Chapter 68
Chu Xianyue had once heard of a divine artifact in this world called the Lotus Reincarnation. It resembled a lotus, and its flowers bloomed year-round without fading. It was said that its flowers had the power to revive the dead and heal the wounded. If the soul of a person was contained within the Lotus Reincarnation, the lotus flower could recreate a living person within a week using its body.
Moreover, the person who was reincarnated had the same appearance and memories as in their previous life. It was essentially a resurrection.
And now, this divine artifact was casually gifted to Li Zhaoxue by the Taoist priest of the Hidden Cloud Mountain.
Li Zhaoxue did not use the Lotus Reincarnation technique to revive Qi Yuan. Before his death, Qi Yuan had already become an evil being, his soul torn apart by evil energy. Even if he were resurrected, he would not be the same person he once was. Who knows what kind of being would be resurrected if he were brought back to life?
Moreover, Li Zhaoxue initially didn't quite believe that this lotus flower could possess such magic. Even though it could bloom forever, Li Zhaoxue dared not try it lightly, so she kept it as an ornamental object in her bedchamber. The people in the palace simply thought that Li Zhaoxue had bought a fake flower from somewhere.
A year later, Li Zhaoxue became pregnant. She suddenly realized that although she had only stayed in the palace for a year, every minute and every second had been agonizing, as if she had lived a lifetime.
Her days in the palace were uneventful; she was like a caged bird. When the emperor was in a good mood, he would come and tease her, but when he was in a bad mood, he would not see her for months at a time.
Li Zhaoxue later realized that her days in the palace were a slow process of wearing down the emperor's patience and affection for her. When the final days arrived, her good days would also come to an end.
At that time, she was pregnant with Jin Huaran and had already deeply felt the emperor's alienation and disdain. He no longer came to her, and jewelry and silk gradually became luxuries.
The peaceful days were shattered when she was seven or eight months pregnant. The old emperor, who had been bedridden and unconscious for years, suddenly had a moment of lucidity and told her that years ago, during his travels to Jianshui City, he had fallen in love at first sight with the city lord's wife and forced himself on her. They had even conceived a daughter.
And who else could that daughter be but Li Zhaoxue?
The emperor was furious and had the old emperor killed.
After that, his gaze towards her became terrifying, his eyes filled with malice. All the sweet words he had spoken to her before now transformed into poisoned needles, piercing her heart. In a fit of rage, he dragged her to have a blood test to prove their paternity.
When he saw two drops of blood mingling in the clear water, his carefully maintained composure shattered completely, and he hit her for the first time. He slapped her face until it was swollen, and repeatedly punched her in the stomach.
He then yelled, "You slut! You bitch! Did you know all along? Who sent you to seduce me and ruin me?!"
If the people of the dynasty were to find out about this, he would become a laughingstock of the entire dynasty, and even the capital! At that time, his magnificent image as an emperor would be completely ruined by this madwoman.
The emperor believed that Li Zhaoxue had deliberately approached him and was sent by someone else to persecute him, so he frequently beat and scolded her, humiliating her in every way possible every day.
Li Zhaoxue endured until the day her child was born. When she finally managed to give birth, her body weak and covered in sweat, she looked at the child she had given birth to with all her might, only to see a pair of dull eyes, unable to cry or make a sound, and with six fingers. In the dynasty, this was considered an ominous sign.
The emperor seized on this point and used it as an excuse to treat Li Zhaoxue as a witch. Less than ten days after she gave birth, he threw her and Jin Huaran into a remote, cold palace.
There, only the mother and son lived together, relying on each other for survival.
Life in the Cold Palace was more difficult than Li Zhaoxue had imagined. She slept in a room teeming with cockroaches and ate the roots of weeds that grew in the yard. Even if Jin Huaran wasn't mentally challenged, he would have had a hard time surviving in such an environment.
However, Li Zhaoxue still strangled him to death herself, along with her hatred for the emperor. She strangled him until his body turned purple and stiff, and he was as cold as could be, but Li Zhaoxue still didn't let go. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hair disheveled, like a madwoman who had lost her mind.
After Li Zhaoxue strangled Jin Huaran to death, she clapped her hands and numbly went to the well to draw water. In the instant she lowered her head, she saw not her own reflection in the well water.
