Chapter 31 – Seed

This was the first time Feng Ye had spoken since Administrator Zheng began talking about past events.

Fang Yang looked toward him and nodded vigorously. He still remembered the story Useless Shixiong had told him a few days ago, about the common jiao that could be found everywhere in the eastern sea turning into a yinglong. And there was only one. In tens of millions of years, there was only ever one.

Then the yinglong who killed Jianmu a hundred years ago was probably the one in Useless Shixiong’s story.

From this moment on, he set a goal for himself. He would be like Yinglong, becoming the one who stood out from amongst the thousands of ordinary jiao in the eastern sea. 

And the aforementioned goal was actually not contradictory to his previous goal. Wanting to become as powerful as Yinglong had just transformed into wanting to defeat Yinglong.

In short, it was just as Useless Shixiong said. He would have to become very strong.

Fang Yang clenched his fists, setting an extremely ambitious goal in his heart.

Administrator Zheng took in that ambitious look for a moment, and in the end, he swallowed down words that would have been a blow to Fang Yang’s confidence.

A mortal wanted to defeat a god? And it was the ultimate heavenly God of War? His madness was on par with that of Ling Yun, who dreamed of reaching the heavens a hundred years ago.

Administrator Zheng didn’t believe that Fang Yang could do it. He wanted Fang Yang to face reality, but Fang Yang’s resolute expression made him swallow his words.

He had been young once, and young people were like this, ignorant of the immensity of the world. They would not listen to the lectures of their elders. Only when they personally hit a wall would they understand what lay beyond human control.

“And how was Jianmu after the fire?” Feng Ye suddenly asked.

Administrator Zheng was somewhat puzzled, as he had obviously already given a clear answer.

But Feng Ye likely hadn’t been paying attention, so Administrator Zheng repeated once more: “Jianmu was reduced to ashes by the fire. Not even a branch or leaf was left.”

“Not even a branch or a leaf?” Feng Ye repeated in a vaguely probing tone.

Now Hao Chen was a little confused. In this story from a hundred years ago, Hao Chen and Fang Yang were focused on Ling Yun and Yinglong, which was a normal reaction. But Feng Ye didn’t care about these two people at all. On the contrary, he was very interested in Jianmu instead.

“Naturally, in a fire like that, only a few people survived. How could something as flammable as wood and leaves survive?” Administrator Zheng proceeded to answer.

“Did you see it with your own eyes?” Feng Ye asked again, almost a little aggressive.

“I…..” Administrator Zheng wanted to claim to have seen it with his own eyes, but he hadn’t. He had only just entered the sect a hundred years ago, and his cultivation was similar to the level three Qi Refining disciple in front of him. He couldn’t even fly on a sword. 

Naturally, he hadn’t participated in the grand ascent to heaven over the eastern sea. Otherwise he wouldn’t be standing here telling the story to these three. 

Everything he knew was either hearsay or his own imaginings. But Feng Ye’s questioning made him feel a little embarrassed, so with a hint of displeasure, he gave the following testimony: “Although I didn’t see it with my own eyes, after the fire, many people went to the eastern sea to search for their friends and relatives who died in the disaster.”

“The island made of Living Soil was covered in ashes, and the ashes of people couldn’t be distinguished from those of the tree. But those searching for their friends and relatives still turned over the ashes cun by cun, trying to find their remains.”

“If Jianmu had escaped being burned entirely, it would have been discovered long ago. With so many eyes searching, it would have been impossible to hide.”

“But after that incident a hundred years ago, there has been no news of Jianmu in this world. It was most likely completely reduced to ashes,” Administrator Zheng said firmly.

Feng Ye didn’t ask further questions after hearing this, but his expression made it clear that he was still doubtful.

He crossed his arms and thought, What Administrator Zheng said actually makes sense. With so many people searching for the remains of their friends and relatives in full view of everyone, if someone had discovered something related to Jianmu, then why was there no news at all?

But if Jianmu had truly been burned to ashes, what about his dream?

Every scene in that dream matched the events of one hundred years ago. Feng Ye had actually heard about this event not long before Hao Chen and Fang Yang, about a month ago.

A month ago, when he infiltrated Lingxiao Sword Sect under his current identity. That night, while the junior disciples nearby were fast asleep, he sneaked into the library on the peak of the mountain without anyone noticing.

Hao Chen’s supposition was actually correct. He went to sleep earlier than a chicken and woke up later than a dog, not because he actually liked to sleep in, but because he really was going out like a thief in the middle of the night.

He had learned about Ling Yun’s efforts to ascend to heaven from the files in the library, and knew that the figure with his heart dug out in his dreams was Ling Yun.

Ling Yun’s ending was just as he had seen in his dream. He had turned to ashes along with Jianmu.

But this was not the end. At least, it wasn’t the end of his dream.

Once the flames died down, something broke through the ashes and emerged from the ground.

By its shape, it was clearly the seedling of Jianmu.

He wouldn’t be having the same dream over and over for no reason. And the heart-stopping sensation he felt upon seeing the newly-grown seedling at the end of the dream was so real. So real that when he awoke from the dream, he was unable to recover from the shock of impending disaster for a long while.

Jianmu must still exist somewhere in the world.

Feng Ye’s first suspect was Ji Chengyue, Ling Yun’s fellow disciple.

The relationship between these martial brothers was pretty good. At least, it was pretty good before Ling Yun became an eternal sinner.

In fact, Ji Chengyue was probably the closest person to Ling Yun after their master passed away.

He was also the most likely person to have hidden Jianmu. 

The shixiong had failed, so the shidi inherited his legacy. This was a logical assumption.

Thus, taking advantage of Ji Chengyue’s absence, Feng Ye once again sneaked up the mountain in the middle of the night and entered Ji Chengyue’s rooms. He turned the rooms upside down, but didn’t find anything that resembled a seed or a sapling.

There wasn’t even a trace of Ling Yun inside Ji Chengyue’s rooms.

Normally, when a friend or relative passed away, people would put a portrait or the belongings of that person in their rooms to remember them by. But Ji Chengyue’s rooms had none of these.

He seemed to be like everyone else, regarding his shixiong as an eternal sinner for whom even death was an insufficient punishment. He refused to even display a symbolic object in mourning. 

After hunting in vain, Feng Ye temporarily gave up his search.

Apart from Ji Chengyue, he had no idea who else would have hidden Jianmu.

But conspiracy and ambition had long been quietly surging in unseen places. The abyss in his dream and the person watching him from behind it was the real culprit in all of this.

Unfortunately, Feng Ye didn’t know who the other party was, nor what their plans were.

In such a situation where the enemy was in the dark and he was standing in the light, Feng Ye had adopted the most conservative and helpless method – sit still and wait.

He could only wait, for he had no leads.

He had chosen to do his waiting in Lingxiao Sword Sect, because it had been the beginning of the events of one hundred years ago, and was also the location the other party was most likely to appear.

He waited for a month, serving as a junior disciple. But apart from sweeping the floor and sleeping, nothing else happened.

Until four days ago, when Hao Chen showed up.

This guy somehow knew about his fake identity. His origins were suspicious, and his purpose was even more suspicious. Thus, when Feng Ye saw Hao Chen making up all sorts of excuses to stay in Lingxiao Sword Sect, he didn’t stop him.

He actually only let Hao Chen stay in order to act according to the situation. Otherwise, no matter how shameless Hao Chen was, he wouldn’t be able to stay if Feng Ye really didn’t want him to.

He was waiting for the other party to show his true colors, while at the same time sounding him out.

After four days of testing him, Feng Ye could pretty much rule out Hao Chen as the party in his dream who would bring about disaster. This guy had no idea about the events a hundred years ago, and didn’t care about Jianmu. Instead, his focus was all on Feng Ye himself.

Although Feng Ye was somewhat puzzled, having ruled out the other party as a suspect, he couldn’t be bothered to care about Hao Chen anymore. He planned to continue being an ordinary, diligent, though sometimes lazy junior disciple as he waited for the true culprit behind the scenes to show up.

Administrator Zheng’s recitation of past events was pretty much the same as what Feng Ye had read in the library files. The only difference might be that Administrator Zheng was a good orator and told the story more vividly.

But hearing the story again gave Feng Ye some inspiration.

“You just said that Ling…..” Feng Ye was about to directly say the name, but when Administrator Zheng heard that first word, he looked as terrified as if calamity was about to befall him. Feng Ye was forced to change his words halfway through: “That he…..found the seed in a secret realm?”

Fang Yang, Hao Chen, and Administrator Zheng were all unable to keep up with Feng Ye’s train of thought, and didn’t understand why he changed the subject so quickly.

But Administrator Zheng still nodded and answered affirmatively.

“Which secret realm was it?” Feng Ye asked.

“By coincidence, it was the same one that’s opening in a few days.” Administrator Zheng said with a sigh: “A hundred years ago, the Floating Island Secret Realm wasn’t as unstable as it is now. Back then, the lowest cultivator qualified to enter had to be at Golden Core stage.”

Having said this, he gave the three of them a warning: “Be careful if you go to the Floating Island Secret Realm. Although the highest level of cultivation of those entering the secret realm cannot exceed Foundation Establishment due to the secret realm’s impending collapse, the monsters inside are not subject to such restrictions.”

“The previous sect leader single-handedly fought two Nascent Soul monsters at the bottom of the sea in the Floating Island Secret Realm and obtained the Jianmu seed under their protection. It’s unknown if it was because he brought the Jianmu seed out of the Floating Island Secret realm, but after that, the secret realm showed signs of collapse. It was also after that when he established the convention that cultivators above Foundation Establishment were no longer allowed to enter the secret realm.”

It was a pity that while Administrator Zheng exhorted them earnestly, Fang Yang was the only one listening attentively to his enthusiastic advice.

When Feng Ye heard the words “Floating Island Secret Realm,” he had fallen deep into thought once more. He was just wondering why the Floating Island Secret Realm sounded so familiar, and it turned out that he had actually seen it.

At least, he had seen its name in the files in the library. Unfortunately, he had sneaked in during the middle of the night, and guards would walk past the door from time to time. He had read the files very hastily, and didn’t catch how Ling Yun had obtained the Jianmu seed.

After hearing Administrator Zheng’s words today, he suddenly realized that the seedling in his dream may not be the same one as a hundred years ago.

Who stipulated that there could only be one Jianmu tree in the world? Was there another seed where Ling Yun had found the first one?

The answer was unknown. The monsters at the bottom of the sea in the Floating Island Secret Realm were terrifyingly powerful, and ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators wouldn’t dare to stray down there. Only Ling Yun, who was at Hedao stage, dared to go in alone.

Therefore, only Ling Yun knew if there was an additional seed there.

It seems that no matter what, I must personally go to the Floating Island Secret Realm, Feng Ye thought.

Feng Ye was lost in thought, and so was Hao Chen. All of the questions Feng Ye asked were related to Jianmu. It seemed Feng Ye had a great interest in this topic. 

Why? Hao Chen looked at Feng Ye and pondered this question.

“The Floating Island Secret Realm is so dangerous? There are actually Nascent Soul stage monsters there?” Unlike the two who were distracted, Fang Yang was slightly apprehensive after hearing what Administrator Zheng said.

Although he was unable to participate in the afternoon competition due to his poisoning, the ranking he achieved that morning qualified him to enter the Floating Island Secret Realm.

Administrator Zheng comforted him: “There’s no need to worry too much. The powerful monsters are all hiding at the bottom of the sea, and there aren’t any particularly strong ones on the island. As long as you’re careful, you shouldn’t run into any major problems.”

“Oh, I see. Many thanks.” Fang Yang thanked him very politely.

Feng Ye’s musing was interrupted by their conversation. He also gave thanks, then turned to leave.

He wasn’t qualified to enter the Floating Island Secret Realm. It was his own fault for not noticing the secret realm’s name in the files, and for not thinking that there might be another Jianmu seed. He hadn’t even registered, and now he had to go through the trouble of somehow getting a spot.

The Floating Island Secret Realm was opening in three days. He had to make haste.

Thus, he was in a hurry to leave.

Administrator Zheng stopped him in disbelief: “Wait, did you just come here for a story? Aren’t you here to select an earth-grade magic weapon?”

Feng Ye paused: “……”

He had completely forgotten.

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Chapter 30 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 32

Although Luo Li had a rugged appearance, his movements were agile as he performed disinfection, bandaging, and temperature measurement in one go.

“He only suffered superficial injuries, Your Highness. His other indicators are normal, aside from his elevated temperature.”

Oser: “What is the cause of it?”

“There could be many reasons, such as an inflammatory reaction, postoperative rejection, or others. The specific cause can only be determined by sending a blood sample for testing.”

“In your experience, which is more likely?”

“A reaction to the mark,” the experienced male Omega answered without hesitation.

“What does it mean?”

Luo Li covered his face again and giggled: “Your Highness has to be joking. The meaning of a marking reaction? It’s what you already know.”

“……”

Seeing his strange expression, Luo Li remembered that the Alpha before him was no ordinary Alpha: “Your Highness doesn’t know?”

Oser wore a displeased expression: “Either communicate better or I’ll replace you.”

Luo Li immediately became serious: “When an Omega is first marked by an Alpha, it causes a non-infection related temporary increase in body temperature due to the fusion of foreign pheromones. He’ll recover naturally in three to seven days, with the recovery speed depending on the individual’s constitution. As an Omega is repeatedly marked by the same Alpha, the marking reaction will weaken as the number of markings go up, until there are no symptoms at all. However, if marked by a new Alpha, the symptoms will increase significantly. In severe cases, it can lead to symptoms such as persistent fever and loss of consciousness.”

“Is that so? So a new Alpha can mark him,” Oser said coldly.

“I just memorized the introduction to physiology class material. An existing Alpha mark can only be overwritten by an Alpha with stronger mental power. A wise and powerful Alpha like Your Highness certainly doesn’t need to worry about such a problem.”

Having said this, he gave the wise and powerful Alpha a meaningful wink.

Tang De had just come in when he witnessed this striking scene.

He gasped in fear and inhaled the mixture of Ling Yi and Oser’s pheromones, feeling like his death was just around the corner.

Ling Yi, who had been sleeping soundly in bed, suddenly rolled over and sat up, as alert as a hedgehog with its spines standing on end.

“He’s here!”

Oser hastened over and took the man into his arms, but found that his eyes weren’t open.

“Who’s here?”

“The one who injected poison into the oxygen tube.”

Oser sent Tang De a suspicious look. The latter waved his hands fearfully, indicating that it had nothing to do with him.

Ling Yi couldn’t see, but he was very confident: “That person’s pheromones smell like methyl tert-butyl ether. I remember it very clearly.”

Tang De: “……”

It suddenly occurred to him: “Is it because I touched the assassin and the scent of his pheromones is still on me?”

“Why did you touch him?” Oser asked unhappily.

“You injured him so badly that there’s an eighty percent probability that he’ll die. I wanted to return him to the Prime Minister as a warning not to do anything rash. But Doctor Lan Ze said he has other uses for the body, so I gave it to him.”

Oser patted Ling Yi gently, coaxing him: “It’s okay, it’s okay. That person is gone. He won’t come back.”

The person in his arms visibly relaxed.

Tang De asked curiously: “It can’t be that you can distinguish every Alpha by their pheromones, right? What do mine smell like?”

Ling Yi thought for a moment, then said, “Probably…..isoamyl acetate.”

“Doctor Pat?”

“Cedrane epoxide.”

“And His Highness Oser?”

Ling Yi tilted his head to take a sniff, and said after some time: “I can’t describe it.”

Tang De endeavored to hold back his laughter. He knew His Highness was not a product of the natural world.

Oser glared at Tang De, not only because Ling Yi couldn’t describe his pheromones, but even more so because Ling Yi could describe so many other Alphas’ pheromones.

Then he asked Luo Li: “What’s wrong with his eyes?”

Luo Li: “Let me see……it’s not a big deal. He just suffered a shock before and is too afraid to open his eyes.”

He applied a few eyedrops to Ling Yi’s eyes: “Don’t be afraid, open your eyes slowly.”

Ling Yi slowly opened his eyes under his guidance. The first thing that entered his vision was a heroic, rugged face, which startled him.

“Who are you?”

Oser was once again unhappy. Pat had clearly promised that the first person Ling Yi saw when he opened his eyes would be Oser.

Tang De introduced him to Ling Yi: “This is Luo Li, the new nurse who will be taking care of you.”

Luo Li shyly hooked his pinky fingers together: “You can call me Luoluo or Xiao Luo.”

Ling Yi was in a stupor, and felt that it would be better if the world was a little hazier.

“Where’s Nan Ting?”

Tang De: “She was seriously injured while protecting you, but fortunately, her life is not in danger. The best treatment has been arranged for her, you can rest assured.”

“How is Doctor Pat?”

Tang De: “He’s still alive, but…..”

Oser continued: “How long that lasts depends on my mood.”

“And Doctor Lan Ze—”

Oser interrupted him: “Are you going to ask after everyone you know?”

It was only then that Ling Yi’s attention turned to Oser for the first time.

He looked as if he wanted to execute Pat thrice over.

With just one glance, everything that had occurred in the haze came to mind.

