Qingdi (The Azure Emperor)

Three days later, in the imperial bedchamber.

During a strange fluctuation in time, only a few hours had passed in the outside world, but within the “Quicksands of Time” formation that Wu Lingxiao had desperately maintained, several years had already gone by.

Ying’er lay utterly limp against Ye Xuan’s broad chest, her long hair spilling loose and her beautiful eyes hazy with bliss. The aura within her had also risen steadily under Ye Xuan’s replenishment.

As for Ye Xuan, the aura of reincarnation surrounding his body had become perfectly smooth and complete. His foundation at the Tribulation Transcendence stage was now utterly secure, and his entire being radiated a divine splendor that seemed to set him apart from the mortal world.

At the edge of the formation, Wu Lingxiao sat collapsed on the ground. Her long hair had turned completely white, and wrinkles of age had appeared across what had once been taut, youthful skin.

Her body was gaunt and wasted, her hollow eyes fixed on the two people enjoying their tender moment before her.

Ye Xuan rose to his full height and casually draped a robe over himself.

He looked at Wu Lingxiao and said indifferently, “You may go rest now. And three months from now, when the wedding takes place, don’t let that ghastly appearance of yours spoil my mood.”

Wu Lingxiao woodenly kowtowed once. She was then supported out of the palace by two maids, leaving without a sound.

At the same time.

Countless miles away from the Sword God Palace stood the oldest and most mysterious supreme power in the Central Continent—the Qing Clan.

The Qing Clan occupied a cluster of ancient divine islands suspended high above the nine heavens. Immortal mists lingered there year-round, and auspicious radiance filled the skies.

Even those arrogant sect masters from the sacred lands had to lower their heads and walk when they arrived before the Qing Clan’s gates, showing the proper respect.

At the very heart of the Qing Clan’s restricted grounds, atop a solitary peak that pierced the heavens…

A lone figure stood quietly at the edge of a ten-thousand-zhang precipice.

She was an extraordinarily beautiful woman, with a graceful figure like a proud snow-covered lotus. She wore a spotless azure robe, while her three thousand strands of hair whipped wildly in the wind.

She merely stood there in silence, yet an indistinct azure radiance capable of causing the void itself to collapse shimmered around her. The laws of heaven and earth in the surrounding area seemed to let out strained, mournful cries with every breath she took.

The peak of the Great Ascension stage!

A realm beyond Tribulation Transcendence, just half a step away from ascending in broad daylight and becoming an immortal!

She was the true foundation of the Qing Clan—a woman who had lived for tens of thousands of years and once suppressed an entire era by herself: the Azure Emperor, Qing Xuanyin.

At this moment, however, the eyes of this supreme expert who made the entire world tremble were filled with agony and obsession utterly at odds with her status.

Between her two jade-like fingers was an invitation forged from pure gold and stamped with the emblem of the Sword God Palace.

It was the invitation to the dual-cultivation ceremony that Ye Xuan and Ye Jiuhuang would hold three months later.

“Heh… hehehe…”

Qing Xuanyin stared at the invitation in her hand and suddenly began to laugh.

Her laughter was soft, yet it carried an indescribable desolation and deep, bitter self-mockery.

“Ye Xuan… Ye Xuan… Who would have thought? I crossed the myriad heavens and worlds, searched through the Nine Hells and the Yellow Springs, and mobilized every resource the Qing Clan possessed to find you.”

Her fingers tightened slightly. The invitation, made from an unparalleled spiritual material, instantly crumbled into dust.

A crystalline tear slid from the corner of her eye.

“And yet… not only have you reincarnated, you’re actually… going to marry that bitch Ye Jiuhuang.”

The silent azure radiance surrounding Qing Xuanyin suddenly erupted into a violent frenzy.

The sky within a radius of a million miles changed color in an instant. The clear firmament was swallowed by a terrifying layer of azure tribulation clouds. Countless members of the Qing Clan looked up in terror. Sensing their ancestor’s nearly uncontrolled aura, they all fell to their knees and trembled.

“But Ye Xuan!”

