The Empress's Suspicion

Hearing these words, the heavy burden in Ye Jiuhuang's heart was finally lifted a little.

But at the same time, an indescribable bitterness welled up in her heart.

"Good... good child," Ye Jiuhuang smiled, feeling both gratified and heartbroken.

After a moment of silence, Ye Jiuhuang seemed to recall something. Her expression became somewhat complex, even carrying a trace of fear:

"However, the Ye Xuan of today... feels like a stranger to me."

Bai Qianqiu paused in surprise, "A stranger?"

"Yes."

Ye Jiuhuang nodded, her mind recalling the man inside the secret realm's barrier—the man who had pinched her chin with cold eyes, forcing her to imprison her disciple.

That youth who used to smile gently and only gave silently was already dead.

"He seems to have turned into a cold and ruthless schemer."

Ye Jiuhuang murmured in a low voice, "To achieve his goals, he doesn't hesitate to use me, use you, and use everyone's feelings. Every step he takes is calculated, and every expression is like a mask."

"That kind of gaze... sometimes makes me shudder."

Hearing this, Bai Qianqiu fell silent.

She thought of Ye Xuan's maniacal laughter when facing the demonic tide, his absolute resolve when telling her to leave first, and his bottomless eyes when they finally parted, even though he was smiling.

"It seems so..." Bai Qianqiu lowered her eyes, her fingers gently stroking the hilt of her sword. A trace of heartache flashed in her eyes. "But, we can't blame him."

She looked up at the snowstorm outside the cave, her voice soft yet firm:

"If I had experienced everything he went through, betrayed by the one he loved most, thrown away like trash, time and time again..."

"What right do I have to blame him for becoming cold?"

"He suffered too much in the past, so now he has to wrap his heart up to protect it."

Ye Jiuhuang's body trembled.

She looked at Bai Qianqiu and suddenly realized that in some aspects, this disciple saw things more clearly than she did.

"Indeed..."

Ye Jiuhuang shook her head in self-mockery, her eyes full of bitterness:

"If I had gone through so many terrifying experiences and endured the torture of ten thousand reincarnations,"

"I would probably have gone mad long ago and become a great demon slaughtering the masses."

"The fact that he can still maintain his sanity and protect you at crucial moments... is already his final tenderness."

Two generations of sword cultivators, two women deeply in love with the same man, reached a bizarre and sorrowful resonance in this freezing Cave of Forgotten Dust.

After settling Bai Qianqiu down, Ye Jiuhuang retreated from the Cave of Forgotten Dust.

Rumble!

A Dragon-Severing Stone weighing tens of millions of pounds fell, completely sealing the cave entrance.

But this was only the beginning.

Standing outside the cave, Ye Jiuhuang's expression became almost crazed. Her hands frantically formed seals, and the Mahayana realm spiritual energy in her body surged out like a flood opening its gates.

"Nine Heavens and Ten Earths Dragon Trapping Array, rise!"

"Taiyi Light-Splitting Demon Sealing Boundary, descend!"

"Heaven-Severing Earth-Locking Limitless Seal, suppress!"

Restriction after restriction, powerful enough to trap and kill Mahayana realm experts, layered over the outside of the Cave of Forgotten Dust.

Golden runes danced in the sky, turning the place into an iron fortress that not even a fly could enter.

"Not enough... still not enough..."

With her hair disheveled, Ye Jiuhuang nervously muttered Ye Xuan's threat: "If she escapes, I will die right in front of you."

"Pass down my decree!"

Ye Jiuhuang shouted sternly, her voice spreading throughout the entire Sword God Palace.

"I order the eighteen Supreme Elders of the Sword God Palace to immediately come out of seclusion!"

"All of you are to guard outside the Cave of Forgotten Dust! Rotate in three shifts and patrol continuously for twenty-four hours a day!"

"If even a single male mosquito flies in, I will test my sword on you all!"

The entire Sword God Palace was instantly thrown into chaos.

