After Rebirth, the Heroine is Consumed by Overwhelming Regret Chapter 41

“This technique is extremely dangerous. Unless it’s a last resort, you must never risk using it.” Yu Yan demonstrated it once, then warned, “This move stakes half your life’s cultivation to draw out your maximum future peak strength. This exchange has a price, so it’s a last resort.”
“A last resort?” Qi Qing didn’t understand.
“When fighting, there are some standard opening moves, like probing, maneuvering, or using your strengths against their weaknesses. Once you’ve figured out their realm and skill level, you then use a corresponding method to defeat them.
Against those weaker than you, you must be bold in your attack. Bombard them relentlessly, leaving them overwhelmed, leading to a swift and irreversible defeat, with no chance for them to turn the tables.
Against those at your level, you must be skilled in defense. Ponder repeatedly, find their weaknesses, then think of ways to use your strengths against their shortcomings. This process should be drawn out as much as possible; it can cultivate your combat sense and intuition.
Against those stronger than you, my advice is not to get entangled in the fight. Try to avoid conflict altogether. The essence of our battles is to achieve results, not to get injured. So, you must know how to read the situation and be flexible.”
“What if they insist on fighting me, and I can’t run away?”
“That’s where the last resort I mentioned comes in. A last resort move is for when there’s no escape, when you have no other choice. At that point, you have no options left—either fight or die. Therefore, you must be willing to sacrifice something in exchange for the qualification to fight.”
Yu Yan said slowly, “The Primordial Wheel is such a technique. Its power depends on the heights you can reach in the future. You are the disciple I have chosen, so you will definitely become stronger than me.”
Qi Qing wasn’t entirely convinced. “Don’t praise me like that, I’m so unskilled… By the way, what exactly do you mean by ‘sacrificing something’?”
“After using this move, you might enter a state of suspended animation.”
“Suspended animation…?”
“Or, you could call it a coma. Your bodily functions will still be active, but your consciousness will fall dormant. The duration of this state is uncertain; it could be a few hours, or it could be decades.”
“Isn’t that like being a person in a vegetative state?”
“What?”
“Nothing… please continue.”
“In short, this is a very dangerous technique. Once used, in the worst-case scenario, you sacrifice yourself to perish together with the enemy. I don’t recommend you use this move, but it is your ultimate fallback.”
She spoke very solemnly, and Qi Qing was stunned, blurting out, “Have you ever used this move?”
“No. In all the years of our sect, no one has ever used this move. It’s actually a foolish move. Anyone encountering a strong enemy knows to run; they wouldn’t try something futile like an egg hitting a stone.”
“I think so too,” Qi Qing said. “The world is so big, just run. It’s not like they can lock you in a cage and force you to fight a fierce beast to the death before letting you out, right?”
Qi Qing hadn’t expected that her words from a month ago would unfortunately come true. Wasn’t this secret realm a cage? And wasn’t Hua Yayun a fierce beast? She was trapped here. Yu Yan’s third signal was long overdue. If she didn’t fight, Hua Yayun would go after Yu Yan, and then neither of them would be able to escape.
But she couldn’t defeat Hua Yayun, so she could only risk everything on one desperate move.
The moment the Primordial Wheel was unleashed, she felt spiritual energy surging out of her body endlessly. Even the White Dragon Sword could barely contain it. This powerful feeling was an experience she had never had before. For a moment, she forgot her predicament. Her sword energy was vast, and with her sword, she was supreme.
Hua Yayun didn’t even have time to make a move before she was pinned under the sword—or more accurately, the White Dragon had clamped its jaws around her neck. Her manifestation was already huge and majestic, but in front of the White Dragon at its full power, she was just a small fox.
The White Dragon’s enormous body, faintly glowing, took up almost half the secret realm. Its sharp teeth pressed against Hua Yayun’s neck; a slight movement could kill her. But it didn’t act. It was waiting for its master’s command.
Qi Qing didn’t want to kill anyone either.
She floated in mid-air, looking down at Hua Yayun, and said slowly, “If you stop now, I can let you go. We don’t have any deep hatred for each other; there’s no need for things to reach this point.”
With her neck caught, Hua Yayun found it very difficult to speak, but her eyes were still resolute. “I’m already at a dead end. I won’t stop. If you have the guts, then kill me. That way, you’ll never learn the secret of the Holy Grail.”
“I don’t need to know. These treasures are treasures in your eyes, but to me, they are merely worldly possessions,” Qi Qing said. “Also, the reason I won’t marry is simple: I hate Hua Jiaolian. In my past life, she stole my fiancée, causing me to be haunted by a hundred ghosts and die without a burial place.
