The Legend of the Princess' Counterattack

Chapter 901: Cold Pond - Shocking Change

Thirty-six thousand years into the Hongmeng era, deep in the Arctic ice field.

Yun Yao's fingertips tightened around the jade slip, and the ancient runes on its surface burned in her palm. Those tadpole-shaped characters moved along her veins, as if searching for some underlying connection. The thousand-year-old black ice pond before her was now forming spiderweb-like cracks in its icy structure at a visible speed. The once inky waters had frozen into a massive sapphire, and beneath the ice, the cinnabar mole between her brows was reflected.

"Mo Chen!" Yun Yao suddenly spoke, her voice trembling unnoticed. Since they had retreated to the small world, the cold pond had never shown any signs of abnormality, and Chu Mo Chen had already been searching the bottom of the pond for three full hours.

Before he could finish his words, the center of the ice layer exploded, sending icy fragments soaring like an inverted galaxy. Chu Mochen emerged from the water, the icicles on his silver hair reflecting a rainbow of light in the moonlight. He clutched a cracked jade slip in his palm. In its center, the words "Yun Yao" glowed blood-red.

“This is…” Yun Yao reached out to touch the jade slip. As soon as her fingertips made contact, the system’s alarm suddenly rang out from the depths of her sea of consciousness. The electronic sound that once had a mechanical feel now rubbed like rusty gears: “Warning! The loss rate of origin energy has exceeded the critical value… Host, your soul’s origin resonates with the laws of Hongmeng—”

The system interface suddenly appeared before Yun Yao's eyes. The once azure energy bar was now reduced to a mere silver line. Even more terrifying, spiderweb-like black cracks began to spread around the edge of the interface, like a devoured starry sky. Yun Yao's pupils constricted. She clearly remembered that the last time the system had behaved abnormally was a thousand years ago, when she had broken through to the Void Realm.

Chu Mochen suddenly pressed her shoulders, his eyes blazing. "The text on the jade slip is the same as the fragments of the Hongmeng scroll we found at the Nitian Dojo." He traced the cracks on the slip with his fingertips, and blood suddenly oozed out from his fingertips, dripping onto the word "Yun Yao." The cracks strangely began to heal. "But what's recorded here is... your real name."

Yun Yao was stunned. Ever since she'd traveled to the world of cultivation, she'd always assumed "Yun Yao" was the original owner's name. She hadn't expected someone to carve her name at the bottom of a cold pond on this far northern glacier. Even Chu Mochen's blood could activate a jade slip. Even more alarming was the fact that as the jade slip healed, the cracks in the system interface slowly mended as well. This meant... there was some fundamental connection between the system and the jade slip.

"Host! There are abnormal energy fluctuations above!" The system's voice suddenly became sharp. Yun Yao looked up suddenly and saw that the originally clear night sky was now covered with a blood-red star map. The twenty-eight constellations were arranged upside down, forming a huge vortex. Where the stars converged, nine golden figures stood in the air, and each figure was wrapped in a pressure that made the heaven and earth tremble.

"Peak of the Void Realm..." Chu Mochen whispered, his palm quietly pressing against the Moon-Slashing Sword at his waist. The aura of these nine men was several times more powerful than the three giants of the Divine Realm who had besieged them a thousand years ago. This was especially true of the old man standing in the center. A golden vertical line was carved between his brows, the symbol of the Divine Realm's "Heavenly Dao Palace."

"Yun Yao, the carrier of the Hongmeng Law," the old man said, his voice like a collapsing glacier. "By order of the Three Thousand God Realms, I request that you hand over the fragment of the Heavenly Dao Law within your body." He raised his hand, and a golden imperial decree appeared in the void. "If you cooperate, the God Realm will grant you the rank of a mid-level god, sharing eternal life with those around you."

Before Yun Yao could speak, Chu Mochen suddenly stepped forward, with the Moon-Chopping Sword already unsheathed: "If she doesn't want to, even if the gods and Buddhas come to ask her to do so, they will have to step over my dead body first." His voice was calm, but it carried an unquestionable murderous intent. His silver hair moved without wind, and a translucent Hongmeng Dharma Image emerged behind him - that was the innate Dharma Image that only the strong in the Dongxu Realm could condense.

