Chapter 199 Heading Towards "...Naturally, it's a failed ascension, a death of body and soul..."

Shannan County.

The morning sun was sweeping away the remnants of night when an eagle soared out from the Zhou camp, shooting like an arrow into the eastern sky.

Wen Yizhan stood in the snow, looking up at the people riding eagles in the sky. She rushed into the rising sun, her whole body bathed in gold, and resolutely headed towards the place of sunrise.

The figure in the sky completely disappeared. He stared at the desolate sky for a long while before looking away.

He closed his eyes, his vision filled with a jumble of light and shadow.

My junior sister has someone she likes, and that person likes her too.

This is a good thing...

He sighed deeply, letting out all the unspoken emotions in his heart, then turned around and walked alone on the empty snowfield.

A letter drifted down from his body onto the snow.

Wen Yizhan saw it but didn't pick it up. It was an invitation card that said the patriarch's succession ceremony was imminent and invited members of the Li clan to attend.

He received it a few days ago but hasn't done anything about it.

The ceremony takes place today.

With a thought, the letter turned to ashes in the snow.

It doesn't matter anymore. His junior sister has broken free of the contract, and his mother has been freed. They are no longer related to that family. And that person has gotten what he wanted. From now on, this family belongs only to him.

*

Yanling City.

Looking at the person sitting in the main seat, chin in hand, seemingly bored, the elders below wore expressions of congratulations and joy, but inwardly they were all feeling uneasy.

When the clan elders first learned that the old patriarch was determined to replace this heir with the more amiable illegitimate son, most of them agreed. No one wanted their life in the hands of a madman; a kind patriarch would make their lives much easier. But unexpectedly, on the day of the ancestral worship ceremony, a sudden change occurred, and the patriarch's decree still fell into this man's hands.

The man in the main seat was wrapped in a thick cloak, toying with a diamond-shaped token in his hand. Since returning from the Western Capital, he seemed to have become very sensitive to the cold, which was unusual for a cultivator. However, it was said that he had suffered serious injuries there and almost did not make it back. Just when his subordinates thought he was going to die, he miraculously woke up.

This left the Li family members with a slight sense of regret.

The tokens struck the table repeatedly, and they also struck the hearts of everyone present.

To curry favor with the new patriarch, the Li family went to great lengths, holding a grand inauguration ceremony attended by almost all members of the Li family, as well as many members of other immortal sects. Everyone knew that this man was a sociable and lively person, but this time he seemed to have no interest in anything.

This was a completely different situation from the last time he brought his fiancée home.

Everyone still remembered how he used to laugh and joke in front of the Great Zhou Princess, but for some reason, the two suddenly broke off their contract, and when he returned to the Li family, he was all alone.

The elders thought that perhaps the head of the family should really take a wife.

Li Mengbai left the banquet before it had even ended.

His headache started again.

This ailment only started after he returned from the Western Capital, and he guessed it might be due to cultivating with the Heavenly Pillar Marrow. But as long as he continued cultivating, the headaches would gradually subside, and he could feel the power within his body becoming stronger than ever before. Although it seemed as if a voice in his heart was constantly stopping him, he continued anyway.

The reason he was able to survive was thanks to the Heavenly Pillar Marrow hidden in his heart.

Why wouldn't he use such power?

As for that sound, just ignore it.

The door creaked open, and someone called out softly, "Master..."

The man placed a booklet in front of him. "This is the catalog of potential marriage partners presented by the clan elders. Please take a look." After saying this, he respectfully stood aside, head bowed, awaiting instructions.

Li Mengbai had promised to look at the booklet, but at the moment he was suffering from a headache and was very agitated. He flipped through a couple of pages haphazardly, but his anxiety only grew. So he grabbed the booklet and slammed it at the person who came in, yelling, "What kind of stuff is this! These old fogies think they can fool me with this kind of stuff? Get out of here!"

The waiter was knocked down by a powerful force. Seeing that things were going badly, he hurriedly picked up the booklet and scrambled out the door. Before closing the door, he secretly glanced at the person inside. The new head of the family was rubbing his forehead in agitation. Suddenly, he looked up and met his gaze. The eyes were faintly red, like those of some kind of frenzied monster.

