Chapter 153: Shen Daiyu
The heavy, ancient doors of the world-tree wood groaned shut behind them with a finality that felt like the closing of a Chapter of history.
As the resonant thud echoed through the air, the environment shifted, and they were no longer standing within the confines of a hall or a palace.
Instead, Haoran found himself staring out at a boundless, ethereal blue sky.
The horizon was a seamless gradient of azure and cerulean, dotted with floating white platforms of varying sizes.
At the center of all those floating platforms stood a massive, sprawling castle made of white marble and obsidian, their towers piercing the very clouds of this pocket dimension.
This was a place where time seemed to have no grip, where the air hummed with a frequency so high it made the marrow of Haoran’s bones vibrate in sympathy.
"So... this is the Supreme Hall?" Haoran muttered, his golden eyes scanning the entire realm.
Comtrary to his expectations, this place actually doesn’t have that much abundant Qi, where simply breathing could increase his strength.
Instead, it felt more like a world where there is little to no Qi in the surroundings.
However, it isn’t uncomfortable to breathe in, as if there is a higher form of energy in the air that the current him couldn’t grasped yet.
Chu Xueyu stood beside him, her arms crossed over her chest, her regal robes fluttering in a wind that came from nowhere.
"Yes," she replied, her voice carrying a weight of solemnity. "See those castles? They are not just homes, but are burial grounds for our Clan’s Supremes. It is there that they remain in suspended animation and will not awaken unless our clan faces an imminent danger that threatens our very existence."
Shen Haoran nodded, looking at every castle that houses the legends that guarded their clan for hundreds of thousands of years.
Feng Yuyan let out a soft chuckle, her golden eyes twinkling with a bit of her usual irreverence. "If you ask me, I think they’re just a bunch of lazy old foggies who couldn’t care less about the Clan’s day-to-day affairs, and they’d rather dream of the stars than listen to branch family squabbles."
Leng Shuang shrugged, her golden hair shimmering in the dreamlike light. "Can you blame them? They spent most of their lives dealing with exhausting clan politics and mountain-high piles of paperwork. They earned this retirement the hard way—by ascending and becoming the ultimate deterrent, a Supreme. And I believe their rest is well-earned."
Haoran continued to looked around at the floating citadels, sensing the dormant, planet-cracking power resting within each one.
However, he soon remembered why he was here and turned toward his mother, his curiosity finally piqued. "Mother, who specifically are we going to meet? If the Supremes are supposed to be sleeping, why was I summoned?"
Chu Xueyu frowned, her gaze scanning the empty platform they stood upon. "She should be here any—"
"Hm. Hm. Definitely childbearing hips, with a great ass too. As expected of you, Xueyu. You always did have the best foundations in the family."
A female, childlike voice crisp and playful, sounded from directly behind them, and before Chu Xueyu could react, a petite young woman suddenly appeared as if she had stepped out of the air.
She was crouching low, her hands brazenly groping Chu Xueyu’s backside with a grin of pure mischief.
Chu Xueyu’s eyes widened in a flash of incandescent fury, and without a single word of warning, a silver and gold sword manifested in her hand.
She swung it behind her with a speed that tore the atmosphere asunder.
The strike was laden with so much concentrated slaughter-intent and sword-law that space itself was literally sliced open, creating a jagged, black opening into the absolute void.
"Gahahaha!"
The petite woman vanished and reappeared instantly just beside Haoran, startling him with her proximity.
She was tiny, looking no older than a teenager, yet her presence was like a collapsing star. "Is that how you greet your own grandmother after so long? You’re as prickly as ever, little Xueyu!"
Chu Xueyu turned to glare at her, her killing intent erupting and Haoran instantly noticed the world around them begin to distort.
The blue sky of the Supreme Hall was overwritten by a nightmarish landscape, and within a heartbeat, they were standing in a pitch-black void, submerged up to their ankles in a warm, viscous ocean of blood.
Behind Chu Xueyu, a gargantuan, terrifying figure of a woman resembling Chu Xueyu herself, but with no eyes and a gaping, silent mouth, was crucified against the darkness.
A waterfall of blood cascaded from the figure’s empty sockets and open mouth, feeding the infinite sea below.
This was the Slaughter Empress’s Domain: The Weeping Void.
"Waaa~, it’s been a while since I saw Xueyu’s domain," Feng Yuyan remarked, looking around at the raining blood with an unbothered smile. "It’s still very creepy."
Domain. It is the ultimate form of power that only those at the Supremes can comprehend.
