Chapter 51: The Final Heartbreak Part 2

“My Primordial Blade, that’s mine… mine!”

Suddenly, the twisted entity possessing Luo Ting’s shell let out a low, eerie laugh, one carrying a dawning realization laced with near-madness:

“So that’s it, so that’s it! Cang Ming, you refused to accept your sealing by me back then. After tens of thousands of years in solitude, scattering your origin, you ultimately turned the tables in this way!”

Jiang Chen coughed up foul blood, propping himself with the Primordial Blade, rising inch by excruciating inch.

His mind buzzed, breaths burning like fire.

The blade in his hand weighed a thousand jun, yet he staggered forward, step by step, toward the fallen god.

How could a mere mortal immortal slay a god?

If not for the life-or-death clash moments ago, where the final Breath of Chaos resonated with the Primordial Blade, allowing him a glimpse of truths scattered in fragments of time—

There was no “otherworldly god” at all.

The twisted divinity before him was none other than this world’s once-supreme… Ancient Order God.

The exalted being who once wielded laws, established rules, twin-born with the Chaos God Cang Ming as yin and yang—yet ultimately sealed and exiled him.

Later, with the twilight of the gods and the changing of the Heavenly Dao, It refused to sink into eternal slumber with the others.

Fortunately, though Cang Ming “died,” a breath of His chaotic origin still guarded the source. Thus, It too stripped away part of Its origin, hiding in the spatial crevices between the Three Realms, awaiting a comeback.

Then, ten thousand years flipped the script.

The once-proud God of Order, with faith dissipated and offerings dried up, was forced to draw from what It once scorned most—the sorrows, injustices, and malice born from upheavals in the Three Realms. Its divinity eroded, falling deeper into corruption.

Conversely, the sealed Cang Ming, in endless solitary vigil, shed his hatred and returned to purity and clarity.

Now reunited after millions of years, “Luo Ting” wielded the Chaos God’s Realm-Eroding Sword, while Jiang Chen held the god’s former Primordial Blade.

The God of Order turned demonic, while the demon god guarded the Three Realms…

“Little Jiang!!!”

Just like the previous times teleported by the Lake of Divine Miracles, Zhao Lixuan was lucky again this time—the lake truly sent him to Jiang Chen’s side!

Yet, as always before, upon arrival, no one could see him, no one could sense him.

He was right there by Jiang Chen’s side, close enough to touch, watching as he teetered on the brink from overexertion, his gaze scattered and unfocused. Yet Jiang Chen still propped himself up with his sword, inch by inch, straightening his spine.

The Primordial Blade rose slowly, its tip trembling but steadily aimed at the god’s heart.

Crimson blood continued to spill, spreading into a shocking dark stain.

It was as if he whispered something—or perhaps nothing at all.

The Primordial Blade sank inch by inch into the god’s chest, slow and resolute.

There was no earth-shattering roar, only an extremely faint, delicate cracking sound, like some ancient shackle snapping silently.

The fallen god let out a shriek that shook the void.

Its remaining shell twisted violently, countless pitch-black tentacles—condensed from malice and decayed order—thrashing wildly. Carrying the deathly silence that annihilated all life, they lashed out to strangle Jiang Chen!

“Little Jiang!”

Zhao Lixuan was mere inches away.

He watched in horror as Jiang Chen’s body jolted, the darkness coiling tight around him, bones creaking under the strain. But Jiang Chen only clenched his teeth, swallowing all pain and screams deep in his throat, channeling it into a more desperate push from his palm.

The blade sank another three inches.

The god’s decaying shell shuddered violently, unleashing a roar from the ancient Abyss, laced with agony and fury: “Ant… how dare you…!”

“Stop it—stop right now!”

The girl’s shrill cry pierced the void’s dead silence.

Xue Ying Princess appeared at the edge of the white expanse, her demon power pushed to the limit, skirts whipping in the wind. Yet she was still blocked by the stray spatial rifts from the god’s clashes—rifts powerful enough to tear the world apart.

She reached out futilely, eyes red with desperation:

“Jiang Chen! Don’t you get it yet?! The Breath of Chaos inside you shares its origin with this God of Order—one prospers, both prosper; one falls, both perish!”

“If you kill Him, the origin backlash will annihilate your soul too! You’ll be utterly destroyed, no reincarnation left!”

“But if you stop—if you help Him fully revive and rule this realm… you’ll become one of the new gods! You won’t have to die—you can live on as a deity!”

Her voice rose sharply, laced with seductive urgency:

“Don’t you want to be with your Immortal Lord Lixuan forever? You can! Share endless lifespan, never parted again!”

Seeing not even Jiang Chen’s eyelashes twitch, she panted heavily. Light flared at her fingertips, and a shadowy Memory Projection Stone materialized in her palm, flickering dimly.

“Jiang Immortal Lord, you’re still in the dark about the truth from twenty years ago, aren’t you…?”

“Do you still believe that catastrophe twenty years back—the one that shattered the Unstained Immortal Realm and loosened the Three Realms Stone’s seal, letting demon armies invade its heart—was just from immortal-demon wars?”

She paused, her lips curling into a nearly cruel arc:

“Let me tell you the truth.”

“That catastrophe had a culprit.”

“Jiang Chen. You were the culprit!”

“You thought that back then, when you took your ‘sick little sister’ to Moon Haze Hollow to find medicine for her, and loosened the seal yourself—you were saving her?”

Dead silence.

A cold, viscous silence drowned every inch of space.

Jiang Chen’s breath hitched. The last trace of color drained from his face, visible to the naked eye—paler than the surrounding void.

“But… how could a paper effigy get sick?”

