Above the Forest of Heavenly Punishment, the air remained serenely calm, the bright moon casting a soft glow, the gentle breeze intoxicating. In the mid-air, like smoke and mist, the sky was utterly spotless. Yet, everyone clearly understood that what they had just witnessed was no dream! Long, long after, until the first light of dawn broke, everyone remained with their heads tilted upward, staring fixedly in the direction of the mid-air! Unmoving!
Jun Mo Xie’s martial arts breakthrough, enacted during this unconscious demonstration, had served as an incredibly pivotal lesson for everyone present in their entire lives! Years later, when many of these individuals had achieved accomplishments they had never dared to dream of, if asked about the single most important event of their lives, the answers would be remarkably the same! The night at the Forest of Heavenly Punishment, when the Evil Monarch established his residence! That night had unlocked the hidden treasures within their very beings!
Although Jun Mo Xie was not their master, nor had he genuinely imparted a single technique to any of them, the events of that night were no different from formally accepting disciples, no different from passing down countless supremely high-level and profound esoteric knowledge! Even Jun Mo Xie himself did not realize it; he had simply been swept away by an endless tide of concepts, dancing purely by instinct! However, the reverence these people felt for Jun Mo Xie throughout their lives became deeply rooted! It even reached the level of worship! All for the sake of… that night, that song, that dance, that martial display, that enlightenment!
But among Jun Mo Xie’s women, the understanding was altogether different! Guan Qinghan and the other women were likewise utterly captivated, unable to pull themselves free from the spell of Jun Mo Xie’s song and dance! “To endure countless hardships, merely to win back your heart as it was!” “My burning blood dissolves into dust and soil, solely to earn a single glance from your radiant face!” Could this be the Evil Monarch, Jun Mo Xie, expressing his love to his own women, before all the world’s heroes and beauties? Ah—what absolute romance that was… The women’s hearts were intoxicated! Even Miao Xiaomiao was deeply shaken, unable to compose herself…
To endure countless hardships, merely to win back your heart as it was! Hearing this line, the surging emotion within Miao Xiaomiao was nearly beyond her control. He… he is willing to endure infinite suffering so that my heart can remain unchanged?? Did he truly feel this in his heart? In that moment, Jun Mo Xie’s handsome, clear figure completely overlapped with the ordinary figure of Jun Ye in the lake of Miao Xiaomiao’s heart! “Ye, is that you? Is it really you? That Jun Mo Xie is truly you!” Miao Xiaomiao muttered, clenching her fists: “Do you know, my heart has never changed? It has always been, always been yours…”
Everyone else had heard boundless valor and heroic spirit that could dominate the world in that song; but the women heard the deep tenderness originating from the true heart of Jun Mo Xie! This man who loved his empire, but loved his women even more! This man might not be capable of singular devotion, yet he never indulged in indiscriminate dalliances, and was absolutely a man worth relying upon! Moreover, he would never allow his women to suffer the slightest grievance! In a world where men are revered above women, under such a specific historical and environmental backdrop, was such a man not already the ultimate good man? What more could one ask for? Did they not see those scholars, full of talk about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and morality, whose faces were hypocritical masks—which one of them did not keep concubines aplenty? Even gifting wives and concubines to each other like mere tokens? In this world, where else could one find a man like Jun Mo Xie, possessing immense power yet respecting women so deeply? There could not be a second one!
Every woman was lost in thought.
No one knew when Guan Qinghan had arrived at the room that originally belonged to Jun Mo Xie, and as she quietly approached Miao Xiaomiao’s back, intending to say something, she unexpectedly found Miao Xiaomiao also standing transfixed by the window, her head raised, gazing blankly toward the sky where Jun Mo Xie had just appeared. That timid and delicate figure, under the morning breeze, her robes gently fluttering as if she might collapse at any moment, yet her small fists were tightly clenched, almost unconsciously, until the knuckles were turning white… Her eyes were full of longing, memory, and “… an inescapable, profound affection!
Guan Qinghan smiled faintly without making a sound, then quietly retreated. She understood… There was no need to say anything more, no need to persuade further; this matter had reached its natural conclusion! Everything was understood without words! Another girl’s heart had been ensnared by that rogue—or perhaps, her heart had been his long ago, but she had refused to admit it!
At this moment, Jun Mo Xie was already within the Hongjun Pagoda. To his left, a spiritual meridian of heaven and earth lay like a coiled dragon, above which rested a Tree of Life, brimming with vitality, quietly scattering colorful light points symbolizing life that drifted down. In a lotus pond below, the Exquisite Lotuses grew robustly; every single lotus leaf was larger than ordinary ones, emanating a warm luster, seeming almost transparently crystalline. Across the vast sky, a rainbow arched like a bridge connecting heaven and earth, linking the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree and the Exquisite Lotuses. Within the endless ethereal vapor, it seemed that seven-colored light constantly flowed toward the lotuses, while seemingly transparent, greenish-blue light points were continuously sent toward the Sacred Tree…
Everything within the space of the Hongjun Pagoda was otherworldly. It truly felt dreamlike and illusory; everything appeared so unreal, yet it clearly existed with undeniable substance…
Jun Mo Xie, clad in snow-white robes, stood calmly at the entrance of the Hongjun Pagoda, a faint smile on his face. He quietly observed everything before him, his expression conveying only infinite composure, serenity, and an air of effortless grace. Compared to the previous five breakthroughs, Jun Mo Xie, following this unexpected advancement, appeared much more steadfast. The composure emanating from his core was unhurried and unagitated, as if everything was already within his grasp, settled in his mind. Even now, his heart remained utterly clear and empty.
