Look down, Wang Xiao said.

She frowned, and then blinked. The blade was fading. Its brilliance bled away. Its edge dulled, its glow died, until only a rusty, broken sword remained in her hands.

Xue Hanqins eyes widened. What…? She was a Great Lord, and yet even she could not hold its power.

Wang Xiao plucked the sword casually back.

… Xue Hanqin stared at him, lips twitching into a reluctant smile. Anything else you havent shown me yet?

Yes, Wang Xiao smirked. Our deal… might have to wait a couple of years.

!!

Her eyes widened, then burned with sudden fury. You dare go back on your word? Do you think that sword alone will protect you?

The space warped as her aura exploded outward, pressure flooding the river. From the beginning she had extended the deal, he had refused.

But last time, he had accepted: accompany her into the Netherworld, do what she could not do herself. A simple arrangement, dressed in sweet words.

But Wang Xiao had always felt it, her deal wasnt partnership. It was leash and collar.

She couldnt reveal her power there. Thats why she needed someone to bark for her.

A dog, he thought flatly.

Her face twitched.

Are you sure you can win? Wang Xiaos tone was casual, but the cracks spreading across his body burned with a golden light that made the river groan.

Xue Hanqin froze. Those cracks… dont tell me- She stepped back, her mysterious eyes wide with disbelief.

Wang Xiao nodded. You remember Yang Yuhuan? The one I cut and devoured?

She was a mistress of the Yang clan. But she didnt have the blood, no lineage strong enough to push you beyond this stage. How… how can you be transcending to Great Lord now?

Her voice wavered between rage and something closer to fear.

Not her, Wang Xiao said softly, he smiled. Her daughter did.

Her pupils shrank.

She clenched her fists so hard her nails split skin.

You tricked me!

Not tricked. His grin widened. You just never asked the right question.

Xue Hanqins nails curled into claws, her voice shaking with fury. Ah… I want to rip your face away. She stalked closer, hand raised toward him.

Wang Xiao frowned. Stop this. Are you a child?

You think this is a joke? she hissed, claw trembling inches from his cheek.

I said Id help you. Just later. He tilted his head, voice flat. And whatever you want, well share the benefits.

She sneered. Share? With you?

He sighed, catching her wrist before her nails could touch his face. Youre difficult to hold onto.

But in his eyes, cold, calculating, the thought was already clear. Share? Lies. Once his strength settled, once the cracks hardened into something greater, what was there to share?

He looked into her furious, beautiful face. Widow. Proud, and hard to tame. But with the sword in hand, and equal strength at his back, he could manage.

Humph… Xue Hanqins lips tightened. Normally, she would never let him off, but she saw the obsidian blade gleam, saw the fissures glowing across his body, and forced herself to still.

She calmed… barely.

Then Wang Xiao moved.

SHRRRIP!

The sword came down across his own chest.

Xue Hanqin froze mid-step, eyes filled with shock, her crimson lips parting without sound. Then, flatly, she whispered, Congratulations. Youve officially lost your mind.

His frame split with light. From the wound, not blood, but soul poured out, searing fragments.

Two floated into his palms, condensed into glowing orbs.

Yanyan, and Yang Yuhuan.

Xue Hanqins breath caught.

Wang Xiao looked down at the orbs, calm as if he were just weighing coins. Yanyan pulsed faintly, alive.

Yuhuans broken fragments flickered, mutilated from obsidian sword, dead in every normal sense.

But Wang Xiaos lips curled. She cant return as herself. But arranged into another shell… perhaps she can live again. If it works, I gain a Transcendent guard.

Xue Hanqins face twisted, caught between awe and relief. Youre a fool… who wastes a chance like this? You could have devoured both…

Wang Xiao shook his head. His body glowed with Emperor Mings essence, power still radiating like fire. I already hold his soul. I am still two Transcendents in one. But if I merge any further, my own universe will eject me. It cant contain a Great Lord.

He glanced around them, the strange fractured space they had fallen into. This place can bear it. Mine cannot, not yet.

His gaze hardened, voice dropping cold. Besides… as long as an Executioners soul is inside me, they wont dispatch another. Balance counts him still alive. I have time… probably.

Xue Hanqins eyes narrowed, her composure cracking. She whispered, almost bitterly, But I dont…

Wang Xiao could see the storm still smoldering in her eyes. So he did what always worked, give them something to occupy their hands. His tone turned casual, almost offhand.

Since you control the reincarnation cycle… can you bring back my daughters and the others who died? Their souls. Fetch them for me.

Xue Hanqin froze, then tilted her chin, eyes narrowing. Cant you do it yourself? Her voice dripped mockery. Just go and hunt their souls one by one. They cant have drifted too far. Maybe in a few million years, youll catch them all.

Her crimson lips pressed together, smirking as she mocked him.

Wang Xiao didnt answer, only watching her.

Xue Hanqin clicked her tongue, sulk melting into reluctant compliance. She raised her head like a queen humoring a fool. …Fine.

…

Wang Xiao blinked once, then again, tilting his head slightly as she moved through the motions, slim fingers weaving patterns through the void, quietly resurrecting.

His mind flickered, half-absent.

Someone should tell this woman not to bark at shadows… The ones you dont respect come back with teeth.

She was outside now, dragging soul-lines from limbo, stitching remnants back into place. A cosmic repair job, sloppy by her standards but still divine. He left her to it.

He looked at Yanyans soul again, still warm, still intact. He folded it into a vessel of light, no urgency there.

Her body was trivial to remake.

But Yang Yuhuan…

He turned to her broken remnants. The soul was scorched, in pieces, the edges screaming like cauterized wounds. That obsidian sword hadnt just killed her. It had torn the shape of her from the world.

And now he was going to remake it.

Minutes passed….

Hm?

Xue Hanqins cold breath curled like smoke, What is he doing…?

She was done. Her work settled over the fractured landscape like gauze, sealing gashes in time with fingers stained in reincarnation law.

But she wasnt looking at her work.

She was watching him.

Her eyes, reflective and calm, caught the waters mirrored surface, black and bottomless. In it, the universe bled light from countless fissures, like glass under strain.

The cracks widened with every breath she took, her aura alone fracturing the pocket world like dry clay.

And still, she watched.

Wang Xiao knelt on a jagged stone ledge, his back bare, the strange sword kept across his lap. With inhuman precision, he began carving through the soul-fragments, each stroke guided by something colder than instinct.

Not just cutting.

Fusing.

The edges of Yuhuans broken soul essence glowed white-hot, melting together beneath his palm like molten gold shaped by a blacksmiths kiss.

…

Thats… Xue Hanqin narrowed her gaze, stepping back unconsciously as heat began to ripple outward, soulfire boiling against the airless dark.

The dumbest suicide attempt Ive ever seen.