The sky over the Great Xia is about to change.

"I can help you."

Finally, Wu Lingxiao gritted her teeth and spoke these words.

Ye Xuan jerked his head up, a flash of disbelief in his eyes: "Sister... what did you say?"

Wu Lingxiao avoided his gaze, pulling a quaint jade slip from her bosom and forcing it into Ye Xuan's hands:

"I... in my early years at the laundry house, I accidentally saved a senior who was in distress. This is the cultivation method he left for me."

"This is a Heaven-rank cultivation method, the 'Nine Turns Nirvana Sutra'. It is most suitable for cultivating in desperate situations, breaking before establishing."

"Once you cultivate it, your cultivation base will naturally multiply. As long as you become stronger, there will eventually come a day when you can find an opportunity to escape."

When she said the word "escape", Wu Lingxiao's heart was bleeding.

She was personally handing a knife to Ye Xuan, letting him stab her in the heart. But if she didn't give him this hope, he would die right now.

"A Heaven-rank cultivation method?"

Ye Xuan looked at the jade slip in his hand in shock. In this world, a Heaven-rank cultivation method was enough to cause a storm of blood and gore. How could his sister just give it to him like this?

"But... Sister, this is too precious..."

"Just take it since I'm giving it to you!"

Wu Lingxiao rudely interrupted him, concealing her emotions:

"But you have to endure for this period of time. Before you have enough strength, do not anger Her Majesty again, and do not seek death anymore. You must live. Only by living is there hope, do you understand?"

Ye Xuan gripped the jade slip tightly, his knuckles turning white.

He was hesitating.

He was struggling.

Dragging out an ignoble existence was a disgrace to him. But the temptation of the word "freedom" was simply too great.

After a long time, Ye Xuan took a deep breath, and the dead silence in his eyes finally dissipated, replaced by a tolerant and sharp light like that of a lone wolf.

"Alright."

He nodded heavily, looking at the Embroidery Maid:

"Sister, I will listen to you. I will survive."

"I will become stronger, so strong that no one can force me. When that time comes, I will take you away from this hellhole!"

Wu Lingxiao looked at his fighting spirit-filled eyes, not knowing whether to feel gratified or to smile bitterly in her heart.

Take me away?

Take me to escape from myself?

What a... fool.

In the days that followed.

Ye Xuan no longer sought death, nor did he go on hunger strikes. He started eating on time, and even began to take the initiative to ask for those precious spiritual liquids.

But he did not become docile towards the Empress.

Whenever Wu Lingxiao came, he remained cold and unyielding. It was just that he no longer fought back as fiercely as before, but instead chose a deeper kind of disregard.

Most of the time, he was cultivating.

The 'Nine Turns Nirvana Sutra' indeed suited his current state of mind.

Every time he circulated a cycle, it was like tearing open a wound and then healing it again. His cultivation base began to climb upwards from the Qi Condensation stage at an astonishing speed.

Besides cultivating, he had an extra sword in his hand.

It was an ordinary fine steel longsword that he found on a decorative stand in the hall.

From then on, the sword never left his side.

He carried it when he ate, hugged it when he slept, and even laid it across his knees when he cultivated.

A month later.

The Embroidery Maid once again came to the Ganlu Palace under the guise of delivering clothes.

At this time, Ye Xuan's temperament had completely changed. The original sense of weakness had faded away, and his whole person was like a newly sharpened sword blank, its sharp edge restrained, yet exuding a chilling intent.

"Sister."

Seeing the Embroidery Maid, a trace of warmth finally appeared on Ye Xuan's cold face.

The Embroidery Maid looked at the sword in his hand, her gaze complex:

"What are you doing hugging this broken sword every day? Do you think that if you practice your swordsmanship well, you can kill the Empress?"

Ye Xuan shook his head, a flash of disappointment and self-awareness in his eyes:

"I can't."

"The Empress is a mighty figure at the Tribulation Transcendence stage. Even if I practice for a hundred years, I'm afraid I won't be able to withstand a single blow from her."