Although he hadn’t witnessed those wanton, obscene, and physically intertwined moments with his own eyes, they seemed vivid in his mind.

Ling Yi had imagined that since he made this deal with Oser in order to survive, no matter how well he prepared himself mentally, the first time he surrendered his body would inevitably be accompanied by humiliation and unwillingness.

But he had never expected that when the moment came, he would be the one clinging to Oser.

He was clearly no match for Oser in a fight, so why had he been so strong at that time?

The eye contact lasted three seconds before Ling Yi looked away in discomfort.

Luo Li stared at the two men. Sensing the unspeakable atmosphere between them, he stuffed a medicinal solution and cotton swab into Oser’s hands and began to command the prince in a booming voice.

“Your Highness used considerable force when you marked him. If the wound is not immediately disinfected, it could easily become inflamed. The back of the neck is very sensitive, so Your Highness should do it yourself.”

He gave Tang De a wink and hinted: “I need to send the blood and pheromone samples for testing, but the lab is on the sixth floor. What if some unscrupulous person breaks in? I’m so scared.”

Goosebumps rose all over Tang De’s body, but he could only bite the bullet and acquiesce: “How about I escort you there?”

Luo Li giggled: “Then I’ll have to trouble Captain Tang De to protect this flower.”

“Ai…..” Ling Yi started to stop them, thinking that a blood sample didn’t require mobilizing this many people. But the two of them fled in a hurry before he could even raise his hand. Nobody wanted to stay and act as a third wheel.

The ward was suddenly much emptier, making it even more difficult to ignore the fiery intensity of Oser’s gaze.

He had just been lowering the air pressure in the room, but now he was in such a good mood that it seemed Pat’s death sentence would be suspended.

In fact, the curve to Oser’s mouth was almost out of control.

Just as Ling Yi had thought. The resentment he had accumulated due to various trivial matters had vanished without a trace the instant Ling Yi looked away guiltily.

Because from the moment he met Ling Yi, he had always exuded an extreme rebelliousness, and actively controlled the rhythm of their interactions. Even when he pretended to be well-behaved, it was all a pretense.

This was the first time he had ever seen such an almost deflated expression on Ling Yi, and it was so genuine that it endeared him.

Compared to this, all of those messy trivialities seemed inconsequential.

“You were so enthusiastic before. Why are you shy now?” Oser teased.

What goes around comes around. Ling Yi’s usual shameless tactics weren’t going to work this time.

“Is it too late for me to pretend to have amnesia?”

“It’s not impossible. I didn’t intend for our first time to be so hasty. I originally at least wanted to cover my bed in rose petals…..”

“Stop!” Ling Yi shouted, unable to bear it. “Just don’t.”

Oser lowered his head, not wanting his smile to be too obvious.

Ling Yi slumped down on the bed in despair, exposing his neck. “Weren’t you going to apply medicine? Go on.”

Behind him, Oser didn’t move for a long time, and Ling Yi knew that he was admiring his masterpiece.

He hadn’t hesitated at all when he bit down, and the bite mark must look clean and sharp.

Ling Yi was waiting for the medicine to be applied, but what he felt was the back of Oser’s fingers gently gliding along the curve on the back of his neck.

When his knuckles glanced over the location of the gland, Ling Yi arched his back in discomfort.

An Alpha’s gland was absolutely not allowed to be touched by others, unless one was deliberately challenging the other party’s authority. This conditioned reflex developed over years made Ling Yi tense up in desperate resistance.

And an Omega’s gland was extremely sensitive. The slight touch made his limbs go weak and powerless, and an uncontrollable croon escaped from the corners of his mouth.

Oser heard the faint sound and asked: “Does it hurt?”

Ling Yi’s voice was muffled in the pillow: “I’ll bite you, and you can see if it hurts.”

Oser put two fingers together and lightly flicked the mark: “Naughty.”

“Ah—-”

This time, Ling Yi couldn’t help but cry out.

Oser was surprised: “It really hurts that much? I barely used any force.”

His surprise was swallowed up by Ling Yi’s angry glare. There were even traces of redness at the corners of his upturned eyes.

Oser now believed that he wasn’t exaggerating, but was simply puzzled: “I had the impression that you have a strong resistance to pain.”

At the execution grounds, he had gritted his teeth and said nothing even with a scalpel pressed against his gland.

Ling Yi stared at this Alpha who completely lacked any common sense biology knowledge, and said in a temper: “I’m an Omega now, can’t I be a little more delicate?”

Oser believed him, and said with a look of realization: “Then I’ll be a little gentler.”

Ling Yi buried his head in the pillow again and attempted to divert his attention by talking.

“Did anything go wrong with the surgery?”

Oser gazed at the back of his exposed neck, hands applying medicine mechanically as he was lost in thought.

He answered casually: “The mark is complete. How could there be a problem?”

“Thanks to Your Highness arriving in time, everything turned out fine. If you’d come a little later, I would have been marked by more than a dozen Alphas in turn.”

Crack.

A small noise cut through Ling Yi’s words, and Oser stopped applying medicine.

Ling Yi waited quietly, but there was no movement behind him.

He raised his head slightly: “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” Oser threw away the broken cotton swab as if nothing had happened and replaced it with a new one. “I’ll ask Pat for an explanation for this when I see him.”

. . . . . . 

A figure sneaked into Lan Ze’s operating room. 

This was the special operating room provided to Lan Ze by the medical college for his personal use. Due to his unpredictable personality, no one dared to enter without permission, which made it one of the safest places in the medical college.

“Congratulations, Doctor Pat.”

Pat slipped and nearly fell.

When he looked up, Lan Ze was sitting in front of the operating table with his back toward him. He hadn’t even looked back.

Lan Ze’s tone was devoid of any warmth or emotion, but to the anxious Pat’s ears, his tone was full of sarcasm.

“Congratulations for what?”

Lan Ze proceeded to speak in a mechanical tone: “Congratulations on putting your theoretical research into practice. You are the first person in medical history to complete AO reassignment surgery. Next year’s Imperial Award for Medicine will be yours.”

Pat circled around Lan Ze to see that he was being earnest rather than sarcastic, which made him feel even more desperate.

“Isn’t there a possibility that I won’t live to see the award ceremony next year?”

“The award only honors achievements, so it can be given posthumously if the winner passes away.”

“Thanks so much, ah. When you go onstage to receive it for me, don’t forget to thank my mother,” Pat said bitterly.

Only then did he spare the energy to glance at Lan Ze’s surgical patient. The man was lying face down with a bloody mess on the back of his neck.

“Eek—” His reaction was pained, and he proceeded to express his doubts to Lan Ze: “I don’t understand. You smelled the cultivated pheromones and participated in the surgery, so what went wrong?”

“Perhaps there was nothing wrong with any of the steps.” Lan Ze removed a piece of bloody tissue from the back of the patient’s neck. 

“Then tell me why this pheromone tide induced almost all of the Alphas in the entire hospital to go into rut!” Pat gritted his teeth and repeated: “The entire hospital! This was completely different from what my reports deduced!”

“The beauty of medicine is that there are no 100% guarantees.”

Pat murmured helplessly: “Medicine may be beautiful, but I’ll be dead soon.”

He gazed up at the ceiling in a daze for a long while. When he looked back down, he saw Lan Ze putting a piece of tissue back onto the patient’s neck. For some reason, this action looked a little familiar.

After being here for so long, he finally remembered to ask: “What sort of surgery are you performing? Who’s this unfortunate fellow?”

“The assassin sent by the Prime Minister. He’s suffered damage to his gland, and won’t live long.”

Pat: O口O！？

Lan Ze: “Your research inspired me. If a healthy gland is transplanted, perhaps he will still survive.”

Pat: “Why are you saving him? This person came to assassinate Ling Yi, and nearly killed us all!”

“I just want to study the feasibility of this matter. Why not use a ready-made experimental subject?” Talking did not affect Lan Ze’s skillful suturing at all.

“…..Fine. Now that he’s in your hands, living isn’t necessarily more fortunate than being dead.”

Pat waved his hand. He didn’t have the energy to care about the fate of another person, and adopted a laissez faire attitude.

He asked casually: “But I recall that the medical college only cultivated one artificial Omega gland, the one that was just transplanted onto Ling Yi. Where did you get this healthy one?”

“It was ready-made.”

Pat: “Oh.”

Pat: “……”

Pat: O口O！！！？？？

He pointed at Night Crow in disbelief: “Y-y-you…..you gave him Ling Yi’s gland?!”

“Is there a problem?”

“Of course there is! That’s Ling Yi’s gland! From the moment he got off the operating table alive, he was the future consort!”

“I figured the future consort wouldn’t need his factory-issue gland anymore.”

“It seems he really doesn’t……but don’t talk about human organs like they’re machine parts! You should at least respect human beings, a highly intelligent life form. You can’t treat them like Legos, building them up and then tearing them down, right?!”

Lan Ze disagreed: “Since the advent of organ transplant technology, the average life expectancy for patients with various terminal illnesses has been extended by thirty-six years.”

Pat absolutely couldn’t listen to this. He covered his face in despair: “I’m done for. If His Highness Oser finds out, even having a few extra lives won’t stop my execution.”

He came to a decision, and warned Lan Ze in a fierce tone: “You and I know about this, but no third person can find out! If His Highness Oser discovers that someone arbitrarily gave his Omega’s gland to someone else, neither you nor I will live to see next year’s medical award ceremony!”

Lan Ze sighed and stopped what he was doing, as if he genuinely felt sorry for Oser.

“If His Highness could appreciate the fascination of medicine, he wouldn’t be so obsessed with Omegas.”

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Chapter 16 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 18

Chapter 30 – Emberless Horizon

“God of War Yinglong?” Fang Yang asked with some doubt.

No one answered him.

The God of War, Yinglong.

Hao Chen repeated this name to himself. He suddenly realized a small mistake in his previous thinking. What he’d said about all gods being born naturally was not entirely correct.

This statement was only correct up until one thousand years ago.

Gods must not only have power over mortals, but have a meaning or responsibility to justify their existence. 

Something that possessed only power was not qualified to be called a god. The meaning of a god’s existence was bestowed upon them by the Heavenly Dao at their moment of birth.

Most gods were born for the purpose of protection. Some protected very small things, such as a piece of land or a home. Others guarded very large things, such as the four seasons, the wind and rain in the mortal world, and the orbits of the sun, moon, and stars.

What Hao Chen guarded was the boundless North Sea, from which he took his title.

In this world, there were a limited amount of things worth protecting, and therefore a limited amount of gods. It was impossible for a new god to appear out of thin air.

But this absolute impossibility was overturned by one person a thousand years ago.

No, strictly speaking, it should be one dragon.

It was an ordinary dragon, a jiao, which could be found everywhere in the southern sea.

If there was one thing that was different about this jiao, it was that he was unlucky enough to accidentally enter the Emberless Horizon.

The spiritual energy in heaven had always been pristine, but as long as there was life in this world, absolute purity was impossible.

Hatred and resentment, the same as joy, were emotions that all living beings experienced.

Most resentment would slowly dissipate over time, but some resentment was so strong that time could not disperse it entirely.

But in order to maintain the purity of heaven, the Heavenly Dao naturally came up with a solution.

It opened up an additional space outside the three thousand worlds to accommodate the resentment that could not be dispersed.

Since the beginning of the world, all of the resentment that could not be dispersed had been dumped into this space like garbage.

Over tens of millions of years, this resentment had only grown larger and more terrifying.

It had grown to a scale comparable to that of a world.

At last, it was given a name – The Endless Horizon.

It was a world made of resentment, evil spirits, and every dark thing in existence.

There were three thousand worlds in existence, but the Endless Horizon was different from any of them. In this world formed from resentment and hatred, there was no sun, no moon, no stars – no light at all.

There was only darkness. 

Absolute, perpetual darkness.

The unfortunate jiao mistakenly entered such a place. Generally speaking, there should have been no return for him.

The word “endless” in Endless Horizon referred to endless darkness.

This was a world where only darkness could be seen. But there was another way to say its name. The word “endless,” 无尽, could be written as 无烬, or emberless.

In this world, besides the sun, moon, and stars, what else could shine?

Fire.

Fire able to ignite within the Endless Horizon could not be ordinary fire.

Soul fire was something that all living beings possessed. It was the radiance of the soul.

Only soul fire could be ignited within the Endless Horizon, emitting a brief burst of light.

It could only be brief, because in the Endless Horizon, the immense, heavy resentment would devour the souls that strayed into it and assimilate them into its uniform blackness.

The soul fire was swallowed by the darkness, then extinguished.

Once the embers of the flames dissipated, no light would remain.

Therefore, this place was also called the Emberless Horizon.

Anyone who strayed into it would have only one fateful outcome: they would be devoured and assimilated, without exception. No one had ever been able to escape from the Endless Horizon.

That jiao disappeared for three hundred years within the Endless Horizon. 

Three hundred years – more than a thousand days and nights, over a million shichen.

After such a long time, he should have been assimilated by the Endless Horizon like everyone else, his soul fire extinguished.

But contrary to expectations, this was not the case. Three hundred years later, he did something that shook heaven and earth.

Hao Chen still remembered it to this day. Even in the North Sea, which was thousands of li away from the southern sea, he could distinctly sense the unusual movement.

The North Sea was the northernmost point of heaven, a place of extreme cold. The monsters and spirits living there had long been accustomed to the biting cold there, and had their own ways to resist it.

But the coldness coming from the south still threw the creatures of the North Sea into a panic. Schools of fish were frightened and lost their way, whales were beached on glaciers, and shrimps and crabs floated to the surface.

Because that coldness was different from the chill in the North Sea. No matter how cold the North Sea was, it was just an external cold. But that chilling coldness penetrated into the bone marrow.

Hao Chen, who was sleeping as usual on the sea’s surface, awoke from his slumber the instant he felt that coldness, instantly transforming from a Kun fish to a Peng bird. He flapped his wings, creating waves three thousand li high.

He soared straight upward, and didn’t stop until he reached 90,000 li.

This was his defensive state. The fear brought on by the biting chill was not just felt by weak little creatures – he felt it as well.

He was already one of the greatest gods in heaven, and whatever could terrify even him was destined to be a disaster that swept across the entirety of the heavens.

He gazed far into the distance from the clouds. Although he didn’t know what sort of incident had taken place in the south, he could clearly see black qi rising into the sky.

This was the source of the coldness, resentment and evil so strong that it shook the heavens…..

Hao Chen immediately discovered the source of this black qi. There was only one place that contained such deep resentment…..the Emberless Horizon.

Someone had opened an entrance from the Emberless Horizon into heaven!

At this realization, Hao Chen immediately flapped his wings, a storm gathering beneath them as he formed a barrier. Whatever had escaped from the Emberless Horizon was undoubtedly an unprecedentedly powerful monster, a monster composed of all the resentment that had refused to dissipate since the beginning of the world. It wasn’t difficult to imagine what this monster would do upon reaching heaven.

Slaughter. Endless slaughter. This would be the doom of all of heaven.

All gods, big and small, were looking toward the south. Their reactions were exactly the same as Hao Chen’s. Upon realizing the terrifying nature of this newcomer, they did their utmost to protect the land they guarded.

However, before they could finish their arrangements, something unexpected occurred yet again.

Light appeared among the clouds obscured by black qi, breaking through the clouds and the darkness.

It shone almost gently upon the filthy clouds composed of resentment and hatred.

Iridescent clouds suddenly appeared on the horizon, and the divine bird symbolizing good fortune seemed to take inspiration from them. It spread its wings in the sky, spiraling and dancing.

A distant, solemn bell sounded in the sky, ringing in the hearts of all heavenly beings.

Hao Chen listened to the bell in shock. This was…..

Deification!

The Heavenly Dao had acknowledged this thing that had escaped from the Emberless Horizon!

It had acknowledged this utterly filthy person!

How could this be possible?

No matter how long these gods had lived, they were all stunned by this scene.

This was a miracle that had never happened before in the history of the world.

A common jiao that could be found everywhere had been deified? If this was told to the jiao in the southern sea, they wouldn’t believe it.

However, no matter how little everyone could believe it, it had already come to pass.

Moreover, this dragon was no longer a jiao. It had grown wings, and could fly across the earth and sky.

There were two horns atop its head, and sharp spurs on its tail. Its scales, which should have been green like other dragons, had turned black – exactly like the darkness of the Emberless Horizon.

Three hundred years.

Three hundred years in the Emberless Horizon.

He had thoroughly transformed from a jiao into an indomitable Yinglong. 

And he was recognized by the Heavenly Dao and bestowed a title…..

The God of War!

Hao Chen had never dealt with Yinglong before, partly because there was such distance between them. He didn’t have the leisure to visit him in the southern sea. 

His second reason was…..Yinglong had a bad reputation.

Although he was a god, an orthodox god acknowledged by the Heavenly Dao, he was ultimately different from an innately born god.

The other gods were born in heaven, and the source of their divine power was heaven’s pure spiritual energy. But he had been born in the Emberless Horizon, and the source of his power was the evil energy and resentment therein.

The resentment wasn’t too obvious, but the unconcealable evil energy was terrifying. One didn’t even need to get close – just seeing him from afar would make one’s mind and body tremble.

