Ji Huang's entire handsome face went rigid.
The Ji Clan's young master, who had become an Immortal King at a tender age, crushed countless peers, and suffered almost no major setbacks in his life, finally learned for the first time just how treacherous the world could be.
Two years ago, he had thought this mortal was certain to die; two years later, the man stood beside his mother and had become his elder brother.
Ji Huang stared at Yun Qing and silently clenched his back teeth. He drew a deep breath, no longer intending to stay.
"Mother, let go."
"No."
Yun Si delivered that single word with regal, icy elegance, while Ji Huang kept his face rigid with equally regal, icy elegance.
After a long back-and-forth tug-of-war, Ji Huang finally withdrew stiffly from his mother's embrace.
Standing behind Madam Si, Yun Qing watched Ji Huang slowly turn away, his face a mixture of disbelief, bewilderment, dazed confusion, and pent-up frustration, then leave with slightly stumbling steps. For the first time, that proud, straight-backed figure had lost its usual soaring spirit, leaving only bewilderment.
At last, he and Yun Si exchanged a glance, and both chuckled.
A gentle breeze brushed the flowers in the pavilion, immortal fragrance curled through the air, and the old scene slowly lost its color, fading away layer by layer.
The Heavenly Palace in Heaven Beyond Heaven, the endless winds of ten thousand ages.
As his recollections reached this point, Yun Huang suddenly stopped, a magnolia blossom falling into his palm.
He lowered his eyes and studied it for a long while. Looking back now, his past self probably could never have imagined that the mortal youth he had dismissed as "some stray cat or dog" would, after millions of years of upheaval and countless rises and