Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 113 The Shield of Lightning
The lightning marks on Tun Yuan's body healed rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye. His bones crackled and splintered as if they were growing back. The soul fire burned again between his brows, a ghostly blue like a ghostly lamp, flickering uncertainly, yet becoming increasingly eerie and profound.

He chuckled softly, his expression a mixture of euphoria and mockery born of surviving a catastrophe: "Prince Duan, I'd like to see what tricks you, this so-called 'Heavenly Seed,' still have up your sleeve after I've blocked three bolts of heavenly lightning."

However, upon hearing this, Prince Duan remained calm and shook his head with a half-smile: "I'm also curious to see... what else you can rely on to block this last bolt of heavenly lightning."

The room fell silent upon hearing this.

Heavenly tribulations are ordained by the will of Heaven; those who defy fate will ultimately be judged.

Thunder roared and brewed in the clouds, as if an ancient, frigid prison was about to collapse.

At this moment, Tun Yuan's expression hardened as he looked at the unconscious girl at the edge of the arena, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

"This body has no way out..." he murmured.

He raised his hand and clenched it, and the blood-red compass in his palm suddenly spun, with crimson soul light seeping into it.

"Frozen Blood Puppet, come here at once!"

With a low shout from Tun Yuan, a figure burst through the air and stepped out from the void.

That was Xie Jinghong.

His body was no longer alive; his flesh was pale and bloodless, like a puppet wearing human skin.

But in those empty, lifeless eyes, a flash of icy blue light suddenly appeared under the illumination of the lightning.

That light was extremely brief, yet as fleeting as a cold star, chilling to the bone.

Below the arena, Xie Mingli, lying on the ground, suddenly felt a tremor in her heart.

Her consciousness, which had been in a coma, was suddenly drawn by a familiar aura, as if a call came from the depths of her bloodline.

She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the puppet in mid-air that was being forcibly controlled by the Devouring Abyss.

"……elder brother?"

Her voice was hoarse and weak, yet trembled uncontrollably.

The icy true energy quietly dissipated from her body, gently touching the icy blue light in the void.

The siblings, bound by blood, found themselves in a quiet resonance.

Xie Jinghong's puppet body suddenly stopped at that moment, his fingers trembled slightly, and the icy blue light in his eyes spread out by an inch almost imperceptibly.

But before this resonance could continue, it was forcibly suppressed into a puppet state by the Devouring Abyss.

And right now.

A bolt of lightning struck.

"boom."

The third bolt of heavenly lightning, like a meteor that swallowed the sky and destroyed the earth, ripped through the sky, its lightning surging like a ten-thousand-foot-long divine dragon, and struck straight down.

Although Xie Jinghong was a puppet, he was still connected to his elder brother by blood.

"Brother!—No!"

In that instant, Xie Mingli, who was lying by the ring, suddenly opened her eyes and, almost exhausting all her remaining strength, screamed out.

Tears mingled with blood as she slid down her cheeks, her voice piercing the rolling thunder, tearing at the heart.

A trembling light seemed to suddenly flash in the eyes of Xie Jinghong, that "puppet".

—It's my sister calling!
—It is the last lingering thought in the depths of the soul!

But the heavenly thunder is merciless, and the abyss is indifferent.

"Blood ties? Ha." He sneered. "Then they'll become my shield against lightning."

He formed his five fingers into claws and suddenly pulled them toward Xie Jinghong.

Xie Jinghong's body deformed and elongated in mid-air, forcibly facing the heavenly lightning, like a pawn thrown onto the guillotine.

The third bolt of lightning struck, and Xie Jinghong's puppet body twisted in the lightning, its flesh charred and peeling away to reveal its stark white bones.

Xie Mingli cried out in a hoarse voice:
"elder brother--!"

In that instant, the puppet suddenly raised its right hand, and a wisp of icy true energy condensed at its fingertips, slashing through the air towards the Devouring Abyss.

"Li'er, run away."

A hoarse, broken voice squeezed out of the puppet's throat as Xie Jinghong's remaining consciousness forcibly broke through the Devouring Abyss's control.

Tun Yuan's pupils constricted sharply: "How dare you, you ants!"

When the Ice Soul True Qi touched Tun Yuan's wrist, the blood patterns froze briefly.

It was this stagnation that caused the problem.

"Crack!"

The lightning shattered the puppet. Xie Jinghong glanced at his sister one last time, a slight smile playing on his lips, before vanishing into nothingness.

Xie Mingli knelt down in a daze, catching a falling ice crystal in her palm. The crystal reflected the afterimage of her brother's smile.

The lightning bolt engulfed everything. Xie Mingli knelt in a daze, catching a falling ice crystal in her palm.

The crystal reflected Xie Jinghong's final face: demonic patterns eroded half of his face, while the other half still showed the gentle, smiling elder brother under the plum tree.

The moment the ice crystals melted, she finally broke down in tears.

Meanwhile, Tun Yuan laughed wildly amidst the lightning tribulation: "Family ties are nothing but chains that bind the soul."

Just as the thunder subsided and the scorched earth was still warm, a red-clad, wild figure burst through the dust and thunder, carrying a solitary determination that seemed to tear the heavens and earth apart.

Feng Jin has finally arrived.

She staggered into the scorched earth, her shoes torn and her long hair disheveled. She immediately saw the dust and the melting ice crystals in Xie Mingli's palm.

She was stunned.

In that instant, it was as if the whole world had fallen into a deathly silence.

Her pupils contracted sharply, her gaze became unfocused, as if her soul had been forcibly ripped out.

The wind howled, but she couldn't hear it.

"...A stunning beauty?"

Her lips moved so softly it was almost inaudible.

