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The Swordmaster of Abstruse Force!
Lu Xing’s hands and feet quivered.
Five hundred years ago, when word of Su Xuanjun’s passing reached the Netherworld, a rumor spread. People spoke of it even now.
They said that it was highly likely that the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force hadn’t died, and that he’d instead reincarnated.
However, almost no one took these rumors seriously.
Furthermore, as time passed, this rumor gradually faded from memory.
After all, had the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force truly reincarnated, five hundred years would have been enough time for him to rise to prominence and dazzle the world once more.
Yet no such thing had happened.
“Impossible!” Lu Xing said firmly. “That young man was at most seventeen or eighteen. How could he be the incarnation of the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force? Even if he reincarnated, he ought to be five hundred years old by now.”
His firm tone suggested that he was trying to convince the others, but more than that, that he was trying to convince himself.
The other Emperors were all confused and uncertain.
“But if he isn’t the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force, who is he? Who else could make those terrifying entities lower their heads in submission? And who else could win the favor of the Falling Feather Spirit Empress like that?” asked the middle-aged scholar.
“Err….”
The crowd fell silent.
It was like a riddle. Despite their ample experience, even these old-timers couldn’t quite wrap their heads around it.
“Why concern yourselves with that? Who cares who that young man is? To us, he’s simply our benefactor!” the tall, stalwart man said gravely.
The others nodded in response.
……
Beneath the distant horizon, the grand battle raged on.
However, it was different from before. The terrifying swarm of demons had already been forced back!
It wasn’t that they weren’t strong.
Rather, the White Bone Emperor and the other terrifying entities were hegemons of their respective forbidden zones to begin with. Add You Xue and the Burning Silence Ruler to the mix, and their lineup was far beyond what the demons could handle.
All of this left Lu Xing and the other Emperors shaken, but reassured.
Su Yi, meanwhile, sprawled out languidly in his wicker chair, holding a jug of wine and conversing with Ye Yu. He paid no attention to the grand battle raging in the distance whatsoever.
From this perspective, both this and the battle at Yin-Yang Divine Mountain, in which they defeated the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court, weren’t the least bit interesting.
Why did he feel this way? It was simple. With his cultivation base, he couldn’t participate. He could only sic those terrifying entities on his opponents.
How could a battle like that possibly interest him?
Defeating and suppressing the Executioner before the tombstone and meeting the stunning Netherworld King before the Great Chaos Ruins gave him a much greater sense of accomplishment.
Of course, to him, Ye Yu was the most important of all.
“Why is it that, now that you’ve seen me, you aren’t speaking again?” Su Yi laughed.
Ye Yu fiddled with the hems of her clothes and sat upright on a nearby rock. She looked like she had something to say, but she was hesitant.
When Su Yi asked about her silence, she looked a bit awkward, and she said bashfully, “I… there was so much I wanted to say to you, but now that you’re actually here, it seems like none of that matters anymore.”
She had the features of a young woman, and she wore a lotus crown. Her form-fitting black dress outlined her slender, graceful figure, making it even more moving.
In stark contrast with You Xue’s aloof pride and majestic bearing, Ye Yu seemed quiet and pure, with a natural charm.
Her eyebrows were curved, and her eyebrows were like distant mountains. Her lips were full, and no matter what she did, she looked like a lady immortal straight out of a painting, transcendent and extraordinary, with an otherworldly air about her.
Ye Yu thought for a moment, then lowered her head. “I just think my heart is satisfied so long as I’m with you.”
Her face was as smooth as lamb suet jade flushed red, giving her an additional charm.
Su Yi, however, felt a bit conflicted.
In his past life, he wasn’t some upright gentleman entirely immune to female beauty. He wasn’t completely debauched either, but he’d had no shortage of female companionship and dual cultivation partners.
However, when he faced Ye Yu, he couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty.
This guilt originated from his time exploring the Netherworld. She had feelings for him, but he let her down…
She was special to him even then. She had a quiet, gentle disposition, with an otherworldly, pure beauty. Her thoughts were as pure and untainted as a blank sheet of paper.
He knew she had feelings for him, but he couldn’t bear to hold her back or delay her.
Because he knew that, with his disposition, there was no way he’d let any woman tie him down.
Furthermore, at the time, he was focused on seeking out the secrets of reincarnation. He was in no mood to pay matters of love any heed, so he rejected Ye Yu.
Were that the end of the matter, it’d be one thing.
After all, you couldn’t force such things.
But who’d have guessed that in the years that followed, Ye Yu would remain infatuated with him, and moreover, that she’d help him seek out the secrets of reincarnation without the slightest grievance or resentment?
She never pestered him, nor did she complain or express displeasure, nor did she despair or mourn because he’d rejected her.
She just silently thought and worked on his behalf.
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It was only when he resolutely chose to leave the Netherworld and bade her farewell that Ye Yu failed to hold back her tears.
