Chapter 488

Nangong Pushe was annoyed by the other party's smug appearance; her mind was momentarily muddled, and as she slightly parted her cherry lips—which were red without the need for rouge—her pearly teeth bit down on that slender finger.

But she soon realized something was wrong, her pretty face flushed, and she was about to spit the finger out. Who would have thought that the finger would become restless, gently flicking her soft, pink tongue.

Nangong Pushe felt another wave of shame and annoyance; she bit down hard with her pearly teeth, wanting to teach Yu Liancheng a lesson, but suddenly felt that the finger was as hard as iron, nearly chipping her teeth, so she hurriedly spat it out with a series of ptoo-ptoo-ptoo sounds.

Yu Liancheng said with a half-smile, "You're already so grown up, how did you learn to bite people?"

Nangong Pushe gave Yu Liancheng a slight, coquettish glare, but the fact that this action was performed by such a pair of bright, charming peach-blossom eyes, combined with that stunningly beautiful face, actually seemed to carry a unique allure that could not help but make one's heart sway.

Yu Liancheng clapped his hands and laughed, "As expected of the second-ranked beauty on the Rouge List, Nangong, you must never do this to ordinary people, otherwise, regardless of gender, they might just lose their souls and dreams over you." When facing a beauty, he was never stingy with his praise.

Nangong Pushe sneered, "If the second-ranked on the Rouge List is already like this, then the leader of the Rouge List, the Murong pair, is naturally even more extraordinary—toppling cities and states, with peerless elegance. So there is no need to practice martial arts at all; every time they face someone, a single smile is enough to make the other person's bones go soft." Her words were laced with thorns.

Yu Liancheng chuckled and changed the subject, "This time, the Feudatory Kings are entering the Capital as per custom, and the Second Princess has already gone ahead. This trip will be very lively; are you interested in going together?"

Nangong Pushe turned her gaze back toward Tingchao Pavilion, her tone as calm as ever, "Since I said I would read all the books in Tingchao Pavilion, I naturally cannot give up halfway. Moreover, I can sense that although my path may not be as rapid as yours, I have not walked the wrong way."

"Fine, as you wish." Yu Liancheng shrugged.

Nangong Pushe was indeed a cultivation genius. In her original path, after she truly stepped out of Tingchao Pavilion, although she was only in the Finger Profound Realm, her saber technique had reached great completion: six stops to kill a Second Grade, nine stops to kill a Finger Profound, and twelve stops to kill a Heavenly Phenomenon. At sixteen stops, she could break through the Buddhist Great Vajra and treat a Heavenly Human physique like white paper. After eighteen stops, there were no Land Immortals before her; if she struck first, she was invincible.

Nangong Pushe said, "Speaking of which, you really intend to assist the Second Princess in taking the throne? Her talent and martial arts are naturally beyond doubt, but in the end, she is only a woman. It is said that this time, her replacing the Great Pillar Kingdom to enter the Capital has caused quite a stir within Beiliang."

"Just give it a try. It's just a casual move anyway; if it succeeds, all the better, and if it doesn't, I'll just flip the chessboard and start a new game." Yu Liancheng shrugged.

……

While Yu Liancheng and Nangong Pushe were reminiscing, Luoyang looked at the Great Qin Emperor, her face covered in tear tracks, whispering about the experiences of these past years.

That First Demon who had made the people of Beimang panic was, at this moment, indescribably weak and pitiful.

"Alright, Luoyang, I am leaving." The Great Qin Emperor gently stroked Luoyang's hair, his tone calm, his face wearing a smile.

Luoyang couldn't help but be stunned, lifting that stunning face, wet with tears like pear blossoms in the rain: "So soon?"

"That little fellow named Xu Fengnian does not wish to have any entanglements or karma with his past life, and he is very resistant to it. But he is indeed right; why should I, someone who has long since passed into history, occupy someone else's body?"

The Great Qin Emperor always kept a smile on his face, gentle and harmonious, having lost the peerless, overbearing aura of the Emperor of the Ages he had before: "Eight hundred years of time have flowed by; being able to see you one more time, I am already very happy."

"But, but Luoyang still has many things to say to the Great King." Luoyang said miserably.

"A thousand words cannot compare to these two clear tears. How could I not know your heart? It is I who have failed you." The Great Qin Emperor reached out to wipe the tears from Luoyang's face, then smiled slightly and closed his eyes. That vast aura instantly poured out like a bursting river.

