(A regular in the little black room)
(Never forgetting to win over the empress between cultivation sessions)
(You can always trust the law of "true fragrance")
The True Martial Continent, the Great Qian Imperial Dynasty.
In a dilapidated courtyard on the Azure Mystic Sect's rear mountain.
"Chu Yunfei, as the holy maiden, I am destined to prove my Dao, become an empress, and reign over the world."
"And you are not worthy of me."
Situ Shuang'er stood in the courtyard, looking coldly at the young man before her.
"Hand over the marriage contract. From now on, we are strangers, with nothing more to do with each other."
She was strikingly beautiful, but her eyes and brows were filled with disdain.
Chu Yunfei.
Once the Azure Mystic Sect's greatest prodigy.
At eighteen, he had reached the seventh level of Spirit Martial, breaking through three stages in a single night and shaking Qingyang City.
Everyone in the sect had called him a martial genius seen only once in a thousand years.
But that was all in the past.
Now, Chu Yunfei's cultivation had plummeted from the seventh level of Spirit Martial to the third layer of Body Tempering. No matter how the sect elders examined him, they could find no cause.
The former prodigy had become the laughingstock of the entire sect.
Chu Yunfei looked up at Situ Shuang'er and suddenly smiled.
"Shuang'er, you've only just become the holy maiden, and you're already in such a hurry to draw a line between us?"
"We've had skin-to-skin intimacy, after all."
"Shut up!"
Anger surfaced on Situ Shuang'er's face.
"Our fingertips barely touched, and you call that skin-to-skin intimacy?"
"Chu Yunfei, the way you are now, I'd find your fingers too thick even to carry my shoes!"
The atmosphere in the courtyard grew heavy.
The stunningly beautiful woman standing beside Situ Shuang'er finally spoke.
"Chu Yunfei, you are no longer qualified to be my son-in-law."
"Don't force me to act."
"As long as you hand over the marriage contract, I'll give you some compensation for your late father's sake."
Chu Yunfei turned to look at her.
The beautiful woman's name was Lin Wanyin, and she was Situ Shuang'er's mother.
Compared with Situ Shuang'er, she had less girlish innocence and more mature allure.
"Aunt Lin, I can agree to breaking off the engagement."
Chu Yunfei narrowed his eyes.
"But I don't want to see her. I'll only negotiate with you."
"You!"
Situ Shuang'er's breathing faltered with rage. She was about to lash out when a look from Lin Wanyin stopped her.
"Shuang'er, go back first."
"Mother!"
"Go back and wait for my news."
Situ Shuang'er shot Chu Yunfei a vicious glare, then turned into a streak of light and left the rear mountain.
Only after she had vanished completely did Lin Wanyin turn back to Chu Yunfei.
"Speak. What do you want to discuss?"
Rather than answering immediately, Chu Yunfei took a step forward.
"Aunt Lin, you smell lovely."
Lin Wanyin's brow chilled.
"Show some respect."
As her words fell.
An overwhelming pressure surged from her body.
Boom!
Chu Yunfei's chest tightened. His internal organs felt as though a massive boulder were crushing them, and his face instantly paled.
Yet he still did not retreat.
"I can agree to breaking off the engagement."
Staring at her, Chu Yunfei said, each word distinct:
"Return my betrothal gift, the Vermilion Bird Pill."
Lin Wanyin fell silent for a moment.
"Shuang'er has already taken the Vermilion Bird Pill to awaken her constitution."
"Choose another form of compensation."
The smile faded from Chu Yunfei's face.
Gone?
That Vermilion Bird Pill was something his father had left him, and it had been his hope for rebuilding his foundation and defying heaven to change his fate.
It was the only one in the entire Great Qian Imperial Dynasty.
Its value was simply immeasurable.
They had taken his Vermilion Bird Pill, and now they were coming to break off the engagement?
Were they planning to swallow both the person and the treasure, leaving him with nothing?
What a lovely dream.
Chu Yunfei suppressed the anger in his heart and sneered.
"If you can't return the Vermilion Bird Pill, have Situ Shuang'er spend a night with me."
"Insolence!"
Lin Wanyin's expression turned cold.
"Chu Yunfei, you're courting death!"
Killing intent instantly filled the entire courtyard.
Lin Wanyin reached out to seize Chu Yunfei, spiritual power surging in her palm, showing not the slightest intention of holding back.
Chu Yunfei was already a cripple. He might as well die.
No one would care.
Who told him to run his mouth, a toad lusting after swan meat, shameless and vile?
Killing him would end everything once and for all.
Living only meant suffering humiliation for him anyway.
As the palm imprint was about to strike, Chu Yunfei smiled.
"Weren't you the one who told me to choose another form of compensation?"
"What, can't play the game?"
"Die!"
The chill in Lin Wanyin's eyes intensified.
But just as the killing blow was about to land...
Hum!
Something seemed to begin vibrating inside Chu Yunfei.
