Sui Yu looked at Sui Jinyu, Jiu Feng and the others. His lips showed a deathly pale color from having overdrawn too much spiritual power in that great battle. He waved his sleeves and said: “Don’t just stand there—go tend to your injuries.”

He looked at Sui Jinyu’s half-arm that had been torn off by the Mei, his eyelid twitching: “Handle that wound properly, do you hear me?”

“Fine, I know.” Sui Jinyu lowered her head and responded listlessly.

Shan Shu paused, looking at Xue Yu, then frowned and returned. She took hold of Xue Yu’s two most severely injured arms, applying a layer of Buddhist light over them, saying gently: “Don’t be sad. All the bad things have passed. You must take care of yourself first before you can find the person you’re looking for.”

Jiu Feng also returned suspiciously, looking at Sui Yu then at Xue Yu, saying to the former: “I’m telling you, you’re not going to launch into some unpleasant long speeches at this time, are you? Don’t put on elder airs to bully people.”

Sui Yu directly shot her a glance.

Xue Yu nodded to Shan Shu, then looked at Jiu Feng: “It’s fine, go ahead.”

Xue Yu stood up, her sleeves sliding down to cover the blood-stained wounds on the inside of her wrists. Due to exhaustion, her voice no longer had its former crispness: “According to what you said, there’s still hope for this matter.”

Sui Yu hummed in agreement. He looked toward the people not far away who were lying collapsed in disorderly lines, seemingly drained of strength, and said sternly: “Nineteen’s situation is dangerous now. I’ll keep this brief.”

“The Heavenly Wolf clan’s ancestral land is divided into two parts for those of us who still exist in the world but have only half the bloodline—the Heavenly Wolf branch lines. One houses the remnant consciousness of ancestors who sacrificed themselves in ancient times, while the other is for our lineage’s ancestors. I, Nineteen’s grandfather, father, and Sui Jinyu can only go to the latter one.”

“Our bloodline isn’t pure, so we don’t receive recognition from the ancient Heavenly Wolves.”

“After Nineteen returned to the Sui family and entered the ancestral land, those remnant souls who had waited until now, through tens of thousands of years, finally welcomed a true pure-blood descendant. They were liberated one after another, transforming into pure Heavenly Wolf power that flooded into his body. That’s why his eyes and face changed like that.”

“That was quite a massive power. Nineteen’s temperament is resilient, and he didn’t want to encourage excessive growth that would destroy his prospects, so he’s been slowly absorbing it all along, not rashly claiming it as his own.”

“The power that no one had absorbed for tens of thousands of years was absorbed by him alone. This power is sufficient to accomplish many things at critical moments—for instance, condensing another Heaven-Imprisoning Cage.”

At this point, Xue Yu completely understood.

The power Su You absorbed in the ancestral land came from hundreds of thousands of ancient Heavenly Wolves. After ten thousand years of erosion, what could remain was all the source power belonging to the Heavenly Wolf clan. The Heaven-Imprisoning Cage was a unique skill exclusive to the Heavenly Wolf clan. Under fortuitous circumstances, they would replace Su You and independently form another Heaven-Imprisoning Cage.

“I only learned this after asking Nineteen before. The Heaven-Imprisoning Cage is both the Heavenly Wolf clan’s most secret technique and a technique of desperate struggle. The cage can imprison all things, but it also imprisons oneself.”

“I thought this was heaven’s gift of a thread of hope, but it isn’t. The Heaven-Imprisoning Cage formed by the ancestors must be triggered by Nineteen’s Heaven-Imprisoning Cage. In the end, he still has to take that step of self-imprisonment.”

Sui Yu’s mouth was full of bitterness: “I kept thinking just now—is this predestined? Destined for him to be born unfortunate yet not die, to be found by us, then naturally activate his bloodline. Just because he has a Heaven-Imprisoning Cage, the Fusang Tree planned to use him to replace the already cracked Dragon’s Breath.”

“So now, we don’t need to set up another formation as solid as the Heaven-Imprisoning Cage.” Xue Yu grasped the key point from this long string of words: “We only need to attack from outside and break open Su You’s own Heaven-Imprisoning Cage to bring him out.”

“I’ve carefully gone through this dozens of times. Theoretically speaking, that’s correct.” Sui Yu drew a breath from his chest and said, “I’m not doubting your abilities, but to be realistic, there were many capable people in ancient times. All races and places flourished, but what truly determined victory or defeat was still that battle where the Azure Dragon and the entire Heavenly Wolf clan sacrificed themselves.”

