Chapter 673: My Fate Is Determined by Me, Not by Heaven! Humanity's Most Magnificent Hymn!

To Nine Heaven Xuan Nu, the Qionghua Sect’s descent into demonic obsession and myriad evils, all while presumptuously aspiring to ascend to immortality, was an affront the Heavenly Dao could never tolerate.

Yet to Xuan Xiao, what was this Heavenly Dao? It was nothing more than the self-serving narrative of the Divine Realm. Why should the destiny of mortals be dictated by their mere words?

"The heavens above, I naturally revere, but to expect me to be blindly driven at the whim of the Divine Realm is pure delusion!"

The voice of Nine Heaven Xuan Nu remained ethereal and detached: "Mortals are blind and ignorant, perceiving their own lives as worthless as weeds while deities sit aloft. They fail to understand that the Heavenly Dao is constant; even gods can only act in accordance with celestial mandate."

Su Yao, the Sect Leader of Qionghua, murmured in a daze: "Celestial mandate... Could it be that what generations of Qionghua have sought is nothing but an illusion?!"

"But... our sect slayed demons and protected the mortal realm. Has there truly been no merit accrued, only evil thoughts?"

Answering her was only the chilling voice of Nine Heaven Xuan Nu: "The path of good and evil knows no division between the mortal and demon realms. If demons commit no evil, why slaughter them? The Qionghua Sect arose from greed, massacring the Huanming Realm. How does that differ from fiends?"

Su Yao’s heart turned ice-cold. Not only hers, but the hearts of everyone in Qionghua, and even Murong Ziying at this very moment, grew completely frozen.

So the dream pursued by so many generations, the conviction of slaying demons to protect the world that the entire sect had upheld, was nothing more than a joke in the eyes of others!

And they had actually believed their deeds to be righteous, holding fast to this belief generation after generation, striving for it all their lives.

Mortals are tiny and ignorant. Just like Qionghua, they fumbled forward in the darkness, expanding generation by generation to such heights, standing only a single step away from ascending the entire sect to reach the immortal realm and becoming a true immortal lineage!

Yet in this single instant, all their efforts fell short on the brink of success.

Witnessing this scene, everyone felt an indescribable stirring deep within their hearts.

Twenty years ago, Yun Tianqing and Su Yu stopped the ascension, and so the ascension failed.

Had they not stopped it, the ascension would still have failed, and Qionghua would have been obliterated.

Twenty years later, Yun Tianhua stopped the ascension. If he succeeded, it might only lead to the continuation of the next nineteen-year cycle.

And if the intervention failed, Qionghua would still face obliteration.

Between heaven and earth, there seemed to exist an invisible force guiding the entirety of Qionghua toward destruction. Those two world-shaking swords, the pinnacle of a cultivator’s craftsmanship, and the grand spectacle of an entire sect ascending—how magnificent it was. Perhaps this was the most magnificent feat in all of human history.

It was the ultimate pride of the entire Qionghua.

Even the players, upon encountering the game and hearing of such a magnificent sect, had shown nothing but reverence, yearning, and even envy.

It contained the aspirations and lifeblood of countless Qionghua disciples, yet no one knew that from the very beginning, it was destined to bring ruin upon the entire sect!

Perhaps this was destiny—a subtle yet elusive fatalism woven into the unseen fabric of reality.

The ultimate enemy of Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 was perhaps never Xuan Xiao, nor any individual, but rather that very elusive celestial mandate!

The heavenly fire was about to descend.

"If the heavenly fire falls, the Qionghua Sect will fall too. What about the people at the foot of the mountain? Will they all die..." In front of their eyes, the demanding shout of Yun Tianhe echoed.

Those diverse mortals at the mountain's base, back when they themselves were seeking the immortal path, were they not just like them? Yun Tianhe had rushed about with Han Lingsha, enduring countless hardships before arriving at the foot of Mount Qionghua, once sharing the same yearning for the immortal path as those people below.

"I... I want to save those people," Yun Tianhe spoke thus.

In destiny, there was too much helplessness. Perhaps it was truly as Murong Ziying had said back then: "Birth, old age, sickness, and death, the outcome of a lifetime... I fear it is already arranged by heavenly will... How can man contend with heaven?"

Journeying all this way, he had experienced so much, up until Liu Mengli’s departure, Han Lingsha’s lifespan drawing to its end, and later the villagers of Yueya Village; he lacked the power to change anything.

"Perhaps you cannot yet see the true suffering of the mortal world, and must believe everyone can resolve things with their own strength." The words of the Divine Dragon still rang clear in his ears, but only at this moment did he realize that human life contained so many compromises.

This was destiny, but he refused to accept it; he wanted to save those people.

"The heavenly will cannot be defied," Nine Heaven Xuan Nu also spoke thus. All things have cause and effect; that the mortals below received Qionghua's blessings was the cause, and that they were implicated in Qionghua's downfall was the effect.

