In Ji Wuchen's simulation, a minor figure caught Qin Wangchuan's attention.
That cousin of his.
After having someone investigate, he learned her name—
Wang Mingyue.
Thirteen years old.
A child of the marriage alliance between the Ji Clan and the Wang Clan.
As it happened, she was also at the banquet.
They bore neither grudge nor grievance against each other, yet his instincts told him she had to die.
Otherwise, she would surely become a future calamity.
As the banquet dispersed, Qin Wangchuan led his people to block Wang Mingyue's path.
The girl halted just as she was about to leave. The Silver Bells on her skirt gave off crisp chimes in the night.
"May I ask what Young Master requires of me?" She bowed, but her gaze quietly fell upon the guards behind Qin Wangchuan.
Qin Wangchuan leaned against a vermilion-lacquered corridor pillar, moonlight stretching his shadow long and slender.
"How was it?" he suddenly asked, his voice carrying a trace of amusement. "Did you feel like you were sitting on pins and needles throughout the banquet?"
Wang Mingyue raised her eyes with a faint smile. "Young Master jests. It was Mingyue's honor to attend such a grand banquet." Yet the hand hidden in her sleeve silently clenched, afraid of revealing anything.
Qin Wangchuan did not waste words with her.
"On the surface, you are one of the Ji Clan..." He suddenly stepped closer, his eyes dark and profound. "Yet you stand with the Wang Clan."
The girl's pupils contracted slightly, then swiftly returned to normal.
This visit was not a test. It was an interrogation.
"Even if the Heavenly Emperor did not act, did you truly think you could hide the truth from Heaven and cross the sea?" He suddenly lifted his eyes, his gaze stabbing toward Wang Mingyue like a blade. "The one who appeared today was the Wang Clan Great Emperor."
The girl unconsciously stepped back half a pace, only to be seized by a Qin Clan Guard.
The guards behind her tried to resist, but they were suppressed as well.
"The important figures have all been captured. A little figure like you has no reason to keep your lips sealed."
"I only have one question."
Qin Wangchuan bent to whisper by her ear, but his warm breath sent a chill through Wang Mingyue's entire body.
"There are countless prodigies in this world. Why did you fix your eyes on me alone? Was it because of the Longevity Immortal Body?"
Wang Mingyue's chest suddenly heaved violently, and her formerly gentle face twisted.
She jerked her head up, a resolute and vicious gleam bursting from her eyes.
"Yes!" she nearly screamed, her voice piercing the night's silence. "Because you possess the Longevity Immortal Body!"
The Silver Bells rang madly with her violent movements, carving chaotic arcs through the moonlight.
"The Desolate Ancient Sacred Body? The Innate Dao Fetus? None of them pose as much of a threat as you." She sneered repeatedly, red marks forming across her struggling arms.
Qin Wangchuan narrowed his eyes and had the guards release her.
"Everyone says that you are destined to become a Heavenly Emperor. But do you know what a Heavenly Emperor truly is?"
"They are not merely a few lightly spoken words."
"My Wang Clan..." With every word she spoke, her emotions grew more agitated. "We personally witnessed the Heavenly Emperor chaos of the last Great Era!"
"Do you know how many Dao Provinces collapsed then?" Her finger shot toward the heavens. "Countless billions of living beings were reduced to ashes in the struggle of the Three Heavenly Emperors. Even my Wang Clan exhausted all its foundations."
"A battle between merely three people nearly destroyed the entire Three Thousand Provinces."
"Once you are allowed to grow, and the Qin Clan gains another Heavenly Emperor, tragedy will inevitably repeat itself in the future."
"For the sake of saving these living beings..."
As she spoke, she stared at Qin Wangchuan with a savage expression. "Tell me! Were we wrong?"
Qin Wangchuan listened quietly to her cries, while the moonlight cast deep shadows across his brow.
This explanation was far clearer than it had been in the simulation.