“I took you there only because you were the one person in this world, besides the Immortal Emperor’s bloodline, who bore the Breath of Chaos and could shake the Sealing Demon Great Seal.”

The Memory Projection Stone’s shadows shifted in her palm, projecting a blurry yet familiar scene from the past.

“Look, Jiang Chen. Take a good look at what you did.”

“…”

“You personally loosened the Demon Realm’s seal, haha.”

“You indirectly killed Immortal Lord Lan Ze!!!”

Her voice spiked: “Tell me—if Immortal Lord Lixuan learned the truth… learned his dearest brother died because of you—would he forgive you? Would he still… love you?”

“But it’s not too late…”

Xue Ying Princess coaxed softly, “As long as the otherworldly god descends, I swear on my soul to keep this secret forever. You’ll become a god who saves the masses, revered by all, basking in eternal glory…”

“Immortal Lord Lixuan will see you shining brilliantly, saving the world. He’ll respect you more, love you… more.”

“Then, you’ll have it all—”

“Power, eternity, dominion over all, eternal love.”

“Jiang Chen, listen to me. Come here.”

The truth tore open, baring its ugliest face.

Back then, the Unstained Immortal Realm’s collapse was followed by the Demon Clan’s invasion—but with a gap of one or two years. That interval became a deliberate fog, blurring cause and effect, hiding the logic.

Even the Immortal Clan, the deepest victims, never pointed fingers at the Yao Clan, who seemed to profit from the chaos.

Who could know this twenty-year calamity was, from start to finish, a venomous scheme by Demon Emperor Luo Ting to dismantle the Immortal Clan’s foundations?

Jiang Chen’s body swayed almost imperceptibly.

Zhao Lixuan’s heart plunged into an ice cavern, stopping dead.

Because he clearly saw it—the last flicker of light in Jiang Chen’s eyes shatter completely.

Only bottomless, soul-freezing despair remained. So heavy it nearly crushed his frail frame.

Then, Jiang Chen’s lips twitched upward, excruciatingly slow.

Not a smile.

But endless, shattered self-mockery from a dead heart.

A flash of triumph in Xue Ying Princess’s eyes—that despair was victory’s harbinger. She nearly broke into a victorious smile—

In that instant.

That scarred hand, still gripping the Primordial Blade, twisted inward at a ruthless, sacrificial angle!

The blood-soaked blade plunged toward his own heart with sacrificial calm and resolve, without hesitation.

Splurch—

The tip tore through mangled muscle and bone with a muffled thud, stark in the silent void.

“No—!! What are you doing?! You’re insane! Stop! Stop now!!”

The glee on Xue Ying’s face twisted into peak horror, her scream cracking: “No, what are you doing?! You’re crazy! Stop!!”

“You’ll die! You’ll vanish with Him! You could have everything by obeying—eternity! Love! What are you thinking?!”

The world lost all color.

In his spectral form, Zhao Lixuan saw only red—blood.

Unable to make a sound, he lunged desperately but touched nothing. He could only watch that glaring crimson spread.

“Jiang Chen—!!!”

The Creator God’s final enraged shriek echoed as the entire white space collapsed in thunderous cracks.

Debris pelted Zhao Lixuan; pain finally registered again.

Cold air flooded his lungs, real sensation returning to his limbs. He staggered, then lunged madly toward the slowly crumpling figure.

“Jiang Chen!!!”

He caught him. Ice-cold and soaked—blood gushing from the gruesome chest wound. He pressed desperately, but it wouldn’t stop.

“Rumu, Rumu, help! Senior Yu… save him! You have to have a way…!”

Words tumbling in panic, he poured spirit power recklessly, alongside the Nine Heavens Immortal Sash, trying to stem the life’s ebb.

Blood—so much blood.

But there had to be a way. Everyone was here—so many people. There had to be, right?

Jiang Chen’s dazed eyes lifted from his arms.

Empty, unfocused, vacant.

He saw nothing, heard nothing—reacted to neither calls nor embrace.

“Jiang Chen, Little Jiang!!!”

After a moment, still no response—only lips moving faintly, breath a dying thread.

Zhao Lixuan bent low, ear to his mouth.

“Shen… Fengyu…”

The broken whisper, blood-tinged: “Go… find him.”

“Find Lixuan…”

“Take him… home…”

“Promise me… find him… he’ll be fine… definitely… fine…”

Tears spilled from Zhao Lixuan’s eyes, splashing Jiang Chen’s cold cheek. He clutched the limp hand, pressing it to his face, rubbing warmth into it.

“I’m here… I’m here.”

“I didn’t vanish, didn’t get lost. I’ve come back.”

“I’m right here, Little Jiang—look at me! I’m by your side!”

Jiang Chen seemed to feel that faint wetness and warmth—or not.

He felt nothing anymore, mustering his last clarity in a threadbare plea:

“Don’t… tell him…”

“Please… just this one thing… don’t… let him know…”

Zhao Lixuan’s heart twisted like a knife. He hugged tighter, choking against his ear: “Don’t be scared, Little Jiang, don’t be scared… I don’t hate you—I’ll never hate you! It wasn’t your fault—you were tricked…”

“I won’t let you die! You promised to stay by my side! Jiang Chen—!!”

Yet the breath in his arms faded irreversibly.

The last faint light in those vacant eyes went dark.

“…”

“…Or tell him.”

“Let him hate me, despise me. Forget me.”

Then, he closed his eyes.

Long lashes fell, veiling unfinished words and emotions, leaving only heartbreaking peace.

All pain, exhaustion, despair, and longing sank into silence.

He’d finally shed every guilt and chain, lashes lowered, in shattering serenity—as if deeply asleep.