Xue Yu used the strength of his hooked fingers to sweep across that alluring beautiful face, looking twice before her finger wiped across his vermillion lips from one side to the other, with neither light nor heavy force, her tone flat with no obvious emotional change: “The Heaven-Imprisoning Cage has this kind of use?”
Su You didn’t refute.
Regardless of his true identity, the fact remained that he had waded through mud from head to toe. Having experienced and witnessed too many unimaginable hardships in the world, even though he now held a high position with previously unattainable things within easy reach, he still couldn’t generate any selfless great love for this mortal realm.
Only in front of Xue Yu did he hide that coldness that penetrated to his bones. These surface matters were easy to control, but in his heart, he truly hadn’t changed a bit from childhood—if anything, he’d become more extreme, belonging to that type who would never let go once grasping a bit of light.
Su You quietly looked at Xue Yu. Before long, he lowered his eyes and cupped her few ice-cold fingertips, saying softly: “The Emperor’s situation, the balance of three realms, the current state of demons in the mortal world—I can break all of this for you, however you want it.”
Only any changes in feelings he couldn’t accept.
Xue Yu thought he would next say some threatening yet powerless words like before, but he only bent down to kiss near her lips, his careful appearance unexpectedly seeming pure: “…It won’t be too long, just a few years, at most ten years.”
Xue Yu closed her eyes in deepening drowsiness. After a while, she moved her fingertips to stroke his satin-like black hair, speaking soothingly: “The grievances between humans and demons have accumulated for long—they can’t be resolved in a day. Handle your family matters first.”
Almost as she was about to fall asleep, urgent footsteps suddenly sounded outside, heading straight for them. The next moment, knocking came, and Shen Jingshi’s voice transmitted: “Your Highness Yedu, urgent report from the palace.”
Xue Yu’s eyelashes suddenly trembled as she pressed her brow hard, immediately becoming alert, calling out: “Coming right away.”
It was just dawn, and rain was falling outside, sometimes heavy, sometimes light. The trees planted downstairs had scattered white flowers all over the ground, spread in the mud, trampled by people’s feet, quickly becoming indistinguishable from their original color.
Passing the small terrace on the second floor, Xue Yu glanced outside to discover the entire sky dominated by thick dark clouds, layer upon layer, as if about to pour torrential rain on people’s heads the next moment. It was extremely oppressive weather.
The Sacred Land heirs, Demon Capital’s Jiu Feng, and the Sui family’s Sui Jinyu gathered in the first-floor private room.
Seeing Su You arrive, Sui Jinyu immediately perked up. He glanced at the scattered groups of people around whispering, beckoned the manager, pointed at the surrounding positions: “Three thousand spirit stones—please invite these people upstairs. We’re conducting serious business here, and no one is allowed to disturb us all day.”
As soon as he spoke, not only did the manager’s polite smile freeze, but even Shan Shu and others lowered their voices.
Logically, in a place like the capital, there was no shortage of wealthy masters. First Grade Residence had a great reputation and had entertained imperial nobility, but throwing around spirit stones with such prices right off the bat was indeed rare.
Not rare—it had never happened before.
The human race was divided into ordinary people and cultivators, plus demons of various sizes.
For ordinary people, gold, silver, and copper coins were what they could spend. Spirit stones were useless to them since they couldn’t absorb the spiritual energy within. But with worldly development, any street now had pawn shops and exchange buildings that could convert spirit stones and silver money according to visitors’ needs.
Three thousand spirit stones, three thousand… spirit stones.
The manager calculated, as if unbelieving, calculated again, finally settling on Sui Jinyu’s beautiful face with its hint of aggression. His round body immediately trembled, and enthusiastic smiles climbed from his mouth corners to an exaggerated degree: “Right away, Young Master! I’ll have someone invite the other guests upstairs. What other requirements do you have?”
“Then please make another trip.” Sui Jinyu tapped the chair back, unhurriedly making requests: “Go around this alley to the Rare Treasures Pavilion across the street. Buy three bottles of thousand-year peach blossom dew, five Blazing Sun immortal milk doves, and eight servings of Phoenix Immortal cloud cakes. Oh, and ask what new fine wines and dishes their elders have recently produced—bring one of each.”
After his string of menu-like orders, the surrounding chatter completely quieted.
“Nineteen.” Sui Jinyu seemed unaware, looking up at Su You with quite gentle words, but his tone was deliberately coaxing like speaking to a child, even carrying a hint of flattery: “What do you usually like to eat or drink? Big brother will have someone bring it for you.”
Su You’s gaze slowly moved from Xue Yu. Originally, he should have shaken his head, but in the end, he moved his lips: “One serving of tranquil heart dew.”
