Both Husband and Lord

Ye Xuan turned around and no longer looked at the battered Ye Jiuhuang lying on the ground.

He pointed toward Ying’er, who had been standing some distance away, still holding a handful of sunflower seeds.

“Ying’er, come here.” Ye Xuan’s voice was cold. “You answer for her. Those few slaps I just gave her—were they right or wrong?”

“Coming, husband.”

Ying’er casually tossed the sunflower seeds into her storage ring, dusted the crumbs from her hands, and walked over with light, graceful steps.

When she reached Ye Jiuhuang, every trace of the smile on her originally pure and lively face vanished, replaced by utter coldness.

Looking down at Ye Jiuhuang, she showed not the slightest reverence toward the Master of the Sword God Palace. There was only faint mockery and disdain in her eyes.

“Sister Ye, husband was far too gentle when he hit you just now. If it had been me, then considering the treasonous things you said, I would have slapped you a hundred times at the very least—until that self-righteous face of yours was ruined!”

Ye Jiuhuang abruptly raised her head. Although she had not dared resist Ye Xuan, being humiliated by a mere maid still wounded the pride of the Sword Sovereign.

She glared fiercely at Ying’er and could not help shouting, “What exactly did I do wrong?”

“What did you do wrong?”

Ying’er narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze icy cold.

“You’re wrong because you failed to understand the most basic fact of all: Ye Xuan is our husband. And what does ‘husband’ mean?”

Ying’er’s voice was not loud, yet it possessed a strange penetrating quality that rang throughout the entire square.

“He is both husband and lord!”

“Once he is your lord, he is your master for life! And you? The moment you stepped onto the territory of the Sword God Palace, you revealed your true colors and began spouting nonsense! Under the pretense of doing what was best for your husband, you openly deprived him of his freedom.”

“You overstepped your bounds, making decisions for him and deciding his future!”

Ying’er suddenly stepped forward and pointed at Ye Jiuhuang’s nose, demanding harshly, “Whether it’s the wedding next month or that so-called position of principal wife, everything has always been decided by you alone! You never even asked your husband, yet you treated all of it as gifts and charity bestowed upon him!”

“Let me ask you this: where exactly did you place your husband? Do you think that simply because you are in your own territory, because your cultivation is profound and you are pure and aloof, you can place yourself above him and order him around whenever you please?”

Ye Jiuhuang stood rooted to the spot, her mind buzzing.

Ying’er’s words were like a sharp awl, ruthlessly piercing through the self-deluding facade she had unconsciously built. They tore out, bloody and exposed, the possessiveness and sense of superiority hidden deep within her heart.

“I…I didn’t…”

Ye Jiuhuang’s face instantly went pale. She hurriedly turned toward Ye Xuan and called out in panic, “Husband, that’s not what I meant! I really was only worried about you…”

“That’s exactly what you meant!”

Ying’er’s expression changed abruptly. A chilling murderous aura surfaced on her pure face.

Her figure vanished from where she stood like a ghost, without causing even the slightest ripple in space.

In the next instant, she appeared before Ye Jiuhuang as if she had teleported. Without the slightest mercy, she raised her slender hand and delivered a resounding slap.

“Impudent!”

Ye Jiuhuang had already been suppressing immense grievance. Now that even a maid dared to strike her, the dignity of the Sword Sovereign erupted in fury.

“My husband may hit me, but you’re merely a maid! How dare you lay a hand on me?”

In an instant, a terrifying power surpassing the Mahayana Realm and transcending the mortal world—a power belonging to a True Immortal—exploded from Ye Jiuhuang’s body.

Countless platinum sword lights swirled around her, forming an indestructible True Immortal Sword Domain. Under the pressure of this power, space within a hundred-mile radius wailed and collapsed.

The elders and disciples nearby were crushed to the ground by the might of the True Immortal, vomiting blood in torrents.

Yet in the face of power capable of shattering the stars, Ying’er’s gaze did not waver in the slightest. Even the hand she had swung forward did not pause for a single microsecond.

A seemingly delicate, boneless palm entered the True Immortal Sword Domain. The instant it made contact, it ignored all laws of the Great Dao and every protective aura, cutting through them as effortlessly as a knife through tofu.

“Smack!”

The slap rang through the heavens—ten times louder than the ones Ye Xuan had delivered earlier.

The supposedly indestructible True Immortal sword light collapsed instantly.

Ye Jiuhuang’s body, which had erupted with boundless divine might, proved completely incapable of resisting this blow. She was sent flying once again like a broken sack, a long trail of blood streaking through the air before she crashed into and shattered a ten-thousand-year-old ice totem pillar at the edge of the square.

Ye Jiuhuang crawled out of the ruins, her hair disheveled and half her face completely numb.

Her beautiful eyes widened as she stared at Ying’er, who stood with her hands behind her back, as though she were looking at a monster. Her voice trembled, filled with boundless shock and terror.

“How…how is this possible?!”

The surrounding Supreme Elders of the Sword God Palace, inner sect stewards, and tens of thousands of direct disciples were all left dumbfounded, their eyes nearly bulging from their sockets.

They had originally thought that Ying’er, the pretty maid who was always by Ye Xuan’s side and seemed to have no cultivation at all, doing nothing but crack sunflower seeds, was merely an insignificant accessory.

Who could have imagined that her slap would disperse the supreme power of a peak True Immortal with such ease?

This was the Sword Sovereign, a being who commanded the slaughter of the heavens!

Yet before Ying’er, she was truly no different from a helpless fly.

Ying’er slowly withdrew her jade-like hand. The childish charm and lively innocence she usually displayed had vanished completely, replaced by an absolute coldness that made even heaven and earth tremble.

She looked down from above at Ye Jiuhuang, who was trapped in a crack in the wall, battered and humiliated. Her voice was cold, devoid of the slightest warmth.

“Ye Jiuhuang, you keep saying that you love my husband. But do you really understand what love is?”

Ying’er stood with her hands behind her back, a sorrowful tenderness and heartache flickering in her eyes.

“My husband has endured countless reincarnations. In every life, he carried blood feuds beyond what any ordinary person could imagine. Every one of his past lives was so tragic, so agonizing!”

“So for those of us fortunate enough to remain by his side, there is only one thing we need to do—the only thing we should do: use everything we have to love him more fiercely, obey him absolutely, and think of every possible way to make him happy, to bring him joy, and to soothe the wounds buried deep within his soul.”

At this point, Ying’er suddenly raised her voice, her tone filled with undisguised killing intent and fury.

“But you? Relying on your overwhelming cultivation, relying on the fact that this is your Sword God Palace, you have tried to suppress and control my husband from the moment you entered!”

“You made decisions for him without permission and arranged his future without permission. How is that love? You clearly want to treat him as your own private caged bird! What right do you have, Ye Jiuhuang, to behave so outrageously before my husband?”