Chapter 1074: Chapter 1068: An Inside Man
Inside the Dusheng Nunnery.
The former temple had completely turned into a sea of fire.
The Dao rhythm of the Body Integration almighty experts seemed capable of incinerating everything.
Giant figures of flame stood up from the sea of fire; this was the might of the Dao Integration realm almighty expert, the Nirvana Sage Elder.
The Nirvana Sage Elder spread his hands, and nine Golden Crows cried out in the air.
The Golden Crows spewed world-incinerating fierce flames from their mouths, continuously attacking the three-eyed Zhao Guang, only to see all myriad laws annihilated the moment they touched his body.
Wenren Jiuyue’s Dao of Fire had always been invincible wherever it went, yet now he was reduced to the embarrassing position of merely being able to hold the line for Zhao Guang.
The two of them fighting the Nirvana Sage Elder together actually hadn’t gained the upper hand.
“Do you really think your Crown Prince is some sort of good person?”
The Nirvana Sage Elder was no longer willing to tangle with the two of them and shouted sharply,
“Min Tiange lured my tribesmen into the Central Plains.
You old things know it just as clearly as I do: he wants the blood and souls of living beings to help him break through to the Mahayana realm!”
“To achieve this goal, not only did he need years of scheming, but he also needed an inside man—an inside man who knew the various garrisons and defense points of the borderlands.
Otherwise, my tribesmen would have fundamentally been unable to charge into the Central Plains back then.
There are only a few such people across the entire Western Frontier battlefield.”
“Bi Shihu, Yun Hongcai, and Nun Dairou all fled, so it couldn’t be them either.
Of the people holding high positions and heavy authority in the Western Frontier back then who could know the various weak points in the defense, there is only one person left today.”
“It is your Crown Prince, Fei Heng!”
As soon as these words were spoken…
Let alone Wenren Jiuyue, whose eyes widened in shock, even Zhao Guang, whose heart was filled with killing intent, changed his expression.
“This is the person you are stopping me from catching!” The Nirvana Sage Elder sneered.
“By stopping me, you are actually playing right into their hands!”
“Crown Prince Fei Heng is in contact with Min Tiange?” Zhao Guang’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“That’s right!” the Nirvana Sage Elder said coldly.
“Otherwise, where would he get the ability to escape? The Dusheng Nunnery was just a place for him to hide and wait. He could have left at any time, but he waited until today, because…”
“You said Min Tiange needs blood and souls. Crown Prince Fei Heng waited so long; he was waiting for the things Min Tiange prepared for him.”
Zhao Guang said expressionlessly, “The things the Crown Prince wants, you look down upon. However, he is in contact with Min Tiange. Through him, you can find out what Min Tiange is planning to do and snatch his opportunity.”
With his objective calculated, the Nirvana Sage Elder took a deep breath.
“So what if I am? Do not stop me. Catching him is also eradicating a disaster for your human race. Why not go along with it?”
“Then I absolutely cannot let you catch the Crown Prince.”
Zhao Guang mocked,
“No matter how vile the two of them are, they are still members of my human race.
Our human race gaining an extra Mahayana realm expert is always better than your Wu tribe gaining an extra Mahayana realm expert!
Don’t think you are some kind of good person. You knew perfectly well it was a trap, yet didn’t you still let your tribesmen march to their deaths on the battlefield one by one?
You just want Min Tiange’s opportunity.”
“Bastard!”
…
At the borderlands.
Dust and sand billowed.
Li Yaoqing looked down at Fei Heng.
She spent year-round in the outer city of the clan, setting up a thatched cottage to refine pills, and frequently saw the farmers tilling the fields in the city.
Among those farmers back then, there was one very special person—Crown Prince Fei Heng.
She still remembered the figure of Fei Heng, who worked at sunrise and cultivated at sunset, walking along the field paths and tilling the land.
This kid wore the most ordinary clothes, with a piece of cloth wrapped around his nose, laughing and joking with the farmers of Merit City just like any of them.
Three hundred years passed like this.
