Chapter 534 - Curtains Fall, The Emperor in Mourning, the Khagan Raises His Axe, and the Strongest of the New and Old Eras - Part 1

“Important message? Uh yeah, it is important. I, ahh, uhh...” the little crow stuttered.

Xie Yu had made a good point, and Sheng'er didn’t know how to answer.

Right as an awkward silence was about to take over, Li Yuan stepped in, reminding, “I suppose Lady Divine Crow is here to assign me a task?”

The little crow blinked, suddenly coming to her senses. “Oh! Right, right, right! But Ximen Gucheng! This time, it’s not about giving you a mission. It’s because Yan Yu saw that you helped evacuate the people of Gemhill County, so she’s decided you’ll now have access to information at this level too.”

As soon as Sheng'er finished, she let out a few loud

caws

like it was part of some official announcement.

Li Yuan couldn’t help but cover his face mentally.

Sheng'er was still such an honest kid... she couldn’t even lie properly.

For this kind of thing...the less said, the fewer mistakes. Even just a simple acknowledgement would’ve been miles better than this.

Predictably, her awkward

caws

didn’t help smooth over the moment. If anything, it made the silence heavier, oppressively so.

Xie Yu blinked her big eyes at the little crow and asked with a smile, “Lady Divine Crow, has Yan Yu awakened?”

“...” The little crow froze. Her beak tapped nervously against itself like she wanted to speak but had absolutely no idea what to say.

Right. Yan Yu had been engulfed in thick black smoke ever since before the ghost tide started. How could she possibly be giving orders now?

Inwardly, the crow was panicking.

Crap. I said too much

. She had watched her father speak so casually all the time, and thought it would be just as easy. But now, what to do?

Every second felt like a year.

And the more she thought about it, the more regret gnawed at her. She realized that when she wasn’t beside her father, she could keep herself sharp and focused. But the moment she was near him, her guard would drop, and she’d start slipping up. Just like now.

Xie Yu, meanwhile, was silently watching her, eyes calm and steady, yet clearly processing everything.

Xie Yu might not have lived through many dark or supernatural horrors. She hadn’t fought her way through those swirling currents of dread and deceit. But that didn’t mean she was naive.

Born into the Xie Clan, she’d grown up surrounded by quiet scheming and silent whispers. Later, following Li Yuan on his travels across the land, she’d come to understand the world of human emotion and complex relationships. And after entering Gemhill County, she’d learned more than enough about bizarre supernatural items like Yin Makeup.

So now, more than ever, she felt it.

Her man was not simple. Not just

not simple

. He was something else entirely. But she didn’t dare keep thinking about it.

In that instant, the clarity in her gaze turned into a quiet fury.

This is bad...

The little crow felt it too and quickly tried to salvage the situation. She was just about to say that Yan Yu was inaccessible to outsiders, but she herself could still communicate with her.

Then, like someone unpausing a frozen scene, time began to move again.

The little crow opened her beak, ready to speak.

But Xie Yu’s eyes had already gone cold.

Just then, Li Yuan stepped forward, positioning himself between the two. Calmly, he said, “Lady Divine Crow, allow me to explain this to Yu’er myself.”

The little crow let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh... very well,” she replied, switching back to her usual haughty tone. “Your family matters are yours to handle.”

After saying her piece, the little crow flapped her pitch-black wings and flew off into the sky.

Her voice faded into the distance.

Only then did Xie Yu turn to Li Yuan. “So? What were you going to say?”

Li Yuan lowered his head and looked down at the fresh green grass sprouting beneath his feet. “Yu’er...once the child is born, I’ll tell you everything. Slowly. Everything.”

“Tell me now.” Xie Yu’s voice was cold.

“What’s wrong?” Li Yuan hesitated.

“I’ve been lying down a lot lately. Can’t move much. And when you lie still, your mind gets busy. I’ve been thinking about everything, like how we met, how you tried to assassinate the Emperor, and everything that happened after...” she slowly explained, then she turned to look at him. “And I realized, every single thing you’ve ever said to me might’ve been a lie.”

“But my feelings for you are real,” Li Yuan replied softly.

Xie Yu went quiet for a moment. Then she asked, “So tell me. How much have you hidden from me? Or better yet, who are you, really?”

That last question came through clenched teeth, her voice sharp and bitter. In that moment, she seemed less like a fragile woman than a stone under immense pressure. Still intact, but on the verge of shattering.

She had fallen for

Ximen Gucheng

, not someone else.

She could accept that Ximen Gucheng, the once-legendary blademaster, had fallen from grace, that he was now just an ordinary man, and that they'd rebuild together. She could accept that.