Those old monsters who had been in seclusion for hundreds of years were blasted out with bewildered faces, having to bitterly run over to act as security guards for a junior disciple.

After doing all this, Ye Jiuhuang looked at the airtight defenses, yet her heart was still filled with unease.

She understood Ye Xuan too well.

This was a chance he had given her, and the final straw for her redemption. She could not afford to lose.

"No, I can't trust these old geezers."

Ye Jiuhuang gritted her teeth and made a decision that left everyone dumbfounded.

She walked to a bluestone located ten zhang in front of the Cave of Forgotten Dust.

Lifting her white robes, she sat cross-legged.

Her longsword lay horizontally across her knees.

She was actually going to stand guard personally!

The dignified Palace Master of the Sword God Palace, the number one sword cultivator in the world, was actually going to act as a gatekeeper for her disciple here until her disciple reached the Mahayana realm?

The snowstorm gradually grew heavier.

Snowflakes fell on the tips of Ye Jiuhuang's hair and shoulders, quickly turning her into a snowman.

But she remained motionless, like a sculpture that had existed since ancient times.

Her divine sense constantly locked onto Bai Qianqiu inside the cave, afraid of even the slightest unusual movement from her.

Meanwhile, in this long, dead silence, her thoughts drifted to the distant past.

Speaking of which, the world only knew the Sword Sovereign's peerless elegance, but they did not know that this body of hers was merely an avatar walking the mortal realm.

Her true body had already sat motionless in a death-seclusion deep underground in the Sword God Palace for eight thousand years.

Eight thousand years...

What a tremendously long period of time that was.

To reverse yin and yang, she confined herself, severing all ties with the mortal world.

For these eight thousand years, only her avatar walked outside, occasionally taking in a disciple, occasionally slaying demons.

But more often than not, she was searching.

Searching for that person's reincarnation.

She had once transformed into a roadside beggar, watching the reincarnated Ye Xuan have his heart's blood dug out by his wife.

She had once transformed into a cultivator, watching Ye Xuan use the Love of a Fallen City, dying in Ye Qingcheng's arms.

She had also once transformed into a wisp of clear wind, watching Ye Xuan, reincarnated as Consort Xuan, die in the Empress's arms.

Every single time.

Every single time, she wanted to rush out, slaughter all those heartless women, take him away, and hide him.

But she could not.

Karma was intertwined; if she forcefully intervened, it would only cause his soul to be completely destroyed, never to be reincarnated for eternity.

Therefore, she could only watch from afar.

Watching him fall in love with others time and time again in his reincarnations, give his true heart time and time again, only to be trampled to pieces time and time again.

"Ye Xuan..."

Amidst the snowstorm, Ye Jiuhuang, sitting cross-legged on the ground, slowly opened her eyes.

In those eyes, there was no longer the majesty of the Sword Sovereign, only endless vicissitudes and tears.

"In this life, you don't want to lose anymore."

"Neither do I."

"Rest assured, even if I have to pierce a hole in the heavens, even if I have to turn this Sword God Palace into a death prison..."

"I will absolutely not let anyone hurt you again in the slightest."

"Even if that person is my most beloved disciple."

The snowstorm grew even heavier.

Completely burying this desolate mountain peak.

The Emperor Boat sliced through the heavy sea of clouds. Like a massive, heavily armored ancient behemoth, it sailed steadily through the howling astral winds above the Nine Heavens, carrying an unstoppable coercion as it headed straight for the imperial capital of the Great Xia Dynasty.

In the deepest and most luxurious cabin inside the boat, it was as warm as spring.

Ye Xuan stretched his limbs, lying comfortably on a spacious soft couch covered with ten-thousand-year snow silkworm silk.

Disregarding his image, he had one leg crossed over the other, his fingertips gently tapping his knee to a rhythm, and he was even briskly humming an unknown tune.

He was in a very good mood.

No, to be precise, it was unprecedentedly good.

Phew... I survived.

One could even say it was a perfect clear.

