Shrouding the Heavens: The Years as the Empress's Strictest Master

No one knew how much time had passed.

When the great battle ended, most of the cultivators lingering in the fourth layer of heaven departed. A cultivator whose robes bore patterns of flowers, birds, fish, and insects silently emerged from a corner.

He had also witnessed the battle between Tyrant Blood and the Indestructible Golden Body. He had seen Cang Yuhang get controlled by the demonic art and ultimately die a miserable death.

"What nonsense about devouring the origins of all Dao and laying the foundation for the Imperial Path? Even a prodigy like Heavenly Tyrant Blood showed signs of losing control after practicing it for only a few months... Among the countless cultivators cast into this net, could even one possibly cultivate it to the end?"

The cultivator sneered and pulled a booklet from a purple feather tucked into his robes.

Four ancient characters were prominently written on its cover: "Devouring Source Scripture."

He had obtained this booklet over half a year ago at that Feathered Immortal Dynasty relay station within the Ancient Yan Kingdom.

At the time, he had led a team from the Central Plains to investigate the strange annihilation of the Imperial Lord's grandnephew and every soldier stationed there. Unexpectedly, while gathering the deceased's belongings, he found this Devouring Source Scripture atop a coffin in the cellar.

When he first leafed through it, he had been drawn in by its contents just like most others.

But he had guessed that this booklet had most likely been left behind by the person responsible for slaughtering everyone at the relay station, so he had remained wary. As a Saint who had cultivated for many years, he possessed at least some basic self-control.

Still, his heart itched with curiosity. He slightly altered the latter half of the text, then widely distributed copied versions to observe the results.

And over the past few months, he had indeed seen them.

One cultivator after another either suffered cultivation deviation, died suddenly on the very day they began cultivating it, or gradually became addicted to killing, bringing disaster upon themselves and dying before they could go further.

What had initially surprised him was that Cang Yuhang had somehow acquired a copied version as well. Not only had he cultivated it for over half a year without incident, but the bloodline within him truly seemed to have been purified considerably.

From time to time, he followed and observed different subjects, ruling out traps and flaws while drawing conclusions from experience.

Unfortunately, Cang Yuhang's good fortune did not last. He clearly lost control and ultimately died a miserable death.

"If someone could truly use this to lay the foundation for the Imperial Path, this old man would not be jealous... But as for now, go to hell, you son of a..."

With a cold snort, the cultivator in purple feathers tossed the booklet into the ten-thousand-foot sea of molten earthfire.

In a barren, lonely corner of the first layer of heaven in the Drill Tower.

Li Qingjue sat cross-legged beside several corpses that had only just lost their vitality, meditating to regulate her aura and restore her divine power.

These corpses belonged to rogue cultivators who had attacked her earlier, only to be killed in return. The strongest among them had been at the Divine Bridge Realm.

Several days had passed since she had been separated from her master.

And it was only the day before yesterday, when someone far away in the Northern Region dismissed the [Inverted All-Causes Vision] and the gathered Causal Lines reappeared, that she recovered some of her memories.

The instant her memories returned, that hollow, lonely feeling swept over her, nearly making her heart twist in agony.

Her mood had been terrible these past two days, because the foundation of divine power from the Yin-Yang Mill Scripture that her master had taught her had been erased by a detestable Cloud Leopard!

Even though that Cloud Leopard had saved her before...

Over the past few days, frustration and loss intertwined in her mind. Even the vicious dragon within her state of mind surfaced from the water, while the ruthlessness and killing intent in her bones intensified.

In short, her desire to kill had been especially strong these past few days.

Any exotic beast or cultivator that crossed her path had not been allowed to live.

She guessed that this was, to some extent, still the result of her blindly and repeatedly using the Devouring Source Scripture to devour others' origins several days ago.

Yet under such cultivation, the results were immediate. Her Mortal Body had transformed once again, and she could now attempt to erect a Divine Bridge above the spring eye of the Sea of Bitterness.

Rustle... rustle...

A moment later, after Li Qingjue finished regulating herself, she took out the Bronze Ring that she kept close to her body and gently spread it across her palm, rubbing it.

She only stopped after rubbing the ring until its bronze surface nearly reflected light.

Her gaze rested on the ring, where her still-thin little face seemed to be reflected.

She knew that her eyes had become countless times deeper and colder than they had been months ago. Yet only when she looked at this ring did her eyes remain clear.

Clean.

This ring was no longer merely the sole memento her brother had left her. It was also the only object she could hold that made her feel as though her master were still by her side.

With both meanings combined, the Bronze Ring had become increasingly important to her.

Even if she lost her life, she could not abandon it!

"So, Master... how long will you be gone before you return? Your disciple... misses you..."

Thoughts rose and fell in her mind.

After a long while, she silently gathered her emotions. Then she formed hand seals with both hands and operated the foundational portion of the Devouring Source Scripture, which she and Tan Lin had improved twice over.

For the time being, she had no intention of cultivating the Yin-Yang Mill Scripture again.

She was not stupid. Looking back afterward, the timing of that Cloud Leopard's appearance had been too coincidental. Not long after it helped her avert a crisis, she forgot everything related to her master, and even the foundation of divine power from the scripture she had cultivated during that time was erased.

Connecting these clues, she could easily infer some information.

Perhaps that gray-robed Daoist from the relay station that night had come looking for her again?

Whoosh!

The Devouring Source Scripture slowly began to circulate. Strands of faint, mixed origin power peeled away from the corpses and, as though drawn by the earth's core, flowed into her body.

