Chapter 143: A Storm is Brewing

“Sigh…”

A barely audible sigh escaped from deep within Ling Ze’s chest only after Ling Muxue’s figure disappeared beyond the door.

He gazed in the direction his daughter had left, the emotions in his eyes complicated and impossible to discern.

“Your Majesty,” from the shadows beside the hall, a blade-wielding guard clad in dark armor silently stepped out, his brow marked with a trace of cautious worry, “By pressuring her so, Your Majesty, is this… not perhaps too harsh?”

“No.”

Ling Ze slowly shook his head, his gaze returning to the ever-intensifying snowstorm outside the window, his voice regaining its calm and cold hardness:

“I only feel that even this is too late. If not for Lu Qiancha awakening me, I’d still be at a loss as to how to teach this stubborn stone.”

He paused, a hint of contemplation coloring his tone, “From now on, this method of education is well worth studying further.”

The blade-wielding guard was silent for a moment, finally bowing deeply with clenched fists, “Your Majesty’s foresight is unparalleled. We are not worthy.”

“By the way,” Ling Ze did not turn, his voice drifting with the cold wind, “that demon—how is he at present?”

The guard immediately replied, voice steady: “Reporting to Your Majesty, everything is under control. A Crossing Tribulation Stage shadow guard follows him in secret; even if he possessed the power to move heaven and earth, he would not be able to stir up even a wave.”

“Good.” Ling Ze responded lightly and fell silent.

He stood quietly before the window, his tall figure like a stone pillar, merging with the endless wind and snow. Outside, the snow was falling even harder.

Ling Muxue walked heavily along the cold and broad main path of the palace. Snowflakes swirled down onto her shoulders, but could not dispel the gloom and weight pressing upon her heart.

Ahead, Shuiqian Palace was faintly visible in the distance—about two quarters of an hour’s walk away. She walked on mechanically, her thoughts tangled and chaotic.

Suddenly, a thought stabbed into her mind like an ice awl, forcing her to halt abruptly.

She spun around, her gaze sharp as fire as she swept her eyes over the guards and attendants trailing her, her voice tight with suppressed agitation: “Where are Zhuzi and Xiaoshan? Sun Niang is already at death’s door, they’re her own flesh and blood, why aren’t they here to see her?! Where did they go?!”

Only when Sun Niang, on her deathbed, entrusted her with caring for the two sons did Ling Muxue suddenly recall them.

In her memory, Zhuzi and Xiaoshan had always been filial and sensible, the treasures of Sun Niang’s heart.

In such a moment, how could they be absent?

Startled by the princess’s sudden questioning, one well-informed attendant stiffened, his face instantly drained of color.

His Adam’s apple bobbed with difficulty, his voice trembling with obvious fear as he stammered, “Re-Reporting to Your Highness, Zhuzi and Xiaoshan… they, they are already dead.”

“Dead?!”

Those two words exploded like thunder beside Ling Muxue’s ears. Her breath stopped short, a chill raced from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head.

She shrieked in disbelief, “Impossible! They’re only in their twenties! Sun Niang raised them with bitter hardship! How could they die just like that?! How did they die?! Tell me!”

Frightened by Ling Muxue’s sudden burst of authority, the attendant trembled even more, his voice shaking violently: “They, they were on duty in the palace prison. That day, as usual, they went to deliver food to the prisoners. By misfortune, they happened to run into Mufeng’s jailbreak…”

“Mufeng?! Mufeng killed them?!”

Ling Muxue’s mind was exceptionally clear at this moment; connecting all the dots, she instantly arrived at the cruel truth. Her voice quivered with extreme rage and shock, sharpened to a piercing edge.

The attendant’s face was deathly pale; he could only nod with difficulty, confirming the most unbearable of possibilities.

“Mufeng… Mufeng…”

Ling Muxue clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles cracked from the force.

Her slender body trembled uncontrollably, as if she were being consumed by a flood of unspeakable emotion—anger, hatred, regret, despair…

All like countless cold venomous snakes, coiling around and biting her without mercy.

Even if, even if I could save Sun Niang—

How could I tell her, that the two sons she was so proud of, her last hopes in this world… had already been killed by the very person I rescued with my own hands?!

Isn’t that even crueler than killing her outright?!

How did things end up like this?

“Why… Mufeng…”

Ling Muxue shut her eyes in pain, her voice half a dream, half a blood-tinged accusation, “If you wanted to escape, just escape, why… why did you have to harm innocents?! They… They were all Sun Niang had left in this world. And you destroyed them all…”

The successive fatal blows were like the last straw breaking the camel’s back, completely shattering the fragile defenses in Ling Muxue’s heart. Waves of regret churned within her like boiling magma, searing her to the core.