"From now on, there is no one in this world waiting for you; you must live for yourself."

"Great King!" Luoyang's beautiful eyes were filled with tears, her voice sorrowful. This was perhaps their last meeting, a true separation between human and God forever.

"Right." Suddenly, the Great Qin Emperor opened his eyes: "What that guy said is true? He is really just a youth who has just reached his coming-of-age? The Martial Dao of today's world has actually developed to this point."

Luoyang couldn't help but laugh in anger. This man's pride was carved into his bones; now that he was about to leave, couldn't he say a few nice words to her while he had the time? She said crossly, "True my foot!? That guy is the number one in the world eight hundred years later. I'm afraid the next nine combined wouldn't be enough for him to fight alone."

"So that's how it is."

"Xu Fengnian" exhaled softly, breathing out the last bit of aura belonging to the Great Qin Emperor: "This time... I am really gone. Luoyang, take care."

His body tilted and he fell to the ground.

But Xu Fengnian soon sat up again, rubbed the back of his head where he had bumped a lump, and gritted his teeth, "Damn that swindler, the Great Qin Emperor who died hundreds of years ago is really good at bluffing, but what does that have to do with me, Xu Fengnian?!"

Luoyang bit her cherry lip with her pearly teeth, retreated several steps, looked at the unfamiliar Xu Fengnian before her, sorrow rising from within, and sighed once more.

Xu Fengnian stretched his body.

No matter who it was, no one would like having their body controlled by others, and he was no exception.

The number one playboy of Beiliang looked up at Luoyang again, revealing a frivolous smile: "Beauty, so you really are the Great Qin Empress. How about it, do you want to be my Princess? Let's continue our past relationship."

Luoyang snorted coldly, the sorrowful mood swept away, and she struck out with a palm.

Xu Fengnian immediately flew out like a kite with a broken string, spitting blood from his mouth.

"Once entering reincarnation, all past dust is forgotten." Luoyang lowered her head and whispered, almost a murmur. Ignoring Xu Fengnian, she turned and walked out of the hall.

"Cough, cough... cough, cough..." Xu Fengnian's face was pale, and he coughed up blood. However, there was no anger on his face, nor was there any of his previous cynical demeanor. He just lowered his head, his expression dim, and said, "Yes, once entering reincarnation, all past dust is forgotten. Eight hundred years have passed; there is no Great Qin Emperor in the world, only the number one playboy of Beiliang, Xu Fengnian."

……

In Tingchao Pavilion, Nangong Pushe had already left. Yu Liancheng casually scattered a handful of bait, followed by the scene of ten thousand carp fighting for food—a lively sight indeed.

"All gatherings of love and affection are impermanent and hard to last long. Life is full of fear, and life is as precarious as morning dew. Because of love, worry arises; because of love, fear arises. If one is detached from love, there is neither worry nor fear."

Luoyang walked over slowly, her white clothes fluttering. The sinister aura between her brows from the past had vanished, yet she seemed to have gained a trace of weakness and sorrow.

She swept her beautiful eyes toward Yu Liancheng.

"I never thought you could say such things. If I didn't know your character, I might have thought you were an enlightened high monk who had transcended the mortal world."

"What, are you deeply touched?" Yu Liancheng chuckled.

Luoyang's expression was slightly dim: "There are all kinds of suffering in the human world, all born from love and arising from love. If a person has no attachments, coming and going naked, there would be no pain or sorrow."

"That was just something I said casually. If one is afraid to gain because they fear losing, then they are just a coward."

Yu Liancheng said calmly: "Furthermore, for sentient beings, if one is indifferent and heartless, without love or hate, even if one attains the Great Dao and longevity, how is that different from grass and trees? If Heaven had feelings, Heaven would also grow old; the righteous path in the human world is the vicissitudes of life."

"If Heaven had feelings, Heaven would also grow old; the righteous path in the human world is the vicissitudes of life." Luoyang lowered her head, chewing on this sentence carefully.

Yu Liancheng added: "You have already seen the Great Qin Emperor, and your eight hundred years of obsession must have been released. What are your plans for the future?"

"I waited bitterly for him for eight hundred years, and wasted eight hundred years in vain. From now on, I will live for myself."