And Yinglong’s personality…..perhaps it had been influenced by the enormous resentment of the Emberless Horizon, because he was arrogant and cold, fierce and cruel.

In the thousand years since he became a god, he had conquered numerous lands and participated in battles of all sizes. Countless lives perished under his sword. And without fail, he emerged victorious in every battle.

His dissimilarity to other gods was reflected in every facet of his being.

The most prominent one was his title.

Other gods were born to protect, but he was born to kill and conquer.

The title “God of War” was well-deserved.

Hao Chen hadn’t expected this matter to be related to Yinglong.

He lamented to himself, Prime Minister Turtle is obviously a turtle, so why does he have such a crow mouth? Prime Minister Turtle had been worried that the thief was one of Yinglong’s people, but Hao Chen hadn’t taken him seriously at all.

Now, it seemed that although it was still unclear how the thief was related to Yinglong, the thief had stolen a drop of water – a drop of cold water from the abyss in the far north. This was too similar to what Administrator Zheng had said about the Xuanming water that condensed from the cold air of the snow-capped mountains on the northern border, which was used by Ling Yun to irrigate Jianmu.

Hao Chen was certain that the thief must have something to do with this past event, which was related to Yinglong.

This time…..we’re in big trouble….. Hao Chen thought with some anxiety.

While Hao Chen was lost in thought, the scene on the jade slip continued. When Yinglong appeared amongst the clouds, he gazed down at the mortals who were ascending to heaven via Jianmu.

The miniscule figures of the mortals reflected in those golden eyes.

So resplendent, so indifferent, so…..intolerant of even a speck of dust.

He suddenly raised his arm, and in his palm, light gathered into the shape of a dazzling, eye-catching sword.

However, this sword that shone on the surface actually contained a core of evil energy hidden inside the light.

This sword was made from a spur on Yinglong’s tail, and like Yinglong, the true source of its power was the resentment in the Emberless Horizon.

The light was just a cover bestowed by heaven when Yinglong became a god. But his essence was, after all, that of a filthy thing from the Emberless Horizon.

A dark, terrifying energy surged fleetingly through the sword.

Hence, the sword’s name – Fleeting Shadow.

When Fleeting Shadow was fully unsheathed, Yinglong swung the sword without hesitation. He cared not for the mortals on the tree, nor the disaster that would follow if it collapsed.

He was cold and determined, with an unshakable will.

The towering Jianmu tree was cut off at the waist.

The lower half of the tree remained standing on the island made of Living Soil, but the other half began to tilt and collapse.

Those who at the beginning were trying to be the first to reach heaven were now filled with terror. They wanted to run and hide, but there was nowhere to go.

In the end, they could only fall along with the collapsing Jianmu.

The falling Jianmu began to burn in the air, and the sound of ear-piercing wails met the others’ ears.

No matter how desperately they screamed, no matter how hard they wailed, the expression on Yinglong’s face never wavered. Fleeting Shadow disappeared from his hand, and he remained standing there after severing Jianmu.

He watched the heavenly flames falling to the ground, as well as the devastating tsunami caused by Jianmu’s fall into the eastern sea.

He stood there and observed this tragedy until…..the passage opened by Jianmu slowly closed, and Yinglong vanished from the sky.

The scene recorded on the jade slip was about to end. The last scene was that of lingering wails amongst a sea of flames.

Perhaps there were more sounds than that, but with so many people struggling within the sea of fire, they were difficult to distinguish.

Administrator Zheng put away the jade slip. Nobody spoke for a long time.

After a while, Fang Yang thought to say: “It’s so tragic…..” His voice was somewhat subdued. He had never witnessed such a tragic scene.

Some of those who climbed Jianmu fell to their deaths, and some burned alive. Human-shaped charcoal put up a last struggle before death, trying in vain to extinguish the flames on their bodies.

In the end, they could only die in burning agony.

There were some who survived by chance, but their numbers were very few.

“By the way, where is Ling…..the sect leader?” Fang Yang asked in sudden realization. He didn’t see Ling Yun on the recording.

But despite asking, he could probably guess Ling Yun’s ending.

Administrator Zheng confirmed his guess: “He’s dead.”

“He shared a connection and a heart with Jianmu. Jianmu burned to ashes, so he naturally died along with it.”

Fang Yang’s expression grew even more subdued, and he asked a question he had been wondering about: “Then why…..can’t we mention his name?”

Administrator Zheng glanced at Fang Yang and answered: “Because he committed a sin. He is a person condemned by history, an eternal sinner. It was his act of planting Jianmu that brought about this disaster.”

Fang Yang was momentarily stunned. Then he retorted angrily: “How can this be! He clearly did nothing wrong. What was wrong with him planting Jianmu? So many people wanted to climb to heaven on Jianmu, so why accuse him of a crime in the end?”

Hao Chen couldn’t help but send Fang Yang a glance when he heard this, thinking with some amusement: Why accuse Ling Yun of a crime? Isn’t the answer obvious?

Administrator Zheng made the answer clear: “Because he lost, so he was in the wrong.”

“Lost…..” Fang Yang repeated blankly.

It was a simple truth that right and wrong were determined by the victor.

Feng Ye also looked over at Fang Yang. When he heard Administrator Zheng’s words, he pursed his lips slightly.

“Yinglong…..why did he want to chop down Jianmu?” Fang Yang murmured after a moment of silence.

How could mortals guess the mind of a god? But…..since he’d already shared so much today, Administrator Zheng might as well share his own hypothesis: “Because he would not permit mortals to offend their superiors by trying to ascend to heaven.”

Hao Chen nodded in agreement. Based on what he’d heard of Yinglong’s character, it wasn’t surprising at all that he would chop down Jianmu. 

How could such a cold and arrogant god tolerate humans as tiny as ants trying to ascend to heaven?

Feng Ye didn’t speak, just staring at the floor in a trance.

“But…..but…..” Fang Yang grew angrier the more he thought about it: “But it’s clear that that disaster was entirely caused by Yinglong. If he hadn’t chopped down Jianmu, how could there have been so many casualties? Why did you all confuse right and wrong and put all the blame on Ling Yun!”

Due to his anger, he blurted out that taboo name.

He said it too fast, and Administrator Zheng didn’t have time to stop him. He could only cover Fang Yang’s mouth after he spoke.

“Mm, mmn!” Fang Yang glared at Administrator Zheng resentfully.

Still covering Fang Yang’s mouth, Administrator Zheng looked up fearfully. When he didn’t see anything unusual, he released Fang Yang with a sense of relief. 

He wiped his forehead, and his hand came away covered in cold sweat.

Seeing the furious look on Fang Yang’s face, he said tiredly: “Never mention that name again. If Yinglong hears it…..”

He didn’t continue, but it was easy to guess what would happen if Yinglong heard it.

After Yinglong severed Jianmu a hundred years ago, people harbored awe and fear for this great god, but was there no hatred among them?

Of course there was.

But they didn’t dare display it or speak of it.

In order to prevent Yinglong from taking his anger out on them, everyone tacitly pushed the blame onto Ling Yun. Such a heinous crime had been committed by Ling Yun alone.

It was just so. If Ling Yun hadn’t had the crazy idea to plant Jianmu, who else would have thought of it? If Jianmu hadn’t been planted, how could Yinglong have been drawn out?

In order to shirk responsibility, as well as to please that great god in heaven, Ling Yun was branded as an eternal sinner. In order to not upset Yinglong, no one dared mention Ling Yun’s name for fear of infuriating him. 

However, Administrator Zheng’s warning only made Fang Yang even angrier. He felt that what Ling Yun experienced was unfair. Ling Yun had done nothing wrong, yet he was accused of such a crime.

It was all because of that arrogant Yinglong.

With this in mind, Fang Yang clenched his fists and vowed: “One day, I’ll defeat Yinglong and make him admit his mistake!”

Upon hearing this, Hao Chen couldn’t help but shake his head with some mockery. Newborn calves really weren’t afraid of tigers.

How powerful was Yinglong?

He was so strong that there was likely nobody in the heavens who dared to stand up and say that they could definitely defeat him. Hao Chen also didn’t dare.

Yet Fang Yang, a human at the third level of Qi Refining, said he was going to defeat Yinglong?

This was probably the funniest joke he had ever heard in his life.

Even the absent-minded Feng Ye couldn’t help but smile. Unlike Hao Chen, his smile contained no mockery, but was more like an elder looking upon a boastful child with a smile of tolerance and helplessness.

“Then you must become very strong,” Feng Ye said softly. “Very, very strong.”

---

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Chapter 29 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 31

Chapter 29 – Yinglong, God of War

“Ai, sometimes when I think about it, I don’t know if his extraordinary talent was a good thing or a bad thing…..” Administrator Zheng said with a faint sigh.

If Ling Yun’s cultivation path hadn’t been so smooth, he wouldn’t have been so arrogant that it bordered on conceit.

This talent created him, and it also destroyed him.

Administrator Zheng stowed away the jade slip in his hand after Ling Yun spoke his vow-like words, and the image ended.

“A sky above the sky…..” Hao Chen pondered this sentence. Combined with Ling Yun’s expression as he gazed up at the heavens, it wasn’t difficult to guess what he intended to do.

He was a mortal with the vain dream of reaching the heavens.

Ordinary mortals only harbored awe for the heavens, but Ling Yun wanted to build a bridge to them. No, he didn’t just want to build a bridge. He was even crazier – he wanted to be above everyone else, to become someone who truly lived up to the word ‘Lingxiao’ and climbed directly to the heavens.

Seriously….. Hao Chen’s mood was a little difficult to describe. He didn’t know whether to laugh at this person’s self-importance or sigh with feeling over his universally shocking idea.

But in short, Hao Chen had a strong interest in Ling Yun. It was a pity that he’d been sleeping for a hundred years, as he would have liked to meet this arrogant human in person if he got the chance.

Unfortunately, he probably wouldn’t have the chance. Although Administrator Zheng wasn’t done speaking, judging by his secretive attitude, Ling Yun likely hadn’t met a good fate.

“What happened next?” Fang Yang was addicted to the story, and tugged on Administrator Zheng’s sleeve as he anxiously prompted him. He had many questions in his mind, and asked: “What does that sentence mean? ‘The real Lingxiao?’”

Administrator Zheng waved a quelling hand at Fang Yang and explained: “Naturally, the real Lingxiao is…..”

He suddenly stretched out his index finger and pointed upwards.

Fang Yang looked up to see the wooden ceiling of the armory, and he couldn’t help but ask: “What are you pointing at the ceiling for?”

Administrator held his forehead, hating iron for not becoming steel.

Hao Chen couldn’t help but laugh. Feng Ye had been a little indifferent since Administrator Zheng started his story, but even he couldn’t help the way his mouth twitched slightly.

Fang Yang glanced around and realized that he had likely misunderstood. He thought hard before coming to a belated understanding: “You’re talking about the heav…..”

“Shh!” Before Fang Yang could finish speaking, Administrator Zheng forced him to shut his mouth.

Even though he didn’t know the reason, Fang Yang still shut up.

Administrator Zheng continued: “You guessed right. That was the case…..”

He took a deep breath and uttered one sentence: “A bridge to the heavens.”

Fang Yang: “……”

He’d just been shushed, but then the same words came out of this man’s mouth.

Administrator Zheng is so fickle! Fang Yang complained to himself.

Administrator Zheng didn’t have the ability to read minds, so he was naturally unaware that he was being maligned in Fang Yang’s thoughts. He went on regardless: “At first, no one paid him any mind when he suggested this idea.”

“How high is the sky? Do you know?” Administrator Zheng asked.

Fang Yang shook his head honestly. He couldn’t even fly on a sword, so how could he know how high the sky was?

“How many thousands of feet? How many tens of thousands of feet?” Administrator Zheng answered his own question: “No, neither of those are accurate. The sky and the heavens are so high that they are beyond the reach of mortals.”

“It is impossible for mortals to become gods, and the heavens have never been open to the mortal world. The words ‘bridge to the heavens’ were like a ridiculous joke. So even though he was the leader of the greatest sect in the world, nobody paid attention to his arrogant words.”

“Others didn’t care, and he didn’t explain. He just buried his head in his work. Finally, he discovered a seed in a secret realm after fighting for three days and three nights against two Nascent Soul monsters guarding the treasure.”

“It was the seed of Jianmu.” Administrator Zheng whispered the name.

Jianmu?

Hao Chen was astonished to hear this. He hadn’t lived all these years in vain, and had naturally heard the name Jianmu.

It was delusional for mortals to try to reach the heavens, but with the aid of Jianmu…..it may not be quite so delusional.

This sacred tree…..was even capable of connecting the heavens and the earth.

“What kind of wood is Jianmu?” Fang Yang asked ignorantly.

Administrator Zheng gave an explanation that mirrored Hao Chen’s understanding.

“It turns out there’s such a tree, ah,” Fang Yang exclaimed. Then he said: “So you just plant the Jianmu seed and wait for it to grow, and it’ll connect heaven and earth?”

Administrator Zheng shook his head with a smile: “It’s not that easy.”

“He planted the Jianmu seed in soil where the sect’s spiritual power was the strongest, but after a month, the seed was as still as death. Not even a bud had sprouted.”

“He refused to give up, and stayed there for another month, using thousands of spirit stones to set up a power-gathering array to provide spiritual energy for Jianmu. He watched over it day and night, but the result was the same. He dug up the soil to find that the seed was still a seed, no different from when he had buried it.”

“The first time he planted Jianmu ended in failure. But he didn’t give up. He read various books and consulted cultivators who were good at cultivating spiritual plants before finally realizing where he had gone wrong.”

“Jianmu was, after all, just a tree. And what do trees require? Sunlight, rain, and soil to provide nutrients. Setting up a spiritual power-gathering array was the wrong move.”

“But Jianmu was somewhat different from other plants. This was a tree capable of connecting heaven and earth – ordinary sunlight, rain, and soil were far from what Jianmu needed in order to grow.”

“Once he realized this, he went looking for two more things.” Administrator Zheng raised a finger: “One was water. On top of a snowy mountain in the north that never thaws all year round, he found the Xuanming water that only condenses once every hundred years.”

“Xuanming water is a kind of extremely cold water that is condensed from the cold air that has lingered for thousands of years on the snowy mountains of the northern border. If an ordinary person happens to touch this water, even just a drop, they will be chilled to the bone and frozen into an ice sculpture on the spot.”

“But Jianmu was different. Wood belongs to yin, and Xuanming water was a great tonic for Jianmu. Even though there was only one drop, it was enough. The rain and dew to nourish Jianmu had been settled, so the second thing was…..”

Administrator Zheng extended a second finger: “Soil. Jianmu needed an enormous amount of nutrients in order to grow. Ordinary soil was insufficient for it to grow, so he found Living Soil.”

“Living soil – the land itself is infinite, a stopper of floods.” Administrator Zheng suddenly spoke with a literary cadence.

Without waiting for Fang Yang to ask, he conscientiously translated: “It means that this type of soil is ever-growing. This soil expands on its own, so it is useful to protect against flooding.”

“But that isn’t its only use. The nutrients required for Jianmu’s growth are difficult to estimate, but if it was cultivated using Living Soil, there would be no need to worry about nutrients. Because Living Soil’s energy is boundless, it could provide nutrients for Jianmu endlessly.”

“It was just so. Two problems had been solved, so there was only one left – sunlight. The water and soil were not ordinary, so the sunlight naturally couldn’t be ordinary either. But sunlight wasn’t like the other things, which could be bottled and brought back home.”

“So after he found the Xuanming water and Living Soil, he took the Jianmu seed to the eastern sea.”

“This was in the direction the sun rises, and the eastern sea was the closest to the sun.”

“The rising sun is the purest and most energy-intensive sunlight of the day. He flew over the water on his sword for three days, spreading Living Soil over the water’s surface deep in the eastern sea.”

“Living Soil grows when it meets water. He only spread a handful of it, but within an hour of it falling into the water, it became an island that could accommodate dozens of standing people.”

“He stood on the island and poured the Xuanming water onto the soil, then finally dug up the soil with his own hands and buried the seed.”

“When he finished everything, it was the middle of the night. He sat cross-legged on the island, which seemed a bit isolated and lonely in the center of the sea, looking eastward to watch the sunrise.”

“He waited and waited. Time had never seemed to drag on so long. At last…..a streak of light appeared in the sky, breaking through the long and lonely night. The light spread across his face, from a streak, to a ray, and then to a beam…..”

“Finally, light dispersed the darkness and illuminated the world.”

“The sun rose.”

“The enormous red sun ascended slowly from the horizon of the eastern sea. How magnificent it was.”

“This time, he didn’t fail. When the sun had completely risen, the soil vibrated slightly and something broke out of the soil’s shackles.”

“Jianmu…..sprouted.”

Administrator Zheng narrated the story with great emotion. Although he had not witnessed the scene in person, relying solely on his imagination and literary skills, he managed to tell the story in a way that made people feel that he had actually been there.

Fang Yang listened in extreme fascination. When he heard that the seed had sprouted, he cheered excitedly: “It sprouted! He succeeded!”

Administrator Zheng shook his head again: “He thought so as well. The seed had sprouted, but how long does a sprout take to turn into a tree?”