To be able to imprison those things for over ten thousand years, one could imagine how solid the Heavenly Wolf’s cage was.

“I know.” Xue Yu looked at the feather forcibly retained in the small formation. After the rain cleared and the sky brightened, warm scattered gold poured down, making it appear magnificent, adorned like thousands of crystal diamonds, dazzling and brilliant. “Regarding Dragon’s Breath, I have some leads. The path isn’t a dead end—let’s try first before saying anything else.”

Sui Yu looked at Xue Yu’s blood-stained profile, his lip line taut and straight. There were many things he wanted to say in his heart.

Nineteen was a child the whole family felt guilty about.

The Sui family gained their fortune, allowing them to emerge into a world where each made their mark and achieved something. But Nineteen, as an auspicious beast, had been gritting his teeth and struggling to survive from childhood to adulthood, never experiencing any care, warmth, or expectations.

He didn’t understand what being loved felt like.

During his most difficult times, when he was at others’ mercy and subject to slaughter, the Sui family’s children commanded wind and rain, lacking nothing.

Every time he thought of this, even Sui Yu, who considered himself iron-hearted and had little patience for the younger generation, felt his heart wrench.

The Sui family treasured Nineteen like holding a recovered precious treasure, especially with the titles of “auspicious beast” and “Heaven-Imprisoning Cage.” They constantly worried he would be hurt or experience bad things again.

To be with Xue Yu? Fine—the Sui family would say nothing, having checked and rechecked the betrothal gifts, as long as he was happy.

As long as he felt joyful.

But since acknowledging him, returning to the demon capital, entering the ancestral land, experiencing the Three Realms Grand Assembly, and reaching the current situation, whenever anything involved Xue Yu, he always ended up in a complete mess: injured, severely wounded, even voluntarily becoming caged and waiting for death.

He loved Xue Yu too much, loved her cautiously with constant worry about gains and losses. But what about Xue Yu? She was a perfect Sacred Land successor—wise, calm, rational. The phrase “must be this person and no other” simply shouldn’t apply to her.

You could say she was deeply affectionate, genuinely sincere toward Nineteen, but after all this time, Yedu hadn’t even given a single clear attitude. You could say she was uninterested, but the great battle had just ended, she was exhausted and covered in wounds. Someone who usually loved cleanliness so much didn’t even have time to wipe her hands before guarding the feathers, preparing to set up formations.

Honestly, Sui Yu couldn’t understand it.

He thought, maybe they should just forget it. After this calamity, the Sui family would take Nineteen back to slowly heal his injuries. Xue Yu had contributed greatly to this demon elimination, so Yedu’s empress position would soon be passed to her.

She had the right to enjoy young men’s sincere affection and liking, could embrace left and right, taking them into her harem.

Xue Yu had indeed saved Nineteen, but what Nineteen had done, plus this time—a life for a life—even mountain-high gratitude would be completely repaid.

Let it be like this—it would be good for everyone.

But now was not the time to discuss such matters.

Xue Yu wasn’t unaware of the changes in Sui Yu and Sui Jinyu’s gazes, but she couldn’t spare the energy to think about these things, nor was there any need to.

Chao Hua dragged over the deflated Song Heng, roughly tearing off the spatial ring from his hand. Cooperating with Qing Luo, Liang Yan and other Palace Guards, they searched through it repeatedly, finally grasping three round Dragon’s Breath orbs and rising, pushing Song Heng to the ground with cold words: “Scum.”

Song Heng had committed a grave crime. Beyond their relief at surviving the calamity, the human race was also extremely fearful, afraid that when the Fusang Tree emerged, it would blame this entire affair on all of humanity. Then the equality of the three realms would become the dominance of two realms, with humans trailing behind. Even ten mouths wouldn’t be enough to protest their innocence.

So after the Heavenly Mechanism Book’s words fell, dozens of usually elusive human powerhouses hurriedly came to their senses and jointly sealed the instigator Song Heng, while immediately going to identify others who had participated in this incident.

Everyone knew the great battle was over, but the entire matter hadn’t ended.

Because of this, the human race showed unprecedented enthusiasm in the following battlefield cleanup.

Lu Chen’s head had been clawed by a royal-class Mei, creating five bloody holes, and half his hair had been burned away. He was sitting beside Jiu Feng and others, sighing heavily while touching his head to calm his breathing. He hadn’t rested long before being dragged up by his master to “actively perform.”

“Miss, we found them.” Chao Hua approached Xue Yu holding the three Dragon’s Breath orbs. Like water, the Dragon’s Breath merged into one when brought together.

