One Glance at Ye Xuan, a Lifetime of Mistake

Upon returning to the family, Ye Jiuzhou displayed a talent that made the entire cultivation world tremble.

Ever since her Yin and Yang merged, the Heavenly Phoenix Sword Bone completely awakened. The potential that was once sealed due to the conflict between Yin and Yang surged out like a bursting dam.

His cultivation level soared at an illogical speed, and the time required to break through each realm set new historical records for the Sword God Palace.

At twelve, Foundation Establishment. He went into secluded cultivation in the back mountain for seven days. When he emerged, his sword qi stretched out for a thousand zhang, slicing a layer off the entire back mountain.

At fifteen, Core Formation. A rank-nine Golden Core of such high quality that it attracted a heavenly tribulation. As three bolts of lightning struck down, he stood amid the thunder and lightning, throwing his head back in laughter. He withstood the heavenly thunder with his physical body; the Golden Core did not shatter but became even more condensed.

At eighteen, shattering the core to form a Nascent Soul. The moment the Nascent Soul materialized, anomalies appeared again: nine phoenixes sang in unison, and ten thousand swords paid homage. The entire Sword God Mountain Range trembled slightly, and sword cultivators within a ten-thousand-mile radius felt the terrifying sword might, bowing down in the direction of the Sword God Palace.

At twenty, stepping into the Soul Formation realm!

Ten years!

From a piece of trash who had not even reached the peak of the Qi Condensation realm, to a peerless prodigy at the Soul Formation realm!

When this record spread, the entire cultivation world was shaken.

His father, Ye Qingtian, was so shocked his jaw nearly dropped.

When Ye Jiuzhou stood in the Ye family's great hall in a male body, his sword intent as deep as the abyss and as vast as the sea, Ye Qingtian was stunned for a full three breaths.

He used his divine sense to scan him repeatedly no less than ten times. After confirming that the blood flowing in this imposing young man's body was indeed his own, the brightest smile of his life bloomed on his aged face.

After confirming this was his son, in his ecstasy, he directly announced him as the Young Master of the Sword God Palace and betrothed his cousin, Shen Qingshuang, who possessed the Profound Ice Spirit Body, to him.

Ye Qingtian's joy came so fiercely that it left Ye Jiuzhou a bit dazed.

Ten years of being ignored, ten years of cold stares, ten years of "what a pity" were all overturned in this single moment.

His father hugged him for the very first time.

Those hands that had once placed him back in the cradle and turned away were now tightly gripping his shoulders, with enough force to almost break his bones.

"Good boy! Good boy! Truly worthy of being Ye Qingtian's son!"

Son.

Standing in his father's embrace, Ye Jiuzhou's lips curved into a polite arc, but his eyes were as calm as water.

He had waited ten years for this hug.

But when this embrace finally came, he felt absolutely nothing.

He only felt cold.

The Sword God Palace was decorated with lanterns and colored banners, hosting a banquet of a hundred tables. Major sects from the Central Continent all sent representatives with congratulatory gifts. The sky was filled with flowing, colorful lights, illuminating the night sky as bright as day.

The guests exchanged toasts, praising this marriage as a match made in heaven. The Young Master's Heavenly Phoenix Sword Bone and Miss Shen's Profound Ice Spirit Body, one Yang and one Yin, were a perfect pairing.

Shen Qingshuang blushed, secretly glancing at this world-renowned cousin.

She hid behind an embroidered screen, revealing only half of her face.

It was a face as gentle as jade, with skin like congealed fat and picturesque features.

Her eyes were full of the shyness and adoration of a young girl's first love, her fingers anxiously twisting the corner of her clothes, her heart beating as fast as a frightened fawn.

Meanwhile, Ye Jiuzhou held his wine cup, his smile as warm as jade, but his heart was as cold as a stagnant well of ice.

He sat high upon the dais, accepting everyone's congratulations and envy. The fine wine in his cup reflected his image.