“A long time. A very, very long time.” Administrator Zheng once again answered his own question: “Do you know how long it took Jianmu to grow? Plants and trees in the mortal world go through one spring and one autumn per year, but for Jianmu, it took eight thousand years to equal one spring and autumn.”

“Eight thousand years…..” Fang Yang muttered in a low voice. He then began to count out eight thousand years on his fingers.

Before he could calculate a result, Administrator Zheng stopped him and said: “No need to count, I can tell you. You would have never had a chance to see Jianmu grow up. No matter how high your cultivation, you don’t have the ability to live for eight thousand years. Unless you can become an immortal god, which is impossible, so…..mortals would never have been able to watch Jianmu grow from a seed into a tree.”

“After Jianmu sprouted, it didn’t grow even a little. During that time, he, the sect leader, never returned to the sect. He tossed all of his responsibilities and his master’s instructions to the side, leaving all matters big and small to his shidi, who is now Sect Leader Ji.”

“I don’t know what possessed him to become so obsessed with the bridge to heaven. He stood guard over Jianmu on that island, but he was destined to wait in vain. He wracked his brains to think of ways to help Jianmu grow, but the result was, of course, failure.”

“He tried over and over. Most people would have given up. But he had always been an outlier, and his pride wouldn’t allow him to fail. The solution he came up with is still unthinkable and sensational even now.”

“What was it?” Fang Yang exhorted.

“He…..dug out his own heart…..” Administrator Zheng spoke these words with some difficulty. “He gave his heart to Jianmu to help it grow.”

Dug out his heart…..

Fang Yang froze, utterly shocked by these words.

Hao Chen was also briefly astonished. Digging out his heart…..he had neither heard of nor witnessed such ruthless daring in all his years.

Only Feng Ye was unsurprised, and maintained his indifferent expression. That person who dug out his heart…..he had seen him countless times in his dreams.

“No one knew where he came up with such an insane idea. How could he think of digging out his heart and giving it to a tree to help it grow?” Administrator Zheng asked incredulously. He still couldn’t figure it out.

Fang Yang shook his head like a rattle, unable to come up with anything at all.

“But he did think of it. No matter if he came up with it himself or heard it from somewhere, he carried it out. And contrary to expectations, he succeeded.”

“The heartless plant received a human heart, and Jianmu began to grow at a speed visible to the naked eye, a thousand feet during the day and a hundred feet at night. It also created some kind of indescribable connection with him.”

“Even though he was at the pinnacle of cultivation and wouldn’t die for some time after losing his heart, he couldn’t last forever. A person can’t survive without a heart, and he shouldn’t have had much time left.”

“But he didn’t die. Instead, he was full of vitality, just like the growing Jianmu.”

“Jianmu gradually rose higher than the mountains, higher than the clouds, and then finally…..it connected heaven and earth.”

“Jianmu connected the heavens and the mortal world, opening a passageway between them. The rich spiritual energy of heaven began to flow back into the human world, forming a stormy vortex that spread across the sky.”

“After the passage was opened, he sent a letter to Sect Leader Ji and to all of the world’s cultivators, inviting them to join him in witnessing the growth of this towering tree, as well as…..his feat of climbing to the heavens.”

“Sect Leader Ji and the other cultivators were aware of what this elusive master had been doing during this period. They had no time to be shocked by his madness, because they were already shocked by the sky-high tree that could be seen from afar.”

“All of the world’s cultivators gathered in the eastern sea, on the small island formed by the Living Soil. There were so many people that there wasn’t enough room for everyone to stand on the island. Some people rode on flying magic tools, while some simply took large boats just to see this towering tree up close. It was probably the first time in history there was such a lively scene.”

“He didn’t hide anything. Although the growth of Jianmu was his own achievement, he didn’t claim a monopoly on it. Instead, he declared that anyone was able to climb Jianmu and reach the heavens.”

“As soon as these words were spoken, the whole place was in an uproar. What exactly is heaven like? No one has ever seen it. But it has been described in countless myths and legends as a land of treasure that gave birth to countless powerful gods.”

“As soon as he finished speaking, a few bold people began to climb Jianmu. Although cultivators can fly after they reach Foundation Establishment, the height at which they can fly is limited, and they had to climb the remaining distance up Jianmu.”

“Once someone took the lead, more and more people followed. They grouped up, pushing and shoving each other to be the first to reach the heavens.”

“That group of prestigious cultivators were now fighting for the top spot, and began to quarrel, completely disregarding dignity and manners. The scene became increasingly chaotic, and some people even fell while climbing when they were dragged down by those behind them.”

“He couldn’t bear it any longer, and intimidated the whole crowd with his Hedao cultivation. He created a rule that those who cut in line or pushed others were not allowed to climb the Jianmu he had personally planted, and that calmed down this group of people eager to be the first to climb to heaven.”

“The situation improved, but Jianmu was not easy to climb. Jianmu was so enormous, and its branches were so far apart that it was impossible to step from branch to branch like one would do when climbing an ordinary tree.”

“Everyone discussed it and began to work together. They built a ladder on Jianmu, which made it easier to climb.”

“Everthing was going smoothly, and humanity was getting closer and closer to heaven. However…..”

Hao Chen leaned forward slightly. What he wanted to know was finally coming. What had led to Ling Yun’s ultimate defeat?

Administrator Zheng took out a third jade slip, over which appeared the scene of those climbing the heavenly bridge.

Just as Administrator Zheng had said, the people were as small as ants, clinging densely to this towering tree. They advanced cun by cun, shortening the distance to heaven by increments.

Just when they were exhilarated by the closeness of heaven, something unexpected happened.

There was a light.

But it wasn’t sunlight.

It was…..Hao Chen couldn’t help but narrow his eyes, staring intently at the figure that had suddenly appeared in the image.

Feng Ye also raised his head, staring at the silhouette in a trance.

This figure was high up in the clouds. He stood in the center of the vortex created by the spiritual storm, gazing down at the mortals below.

When he appeared, his body was suffused with a light comparable to the scorching sun, so dazzling that people dared not look directly at him.

This also made it difficult to see his true appearance.

But as time went by, the light he exuded gradually faded, and the human eye slowly adjusted to the brightness.

The man hidden in the light finally revealed his true appearance.

Unparalleled handsomeness? A heavenly appearance?

No, these earthly words were not sufficient to describe him.

His facial features were as exquisite as if they had been measured with a ruler. His eyebrows, eyes, and nose were all at the perfect proportions. One point more and they wouldn’t be heroic enough; one point less and they wouldn’t be handsome enough.

Especially those eyes, which revealed neither sadness nor joy – they were a dazzling shade of gold, pure and bright, a radiant color…..

Such were their beauty that one could practically fall into those eyes.

Hao Chen had always been vain, with a fondness for beautiful things. But at this moment, he felt nothing toward that beautiful man but fear.

He looked at that vestige upon the clouds with fear, because that was…..

“The God of War…..Yinglong.”

---

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Chapter 28 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 30

“Pheromone tide? What’s that?” Tang De asked anxiously.

Lan Ze explained: “When an Alpha’s life is in danger, he will instinctively release all of his pheromones at once, increasing their physical limit for a short period of time. Given that Alpha pheromones are aggressive, doing so may intimidate the opponent and greatly increase one’s chance of survival.”

“But Omegas are the exact opposite. Releasing a large amount of pheromones will only bring disaster upon oneself, so genetically speaking, Omegas do not have the ability to release a pheromone tide.”

Lan Ze glanced at the medical college building: “If my analysis is correct, an Omega just created a pheromone tide inside the building.”

Tang De frowned: “I don’t understand what you’re saying. One second you say an Omega can’t release a pheromone tide, and the next you say that one has. Could it be that—”

A terrible thought popped into his mind. There was no worse hypothesis than this. “…..Ling Yi?”

The loud noise of shattering glass interrupted their conversation. A black form flew dozens of meters through the air and fell to the ground, rolling several times before remaining motionless.

The doctors were horrified. Tang De ran over quickly. The fallen person was unrecognizable, with twisted limbs and bloodied flesh all over the back of his neck. There were barely any signs of life.

“That’s Night Crow, the Prime Minister’s top assassin.” Lan Ze recognized him at a glance.

Tang De had been confident that the security arrangements at the medical college were foolproof, but the fact that an assassin sent by Lu Hulun was still able to infiltrate it made him break out in a cold sweat.

Lan Ze continued: “Night Crow is not only an adept assassin – he is also loyal to the Prime Minister. He was seen by someone while on a mission when he shouldn’t have, and when the Prime Minister ordered him to disfigure himself, he did so without hesitation by corroding his face with a strong acid solution.”

Tang De was pained by this description: “How do you know so much?”

“If you were called in the middle of the night to deal with a mutilated head, you’d remember it vividly too.”

“I forgot you used to work for the Prime Minister. It turns out you’re former colleagues.”

“I rendered a service. He is a loyalist. We are fundamentally different.”

Lan Ze crouched down to inspect Night Crow’s injuries as a doctor should.

“A violent blow resulted in gland damage and bleeding from all seven orifices. He must have been subjected to a powerful mental attack. The only Alpha capable of crushing Night Crow with his mental power is probably His Highness Oser.”

Tang De looked up anxiously. There had been no movement at the broken window after Night Crow flew out of it, and there was no telling what was going on inside.

. . . . . . .

The pheromone tide had sent all of the Alphas into rut, and these Alphas also released a large amount of pheromones in an attempt to drag Ling Yi into the same abyss.

Ling Yi had held on until now, relying on his last thread of reason to sustain him. The moment canine teeth pierced the back of his neck, a fire that had been long suppressed was ignited.

His pheromones had originally been created for Oser, and it now seemed as if they had found their home, actively intertwining, accommodating, and entangling with one another.

Pheromones were continuously injected into his body along the dental canals, passing through a gland that had not yet been properly integrated. They traveled through his body, occupying every place they passed through.

The remaining foreign Alpha pheromones he had inhaled were expelled from Ling Yi’s body bit by bit, until his entire being belonged to Oser alone, with no trace of anyone else.

Oser completed the mark. When his teeth pulled away from skin, he licked it with satisfaction, causing the person in his arms to tremble.

Only then did he have time to carefully observe his Omega.

Ling Yi’s current appearance could only be described as miserable. Whether it was falling out of the repair chamber in a mess or fleeing in a panic, everything had left its mark on him.

His usually eye-catching silver hair was smooth and neat after being soaked in the repair fluid, and he had lost his sight for some reason, rendering him helpless and confused.

There were dozens of small holes cut into his hospital gown. Farther down were his bare feet. Stepping on broken glass and running into corners had left glaring cuts and bruises, and his toes were curled up from the excessive stress.

He looked like a mermaid fished out of the water, having traded his precious eyes for human feet, but had not yet learned to walk.

The many aggressive features that had existed previously – the upturned corners of his sharp eyes, the attack-ready posture……they were all concealed. At this moment, he looked like a harmless, gentle Omega, the complete opposite of the Alpha who had been high-spirited and vigorous despite being imprisoned.

Having lost his sight, Ling Yi had no idea that he was being ogled unscrupulously by Oser. He just felt waves of heat rising from his lower abdomen.

He took the initiative to loop his arms around Oser’s neck, licking his canine teeth eagerly from one to the other with the tip of his tongue. He no longer had an Alpha’s gland, but he still retained an Alpha’s hunting response.

Unable to mark Oser, he nipped at his hairline and ear in a disorderly manner.

Oser couldn’t withstand such teasing. He lifted the man into the air with all his strength, stepped over the Alphas who were ruining his view, and found a nearby ward, where he kicked the door shut.

The wards here were exclusively for the royal family, and were as luxurious as those in a high-end hotel.

For medical purposes, they were also equipped with various medical instruments.

He waved his hand, sweeping the bottles and jars on the table to the ground with a clatter. Then he placed Ling Yi on the table.

The indigo uniform jacket that represented his royal status was ruthlessly flung to the ground, just covering the pile of broken objects.

The temperature in the room rose gradually, and the atmosphere filled with rapidly rising breathing and heartbeats.

Just as the atmosphere was reaching its climax, Oser abruptly stopped.

Due to the force of his restraint, beads of sweat oozed from his forehead as his veins bulged.

Compared to Ling Yi, he still retained 0.01% of his sanity.

“No, at least not now…..”

“You can even have restraint at a time like this. Have you given up?”

“You just had surgery, and you’re injured.”

Oser used everything he had to try to pull away, but Ling Yi yanked him back with even greater force.

He had long known that Ling Yi had a strong waist, but didn’t expect that with the combined strength of Ling Yi’s waist and legs, he would be unable to break free.

Ling Yi panted as he asked: “You talk too much…..Fengdi Oser, are you actually impotent?”

The last 0.01% of his sanity vanished.

“Mark your words. I hope you don’t regret this.”

. . . . . 

Before he reached the door of the ward, the unique scent of Omega pheromones hit his nose and Tang De couldn’t help but suck in a deep breath.

It was a law of nature that Omega pheromones were attractive to Alphas. If an Alpha met an Omega with a high matching rate, it was easy to “fall in love at first smell.”

Just as Tang De was intoxicated, his expression suddenly froze.

Beneath the Omega pheromones were those of an Alpha that could not be ignored. Tang De was very familiar with these pheromones. He spent time with their owner almost every day.

It felt as if His Highness Oser had appeared out of thin air, looking down on him condescendingly as he warned him not to act rashly against the Omega he had marked.

Tang De sagged against the wall and covered his mouth. He couldn’t swallow, nor could he spit out the taste, and it took him a long time to suppress the familiar feeling of nausea.

Who would have thought that he would be so intoxicated by the pheromones of Oser’s Omega? He wished he could banish the memory of the last few minutes from his mind.

Tang De became more cautious than ever before. He adjusted his breathing to the minimum required to survive, and entered the ward with his head lowered and chest hunched.

His Highness Oser was well known by the public for his appearance. This person, who dressed meticulously even in the hot summer, was currently wearing just a casual white shirt. Not a single button was fastened properly, and the tight contours of his muscles were exposed to the air in an eye-catching manner.

He sat leisurely on a sofa, with a strangely coexisting sense of satisfaction and murderous intent, much like a well-fed lion planning to kill any invaders that broke into its territory.

The indigo royal jacket lay carelessly on the floor, covered in completely unrecognizable pieces of broken glass.

And there was also a pure white hospital gown, shockingly stained with blood. It was difficult to imagine what its owner must have gone through.

The person asleep on the hospital bed was motionless, with a blanket covering him head to toe. Only a small patch of silver hair was sticking out.

Tang De didn’t dare look in that direction any longer, and his eyes fell on Oser’s feet.

“Your Highness Oser, everyone in the medical college has been accounted for. The situation was chaotic at the time, and most people just heard the alarm and evacuated, with no idea of what was happening. A small number of people briefly lost their minds and have no memory of these events. Several people were injured by Your Highness’s mental power and have yet to regain consciousness. I have warned everyone not to spread this matter around.”

“What happened to the disfigured man?”

Tang De hung his head even lower: “It was this subordinate’s poor performance that allowed the Prime Minister’s assassin to sneak into the medical college in disguise. The person who was supposed to pick him up has been identified and taken into custody, awaiting Your Highness’s judgment. This subordinate failed to perform his duties and requests punishment.”

Oser scoffed: “You indeed deserve punishment, but the one most deserving of punishment isn’t here. Where is Pat?”

“He…..” Tang De hesitated. “He was nearby when the pheromone tide occurred. He was attacked and seriously injured by other Alphas who considered him a competitor.”

“I don’t care how badly he’s injured. As long as he can still move, he should crawl over to see me.”

“Understood.” Tang De suggested: “Your Highness, there are too many people here. Shouldn’t we move Ling Yi back underground right away? The nurse who was caring for Ling Yi is currently seriously injured and unconscious. I found a new, capable one who is an Omega.”

A rare burly Omega man was called in. He had thick eyebrows, big eyes, broad shoulders, and a stout waist.

As soon as he entered the room, he immediately turned his head away and covered his face shyly.

“Your Highness, it’s different between Alphas and Omegas than it is between Alphas and Betas. Could you please button your clothes first?”

“……”

Oser gave Tang De a look of mocking understanding, as if telling him – the person you found is indeed capable.

Tang De smiled bitterly. He had asked the medical college to recommend another careful, discreet nurse, and even asked for an Omega. He never expected that the nurse they sent would be so out of the ordinary.

Oser stood up and slowly buttoned his shirt, sending a disdainful glance at his wrinkled jacket on the floor.

Tang De noticed his meaningful look and immediately said: “I’ll send someone over right away.”

Oser: “You can turn around now.”

The nurse lowered his hand, and this newest glimpse of his face was still shocking.

“Name?”

“Answering Your Highness, my name is Luo Li. I’m very strong.”^[1]

“I can see that.”

Luo Li was shy: “Nursing often requires moving patients, so being strong is an advantage.”

Oser: “This person doesn’t need to be moved. Find him a new set of clean clothes.”

When the clothes were brought, Oser refused to let anyone else dress Ling Yi, and even drove Tang De and Luo Li out.

Tang De, alone with an Omega man who was a head taller than him, felt very distressed.

Not to mention that this Omega would flirt with him from time to time.

“Hey…..hey!” Someone called to Tang De in a low voice.

