Chapter 582 – Paying a Visit to the Deathless Tomb, Sipping Ancient Tea - Part 3

One after another, Meng Xingxian, Jiang Yuge, Xin Tianjun, and Xia Wuqi took turns airing each other’s dirtiest secrets. Ancient, blood-soaked tales from tens of thousands of years ago were dragged into the light of the present like grotesque theater.

They came on stage one by one, no makeup too thick, no shame too deep, each performance more dazzling than the last.

And from it all, both Li Yuan and Sheng'er began to truly understand who these people were. Not lofty sect elders. Not sage-like Immortals. These were twisted, ruthless, and brilliantly vicious schemers.

In their own time, they were nearly unbeatable. Titans who toyed with nations, sculpted empires, and bent fate to their will.

And now? They had all gone mad. Once, they spoke of cooperation, of maintaining order, of breaking free together.

Now, it was every monster for themselves. They trampled each other without a second thought, clawing for the surface like drowning men.

Not only had they given up on helping one another, they were actively trying to pull each other down.

And in that moment, Li Yuan understood something.

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He understood why the Immortals of the Eastern Sea betrayed their oaths.

These four were just the beginning. Release the rest, six thousand more of them, and it would be like pouring twenty millennia of demons, ghosts, and buried monsters straight into a world already collapsing under its own weight.

The outcome was unimaginable.

After a long silence, Li Yuan turned and walked away. A little crow fluttered down to perch on his shoulder, following him quietly.

Behind him, Meng Xingxian’s sweet, syrupy voice chased after him like perfume.

“Father, wait for me!”

Back in the Deathless Tomb, Xia Wuqi said nothing.

Xin Tianjun looked like he was stewing, trying to choke back a curse.

And Jiang Yuge, whose voice had once sounded like the chirp of a sparrow, now laughed with a chill that could slice stone.

“Senior, that woman will kill you. She’s killed so many already, what’s one more? But me? I like how you do things. I

understand

you. I could be your perfect little helper. Or your wife. Or anything you want. Unlike her, I’ve never had a man. Senior... Senior... Won’t you think it over? I’ll always be here. Waiting for you.”

Her voice unraveled into hysteria, sickly sweet laughter twisting into a shriek.

And from another coffin, Xin Tianjun—no, Xin, the Human Devil—howled out, desperate and deranged.

“Me too! Me too! I’ll wait for you forever! Please take me, Master!”

Their voices slowly faded, growing thin, faint...until silence fell once more.

Only the sound of snow whispering down the sides of the massive, blue-glowing ice pillars remained.

Once-proud paragons of their age, stripped of all dignity, clawing at the edge of apocalypse.

This was the final danse macabre, the last, glorious madness of the end.

Li Yuan glanced over his shoulder at Meng Xingxian trailing behind him.

She rushed to explain, “Father, ever since I awakened, I’ve only ever been with Naran. I cherished that bond deeply. I truly hoped we could build a real family together. Yes, tens of thousands of years ago, I did kill some men...but only because they betrayed me first.

“Take that warrior from the Scarlet Faith, for example, he tried to kill me first! I had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Your daughter-in-law is...just a pitiful woman, Father. I’ve never harmed anyone without cause.”

Li Yuan cut her off. “Tell me about the power you and Han Feng wield. You’re both fifth stage Earth Soul powerhouses, right?”

Meng Xingxian quickly waved her hands. “We’re nothing compared to you, Father. Just some cheap tricks, barely worth mentioning.”

Then she lowered her head and fell in line beside him, her steps small and reverent, voice soft. “Your daughter-in-law hasn’t recovered her strength yet. I’m only at the first stage of the Earth Soul right now. My ability is affinity with beasts. I can form a soul link with them, connect my spirit to theirs. That way, the beasts can become my eyes...and let me see the world beyond.”

Li Yuan blinked, nearly stopping mid-step. A strange feeling stirred within him. No wonder... No wonder he always felt like the Wolfmother of the Western Extremes had a power oddly similar to his own. Or to Sheng'er’s.

Meng Xingxian began to speak more freely now, explaining in detail.

From her account, Li Yuan learned that his daughter-in-law had once been a beastmaster of extraordinary talent during her early years in the Scarlet Faith. Her role had been managing the beasts that accompanied their processions and rituals.

Her innate talent for taming beasts was unmatched. After defecting from the church, she spent centuries honing her skills, eventually reaching complete mastery.

But even then, she wasn’t satisfied. So she pushed further, slowly discovering how to establish

soul connections

with the beasts.