Luoyang was silent for a long while, then suddenly looked up, her red lips curling into a smile, though there was a bit more sinister intent between her brows, as if she had turned back into the First Demon of Beimang, saying: "From now on, there is no Great Qin Empress Luoyang, only the Demon Luoyang. Our agreement—"

After speaking, she drifted away in her white clothes.

"Hey, hey." Yu Liancheng called out twice, but the woman had already disappeared. He couldn't help but shake his head: "Come to think of it, I still wanted to chat with that girl Huang Baozhuang; she ran really fast."

……

On this day, Murong Tonghuang was not idle. First, he went to comfort Huyan Guanyin, whom he had brought back from Beimang, and then chatted with the Great Pillar Kingdom and Li Yishan to map out the next plan.

Afterward, he sought out Xu Fengnian to condense his Luck and do his best to sever his connection with his past life.

This guy's fate was too hard; he was the reincarnation of the True Martial Great Emperor, and it was inevitable that he would affect those around him.

The earliest was Wu Su. When she was pregnant with Xu Fengnian, the Capital White Clothes Case caused this brilliant female Sword Immortal to suffer heavy injuries. After giving birth to Xu Longxiang, she passed away. Yet, a wisp of her fragrant soul refused to leave, drifting in the human world.

Xu Xiao was now only about forty or fifty years old; there might be a margin of error, but not much. For ordinary people, this age was indeed considered advanced, but Xu Xiao was, after all, a Second-Rank Small Grandmaster, and now he was living in luxury and comfort.

However, in the original timeline, after Xu Fengnian became the Beiliang King, he was like a candle flame in the night wind, quickly blown out.

Eldest sister Xu Zhihu caught a cold, yet she fell ill and never recovered, with no medicine or treatment able to save her. This led to Hong Xixiang sacrificing another three hundred years of cultivation in exchange for Xu Zhihu riding a crane to ascend.

Second sister Xu Weixiong, though not of the Xu family, also ended up with broken legs for their sake.

The youngest, Xu Longxiang, was born with a mental deficiency.

Come to think of it, this kid Xu Fengnian truly has the appearance of a "Heavenly Lone Star."

Yu Liancheng mobilized Luck to sever the connection between Xu Fengnian and his past life.

This action had both pros and cons; on one hand, it changed Xu Fengnian's destiny, freeing him from the influence of his past life, but on the other hand, it made Xu Fengnian unable to summon the True Martial God to descend, losing a trump card.

As for whether he could still become a Land Celestial as in the original timeline, that also remains a question mark.

After finishing all this, the sky had turned dark, and Yu Liancheng returned to the residence where he lived.

Pushing open the room, he saw Liuzhu Bodhisattva sitting quietly by the window, head lowered, reading a Buddhist scripture by the afterglow of the setting sun. Her hair, like ink and a waterfall, draped over her fragrant shoulders; she possessed a celestial grace and an otherworldly air, and the white monk's robe she wore added three parts of a holy, ethereal aura.

Yu Liancheng walked up to her with a smile and said, "You've come."

"Mm." Liuzhu Bodhisattva nodded, her soft, thick hair swaying like seaweed, her holy, beautiful face devoid of any expression.

Yu Liancheng asked a few more questions casually, but Liuzhu Bodhisattva only gave a soft "Mm" in response, not even lifting her gaze from the book, appearing even more aloof than when they first met in Xiangfan City.

Yu Liancheng seemed to lose interest in conversation as well; he leaned down and stroked Liuzhu Bodhisattva's dark, glossy hair, which felt like soft clouds. His fingers slid downward, landing on that cheek, which was almost entirely without flaw, carrying a soft and delicate touch that made one completely lose themselves.

Liuzhu Bodhisattva finally put down the book.

She lifted her head, her eyes, clear as glazed glass, looking at Yu Liancheng.

This pair of eyes possessed both the pure, flawless innocence of a child and the profound vicissitudes of one who has seen all the world's affairs.

Occasionally, a look of compassion for the world would flicker through, truly like a statue of a God enshrined in a temple, making it impossible for one to harbor the slightest thought of profanity.

Yu Liancheng suddenly lowered his head.

Ripples stirred within those clear eyes, but her lips had already been captured by the other.

A long while passed.

Their lips parted.

Liuzhu Bodhisattva appeared indifferent, yet a faint rosy glow had stained her jade-like cheeks.

Yu Liancheng said, "Let us engage in dual cultivation."

"……Mm."

A soft, delicate nasal sound rang out.