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The unconscious Gu Xun'er was sent flying, her eyes blank and devoid of focus. Her consciousness had been shattered by Qian Renhan's sinister Dou Qi. The black Dou Qi enveloping her body was beginning to dissipate—soon, she would be swallowed by the magma below.
"Young Miss!"
The elder immediately abandoned Qian Renhan and rushed to save Gu Xun'er. As tempting as Qian Renhan's secret was, the young miss's life was far more important. If anything happened to her and the Clan Leader sensed it and rushed here, he wouldn't hesitate to slap the elder to death in a fit of rage. No opportunity was worth that risk.
"Young Miss! What happened to you? Are you alright?" The elder anxiously grabbed Gu Xun'er's wrist. She looked like a puppet, her eyes eerily vacant.
Gu Xun'er slowly turned her head toward the elder. Her voice was dry, emotionless.
"Grandpa... who are you?"
The elder's pupils shrank.
"Forgive me, Young Miss!" he said through clenched teeth.
His Dou Qi surged into her body, probing every inch. What he discovered chilled him to the core—her spiritual sea was completely empty, like that of a newborn. Her body retained the experiences one might expect for her age, but there were no memories, no sense of identity.
Qian Renhan had used his Dou Qi to shatter her memories and scattered the fragments across the Dou Qi Continent. Only if the Ancient Clan could retrieve all these fragments and restore them to her spiritual sea could Gu Xun'er possibly regain her mind.
After all, no matter how monstrous Qian Renhan's power was, he did not yet possess the ability to erase something from existence completely. This wasn't the world of Douluo, where the laws of reality could be bent at will.
Divine Technique: "Father, Come"—Summon Peak Nine-Star Dou Saint: Gu Yuan!
In the next moment, space itself tore open. A figure stepped out—he appeared to be in his forties, dressed plainly in coarse linen robes, with a calm and kind smile on his face. His presence was soothing, but beneath his unremarkable appearance was an aura that inspired absolute dread. His tranquil gaze seemed to see into one's soul.
"Clan Leader!" Gu Wu immediately bowed ninety degrees, fists clasped in deep respect.
Gu Yuan's expression softened as he saw that Gu Xun'er was physically unharmed.
"Gu Wu, what happened? What's wrong with Xun'er?"
Gu Xun'er carried a mark left behind by Gu Yuan himself. When Gu Wu had sensed it while examining her body with Dou Qi, he used it to establish a connection and summon the Clan Leader.
"Clan Leader..."
Gu Wu quickly explained everything he had discovered within Gu Xun'er's spiritual sea.
As he listened, Gu Yuan's heart began to race. He turned to his daughter, who now looked at him with innocent curiosity.
"Xun'er... don't you remember your father?" he asked, voice trembling.
Gu Xun'er shook her head and instinctively tried to back away. But her current strength was only that of a Great Dou Practitioner. Without Gu Wu's protection, she would never survive in this magma domain. Even so, the wariness and unfamiliarity in her eyes pierced Gu Yuan's heart like a blade.
"Clan Leader," Gu Wu spoke with a cold edge. "The one who harmed Young Miss, the one who murdered our clansmen—that thief is still down there. He carries a great secret."
Gu Yuan's eyes began to gleam. Ever since the fall of the Dou Di realm, no new Dou Emperors had emerged. Every ancient family feared the withering of their bloodlines and the decline of their power. The mystery behind Qian Renhan's rapid strength growth... it could be the key. To the Ancient Clan, this was not just an opportunity—it was an unlimited treasure trove.
Besides, Gu Xun'er's memory loss came as a twisted blessing. During this time, Ling Ying had kept him informed about her behavior—her infatuation with that good-for-nothing from the Xiao Clan, Xiao Yan. Even worse, she had stalled her cultivation for him.
Now, with her memories gone and that useless brat forgotten, he could take her back to the clan to focus entirely on cultivation, awaken her bloodline, and become the true pride of the Ancient Clan—the next Clan Leader.
