“Heh… hehe…”
Yun Che’s eyes turned chilly as he let out a low chuckle. “I don’t know how you managed to disguise yourself so perfectly, but you can’t be Yuanba… who are you? How dare you… make a fool… out of me!”
Yun Che was somehow both perfectly aware and confused at the same time.
His fury and killing intent were real, but he controlled them carefully so that they wouldn’t hurt a hair on his friend.
He was certain that the man before him was Yuanba, but he was equally certain that he couldn’t be Yuanba.
His appearance, aura, expression, eyes and Tyrannical Emperor’s Divine Veins all pointed to him being the one and only.
Yet all the words coming from his mouth were complete nonsense! The kind that touched on his most taboo subject no less!
The Yuanba he knew would never lie to him.
Yun Che felt so confused he felt like he was being split into two.
Xia Yuanba wasn’t faring much better himself.
When he arrived in the God Realm and encountered Yun Che almost immediately, he felt so happy it was as if the heavens had dropped a boon in his lap. His biggest fears and worries had all but vanished in the blink of an eye.
Sure, Yun Che was so different that he was reluctant to address him at first, but that all changed to wild joy and excitement after the young man had made the first move. However, everything he said and displayed after that worried him deeply… especially the last part where Yun Che denied his very identity and directed his killing intent at him.
After his shock had passed, Xia Yuanba stared at Yun Che’s twisting features and replied firmly, “Brother-in-law, I’m not sure what’s the problem here, but I am the one and only Xia Yuanba. If you truly are my brother-in-law, then you will never mistake me for someone else.”
He extended his arms and showed Yun Che a jade tablet that was shining a golden light in his left hand, and a short ruler surrounded by an ancient aura in his right. He said, “This is Absolute Monarch Sanctuary’s Saint Emperor Seal and the Primal Chaos Heavenly Ruler. At the Supreme Ocean Hall, the former Saint Emperor, Huangji Wuyu himself handed them to me right before your eyes.”
“…” Yun Che’s trembling gaze focused onto the Saint Emperor Seal and Primal Chaos Heavenly Ruler immediately.
Next, Xia Yuanba flipped his palm around and back to reveal a white pill overflowing with snowy aura. “This is the Snow-colored Pellet you gave to me back then. You wanted me to give this to my future wife as a beauty gift, but er, women are so troublesome, so I, uh, I haven’t… ahem!”
“Oh right!” He suddenly pointed at the stones hanging around Yun Che’s neck. “The three stones you’re wearing around your neck are the tri-colored Glazed Sound Stones Wuxin gifted you. You boasted to me about it back then.”
“Also, I was asking you about my sister back then, and you told me that you would take me to the God Realm yourself if I could solidify my cultivation in two years… it has been more than four years since that day though.”
“You and my sister got married at sixteen… after that, we entered New Moon Profound Palace together and made the acquaintance of Cang Yue. She called herself ‘Lan Xueruo’ at the time…”
“When you were seventeen, you fought in the Blue Wind Ranking Tournament held at Heavenly Sword Villa and defeated my sister…”
“Later on, you took heavy injuries in order to protect me and were sealed into the Sword Management Terrace together with a demon. You later discovered that the demon was your grandfather, Yun Canghai…”
“Also… and…”
Xia Yuanba went through one experience after another like an inexhaustible pipe. Many of them were known only to him and Yuanba.
They crushed the suspicions Yun Che had forced himself to conjure into nothing.
Xia Yuanba was undoubtedly Xia Yuanba. At this point, there was nothing he could come up with to deny it.
But why… did he say those things?
Blue Pole Star was in the Eastern Divine Region… right?
Blue Pole Star was destroyed right before his eyes… right?
He had lost Wuxin forever a long time ago… right?
He allowed his killing intent to fall away and grabbed Xia Yuanba’s arms again.
“Yuanba.” Yun Che tried his best to speak in a calm voice. “Blue Pole Star… is to the east of the Eastern Divine Region. Moreover, it was… destroyed four and a half years ago! Wuxin, everyone… they all died a long time ago!”
“…” This time, it was Xia Yuanba who nearly saw his eyeballs fall out of his eye sockets. “Brother-in-law, what in the world are you talking about? Like I told you, I left the Blue Pole Star just four months ago! And before that, I was living in the Profound Sky Continent most of the time! Sure, I occasionally traveled to the Illusory Demon Realm to take a look, and twice I sneaked a peek at the Azure Cloud Continent you mentioned to me because I was curious, but I have been on Blue Pole Star all this time!”
“All the continents are doing just fine! Even the demon beast stampedes that were plaguing us earlier quickly faded into nothing after you left. So what in the world do you mean by… destroyed?”
“…” The light in Yun Che’s pupils, his aura, his very being turned as motionless as a statue.
“During the first two years of your departure, Wuxin wished day and night for you to return to her. After that, she started cultivating like crazy so she could look for you in the God Realm herself. The Little Demon Empress, Fairy Yuechan, Feng Xue’er… everyone did their best to conceal their feelings and console each other, but even I could see how depressed they were. Just like Wuxin, they cultivated day and night in hopes of looking for you one day!”
“Every time I visit Uncle Yun and Aunt Mu… I can feel their sorrow. Grandpa Xiao and Grandpa Mu ask me almost everyday if you’ve come home…”
“You said that you would come home in no time that year, but one year turned into two, two turned into three, and three turned into four… it was just a worry at the beginning, but over time it turned into… something no one dared to say for fear that it would come true. We were all terrified that you… that you were… in the God Realm…”
“…” Yun Che staggered half a step backward. His mind had been blown to smithereens at this point.
