Chapter 66
When Li Zhun finally revealed this deep-seated secret to everyone, he breathed a sigh of relief. Li Jingyuan looked at his father, and everyone's eyes were fixed on him. Li Zhun then said, "Everyone, everything I have said today is true. If there is even the slightest falsehood, may I be struck by lightning."
Li Jingyuan looked at his father, then at Jin Huaran, his nominal cousin and his aunt's son. Had he been an imposter all along? Li Jingyuan began to recall all the strange things about his cousin. For example, his aunt had been labeled a femme fatale and banished to the Cold Palace the moment Jin Huaran was born. For example, after a great fire in the palace more than ten years ago, Jin Huaran emerged from the Cold Palace at the age of five or six, marking his first public appearance. Before that, he had lived in the Cold Palace, unseen by anyone. For example, his father always had a strange expression and seemed distant from Jin Huaran whenever they met, even though his father and aunt were the closest of friends.
All these unusual signs indicate that Jin Huaran is not normal.
Li Zhun continued in front of everyone, "He can't possibly be my sister's son!" After saying that, Li Zhun seemed to take a deep breath to mentally prepare himself, "Because my sister Li Zhaoxue and the emperor are half-siblings! Back then, the former emperor traveled to Jianshui City, took a fancy to my mother, and forced her to give birth to my sister Li Zhaoxue."
When Li Zhaoxue learned of this, she had already been made Empress and was seven or eight months pregnant. Sure enough, the child was born with intellectual disabilities. To prevent the scandal from being exposed, the Emperor deposed Li Zhaoxue and banished her to the Cold Palace. As for the original Jin Huaran, she was likely already dead by then.
Previously, everyone who knew the truth about this matter, including the emperor, empress, and Li Zhun, were afraid of their family scandal being exposed and could not stand up and point out to his face that Jin Huaran was an imposter from beginning to end. At the time, they only saw that Jin Huaran was well-behaved and sensible and never fought or grabbed anything, so they let him remain a marginal figure in the palace.
Unexpectedly, this later led to the great disaster we see today.
Later, whenever Li Zhun saw Jin Huaran, he would think of his real nephew and those dull eyes, and a chill would run down his spine. He always felt an inexplicable sense of unease when facing this person. This secret that had been weighing on his heart for more than ten years was finally spoken aloud by him.
Lee Joon, on the contrary, seemed to have finally let go of the heavy burden he had been carrying for many years.
"He can't be Jin Huaran!" Li Zhun pointed his sword at Jin Huaran again.
Then a new question arises: if Jin Huaran is an imposter, then who is he really? And where did he come from?
Jin Huaran lowered his eyes and gave a soft, mocking laugh.
"Isn't it a bit too late to say all this now?" He raised his head again, his stagnant eyes sweeping over everyone. He slowly raised his hand, and a gleaming spirit pendant appeared in his palm, the phosphorescence of the Canglan River reflected on the jade pendant.
As soon as the jade pendant appeared, the black hole above the Canglan River began to stir again, with wind and clouds surging, lightning flashing and thunder roaring. The Destiny Lock floating below the black hole also trembled faintly. All these signs indicated that this jade pendant was no ordinary object.
Finally, someone recognized it; this was the other half of the Spirit Transformation Pendant, the first key to unlock the Destiny Lock.
Standing on the opposite side of Jin Huaran, they were genuinely sweating profusely this time, having believed Xie Wenhe and Li Zhun's words that the person in front of them was truly going to destroy the world.
At this moment, Xie Wen's gaze once again settled on the puppet at Jin Huaran's waist. The wooden head with its blank stare seemed to tremble at his waist, as if it was still blinking its eyes and shaking its limbs uneasily.
Xie Wen blinked, making sure he wasn't seeing things. Then he saw Jin Huaran casually pat the doll at his waist, saying to it, "I know you've absorbed a lot of evil energy and are incredibly excited right now. But behave yourself. Now, I'm helping you avenge all your grudges. I'm keeping you by my side so you can witness my path of revenge."
"She is Li Zhaoxue!" Xie Wen shouted. From the first time he saw this doll, Xie Wen had an intuitive feeling of familiarity. It wasn't that Xie Wen hadn't been close to her before; he was familiar with Li Zhaoxue's aura. Moreover, the doll's dull and numb eyes were exactly the same as the gaze of that wisp of ghost floating on the surface of the Boundless Sea in the imperial palace prison.
Xie Wen couldn't ignore it; she couldn't help but speculate that perhaps the one floating on the surface of the Boundless Sea was the real Jin Huaran. Perhaps the child born mentally challenged was killed by Li Zhaoxue herself.
Now, Li Zhaoxue has been turned into a puppet by Jin Huaran and hung on his waist, just so that the puppet can witness his path of revenge.
Regardless of the shock and commotion on the other side, at this final moment, nothing else mattered to Jin Huaran. He slowly raised his head to look at the enormous black hole, then said calmly, "Time is almost up."
"Awen, remember to take good care of yourself."
He said this to Sherwin at the end.
Xie Wen asked, "What do you want to do? You're a member of the Feather Clan? You want to sacrifice yourself? Why?"
