Su Wan trembled violently, forced to stand and stare at Ji Tongzhou's expressionless face. The White Jade Oriole hidden in her sleeve tumbled to the ground with a clatter.
Ji Tongzhou glanced at it, then slowly loosened his grip on her wrist. With a flick of his palm, the White Jade Oriole flew into his hand, which he then extended toward Su Wan. His voice was calm yet carried a hint of gentleness: "This is for you. Take it."
Su Wan glared at him furiously and snapped, "I don't want it! You're utterly incomprehensible! There should be limits to your willfulness!"
As if deaf to her words, Ji Tongzhou placed the White Jade Oriole into her arms. She neither avoided it nor showed fear. Her straightforward, merciless gaze reminded him once again of Jiang Lifei saying "I'm sorry" to him. The spirited young girl before him blurred into the image of the maiden swallowed by the Gluttonous Beast.
Su Wan was dragged forward a few steps by her arm. Seeing the others trapped in the Black Fire Cage, with Baili Changyue's spiritual energy completely sealed by the Dragon Imprisoning Lock—each in utter disarray—she couldn't help but shout, "Tie me up too! Or kill me!"
To her surprise, Ji Tongzhou actually chuckled. His expression was inscrutable, even carrying a trace of ambiguity, which left her stunned. She dug in her heels, struggling fiercely. "Let go of me!"
His eyes were fixed on her, yet it felt as though he wasn't truly seeing her. Who was he looking at through her? She knew the answer.
Suddenly, she let out a cold laugh and spoke with disdain: "You pushed the person you claim to love into the fire with your own hands, yet you keep a woman with a similar face at home to delude yourself. You treat other girls tenderly as substitutes for the one you desire. That's not devotion—it's sheer willfulness!"
Ji Tongzhou abruptly stopped walking, his face darkening as he stared at her. Su Wan continued her mocking laughter: "If you truly loved someone, how could you harm her? You hate Li Fei for not loving you, for not giving you a chance. This is nothing but selfishness!"
He raised his hand sharply, as if to strike her. Su Wan instinctively shut her eyes tightly, bracing for the blow. But after a moment, she only heard him say quietly, "You're wrong."
He had never truly hated Jiang Lifei. He had simply chosen to let go—to relinquish this woman he could never have, to abandon this love that had no clear beginning or end. He had chosen what mattered more to him.
"I loved her. I just don't want her anymore."
Su Wan sneered again. "Loved her? I don't think you even know how to love. From start to finish, all you've loved is your own willful whims! You're the most selfish person in the world, only concerned with pleasing and indulging yourself. People like you never come to good ends..."
Ji Tongzhou clamped his hand over her mouth and nose. Like a dying insect, she writhed in his grasp until her strength faded, collapsing limply to the ground. The Dragon Imprisoning Lock lifted her up, its chains binding her tightly, sealing away all her spiritual energy.
He exhaled slowly, sweeping his gaze across the courtyard. His former friends lay defeated at his hands. The way they had once looked at Qin Yangling in the Eastern Sea was how they now looked at him. He no longer felt regret or heartache. All bonds of warmth had reached their end.As Ji Tongzhou entered the house, Lu Li suddenly grabbed Baili Gelin's hand from within the fire cage and whispered, "He's probably sending a message to the Celestials of No Moon Court. With natural and man-made disasters everywhere, Jiang Li Fei is hiding and won't show herself. They don't have the resources to search extensively, so this must be a plan to lure the snake out of its hole—we're the bait."
Baili Gelin burned with anxiety. "Do you have a way to escape?"
Lu Li looked down at her. A good portion of her clothes were scorched, and half her body bore terrible burns. He first cast a healing net over her, then took out the last talisman paper from his robe with a sigh. "At least they didn't put Dragon Imprisoning Locks on us."
