Chapter 193: Rebirth

In Broken Realm City, before the beacon fires were lit.

The royal palace lay prostrate in the night. The square in front of it was empty. The city walls stood squarely, with guards positioned atop them. Torches burned quietly at times, and at other times moved back and forth.

Su Yanshu gazed at the imperial city. Her fiery red dress fluttered in the night wind, the phoenix embroidered on its hem seeming to be long asleep.

“I don’t like it here,” she suddenly said, her voice soft. “This place is like a cage. Since I arrived, I’ve done nothing but sing, dance, drink, and force smiles for the King. I’m truly weary of it all. Shall we leave? Peach blossoms should bloom for spring, not for the one who admires them.”

Behind her, the night seemed to stir, rippling in response to her words.

“Do you wish to leave with me?” A voice sounded from behind her.

Kui Yuan emerged from the darkness, holding his saber, and stood behind her, looking at her back.

Su Yanshu lowered her gaze from the high building, her sigh echoing distantly like the torches on the city walls. “You don’t even have your sword. How can you take me away?”

Kui Yuan looked at the saber in his arms and slightly lowered his head.

A month ago, he had fought the King and lost his sword to him.

These past three months had been the most oppressive of his life.

On many nights, he felt this darkness was like a fire, relentlessly burning away his dignity, leaving him sleepless.

He should have been the hero of Broken Realm City, forging new lands, planting flags on the ice plains, and journeying to distant places until he found true light. And today, the city gates were open, and he was under no restriction, yet he chose not to leave. He remained here, not moving an inch.

What he guarded was also his own dignity.

“I will kill him,” Kui Yuan said.

Su Yanshu smiled helplessly. “You couldn’t defeat him three months ago, and it’s the same now. You’ll die.”

Kui Yuan looked into her eyes and asked seriously, “Do you truly wish for me to take you away?”

“Of course, I do…” Su Yanshu’s smile faded further, her words light as a feather. “Do you think I’ve been happy these past three months?”

Kui Yuan’s brows furrowed, his expression betraying pain. “I’m not happy either. Even with you right before my eyes, I cannot find any joy.”

Su Yanshu shifted her gaze to a distant point. “To lead everyone in the city out—hasn’t that always been your wish?”

“Not anymore,” Kui Yuan shook his head. “I only want to take you out of here, and for us never to return.”

Su Yanshu asked, “But what if he comes after us?”

“I will protect you,” Kui Yuan said.

Su Yanshu gave a pained smile. “But you are no match for him.”

Kui Yuan fell silent again. The events of the past three months surged within his chest like raging waves of fire.

Su Yanshu said, “You might not be able to kill him alone, but I’m here.”

“But you don’t practice cultivation at all,” Kui Yuan said.

Su Yanshu pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, “I know where the strongest martial arts manual in all of Broken Realm City is.”

Kui Yuan’s eyes lit up slightly. “What?”

Su Yanshu walked along the balcony, her fingers lightly tapping the railing as she recalled, “There’s a library in the royal palace. It contains all the cultivation manuals of the royal family in the city. Originally, these manuals weren’t separate; in fact, they could be combined into a single book. If one were to master that book, they could gather the city’s entire fortune and truly become the strongest in the world.”

Kui Yuan remembered some things.

Nearly every member of the royal family practiced a different cultivation method, eighty-one in total, distributed seemingly at random.

His own cultivation method was called the Nine Nether Sutra, and only three others practiced the same one.

The Nine Nether Sutra was very powerful; those who cultivated it could effectively conceal their presence and kill in the dark. But he had always felt that the beginning and end of this technique were problematic, as if they didn’t align with the main theme of the entire work. However, he had never given it deep thought.

Su Yanshu’s words suddenly awakened him. He realized that his Nine Nether Sutra might be incomplete.

However, the idea of eighty-one cultivation methods merging into one was too fantastical; he couldn’t accept such a claim immediately.

“How do you know this?” Kui Yuan couldn’t help but ask.

Su Yanshu didn't answer, merely smiled faintly, and said, “Tonight is the best opportunity. As long as we get that technique, we can leave together, master an unparalleled divine art, and then we won’t have to fear anyone.”

Kui Yuan looked at her, exceptionally beautiful in the darkness, and a hint of caution rose in his heart. He asked, “Why must it be tonight?”

Su Yanshu replied, “Because the true ruler of the royal city isn’t the King, but a woman named Siming. She’s not in the city tonight… If we wait for her to return, we might never be able to leave.”

“Siming?” Kui Yuan had never heard the name before.

Su Yanshu said, “Believe it or not, the King told me all this by accident. He is so arrogant, he believes no one would dare betray him.”

Kui Yuan was silent for a long time, then said, “But the King is near the library.”

“Are you so afraid of him?”

“No… Do you truly love me?”

“I don’t love the King.”

