The Legend of the Princess' Counterattack

Chapter 801: The Cold Mist Breaks (Dongxu Realm, Sanxu Chapter)

Deep within the freezing abyss of the Wuyin Mountains, Yun Yao sat cross-legged on a jade platform carved from ice crystals, a pale golden aura of the Void Realm coursing through her. Since she and Chu Mochen achieved a breakthrough to the early stages of the Void Realm (Sanxu Realm) three months ago, she had been attempting to integrate modern medical knowledge with the "Taixu Nine Transformations" (Nine Transformations of the Great Void), seeking to find a breakthrough in the flow of her spiritual meridians beyond traditional cultivation. Suddenly, the sound of shattering ice ridges echoed overhead. Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and her spiritual awareness spread out like a spiderweb, only to abruptly contract upon contact with the mountain-protecting formation. The "Taixu Condensing Frost Formation," forged by Chu Mochen with his own lifeblood essence, now crumbled like melting glass.

"Seventeen auras of the Void Realm." Chu Mochen's voice rang out from the cave entrance, carrying a bone-chilling chill. Yun Yao opened her eyes and saw him standing with his sword slung over his shoulder. His dark robe was lifted by the mountain breeze, revealing the faint blood-red curse mark on his chest. His brows and eyes, always aloof in the past, were now filled with an inextricable gloom. "Twelve from the Tianji Pavilion, five from the Xuesha Sect, and the leader..." His fingertips brushed the scabbard of the Hanyuan Sword, and the sword's ringing was trembling. "Old Ancestor Xuehe, mid-Void Realm (Return to the Void Realm)."

Yun Yao's heart sank. The mid-stage of the Void Realm meant they had already transcended the "Return to Void Tribulation," their spirits able to travel thousands of miles from their bodies and control the spiritual energy of the surrounding world. While she and Chu Mochen were both in the Scattered Void Realm, their foundations had been shattered during their escape. With the mountain protection formation now broken, they were effectively exposing their weaknesses to the wolves. Even more bizarre, the system interface flashed a blinding red light throughout, and the ever-so-mechanical System Master was now unusually silent.

"Retreat into the ancient palace first!" Yun Yao formed a hand seal with her fingertips, attempting to recall the patrolling ice puppets, only to discover their spiritual connections had been corrupted by the bloody evil. A blood-colored mist poured in from the center of the formation, staining the ice crystals dark red wherever it passed, and even emitting a sizzling sound like flesh being burned. Chu Mochen suddenly blocked her with his sword. The Hanyuan Sword slashed a silver half-moon, but sparks flew as it collided with the bloody mist—not the light of spiritual energy colliding, but rather the sign that his sword energy was being devoured by the bloody evil.

"Be careful!" Yun Yao exclaimed, only to see a bloody wound suddenly open on Chu Mochen's chest. Blood dripped onto the ice, making a sound like hot oil pouring on snow. The laughter of the Blood River Patriarch rang out from the mist, old and hoarse: "Taichu Sword Technique? Oh, back then, the sword of the Great Lord of the Beginning could sever the Heavenly Dao, but the sword of your reincarnated body can't even cut through this old man's blood mist." Amidst the swirling mist, an old man in a blood-red robe stepped into the air. His left ring finger was severed at the root, and black mist slowly emanated from the severed finger—the result of practicing the Blood Evil technique and causing a broken spirit.

Yun Yao suddenly noticed that the jade pendant hanging from the old man's waist was engraved with the same patterns as the system spirit ring. The system interface's red light suddenly flashed, and the long-lost mechanical voice finally sounded, but with an unprecedented tremor: "Host, be careful! Their target is not you or me, but the fragment of the Heavenly Dao within me..." Before the words fell, Yun Yao suddenly saw a translucent system panel. The original taskbar disappeared, replaced by a golden jade slip suspended in the chaos. The surface of the jade slip was covered with cracks, but the laws of the Heavenly Dao still flowed.

"So that's how it is," Yun Yao suddenly realized. The fragmented murals discovered three months ago in the Taixu Ancient Palace, depicting Fairy Yunhua and the Primordial Divine Lord teaming up to combat the collapse of the Heavenly Dao, now finally connected. This system wasn't just any auxiliary tool, but a spirit artifact of fragments left when the ancient Heavenly Dao shattered. As a reincarnated being, she was fused with one of these fragments. The Blood River Patriarch and the Heavenly Secret Pavilion had pursued her here precisely to gather these fragments and reshape or perhaps devour the Heavenly Dao.

"Hand over the fragments, and I'll spare your body." The Blood River Patriarch raised his hand, a blood mist coalescing into a ferocious ghostly hand, striking directly at Yun Yao's brow. Despite his severe injuries, Chu Mochen attempted to intervene, but the ghostly hand swept across his shoulder, sending him crashing against the ice wall like a kite with its string cut. His coughed up blood mingled with shattered ice. Yun Yao gritted her teeth, her fingertips forming the sword finger gestures of the "Nine Transformations of the Great Void," but she found her spiritual energy sluggish as it flowed through her body—the bloody force had already flowed through the cracks in the mountain protection formation, contaminating the entire Cold Abyss's spiritual veins.