Tang De looked toward the direction of the sound and saw Pat peeking furtively around the corner.

Luo Li: “Doctor Pat, so you’re here too, ah.”

Not only was he tall and strong, but he also spoke in a booming voice. Pat was so frightened that he gestured frantically: “Shh, shh!”

Luo Li covered his mouth. He sent Pat a knowing look, and Pat received yet another blow.

When the pheromone tide broke out, he was one of the closest Alphas and was indeed attacked by others of his kind.

However, he was knocked unconscious very quickly, and was fortunate to only suffer minor injuries. Tang De had exaggerated the extent of his injuries in order to protect him.

Pat leaned into the hallway and asked Tang De: “What’s going on in there? What did His Highness Oser say?”

“Well…..my family’s prince just completed the most important event in an Alpha’s life, and has ended over thirty years of bachelorhood. He’s naturally in a good mood at the moment.”

Pat was pleasantly surprised: “Really?”

“So if you go and apologize to him now, he might leave your corpse intact.”

Pat: “……”

The door to the ward opened, and Oser appeared holding a human figure.

As for why it was called a ‘human figure,’ Oser had wrapped the person tightly in a bed sheet, and only the outline of their body could be seen.

“Who are you speaking to?” asked Oser.

Tang De glanced back to find that Pat had disappeared without a trace.

“Uh, um…..Luo Li! I was chatting with nurse Luo Li. We hit it off right away, and have a lot in common,” said Tang De, looking for a way out of this predicament.

Oser sent Luo Li a doubtful look, not finding his subordinate’s tastes worthy of praise.

“Lead the way.”

“No, Your Highness, we can put Ling…..put him on the bed and push him downstairs.”

This was a hospital, and pushing a bed was more reasonable than carrying a mummy.

Oser turned a deaf ear and repeated: “Lead the way.”

Ling Yi woke up slightly when Oser was dressing him, but he had just come out of a highly stressed and fearful mental state. And after another round of taxing physical activity, he didn’t want to move a finger, so he just closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, allowing himself to be moved around.

Being held in Oser’s arms and breathing in his pheromones put him at ease, and the natural rocking motion caused a surge of sleepiness to come over him again. Before he went under, he faintly heard Tang De speaking.

The Alphas in the building were expelled under the pretense of taking a holiday, leaving behind a small number of Beta staff to clean up the mess.

When they saw His Highness Oser approaching from afar, everyone bowed respectfully in greeting, not daring to look up the entire time.

Only after Oser had passed far away did they stand on tiptoe and look around, whispering: “Did you see it? That was the biological weapon Doctor Pat created for His Highness.”

“I’m really curious what a biological weapon capable of wiping out the entire medical college looks like.”

“If you’re curious, why not ask His Highness Oser to take a look in person?” A voice sounded from behind.

The two betas were just about to ask who would dare speak such outrageous words, when they turned around and saw Lan Ze – the only person in the courtyard who didn’t look surprised.

“Please excuse us, we were just talking nonsense. We wouldn’t actually dare go and look.”

“By the way, didn’t they say the entire hospital is on holiday? Why are you still here, Doctor Lan Ze?”

Lan Ze: “I still have something to take care of. You two, come here and help me carry someone.”

When the two staff members saw the person they would be carrying, they exchanged looks of shock.

Setting aside the fact that his limbs were twisted oddly due to falling from a high altitude, the gland at the back of his neck was a bloody mess. Anyone with a bit of medical knowledge could tell that he had no hope of survival.

“Doctor Lan Ze, would you like us to send the body to the morgue or to the autopsy room?”

The other person suddenly realized: “You want to do an anatomy experiment, right? This person is of unknown origin, and there shouldn’t be any family members to claim the body.”

Lan Ze: “No. Send him to my operating room.”

The employee was astonished: “Ah? You can’t mean that you’re going to treat this person? His gland is so damaged that even if he’s saved, he won’t live long.”

“Doctor Lan Ze told us to move him, so we’ll move him.”

His companion gave him a meaningful look. It was, after all, Lan Ze who had made this request. Even if he used this person for some sort of dark experiment, no one would dare stop him.

Night Crow was placed face down on an operating table. Lu Hulun’s number one assassin was now a “dead man” who could be slaughtered at will.

Lan Ze ran his gaze along the edge of his scalpel, satisfied with its sharpness.

“Whether or not the operation will be a success depends on my skills.”

“And whether or not you survive depends on your luck.”

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[1] The ‘Li’ in Luo Li uses the 力 character for force/strength. ⮐

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Chapter 15 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 17

Chapter 28 – Lingxiao

“A hundred years ago…..” Administrator Zheng’s voice was somewhat hesitant. He didn’t know if he should tell the three people before him. Although it wasn’t a secret, everyone who knew about it had tacitly agreed not to talk about that incident or that person.

“Administrator Zheng, what happened a hundred years ago, ah?” Fang Yang asked. Hao Chen’s question had reminded him that their sect’s supremacy was a thing of the past.

Administrator Zheng saw that Fang Yang was looking at him expectantly – so expectantly that it was difficult for him to refuse.

Never mind. Even if he didn’t tell them, they would inevitably find out from somewhere else.

With this in mind, Administrator Zheng suddenly walked to the door of the armory, closed it, and fastened the bolt. After ensuring that there were no outsiders listening in, he went back to the group of three.

He stroked his goatee. His eyes went far away as he began to recall: “The start of it all can be traced back to a little earlier than a hundred years ago. About one hundred fifty years ago, Lingxiao Sword Sect recruited a batch of disciples as usual.”

“However, this batch of new disciples was destined to be extraordinary. Among them were two well-known figures. You should all be familiar with one of them.”

Administrator Zheng kept them in suspense for a moment before continuing: “It was none other than the leader of my Lingxiao Sword Sect – Ji Chengyue.”

“Sect Leader Ji was about your age when he joined the sect, around fifteen or sixteen.” Administrator Zheng gestured toward Fang Yang: “However, Sect Leader Ji has dual gold and earth spiritual roots, and their purity is considered rare among dual roots. Therefore, he was directly accepted as the disciple of the former sect leader, Xuanxu Zhenren.”

“As for the other one…..if Sect Leader Ji was considered a rare talent, his talent should be considered unique throughout the world. He was just like this generation’s Cao Zirui, a rare single root that only appears once per century.”

“But Cao Zirui only possesses a single water element spiritual root, one among the five spiritual roots of gold, wood, fire, water, and earth. He was a variant wind-type spiritual root. Compared to the five elemental roots, his was more powerful. Such talent is rare to come by in a hundred years, or even a thousand.”

“Such a person joined my Lingxiao Sword Sect. Naturally, like Sect Leader Ji, he was directly accepted as a disciple by Xuanxu Zhenren.”

“He was Sect Leader Ji’s shixiong, as well as the former sect leader of Lingxiao Sword Sect…..” The mystery was just about to be solved, but Administrator Zheng suddenly stopped.

He glanced at the door he had purposely shut, still feeling ill-at-ease. He appeared anxious, as if worried that someone would overhear him saying that name.

Who would hear it? Hao Chen watched Administrator Zheng grinding ink, and thought, He doesn’t seem ready to say it himself. He was going to show them the name in writing.

But there were only four people in the room right now. Who was powerful enough to hear their conversation from outside?

No, perhaps this wasn’t about someone with incredible hearing listening in. Hao Chen suddenly thought, Rather…..who is Administrator Zheng so afraid of that he doesn’t dare speak that name even in private?

There was no way a human could have such deterrent power, so it could only be…..Hao Chen couldn’t help but look upward, harboring a hypothesis.

“Ling.” While Hao Chen was distracted, Administrator Zheng had already written the first character. Fang Yang beside him quietly read it out.

However, just as the character was written, Administrator Zheng paused before writing the second one. He raised his head to give Fang Yang a severe look and made a silencing gesture.

Fang Yang immediately covered his mouth with both hands and gave an obedient nod.

And Feng Ye…..different from Fang Yang, who stuck close to Administrator Zheng in order to see the name as soon as possible, he stood not too far but not too close, almost a little indifferent.

Both Fang Yang and Hao Chen were very curious about the event from a hundred years ago, but he was entirely uninterested.

As expected, he knows, Hao Chen thought.

The rustle of a brush sliding across paper sounded once more, and Hao Chen no longer focused on Feng Ye. He turned his gaze to the continuously moving tip of the brush.

As the brush stroke moved horizontally and made a hook, the second character was slowly revealed.

Yun, Hao Chen whispered in his mind.

Administrator Zheng stopped writing after these two characters.

He gazed at the familiar yet unfamiliar name on the paper and let out an imperceptible sigh. The name felt familiar to him because it had once been a household name. Who in the country hadn’t known about this extraordinary genius? 

But the name was also unfamiliar, because after that incident a hundred years ago…..no one dared to mention it again…..

“Only those two characters?” Fang Yang belatedly realized that Administrator Zheng was finished writing.

Administrator Zheng nodded.

“Why didn’t you just say it? And why have I never heard anyone mention the previous sect leader?” Fang Yang was somewhat doubtful.

He had never heard of such a person in the history of Lingxiao Sword Sect, nor had he known that Sect Leader Ji had a shixiong.

“Because…..this is a name that cannot be spoken…..” Administrator Zheng couldn’t help but lower his voice when he said this.

Without waiting for Fang Yang to ask further questions, he continued: “My sect is named Lingxiao Sword Sect, but he insisted on…..”

He glanced over at the words “Ling Yun” and said: “The accident was so coincidental that it seemed like fate. When Xuanxu Zhenren discovered him, he called him a ‘man of destiny.’ He was the one who would lead our Lingxiao Sword Sect to the top.”

“Therefore, Xuanxu Zhenren spared almost no cost to cultivate him. All of the resources you can imagine, whether magic weapons or elixirs, were presented to him free of charge.”

“He was extremely gifted. In terms of cultivation and swordsmanship, not one of his peers in the world could compare to him.”

“With both of these blessings, he created one miracle after another. He began to cultivate at five years old, reached Foundation Establishment at sixteen, Golden Core at twenty-four, Nascent Soul at forty, and at fifty-six, he reached…..Hedao.”

“Hedao?” Fang Yang interrupted Administrator Zheng in shock. He had thought that Nascent Soul was the highest level of cultivation, never expecting that there was a realm called Hedao above it.

Administrator Zheng heard the surprise in his tone and explained with a smile: “You’re so surprised? At that time, the world of cultivation was just as surprised as you. It’s no exaggeration to say that jaws dropped.”

“He was the first and only cultivator in the world to reach the stage of Hedao.” Having said this, Administrator Zheng suddenly took a jade slip from the desk drawer.

Holding it in his hand, he injected it with a bit of spiritual power. A bright light rose from the jade slip and flew into the air, forming a translucent image.

Before Fang Yang could marvel over a jade slip being used this way, he was drawn to the person in the image.

It was a man. A tall, handsome man with heroic features.

The place where the man was standing seemed vaguely familiar, and Fang Yang suddenly recalled that this was the thousand-step staircase he had just climbed.

The man stood at the bottom, with a person standing every ten steps on either side of the stairs. Judging from the black and white daoist robes, they were undoubtedly disciples of Lingxiao Sword Sect.

The man was looking up at the endless stone steps. Unlike his fellow disciples on the staircase who wore solemn, battle-ready expressions, there was a faint smile at the corners of his mouth that revealed a sense of carefreeness. 

Suddenly, he took a step forward and began to ascend the thousand-step stone staircase.

On the first step, the disciple standing there promptly attacked. He unsheathed his sword and aimed straight for the man’s head.

The man didn’t even draw his sword. He blocked the attack with his scabbard and turned his wrist in an instant, taking advantage of his opponent’s attack to ram the scabbard into the other’s stomach.

After the clash, the fellow disciple on the first step crouched down and held his stomach, having lost the ability to fight.

The man continued to ascend, and after ten steps, he met the second fellow disciple. Similarly, the second disciple drew his sword the moment the man reached his step.

The man still didn’t draw his sword, and the second disciple didn’t fare much better than the first. He was defeated after just two moves.

“What’s going on?” Fang Yang couldn’t help but ask. Didn’t Lingxiao Sword Sect prohibit infighting among disciples?

Gazing at the man in the image, Administrator Zheng replied: “This is the sect leader inheritance ceremony. Anyone who becomes the sect leader of Lingxiao Sword Sect must pass the test of a thousand stone steps and a hundred checkpoints.”

Fang Yang immediately nodded. He stopped talking, watching in silence as the man in the image moved onward.

After walking several dozen more steps, the man had passed over a dozen checkpoints with ease, his sword still in its sheath. Those disciples guarding the steps could hardly delay him, much less stop him.

The man maintained his relaxed expression until he reached the 500th step. He had already walked most of the way before someone forced him to draw his sword.

But this still failed to stop the man’s forward momentum. When the man drew his sword, his presence became even more imposing than before, and rather than slowing down, his forward progress sped up even more.

He was unstoppable. Each and every disciple who stood in his way was defeated within ten moves. The defeated fellow disciples bowed to him, swords in hand, and the man simply nodded to them before continuing his ascent.

At last, he reached the final step. And the one hundredth checkpoint.

When the man standing at the top of the mountain saw him approaching, he didn’t draw his sword immediately like the other disciples had. Instead, he held his sword out and called: “Shixiong.”

“Shidi,” the man responded to the young Ji Chengyue. The careless smile on his face finally took on a hint of seriousness.

Before he reached the peak of the mountain and the thousandth step, Ling Yun saluted Ji Chengyue.

Ji Chengyue returned the same salute. This was extremely formal etiquette. 

Ling Yun took a step forward, and the instant his toes touched that final step, Ji Chengyue’s sword met his.

Their swords collided with a clang.

Ji Chengyue immediately changed tactics. He went to stab at the opponent’s throat, but at the moment their swords met, the tip of his sword slipped over Ling Yun’s.

Accompanied by the sharp sound of metal on metal and intermittent sparks, when the tip of Ji Chengyue’s sword slid to the tail of Ling Yun’s, Ji Chengyue suddenly turned his wrist and the sword stabbed outward along Ling Yun’s blade.

“Good!” Ling Yun shouted as the blade stabbed toward him at an extremely tricky angle. Most people wouldn’t have time to react when faced with this unexpected move.

But the person Ji Chengyue was fighting was Ling Yun. Thus….there was another clang. Ling Yun didn’t take any defensive measures, because he knew it was already too late. Ji Chengyue’s blade had slid to the tail of his sword before stabbing out, and Ling Yun had no time to retract his sword or defend himself.

But blocking a sword didn’t necessarily require defense. He used offense instead!

Ling Yun also turned his wrist, and when Ji Chengyue’s blade was a mere hair’s breadth away from his chest, his own sword approached Ji Chengyue’s sword-bearing wrist.

He turned the sword around in his hand to form a circle. Ji Chengyue’s sword-bearing wrist was just on the trajectory of this circle, and if he didn’t withdraw his sword, his hand would be cut off.

The blade stabbing forward would also fly off to the side along with the owner’s hand, and Ling Yun wouldn’t be injured at all.

Ji Chengyue realized this in an instant, and promptly withdrew his sword.

With this retraction, his first-strike advantage was also lost. Ling Yun took charge of the fight. Not giving him the chance to catch his breath, he pressed on step by step.

Ji Chengyue continuously retreated, struggling to hold on.

Finally, after a hundred moves, Ling Yun knocked the sword out of his hand.

Ji Chengyue glanced at his empty hand, then at the smiling shixiong in front of him, saying helplessly: “Shixiong, you didn’t even go easy on me.”

Ling Yun put his sword behind his back and raised an eyebrow: “Didn’t go easy on you? Shidi, if I wasn’t going easy on you, you would have been defeated by the twentieth move.”

Ji Chengyue could only sigh: “As always, I’m inferior to Shixiong.” 

Inferior in every way, whether in cultivation or swordsmanship.

Ling Yun was already the youngest Nascent Soul master in history, shocking the whole country. And Ji Chengyue was only at the Golden Core stage.

With Ling Yun’s strength, in the entire sect, only their sect leader and Elder Zhou were capable of fighting him.

Therefore, Ling Yun hadn’t used any spiritual power when walking up the thousand stone steps and passing one hundred checkpoints. Otherwise, if he utilized his Nascent Soul spiritual power, who among this group of disciples would be qualified to fight him?

He was entirely worthy of being…..the next sect leader.

“Haha, Ling Yun, you really lived up to this teacher’s expectations.” An old man with white hair and youthful vigor appeared in the image, and next to him was another person – Elder Zhou.

Then this person should be….the former sect leader, Xuanxu Zhenren, Fang Yang thought.

Sure enough, after hearing Ji Chengyue’s lament, Ling Yun immediately abandoned what he was going to say the instant he saw the old man.

The two martial brothers turned to salute the old man, calling out respectfully: “Shifu.”

Xuanxu Zhenren looked upon his two disciples with satisfaction, especially Ling Yun, who his gaze lingered on for a long time. His Lingxiao Sword Sect…..had a successor.

No, not only a successor. His disciple would definitely be able to carry Lingxiao Sword Sect forward as a sect that would truly “climb to the heavens.”

“Ling Yun!” Xuanxu Zhenren’s tone took on an abrupt seriousness.