Xue Yu took it, then lowered her eyes to bring out the Dragon’s Breath formed from the other five portions. The two clicked together like triggering some switch, forming into a pearl the size of a palm in the blink of an eye.

The pearl was dim, the tangled black threads inside had disappeared, but the spider web-like cracks on the surface remained, like a moon pearl that had been shattered and forcibly glued back together.

It lay quietly without any movement.

Xue Yu looked toward Chao Nian.

Chao Hua was startled and also looked over, immediately freezing.

Chao Nian, who had originally been circling with tears in his eyes, heartbroken for Xue Yu, stood dumbly in place, staring at the complete Dragon’s Breath in Xue Yu’s palm. After a long while, he sniffled, blinked out two lines of tears, raising his hand to wipe them while trying to maintain his dignity: “Hey, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel sad looking at this, can’t catch my breath.”

“This is the second time you’ve told me you’re sad.” Xue Yu looked at him, speaking word by word: “Have you considered that you might be the missing bit of spirituality in the Dragon’s Breath?”

Chao Hua’s eyes suddenly widened.

Not that she looked down on her little brother, but even with ten more eyes simultaneously looking at Chao Nian, she’d have to say this little youth who hummed and whined daily, couldn’t handle big matters, and was best at competing with her for their lord’s attention—compared to the Azure Dragon in the Fusang Tree’s images who could swallow mountains and rivers with one bite and shatter the sky with one punch—truly had nothing in common except both having two eyes and one nose.

Not just Chao Hua—even Chao Nian himself, who was wiping tears, was stunned. He pointed at himself with his finger, wanting to speak but too shocked to know what to say. After quite a while, he squeezed out a few rather panicked words: “No—no way, Your Highness, aren’t you mistaken?”

As if feeling embarrassed, his voice gradually quieted: “Although I’ve never seen the Azure Dragon, according to ancient rankings, it should at least be like Young Master Su You. My cultivation level…”

It’s hundreds of thousands of miles away.

In this regard, Chao Nian was exceptionally self-aware. In terms of strength, Su You could pin him down with one finger.

How could he be the Azure Dragon?

Even dragons in water were more capable than him.

Chao Hua seemed to remember something, frowning and murmuring: “It’s that wisp of golden light my father brought back from Feiyun Peak.”

“Yes.” Xue Yu gripped the Dragon’s Breath, observing: “Back then, when we first entered Feiyun Peak, when we still didn’t know what Mei were, in that ancient temple, they specifically chased after Chao Nian.”

Feiyun Peak was a secret realm controlled personally by the Fusang Tree. There were no Mei anywhere else, but only when they brought Chao Nian to the ancient temple did they encounter Mei attacks. Previously, they didn’t understand and didn’t take it to heart, just thinking dangers were everywhere in secret realms—this was perfectly normal.

Later, after experiencing ten years in the Secret Realm Abyss, they understood Mei somewhat, but time was urgent. As soon as they emerged, they had to face various matters, and no one thought in this direction.

Xue Yu first began to suspect after collecting the fourth Dragon’s Breath orb when Chao Nian stared at it in a daze. But his reaction wasn’t this strong, then—he just felt hot and uncomfortable, couldn’t walk when looking at Dragon’s Breath.

A small detail, but it reminded her of the ancient temple incident.

Why did the Mei chase after Chao Nian? They hated him greatly—there had to be a reason.

Considering Chao Nian’s background and looking back at that rather tragic ancient battle, it wasn’t hard to conclude that, besides the Azure Dragon, the thing Mei hated most in life was the Heavenly Wolf.

Jiu Feng and others also gathered around, looking Chao Nian up and down until he unconsciously clenched his fists and put on a serious, unsmiling expression. But before long, he deflated and quietly complained to Jiu Feng: “You’re poking my face again. I’m going to tell Feng Shangyu.”

After speaking, he looked around for the person.

“Go ahead and tell—see if he’ll control me.” Jiu Feng grinned carelessly and said, “Didn’t see it coming, little Chao Nian—you have this kind of identity.”

“But what’s with these thin arms and legs of yours? Is it because your bloodline hasn’t awakened?”

“No, he originally has the Sacred Land ancient immortal bloodline. It’s just that the essence from Dragon’s Breath transferred from his father to him.” Xue Yu looked at Chao Nian, her eyelashes moving slightly: “I need a bit of your blood.”

As soon as the words fell, Chao Nian immediately rolled up his sleeves, wordlessly exposing what Jiu Feng called his “thin arms and legs,” loudly declaring: “Your Highness, please take as much as needed.”

