The lowly rose against the high, a son against his father.
It was a battle of utter brutality. Armies descended upon the capital, and blood flowed in rivers through the imperial city.
In the end, Huang Shaoyun won. But he had not defeated the Yellow Origin Kingdom's sole First Grade emperor.
His victory lay in this: all his brothers and sisters were dead, leaving him as that First Grade emperor's only choice.
The stench of blood rose to the heavens. As a Second Grade Demon King, Tu Shan Qingyan could not have been more familiar with it, yet now she felt a faint discomfort.
When Huang Shaoyun emerged from the Yellow Origin Kingdom's imperial palace, he wore a smile devoid of joy.
"Qingyan, we won."
He sat beside Qingyan, but his spirits were so low that, to Tu Shan Qingyan, it felt more like a defeat.
The old emperor abdicated, and the new emperor ascended the throne. Huang Shaoyun became the emperor of the Yellow Origin Kingdom.
He also honored his promise, drawing on the Yellow Origin Kingdom's reserves to help Tu Shan Qingyan break through to First Grade.
After Tu Shan Qingyan reached First Grade in martial cultivation, her cultivation as a Mutant Beast also successfully advanced to First Grade.
By then, Tu Shan Qingyan should have returned to Qingqiu. But she did not, instead living alone in a secluded corner of the palace's inner grounds.
From then on, however, Tu Shan Qingyan rarely saw Huang Shaoyun. During their occasional meetings, his face looked ever more weary and weathered. Though he had reached First Grade, he seemed like an old man steeped in decline.
Human First Grade martial artists could live for five hundred years.
Tu Shan Qingyan had planned to return to Qingqiu after Huang Shaoyun passed away.