Lingxi's Past

They had originally assumed that this white-robed senior was perhaps an unrivaled powerhouse whom the Great Emperor had befriended while traveling abroad, a friend who had come to lend her aid.

Never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that he was actually her master!

Emperor Ling Xi was already the pinnacle of the cultivation path in their hearts, a legendary figure from myth.

And anyone whom she addressed as her master had to possess strength and origins that far surpassed the limits of their imagination!

When they recalled the supreme methods he had displayed earlier—speaking words that became law, erasing a False Immortal, and restoring the Emperor Origin—all of it suddenly made sense.

Only an existence of such stature was worthy of being the Great Emperor’s master!

Ye Lingxiao immediately bowed again, his attitude even more respectful than before. There was even a hint of the reverence a disciple would show toward his grandmaster.

“This junior, Ye Lingxiao, pays his respects to Senior Gu!”

The three Quasi-Emperors hurriedly bowed again as well, their voices trembling from the overwhelming shock.

“Greetings, Senior Gu!”

Gu Changge’s gaze swept calmly over them. He merely nodded slightly in response.

Then he turned his eyes toward the three Quasi-Emperors and casually waved his hand.

Three streams of pale golden light entered their bodies. Their injuries healed instantly, their depleted origins were replenished, and their auras returned to their peak.

The three men were ecstatic.

“Thank you, Senior, for granting us a new lease on life!”

Gu Changge gave a slight nod.

Only then did Ling Xi shift her gaze away from Ye Lingxiao, who had been given a new life, and slowly survey the ravaged battlefield.

Her eyes fell upon several Quasi-Emperor corpses lying in pools of blood in the distance, their bodies broken and their Emperor weapons shattered.

She slowly walked over and crouched down, her fingertips lightly brushing across the ice-cold armor of one of the corpses.

The ancient patterns still faintly visible on the armor stirred memories that had long been sealed away.

The coldness transmitted through her fingertips formed a cruel contrast with the fiery memories of war in her mind.

The man surnamed Chu—the god of slaughter who had once met stars with his flesh and roared like thunder across the battlefield.

His halberd had once torn the void apart. Now, both he and his weapon lay quietly in the pool of blood, broken in two.

Ling Xi still remembered that when she had once sent him crashing into the turbulence of spacetime with a single punch, the fire burning in his eyes had not been fear, but the unrestrained exhilaration of meeting a worthy opponent.

He had been one of the few opponents she had truly acknowledged.

Nearby, shattered fragments of a compass lay scattered beside another corpse. That was the man surnamed Han.

He had been the sinister man who was most skilled at plotting and whose methods were unfathomably devious—someone who had once lured three of her greatest generals into a desperate situation.

He had schemed throughout his entire life, yet in the end, he had died in battle in the most direct and tragic manner possible, on this very homeland.

These had all once been her subordinates, her brothers, and even her opponents…

Once upon a time, some had fought across the world in her service, while others had stood against her. Those years remained vivid in her memory, filled with grudges, enmity, brotherhood, and the exhilaration of battle.

And now, regardless of whether they had once been allies or enemies, they had all shed their final drop of blood to protect this shared world.

Cold tears soundlessly slipped down Ling Xi’s cheeks.

They were tears for the departed, and for sacrifices that could never be undone.

The joy of reunion and the grief of loss intertwined in that moment, weighing so heavily upon her that she could scarcely breathe.

Ye Lingxiao and the three Quasi-Emperors silently walked up behind her. As they looked at their familiar comrades, their eyes reddened once more, and the atmosphere grew solemn and heavy.

“Their sacrifice will not be in vain.”

Ling Xi rose to her feet. Her voice had returned to its usual calm, yet it carried an unshakable resolve.

“I will ascend to the Immortal Domain and personally kill the one behind all this, so that their spirits in heaven may rest in peace.”

Upon hearing this, hatred and agreement blazed in the eyes of Ye Lingxiao and the three Quasi-Emperors.

