Chapter 35: Final Battle at the Imperial Mausoleum

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Chapter 35: The Final Battle at the Imperial Mausoleum

“Ahem.”

Qin Yuan coughed.

Only then did Li Shoumin realize that Qin Yuan was there. He hurriedly introduced him, saying, “Jingxun, this is one of my elders from the martial world.”

“Elder.”

Miss Sun courteously bowed.

She showed none of the awkwardness one might expect when meeting her future husband’s elder for the first time.

“When are you two getting married?”

The moment Qin Yuan spoke, both of them blushed crimson.

After a while, Li Shoumin finally said, “I don’t have any savings at the moment. I’ll save up some money before we marry.”

As he spoke, he glanced at Miss Sun inquiringly.

Miss Sun did not care about such things, but to spare Li Shoumin’s pride, she nodded and said, “I’ll do as you say.”

People said one should marry a virtuous wife. Miss Sun was precisely the sort of woman they meant.

“I have a way to make you rich quickly,” Qin Yuan said with a smile.

Miss Sun misunderstood him and hurriedly defended her husband. “Elder, please don’t ask Big Brother Li to do anything improper.”

Li Shoumin said sternly, “Jingxun, don’t talk nonsense. How could Elder ever harm me?”

“Do you know Gu Long and Qiong Yao? I’m them,” Qin Yuan said.

The fact that he was Gu Long and Qiong Yao had long since been leaked by some bastard or other.

It was no great matter if two more people learned of it.

The two merely stared at Qin Yuan in silence.

After a long while, Miss Sun said indignantly, “So you’re that Qiong Yao who always speaks up for mistresses in his novels.”

Qin Yuan was rendered speechless.

He had gained the benefits of plagiarizing Qiong Yao, so he also had to bear the disadvantages of having plagiarized Qiong Yao.

“Elder is Gu Long?”

Li Shoumin, whose reaction was somewhat slow, stared at Qin Yuan with shining eyes.

He had admired Gu Long for a very long time.

“I have a subject that I think suits you better.”

“I—I can’t do it,” Li Shoumin said hurriedly, waving his hands.

He looked rather lacking in confidence.

“Immortal Swordsman.”

“Immortal Swordsman.”

The uncertainty gradually faded from Li Shoumin’s face.

As a native of Shu Province, where countless legends of immortal swordsmen had been passed down, he had always wanted to write about them.

And so, two and a half years later—

That is, in the autumn of the fifth year of Joint Governance—

The armies of the north and south could fight no longer.

Calls for negotiations arose one after another.

There were even rumors that both sides had sent envoys to conduct secret peace talks somewhere.

At Little A-Qiao’s breakfast stall, Qin Yuan ate freshly steamed soup dumplings and drank delicious savory tofu pudding while listening to the customers chat about events from every corner of the realm.

“You didn’t see the battle yourselves. It was like something out of myth and legend.”

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“How so?”

“On the northern side, thousands upon thousands of soldiers suddenly transformed into demons. They seized the southern troops and tore them apart.”

“Then wasn’t the southern army finished?”

“That’s what I thought at first. But then a group of people dressed in white appeared. They distributed all kinds of weapons to the soldiers and drove the northern army back. Only later did I learn that they were called Dao Soldiers.”

“What are Dao Soldiers?”

“Magic treasures from novels and plays.”

“They’re that powerful? What were those people in white called? Where did they come from?”

“They’re supposedly called alchemists, and they came from immortal islands overseas.”

Qin Yuan stroked the beard on his chin.

The Ancient Ginseng, the Gu Clan, demons, and alchemists.

Four forces had already emerged. Which faction would appear next?

“Uncle Qin.”

Li Shoumin strode in from outside as though a gust of wind were carrying him.

Ever since he had followed Qin Yuan’s advice and begun writing about immortal swordsmen, he had earned several thousand taels over the past two years.

He could now be considered half a wealthy man.

“Boss, I’ll have the same as Uncle Qin,” Li Shoumin called to Little A-Qiao.

She acknowledged him with a reply.

Qin Yuan glanced at Li Shoumin’s bloodshot eyes and said speechlessly, “You stayed up all night again?”

Ever since Miss Sun had given birth to three sons at once a year and a half ago, Li Shoumin had not slept properly.

“Raising three sons costs money, sending them to school costs money, marrying them off costs money, finding them work costs money…”

Li Shoumin counted on his fingers.

His world-weary expression made him seem nothing like a man who had only just turned twenty.