Instead, it was another woman's face. In the well water, the gentle-looking woman was also looking up at Li Zhaoxue. Li Zhaoxue was initially startled, but the more she looked at the person in the water, the more familiar she seemed.
Li Zhaoxue recognized that woman. Wasn't she the Imperial Concubine? Li Zhaoxue even remembered her name, Ning Xu.
Just as Li Zhaoxue was wondering what was going on, the woman's face, which had been floating on the water, rose up along with the water in the bucket.
The imperial concubine who suddenly disappeared has now appeared in the well water of the Cold Palace? This is too strange.
Li Zhaoxue still managed to scoop up the water and laboriously placed it on the ground. The water reflected the gray sky and the surrounding weeds, and also vaguely revealed the face of a woman. Her face seemed to melt into the well water like foam, swaying eerily with the water.
A chill ran down Li Zhaoxue's spine, yet she couldn't help but reach out to probe the surface. Her hand plunged into the water, stirring the surface, and the face on the water vanished. Li Zhaoxue wondered if it was haunted.
But the next second, the figure in the water that she had just scattered instantly reassembled and reappeared as the imperial concubine, who stared at Li Zhaoxue with her eyes wide open.
Li Zhaoxue's back was covered in cold sweat. In the blink of an eye, her hand, which was still in the water, was suddenly pulled by a huge force, dragging her into the bucket.
She never imagined she would fall into such a small bucket. When Li Zhaoxue opened her eyes again, she was in the water, as if she had fallen into a boundless deep sea. She began to feel afraid and struggled, but gradually realized that she had not suffocated to death as she had imagined.
Someone patted Li Zhaoxue on the shoulder from behind. Li Zhaoxue turned around and saw many people, all with white hair and beautiful appearances. Standing at the very front was the imperial concubine, Ning Xu.
Ning Xu told Li Zhaoxue the secret of the Feathered Clan.
The Feathered Clan, because of their bloodline's ability to unlock the Heavenly Lock, were ostracized by the world and imprisoned forever in the deepest part of the Boundless Sea. Every member of their clan suffers torment and unbearable pain every moment. This is the story of the Feathered Clan.
After imprisoning the Feathered Race in the Boundless Sea, the emperor ordered a purified portion of the sea water to be brought to him and kept in the palace. He would sometimes go into the Boundless Sea and watch through the glass as each Feathered Race member struggled and begged for mercy, looking utterly pathetic.
Ning Xu told Li Zhaoxue that she had managed to escape when all her clansmen were imprisoned in the Boundless Sea. At that time, she was also the only Feather Clan member who remained outside the Boundless Sea.
She used magic to tear off her white hair, and new black hair grew back strand by strand. She deliberately entered the palace to get close to the emperor, hoping to one day find a way to break the shackles of the Boundless Sea and bring all the Feather Clan people out.
In the end, however, the plan failed, and the emperor discovered that she had deliberately approached him with ill intentions. Upon investigation, he found that she was actually a member of the Feather Clan. The emperor was immediately enraged and threw her into the Boundless Sea.
Even though Ningxu was already pregnant at the time, the emperor showed her no mercy. For a long time afterward, he would occasionally visit his "old acquaintance" through the purified waters of the Boundless Sea, taking pleasure in watching Ningxu suffer.
Over time, the emperor stopped remembering Ning Xu and rarely looked at her suffering. It seemed that he had completely forgotten Ning Xu in the filthy waters of the Wuwang Sea in the dark chambers of the palace.
Over time, the seawater seeped into the ground, and then, by a twist of fate, Li Zhaoxue retrieved it from the well. At that moment, Li Zhaoxue was meeting Ning Xu through this well water.
In this boundless cold palace, Li Zhaoxue only had Ning Xu, and she only knew Ning Xu. Gradually, through Ning Xu's matchmaking, she also got to know other Feather Clan members.
Li Zhaoxue discovered that these winged people were just like ordinary people; they lived ordinary lives and were not as wicked and heinous as the rumors suggested. The only sin was the bloodline that flowed through her veins.