Xue Yu placed the Dragon’s Breath in his hand. Rather than cutting his wrist again, she dabbed at a wound from the previous battle that hadn’t yet healed. The deep red blood covered the entire Dragon’s Breath, and a warm light glowed softly, emitting a pure and gentle radiance like a moon pearl.

“It is true.” Seeing this scene, Jiu Feng raised an eyebrow.

Chao Nian felt a warm current being drawn from his body. It didn’t affect him much, just made him a bit dizzy. His face reddened as he held it in, and after a long while, he said uncertainly to Xue Yu: “Your Highness, it seems like… It’s still missing something.”

“I know.” Xue Yu reached out and took down the blue butterfly that had been quietly hanging in her hair. Feeling fingers sliding across its body, it slowly flapped its wings, paying no attention to the chaotic situation outside, just staring at Xue Yu’s face. Finding this insufficient, it flew to Xue Yu’s nose tip and lazily sprawled there.

The entire butterfly radiated an aura of “utterly enchanted.”

“Xuanji.” Xue Yu said softly: “That year in Luo Zhou, what did you extract from the Dragon’s Breath?”

She knew about this because she had used soul-searching techniques on several previous city lords.

One of them had more detailed memories—he was Qiu Tong’s confidant, and included a section about that year in Luo Zhou when Xuanji suddenly extracted some spiritual essence from Dragon’s Breath, directly triggering Qiu Tong’s subsequent series of unconscionable, desperate actions.

Xuanji hadn’t opened its eyes for some time. Without its main body, it was very weak, which also meant it hadn’t seen Xue Yu for a long time.

It flew from Xue Yu’s nose bridge to below her eyes, its butterfly wings moving as it sprinkled golden powder on the Dragon’s Breath.

The moment the two made contact, they collided like water meeting fire. The light on Dragon’s Breath was no longer weak but blazed like the sun.

Xue Yu took it and walked to the formation imprisoning the Heavenly Wolf feather.

Sui Jinyu and Sui Yu’s hearts simultaneously tightened, the latter solemnly reminding: “Dragon’s Breath can only strike once. We don’t have a second chance.”

“I know.” Xue Yu responded steadily, her tone unchanging, appearing completely calm. But the actions that should have been completed in one smooth motion weren’t continuous. She stood in place for a while, squinting against the oncoming wind, before suddenly exerting force, reversing the formation while finding an incomparably exquisite angle to fling the Dragon’s Breath out.

The Dragon’s Breath passed through the formation. Though a round ball, as it brushed past her cheek, it stirred an indescribable sense of heart palpitation.

The next moment, Xue Yu stepped into the formation as well.

“Why is there no sound at all?” Ji Tingxi asked in confusion.

In their imagination, the simultaneous collision of Azure Dragon and Heavenly Wolf’s ultimate techniques might not destroy heaven and earth, but at least shouldn’t be smaller than Su You and Jiu Feng’s collision at the Three Realms Grand Assembly. But the current environment was so quiet it was unsettling.

“This formation is a small space—all the collision is happening inside.” Cang Ju had sharp eyes. He stared unmoving at Xue Yu’s back, which seemed to have had her spirit leave her body, explaining: “Though we call it the Azure Dragon’s peak strike from when alive, not every Azure Dragon had strong combat power. This thing depends on luck.”

But Xue Yu wasn’t someone who would pin her hopes on fortune. She entered the formation to assist if Dragon’s Breath couldn’t hold up.

In her current physical condition, she didn’t miss doing any dangerous tasks.

“This time, none of us can help them. We can only watch heaven’s will.”

“But, according to this, Su You originally didn’t need to self-seal. We could have activated Dragon’s Breath to deal with the Mei, plus Xue Yu’s formations—we could have killed all those things too.” Lu Qin finally straightened out his thoughts and interjected.

As soon as the words fell, Yin Ling and Shan Shu simultaneously cast indescribable looks at him. The latter was subtle, while the former said directly: “I see you have no brain.”

“You’re thinking too simplistically.” Cang Ju had spoken more today than in an entire year outside. He explained impatiently: “In that situation, finding Dragon’s Breath, then activating it and striking, the Mei would have run all over the world. Also, the Azure Dragon excelled in offensive techniques. If it could have eliminated those ancient Mei, would it have settled for suppression instead of annihilation? Would Dragon’s Breath be covered in cracks?”

“After this time, there will be explanations.” Cang Ju narrowed his eyes and said: “Heaven and earth in great change, three parties in turmoil—the Fusang Tree will emerge once.”