“This disciple is here!” Ling Yun replied with the same gravity.

With both hands, Xuanxu Zhenren picked up the sword he had brought with him. The body of the sword was not ornate, and the hilt and scabbard were a plain black devoid of complicated and gorgeous patterns.

But Xuanxu Zhenren used both hands to stroke the sword with great care and attachment: “This sword is called Mountain Breaker. It has the power to break mountains and split the sea, and is the token of each successive leader of our Lingxiao Sword Sect.”

Having said this, he immediately handed Mountain Breaker to Ling Yun and solemnly instructed him: “From today on, you are the new leader of my Lingxiao Sword Sect!”

Ling Yun’s face revealed a bit of surprise. It wasn’t only Ling Yun – Elder Zhou and Ji Chengyue beside him, as well as the hundreds of disciples standing on the stone steps, had identical looks of surprise on their faces.

They all knew that today’s ceremony was for the purpose of selecting a new sect leader, but unexpectedly, Xuanxu Zhenren actually passed the sect leader position directly to Ling Yun. 

“Shifu…..” Ling Yun’s tone was uncharacteristically hesitant. He didn’t understand why his shifu wanted to pass the position of sect leader to him right away. His shifu was clearly still living, and Ling Yun was just the designated successor. Why was his appointment so sudden?

Due to his doubts, he didn’t reach out and take the sword.

“Ling Yun! Take the sword!” Xuanxu Zhenren didn’t explain his sudden decision, and just gave him a stern rebuke.

Ling Yun stopped hesitating. He raised his head and looked at Xuanxu Zhenren for a moment, only to find determination and expectation in his master’s eyes.

His master had made his decision.

Ling Yun recognized this, and as a disciple, he respected his master’s decision.

He solemnly stretched out his hands and accepted Mountain Breaker from Xuanxu Zhenren.

Xuanxu Zhenren’s stern face softened once more. He looked intently at Ling Yun, saying with an air of relief: “Lingxiao Sword Sect…..I leave it to you…..”

“Yes!” Raising the sword with both hands, Ling Yun gave a firm vow.

The image froze here. The recording on the jade slip had come to its end.

Not waiting for Fang Yang to ask, Administrator Zheng explained: “Xuanxu Zhenren suddenly passed on the position of sect leader…..because he knew that his time was coming. One month after he took over as sect leader, Xuanxu Zhenren passed away.”

Administrator Zheng looked at the frozen image and said with an expression of resolve: “He really lived up to Xuanxu Zhenren’s trust. At the age of fifty-six, he became a Hedao master, shocking the entire country.”

“Although Lingxiao Sword Sect was quite powerful when Xuanxu Zhenren was in charge, it was only in the top three. There were two other major sects tied with it, and it was difficult to tell which was superior.”

“But when he reached Hedao…..Lingxiao Sword Sect truly became the greatest sect in the world.”

“Even now, the glory of that time still makes my blood boil. The previous sect leader truly lived up to the words “soaring to the heavens.”

“Everyone was satisfied with our achievements back then. We were the greatest sect in the world, standing above the clouds, and other sects could only look up to us.”

“But there was still one person who wasn’t satisfied.” Administrator Zheng took out another jade slip, and an image appeared again.

Ling Yun stood at the peak of the mountain with his hands behind his back. Clouds drifted under his feet as he gazed at the scenery beneath him.

Someone came over – his shidi, Ji Chengyue.

Ji Chengyue called out: “Shixiong, what are you standing there thinking about?”

Ling Yun didn’t look back, his eyes still looking down the mountain. He asked with a hint of puzzlement: “Tell me, Shidi, what is the true Lingxiao?”

Ji Chengyue stared blankly upon hearing this, and replied after careful consideration: “The number one sect in the world – that is Lingxiao.”

Ling Yun smiled: “Shidi, I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, ‘there are men above men, and a sky beyond the sky.’”

Ling Yun abruptly raised his head to gaze up at the vast sky. He repeated: “A sky beyond the sky…..”

Before Ji Chengyue could figure out what he meant, Ling Yun suddenly took a step forward. He was standing at the edge of a cliff, with another soaring cliff in front of him, but he didn’t fall when he stepped into empty air.

Standing in midair, he took from his sleeve the sword that had been passed down by successive sect leaders – Mountain Breaker.

Drawing the sword from its sheath, he slashed at the mountain wall. With every strike of his sword, cracks several meters deep appeared in the mountain wall and combined together into the shape of words.

There were four huge characters.

“Lingxiao Sword Sect,” Ling Yun recited softly. Then, he turned with a haughty, arrogant smile on his lips and gave Ji Chengyue a solemn oath: “Shidi, I will show you what the real Lingxiao is.”

---

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Chapter 27 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 29

Chapter 27 – An Old Dream

“Shixiong, this mountain is so high, ah!I”

On the thousand-step staircase that led to the peak of the mountain, Fang Yang was walking in the front, and had to stop from time to time to wait for the people who were walking slowly behind him.

As he walked, he looked around and marveled at the towering mountain.

It was Fang Yang’s first time walking up this stone staircase. It was also his first opportunity to cross the natural mountain barrier and enter Lingxiao Sword Sect’s inner gates.

He was extremely excited the entire way there, hopping about like a rabbit.

Feng Ye and Hao Chen were actually climbing the mountain at a normal speed, but Fang Yang was hopping around so fast that it made them seem slow.

After his exclamation, he didn’t wait for the two people behind him and trotted forward more than ten meters.

“Fellow Daoist Feng Ye, your shidi is…..truly energetic,” Hao Chen commented, watching Fang Yang’s back as he hurried off. 

He had been in tears due to his enormous loss in cultivation not very long ago, but now he seemed like he was on stimulants.

“Young people, ah.” Hao Chen could only lament with a smile at the thought of this. Only a teenager of fifteen or sixteen could contain such vitality.

Feng Ye suddenly asked: “Is Fellow Daoist Hao Chen…..very old?”

Hao Chen’s smile froze. Old…..he was indeed very old. As a heavenly deity at the level of a living fossil, there were not many people older than him.

But he didn’t want to admit such a thing, especially in front of Feng Ye.

It would make him look like an old cow eating young grass.

Although the relationship between him and Feng Ye was purer than tofu or green onions, Hao Chen still hadn’t figured out why his heartbeat had quickened when he saw Feng Ye standing in the ring. Was it his fighting spirit igniting or the blossoming of desire?

If it was the latter, the issue of age must be taken seriously. It was fine to say he was older, but not to say he was old.

Older men could be said to have a mature charm. Old men were a generation older. He and Feng Ye were here to be companions in life, not to recognize grandchildren.

However…..speaking of age…..how much older was he than Feng Ye?

Thinking of this, Hao Chen responded a bit probingly: “Compared to Fang Yang, you and I are indeed rather old.”

Feng Ye recognized this as a leading question, but didn’t deny it. After all, he wasn’t as thick-skinned as Hao Chen, who could shamelessly pretend to be young.

When it came to the fifteen or sixteen year-old Fang Yang, both he and Hao Chen were many times older than him.

Feng Ye didn’t continue the topic of conversation, but instead quickened his pace up the mountain. Fang Yang had run so fast that even his shadow could barely be seen.

When Feng Ye stopped talking, Hao Chen didn’t ask further questions. Anyway, there was ample time. As long as he revealed Feng Ye’s true identity, all of his doubts would be solved.

The two of them quickened their pace in silence, walking for a while until they spotted Fang Yang far ahead. 

Fang Yang was standing on the steps, but not for the purpose of waiting for them. He was staring at the mountain wall not far from the staircase, where the four huge characters “Lingxiao Sword Sect” were inscribed.

These four characters were engraved so deeply that even so many years of wind, rain, and sun hadn’t worn away the edges.

On the characters occupying the entire mountain wall, each stroke ended where it should without being drawn out, each of them extremely fierce.

These four characters were incredibly eye-catching, and were the first thing a person saw upon arrival at the foot of Lingxiao Sword Sect. It was exactly the same for Hao Chen when he arrived.

And he had exhibited some disdain for the word “Lingxiao” – Rising to Heaven.

Mortals still dreamed of rising to the heavens?

It was a foolish dream.

Different from the unintentional sneer on Hao Chen’s lips, Feng Ye stared at the words in a daze.

“Shixiong, you’re finally here!” Fang Yang noticed the two behind him. He withdrew his attention from the four characters and sent them a toothy smile as he greeted them.

The sound of his voice interrupted Feng Ye’s thoughts. He approached Fang Yang and asked: “Why did you stop here?”

These four words could be seen every day. Only those who came to Lingxiao Sword Sect for the first time would stop and take a look, but people like he and Fang Yang had already gotten used to it.

Fang Yang scratched his head and said uncertainly: “When I walked here just now, I seemed to feel…..um…..”

He was somewhat at a loss for words, and used what little literary talent he had to describe it: “It was a very sharp, powerful feeling…..right, a bit like your last strike in the competition this afternoon, the kind of intense feeling that makes people want to take a step back.”

Feng Ye raised an eyebrow at this. He looked from the mountain wall to Fang Yang. This kid had actually sensed the original sword intent on the mountain wall, which was a bit beyond his expectations.

Standing next to him, Hao Chen was also surprised that Fang Yang, this naive, slow-witted person, had actually noticed the sword intent.

That’s right, sword intent.

These four characters that occupied the entire mountain wall had been carved using a sword.

Therefore, the master’s sword intent was left behind, along with the intense sensation of the tip of a sword pressed against one’s throat.

But due to time, the sword intent in that handwriting had mostly dissipated. Hao Chen and Feng Ye had discovered the miniscule remnants of sword intent when they first came to Lingxiao Sword Sect.

But Fang Yang discovering it truly surprised them.

If they thought about it carefully, it wasn’t that surprising. After all, he had already cultivated sword qi. Even though Feng Ye had taught him how to use it and Fang Yang wasn’t yet able to completely control it on his own, he had cultivated it in the end.

Sword qi and sword intent were of the same origin, so it was unsurprising that Fang Yang would be sensitive to it.

Fang Yang looked at the gradually darkening sky and exclaimed: “Ah, it’s getting dark. Let’s go.” The intense sensation had only lasted for a moment, and he almost thought it was all in his head.

But whether it was or not, there were more important matters to attend to at the moment.

An earth-grade magic weapon! Stars twinkled in Fang Yang’s eyes. He had never seen an earth-grade magic weapon before. No, let alone an earth-grade magic weapon, he had never seen a magic weapon before, period.

It wasn’t very far to the Armory Pavilion. He was as happy as a mouse that had fallen into a rice jar. There were countless magic tools and weapons in there!

Fang Yang completely forgot about the sword intent and turned into a rabbit again, hopping away.

Feng Ye watched him go with amusement, but lifted his feet to catch up, Hao Chen following closely behind.

The three of them were all at Qi Refining stage – at least on the surface – so they could only walk up the mountain, unlike those fellow Foundation Establishment disciples who flew past their heads, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

After walking for nearly an hour, they finally arrived at the Armory Pavilion.

Different from that at the foot of the mountain, personnel management was extremely strict at the Armory Pavilion, and outsiders weren’t even allowed to get close.

But there was only one person standing guard, an elderly administrator in the sect. Like Administrator Zhang, he was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He didn’t feel that he had any hope of advancing, so he accepted such an idle position to live out his life.

Before Feng Ye and the other two ascended the mountain, Administrator Zhang had told them that the person guarding the pavilion was surnamed Zheng, and was an old friend of his. As long as Hao Chen showed him the token he’d been given, he would be able to pass through unobstructed.

Administrator Zhang, who seemed unreliable no matter which angle you looked at him from, was actually very reliable in matters where he shouldn’t be. When Administrator Zheng saw Hao Chen dressed like a foreign disciple, he immediately shouted for him to stop, but Hao Chen took out the token and explained everything to him.

Administrator Zheng stroked his beard and thought for a moment. Then he turned and opened the door of the armory, saying to the three people: “Come inside.”

Feng Ye: “……”

Wasn’t this a bit too casual?

But he knew that this ordinary-looking building was anything but ordinary. A powerful defensive array was engraved in a conspicuous location on the wall, and even a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator would be unable to break through it in the short term.

But he still didn’t understand why Administrator Zheng believed Hao Chen’s words so readily and let him inside.

He kept feeling like the people in this sect were a little too enthusiastic toward Hao Chen, but he couldn’t tell what the issue was.

Never mind, forget it for now. Quickly pick out a weapon and leave.

Although this magic weapon was of no use to him, he wouldn’t say no to a free thing.

With this in mind, Feng Ye followed Administrator Zheng and entered the armory.

“So this is what’s inside…..” Fang Yang said in a disappointed tone. He thought he would see magical instruments strewn across the floor as soon as he entered, not expecting that there would be piles of jade slips inside.

The jade slips were neatly placed on the shelves like books. Fang Yang was just about to reach out and take one to see what was written on it, when he heard a stern scolding. 

“Don’t touch!”

Administrator Zheng glared at Fang Yang’s outstretched hand, and the youth retracted it awkwardly.

The administrator glanced over them again, his gaze ultimately falling on Feng Ye. He asked: “You’re here for an earth-grade magic weapon?”

Feng Ye took a step forward and affirmed: “I am.”

Administrator Zheng turned and approached a table near the door. He took out a thick list and said as he paged through it: “I must verify your identity. What is your name?”

“Feng Ye,” Feng Ye replied honestly.

“Feng Ye…..” Administrator Zhang continuously repeated the name, flipping through the pages in his hands until he stopped at a certain one.

He compared the portrait on the list to Feng Ye’s facial features. After confirming that he was the right person, he was about to give Feng Ye the instructions for picking out a magic weapon when he inadvertently caught sight of a small line of words on Feng Ye’s profile.

“Five spiritual roots?” Administrator Zheng’s tone was somewhat incredulous.

Feng Ye and the others were a bit mystified. What about five spiritual roots? Administrator Zheng was as shocked as if he’d discovered that Feng Ye was an imposter.

The three of them stared at him in confusion for a long time before Administrator Zheng returned from his shock-induced trance. He realized his gaffe and explained: “Don’t overthink it. I’m not mocking you for your poor talent and low cultivation.”

Feng Ye: “……”

I wouldn’t have thought so until you brought it up.

“Ai…..” Administrator Zhang suddenly sighed. “It seems that my Lingxiao Sword Sect has truly declined. We’ve even recruited…..this.” He glanced at Feng Ye as he spoke.

Feng Ye: “……”

This was simply mocking his poor talent and low cultivation.

Seeing that the more he spoke, the more wrong it seemed, Administrator Zheng quickly made amends: “I’m really not mocking you, it’s just…..”

At this point, he couldn’t help but lament again: “When I first joined Lingxiao Sword Sect, someone with five spiritual roots certainly wouldn’t have had the chance to join one of the most powerful sects in the world.”

“Aren’t we one of the most powerful sects right now?” Fang Yang cut in.

“Right now?” Administrator Zheng looked at Fang Yang and shook his head with a smile: “You just don’t know what it was like a hundred years ago, when we were truly unrivaled in the world. There was no need to bring anything with us when we went out. Just by wearing the robes of Lingxiao Sword Sect, people would treat us like guests of honor no matter where we went.”

“Wow, our sect is so powerful?” Fang Yang’s eyes lit up again. It turned out that the sect he’d joined was so impressive.

However, he had overlooked the key words – a hundred years ago.

All of that glory and fame was just an old, hundred-year dream.

A long lost dream…..to reach the heavens.

“What happened a hundred years ago?” Hao Chen interrupted, having been listening silently. Unlike Fang Yang, who was immersed in the joy of the sect’s power, he keenly identified the key point.

Although he had only been in the mortal world for a short while, he had spent a month wandering around, and knew that the current Lingxiao Sword Sect just barely secured a place among the top ten sects. They were at the tail end, and could be squeezed out by newcomers at any time.

What had caused this powerful sect, which should have been the best in the world, to fall to this point?

Somehow, Hao Chen had a feeling that the answer pertained to why Feng Ye had appeared here, as well as his own reason for coming to this place.

When he asked this question, he sent a covert glance toward Feng Ye. But Feng Ye, who should have been just as curious about the past, seemed a little absent-minded. His gaze drifted aimlessly, without really focusing on anything.

This was the look of someone lost in memories.

He knew about the incident that had led to the decline of Lingxiao Sword Sect. Hao Chen came to this realization at once. Even further…..Feng Ye had been an eyewitness to that event that took place a hundred years ago.

---

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Chapter 26 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 28

Ling Yi floated vertically in a cylindrical repair chamber two meters high. His entire body was enveloped in a transparent, unblemished liquid, as if he had returned to his original state in life.

Time lost its meaning here. Vision, hearing, smell…..they were all blocked. The oxygen mask he breathed through was his only connection to the outside world.

Under the effect of the expensive repair fluid that was priced in milliliters, the wounds on Ling Yi’s body were healing at a rapid pace.

Whether the old injuries caused by the guards in the detention center or the new wounds he collected in his fight with Oser, they all vanished without a trace, and the skin on the back of his neck returned to its original smoothness.

Pat and Lan Ze were on their way for a routine checkup.