It was only when Fei Heng walked out of Merit City, carrying massive aspirations to the imperial court and arriving at the Western Frontier… that seeing him again, he had become this appearance that was neither human nor ghost.
Things had truly changed, and people had become completely different.
Perfected Qinghe let out a sigh and shook his head helplessly.
Back when the Crown Prince disappeared from the Dusheng Nunnery, he had already suspected something was amiss.
Well, this was just great. The face of the Zishu royal family and His Majesty was completely lost, and even he felt disgraced by association.
“Hand him over to me!”
Nun Dairou looked around the crowd, her gaze fixing on Perfected Qinghe, a hint of cunning flashing in her expression.
“This is your best choice.
The Crown Prince has become this sort of thing that is neither human nor ghost, collaborating with Min Tiange and bringing ruin to the entirety of Shadowfell Prefecture.
If this matter spreads, you know better than I do what the consequences will be!”
Perfected Qinghe’s face turned pale.
“The people of the world will say that to achieve their goals, the Zishu royal family would even sacrifice an entire prefecture.
Who would still dare to be loyal to the Zishu family? Which general or soldier would risk their lives for the dynasty?”
Nun Dairou’s words were sharp.
“You are not my match. If I want to flee, there is nothing you can do about it.
But you are also a member of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion. Could it be that you wish to see the dynasty become what I just described?”
“But I will keep this secret for you; it will be a secret between you and me.
We can learn Min Tiange’s plan from the Crown Prince’s mouth, and we can step into the Mahayana realm. Time will prove that keeping me alive will allow us both to go further!”
As soon as these words were spoken, the four Void Refinement cultivators who had come along with the two Li family members all wore expressions of sheer horror, looking at Perfected Qinghe with deep vigilance.
How was this a Bodhisattva?
After these words, in order to cover up the dynasty’s scandal and tempted by the massive lure Nun Dairou spoke of, Perfected Qinghe might just unleash his poison and kill them all!
Perfected Qinghe didn’t say a word, and the corners of Nun Dairou’s mouth curved up slightly.
But her expression suddenly froze.
A familiar voice rang out in this place.
“Stop joking around.”
Nun Dairou’s face turned gloomy.
It was the voice of the black mist figure who had ruined her grand plan in the Dusheng Nunnery.
Even if he were burned to ashes, she would remember this hoarse voice that disgusted a Bodhisattva!
He should be dead.
Nun Dairou clearly remembered that her Buddhist fire had landed on his body.
Even spatial laws could not resist the soul-corroding Buddhist fire. How was it possible? How could he possibly still be alive?
“Perfected Qinghe is highly respected and of great virtue. How could your few words possibly tempt him?”
Space fractured like a spiderweb, then tore open into a vertical rift.
Li Wei slowly stepped out from the void, with numerous clansmen following closely behind him.
As for the Old Tree, it was still on that mountain, sucking blood. He looked at Perfected Qinghe, noticing the wavering hesitation in his eyes.
The human heart truly cannot withstand tests—this was an experience Li Wei had gained over his many years.
“Good thing we arrived in time. A few steps later, and this fellow would have been tempted.”
Li Wei glared at his old rival, Nun Dairou.
The decline of modern inspiration peddlers—the “you can achieve anything if you just believe” type—had nothing to do with people getting smarter. It was simply because Nun Dairou wasn’t around.
With just a single glance, Nun Dairou’s face was struck with sheer terror.
Not only was Li Wei alive, but Nun Dairou sensed a familiar aura from him… Buddhist faith power!
For a moment, Nun Dairou actually didn’t dare to utter another word.
Li Wei had grown stronger. In front of him, she had nowhere to run, and with Perfected Qinghe added into the mix, it was more than enough to battle her.
Meanwhile, the Li family members slowly surrounded the scene, causing Zhou Chengli and the others—who had been on edge—to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The Li family members all cast their gazes toward Fei Heng in unison.
Li Kuanghua, who had originally carried Fei Heng out of Shadowfell Prefecture on her back and stayed with him in the Dusheng Nunnery for decades, had a complex look in her eyes.
The current Fei Heng was too unfamiliar—so unfamiliar that looking at him felt like having a fishbone stuck in her throat.