The waiter trembled with fear and ran away immediately.

Li Mengbai closed his eyes, trying to suppress the agitation in his mind.

He used to have a fiancée, but that person dared to treat him like that!

I hate her, I hate her, I hate her!

Li Mengbai angrily swept everything off the table, but the turmoil in his mind still wouldn't subside. Something stubbornly wanted to escape, but was suppressed by something else. The two forces were fighting in his mind, threatening to tear his spiritual sea apart.

Unable to bear it any longer, he channeled the power of the Heavenly Pillar Marrow into his spiritual sea.

Destroy everything that makes him unhappy!

He moved hastily and without any method, and the force overflowed from his body, the impact even causing the entire room to shake.

The books on the bookshelf were shattered into pieces, objects were smashed, and the wooden shelves creaked and groaned as if they were about to collapse...

One of the locks was shattered by the impact.

The lattice door opened, and a small cloth figure rolled out. The figure immediately flipped over and landed steadily on the ground, its sword held horizontally in front of it.

His defensive posture was so lifelike, it was as if he were still alive.

Almost simultaneously, the barrier in his mind was finally shattered by the power of the Heavenly Pillar Marrow, and countless images returned to his memory, surging forth like a river bursting its banks.

"Jiang Yuhuo, I like you, I really like you..."

"Do you like me?"

"Jiang Yuhuo, I miss you so much, I want to kiss you..."

"Give me a little love. Jiang Yuhuo, just give me a little love and I will always listen to you, forever..."

"River fishing lights... fishing lights... river fishing lights... fishing lights, fishing lights, fishing lights..."

It turns out he really had forgotten her. No one lied to him; he had simply forgotten that he could love another person so much.

A mouthful of blood sprayed onto the little figure holding the sword, staining her face crimson. The little figure remained unmoved, as she was under a puppet spell, merely repeating the motion of holding the sword horizontally.

Li Mengbai held the sword-wielding figurine in his hand, repeatedly wiping her face with his sleeve, murmuring, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

Tears fell on the little girl's face, and the more he wiped them, the more the bloodstains on her face blurred and became unsightly.

"What should I do... what should I do..."

He personally dissolved their marriage contract and destroyed her body... causing those cold, composed eyes to silently shed tears.

He'll regret it... Everyone warned him that, but he wouldn't believe it.

Li Mengbai held the sword-wielding figure close to his chest, his heart feeling as if it had been pierced by an arrow once again, a tearing pain shooting through him.

He stayed in that room where they had once lived together for a long time, until finally only one strong thought remained—he had to find her.

Whether he lives or dies, he will find her.

He could never lose her again.

*

Tianque Mountain is no longer as easy to enter as it used to be.

Jiang Yuhuo circled in the air, noticing the heavily guarded area below. She couldn't land directly as before. But perhaps entering the Heavenly Palace was never easy; it was just that someone had opened the passage for her in the past.

She injured several Heavenly Palace disciples, mercilessly shattering their formation with her sword energy, and then interrogated them about Jia Yue's whereabouts. However, they knew nothing, stammering at the name as if it were some taboo subject. In the end, she could only rush towards the palace she knew best.

But the entire Xihua Palace was empty. She searched every room, but couldn't find anyone to talk to in those snow-white and magnificent buildings. It was just empty.

All the mermaids have disappeared—Qingping, Qiandeng, Baizhen… even the former palace attendants have left.

There was no one she wanted to see.

Wasn't he undergoing tribulation? Wasn't he supposed to become a god?

Why is there no one left?!

Jiang Yuhuo searched everywhere, looking at the orderly scene inside the hall, and suddenly had a strange feeling, as if Jia Yue had never existed here at all. There was no merman clan leader in Tianque, no mermen who had migrated from the Sea Kingdom in Xihua Palace, and she never met that merman boy again.

It was all just a dream of hers, a dream to make up for the regrets of her childhood.

But now, the dream is over.

She looked back blankly, unable to find the calm gaze that had been watching her all along.