It was a face perfect beyond reproach, heroic, refined, and gentle.

But he knew this face was fake.

This body was fake.

This name was fake.

This joyous banquet, every single word of congratulation, was fake.

Only he himself knew.

Only he knew what kind of lonely and twisted soul lived inside this man's shell.

He could take a wife, he could have children. He could play the role of a husband, a Young Master, and the number one sword cultivator in the world flawlessly.

But he could never truly fall in love with a woman.

Because in the deepest part of his subconscious... he still felt he was a woman.

The Yin-Yang Creation Divine Pill had reshaped his flesh, but it could not reshape his soul.

That little girl who practiced the sword in the moonlight and bit her pillow to keep from crying had not died.

She was merely locked inside a man's skin, huddled in the darkest corner, silently watching this grand and absurd play.

When Shen Qingshuang walked toward him with a wine cup and a blushing face, Ye Jiuzhou looked at her with the gentlest of gazes, yet his heart was a bed of dead ashes.

I'm sorry.

You deserve someone better.

To escape this marriage, and also to verify his invincible sword Dao.

On the second day after the engagement, Ye Jiuzhou left behind a letter, strapped the Heaven-Severing Divine Sword to his back, and began his journey of experiencing the swordsmanship of the Nine Provinces.

That letter was very short, containing only eight words.

"Sword Dao unachieved, how can I start a family?"

Holding this letter, Shen Qingshuang stood in the empty bridal chamber for an entire day.

Tears soaked the letter paper, blurring the eight words into a smudge of ink.

Ye Jiuzhou was going to challenge the world!

He wanted to use the sword in his hand to tell everyone that he, Ye Jiuzhou, was a true man, the true strongest!

Only by constantly growing stronger, constantly fighting, and constantly proving himself with one victory after another, could he temporarily forget that weeping soul locked deep within his skin.

He was full of high spirits, his white clothes surpassing snow.

This departure would bring a storm of blood and rain.

He headed south, challenging the prodigies of the major sects.

White clothes like snow, long sword on his back. Wherever he went, whichever sect he visited, he did not state his name or discuss seniority, only saying three words:

"Please instruct me."

Whether it was a veteran powerhouse who had been famous for a long time or a stunningly talented hidden inheritor, none could last three moves under his sword.

The Sword Dao Elder of the Great Void Sect, famous for three hundred years and proficient in the seventy-two Heavenly Dipper Sword Arts. Ye Jiuzhou broke all seventy-two arts with a single strike, clean and decisive.

The Young Master of the Myriad Beast Villa, who cultivated a domineering technique that merged the power of demonic beasts into the sword, known as the "Hundred Beasts Return to One Sword."

Ye Jiuzhou didn't even draw his sword; he simply tapped lightly with its scabbard, sending him flying a hundred zhang away.

The genius disciple of the Jade Firmament Immortal Mansion, rumored to possess the "Lightning Spirit Sword Body" rarely seen in three hundred years, capable of integrating the power of heavenly thunder into his sword Dao.

Ye Jiuzhou exchanged a single strike with him. Just one strike. The sword light of the Lightning Spirit Sword Body shattered and disintegrated like thin ice under the scorching sun the moment it touched the Heavenly Phoenix sword qi.

He was too strong.

So strong it caused despair, so strong it was suffocating.

After every battle, his white clothes never bore a single trace of blood. That Heaven-Severing Divine Sword was never even fully unsheathed.

He always ended the battle in a nearly elegant manner before his opponent could even go all out.

The titles "Born Sword God" and "Young Master of the Sword God Palace" soon resounded throughout the entire cultivation world.

Some praised him, some feared him, some were unconvinced.

But everyone who had seen him draw his sword unanimously said the same thing:

"This person's sword is unparalleled in the world."

Yet no one knew that this white-clad Sword God, who stood with his hands behind his back under the gaze of tens of thousands, would sit alone on a deserted mountain peak late at night, hugging his knees and staring blankly like a child.