Ning Xu also has a son who is a year older than Jin Huaran, but he is thin and small due to years of malnutrition, making him look like he is the same age as Jin Huaran.
Later, Li Zhaoxue heard that the emperor had made a new empress and married another beautiful woman. This beautiful woman would often come to the cold palace to torment and tease Li Zhaoxue, prying off her fingernails, cutting off her toes, gouging out one of her eyes... Gradually, Li Zhaoxue became less and less like a human being.
After being tormented for five years, Li Zhaoxue no longer wanted to live. It was at this time that Ning Xu inadvertently learned that Li Zhaoxue had obtained a divine artifact five years prior: the Lotus Reincarnation.
The two reached a deal.
Ning Xu: "Do you hate them? The Empress and the Emperor! They humiliated and tormented you like that. Don't you want revenge?"
Li Zhaoxue lay numbly in the muddy ground, her only remaining cloudy and dim eye suddenly blazing with intense hatred. She stammered, "I hate! I want revenge! I want to kill them all! He deserves to die! They all deserve to die!"
Ning Xu's voice traveled through the well water to Li Zhaoxue's ears, "Of course we must take revenge! How about we make a deal?"
Li Zhaoxue suddenly slowly got up, staring at the water like a madwoman, and asked in a hoarse voice, "What deal?"
"Rescue my son, and he will avenge you!"
That night, in the secluded, cold palace, the ghostly flames of lotus flowers burned all night. At the same time, in the dark, boundless sea, Ning Xu covered the eyes of a frail child. She knelt before him and told him, "A-Liang, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. It will only hurt for a while. Don't be afraid, you won't die. Mother will help you get out. When that happens, we must find a way to save all our people. Our entire clan depends on you. A-Liang, you are our clan's only hope. Don't be afraid, you must live. Live!"
Ning Xu's voice faded away as she brought down the knife, slowly disappearing from A Liang's ears. A sharp pain shot through his heart and quickly spread throughout his body. He consciously felt his beating heart gradually calm down, eventually turning into a stagnant pool.
Ning Xu must rip out his heart while he is still conscious. When the moon is full, the light of the lotus will turn, guiding A Liang's soul to it.
The lotus bloomed for seven days and seven months. During each of those seven days, the lotus gradually withered. When the lotus finally withered completely and its light dimmed, that would be the day of A Liang's rebirth.
He had a new identity: Jin Huaran, the seventh prince of the imperial palace and son of Li Zhaoxue.
Before Li Zhaoxue died, she placed a blood curse on Jin Huaran. She had two wishes that Jin Huaran had to fulfill: one was to kill the emperor, and the other was to kill the empress.
After that, Jin Huaran silently cast a third blood curse on himself. This third curse was to vow to save all the Feather Clan members at all costs!
Otherwise, he would suffer the torment of the blood curse and die a painful death. He reminded himself of this day and night, and relied on these thoughts of revenge to get to where he is now.
Jin Huaran had no way out. Humanity owed them all, and he was determined to rescue every one of his people. He didn't want to live this life of darkness any longer! Even if it meant overturning the world, plunging it into chaos, and ensuring that no one suffered!
Humanity owes them all of this!
Above the Canglan River, the fireflies in the sky dispersed, and people, having just recovered from the memories of Li Zhaoxue's life, saw Xie Wen, not far away, silently approach Jin Huaran and then plunge his sword into his heart.
Jin Huaran stared blankly at Xie Wen. This was the same place where a sword had once pierced him. The familiar feeling of death surged up and drowned him.
"Even if you have your reasons, I cannot let you destroy the world!" However, these words only lingered in Xie Wen's heart. Before she could say them, she suddenly felt a pain in her chest. The pain made her vomit a mouthful of blood. When she looked down, she saw that there was an identical blood hole in her chest.
Blood gushed out like a burst dam, and the handkerchief Xie Wen was holding slipped from his grasp. Jin Huaran also wore a strange, bewildered expression. Suddenly, he burst into a twisted laugh, as if he had gone mad, muttering, "Ah Wen, Ah Wen. Why is this happening?"
Why did she stab him in the chest with a sword, and at the same time, an identical wound appeared on her chest?
Jin Huaran asked her, "Do you know who you really are?"
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