Chapter 1367: Confiding

The bamboo house was small, with exceptionally simple and neat furnishings, yet it emanated an indescribable sense of peace and warmth. This small bamboo house had been personally built by Chu Yuechan years ago using green bamboo. Over the years, no one apart from her and her daughter had entered or even approached it; Yun Che was the first "outsider."

Yun Che's eyes were red and swollen. Without profound energy, he couldn't even perform the simplest swelling reduction. If anyone who knew him were to see him now with his bloodshot eyes, they would likely be utterly stunned.

"Why did you come here back then?" he asked, his gaze shifting between Chu Yuechan and Yun Wuxin. For the first time, he felt that having only two eyes was simply not enough.

Yun Wuxin leaned against Chu Yuechan's knee, resting her chin in her hands, occasionally stealing glances at Yun Che. Chu Yuechan held her small hand, her eyes slightly hazy. She had clearly changed. Compared to the Ice Phoenix Fairy, the former leader of the Seven Ice Cloud Fairies, who had been cold to the point of being almost heartless, she now, though still aloof, possessed a distinct—no, a profound—softness in her demeanor and gaze.

This was because she was no longer the Ice Phoenix Fairy, but a woman who had abandoned her entire past for the "dead" Yun Che, a mother to a girl.

"Back then, at Heavenly Sword Villa, everyone thought you had died beneath the Sword Discourse Arena," she began. "It was also then that I discovered I was pregnant. To preserve your bloodline, I left the Ice Cloud Immortal Palace..."

"..." Yun Che knew full well that her "leaving the Ice Cloud Immortal Palace" was no simple matter. To leave, she had decisively crippled her Ice Cloud Arts. She had also carried the shame and guilt of disgracing her sect and bore the weight of what was then the greatest "scandal" in the entire Azure Cloud Continent.

Only later, as Yun Che's power and influence grew, this "scandal" transformed into a "beautiful tale." Such is the nature of power: when it reaches a sufficient level, it changes not only oneself but also everyone's perception of the same matter.

"I had originally intended to find a quiet place to give birth to our child," she continued. "But before I could even leave the Snow Region, I was ambushed. Those people were extremely powerful. Furthermore, having just crippled my profound energy, my profound aura was chaotic, and I was injured by them... Fortunately, a blizzard began, and I managed to escape with the help of a Snow Phoenix Beast..."

"It was Xuanyuan Yufeng!" Yun Che said calmly, though his hands were clenched tightly.

Because of Ling Jie, he had never truly killed Xuanyuan Yufeng, but every time he thought of her, his heart filled with hatred. At this moment, it was more intense than ever.

"I recognized them as people from Heavenly Sword Villa..." she continued. Although Chu Yuechan had crippled her profound energy then, her profound strength was still present. At the Sovereign Profound Realm level, few in the Azure Cloud Continent at that time could force her into such a desperate situation, but Heavenly Sword Villa was definitely one of them. "After I escaped the Snow Region, I collapsed in a tangled forest and was unconscious for a long time... When I woke up, I discovered that not only I was injured, but also the child in my womb."

"What!?" Yun Che's body trembled violently. His eyes, countless times cloudier than before, now gleamed with a terrifying ferocity. "They... injured Wuxin!?"

Yun Wuxin blinked, then looked at herself, her face filled with confusion.

"At that time, I could only desperately use my remaining profound energy to protect Wuxin," she continued, "but I didn't know where to go in the future..." As if recalling that situation, her voice became ethereal.

"..." Yun Che squeezed her hand, his heart convulsing intensely with pain. Abandoning her sect, bearing a disgraced reputation, and then being pursued by Heavenly Sword Villa... What did Heavenly Sword Villa represent at that time? The foremost overlord of the Azure Cloud Continent, an absolutely supreme and invincible existence!

It was impossible to imagine the despair she had faced then.

"Do you still remember?" Chu Yuechan's tone softened slightly. "Back then, in the Dragon God's Trial Realm, you told me many stories about yourself and others to keep me, with my crippled profound veins and suicidal thoughts, conscious. Many of them were obviously false, but some, perhaps, were true."