She could no longer bear the heavy reality.

The steps that had been taking her toward Shuiqian Palace now felt weighed down by shackles, every step an attempt to escape this endless pain, full of panic and weakness.

For things to reach this point—

To trace it back—

It was all because of me.

All because of my foolishness, all my fault.

Cold snowflakes fell onto her pale face, but could not melt the frozen, bottomless despair in her eyes.

She staggered on, her figure growing more isolated and insignificant within the drifting snow, each step as if treading upon thorns of agony she herself had sown.

***

On the outskirts of the royal city, in a barren and desolate place, deep within an abandoned courtyard piled with weathered stone, dust and bleakness filled the air.

Mufeng sat cross-legged atop a cold, jagged rock, a visible swirl of faint golden spiritual energy encircling him.

His dantian was like a greedy maw, madly devouring the vast power within the Nirvana Elixir. The medicinal force surged through him, flushing his battered meridians and dantian.

After a while, his eyes suddenly snapped open, a brilliant light shooting forth. He spat out a mouthful of foul, gray-black, stinking air, a mixture of old injuries and impurities from within.

His eyes shone with irrepressible, near-mad joy.

“Good! Good! Truly worthy of the Nirvana Elixir!” Mufeng growled under his breath, feeling the earth-shaking transformation within his body.

His dantian, once shattered by Lu Qiancha’s own hands, was now not only miraculously restored but gleamed with a resilience far beyond its former strength.

What made his blood surge even more was— the bottleneck of cultivation that had trapped him for nearly seven centuries, as impenetrable as ancient black iron, now let out the faintest, but incomparably distinct, sound of cracking under the onslaught of this Divine Medicine.

All the risks, the long journey, the careful plotting, even feigning affection with that foolish she-wolf demon—all of it was now repaid a hundredfold!

He abruptly looked up, his gaze as cold as a viper, piercing through the cracks of the ruined courtyard wall to fix upon a newly posted Royal Decree of Arrest at the far street corner.

The portrait was of himself, with the words “Wanted Criminal: Mufeng” beside it.

The sight of the poster instantly ignited the violence within him.

Damn you, Lu Qiancha! Mufeng cursed most venomously in his heart. If not for your constant meddling and ruining my plans, I would have fled far away with the Nirvana Elixir by now.

I wouldn’t be trapped here these past two days, nor have suffered the torment of prison.

But—

His lips twisted into a mocking, cruel smile. Now is not too late either. All obstacles shall be washed away with your blood!

Lu Qiancha. Just thinking of that name made murderous rage boil in his heart, licking at the edges of his sanity.

Once I fully refine this Divine Medicine, it will be the day you die! Enjoy your last moments while you can.

He was full of confidence. Previously, he’d observed: those ten-odd wolf clan experts who captured him were only at the peak of the Body Fusion Stage; only after the army assembled did they have the power to apprehend him.

As for the Wolf Emperor Ling Ze, sitting high upon the throne, he was merely at the Nascent Soul Stage.

As long as… with the power of the Nirvana Elixir, I can break through the bottleneck in one go and step into that long-dreamed-of Great Vehicle Stage.

Then, this so-called wolf clan royal city will be as nothing before me! I can take what I want and come and go as I please!

All the humiliation and pain forced upon me, I’ll repay tenfold, a hundredfold to those damned wolf demons! I’ll skin them alive, tear out their tendons, crush their souls, and doom them to eternal despair!

“…Hmm?”

A faint but deeply ominous tremor, completely without warning, rose from deep within his heart, rudely interrupting his vengeful fantasies. Mufeng’s brows suddenly knit together.

The spell I planted in Ling Muxue’s body…is about to die out?

This Gu feeds on the host’s emotions, at the same time driving the host into deeper obsession with him like maggots clinging to bone.

Its impending death could only mean one thing—Ling Muxue’s feelings for him were collapsing at a rapid pace, even growing into strong disgust and hatred.

To this, Mufeng only curled his lip in indifference and muttered to himself, “What a pity.”

That woman was always just a disposable piece on the board. That meticulously staged Hero Saves Beauty was nothing but a backup path to steal the Frost Moon Wheel.

Who could have predicted this useless piece would turn out so unexpectedly useful?

He even had to “thank” that idiot for her foolish cleverness, who blundered her way into stealing both the Frost Moon Wheel and the Nirvana Elixir. Now, she was a tool perfectly suited for the task.

