Tian Yuxue, knowing her own weakness, whispered, “Maybe I should call Ji Cang? He dropped me off near here, so he’s probably still around. If I beg him, he’ll definitely help. He’s a bothersome demon, sure, but his cultivation is at the Soul Transformation Stage.”
Ji Cang had declared that his stance on the royal palace’s internal affairs was neutral, so he wouldn’t interfere. He had only escorted her here and was waiting outside for her return. If she encountered danger, she could call on him. And Tian Yuxue felt this was exactly such a moment of peril—perfectly justifiable to summon the demon for help.
Sang Dai glanced at Tian Yuxue, smiling as she gently patted her on the head.
“No need.”
Nascent Soul cultivators were nothing more than that.
“Find a safe place to hide. I’ll handle the rest on my own.”
Sang Dai turned back, her black hair lifted by spiritual energy. She instantly teleported into the encirclement. Holding her Zhiyu Sword as if it were a blade, she slashed horizontally. Sword light roared forth, crushing down on the group like a tidal wave.
Meanwhile, deep within the royal palace, a woman was fleeing frantically down the corridors, clutching the hem of her wide gown. Her hairpins were askew, her expression filled with terror.
She pushed open the stone door, revealing a spacious stone chamber behind it.
“Sang Dai! Sang Dai broke the Eight Elephants Fire Array and stormed in with Tian Yuxue! We can’t hold them back! They’ve already reached the Zhongzheng Hall!”
The figure seated at the main throne collapsed into the chair in shock.
Dressed in extravagant and costly royal robes, even though he was no longer the Beast King, Su Xiu still demanded the royal family treat him with the same respect accorded to a Beast King.
After all, Su Xuan had his mother consort to consider. While he dared to attack the royal family, he refrained from taking excessively harsh actions against them.
Su Xiu gripped the armrest tightly and glanced at his children around him. These princes and princesses, spoiled and pampered since birth, were nothing like Su Xuan. Whether favored or not, they had all lived a carefree life under the royal banner.
Now that a major crisis had arisen, not a single one of them proved useful.
Su Xiu’s voice turned cold. “Su Xuan truly hasn’t come?”
“He hasn’t, but we’ve lost contact with the eldest prince. Su Xuan must have…”
As the eldest prince, Su Chengfeng, who had once been Su Xiu’s chosen successor, had his own residence and rarely stayed here.
Su Xuan must have gone to find him.
Only a handful of people knew the whereabouts of the corpse, and Su Chengfeng was one of them. Most of Su Xiu’s other children were unaware of these matters.
Su Chengfeng had insulted Su Xuan and his mother consort numerous times in his youth. Su Xuan would never let him off.
Su Xiu swallowed with difficulty, trying to steady his voice as he barked, “The ninth prince! Go retrieve Liu Ying’s soul! That must be what Sang Dai is after.”
One of them responded hurriedly, “Yes!”
The ninth prince, quick to obey, dashed out the door. Inside the underground palace, everyone else waited anxiously.
Su Xiu lowered his voice. “As long as Liu Ying’s soul is here, he won’t dare act. Even if he finds the corpse, what can he do? Will he really deny his mother consort the chance to enter reincarnation?”
After Liu Ying’s death, Su Xiu had prepared for future retaliation from Su Xuan. He extracted Liu Ying’s soul and imprisoned it in the royal forbidden grounds, while her corpse was handed over to Su Chengfeng, who hid it elsewhere.
This arrangement ensured total control over Su Xuan. Even if Su Xuan found the body, they could shatter Liu Ying’s soul, forever denying her entry into the cycle of reincarnation.
This fear had held Su Xuan in check for years, ensuring he never acted recklessly.
—
In the forbidden grounds, the ninth prince rushed through the corridors, biting his fingertip to unlock the barrier.
Pushing the door open, the power of a nine-tailed fox’s soul surged out toward him.
Golden restrictions covered the entire palace, and the flowing inscriptions suppressed a suspended crystalline ice box. A faint light could be seen glowing inside the box.
The prince’s expression relaxed as he prepared to step forward and retrieve the ice box.
But before he could move, a binding ribbon lashed out from behind him, snatching the ice box away.
He spun around in terror, but it was already too late.
A woman in blue robes, her attire stained with blood, stood before him. Her hair was pinned back with a single hairpin.
But he recognized it—the Nine Ring Hairpin.
Her identity was unmistakable.
Sang Dai held the ice box in her arms, her expression cold as she asked, “Where is Su Xiu?”
“You—Sang Dai! How is this possible?!”
In just a quarter of an hour, how had she made it here?!
The Zhiyu Sword was unsheathed, piercing straight through the prince’s shoulder and pinning him to the wall.
The prince, pampered since childhood, had never endured such agony and let out a wretched howl.
Blood dripped from the blade, splattering onto the ground and blooming into crimson flowers.
The sword cultivator’s voice was cold. “I’ll ask you one more time. Where is Su Xiu?”
—
Half a moment later, the stone door was knocked upon once more.
The person closest to the entrance went to open it.
Su Xiu’s lips curled into a smile.
Once Liu Ying’s soul was secured, Su Xuan would be unable to act.
But as the stone door fully opened, the room fell into a dead silence.
Seated on the throne, Su Xiu couldn’t even stay upright. He slid from his stone chair.
At the door stood the sword cultivator, holding the ice box in one arm. Behind her, the binding ribbon dragged a bloodied, battered figure.
Though the sword cultivator was covered in blood, not a single wound marred her body. The blood was entirely from others.
With her celestial features, she appeared like a fallen immortal—but at this moment, she was more akin to an asura.
She stepped into the room and closed the stone door behind her.
