Chapter 418 – Planting a Lotus in the Jade Pool, Li Yuan Replaces the Emperor - Part 3

The next morning.

Li Yuan went into seclusion.

Thanks to the Xie Clan’s tight lid on information, news of the Emperor’s attempted assassination and disappearance didn’t get out.

By then Li Yuan had already returned to Cloudpeak Province and paid a visit to Dawn Manor.

Xue Ning, once all youthful bloom, had grown older again. It seemed she’d refused to take any more rejuvenation, unwilling to look upon her once-young face.

Almost 60 years old now, she had more gray in her hair and more lines about her eyes. The pretty face was gone, but the children found her warmer for it. Grandsons and granddaughters crowded around the kindly old lady, calling her Grandma, Nana, and so on.

Sensing something, she shooed the little ones away, then turned slightly toward the corner behind her and said in a low voice, “I must look dreadful, don’t I?”

Li Yuan said nothing. As before, he reached for her hand.

“You should get back to your work. This life, I’ve been very happy.” Xue Ning gently drew back and smiled. She was silent a few heartbeats, then shook her head lightly. “I have no regrets.”

Li Yuan thought for a moment and told her about the Deathless Tomb.

“One life is enough,” Xue Ning said with a smile.

Li YUan smoothed her graying hair and said, “It isn’t.”

Xue Ning blinked. “You’re my man. I’ll listen. Bury me wherever you wish.”

“Mhm...” Li Yuan nodded.

Then he sought out Cui Huayin, Jing Shuixiang, and Yao Jue.

The new Bladeseekers was almost up and running.

Jing Shuixiang asked about his cultivation.

Li Yuan shook his head. The shadow blood problem was still a dead end. Even though none of them had reached fourth rank yet, it was still a dead end. Qing Hancheng couldn’t solve it; Lu Xuanxian couldn’t solve it; not even he could solve it.

But his Heavenly Eye gave him a sliver of hope. Only someone at fourth rank could wield fourth rank skills. He’d mastered the Heavenly Eye, yet he was still in fifth rank.

This suggested the Heavenly Eye might be a path different from shadow blood.

By some twist of fate, Li Yuan might have reached fourth rank along the Heavenly’s Eye route while remaining fifth rank in shadow blood. If that proved true, then even without training shadow blood further, he could take the other path to fourth rank.

The trouble was, he had no idea what that path looked like, nor any follow-up techniques for it. If he could find someone else who had cultivated the Heavenly Eye, maybe there’d be hope.

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At last, Li Yuan went to the black market ghost domain. It had changed again since his last visit. Mainly, it was colder.

He saw vast patches of ice crystals, ghost-blue and overlapping like fish scales, blooming across the ground, turning the whole stretch into something like a polar plain.

The instant he stepped in, the fire within him flared and propped up a crimson barrier. But the red light trembled like a candle in the wind, threatening to snuff out at any moment. The clear crimson and black layers that used to keep things neatly apart had changed too. There was no

membrane

anymore, only a red bubble.

Walking inside that red bubble, Li Yuan stopped before the ghost domain that was both familiar and strange.

The blue robed Yan Yu appeared.

Her face was pale; her hair was coiled high and pinned with a dark, depthless hairpin; and the crimson on her lips burned brighter than ever. In her left hand, she held a strange bronze mirror. It was battered, exuding an indescribable aura that merged with her own until they seemed a single being.

Clutching the mirror, she came up to Li Yuan and said softly, “Husband.”

There wasn’t the slightest awkwardness in it, as if two or three years were only the blink of an eye to her.

Seeing his gaze sweep the ice and snow at their feet, she said, “When I went scouting that day, I found a brand new ghost domain.

“Its killing rule was interesting, so I fused with it.”

“What rule?”

“Sunset at dusk.” The blue-robed Yan Yu said, “If the evening sunset appears anywhere around this ghost domain, and you so much as lift your head to look at it, then no matter what you were doing, you’ll sit down and stare at the sky. If you don’t get away before the sunset fades, you die.”

No need to say it, Li Yuan already knew which ghost this was.

Sure enough, when Yan Yu beckoned, he saw a blue robed ghost, frozen stiff from head to toe yet smiling.

No. This wasn’t the Wolfmother he knew.

Catching the doubt in his eyes, Yan Yu said, “She isn’t the jade husk she used to be. She’s become a...composite. The peddler, her, and the ice coffin ghost merged by accident into what you see now. You can call her the snow mountain ghost

“By day, anyone walking near the snow mountain will suddenly feel like putting on makeup and do it at once.

“By night, anyone who passes through will soon be frozen by the snow and ice, become part of the mountain, and turn into a ghost servant here.

“At the border between day and night, everyone will find themselves sitting down, yearning to watch a sunset.

“The mountain exists because of those three ghosts.”

Li Yuan went over everything he knew about the Wolfmother; he’d mentioned her to Yan Yu before. Then he laid out his recent battle with Lu Xuanxian, the truth that the ancient ghost streets were the Dragon Vein, and the plan he intended to follow.

When the conversation finished, a dim light flickered in Li Yuan’s eyes. “Honestly, I don’t trust the Emperor, Lotus Cult, Lu Xuanxian, or the Dragon Vein.”

“And what do you trust, husband?” Yan Yu asked.

“Myself and you,” Li Yuan said. “Yan Yu, I have a plan we might get to use...or we might never need. Be ready.”

“Okay.” She nodded.

Li Yuan leaned in and whispered. After a long moment, Yan Yu suddenly looked up, blinking at the man before her and said, “Impressive.”

“We may not get the chance,” Li Yuan said, “but the odds aren’t small.”

“Don’t worry, Husband,” she said. “I’ll be ready. I’ll send Xie Qing’an and Fan Chouwan ahead to Hidden River Province, but they won’t enter the ancient ghost street. We’ll wait on your word.”

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A few days later.

The missing Son of Heaven was found beside the General’s Temple in Bright Moon Prefecture. He had countless trump cards, and given that the temple was a special place of sacrifice, it wasn’t hard for people to string together a neat, plausible chain of logic.

When they found him, the Emperor looked rattled, still a bit dazed.

But under Lu Xuanxian’s escort, the Son of Heaven returned to the Xie residence to rest.

This time, the grand general personally brought 8,000 riders of the Flying Bear Army to guard the Emperor’s sleep.

When he heard, Xie Feng also arrived, leading the 30,000 riders of the Ocean Province Armored Cavalry.

Altogether, 38,000 elite soldiers guarded one man while he slept. Only the Emperor could warrant treatment like this.