On the Dragon-Slaying Platform, I was executed and became Yang Jian's brother-in-law.

"boom--!!!"

As Xuanming's last poignant smile faded, the terrifying power that had burned the Ancestral Witch's origin and true spirit instantly poured into the core of the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods and Demons Formation.

The illusory image of Pangu's true form, which had been so faint that it was about to dissipate, suddenly solidified as if injected with a powerful stimulant! An ancient aura that made heaven and earth tremble and made even sages take notice erupted from that illusory image.

"Axe, come here!!"

Dijiang's eyes were bloodshot as he roared, controlling the great formation.

In the phantom of Pangu, a phantom of a divine axe formed from endless malevolent energy took shape and slashed fiercely down at the Zhou Tian Star Array composed of countless stars!

"Snap—!"

Starlight shattered, the Milky Way ceased to flow.

This strike contained the life force of Xuanming!

The demon formation was instantly torn open with a huge gash. Countless demon gods turned to ashes under this axe blow. Even Di Jun and Tai Yi, who were in the main formation, were backfired and spat out blood. The stars in the sky were on the verge of collapse.

"We won? We...we won?!" Zhu Rong roared with wild joy, his face covered in blood.

However, just when the Wu tribe thought victory was assured.

"when--!!"

A bell tolled, filled with resentment and madness.

With his hair disheveled, Donghuang Taiyi, in the instant before the formation shattered, recklessly unleashed the Chaos Bell. Instead of smashing it at Pangu's true form, he slammed it fiercely at the formation's weakest point, which had just lost Xuanming!

He's determined to fight to the death!

"Oh no!" Su Bai exclaimed in alarm.

The Chaos Bell, carrying the aftershocks of world destruction, failed to shatter the great formation, but instead crashed violently into a massive ice crystal core that remained in the air after Xuanming had dissipated.

That was the last remnant of Xuanming's essence, and also the last trace she left in this world.

"Snap..."

The crisp cracking sound was particularly jarring amidst the noise of the battlefield.

Under the immense power of the Chaos Bell, the icy blue crystal shattered instantly into billions of tiny ice dust particles.

The wind blows.

Sparkling droplets fell from the sky.

It's like a grand snowfall, gently burying this devastated wasteland.

"No!!!"

Su Bai let out a heart-wrenching roar.

He broke free from the constraints of time like a madman, ignoring the excruciating pain from the backlash of the great formation and the cutting force of the surrounding spatial turbulence, stretching out his hands and frantically grabbing at the swirling snowflakes.

But it's too broken.

The ice crystals seemed to come alive, melting and dissipating from his fingertips.

In the end, he only managed to grab the largest and brightest piece of it.

It was a diamond-shaped ice crystal, icy cold, yet seemingly still retaining a faint trace of warmth.

That was the essence of Xuanming's heart, the burning sincerity she had never uttered to him.

Su Bai knelt in the void, holding the ice crystal in his hands and pressing it against his chest, his whole body trembling violently.

Gone.

The woman who kept him company through a century of solitude in the Ruins of Return, the woman who clumsily learned to carve just to remember his face, the woman who stubbornly said "we're even" but gave him her life...

It's completely gone.

"Ninth Brother! Stand up!"

Just then, Dijiang's majestic and cold voice rang out above his head.

Dijiang, covered in blood, still stood tall. He looked at Su Bai, his eyes filled with sorrow, but even more so with the resolute determination of a leader:

"Xuanming sacrificed herself for the Witch Clan! She died a worthy death! She is our hero!"

"The war is not over yet, and the demon race has not been wiped out! If you truly care about her, stop crying like a useless piece of trash! Pick up your laws and go slaughter those demon brats!"

"Don't get distracted! This is war!!"

Dijiang's words struck Su Bai's heart like a heavy hammer.

A worthy death?

hero?

Su Bai slowly raised his head. His eyes, which were originally clear and bright, had now turned into a deathly gray. Yet, deep within them burned a fury powerful enough to incinerate the heavens.

He did not refute Dijiang, nor did he say another word.

He carefully tucked the ice crystal into his bosom and placed it close to his body.

then.

Turn around.

"boom--"

A time law more terrifying than ever before erupted from him. He no longer defended, no longer held back, and transformed into a gray storm of death, directly plunging into the rout of the demon army.

He doesn't complain.

He only wanted to kill.

"Time...taken away!"

Wherever Su Bai went, hundreds and thousands of demon soldiers and generals aged instantly and turned into withered bones.

"Time...collapses!"

With a single punch, a demon god at the level of a Great Luo Golden Immortal was instantly shredded into nothingness by the temporal turbulence before he could even utter a scream.

At this moment, Su Bai was completely enraged and went completely mad.

He was like a heartless killing machine, reaping lives madly on the battlefield. Di Jun and Tai Yi tried to stop him, but were held back by the other Ancestral Witches, who were already in a bloodthirsty frenzy.

……

This battle was so fierce that the sky darkened and the sun and moon lost their light.

In the end, it was Dao Ancestor Hongjun who intervened once again, forcibly separating the two bloodthirsty races.