He gently stroked the cold blade, his voice so calm that it made one's heart ache:

"This sword isn't meant to kill her."

"Then what is it for?" the Embroidery Maid asked.

Ye Xuan raised his head, looking at the Embroidery Maid, the corners of his mouth curling into a mournful arc:

"It's meant to kill me."

The smile on the Embroidery Maid's face instantly froze.

Ye Xuan did not notice her abnormality and continued to speak on his own:

"I promised Sister to live on for that sliver of hope for freedom. But..."

"If one day, she wants to force me like that again, humiliate me like that again, and I am unable to resist."

"At least, I have this sword."

"I can die a little faster, die a little more resolutely. I won't have to be like last time, without even the chance to bite my tongue."

Ye Xuan thought for a moment, then smiled bitterly and shook his head:

"Although... perhaps in front of her, I wouldn't even be able to commit suicide."

"But even so, I can only do this. Because this is who I am."

"I want to live cleanly. If I can't live cleanly, then I'll die cleanly."

These words were spoken casually.

But to the Embroidery Maid, every word was like a nail, ruthlessly nailed into her heart.

She originally thought that by giving him hope and giving him a cultivation method, he would slowly submit.

But she never expected that he would actually turn this hope into the confidence to commit suicide.

"You..."

The Embroidery Maid gritted her teeth, her eyes slightly red, and her voice trembling:

"Are you really this stubborn? As long as you lower your head, as long as you yield, glory, wealth, and monstrous power are waiting for you! Things that countless people beg for but cannot get, why must you treat them as trash?"

Ye Xuan looked at the emotional Embroidery Maid in surprise.

He remained silent for a moment, then walked to the window and looked at the square sky.

When he turned his head, his eyes were as clear as before:

"Sister."

"In this world, there are men and women, old and young, cultivators and mortals."

"Everyone has their own Dao, their own way of living."

"Some people like power, some people like immortality, some people like money. Some people like beauty, and there's nothing wrong with that."

Ye Xuan turned around, standing against the light, his figure appearing thin yet imposing:

"But not everyone shares the same thought. If everyone was pursuing power, this world would be too boring."

"I don't want glory and wealth, nor do I care for monstrous power."

"I want to leave this cage and go to the martial world. I want to find a Dao companion who is wholly devoted to me. Even if it means eating coarse tea and plain rice, even if it means sleeping in the wind and eating in the dew, I would gladly endure it."

The Embroidery Maid's heart was filled with indescribable sourness.

She looked at the clear-eyed youth before her and suddenly felt that she had lost. Lost completely.

She possessed the world, yet she alone could not conquer this youth's heart.

"If..."

The Embroidery Maid's voice was a little choked, and she couldn't help but ask:

"If you really find that Dao companion in the future, but you don't have the ability to protect her. If she is of heavenly beauty and is coveted by bad people, what will you do if you can't protect her?"

Ye Xuan smiled.

This time, there was no desolation in his smile, only calmness and fearlessness.

"Then I'll die before her."

"That's the only ability I have."

"We cannot be born together, but I seek to die first. On the road to the Yellow Springs, I will go first to scout the way for her."

"As for whether she dies or not, that's her own business. I can't control it, and I don't want to control it."

"I only do what I should do."

Embroidery Maid stared at him blankly, speechless for a long time.

Outside the palace doors.

The old eunuch, Uncle Fu, who had been standing guard there all along, watched the scene unfold inside through a crack in the door.

He watched the lofty Empress, who had never bowed her head to anyone, now draped in coarse linen clothing. Her eyes were red with tears, and she looked utterly lost and devastated standing before a mere Qi Condensation realm youth.

Uncle Fu looked grim, his wrinkled face filled with absolute shock and disbelief.

But ultimately, he only let out a deep sigh, lowered his head even further, and remained completely silent.

The heavens of Great Xia... were truly about to change.