Xue Yu turned to glance at him.
Everyone, including the manager who had seen grand scenes, was stunned by Sui Jinyu’s lavish spending. Looking around, even the usually aloof Cang Qu crossed his arms and looked over. Only Jiu Feng and Sui Yu showed no change in expression, even seeming to take it for granted.
Compared to the Demon Capital, the Sacred Lands were indeed poor—this was an indisputable fact. But even knowing this in their hearts, seeing Sui Jinyu throw money around to this extent still produced an absurd sense of desolation.
Xue Yu’s expression remained unchanged. She tapped the table surface, pulling the topic back: “What’s the situation at the palace?”
“Those court officials have no other skills, but they can talk and think. Qiu Tong’s life exchange, causing the Qiu bloodline to end, became: when the Emperor was critically ill, Prince Zhao, who was attending to his sickness, was grief-stricken, caught a cold, and also died. Then there’s Qiu Ren, who was bitten by a spirit beast presented by some cultivation sect and kept in the palace. Now missing arms and legs, the imperial physicians all shook their heads after examining him, saying he wouldn’t survive.” Yin Ling laughed angrily: “Listen to this—such bad luck that even story books wouldn’t dare write it this way.”
“Impressive—all the misfortune fell on the Qiu family.”
“What’s their current explanation?” Xue Yu said, “The new Emperor’s candidate.”
“A complete mess with no definite explanation. The court is now divided into two factions—one clamoring that the nation cannot be without a ruler for a day, the other advocating to first handle the former lord’s funeral rites be handled properly. Everything’s in chaos.”
“Mm, I’ve received quite a few messages.” Shen Jingshi yawned as if he hadn’t slept well, sporting dark circles under his eyes: “From court civil officials and cultivation clans, all saying roughly the same thing—asking if I’m interested in becoming Emperor.”
“But I estimate most people contacted Song Heng.” Shen Jingshi maintained his attitude of indifference toward everything: “He’s excellent, after all.”
Just then, over ten servers came upstairs carrying the spiritual delicacies Sui Jinyu had specified, solemnly placing them on the tables before them. One table couldn’t hold everything, so they combined into two tables; their movements while serving were like handling priceless treasures.
They truly were priceless treasures.
All brought by Sui Jinyu to coax his little brother.
With that handsome face, he picked up one of the specially requested boxes and shamelessly approached Su You: “Nineteen, this is for you.”
Sui Yu snorted with laughter, simply unable to watch this scene. Jiu Feng watched like viewing a show with great interest, occasionally pulling at her mouth in undisguised mockery.
Su You accepted it, but quickly placed the box aside. His slender fingers rummaged through the pile of items for a while before finally picking out a small bottle of tranquil heart dew. This was something refreshing, but with cooling grass leaves added, it wouldn’t have a very stimulating sensation—just a gentle comfort.
This was very common in the Sacred Lands.
Sui Jinyu frowned upon seeing this, asking with concern: “What’s wrong, not feeling well—” The word “well” hadn’t left his mouth when he heard Su You say it wasn’t that.
He then picked up the bottle of tranquil heart dew, unscrewed it, dabbed some on his index fingertip, then applied it to Xue Yu’s temples, pressing gently twice.
Sui Jinyu couldn’t continue speaking.
He looked twice, his expression showing some restraint. After looking twice more, he really couldn’t hold back and angrily turned his eyes away.
Not only this biological brother, but even the previously smiling Jiu Feng’s smile vanished like magic. She clicked her tongue, Shen Jingshi echoed, and in just moments, the two performed like a comedic duo.
“Fine, just fine, really fine.” Jiu Feng clapped toward Xue Yu: “You have a method for managing men.”
Yin Ling: “Such good fortune.”
“I was a bit uncomfortable earlier.” Originally forcing herself to resist that drowsiness, as the cool scent spread around her eyes and brows, Xue Yu’s bones relaxed. Knowing Su You stood behind her, her shoulders gradually lowered, finally slowly pressing most of her weight against him.
A posture that looked somewhat ambiguous yet intimate, exactly like an embrace from behind.
Su You bore this weight, meeting the teasing or joking gazes around him, pulling his lips into an extremely shallow arc.
“I think that’s it.” Jiu Feng sympathetically patted Sui Yu’s shoulder: “Go back and prepare—send betrothal gifts. The Sui family has money anyway.”
Seeing them joke around for a while and disperse much of the previous tense atmosphere, Shan Shu brought up serious matters again: “Then we’ll proceed as discussed before. The Qiu family now has no heirs. The court and cultivation sects won’t want us interfering in selecting the new Emperor. Only those from the other bloodline personally designated by the Fusang Tree years ago can assume the position—namely Song Heng and Shen Jingshi.”
