Chapter 578 - Secrets Revealed - Part 1

Western Extremes.

Not far from the Deathless Tomb, a mysterious carriage stood in the wind and snow.

Horses normally couldn’t survive in a place like this. Yet the ones pulling the carriage were not only alive, they were full of energy. That in itself was deeply unnatural.

Meng Xingxian had landed inside the carriage’s cabin with a thud. She didn’t get up right away. She wasn’t injured. She was simply stunned.

It wasn’t the fall that shook her. It was the storm of emotions swirling within.

She felt...utterly outmatched.

Even when the Crowmother had guarded the Deathless Tomb for so many years, Meng Xingxian had never lost hope. Even if she had to throw the entire Nine Flames Tribe into the flames today, she would never have wavered.

But now...she was afraid.

Her thoughts, unbidden, began to race backward through time. Memories twisted and reassembled, forming a vague, almost dreamlike version of the truth. A possibility took shape in her mind.

All living beings are just pieces on his board, and he’s the one playing the game.

Li Yuan sat quietly, watching her. His voice was calm and cold.

“Should I call you a citizen of Xia...or a daughter-in-law?”

In the darkness, Meng Xingxian gasped softly. But gradually, she began to calm down. A sultry smile spread across her face. She opened her mouth as if to speak flirtatiously, but the moment she caught Li Yuan’s eyes, which were sharp as blades, she froze.

Charm might’ve worked on that fool Jen’gal Naran, but it was useless here. Worse, it might actually get her killed.

This old monster in front of her...who knew how long he had been alive?

She stood up, lowered her head in respect, and said, “Greetings, Senior. Your means are beyond extraordinary. Your power is overwhelming. I bow my head in genuine submission. I hold no further ill will.”

She smiled bitterly and added, “If only I’d known you possessed such power, how would I have dared act so arrogantly in your presence?”

“...” Li Yuan said nothing. He simply stared at her.

Meng Xingxian lowered her gaze, taking on the demeanor of a demure and obedient daughter-in-law.

“What is your real name?” Li Yuan asked.

“It’s still

Meng

Xingxian But the

Meng

stands for

dreaming

instead of the first month of a season. Over 20,000 years ago, many people knew that name. But now...” she replied, then shook her head gently. “Now, I don’t mind using a false one.”

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Li Yuan asked, “Do you love Naran?”

Meng Xingxian smiled bitterly. “Is Naran truly your son?”

“Yes.” Li Yuan nodded.

“I love him deeply,” she replied. Then she added softly, “And he loved me too. Even in the end, he was willing to stay in the White Deer Tribe for my sake as well. It’s similar to your grandson. They were both in difficult positions.. On one side, there was me. On the other, your daughter. They didn’t know what to do. But...they truly treated me as family. Still, I must open the Deathless Tomb.”

Li Yuan chuckled faintly. “So if I told you Naran wasn’t my son...you wouldn’t love him anymore, is that it?”

Meng Xingxian said calmly, “Hypotheticals don’t matter. Naran is your son. Just as he is my husband, and I will always be his wife. And by extension, your daughter-in-law. But if he isn’t your son...then he was just a pawn in the game all along.

“In a marriage where there’s a massive gap in status and power, the weaker side is always at risk of being discarded. But Naran is powerful, and he’s your son. That means I married up. So of course I clung to him, flattered him, and treated him as my world. As long as that bond existed and continued to grow, it eventually became real.”

Li Yuan was silent for a moment before saying, “Tengsur is Naran’s son, your son as well. Enough of this chaos. Let him enter the Deathless Tomb.”

Meng Xingxian nodded respectfully and replied with practiced sweetness, “As you command, Father-in-law.”

Li Yuan waved a hand dismissively. “Go handle it. Come see me when you’re done.”

“Yes, Father-in-law.” She stepped off the carriage in haste, but once she hit the snow, she realized she was drenched in cold sweat.

Staring at the swirling storm of wind and snow, she paused, exhaled deeply, and tried to steady her racing heart. She didn’t know if she should feel relieved or terrified. Her eyes flickered with unease. For now, at least, she had no fight left in her. After all, she truly had nowhere else to go.

A flurry of thoughts passed through her mind, but eventually she made up her mind. Then she strode off with purpose.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A while later.

The direwolf riders and warriors in the distance had all disappeared, scattered like smoke.

The once ferocious and unhinged Wolfmother of the Western Extremes had transformed into a dutiful daughter-in-law.

She walked up to the carriage demurely, head bowed, and spoke softly through the curtain, “Father-in-law, everything is taken care of.”

“Get in,” Li Yuan replied

“Then, excuse me,” Meng Xingxian answered obediently.

Only a moment ago, she had been vicious, mad with bloodlust, sending her kin to die without hesitation. Now she was the picture of quiet submission, like a noble lady who had spent her life in the boudoir. She sat stiffly in the carriage, her posture rigid, only occupying the very front edge of the seat.

She didn’t speak, didn’t bargain, didn’t even try to negotiate. She acted like someone who knew she was at the mercy of the butcher’s knife.

“Tell me about yourself,” Li Yuan said.

“Yes, Father-in-law.” She began to speak slowly, as if meeting her elder for the first time. “In the Xia Dynasty, we followed the Scarlet Faith. In that faith, there were warriors and pure maidens. Both serve the Heaven Emperor, who was the Northern Dipper.

“The Scarlet Faith had strict doctrine. Warriors must fall in love with a pure maiden...and then sacrifice her to the Heaven Emperor with their own hands in exchange for divine favor. But within the faith, this killing wasn’t seen as cruelty. It was seen as sending the maiden ahead, to wait for the warrior in the Emperor’s realm.