A beam of golden light burst from his dantian and shielded him.
Boom!
The palm imprint struck the golden light and shattered instantly.
Before Lin Wanyin could react, the golden light transformed into slender chains that wound around her dantian.
"What is this?"
Lin Wanyin's expression changed drastically, and she hurriedly circulated her cultivation technique.
But the spiritual power inside her seemed frozen. She could not mobilize even a trace of it.
Chu Yunfei's back was already soaked with cold sweat.
Lin Wanyin had truly intended to kill him with that strike.
If not for the thing inside him, he would probably have been a corpse by now.
"Aunt Lin, you really are ruthless."
Chu Yunfei wiped the blood from the corner of his lips.
"If I didn't have a means of saving my life, I'd have met my end at your hands today."
Lin Wanyin retreated half a step, showing panic for the first time.
"Chu Yunfei, what are you going to do?"
Chu Yunfei stared at her, his gaze turning cold.
"What am I going to do?"
"Situ's mother!"
Lin Wanyin's breath caught.
Before she could react, she had already been dragged into the room.
The cold arrogance on her face finally vanished, leaving only unconcealable terror.
"No, you can't!"
"Chu Yunfei, you can't do this!"
"If you truly dare cross that line, I will kill you!"
Chu Yunfei sneered, his movements swift.
"You were already trying to kill me just now."
"This is the price. Prepare to bear my wrath!"
No one knew that Chu Yunfei's cultivation kept regressing not because his foundation had been ruined.
It was because an ancient dragon queen lived in his sea of consciousness.
Over the years, that dragon had siphoned away most of the Spiritual Qi he had painstakingly cultivated.
In her words...
"This dragon living inside you is your supreme honor. Even without merit, I've at least put in the hard work."
Three days earlier, a bolt of heavenly lightning had struck Chu Yunfei's dantian.
Only afterward had he learned that it was no ordinary heavenly lightning, but a bolt of World-Destroying Divine Lightning born when primordial chaos first parted.
The divine lightning had descended.
Not only had it awakened the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate hidden inside him, it had also restored consciousness to the dragon woman who had slept for years.
At that moment, the dragon woman's voice rang out in his mind.
"Brat, this queen told you long ago to bed her, but you wouldn't listen."
"Don't waste this opportunity now."
"This queen will teach you a special cultivation technique."
The next instant.
An obscure, ancient scripture flooded into Chu Yunfei's sea of consciousness.
Dragon and Phoenix Dao Yellow Scripture!
The dragon woman's voice took on a measure of pride.
"This is the supreme dual cultivation technique passed down among my dragon race."
"Once mastered, dragon and phoenix complement one another, and yin and yang share a single source."
"Stop gawking. Circulate the technique!"
Chu Yunfei closed his eyes, and the scripture began circulating.
A stream of pure power poured through his limbs and bones, and his depleted dantian began brimming with life again.
His cultivation was recovering.
Yet judging by the feedback from the technique, the person truly receiving the greatest benefits was Lin Wanyin instead.
But those benefits could not dispel her hatred at that moment.
"Beast!"
"Chu Yunfei, I will kill you!"
Chu Yunfei did not pause his movements, pretending not to hear.
The Dragon and Phoenix Dao Yellow Scripture circulated faster and faster inside him, and the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate lying dormant deep within his sea of consciousness finally reacted.
Hum~
An ancient cauldron's ringing reverberated through his sea of consciousness.
Chu Yunfei's consciousness was instantly pulled into a vast, boundless space.
Chaos stretched without end, and all things lay extinguished.
An ancient cauldron spanning heaven and earth floated deep in the void, its body entwined with countless ancient patterns.
Every pattern seemed to carry an entire world.
Then a grand, icy voice sounded.
"When heaven and earth first parted, the Primordial Heavenly Mandate Cauldron."
"One cauldron suppresses the myriad worlds; one cauldron refines all things."
"It gathers every Dao beneath heaven and earth, standing proud through countless ages."
Boom!
Chu Yunfei's soul shuddered.
Those few short sentences seemed to cross endless ages, reaching the present from the dawn of heaven and earth.
A full five hours later, the dilapidated courtyard finally fell deathly silent again.
Lin Wanyin sat down against the wall, her face pale.
She looked up at Chu Yunfei, killing intent churning in her eyes.
Beast!
Five whole two-hour periods, without stopping.
Was this fellow livestock?
Chu Yunfei steadied the surging spiritual power within him and tossed her the marriage contract.
"Today, you paid this price in Situ Shuang'er's place."
"Take the marriage contract and get lost."
Lin Wanyin grabbed the marriage contract and forced herself to her feet.
"Chu Yunfei, you beast..."
"You actually did that to me..."
Chu Yunfei cut her off.
"Done cursing?"
"What's done is done. Now get lost."
Lin Wanyin stared fixedly at him.
"Once I recover my strength, I will kill you!"
"Is that so?"
Chu Yunfei took out a stone and waved it before her.