At present, only they were contending for her. If she didn't love the King, then of course she loved him.

Kui Yuan fell silent, not pressing further.

“Everyone in the city knows we are to be married, isn’t that enough?” Su Yanshu smiled alluringly. “To flee far away, this was already our agreement. If you don’t want to go, give me your saber; I’ll go see him in the palace.”

Kui Yuan saw the clear tears tracing her cheeks and could no longer bear to ask more questions.

“Wait for me to return.” He turned and left, saber in hand, quickly disappearing into the night.

Su Yanshu watched his retreating figure, her eyes returning to their usual indifference.

Kui Yuan ultimately failed to infiltrate the library. Inside the royal palace, saber and sword clashed.

Su Yanshu stood on the balcony, gazing into the distance.

At one moment, all the lights in the royal palace simultaneously flared up, as if a great fire had ignited.

Su Yanshu looked at the bright colors, softly singing a tune from the pleasure quarters, her expression serene, then letting it scatter in the desolate wind.

She saw Kui Yuan again inside the royal palace.

By then, he was a cold corpse.

The King sat on his throne. There was a noticeable gash on his dragon robe, from which blood seeped, staining the golden dragon scarlet.

Su Yanshu knelt on the palace floor, her head bowed, trembling. Her figure in the red dress was like a delicate willow swaying in the breeze.

“Your Majesty, when… when did he arrive?” Su Yanshu slightly lifted her gaze, trying to look at the King, but then abruptly lowered it, staring at her tightly clasped hands within her sleeves, her shoulders drawn in narrowly.

The King looked at her, wanting to help her up, but the pain in his chest made him compose himself. He asked, “You knew nothing?”

Su Yanshu gently shook her head. “He… he didn’t tell this servant anything.”

The King continued, “Did he show no unusual behavior?”

Su Yanshu frowned, recalling, “Today he kept leaning by the door, gazing out the window, lost in thought.”

The King sighed, “It was my mistake. I shouldn’t have made him your guard. Now our Broken Realm City has needlessly lost its strongest swordsman.”

Su Yanshu gently shook her head. “This servant also didn’t expect him to dare assassinate Your Majesty.”

The King said, “Mere foolish bravery. I killed him with only three sword strokes.”

Su Yanshu’s voice was melodious as she said, “Your Majesty is mighty. What is a mere swordsman? Your Majesty is the King of Broken Realm City for eternity.”

The King narrowed his eyes, looking at her, and finally asked, “He truly didn’t tell you anything?”

Su Yanshu suddenly tensed. She knelt, her forehead lightly touching the ground, then said, “He did say some things, but…”

The King understood her meaning. He dismissed the others, then descended from his throne, knelt slightly, and supported Su Yanshu’s shoulders, helping her to her feet.

Su Yanshu gracefully stood up, not daring to look the King directly in the eye.

“Can you speak now?” the King asked.

Su Yanshu stood, leaning forward slightly, as if unintentionally, and said, “Here… this servant is afraid.”

The King smiled faintly. “Then I’ll take you to a more private place.”

Su Yanshu lowered her head, smiled shyly, and followed the King’s steps.

In the royal chambers, where the lamplight was dim, Su Yanshu, clad in a thin robe, sat gracefully on the edge of the bed and finally spoke. “Kui Yuan told me he knew where the strongest cultivation method in the world was hidden. I thought he was joking, but I didn’t expect him to actually go looking for it.”

The King smiled, intrigued. “The strongest cultivation method? Tell me about it.”

Su Yanshu hesitated for a moment, then chuckled self-deprecatingly. “His words were too fantastical. He told this servant that all the martial arts techniques in this city were originally one complete volume, but for some unknown reason, they split into eighty-one parts. He said that by reassembling these eighty-one mental cultivation methods, one could become the strongest in the world.”

The smile on the King’s face gradually faded. “Who told him?”

Su Yanshu was startled by his expression and retreated slightly. “How would this servant know?”

The King’s expression grew colder as he murmured, “Could it be Chong Sui?”

“Chong Sui?” Su Yanshu was startled. “Is it still in the city?”

The King shook his head. “That is also a knot in my heart.”

Su Yanshu tentatively asked, “Could it be… that what Kui Yuan said is true?”

The King looked at the beauty’s sparkling eyes and, without concealing anything, said proudly, “That was something bestowed upon us by the Nine Heavens Goddess long ago. There are eighty-one volumes; they are true divine artifacts… Such important things, of course, would not be kept in the library. Heh, can you use your clever mind to guess where those divine cultivation scrolls are hidden?”

Su Yanshu gave a delicate smile. “This servant merely asked casually. How could I possibly guess?”

The King laughed. He said, “Those scrolls are now hidden in the Ghost Prison. Eighty-one evil spirits… Why do you think we don’t kill them? In a sense, they are also the guardians of those scrolls. To obtain the manuals, one must kill all the ghosts, but even then, it’s not enough; they must also be arranged in the correct order.”