"..." Indeed, more than ninety percent of what he had told Chu Yuechan during those six months in the Dragon God's Trial Realm was false. Many were jokes he had forcibly made up... though he never once managed to make her laugh.

"I vaguely remember you once saying that your Phoenix flame power didn't come from the Divine Phoenix Sect of the Divine Phoenix Empire, but from a place called the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range," she continued. "In its center resided a declining, yet unknown to the world, Phoenix remnant tribe. The Phoenix descendants there were exceptionally kind and simple, protected by the Phoenix God, so no beasts dared approach..."

"..." Yun Che was slightly stunned. For a full six months, to prevent Chu Yuechan's will from fading, he would hold her every day and speak countless words, so many that he couldn't remember everything he had said... just as he couldn't recall mentioning the Phoenix remnant tribe to her at this moment.

He was even a little surprised... Chu Yuechan was indeed the first person to know he possessed Phoenix flames; on the first day they met, he had displayed the Phoenix flames before her to expel the poison spirit from her body. But the origin of his Phoenix flames was one of his greatest secrets, and it concerned the safety of the Phoenix remnant tribe, something that absolutely could not be revealed to outsiders...

But remembering those six months in the Dragon God's Trial Realm, he gradually felt relieved. The cruel trial of killing ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine profound beasts, where every moment brought the danger of fatal attacks, coupled with the need to protect Chu Yuechan... the mental exhaustion could indeed make him disoriented enough to reveal secrets without realizing it.

"So, I came here," Chu Yuechan recounted softly. "However, when I arrived, there was a very powerful barrier here, so strong that even if I hadn't crippled my profound energy, I wouldn't have been able to break through it."

The barrier Chu Yuechan spoke of was undoubtedly the protective barrier that the Phoenix Soul Spirit had erected with its remaining power after he and Cang Yue had left years ago.

"Just as I was filled with despair and about to leave, the barrier suddenly opened a gap on its own..."

"It was Wuxin," Yun Che said instinctively. "She inherited my Phoenix bloodline. My Phoenix bloodline was the primordial blood directly bestowed by the Phoenix Soul Spirit, and Wuxin is the second-generation inheritor of that Phoenix primordial blood. Therefore, even before birth, her Phoenix aura was strong enough to surpass that of a fully grown Phoenix descendant."

To be able to affect the Phoenix barrier before birth—neither the Phoenix remnant tribe nor the Divine Phoenix Sect, apart from Feng Xue'er who directly inherited the primordial blood like him, could have achieved it. But Wuxin could... because she was his daughter!

Back then, Chu Yuechan had just crippled her profound energy and was then injured and pursued by Heavenly Sword Villa. Later, the Divine Phoenix Empire launched a full-scale invasion... If not for the unborn Yun Wuxin opening the Phoenix barrier, he might never have seen them again.

"This place, just as you described it, is a peaceful haven beyond the world," she said. "The people here have no evil in their eyes. They were surprised and wary of my arrival, and when they learned I was pregnant, they wanted to help me. After I showed indifference and resistance, they stopped disturbing me..." Chu Yuechan gently closed her eyes. "In all these years here, I have almost never left this bamboo forest, nor have I interacted with them... because I was afraid. I dared not trust anyone anymore... and even less dared to leave..."

"...I understand," Yun Che nodded, uttering three incredibly pale words. But the pity and guilt in his heart almost tore him apart.

"Your profound energy... it's gone, isn't it?" Yun Che asked softly. Although he no longer had divine sense, he could still perceive it through his eyes.

Chu Yuechan nodded, not with sorrow or loneliness, but with peace. "Wuxin, in my womb, was injured by sword qi. By the time I arrived here, her aura was exceptionally weak. To protect her life source, I continuously forced out my essence blood and origin power..."

"!!!" Yun Che's body swayed again, and his face visibly paled.

"Later, my origin power was exhausted, my profound veins withered and died, but Wuxin was finally saved, and then born..."