Qin Yuan saw in him the image of countless old men from agricultural societies in his former world.

He shook his head. “Are you living for yourself or for your children?”

Li Shoumin froze.

After a while, he said firmly, “For my children.”

Qin Yuan did not know whether he ought to scold him or praise him.

In the end, he simply continued eating.

After breakfast, he went to the Office of Left Historians and cultivated while slacking off, as usual.

Late into the night, Qin Yuan stopped and examined his body.

His divine sense had expanded from the size of a large vat of water to that of a great pond.

The golden membrane’s completion had risen from forty percent to seventy-five percent.

The area of his qi sea had grown from the size of a basketball court to that of a soccer field.

His Five-Beast Slaying Art had reached perfection. Over years of fighting the Five Beasts, Qin Yuan had mastered all their abilities.

His cultivation had increased from forty-five years to seventy.

It was time to settle the accounts.

“It’s time to settle the accounts.”

Eastern Mausoleum.

The Empress’s Mausoleum.

Darkness blanketed the land, and all was silent.

Yuting, who had grown to three and a half meters tall and was as fat as a giant ball, descended from the sky. He carried a massive cleaver on one shoulder and held a bloody head in the other hand.

He crashed into the ground, creating a huge crater.

Today, he intended not only to kill the Empress Dowager, but to devour her as well.

Yuting made no attempt to conceal himself.

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His murderous intent blotted out the sky and covered the earth.

The assorted small beasts living in the Eastern Mausoleum fled in terror.

Inside the Empress’s Mausoleum, the Empress Dowager abruptly opened her eyes within her golden-thread nanmu coffin.

“Do you recognize this head?”

Yuting tossed the head from his hand.

Its owner was none other than the Empress Dowager’s most loyal hound, Eunuch Li.

He had guarded the mausoleum all these years.

When Yuting had burst in moments earlier, he had casually torn off the eunuch’s head.

“Take this!”

Boom!

A violent blade aura cleaved open the entrance to the imperial mausoleum and surged straight toward the golden-thread nanmu coffin.

A pale, wrinkled hand shot out from within at an uncanny speed and seized the blade aura.

Then a voice filled with boundless venom rang out.

“Yuting, you have ruined my plans.”

She had nearly succeeded.

But Yuting had interrupted her.

Even if all the waters of the Three Rivers were poured out, they would not be enough to wash away the Empress Dowager’s hatred of Yuting.

Bang!

After lying in the coffin for eight years, she rose stiffly to her feet.

Unlike before, roots covered her entire body. She no longer resembled a human being, but rather an enormous ginseng root shaped like a person.

Dense spiritual energy continuously poured from her body.

Upon seeing this, Yuting swallowed hard, his eyes glowing.

If he could devour the Empress Dowager, he would certainly be able to advance a great deal.

Almost at the same moment, the two of them—or rather, the two monsters—struck.

A blade aura powerful enough to reach the heavens and shake the earth nearly reduced the Empress’s Mausoleum to rubble in an instant.

Yet the Empress Dowager swallowed it whole, chewing with loud, crackling noises as though she were eating crispy rice.

After eight years of lying motionless in deathlike stillness, the Empress Dowager’s Northern Abyss Rebirth Art had reached an inconceivable level.

Yuting suddenly realized that he had been overconfident.

But it was obviously too late to retreat now.

If he gave it everything he had, he still had a chance of victory.

Whether that was merely self-consolation or the truth, even he could not say.

In the next moment, he charged through the force of suction that resembled a black hole and reached the Empress Dowager. With a blade of tremendous strength, he chopped off her head.

It worked.

Yuting was somewhat surprised.

Then the Empress Dowager simply pressed her head back into place.

It was as if nothing had happened.

She could revive even after having her head chopped off?

Somewhat frightened, Yuting swung his cleaver at her body with all his strength. At the same time, a sharp claw pierced through his body and began frantically draining his vital essence, spirit, and soul.

Yuting bit down on the Empress Dowager’s body, tearing away a mouthful of flesh that was rich with the taste of ginseng.

The abundant vital essence gave him the sensation that he could ascend to the heavens.

Then excruciating pain forced the two monsters apart.

In their first exchange, both monsters suffered considerable losses.

Compared with the other, however, Yuting, whose strength was slightly inferior, had suffered more.

“Your flesh is truly the finest delicacy in the world.”

Yuting swallowed hungrily, his face twisted with madness and his eyes filled with greed.

At that moment, Yuting was no longer so much Yuting as he was the Strength Gu.

The End