success rate is less than 30%..."
"So you want to use your own essence to save me?" Yun Yao's voice trembled, "Chu Mochen, you know very well that this will cause my cultivation to regress, and even..."
"So what?" Chu Mochen suddenly grabbed her shoulders, madness burning in his golden-red pupils, "If I don't even have the power to protect you, what's the meaning of my life?" He ripped open his clothes, revealing the hideous "Heavenly Poison Seed" mark on his heart. It used to be the bargaining chip used by the Lord of the Heavenly Dao Pavilion to threaten Yun Yao, but now it has become a catalyst that accelerates the collapse of his soul.
Yun Yao's tears fell on his chest, creating a dark haze. She recalled three hundred years ago, at the bottom of the Dragon Abyss, when Chu Mochen, for her sake, had willingly endured the dragon race's "Scale Reverse Punishment." She recalled the moment the Heavenly Dao Furnace appeared, when he had stood before her without hesitation, his meridians burned by the force of the Law. She recalled countless late nights when he had silently guarded her retreat outside her cave, nipping any danger in the bud.
"You're always like this..." She choked, her fingertips tracing the crack between his eyebrows, "Always carrying everything on your own shoulders. But have you forgotten? We are two sides of the same coin, destined to defy the will of heaven together!"
Before he could finish his words, the Falling Star Canyon suddenly trembled violently. Countless cracks opened in the void, and dark demonic energy poured out, condensing into a familiar figure—unbelievably Liu Yan'er, the very being Yun Yao was supposed to have purified! No, to be more precise, it was Liu Yan'er, eroded by the "Mark of Original Sin." Chains of jealousy clung to her body, and twisted crimson flames danced in her eyes.
"Yun Yao..." Liu Yan'er's voice seemed to come from the underworld, "You took away everything from me. Now, I want you to taste the feeling of loss too!" She raised her hand, and a demonic energy turned into a spear, piercing Chu Mochen's vital point.
Yun Yao instinctively unleashed her Chaos Domain, but the moment it came into contact with the demonic energy, she discovered it began to crumble. Liu Yan'er sneered, "It's useless! This is the 'Heart-Eroding Demonic Qi' of the Original Sin Divine Realm, specifically designed to counter your Chaos Power!"
At the critical moment, Chu Mochen suddenly pushed Yun Yao away and slashed out with the Ni Lin Blood Sword. However, this life-long magic weapon, carrying countless efforts, shattered like fragile glass under the erosion of the demonic energy! The flying fragments of the sword blade slashed across his neck, blood gushed out, and the black mist at the rift in his soul surged even more violently.
"No!" Yun Yao's roar shattered the heavens. She suddenly remembered what the Astral Core had said: "When those who defy fate resonate with the essence of the ethereal body, their power will increase exponentially." She gritted her teeth, biting her tongue, and sprayed her heart's blood between Chu Mochen's eyebrows. At the same time, she mobilized all the chaotic spiritual energy in her body, forcing a soul connection with him.
In an instant, the world shifted. Yun Yao's Dongxu realm, known as the "Tianxu," soared rapidly, while the fissures in Chu Mochen's soul began to flicker with a golden light. Their memories intertwined within their sea of consciousness: in their past lives, Zhu Yin and the Void Envoy had fought side by side against the Tiandao Pavilion; in this life, Chu Mochen and Yun Yao had made a life-and-death pledge in the Canglan Secret Realm... These memories formed chains, binding the crumbling soul anew.
Seeing this, Liu Yan'er's eyes flashed with panic. She suddenly summoned the "Source of Jealousy," transforming it into a massive black vortex, attempting to engulf the two. Yun Yao, however, opened her eyes at this moment, a strange light woven from stars and codes swirling in her pupils—she had unexpectedly grasped the true meaning of "rule fusion" at this critical moment!
"Break it!" Yun Yao raised her hand, slashing out with a blade of light composed of binary code and chaos runes. The vortex exploded, and Liu Yan'er let out a shrill scream. The "Source of Jealousy" was purified on the spot, and her body dissipated into tiny specks of starlight in the blade's aftermath.
The crisis was over, but Yun Yao could no longer hold on and collapsed into Chu Mochen's arms. Her cultivation rapidly plummeted from the "Tianxu" realm to the "Sanxu" realm, and the chaotic lines on her foundation dimmed. Chu Mochen held her tightly, feeling her faint heartbeat, a bitter taste rising in his throat: "You fool..."
"I'm the one who should say this." Yun Yao smiled weakly, her fingertips tracing the healed rift in his soul. "From now on, no more adventures alone." She paused, then pulled out a shimmering jade wheel from her bosom—the "Chaos Fate Wheel" crafted from Void Jade and the essence of the Star Realm. "This is our agreement. We live and die together. Neither of us shall break our promise."
Chu Mochen bent down, kissing away the tears from her eyes, and pressed the Wheel of Life against his heart. In the distance, the thunderclouds over the Falling Star Canyon gradually dissipated, a ray of sunlight piercing through the clouds, illuminating their intertwined figures. And deep within the core of the astral realm, a mysterious jade slip quietly emerged, inscribed with the words: "The twin origins resonate, the changes in the laws of nature have reached a critical point..."