Chapter 2151: Wild Devouring Punishment (Part 2)
The breeze at the Eden Cloud Summit grew colder, even beginning to sting like needles against the skin.
A river of blood mixed with spittle dripped in thick streams from Yun Che's lips.
No one knew... perhaps no one dared to imagine, that the soul agony Yun Che endured was far worse than that of his body.
It was as though endless, violent vengeful spirits were howling and crashing within his sea of consciousness, shrieking as they tore at his soul with cruel claws, scorching his will and faith with flames of resentment.
Such a torment of the soul, inflicted upon an ordinary Divine Lord body, would make it completely collapse in a single breath... let alone when combined with physical torment, let alone for an entire two hundred breaths.
"Yun Che, focus your heart and listen to my voice! You must hold onto your clarity! Yun Che!!"
Li Suo's voice was more urgent than ever before. Like Meng Kongchan from the outside world, she called out unceasingly, using the only means she had to drag Yun Che's soul, which was like a lone boat on a furious sea.
Amidst her panicked cries, a twisted, hoarse roar sounded from within the turbulent sea of consciousness that was on the verge of shattering: "Shut up... do you think I am... that fragile!"
Li Suo's voice gradually faded.
But the sea of consciousness, which was shaken and nearly broken, still echoed with Yun Che's voice:
"Is this pain... any match for the grief of the Lan Ji Star's fall and utter despair..."
"Is this pain... any match for the calamity of my homeland being on the verge of destruction and the burial of all living beings..."
"Is this pain... any match for the weight of the fate this body carries..."
"I am... Yun Che of the God Realm, who came to overthrow the Abyss, bearing the safety of countless lives in my homeland... This mere Wild Devouring Punishment... this trivial pain of body and soul... how can it make me collapse... how can it make me yield!?"
"Don't... be... ridiculous!"
After a long time, Li Suo finally spoke again... no longer with the previous frantic urgency, but even softer than usual: "Alright, I will quietly watch you, safely pass through this small setback on the journey of the Abyss fate."
Fifty breaths... sixty breaths... seventy breaths...
The passage of time was terrifyingly slow. Everyone could clearly hear the sound of their own heartbeat... yet they never heard even a momentary scream from Yun Che.
The finger bones of Yun Che's ten fingers were all exposed, his palms pierced through with deep blood holes, drenched in blood, and even the sweat mist rising around him had turned into a shocking blood mist.
Wild Devouring Punishment, according to records, was an ultimate torture that began to ravage from the very "existence" itself. As long as it existed within the body and soul, every tiny part would suffer the most brutal devouring.
The muscles all over his body surged and writhed wildly, veins bulging like struggling dragons on the verge of death... but his tightly pressed lips never uttered any sound of surrender. No matter how his body trembled in pain, his spine remained proudly straight.
Like a cold pine that could not be burned or crushed in the flames of purgatory.
Eighty breaths... ninety breaths...
Meng Kongchan had stopped calling out. He stared blankly at Yun Che, letting the tears of a Divine Venerable well up in his eyes again and again.
Such will, such pride... this is his son, Meng Kongchan!
Hua Qingying felt a shadow flicker before her eyes. Subconsciously, she pinched it—it was a strand of black hair she had unknowingly pulled out.
Hua Caili's body trembled without a moment's pause, and countless cracks seemed to spread across her heart... And as if hearing her sobbing, Yun Che, at this moment, amidst the dumbfounded gazes of everyone, slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze met Hua Caili's silently.
At this moment, the whites of his eyes were filled with horrifying bloodshot veins, the veins on his forehead jumping wildly, and his features contorted and deformed violently in every instant... even more terrifying than a ferocious evil ghost.
But in Hua Caili's eyes, all the charm of the world's men gathered before her could not compare to this single moment of Yun Che.
"Cai... li..."
His lips trembled, and he actually made an extremely hoarse and raspy sound, yet loud enough to be heard.
"Don't... be afraid..."
"It... doesn't... hurt... at... all..."
