Facing the Crown Prince’s complex gaze, Chu Yuan thought the other party was still suspicious and explained quickly:
[Your Highness, my cultivation and medallion came with me after my rebirth. I suspect that — ]
[It is a mission given to me by the Heavenly Dao. In this second life, I must eliminate the Demon Path Alliance in advance.]
[As for the Dragon Egg, the Sovereign was kind to me when I fell into the Demonic Path. I must save it.]
When he mentioned the dragon’s kindness to him, Ji Xuanyuan was reminded of the scene from her past life when her Junior Brother was on the verge of death, falling from high in the sky.
At that time, if the Black Dragon hadn’t held onto him tightly, Chu Yuan’s broken body would have long since been shattered into pieces.
Having a second chance at life, her Junior Brother wanted to make up for his regrets; was the current Ji Xuanyuan any different?
She fought back her tears, for a moment not knowing what to say.
For several brief moments, Ji Xuanyuan even felt the urge to pull him into her arms.
But what would happen after that?
Should she tell her Junior Brother directly that she was his Senior Sister? That she had also been reborn? And then they would be together, and the story would just end there?
How could it be that simple!
The final words of her Junior Brother from their past life flashed through her mind once more:
‘Senior Sister, actually… I never liked you. Everything before was just an act.’
At the time, she thought those were kind words meant to keep her from feeling guilty.
But the more she pondered it now, the more Ji Xuanyuan felt a lingering fear:
What if everything her Junior Brother said before he died was true?
What if he really didn’t like her and only cooperated with the “act” for some unknown reason?
Or perhaps he had once loved her, but that love had turned to hatred, and he felt nothing but extreme disgust for her before he died, which was why he said those things?
If that were really the case, wouldn’t revealing her true identity be the same as self-destructing?
When that time came, would her Junior Brother distance himself from her? Would they never see each other again until they died?
The more Ji Xuanyuan thought about it, the more terrified she became. The fear of “losing her Junior Brother again” suddenly overwhelmed the emotion of their long-awaited reunion.
Ji Xuanyuan’s mind was reeling as she thought to herself:
‘No! I absolutely cannot expose myself right now!’
‘My dual identity from my past life is actually an advantage for me.’
‘But next… what should I do?’
At this moment, Ji Xuanyuan actually didn’t know what her next move should be.
Just then, Chu Yuan continued:
[Your Highness, you may not believe it if I say it — ]
[The Sovereign is merely a target being pushed to the front.]
[Without it, the Demon Path Alliance would just push forward another member of the monster race to be the Alliance Leader.]
[In truth, the Sovereign is not wicked by nature.]
Pushing another member of the monster race to be the Alliance Leader?
Hearing the end of Chu Yuan’s message, the image of a nine-tailed fox phantom involuntarily surfaced in Ji Xuanyuan’s mind.
In her previous life.
Shortly after the Holy Lord, Chu Yunlan, was framed by the Fox Venerable and fled for his life.
The allied forces quickly captured the former Holy Lord.
According to the previous agreement, the Immortal Army began to take over half of the resources of the Taixu Sacred Domain.
Treasures one by one, crates of Spirit Stones… were carried out from all over the Sacred Domain and sent into the Immortal Army’s warships.
The cultivators of the Sacred Domain watched this scene with their hearts bleeding, yet they didn’t dare to say a single word.
Standing not far away, Ji Xuanyuan accidentally caught sight of a lonely, nine-tailed phantom.
The Fox Venerable stood in the shadows with her hands behind her back, watching all of this with an expressionless face.
She just stared quietly into the void, and within those fox-like eyes, there seemed to be the reflection of a certain thin figure.
Before long, the one-armed Chu Yunlan was brought up by two cultivators.
He was covered in blood, looking miserable and wretched as he knelt on the ground.
The Fox Venerable questioned him coldly:
“Chu Yunlan, you conspired with the Demonic Path and impersonated the lineage of the Holy Lord, leading to the death of our Holy Son, Chu Yuan. Now that things have come to this, do you have anything to say?”
The present moment felt exactly like that past moment.
Facing the interrogation, Chu Yunlan laughed miserably and spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm.
