The moment Ruxue’s words reached him, Qingyi’s eyes flashed, and he burst forward toward the ship whose hull had been partially scorched by his flame spear’s attack.

A fluid sweep of his hands pried the outer hull apart, exposing the cargo it had been built to protect.

Ten sealed boxes rested inside, each one inlaid with gold and jade, their lacquered surfaces catching the starlight that poured through the torn opening.

Ignoring the other nine, he fixed his attention on the one at the center.

A thread of Lightning Qi crackled from his fingertips, shattering the seal with a sharp snap and exposing the treasure within.

A small metallic fragment lay inside, no larger than a finger, its silver steel etched with pieces of ancient script and pulsing with a soft purple glow.

Without hesitation, he pressed the fragment against the Heaven-Defying Thunder Sword. The blade drank it in at once, and a blinding radiance swept across its length.

Qingyi’s eyes widened as an invisible force wrenched the sword from his grip. Above him, the skies churned, thick and heavy clouds rolling in at an alarming pace.

Was this a heavenly tribulation?

[No... these are the tribulations of tempering. That fragment carried my sword aura, the aura that made me so feared!]

Ruxue’s voice drifted through his mind, as if she already knew what he was thinking.

Her sweet, sensual voice brimmed with nothing but a deep, growing excitement.

With every passing day, she moved one step closer to finally drawing blood from that accursed Heavenly Demon!

Inside the Heaven-Defying Thunder Sword, Ruxue’s eyes lit up with eager anticipation, while from the heavens above, dozens of lightning bolts came roaring down upon the beautiful blade.

Explosions thundered in rapid succession, shockwaves rippling outward as a seething plasma orb swallowed the sword whole.

The heat radiating from it was so fierce that even Qingyi felt a prickle of danger crawl up his spine.

At the same time, he realized just how violently Ruxue’s power was surging.

The lightning continued to fall without pause, the black skies unleashing everything they had onto the sharp blade below, the air roaring with each strike.

When it was finally over, the heavens cleared and the plasma orb collapsed in on itself, unveiling a weapon wholly transformed before Qingyi’s eyes.

It was stunning, far more stunning than before. The runes tracing its metallic body glowed brilliantly, a vivid purple set against gleaming silver, beautiful and elegant in equal measure.

Violet silk wrapped the hilt in several loops, the binding tapering at its end into a small tassel that was slowly deepening into a rich crimson.

Qingyi smiled, reaching out and drawing the blade back into his grasp.

His fingers closed around the warm hilt, the silk soft beneath his touch, smooth as Ruxue’s breasts and strangely similar in feel.

[I made a few modifications with my perverted hubby in mind... if you dare let any man touch the hilt, I promise I’ll blow myself up!]

At her words, Qingyi laughed heartily, cutting a few gentle arcs through the air and savoring the terrifying, razor-sharp aura radiating from the blade.

He then summoned his full draconic scales, sheathed the sword in a layer of Qi, and without hesitation brought it down against his own arm.

To his astonishment, even stripped of Qi reinforcement, the edge was so keen that it sliced straight into his flesh, piercing through the scales and biting into bone.

That was... ridiculously op!

If Ruxue had been there in the flesh, he would have kissed her until he could no longer breathe. Still, this was fine.

He would simply slow his ship down a little and let the journey stretch on.

With a gentle swing, he slid the weapon into the sheath at his waist, the design of the scabbard shifting completely as the reborn steel slipped through the elegant leather.

Calling for his ship, the Dragon’s Pride, he stepped inside.

No sooner had he dropped into the pilot’s seat than a beauty was already climbing into his lap, eager to put his vitality through its paces.

The spaceship tore through the cosmos at a slightly gentler pace than before, the cabin filling with nothing but obscene, breathless moans.

It was a peaceful journey.

***

Countless light-years away, in the central southern region of the celestial heavens, a man stood within a castle of shadows and blood-red flames.

Tall, with ashen gray skin and twin black horns rising from his brow, he was the Heavenly demon.

His eyes were deep and distant, lost in some thought as he gazed at the corpse before him. A woman, unmistakably so, lay atop a jade platform, her hands above her chest.

Her left hand rested around the hilt of a sword, one whose design mirrored the Heaven-Defying Thunder Sword in many ways yet remained entirely its own, as if the two had been forged as sisters, each shaped to be wielded in a different hand.

The heavenly demon reached out to touch the blade, only for a searing heat to lance through his wrist. The sword resisted him with every ounce of its will, unleashing a terrible wave of murderous intent.

He merely smiled, drawing his hand back, his gaze lingering on the corpse once more.

She wore a wedding dress, the delicate fabric draped over her flawless curves, even her face veiled from view. Only her full, blood-red lips remained exposed.

She had been dead for over a hundred thousand years, and yet her body still seemed to hold a faint warmth. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

She had been the greatest swordswoman ever to walk the celestial heavens, daughter of the Divine Blacksmith of the Orthodox Celestial Martial Alliance.

"Its okay, darling... soon, I’ll take your sister and resurrect your master as my slave. The three of you will serve me together, hahaha."

A lascive, disgusting laugh spilled from his throat as he licked his lips with a long, forked tongue, toying with a small orb cradled in his palm, a flickering soul trapped inside.

He had already waited so long; a few more years would hardly matter.

Rising to his feet, he returned the orb to its pedestal and turned his gaze toward the two purplish-silver fragments resting on a shelf beside the chamber.

He was about to take his leave when he suddenly froze.

A familiar aura was spreading through the cosmos, and the fragments trembled on their shelf as if answering its call.

His eyes widened, and he cast his senses outward, searching for the source of that aura, only to find nothing.

His hand rose slowly, coming to rest upon the terrible scar carved across his chest, a wound he had failed to heal even in over a hundred thousand years.

His lips curled into a wide smile. He would find her, no matter the cost!