Shrouding the Heavens: Those Years as the Female Emperor's Strictest Master

He had not forgotten that so many densely packed light crimson points had ultimately fused into only one deep crimson point.

As he kept watch on the outside world once more, he studied the dial on the soul pearl's barrier.

He had already realized that after the All-Causes Soul Pearl's "transformation," it had brought other potential benefits.

Even if the original soul pearl had been filled with light crimson points, it had only barely been enough for his dissolution and reincarnation, as well as his later attempt to unravel the mystery of the womb.

Once the crimson points were exhausted, it meant that the early stages of his new life would actually be extremely dangerous.

With even the slightest mishap, he might truly die!

But now, things were different...

"Hm?"

After observing for a while, he soon discovered another major new function of the All-Causes Soul Pearl.

Yet at that very moment—

A sudden change erupted outside.

Rumble... Rumble...

Boom!

Crack!

Amid flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, torrential rain poured down. The crack of a whip and soldiers' shouts rang out almost at the same time:

"Get lost! Where did this filthy little girl come from?"

"Take a good look at where you are! This is a post station of the Feathered Immortal Dynasty. Are you blind, barging right in?"

Deception

Tan Lin's remnant soul extended its perception through the bronze fragment, and his awareness of the outside world grew increasingly clear.

Splash...

A torrential downpour blanketed the entire Ancient Yan Kingdom, turning the road outside the city into a muddy mess.

To the east, at a post station roughly two hundred miles from the capital.

In the rain, four figures as lowly as ants—an old man, two grown men, and a child—hesitated before the post station.

An aged old man with white hair leaned on a cane, while two burly men stood behind him.

There was also a little girl with twin braids, who had been knocked into the mud by a soldier's long whip.

The girl was around eight or nine years old, and her tattered clothes were covered in patches.

Even before she fell into the mud, her thin little face had already been smeared with dirt and dust, leaving her filthy.

Splash... Splash...

She struggled up from the mud. The whip from the post station soldier had hurt so badly that tears welled in her eyes, but she stubbornly held them back and refused to cry.

Yet despite being so stubborn, her eyes were now filled with pleading as she looked at the soldier.

"Please, just let me see my brother! Just once..."

The moment she got up, she tried to move forward again, only for the old man to grab her.

Splash!

The rain fell harder and harder.

All four of them were soaked through, like drowned rats. Against the Feathered Immortal Dynasty soldier in gleaming armor, with his intimidating bearing, they seemed to belong to two entirely different worlds—immortal and mortal.

A white plume on the soldier's helmet shimmered with rainbow light, making his broad, sturdy frame resemble that of a heavenly soldier.

"What? You still won't listen? A great person from Central Province has arrived in the Ancient Yan Kingdom today and is currently staying at this post station. Lowly, filthy trash like you are not allowed near, lest you offend the great person's eyes!"

Seeing that the four still lingered in the mud before the post station, unwilling to leave, the soldier's gaze turned even colder.

"Get lost, did you hear me? That whip just now, I didn't even use one percent of my strength. Otherwise, heh..."

Crack!

As he spoke, he casually raised his long whip and lashed the air beside him.

Boom...

In an instant, rainwater evaporated, and the air in that area was violently blasted apart!

Tap!

Tap... tap...

The sight terrified the two grown men clustered around the white-haired elder.

They staggered back several steps in fright, their bodies trembling like sieves. Then, seeing the bloody welt seeping through the girl's wet clothes across her back, they realized that the other party had already shown mercy earlier.

"Yes, yes, sir, sir... Please calm down. The child didn't understand the rules. The moment we arrived, she tried to rush inside. This old man failed to warn her properly beforehand..."

The old man with the cane bowed and scraped before the soldier, offering a string of flattering words.

Only after seeing the soldier's expression ease slightly did he continue.

"You may not know this, sir, but five or six years ago, this child's brother was indeed 'recruited' by cultivators from your dynasty. Now, someone from the capital has come to our Yaoguang Village with news that her brother died in battle, telling us to come here to collect his body and compensation..."

"Hm?"

Before the old man could finish, the white-plumed soldier's eyes widened. He shoved him aside with one hand.

"Fuck off! So you're here to extort our post station? What compensation?! I've never even heard of it!"

"Forget compensation—we don't even have a body here! Nothing!"

As he spoke, he raised the long whip in his hand as if to strike the old man. But after glancing at the various onlookers resting in the tea stall across from the post station, he ultimately held back.

There were several among them whose strength he could not see through.

They had cultivation!

Perhaps the chill he had felt on the back of his neck when he whipped the little girl earlier had been a warning from one of them.

Otherwise, these lowly peasants outside the city had lives worth less than dirt. If he killed them, then he killed them!

Did they really think he had shown mercy because he was so easy to talk to?