What she couldn’t accept...was that

Ximen Gucheng

might never have existed at all. That the man she loved...his face, his personality, and his past...was a complete fabrication.

If the person you loved was just a character in a lie...then wasn’t that love a joke...?

“Say something!” Xie Yu demanded. Her breathing grew fast and shallow. Her eyes were red.

Li Yuan knew. He knew this was exactly why he

couldn’t

speak, not now. Not like this.

“After the baby’s born,” he said gently, “I promise, I’ll tell you everything. The truth. Nothing left out.”

But Xie Yu’s tears had already started falling. Just like that. No warning, no restraint.

Furious, she grabbed his sleeve and shook it, screaming, “Say it! SAY IT!”

A noble young lady, reduced to something wild, shaking and crying like a common shrew.

She didn’t care about the stares from the people nearby. Didn’t even seem to notice them. She just kept crying, kept demanding answers between sobs. Her tears streamed like broken beads, ruining her face in seconds.

Again and again, she tried to force a smile. But each time, her face just crumpled further into sorrow.

Li Yuan reached out to hold her, but she shoved him away.

In truth, she had known. Or at least...suspected. Countless little clues, doubts that had quietly piled up over time, until finally, one tiny detail broke the dam and confirmed it all.

Fortunately, Xie Wei arrived just in time. After grasping the situation, she quickly pulled her sister away.

That night, Li Yuan didn’t return to their tent.

Instead, he slept in another one.

The original tent now belonged to the two Xie sisters.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Midnight.

Though the hour was late, the camp was far from quiet.

People still milled around the fire, guards on patrol, restless survivors. From the darkness beyond the glow of the campfire came the faint sound of someone sobbing in the distance. Someone else, it seemed, hadn’t made it. Another soul, lost in the night.

Far off, down the river’s path, a patch of wasteland had been turned into a graveyard. All fresh graves. All recently buried.

Li Yuan sat by the fire, poking at it with a branch. The red-black twigs cracked softly, bursting with tiny pops. Smoke coiled upward from the fire’s heart, thick and choking.

He stared into the flames, but his thoughts were far away.

Earlier today, when Xie Yu finally exploded, Li Yuan couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of relief.

So all the chickens have come home to roost.

What filled him with guilt, though, was this. Xie Yu had poured all of her love into him, with everything she had. And though he always said he felt the same...did he really?

He was essentially immortal.

Even if Xie Yu managed to reach fourth rank in cultivation, her lifespan would cap at 500 years. If she pushed even further, breaking into third rank, she’d still be bound by a limit.

But Li Yuan wasn’t. For him, memories faded like mist. And Xie Yu, eventually, would become mist too.

Thousands of years from now, today’s heartbreak might become just a faint ripple in the sea of his memory, a footnote.

That perspective...made it far too easy to look down on the moment from above.

Just then, a tiny root poked up from the soil at his feet. It crept over to his side, gave his calf a gentle tap, then scratched a message into the dirt.

“Papa, I’m sorry.”

Li Yuan smiled as soon as he saw it. This was his daughter in her

Tree’er

form.

“It was bound to happen. Don’t worry about it.” He reached down and gave the root a soft squeeze. Then he added, “I can’t go many places right now, so I’ll have to rely on you to keep me updated on the outside.”

The root scribbled again.

“Don’t worry, Papa. I’ll keep watch on the front lines for you. Naran’s already noticed something’s off. He’s gathering his forces, planning to crush the Kingdom of Han in one blow.”

Li Yuan casually wiped away the message, gave a small nod, and patted the root again.

With a faint swish, it disappeared back underground.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Late April.

News arrived from Sheng'er.

The Deathless Tomb had finally caught wind of the unrest spreading across the Central Plains and was pressuring both her and Naran to act.

In truth, it had all started a decade ago.

That was when the old man from the Deathless Tomb first taught her two things, the Heaven Soul Grand Formation, and the low rank Meat Field Fission Method.

The Heaven Soul Grand Formation wasn’t difficult for her to learn.

As for the Fission Method...at its core, it was simply an advanced application of the Heaven Soul Grand Formation itself. The skill wasn’t something just anyone could use. It required Heaven Souls that were utterly synchronized in heart and mind.

Perhaps it was the weight of the task... or perhaps a deep desire to ensure everything went perfectly... but ten years ago, Meng Xingxian had begun working with Sheng'er in earnest.

One by one, coffins were buried around the dying embers of Nine Flame Tribes’ sacred bonfires.

At the same time, totems were raised all throughout the tribe.

These were twin totems, one of a black crow and one of a gray wolf.

The warriors of the Nine Flames and even the people of Cloudpeak Province were required to worship them both.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Cloudpeak Province didn’t possess any third rank meat fields, but the Yang energy of the withered flame was no weaker than one. And the Nine Flames Tribe? They had nine such bonfires.