Ye Xuan closed his eyes, his eyelashes fluttering slightly. The little abacus in his heart was clacking away, and the corners of his mouth couldn't be suppressed no matter how hard he tried.

Bai Qianqiu, that woman who could detonate a Shura field at any time and plunge him into eternal damnation, had already been personally taken back to the Sword God Palace by Ye Jiuhuang.

Moreover, according to Ye Jiuhuang's twisted and paranoid personality born from her obsession, she would definitely guard Bai Qianqiu more closely than her own eyeballs in order to fulfill that illusory promise of a grand wedding.

As long as Bai Qianqiu didn't come out of seclusion, his peaceful days of playing both sides and licking blood from the edge of a knife between the Great Xia Empress and the Heavenly Demon Sect Master could perfectly continue.

This was the balancing art of dancing on the tip of a blade!

Of course, the greatest confidence for Ye Xuan to dare to hum a tune so unscrupulously and arrogantly right now didn't just come from this, but from the fact that he was very, very "clean" at the moment.

At the last moment before leaving the secret realm, he deliberately lowered his posture, held Ye Jiuhuang's hands, repeatedly exhorted her, and even sacrificed his looks to take the initiative to step forward and kiss her.

Using that kiss, he had Ye Jiuhuang use her supreme means at the peak of the Mahayana realm, having even touched a trace of the laws of the immortal path, to completely sever and purify all karma threads, auras, and even the virgin fragrance lingering from their embrace just now regarding Bai Qianqiu on his body.

The current him was like a blank sheet of paper that had just been washed with water.

Even if the Empress and the Demon Venerable, these two top-tier mighty figures with half a foot in the True Immortal realm, were to investigate, it would be absolutely impossible for them to catch even the slightest handle on him from the karmic level.

However.

The clever Ye Xuan had overlooked an extremely terrifying thing. In this world, there are some things that transcend laws and karma, and can never be severed.

For example, a woman's intuition.

On the top deck of the Imperial Boat, the cold wind was piercing.

Two figures with peerless beauty, yet exuding terrifying pressure, stood side by side.

They did not put up their protective spiritual light, allowing the Nine Heavens Astral Wind, which was enough to tear apart a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, to frantically blow their robes, making them flutter loudly.

The woman on the left wore a pure gold dragon robe embroidered with nine-clawed golden dragons and wore a twelve-tasseled imperial crown on her head.

It was precisely the Great Xia Empress, Wu Lingxiao.

Her narrow phoenix eyes were full of cold sternness that was angry without being imposing. Faint pale golden imperial dragon aura lingered around her body, and every word and action of hers could determine the life and death of millions of people in the Nine Provinces.

The woman on the right wore a purple light gauze dress, her figure enchanting and peerless, with a coquettish cinnabar mark like blood dotted between her eyebrows.

She was exactly the Demon Venerable who ruled over thousands of demonic cultivators, Zi Yao.

These two, one orthodox and one demonic, who should have been irreconcilable enemies fighting to the death upon meeting, miraculously did not draw their swords against each other at this moment, all for the same man.

Their gazes, sharp as substance, coincidentally penetrated the layers of array-covered decks and accurately landed on the man below who was crossing his legs and humming a little tune.

"Don't you think he's acting a bit strange today?"

Wu Lingxiao was the first to break this suffocating silence.

Zi Yao leaned lazily against the railing, her fair jade-like fingers boredly playing with a strand of black hair hanging in front of her chest, a lazy smile curling up the corners of her delicate mouth:

"It is a bit strange. In the past, when this enemy came out of a secret realm, he would either be crying and shouting that he was scared to death, or talking about how he showed off his great might. But today..."

Her narrow beautiful eyes narrowed slightly, a trace of suspicion flashing in the depths of her eyes:

"He looks very relaxed. You could even say, very joyful."

"Joyful..."

Wu Lingxiao softly chewed on these two words, and a chilling cold glint suddenly flashed across those phoenix eyes that were enough to see through people's hearts.