Spiritual energy flowed into the white talisman paper. It slipped through a gap in the fire cage, floating out silently before transforming into a white-furred, golden-nosed rat demon. Its hooked claws clung to the dense Spiritual Qi Net above, gnawing rapidly through the intricate web of spiritual threads. In the blink of an eye, it had chewed a sizable hole in the net.
Baili Gelin was overjoyed to see the rat demon's effectiveness. Just then, the closed door opened again. Ji Tongzhou strode into the courtyard holding a letter, raised his palm, and a swirling mass of black-and-white light appeared in midair.
The letter was cast into the rotating light, suddenly bursting with dazzling radiance—was this Star Rectitude Hall's Message Transmission Art? Quite the spectacle, no wonder he had to come outside to use it.
At the peak of the light's brilliance, Baili Gelin suddenly felt herself being yanked upward. Lu Li shielded her face against his chest as his back slammed into the fire cage. A snake demon shot out from the shadows, catching them both and darting toward the hole in the Spiritual Qi Net. With a deafening crash, the gap was fully breached. Baili Gelin sensed a surge of black fire erupting from the manor, but they were just fast enough—the snake demon carried them away at breakneck speed. By the time Ji Tongzhou took flight on his sword, they were already gone.
He stared at the shattered Black Fire Cage, then at the remaining three—Ye Ye, Changyue, and Su Wan—who stood there grinning triumphantly. Ji Tongzhou coldly averted his gaze, fastening the last Dragon Imprisoning Lock onto Ye Ye before dispersing the fire cage. "Guards!" he called sharply. "Take them to the dungeon."
The trembling steward and guards, who had been cowering outside the courtyard, hesitantly entered to carry away the prisoners and corpses. The head steward and the decapitated body of a disciple from Long Mingzuo's faction still lay sprawled on the blood-soaked ground. Everyone had witnessed the earlier magical combat—any thoughts of escaping had long since died in their hearts.
Ji Tongzhou turned away, removing his dust-stained outer robe. Miaoqing, who had been hiding inside, hurried over with fresh clothes. Her face was alight with worship and desire as she gazed at him, an expression that erased any lingering resemblance to Jiang Li Fei.
A wave of disgust washed over him. He covered her face with his hand and shoved her aside. "Get out," he said coldly.
Miaoqing retreated fearfully, bowing as she went. She had grown accustomed to the prince's mercurial temper these past days. He didn't want her admiration or devotion—she didn't know what he wanted. It was as if he saw right through her, searching for someone who could never be there.Footsteps hurried behind her, accompanied by the frantic calls of the stewards in pursuit: "Princess! Princess! Please wait for an announcement—"
Ji Tongzhou had just hauled the exhausted emperor up from the ground when he heard the long-unfamiliar voice of Lan Ya, choked with sobs at the courtyard gate: "Your Highness! Is it true about Elder Xuanshan Zi?!"
He closed his eyes in irritation, unwilling to turn his head, and replied coldly, "Yes, it's true."
Lan Ya staggered, unable to steady herself. She had flown overnight from the fiefdom of Zhao Yang to Duantou, clinging to the faintest sliver of hope, only for it to be utterly shattered now. Her eyes fixed blankly on Ji Tongzhou's back. Since the day she had met him, she had obeyed his every whim, worshiped and yearned for him. Yet now, for some inexplicable reason, the once lofty prince seemed to have dimmed in her eyes.
His posture remained as upright as ever, his bearing as proud, without a trace of cowering or disarray. Yet she couldn't shake the feeling that he was no longer the same young prince she had known. Suddenly, the very qualities that had once drawn her to him with such fervor seemed to have vanished. She couldn't even recall what her feelings for him had been—had she loved him? And if she had, how could those emotions have faded overnight?
Ji Tongzhou turned around, his gaze as icy as it had been back in Lu Gongzhen. She remembered his words—what a woman's eyes truly looked like when she was in love. She had never understood his heart, and even now, she still didn't. Once, she had longed to comprehend it, but now, she couldn't bring herself to spare it a single thought.
