Chapter 676 – The Martial Hero Remains Uncrowned, The Emperor Stands Too Proud, Mountains and Rivers Bear Witness, Knowledge Through Inquiry - Part 1

Tang Sect, Central Tower.

Li Yuan and Tang Nian were still in the middle of their conversation.

Liu Long, or rather, Xie Yu, had a very simple reason for seeking out Tang Nian. After her rebirth, the only person she still recognized in this world was Tang Nian, even if the two had never actually met.

Over a hundred years ago, when she was training at Skyscale Sect in the Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain, she had heard about this from her sister, Xie Wei.

Back then, in an effort to comfort her younger sister, Xie Wei had spilled everything she knew about Li Yuan, down to the last detail. Well, everything except the little matter of Li Yuan possessing eternal youth. That secret, she didn’t know.

But from those conversations, Xie Yu learned that Tang Sect had been founded by none other than Li Yuan’s goddaughter, Tang Nian. She also learned that the original matriarch of the Tang Sect was Tang Nian herself.

So when Xie Yu was reborn into a martial family with the surname Liu, she treaded carefully in this unfamiliar world, gradually piecing together the landscape. Before long, she witnessed firsthand the splendor and the menace of the Tang Sect.

The Tang Sect’s leader, Lady Yu, was a woman of breathtaking talent and staggering ambition. Her schemes ran deep, her ambitions even deeper. She planted spies in nearly every major sect across the Central Plains, then used a mix of subterfuge, seduction, and sabotage to devour them from within. Some she engulfed like a whale swallowing minnows, others she displaced like a cuckoo laying eggs in another’s nest, still others she turned against one another or exploited at their weakest.

It was an era that belonged to the Tang Sect, an era soaked in blood and fire.

Many great sects were brought to ruin by the Tang Sect’s insidious methods.

Take the Seven Blades of the legendary Seven Blades, Eight Swords, and Nine Mystics. They imploded from within, all because of a single woman. The trigger? One of the Blade Kings’ wives supposedly slept with another Blade King. But the truth was far more sinister. The woman wasn’t even who she claimed to be. She was a Tang Sect operative, planted to sow discord. There was no seduction; it was a calculated maneuver, a honeytrap cloaked in loyalty.

The Seven Blades, once bound like blood brothers, sharing one’s honor and shame, turned on each other like rabid dogs.

The Tang Sect moved in amid the chaos, dismantling them piece by piece.

The Eight Swords fell in a similar fashion. The opening move? A Tang Sect assassin using bone-shrinking and disguise techniques to impersonate a high-ranking swordsman. He assassinated multiple leaders from within. Naturally, the remaining Sword Masters began hunting for the assassin, only to find, to their horror, that the culprit was one of their own.

Except it wasn’t. That Sword Master had been dead for a long time.

The man standing in his place was a Tang Sect imposter.

With confusion rampant and the Eight Swords at each other’s throats, the Tang Sect swept in, crushing them in a coordinated pincer strike from within and without. These days, the Eight Swords were nothing more than a peripheral unit of the Tang Sect, their former elites now proud members of the organization they once fought to resist.

To the martial world of the Central Plains, Lady Yu was a demon in silk.

Gorgeous as a poppy, her beauty bloomed brighter the more corpses she left in her wake, the more blood she spilled to water her roots.

And beneath that beauty? Poison and power in equal measure.

Eventually, the last of the great sects awoke to the threat. They devised a counterplot, set a trap, and finally managed to surround the infamous Lady Yu.

But in the end...Lady Yu was the one who walked away alive.

If the Emperor of Great Zhou ruled from the Jade Capital, and Yang Jian reigned as the Divine Sovereign of the Divine Dominion, then Lady Yu was the sovereign of the martial world across Westgorge, Southriver, Northriver, and Silkfloss Provinces. In those lands, she held court not with ministers, but with spies and killers.

As for the Jade, Western, and Central Capital, Lady Yu had left them untouched. Even she knew better than to stir trouble right under the court’s nose.

The Liu Clan was a noble family from Southriver, and Xie Yu’s own household had been little more than a minor power under the Tang Sect’s vast shadow.

And when she learned that the Grand Matron of the Tang Sect still went by the name Tang Nian, she knew she had to come. She had too many questions, too many things that didn’t add up. She needed someone who still remembered the world she came from.

But Tang Nian gave her nothing.

After all, Tang Nian had only awoken a little over a decade ago. And she was deeply wary of this strange woman who claimed to know Li Yuan from a hundred years past.

Still, that wariness had lessened significantly after Li Yuan confirmed the woman’s identity.

Now, Xie Yu stood at the railing with Ah Ting, glancing sideways at the woman and baby locked in whispered conversation in the distance. “Let’s go, Ah Ting.”

“But...my baby brother...” Ah Ting protested, sulking.

Xie Yu didn’t reply.

She had confirmed it. The baby boy was almost certainly like her, someone reborn. And if Lady Yu was so determined to marry him, then his identity wasn’t just a guess. It was clear.

This was Lord Yu.

The living legend who once hung two blades over the heads of the Jade Capital’s Emperor and the Western Capital’s Divine Sovereign. The man who made the martial world tremble with nothing but a name.

And to think, she had once shared a bed with him. Cradled him in her arms. Pulled the blankets up over both of them.