“The Emperor cannot cultivate and will have his spiritual meridians permanently sealed.” Xue Yu tapped the table edge: “Song Heng is unwilling.”
He wanted both cultivation and overwhelming power.
All the world’s good things should be his.
Mentioning Song Heng’s name annoyed Yin Ling. She took out her spirit talisman: “I’ll contact Lu Chengze. He has a decent relationship with that person—see if we can learn anything.”
“Speaking of Lu Chengze, he’s quite a character.” Jiu Feng laughed, exhaling through her nose: “If losing the successor position over a woman, I could understand—after all, beauty brings disaster, heroes have trouble passing beauty’s gate. But over a man? I can’t understand. Honestly, this is the first time I’ve heard such a thing.”
“Have you decided?” Xue Yu ignored this topic, looking at Shan Shu and Shen Jingshi, her gaze finally falling directly on the latter, frowning as she spoke extremely bluntly: “The Emperor cannot cultivate. When that time comes, Shen Jingshi’s cultivation must be abolished. Also, he only has a hundred years to live.”
Shen Jingshi shrugged indifferently, as if they were discussing not himself but someone completely unrelated.
Shan Shu looked at him. Her already-made decision wavered at this moment. She smoothed her skirt, and after a long while, looked gently at Xue Yu: “We’ll discuss it further.”
Xue Yu made a sound of agreement without saying much: “The two Emperor bloodlines established by the Fusang Tree were both meritorious ministers who made great sacrifices to erase Mei. The Emperor’s position cannot be forced. Now that the Qiu bloodline is severed, if there truly are no successors, the Fusang Tree will emerge to designate another bloodline.”
Ultimately, the Sacred Lands were responsible for maintaining worldly stability. As long as the Emperor didn’t deliberately slaughter like Qiu Tong, randomly attacking other races’ heirs and constantly intensifying three-realm conflicts, it didn’t matter much to them who occupied this position or what their character was like.
But they couldn’t interfere too much in third-party internal affairs.
“I say, since we can’t intervene in mortal development, why not let them follow their own rules to determine the throne? Like our Demon Capital—whoever has the ability takes it, whoever wins gets it. If an Emperor rules well with popular support, it can naturally pass down through generations. If ruling poorly with incompetence, let capable people replace them. This way, sitting Emperors would have some pressure.” Jiu Feng propped her head with her elbow, quite troubled: “Sometimes I don’t understand what the Fusang Tree is thinking.”
“It’s not that simple.” Cang Qu, who hadn’t spoken much, leaned to one side and now spoke with mild explanation: “That disaster ten thousand years ago had too great an impact on this realm. Even now, it hasn’t completely disappeared.”
He casually grabbed at the air, crushing the strand of blackness they couldn’t see: “Human and demon clan succession differs from family changes. They gather soldiers—easily tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. One imperial succession costs countless lives. This realm can’t bear it.”
“Even at the current level, Tai Hua feels it can barely handle it.” Cang Qu pointed to his dark circles: “Over a month now, running east and west, haven’t closed my eyes once.”
He paused, quite irritably taking a breath, smiling without warmth: “I’m risking being struck by heavenly thunder to tell you—if there are more large-scale deaths of innocent people, demons, or any thinking, rational beings, this realm can’t support it—”
Before finishing, thunder suddenly crashed from the sky outside. Cang Qu’s expression stiffened as he quickly completed his words: “Then even throwing all of Tai Hua in wouldn’t be enough. We’d experience the ancient tragedy once more.”
Finished, he warily swept the cloudy, lightning-flashing sky and quickly shut his mouth.
Xue Yu fell into long silence. Yin Ling looked at Jiu Feng with a sound: “When can the Demon Capital take over mortal demons? They completely won’t listen to the Sacred Lands, and managing them lacks proper justification.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to.”
Through long contact, Jiu Feng’s relationship with them had reached the level of sworn brotherhood in good times. Now facing such heavy topics that dragged everyone in, she straightened her back slightly and spoke seriously: “Be reasonable and think—what’s everyone’s current attitude toward the Demon Capital? They verbally shout to fight and kill us, let alone the weak ones. Even when disputes arise, in the mortal realm’s home court, before Demon Capital people can arrive to handle things, cases are already decided. What can we do? If it were you, enduring this year after year, could you stand it?”
“Because of this, not one of the Demon Capital’s top twenty clans is willing to take over. Even the elders in our clan think the same.” She continued: “That vast Demon Capital isn’t my domain to decide alone.”
