Chapter 56: Eager in Spirit, Yet Powerless in Deed

“I seem to have underestimated your strength after all.”

Ye Chen’s mood was complicated. To sever part of the Bamboo Tribe’s fortune—what kind of being could do such a thing?

Anything involving destiny was surely connected to the Great Dao; how could it be treated lightly?

Ye Chen had only, by a stroke of luck, obtained this Qi-Viewing Art in advance, allowing him to glimpse fortune. Otherwise, he would not have been able to touch even the faintest thread of it at present. It was not something his current strength should have been able to reach.

And even then, Ye Chen could only observe fortune. As for meddling with it, that was flattering him far too much.

To think Ning Taohua could achieve such a feat—Ye Chen felt a knot in his heart and a chill rise up his spine. Unease spread through him.

“You can’t possibly wipe me out completely. There’s no need to tear everything apart over this.”

Ning Taohua looked at Ye Chen calmly, still trying to win himself a chance.

Ye Chen let out a cold snort and said nothing more on the matter.

He did not continue probing the details of how he had once defied heaven and altered his fate. Presumably, Ning Taohua would never speak of them either.

Ning Taohua’s true body was formidable, but that was a different matter from this avatar. If the true body could not be reached, it did not necessarily mean the avatar could do nothing.

With a thunderous boom, the boundless golden radiance in the entire Void Realm abruptly condensed, as though a divine sun had risen. Blazing light and fire roared to life, then turned into surging crimson waves that charged toward Ning Taohua to slaughter him.

Ning Taohua’s expression changed slightly, and panic flickered through him. What was happening? Why was the killing intent so overwhelming? He could not understand it. Even if he had offended Ye Chen, was there really not the slightest room for maneuver?

If Ye Chen knew what Ning Taohua was thinking, he would likely have laughed.

Room for maneuver? Of course not.

From the very beginning, this had been full of schemes and calculations. Deep down, the two were fated to be enemies.

Even though their relationship had eased somewhat later on, the foundation of that relationship had been built on mutual distaste. Everything after that had merely been reluctant compromise. Under such circumstances, the bond could never truly warm.

There had been no visible hostility on the surface, yet murderous intent had long been hidden in the heart. Now that it had finally broken free, it came like thunder and gale, sweeping mountains and seas, turning into a biting cold that left Ning Taohua chilled to the bone.

“Run!”

Ning Taohua did not dare to block it head-on. He was already grievously wounded, and this was Ye Chen’s domain. He had the heart, but not the strength.

One strand of crystal-clear light after another peeled away. Ye Chen could feel the entire Void Realm growing complete and seamless, fully under his control.

He let out a breath of relief. Removing the hidden danger in the Void Realm was the most important thing.

The divine radiance then flared like fire, surging like a mountain flood and carrying with it world-shattering force. Trees and hills collapsed in an instant, as though the entire Void Realm were about to break apart.

Ning Taohua retreated at great speed, but the space available for him to roam freely kept shrinking. This was a hunt.

He had become the prey, with nowhere left to flee. The endless divine light gathered into a torrent like a landslide and flood, as though a waterfall ten thousand feet high were crashing down to smash him into dust.

Dotted with points of divine brilliance, Ning Taohua’s body glowed softly and warmly, like stars and silver moonlight, frost falling across the heavens. In a flash, radiance burst forth, and then a small peach tree took root in the soil.

The tree trembled faintly. Lush leaves hung from every branch, then all fell away, leaving the entire peach tree stripped bare, as naked as a commander without troops. Bare like that—did it somehow become stronger?

A deafening boom erupted, like thunder raging in fury, shaking the mountains as it roared. Countless flying blossoms rose against the current, a profusion of petals falling like rain, and then every peach blossom ignited and shattered.

At the same time, the peach tree withered before the eye, its trunk and branches decaying and turning to dust.

Clearly, Ning Taohua had gone all in.

“Isn’t it too late for that?”

Ye Chen snorted coldly, unmoved. Vast divine light transformed into a colossal hand reaching to the sky, smashing down hard.

The void exploded. The boundless sea of blossoms surged together into a torrent, laying out a path through empty space.

But the path cracked inch by inch, utterly useless.

Then the peach tree broke in two and fell to the ground. Yet after the void had shattered, scattered peach blossoms suddenly gathered once more, forming a peach tree. It was illusory, looking as though it might split apart at any moment.

Even so, it did not slow. In a panic, it fled.

Ning Taohua’s actions were not meaningless. This violent clash had at last exposed a flaw in the Void Realm.

After all, the Void Realm was not so sturdy; weak points still existed.

Having found the right direction, Ning Taohua was about to escape—but how could it be that easy?

Just as he was on the verge of breaking free, a streak of divine light cleaved down ahead of him like a heavenly blade.

Ning Taohua’s intentions could not hide from Ye Chen.

Within the Void Realm, Ye Chen was like the supreme will of heaven itself; the entire realm was his territory.

As for the divine path he walked, as a Dream God, the Void Realm was where the authority of the Dream God lay.

With that authority revealed, Ye Chen was supreme here. Unless someone possessed overwhelming, boundless power strong enough to tear directly through the Void Realm, forcefully breaking law with force, there was no way to find an exit.

If force could not break it, one could only submit. There was no other possibility.

Ning Taohua’s attempt to seize an opening and escape simply showed that he did not understand the special nature of this divine domain.

With authority present here, the Void Realm was like Ye Chen’s own body.

This too was understandable. The divine path was newly emerging, and Ning Taohua naturally found this road unfamiliar. It was only reasonable that he would run into walls and suffer setbacks.

With a boom, boundless divine radiance transformed into a palm and came crashing down. In an instant, even the heavens seemed to darken.

Ning Taohua felt the shadow of death and his expression changed drastically. This time it truly changed—it was not feigned terror meant to deceive Ye Chen.

“Am I going to die here?”

Ning Taohua was deeply unwilling. “No, that won’t do. If I die like this, then what becomes of my so-called defiance of heaven and rewriting of fate? Wouldn’t that become a joke?”

With a clang-like crash, another earthshaking blast erupted. Divine light swept through and once again wrecked the body Ning Taohua had painstakingly gathered into a mangled ruin.

He still was not dead. Like a cockroach impossible to kill, amid the dazzling radiance, countless points of light flashed and trembled together.

Then, once again, crystal-clear streams of light appeared in the void. They shone brilliantly, clear and flawless, like a streak of pale-white silk spanning the sky.

Ye Chen was just about to strike and finish Ning Taohua off in one final burst.

Suddenly, those crystal streams converged into a single mass, then exploded completely. Within the blast, a small peach tree appeared and disappeared in the haze.

Divine light burned like flame, incinerating everything it touched, yet the crystal streams did not disperse, and that small peach tree was still there.

A voice came from within the little tree, carrying a trace of amazement.

“So I still had a fallback after all.”

Ning Taohua gave a cold snort and said, “You want to destroy me? It seems you still do not have that ability.”

Ye Chen stared fixedly at the small peach tree. After thinking it over carefully, he said in a low voice, “With a move like that, you were actually hiding it this well from me.”

“So it seems this so-called avatar never received all of the true body’s memories. You’re just a defective copy.”

Ning Taohua’s anger flared, but it quickly subsided. In a cold voice, he said, “Trying to provoke me? You’re overestimating yourself.”

“That’s right. There are some things I do not know, because the true body deliberately concealed them from me.”