The emperor sat slumped in his chair like a corpse, muttering to himself. This once-glorious sovereign now appeared no different from any ordinary middle-aged man. The kingdom of Yue was doomed, destined to vanish like a bubble in the long river of history. All the brilliance and splendor she had once imagined would never come to pass.
Suddenly, Lan Ya straightened her posture. For the first time in the prince's presence, she stood tall. Taking several steps back, she bowed her head and spoke with a mix of respect and cold detachment: "Wugou has been secretly communicating with many of the feudal lords, promising them more territory in exchange for withholding their troops once Yue is conquered. Your Highness... take care."
She retreated through the courtyard gate and left without a backward glance. Ji Tongzhou watched her departing figure in silence, saying nothing.
Li Fei pinched the small, jade-white horn between her fingers. In the end, she had heeded Ri Yan's advice and fused the arm bone of the Graftwood Seed with the Horn of the Rhinoceros. The horn's appearance had barely changed, but its essence had been utterly transformed. It felt even more natural in her grasp, like an extension of her own body.
With a single breath, it could drain the dense spiritual energy of the Sweet Splendor Realm entirely, and with another, release it all back out—and this was far from its limit.
Ri Yan had been wrong. This wasn't just a tool for self-defense—it was a trump card.
After toying with the newly reforged Horn of the Rhinoceros for a while, Li Fei turned to see Lei Xiuyuan still seated by the lake inside the cave, flipping through Master's black notebook. He had been at it for days.
"Found any secrets yet?" she asked, walking over to sit beside him and peering at the notebook. He was reading an entry about riding the north wind to the Building Tree.Lei Xiuyuan glanced at it casually and remarked, "Qing Cheng Xian Ren mentioned that plucking the unripe Graftwood Seed would cause the Heavenly Thunder Fire Sea to descend. The Sea Fall occurs once every five hundred years, and the Graftwood Seed also takes roughly five hundred years to fully mature. I’m wondering if the Heavenly Thunder Fire Sea of the Sea Fall is connected to the Graftwood Seed. The Ocean Sect’s Demon Manipulation techniques were introduced from overseas, and the various rumors seem well-founded. It’s likely that long ago, the Central Land and the lands beyond the sea had exchanges, but for some unknown reason, they were later separated by the Heavenly Thunder Fire Sea, gradually leading to the Sea Fall every five hundred years. There must have been some upheaval in between."
Li Fei smiled. "We’ll investigate these matters thoroughly once we go overseas."
She was probably the most ignorant Graftwood Seed in history—hatched and raised as an ordinary person by her Master, knowing even less about her origins than Lei Xiuyuan did.
"You mentioned Fire Hating Island overseas last time. Can people there really spit fire from their mouths?" Li Fei asked with keen interest, watching him. These past few days, listening to Lei Xiuyuan’s tales about the customs and wonders of the lands beyond the sea had been like hearing stories—utterly fascinating. Whenever she had a free moment, she couldn’t help but pester him for more.
Just as Lei Xiuyuan was about to speak, a clear, resonant bell tolled beside them both. Immediately afterward, lines of golden light formed words that appeared before their eyes. They were both startled—this was an extremely high-level Elder Proclamation, something only mentioned in the disciples’ code. Typically, it was only used in the event of a major disaster, and every name registered in the No Moon Court’s records would receive this proclamation simultaneously.
Li Fei read the summons word by word, her expression growing darker with each line. Rather than a proclamation, it was more like a personal expulsion order targeting her alone. Qin Yangling’s death had been pinned on her, Chongyi Zhenren had been confined for lax discipline, and Su Wan had been imprisoned for "aiding in wrongdoing."
"Expel the traitorous disciple Jiang Li Fei from the No Moon Court, never to return—" Li Fei let out a cold laugh and abruptly stood up. What a fine expulsion order, forcing her to reveal herself!
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