Sang Dai leaned down, carefully placing the ice box on a nearby stone table. She patted the binding ribbon beside her.
“Take care of this ice box.”
The long ribbon received her command, widening to fully envelop the ice box.
The sword cultivator unsheathed the sword at her waist and said, “I am Sang Dai, here on behalf of Su Xuan to kill someone.”
Her long sword pointed directly at the figure seated at the highest position.
—
An hour later, Su Xuan received another message from Sang Dai.
The sword cultivator’s side was unusually quiet. Her voice remained cool and indifferent.
“Su Xuan, are you alright?”
The little fox lowered his eyes and replied, “I’m fine. What about you?”
Sang Dai responded, “Everything went smoothly. The royal palace defenses weren’t difficult.”
Hundreds of Nascent Soul cultivators and countless Golden Core cultivators—and in Sang Dai’s words, it wasn’t difficult.
Su Xuan chuckled softly, his gaze tender. “Mm, Dai Dai is the best.”
Silence lingered on the other end. Su Xuan blocked out the sound of the rain and waited patiently for her response.
After a while, the sword cultivator seemed to have composed her words. She spoke softly, “Su Xuan, I’ve found your mother consort’s soul.”
At this point, it was the little fox who fell silent.
Sang Dai let out a soft breath and said, “Su Xuan, you can finally go and do what you’ve always wanted to do. You don’t have to hold back anymore.”
Su Xuan lowered his eyes. Raindrops splashed onto the ground, ripples spreading outward in circles, blurring his vision.
He was silent for a long time before he finally said, “Alright.”
Sang Dai tightened her grip around the ice box in her arms, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.
“Su Xuan, go. Go and finish the final task. I’ll be here, waiting for your return.”
Su Xuan covered his eyes, his nose tingling slightly. “…Mm.”
She had done enough. What remained was something he had to handle alone.
The knot in his heart that had tormented him for a hundred years—he would unravel it today.
“Su Xuan, I’ll wait three hours for you. If you don’t return, I’ll come find you.”
“…Alright, Dai Dai.”
The jade token disconnected once again.
The little fox sank into the endless darkness, allowing the night to consume him. Thunder had begun to rumble in the dark sky, its booming growl deafening.
He turned to look at the figure behind him.
It was hardly recognizable as a person anymore.
The joints had been shattered, and the flesh and blood seemed to have been crushed by something, leaving it as nothing more than a mangled mess.
Su Xuan never liked bloodshed. He hadn’t since he was a child. When killing, he preferred clean, swift executions. This was the first time he had acted in such a brutal manner.
This wasn’t something Sang Dai could bring herself to do. When she killed, she never degraded her victims. But Su Xuan was different, and so this had to be done by him.
Su Xuan spoke. “When I was six years old, my mother consort gained the king’s favor. You resented her for overshadowing your mother, so you sent people to kidnap her. They shattered seven of her bones while she was still alive and threw her into a deep well for ten days. Is that right?”
“When I was eight, my mother consort was pregnant. On a snowy night, she was ambushed on her way back and pushed down a mountain, leading to a miscarriage that ensured she could never have another child. That was your doing, wasn’t it?”
Su Chengfeng couldn’t speak; when he tried, his mouth filled with blood, choking him.
“When I was eleven, the Twelve Palaces learned that I was a Heaven-grade spiritual root awakener. It was you who informed them, wasn’t it?”
“When I was thirteen, my mother consort was executed for rebellion. It was you who suggested to Su Xiu that her soul be extracted and separated from her body, imprisoning them in two different places. Was that you?”
Su Chengfeng stared in terror at the young man standing tall and expressionless.
He spoke as if narrating someone else’s story, his voice devoid of emotion or inflection.
But every event, every accusation, was part of his own life.
Su Chengfeng had always thought Su Xuan was unaware of these things. But now… it became clear that Su Xuan had always known. He had only held back because of Liu Ying’s corpse.
Su Xuan once again drew the Qingwu Sword. Under Su Chengfeng’s horrified gaze, he stepped on his shattered wrist, crushing it further.
“Su Chengfeng, I’ll ask you one last time—where is my mother consort’s body?”
He lifted the sword and smiled faintly. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll start carving you up. Let’s begin with this arm, shall we?”
Screams echoed loudly as chunks of flesh fell to the ground, blood splattering everywhere. Su Chengfeng’s remaining right arm was stripped down to bare white bone.
“I’ll ask again—where is my mother consort’s body?”
“Where is she, Su Chengfeng? Where is she?”
“Su Chengfeng, where is she?”
Where exactly is she?
In this world, only Su Chengfeng knew.
Only Su Chengfeng knew the whereabouts of his mother consort.
The little fox’s eyes were bloodshot, his voice growing louder and louder. His hands moved with ruthless precision, blood splattering across his face, a hint of madness seeping into his expression.
“Su Chengfeng, where is my mother consort?!”
“She’s in my residence! There’s a hidden passage in the bedchamber!!”
At that moment, a deafening thunderclap split the sky.
The little fox blinked, a single tear rolling down his cheek.
“…What did you say?”
Su Chengfeng, driven mad with pain, most of his flesh stripped away, stammered in panic, “She’s there! She’s there!!”
Su Chengfeng’s palace was right here. Su Xuan had visited this place countless times before, many times nearly forcing himself to disregard everything and compel Su Chengfeng to confess the truth. Even if Liu Ying’s corpse were damaged in the process, it would at least serve as vengeance for her.
But he never imagined… she was here all along.
The thunder grew louder, and flashes of lightning illuminated the horrific scene in the courtyard.
The tall figure stood still for a long time.
Until the rain intensified, he suddenly moved.
“Oh. Then die.”
The blade descended, and the figure on the ground moved no more.