When he looked at the Fox Venerable, his gaze was particularly resentful:
“You bitch. Don’t push all the blame onto me. Think about what you’ve done to Yuan over the years. Without your methods, do you think I could have ever sat on this throne as the Holy Lord?”
The Fox Venerable’s eyebrows furrowed slightly:
“Even now, you dog, you still try to bite and drag me down with you?”
Chu Yunlan grinned:
“Heh! Bite you? Bitch, do you need me to help you recall what Yuan’s life was like when he was young?”
“After he was born, you were the one who took him from his father’s arms to live under a false name, struggling to survive with a poor family.”
“During those years, he chopped wood, carried water, cleaned animal pens, and scrubbed toilets… were those the things a Holy Son should have been doing?”
Listening to his accusations from a distance, Ji Xuanyuan’s gaze toward the Fox Venerable grew cold.
Facing the scrutinizing looks of the people around her, the Fox Venerable offered a guilty explanation:
“That was me tempering his mind! If some things aren’t handled from a young age, it becomes difficult to correct them later!”
“Oh? Is that so?”
Chu Yunlan’s smile didn’t fade as he continued to mock her:
“I heard that during the year Yuan reached the late stage of the Ganqi Realm, you unexpectedly rewarded him with a Spirit Accumulating Pill. But that pill contained poison. He didn’t notice, and after swallowing it, he suffered a fate worse than death and nearly experienced a cultivation deviation. It caused his father to question you late into the night — was that also one of your tests?”
The Fox Venerable’s jade-like fists clenched tight:
“I wanted him to learn to be cautious of gifts from others in the future!”
“Hahaha — !”
Chu Yunlan threw his head back and laughed, laughing until tears came to his eyes:
“Bitch, your words are high-sounding, but the truth is simply that you wanted to control Yuan and turn him into a dog under your skirt!”
“Shut up!”
The Fox Venerable’s nine tails suddenly rose, and the aura around her body surged violently.
She stared deathly at Chu Yunlan and said word by word:
“This is not control! It is love! It is my affection for the Holy Son!!!”
Amidst her angry roar, the Fox Venerable’s expression was nearly distorted.
Seeing that the Fox Venerable had finally snapped, the contemptuous smile on Chu Yunlan’s face grew even stronger, but he said no more.
He knew very well that the only thing he could do now was wag his tongue.
The Fox Venerable also realized this, and her expression slowly returned to normal, her dazed gaze falling toward her own full chest.
Once upon a time, she had personally carried that infant in his swaddling clothes to Xuanji City.
She had watched that child grow up step by step, falling and getting back up again and again on the edge of life and death.
She thought that under her supervision, she could polish a piece of peerless jade.
In the end, that piece of jade had shattered in someone else’s hands.
Her emotions became increasingly resentful:
“The one thing I did wrong in this life was — “
Slowly turning her head, the Fox Venerable’s gaze was like a knife, stabbing straight at Ji Xuanyuan:
“I shouldn’t have allowed a Love Tribulation like you to stay by the Holy Son’s side. I should have eliminated you with my own hands!”
Facing her piercing gaze, Ji Xuanyuan, whose Dao Heart was already shattered, did not dodge:
“Lord Fox Venerable, what a fine performance! Now that there is no longer any ancestral bloodline in the Sacred Domain, you are the most senior. Although half of the resources have been carved away, there is still the other half for you to squander.”
In truth, looking at her current expression, Ji Xuanyuan knew the other party definitely didn’t mean that.
But if what Chu Yunlan said was true, then the Fox Venerable in front of her was definitely one of the reasons her Junior Brother fell to the Demonic Path.
Since that was the case, she didn’t mind making the other party suffer a bit more:
“What a great play of ‘the dove occupying the magpie’s nest.’ You’ve certainly been a very devoted Supreme Guardian!”
As soon as she spoke, her words were like sharp arrows piercing through the Fox Venerable’s heart.
A sour bitterness called regret spread from her chest, flowing through her blood to her limbs and bones.
Everywhere it passed, something was snapping and breaking inch by inch.
Pfft!
A mouthful of blood sprayed from her crimson lips without warning, soaking into the cold stone floor.
The blood was a startling, vivid red, faintly shimmering with a golden light — it was her life essence blood.
The Fox Venerable’s Way of Desire and Emotion was broken.