Jiayue...

She couldn't find him.

He used to be the one actively seeking her out and accommodating her, but now that he's disappeared, she can no longer find him.

Jiang Yuhuo's heart sank uneasyly, plummeting into an abyss.

Where is he...?

"Who dares to trespass upon the Heavenly Palace?"

An aged voice rebuked him in a deep voice.

Jiang Yuhuo turned around and saw an old man with white eyebrows and eyes appear in front of the palace gate.

She pointed her sword at him and demanded, "Tell me where he is?"

"Insolence!" The Tianque disciple beside the old man immediately unleashed his magic, ready to strike her.

She paid no attention, her gaze fixed on the old man, pressing him with each word, "Where did you take him? Why have all the people from Xihua Palace disappeared?"

"What...what exactly did you do to him?"

Xingxuan was also sizing up the intruder who had suddenly arrived; this was the first time he had seen this person.

He only knew that Jia Yue had taken in a female cultivator from Kunlun to recuperate in Xihua Palace for the first time. He had heard that the person was the champion of the competition, so he just thought that she was valuing talent and didn't take it to heart. It wasn't until the Spirit-Sealing Array collapsed that Jia Yue began to summon souls on the ruins after the collapse.

He knew that Jia Yue had someone hidden in her heart.

Later, Jia Yue began to suspect him and locked him in a forbidden room beneath the Spirit Valley Tower, wanting to find out the truth about that night in the mortal realm. He then learned that Jia Yue had regained her memories, and that the mortal from back then might not have died, and they might even have met long ago.

Now it seems, this is the person.

“It’s not that we did anything to him, it’s that he… deceived us, betrayed our trust and years of nurturing.” Xingxuan looked at the person in front of him, his eyes filled with regret and resentment. “And he did all of this because of you!”

"You dare to come here?"

Jiang Yuhuo immediately thought of the spiritual vein, but since the spiritual vein was on Jia Qianyang, what did it have to do with Tianque? Thinking this, she asked.

But the old man in front of her suddenly sneered, looking at her with contempt, as if she were an ant. "Do you think this spiritual vein is easy to take?" He placed a soundproof barrier between himself and the other disciples of Tianque.

"Do you know that person was the former sect leader, and also the one whom the Heavenly Palace placed great hopes on to become a god! His soul is currently cultivating in the mortal realm, while his body is being kept by the Heavenly Palace. If it weren't for Jia Yue using the tribulation of lightning as a condition for exchanging her avatar, how could the Heavenly Palace have entrusted the spiritual veins of the former sect leader to him?"

The old man's voice was deep and angry, and Jiang Yuhuo was deeply shaken upon hearing it.

It turns out that Jia Qianyang and Tian Que were actually in cahoots! It wasn't as Jia Yue claimed, that Jia Qianyang had simply hidden his body in Tian Que and was just found by him.

There can't be so many coincidences... It's just his lie.

What terrified her even more was that he used the tribulation lightning as an exchange... The lightning summoned by the Nascent Soul stage was far beyond ordinary lightning; an ordinary cultivator would be reduced to ashes with a single blow. How could he bear to endure the sky filled with silver lightning that day...?

Jiang Yu felt as if an invisible hand was gripping her heart, and she could only futilely tighten her grip on her sword. She brought the sword a few inches closer to the old man, "How is he? I want to see him."

The old man's white eyebrows twitched, and his aged eyes glared at her with anger mixed with mockery. His voice was almost squeezed out from between his teeth, "What about him? Humph! He concealed the fact that he had lost his life pearl and didn't have a mermaid pearl to repair it in time..."

"...Of course, it's a failed ascension, resulting in death and the dissipation of the soul!"

As soon as she finished speaking, it was as if a bolt of lightning struck Jiang Yuhuo, and her face instantly lost all color.

She opened her mouth, but after a long pause, she could only utter a sound, which trembled so much it was almost inaudible: "Impossible, you're talking nonsense..."

He was a mermaid, with a lifespan of a thousand years, how could he die so easily?

How could I possibly go before her, before she did...?