"Aunt Lin, take a look at what this is first."
Lin Wanyin's pupils contracted sharply.
"A recording stone?"
The recording stone held a record of everything that had just happened.
All color instantly drained from Lin Wanyin's face.
"Chu Yunfei, you're shameless!"
"Give it to me!"
She instinctively reached to snatch it, but with her dantian still sealed, she swayed and nearly fell.
Chu Yunfei put the recording stone away.
"This is my life-saving talisman."
"Lin Wanyin, if you don't want this recording spread throughout the Azure Mystic Sect, you'd better behave."
Lin Wanyin's breathing quickened, her face growing ever paler.
Once the recording spread, not only would she lose all face, but Shuang'er would also become an object of ridicule.
She absolutely could not let that happen!
"Chu Yunfei."
Through gritted teeth, she asked:
"What exactly will it take for you to destroy the recording stone?"
"Why would I destroy it?"
Chu Yunfei smiled.
"It's such a pleasure to watch. Of course I'm going to treasure it for the rest of my life."
"You!"
"Lin Wanyin, you were the one who tried to kill me first."
Chu Yunfei's smile faded.
"Stop acting as though you've suffered some monumental injustice."
"Leave while the golden light is still here."
"If you don't leave and someone catches us, how am I supposed to show my face?"
Lin Wanyin clenched the marriage contract, trembling all over with anger.
How was he supposed to show his face?
She had never seen anyone so shameless.
But in the end, she did not linger any longer.
She staggered out of the dilapidated courtyard. After making sure no one was nearby, she swiftly turned into a streak of light and vanished into the rear mountain.
She could not understand. She had only come to accompany her daughter in breaking off an engagement.
How had things turned out like this?
After Lin Wanyin left.
The frivolity on Chu Yunfei's face soon vanished.
He knew very well that once that woman recovered her cultivation, she would do everything she could to kill him.
He did not have much time left.
Chu Yunfei was just about to consolidate his cultivation when his gaze inadvertently landed on that patch of blood inside the room.
He frowned.
Could it be...
Chu Yunfei looked thoughtful, but soon pushed the thought aside.
Now was not the time to consider such things.
He had to recover his strength as quickly as possible.
The Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate had awakened, which meant Xiaoxiao Dragon no longer needed to absorb his Spiritual Qi.
As long as he had enough resources, recovering his former cultivation would not be difficult.
He could even go a step further.
Chu Yunfei sat cross-legged and sank his consciousness into his sea of consciousness.
"Xiaoxiao Dragon, are you the artifact spirit of the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate?"
"Pah!"
Xiaoxiao Dragon immediately retorted.
"How could I possibly be an artifact spirit?"
"Then why are you inside the cauldron?"
Silence lingered in his sea of consciousness for a while.
Xiaoxiao Dragon's voice lost some of its usual liveliness.
"Don't remind me."
"My clan guarded the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate for generations. We never imagined we would end up being slaughtered to the last."
"And I..."
She paused for a moment.
"I was betrayed by my most trusted female friend and nearly had my soul annihilated."
"At the final moment, I chose to self-detonate. A wisp of my remnant soul was drawn into the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate. I don't know what happened afterward."
"When I regained consciousness, I was already inside you."
Chu Yunfei slowly opened his eyes.
An entire clan slaughtered, betrayal by someone dear.
A soul nearly annihilated.
Xiaoxiao Dragon's experiences were so very similar to his own.
The World-Destroying Divine Lightning three days ago had not only split open the seal on the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate, but also broken open the memories of his previous life, sealed away for eighteen years.
In his previous life, Chu Yunfei had been a mighty overlord.
Not long after obtaining the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate, he had been surrounded and attacked by the combined forces of several top sects.
In that battle, he alone had suppressed the powerful experts from every side until they could not lift their heads.
Just as he was about to fight his way out of the encirclement, his most trusted brother had struck from behind, dealing him a fatal blow.
In the end, he had perished, his Dao extinguished.
The Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate had carried his remnant soul into the cycle of reincarnation, allowing him to be born anew.
For eighteen years, he had never known that the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate was hidden within him, nor had he remembered anything from his previous life.
Until that bolt of World-Destroying Divine Lightning struck.
The divine cauldron awakened.
The dragon maiden revived.
The memories of his previous life returned with them.
Chu Yunfei raised his head and gazed through the ruined roof into the endless night sky.
Not a trace of the bewilderment of a downtrodden good-for-nothing remained in those eyes.
"Lin Chuhan..."
"My dear brother."
"In this life, you'd better not die too soon."
"What you owe me, I'll take back with my own hands!"
P.S. The realms of the True Martial Continent: Body Tempering Realm, Qi Condensation Realm, Spirit Martial Realm, Heavenly Origin Realm, Divine Sea Realm, Dao Mysterious Realm, Good Fortune Realm, Grotto-Heaven Realm, Tribulation Transformation Realm...