"..." Yun Che's lips trembled... Massive loss of essence blood, withered profound veins, and facing childbirth—in his understanding, this was an absolutely fatal situation.

He wanted to ask Chu Yuechan how she had survived then, but before the words left his mouth, he already knew the answer... Only a mother could create such a miracle.

"At that time... I wanted to entrust Wuxin to them, and then quietly fall asleep..." Chu Yuechan gently stroked her daughter's hair, her once cold eyes now filled with a softness capable of melting everything. "But looking into Wuxin's eyes, listening to her cries, I couldn't bear to leave... I wanted to watch her grow up, and hopefully... she could grow to be like you..."

"But I look more like Mommy, not like Daddy at all," Yun Wuxin said, looking at Chu Yuechan, then lightly sticking out her tongue at Yun Che.

Chu Yuechan smiled... This scene instantly became etched in Yun Che's soul.

This was the first time he had ever seen Chu Yuechan smile...

This was once a scene that only appeared in his dreams, yet now it was presented so closely before his eyes.

Because he was still alive.

Years ago, he had used countless methods to search for Chu Yuechan's whereabouts. He had Cang Yue use the imperial power to search within the Azure Cloud Continent, later borrowed the power of the Black Moon Merchant Guild, and eventually even had Feng Xue'er use the power of the Divine Phoenix Imperial Family to search the entire Profound Sky Continent...

All to no avail.

He had searched so many places, yet he had never thought of the "Phoenix remnant tribe."

Because this was an unknown sanctuary, a secret place, and his Phoenix power originated here, he naturally couldn't allow it to be exposed to the world. Subconsciously, he wouldn't want to disturb them, and he had never imagined Chu Yuechan would come here.

Five years ago, he and Feng Xue'er had come here, but chose not to disturb the Phoenix remnant tribe after discovering the Phoenix barrier... It turned out they had always been so close, at one point just a stone's throw away.

He also understood why even Jasmine couldn't find her back then.

After Jasmine reconstructed her body and gradually recovered her divine power, she twice released her divine sense, covering the entire Profound Sky Continent to search for Chu Yuechan's aura... Both times, she told him that her divine power was still insufficient, and she had failed.

It wasn't until she left, conveying the truth through Hong'er's lingering soul-sound, that he learned it wasn't due to her lack of power, but because she simply hadn't found her.

After Chu Yuechan crippled her Ice Cloud Arts, her aura no longer bore the characteristics of the Ice Cloud Immortal Palace. When Jasmine released her divine sense to search back then, she could only sweep for all those with Sovereign Profound Realm auras. Thinking she might have made a breakthrough, she also searched for Tyrant Profound Realm... and even Monarch Profound Realm auras.

Yet, she found nothing.

Later, Jasmine hypothesized that Chu Yuechan's profound energy might have regressed and forcefully searched for Sky Profound Realm auras... Still, she did not find Chu Yuechan.

With hundreds of billions of living beings on the Profound Sky Continent, no matter how strong Jasmine was, her divine sense could not meticulously scan every single person, especially when profound energy was lower and auras were weaker.

The words Jasmine left for Yun Che conveyed a cruel truth: there was no trace of Chu Yuechan's aura in the Sovereign Profound, Tyrant Profound, Monarch Profound... or even the Sky Profound realms. This could only mean two outcomes: either she was dead, or her cultivation had been crippled.

As for the latter... given Chu Yuechan's beauty, if her cultivation had been crippled by someone, her fate would be even more miserable than death. And given her personality, she would rather die...

It was from that moment onward that Yun Che had to accept the fact that Chu Yuechan was dead.

Only today did he learn that although she had lost her profound energy, it wasn't because she was crippled by others. Instead, it was to protect Yun Wuxin, causing her profound veins and origin power to deplete entirely, leading to her near death from exhaustion.

Xuanyuan Yufeng...

Yun Che gnashed his teeth inwardly... Even if you are Ling Jie's birth mother, I should truly slice you into a thousand pieces!!