The Meaning of These Years

It was late at night.

The noisy Liusu and gluttonous beasts finally quieted down, Qin Yi and Li Qingjun sat cross-legged on the couch, seemingly cultivating.

In reality, his soul had already left his body and arrived at the shrine where Li Wuxian was praying.

It was common for a Huiyang-level divine soul to travel, and the two of them planned to see if Li Wuxian would be two-faced.

From what I can see, Li Wuxian is serious.

She held a grand ceremony at the Nanli Ancestral Shrine of the palace, which was very formal.

Normally, sacrificial rites are held at Ancestral Tomb or similar locations, rarely in the palace. Li Wuxian's situation was special; he was thousands of miles away in the Southern Li, so they couldn't move his tomb there. Therefore, an ancestral shrine was set up in the palace. The memorial tablets of Li Duanxuan, Li Qinglin, and others are all here... I wonder if Li Duanxuan would vomit blood if he saw this.

In fact, Li Wuxian knew that Li Duanxuan was not dead. She had witnessed the whole process of Li Duanxuan taking Li Qingjun away. But this kind of memorial tablet is for outsiders to see. There was no way around it; they couldn't let people say that they didn't even worship the founding ancestor... So Li Duanxuan said that he received some wishes from all living beings, and that's how it came about.

This thing is completely useless to Li Duanxuan's cultivation, but it is of some use to Mount Mang Venerable... When Mount Mang Venerable supported his descendants to establish a country, he did have this intention in mind. However, the Western Wasteland Southern Li the same bird, pitifully small. Their little bit of willpower was as good as nothing, and they had a lot of trivial matters. So Mangshan gave up on them completely.

As for personally intervening to conquer the Central Plains, let's forget about it. Just look at the fate of the Taiyi Sect this time. The backlash of its fortune still exists. Who knows what kind of trouble Zuo Qingtian will cause to the Taiyi Sect he goes back this time? It is foreseeable that this sect will inevitably decline.

This thing is somewhat useful for the cultivation of the Witch God Sect, but it's not particularly important, so it's definitely not worth going to such lengths for. Of course, if someone like Li Duanxuan were to offer their own willpower, Mangshan would probably laugh themselves to death.

It's quite a twist of the Unseen that things turned out this way; Li Duanxuan got what he didn't want, while Mangshan couldn't get what he wanted...

Zuo Qingtian also understood Mangshan's idea of stationing himself in Dragon Abyss City to observe the situation. He could understand the unpleasant feeling and the little struggle he was going through.

I just wanted to see... Jealousy is meaningless. If Monstrous Fiends like Li Wuxian were to have a descendant, even Mangshan wouldn't know whether to feel gratified or chilled to the bone.

Just like now, Qin Yi and Li Qingjun still have to come and observe her in the middle of the night... With her scheming and ruthlessness in summoning demons to destroy her own country, if it were any other passerby, the two of them might have kept their distance long ago. But how can this connection be severed?

We'll just have to put in more effort.

Li Wuxian carefully set up the memorial tablet, and Hidden Dragon Temple priests from Qianlong Temple were performing a ritual in the hall. Qin Yi clearly felt a kind of wish power gathering in the sky and then slowly merging into the light and clear air.

In such a world, these kinds of prayers do have some effect, such as bringing peace and reincarnation to wandering wronged souls and eradicating resentment. The effect is relatively low for ordinary people, and the combined power of a supreme emperor and the rituals performed by the Hidden Dragon Temple priests of Qianlong Temple makes it difficult to predict the extent of the effect.

However, the prerequisite is that the person making the wish must be sincere and resonate with their spirit and energy. If the heart is not sincere, it will be absolutely ineffective. It may be able to fool others, but for Qin Yi, Shining Sun Realm at this time, he can see through the falsehood at a glance.

From what I can see, she is truly sincere...

The focused look on that little face made Li Qingjun feel momentarily dazed.

Sometimes I feel like I'm really looking at myself at a certain stage of my life.

Qin Yi also felt that if Li Wuxian had been actively and deliberately absorbing the knowledge of her elders in her childhood, she should have imitated Li Qingjun more, since she had actually only met her father a few times and her stories were mostly from others' conversations. On the contrary, she had been a queen for a year under Li Qingjun's support, spending a lot of time with her and receiving a great deal of unintentional influence from Li Qingjun, so at least in terms of appearance and temperament, she was definitely closer to Li Qingjun.

This is the origin of her battlefield heroism.

Perhaps what she said—"Master will always be young on the path to immortality, while you will grow old in just a few years"—was something Li Qingjun said unintentionally to herself, which was overheard and remembered by her...