As these words fell, earth-shaking thunder roared, diving down with lightning speed to land precisely on Cang Ju.

This time, it wasn’t bluffing intimidation. Cang Ju was struck and flung into the giant pit. After a long while, he climbed up, covering his numb arm and looking gloomily at the sky, sneering coldly: “Fine—if you don’t provide sufficient benefits this time, whoever wants to manage Tai Hua can manage it.”

Xue Yu’s prediction was both correct and incorrect.

Dragon’s Breath indeed didn’t have such massive power anymore. It had only cut halfway when the cage surrounded by Heavenly Wolf power cracked open a fissure, then stopped moving.

Xue Yu didn’t hesitate, rising to gather strength, layering spiritual power heavily onto Dragon’s Breath’s offensive.

She knew this invisible tug-of-war would never end so easily.

Indeed, that fissure remained just a fissure. Beyond that, the cage was completely intact.

Spirit Array Masters weren’t primarily trained in offensive techniques after all, and her internal consumption was truly too severe.

After several attempts, Xue Yu stopped her actions, standing silently in the small space, thinking she could only seek another method.

Completely detonating Dragon’s Breath—this would produce massive impact and heat waves.

She began slowly layering various defensive spiritual artifacts and formations on herself, calculating what angle she needed to dodge from to avoid losing her life. Throughout this process, her expression remained very calm.

As if discerning her thoughts, suddenly a wind blew from behind—an indescribably vast power that, when completely attached to Xue Yu’s palm, even carried a heavy feeling of controlling all living beings.

Following her movements, they pushed out and landed on that fissure. Spiritual light erupted like a volcano.

The crack widened. This time, it encountered no obstruction, and the cage cleanly split in half.

That wasn’t a power humans could possess.

The Fusang Tree, or the Heavenly Mechanism Book?

When Xue Yu and Su You appeared in the formation, the sky was already spread with evening glow, like lamps forming a sea of fire—thousands upon thousands, dyeing the entire sky a brilliant orange.

Xue Yu half-embraced him, retracting the formation lines. Sui Jinyu and Sui Yu reacted first, immediately running over and half-kneeling on the ground. Others were a beat slower but quickly gathered to surround them in a circle.

Unlike the dozen or so people who had more or less been injured in the great battle and showed pale complexions, Su You’s cheeks glowed with a peach blossom-like hue, his lips were full, and his eyelashes quietly covered his lower eyelids, casting two dense shadows.

If not for his extremely weak breathing, he would have seemed merely asleep.

“In his condition, he’ll probably not remember people for a day or two after waking.” Jiu Feng examined him for a moment, then looked at Xue Yu: “Top-tier demon beasts’ physical instincts—preparing psychologically to wait for death through long years, they need some support. At times like this, they often subconsciously lock away bad memories, keeping only segments that make them feel happy and sweet as motivation to hold onto.”

“Don’t give him medicine yet, don’t move him. Wait until he wakes up.”

Sui Jinyu slowly grasped one of Su You’s hands, calling softly: “Nineteen.”

Su You’s fingertips moved slightly.

Before the sunset sank, he slowly opened his eyes. His dark pupils first fell on Sui Jinyu’s palm holding his hand, then he raised his head, scanning the dozen or so faces surrounding him with particular indifference. Then he half-sat up, mercilessly withdrawing his hand.

Sui Jinyu took a deep breath and asked gently: “Nineteen, do you still remember your brother?”

Su You frowned, looking at him no differently than a stranger. After a glance or two, he completely withdrew his gaze.

Just then, a hand reached from behind, covering the back of his hand.

Su You turned his head to look.

When their eyes met, his brows gradually relaxed, his dark pupils brightened brilliantly as if hiding joy, even his tone carrying laughter: “Yu Yu.”

He extended his fingertip, touching Xue Yu’s cheek, carefully touching her skin, moving slowly from her chin to her wrists and forearms where several bones were broken, then slowly lowered his eyes, the smile disappearing.

“…Severely injured.”

Following the scent of blood, he looked expressionlessly at Jiu Feng, who was watching the excitement. When she met his bottomless pupil color, she realized what was happening and instantly exploded: “What are you looking at? I didn’t do it! This blood on me is from when I was healing her!”

Witnessing this scene, Sui Yu had thousands of words in his heart, but swallowed them all.

Faced with the facts, there was nothing to say.

For Su You, meeting Xue Yu, liking Xue Yu, and being with Xue Yu were the only happy and sweet things in his life.