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The blade never landed.

The raised sword's edge emitted enough power to wipe out the heavens. In the face of this all-encompassing power, the ground beneath their feet started to split.

Countless fragments of shattered stone rose into the air, and the skies filled with the rumbling of thunder, like a mighty hammer slamming into their chests.

In the face of this imposing might, Xue Yang looked serious for the first time. He didn't rush to take action, but rather stood in place, his gaze flitting back and forth.

Crunch!

He didn't know where the sound came from, but after the first crack, countless other cracking noises echoed through everyone's ears.

"Where is it?" Xue Yang couldn't help but mutter to himself. Suddenly, he looked above him.

What shattered was the sky itself.

The surrounding space looked like a shattered mirror; the chunks split apart. Countless cracks filled the air, and they spread ceaselessly towards Xue Yang.

What Xue Yang struggled most to believe was that he couldn't stop the cracks' spread.

Trees cracked in the crack's wake, and the shattered stones disintegrated into nothingness.

Ye Zichen still held his sword aloft, but now, blood had started dripping from the corners of his mouth. The Heaven Plundering Strike's fourth stance was more than his body could bear at his level.

He'd risked his life to cut through space itself in order to prove….

That he could hold onto the Xuan-Yuan Sword. Furthermore, he wanted to wipe that disdainful smirk of Xue Yang's face.

"Shatter!" Ye Zichen let out a mighty roar, and the crack-filled space above instantly shattered.

Xue Yang was right in the center of it. He hurriedly put on a set of golden battle armor, and emanated an even more terrifying aura than before.

He could no longer stop the cracks from spreading and shattering, so in the end, he locked onto Ye Zichen….

"Kid!"

Bang!

Emperor Hades suddenly appeared behind Ye Zichen. His hand chopped at Ye Zichen's neck, knocking him unconscious.

"Condense!" Emperor Hades muttered. This single word was like divine writ; the discombobulated Laws of Heaven and Earth and shattered space instantly froze in place. The remnants of the sky soon started piecing themselves back together.

"This kid…."

Still trapped in the shattered space, Xue Yang was in just as pitiful a state.

He glowered hatefully at the already unconscious Ye Zichen, but Emperor Hades shot him a cool look.

"Ye Zichen won. We said that you had to restrict your cultivation boundary to the third-stage sky supreme level, but your current aura is that of a ruler. Also, we said you couldn't use any weapons or armor, but aren't you wearing your golden battle armor?"

Xue Yang seemed somewhat displeased. Emperor Hades shifted the topic slightly and said, "Come on, don't be angry. I know this is just your avatar, and its comprehension of heaven and earth pales to your true self. If your real self were here, Ye Zichen wouldn't have had any hope of victory at all."

"This kid….really surprised me." Xue Yang sighed and shook his head, but he no longer seemed angry. "But Gong Yan, you're in the wrong, here. You know he was proficient in the Dao of the Five Elements but you didn't tell me. Also, he has a godhead! He's a true deity who underwent divine tribulation. Furthermore, his godhead is a sword. You were deliberately setting me up to make a fool of myself, weren't you?"

"I did know about his proficiency in the five elements, but I figured his current comprehension wasn't enough to threaten you, so I didn't feel the need to mention it. As for the godhead, I didn't know about it either. If I knew, don't you think I would have told you? Don't think so poorly of me. Am I really that kind of person?"

"As far as I can tell, yes!" Xue Yang snorted.

"We've both lived for so long. Don't throw a tantrum like a child. But Ol' Xue, how about we let him hold onto the Xuan-Yuan Sword and Yao-Sealing Pagoda? It'll be fine, right?"

"It should be fine." Xue Yang's expression grew solemn. "Although his mastery of his dao is still immature, he's quite proficient at applying it. Between the Great Dao of the Five Elements and the yao of the pagoda, he wouldn't necessarily suffer even against a diviner. As for that sword strike…."

"Go on! Don't keep it a secret!"

"Don't you think his Heaven Plundering Strike is similar to a certain former mighty expert's sword technique?"

"The Emperor Star!"

Their eyes met, then they looked at Ye Zichen once more.

After unleashing the fourth stance of the Heaven Plundering Strike, Ye Zichen was completely exhausted. Add that to Emperor Hades striking him in the neck and he was now completely comatose.

"He might be the one we've waited for all these years."

…..

In his coma, Ye Zichen found himself in the Milky Way. All the stars there seemed very close and familiar.

He wandered freely through the stars, then inexplicably found himself faced with a pitch black shadow.

It seemed to be beckoning to him. He tried to approach it, but then...

"Ye Zichen." Ye Zichen woke up in bed. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Xue Mo sitting at his bedside.

"Why are you here?" Ye Zichen stared at her in confusion, but when he took in his surroundings, he realized that he was back at Skyspan Academy's Anti-Upheaval Society's base. "How did I get here?"

"I took you back here. You suffered grave injuries down in the lower lands, so dad and Emperor Hades asked me to bring you back to the Divine Mountains. Inhaling the dense divine power in the air here is the best, most natural way to heal wounds," said Xue Mo.

Grave injuries?

It was only then that Ye Zichen recalled how desperately he'd shattered space itself. He suddenly tensed up and looked around him.

"What is it?"

"Where is the sword I had with me when I got here?"

"I have it here." Xue Mo took the Xuan-Yuan Sword from her spatial ring. "My dad said not to let any outsiders see it, so I put it into my ring for safekeeping. Alright, now it's returned to its rightful owner!"

"Thanks." Ye Zichen accepted the Xuan-Yuan Sword and flashed her a grateful smile. He still had the Xuan-Yuan Sword; that proved he'd won the two emperor's approval.

He hadn't gone all-out for nothing!

"Right, my dad also asked me to give you this." With that, Xue Mo pulled out a book.

"What's this?"

"I don't know either, but dad told me to give it to you."

Ye Zichen opened it, and when he saw his contents, he froze. Its contents were all about the Dao of the Five Elements, from comprehension to practical applications, as well as key points regarding how best to combine the elements.

Ye Zichen solemnly placed the tome in his spatial ring, then said appreciatively,

"Please thank Great Emperor Xue Yang on my behalf."

"Alright, but dad is awfully strange. He told me to tell you that you have his approval to become his son-in-law. I…Does he want the two of us to get together?"

"Are you asking me?" Ye Zichen was speechless.

"But I just think of you as my bro!" said Xue Mo.

"Me too!" said Ye Zichen.

Their eyes met, and they saw the helplessness in each other's gaze. They decided to simply change the subject.

"You know," said Xue Mo, "the Student Society Ranking Battle starts in just a few days."