The sixth layer of the Hongjun Pagoda had finally opened! The previous five layers had held many surprises, and he believed this one would be no exception; there would surely be an unexpected delight, though he wondered what it would be? And how great the surprise would be!
Jun Mo Xie stood quietly for a moment, gazing warmly at the Hongjun Pagoda, then suddenly laughed aloud and strode forward boldly, stepping inside! He merely raised his foot, and the great door of the Hongjun Pagoda seemed to respond to an unseen pull, opening on its own. Then, the instant his front foot touched the ground, his entire body had already entered the interior of the Pagoda! This was the true meaning of shrinking the ground into an inch, covering a thousand miles in one step!
Upon entering the hall of the first layer, Jun Mo Xie discovered that the once vast, empty hall was now filled with a purple, ethereal mist. This mist was the purest essence of the primordial energy of heaven and earth, occasionally emitting faint, intoxicating spiritual light. The formerly barren floor now showed signs of life! Jun Mo Xie remained inwardly undisturbed by excitement or joy, merely glancing briefly before stepping onto the staircase leading to the second layer. Then the third, fourth, and fifth layers…
Finally, he reached the last step of the fifth layer! One more step upward, and he would reach the sixth! Yet, on this final step, Jun Mo Xie seemed to experience a moment of sudden understanding and naturally halted. The instant he stopped, the purple spiritual energy filling the entire Hongjun Pagoda began to surge violently! It burst forth from all directions, from every pore on Jun Mo Xie’s body, rushing madly into him! At this moment, Jun Mo Xie resembled a colossal demon god inhaling the heavens and earth, intent on swallowing the entire world bit by bit!
His snow-white robes billowed inexplicably, flapping wildly, and a sound like the collapse of heaven and earth emanated, carrying a powerful force capable of shaking the soul! As the white robes violently surged, Jun Mo Xie gently raised his hands… and his feet slowly lifted off the ground…
The gateway to the sixth layer suddenly sprang open. A stream of purple spiritual energy, now fully solidified, poured out, enveloping his entire body—from the Baihui acupoint on his crown down to the Yongquan point beneath his feet! Perfectly sealed, utterly airtight! Jun Mo Xie’s body, wrapped within this purple cocoon, slowly expanded…
From beginning to end, the placid constancy in Jun Mo Xie’s eyes never wavered in the slightest! In the blink of an eye, the meridians throughout Jun Mo Xie’s body swelled to their limit. Then, with a violent tremor, the streams of spiritual energy in all his meridians rushed headlong into his Dantian—it swelled sharply before immediately calming down, with no further anomaly.
The gray mist that had unexpectedly formed in Jun Mo Xie’s Dantian after he advanced to the fifth layer of the Hongjun Pagoda had remained dormant until now. Stimulated by this sudden influx of purple spiritual energy, it began to rotate slowly. Though the pace was gradual, one could sense its limitless potential…
Immediately following this, the solidified purple spiritual energy surrounding Jun Mo Xie’s body resumed its high-intensity infusion into his meridians! Again, after a period of frantic pumping, it dissipated suddenly, completely pressing into the Dantian! The gray vortex within the Dantian maintained its previous rotational frequency, though its overall speed seemed to have slightly increased, and the hazy gray color of the vortex also gained a slight touch of brightness…
This cycle repeated—the third time, the fourth, the sixth, the eighth… With the completion of each cycle, the rotational speed of the vortex quickened slightly, and its color also underwent subtle changes! Finally, after the eighth cycle concluded, the previously hazy flow of energy had transformed into two colors. A ball of blue energy, which gave off a comfortable and sharp feeling upon sight, slowly detached itself from the original gray mass, gradually separating. As for the remaining flow, which retained its original hazy gray color, it settled beneath the blue mass. The distance between the two seemed to be gradually increasing, separating, ultimately showing a distinct boundary.
Just then, only about less than half of the purple spiritual energy that had poured out so fiercely from the sixth layer remained. It seemed to disregard all cost, drilling instantly into Jun Mo Xie’s meridians! Although Young Master Jun had already absorbed over seventy percent of the total purple energy, what remained was less than thirty percent of the total amount. Previously, this absorption had been broken down into eight gradual stages, with each stage absorbing less than ten percent of the total—painful, but manageable. However, the quantity he had to absorb now was nearly three times what he had handled in any previous single stage, making it clearly unbearable!
Jun Mo Xie understood this principle completely. The look of calm on his face finally vanished. First, his brow furrowed, then he looked up to the heavens in agony, but he tightly pressed his lips together, refusing to utter a sound!
For more novels, visit storyread.net.