Chapter 9: You Have a Home in Jiangzhou?

Su Kuang stopped by Wangshu's courtyard, left her a top-grade Sacred Weapon, and headed back to his own quarters.

With nothing better to do, he had the System archive the books sent over by the Xuantian Holy Land.

He absorbed the important ones first; the rest could wait.

Three Peak Great Emperor powerhouses already put him in the top ten of the Nine Heavens Continent.

Most hidden imperial clans and ancient sects had only a single Peak Great Emperor holding down the fort.

Once, the Nine Heavens Continent had three thousand provinces, countless lineages, and even ties to the Upper Realm.

A million years ago, contact between the two realms was severed. To find a way to ascend again, they went to war.

Now only eight hundred provinces remained—the rest had been sunk.

Still, this information came from the Xuantian Holy Land, which didn't even have a Great Emperor to its name.

Their knowledge of those hidden imperial clans was probably shallow at best.

"Forget it, forget it. I'll just recruit my disciples. As for everything else—as long as nobody comes provoking my Lingxiao Sect, they can do whatever they want!"

…

The next day.

Snow Province.

Xue Weiyang followed her memories back to the place where she had founded the Weiyang Palace.

But the Weiyang Palace in her memory had long since become ruins, buried under heavy snow that erased the last trace of it.

She sighed softly. Back then, she had fought three Peak Great Emperors alone, barely managing to trade her own death for one killed and one gravely wounded.

But apart from her, the Weiyang Palace had only a late-stage Quasi-Emperor holding it together. Survival had been a slim hope.

"Fentian. Old Poison. Just you wait."

Xue Weiyang clenched her fists. She wanted revenge now, this instant—but both the Fentian Great Emperor and the Poison Emperor wielded Extreme Dao Imperial Weapons.

Pit a top-grade Sacred Weapon against an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, and she'd struggle even in a one-on-one.

But this wasn't over. Old Poison was a rogue cultivator; his descendants were likely tucked away in some small world. He was also the one who'd been gravely wounded back then.

Fentian was different. His Fentian Holy Land couldn't just pick up and move.

Even if it could, she'd strike before he had time to react.

She'd raze the Fentian Holy Land—and help herself to the spiritual vein it sat on while she was at it.

At her thought, the small world she'd left behind before her death—now reduced to a secret realm—stirred.

Good. Her origin mark was still intact. She could reclaim it anytime.

Just as Xue Weiyang successfully drew the small world back into her body, a dozen or so flying boats drifted out from a spatial rift nearby.

"Strange! Where's the Ice Emperor Secret Realm? Where did my huge Ice Emperor Secret Realm go?"

The first to arrive, a Quasi-Emperor cultivator, noticed the secret realm's disappearance and his face turned iron-blue.

"Wow… how can anyone in this world be that ethereal and stunning?"

"So beautiful! I could die happy. The Ice Emperor herself must have looked like this back in the day!"

Once the flying boats stopped, the young geniuses aboard couldn't take their eyes off Xue Weiyang.

They were just about to strike up a conversation when a terrifying Imperial Pressure rolled off her.

One instant. Just one.

A dozen flying boats dropped like kites with cut strings.

Their elders and sect leaders shielded them, but plenty still crashed face-first into the dirt.

"You—"

"I am the Ice Emperor, Xue Weiyang. From here on… I ask, you answer!"

What?

Ice Emperor Xue Weiyang?

The dozen flying boats came from a dozen different factions. Not a single rogue cultivator among them.

"Senior Ice Emperor, this junior is the Thirteenth Elder of the Zhuge Clan!"

"Whatever you wish to know, this junior will answer. Please, let's not have any misunderstandings!"

The hidden imperial clan, the Zhuge Family?

Eleventh-ranked power on the Nine Heavens Continent, with two Peak Great Emperors guarding it.

That was the Zhuge Family as Xue Weiyang remembered it before her fall. Their family head had once courted her.

"How many years have passed since my fall?"

Elder Zhuge looked taken aback, but answered respectfully enough.

"Replying to Senior Ice Emperor—three thousand years."

Elder Zhuge knew full well that Xue Weiyang must have only recently revived. Otherwise she'd have come back for her small world long ago.

In her day, Xue Weiyang had been dazzling beyond compare. Even the family head had been one of her admirers.

But now, with the Weiyang Palace gone, she no longer had to defer to anyone.

The Zhuge Family might be formidable, but unlike the Fentian Great Emperor and his ilk, they couldn't scrape together a spatial Imperial Weapon.

Offend Xue Weiyang, and she'd hunt your line to extinction.

Short of a blood feud, who'd willingly provoke a Peak Great Emperor with nothing left to lose?

"Three thousand years… only three thousand years."

Xue Weiyang clenched her fists. The geniuses from the holy lands and imperial clans didn't dare meet her eyes anymore.

"Does anyone from the Weiyang Palace still live?"

Elder Zhuge shook his head gently, his expression tinged with regret.

"After your incident, most of the elders and disciples fled. Those who stayed chose to fight to the death."

"The female cultivators knew what capture meant. Almost all of them self-detonated."

"There is one other matter… I'm not sure I should speak of it."

Elder Zhuge hesitated, afraid of provoking her anger.

"If it's common knowledge, I'll find out whether you tell me or not."

"If it isn't, the Zhuge Family will have a favor from me."

Fair enough.

Elder Zhuge let out a long breath, then spoke.

"It's no secret, really. The Saintess of the Weiyang Palace… was also on the list of those who fled."

"She's now the wife of the Blood Soul Holy Cult's leader. Her cultivation has reached the Sacred King stage—"

Boom!

Before he could finish, space rippled outward in waves from Xue Weiyang.

Jiang Hanshu, Saintess of the Weiyang Palace, wasn't just Xue Weiyang's direct disciple—she was the reason Xue Weiyang had fallen.

The Fentian Holy Land had two Peak Great Emperor ancestors. One of them had a grandson who'd set his sights on Jiang Hanshu.

Xue Weiyang had told her disciple plainly: no one could force her into anything.

But after Xue Weiyang refused, the Fentian Great Emperor seized the chance to ally with the Poison Emperor and strike—intending to make master and disciple alike into dao companions for the Fentian grandfather and grandson.

Xue Weiyang never imagined that after she fought to the death, that wretch would turn her back on her.

Back then, Jiang Hanshu had patiently guided weaker fellow disciples and repeatedly held the rear during excursions.

Xue Weiyang had seen it all with her own eyes. She'd still underestimated human nature.

"Good. Very good."

"Where is the Fentian Holy Land? Point me the way!"

She'd killed one Peak Great Emperor, but the Fentian Holy Land still had another guarding it. Xue Weiyang refused to believe it had declined because of her.

The debts from back then—she'd settle them one by one, sooner or later.

"It's in Fentian Province. But you're alone, and your Imperial Weapons are damaged—"

Before Elder Zhuge could finish, Xue Weiyang had already vanished.

"Ah… Fentian Province is in for it now."

Elder Zhuge stood with his hands clasped behind his back. The Fentian Holy Land had once stood equal to the Zhuge Family.

Ever since one of their ancestors died together with Xue Weiyang, their standing had plummeted.

…

Half a shichen later.

Fentian Province.

Outside the Fentian Holy Land.

A breathtaking figure in snow-white robes stepped slowly out of the void.

Gazing at the still-thriving Fentian Holy Land, Xue Weiyang took out the jade token Su Kuang had given her without hesitation.

"Sect Master, the Fentian Holy Land and I share a blood feud. Please hold off their ancestor for a moment."

"I want to take the top-grade spiritual vein here with my own hands—in front of everyone in the Fentian Holy Land."