Chapter 401: The Final Battle (End) [Grand Finale]

Without hesitation, Yu Wanrou slit her palm and pressed it firmly against the groove on the scepter.

Her expression right now was incredibly vicious and manic – a stark juxtaposition from her earlier softness and pitiful disposition.

All of the men lying on the ground couldn’t help but feel incredibly frustrated at the situation as they berated themselves – how could they have been so blind to fall for such a crazy, vile woman? At the same time, their hearts were also plagued by pangs of regret and reluctance. They simply couldn’t bear the thought that Yu Wanrou was soon about to claim the throne for herself without any effort on her part at all.

Meanwhile, Yu Wanrou could feel her blood slowly trickle out of her wound, filling the groove at the top of the scepter. Soon, the scepter began to glow with a faint, red hue.

Am I about to succeed? Am I going to become the owner of this entire Arcane Realm? Yu Wanrou’s heart began to thump quicker and quicker.

Just then, the scepter suddenly shone with an intense, harsh light. The resplendence of the light instantly illuminated the otherwise dimly lit throne room.

“Ahh--!” Yu Wanrou began to shriek in pain. Without any warning, blood suddenly began to pour out of her body and into the scepter. At the same time, her skin began to burst and split open all over her body, turning her into a bloody, mangled mess within moments.

Is this the ceremonial process of seizing ownership of the Arcane Realm? Why is it so terrifying?! The men lying on the ground exclaimed in their hearts as their eyes widened with disbelief. That said, everyone desired to know the final outcome of Yu Wanrou’s efforts.

The cruel process lasted for two full incense sticks of time. As the intense, resplendent light began to fade from the scepter, Yu Wanrou’s body slumped powerlessly onto the ground. She now looked decades older than she had just been moments ago, almost as though she were already in her twilight years.

The poisoned men who were laying on the ground were immediately taken aback, and they couldn’t help but exclaim in their hearts – Looks like the process of seizing ownership of the throne isn’t so simple. It’s a good thing that I didn’t make a move earlier. Otherwise, the person collapsing to the ground right now could very well have been me.

On the other hand, Yu Wanrou had experienced far more than what anyone else could ever have fathomed. Over the last two incense sticks of time, she felt as though a particular type of energy was forcibly being drained out from her body. In turn, it was precisely because her body was unable to withstand the immense energy that was flowing through it that it began to wither and age at an accelerated pace.

Yu Wanrou had an inkling as to what this source of energy was, and she immediately unfastened the top of her garments and glanced at her collarbone where the fox-shaped totem was located.

Things were far worse than she had expected – the fox-shaped totem had completely vanished!!!

Yu Wanrou spat out a large mouthful of blood. Her heart was overwhelmed with hatred and regret right now. She sincerely hoped that this entire series of unfortunate events she had just experienced was nothing more than an incredibly long and arduous nightmare.

Meanwhile, the child within Jun Xiaomo’s womb appeared to be at its limits of its patience, and it was raring to leave its mother’s womb. Jun Xiaomo could feel pangs of electrifying pain shoot straight to her mind from her womb, and she clenched her fists and groaned uncontrollably.

“Xiaomo!” Ye Xiuwen clutched tightly onto her hands, worried that she might accidentally hurt herself in her pain.

“I…I think I’m…in labour…” Jun Xiaomo painstakingly uttered.

“We know. Don’t worry, Xiaomo. We’re all here by your side right now.” Chi Jingtian consoled her.

Jun Xiaomo stretched out her lips in a feeble attempt to eke out a smile back at Chi Jingtian. Unfortunately, her smile was stiff and rigid, and it appeared no better than a grimace.

“Don’t think too much about unnecessary things. Adjust your breathing and focus on pushing.” Rong Ruihan recalled the things which he had overheard from the wet nurses in the palace while he was still young. Even though he had never seen how the entire process of labour was being done, he still had a vague inkling of what the process entailed.

Jun Xiaomo did as Rong Ruihan instructed, and she regulated her breathing and focused on pushing. Beads of sweat percolated her forehead, rolling off every now and then onto the hardwood floor below.

With their attention completely focused on Jun Xiaomo, Ye Xiuwen, Rong Ruihan and Chi Jingtian failed to notice a faint, blood-red light flicker from the scepter in front of the throne. As the light slowly intensified and grew, it engulfed Jun Xiaomo and her consorts and enshrouded them within.