"Get the hell out!"

The white-plumed soldier shoved them away, driving them into the distance.

"Hehe, it seems quite a few people in this remote backwater are eyeing this Divine Source. Hauge, take it out and give it to that child. I would like to see what kind of show they can put on... With nothing better to do, watching wild dogs fight over food might relieve some boredom."

At that moment, a middle-aged man's voice from within the post station reached the soldier's ears.

Hearing it, the white-plumed soldier stiffened, then retreated into the post station.

Hauge naturally was not his name. He knew that there was nothing left for him to do outside.

Whoosh!

A moment later, brilliant light erupted at the entrance to the post station. A blazing divine radiance tore through the curtain of rain, dyeing everything within ten miles a glassy hue.

Countless flecks of light reflected from every puddle, while a sacred aura overflowed from within the post station like a tide.

The cultivators in the tea stall felt every pore on their bodies open, their flesh and blood seeming to groan as though they had been immersed in the nectar of an immortal pool.

Whoosh!

Whoosh... whoosh...

Scorching gazes converged upon the unfamiliar soldier with crimson plumes.

The source of this strange phenomenon was naturally the box containing Divine Source in his arms!

The box had not even been opened, yet it had already caused such a spectacle. If they got their hands on it...

"Take it."

The crimson-plumed soldier was clearly of far higher rank than the white-plumed ones. He slowly stepped out and handed the box to the little girl with twin braids.

His eyes were filled with pity as he looked at her.

This thing was a hot potato outside. There were clearly forces or cultivators within Yan's capital eyeing it, yet they truly had calculated things well!

Otherwise, how could that isolated village with such poor access to news have learned of the young man's death?

Beside them, the old man with the cane sighed inwardly. His cracked lips moved slightly, as though he wanted to say something to the girl, but he felt a chill down his spine and could only close his mouth.

His purpose in accompanying them here had already been fulfilled, just as the person behind the scenes had instructed.

As for Li Fan's remains, other than the girl herself, who had ever truly cared?

"Dazhuang, A-Si, let's go back."

Feeling guilty, the old man led the two village men back the way they had come, clearly having already foreseen something.

These siblings who depended on each other truly had bitter fates. The brother had only recently died, and now the sister was about to follow him...

Who would have thought that after he had only taken a few steps, the girl's voice of refusal sounded behind him.

"Uncle, I don't want this. Can you let me see my brother?"

"See your brother?"

Hearing that, Hauge found it both laughable and absurd.

Several years ago, it had been him who went to Yaoguang Village and took away the boy named Li Fan.

All the prodigies gathered from various places had been sent through the Five-Colored Altar to an azure planet.

Though someone of his standing did not know the ultimate purpose behind the Emperor's actions, it was said that every prodigy who arrived there would have all their flesh, blood, and origin drained away.

Still, it was quite a coincidence. Though the prodigies' remaining bodies were already useless scraps in the Emperor's eyes—

Some of those with special physiques, such as the Indestructible Golden Body, were still desired by people outside. Even if their bones had become brittle and they no longer possessed even a trace of divine wonder, people still wished to purchase and collect them for research.

And the location the buyer had designated for the transaction was within the territory of the Ancient Yan Kingdom.

"Your brother's body is gone. Take the thing and leave."

After leaving those words behind, Hauge did not even spare the filthy girl another glance before turning back toward the post station.

"Please, please... I... I just want to see my brother, even if only once... Sob, I don't want this..."

The little girl with twin braids followed after him, pleading desperately.

"You were given the thing, so take it! You don't want it? Hehe... There will be plenty of others who do!"

Hauge entered the post station, kicked the girl aside, then sent out a wave of divine power that activated several formation patterns within the post station, instantly sealing off the inside from the outside.

Boom...

Splash!

"Please! Please... Sob, let me see my brother..."

The little girl climbed up from the mud once more. Again and again, she rushed forward and pounded on the divine-pattern barrier. Again and again, she was flung away, only to rise and rush forward once more.

The tears could no longer remain in her eyes. Amid the rain, it was impossible to tell which drops were tears and which were rainwater.

The Divine Source rolled out of the box, its flowing, radiant divine light shooting into the sky and illuminating the dark curtain of rain. Many cultivators in the tea stall, who had been concealing their auras, began to stir restlessly.

The girl had no time to care about the Divine Source at all, leaving it lying in the mud.

She was not a cultivator, but she was not blind either. Naturally, she knew that this thing was extraordinary.

Yet in this world, what could possibly be worth more than a single hair on her brother's head?

Boom...

Splash...

The divine light barrier activated again and again. Each time, the girl was thrown farther away, and each time, it became harder for her to stand again.

By then, blood was already flowing from her mouth and nose.

Tap!

Tap... tap...