Myth Beyond Heaven

Nian Shi’s silver eyes flashed with fury. The void itself trembled as his divine might erupted, time itself screeching under the weight of his anger.

“Insolent ant!” His voice was no longer smooth—it was a blade of ice, sharp and venomous. “You dare mock me?”

Yue Yun wiped blood from her lips, her golden-tinged black eyes gleaming with defiance. “Not mockery. Truth.”

Nian Shi moved.

Not with a sword swing. Not with a simple attack.

He unmade time.

“Cease.”

A single word, spoken with the authority of a god.

The very flow of time around Yue Yun stopped. Her breath froze mid-exhale. Her blood halted mid-drip. Her thoughts—her very consciousness—were locked in an eternal instant.

Nian Shi stepped forward, his silver robes rippling as he approached her frozen form. His fingers curled around her throat, lifting her effortlessly.

“You think yourself clever?” His voice was a whisper, yet it carried the weight of eons. “You think your words can shake me?”

His grip tightened.

Crack!

Yue Yun’s neck should have snapped.

But—

BOOM!

A pulse of silver-red energy erupted from her body, shattering the temporal stasis. Her Moon Staff screamed as it swung upward, forcing Nian Shi to release her.

Yue Yun landed in a crouch, coughing violently, but her smirk remained. “You’re afraid. It seems you have indeed seen yourself dying under my father’s hand… Haha!”

Nian Shi’s expression darkened.

He didn’t respond with words.

He responded with time.

“Reverse.”

The wounds on Yue Yun’s body unmade themselves—not healing, but reversing to a point before they existed. The pain, however, remained. She gasped as her flesh remembered the injuries, her body convulsing.

“Accelerate.”

Her lifespan burned like kindling. Her skin wrinkled, her hair grayed—her youth stolen in an instant.

Yet Yue Yun laughed.

“The more you do this… the more I see it!” She spat blood, her aged voice hoarse but unbroken. “You fear him!”

Nian Shi’s patience snapped.

“ENOUGH!”

The void screamed.

Time fractured. Reality itself peeled away like rotting parchment as Nian Shi unleashed his full might.

“Eternal Decay.”

A wave of temporal erosion surged toward Yue Yun—an attack that didn’t just kill, but erased her from history itself.

Yue Yun’s aged body should have crumbled instantly.

But—

“Moonlit Rebirth.”

Her Moon Staff pulsed. The six divine beast bloodlines within her roared to life, their power fusing with the silver-red radiance of her mother’s lineage.

For a single, fleeting moment—

She transcended.

Her body rejuvenated, her wounds sealed, her power surged beyond mortal limits.

She moved.

Not through space.

Through time itself.

Nian Shi’s eyes widened.

“How dare you—?!”

Yue Yun appeared behind him, her staff descending like a falling star.

BOOM!

The impact sent shockwaves through the void, cracking the fabric of reality. Nian Shi staggered forward, golden blood dripping from his lips.

He turned, his silver eyes burning with something Yue Yun had never seen before—

Rage.

“You…” His voice was deathly quiet. “You will suffer for that.”

Nian Shi no longer held back.

“Frozen Epoch.”

Time itself crystallized around Yue Yun, locking her in an unbreakable prison of frozen moments.

She countered with “Celestial Shatter,” her staff pulsing as she shattered the temporal chains.

Nian Shi sneered. “Erase.”

A single flick of his blade—

And a segment of Yue Yun’s existence was cut away.

Her left arm vanished—not severed, but unwritten from reality.

She gasped, stumbling back, but her resolve didn’t waver.

“Phoenix Renewal.”

The Divine Phoenix bloodline within her flared, her arm regenerating in a burst of flames.

Nian Shi’s eyes narrowed.

“Let’s see how many times you can do that.”

He struck again.

“Severance.”

This time, her leg disappeared.

Yue Yun fell, but before she hit the ground—

“Golden Crow’s Flight!”

Her body blurred, moving at speeds that defied time itself. She reformed her leg mid-motion, her staff lashing out in a devastating arc.

Nian Shi blocked—

But Yue Yun wasn’t aiming for him.

She was aiming for the Blade of Eternity itself.

CLANG!

A hairline fracture appeared on the blade’s edge.

Nian Shi’s expression twisted.

“YOU—!”

He snapped his fingers.

“Die!”

The space around Yue Yun imploded, crushing her body from all sides. Bones shattered. Blood sprayed.

Yet she still laughed.

“You’re panicking!” she choked out. “Because you know—the moment my father returns, you’re finished!”

Nian Shi’s fury reached its peak.

“I will make you into an artifact,” he hissed. “A trophy for Yun Lintian to weep over!”

Nian Shi wasn’t just attacking her body now.

He was attacking her soul.

“Temporal Dissolution.”

Yue Yun’s very essence began to unravel. Her memories flickered—her past, her identity, her self—all being erased from existence.

She screamed.

Not in pain.

In defiance.

“I—WON’T—FALL!”

Her Moon Staff detonated in a cataclysmic burst of power, the shockwave forcing Nian Shi back.

For a single, fleeting moment—

Yue Yun’s body was broken. Her divine energy flickered like a dying candle. Yet her golden-tinged black eyes blazed with defiance as she spat blood onto the void.

“What’s wrong, Nian Shi?” She laughed, her voice hoarse but mocking. “Where’s your high and mighty power now? Can’t even finish off someone at the end of their rope like me?”

Nian Shi’s silver eyes turned glacial. The void itself seemed to freeze under his gaze.

“You better pray,” he uttered, his voice dripping with venom, “that I grant you the mercy of a proper death.”

He raised the fractured Blade of Eternity. Time itself coiled around the weapon, condensing into a single, annihilating strike.

Yue Yun braced herself—

But then, out of the corner of her eye—

A glimmer.

A tiny fragment of ice, barely visible, drifting where Lan Hanyu had perished.

A trace of astonishment flashed across Yue Yun’s eyes.

That’s…

A spark of hope ignited in Yue Yun’s chest.

She made her decision in an instant.

She would not dodge.

Nian Shi’s attack came—a cataclysmic wave of temporal annihilation, sweeping through the void like a devouring tide.

Instead of evading, Yue Yun lunged forward, her battered body burning with the last remnants of her power.

“KILL!!”

Her Moon Staff shattered as she clashed head-on with Nian Shi’s strike.

BOOOOOOM—!!

The explosion swallowed everything. Light, space, even time itself seemed to tear apart under the collision.

But in that fleeting moment before her body disintegrated, Yue Yun acted.

With the final wisp of her divine sense, she hurled the tiny fragment of ice—

—through a microscopic spatial rift—

—just before the shockwave consumed her.

As her form dissolved into golden embers, Yue Yun smiled.

Her mind filled with the image of Yun Lintian—his warm eyes, his unyielding will.

“Dad…” she thought, her consciousness fading. “You must avenge me. I know you will. I’ll wait for you… on the other side.”