“So, why haven’t you come home to see us? Why did you say that the Blue Pole Star was destroyed? And why did you think that everyone was dead?”
Xia Yuanba actually took half a step forward and pressed, “Is something wrong, brother-in-law? What in the world happened to you? I don’t understand a word of what you just told me! Just what in the world is going on?”
Yun Che’s mind was imploding even now. It ravaged his mind and soul, halted his thoughts, shattered his cool, and even blurred his vision like a kaleidoscope.
The death of the Blue Pole Star had shattered his heart and soul. It was the event that pushed everything—his life, his soul, and his faith… into the absolute abyss.
Hate and the thirst for vengeance were the two biggest things that kept him going all this time. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they had reforged his entire soul.
They had wiped out all the goodness, the hesitation, the ties in his heart, and his natural respect toward the heavenly way, humanity and life itself. They had driven him into going on a mad crusade for power, violence, killing, and destruction…
In fact, he had just threatened and humiliated a woman he knew was innocent a moment ago.
Now… Xia Yuanba had destroyed practically everything he believed in with his words. He felt like stars were exploding inside his very soul and tearing it apart.
He clutched his head with both hands. His fingers pressed down so strongly that he nearly crushed his own skull.
The Blue Pole Star… is untouched…
Yun Wuxin, the Little Demon Empress, Chu Yuechan… father and mother… both my grandfathers…
Are still alive…?
Alive…?
Where is this coming from…
What I saw with my own eyes back then…
What I heard from Xia Yuanba now…
Is this a dream? …chaos? …or have I fallen into a completely different world without knowing?
This cannot be true… where am I… it’s real… no, it can’t be real… I…
“Big brother Yun Che.”
It sounded as crisp as an abacus counter striking against the wood. A pure voice had reached the deepest depths of his soul, dispelled the madness that was fogging his mind, and returned clarity to both vision and mind.
He looked up and saw Shui Meiyin. Then, his pupils shrank to the size of needles.
He saw a light so red that it hurt the soul.
A long time ago, the same light had caused countless realm kings and god emperors to quake in fear.
It was because it looked almost identical to the crimson crack that appeared on the Wall of Primal Chaos!
Right now, Shui Meiyin was holding a black needle that was only about as long as her forearm and half an inch wide. It looked like nothing special besides the fact that it was completely black in color.
The crimson light had come from its tip.
Yun Che had seen this needle before. In fact, many realm kings and god emperors had seen it as well.
It was because it had made its first appearance alongside the Heaven-smiting Devil Emperor herself!
It was the artifact she had used to carved a literal passage through the walls of Primal Chaos…
The World Piercer!
Everyone including Yun Che had thought that the Heaven-smiting Devil Emperor had taken the World Piercer with her, that the Profound Heavenly Treasure was permanently lost to the world. He had no idea that it was in Shui Meiyin’s hands!
Xia Yuanba was staring at the profound artifact with his mouth agape as well. It was as if his soul was sucked into the crimson light.
“How did you—”
“Big brother Yun Che,” Shui Meiyin said gently again, “Cease your questions and thoughts for now, okay? I’m going to take you to a place. You’ll understand everything once you’re there.”
“I will explain everything to you then.”
Meanwhile, Xia Yuanba shook his head violently and broke free from the attraction that was the crimson light. It was only then that he looked closely at Shui Meiyin.
He had expected this, and he was not surprised: it was yet another fairy-like beauty.
The Tyrannical Emperor’s Divine Veins were born for war. Therefore, his battle lust would grow alongside his power and divine veins until its owner was transformed into a complete battle maniac.
However, it meant that the rest of his desires would be devoured by that battle lust as well.
It was why Yuanba couldn’t understand Yun Che’s tendency to add a new woman to his harem every outing or two at all. The mere idea of interacting with a woman and being managed by one sent shivers up his spine.
More than one? Please, anything but that!
“But before we go, I must request that you suppress your aura to the maximum. All of it… I know you can do it, big brother Yun Che.”
Shui Meiyin understood how confused Yun Che was feeling right now, which was why she injected her voice with her unique power of the soul, the Stainless Soul Sound.
Despite Yun Che’s confusion, he still noticed that something was about to happen.
So he stopped asking and thinking as Shui Meiyin requested and activated both Hidden Flowing Lightning and Moon Splitting Cascade. He withdrew his aura until he was practically untraceable.
Shui Meiyin let out a soft sigh of relief before bringing up the World Piercer. Then, she made a tiny wave.
There was no sound or spatial aura at all, but Yun Che, Shui Meiyin and Xia Yuanba suddenly vanished into thin air.
An instant later, the scenery before them changed, and a cold wind blasted against their faces.
The cold energy of this place was several tiers weaker than Snow Song Realm’s. It couldn’t cool even the weakest divine way profound practitioner.
Yun Che shivered from head to toe, however.
It was because he once thought that he would never be able to feel this cold ever again.
The world beneath his feet was white and infinite. The ice and snow whipping across the air looked like they would never stop.
There was one thing that was different from the seemingly infinite expanse of snow, however. It was a series of connected palaces, and they looked as sacred as they were lonely in this white world.
Yun Che felt like someone had pulled the rug from beneath him.
Below him was the Snow Region of Extreme Ice.
The palaces at the distance were none other than the Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace he and the fairies had constructed together.