That breakthrough took her abilities to a whole new level once she became a third rank Earth Soul cultivator.

At her peak, she had even singlehandedly wiped out an entire nation.

Though that nation wasn’t as mighty as the Great Zhou of the Human Emperor’s time, it was still far more formidable than the Zhou that came later.

Her method of annihilation was terrifying in its simplicity. She transformed into a monstrous, ghostly abomination, an ancient taboo-level form, and unleashed her beasts in a full-scale assault.

The nation’s armies couldn’t kill her. She was immortal and impervious.

Meanwhile, her beasts surged endlessly, wave after wave.

Worse yet, in her ghost form’s presence, her creatures evolved. By devouring enemy corpses, or even their own, they grew stronger, faster, and more ferocious.

Li Yuan was silent for a long while. Something about her power stirred a strange familiarity deep in his bones. It was beginning to feel like his own beast taming abilities might somehow be connected to

her

.

He finally asked, “Before you, had anyone ever mastered this soul-link with beasts?”

Meng Xingxian shook her head, her tone demure, obedient. “Not that I’ve ever heard of, Father. I...believe I created it myself. Though... I

did

found a sect once, the Beastmaster Sect. But I only passed them a fragment of the technique. I never shared the core method of soul linking with beasts.”

Li Yuan asked, “This Beastmaster Sect of yours, did anyone there ever independently grasp your secret technique without you teaching it?”

Meng Xingxian wasn’t sure why he was so fixated on the topic, but she still answered honestly. “Yes. Every sect has its share of freakish talents.”

“For example?” Li Yuan pressed.

“There was one junior called the Ant King,” she said. “He actually managed to comprehend my technique through controlling mere ants. But...he never made it to third rank. He died along the way.”

Li Yuan fell silent. A sharp unease crept up in his chest.

He casually asked more about this so-called

Ant King,

and as Meng Xingxian described the man’s life, he was struck with a jarring realization.

The Ant King’s experiences matched almost perfectly with the memory fragments he’d seen when his beast taming skill first mutated..

In other words, those memories he thought were his own...likely belonged to this Ant King.

So then...had he received the power of a dead man, transmitted to him like a torch passed down in the dark? Some kind of...spiritual inheritance?

Li Yuan’s mind leapt immediately to the Dragon Vein. It could also bestow strength upon the living in mysterious ways. But no. He shook his head slightly. It wasn’t the Dragon Vein. It felt different.

Suppressing his questions for now, he asked another. “You reached the fifth stage of the Earth Soul Realm by destroying a taboo-level ghost and absorbing its power, right?”

Meng Xingxian quickly shook her head. “No, Father! You don’t need to destroy a taboo-level ghost. As long as the Yin energy is dense enough, you can deepen your resolve, your obsessions, and with that, reach the fifth stage of the Earth Soul Realm.”

Then, as if remembering something, she suddenly added, “It was

Han Feng

! Han Feng tricked my husband. It was her! I wanted to tell him the truth, but she threatened me. Said that if I did, the Khagan would never go to war with the Central Plains and never help us dismantle the ghost domains.

“Father, I’m only a first stage Earth Soul cultivator now. I can barely command a few direwolves at best... But Han Feng, she can

possess

people. She can hide inside their souls! She’s far more dangerous than I am. How could I resist her?!”

Meng Xingxian passed the blame with practiced ease.

Li Yuan asked, “So...could Naran have cultivated all the way to the fifth stage of the Earth Soul Realm here?”

Meng Xingxian replied, “To the third stage, yes. Beyond that, you’d need spiritual energy.”

“Then why are you still stuck at the first stage?”

“The higher your cultivation, the more it cuts into your lifespan when using Earth Soul power. Turning myself into an undying and unkillable taboo-level ghost...of course that burns years off your life. That’s why I stayed at the first stage,” she explained.

“Out in the Western Extremes, that was enough to get by... Unlike Father, who’s not only a taboo-level fire god but is also so powerful, so stable, and so brilliant...”

As she spoke, her voice softened. Her eyes welled with admiration as she looked at him with a gaze so reverent it bordered on worship.

Li Yuan asked calmly, “And Han Feng’s power?”

Meng Xingxian answered, “Possession. She hides in people’s souls, slithers into their dreams... She’s the one who controlled the Wolfmother before. That was all her.”

Li Yuan said, “Tell her to come see me. And bring me

every single one

of your secret art steles.”

Meng Xingxian lowered her head, voice syrupy and submissive. “Yes, Father. I’ll do whatever you say.”