"System, what should I do?" Yun Yao asked anxiously in her sea of consciousness. The System Lord was silent for a moment, and the shadow of the jade slip suddenly merged between her eyebrows: "Use your spiritual sense to touch the core of the fragment, and I will open 'Retracing the Heavenly Dao'..." Before she could finish her words, the ghostly hand of the Blood River Ancestor was before her. Yun Yao could even see the blood clots clotted between the ghost's fingernails. In this critical moment, she no longer hesitated. Her spiritual sense penetrated the depths of her sea of consciousness like a sharp blade, touching the warm golden fragment.

Instantly, countless images flooded her mind. She saw herself a thousand years ago—Fairy Yunhua—injecting a fragment of a chapter into the reincarnation channel, while beside her, the Divine Lord Taichu clutched a bloodstained sword, his eyes filled with reluctance and determination. She saw the modern Su Yao, browsing ancient books in the library, her fingertips accidentally brushing against the fragmented pattern, a flash of golden light. She saw the Blood River Patriarch, in his youth, kneeling before the Tianji Pavilion, his forehead bruised with blood, begging for a fragment of the Heavenly Dao that could heal his sister...

"So you, too, have an obsession," Yun Yao muttered, a glimmer in her eyes. The power of the Remnant Chapter suddenly erupted within her, transforming the Void Realm's spiritual energy into golden flames, incinerating the approaching ghost hand into ash. Elder Xuehe's face paled in horror. "How could you possibly touch the Remnant Chapter's essence? When Fairy Yunhua fell, the Remnant Chapter clearly..." His voice trailed off as he saw the same sword pattern as that of the Primordial Divine Lord appear on Yun Yao's fingertips. It was a mark possessed only by the Remnant Chapter's acknowledged master.

"We'll settle what happened in the past later." Yun Yao held Chu Mochen's hand and transferred the power of the remnant into his body. "Now, let's solve the trouble at hand first." Chu Mochen's pale face turned blood red, and the Hanyuan Sword suddenly made a clear sword sound. The frost patterns on the sword began to absorb the bloody evil energy around it. The Taichu Sword Technique was originally able to restrain evil spirits, and now with the power of the remnant, it was even more powerful.

The Blood River Patriarch realized something was amiss and was about to retreat when Yun Yao raised her hand, unsheathing both the Cold Abyss Sword and the Shocking Red Sword, forming a yin-yang fish pattern above her head. The spiritual energy of the Wuyin Mountains suddenly poured in, transforming the ice spikes, once contaminated by the blood evil, into a rain of sharp ice crystal swords, which, under the influence of the Yin-Yang fish, formed a spiral storm.

"Is this... the Taixu Yin-Yang Formation?" The pupils of the Blood River Ancestor suddenly shrank. "You can actually use the Dongxu Realm to perform the Mahayana Realm's formation?" He finally understood why the Tianji Pavilion was so wary of this Taoist couple - the fragments in Yun Yao's body were not only fragments of the Heavenly Dao, but also the soul of the Fairy Yunhua back then, and she was born with the ability to control the laws of the Heavenly Dao.

In the center of the storm, Yun Yao looked at the panicked expression of the Blood River Ancestor and suddenly remembered the system's previous reminder: "Every holder of a fragment has a 'fragment life gate', located on the severed finger, between the eyebrows or at the heart meridian." She used her spiritual sense to scan the other party's severed finger, and sure enough, she saw a golden light flashing in the black mist - that was the fragment of the fragment held by the Blood River Ancestor.

"Jinghong reflects my shadow!" Yun Yao shouted softly, and the Jinghong Sword transformed into thousands of golden lights, striking directly at the Blood River Patriarch's severed finger. The old man screamed, and the black mist surrounding the severed finger exploded, sending a thumb-sized fragment of the broken inscription falling. Chu Mochen seized the opportunity and thrust his sword forward. The Hanyuan Sword accurately pierced the Blood River Patriarch's Qi Hai acupoint, completely destroying his cultivation.

The blood mist dissipated, revealing a dense mass of pursuers outside the mountain range. The white-robed cultivators of the Tianji Pavilion and the red-robed disciples of the Xuesha Sect were forming a battle formation. The leading Tianji Pavilion elder, seeing the two fragments in Yun Yao's hand, a glint of greed flashed in his eyes. "Yun Hua, reincarnation, do you think you can escape by defeating a Blood River Patriarch? Three thousand fragments, not one can be missing."

Yun Yao wiped the blood from the corners of her lips and suddenly smiled. She pressed the two fragments of the seal against her chest, feeling the resonance between the fragments and the spiritual ring within her body. The system interface finally returned to normal, but with a new line of information: "Detected the host has activated 'Fragment Resonance', unlocking the ability - Heavenly Path Peeping (temporarily analyzing the enemy's weaknesses)."

