Back then, everyone thought that after Cang Yan attained the Great Dao Immortal Emperor, the declining Langya Grotto Heaven would be revitalized under her leadership.
Yet no one could have foreseen that the Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power not only failed to help her restore Langya Grotto Heaven, but instead plunged her and the entire grotto heaven into an inescapable abyss.
As the saying goes, a common man's only crime is possessing a priceless treasure.
Everyone knew what Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power signified, especially in the Primordial Age. After experiencing the Great Desolation Cataclysm, the Thirty-Six Grotto Heavens, Seventy-Two Blessed Lands, the Nine Heavens, the Nine Netherworlds, and all the various Great Daos and major powers had suffered devastating losses. They were in desperate need of a Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power to elevate their status.
Alas, the Heavenly Destinies bestowed during the Primordial Age were limited in number. The Immortal Dao itself only had nine Heavenly Destiny Imperial Powers. The major powers were unwilling to accept this, filled with resentment, and secretly coveted those nine Imperial Powers.
Figures like Ancestral Patriarch Blood River and Great Sun Yao Emperor, who had attained Great Dao Immortal Emperor status, were relatively safe. They each had the protection of their sect's seniors, leaving other powers with no opportunity to seize their Destinies even if they wanted to.
Cang Yan's situation, however, was far worse.
Most of the experts from Langya Grotto Heaven had perished during the Desolation Era. The disciples who remained had scattered to seek their own fortunes. Thus, when news spread of her attaining a Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power, many major powers set their sights on her.
At first, it wasn't so bad. The various powers extended goodwill towards Cang Yan, hoping she would leave Langya Grotto Heaven and join their sects.
After Cang Yan refused these offers, the major powers began to spread slander and fabrications, hurling all sorts of accusations at her. They claimed she colluded with evil demons and heretics, that her character was corrupt, and that she was utterly unworthy and unfit to become a Great Dao Immortal Emperor.
Later, these powers, standing on the moral high ground and under the banner of eradicating demons and defending the Dao, openly pressured Cang Yan to surrender her Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power.
Surrounded and besieged by these major powers, Cang Yan at that time possessed neither the cultivation base nor the strength to resist. She was utterly at their mercy. Yet, even so, she fought desperately to protect the Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power, for she knew it was the only hope for revitalizing Langya Grotto Heaven.
In the end, she risked her life to activate Langya Cave's guardian grand formation. Although she ultimately succeeded in protecting both Langya Grotto Heaven and the Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power, she herself vanished.
Some said Cang Yan had died, unable to withstand the power of the grand formation she activated, her body and soul utterly annihilated.
No one had expected such an outcome.
Afterwards, the powers that had forced Cang Yan to her death never spoke of the matter again. Moreover, they joined forces to suppress the incident, forbidding anyone from mentioning it.
The reason was that, although most of Langya Grotto Heaven's experts had died in the Desolation Era, Cang Yan still had a man who loved her dearly.
The major powers all knew that if Ancestral Patriarch Blood River learned Cang Yan had been forced to her death, he would certainly seek vengeance.
Back then, Ancestral Patriarch Blood River, like the others who had obtained Heavenly Destiny Imperial Powers, chose to enter seclusion immediately. Firstly, to avoid being targeted by others, and secondly, because they needed time to fuse with the Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power. Only when it was completely integrated with their being, inseparable, and had gestated a Heavenly Destiny Heart, could they be considered to have truly attained the Great Dao Imperial Authority.
Time passed. Many had almost forgotten the incident of forcing Cang Yan to her death, until one day Ancestral Patriarch Blood River finally emerged from seclusion.
Back then, Ancestral Patriarch Blood River's sect, Jade Void Cave, had not approved of his forming a Daoist partnership with Cang Yan. Although Jade Void Cave had not participated in forcing Cang Yan's death, when Ancestral Patriarch Blood River emerged, they did not inform him of the truth. Instead, they falsely claimed that Cang Yan had failed to fuse with the Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power, resulting in her annihilation, hoping Ancestral Patriarch Blood River would forget her.
The seniors of Jade Void Cave thought they could keep it hidden, but that was merely their own wishful thinking.