Then, she ran, screamed, and tore at herself like a madwoman, her hands grabbing wildly in the air, trying to pluck even a wisp of familiar scent from the void.

But you can't hold onto anything.

Xie Mingli wanted to say something to comfort her, even just with a glance, but at this moment her true energy was exhausted like rotten wood, her body was like cold iron, and she could not move.

She could only watch helplessly. Feng Jin collapsed in the scorched earth struck by lightning, struggling to get up again, her knees scraped raw and dripping with blood, but she was completely unaware.

She stood amidst that desolate landscape, her eyes devoid of tears, only filled with deathly stillness.

She looked up at the empty sky, a low laugh escaping her throat, like an icy blade scraping her heart.

"I said... no matter what you become, I will marry you."

She murmured softly, as if talking to herself, or as if speaking to the heavens.

"Since fate won't give me this chance, then I will... go to another world with him."

She slowly took out an ice-blue short blade from her sleeve. The blade was slightly cold, and the blade reflected light, faintly retaining the warmth of the true energy that the swordsmith had poured into it.

This was forged by Xie Jinghong himself, tempered and refined with cold iron through countless hammer blows, all for her alone.

He had secretly hidden it in his sleeve and handed it to her with an awkward expression.

"If you really want to marry me, consider this a token of your love."

The day was exceptionally bright, with snow falling in the plum grove. The young man, dressed in white, looked even more radiant than the snow, yet his ears were flushed red.

Feng Jin stared at the short blade in his palm for a moment, then gave an awkward laugh:
"Shouldn't gifts for women be hairpins or bracelets? This ice blade is cold and hard, I don't want it."

Xie Jinghong looked at her, his eyes darkening slightly, but he still forced the object into her hand:

"You may not need it, but you should always remember me."

At that moment, she didn't understand that the short blade was not just a piece of iron, but a weapon into which he had poured his whole heart and soul.

At that moment, she thought: love is nothing more than fleeting feelings of attraction, little did she know that the deepest affection in the world is the unwavering devotion to accompany you through darkness and to die without regret.

Now, she finally understands.

But it was all too late.

Her fingertips trembled slightly as she slowly pressed the ice blade against her heart, as if pressing the missed moments of the past into her chest inch by inch.

There were no cries of anguish, no hesitation.

She simply closed her eyes gently, a relieved smile playing on her lips, as if attending a grand wedding.

That was her obsession, her vow, her faith.

"don't want--!"

Xie Mingli roared, but her voice was as weak as dust. In the end, all that remained was tears streaming down her face as she watched the figure in red fall to the ground in the wind.

Blood stained the scorched earth, and a red dress billowed in the wind, falling silently like plum blossoms.

Tun Yuan stood high in the sky, looking down at everything, his expression as cold and indifferent as still water.

He watched Feng Jin fall, bloodied, an icy blade piercing his heart, without even flinching.

In that instant, sandstorms swept across the sky, as if heaven and earth were mourning for him, but he chuckled softly.

"Love? Affection? Ha—"

His voice was deep and resonant, like a sigh from the depths of a demonic abyss, filled with mockery and contempt.

"It's nothing more than an excuse for a group of fragile mortals to shackle themselves when disaster strikes."

"Humans are destined not to live forever because you have too many useless things in your hearts."

"You cry, you love, you never forget... and in the end what?"

"All we got in return was a cold corpse and a pile of blood and mud."

He slowly raised his hand, pointing to the spot where Feng Jin had fallen:

"If you can't even leave ashes behind, why be so foolish?"

"In my opinion, your so-called unwavering loyalty is nothing but self-indulgent ignorance."

The Devouring Abyss seemed to be judging the entire world.

It wasn't anger, nor pity, but a dismissive judgment from a perspective "beyond emotion": your suffering is insignificant.

Not far away, Prince Duan stood in the wind, his cloak fluttering in the wind.

He gazed at Feng Jin's figure, stained with blood and lightning, his eyes filled with no respect, only regret.

"What a pity..."

He murmured to himself, a twisted greed flashing in his eyes.

"Such a beauty, if she had submitted to me sooner, it would have been better to keep her as a plaything in a golden house than to end up like this."

His gaze lingered on the spot where the drop of blood had fallen, and a hint of regret even appeared on his lips:
"It's a pity that in the end, he was ruined by so-called 'sincerity'."

"If she knew how to humble herself, she might live a few more years."

He glanced at Xie Mingli, a similar glint in his eyes:
"dont you agree?"

At that moment, although Xie Mingli's body was unable to move, she felt a chill even colder than the lightning tribulation.

The coldness of the Abyss is a destruction of humanity.

Prince Duan's coldness is a desecration of the soul.

The heavens and earth were silent, and the wind swept away the fallen petals, as if mourning for those who had died and those who were deeply loved.

In this cruel world, justice has yet to appear, but malice has already blossomed.

The world was deathly silent, with only the residual power of the lightning tribulation reverberating in the void like the booming of heavenly drums, never ceasing.

Feng Jin's body was still warm, and Xie Mingli was still kneeling on the scorched earth, her eyes still wet with tears.

High in the sky, Tun Yuan stood atop the heavens, bathed in the afterglow of lightning and fire. The demonic patterns on his shoulders spread like veins, and his eyes were as deep as the night.

He smiled.

That laugh, filled with chilling cruelty and arrogance, was like the mouth of hell slowly uttering a single sentence:

"The three bolts of heavenly lightning have already struck."

He opened his arms wide, as if embracing the world:

"Ladies and gentlemen... now, please entrust your fears to me."

"Let me rebuild an immortal body."

"boom."

The void collapsed, and blood energy surged from beneath his feet, spreading across the sky and earth.

(End of this chapter)