Pat said confidently to his junior: “I bet you that His Highness Oser is outside the ward right now, gazing lovingly at his Omega. Ten bucks.”

When they turned the corner, they found Oser leaning against the corridor window, casually looking into the ward.

No matter which angle he was viewed at, he appeared as if he had just found somewhere to loiter in boredom, but his viewpoint happened to cover the entirety of the repair chamber.

Oser heard their footsteps, and his nonchalant gaze shifted over. He saw Pat at the end of the hallway with his hand proudly extended toward Lan Ze, after which Lan Ze expressionlessly slapped a ten dollar bill into his hand.

Having won the prize, Pat came straight over to greet Oser, who didn’t forget to mock his little trick.

“You shouldn’t extort your colleagues.”

“This is him buying me coffee.” Pat stopped beside Oser with a smile, watching with him through the glass as Lan Ze performed a routine inspection on Ling Yi.

“Your Highness, you really don’t need to stay here all day. Ling Yi’s health indicators are very stable now. He’s much healthier than me, a medical animal who stays up late every night.”

“Who told you I’ve been here all day? I just happened to have some free time and came over to take a look.”

“Yes, yes. With your busy schedule, you certainly wouldn’t stay at the medical college from morning~ till~ night~ would you?”

Pat was confident that after the successful operation, Oser would be much more tolerant of him. Even when he made sarcastic jokes like this one, Oser wouldn’t scold him.

Sure enough, Oser just glared at him and said: “I heard that your vice president is retiring at the end of the year.”

Pat immediately took on a servile appearance: “Don’t worry, Your Highness. Once Junior Brother Lan Ze finishes his inspection and confirms that there aren’t any problems, we can arrange for Ling Yi to leave the healing chamber today. I’ll inform you in advance when it’s time, and the first Alpha he sees when he wakes up will be you.”

“What if I’m not?”

“If you’re not…..it isn’t a big deal. He’s an Omega custom-made for you. Even if he’s one centimeter away from me, I wouldn’t be able to smell his pheromones.”

“Your olfactory system had better agree with you, or it will need to be artificially disabled.”

“I swear on my life that there’s no way that could happen.”

Pat had asked over a dozen Alpha colleagues to test the cultivated pheromones, so he had absolute confidence in this regard.

“He will be the only Omega in the world who matches you, and you will be his unique Alpha.”

Pat was so moved that he made the shape of a halo over his head.

“Ah, is this a romantic miracle created by medicine?”

Lan Ze finished his examination and exited the ward wearing his usual cold expression, the devilish counterpart to Pat’s angel.

“The subject’s physical indicators have reached discharge criteria. He can be transferred to a general ward.”

Pat gave him a meaningful look: “What test subject? That’s the future consort!”

He turned his head and toadied up to Oser: “Haha, my junior brother isn’t good with words. Shall we get down to business without further delay?”

Oser: “I have a meeting soon.”

Lan Ze: “I have an operation coming up.”

Pat smacked his fist into his palm: “Isn’t that a coincidence? I also have an online lecture I have to attend.”

Oser urged: “Be sure to wait until I come back.”

Pat patted his chest and guaranteed: “If you’re not here, nobody else will open the storeroom door.”

Oser and Lan Ze went about their business while Pat hummed a little tune and looked around the repair storeroom.

Nan Ting was recording the final data record before Ling Yi was discharged.

“Doctor Pat, don’t you have an online lecture to attend?”

Pat said with a wave of his hand: “What could be more important than ensuring the safety of the future consort? This matter concerns the vice president of the hospital’s return…..no, it concerns His Highness Oser’s lifelong happiness. No mistakes can be made!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a loud noise caught the attention of both of them.

“What was that?” Pat looked vigilantly toward the source. “I’ll go take a look. You stay here. Don’t go anywhere.”

Pat walked out of the ward cautiously and took a few steps in the direction of the sound. He found a rarely-used medical tool that had fallen from a high location.

He was a little relieved, but still harbored some suspicion: “There’s no wind down here. How did it fall?”

He crouched down to check the instrument for damage, and put the scattered parts back in place. It took him two or three minutes to finish it, and he suddenly realized that something wasn’t right.

Oser had deployed many guards throughout the hospital, and there were naturally people guarding the underground area. But even though there was such a big commotion just now, nobody had come to investigate.

He had just stood to look around for the guards when an indescribable smell suddenly rushed into his nose.

Pat’s nostrils twitched reflexively in an attempt to more clearly identify the scent.

Nan Ting followed Pat’s advice and stayed to look after Ling Yi. As soon as Pat left, an uninvited guest entered the ward.

Even though he was wearing the medical college doctor’s uniform and a mask, Nan Ting could tell at a glance that he had bad intentions.

Ever since Ling Yi was scheduled for surgery, His Highness Oser had blocked off access to this level. Apart from Nan Ting and several nurses, only Pat and Lan Ze were allowed to enter and exit freely.

“Who are you?” Nan Ting stood in front of the repair cylinder.

The man continued to walk straight toward them.

“Stay away!”

The person in front of her just swung his hand, and the violent force knocked Nan Ting to the floor unconscious.

Night Crow removed his mask, revealing a face that was corroded beyond recognition.

Nan Ting would have been frightened had she seen his appearance.

He first looked up at Ling Yi in the repair chamber, then took a syringe out of his sleeve.

The sharp needle pierced the soft plastic barrier, and a colorless, odorless poison gas was injected into the oxygen tube.

This dose of poison was enough to kill an adult elephant. The person in the repair chamber would die completely unaware.

Once Night Crow finished, he sent a report to Lu Hulun:

[Mission accomplished]

When Oser returned after his meeting, all that would be waiting for him was a corpse.

With his mission complete, Night Crow turned to leave.

Bang.

A sound caught his attention.

Bang.

He realized that the sound was coming from behind him.

Bang!

Night Crow turned around and was surprised to find that the oxygen mask had been removed. And that Ling Yi, with his eyes closed, was punching the glass of the repair chamber with his fist.

Countless tiny bubbles gushed upward from his mouth and nose, and with each heavy blow, the liquid in the tank shook violently.

The glass couldn’t withstand the heavy impacts. Cracks appeared, spreading outward from the point of impact like a spider’s web amongst the constant sound of splintering glass.

Night Crow had taken countless lives, but he had never seen something like this.

“Such a strong desire to survive.”

He had been ordered to come and deal with Ling Yi. No matter how eager the other party was to survive, in his opinion, Ling Yi was only struggling in vain.

Night Crow was a professional assassin who didn’t like to waste time. When the poison gas didn’t work, he took out a silenced pistol and prepared to end Ling Yi’s life with a bullet.

Ling Yi exerted all of his strength, and the glass wall shattered. He fell heavily to the ground along with countless fragments of glass.

The spurting repair fluid soaked Night Crow, but he paid no attention to it, swinging his gun to aim at Ling Yi on the ground.

A strange scent hit him, causing him to pull the trigger a second slower.

Bang—

Nan Ting had just regained consciousness, and upon seeing Night Crow aiming a gun at Ling Yi, she rushed forward without thinking. Her tackle caused the trajectory of the bullet to change at the last second, and an instrument panel in the distance shattered.

Without a care for her own safety, Nan Ting shouted to Ling Yi: “Run!”

Ling Yi struggled to get up from the ground. Although he had removed the oxygen mask, the poison gas had irritated his eyes.

He couldn’t open them at all now, and could only determine the direction of the exit by instinct.

Nan Ting risked her life by holding onto Night Crow, buying time for him to escape.

Night Crow’s behavior was a little abnormal. His breathing had become heavier than usual, as if his nerves were being stimulated by some sort of substance.

It even took him a while to shake off Nan Ting, a small, unarmed nurse. And when he turned around, his target was nowhere to be seen.

A strong smell assaulted him from all directions. It was everywhere in the air, especially noticeable on his repair fluid-soaked clothing.

The look in Night Crow’s eyes changed little by little, making his hideous face look even more terrifying.

. . . . . .

Oser arrived at the medical college at an unprecedented speed.

Outside the main gate, bewildered Alphas gathered in groups of two or three.

The usually neat and orderly doctors now had mussed hair and uniforms that were pulled to pieces.

A certain unlucky guy closest to the main gate had his collar grabbed by Oser.

“What’s happening in there?”

The unlucky guy was so frightened that he babbled incoherently: “Did Your Highness ask Doctor Pat to conduct biochemical experiments underground?”

A strange look flashed through Oser’s eyes. He shoved the man away and rushed into the building without looking back.

Tang De rushed in as well, but Lan Ze grabbed his collar from behind.

“I advise you not to go inside.”

“What’s going on? Wasn’t everything fine this morning?” Tang De asked anxiously.

Lan Ze’s gaze drifted toward the main gate as he spoke two words: “Pheromone tide.”

As Oser entered the main hall of the medical college, a scent hit his nose.

It was said that no Omega had ever smelled Oser’s pheromones, so how could he have smelled the pheromones of an Omega?

But he was more certain than ever that this was the scent of an Omega’s pheromones.

Patients, medical staff, and even his guards were lying on the floor all over the place.

Without hesitation, Oser followed the direction of the smell and rushed to the third floor.

The closer he got to the target, the richer the scent became.

Each time he inhaled, countless gas molecules rushed into his nasal cavity.

It was the best thing he had ever smelled in his life.

Roses in the dog days of summer. Wintersweet on the coldest days of winter. Century-old wine, thousand-year-old sandalwood, none of these were capable of emitting a fragrance comparable to this one.

Pat had lied to him. The pheromones he had given him were nothing compared to this.

Ling Yi had been forced into a corner, with no way to escape.

He forced his eyes open, but could only see a thick fog. Like a headless fly, he had stumbled his way here as he fled.

There was originally only the assassin behind him, but for some reason, the number of people kept growing.

Ling Yi initially thought they were all assassins sent by Lu Hulun, but later discovered that he was the target they were competing for.

These people seemed to have lost their minds, pursuing and cornering Ling Yi as they fought amongst each other.

Those currently surrounding Ling Yi were the “victors” of the struggle.

They were all Alphas at their mental and physical peaks, emitting pheromones unscrupulously as they eyed their struggling prey.

Ling Yi clutched a piece of glass in his hand. It was the sole weapon he picked up for self defense after smashing the glass chamber.

The Alphas encroached gradually, narrowing the encirclement little by little. Their pheromones mixed together, and the pressure this caused made him nauseous.

Suddenly, a familiar, overbearing pheromone scent tore a hole in the surrounding atmosphere, forcefully covering up the scents of the others.

Here, Oser witnessed the most infuriating scene of his life.

Alphas in rut surrounded the Omega that should have belonged to him. Broken glass had left cuts of various sizes on his body, and his snow-white clothing was stained with blood.

His eyes were unfocused, staring at the floor as if he couldn’t see anything as blood flowed down the shard of glass in his hand.

The pheromones of a top-level Alpha detonated like a nuclear explosion.

“Get away!”

The Alphas fell to the floor under the heavy mental pressure. Only Night Crow managed to remain standing. He was still thinking about taking action when a devastating punch from Oser sent him flying.

Glass shattered on impact, and a living person flew out the window like a ragdoll.

Ling Yi heard a voice that seemed far away, yet very close.

“Ling Yi, do you know who I am?”

Even though he couldn’t see and his mind was unclear, this person’s voice, pheromones, and tone were all familiar to Ling Yi.

His tense body relaxed, and the glass shard fell to the floor with a clang.

“Your Highness.”

“No, your Alpha.”

Oser pulled the man tightly into his arms, sharp teeth piercing deeply into the skin on the back of his neck.

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Chapter 14 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 16

Pat gingerly took a sealed test tube from the cabinet and pulled out the cork, handing it to Oser.

“These are the Omega pheromones that were specially cultivated using Your Highness’s pheromones. Please smell them.”

Oser placed the test tube under his nose and inhaled gently. A faint, almost imperceptible fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose.

Pat asked nervously: “How do they smell?”

“It’s a very faint fragrance.”

“You can actually smell it?”

Oser nodded.

Pat’s confidence increased: “Then I’m relieved. I can’t smell these pheromones at all, and I’ve given them to other Alphas in the hospital, but they couldn’t smell anything either.”

“Is this what Ling Yi will smell like from now on?”

“Yes, if nothing goes wrong. Are you satisfied with the scent?”

Oser feigned calmness: “It’s not bad.”

Seeing that Oser actually liked it but was pretending to be indifferent, Pat was so angry that he could vomit blood.

But the other party was His Highness Oser, so he could only hold it in.

“These tailor-made pheromones are 100% compatible with you. For you, there should be no better scent than this. Since they aren’t natural pheromones, the scent may be a little weaker…..but this is the best I can do.”

Oser sniffed it again, as if savoring it slowly. This was the first time in his life he had smelled Omega pheromones.

So this was what Omega pheromones smelled like.

“Your Highness, after a successful operation, you can hold him and smell him to your heart’s content. There’s no need to be so reluctant to part with it.”

He reached out to grab the vial, but Oser showed no signs of relinquishing it, so he retracted his hand and pretended to scratch the back of his head.

“Then Your Highness can keep it as a souvenir. Anyway, you won’t need it in the future.”

Oser put the vial in his breast pocket and warned again: “If you mess this up…..”

“I’ll be the next one to undergo transformation, right?” Pat had already made mental preparations. “Don’t worry, you’ve even kidnapped Junior Lan Ze. With two chief surgeons from the Royal Medical College in charge, we’ll definitely give you a fragrant, lively Omega.”

When he turned around, Nan Ting had been standing behind him for an unknown period of time.

“Doctor Pat, Ling Yi’s physical examination has been completed. All indicators meet the surgical criteria. You can start prepping for the operation.”

The two walked side by side to the operating room. Pat kept taking deep breaths and slapping his face to keep himself clear-headed.

This may be the most difficult operation he had ever performed in his life, and also an operation that concerned his own life.

Nan Ting asked quietly: “Doctor Pat, I only know Doctor Lan Ze as the chief surgeon of our hospital. When did we get another one?”

“……Nan Ting, you’ve really turned bad. Not only have you learned to eavesdrop, you’ve also learned to ridicule people.”

“But seriously, when I saw Doctor Lan Ze in the preparation room this morning, it was like taking a reassurance pill.”

It was rare for Nan Ting to be so enamored of someone.

“Doctor Lan Ze is so handsome and amazing. I wish all the doctors in the medical college could be like him.”

Pat muttered jealously: “You won’t think that way once you see him cut up a living person with your own eyes. That guy only thinks about medicine. To him, human beings are no different from frogs. You’re at most a frog who can start an IV drip.”

“So what kind of frog are you, Doctor Pat?”

“How rude! I’m his senior, would he dare to treat me as a frog?”

Ling Yi had a rare restful sleep, and looked well. He even had the energy to greet the doctor who was about to cut open his gland. 

“I want to see His Highness Oser once more before I go in.”

“I’m here.” Oser came from the other direction with Tang De.

Ling Yi stared at him for at least half a minute.

Pat asked curiously: “What are you looking at?”

It didn’t seem like he was entrusting his funeral affairs to him, but this couldn’t just be eye contact, right?

“I want to remember this face. That way, if anything happens to me, I’ll know who to come back and settle the score with in my next life.”

Oser said with a grave expression: “That’s inauspicious. Spit.”

Ling Yi thought Oser was joking, but unexpectedly, Tang De mouthed the same words to him from behind Oser.

Ling Yi: “I thought people only said that when teasing children.”

Tang De kindly advised: “Just spit. His Highness believes in this kind of thing.”

Ling Yi had no choice but to pei, pei, pei three times. “Will that do? You’re a royal aristocrat, how can you believe in such folk superstitions?”

Oser maintained a straight face: “Don’t speak nonsense next time.”

Cold anesthetic was injected into his body, and the second to last words Ling Yi heard before he lost consciousness came from Lan Ze.

“The back of your neck is very beautiful.”

“You said the same thing last time,” Ling Yi said in a daze.

Lan Ze revealed a rare smile under his mask.

“You never expected that it would be me again.”

Those were the last words Ling Yi heard before he passed out.

. . . . . .

Xi Lei was allowed to stay with Xi En for half an hour inside the intensive care unit.

He sat on the edge of the hospital bed with his head in his hands. The electrocardiograph beeped at a steady pace, each sound torturing his conscience.

After sitting like this for a long time, he suddenly slapped his head in pain.

“Dad, I’m sorry. I couldn’t protect Xi Lan or Ling Yi. When you wake up, you’ll definitely want to beat me to death. I’m so useless. I can’t face you……”

In the meantime, Oser remained outside the operating room. Although he appeared as calm and composed as ever, Tang De swore that this was definitely the least calm he had ever seen His Highness.

When Ling Yi gave birth to a child one day, His Highness Oser wouldn’t even be this uneasy outside the delivery room.

He didn’t dare share the same space as the extremely emotionally unstable Oser, for fear that the other party would suddenly release pheromones.

“Your Highness, I’ll go check the security around the perimeter and make every effort to ensure the smooth progress of the operation. I won’t allow any suspicious individuals to get close!”

After Tang De found an excuse to slip away, Oser’s mask of calmness dropped by half.

He paced back and forth outside the operation room, and even lit a cigarette to calm himself down.

Nan Ting hurried out, and just as Oser was about to question her, she spotted the half-smoked cigarette in his hand.

