Volume 3 - Chapter 414: Li Hao's Dao-Origin Immortal Seal (Part 5)
Though Lin Zhexuan had been his primary target, it was clear now that the Lin clan heir would not take the field. No amount of taunting had worked. But if not him, then Su Muqing would do just fine.
“Muqing!”
Su Zhenyuan’s figure blurred as he appeared before her, both furious and alarmed.
“Have you lost your mind?! You’re even weaker than Zhexuan! He couldn’t defeat her even by burning his soul—how could you possibly stand a chance?”
Lin Zhexuan rushed up as well. Seeing that she’d ignored his warnings, his anger flared.
“Listen to your father. Step back.”
Su Muqing looked up at her father with calm eyes and said, “Father, I wouldn’t volunteer unless I had confidence. I still have a hidden trump card I haven’t used. I’m certain… if I bring it out, I can win.”
She spoke with quiet conviction.
Su Zhenyuan froze.
He knew his daughter. She wasn’t impulsive or reckless. If she said she had a trump card, then perhaps she truly did. And yet… if that card was so powerful, why hadn’t she used it before?
Unless… it came at an unbearable cost.
“What’s the price?” he asked sharply.
Su Muqing looked at him but said nothing.
His heart thudded painfully in his chest.
He understood.
She was ready to sacrifice herself—to trade her life for victory.
His breath caught, chest tightening. He couldn’t speak.
His cursed, calculating mind had already begun to weigh it all: what such a victory might mean for the human race—how morale would surge, how the demonic forces might falter.
But the price… was Su Muqing.
His jaw tightened. Eyes reddened. Though a half-step Emperor, in this moment, as a father, he was lost.
To refuse… meant abandoning Su Hanshuang and Su Wenyue.
The pillar of the human race—his towering form—stood trembling in the cold like a man caught in winter frost.
Lin Zhexuan, too, was stunned. He looked at her face—so calm, so resolute—and fell silent.
He had known her all his life. She wasn’t lying.
But…
He stood motionless, expression shadowed. No words came.
Su Muqing glanced at both men who stood in her way—like statues carved of stone.
She met her father’s eyes, saw the pain and turmoil on that rugged face. Her gaze softened.
She understood his silence. She did not blame him.
She turned to Lin Zhexuan, to the face turned away in guilt and hesitation.
She saw the answer there too.
A flicker of disappointment passed through her eyes, then faded.
“Father, it’s been my honor to be your daughter. If I have a next life, I hope I’m born into the Su clan again.”
Her voice was gentle.
Then she stepped past Su Zhenyuan’s towering figure, moving forward.
She didn’t stop speaking, only lowered her voice as she went.
“Zhexuan ge, thank you… for being by my side all these years. The flowers you gave me—I’ve kept them all. My courtyard is called Celestial Courtyard, after you. You should know what that means…”
Lin Zhexuan trembled. His body jerked slightly.
“Trust me. I’ll bring them all home.”
She looked up, a smile on her face, and in her eyes—resolve as unshakable as stone.
That slender figure, forged from years of hardship, stepped past the two men who had always shielded her, and walked toward the Demonic Patriarch’s Dao Arena.
She carried with her an air of grim determination—and tragic grandeur.
But suddenly, her steps halted.
Her eyes widened.
Someone else was already in the arena.
A lone figure stood ahead of her, having stepped in before her.
It was… Li Hao.
He didn’t try to stop her. He didn’t pull her back. He simply walked in first.
His voice rang out from within the arena—calm, unwavering.
“I’ll take this fight.”
The words were the same as before—but now, they carried a quiet finality and unshakable resolve.
Su Muqing froze.
Everyone else did too.
Su Zhenyuan. Lin Zhexuan. Jiang Qiuyu. Lin Daogong. Even the clan elders.
All stared, stunned, at the youth in the arena.
He was challenging the black-veiled demoness who had crushed Lin Zhexuan?
If it had been Su Muqing, perhaps—just perhaps—there was a glimmer of hope.
But this boy?
“Are you insane?!”
Su Muqing finally snapped out of it and rushed toward the arena, blurting out the same words Lin Zhexuan had just shouted at her.
Su Wanqing reacted as well, sprinting toward the edge of the Dao Arena, panic in her voice.
“Haotian, come back! You’ll die!”
Her words reached Su Muqing, who flinched slightly.
She burst into the arena and grabbed Li Hao’s arm.
“Get out of here!” she shouted, trying to pull him out.
But his body didn’t move. A surge of immortal power radiated from him, rendering him immovable.
Su Muqing stared, shocked.
Then Li Hao turned his head.
For the first time, she looked into the eyes she had once hated. The eyes she had despised.
Now, they were calm. Deep. Filled with buried emotion—but not a trace of desire or greed.
For the first time, Su Muqing realized how beautiful his eyes were.
Why had she ever found them ugly?
The thought flashed through her mind—but there was no time to dwell on it.
She opened her mouth to speak again—but stopped.
Because in that moment, a terrifying, oceanic force surged from Li Hao’s body—thick and mighty, like something rising from the depths of the sea.
As the immortal energy erupted, a glowing seal began to emerge from his forehead—as if surfacing from beneath the waves.
One by one, origin manifestations appeared—Time, Space, Form, Control, five Daos… all nine fundamental orders.
But the seal on his brow bore no nine-petaled floral crest.
It was a single, unified whole.
A Dao-Origin Immortal Seal!
Su Muqing stood frozen.
Her hand, still gripping Li Hao’s arm, stopped moving. Her lips parted slightly.
Her face was filled with disbelief.
Far away, Su Zhenyuan halted as well. His eyes lit with shock.
Everyone else saw it too.
The light from that boy’s forehead blazed across the heavens—brilliant, unmatched—illuminating all of Gusu City.
Countless eyes turned toward him, dazed and dumbfounded.
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