The old man sneered, "A mere mid-stage Void Realm cultivator, dares to be so presumptuous in front of me?" With a flick of his finger, a golden chain suddenly shot out, engraved with soul-destroying spells, and flew straight towards Chu Mochen's heart. Yun Yao's pupils shrank. She clearly remembered that this "Heavenly Chain" was specifically designed to suppress the original power of cultivators. It was used by Liu Yan'er to destroy the golden core of the Qinglan Sect's old master.

"Be careful!" Yun Yao instinctively waved her sleeves, and three silver lotuses condensed from the power of the law flew out of them, but they disintegrated the moment they came into contact with the chain. Chu Mochen had no time to dodge, and the chain pierced his left shoulder directly. Golden spells spread along the wound, and his Dharma image suddenly became illusory and unstable. Blood dripped onto the ice, making a sizzling sound.

"Mo Chen!" Yun Yao felt a sharp pain in her chest, as some dormant power awakened in her blood. She looked down at her palms. Her once-fair skin now glowed with a faint golden light. The blood seeping from her fingertips transformed into tiny specks of fluorescent light, drifting towards Chu Mo Chen's wound. The golden spells crumbled under the touch of the fluorescent light.

The old man's expression finally changed. "Hongmeng Origin Blood? You...you are..." For the first time, fear appeared in his voice. "Impossible! The God of Creation clearly said that the carrier of Hongmeng's laws had already perished in the battle of heaven three thousand years ago—"

Yun Yao was stunned. She finally understood why the system had collapsed upon seeing the jade slip, and why her blood could heal Chu Mochen's injuries. All those details she had overlooked suddenly connected: the mysterious system during her time travel, the incredibly smooth realm breakthroughs during her cultivation, even the creation of her small world was far easier than the ancient texts had described—it turned out that her soul had never been mortal, but rather the embodiment of the laws of Hongmeng, the last line of defense left by the Creator God in the world.

"Host, the system is about to enter sleep mode..." The system's voice became weaker and weaker, "Please remember, what the Three Thousand God Realms fear is not the fragments of the law, but the complete Hongmeng Origin in your body... and, Chu Mochen..." Before he finished speaking, the system interface went completely black, leaving only the last stream of light merging into Yun Yao's eyebrows.

The old man suddenly shouted, "Attack! Take her heart at all costs!" The other eight instantly formed seals, and nine golden beams of light descended from the sky, forming a cage around Yun Yao. Chu Mochen, ignoring his injuries, swung his sword at the beams of light, but was deflected several feet back, blood oozing from the corner of his mouth.

Yun Yao watched Chu Mochen's shaky figure, a surge of violent rage rising in her heart. She could clearly feel something awakening within her, a force more powerful and ancient than even the Void Realm itself. It was as if the laws of the entire universe were submitting to her.

"You want my origin?" Yun Yao suddenly looked up, with golden light shining in her eyes, "Then come and get it." Before she finished speaking, she waved her fingertips, and the thousand-year-old black ice on the ice field suddenly collapsed. Countless ice crystals turned into sharp blades and rose into the air, condensing into a thousand-foot-tall Dharma image behind her. The Dharma image had the same face as her, but he was wearing a robe woven with stars, and a diamond-shaped Hongmeng mark was embedded in his brow.

The old man's pupils suddenly shrank: "Hongmeng Dharmakaya! You actually are..." He finally realized how big a mistake he had made. The woman in front of him was not a carrier of the law at all, but the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao consciousness nurtured by the Hongmeng Universe. She was an existence older than the Three Thousand God Realms.

"Isn't it too late to know now?" Yun Yao's voice was chilling. The Dharmadhatu waved his hand, and icy blades rained down upon the nine men like a torrential rain. The old man hurriedly summoned his life-defining magical weapon, a bronze mirror engraved with divine runes, but the icy blades easily pierced the mirror, leaving three bloody marks on his chest.

"Run!" the old man shouted, tearing through space and escaping first. The other eight, seeing the situation was dire, also fled, but were entangled by the chains of law that Yun Yao casually swung out, and were instantly shredded by the ice crystal blades.

Chu Mochen watched the scene before him, feeling both shocked and distressed. He clearly remembered how, a thousand years ago in the world of cultivation, Yun Yao, willing to be severely injured by a demonic cultivator rather than resort to lethal force, protected a mortal child. And now, the coldness in her eyes reminded him of the Hongmeng Tiandao he had seen in the Rebirth Mirror—lonely, powerful, yet also scarred.