Su Yanshu asked, “Is this the cultivation method Your Majesty practices?”

The King shook his head. “When the Goddess descended the Heavenly Book and the Primeval Stone Tablet, she instructed that this cultivation method could only be practiced by reincarnated deities. The last one who dared to cultivate it… met a terrible end.”

Su Yanshu listened quietly, her gaze fixed on the King.

The King looked into her eyes, which were directed at him, and suddenly found her gaze strange… The smile in her eyes was so calm, as if all her previous feigned weakness had been washed away like sand in a stream.

The King had no idea that his words would cost him his life.

Something seemed to float in the air, a grayish-white substance, like a hazy mist.

The King was certain it wasn’t a sleeping draft, and he would never be poisoned by such a crude thing. Then, he remembered: this was time…

He stared fixedly at Su Yanshu, as if frozen in a cold wave of time, unable to move even an inch.

This was a prison of time.

“You…” The King struggled incessantly, his words stretching long and drawn out in time that had slowed by countless magnitudes.

What imprisoned him was the law. Laws were things that transcended cultivation methods. For instance, in this world, even powerful beings like Ye Chu and Siming could only survive within the laws, unable to break through to the Purple Court Realm.

Thus, the King also could not break free.

Su Yanshu knew what he wanted to know and didn’t withhold her answer. “I am Chong Sui, the one you’ve been searching for.”

She reveled in the shock that erupted in the King’s eyes, then drew a sword from the weapon rack in the royal chambers.

It was Kui Yuan’s sword. She smiled apologetically at it, then used it to sever the King’s head.

He sat upright in his chair, wearing the imperial crown, blood gushing from the gash and soaking his body.

He looked like a god whose head had been cut off in ancient legends.

Su Yanshu turned and left, the night wind lifting her red dress like a great fire burning in the darkness.

That night, she went alone to the Ghost Prison. Using the century of time Ye Chu had gifted her, she silently froze and killed the monsters in the prison, one after another. After taking eighty of the cultivation manuals, she stopped at the innermost cell door.

She knew the details of that particular prison cell.

It was said to hold the most ferocious great ghost in the entire imperial city.

But she knew it wasn’t a true ghost; it was the previous King. That King had forcefully cultivated these eighty-one techniques, suffering a qi deviation and eventually a backlash, transforming into such an ugly and deranged ghost. He had then been imprisoned by Siming in the deepest part of the Ghost Prison.

But for some unknown reason, the Ghost Prison was now empty. The chains that should have restrained the demonic creature hung limply, and the creature itself was nowhere to be seen.

Where had he gone?

Su Yanshu’s heart tightened slightly. She remained vigilant, cautiously surveying her surroundings, fearing that a pair of sharp claws might suddenly emerge from the darkness.

But everything remained quiet.

She walked inside, searching for the hiding place of the last manual.

But she found nothing.

Eighty-one cultivation manuals, but one was missing.

Her gaze swept over the thin spines, looking at each name, pondering something.

“North Sea Divine Sword!” Su Yanshu’s pupils constricted slightly. She suddenly recalled Shao Xiaoli, the young royal girl she knew, who had once boasted that the cultivation method she practiced was called the North Sea Divine Sword.

What a coincidence, this was the only one missing from the eighty manuals.

“Shao Xiaoli…”

She murmured softly, knowing that everyone, including Shao Xiaoli, had gone out to clear land tonight.

And this night was the best moment to act, a timing Ye Chu had meticulously calculated for many years.

Her time prison was also crafted by Ye Chu for her, using time he had purchased; it was not her inherent power. Therefore, she truly lacked the strength to confront Siming directly.

She had to leave before dawn.

She understood that this manual must have been taken by Siming before she left, as Siming had always been wary of Chong Sui.

Su Yanshu hesitated for a while, then finally left reluctantly.

But before leaving, she had one more important place to go.

The Star Spirit Palace.

But Siming was also wary of her.

Before Siming left, she had not taken her black sword. This black sword was sentient, like a watchdog, always hovering before the mural in the Star Spirit Palace.

Su Yanshu tried to force her way in, but was intercepted by the black sword, which cut off a strand of hair hanging by her temple and left a bright red scratch on her forehead.

Su Yanshu touched her wound, frowned, and sighed.

Without Ye Chu’s arrangements, she was merely an ordinary cultivator, not particularly powerful.

Of course, this was also why she had been able to lurk in the city for so many years undetected.

Many years ago, she was just a seven or eight-year-old girl. Her brother had gambled for a day and a night, losing not only all their family wealth but also all the money meant for their parents’ medical treatment. Unable to bear watching her mother slowly die before her eyes, she believed a legend and left the city with a pioneering troop, searching for the fabled canyon that could grant wishes.