"Heh… a mere seven-turn Dou Zun dares to harm my daughter? He's clearly tired of living."
Gu Yuan gently held Gu Xun'er's hand. His gaze locked onto the magma below.
"Come, Xun'er. Father will help you vent your anger." With that, he soared downwards, his figure like a bolt of heavenly lightning descending into the fiery abyss.
Meanwhile, Qian Renhan was barely holding on. He had exhausted all his Dou Qi and burned away vast reserves of his life essence. Finally, he reached the square before the Ancient Emperor's tomb. Even his Shura Sword had returned to his body, unable to remain manifest. His Shura Armor had been reduced to tatters—only the helmet soul bone had returned to his body. The remaining five pieces had shattered and now clung to him like broken scraps of metal, ready to fall apart at any moment.
Before him stood a gate.
A stone gate, tens of thousands of meters tall.
It stood silently in the void, ancient and immovable, exuding a primordial, wild aura that rippled across the realm.
Standing before such a magnificent and overwhelming structure, even the strongest felt like mere ants. An involuntary reverence rose from the depths of the soul.
At the top of the gate, four ancient characters blazed like stars:
Ancient Emperor's Tomb.
Just from the gate alone, it was clear—on the Dou Qi Continent, a Dou Emperor's strength surpassed the so-called gods of Douluo by countless magnitudes.
At that moment, a pair of faint golden eyes slowly opened in the void—eyes so vast that each one alone dwarfed Qian Renhan's entire body by hundreds of times.
Within those overlapping pupils shimmered a dim light, and as that glow expanded, a colossal being emerged within Qian Renhan's field of vision—an entity so immense it defied description.
It lay coiled in the endless darkness, utterly still.
Its body stretched beyond the visible horizon, every inch of it sheathed in purple-gold scales, radiating an ancient and indomitable strength, cold and sharp like divine-forged steel.
The golden gaze locked onto Qian Renhan.
In an instant, an overwhelming pressure descended, pinning him down. The sheer weight of the aura made him feel as though the heavens themselves were crushing him.
"Tomb trespasser... do you carry the Ancient Jade?"
"…This aura…"
From afar, Gu Yuan, who was rapidly closing in, suddenly halted, his expression tightening. He stared into the depths of the void, and for the first time in countless years, his body trembled slightly.
From the place where the man who dared harm his daughter had fled, he sensed a presence—one so dangerously powerful, it nearly matched his own.
"I do not." Qian Renhan rasped.
Though the pressure was suffocating, he lifted his head to meet the creature's gaze. He disdained lies—especially before a being like this. And besides, he hadn't used Dou Qi to open his storage ring or release Zi Yan.
"No Ancient Jade, then?"
The voice echoed again from the void, this time tinged with something colder.
The golden eyes dimmed—expectation fading into disappointment… and killing intent.
"In that case… remain here."
As the indifferent voice rang out, the space around them trembled violently.
A dazzling purple-gold pillar of light erupted from the void, ripping through the air, blasting toward Qian Renhan with world-shattering force.
"Is this… the end of my path?"
A trace of regret flashed in Qian Renhan's eyes.
He could have survived—by abandoning his physical body and soul, escaping with only his consciousness. But his path was not one of cowardice.
He walked the Way of the Blade through slaughter, with a sword heart and a sword soul.
His Shura Sword was not merely a weapon—it was his Dao.
If the sword broke, the man would fall.
If he discarded this body, the sword could never return.
And if the sword died, so too would his path collapse.
What meaning would survival hold then?
He slowly closed his eyes.
But just as death loomed, his storage ring flashed.
From within, Zi Yan burst forth, propelled by the last of the Dou Qi he had given her.
She stood firmly in front of him, a small figure against an overwhelming force.
"You're not allowed to hurt him!" she declared.
Eyes shut, face pale, she radiated unwavering determination.
"…Foolish girl."
For the first time, Qian Renhan looked at the little figure shielding him with something more than cold detachment.
There, deep within those eyes that had long been devoid of emotion—a flicker of warmth emerged.
(End of Chapter)