“I was once a Pure Maiden.” She paused, then added with quiet defiance, “But I didn’t want to die at a warrior’s hand. I didn’t want to go to that so-called divine realm. So I killed the warrior instead. And fled from the faith.

“Fortunately, this land was still rich with spiritual energy during the Xia Dynasty... I later joined the largest sect of the time, the Arcane Supreme Sect, and started Earth Soul cultivation.”

Meng Xingxian’s voice was steady, matter-of-fact, as if she were recounting someone else’s life. “Not long after, the Arcane Supreme Sect discovered the location of the Deathless Tomb. By the time I had lived over 3,000 years, I came here and entered a deep slumber.

“The Deathless Tomb always had caretakers. Three at a time. Each group served a century before being replaced. But if anything unexpected happened, the active caretakers could, at their discretion, awaken more people. I was one of the previous three. My task was to control the Wolfmother and guard this land...until, unexpectedly, you showed up, Father-in-law.”

She paused, then added, “When your daughter entered the Deathless Tomb, it had just reached the hundred-year mark, time for the next group to awaken. But because of her arrival, that transition never happened. The new caretakers were blocked from awakening...and I was trapped outside, unable to return.”

“What about the Eastern Sea?” Li Yuan asked.

Meng Xingxian replied, “In the end, the Arcane Supreme Sect couldn’t stand against the Scarlet Faith. We were forced to retreat eastward, far from the Ancestral Land. Back then, nearly all the disciples slumbering within the Deathless Tomb were awakened. The reason was the Severance of Yin and Yang.’”

She raised her hand slightly as she spoke.

“The world was collapsing. It couldn’t last much longer. If it was going to rot anyway, we decided we might as well be the ones to break it, and then help rebuild it. Severing Yin and Yang meant deliberately abandoning the outer perimeter of the Ancestral Land. We gathered and compressed Yin and Yang within, forcefully intensifying them. Then, using secret arts, we severed their natural convergence point to magnify their imbalance even further.”

“But the method requires a cut-and-keep approach. The

cut

was the Western Extremes. In this region, Yin and Yang were split. They could no longer merge. Each ran its own course, disconnected. Yang entered from the eastern sky, then sank underground and returned eastward. Yin rose from the eastern earth, then flowed skyward, also returning eastward. And what we kept was the Eastern Sea.

“In the Western Extremes, Yin and Yang can’t converge. But in the Eastern Sea, they can. That’s why the Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain became the only truly spiritual region in the world. At the time, we of the Arcane Supreme Sect believed we would first use this method to force change upon the land. When the moment was right, we’d remove the

cut

and restore balance.

“By then, even if the world had shrunk, it would still be fertile with spiritual energy. And in the moment the Western Extremes was reconnected, when spiritual energy rushed back in, the Deathless Tomb would be bathed in it once more. This miraculous place would flood our bodies with energy, cleanse our souls, and give each of us a chance to be reborn.”

She fell quiet for a while, then murmured, “Looking back...perhaps it was the Northern Dipper that changed his mind. He used our plan for severing Yin and Yang, but twisted it, drinking poison to quench its thirst, to force the three ancient halls to reappear. He wanted the secrets buried within them. Secrets it could use...to transcend everything. Sadly, our descendants didn’t follow the plan. Instead, they too longed for the return of the ancient halls. And that...led us to the mess we’re in now.”

Li Yuan pondered for a moment, then asked, “What exactly is this Deathless Tomb?”

Meng Xingxian replied sweetly, “More than 20,000 years ago, someone in a village discovered a strange little well. They said that if you tossed spirit stones into it, you’d get a spring of life-extending water in return. The elderly drank it, and their white hair turned black again. The sick were cured, their ailments gone without a trace.

“That village happened to lie within the Arcane Supreme Sect’s territory, so the sect soon got wind of this miracle spring. When they came to investigate, they realized the well was just the tip of the iceberg, a tiny opening into something unimaginably vast.

“So the sect relocated the villagers and began to dig. And what they unearthed was the Deathless Tomb. A massive Yin-Yang fish. Inside it, 6,974 hollows shaped like suspended coffins. And a peculiar force, one that froze all energy and temperature alike.

“The higher-ups of the sect tried everything. No method, no tool, not even the most powerful skills could leave a scratch on the Yin-Yang fish. It simply

was

, like something that had always existed and would never change.

“The Arcane Supreme Sect spent centuries studying it before confirming two things. First, within the Yin-Yang fish, all forces were frozen. Once inside one of the coffins, it was like you were severed from time itself. However you entered, that’s how you’d remain, even after emerging. Second, as long as you fed spiritual energy into the structure, the person inside could extend their life.

“Back then, the villagers had only bought a few spirit stones at great cost. Even so, with water drawn from the well, water touched by the Yin-Yang fish’s influence...they gained longevity, vitality, even immunity from disease..

“But the higher-ups took it further. In one experiment, they placed a dying old man into a coffin and poured in an immense number of spirit stones. The moment the spiritual energy surged through, the man inside began to change, growing younger right before their eyes.

“When they lifted the lid, the old man had become a child. He had been 98 years old, already considered to have lived a long life by mortal standards. And after becoming a child again, he lived another 108 years. When he neared death a second time, the higher-ups repeated the process. Another coffin. More spirit stones. Once again, the man reverted to a child. But this time...he only lived to 95 before dying.

“The conclusion was clear. As long as there was enough spiritual energy, a person could be reborn and live another full lifetime. What’s more, they retain all memories of their previous life. The only catch is that their power resets. They revert to the strength of a child, like a fourth rank cultivator being reborn from a drop of blood.

“No, that’s not quite right,” she added thoughtfully. “Being reborn from a drop of blood simply means recovering your strength. But this...this requires you to start from scratch, to cultivate anew. If it resembles anything, it’s reincarnation. A rebirth with all the memories of your past life intact.”