Jin Huaran seemed to be giving Xie Wen a bit of patience. He said, "The Boundless Sea flows out from the Netherworld. Those who are imprisoned in the Boundless Sea can never leave and suffer inhuman torture every moment. Only the power of the Heavenly Leak can break through the imprisonment of the Boundless Sea and allow our Feather Clan to regain their freedom."
As he spoke, Jin Huaran leaped into the air. Chu Xianyue was the first to fly over to stop him, followed closely by Xie Wen. In an instant, the others who had been stunned also came to their senses and flew up to stop Jin Huaran.
Hundreds upon hundreds of cultivators surged towards Jin Huaran like a tidal wave, a scene even more spectacular than the crossing of the Canglan River earlier. Unfortunately, he was too fast, leaving no room for maneuver; even Chu Xianyue was just a little short.
At this moment, a soft sword passed over Chu Xianyue, pierced the sky, and pierced the doll at Jin Huaran's waist. The doll was shattered by Yao Fang's sword. The evil body, which had absorbed evil energy, broke free from the doll's restraints and its ferocity increased. In an instant, it struck Jin Huaran, who was closest to it, with a palm. With a bang, he fell to the ground and smashed a huge human-shaped crater.
It absorbed a continuous stream of evil energy, and at this moment it was no longer an ordinary evil spirit. It was even more powerful than a high-level evil spirit, and it had no consciousness at all. It no longer obeyed anyone, including Jin Huaran.
As soon as Jin Huaran fell to the ground, countless faceless men suddenly emerged from the shadows. These men were once his confidants, but now they had all been turned into puppets by him, their actions determined solely by his will.
Jin Huaran climbed out of the pit, casually wiped the blood from his lips, and even seemed to chuckle, looking at Xie Wen with a mixture of anger and amusement.
Xie Wen withdrew Yao Fang and gracefully descended from the sky. Chu Xianyue stood beside her, looking down at Jin Huaran.
Behind them, the remaining people were besieging the evil spirit, fighting fiercely in the air.
Xie Wen pointed his sword at Jin Huaran, but he was blocked by a group of faceless men. Xie Wen could not get close to him and said from afar, "Stop now."
"Awen, don't be so naive," he said mockingly from behind the crowd.
Xie Wen realized that she had no right to persuade Jin Huaran to stop, but she would stop him no matter what. Xie Wen was about to draw her sword and charge again when, in the next instant, Jin Huaran in front of her suddenly showed a pained expression. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he pressed his left hand against his right arm, which did not seem to be faking it.
He slowly rolled up his sleeve, and in the gleaming moonlight, three bloody wounds were shockingly revealed on his clean arm. Two of them were already healing, while the remaining third wound had flesh turned outwards, oozing dark blood that meandered down his arm, with bluish pus spreading continuously from the wound.
These are wounds inflicted by a blood curse. A blood curse is also a form of curse; the cursed person must fulfill the curser's wish for these wounds to heal. The longer the delay, the deeper the wounds left by the blood curse will become, tormenting the cursed person daily. If the wish is not fulfilled by the appointed time, the person will suffer excruciating torment and die a painful death.
In retrospect, the person who cursed Jin Huaran may have been Li Zhaoxue.
Li Zhaoxue and Jin Huaran seemed to have reached some kind of agreement. Li Zhaoxue was probably well aware that the Jin Huaran before her was not her real son. On the contrary, she knew all too well.
Li Zhaoxue granted Jin Huaran the identity of a prince, allowing him to impersonate her son. However, Jin Huaran's price was being cursed by Li Zhaoxue with a blood curse to fulfill her wish and avenge Li Zhaoxue.
Currently, the other two blood curse wounds on Jin Huaran's arm are showing signs of healing, indicating that he has fulfilled Li Zhaoxue's two wishes. Now only the last one remains.
Guess what? Li Zhaoxue was tortured to death by the Emperor and Empress before her passing. Her wish was probably to kill that despicable couple. Jin Huaran had already secretly controlled and murdered the Emperor and Empress on the day Xie Wen stormed the dynasty. The current Emperor and Empress are just empty shells, his puppets.
However, Jin Huaran has not yet fulfilled Li Zhaoxue's last wish. What else could it be besides killing the emperor and empress?
Just then, a loud roar came from the sky behind Xie Wen. Then, she saw the evil spirit being stabbed hundreds of times by the crowd and finally bursting out of its body and dying.
In mid-air, there was only a loud bang, and then everything was gone in an instant.
During this siege, only two people remained uninvolved: Li Zhun and Li Jingyuan. They simply watched from the sidelines. No matter what, even if she turned into an evil spirit, in his heart she was still Li Zhaoxue, still his sister; and in Li Jingyuan's heart, she was still his aunt.
When Xie Wen turned back to look at Jin Huaran's arm, he still saw a deep, chasm-like wound that continued to worsen and spread. However, with blood curses, if the person who cast the curse completely disappears from the world, the blood curse will break and dissipate on its own.
This only proves that the last blood curse was not placed on Jin Huaran by Li Zhaoxue.
At that moment, everyone suddenly looked up at the twilight blue sky. Xie Wen, whose tiger's mouth was pinched by Chu Xianyue, looked back at him and followed his gaze to look up as well.
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