Chapter 2055: Worldly Ties Exhausted, One Morning the Dream Ends

He Lingchuan was slightly surprised: "What do you mean by that?"

Qingyang looked at him steadily. Now it was her turn to ask questions.

That was also a good question. He Lingchuan thought carefully for a moment before answering: "No."

Qingyang studied his facial expression closely: "Why did you hesitate so long? Have you seen her inside the Great Square Pot?"

Liu Qingdao and Suda beside them exchanged a glance. The old woman was on the verge of death, yet her mind was still this sharp.

"I have." He Lingchuan sighed, "But that was..."

He had wanted to say it was "past history," but the Panlong World inside the Great Square Pot had clearly been altered, vastly different from true history.

Altered history — could that still be called history?

So what exactly was Panlongcheng inside the Great Square Pot? What were the soldiers and civilians inside it? What was General Hong inside it?

He could only say: "Not in the mortal world, it cannot count as truly alive."

These words were disjointed, yet Qingyang let out a light scoff: "As expected, Zhong Shengguang and General Hong pulled tricks before Panlongcheng's destruction."

Between Between Between Beijia destroyed Panlongcheng, but didn't wipe it out completely, leaving a scourge. A hundred and fifty years later, it grew into a calamity like He Xiao.

"I knew it." She murmured, "From the moment the Great Square Pot and the Panlongcheng ruins were bound together, I knew things weren't that simple."

"I also know you want to retread the old path of Yuan Kingdom and Panlongcheng." She looked at He Lingchuan. Blood on her forehead trickled down onto her eyelids, and she couldn't be bothered to wipe it away. "I hope... that one day you'll understand, your true enemy may only be the Heavenly Gods."

"Oh?" He Lingchuan was genuinely a little surprised. "I thought you'd be like Bai Ziqi, arguing with me that the Heavenly Demons are bound to win."

One must listen to the subtext. Qingyang saying this meant she believed he had a chance of winning, and not a low one!

That was why she wanted to fight for a possibility for Between Between Between Beijia.

"What I care about has never been the Heavenly Gods." Qingyang's face began to turn pale and develop spots, but she herself didn't know yet, merely smiling. "Bai Ziqi is a man of the Heavenly Palace — clever enough, but lacking wisdom, unable to jump out of those prisons. He's also still young, unable to see through the essence of these wars."

Relative to her age, Bai Ziqi was of course young.

Suda beside them was still bewildered, but Liu Qingdao really wanted to know just what she had seen through.

This was the first enemy who believed in him. He Lingchuan felt a touch of wistfulness.

"In that case, show me some sincerity first. Some day in the future, perhaps I'll remember your words today." He spoke seriously. "Between Between Between Beijia doesn't want the Heavenly Demons to descend to the mortal world either, right? Besides the Great Square Pot, what method do they plan to use to descend?"

"As far as I know, it's the Chan Beasts and Yao Puppets." Qingyang's speech grew increasingly difficult. "Don't you know that too?"

"What stage has the research reached?"

"At several sites on the Shanjin Plains, including the Red Hut, the Yao Puppets can already mimic humans, but extremely unstably." Qingyang said. "Besides, you also know that Divine Descent has prerequisites."

He Lingchuan naturally knew: "Must obtain the consent of the body for Divine Descent."

"If the Yao Puppet's mind is confused, it cannot possibly give verbal consent." Qingyang said in a low voice. "This is where your companion Dong Rui's value lies!"

"Fuck!" A curse drifted from not far away.

"But the Heavenly Gods' testing grounds aren't only the Shanjin Plains. I've been away from Between Between Between Beijia for a while, so I don't know the progress in other regions." Qingyang answered truthfully. "My... my turn. I still want to ask you, why can you use Yuanli 'alone'? Was it specially bestowed by the Great Square Pot?"

She stressed the word "alone." If she couldn't figure out why He Xiao had personal Yuanli, she would truly die with her eyes unclosed.

"You're a dying person, yet you still care about this?"

