Chapter 736 – Sitting Beyond the Heavens, Watching Life and Death Play Out Below - Part 2

Li Yuan suddenly stood up.

Yan Yu blinked. “Hey, where are you going?”

Li Yuan said, “Sheng’er’s situation is taken care of. I’m heading back to the mortal world to settle some things, then I’ll get back to cultivating. I’m not about to sit around until the day comes when my own wife has to beat me up and throw herself into the fire while I just stand there watching like a fool.”

Yan Yu couldn’t help but laugh. The way he said it was ridiculous and oddly touching. How long had it been since she last heard someone call her their wife?

As she watched him walk away, she called after him, “Then do your best!”

Li Yuan gave a little snort and strutted out of the palace hall.

He paused at the doorway, half-tempted to turn around and declare something dramatic like,

Just wait and see what your man can do!

But then he caught himself. When did he start acting like his younger, dumber self, like the teenage version of Ping’an?

So instead, he said nothing at all.

Hands clasped behind his back, he walked out in silence.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A few days later.

Li Yuan returned to the mortal world.

It was already autumn of the following year.

The Deathless Tomb was now bound to him, so he could send anyone into it with a mere thought.

Though Sheng'er was still recovering, she was no longer unconscious.

The crows remained by her side, still keeping vigil within the tomb.

Li Yuan hurried to the imperial palace, where he found the Empress Dowager.

She wore a troubled expression, brow furrowed, sighing softly.

Li Yuan asked in surprise, “Youning, what’s wrong?”

When Li Youning saw him, she quickly composed herself and said, “You’ve returned...”

Li Yuan said, “I’ve found the Deathless Tomb. I can send you there now and make sure you’re settled in. When the time comes, and revival is possible, I’ll awaken you. Is there anything left you still wish to do?”

“The Crown Prince...he’s crippled. No one can heal him. The Pontiff examined him and said it’s an affliction of the soul, something he was born with,” Li Youning replied. “He used to be such a good child...but ever since he realized he’d never be cured, he’s completely given up on himself.”

Just then, a palace maid came rushing in, clearly flustered. “Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

Li Youning frowned.

The maid stumbled to the doorway but froze when she saw someone else inside. She looked up, only to see that the man before her looked exactly like the Lord of Light enshrined in the altar of the Church of Light...no, even more awe-inspiring than that.

She recoiled in fright, her foot catching the threshold, and she pitched forward, about to fall hard to the floor in a terribly disrespectful blunder, when a gentle force caught her and held her upright.

The maid gasped out her thanks repeatedly but didn’t dare look up again.

“What’s got you in such a panic?” Li Youning asked sternly.

The maid trembled and said, “The Crown Prince... His Highness...”

Her voice caught in her throat.

Li Youning snapped, “Speak.”

The maid nearly broke into tears. “The Crown Prince... He ran off to the Church of Light to pay tribute to the Lord of Light...”

She didn’t dare say the rest.

The Crown Prince was crippled by a congenital illness, had sunk into despair, and now he’d gone to the Church of Light? What could he possibly do there? At best, it was a misguided act of devotion. At worst...blasphemy.

Li Youning gripped her cane and stood up with a start.

A flicker of alarm flashed in her eyes.

She still loved this grandson of hers dearly.

But this wasn’t a matter of whether the Lord of Light would forgive the Crown Prince. It was about the fact that the Lord of Light’s dignity

could not

be insulted. If the Crown Prince had dared to speak disrespectfully, then he

had

to die. But if the Church of Light

did

execute him, what would that mean for the future of royal authority and for the relationship between the crown and the church?

She turned her head and looked at Li Yuan, her voice low and filled with sorrow. “Your Majesty, let me go. These ungrateful descendants aren't worth your time.”

Li Yuan said nothing. Instead, he took out a brush and wrote a strange character.

A forest outside the gate. Within the forest, a sun. The sun was split in two, half inside the gate, half within the woods.