With this enmity between us, it’s impossible for us to become cultivation partners. I advise you to give up on that idea as well. She likes someone else and won’t be manipulated by you.”
Hua Yayun was silent for a moment, then said, “So, you knew all this from the beginning? No matter what I did, it would have been useless?”
“Yes. You didn’t make it clear at first, so I didn’t know you were Hua Jiaolian’s mother. If I had known, I wouldn’t even have come. It’s strange, I saw Hua Jiaolian on the verge of death. Where were you in my past life? She actually ran to the Immortal Realm, planning to die there…”
“Die in the Immortal Realm…” A chill ran through Hua Yayun’s heart. Immortals and demons had fought openly and secretly for many years. Unless it was absolutely necessary, a demon cultivator wouldn’t go to the Immortal Realm. This situation had only one possibility: she had been banished.
But how could that be? She was a prominent figure in the Demon Realm. As long as she was around, her daughter couldn’t possibly suffer any grievances. Did that mean that in her previous life, she had abandoned her daughter and ascended?
No, I would never do that. My daughter is my unresolved obsession. If I don’t resolve this, I can’t possibly ascend. The only possibility is that I found the person who could obtain the Holy Grail, and that person married into the Hua family as I wished.
But after I left, that person seized the Hua family’s assets and drove my daughter out…
“Ah… Ah…”
She wailed in pain. How could she not have thought of it? No matter how many paths she paved for her daughter, as long as her daughter herself wasn’t strong enough, she would sooner or later waste all her plans. She couldn’t die, she couldn’t die… She had to stay by her daughter’s side forever!
A huge sense of unwillingness surged from the bottom of her heart. Unwilling, so unwilling! It seemed she had never been this unwilling. How could her daughter fall to such a state? And how could she lose to a mere Golden Core cultivator?
She suddenly wrenched herself free, tearing her head from the dragon’s mouth. The White Dragon hadn’t delivered a fatal bite as it awaited orders, which gave her an opening. But such a forceful method inevitably came with a price. Both her ears were torn off, and her face was covered in teeth marks and bloody gashes, looking terrifying.
She even looked a bit like the Hua Jiaolian from her dreams.
Qi Qing couldn’t help but shiver, taking a couple of steps back. Her technique had been forcibly interrupted, but it wasn’t over yet, so she wasn’t afraid. Even if they had to fight, she was definitely qualified to.
So she drew her sword to block, deflecting Hua Yayun who charged at her.
Hua Yayun’s attacks were, in a way, very simple, yet extremely powerful. As they say, the Great Dao is simple; the more extreme the power, the harder it is to neutralize.
Qi Qing had blocked her purely with strength. This showed that Qi Qing at her peak was infinitely close to an invincible state. Even a powerful demon cultivator like Hua Yayun couldn’t do anything to her.
After just a few exchanges, she was subdued by Qi Qing again.
The sword pressed against her chest. Qi Qing asked again, “Do you surrender?”
“No… I don’t…” Hua Yayun’s heart was like dead ashes. She had already used all her strength, yet she still lost. She had to accept her defeat. There was nothing more to say. “Kill me. I will never surrender. It’s the Heavenly Dao that’s unfair, making me lose to you!”
Qi Qing shook her head helplessly. She didn’t want to kill either, but once this technique was used, there was no room to hold back. If she didn’t kill Hua Yayun, then after she fell into suspended animation, Hua Yayun would kill her.
Just as she was about to strike, she suddenly heard a third loud sound from afar. The sound of the barrier shattering came with this third boom. This sound was like heavenly music; it meant they could get out.
Yu Yan had succeeded!
Qi Qing couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement. As long as the barrier was broken, they wouldn’t be threatened by Hua Yayun. Although some time had been wasted, and she even suspected Yu Yan might have been attacked, this loud sound was a great reassurance. As long as Yu Yan was fine, things would be much easier.
Perhaps… I don’t have to kill Hua Yayun.
It wasn’t that she was too soft-hearted to do it; it was just that the side effects of this technique were too severe. If she thrust her sword and immediately fell into suspended animation, she didn’t know when she would recover.
She wasn’t willing to gamble on that time.
Although she didn’t know if the side effects would still occur if she didn’t kill, if she could wait for Yu Yan to return, she could get an answer, and her options and consequences would change.
Perhaps there’s still a way to escape unscathed.
She hesitated for a moment and didn’t deliver the killing blow.