“Moreover, after so many years, mortal demons already have several of their leaders. They’re all great demons who, while inferior in bloodline to Nine Phoenix, see the Demon Capital as having abandoned them. Taking over now means plenty of hard battles to fight. Just these matters alone could grind me to death.”
Jiu Feng lifted her eyes, looking at Su You standing behind Xue Yu: “Why don’t you have your young master return to the Demon Capital to manage affairs? His bloodline works for both the Demon Capital and the mortal realm. My pressure would be much less.”
Just then, a bent-backed person entered First Grade Residence. He seemed about to grasp his whisk but stopped at the last moment.
The manager politely indicated the first floor no longer received guests, but the person spoke in a sharp, thin voice: “Go announce me. Nothing else needs managing.”
This kind of voice, the experienced manager immediately recognized it as someone from the palace. Not daring to neglect, he came to inform Xue Yu and the others.
That eunuch was personally trained by Bai Su. He didn’t stay long or look at others, only saying two short sentences to Xue Yu.
Two short sentences made Xue Yu suddenly look up, five fingers hanging at her side, clenching and unclenching.
“What’s this about the Yedu Lord’s Great Seal?” Yin Ling was quite shocked: “This thing—can this thing be easily stamped out?”
“I’m going back now.” Xue Yu pushed back her stool and stood, the grating sound of dissatisfaction. She pressed her lips, looking at Yin Ling, Shan Shu, and Jiu Feng, speaking word by word: “Next, you go investigate Prince Zhao’s consort’s whereabouts. Qiu Tong isn’t someone who would block all his escape routes without leaving room. Before dying, he executed imperial princes under various pretenses, leaving only two—Prince Zhao and his legitimate son, both became tools for his life exchange.”
“This way, with no one left in the Qiu family, once he failed, the throne would fall to others. He wouldn’t do this.”
“His mind is vicious, his arrangements meticulous—he would consider failure’s consequences beforehand.”
“If my prediction is correct, Prince Zhao’s consort is already pregnant.” Xue Yu calmly finished, her eyelashes moving once: “Find her and tell her the truth about Prince Zhao and Qiu Ren’s deaths. I heard Prince Zhao loved and respected her greatly while alive. If she’s a smart woman, she’ll know what to do next.”
“Nineteen.” Xue Yu turned to look at Su You: “Stay a few more days. Do you know what to do here?”
Su You nodded, his features deep: “Don’t worry.”
Xue Yu immediately looked at Chen Longzhi: “Open the teleportation array now. I’m returning to Yedu.”
Chen Longzhi calculated the teleportation array’s usage frequency over the past days, his scalp tingling. He forced himself to stand, gestured a number to Sui Jinyu, and after the other agreed without blinking, followed behind Xue Yu with hurried steps.
After that figure completely disappeared, Su You lowered his head to look at his fingers, which seemed to still retain the rhythm of her temple’s pulsing, urgent and rapid.
Forced fatigue colliding with forcing herself awake. He could imagine how uncomfortable she must be now.
That vague decision in his heart became clear and definite. He looked at Sui Jinyu, Sui Yu, and Jiu Feng, speaking clearly: “After things here are finished, I’ll go back and manage the demon race.”
Sui Jinyu used his palm to conceal the corner of his mouth, not letting his New Year-level happiness show too obviously.
Sui Yu also breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders dropping as if a burden was lifted.
In Yedu’s great hall study, when Xue Yu was led into the study by attendants, the Yedu Lord was leisurely appreciating an ancient painting with great interest and a good mood.
Seeing her arrive, he rolled up the painting and handed it to a nearby attendant, instructing: “Go hang this on that wall and brew two cups of this year’s new tea.”
“Back already?” The Yedu Lord looked at Xue Yu, beckoning her: “Good that you didn’t delay. Ah Yu, Father recently heard some rumors spreading from the Palace Guard Bureau and wanted to ask you—”
Whether the matter with Su You was all true.
His worried words for his daughter hadn’t left his mouth when he saw Xue Yu’s face cold as frost, pulling out white paper from one side of the desk, dipping the ink brush in ink and placing it on the inkstone, her voice cold enough to freeze: “Twenty-five to twenty-three years ago, where and when did Father use the Yedu Lord’s Great Seal? Think carefully and write it all down. Think back to when Xue Rong wasn’t dead yet.”
She pulled out another sheet of paper with a “snap,” pressing it before him: “Also list all possible places the Lord’s Great Seal might be used.”
Her repeated polite “you” fell like knives from heaven. The Yedu Lord held the brush, silent for a while, feeling he had done something wrong. He humbly asked: “What’s happened?”