"Yun Yao," Chu Mochen called softly, stumbling to her side. The golden light in Yun Yao's eyes gradually faded. Looking at the wound on his shoulder, she suddenly reached out and hugged him, "I'm sorry I hurt you." Her voice trembled. Fragments of newly awakened memories surged in her sea of consciousness. She saw countless scenes of her reincarnations. In each life, Chu Mochen would appear by her side and die for her.

Chu Mochen was stunned. This was the first time Yun Yao had shown such vulnerability in front of him. He gently stroked her hair when he felt the woman in his arms stiffen. He looked up and saw a blood-red wanted poster with Yun Yao's portrait printed on it. The reward offered was: "Obtain the heart of the carrier of the Hongmeng Law, in exchange for 100,000 Divine Realm Origin Crystals."

"It seems that our secluded life is over." Yun Yao whispered, her fingertips brushing against the wound on Chu Mochen's shoulder, and the wound healed instantly. "The system said that my original energy is depleting, and the jade slip and my blood can repair the system, which means that the system is actually..."

"It's the protective mechanism formed by the condensation of your origin fragments." Chu Mochen took over the conversation. He recalled the ancient texts he had read in the Nitian Daochang. "Back then, in order to resist the encroachment of the God Realm, Hongmeng Tiandao destroyed his own godhood and scattered the origin fragments across the three thousand worlds. You are the last complete fragment."

Yun Yao nodded, a look of determination flashing in her eyes. "Since they want my origin, I will not let them succeed. Mo Chen, let's go to the God Realm Library. I want to know what happened in the Heavenly Dao War."

Chu Mochen looked at the renewed fighting spirit in her eyes and suddenly smiled: "Okay, no matter where you go, I will accompany you." He raised his hand, and the Moon-Slashing Sword transformed into a stream of light and merged into his brow. "But before that, shouldn't we deal with something first—" He looked towards the distant sky, where the auras of more powerful gods were approaching. "These uninvited guests?"

Yun Yao turned around, looking at the blood-red starlight in the sky, and suddenly revealed a cold smile. She raised her hand, and a seal emitting primordial purple energy appeared in her palm. It was the newly awakened "Hongmeng Sealing Heaven Seal", which could seal all the laws of the divine realm.

"Come on," she said softly, her voice filled with the majesty of heaven. "Let them know that the laws of Hongmeng are not soft persimmons that can be easily manipulated."

Ice crystals condensed into a lotus platform beneath her feet. She stood in the air with Chu Mochen, the crumbling Thousand Years Cold Pond behind them, the swarming divine pursuers in front of them. At this moment, the wind and snow on the Arctic ice sheet suddenly stopped, as if the entire universe was waiting, waiting for the true master of the Hongmeng Law to embark on her own path of counterattack.

Thousands of miles away, in the Heavenly Dao Palace of the Divine Realm, the escaped old man knelt before a massive statue of the God of Creation. His voice trembled, "Lord God, we... have found the reincarnation of Hongmeng Tiandao." The statue's eyes suddenly glowed red, and a cold voice echoed through the palace: "Stop her awakening at all costs. Otherwise, the ten-thousand-year plan of the Three Thousand Divine Realms will be destroyed in an instant..."

By the cold pond, Yun Yao looked at herself reflected in Chu Mochen's eyes and suddenly recalled the scene of her first awakening system in the palace a thousand years ago. Back then, she was just a bullied princess. Now, she finally understood that her path to victory was never about becoming a peerless princess, but about retrieving her lost essence and protecting the person who always stood by her side, no matter how many times she reincarnated.

"Mo Chen," she suddenly chuckled, "How many God Realms can we overthrow this time?"

Chu Mochen watched the cunning glint in her eyes reappear, and suddenly felt that the little princess who had dared to use chili powder to deal with a Foundation Establishment cultivator when they first met in the cultivation world had returned. He reached out and interlocked his fingers with hers: "No matter how many there are, I will accompany you to overthrow them to the end."

The wind and snow gradually rose, and the ice crystal lotus platform carried the two people to fly towards the blood-colored star map. Behind them, the ice layer of the Eternal Cold Pond completely collapsed, revealing the huge mural at the bottom of the pond. On the mural, a woman in a star robe and a silver-haired man stood side by side. In their hands, they held Yun Yao's newly awakened Hongmeng Seal and Chu Mochen's Moon-Slashing Sword.

It turns out that everything had been foreshadowed since the dawn of time, and Yun Yao's counterattack had only just begun.