Fortunately, this light was completely different from the light that had attacked Yu Wanrou and drained her energy. Instead, this light was incredibly soft and warm, and it even began to ease the pain that Jun Xiaomo experienced.

After approximately four hours, Jun Xiaomo felt her child finally slip out from between her legs, and the sound of a crying infant instantly filled the room. A sense of relief washed across Jun Xiaomo’s heart, as though a heavy weight were just lifted off her shoulders.

“Child…I want to see my child…” Jun Xiaomo stretched out her arms feebly.

Just then, the scepter in the throne room suddenly transformed into a beam of bright light and shot straight into the body of Jun Xiaomo’s newborn child!

Ye Xiuwen, Rong Ruihan and Chi Jingtian were immediately alarmed, and they anxiously checked on the newborn child’s condition, worried that something might have happened to him.

Fortunately, apart from amplifying the vitality and spirit of the child, the scepter did nothing to harm the child at all.

Ye Xiuwen and the others heaved a sigh of relief. At the same time, they found themselves somewhat bewildered by the situation.

“It seems like the Arcane Realm has recognized our child as its owner.” Jun Xiaomo chuckled. Even though she was incredibly worn out right now, she still received the child in Ye Xiuwen’s arms with love and rubbed her cheeks against her child, “It looks like you were the one who had suffused your spiritual energy into the scepter earlier.”

Her child immediately stopped crying as soon as he felt his mother’s touch, perhaps as a result of the resonance of the tacit understanding between mother and child. Instead, with glowing spirits, he smacked his lips in contentment as he gazed straight into his mother’s eyes with a pair of abstruse, black, beady eyes.

How intelligent.

“This child…why does he seem as though he’s already deep in thought as soon as he’s born? This is simply incredible.” The sprightly old man minced closer as he exclaimed in astonishment.

Jun Xiaomo chuckled lightly as she responded, “Isn’t that so? Earlier on, when I was just about to be repelled by the scepter’s might, he was the one who had rescued me. If he’s already so intelligent while he was still within my womb, how much more intelligent would he be once he’s born?”

“Hah? What happened then? Tell us, tell us.” The old man asked curiously and expectantly.

They had located Jun Xiaomo only when they entered the throne room earlier. At that time, Jun Xiaomo was already lying on the ground in pain, so nobody was aware of what transpired moments before that.

As it turns out, Jun Xiaomo was the first one who had found her way into the throne room. Like Yu Wanrou, she had thought that the way to seize ownership of the Arcane Realm was simply to fill the grooves of the scepter with her own blood. Unfortunately, things were never as simple as they seemed.

As soon as she filled the grooves with her own blood, the scepter immediately began to furiously absorb the energy within Jun Xiaomo’s body. At that time, she was practically on the brink of ending up with the same fate as Yu Wanrou.

Then, just as her body was on the brink of breaking down, the scepter suddenly stopped absorbing the energy from within her body. Instead, it began to pour energy into her body in a strange turn of events. Slowly, but surely, the energy suffusing through her body flowed faster and faster.

It was as though an unknown entity within her body was furiously absorbing the scepter’s energy, forcibly overpowering the scepter’s absorption of energy from her body.

The unknown entity within her body evidently had the upper hand in the intense tug-of-war of energies. Not only did it end up pulling back all the energies that the scepter had drawn out of Jun Xiaomo’s body, it even ended up absorbing all of the energy within the scepter for itself.

Finally, when the scepter lost all of its luster, Jun Xiaomo also collapsed onto the ground.

As it turned out, the scepter was only ready to submit to an owner who was able to command its respect and control its energies. In turn, it was evident that the scepter had recognized the child in Jun Xiaomo’s womb as its owner after he absorbed the scepter’s energies and made it his own.

In other words, the child was instantly recognized as the owner of the Arcane Realm as soon as he was born.

Not only that, the scepter had even forcibly absorbed all of the energies from Yu Wanrou’s fox-shaped totem and turned it into a source of “nutrients” to its new master in order to facilitate and smoothen its growth.

The entire throne room was filled with pin-drop silence as soon as Jun Xiaomo finished recounting everything that transpired before the rest had arrived.