She almost laughed. It would’ve been maddening, if it weren’t so absurd. But it was hard to feel angry. He was just a baby, after all. It wasn’t like he’d taken advantage of her.

“Come on,” she said again.

“We’re going back to the Liu Clan?” Ah Ting asked, clearly unhappy.

Xie Yu was silent for a moment, then shook her head. “No. I have another place to go.”

And just like that, she turned and left, not bothering to wait for the little one by her side. She went to find Lady Yu and take her leave.

Li Yuan saw it all. He watched from the shadows, unable to find a single good excuse to stop her.

Xie Yu...had always been his greatest regret.

In this life, he had a second chance. He didn’t want to let it slip through his fingers.

But what could he say? That he was Li Yuan in truth? That he had never died?

He couldn’t imagine how she’d react, especially not when Lady Yu was moments away from pulling him into marriage.

Still, he couldn’t just let her go. So, shameless as ever, he waddled over. But instead of stopping Xie Yu, he tugged on Ah Ting’s sleeve, as if to say,

I’m coming with you both.

Xie Yu bowed. “Greetings, Lord Yu.”

Then, turning to her daughter, she added, “Ah Ting, be polite.”

The little girl stepped back and echoed her mother, “Greetings, Lord Yu.”

Li Yuan’s mouth opened, but no words came.

In that moment, with a thousand thoughts and strategies running through his mind, he couldn’t form a single sentence.

He stood there, speechless, watching Xie Yu turn away.

Finally, after a long pause, he called out in his childish voice, “Stay at Tang Sect. There’s...a secret here. A secret beyond the mortal realm.”

Hmm?

Xie Yu froze mid-step.

As far as she knew, the only beings in the martial world who had touched the extraordinary were Lady Yu and the Grand Matron of the Tang Sect.

How could he possibly reveal the true nature of the extraordinary? That kind of secret was priceless, far too precious to simply hand over.

Xie Yu thought it over again. She went over the timelines in her head and became certain. She didn’t know any

Lord Yu

. So why was he being so kind to her?

She genuinely wanted to know the truth about the extraordinary. But she couldn’t bring herself to accept it as charity.

“Thank you,” she said with poise, “but I still have somewhere I must go. I’m afraid I cannot stay.”

As the two spoke, they suddenly felt the gaze of Lady Yu from above.

Sensing their attention, Lady Yu offered a polite nod and a captivating smile, then turned and walked away.

Both Li Yuan and Xie Yu paused for a moment.

That single turn was enough to break the fragile stillness between them.

“In that case,” Xie Yu said, “I shall take my leave.”

She didn’t treat the baby before her like a baby at all. She acted as if she had completely forgotten the way she’d once found and carried him home.

Turning her back, she picked up Ah Ting and stepped onto the swaying iron chain bridge, walking across it with casual grace.

As the Red-Clad Sword Immortal, reborn into a new life, a feat like that was child’s play.

Li Yuan stood there watching them go until he was suddenly lifted from behind.

Lady Yu cradled him in her arms, propping him up on one side. She said nothing, only silently followed his gaze into the distance.

After a moment, Li Yuan said softly, “Don’t do anything foolish. Let them go.”

Lady Yu looked surprised, then smiled faintly. “All I’ve ever wanted...is for your heart to be mine.”

Li Yuan turned to look at her.

She met his eyes with a gaze full of gentle warmth.

Her figure was graceful and slender, her milky-white robes smooth and cool to the touch. Her skin was porcelain-pale, and her eyes, like crescent moons after dusk, glowed with a soft, tranquil light.

Li Yuan gave a slight nod, and in the voice of a child, said, “You’re my wife.”

He had lived too long and seen too much to say something ridiculous like,

Impossible. I have many wives, and you’re just one of them

, or

You’d better wake up to reality

, or

Disobey me, and I’ll reveal my true form and blast you to dust.

Lady Yu’s face lit up with joy. That simple acknowledgment, it was like a dream come true. It was the spark that had fueled her ambition, the pillar that had supported her through every battle and betrayal.

She had known this Lord Yu for less than a day.

But in her heart, she had already lived an entire lifetime with him.

Her childhood, adolescence, and youth, her humiliation, her struggle, her madness, her everything...he had been there through it all, in spirit if not in flesh.

It was because of him that she was whole.

When she finally saw Li Yuan in the flesh, her emotions surged: joy, fear, and a deep, burning hostility toward every other woman on earth.

But now, with that single phrase, it was as though she’d received divine confirmation.

Her happiness was boundless. In a voice as soft as moonlight, she said, “Then I shall do anything for you, my lord.”

Li Yuan smiled faintly. “Then let’s watch the clouds.”

He looked into the distance.

Atop the high tower, clouds rolled and churned, shrouding the world in mist.

Fifty years ago, he and Tang Eleven had stood here, watching the sky just like this.

Fifty years later, Tang Eleven was gone.

But the clouds...the clouds remained.

“Yes. Let’s watch the clouds,” Lady Yu echoed with delight, her expression soft, playing the role of the devoted wife to perfection, graceful, gentle, and ready to follow her husband wherever he led, whether to fortune or ruin.

But did clouds have a heart? Of course not. They gathered like cotton, scattered like thread, and drifted as they pleased. How could they have a heart?