But the ending was tragically unexpected by everyone.

There are no winners.

It was truly a lose-lose situation.

On the side of the Witch Clan, apart from Xuanming who was the first to sacrifice himself, two more Ancestral Witches died in the chaos of battle while covering the retreat of their clansmen, exhausting themselves and exploding. Of the twelve Ancestral Witches, three were gone, and their strength was severely weakened.

The situation was even worse for the demon race. The Zhou Tian Star Array was broken, and hundreds of millions of demon soldiers were killed or wounded. Di Jun was injured in his origin by Pangu's Axe Shadow, Donghuang Taiyi was surrounded and severely injured by several Ancestral Witches, and two of the Ten Demon Generals died (at the hands of Su Bai).

On this desolate land, rivers of blood flowed.

……

after the war.

The Wu tribe army retreated to the land, and the atmosphere became extremely oppressive.

But Su Bai did not return to the Pangu Palace, nor did he go to see Houtu.

Alone, dragging his body covered in wounds and exhausted, he staggered toward the Northern Sea.

That place was extremely cold, and it was also his and Xuanming's former "home".

The wind and snow continue.

The snow in the Northern Sea seemed to be falling heavier than in previous years, as if heaven and earth were mourning the fallen Ice Ancestral Witch.

Su Bai walked step by step into that familiar ice cave.

Nothing here has changed.

The jade bed she used for cultivation was still there, and the essence of the mysterious ice she had collected was still neatly stacked in the corner.

Su Bai walked to the deepest part of the ice cave.

On that massive ice platform stood an unfinished ice sculpture. Beside the ice platform, the "Ice Crystal Candle Dragon," which Xuanming had infused with his essence and given to Su Bai, stood majestically.

That was her last and most complete work left in this world.

Su Bai reached out and trembled as he stroked the dragon horns of the ice sculpture.

The ice sculpture was cold, but Su Bai seemed to feel the scalding heat from her fingertips when she gave him the gift that day, and the shy words, "We're even now."

"Even if we're even? How could we possibly be even..."

Su Bai leaned against the ice sculpture and slowly slid down to the ground.

He looked up at the ice dragon.

The dragon's eyes are lowered, carved with lifelike detail. There is no murderous intent or majesty in its gaze, only endless tenderness and affection.

That's how she saw him.

These were also the words she kept hidden in her heart.

"fool……"

Su Bai clutched his chest, where the broken ice crystal lay. The excruciating pain was ten thousand times worse than his body shattering.

"It hurts...it hurts so much..."

The man did not shed tears, but he did not go to the sad place.

In this empty ice cave, amidst the swirling snow, Su Bai finally huddled under the ice sculpture like a child who had lost his most beloved toy, and wept bitterly.

……

The Netherworld, the Hall of Peace.

The scene gradually faded away amidst Su Bai's heart-wrenching cries.

Empress Pingxin was already in tears.

As an observer, and as a saint with memories of the future, she understood the weight of this past better than anyone else.

"So... this is the truth."

Pingxin wiped away her tears, her gaze becoming deep and distant. "Brother and Sister Xuanming were not heartless, but their deep affection was buried in that era of war."

She turned her head to look in the direction of Nuwa Palace, thirty-three heavens away, and it seemed that her gaze met that of the sage in the void.

At this moment, only she and Nuwa understood a startling truth.

Su Bai (Zhu Jiuyin) had so many unforgettable romances not because he was a womanizer, but because—

He is using the laws of time to "jump" between different timelines!

"His childhood sweetheart relationship with Nuwa took place at Buzhou Mountain after the Dragon-Han Calamity; his companionship with the Queen Mother of the West took place in Xikunlun during the reign of the Human Emperor; his life-and-death bond with Xuanming took place in Beiming during the Lich Calamity..."

"These timelines, seemingly all within the vast river of history, are like different parallel worlds to him who controls time, or... countless attempts to change his fate."

A sudden realization dawned on Empress Pingxin's mind.

"He is saving the world."

Behind every romantic relationship lies his desperate struggle in that era, for the sake of that race, for the sake of that person.

but.

As the scene gradually faded away, a trace of helpless sorrow flashed in Empress Pingxin's eyes.

"The primordial trend... is ultimately unchangeable."

"In this timeline, thanks to my brother's intervention, although the Witch Clan did not perish in one battle, Sister Xuanming died a heroic death, and the Demon Clan was also crippled, it was a little better than the original ending."

"but……"

Empress Pingxin looked out of the underworld and at the Heavenly Dao, which was still operating according to its established course.

"With the decline of the Lich Kings, humanity shall rise. This is the ironclad law established by Hongjun, and the inevitable course of the Heavenly Dao."

"Although my brother tried his best to delay and change things, in the end... the Witch Clan will still head towards its decline."

"And he is destined to shed his last drop of blood in that final great calamity, in order to cut off a glimmer of hope for us."

This is destiny.

It is also the "variable" Zhu Jiuyin that serves as the most tragic footnote in the grand game of the prehistoric world.