A Storm is Brewing

“Alas…”

An almost inaudible sigh finally escaped from the depths of Ling Ze’s chest after Ling Muxue’s figure disappeared out the door.
He looked in the direction his daughter had left, the emotions in his eyes complex and unreadable.

“Your Majesty,” from the shadow beside the hall, a saber-bearing guard in black armor paced out silently, a trace of cautious worry between his brows, “Applying pressure like this, Your Majesty, isn’t it… a bit too harsh?”

“No.”

Ling Ze shook his head slowly, his gaze returning to the intensifying wind and snow outside the window, his voice returning to calm and hardness: “I only feel that this method is still too late.
If Lu Qiancha hadn’t enlightened me, I would still be confused about how to teach this stubborn stone.”

He paused, his tone carrying a trace of thoughtfulness, “In the future, this educational method is worth my careful study.”

The saber-bearing guard was silent for a moment, then finally bowed with cupped fists: “Your Majesty’s thoughts are profound, this subject cannot compare.”

“By the way,” Ling Ze did not turn his head, his voice drifting with the cold wind, “How is that demon doing now?”

The guard reported immediately, his voice steady: “Replying to Your Majesty, everything is under control.
A shadow guard of the Tribulation Transcendence realm is secretly following him.
Even if he has heaven-reaching abilities, he absolutely cannot make any waves.”

“Mm.” Ling Ze only responded faintly and said no more.
He stood quietly in front of the window, his upright figure like a rock, merging into the sky full of wind and snow.
Outside the window, the snow fell even harder.

Ling Muxue walked heavily on the cold, wide main road of the royal palace.
The fluttering snowflakes landing on her shoulders failed to dispel the haze and heaviness in her heart.
Ahead, Shuixian Palace was visible in the distance; she could arrive in about another quarter of an hour.
She moved mechanically, her thoughts in turmoil.

Suddenly, a thought pierced her mind like an ice pick, making her stop abruptly.

She turned around sharply, her gaze sweeping like a torch over the guards and accompanying servants who followed closely behind, her voice carrying a suppressed anxiety: “Where are Zhuzi and Xiaoshan? Sun Niang is on her deathbed. As her own flesh and blood, why haven’t they come to visit?! Where have they gone?!”

When Sun Niang made her dying request for her to take care of these two sons, Ling Muxue suddenly remembered them.

In her impression, Zhuzi and Xiaoshan were always filial and sensible, the treasures of Sun Niang’s heart.

In this situation, how could they be absent?

Suddenly questioned by the princess, a well-informed attendant at the back stiffened, the blood instantly draining from his face.
His Adam’s apple bobbed with difficulty, his voice carrying obvious trembling and fear as he stammered out a report: “R-Reporting to Your Highness, Zhuzi and Xiaoshan… they, they are already dead.”

“Dead?!”

These two words exploded in Ling Muxue’s ears like a thunderclap.
Her breathing stopped abruptly, a cold chill instantly rushing from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.
She shrieked in disbelief: “Impossible! They are only in their twenties! They are the children Sun Niang raised with such hardship! How could they be dead when they were perfectly fine?! How did they die?! Speak!”

The attendant was scared into a shiver by Ling Muxue’s sudden eruption of imposing manner, his voice trembling even more: “They, they were on duty in the royal prison.
That day, that day they went to deliver meals to the prisoners as usual.
Unfortunately, they ran into Mufeng who was breaking out of prison…”

“It was Mufeng?! It was Mufeng who killed them?!”

Ling Muxue’s mind was incredibly clear at this moment. Connecting the events, she instantly reached this cruel conclusion.
Her voice fluctuated violently due to extreme anger and shock, carrying a tearing shrillness.

The servant’s face was pale, and he could only nod with difficulty, confirming this most unbearable conjecture.

“Mufeng… Mufeng…”

Ling Muxue clenched her fists tightly, her knuckles cracking from excessive force.
Her slender body trembled uncontrollably, as if bearing indescribable, massive emotions like a landslide and tsunami—anger, hatred, remorse, despair… like countless cold poisonous snakes, they instantly entangled her tightly, biting her.