He slipped the character into a scroll tube and handed it to the maid. “Take this to the Emperor. Let him handle it.”

Then he gently pulled Li Youning back to sit down and said softly, “Wait.”

Li Youning was already in her late eighties, pushing ninety. He had finally returned after all these years. There was no way he was going to let her keel over from sheer anxiety while dealing with something like this.

And before Li Yuan, she was like a well-behaved child. Without protest, she nodded obediently and sat back down.

The palace maid took the scroll and hurried off.

The palace immediately erupted into a flurry of activity.

Footsteps pattered frantically through the halls, carriage wheels rumbled over stone, voices rang out in confusion and alarm. It was chaos.

It wasn’t until dusk that someone returned to report. “The Crown Prince cursed the Lord of Light, claiming his crippled legs were His Radiance’s doing. His Majesty, however, knelt before the statue of the Lord of Light for hours, repenting in the Crown Prince’s stead. The Pontiff gave silent approval.”

Li Yuan remained silent. He wasn’t angry. If anything, he thought the Crown Prince might not be wrong.

After all, the Crown Prince was the grandchild of a mortal woman and himself, a celestial. That kind of union was bound to come with complications.

Neither Li Dao nor Li Chan had been able to cultivate, and that was already a sign.

As for the Crown Prince’s condition, this congenital soul affliction, it likely came from an imbalance. Li Youning’s body had been too weak, while his own soul was too strong. Something in the transmission must’ve gone awry.

On the other side of things, the Empress Dowager, seeing the matter resolved, left a farewell letter and then departed with Li Yuan.

A flock of crows escorted her to the Deathless Tomb, where she was laid to rest within a coffin.

At the same time, Li Yuan happened to awaken the survivors he had collected from the Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain during the final days before the Great Upheaval of Heaven and Earth.

These survivors included top talents from the former Arcane Supreme Sect, Five Spirits Institute, and powerful hidden clans.

Many among them had already reached the first stage of third rank, and they carried with them the elite techniques of the previous era.

When the recent occupants were awakened, the old inhabitants of the Deathless Tomb, the people of the Xia Dynasty, stirred to life as well, demanding answers about the current state of the outside world.

But Li Yuan knew very well that this group was a true gathering of devils.

If he released them into the mortal world now, it would be a catastrophe.

These monsters would reach second rank in no time, connect themselves with the Heavens, and pull the entire era back into their own.

So, he ignored them.

Instead, he watched the mortal world from afar.

Lady Yu was deep into her work in the Enigma Sect, while Xie Yu was focused on building the Sword Sect.

Li Yuan visited both women, one after the other. They set a time for their next meeting, then he quietly left the mortal world once more.

Back in the Underworld, he went to find Yan Yu.

After thinking it over, he realized something. He couldn’t fix the Crown Prince’s condition, but Yan Yu could.

So, he brought it up and explained the whole situation.

After hearing him out, Yan Yu said, “We can summon his soul here through a dream. Then, immerse it in the Jade Pool. Have him eat a single Immortal Peach afterward, and he’ll be fully healed.”

Li Yuan let out a long breath of relief.

But then Yan Yu added, “However, the mortal world has its own laws of cause and effect. If you interfere, are you prepared for the consequences?”

Just as Li Yuan was about to speak, the azure robed woman leapt gracefully down from her throne and strutted ahead with pride.

The two attendants who usually followed her, previously red and blue flower girls, had now been replaced by a boar and a serpent, waddling and slithering along at her sides.

“Come with me,” Yan Yu said.

He followed.

This time, the two of them headed west, past the palace hall.

Yet Li Yuan clearly remembered that when he’d previously explored the Underworld, there was supposed to be

nothing

beyond the western edge of the hall.

His confusion didn’t last long.

They soon arrived before a mirror, one that hadn’t been there before. It stood out starkly, its surface silver and gleaming, exuding a mysterious aura that rivaled even the Mirror of Karma.

Yan Yu stopped before it, with Li Yuan beside her.