He suddenly gave a soft laugh, and there was a trace of desolation in it.
"You are not wrong." Qin Wangchuan slowly raised his hand, his slender fingers writing stroke by stroke through the air. "Our positions are simply different."
Golden radiance flowed wherever his fingertips passed, and a glittering golden character—"Sever"—gradually took shape beneath the moonlight.
She stared blankly at that light, as though she had glimpsed the ending decreed by fate.
"But I do not want to die." Qin Wangchuan's voice was soft, yet it made the surrounding air freeze. "So—"
The instant the character was completed.
A snow-bright Sword Light tore through the air, so swift that even the wind had no time to make a sound.
The Silver Bells still swayed faintly, yet Wang Mingyue's head had already flown high into the air.
In Wang Mingyue's wide-open eyes was reflected the golden "Sever" character as it slowly faded away.
"Then only you can die."
The night wind swept past, scattering the last wisp of Sword Qi.
When her head fell to the ground, her lips were flat, no longer as venomous as they had been in life.
Perhaps she had already accepted this ending.
After all, as Qin Wangchuan had said, their positions were simply different.
Since she had dared to take part, she had long prepared herself for death.
The remaining guards were also wiped out in the blink of an eye. Yet Qin Wangchuan remained where he was, staring at Wang Mingyue's head for a long while without recovering himself.
"How foolish." At last, he sighed, crouching down to close her eyes.
"It was the Wang Clan that had seen the struggle for the Great Dao, and it was the Wang Clan that had been caught up in it. What did any of that have to do with a thirteen-year-old like you?"
"In the end... you were merely a pitiful person brainwashed and controlled by the hidden hand behind the scenes."
"Young Master..." Ye Jianwei stood behind him with her zither in her arms. She keenly sensed that her master was in a poor mood, but she did not know how to comfort him.
So she could only remain behind him in silent companionship.
Farther away, Li Qingluan stood watching.
"If one fears destruction, one should strengthen oneself, rather than think of exterminating others." Qin Wangchuan rose as he spoke and turned to look at Li Qingluan.
"I have the answer to that question you asked me before."
Li Qingluan did not react for a moment. "What?"
Qin Wangchuan continued on his own.
"The people of this world are dull-witted..."
"The myriad Daos walk different paths, and all living beings are divided at heart."
"Just as in this world, the weak live in constant fear, while even the strong struggle to find peace—at its root, it is all caused by the four words: Source Non-Confluence."
"Since that is so."
"Why should I not unite the myriad Daos and merge ten thousand households into one?" Dao Patterns flowed through Qin Wangchuan's eyes, while the phantom of countless interwoven Great Daos appeared behind him. "This is my Dao—the Dao that embraces all rivers, Myriad Laws Return to Origin!"
"If a Heavenly Emperor cannot accomplish it, then an Immortal Emperor shall!"
"If even an Immortal Emperor cannot accomplish it, then I shall go beyond the Immortal Emperor!"
The instant those words fell, the entire world suddenly sank into eerie stillness. Floating dust, flowing spiritual energy, even the flickering candle flames in the distance—all froze at that moment.
Suddenly—Boom!
A golden pillar of light, formed purely from the laws of the Great Dao, descended from the heavens and enveloped Qin Wangchuan completely.
Within the pillar of light, countless Ancient Dao Patterns flowed like swimming fish, spontaneously evolving the mysteries of myriad cultivation techniques.
Even more astonishingly, a vague Emperor Shadow slowly emerged in the void behind him.
That Emperor Shadow wore a Twelve-Tasseled Crown and a Celestial Star Robe. Though its face could not be seen clearly, it radiated a majesty that compelled all creation to submit.
"Who has comprehended the Dao... to actually draw forth a Great Dao Manifestation?!" A cultivator in the distance cried out in shock.
Even the two Heavenly Emperors upon the Tenth Heaven could not help but let out soft sounds of surprise.
"That boy from your Household truly is interesting."
Before you continue