It is the ultimate, grand manifestation of a Cultivator’s Dao.
An ability to completely reject the laws of heaven and earth and replace it with your own.
Of course, some anomalies who possessed a completely alien mindset centered around their dao can manifest this without reaching the Supreme Realm.
But people like this are few and far in between, and only those who remained in Heavenly Saint Realm by their own will and reject ascension have achieved this.
People like those would have a better understanding of their dao that they can forcefully manifest it and create a domain.
The reason why this has almost never been achieved is because it is much easier to just ascend and directly get the domain than to purposely reject ascension to get it.
After all, having a domain at Heavenly Saint realm does not offer much benefits when you ascend, aside from being invincible at Heavenly Saint Realm.
The only reason Chu Xueyu had this is because she is forcefully rejecting her ascension so she can stay with Haoran.
"Creepy? Like you’re one to talk with those pulsing flesh-gardens you grow," Leng Shuang retorted, though she remained on high alert.
"Hahaha!" The petite woman laughed, looking entirely unimpressed by the Slaughter Domain.
She simply snapped her fingers.
*Snap.*
And the entire nightmarish world crumbled like burnt paper, the blood and the crucified giant vanishing as if they had never been.
In a flash, they were back on the white platform in the Supreme Hall.
"Calm down, child," the woman said, her voice holding a playful authority. "You’ll disturbed those old men if you keep that up."
Chu Xueyu clenched her fist, her sword vanishing back into her storage space, but her gaze remained fixed on the woman in a cold glare.
She remained silent for a long moment, the tension thick enough to choke a dragon.
"Alright, sis, that’s enough," Feng Yuyan said softly.
She and Leng Shuang suddenly appeared beside Chu Xueyu, each putting a comforting hand on her shoulders to soothe the erupting Qi.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Chu Xueyu calmed down and crossed her arms over her chest. "Grandmother... I am not here to play games with you. Tell me why you needed my son here."
"Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad," the petite woman smiled.
She then began to walk in a slow, predatory circle around Haoran, looking at him from top to bottom with an intensity that felt like she was peeling back the layers of his soul.
"Hm, hm... as expected. The Supreme Trinity soul, these three truly created a monster. Your talent, lad, is truly the best among the thousands of ’geniuses’ I’ve seen in my whole life."
Haoran stared at her, his brow raised in confusion before he looked at his mother and aunts, his expression asking the question he didn’t want to voice.
Chu Xueyu let out a long, weary sigh. "Haoran, she is Shen Daiyu. She is our grandmother, and is the youngest of the Supreme Emperors currently resting in the Supreme Hall. She ascended roughly three thousand years ago."
Shen Daiyu smiled, her eyes sparkling with a mischievous light. "That’s right! And that’s three thousand years of being absolutely loveless and bored to tears. Lad, you’ve got a look in your eye I like. Once you reach the Supreme realm and your body can handle the pressure, come visit me. I’ll show you what a real woman—a Supreme woman—is actually capable of."
Haoran smirked, his golden eyes reflecting a trace of his own arrogance.
"Grandmother..." Chu Xueyu warned, her aura beginning to chill again.
Shen Daiyu groaned loudly, throwing her hands up in frustration. "Oh, come on, Xueyu! At least let me have a taste of the fun! Do you have any idea what I’ve been through for the past three thousand years?! I lost my poor husband five hundred years before I even ascended to Supreme. Ever since then, I haven’t gotten any action! None!"
She appeared suddenly in front of Chu Xueyu, grabbing the Matriarch’s collar and shaking her with a desperate, frantic look. "I’m so frustrated I could scream! I would sleep with anyone at this point! But young people? They’re too weak! One night with me and their foundations would shatter! And these old fogies in the Supreme Hall? All they do is sleep! They couldn’t be bothered to even say ’hello,’ let alone give me any attention! You have no idea how frustrating it is, Xueyu!"
She leaned in close to Chu Xueyu’s face, her voice rising to a shrill, hysterical pitch. "You have no idea because you’re a virgin! You’re probably going to stay a virgin forever with that attitude! You should just stay a virgin so I can be the only one in this family with any passion left!"
Chu Xueyu stood frozen, her face turning a deep, dangerous shade of crimson, caught between the urge to kill her ancestor and the sheer embarrassment of the situation.
Haoran, meanwhile, watched the "Youngest Supreme" with a look of growing realization—even at the peak of the world, it seemed the Shen Clan was still full of eccentrics.