In the instant she hugged Ye Xuan just now, she had already silently used the supreme secret art of the Great Xia imperial family, the Son of Heaven's Qi Observation Art, to scan Ye Xuan from top to bottom, inside and out, a full three times.

No injuries.

No abnormal spiritual energy fluctuations.

There wasn't even any aura of other women, or lingering karma threads.

He was as clean as if he had just gone for a picnic in the back garden.

But the problem lay precisely here. It was exactly because he was too clean, flawlessly clean, that the naturally suspicious Wu Lingxiao felt an inexplicable, prickly sense of incongruity.

"Zi Yao."

Wu Lingxiao suddenly turned her head, her golden eyes staring at the Demon Venerable beside her, and spoke coldly, "Were you watching him the whole time outside the secret realm?"

"How is that possible?"

Zi Yao rolled her extremely charming eyes, but a rare hint of irritability appeared in her expression, her nails once again scratching a white mark on the railing. "The secret realm is not an ordinary place after all. I could only sense that he was still alive. As for what he did inside, no one knows."

Wu Lingxiao's frown deepened.

"Then what is he so happy about?"

Zi Yao's eyes gradually became deep and eerie. On her fair fingertips, with a poof, a wisp of purple nether demonic fire danced, exuding a temperature that could burn everything to ashes. "When a creature like a man is happy for no reason, there are usually only two possibilities."

She held up a slender finger:

"First, he struck it rich."

Immediately after, she held up a second finger, the smile at the corners of her mouth becoming bone-chillingly cold:

"Second, he cheated."

"There are no treasure fluctuations on him, and I've checked his storage ring too; it's still the same stuff," Wu Lingxiao coldly ruled out the first possibility, her tone certain.

Then, the answer was obvious; only the second option remained.

But where was the evidence?

They had combed through all the details. No aura, no karma, not even a trace of unfamiliar cosmetic scent.

"Could it be that we're overthinking it?"

Zi Yao said somewhat uncertainly, "Perhaps he is simply happy because he survived a disaster?"

"Perhaps."

Wu Lingxiao turned around, her back to Zi Yao.

Under the golden imperial crown, her gaze looked toward the vast sea of clouds churning in the distance, her wide dragon robe billowing in the wind. Her tone revealed an absolute desire for control and a suspicious nature unique to an emperor:

"But I do not like this 'perhaps'."

"My man, I must control everything about him. Every smile and frown of his must have a reason that I know."

"Men."

Wu Lingxiao did not turn her head, merely speaking indifferently to the void.

An extremely faint ripple appeared in the air, and a hidden guard dressed in tight black clothes, whose very aura blended with the shadows, appeared out of thin air on the deck.

He knelt on one knee, his head bowed deeply, not daring to look directly at the imperial visage. "Your Majesty."

"Go investigate."

Wu Lingxiao's voice was like a cold wind from the Nine Nether Hell, without the slightest bit of temperature:

"Retrieve for me the roster of all personnel who entered the Tianyuan Secret Realm this time."

"Focus on investigating the female cultivators."

"Whether they are of the orthodox or demonic path, whether they are rogue cultivators or from sects. As long as they have some measure of beauty, and as long as they made it out alive this time, I want to know their backgrounds."

Hearing this, a flash of surprise crossed Zi Yao's eyes beside her, clearly not expecting this Empress to actually use such methods.

Immediately, she giggled charmingly, laughing so hard that she trembled like a flower branch:

"Sister is truly petty, isn't she. However..."

She stuck out her small, crimson tongue and licked her red lips as if savoring a lingering taste. A tyrannical, bloodthirsty glint flashed across her seductive, fox-like eyes:

"It is a good idea. I will have my subordinates look into it as well. I would rather slaughter three thousand by mistake than let a single one slip through my fingers."

She turned her head and gazed into the void, her voice soft yet absolutely bone-chilling:

"If there truly is some little vixen who dares to take advantage of the chaos to seduce my man..."

"Heh, I will make her regret ever being born into this world."