"Chu Mochen," she turned to look at him, a glimmer in her eyes, "They don't know that the fragments can not only be taken away, but also... swallowed." Before she finished speaking, she suddenly opened her mouth, and two fragments turned into streams of light and flew into her throat. The spirit ring at her dantian suddenly expanded, and it actually absorbed all the bloody evil energy and the spiritual energy of the Tianji Pavilion around it.

The elder of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion's expression drastically changed. "Are you mad? The power of the fragments repels each other. You'll explode and die!" But Yun Yao knew that her Primordial Chaos Dao Body was born to integrate the fragments. Before Fairy Yun Hua's death, she had already refined her soul into the most perfect vessel. As the power of the fragments flowed through her body, her realm unexpectedly broke through from the middle stage of the Sanxu Realm to its peak, and translucent Heavenly Dao patterns appeared on her body.

"Now, it's our turn to strike back." Yun Yao raised her hand, and the Jinghong Sword and the Hanyuan Sword intersected in mid-air, forming a golden crack. Amidst the swirling mist, the shadow of the Taixu Ancient Palace suddenly appeared behind her. The palace door opened, revealing countless fragments of murals within—the legacy left by Fairy Yunhua, now channeling power through the resonant fragments, sending it to her.

The Tianji Pavilion's battle formation collapsed in an instant, and the cultivators discovered with horror that their spiritual energy was flowing uncontrollably toward Yun Yao. The Blood River Patriarch attempted to escape in the chaos, but Chu Mochen's sword energy severed his ankle, forcing him to his knees on the ice. Yun Yao slowly approached, seeing the fear in his eyes, and whispered, "Tell me, the Tianji Pavilion's true purpose isn't to reshape the Heavenly Dao, but..."

The Blood River Patriarch trembled and lowered his head: "What they want is... the collapse of Heavenly Dao. Only when Heavenly Dao collapses, those old guys hiding in the God Realm can regain control of the Three Thousand Worlds." This sentence exploded in Yun Yao's mind like thunder. She finally understood why Tianji Pavilion and Xuesha Sect would join forces to hunt her down, and why System Lord was so afraid - the real crisis has never been the seizure of the fragment, but that someone wants to use the power of the fragment to trigger a second collapse of Heavenly Dao.

In the distance, the signal fireworks from the Tianji Pavilion exploded in the sky, the red light illuminating Yun Yao's pale yet resolute face. Chu Mochen walked over to her, his fingertips lightly tracing the broken seal mark on her wrist. "No matter what lies ahead, I will be with you." His voice was soft, yet filled with unquestionable determination.

Yun Yao nodded, gazing at the approaching pursuers beyond the mountains, a surge of pride welled within her. She had once been an ordinary woman in modern times, a disfavored princess in the royal palace, yet now she bore the remnants of the ancient Heavenly Dao, shouldering the mission of rewriting the fate of the three thousand worlds. The remnants resonated within her, and the system interface finally fully unfolded, revealing its deepest option—"Reshape the Heavenly Dao."

"System," she whispered in her sea of consciousness, "If I gather all the fragments, can I truly revive the Heavenly Dao?" The System Lord was silent for a long time, the shadow of the jade slip spinning in the center of her sea of consciousness. "Perhaps, we can create a new Heavenly Dao—one that no longer oppresses all living beings, but embraces all things."

The cold wind howled, and ice crystals froze in Yun Yao's hair. She gripped Chu Mochen's hand tightly, looking at herself reflected in his eyes, and suddenly smiled. She had once simply sought to survive in the world of cultivation, but now she found herself at the heart of the struggle for the Heavenly Dao. But so what? She was Yun Yao, the reincarnation of Fairy Yun Hua, and even more so, the Su Yao who first encountered the fragment in a modern library—no matter who she was, she would not easily admit defeat.

"Chu Mochen," she whispered softly, "our journey has only just begun." Before she finished speaking, she raised her hand and swung her sword. Golden sword energy pierced the sky, leaving a trace of everlasting light in the cold mist. This battle marked the end of hardship and the beginning of a legend—a story for Yun Yao and Chu Mochen, for Canzhang and the Way of Heaven, and for all the beings in the Three Thousand Worlds who refused to be bound by fate.

Falling ice crystals illuminated the resolve in Yun Yao's eyes. She knew countless powerful enemies lay ahead, more fragments to be gathered, and a shocking secret hidden deep within the divine realm awaited discovery. But now, she was no longer afraid, no longer lost. For she understood that true strength never came from a gift from heaven, but from inner perseverance. Whether as Su Yao, Yun Yao, or Fairy Yun Hua, she remained the woman who rose from adversity, and her relentless pursuit of victory would never cease.

The cold fog gradually dissipated, and sunlight penetrated the clouds, illuminating the icy surface of the Wuyin Mountains, refracting a rainbow of colors. Yun Yao took a deep breath, feeling the surge of spiritual energy within her body, and a confident smile curled her lips. Her next stop, whether it was the Tianji Pavilion or the Divine Realm, she would carry the power of the fragments and embark on her own path to the top step by step. For she knew that in this world of cultivation, full of challenges and opportunities, only by swimming against the current could she write her own legend.