But that momentary hesitation gave Hua Yayun a chance to counterattack. Naturally, Qi Qing was wary of her, but Hua Yayun wasn’t aiming for Qi Qing. Instead, she activated several passages.
Yu Yan had already broken an opening on her side. With Hua Yayun activating these, the chain mechanisms operated simultaneously, and the structure of the secret realm completely lost its balance.
The opening above their heads tore wider and wider, until horrifying cracks appeared, and debris began to fall. Qi Qing didn’t realize what Hua Yayun had done until she saw her triumphant smile and suddenly had a feeling.
She looked up and saw that the sky was falling.
The sky is falling—it had always been a ghost story everyone talked about, but no one had ever seen. Qi Qing saw lightning-like cracks appear in the sky, and then, a piece of the blue sky fell.
It was a very small piece, looking no bigger than a fingernail.
But as it fell, it grew larger and larger, its speed becoming terrifyingly fast. Friction with the air caused it to catch fire, turning into a giant fireball. Qi Qing couldn’t help but widen her eyes. This was just like a scene from a movie where meteorites fall, except it wasn’t one, but countless. They rained down, one after another, enormous and blazing. One could imagine that in a few minutes, this place would become a hell on earth.
It was too fast; there was no time to dodge.
Besides, there was nowhere to dodge.
The downfall was dense and terrifying. The same scene was everywhere: countless large fireballs falling from the sky with a whistling wind. This wasn’t the end of the world, but for those in the secret realm, it was.
Hua Yayun wanted to drag them down with her.
Something she herself was unwilling to do, and couldn’t bring herself to do, the other party did so easily, without even a hint of hesitation. It was her own indecisiveness that gave Hua Yayun the chance to cause trouble.
She still wasn’t ruthless enough.
But this didn’t mean she would let the other party get her way.
Even if she had to die, she would make the other party die before her.
Qi Qing reversed her grip and thrust her sword into Hua Yayun’s heart.
After killing her, Qi Qing quickly flew towards Yu Yan. She didn’t know when the side effect of suspended animation would hit, so she had to meet up with Yu Yan before then.
But plans rarely keep up with changes.
Just as she saw Yu Yan, Yu Yan also saw her. Clearly, they both had the same goal, but with countless fireballs falling around them, they couldn’t increase their speed much. They could only maintain their spiritual shields, dodging as they ran.
The accident happened at that moment.
One fireball was struck by others in the air and suddenly accelerated. Because it was too massive, a spiritual shield couldn’t possibly withstand it. And its landing point was precisely Yu Yan.
And Yu Yan couldn’t break the situation. The fireball was right above her. If she shattered the rock, it would splatter everywhere, very likely injuring Qi Qing, who was opposite her.
Helpless, Qi Qing could only send out the White Dragon to knock the fireball aside, ensuring both of them would be safe.
The moment the White Dragon struck, Qi Qing knew the answer to her question—this suspended animation would occur the instant the sword left her hand.
With almost no warning, the sword flew out, and she lost consciousness. These two things happened simultaneously, with no sequence. She saw the fading afterimage of the White Dragon but didn’t see what happened to her next.
Yu Yan saw her suddenly collapse. No amount of shouting helped. At that moment, she couldn’t care about the fireballs filling the sky. She dismissed her spiritual shield and rushed over.
But what greeted her was a dead Qi Qing.
She understood at a glance that Qi Qing had used that technique.
But how could this be… Yu Yan’s brows furrowed tightly. She didn’t know what had happened on Qi Qing’s side to make her use such a desperate last resort.
But she knew it was her own fault for not managing the time well.
Just now, when she had reached the crack, she first struck once, then a second time. Just as she was about to completely break open the barrier, she realized something.
It was her own fault for being too skilled in formations, allowing her to spot the danger in an instant. If it had been any other cultivator, they might have overlooked the detail and broken through directly, and perhaps none of the subsequent events would have occurred.
The danger was… if she used a third attack in the same spot, this secret realm might collapse.
Previously, she had always thought this secret realm was a relic left by some immortal. But as she explored, she found that the truth might not be so.
Of course, the secret realm itself was left by an immortal, but its internal structure had likely been modified. There were many traces of artificial construction, filled with mechanisms and formations. These formations were cruder compared to those naturally formed in the secret realm, possibly to compensate for the realm’s own shortcomings.
In other words, it was half-natural, half-artificial.
And if she wanted to shatter the barrier, she would inevitably break this delicate balance. Of course, she could have recklessly destroyed it, but what if something went wrong and implicated Qi Qing?