Xuan Xiao laughed in fury: "No wonder it is said, 'Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things as straw dogs.' Truly heartless, devoid of justice, disregarding human life like grass."

The voice of Nine Heaven Xuan Nu remained indifferent: "The so-called 'ruthlessness of heaven and earth' means the gods and the Heavenly Dao view all creation equally, yet you have distorted it to this extent."

"Such a heaven and earth deserve only contempt!" They watched as Xuan Xiao merely laughed with mad frenzy, "Today, Xuan Xiao swears upon his life: if the heavens abandon me, I would rather become a demon—!"

Everyone witnessed the chilling and fiery malevolent aura around Xuan Xiao grow increasingly dark and profound, until it gradually transformed into an eerie, terrifying demonic energy!

Across the sky, thunder boomed, as if unleashing the endless wrath of heaven and earth.

The heavens bared a killing intent, shifting stars and changing constellations; the earth bared a killing intent, causing dragons and snakes to rise from the land. Electric serpents danced wildly in the sky, stars plummeted, and the earth trembled, as if seeking to slay this fiend on the spot.

That absolute resolve and madness profoundly shook everyone’s heart at this moment.

They witnessed someone, under the crushing weight of destiny, abandon their form to become a demon.

It was the most tragic, yet most awe-inspiring elegy born of utter despair.

In the past, when cultivating the dual swords and suffering from a lack of progress, he did not give up... When he first achieved success and his meridians reversed, he did not give up either. When he lost Wangshu and suffered the agony of burning flames day and night, with no one caring for his survival, he still did not give up, all for the sake of this very day.

Beneath the darkened sky and flashing lightning, that wildly arrogant silhouette seemed to have become an eternal echo.

This was celestial mandate.

Listening to that roar of intending to march upon the heavenly court one day, listening to that frantic shriek laden with endless fury, it felt like the heavy beat of a war drum, striking fiercely against everyone's heart.

A newly born demon was naturally no match for Nine Heaven Xuan Nu; awaiting him was only endless imprisonment within the whirlpool of the East Sea.

The twenty-odd years of suffering under burning flames were nothing, because what awaited him now was an even more terrifying destiny.

No one made a sound. Everyone watching this scene at this moment was terrifyingly quiet, their expressions increasingly solemn.

Nine Heaven Xuan Nu intended to leave, but was called to a halt by Yun Tianhe: "Wait! You still haven't told me how to save the people down the mountain!"

Could celestial mandate truly not be defied? Just a bit... even if he could only change a tiny fraction! Even if it was just a sliver!

"You clearly said that all creation counts as the Heavenly Dao, so humans are also part of the Heavenly Dao, right? Then why can't we determine our own fate?" Yun Tianhe understood nothing of the world, but that was merely a lack of life experience; he was actually more discerning than others. "Then... my fate is determined by me, not by heaven!"

Upon hearing this cry, everyone, including the cultivators and warriors, including the mages, elves, and knights, was profoundly shaken.

Just what kind of person would dare to speak such words?

What was the purpose of cultivating immortality? What exactly was a cultivator? To the elves and knights of the Nora Continent, they did not comprehend it.

To the cultivators and warriors of the Immortal Relic Continent, they possessed only a vague concept.

The Shushan Sect only concerned itself with the common people, not seeking the immortal path.

Jing Tian was already the reincarnation of a divine general; perhaps he cared nothing for ascending to immortality.

But here, there was a group of mortals who regarded it as their most treasured aspiration, because they wanted to grasp their own destiny!

The heavenly fire blazed furiously, and Qionghua plummeted like a burning sun. At this moment, heaven and earth seemed scorched by the fierce sun, resembling the end of days!

At the foot of the mountain, when they saw Yun Tianhe draw his bow and notch an arrow, they momentarily seemed to behold that phantom from ancient times, the bow that shot down the nine suns.

To be exceptionally gifted, born extraordinary as an immortal or god, was nothing worth praising.

On the contrary, it was this group of mortals—mortals who, in the words of the Divine Dragon, were like dust of the six realms, and in the eyes of Goumang, were as weak as ants—who knowingly attempted the impossible, making others empathize with them all the more.

Because everyone present was a mortal, and they too faced far too many impossible tasks.

They watched that silhouette drawing the bow, that single beam of arrow light colliding like a comet striking the sun against the blazing heavenly fire of the falling Qionghua.

At that instant, a single person fiercely launched a challenge against destiny, against heaven and earth!

At this moment, everyone involuntarily stood up from their seats.

It was now that the elves and knights suddenly realized, their eyes gradually growing moist: so they were this kind of people.

A voice seemed ready to cry out from their hearts!

They were roaring inside, their entire souls trembling with it; this was an unprecedented shock and excitement.

Throughout human history, it was precisely because of those who knowingly attempted the impossible that countless miracles were born.

This spirit, this courage to strive against the impossible... it is humanity’s most magnificent hymn!

.