He had defeated everyone.

But he could not defeat himself.

Central Continent, outside the Sword Burial Valley.

Pouring rain, lightning, and thunder.

Sword Burial Valley, legend has it, is the resting place of countless sword cultivators from the ancient era.

The valley was shrouded year-round in a heavy, baleful sword aura. Dead branches and withered leaves had long been ground into dust by the residual sword intent of eons past. Not a single blade of grass grew on the ground; only jagged black rocks stood tall, resembling countless broken sword blades.

The torrential rain tonight felt as if the heavens themselves were weeping.

An earth-shattering battle had just come to a close.

Ye Jiuzhou, who was at the early Soul Formation stage, had been ambushed by the demonic path giant, the Blood Demon Patriarch.

The Blood Demon Patriarch, a veteran mighty figure at the late Soul Formation stage, had made his name thousands of years ago, his hands stained with the blood of countless cultivators.

He had long coveted the Heavenly Phoenix Sword Bone. Laying an inescapable trap, he used twelve Blood Fiend Banners to seal the space and cut off any path of retreat, vowing to refine this fledgling youth sword cultivator into a blood pill.

It was a tragic and bitter slaughter.

The mountains within a hundred miles were leveled by their clash. The earth cracked apart, giving rise to deep abysses.

The Blood Demon Patriarch's sky-filling rain of blood and Ye Jiuzhou's golden sword qi collided madly in the void, the resulting shockwaves tearing a massive hole in the clouds.

Relying on the overbearing might of the Heavenly Phoenix Sword Bone, Ye Jiuzhou forcibly used an early Soul Formation cultivation base to cross realms and slay the late Soul Formation Blood Demon Patriarch!

His final sword strike had burned away almost all of his life force.

The phantom of a golden phoenix spread its wings and screeched in the rainstorm, transforming into an apocalyptic sword light that reduced the Blood Demon Patriarch, along with his twelve Blood Fiend Banners, into drifting ashes.

But he himself was at the end of his rope.

His meridians were shattered inch by inch, his dantian was dried up, and worse, he had been afflicted by the extremely insidious Bone-Corroding Soul-Melting Powder.

It was a treacherous poison released by the Blood Demon Patriarch right before his death, at the cost of self-destructing his dharma body.

This poison not only corroded the physical body but also caused one to lose consciousness and all spiritual energy, degrading them into a mere mortal.

It was the most malicious mutual-destruction technique in the demonic path.

Pfft...

Ye Jiuzhou spat out a mouthful of black blood. As the blood fell into the rainwater, it emitted a pungent stench, corroding the black rocks beneath his feet into pitted holes.

His brocade robes had long been soaked in blood; it was impossible to tell which was the enemy's and which was his own.

He staggered and fell to the ground in the pouring rain.

His knees struck the crushed stones, but he could no longer feel the pain.

His vision gradually blurred.

Rainwater poured into his eyes, piercingly cold.

Heaven and earth turned into a murky gray in his sight.

With his final glance, he saw a figure wearing a straw raincoat and carrying a tattered bamboo basket on their back, trudging unevenly through the mud.

The figure was blurry, washed out by the rainstorm until its outline was almost invisible, leaving only a swaying silhouette.

My life ends here...

Ye Jiuzhou closed his eyes in despair.

A self-deprecating, bitter smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

His life had truly been absurd enough.

Born a daughter yet forced to live as a man, possessing peerless talent yet with no one who truly understood him.

And now, was he going to die in this desolate wilderness?

In a place like this, whoever appeared would either be a rogue cultivator looking to murder and loot, or a man-eating demonic beast.

Was a peerless genius of a generation actually going to fall here?

In the final moment before his consciousness plunged into darkness, he faintly felt a pair of hands pulling at him. These hands were not large, nor did they have much strength. They dragged him with great difficulty, nearly slipping together into the mud several times.

But those hands never let go.