Side Story Chapter 14: Test!
Taptap!
At this moment, a young man in gray clothes and carrying a broom appeared. He was seemingly the caretaker of the Western Mausoleum.
Strangely, the caretaker didn’t seem to see Li Taiyi. His eyes were unswerving as he walked right past him.
“Could it be that… he can’t see me?”
Li Taiyi was stunned by this sight.
Not daring to believe it, Li Taiyi grabbed at the caretaker.
But before he could make contact, some unknown force repulsed him. Li Taiyi still refused to give up, but he was repulsed again, accidentally hitting the caretaker’s broom.
Pa! The broom fell to the ground, and Li Taiyi saw the caretaker shiver and come to a stop.
But before Li Taiyi had time to react, the caretaker turned around and dropped to his knees.
“E-Emperor Above, th-this lo-lowly one is a mere caretaker. Y-your Majesties are generational heroes! Please do not make trouble for this lowly one!” the caretaker stammered as he kowtowed, tears on his face.
Li Taiyi felt like laughing, and at the same time, he understood that while he could affect the caretaker, the caretaker could not see him.
Li Taiyi couldn’t even see his own reflection in the eyes of this caretaker.
But Li Taiyi quickly calmed down. He was still at the Profound Martial realm, which was a rather high level of cultivation, so he thrust his palm at the stele, trying to break free.
But not only did this palm fail to make an impact, the dragon stele sucked it in as well.
“Let alone an hour, it won’t be thirty minutes until I get killed by this stele!”
In the blink of an eye, more than half of Li Taiyi’s body had been drawn into the stele.
But even so, Li Taiyi still grit his teeth and unleashed his Stellar Energy to protect himself.
He could not die!
At least not now!
Thwish!
Li Taiyi’s body completely disappeared into the stele.
The caretaker seemed to sense something and raised his head to look at the stele, but there was nothing besides the stele and the broom fallen at his side.
Hisss!
The caretaker panicked, snatching up his broom and taking to his heels.
……
“Taiyi?”
After an endless time in a thick darkness, Li Taiyi heard a warm and gentle whisper that jolted him awake.
“!!!”
Light instantly poured into his eyes, forcing him to blink in discomfort. But as he saw what was in front of him, he was stupefied.
Sunlight illuminated a world in the midst of spring. Outside the window, red flowers dotted a sea of green. In the forests, birds sang amidst the fragrance of flowers, and thronging crowds of happy people walked back and forth. Li Taiyi felt like he was in the middle of a fantasy paradise, the scene more beautiful than he could possibly imagine.
“Taiyi, are you okay?” That warm and gentle voice spoke again.
But this time, Li Taiyi recalled something, and disbelief filled his eyes.
He couldn’t have misheard!
He couldn’t be wrong!
This voice… he was too familiar with it!
Li Taiyi turned his head and saw a graceful and smiling figure, her eyes shining like stars, her lips plump and tender, her nose small and exquisite… He was familiar with all of it.
But unlike before, her face was no longer covered in dirt. It was clean and white, revealing her brilliant beauty.
At that moment, Li Taiyi knew that he should be happy, not confused.
This was because this graceful figure was none other than that person he had spent countless days and nights thinking about…
Qing Luo!
Li Taiyi immediately came to his senses, sitting up on the bed and worriedly looking at Qing Luo.
“Qing Luo, how are you here? Didn’t those barbarians make trouble for you after you washed your face?”
“Taiyi, are you still sleeping?”
Qing Luo looked at Li Taiyi’s nervous face and laughed.
“That collapse wiped out all the barbarians, but for some reason, when that collapse reached our city, a mighty dragon roar came from the city, and the collapse stopped right outside the walls.
“Because of that one punch of yours, all of our people gathered their resolve and subdued the few barbarians remaining in the city and seized back our homes.”
Qing Luo’s voice prompted Li Taiyi’s memories.
After that dragon roar, he was the first to come back to his senses. He saw that only three or four barbarians were left in the city, so he immediately punched the one who had kicked him in the face. He was surrounded by the others and then fell unconscious from hunger.
“Was all of that a dream?” Li Taiyi wondered out loud.