Qing Xuanyin abruptly clenched both fists. Her originally cold and otherworldly face twisted under the weight of her overwhelming obsession, and her voice carried a sickening, terrifying possessiveness.

“You said you loved me!”

“You said that no matter how many times we reincarnated, you would love me in every life! You said that there would be no one else in your heart but me!”

She spun around, her beautiful eyes bloodshot as they fixed themselves on the direction of the Sword God Palace. It was as though she intended to pierce through the void spanning countless miles and lock that man’s figure within her gaze.

“I forbid it… I absolutely forbid you to marry another woman!”

The terrifying pressure of a peak Great Ascension cultivator exploded outward. The Wangduan Cliff beneath her feet shook violently, splitting open into countless bottomless chasms.

“I cannot let you marry Ye Jiuhuang! You are mine! You can only be mine!”

Just as Qing Xuanyin’s killing intent and jealousy reached their peak, nearly driving her to tear open the void and storm straight toward the Sword God Palace, her movements suddenly froze.

In an instant, an emotion deeper and more painful than jealousy surged over her like a tide, drowning her completely.

The violent azure light around her dimmed at once. This lofty female sovereign at the peak of the Great Ascension stage suddenly collapsed onto the cold stone like a helpless little girl who had done something wrong.

She covered her face with both hands, her shoulders shaking violently as she let out a heart-wrenching sob.

“I’m sorry… Ye Xuan, I was wrong. I was truly wrong…”

Tears poured through the gaps between Qing Xuanyin’s fingers. Her eyes were filled with regret and self-reproach so profound that nothing could ever make amends for them.

“If only… if only I hadn’t been so conceited back then… If I hadn’t been blinded by that so-called debt of gratitude, how could you have ended up in such a miserable state?”

“I kept saying that I was doing it for your own good, yet step by step, I forced you onto a dead end.”

At that moment, the scene from ten thousand years ago once again surfaced in her mind—a scene so agonizing that it had made her wish for death and left her heart torn apart.

Back then, the name Qing Xuanyin of the Qing Clan resounded throughout the Central Continent.

She possessed the Azure Lotus Dao Body, and her cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. In a mere few thousand years, she had already become a Tribulation Transcendence expert whom countless veteran cultivators could only look up to.

She was cold and aloof, ethereal as the bright moon high in the heavens, keeping everyone at arm’s length.

Yet there was one exception: her childhood companion and fiancé—Ye Xuan.

At that time, Ye Xuan’s aptitude was mediocre, and his cultivation had only barely reached the Divine Transformation stage.

Before the Tribulation Transcendence-stage Qing Xuanyin, he was no more than an insignificant ant. The entire Qing Clan—and indeed the whole Central Continent—mocked him as a toad dreaming of feasting on swan meat.

But Qing Xuanyin did not care.

In full view of the crowd, she would gently take Ye Xuan’s hand.

She would unhesitatingly press the finest pills she had obtained through countless hardships into his mouth.

Whenever Ye Xuan felt inferior because of his weak cultivation, she would softly rest her head against his shoulder and tell him, “Ye Xuan, I don’t ask you to possess a cultivation that reaches the heavens. I only ask you to remain by my side forever. I’ll protect you, life after life.”

Back then, Ye Xuan had been insecure, but his eyes were filled with light.

He cultivated with all his might. Even when his meridians were shattered, he still struggled to keep pace with her. He believed that he possessed the most precious love in the entire world.

However, everything changed after their journey into a secret realm.

Qing Xuanyin and her biological elder sister had gone together to explore an ancient land of fiendish danger.

But deep within the secret realm, they encountered a terrifying backlash from the formation. At the final moment, with life and death hanging in the balance, her sister took the fatal blow meant for Qing Xuanyin and died on the spot, her soul utterly annihilated.

Before she died, her sister—covered in blood—clutched Qing Xuanyin’s hand and pleaded with her, unwilling to close her eyes: “Xuanyin… take good care of your brother-in-law… He has no one in this world but me… Please… take good care of him in my place…”

With tears streaming down her face, Qing Xuanyin swore to the heavens that she would protect her brother-in-law, Lu Yanchen, and keep him safe for the rest of his life.