With nine bonfires and 36 coffins, they could nurture 36 of Sheng'ers’s avatars to the Heaven Soul Realm.

Once those 36 reached full maturity, they would form the Heaven Soul Grand Formation, allowing them to trigger the meat field fission.

It took just over a year.

In that time, Sheng’er’s little crows had all received new bodies.

There weren’t many trees in the Evernight of the Western Extremes, so most of her new forms were things like snow-covered hills or boulders.

And now, ten years later, those 36 Sheng'ers, each at the first stage of the Heaven Soul Realm, had all broken through into the second stage.

Now, riding with the direwolf cavalry, they were heading straight for the front lines.

At the same time, Naran had mobilized an army of 20,000 twin-headed direwolf riders, practically the entire elite force of the Western Extremes.

The Nine Flames had begun to feel the growing pressure from the Central Plains. And with the Grand Union of Yin and Yang nearly complete, it was suffocating them.

So they were going all in, preparing to unleash both phases of the Yin-Yang Apocalypse and forcefully push it outward.

That was what Sheng'er was reporting now.

Li Yuan, hearing this, said calmly, “All the ghost domains across the realm are already on the move, tearing up their camps and heading for different convergence points. Very soon, the entire world will be reduced to just three great ghost domains.

“At this point, the Western Extremes can’t stop it. Not even with you and the Khagan working together.”

“So what do we do then?” Sheng'er asked.

Li Yuan replied, “Do nothing for now. Don’t throw yourselves away for nothing. When the time comes, focus on saving your little brother.”

“We’ve built up two whole divisions of twin-headed direwolf riders...” Sheng'er murmured, awe in her voice. “They’re terrifying. If I don’t have the formation active, I’d be wiped out in an instant.”

Li Yuan blinked. “Wait, you mastered the Heaven Soul Grand Formation?”

Sheng'er puffed out her chest. “Making crazy progress every day!”

“That’s my girl.” Li Yuan reached over and gently stroked her feathers. “Still, the tide has already turned. Keep your strength hidden.”

“Why do you say the tide has turned?” Sheng'er still didn’t understand.

Li Yuan’s tone darkened. “The ghost domains will unify. And the Human Emperor will descend. If the former can’t be stopped... The latter...can’t be defeated.”

Sheng'er looked anxious. “Can’t I just go tell the Deathless Tomb that this isn’t going to work?”

Li Yuan shook his head. “No point. Even if you told them, it wouldn’t matter.”

“Why not?”

“Because the Western Extremes are an unstable variable. From the perspective of the Human Emperor, wiping them out wouldn’t be a loss, it’d be a blessing.

“The Deathless Tomb won’t accept this. Even if you tell them the truth, they’ll keep pushing forward. Because they refuse to accept fate. They’ll never let things spiral into a future they can’t control.

“They’ve never seen the Human Emperor. They don’t understand the sheer terror of what his rule means. So they’ll convince themselves that their 20,000 direwolf riders can thunder north, cut through the Central Plains, and kick down the gates of the Jade Capital itself.

“That’s why...talking won’t help. What I need you to do is conserve your strength. Then, when defeat comes, grab your little brother and

run

. Make sure he survives.”

Sheng'er fell silent, thinking for a long time, slowly piecing together just how bleak the situation really was. Still, she refused to accept it. “Then...then can’t we just assassinate the Human Emperor?”

Li Yuan chuckled. He thought of how even King Chu, with a combat power of 900k, merely had sovereignty of over one province. Meanwhile, that boy Emperor already held five.

He smiled and said, “You can’t kill him. No one on this land can anymore.”

“That can’t be true!” Sheng'er pouted. “I’m pretty amazing! That little Emperor, even if he started cultivating in the womb, no way he’s stronger than me!”

Li Yuan laughed and tousled her feathers. “It’s not about strength. It’s about destiny. The flow of fate has landed squarely on his shoulders. He carries a monumental mandate. No matter how powerful you are, you wouldn’t even be able to touch him.”

Others couldn’t see the numbers, but he could. While most had to test each other to gauge power levels, he saw everything laid bare.

A cheat code, really, and a useful one.

Sheng'er still didn’t like it. But when it came to her father...she always listened.

She couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

Papa really does see things more clearly than anyone else.

Right now, it wasn’t just her, over in the ranks of the Nine Flames Tribe, morale was sky-high. Everyone was convinced that with 20,000 twin-headed direwolf riders, they’d sweep through the Central Plains like a storm.

But Li Yuan...he had already foreseen their defeat. He was even making plans to help Naran retreat.