He saw that his body was covered in bandages. Touching them, he instantly felt an ache. He could even smell the scent of herbs coming from the bandages. For a moment, he was rather dazed.
A dream?
Wait!
What dream?
Li Taiyi froze. He felt like he had forgotten something very important, but he just couldn’t remember it.
As Li Taiyi was lost in a daze, Qing Luo happily said, “Taiyi, this is our first day back in our home. Everyone is outside, celebrating.”
Before he could react, she pulled on his hand and dragged him outside.
Bang!
A thronging crowd was outside, all of them laughing and chatting. The homes were festooned with bright lanterns while firecrackers popped on the streets.
Free from the tyranny of the foreigners, everyone had washed their faces and put on clean clothes. The little children held kites in their hands as they ran around, chasing each other.
Li Taiyi seemed to be infected by the mood and couldn’t help but sincerely smile with them.
“Haha, after so many years, we’re finally free of humiliation! We have to thank Taiyi for this!”
“Right, if not for Taiyi’s punch, we wouldn’t have attacked out of rage.”
“Big Sis, I don’t have anything to give except these fruits grown in my home!”
“And also my family’s rice!”
“My family’s green vegetables are also quite tasty!”
His people saw Li Taiyi appear and immediately surrounded him, gifting him the finest goods their families could provide.
In a flash, Li Taiyi’s empty hands were stuffed with various fruit baskets, and he didn’t know if he should laugh or cry.
As he looked around at all the smiling faces, he was overcome with emotion.
They had been oppressed by the foreigners for numerous years, deprived of any dignity to speak of. It was as dark as dark could be.
But now, they were finally free!
As he looked at his lover by his side, he couldn’t help but feel blessed!
But as Li Taiyi celebrated with the others, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
“Are you really willing to settle down like this?”
“What?”
Li Taiyi froze. That had been his voice.
Qing Luo stopped in confusion and softly asked, “Taiyi, what’s wrong?”
But Li Taiyi seemed to not hear, standing like a statue.
“Peace has come, and your home has been returned. If you were sent back to the Great Tang now, would you be willing?”
Li Taiyi was stupefied.
What did that mean?
“You finally have a chance to change it all. Are you really going to give it up?
“So long as you can alter the Great Tang’s course, not just your home, but the Central Plains for the next several centuries will change because of you. Could it be… that you are truly satisfied with this?”
Suddenly, Li Taiyi thought of something, and several scenes appeared in his mind. His brow slowly began to crease.
He looked at his worried lover, looked at his happy people, looked at this city lush with grass in which the birds sang and the flowers bloomed… and his brow began to relax.
How could he forget that humiliating history?
If he could return to the Great Tang, then, naturally, he would…
“I am willing,” Li Taiyi firmly said.
As he spoke, everything before him vanished like a popping bubble, leaving only a viscous darkness.
At that moment, the memories of Third Prince Li Taiyi returned to his body.
An illusion!
Li Taiyi understood what had just happened, and cold sweat drenched his back as his eyes widened.
He sensed that if he had said that he wasn’t willing, he might have spent an eternity in that illusion.
Li Taiyi slowly came to his senses and began to look around.
There was an oppressive darkness around him, devoid of any light. It was like the darkness wanted to devour him.
But Li Taiyi quickly understood that what bound him was not the darkness, but a stone.
He could feel coarse pieces of stone around him, chafing painfully against him. It was clear that he was imprisoned in a rock.
But Li Taiyi was still a Profound Martial realm expert. How could a mere stone hold him?
“Break!”
Kaclack!
The stone cracked and groaned, and a moment later, it erupted with dazzling rays of light and finally split open.
The stone holding Li Taiyi blew apart, and he regained his freedom. But before he could take in a few breaths of fresh air, he was struck dumb by the scene around him.
“Where is this?”
Li Taiyi looked around in shock.
This was an unfamiliar place, like he had been transported elsewhere.
Rather than the somber Western Mausoleum, this was a massive and resplendent palace.
Dazzling luminescent pearls had been embedded in the walls, illuminating the ceramic tiles and paving stones of white jade. The rippling light made it seem like the palace was floating atop the water, a sight beautiful beyond words.
The two stone lions standing in front of the palace were fierce and imposing, exuding danger and majesty, instilling fear in those who looked upon them.