Later, she caused the country to fall, and Li Qingjun could no longer teach her. Everyone was separated in different places, and there was no one in the Daqian Palace who could properly teach her. She even taught herself a lot about royal politics.

She's a bit like a supercomputer...

She actually... longs for someone to teach her properly, care for her, and not always have to learn on her own.

So being criticized and punished with a stern face actually made her happy? Because it gave her the feeling of being taught by a father and a master?

Therefore, they are very sincere and obedient in implementing punitive measures.

Is that so?

Both of them felt a pang of heartache.

Li Qingjun pursed her lips and after a long while said telepathically, "Go back and rest. You've been tired these past few days. I'll take care of things."

Qin Yi turned to look at her.

Perhaps Wu Xian doesn't understand the pain of Li Qingjun when all her efforts and perseverance were destroyed in an instant, when she had rebuilt her home with great expectations, only to have it inexplicably destroyed by a monster. If it weren't for saving her child, Qing Jun would most likely have died fighting in Southern Li instead of retreating.

Perhaps the intention and outcome of freeing her from constraints were good, but that doesn't mean we should appreciate this approach.

Human emotions are not cold programs in a computer. This is something that Li Wuxian, who relies on innate intuition to rationally analyze everything around him, cannot easily understand. Ironically, Li Wuxian himself is looking forward to being emotional.

But Qin Yi could tell that although Li Qingjun had a stern face, she forgave him faster than she had imagined.

Her heart is as soft as tofu.

"I'm not watching anymore." Qin Yi gently stroked her cheek with his ethereal hand. "Let's go back and rest together."

"But..."

"You have nothing to bear; you are merely Qin family's wife. If there is any responsibility for educating her, that rests with me, her teacher."

Li Qingjun paused for a moment, then laughed, "You big man. This world is full of queens, empresses, Empress sect leaders. I don't know where you get these big man ideas from."

Qin Yi put his hands on his hips. "Because of what you've said, most of what we know belongs to me."

Li Qingjun was utterly speechless.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Li Wuxian arrived outside the hall and respectfully bowed, saying, "Disciple greets Master."

Qin Yi's voice came from inside. "Huh? Aren't you going to court?"

"The morning assembly isn't this early, so I came first to pay my respects to my master and also to apologize to my aunt."

"Your aunt has gone out..." Qin Yi said, "If you're not in a hurry, come in and have a seat."

Upon hearing that Li Qingjun had gone out, Li Wuxian sighed and stepped inside.

Upon seeing Qin Yi painting, Li Wuxian went over and her eyes quickly flashed with amazement.

That was a portrait of her, depicting her seven years ago as she was building a snowman, snotty-nosed and bouncy, so lifelike, as if she had come to life.

Qin Yi put down his pen, turned to look at her, and smiled gently, "Actually, in your master's heart, you've always been the same. You've grown so much in these seven years of seclusion; it's really hard to get used to."

Li Wuxian picked up the scroll and examined it, saying nothing but her eyes were full of joy.

Qin Yi continued, "Over the years, you've faced the intrigues of the court and the turmoil of the world all by yourself in Daqian. You can imagine how much pressure you've been under. As your master, I haven't been able to help you at all, and I've even scolded you whenever we meet. I feel really bad about it."

Li Wuxian shook his head. "Master has his own things to do... You've already done enough. This Seizing Da Qian Road was paved by Master, and he also passed on the Creation Golden Chapter to me. With these Law Treasures, I haven't really encountered any difficulties..."

Unifying the world, you say it's not difficult... This thing can't be solved by mere cultivation and Law Treasure...

Of course, she has some advantages. For example, she hardly sleeps, has much more time and energy than others, and her memory is countless times better than normal. She also doesn't worry much about safety. Besides, this is due to her own abilities; in terms of political and military skills, she might even be able to become Qin Yi's mentor.

Qin Yi asked, "You've studied so much in the Great Qian Dynasty, did the Da Qian Emperor send teachers to instruct you?"

Li Wuxian, "In earlier years, scholars came to enlighten me, teaching me to read and write, as well as some classics and history. Later, the Great Qian Dynasty fell into chaos, and Da Qian Emperor couldn't care less about these things, so they were all stopped long ago. However, I can have people bring me books to read without any hindrance, and I can read whatever I want."

She paused for a moment, a strange look on her face. "Master, are you going to teach me how to govern a country?"

Qin Yi covered his face. What's with that strange expression? Are you looking down on us transmigrators?

Before he could even finish his argument, Li Wuxian said, "Actually... Wu Xian wasn't really interested in governing the country. Even conquering this world... Luckily, Master said yesterday that it was something worth rewarding, which helped me find meaning in all these years. Otherwise, if I had denied it like I did with Southern Li before, I wouldn't even know what I've been doing all these years."