CHAPTER 961: CHAPTER 98: MOON CONCEALMENT OF DAYS PAST (PART 2)

Countless memories were reflected and turbulent.

Xie Xuanyi’s face was pale, staggering until someone gently held his shoulder.

"Are you... alright?"

Zhao Chunyang looked at his disciple with concern.

Scenes interlaced before his eyes, and Xie Xuanyi steadied his posture and mind.

He held onto his master’s arm and murmured, "I... am fine."

Before he finished speaking.

The tall woman nailed to the Immortal Tree laughed again.

"Remembered?"

Yuan Huang watched the young man before her with three parts pity and seven parts mockery.

Ten years passed, yet time seemed to change nothing.

Xie Xuanyi was as young as when he first entered the Moon Hidden Realm...

As for herself, just like back then, she was bound to this Tongtian Tree...

Ten years ago, Yuan Huang concealed and cultivated tirelessly, providing Phoenix Blood to the Immortal Tree while drawing nutrients from it. She silently advanced to the Yang God Tenth Layer Heaven in the most remote and desolate corner of the Imperial Palace, using her power exceeding that of the Grand Emperor to break through the Moon Concealment Array in one fell swoop.

The first thing she did was to kill Emperor Chu.

Ironically,

when she was first brought back to Great Chu, she thought day and night of breaking free from her shackles and returning to the Demon Country...

After killing Emperor Chu.

She didn’t do that.

After being trapped for so many years, Yuan Huang had thought it through.

Even if she broke free of the array’s "restraints," she wouldn’t leave the Great Chu Imperial Palace... What could she return to in the Demon Country? Could she go back to the Heavenly Phoenix Palace to vie for power with those Phoenix Blood kin she hadn’t met in hundreds of years?

It’s meaningless.

Staying here was better than staying in Great Chu.

Here lay the Immortal Tree she had painstakingly nurtured.

And an entire Great Chu Dynasty rich in fortune for her to use at will.

As for the "regicide" charge, she left it to Xie Xuanyi, who was traveling with Emperor Chu in the Moon Hidden Realm... From then on, she became the new "Emperor" of Great Chu.

Looking at Great Chu, few knew the truth about her "demon body."

Over the years, her disguise had been perfect. Even people like Yan Xin, who sensed something amiss with the Moon Concealment case, couldn’t do anything about it.

She had dedicated her Essence Blood to the Immortal Tree for its growth.

She contributed during the Battle of Poison, providing intelligence on the Phoenix Clan.

Through these long years, she had been imprisoned in the palace by the Grand Emperor. Though possessing a demon body, she had long fused herself with Great Chu.

Since the Immortal Tree symbolized the hope of Great Chu,

then she, fused with it, was no different.

"...I remembered."

Xie Xuanyi slowly regained his composure.

He looked at the Immortal Tree and spoke with a hoarse voice, "There was a time when I really thought... that I killed him."

The whole world was hunting him.

With the charge of regicide on his shoulders, Xie Xuanyi fled from the Imperial City to Jiangning, then to Qing State, and then to Northern County.

If there were one thing,

a thing that everyone in the world believed you did...

Then innocence would never seem innocent again.

Xie Xuanyi wanted to defend himself.

But as to what happened in the Moon Hidden Realm... he couldn’t remember. Even after reclaiming the "Fetal Light," he could only recall some scattered, fragmented images.

The Phoenix Fire rushing out from the Immortal Tree seal.

The Moon Hidden tide engulfed by the Phoenix Fire.

This was nearly everything that happened that day.

As for Emperor Chu, he was nothing more than a fragment swallowed by the tide.

"Spare my life."

Yuan Huang’s voice was hoarse as she turned to Zhao Chunyang, "I’ll return your disciple’s innocence... and this Immortal Tree can be gifted to Da Sui Sword Palace."

"...?"

Zhao Chunyang, hearing this, frowned slightly.

"I have already lost."

Yuan Huang lowered her eyes and said, "If you don’t kill me, I will hand everything of Great Chu over to you, then retreat to the Demon Country and stay out of worldly conflicts. And you can become the new emperor of the Da Chu Dynasty, with Da Sui Sword Palace becoming the top sect in the world, far stronger than the Taoists and Fan Yin Temple."

She had prepared everything long ago.

Now, the Little Emperor of Chu Country was just a figurehead.

With Zhao Chunyang’s strength, he could easily manipulate Chuyin, this puppet emperor, and thus rightfully control the entire Da Chu Dynasty.

"Do you think... I’m interested in such things?"

Zhao Chunyang seemed to have heard a joke.

He had no interest in imperial power...

Besides that.

He couldn’t care less about worldly rankings.

If he wanted to vie.

All these years, Zhao Chunyang could have come out and fought twice...

With just two punches, he could make the Taoist Chong Kan bow.

Even when fighting the "Qin Ancestor" of Yang God Tenth Layer Heaven, Zhao Chunyang hadn’t used full strength, both saving Qin Ancestor’s face and pointing out the path to "Dao Source" for him.

"If you don’t consider for yourself... you should consider for the Sword Palace."

Yuan Huang spoke hoarsely, hitting right at the point, "You won’t live much longer."

These words shook Xie Xuanyi, his pupils slightly contracting as he looked at his master, the meaning within his eyes self-evident.

"Precisely because I won’t live long. That’s why I don’t want to overthink."

Zhao Chunyang gave a response that surprised everyone.

He was not avoiding death.

"All beings have their tribulations... If one can’t survive the catastrophe, then they should naturally perish. If I can’t withstand the terminal tribulation, dying and disappearing from the way is my deserved fate."

Zhao Chunyang said lightly, "As for the Sword Palace, its most difficult ten years have passed. Hereafter, Da Sui has Xuanyi, Miao Yin, Qi Lie, and Huang Su... these things are not for me, a dying man, to consider."

"..."

Yuan Huang fell into silence, gazing complexly at the elderly man before her.

She couldn’t understand Zhao Chunyang’s thoughts.

Perhaps because... she and Zhao Chunyang were fundamentally two different people.

Ten years ago.

Yuan Huang had thought of waging direct war on Da Sui Sword Palace.

But out of fear of Zhao Chunyang, she chose "to lie low," to first hold this Dynasty within her grasp, then plan slowly.

Now it seemed... she might have made a very wrong choice.

"Then there’s nothing to talk about..."

Yuan Huang sighed and spoke coldly, "In the previous battle, your remaining strength shouldn’t be much... Now that I am one with the Immortal Tree, still maintaining the Heavenly Human Realm. It won’t be that simple to kill me."

The blood of the pure blood phoenix had almost been completely drained.

Beneath the Immortal Tree, a golden pool of blood had already formed.

But...

This didn’t mean that she would truly die.

The four Dragon Veins continued to nourish the Divine Tree, and under its reciprocal support, Yuan Huang’s vitality was nearly inexhaustible.

"Killing you is indeed very difficult."

Zhao Chunyang spoke seriously, acknowledging how hard it was to kill Yuan Huang.

He had previously witnessed the miracle of "Pupil Sea. Infinite" with his own eyes.

Even the true Heavenly Human Divine Power couldn’t slay this pure blood phoenix fused with the Dragon Veins and Immortal Tree.

As long as the fusion with the Immortal Tree remained, Yuan Huang was virtually immortal and indestructible.

"But... do you remember what I first said?"

Zhao Chunyang sighed deeply.

"This Immortal Tree does not belong to you."