When Ye Zichen heard that sentence, he trembled involuntarily, then readjusted his expression and turned around. He looked at the elderly man as if he didn’t care in the slightest.
“You’re here.”
“Yup,” smiled Su Yiyun. Then he nodded and said, “it’s been so long, but you haven’t changed at all.”
“You, on the other hand, changed an awful lot,” replied Ye Zichen immediately.
“True enough,” said Su Yiyun, lowering his head to examine his withered hands, his gaze carrying a hint of loneliness.
He took a deep breath, shrugged, and said, “but there was no other way. When there’s something you want to obtain, you need to learn to make trade-offs.”
Meanwhile, the Hundred Flowers Sect Master and Su Liu’er stared intently at Su Yiyun. They had never seen him before, but relying purely on his own power, he’d managed to easily disintegrate both their attacks.
Even if you looked throughout the entire Three Realms, there was no one capable of that.
Then they noticed that, although he stood with Black Dragon, he seemed to know Ye Zichen.
“Emperor Ye, won’t you introduce this esteemed figure to us? Who exactly is he?” asked the sect master with a thin smile.
“He….” Ye Zichen hesitated, but after a brief pause, he tightened his lips into a smile. “He’s Su Yiyun. Back in the Modern Realm, we were once like brothers. But everyone has their own ambitions, and now he stands with the demon race. He’s a formations expert, a grandmaster-level figure.”
In response to this sort of introduction, Su Yiyun only smiled and nodded at Su Liu’er and the Hundred Flowers Sect master.”
“Hundred Flowers Sect Master, Ice Empress, I’ve heard of you, but there’s nothing like meeting someone in person. I’m very pleased to meet you. I am nominally commander-in-chief of the demon army, but in truth, it’s just an empty title. I am whole-heartedly focused on researching formations and have little interest in pursuing power or authority.”
“So you’re a grandmaster in the art of formations!” said the sect master. “No wonder you were able to place that spiritual formation so quickly and even disintegrate our attacks. It’s really a bit of a shame to think that such a talented figure would join the demons. What a pity.”
“Completely shameless,” Su Liu’er chastised Su Yiyun without so much as an ounce of concern for his face.
In her point of few, demons were like rats scurrying about on the streets: anyone who saw them would yell and attack. However, judging from Su Yiyun’s expression just now, he seemed proud to work for them.
And he’d even brazenly said he was their commander-in-chief! Shameless!
When his gaze fell on Su Liu’er, Su Yiyun started involuntarily. Then, spirits lowered, he smiled at her.
“Ice Empress, is there any need to talk like that? Zichen said it himself: everyone has their own ambitions. Everyone must decide their own future, and I am relatively optimistic about the future of the demon race. Of course, we each have our own allegiances, so it’s understandable that you’d talk like that. Right, I almost forgot: Su Yan is still living with you, right?”
“Hm?” she frowned.
“Don’t take offense,” he said. “Back in the Modern Realm, Su Yan and I were like siblings. We haven’t seen each other since we left. I really miss her, so I’d like to ask: how is she doing?”
“Lil’ Yan is your younger sister?” frowned Su Liu’er.
Then she snorted in contempt. “So you’re that brother from the Modern Realm she’s always going on and on about. I can’t help but feel that you’re unworthy of her concern.”
“She’s still asking about me?” said Su Yiyun.
“Ha…. Ha….”
She forced a laugh, then ignored him.
Su Yiyun could tell that Su Liu’er wasn’t especially fond of him, so he didn’t push her any further.
Instead, he smiled at Ye Zichen and said, “it seems that my presence here is rather irritating. Actually, I just came here to save Black Dragon. Despite everything, he’s still the Demon King. I couldn’t just let him perish here.”
“Brother Su, we’re retreating? But why? This situation …”
Before Black Dragon could say more than a few words, Su Yiyun roared at him, “back within the clan, I told you that everything would proceed according to my plans, but then you got greedy and advanced prematurely. If I hadn’t arrived in time, do you really think you would’ve gotten out of this alive? By now, Ye Zichen has already ruined Zhao Zizhao’s plans. Were you really about to tell me that we’re at an advantage in this situation?”
“But….”
Black Dragon looked as if he were about to argue, but stopped when he saw Su Yiyun’s irritated expression. He forcefully swallowed his words.
Indeed, he was the king of the demons. Even so, after seeing Su Yiyun’s true capabilities, he truly dared not disobey him.
“I apologize for all the trouble I’ve caused. Given the current state of things, if I leave the Zhao brothers here they won’t live much longer. I’ll be taking them back to the Demon Realm with me, and I can’t abandon the demon warriors the Ice Empress froze either.
With that, the ice encasing the frozen demon soldiers started to melt.
“Hm?” Su Liu’er frowned. She’d been freezing people for so long, but no one had ever melted her ice before.
“Ice Empress, there’s no need to waste your spiritual energy. So long as I will it, you have absolutely no way of freezing them,” said Su Yiyun with a thin smile.
“Hmph, then I’ll just freeze you instead.”
Her hands twisted into seals, and goose-feather like snow drifted down from above. Snowflakes landed on everyone’s heads with the sole exception of Su Yiyun. Approximately half a meter above him, the snowflakes melted into thin air.
“Your mastery of ice techniques is truly unparalleled. However, although I am untalented, I once dabbled in a few ice arts, for instance, that technique you often use… ‘Three Feet of Ice.’”
Snap.
A layer of ice suddenly appeared by Su Liu’er’s feet, then rapidly climbed up her body.
“You….”
Before she could finish her sentence, she froze into an ice statue.
The onlookers were stunned.
Someone had used ice techniques to seal Su Liu’er… If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, they never would’ve believed it.
“Su Yiyun, hurry up and unseal Big Sister Liu’er,” roared Ye Zichen, red-eyed.
In response, Su Yiyun simply smiled thinly. “Calm down. I said earlier that I didn’t come to harm you. The Ice Empress was getting in my way. It irritated me, so I had no choice but to seal her up temporarily. After some time passes, the ice will naturally break.”
As he said this, all the demon soldiers who’d been freed from the ice disappeared from the courtyard.
Ye Zichen stared fixedly at his former friend, then grit his teeth and reached behind him to grab the masked demon warrior lunging at him. He tossed the demon at Su Yiyun’s feet.
“Do you get it?” said Su Yiyun, not in the least bit surprised. He turned to Black Dragon and said as if delivering a sermon, “this sort of petty trick is of no use.”
“Take all your people with you, but you’d better not trick me,” said Ye Zichen coldly.
Su Yiyun nodded noncommittally, “of course not. The moment I leave, the ice will melt automatically.”
“I hope that’s true.”
“See you next time, then.”
Su Yiyun waved his hands, pulling the Zhao brothers to his side. Then the group disappeared from the courtyard in a puff of green smoke.