The process remained painful. Foreign origins constantly assaulted the channels throughout her body and her Sea of Reincarnation.

But she had long since grown accustomed to such pain. In the past, she merely gritted her teeth and endured it.

This time, she did even better. Her brows only furrowed slightly, and she was already able to face it calmly.

At times, she actually wished this pain could be stronger, strong enough to drown out the pain of losing her loved ones and the loneliness of being alone.

Unfortunately, things in this world rarely went as people wished...

Buzz...

When the origins of those few people had all entered her body, Li Qingjue carefully guided those strands of origin as though walking a tightrope, refining and purifying them before finally merging them into herself.

By the end, the aura radiating from her body had risen by a small measure. She had reached the critical point of constructing a Divine Bridge.

But the gains brought by these meager origins had come to an end.

After sitting in meditation and breathing for a while to consolidate her cultivation, Li Qingjue opened her eyes, neither joy nor sorrow visible within them.

Then she rose and skillfully disposed of the corpses, erasing every trace.

Altogether, she had devoured the origins of several dozen rogue cultivators like these. The gains were actually very low, since they were not King Bodies or Divine Bodies.

But at her current realm, this was all she could reach—origins from physiques of this level.

Anything higher was beyond her grasp. Besides, among those prodigies' followers and protectors, which one would not be able to deal with her as easily as chopping vegetables?

"This still isn't enough. It is far from enough..."

Li Qingjue looked toward the deeper reaches of this layer of heaven. There were more and stronger exotic beasts there, as well as descendants of great clans tempering themselves under the protection of their elders.

She wanted revenge. She wanted to grow strong enough to wait for her brother's return in the mortal world. She wanted a word of acknowledgment from that master who had been strict with her but good to her.

Even if her master merely said calmly:

"Mm, not bad..."

She would still be secretly happy for a long time.

Tap... tap...

Another day passed, yet her master still had not returned, and the melancholy in her heart deepened further.

But before she could take more than a few steps from where she stood.

Boom...

A mangled corpse radiating a surging, powerful aura crashed down from one of the tower's upper layers of heaven.

"This is..."

Li Qingjue's gaze fell upon the mangled corpse and abruptly sharpened.

Master, You've Been Here All Along, Haven't You?

Whoosh...

Li Qingjue stood in place, allowing the wind and sand to buffet her. Without blinking, she stared fixedly at the mangled corpse before her.

Although the corpse, which emitted a faint purple glow, was utterly disfigured and most of its organs and flesh had been blasted apart, she somehow recognized its identity at a glance.

The Tyrant Blood cultivator who had bought her brother's remains!

But what she had not expected was that so little time had passed. That once lofty and powerful cultivator had already died...

Now, like a pile of scrap, he had fallen from the upper layers of heaven.

A tremendous sense of shock and disbelief immediately swept through Li Qingjue's heart.

But right afterward, an even stronger, almost instinctive impulse drove her toward the corpse.

It was not because she had lost control from cultivating the Devouring Source Scripture. Though she desperately craved the Tyrant Blood origin remaining in that corpse, she could still restrain herself.

There was only one thought in her mind.

Search!

Search this corpse!

See whether the coffin containing her brother's remains was on him.

Bang...

Her idea was sound, but before she could rush close to the corpse, the tyrannical aura it emitted sent her flying.

In truth, if Cang Yuhang's body had not been nearly blown apart by the Bronze Puppet, then given the special nature of Tyrant Blood, even though he was dead, Li Qingjue, a cultivator of the Sea of Reincarnation Realm, would have been reduced to dust the moment she came close.

One had to know that Cang Yuhang had already touched the threshold of the Immortal Fourth Realm. The gap between them could not be compared.

Fortunately, the Bronze Puppet that should have been an enforcer manifested from this layer of heaven's will.

Yet it seemed as though it had deliberately acted with her in mind. While blasting Cang Yuhang apart, it also crushed away nearly all the violent divine laws and aura within him.

Now, his organs and Immortal Platform were all gone, and even part of his origin had dissipated with them.

Even so, for Li Qingjue as she was now, it was still far beyond what she could digest. It was enough for her to refine for a long time.

An ant gnawing on an elephant...

Li Qingjue climbed up from afar and approached once more. At that moment, she had no time to consider what the origin within this corpse meant to her.

She only wanted to find her brother's remains!

Whoosh!

Step by step, she moved closer. This time, dozens of Divine Marks emerged from her Sea of Reincarnation and formed a barrier around her, resisting the oppressive aura of a high-realm cultivator. Only then did she successfully approach Cang Yuhang's corpse.

But even so, the closer she came, the more numerous and larger the bloody tears opening across her body became.

Drip...

Blood flowed from one wound after another.

Her little hands trembled as she searched over the corpse.

Cang Yuhang was dead, yet she felt little joy. Her heart was filled instead with a deeper worry and anticipation.

Were her brother's remains still on this man?

The body was already so badly damaged. If there truly had been some object storing a coffin and remains, could it really have survived?

Just as this thought arose, her fingertips touched a jade object shaped like a divine bird's feather beneath the corpse.

That jade feather had not been damaged by its owner's death. Its spiritual glow had not faded, nor had it gathered dust. Faint spatial ripples spread across its entire surface.

Li Qingjue was overjoyed at the sight.

Most importantly, she discovered that the spatial restrictions, aura imprints, and the like on the jade feather had already been shattered by some external force, yet the storage artifact itself, like a mustard-seed realm, had not been damaged in the slightest.

"This... is far too much of a coincidence, isn't it?"

She murmured to herself, beginning to realize something.