Chapter 38

Wake up!

Wake up quickly!

Dou Changsheng stared at Qingyang Daoist, who spat blood and collapsed outright.

He immediately grew frantic.

Coming to San Yang Mountain and getting entangled in the military payroll case had already seemed terribly unlucky.

But he hadn’t expected the real misfortune to be here.

Not only did he now learn the truth behind the missing payroll, he also received a vial of Rebirth Black Water.

But how could a cake fall from the sky?

Knowing the young emperor’s secret was enough to invite death.

Northern Jin was the foremost of the four nations, the strongest country in the world.

The young emperor, after all, was still an emperor.

The young emperor couldn’t simply order Chen Qingyao and Yu Yun killed.

But he could easily kill Dou Changsheng.

The value of the Rebirth Black Water was no less significant—both the Prime Minister’s Office and the Shogunate were seeking it, proving the immense worth of Qingyang’s secret art, yet Qingyang Daoist had died.

And worse, he had met Dou Changsheng before dying and gifted him a vial of Rebirth Black Water.

Who in the world would believe Dou Changsheng didn’t know Qingyang’s secret art or how to make Rebirth Black Water?

But damn it, he didn’t know it at all.

Qingyang Daoist was truly a bastard.

Dou Changsheng shook Qingyang Daoist, urgently saying: “Talk properly if you have something to say.”

“You’re a Divine Ability Master—how can you give up so easily?”

“You have many enemies. If they can’t kill a Master, can’t they kill your juniors?”

“Take the Lin family of the capital—Lin Daoqi, their Tyrant Blade, is a Land Rank Master, yet his legitimate son, like Lin Daoqi, is only at the Primordial Realm. Poison them, ambush them, kill a few, and the Tyrant Blade will be heartbroken.”

Before he could even utter “Prime Minister’s Office,” Dou Changsheng gave up.

Qingyang Daoist’s pulse had vanished entirely—his heart had stopped. Dou Changsheng felt profound disappointment.

This matter was truly impossible to explain.

In the future, he would become Qingyang’s heir, the only person in the world who knew how to brew Rebirth Black Water.

Even if someone suspected Qingyang Daoist had harbored malicious intent,

the value of Rebirth Black Water was too great—they’d cling to hope: maybe he does know?

After all, he was merely a Primordial Realm cultivator.

With a clang, Dou Changsheng drew his Hero Sword and laid it across Qingyang Daoist’s corpse. He stared at the body, sensing nothing unusual.

Dou Changsheng also suspected Qingyang Daoist might be feigning death—a test.

He considered stabbing the corpse multiple times through the heart and temples.

But after hesitating, he suppressed the impulse. Qingyang Daoist was the head of San Yang Sect, a Divine Ability Master, and his death during the payroll theft was bound to draw immense attention.

If he acted, he’d be caught.

That was precisely why Qingyang Daoist had been so confident—making no preparations, he’d simply walked calmly into death.

Soon, news of his meeting with Qingyang Daoist, followed by Qingyang’s death, would spread to countless interested parties.

Dou Changsheng sheathed his Hero Sword and went limp.

Motionless, he surrendered all resistance.

He gave up.

He quit.

As long as he stopped caring, no one could touch him.

So what if it was Rebirth Black Water?

He didn’t want it—take it, just take it.

Meanwhile, a paper crane fluttered through the night sky and vanished in an instant.

Even if he planned to quit, with no background, he’d be abandoned and manipulated by all sides—so Dou Changsheng needed to find connections.

Fortunately, he had the contact details of Night Princess Tang Qingyan.

Dou Changsheng intended to hear Tang Qingyan’s advice—she was a Pure Yin Master, experienced and well-traveled; perhaps she could resolve everything, and things wouldn’t unfold as Qingyang Daoist predicted.

A sudden gust of wind lifted Dou Changsheng’s forehead hairs high.

A hollow voice spoke: “You were too careless.”

“At such a critical moment, why go out at night?”

Tang Qingyan had appeared midair, her robes fluttering in the night, like a spirit of darkness, her face indistinct.

“Your movements have drawn much attention.”

“Countless people have seen you meeting secretly with Qingyang Daoist.”

“Now that Qingyang Daoist has died under mysterious circumstances, you can’t explain yourself.”

Tang Qingyan glanced once and understood everything.

Dou Changsheng asked directly: “Sister Qingyan, what should I do?”

Tang Qingyan paused, then said: “You didn’t flee immediately—that’s not bad.”

“There’s still room for explanation—though they won’t believe you.”

“The simplest solution is to use poison to counter poison—to make them dare not touch you.”

“Rebirth Black Water is valuable, but it’s merely one secret art. Similar things exist throughout the world.”

“They target San Yang Sect only because Qingyang Daoist was weak. Had he been as powerful as his ancestor, who would dare covet it?”

“Land Rank One: San Yang Divine Lord.”

“A legendary figure from three hundred years ago.”

“San Yang Mountain, one of the world’s famed peaks, connected to all directions, bustling with trade and splendor, located in the imperial heartland, where sages once taught and emperors carved inscriptions, its sects numerous and none weak.”

“Yet San Yang Divine Lord razed every temple, slaughtered every sect, over a century of conquest, suppressing the capital and the world—no one dared ever again harbor a single thought of coveting San Yang Mountain.”

“What power he wielded then—Rebirth Black Water, reviving the dead, restoring flesh to bone.”

Fuck.

Stop talking.

This is getting too big.

Dou Changsheng finally understood why the Shogunate, the Prime Minister’s Office, and even palace nobles clung to the San Yang Sect.

They didn’t just covet Rebirth Black Water—they sought the legacy of the ancient San Yang Divine Lord.

The Wu Lin Tower’s Heaven, Earth, and Human Rankings might have some fluff at the bottom, but the top spot? Absolutely real.

If he weren’t strong, he’d have been killed long ago.

Land Rank One was a terror capable of making an entire nation stand on guard.

Tang Qingyan continued: “Since San Yang Divine Lord vanished one hundred and fifty years ago, San Yang Sect has declined daily.”

“Yet for over a century, no one has dared destroy San Yang Sect or seize this sacred mountain where sages once taught.”

“Because they fear—this San Yang Divine Lord has already crossed the first Tribulation, and is now undergoing Celestial Transformation.”

“If he returns to San Yang Mountain after completing his transformation and finds his legacy destroyed, no one could bear his wrath.”

“Three Yuan Unification—capable of challenging Heaven. That Heaven? The Celestial Being.”

“Cross the Thunder Tribulation, become a Celestial Being, your name etched on the Heaven Rank.”

“Land Rank One has an extremely high success rate.”

“This is bad news—and good news. If San Yang Divine Lord isn’t dead, you’re his sole heir.”

“We’re family—tell me the truth, Sister.”

“Did you really not obtain it?”