Helpless, she could only stabilize the area around the soon-to-be-shattered barrier, so that this opening wouldn’t affect the overall situation. This was extremely delicate work; besides her, probably no one else in the world could do it.
But she hadn’t expected that these extra actions would make Qi Qing pay such a heavy price. The so-called suspended animation had no definite time frame; perhaps three days, perhaps three hundred years. For Qi Qing to gamble on this move, she must have been forced into a desperate situation.
It was to protect her, to fulfill her promise.
She had said she would hold off Hua Yayun, and she truly had.
“You fool… Why did you have to go this far…” Yu Yan hugged Qi Qing’s body, sobbing uncontrollably. How could she not know that Qi Qing was just such an earnest fool, always giving her all for even the smallest things.
Even if she couldn’t win, she wouldn’t run. When she taught Qi Qing this move, she had a faint feeling that she would definitely use it. But who could have expected this outcome to arrive so quickly?
The person in her arms was warm, breathing evenly, but Yu Yan knew she was only a breath away from being truly dead. All she could do now was to try her best to take her out and wait.
How long she would have to wait, she didn’t know.
In the rain of fireballs, two figures flew towards the sky.
Then, the entire secret realm collapsed, taking Hua Yayun and her attendants with it. Yu Yan hadn’t killed them, only knocked them down and tossed them aside. They didn’t know what had happened; they only saw shooting stars filling the sky. Then the shooting stars grew larger, turning into fireballs that smashed onto them. They fell into the sea, crushed and sunk by giant rocks.
A meteor shower occurred over the sea, far from land.
No one witnessed this event. Even if someone had, they would have considered it a romantic occasion for making wishes. This was utterly ridiculous.
What they used for their wishes were the corpses of countless people.
Meteors weren’t romantic; romance was a quality bestowed upon them by people.
Yu Yan’s mind was a mess. She felt her thoughts were somewhat malicious, somewhat inexplicable, but she truly didn’t know how to face the future. She could only use this method to try and calm herself.
Eventually, she found a secluded place.
This place was at the boundary between the Immortal and Demon Realms, in the Mortal Realm.
The Mortal Realm was vast and sparsely populated; such places were not uncommon. She settled down here and built a thatched hut.
She needed a quiet place for Qi Qing to recuperate. Although she didn’t know how long Qi Qing would be unconscious, no matter how long it took, she would wait.
…
Just like that, three months passed.
During these three months, Yu Yan hadn’t moved half a step, constantly monitoring Qi Qing’s condition. But what she hoped for didn’t happen. Qi Qing didn’t suddenly wake up yawning, and moreover, the spiritual energy in her body grew weaker and weaker.
Without cultivation, this was natural.
But Yu Yan couldn’t just watch her weaken like this. To recover, the body was paramount. If she didn’t have a healthy body, how could she welcome a new life?
So, Yu Yan spent a certain amount of time cultivating each day, then used her spiritual energy to help Qi Qing circulate hers. This was passive cultivation and not as effective as Qi Qing cultivating actively, but it was better than nothing.
Maintaining this, Qi Qing at least didn’t get weaker.
But, she didn’t get stronger either.
Advancing in realms required comprehending the Dao. Since Qi Qing was always asleep, she obviously couldn’t comprehend the Dao, so she remained stuck at the late Golden Core stage, unable to make any progress.
And Yu Yan’s patience gradually wore thin.
One day, a cowherd boy came into the mountains.
The cowherd boy had probably gotten lost and stumbled into Yu Yan’s territory. Yu Yan wasn’t wary of humans. By the time she noticed, he had already reached her door, calling out, “Is anyone home? Can I have some water?”
Yu Yan came out and pointed him to the water vat.
The cowherd boy went over and drank several large gulps, saying cheerfully, “Big sister, do you live here alone? It’s spring now, aren’t you going out for a spring outing?”
These simple words held no deep meaning, but to Yu Yan, they were like a hint from the Heavenly Dao. One must know that everything in the world is governed by cause and effect; the cowherd boy didn’t appear randomly, nor were his words spoken casually.
It was spring, and Qi Qing hadn’t woken up.
This meant she might never wake up.
Tears instantly streamed down Yu Yan’s face. She had actually had a premonition for a long time, but she hadn’t expected the reality to be so cruel. Qi Qing had become like this because of her. Was she just going to watch, doing nothing?
Seeing her cry, the cowherd boy was startled and ran away.
And Yu Yan returned to her room and made a difficult decision.
—She would awaken Qi Qing, using her final method.