Back when Fei Heng first came to Shadowfell Prefecture, she was the one who pulled him onto the spirit ship.
When Aunt Tianyue was in the Western Frontier, she was the one who brought her aunt and the three-hundred-and-twenty-thousand-strong army before Fei Heng.
Seemingly sensing the gazes of the Li family members…
As these gazes locked onto Fei Heng’s hideous, terrifying body reeking of corpse energy, they felt like needles piercing into his flesh.
He slowly raised his head, his lifeless eyes staring blankly as he muttered, “You’ve become different.”
Qilin Mountain was the first time he had seen so many members of the Azure Cloud Li Clan gathered together.
At that time, the Li family members had also flown into the air to fight Tian Xing, an invincible opponent.
Back then, the Li Clan was much weaker than they were now. Surviving had not been easy for them at all.
“Heh… heh.”
Fei Heng’s face was stiff. He wanted to smile at the Li family members, but he couldn’t force it out.
The Li family members just stared straight at him, making his mind go completely blank.
Even when Nun Dairou was about to kill him, he hadn’t felt as suffocated as he did now. It was as if he had lost his soul.
“Why are you looking at me like this? Why?!!” Fei Heng roared at the Li family members in panic and desperation.
“Don’t blame me! Li Tianyue’s death is not my fault!”
“How was I supposed to know she would die? The Yun Clan could flee, Bi Shihu could flee, the Dusheng Nunnery could flee, so why didn’t she flee?!!”
“She clearly could have escaped! She chose to throw her life away!”
“…”
Fei Heng roared with a hoarse voice. The Li family members frowned slightly, not saying a word, simply staring fixedly at Fei Heng’s maddened state.
Fei Heng’s features gradually twisted into a hideous scowl. In the eyes of the Li family members, he only saw unfamiliarity, and he saw their disappointment in him!
And this caused him to completely lose his reason.
“Are you blaming me for cooperating with Min Tiange? Yes, I am cooperating with him!”
“How do you think I, isolated and without backing, became the Crown Prince in the Imperial Capital?
He was the one helping me! Why do you think I came to the Western Frontier? I needed to become stronger!”
The Li family members still remained silent.
Li Wei took a deep breath.
Back then, they had found it unbelievable. Shortly after Crown Prince Sheng died, Fei Heng returned to the Imperial Capital and became the Crown Prince.
At the time, they guessed someone was helping Fei Heng, but they never expected the person behind the scenes to be Min Tiange.
“In the Imperial Capital, no one helped me.”
The veins all over Fei Heng’s body bulged.
“I had ambitions! I wanted to purge the imperial court, I wanted the human race to reclaim its glory, I wanted the human race to unite the world!
But ambition alone isn’t enough. My bloodline wasn’t enough to make me revered; strength is the true foundation!”
“Countless eyes in the dynasty were fixed on me.
Min Youguo refused to submit to me, Wu Neng of the Department of Immortal Suppression went behind my back to meet Crown Prince Sheng, and the Empress was wildly ambitious, wanting to seize my power.”
“And you didn’t help me either! The Azure Cloud Prefecture’s power was growing day by day.
You clearly knew I was struggling with every step in the dynasty; you clearly could have helped me!”
“…”
The Li family members still stared coldly at Fei Heng.
They stared until Fei Heng felt as if he had plunged into an ice cavern. Without realizing it, tears and snot were streaming down his face.
“I had no choice but to come to the Western Frontier. I wanted to survive, I wanted to learn—learn how your Li Clan did things!
With the Li Clan’s three hundred years of history, I learned a lot.
I learned enough to dance with wolves; I can step by step ascend to the pinnacle of the dynasty and slaughter everyone who covets my position!”
In the cloudy sky.
Li Wei’s voice was hoarse as he asked his first question: “Then have you learned?”
Have you learned…
Did you really learn?
Fei Heng lowered his head, looking at his current appearance that was neither human nor ghost. Beside him, there was only a corpse dragon.
Meanwhile, the people of the Azure Cloud Li Clan in the cloudy sky had never been alone, even when separated by vast distances.
—
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