“Your Highness! This is a hospital! How can you smoke in the hallway? This is outrageous!”

Nan Ting snatched Oser’s cigarette and put it out, then rushed off without waiting for Oser to speak.

Oser didn’t receive any answers, and was even scolded by a nurse.

He swallowed his frustration and waited for Nan Ting to jog back. When he saw the blood bags in her arms, he got a bad feeling.

He tried to follow Nan Ting through the door of the operation room, but she pushed him out roughly.

“Your Highness Oser, you can’t enter the operating room. Please wait outside!”

Oser was extremely anxious. At the critical moment, he remembered the pheromones Pat had given him and took them out, putting them under his nose to sniff carefully. Little by little, he calmed down.

Every minute felt like an eternity outside the operating room, and those inside it weren’t much better off.

Nan Ting changed the blood bag while keeping a close eye on the numbers on the instruments.

“Abnormal heart rate…..abnormal blood pressure……”

Lan Ze’s voice was as tranquil as ice water.

“Scalpel.”

Another nurse promptly handed him a scalpel.

“Wipe.”

The nurse who wiped his sweat was also sweating profusely due to nerves.

Lan Ze stared at the display screen, moving his hands mechanically.

Bright red blood quickly filled the wound, blurring the screen.

“Suction.”

As old blood was drawn out, new blood flowed in. How much blood could one person stand to lose?

Nan Ting suddenly raised her voice: “Heart rate is too low…… heart rate has stopped!”

The instruments sounded frantic alarms.

“Point five milliliters of epinephrine.”

“It’s not working!”

“One milliliter of epinephrine.”

“Heart rate is recovering…..thirty, thirty-five, forty…..”

“The last step requires your cooperation. Are you ready, Doctor Pat?”

When he didn’t receive a reply, Lan Ze looked up to see Doctor Pat holding his hands up motionlessly, as if in shock from the sudden incident just now.

Nan Ting also noticed that something was wrong: “Doctor Pat. Doctor Pat?”

Pat seemed to be in a different space, unable to see, hear, or move.

His mind was blank, and he didn’t know where or who he was.

Fear gripped his mind. If anything happened to this innocent young man, it would be his fault.

He would have survived being under Lu Hulun’s hands, only to die under Pat’s own.

He would be a sinner to the nation. Even if Oser didn’t come after him, the fury of the common people would be enough to burn him to ashes.

“Pat!”

Pat awoke from his daze and looked into Lan Ze’s eyes, which were as sharp as a scalpel.

Lan Ze stared straight at him: “Calm down. I need your help.”

Pat suddenly snapped back into focus, as if splashed with ice water. He put all of his thoughts behind him and gave a solemn nod.

“Got it.”

“I’ll count down to one, and we’ll lift together. Three, two, one…..”

. . . . . .

The door to the operating room was finally pushed open before Oser could burn two holes into it.

“The operation was successful,” Lan Ze said lightly, the first one to walk out of the room.

Oser heaved a sigh of relief.

“‘Successful’ only means that vital signs were stable at the conclusion of the operation. He will need to remain in the recovery chamber for a full seven days, and will be observed for a month after leaving it to ensure that his hormone levels are normal and there is no rejection reaction. Only then will the procedure be considered complete.”

He finished the explanation expressionlessly. He’d thought that Oser would be impatient after the long wait, but all he got from him was a “thank you for your hard work.”

“It wasn’t hard. I don’t get many opportunities to perform this kind of surgery. The process was very challenging, but I enjoyed it very much.”

Lan Ze was only focused on himself, and was completely unaware of Oser’s increasingly ugly expression.

“If Your Highness wants another Alpha to undergo secondary gender reassignment, I would be happy to help. Next time, I’ll be more experienced and more wuwuwuwu—-”

Pat rushed up behind him and covered his mouth.

“Apologies, Your Highness. Junior Brother Lan Ze is an excellent doctor, but he’s not well-versed in dealing with people.”

Fortunately, Oser only sent him a glare before his attention was immediately diverted to Ling Yi.

Lan Ze pulled Pat’s hand away in disgust: “Doctor Pat didn’t wash his hands after leaving the operating room.”

“I was too busy saving you to wash my hands.”

Pat excitedly threw an arm around Lan Ze’s shoulders, as if they were close friends who had known each other for many years.

“You saved me once in the operating room, and I saved you once now, so we’re even.”

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what I just said. This operation was highly uncertain. His Highness Oser should select several more Alpha specimens suitable for transformation in order to ensure survival rates.”

“Trust me, if you want to ensure survival rates, spend more time in surgery and use your mouth less. That way, you can live a long life.”

The more Pat thought about it, the more frightened he was. He became nervous due to fear, and nagged more due to his nerves.

“When his heart stopped beating, I completely froze up. In that moment, I even decided where my burial site should be. If it wasn’t for you, I would have been finished today.”

“Me dying wouldn’t be a problem, but I would have harmed Ling Yi, a good man. I really regret researching this for His Highness…..”

Lan Ze took exception to this.

“It is precisely because of these so-called moral constraints that medicine is unable to develop rapidly.”

Pat said sincerely: “I also want to apologize for misunderstanding you in the past. I always thought that in your eyes, there is no difference between humans and frogs, but when you snapped me out of it today, I clearly felt that you needed me as a human being. You awakened not only my sanity, but also my dignity!”

Lan Ze looked at him from head to toe, and then did it again.

Pat’s hair stood up under his gaze: “What? Am I wrong?”

Lan Ze turned his head and said: “That’s not necessarily the case. Perhaps you’re a frog who can hold a scalpel.”

“…..Please act like a human being!”

. . . . . . . 

“You’re saying that the murderer who killed Dawa is now in the basement of the Royal Medical College?”

At the Prime Minister’s office, Lu Hulun received a secret report from the medical college.

“Yes, Prime Minister. His Highness Oser has sent people to guard every entrance and exit. It is very likely that the person’s family has also been placed inside.”

Lu Hulun scoffed coldly: “My grandson truly lacks patience. This is not surprising at all.”

He coughed uncontrollably several times.

“Send Night Crow. Don’t leave any of them alive, whether it’s Ling Yi or his family!”

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Chapter 13 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 15

The happy news came so suddenly that Huo Fenglie was completely unable to understand or believe it. It wasn’t until his surroundings came alive with discussions and vague congratulations that he abruptly stood and looked at his brother and sister-in-law. The two of them just offered him bright smiles.

Huo Fenglie seemed to come to a realization. He felt as if he was floating outside his body. When he immediately rushed out to the gates, he met Liu Zhenqing, who had returned amidst the wind and sand.

Liu Zhenqing brushed the sand off his body as he walked. He looked up to see Huo Fenglie rushing out, and laughed when he saw the Imperial edict in his hand and the slack expression on his face.

“I wanted to rush back and receive it with you. Why did the director of the Dongchang give it to you in advance?”

How could these words be misunderstood? But Huo Fenglie just…..just couldn’t believe it. He stepped forward with the Imperial edict and held it in front of Liu Zhenqing.

“It….it says that a marriage has been granted to…..me and Qing-ge…..is it true?” Huo Fenglie’s voice had become hoarse. He watched Liu Zhenqing closely with tears in his eyes, observing every change of expression on his face. He feared that it was all an illusion, and dreaded seeing Liu Zhenqing’s confused, shocked, and angry expression.

The group following behind looked on with caution. After all, most of them didn’t know why the Imperial edict was different than expected.

But Liu Zhenqing just stepped forward and took Huo Fenglie’s hand, the veins of which stood out due to nervousness. With a smile as beautiful as a flower, he said: “Of course. Could the Imperial decree I asked for be false?”

All expression on Huo Fenglie’s face disappeared almost instantaneously, and before Liu Zhenqing could finish what he was saying, Huo Fenglie had hugged him tightly: “Qing-ge, Qing-ge, are you telling the truth? You asked for an Imperial edict of marriage. It was you who…..you want me? You want me?”

There was initially a smile on Liu Zhenqing’s face, but when he heard these humble words and felt a chill on his neck, he realized Er-gou was crying. Liu Zhenqing suddenly felt upset, thinking that he had been too late in his reciprocation.

He couldn’t be blamed – he had indeed been a little confused and uncertain before. It had taken him a long time to get over the obstacles in his heart.

But Li Jinshu’s appearance had given him a wake-up call. When he had proposed that Huo Fenglie marry the princess, Liu Zhenqing’s expression didn’t change, but at that moment, he wanted to kill both Li Jinshu and that princess.

How dare she covet his Er-gou? What a joke!

The almost terrifying possessiveness he felt at that moment caused Liu Zhenqing to come to the realization that he could no longer make excuses for himself.

He liked Huo Fenglie, and because of that affection, he indulged him in his repeated frivolous behavior. Because of his love for him, he had waited two years for him to grow up and make his decision.

By the time he realized what was happening, his already deep feelings had changed, and everything seemed natural.

He wanted Er-gou and wouldn’t give him to anyone else, even the Kingdom of Xiheng.

Liu Zhenqing was a free and easy person by nature. After turning this corner, he would give Er-gou only the best.

However, this puppy was a bit disobedient. He had been running around all over the place these past few days, which worried Liu Zhenqing.

But that just gave him time to take care of everything. He was older than Er-gou, so it was naturally his responsibility to make the arrangements.

Liu Zhenqing patted Huo Fenglie’s shoulder and said: “I have something for you.”

Huo Fenglie buried his head and rubbed it against Liu Zhenqing’s collar. When he raised his head, his eyes were still red.

Liu Zhenqing smiled and took a small box out of his pocket. When he opened it, a pair of wedding rings lay inside.

When Huo Fenglie was a child, he had heard Liu Zhenqing mention the significance of wedding rings. His brother and sister-in-law also wore a pair due to Liu Zhenqing’s words. 

So when Liu Zhenqing took them out, the look in Huo Fenglie’s eyes transformed.

Liu Zhenqing said with a smile: “Are you willing to marry me?”

That night, this person had declared that he wouldn’t marry, but when it was Liu Zhenqing asking the question, Huo Fenglie shouted out before the last word was out of Liu Zhenqing’s mouth: “I’m willing, I’m willing.”

Liu Zhenqing chuckled and raised his hands to show Huo Fenglie how to exchange wedding rings.

Everyone around was in shock.

Li Xingruo snuggled into Huo Feihan’s arms and said: “Your didi is really eager to get married, and he agreed in such a hurry. I won’t be able to tease my shixiong again in this life.”

“This is called a good ending after persevering through hard times. He’s afraid that if he doesn’t say yes in a hurry, Zhenqing will change his mind,” Huo Feihan said with a happy smile.

“Of course he wouldn’t do that. Once my shixiong accepts someone, he accepts them for life.”

“But Fenglie doesn’t dare take the risk, hahaha.”

“Shixiong will prove himself…..”

After receiving the second Imperial edict, Liu Zhenqing and Huo Fenglie disappeared. The two naturally returned to the courtyard to finish what they hadn’t completed that night.

When Liu Zhenqing saw Huo Fenglie smiling foolishly with the Imperial edict in hand, he loosened his belt. He raised a hand to lift Huo Fenglie’s chin, and the thin clothing slipped off. Liu Zhenqing leaned forward and pushed him down on the bed, asking: “Do you want to hold the Imperial edict, or do you want to hold me?”

When it came to flirting, Liu Zhenqing was countless levels higher than Huo Fenglie. He had just been passive before. Huo Fenglie had witnessed Liu Zhenqing flirting with others, but he had never been flirted with by Liu Zhenqing when they were both of equal status. This sudden move froze Huo Fenglie’s prior roguish behavior in its tracks.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Liu Zhenqing took out a bottle of ointment and tossed it onto the bed. He had prepared it during the past few days, and had naturally read some books as well. Although he was volunteering to be on the bottom, as the elder between them, he couldn’t suffer a loss.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to do it that night, I just wasn’t ready. But since I upset you, Qing-ge will make it up to you, starting from…..here.”

These words, along with the way Liu Zhenqing slowly lowered his head, completely drained Huo Fenglie of rationality.

Huo Fenglie was disoriented by such a happy event, and the first half of the night was under Liu Zhenqing’s control. If he hadn’t run out of strength in the latter part, Huo Fenglie wouldn’t have had a chance to turn the tables. But from the time the sun set to when it rose again the next day, Liu Zhenqing felt a little regretful – regretful that he had been so domineering before and turned the man into a fool, giving him the opportunity to accumulate his strength for later use.

Liu Zhenqing was actually forced to tears several times, but just as he was about to get angry, Huo Fenglie said: “Is it true? Qing-ge is really going to marry me? Am I dreaming?”

Subsequently, Liu Zhenqing stayed lying down.

If someone hadn’t come to remind them that peace talks were scheduled for the next day and that the envoys were waiting to talk, Huo Fenglie likely wouldn’t have stopped.

Liu Zhenqing was so exhausted that he no longer cared about face, and just let Huo Fenglie carry him to the meeting. The others had moved on from their initial shock to acceptance.

When they went to negotiate the next day, Huo Fenglie once more carried a sleepy Liu Zhenqing to the carriage.

Inside, Huo Fenglie held him in his arms, only letting go when they reached the peace talks tent at the border.

He was still anxious, and actually didn’t want Li Jinshu to appear in front of Liu Zhenqing again.

Liu Zhenqing smiled slightly when he saw Huo Fenglie’s appearance. He got off the carriage and glanced toward the peace talks tent, saying: “Perhaps it will be just as you hope.”

Huo Fenglie was puzzled, but upon walking into the tent, he didn’t see Li Jinshu.

The peace talks gradually returned to normal, but there was no longer a marriage element to the negotiations. It was as if that day had been an illusion.

Huo Fenglie was still a little confused when they departed: “What’s going on?”

Liu Zhenqing nestled into Huo Fenglie’s arms. Looking out the window at the vast, lonely desert, he said with a smile: “It’s very simple, ah. He must have heard about the Imperial decree of marriage. There’s no point in him pestering me any further.”

“Will he give up so easily?” Huo Fenglie was skeptical.

Liu Zhenqing smiled faintly, but there was a hint of ridicule in his tone: “Even if he doesn’t want to give up, he has no choice.”

The Crown Prince had said before that he would never agree to sacrificing Liu Zhenqing. Therefore, plans had been made from the beginning. Li Jinshu only dared to do such a thing because the old emperor was on his deathbed. He wanted to embarrass Great Zhou, and also to test their strength and bottom line. So they just needed to make Li Jinshu understand that he could not control the fate of Great Zhou, and that Great Zhou could throw the Kingdom of Xiheng into disorder at any time.

The Crown Prince had made many arrangements in Xiheng over the years. This time, Liu Zhenqing had called on Huo Feihan’s shadow guards to contact those people, then had the Huo Family Army re-deploy troops as a deterrent. As regent, Li Jinshu had to manage things even if he had no desire to, and once he did, it would be evident that it was the work of Great Zhou. This was a warning.

If it really came to using force, Li Jinshu’s methods may not measure up to Liu Zhenqing’s, and there was still the Crown Prince controlling things from afar. The death of the old emperor would not have any impact on Great Zhou. When Li Jinshu recognized this face, he had no choice but to accept his fate. He couldn’t touch Liu Zhenqing, and he couldn’t afford to offend Huo Fenglie.

A marriage was granted, and all of Li Jinshu’s proposals were summarily rejected. It was also a sign of a great power’s prestige to not seek peace through marriage. Mutually beneficial arrangements were the only way to secure eternal cooperation. This was the answer given to Li Jinshu by the increasingly powerful Great Zhou.

Huo Fenglie listened slowly as he watched the setting sun shine onto Liu Zhenqing’s face, adding a new level of charm to his appearance. The person in his arms turned to smile at him, saying: “Do you understand?”

Huo Fenglie nodded: “I understand. But there’s just one thing.”

“What is it?”

“Qing-ge, when you first came here, were you willing to marry me at any time?”

Liu Zhenqing was startled, and an unnatural look stole over his face.

Huo Fenglie hugged Liu Zhenqing and kissed his face, saying: “Qing-ge, before we left this morning, I asked my brother and sister-in-law to make preparations, and also asked He Lan and Qin Yu to go south and spread the news. There’s an auspicious day next month – let’s get married then, okay? I don’t want to wait any longer.”

Before he knew it, Liu Zhenqing was already being pressed down in the carriage, greeted intermittently by Huo Fenglie’s loving pecks.

His “okay” was immediately blocked by a kiss. Liu Zhenqing had only one thought in his muddled brain, which was that the ointment was so effective that he stood no chance of getting hurt, which allowed Huo Fenglie to go wild.

But he really couldn’t resist this person’s deep affection, so he could only cover his mouth, feeling shy and embarrassed, and attempt to stay quiet.

The carriage gradually began to shake as it returned to the city, but nobody dared to look back or prick up their ears. All they knew was that the desert sunset today was exceptionally brilliant and colorful, foreshadowing stability in the west and the prosperity of Great Zhou for many years to come.

And…..that everyone got their happy ending.

The End

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T/N: Phew, it’s finally done! All those extras just about killed me. Thanks for reading, everyone! Please support the author if you’re able to!

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(Alt Universe) Extra 28 << Table of Contents