When she finally collapsed from exhaustion, a giant black eagle picked her up. She didn’t become its prey; instead, it carried her to the legendary Snow Canyon.

There, she met the most perfect person she had ever seen in her life.

He didn’t buy her time; instead, he asked if she was willing to be his wife.

At that time, he was holding a woman with white hair but a young face, a woman who had reportedly aged overnight and then died.

Only later did she learn that she was the previous Chong Sui.

He had said he would help her change her fate. She asked what she needed to give in return, but he demanded nothing, only saying that when she turned sixteen, she would return here and become his wife.

She didn’t understand why, but she agreed to everything.

Afterward, she returned to Broken Realm City and found that her parents’ illnesses had miraculously healed. She wanted to tell them it was her doing, but no one paid attention to her, much less believed her.

The year she turned sixteen, her brother went to the casino again, had his hands chopped off, and his legs broken. Her father forced her to sell herself to a pleasure house to earn money.

That same year, she went outside the city again, met the black eagle, and was taken to the Snow Canyon. Ye Chu had not forgotten her; instead, he softly welcomed her back. And so, in a daze, she became the new Chong Sui.

She and Ye Chu bowed together before the banner. At that time, his divinely handsome face was full of radiance and smiles, and he promised they would grow old together.

Even now, these memories felt as unreal as a dream.

It had been a long time since she had seen him.

Today, she had finally completed the task he had given her, even if it wasn't perfectly executed.

Soon after, the King’s body would be discovered in the royal palace, shocking the entire city and plunging it into great panic. But before dawn, she would have already left the city to meet her husband.

She was never Su Yanshu; she was Chong Sui.

When Siming returned to the royal city, the entire city was already under strict guard. The news of the Emperor’s death could not be kept secret. Like dandelion seeds scattered by the wind, it spread rapidly after daybreak, intertwined with the news of the pleasure house courtesan’s disappearance.

“So it was you…” Siming remembered the dazzling woman holding a guqin and sighed softly.

She came to the Ghost Prison, looked at the utter silence, and understood.

So this was his purpose?

Siming knew this cultivation method. Its full name was the *Asura God Record*, and it would undergo earth-shattering changes when all eighty-one forms were united.

However, this method could only be cultivated by reincarnated deities, as only reincarnated gods possessed the body of an Asura.

She didn’t know what Ye Chu wanted this item for.

Both she and Ye Chu were deities who had not undergone reincarnation, so they could not cultivate this method at all. Moreover, he was now suffering such severe injuries…

She was quite confident in her sword strike; that wound would take three to five years to heal, and improper recovery could even be fatal…

Fatal!

Siming snapped back to reality, an idea rapidly surging in her mind.

“Could it be…” Siming stood in the Ghost Prison, and as her fury intensified, all the corpses began to rapidly decay.

A preposterous thought occurred to her.

Could Ye Chu want to use her sword strike to end his life, then reincarnate, emerge from the chaos at the end, and become a true Asura!

But if so, he would lose all his spiritual power and be as weak as an infant for a long time. How would he survive that period?

Siming realized the answer.

If Ye Chu were truly reborn, he would seek out Ning Changjiu for a transaction, asking for protection, and then hide in a place difficult for her to find until he returned to cultivation.

And Chong Sui had stolen all the cultivation methods, the only one missing being the one Shao Xiaoli had learned… Fate truly seemed to be playing tricks.

Unconsciously, she found herself back at the Star Spirit Palace.

She took the black sword that guarded the entrance and stepped into the hall.

Water rippled on both sides, shimmering with a dark silver hue, its murmuring sound like a maiden’s lute strings plucked at midnight.

She walked into the water, the dim red candlelight casting a luminous glow on her pale dress.

The gently flowing clear water washed over her snow-white ankles, and the reflection of the candlelight flickered unsteadily.

She reached the end of the path, smoothed her skirt, and sat on the slender gnomon, her gaze fixed on the sundial, which was broken like a crescent moon.

She closed her eyes, her body tensing slightly, her calves unconsciously swaying. She thought about everything that had happened last night, feeling that the situation she had believed to be firmly within her grasp was slowly slipping away.

Involuntarily, she recalled that dream. The scenes from it appeared in her mind. Her red lips pursed, her body trembled uncontrollably, her delicate toes subtly curled, and a flush spread across her face.

Siming reopened her eyes after a long while. She cast aside her chaotic thoughts, returning to her divine indifference.

She realized that if Ye Chu truly did this, it would be tantamount to seeking his own demise.

And once her injuries healed, Ning Changjiu would certainly be no match for her, and the so-called Chong Sui would naturally be even less worth mentioning.

She drew the black sword resting across her lap, looked at her own face reflected in the blade, and decided to cross the ice plains herself to find their hiding place.