“This child…is truly blessed by fate itself…” Old Man Chi exclaimed.

Yu Wanrou couldn’t believe what she saw. In a fit of intense rage, she spat out another large mouthful of blood and passed out completely.

As to the men behind her? Reeling from the poison in their bodies, they were unable to do anything else but lie on the ground helplessly as they glared enviously at Jun Xiaomo and her child.

Ye Xiuwen, Rong Ruihan and Chi Jingtian smiled radiantly as they minced their way forward and took turns embracing Jun Xiaomo and her newborn child.

Whatever happened, everything was fine as long as Xiaomo and the child were safe.

They had originally sought to seize ownership of the Arcane Realm in search for the elusive Green Lotus Pill. Yet, by some stroke of luck, they were able to achieve their objectives even without the need for the Green Lotus Pill.

The baby in Jun Xiaomo’s arms continued to make spittle bubbles as his agile eyes darted about, glancing at Ye Xiuwen, Rong Ruihan and Chi Jingtian.

I wonder which one of them is my biological father? How odd…

After deliberating for another few moments but to no avail, he yawned wearily, before nestling in his mother’s arms and falling into a deep, deep slumber.

-------------------------------------------

Many years later, at the residence where Jun Xiaomo and the rest lived in seclusion.

“Ye Jiayi, come out right now! How many times have I told you that you can’t bring your younger brother out to those kinds of dangerous places? Why won’t you listen to me? Come out now!” Jun Xiaomo folded her arms as she glared infuriatedly at a boy. She was holding onto a cane right now, and “displeasure” and “anger” was written all over her face.

Ye Jiayi, Jun Xiaomo’s first child, stuck out his tongue and discreetly applied an Invisibility Talisman onto his own body, and…vanished right in front of his mother’s eyes.

This Invisibility Talisman was something that he had personally modified, and he knew that his mother would never be able to dispel its effects so quickly.

Unfortunately, after taking just a few steps, a bright light immediately shone underfoot, a complicated formation diagram appeared below, and his entire body was constricted and bound in place.

His eyes widened as he stared madly at a location just behind a tree nearby –

There, a figure dressed in bright yellow stepped out of the shadows of the tree. Even though he was small in stature, he already had an aristocratic, royal disposition about him.

This was Jun Xiaomo’s second son, Rong Junnian, a child that she had together with Rong Ruihan. As it turns out, Rong Ruihan had ended up ascending the throne and becoming the next king of the Inferno Kingdom. Naturally, as the first and only prince of the Inferno Kingdom, Rong Junnian was also the crown prince of the Inferno Kingdom, and he had from a young age shadowed his own beloved father closely, learning the arts of reigning over a nation, mastering the skills of politicking and discerning when to act harshly and benevolently.

In fact, when Rong Junnian was younger, there were several occasions when he was bullied by his naughty older brother, Ye Jiayi, and he would often attempt to fight back feebly, but to no avail.

However, as soon as Rong Junnian turned three years-old, Ye Jiayi found himself unable to bully Rong Junnian anymore. Instead, Ye Jiayi would always find himself drawing the shorter end of the straw in most situations, unable to do anything but gnash his teeth in anger.

Unfortunately for him, Rong Junnian was almost always in the right – just like this time.

“Ma, I’ve found Big Brother for you.” Rong Junnian called out obsequiously as he curled his lips into a faint smile.

Yet, in Ye Jiayi’s eyes, this smile was provocative and vile no matter how he looked at it!

Ye Jiayi was infuriated. Having grown up as a “young master”, it was only when his younger brother had arrived that he began to find himself increasingly on the backfoot in every predicament he was in.

It was almost as though Rong Junnian were born a jinx to him!

Rong Junnian walked slowly towards Ye Jiayi’s side and patted his shoulder dispassionately, “Try harder next time, Big Brother.”

Ye Jiayi: ……

As Jun Xiaomo marched over towards him with an ashen expression on her face, Ye Jiayi looked up into the sky sheepishly with tears in his eyes as he thought to himself – I wonder if I’ll be spared the harsh spanking if I turn to Third Father for help once more?

Meanwhile, Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen’s second child, Ye Zimo toted some ointment as he gently applied it on his youngest brother, Chi Yuze. Chi Yuze was born with a plump face and puffy cheeks, yet one side of his face looked all the more swollen as a result of the wasp stings. Replete with his tear-filled eyes, Chi Yuze looked incredibly pitiful yet adorable at the same time.

