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Chapter 428: Backstory

The Disciple Master began, "At the time, I was very surprised as well. Later on, I found out..."

At this time, they were nearing Mount Shu, so the Discipline Master slowed their flight. It seemed she intended to finish the story before they arrived at Mount Shu.

She continued, "It turned out that he had been the most talented prince of his generation. That was why he'd been made the crown prince. After the fateful night of the failed assassination, the emperor did not kill the crown prince. Instead, he temporarily imprisoned the crown prince and purged the followers of the Celestial Charm Sect.

"Unexpectedly, while Mingde was in despair, he had a breakthrough in his cultivation. He gained a deeper understanding of the Great Dao of Incinerating Heaven, bringing him to the threshold of the eighth realm...

"At that time, the vitality of the imperial family's guardian was declining. Mingde was the only member of his generation who had cultivated to the pinnacle of the Great Dao of Incinerating Heaven, so only he could take over. To prevent the Great Dao of Incinerating Heaven from being lost to someone outside the Xia Family, they ultimately made Mingde the Dao Master of Incinerating Heaven... and the new guardian of the imperial family."

This information was a lot for Chu Liang to take in.

To become the emperor of the Yu Dynasty, it was necessary to have a Divine Fire Spirit and be at least a seventh-realm Eminent One. However, he usually was not the Dao Master of Incinerating Heaven.

That was because a cultivator needed many things to reach the eighth realm—talent, resources, perception... and most importantly the right opportunities. If this were the standard for choosing an emperor, it would be too difficult to choose one.

On the other hand, the most important requirement for a guardian was that they had to be powerful. That meant they had to put all of their focus on cultivating, which was definitely not what a good emperor should do.

Therefore, the imperial family would always have a guardian who controlled the Great Dao of Incinerating Heaven. An eighth-realm guardian could oversee the imperial family for hundreds of years, during which several emperors would come and go.

The guardian did not get involved in the struggle for imperial authority or politics. During peaceful times, the guardian might stay unknown and perhaps not need to take any action for a hundred years.

Nevertheless, there still had to be a guardian. If the imperial family did not have an eighth-realm Eminent One to hold the fort, the imperial court, the nine provinces, and the entire human faction built around the imperial family as its pillar would be unstable.

The legacy of a Great Dao was much easier to handle than most people might think. The eighth-realm Dao Master had an inherent advantage; it was nearly impossible for someone to succeed in challenging them. However, once the Dao Master's chosen successor reached the threshold of the eighth realm, the position of Dao Master could be naturally passed over to the successor.

Nonetheless, if the guardian were to die without a chosen successor reaching the threshold of the eighth realm, that would place the imperial family in a very awkward position. Any other seventh-realm Eminent One who had cultivated to the pinnacle of the Great Dao of Incinerating Heaven could then easily become the next Dao Master.

If the imperial family were to lose the Great Dao of Incinerating Heaven, the whole world would know that the imperial family had lost its power.

The imperial court would certainly have other eighth-realm Eminent Ones, but no matter how loyal they were, they were ultimately "outsiders." The Xia Family had to have their own eighth-realm Eminent One. This was a matter of utmost importance, so much so that it didn't matter if he was an unfillial son who had just tried to assassinate his father, the emperor.

The imperial family had likely put Mingde through a series of tests and trials during this time, but such information was not disclosed to outsiders.

The Discipline Master explained, "Mingde remained in the imperial city all those years. He cultivated in closed-door cultivation and guarded the imperial family in silence as if to atone for his crime. He never contacted Princess Luoyu and had no idea he had a child. That continued until that day when he saw Di Nufeng at the Assembly of Immortal Sects...

"He sensed it immediately—that Di Nufeng was his daughter..."

Chu Liang thought, Did he even need to sense it? Wasn't it obvious just from the name you gave her...?

It's like the answer was in the question all along.

He didn't even need to see her in person. Just seeing the registration form would have made him suspicious.

The Discipline Master continued, "Ah Feng's Divine Fire Spirit is exceptionally pure, even within the imperial family. So, he wanted her to return to the imperial family, hoping she could take over his Great Dao in the future.

"However, he failed to convince her. Ah Feng chose to stay at Mount Shu. But because of her connection with the imperial family's guardian, the imperial court's attitude toward Mount Shu became more favorable."

"I see..." Chu Liang sighed. "What a twist."

He finally had the answers to the things he had been curious about for so long.

Chu Liang had always wondered why his teacher could be so unbridled at Mount Shu, with almost no one able to restrain her. She was a powerful seventh-realm Eminent One, but couldn't those at the eighth realm suppress her?