Her gaze swept across the shattered Emperor corpses, the sorrow in her eyes transforming into decisive action.

“Little Ye, first gather the remains of our brothers and bring them back to the Imperial Court.

“They shed their final drop of blood for our world. They deserve the reverence of all generations. We must never leave their corpses exposed here.”

“Yes!”

Ye Lingxiao answered solemnly, his voice filled with grief and determination.

He and the three Quasi-Emperors immediately stepped forward. With gentle, respectful movements, they began gathering the remains of their comrades.

They carefully pieced together the broken bodies, wiped away the blood, and searched for every fragment of the shattered weapons, placing each one beside its rightful owner.

Every movement was filled with silent respect and mourning.

Xiao Ruobai, Fang Hanyu, and the others also came forward in silence to help clean up the battlefield, their expressions solemn.

At this moment, cultivation level was irrelevant. There was only their profound respect for those who had protected them all.

Before long, the corpses were temporarily placed in coffins crafted from pure spiritual jade.

They were simple, but they represented a weighty sincerity. A solemn atmosphere spread across the Imperial Pass.

Once most of the matters had been dealt with, a question they had struggled to conceal once again rose in their hearts.

From the moment Ling Xi had appeared, they had vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

The Great Emperor had returned—so why had her cultivation fallen?

The Ling Xi before them possessed a profound aura and extraordinary Dao resonance. There was no doubt that she carried the bearing of the Great Emperor, yet her cultivation realm had clearly stopped at the Quasi-Emperor level.

Moreover, although the aura of her life origin shared the same source as that of the Devouring Heaven Dao Emperor they remembered, there also seemed to be a subtle difference—something difficult to explain or define.

It was as though she were a tree born from the same root, yet shaped by entirely different storms.

The situation had been too urgent for them to think deeply about it earlier. Now that the crisis had been temporarily resolved, they could no longer suppress the question.

Ye Lingxiao looked at Ling Xi. After hesitating for a moment, he finally voiced the doubt in the hearts of all her former subordinates.

“Great Emperor, your cultivation and your aura… could it be that you suffered an extremely severe Dao injury that has yet to heal?”

Ling Xi met their concerned and bewildered gazes and gently shook her head. Deep in her eyes, a trace of icy coldness flashed.

“It was not a Dao injury.”

Her voice was low, carrying a bone-deep chill.

“When I broke through the world barrier back then, I did not enter the Immortal Domain successfully.

“Just as I was about to succeed, I was instantly locked onto by an exceedingly terrifying force of Immortal Domain laws. I was killed on the spot, body and soul completely annihilated.”

“What?!”

Ye Lingxiao and the other three were struck as if by a thunderbolt, their entire bodies violently trembling!

The Great Emperor had actually fallen back then?!

And she had been killed by an existence from the Immortal Domain?!

This news shocked and enraged them even more than the fact that Ling Xi’s cultivation had fallen.

Ling Xi did not describe that desperate moment in detail, but the icy killing intent that flashed briefly through her cold eyes explained everything.

After a pause, she continued.

“Perhaps because my obsession had not yet faded, a wisp of my true spirit survived. I was reborn and awakened in another great world.

“It was my master who found me, guided me onto the path of cultivation, and protected me all the way to the present. My current cultivation was also rebuilt after my reincarnation.”

The truth had finally come to light!

A monstrous storm erupted in the hearts of Ye Lingxiao and the other three. They felt both heartache and lingering fear over what had happened to Ling Xi, as well as a fury toward the mastermind behind it all that soared into the heavens.

So that was how it was! The Great Emperor had actually undergone the earth-shaking calamity of death and reincarnation!

And Senior Gu had not only saved them—he had also guided Ling Xi after her reincarnation and protected her along the path of cultivation!

As Ye Lingxiao had said, such kindness and grace could not be repaid even in ten thousand lifetimes!

“The Immortal Domain… This matter will never end here!”

Ye Lingxiao clenched his fist, his voice low yet resolute.