Encountering the Great Xia Empress Again

"You—"

But Ying'er had already risen with a laugh, strolling toward the cave entrance with steps as light as if she were walking on air.

Just as she reached the mouth of the cave, she seemed to remember something and spun around abruptly.

Morning light fell across her face, making those eyes shine brilliantly clear.

"Oh, right, master…"

She deliberately drew out the last syllable, her tone brimming with playful mischief.

"That great demon who forged the Heart-Questioning Stone… that wasn't your past life, was it?"

Without giving Ye Xuan a chance to react, she giggled, turned, and darted out of the cave.

Inside the cavern, Ye Xuan's face darkened instantly.

"Ying'er!"

From outside came the girl's crisp laughter, like silver bells, drifting further and further away.

Ye Xuan rose to his feet, grinding his teeth as he stared at the cave mouth.

"You must stay by my side for the rest of your life."

"You know far too many secrets."

Yet even as he said this, there was little true anger in his eyes.

What lingered there instead was something closer to helpless indulgence.

That girl was growing more incorrigible by the day.

And yet, he truly couldn't do much about her.

For the next half day, the two continued deeper into the ruins.

But after finding the Heart-Questioning Stone, Ye Xuan had lost nearly all interest in this outer layer of the Burial Abyss of Heaven relics.

Along the way, broken alchemy furnaces, shattered jade slips, and ancient spirit herbs—he only collected the parts that still held value, casually tucking them into his storage ring.

As for the opportunities that required tremendous cost to claim, he didn't even bother to look twice.

Ying'er kept pace beside him, gathering resources while chattering away with endless questions.

"Husband, this three-turn blood ginseng must be at least a thousand years old—are you really going to leave it behind?"

"No."

"That ruins over there—there seems to be residual sword aura. Maybe there's a legacy hidden inside."

"It's fake. A deliberate decoy."

"How do you know?"

"Because if there really were a legacy, the killing intent guarding the formation would have risen long ago. It wouldn't let you notice it so easily."

"Wow."

Ying'er's eyes went wide, her face full of admiration: "How do you know everything now?"

Ye Xuan's steps paused slightly.

Because he truly had "seen" it.

Beneath that stretch of ruins lurked a dark-gray energy—cold, hollow, deceptive. It wasn't any kind of legacy at all, but an ancient formation specifically designed to lure in greedy cultivators and kill them.

This was the change that refining the Heart-Marrow Elixir had brought him.

Not quite omniscience, to be sure—but whenever something involved living beings' will, formation spirits' remnants, or artifact spirits' natures, he could vaguely perceive truth from falsehood.

Ye Xuan didn't explain. He only said flatly, "Instinct."

Ying'er let out an "oh," but clearly didn't believe him.

Still, she didn't press further. She only smiled quietly to herself, more certain than ever that the secrets Ye Xuan carried ran far deeper than she knew.

They walked to the very end of the ruins.

There, an ancient teleportation formation stood before them.

The formation patterns were already damaged, surrounded by piles of shattered spirit stones and beast bones. In the air lingered a faint, ancient ripple of spatial energy.

Ying'er looked at the teleportation array and couldn't help asking, "So we're leaving already?"

Ye Xuan nodded. "Mm."

"There's nothing left here worth staying for."

He raised his eyes to the layered veils of blood-mist in the distance, his tone calm and cold.

"What I truly came for, I've already obtained."

Ying'er naturally knew he meant the Heart-Questioning Stone, and her eyes curved into a bright smile. "So where do we go next?"

"First, we leave the Burial Abyss of Heaven."

Ye Xuan pressed his hand against the teleportation formation's edge, letting his spiritual energy pour out as he began repairing the broken patterns, bit by bit.

"Outside, someone is waiting for me."

Ying'er grew curious. "Who?"

Ye Xuan's gaze turned distant. "What's meant to come will come."

As the last high-grade spirit stone clicked into the formation's core, the entire array finally blazed to life.

Ancient patterns ignited one by one, bursting into dazzling white light.

The power of space surged up like a rising tide.

Ying'er instinctively grabbed at Ye Xuan's sleeve, while Ye Xuan wrapped an arm around her and said calmly, "Let's go."

The next moment, both figures vanished from where they stood.

When they reappeared, they stood upon a vast, desolate plain.

The sky was high and open, clouds churning overhead.

Distant mountains rose like coiling dragons, and the spiritual energy here was incomparably purer than that within the Burial Abyss of Heaven.

But no sooner had the two set foot on solid ground than Ye Xuan's eyes turned ice-cold.

Because ahead of them, a figure already stood waiting.

It was a woman.

She wore a majestic dark-gold imperial robe, its hem embroidered with the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers of the Great Xia Dynasty. At her waist hung a crimson-gold dragon-patterned jade token.

Standing there, she was like a blazing sun suspended high above the nine heavens, her aura overwhelming.

Yet oddly, the look she fixed on Ye Xuan held none of an emperor's sharpness.

Instead, it carried a tension and softness she was deliberately trying to suppress.

The Empress of Great Xia, Wu Lingxiao.

Peak of the Mahayana stage!

She needed only to stand there, and the very void around her seemed to warp, the whole world bending to her will.

Ying'er's face paled slightly, instinctively overwhelmed by a tremendous pressure.

Ye Xuan, however, simply raised his eyes and looked at her calmly.

Wu Lingxiao slowly stepped forward.

She gazed at Ye Xuan, forcing a faint smile at the corner of her lips, though her eyes hid an indescribable bitterness.

"Husband."

"I've come to find you."

Ye Xuan looked as though he had long expected this. His face betrayed no emotion whatsoever, and he only said coldly:

"What do you want with me?"

Wu Lingxiao's frame stiffened almost imperceptibly.

The exalted Empress of Great Xia, standing at the summit of all under heaven, now trembled at the fingertips like a woman who had done wrong.

"I…"

She bit her lip, her voice dropping low.

"I've come to make amends."

Ye Xuan let out a mocking laugh. "Make amends?"

"Wu Lingxiao, would someone like you even utter those words?"

Wu Lingxiao's face paled.

She looked at Ye Xuan, as if reminded of something, a flicker of pain passing through her eyes.

"What happened before—I was wrong."

"I know that saying it now is too late."

"But I still wanted to see you. Even if you curse me, hate me, refuse to look at me another moment… I had to say 'I'm sorry' to you with my own mouth."

The wind stirred across the plain, lifting the hem of her imperial robe.

In that instant, this Empress of Great Xia, whose name shook the world, truly seemed to have lowered herself into the dust.

Ying'er listened on the side, stunned. She couldn't help but whisper to Ye Xuan, "Did she wrong you too, in the past?"

Ye Xuan didn't answer her. He simply stared at Wu Lingxiao.

Within his perception, the regret in Wu Lingxiao's heart was seventy percent genuine.

The remaining thirty percent was tension, probing, and a stubborn instinct that refused to completely surrender her dignity.

That in itself was already remarkable.

After all, she was an empress.

One who stood at the very pinnacle of the Great Xia Dynasty, looking down upon all living things.

Making someone like her bow her head was no easy feat.

But Ye Xuan was not moved.

Because he knew better than anyone that this world's "belated regrets" were mostly cheap enough to laugh at.

When you needed someone, they weren't there.

Only when you crawled out of the abyss on your own did they come talking about apologies and old feelings.

How utterly laughable.

"Are you done?"

Ye Xuan's tone was frigid.

Wu Lingxiao looked at him, speaking softly, "Not yet."

She inhaled deeply, as if finally steeling herself for something.

Ye Xuan, I want to stay by your side.