He had previously thought it was because his teacher had the Discipline Master backing her up, but now he realized there was a much grander reason than that. It turned out that it was all thanks to Di Nufeng's connection to the imperial family that the Mount Shu Sect was able to maintain a good relationship with the imperial court.

After the Mount Shu Sect lost the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, they kept a good relationship with the Heavenly Star Divine Cult faction, but their relationship with the imperial court took a bad turn. The imperial court suppressed the Mount Shu Sect so much that it jeopardized the Mount Shu Sect's position among the Divine Nine.

However, the situation had eased in recent years, and it turned out that had been all thanks to Di Nufeng. The imperial court's support was crucial for the Mount Shu Sect in its current state, so it didn't matter much to them that Di Nufeng caused a bit of trouble here and there.

As for Di Nufeng's Divine Fire Spirit being purer than the other members of the imperial family, that wasn't surprising at all. She had been born from half-siblings, so it was only natural that the Xia Family bloodline in Di Nufeng hadn't gotten diluted and had instead become more concentrated.

In fact, in ancient times, the members of many old immortality cultivation families, including the three major aristocratic families, would marry within the family to maintain the purity of their bloodline.

This practice carried a very high risk of producing babies with birth defects, but among many such babies, there would occasionally be a healthy baby carrying the pure mystical bloodline. The babies with birth defects were considered an acceptable price to ensure the continuation of that pure bloodline.

The descendants of a pure mystical bloodline did not have birth defects, but they often had other innate problems, such as being irascible, being battle-crazy and bloodthirsty, or lacking intelligence...

Of course, my esteemed teacher absolutely doesn't have any of these flaws.

Mmhm.

Many of the old immortality cultivation families gradually fell into decline, and that was when they finally opened up to marrying outsiders, gradually evolving into their current state.

Chu Liang silently calculated in his mind.

After Crown Prince Mingde was deposed, there wasn't another prince of his caliber in that generation, so the old emperor selected the most talented among his grandsons and made him the crown prince.

In terms of generations, the chosen grandson was a generation younger than Crown Prince Mingde, but they were actually around the same age. Ten years later, the old emperor passed away, and his grandson ascended the throne. Forty years later, the old emperor's grandson passed away too. The old emperor's great-grandson then ascended to the throne. Thirty years have passed since then, and he's still the emperor now.

So, that means the current emperor has to call my teacher "Aunt."

In that case, that means I could call him "Brother."

Wow.

They reached Mount Shu soon after, and they could see beams of light flitting to and fro above the sea of clouds, all headed toward Red Cotton Peak and Silver Sword Peak. Mount Shu was now bustling with life thanks to the two businesses Chu Liang had established there.

Yet, the Discipline Master frowned when she saw this. "It's bound to get chaotic with so many outsiders coming and going."

After all, the Mount Shu Sect was a traditional immortal sect. Aside from when they held the Mount Shu Summit, it was rare for there to be so many outsiders going in and out of the sect. In terms of security, it was indeed not an ideal situation.

Chu Liang promptly suggested, "Why don't we move Red Cotton Peak and Silver Sword Peak to the outermost edge of Mount Shu? That way, we can prevent chaos from breaking out between the other peaks."

The Discipline Master pondered for a moment and then nodded. "That's indeed a good idea."

Moving mountains was not a particularly difficult task for the Mount Shu Sect.

...

Meanwhile, in the depths of nearby waters, Xuan Yinzi was shrouded in darkness and had long since lost track of night and day. He only knew that a second Spirit-Slaying Jar had finally returned to him.

A tearful expression appeared on his dirty face.

"You've finally returned..." His voice was weary and aged. "I thought you'd never come back..."

The wait had been very painful for him.

If he hadn't sent out the Spirit-Slaying Jars, he would have wasted away here for decades or centuries, dying from qi and blood depletion all the same. However, the wait for the return of his jars was pure agony.

He was like a gambler who had lost everything, save for a few silver pieces. Yet, all he could do was continue betting in the hopes of winning back his money. Unfortunately, it seemed like there was a shameless dealer on the other side who kept swallowing up his meager assets, only to give him a small win just when he was about to give up.

Having made so many Spirit-Slaying Jars already, Xuan Yinzi had no option but to continue placing his hopes on the Spirit-Slaying Jars. Yet, the odds of the Jars returning were too low...

Days had passed, and only two had returned. After the first one came back, he thought the rest would follow quickly, but they remained out of reach.

Just when he was about to give up for the second time, another jar finally returned.

"Ah..."

He drained the yin qi contained in the jar, replenishing just a minute fraction of his strength. This was a mere drop in the ocean compared to the strength he'd had at his peak. Nevertheless, in his current state, even that little bit of yin qi was enough to invigorate him.

"Come back quickly. I'm begging you!"