Volume 1, Chapter 140 – Battle of the Two Empresses

Beyond the Nine Heavens lay the boundless reaches of space.

There was no air here, no sound, only eternal cold and deathly silence.

Countless stars gleamed like diamonds, some bright, others dim, tracing the vast contours of the universe.

Yet now, the arrival of two figures shattered the primordial stillness of this starry expanse.

The two Empresses faced each other across ten million li.

To mortals, such a distance was insurmountable. To them, it could be crossed in a single thought.

Neither attacked immediately. They simply stood in silent confrontation.

Their invisible auras collided and ground against each other in the void, sending out ripples that subtly distorted the surrounding starscape.

Ice-blue radiance flowed around Empress Lingshuang, delicate crystalline patterns of frost forming across her palace robes.

It was as though she herself were the source of all cold in the universe, the laws of ice made manifest in the mortal world.

Gu Han could not have been more different.

She merely stood there in silence, her moon-white palace robes gleaming faintly beneath the starlight.

No dazzling light surrounded her, nor did she exude any oppressive aura.

There was barely even a trace of spiritual power around her. She seemed to have merged completely with the starry void, her depths unfathomable.

“Gu Han.”

Empress Lingshuang was the first to break the silence, her voice as cold and clear as ice.

“Let me see whether you are worthy of ruling the Southern Region!”

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The instant the words left her lips…

“BOOM!”

Empress Lingshuang moved!

She took a single step, and a solid lotus of ice instantly formed beneath her foot, then exploded with a thunderous crash!

No probing attack. No restraint!

She unleashed her full power from the outset!

Holding two fingers together like a sword, she pointed at Gu Han from afar!

“Heaven-Sealing!”

“BZZT!”

A terrifying, indescribable chill erupted from her fingertip!

Visible waves of ice-blue light spread like ripples, surging wildly toward Gu Han!

Wherever they passed, the void cracked beneath the unbearable strain, freezing and solidifying inch by inch!

Even starlight, even space itself, was forcibly arrested by that cold, frozen in place as part of eternity!

Before those ice-blue ripples, a distance of ten million li vanished in an instant!

Just as the all-freezing waves were about to engulf Gu Han completely…

Gu Han moved.

She raised her right hand, spread her fingers, and closed them around the oncoming ice-blue ripples from across the void.

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“Chaos: Return to Origin.”

There was no earth-shaking blast, no dazzling display of light.

As her fingers closed, the terrifying cold capable of freezing an entire galaxy abruptly stopped a hundred zhang in front of her.

It was as though it had struck an invisible, intangible, yet utterly indestructible barrier!

Then something uncanny happened.

The ice-blue ripples visibly began to lose their color, fading and dissolving…

It was as though an unseen hand were erasing the very foundation of their existence, stripping them away at the fundamental level of “ice” itself!

They were not destroyed or canceled out. They were… returned to their origin!

Forcibly reducing all energy and laws to their most primordial state: such was the domineering power of the Chaos Scripture!

“What?!”

Empress Lingshuang’s ice-blue pupils contracted sharply!

Even that woman Qingxuan would have had to take her Heaven-Sealing technique seriously!

Yet this Yaochi Empress had neutralized it with such casual ease?

What kind of technique was this?!

“Interesting!”

Her shock lasted only an instant. The battle fervor in Empress Lingshuang’s eyes intensified, now tinged with excitement!

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Never before had she encountered an opponent capable of neutralizing her attack so easily!

“Take another strike from me!”

Empress Lingshuang’s figure flickered and vanished from where she stood!

In the next instant, she appeared above Gu Han!

She loosely cupped her hands, and a “bead” no larger than a fist abruptly materialized between her palms!

“Falling Star!”

She thrust both hands violently downward!

The bead transformed into an immensely concentrated beam of ice-blue light.

Disregarding the distance between them, it instantly came crashing down upon Gu Han’s head!

Black fissures tore through the void wherever the beam passed!

For the first time, a hint of seriousness flashed through Gu Han’s eyes as she faced the terrifying attack.

She held two fingers together like a sword and lightly slashed upward.

“Chaos: Heaven-Splitting.”

“HSSST!”

A hazy gray streak of sword qi burst from her fingertips!

At first, the sword qi was barely more than a foot long, but the instant it left her fingers, it expanded wildly!

In the blink of an eye, it became a gray blade of sword radiance spanning the starry sky. Like the first ray of light to cleave heaven from earth, it slashed upward!

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The hazy gray sword radiance and the ice-blue beam collided in the starry void!

“RUMBLE!”

A terrifying detonation beyond all description erupted, as though countless thunderbolts had exploded at once!

Even in the soundless vacuum of space, the “sound of the Dao” born from the collision of laws and the eruption of energy…

Still swept wildly in every direction like a tangible shock wave!

At the center of the collision, a maelstrom of energy more than a million li across exploded!

Gray and blue intertwined wildly, annihilating and regenerating again and again!

The terrifying aftershocks became rings of visible energy ripples that raced into the depths of space at horrifying speed!

Dozens of nearby celestial bodies of varying sizes trembled violently in their wake, like candle flames caught in a gale!

On several smaller planets, dreadful ravines reaching all the way to their cores were instantly torn across the surface!

Several even smaller moons were knocked straight out of orbit by the terrifying energy waves.

Like hurled glass marbles, they tumbled toward the distant reaches of space!

Stars… were shattering!

Their positions were shifting!

This was the true might of Immortal Ascension experts fighting at full power!

With every clash… stars shattered and celestial orbits shifted!