Even taking ten thousand steps back…

Even if, even if she could save Sun Niang…

How should she tell her.
Her two sons, whom she was proud of, the last sustenance of her life…

Had already been personally strangled by the person she had saved?!

This was even more cruel than killing her!

Why did things turn out like this?

“Why… Mufeng…”

Ling Muxue closed her eyes in pain, her voice like sleep-talking, yet like a blood-weeping accusation, “If you break out of prison, break out of prison. Why, why did you hurt the innocent?! They… they were Sun Niang’s greatest concern in this world. You actually destroyed them both…”

This successive fatal blow, like the last straw that broke the camel’s back, completely defeated Ling Muxue’s crumbling psychological defense.
The remorse churning inside her was like boiling magma, burning her internal organs.
She could no longer bear this heavy reality.
Her steps, originally heading towards Shuixian Palace, now felt like dragging thousand-pound shackles.
Every step revealed the panic and weakness of wanting to escape this endless pain.

Things have turned out like this…

Tracing back to the source…

It’s all because of me…

It’s all because of my stupidity, it’s all my fault…

Cold snowflakes fell on her pale face but couldn’t melt the solidified and bottomless despair in her eyes.

She stumbled forward, her figure appearing exceptionally lonely and tiny in the vast snow curtain.
Every step seemed to tread on thorns of pain brewed by herself.

On the outskirts of the royal city, it was desolate and dead silent.
Deep within an abandoned courtyard piled with weathered stone materials, dust and desolation filled the air.

Mufeng sat cross-legged on the cold, chaotic stones, a visible pale golden vortex of spiritual energy lingering around him.
His dantian was like a greedy giant mouth, frantically devouring the majestic power contained in the Nirvana Syrup.
The medicinal power surged, washing over his broken meridians and dantian.

A moment later, his eyes opened abruptly, bursting with brilliance.
A mouthful of grey-black, foul, turbid qi, mixed with impurities and old injuries from his body, was fiercely spat out by him.

In the depths of his eyes was uncontrollable, almost manic joy.

“Good! Good! Worthy of the Nirvana Syrup!” Mufeng roared in a low voice, feeling the drastic change in his body like being reborn.

The dantian that had been shattered by Lu Qiancha’s own hand was not only miraculously reshaped at this moment, but its walls also glowed with a resilient luster far surpassing the past.

What made his heart surge and his blood boil even more was—that cultivation bottleneck that had imprisoned him like ten-thousand-year-old black iron for nearly seven hundred years, under the impact of this torrent of divine medicine, actually emitted a faint but incredibly clear cracking sound.

Traveling thousands of miles, meticulously setting up a trap, and even expending mental effort to deal with that stupid female wolf demon, playing some ridiculous lovers…
At this moment, all the efforts were rewarded a hundredfold, everything was worth it!

He suddenly raised his eyes, his cold gaze like a viper penetrating the gaps in the broken courtyard wall, landing on a freshly inked wanted poster pasted on a distant street corner.
The person in the portrait was himself, with the words “Reward for the Arrest of Criminal Mufeng” clearly written beside it.

This portrait instantly ignited the violence in his heart.

‘Damn Lu Qiancha,’ Mufeng cursed with the most venomous resentment in his heart.
‘If not for you, you bastard, interfering and ruining my grand plan, I would have long since fled thousands of miles away with the Nirvana Syrup. Why would I be delayed here for two days and suffer that prison torture?’

‘However…’

The corner of his mouth twisted, slowly pulling into an arc full of mockery and cruelty.
‘It’s not too late now. All obstacles will be washed away with your blood!’

Lu Qiancha, at the thought of this name, the killing intent in his heart was like boiling lava, licking at his reason.

‘Wait until I completely refine the essence of this divine medicine, that will be the time you die! Enjoy this last breath to the fullest!’

He was very confident about this.
He had observed before that the dozen or so wolf clan experts who captured him were only at the peak of the Integration realm.
It was only after the army formation gathered that they had the ability to arrest him.
And that Wolf Emperor Ling Ze sitting high on the throne was only at the Void Refining realm.