In the scene, Ye Yu raised his pale face, but his gaze was incomparably resolute, and his tone grew ever colder.
"Go back and tell Ye Fan that as long as I'm here, I'll protect my Imperial Sisters no matter what! No one is allowed to touch them!"
Hearing this, Gao Qun's expression suddenly turned grim. "His Majesty is informing you, not asking for your opinion! You're already crippled, yet you still think you're the genius you used to be! Don't mistake kindness for weakness!"
"Heh. Whoever dares touch them, I'll take their head. If you don't believe me, come and try!" Ye Yu's face twisted slightly, and at that moment, the murderous aura around him was overwhelming.
At the sight, Gao Qun could not help but shudder all over. Fear rose in his heart as he recalled every clash he had had with Ye Yu—each one had ended in crushing defeat. His momentum immediately weakened.
"I'm telling you, you're going against His Majesty by doing this!"
"Forget Ye Fan—even if the Heavenly King himself came! If he wants to touch my sisters, I'll knock a few teeth out of his mouth! Get lost!" Ye Yu roared with all his strength.
Gao Qun turned and left with an ugly expression.
He could not say anything more. Although Ye Fan was at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage, he was also the Great Yan Emperor.
Such an enormous treasury of resources was something even Ye Fan could not bear to give up. He could not watch Great Flame fall into chaos, nor could he completely tear relations apart with Ye Yu.
Both Ye Fan and Gao Qun understood the relationship between Ye Yu and the court officials. If Ye Yu truly chose to fight until the fish died and the net tore, dealing with him would be genuinely troublesome!
Outside the scene, the three women were all dumbfounded as they watched Ye Yu collapse completely after roaring those words.
None of them had expected things to turn out this way.
Especially Ye Qingwan and Ye Qingxuan.
Their respected father, Ye Fan, had wanted to use the two of them as bargaining chips and marry them off to the Great Zhou Dynasty, yet it had been Ye Yu, the younger brother they looked down on most, who had stopped him.
As images of Ye Yu's ferocious appearance while protecting them replayed in her mind, Ye Qingwan's heart twisted like a knife. Tears streamed endlessly from her eyes like beads from a snapped string.
At that moment, Ye Qingwan finally understood.
Why she had encountered no obstacles at all while serving as regent, and why, after Ye Yu returned, her control over the court had instead become even smoother.
All of it had merely been Ye Yu silently paving the way for her from behind the scenes.
Otherwise, with Ye Yu's prestige in the court—prestige that even Ye Fan feared—removing her, this ***, would have been as easy as turning over his hand.
But Ye Yu had not done so. It was clear that he truly had not the slightest ambition for the position of heir to the throne.
Yet she had always believed that Ye Yu coveted the Imperial Throne and had done so many excessive things to him.
Now, whenever she thought of all the times she had found every possible excuse to suppress and torment Ye Yu, and of how he never resisted, how full of gentleness he had been—
Ye Qingwan suddenly felt as though she could not breathe. She could not even make a sound, only opening her mouth in silent sobs.
Ye Qingxuan also collapsed onto the ground in a daze, her eyes vacant.
Ye Yu had protected her with every ounce of his strength, while she had been single-mindedly thinking about how to destroy him. She had even spared no effort to accuse Ye Yu of being a Devil Race spy before everyone.
"Why? Why did he never say anything?" Ye Qingshuang murmured, her face pale.
As members of the imperial family, they understood better than anyone the courage and perseverance needed to stand against the ruler of a nation—especially Ye Fan, who stood at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage.
It could be said that Ye Yu had truly cast life and death aside for their sake.
"Just as he said—if he had told us, would we have believed him?" Ye Qingxuan murmured. Now, whenever she recalled every word Ye Yu had said, her heart felt as though it were being twisted by knives.
Ye Qingshuang naturally did not feel as deeply as the two of them and could not truly put herself in their shoes. She could only stand silently to the side, watching them weep in despair.
After a long while, Ye Qingshuang gritted her teeth, turned, and left without taking Ye Qingxuan with her.
She knew that trying to take Ye Qingwan or Ye Qingxuan away with her now was unrealistic. Neither of them could possibly take even half a step out of this bedchamber.
And there was only one way to save the two of them—or rather, only one person who could do it.
That person was Ye Yu!
No matter what, she had to bring Ye Yu back!
Several guards saw Ye Qingshuang leave but said nothing. She was not the person they had been ordered to watch.
Meanwhile, within the Great Qin Dynasty, Ye Yu had refined quite a few pills over the past two days. Today was also the day they were to set out for the Wilderness Secret Realm.
Outside Xianyang Palace, several figures had long been waiting.
Situ Guang was still leading the group, but this time, aside from Ye Yu and Qin Ruoxian, two other members of the imperial family were going with them.
They were the Third Imperial Prince, Qin Xiong, and the Fourth Princess, Qin Yue.
Both were at the early Golden Core Stage.
As for Situ Guang, after completely refining the Life Profound Origin Pill, the injuries within his body had long since healed. His cultivation had also stabilized completely at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, and he was now brimming with vigor.
After bidding farewell to Qin Wushuang, Situ Guang took out a flying artifact. Once he poured spiritual power into it, it transformed into a great ship and rose into the sky.
Seeing this, Ye Yu and the other four boarded the ship directly.
The Wilderness was quite far from the Great Qin Dynasty. With Situ Guang's abilities, he could naturally arrive quickly on his own, but bringing Qin Ruoxian and the other two was a different matter.
Not only would it be exhausting, but the spiritual power consumption would also be tremendous. If they encountered any danger on the way, it would be troublesome.
Along the way, they saw quite a few flying boats from other factions as well. It seemed that this secret realm had drawn many people this time.
Halfway through the journey, just as they were about to rest for a while, Situ Guang suddenly stopped the spirit boat. With a grave expression, he stared ahead of the flying boat, where a figure had appeared at some unknown time, simply standing there.
Situ Guang could feel a pressure emanating from her body.
"Who might you be, Your Excellency? We are members of the Great Qin Dynasty. If we have offended you in any way, please speak plainly," Situ Guang said gravely.
Hearing Situ Guang's words, the figure slowly approached. A faint fragrance drifted over, revealing her to be a woman dressed in purple.
The woman merely gave Situ Guang a faint glance. "I came to find someone."
Her tone was calm, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, but Situ Guang knew that such people were the most difficult to deal with, because one could not tell whether they were friend or foe.
"May I ask whom Your Excellency seeks?" Situ Guang asked with cupped hands.
"Tell Ye Yu to come out and see me," the woman said indifferently.
Situ Guang's expression changed drastically. He immediately thought that she might have been sent by the Great Yan Dynasty to deal with Ye Yu. Spiritual power began to surge around him as he said, "What business does Your Excellency have with the Imperial Son-in-law?"
Situ Guang deliberately addressed Ye Yu as the Imperial Son-in-law so the other party would know that Ye Yu was already part of the Great Qin imperial family, hoping she would retreat in the face of difficulty.
"Imperial Son-in-law? It seems he still hasn't understood!" As her words fell, spiritual energy erupted around the woman, and her expression suddenly turned cold.
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