Chapter 54: Chapter 53 pt2
Bai Chen’s nose shattered, and his Nascent Soul meridians groaned under the violent impact. Yan Shuo placed his heavy white boot directly onto the back of Bai Chen’s head, pinning him to the ground like a pathetic insect.
Yan Shuo bent down and picked up the glowing core of the Heavenly Dao Relic from the dirt.
It looked like a flawless, pulsing white diamond. But deep within its center, trapped in an isolated pocket of space and time, was a microscopic grain of golden light.
The Heavenly Dao Isolation Casket.
Yan Shuo held the Relic in his palm. He closed his eyes, taking a slow, steadying breath.
He didn’t care about the laws of the Heavenly Dao. He didn’t care about the rules of spatial continuum. He was the sovereign of the dark path, and he was taking his wife back.
Yan Shuo flooded his right hand with the absolute, maximum limit of his Abyssal gravity. He bypassed his own physical limitations, letting his meridians tear and bleed as he squeezed the Relic with enough force to crush a continent.
"Break," Yan Shuo commanded.
CRACK.
The flawless white diamond of the Heavenly Dao Relic shuddered. A tiny, hairline fracture appeared on its surface.
The sky above them groaned. The Heavens themselves were protesting the destruction of their sacred artifact. Red lightning began to crackle in the clouds, a warning of Heavenly Punishment.
"I said," Yan Shuo growled, his eyes snapping open, blazing with pure, terrifying demonic fire. "Break!"
SHATTER!
The supreme artifact exploded into a shower of brilliant white dust.
The spatial continuum violently tore open. The golden grain of sand expanded at the speed of light, folding back into the mortal plane with a blinding, deafening shockwave that blew the ash clouds away from the Heavenly Furnace Mountains entirely.
When the light faded, a figure stood on the obsidian path.
Tantai Zhi had returned.
But she was no longer the soft, blushing maiden who had been holding a parasol just a few moments ago.
Her majestic crimson robes were violently whipping in the wind. Her golden eyes were completely, utterly devoid of humanity. They were bottomless oceans of pure, world-ending madness. Her pure Yin Qi was flaring so violently that the entire active volcano beneath them was rapidly turning into solid, profound ice.
She had been trapped in the void, completely unable to protect her husband. In her mind, Yan Shuo was standing alone against an army, fragile and unprotected.
"WHO HURT HIM?!" Tantai Zhi screamed, her voice echoing with a terrifying, apocalyptic resonance that made the Heavens tremble.
She gripped her crimson sword with both hands, ready to slaughter every living soul on the continent, ready to cut the sky into pieces to find him.
"Zhi’er."
The soft, warm, completely relaxed voice broke through the freezing air.
Tantai Zhi froze. She spun around so fast her hair whipped her face.
Standing just a few feet away was Yan Shuo. The terrifying, demonic aura of the Abyss had vanished completely. The black sky had cleared. He stood there in his slightly dusty white robes, holding his paper fan loosely in one hand, looking perfectly unharmed and entirely calm.
Beneath his right boot, the Faceless Scholar was groveling in the dirt, completely crippled and twitching.
Yan Shuo smiled his usual, lazy, impossibly handsome smile.
"Welcome back, Wife," Yan Shuo said gently. "You missed the fireworks."
Tantai Zhi’s crimson sword slipped from her fingers, clattering loudly against the obsidian path.
The world-ending madness in her golden eyes instantly evaporated, replaced by an overwhelming flood of absolute, tearful relief. The terrifying Saintess, the Goddess of Slaughter, let out a loud, pathetic sob.
She ran forward and threw herself at him.
Yan Shuo caught her effortlessly, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist as she buried her face into his chest, completely knocking the breath out of him. She hugged him with desperate, frantic strength, her hands gripping his robes as if she was terrified he would disappear again.
"Husband! Husband!" she wept, her tears soaking his pristine white silk. "I was so scared! I couldn’t get out! I couldn’t protect you!"
Yan Shuo let out a soft, fond sigh. He gently stroked her hair, kissing the top of her head.
"It’s alright, Zhi’er. I am perfectly fine," Yan Shuo soothed her, completely ignoring the bleeding arch-villain pinned under his boot. "The bugs were very loud, but they were quite fragile."
Tantai Zhi sniffled, pulling back just enough to frantically inspect his face and neck for any scratches. Finding him completely unharmed, her overwhelming panic finally began to subside, rapidly replaced by her usual, deeply unhinged devotion.
She looked down at the pathetic, crippled man groveling beneath Yan Shuo’s boot. She recognized the white robes and the shattered silver mask lying nearby.
She wiped her tears, her golden eyes narrowing as a terrifying, possessive glare returned to her face.
"Husband," Tantai Zhi said, her voice dropping back into its sweet, doting tone, though it carried a chilling edge. "Your boots are too pristine to be stepping on such dirty trash. Please, let me step on his neck for you. I don’t want you to strain your ankle."
Yan Shuo burst into genuine, entirely relaxed laughter.
The epic, continent-spanning shadow war had reached its climax, the Righteous Alliance was completely crippled, and the terrifying mastermind of the ancient era was currently bleeding out on the rocks. But right now, Yan Shuo didn’t care about any of that.
He just found his wife incredibly, adorably hilarious.
"That is very thoughtful of you, Wife," Yan Shuo chuckled, casually kicking Bai Chen’s unconscious body to the side like a bag of garbage. "But I think we have spent enough time in this filthy volcano. The soot is ruining my robes."
He reached out and took her hand, intertwining their fingers perfectly.
"Shall we go home, Zhi’er?" Yan Shuo asked softly. "I believe I promised you a proper dinner date before we were so rudely interrupted."
Tantai Zhi’s eyes instantly turned into brilliant, starry crescents. The ancient grudges and the fallen enemies were completely forgotten.
"Yes, Husband!" she beamed, leaning happily against his shoulder. "I will cook your favorite! Let’s go home!"
Leaving the ruined volcano and the shattered remains of the Faceless Scholar behind, the terrifying Demon Lord and his blissfully unhinged Saintess walked hand-in-hand down the mountain path, completely ready to return to their peaceful, low-stress domestic life.