Ye Zimo was Jun Xiaomo’s third child, and his personality was akin to Ye Xiuwen – quiet and warm. If he had not discovered something amiss and secretly followed his eldest brother, his silly younger brother might not even have realized it if his eldest brother sold him off for peanuts.

It couldn’t be helped. Ever since he was born, Ye Jiayi had been the exact opposite of the definition of “obedient”. Fortunately, the second child, Rong Junnian, would from time to time teach him a harsh lesson about overstepping his boundaries. Otherwise, he might well have blown off the top of their home’s roof with his disobedience by now.

Chi Yuze was Jun Xiaomo’s youngest child because it took Jun Xiaomo several years before she finally accepted Chi Jingtian wholeheartedly as well.

That said, this was something that Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan had already expected to happen a long time ago. Thus, they had no strenuous objections to this. In fact, they even accepted it as an eventuality that was only a matter of time.

Right now, they could be considered one big family.

The only regret that Jun Xiaomo had was that they had been unable to birth a daughter for the family. That said, Ye Xiuwen and the others had a united response to this – That’s fine. We just need to work harder at it, and we’ll have a daughter one day!

Jun Xiaomo: …… Something in her heart gave her a bad feeling about this.

With that, Jun Xiaomo’s night life was…simply too blessed and fruitful. We can leave things at that.

Ever since the final battle at the Arcane Realm concluded, Jun Xiaomo and the rest became widely known throughout the rest of the cultivation world. News that Jun Xiaomo’s child Ye Jiayi was made the owner of the Arcane Realm spread far and wide, and there was a time when various forces attempted to even seize her child. Fortunately, all of the covetous assailants were beaten back by Old Man Chi.

Over time, Jun Xiaomo and the rest even began to set up innumerable formation arrays around their secluded residence, preventing even a single fly from entering the place unnoticed, much less potential assailants. With the effluxion of time, people began to accept things as they were, and they also dispelled any further thoughts of seizing her child anymore.

Meanwhile, Jun Linxuan and Liu Qingmei finally established a new sect. With everyone’s concerted efforts, their new sect slowly blossomed and found its foothold within the cultivation world. In fact, they even managed to take the title of champions among all of the Greater Sects in the most recent iteration of the Inter-Sect Competitions.

On the other hand, Yu Wanrou’s injuries from the Arcane Realm expedition were far too severe, and she didn’t receive the necessary medical intervention in a timeous fashion. Thus, she collapsed in a nondescript street in the mortal world and passed away shortly after leaving the Arcane Realm.

Meanwhile, the poison that Yu Wanrou had afflicted her following of men with was also incredibly potent, and it was something that only the waters from her spirit spring could cure. With Yu Wanrou perishing, where else were they to find another source of spiritual waters?

Thus, Yu Wanrou’s surviving followers, including Du Yongxu, perished before long as well.

A person like him who had always had his eyes fixed lofty ambition as high as the stars above had never expected to perish in such a tragic fashion.

When Jun Xiaomo learnt of these things from Ye Xiuwen, she couldn’t help but smile faintly as she tousled the hair of her second son, Rong Junnian.

Rong Junnian’s birth had allowed her to step out of the shadows of her past once more.

Her life had finally changed its trajectory altogether, and the prospects for her future looked increasingly brighter and brighter.

That’s right, there was still the matter of her elusive master, Tong Ruizhen. All this while, Jun Xiaomo had been unable to locate him, and she had grown increasingly worried that Tong Ruizhen would have met with a mishap.

Unexpectedly, all Tong Ruizhen had done was to leave the Zephyr Sect in search for some old friends of his. Just like that, Tong Ruizhen vanished for a few years without thinking of leaving a single letter to Jun Xiaomo.

Jun Xiaomo shook her head helplessly, reeling slightly from her new appreciation for just how willful her master could be.

Regardless, this newfound life was the life she had always been seeking ever since she was reborn, right?

It was one without outbursts or upheavals. Instead, it sufficed that she had a stable life with all of her loved ones living harmoniously together with her.

A light zephyr swept across the lands, causing the orderly rows of willow trees to sway about neatly and tranquilly.

The years of peace had finally arrived.