He actually smiled—the curve of his lips stained with blood from broken tooth roots, mixed with saliva and blood trickling down. Even though it was extremely hideous and terrifying, his eyes held a gentleness that made Hua Caili's heart and soul tremble.
Meeting his gaze, Hua Caili also smiled gently... but at the same moment, tears burst forth like rain.
"Big Brother Yun, look at me... listen to my voice..."
Hua Caili gazed into his bloodshot eyes, her tearful voice echoing at the Eden Cloud Summit, in everyone's ears and souls:
"The pain today, you selfishly bore for me... I will... train hard... I will soon become as strong as Aunt and my Father... After today... all difficulties... obstacles... pain... I will bear them!"
This was not the tender whispers of a maiden in private, but a resolute vow made on this supreme Pure Land, before Yuan Huang, the Six Divine Kingdoms, with heaven and earth as witnesses, the world as proof—a vow that could not be broken.
Yun Che, enduring the punishment alone, and Hua Caili, softly reciting her vow... at this moment, everyone present was moved.
They should have laughed at Yun Che and Hua Caili for not knowing their place, should have scorned them for betraying their engagement and "changing affections" with such shamelessness, should have sighed that Yun Che's talent was world-shaking yet he sought his own doom...
But at this moment, they could not help but feel that perhaps Yuan Huang's marriage decree was truly a mistake.
Yun Che and Hua Caili—one defeated a Divine Annihilation realm enemy while only at the Divine Lord realm, unprecedented; the other's sword talent surpassed past and present, astonishing even Yuan Huang.
They were the only two Perfect Divine Ranks of this era, the first double stars descending in the history of the Abyss, and both descendants of Divine Venerables...
Everything about them was a match made in heaven.
Yuan Huang watched silently, having not spoken a word since the Wild Devouring Punishment began. The faint divine radiance around him seemed to freeze time.
No one knew that at this moment, his vision was covered in a thick haze.
One hundred and ten breaths... one hundred and twenty breaths...
At the side of the Senluo Divine Kingdom, Dian Luohou's brows were deeply furrowed. He had remained silent for a long time... and had never once gloated, cursed, or taunted, only a heavy solemnity.
Dian Jiuzhi's expression kept changing constantly—pity, shock, absent-mindedness... and now, hearing Hua Caili's soul-stirring whisper, the corners of his mouth moved slightly, and he showed a faint smile.
Someone is willing to treat you like this...
Someone makes you willing to be treated like this...
Caili, congratulations on finding the best person.
I am truly happy for you... and happy for myself.
Your remaining years no longer need my waiting and protection. All I can still do is gradually calm Father's anger and shield you from the storms beyond happiness.
Beside him, Dian Sansi stood there in a daze. His previous madness and delight had long dissipated, leaving only a growing, profound bewilderment.
In the distant sky, a red figure had appeared at some unknown time, gazing at everything on the Eden Cloud Summit.
She wore a fiery red robe, with snow-white hair loose. Powerful profound practitioners should not be eroded by the years, but time seemed to have poured all its cruelty onto her. Her face was wrinkled like dead wood, and in her sunken eye sockets, eyes that in her youth could topple countless beings were now only a murky, gray turbidity.
"In this world, there exists such will and such a man of deep love... cough, cough!"
She coughed violently, unable to stop for a long time.
The Sushang Divine Attendant standing beside her reached out and gently patted her back: "Master, the residual calamity on you has not yet faded. Since you have already seen, it is time to return."
"Alright."
She did not resist. Her final gaze fell on Yuan Huang, lingering on him for a long time.
"He... facing this scene, must be deeply touched."
Sushang supported the red-clad woman as they silently departed, as if they had never been there.
At this moment, the Eden Cloud Summit was eerily silent, with only the sound of Yun Che's blood and sweat droplets falling.
All eyes were fixed on Yun Che, and in their hearts, they silently counted the passage of time.
One hundred and sixty breaths... one hundred and seventy breaths...
"To have such a son, what more could one ask for in this life," Qiheng Divine Venerable murmured softly.
