Su Yueji

At the same moment.

Somewhere within the Imperial Capital of Great Jin stood a solitary peak, solemn and silent.

Whoosh!!

At its summit, fierce astral winds howled, tearing through all directions as blade-like currents rampaged wildly. If an ordinary person came here, they would be shredded to pieces by the astral winds in an instant, leaving neither corpse nor bones behind!

Beyond that, the entire mountain peak lay steeped in deathly silence!

It was as though no living creature existed here.

Yet in the next instant, a streak of magnificent rosy light tore through the raging astral winds and slowly spread outward, illuminating everything.

In the end, it vaguely formed a radiant entrance into a cloud realm. Looking beyond it, one could see layer upon layer of a vast white sea of clouds filling the inner reaches of the astral winds.

Mists curled and drifted!

Like a celestial paradise in the Ninth Heavens, cut off from the mortal world!

Loftily suspended above the secular realm!!

Its aura was Transcendent and otherworldly!!

At the peak of the cloud sea, two figures sat cross-legged.

The young woman on the left was tall and slender, her beauty capable of toppling kingdoms and cities. A pitch-black saber lay across her long, shapely legs. She was very quiet, possessing a deep beauty like an unfathomable pool.

Opposite her sat a breathtakingly beautiful woman veiled in mist.

Her skin was white as snow and smooth as porcelain. A mysterious pattern shimmered faintly between her brows, while her eyes resembled autumn waters, carrying an air of serenity and calm that drew people helplessly into their depths.

It seemed that no man who looked upon her could ever tear his gaze away.

"Master, is my younger brother... still alive?"

Su Yueji asked softly.

This young woman was none other than Su Qingyang's elder sister of the same mother, Su Yueji.

She wore a sleeveless black-and-white fitted outfit. Her exposed arms had a honeyed wheat-colored complexion that reflected the rosy light, radiating a startling beauty.

Unlike the delicate, fragile princesses people imagined!

Su Yueji was more like a saber wielder who walked between life and death!

The breathtakingly beautiful woman in the mist veil spoke in a distant, placid voice. "The heavenly secrets cannot yield a definite answer. His fate thread is obscure and chaotic; fortune and misfortune are impossible to discern."

"However, Yueji, your younger brother is no ordinary person. You need not let worry gnaw at your heart."

"Settle your heart."

"As long as he can return to the Imperial Capital, his life will not be in danger."

"No ordinary person..."

Su Yueji murmured, concern appearing on her kingdom-toppling face.

"I am beginning to regret bringing him back from the mortal world."

"Did I shatter his peaceful, ordinary life by doing this? Did I force him apart from those he loved again? Did I drag him back into the whirlpool?"

"And yet, every moment I worry for him. I fear that he is suffering alone out there, being bullied and wronged. I wish I could spread my wings and shield him behind me, blocking all the wind and frost of this world for him."

"I would rather he had been an ordinary person. Now that I have enough power to find him, I only want him to live this life in glory and wealth, free of calamity and hardship."

"Yueji!"

The breathtakingly beautiful woman called softly, pulling Su Yueji back from her daze. "Your heart is in turmoil."

"My apologies, Master! Trouble comes from speaking too much. I have lost my composure."

Su Yueji lowered her head and apologized helplessly.

The breathtakingly beautiful woman nodded gently. Specks of radiance bloomed in her spiritual eyes, and her robes fluttered with an unparalleled grace.

She understood her disciple's anxiety. Back then, Su Yueji had watched helplessly as her younger brother of the same mother was secretly switched at birth, yet she had not dared utter a word, nor had she dared investigate. She could only pretend to know nothing.

She had suppressed that torment for twenty years.

"Master, with your heaven-reaching ability to divine the heavenly secrets, can you truly not uncover who plotted that Prince Substituted for a Cat conspiracy all those years ago?"

Su Yueji raised her eyes slightly as she asked. Yet the pitch-black saber laid across her legs gave a soft hum, exposing her killing intent!

The breathtakingly beautiful woman fell silent. She knew some of the details, but not much.

In the end, if Su Yueji had not passed countless trials to become her disciple, she would not have cared about such imperial entanglements at all.

"Someone interfered and muddled the heavenly secrets..." the breathtakingly beautiful woman answered. She could not bear to deceive her disciple.

"Then regarding Su Chang'an, what is Father Emperor's attitude now?"

Su Yueji did not understand. He had impersonated a prince for more than twenty years—what an outrageous crime of deceiving the sovereign! By all rights, he should have been beheaded long ago.

Yet Su Chang'an was sitting safely in the imperial prison. Not only had he suffered no punishment, he did not even resemble a prisoner in the slightest.

"Could it truly be as the outside world says—that Father Emperor remembers twenty years of father-son affection and could not bear to act?" Su Yueji sneered.

She knew her Father Emperor's character far too well.

She found that explanation utterly laughable!

"Yueji, there is no meaning in discussing this now," the breathtakingly beautiful woman said softly.

"Su Chang'an possesses the potential of a Grandmaster. Your Father Emperor will not easily give up a Grandmaster."

Grandmasters were far too important to the court of Great Jin. Every additional person who reached that realm could guard a region of territory and intimidate the sects and kingdoms beyond its borders.

No matter how great the private grudges in court, they had to yield before such martial foundations.

"Grandmaster..." Su Yueji gritted her teeth. Her heart surged with turbulent waves, utterly unable to calm.

"Master, I wish to descend the mountain!"

Su Yueji asked leave of the woman before her. She wanted to descend the mountain, protect her younger brother, and settle everything for him before she could rest easy.

The breathtakingly beautiful woman returned to her previous indifferent demeanor. Expressionless, she seemed like a heart hidden deep beyond the clouds.

"Now is not the time," the breathtakingly beautiful woman said blandly, refusing Su Yueji's request.

The reason Su Yueji had been able to enter her sect was due to her unique physique.

She needed Su Yueji to comprehend her own seven emotions and six desires, then suppress those seven emotions and six desires, using them to temper her martial path.

And at this moment, the Lovesick longing and concern she felt for her younger brother was precisely her most intense heart demon.

"Then what realm must this disciple reach before I may descend the mountain?"

"When your cultivation catches up to Su Chang'an's current level. When you have nurtured the 'Essence Flower' and 'Qi Flower' among the three flowers of essence, qi, and spirit!!"

Hearing this, Su Yueji remained silent for a long time before finally sighing and withdrawing.

Above the sea of clouds, the mist-veiled woman stood in robes white as snow, her autumn-water eyes gazing down upon the rolling mortal world below.

Her delicate hand lightly pointed downward!

Magnificent rosy light pierced through the astral winds, crossed a thousand layers of cloud sea, and transformed into pillars of light descending from the heavens. They shone over countless mountains and valleys, revealing a breathtaking beauty.

All those in cities and among the mountains could not help but stop and look up.

The woman murmured to herself, her voice dissolving into the cloud waves and astral winds:

"Beneath Grandmasters, all are ants... Without entering the Grandmaster Realm, one can only be manipulated by others forever."