Now that the Nirvana Elixir was already in his belly and his objective accomplished, this pawn, which had lost its last trace of value, could simply be discarded.

Once he reached the Great Vehicle Stage, possessing strength to look down on all around him—what sort of tool couldn’t he find then?

A chilling gleam flashed in his eyes, sharp as a poisoned dagger, his killing intent overflowing.

The hour of reckoning… was drawing near.

Those wolf demons who dared touch his reverse scale—from the palace guards, to that mongrel Lu Qiancha, to the Wolf Emperor Ling Ze enthroned above them all—

None of them would escape!

A sinister smile, mixing cruelty and an insatiable thirst for blood, slowly spread at the corner of his lips, radiating an icy air that seemed to freeze one’s very marrow.

Yet Mufeng did not know, outside this abandoned courtyard, in a dead angle untouched by either shadow or wind—

A shadow guard at the Crossing Tribulation Stage, whose presence was as icy as ten thousand years of frost and blended perfectly with the surroundings, was observing all within the courtyard with an emotionless gaze.

He was like a peerless, murderous blade hidden in its sheath, waiting only for a single command from above.

Whether to capture alive, or kill on the spot—

All was within his power.

Within Shuiqian Palace, Lu Qiancha was slowly enjoying the exquisite pastries brought by a palace maid, her manner relaxed, waiting for a certain inevitable visitor.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

The knocking came precisely on time, its rhythm betraying a faint but unmistakable impatience.

Lu Qiancha rose to open the door, unsurprised to find Ling Muxue’s face—haggard and anxious—gazing back at her.

“So, it’s Her Highness the Princess gracing me with a visit,” Lu Qiancha’s brow lifted just so, a trace of “surprise” perfectly played, her tone a little careless and teasing, “Why not send word before coming?”

Seeing that cool, handsome face before her, Ling Muxue’s instinctively clenched fists loosened slightly on their own.

A strange sense of incongruity welled up within her. Odd—why did her hostility toward Lu Qiancha suddenly fade so much?

No, that wasn’t right—why had she been so hostile toward Lu Qiancha in the first place? Was it just a few sharp words, or some trouble looking after Mufeng for those two days?

Those reasons hardly seemed enough to justify such intense dislike.

A hint of doubt quietly took root in her heart. She furrowed her brows, trying to grasp that fleeting sense of strangeness.

“If Her Highness the Princess has no business here,” Lu Qiancha saw her lost in a daze, a flash of impatience crossing her eyes, her voice turning cold, “forgive me for not entertaining you further. I am not one of those idle, aimless types.”

The sarcasm in Lu Qiancha’s words was clear as day.

This cold dismissal instantly snapped Ling Muxue out of her brief confusion.

Suppressing her doubts, clinging to the last straw like a drowning woman, her voice was desperate and resolute, “Lu Qiancha! Do you have any Nirvana Elixir? Give it to me! Any treasure, any price, I can exchange!”

She got straight to the point, with not a word of pleasantry.

“Nirvana Elixir?” Lu Qiancha appeared to consider, then after a pause spoke slowly, “I was indeed fortunate to receive a vial from His Majesty. However…”

She deliberately drew out the last syllable.

“However what?!” Ling Muxue immediately pressed, hope blazing in her eyes. “Whatever you want, name it! Pills, treasures, a noble title, a lode of spirit stones… anything!”

Lu Qiancha shook her head lightly, regret clouding her face. “Your Highness, I am an alchemist. That precious vial of Nirvana Elixir has already been used as the core material in my research for a new pill.”

She watched as Ling Muxue’s expression froze, her tone steady as she delivered the final blow, “In other words, the Nirvana Elixir is completely consumed. Even if you offered me immortal pills now, I couldn’t give you what you want.”

“What?! You’ve already used it?”

Ling Muxue seemed struck by lightning, her pupils contracting, her face instantly paler than snow.

She cried out in disbelief, her voice trembling with despair and hoarse from anguish, “How could you use it… How could you… that was my… last hope…”

The light of hope in Ling Muxue’s eyes was instantly snuffed out, leaving only endless, all-consuming despair, threatening to devour her.

“You want the Nirvana Elixir so much?”

Looking at her lost and broken state, Lu Qiancha suddenly asked, a hint of curiosity in her tone.

“Yes… I really do…” Ling Muxue’s voice was dry, full of bitter self-mockery, “But now, even if I want it, you can’t give it to me…”

Despair washed over her like icy seawater.

“Heh, that may not be the case.”

Lu Qiancha chuckled softly, then slowly uttered four words.