And beside him, Pan Buzhuo had long lost any hint of sneering. The gaze he now cast at Yun Che reflected back on himself a sense of inferiority he had never felt before. All previous malicious thoughts, words... even jealousy, made him appear so pitiful and ridiculous.
One hundred and eighty breaths... one hundred and ninety breaths!
Suddenly, a piercing scream rang out.
"Absurd! Absurd! Men are the most hypocritical and despicable things in the world! How could a man do such a thing for a woman! Fake... just dirty pretentiousness, a hypocritical lie! Fake! Fake!!"
Wuming Divine Venerable, who had been silent for so long, suddenly went mad. Her pitch-black palanquin was torn apart by her uncontrolled voice like profound energy shredding it, wildly shaking its black curtains.
A series of screams sounded. Most of the Eternal Night women around the palanquin were knocked to the ground, covering their ears in pain.
"No... how could such a man exist in the world! Impossible... impossible! Everything is a hypocritical lie... hypocrisy... lies... lies! Ah ha ha ha ha!"
Bang!
The shattered palanquin suddenly flew into the sky, carrying the emotionally broken Shenwu Yanye away from the Eden Cloud Summit, heading to who knows where.
"Divine Venerable!"
Shenwu Youluan cried out in alarm. She quickly grabbed Shenwu Yi's wrist and led everyone in hot pursuit.
Just before jumping off the Eden Cloud Summit, Shenwu Yi inexplicably turned back... her final glance, as if guided by an invisible force, touched upon Yun Che's body. A flicker of complex, indescribable emotion passed through her eyes, and then she vanished into the clouds.
Two hundred breaths!
The High Divine Official suddenly withdrew his hand, and countless withered yellow profound lights flew away from Yun Che's body... but his divine eyes remained fixed on Yun Che, and within his heart surged a wave of emotion greater than any he had felt in a million years.
He asked himself, even with his own body, it would be absolutely impossible to endure this punishment without uttering a single sound the entire time like Yun Che.
What kind of will, what kind of faith...
"Yuan'er!"
"Yuan Di!"
"Abyss Divine Son!"
"Big Brother Yun!"
...
The pain receded like a tide. Amidst the chaotic shouts, each one more urgent than the last, Yun Che's spirit relaxed. His upper body, which had remained proudly upright throughout the Wild Devouring Punishment, lost all sensation and fell backward, landing in a gentle embrace.
Meng Kongchan held him lightly. The front of his robe was instantly stained with blood. This Dreamless Divine Venerable, who had led the Weaving Dream Divine Kingdom for ten thousand years, was now so flustered. His hands, capable of shattering heaven and crushing mountains, now dared not exert even a trace of strength. He just stood there woodenly, half-crouched, not daring to move for a long time.
Amidst the constant cries, Yun Che opened his eyes. But it was a long time before his vision could barely capture some hazy images.
He curled the corners of his mouth into what seemed like a smug smile: "See... Wild Devouring Punishment... is nothing... much..."
Hua Caili buried her head in his chest, sobbing uncontrollably. Her clenched little hand wanted to hit him hard, but she could never bring herself to do it.
Hua Qingying turned her gaze to Hua Fuchen and said: "Well? The man Caili chose is far better than the one you picked for her."
Hua Fuchen smiled: "This kid... is just too much trouble."
As he spoke, the smile at the corner of his lips did not fade.
No one knew that Yuan Huang, who had remained calm and undisturbed throughout, only now had his unfocused vision restored.
He turned around and said indifferently: "Since the punishment has been borne, the marriage contract between Hua Caili and Dian Jiuzhi is hereby annulled."
Yun Che struggled to turn his eyes toward Yuan Huang: "Thank... you... Yuan Huang... for granting... my wish..."
With his final words, he could no longer hold on, and his consciousness sank completely into darkness.
Dian Luohou suddenly turned and roared: "Let's go!"
No one from Senluo spoke a word, silently following behind Dian Luohou.
Hua Fuchen suddenly took a step forward, but was immediately stopped by Hua Qingying.
"He is in a rage right now and won't listen to a single word... Let's talk later."
Hua Fuchen was silent for a moment, then finally withdrew his step and let out a long sigh.
————