Ancestral Patriarch Blood River later discovered the truth from somewhere. Upon learning that the woman he loved had been forced to her death by the major powers, he was enraged. In that moment of fury, he fell into demonhood and embarked on a great slaughter, killing until the heavens darkened and the earth grew dim, until rivers of blood flowed.
He killed until the heavens raged and the people resented him, until the Nine Heavens could no longer tolerate him. Finally, in front of the Nine Heavens, before the Immortal Dao, before his own sect Jade Void Cave, and before the representatives of the Thirty-Six Grotto Heavens, Seventy-Two Blessed Lands, and all the other major powers, he crushed the Heavenly Destiny Heart he had painstakingly gestated into dust.
From that moment, he completely severed himself from the Immortal Dao and fell into the Demonic Dao. He declared to all beings under heaven and earth that henceforth, he was no longer an immortal, but a demon—a demon through and through.
When the elders of his sect, Jade Void Cave, came out to stop him, he returned all his cultivation to Jade Void Cave, ceasing to be a disciple of Jade Void.
The Immortal Dao could not tolerate him, so he fell into demonhood in a single thought.
Heavenly Destiny could not tolerate him, so he crushed the Heavenly Destiny Heart that everyone dreamed of possessing.
He declared that whoever forced the woman he loved to her death would pay in blood.
If he couldn't kill them now, he would kill them later. If he couldn't kill them in this life, he would kill them in the next. He would continue until he had killed every single person who forced Cang Yan to her death.
He said it, and he did it.
The major powers who had forced Cang Yan to her death were thrown into a state of panic, for no one had anticipated that after Ancestral Patriarch Blood River personally crushed an Immortal Dao Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power and fell into the Demonic Dao, he would actually attain a Demonic Dao Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power. Abandoning the Great Dao Immortal Emperor, he became the terrifying Great Dao Demon Emperor known as Ancestral Patriarch Blood River.
What shocked the major powers even more was that not long after, Langya Grotto Heaven, which had been sealed for over a thousand years, was unsealed. And Cang Yan, whom everyone had thought annihilated, miraculously reappeared.
Not only did she reappear, she successfully fused the Heavenly Destiny Imperial Power she had fought so desperately to protect into her own being. She gestated a Heavenly Destiny Heart, a Heavenly Destiny Spirit, a Heavenly Destiny Soul, and a Heavenly Destiny Form, becoming a true Great Dao Immortal Emperor in every sense.
Some said Cang Yan's reappearance saved the major powers.
If Cang Yan had truly been annihilated back then, the major powers would certainly have been slaughtered clean by Ancestral Patriarch Blood River, now the Great Dao Demon Emperor.
Others said that while Cang Yan's reappearance saved the major powers, it also became their eternal nightmare.
After becoming a Great Dao Immortal Emperor, Cang Yan did not seek revenge against the major powers. Precisely because of this, the major powers lived in constant fear, terrified that Cang Yan might one day come for vengeance.
Especially as Cang Yan's cultivation and strength grew increasingly profound and unfathomable, the major powers' fear only deepened.
When Cang Yan used her immortal body to enter demonhood and also attained the Great Dao Demon Emperor, becoming the only Immortal-Demon Empress in all of history, the major powers were utterly terrified. The old-timers who had personally forced Cang Yan to her death lived a life worse than death, each day feeling like a year. Some even suffered mental breakdowns and went mad. Those who didn't go mad lived in constant fear every day—a torment more bitter than the Bitter Sea itself.
The reason Da Xing the Mad Monk feared Cang Yan was not because of her cultivation strength, nor because of her status and background. What he feared were her methods.
In his view, Cang Yan's decision not to seek revenge against the major powers back then was not due to a lack of strength, nor a lack of courage, and certainly not because she was kind-hearted.
On the contrary, Cang Yan's methods were too ruthless, too vicious.
She wanted those major powers to live in fear for the rest of their lives, to make their existence a living hell.
As long as she lived for one more day, the major powers would have to fear for one more day.
Just imagine, how terrifying it would be for a person to live their entire life in constant fear.