Even now, Su Yi remembered it clearly. She was wearing her crown and a crane robe, and she carried her lotus lamp, weeping as she left all by herself. In the boundless, overcast landscape, her solitary figure looked utterly alone and forlorn.
He also vividly remembered the last thing she said to him before she left:"Su Xuanjun, I’ll wait for you to come back. Even if it means I spend the rest of my life waiting, it won’t matter.”
Alas, in the time between his departure and his reincarnation, Su Yi never returned to the Netherworld…
It seemed heartless.
But although no one knew it, both in this life and the one before, there was only one thing he felt guilty about: how he’d treated Ye Yu. It haunted him even now.
This was why he’d spared Holy Maiden Xuan Zhi of the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace back on the Azure Continent. She, too, was a Ghost Serpent.
Similarly, this was why Su Yi was so tolerant of the Ghost Serpents’ insults and provocations while resolving their internal conflict.
This was also why he was lenient even in the face of Ye Xun’s domineering, spoiled hooliganism.
And why he’d rushed to the Dark Capital upon learning that Ye Yu was trapped in its Nine Great Purgatories!
Tens of thousands of years had passed. Now, he took her familiar youthful beauty and her gentle voice.
His heart was full of emotion too. How could it not have been?
“I treated you badly back then. I let you down in so many ways,” Su Yi sighed after a moment’s silence. “In this world, you’re the only one I feel indebted to. I have a guilty conscience even now.”
Ye Yu’s eyelashes fluttered in apparent surprise, but she also seemed uneasy. “Brother Su, I… I never meant to make you feel guilty.”
Su Yi laughed and waved her concern away. “I’m the one who can’t get past it. I never wanted to let you down, but in the end, I let you down continuously. This world really is unreasonable sometimes.”
After a moment’s silence, Ye Yu said, “Brother Su, did you come for me to assuage your guilty conscience?”
Su Yi nodded. “To an extent, yes. But more than that, I was worried about your safety. Anyone else in the Netherworld, I could disregard, but not you.”
He spoke frankly and directly, and his voice was calm.
But his words left Ye Yu stunned. The rims of her eyes gradually reddened, and her heart swelled with emotion.
After thirty-six thousand years of waiting and countless days and nights of longing, she’d finally been reunited with the man she loved. When he opened the door to his heart and revealed his feelings, she suddenly felt that this wasthe happiest, most satisfying moment of her life.
The joys of human life, the fruit of a lifetime of anticipation. This was all she’d wanted.
Ye Ye’s clear eyes misted with tears of utter joy.
“Don’t cry,” Su Yi said out of nowhere.
“Uh…” Ye Yu rubbed her nose and flashed him a radiant smile. “I wasn’t crying.”
“Glad to hear it. You’re already in the Profound Serenity Realm!” teased Su Yi. “Cry anymore, and you’ll embarrass yourself to death.”
“I’m not afraid of embarrassing myself,” laughed Ye Yu, her eyes closing into crescent moons. Her heartfelt delight was too great to express in words, and it affected even Su Yi.
His heart felt inexplicably relaxed and joyous.
As if he’d broken a thread fettering his heart or escaped an invisible cage.
He silently sensed the changes to his mental state. Only then did he realize that although his guilt toward Ye Yu might not have seemed to influence his mentality or cultivation, it had always lurked deep within his heart.
Had he not freed himself now, it would almost certainly have become a latent threat when he tried to prove his Dao and become an Emperor!
I asked myself, ‘Am I guilty?’ Naturally, I ought to live without guilt. A single shift, just one thought, and I cleaved the guilt shackling my Dao Heart, Su Yi muttered inwardly. The depths of his gaze lit up.
Then, he smiled at Ye Yu. “Little Leaf, I’ll be sure to make it up to you.”
Ye Yu froze, stunned. She keenly detected that Su Yi’s attitude toward her had changed. She was no longer simply dear to him; she sensed a new,heartfelt affection too.
Her heart quivered, and waves of emotion coursed through her.
Seeing Su Yi take the initiative like this, she didn’t quite know what to do or how to respond, but she felt a delight difficult to put into words.
A little later, she took a deep breath and said tenderly, “Brother Su, you don’t need to make anything up to me. You didn’t before, and you don’t going forward, either.”
Her beautiful face was utterly serious. Her feelings came straight from the heart.
Su Yi gazed intently at her, then nodded.
Ye Yu understood his disposition. Some things didn’t need to be spoken out loud.
He’d already understood: when it came to matters between men and women, it was enough to let nature take its course.
The more unwilling he was to let her down, the more he’d disappoint her.
Was there such a thing as loving a beauty too much?
There wasn’t.
“It seems… we’re about to win!” An excited cry resounded from the distance.
All the Emperors rose and gazed at the distant battlefield.