Actually, He Lingchuan admired her a little. They say a bird's cry is mournful when it's about to die. But Qingyang, at death's door, still concerned herself with these official matters and secrets, with Between Between Between Beijia and him.

She had long since put life and death aside, hadn't she?

"Laws are laws. Even the Great Square Pot must abide by the laws of Yuanli." He Lingchuan shook his head. "Where would such a thing as special bestowal come from?"

The Great Square Pot couldn't directly give him Yuanli. The Yuanli he had on him was entirely earned bit by bit through his struggles in the Great Wind Army and Tiger Wing Army.

This answer certainly couldn't satisfy Qingyang: "Is that so? Then where is the ar... army that gave you Yuanli?"

He Lingchuan lightly patted his chest: "That cannot be disclosed, sorry."

Qingyang's face was deathly still, her gaze drooping slightly. She suddenly noticed, to her shock, that her hair had turned gray-white!

She suddenly lost all interest, not wanting to ask further, merely reaching up to touch her face.

He Lingchuan watched her, sighing inwardly.

From the expressions on these people's faces, Qingyang understood — she had grown old!

The inevitable had finally come.

She had previously used a secret art to rejuvenate herself. Now the spell's backlash had arrived. Before death, she would grow even older!

For two hundred years she had been elegant and noble. Now looking like this...

Qingyang lowered her hand, smiling in self-mockery.

He Lingchuan shook his head: "Why bother with this attack? You could have just fled far away."

Bai Tan's family estate and future were in Yao Kingdom — he couldn't leave. But the Shanjin Plains weren't Qingyang's origin. She only needed to flick her sleeves and walk away, with no attachments.

Seeing the situation was lost, why didn't she run? Why did she have to stake everything on a final death struggle with He Lingchuan?

"Who am I!" Qingyang laughed. Because of her ruined lungs, her laughter was inevitably a bit shrill. "How could I be like those doddering old women, lingering on sickbeds and dying ordinary deaths?"

She was Qingyang!

She was the most powerful National Preceptor of the Northern Yao Kingdom, upholding this empire's glory!

She was the Master of the Green Palace, high in rank and authority, the Emperor's most trusted right arm and heart!

Her life had been so colorful. How could she, at the final moment of her life, die like a mortal!

He Lingchuan could only say: "Worthy of being Qingyang."

Stubborn to death, proud to death.

Qingyang swiped her finger, took out a flute from her storage ring, and shoved it into He Lingchuan's hands:

"You want this, don't you? Take it."

Her hand was already trembling violently, as if the flute in her hand weighed over a thousand catties.

This flute was jade-white, jointed, with two bright red rings.

Heavenly Centipede Bone Flute!

Five or six years ago, when she pursued He Lingchuan on Mount Xushan in the Heavenly Palace, he asked her where her flute came from.

Since He Lingchuan still dwells on that question from five or six years ago, he must still want this flute.

He Lingchuan took the flute, stepped forward, leaned in, and asked her: "In your eyes, who will ultimately prevail, me or Bekka?"

Blood flowed into Qingyang's eyes, her vision a sheet of crimson, all sounds fading away.

The sky was red, the branches and leaves were red, and this person before her was also red.

The crimson armor, the crimson helmet, the blood-red longsword—it was as if frozen in the depths of her memory, that vigorous figure fighting to the very last moment!

"Red..."

She of the past, He Huo of the later days. Alas, vast Bekka, why cannot you produce such a figure?

A wave of indescribable weariness came over her, interrupting Qingyang's murmuring.

They say that when a person is on the verge of death, past events replay vividly, like a lantern on a horse.

But she did not, though her life had clearly been vast and tumultuous.

She only returned to the familiar palace wall, reached up, and placed a camellia blossom beside her temple. At that moment, a large head suddenly protruded from behind the high wall.

That day's wind was truly fragrant.

This is the beginning of her legendary life.

Qingyang's expression finally relaxed, and a faint smile curled at the corner of her mouth.

Worldly ties are severed, one awakening from a dream.

Two hundred years of wind, flowers, water, and moon—enough, enough.