Chapter 4: The Reason

The Imperial City of Yedu was the plainest yet most majestic structure Lu Shiyuan had ever laid eyes on, dwarfing every immortal sect palace she had visited by a hundredfold.

It lacked glittering jade towers piercing the clouds, but every inch breathed the ancient aura of a millennium-old legacy. Any ill-intentioned intruder who somehow slipped inside would likely be torn apart by the city’s dense web of formations long before catching a glimpse of Shang Si.

Everyone knew that Yedu’s formations could recognize their masters.

Just as on the way out, her return was equally unobstructed.

Perhaps owing to special orders from Shang Si, no one appeared to question Lu Shiyuan even as she reached the gates of Dawn Splendor Hall.

A rich agarwood scent drifted from the inner hall, strong enough to catch from a distance.

Lu Shiyuan inhaled deeply, closed her eyes to focus, and paused in place. She soon recalled why this potent fragrance felt so oddly familiar.

It was the aroma clinging to Shang Si’s dark hair and silk robes last night, when she had leaned in close to whisper in her ear.

Scents had a way of stirring the mind, conjuring vivid scenes. Lu Shiyuan steadied her breathing, and when she opened her eyes again, her almond-shaped gaze was clear and limpid, like a bottomless pool.

Just then, as she climbed the steps, a figure appeared at the hall’s entrance.

“Liuzhu?” Lu Shiyuan recognized her immediately.

Liuzhu showed no surprise at her arrival, as if she had expected it. “Miss, there you are. The Female Lord was just saying you were taking your time… She’s waiting inside. Go on in.” With a slight bow toward her, Liuzhu hurried off in another direction.

The vast palace stood empty, the silence unnervingly profound.

Lu Shiyuan stepped inside. Crimson beams arched overhead, etched with phoenixes and dragons, while polished golden bricks gleamed underfoot like mirrors.

She moved forward with light steps, parting the beaded curtain with one hand. The pearls and jade clinked crisply in succession.

“Any noise?” Shang Si’s voice drifted from within.

Clearly, she was not alone.

Lu Shiyuan pressed on, rounding the corner to reveal the other person’s full figure.

“Less than half an hour after they were thrown out, someone came from the Silver Fox Clan to retrieve them. Quick work, I must say. The clan clearly cares about these two direct descendants of theirs.” Nan Jin’s voice carried that deep, steady timbre it usually held, matching his composed demeanor—a far cry from the cold ruthlessness he had displayed on the long street earlier.

“Shiyuan, come here.” Shang Si cut him off abruptly, her gaze shifting to the corner.

Whether by illusion or not, Lu Shiyuan sensed the edge in Shang Si’s eyes soften when it landed on her.

With their cultivation bases, the pair had undoubtedly sensed her presence the moment she entered. They simply hadn’t cared.

Lu Shiyuan emerged from behind the wooden cabinet and approached Shang Si, her eyes flicking to Nan Jin as her lashes trembled faintly. “Ghost Lord Nan Jin is here as well.”

Nan Jin inclined his head slightly toward her but offered no deferential bow, as the others in Yedu City did out of respect for her position as Sovereign Consort.

“Just call him Nan Jin.” Shang Si shifted on the soft couch, reclining against one arm, her tone coolly detached.

It had been several hours since Lu Shiyuan had last seen Shang Si after the previous night. The vivid crimson wedding robes were gone, replaced by an ink-wash long skirt. Her dark hair tumbled freely, accented by a striking ornament at the center of her brow—a vision of elegant allure all its own.

That single phrase, that casual motion—it laid bare a certain stance.

Only then did Nan Jin raise a hand in a cupped-fist salute to Lu Shiyuan. He remained proud and unyielding, yet the gesture carried the weight of a thousand pounds. “Miss Lu, my failure to act on the long street was negligence on my part. I hope you will forgive it.”

Noticing the subtle shift in his demeanor, Lu Shiyuan made no pretense of superiority. She curved her lips in jest to wave it off. “Haven’t you already avenged me?”

Nan Jin’s expression faltered for a split second. He glanced instinctively at Shang Si upon her seat.

Sure enough, when Shang Si heard Lu Shiyuan credit him with the deed, her lips twitched downward almost imperceptibly. Her idle left hand drifted sideways before bracing against the table as she rose to her feet.

A moment passed before her vermilion lips parted. “It was his duty.”

Nan Jin: …………

Lu Shiyuan seemed oblivious, her gaze settling on Shang Si’s coolly radiant features as her brows arched playfully. “You told him to do it, didn’t you?”

At last, Shang Si felt a measure of satisfaction.

Not entirely hopeless, she mused.

But in the next breath, Lu Shiyuan spoke again, planting fresh doubt in her mind. “Still, Shang Si, won’t having Nan Jin slap the Silver Fox Clan’s face so openly bring you trouble?”

Lu Shiyuan had seamlessly integrated into the great Yedu family without any hitches, but now she began to worry about her “home base.” After all, the Silver Fox Clan enjoyed a respectable status in the Demon Realm and could be considered a family at the tail end of the first-rate powers.

However—

“Two foxes alone—what trouble could they possibly cause?” Shang Si turned toward her with a look of genuine puzzlement, her beautiful eyes gradually clouding with confusion.

She truly was baffled, neither arrogant nor dismissive.

Shang Si couldn’t understand why Lu Shiyuan kept asking such questions. First, last night, she had compared Yedu’s thousand-year foundation to those old fogeys in the Human Realm. Now she was fretting over whether a mere pair of silver foxes might bring them trouble.

Did the self-proclaimed guardians of justice in the Human Realm view Yedu as some weakling?

“Sparing their lives is already a huge face-saving gesture to those old coots. If they’re too daft to appreciate it, do they honestly expect me to deliver them back personally?” Shang Si suddenly burst into laughter, though the mirth never reached her eyes. It floated there, hollow and laced with a chill.

Pure sarcasm.

Would she even dare show up at their door? And would the Silver Fox Clan dare accept her?

Seeing her mood, Nan Jin chimed in to explain. “Today’s little show was also a probe—to test if the Demon Realm has planted any spies within Yedu City.”

Yedu had always operated with brazen dominance, heedless of reason or propriety. That was precisely why conducting business as usual, with all their usual flair, wouldn’t raise suspicions in the Demon Realm. But if they had handled Ling Yuan and his brother with kid gloves today, letting them go without a scratch, that would have been like shaking the grass to startle the snakes.

In the end, things unfolded exactly as they had anticipated. The moment Nan Jin tossed the half-dead brothers out, someone swiftly scooped them up.

The nearest Demon Realm city was still half a month’s journey from Yedu, yet these people had moved with such speed. It proved that Yedu City wasn’t just riddled with spies—the surrounding areas were crawling with Demon Realm operatives as well. The Silver Fox Clan was nothing more than an insignificant pawn on the surface.

With the point made clear, Lu Shiyuan wasn’t foolish. Linking it to Shang Si’s evident distaste, she immediately connected the dots to prior events. “You suspect the Demon Realm was behind Little Luo’s attack?”

Little Luo was the Young Lord of Yedu whom she had rescued earlier—Shang Luo, Shang Si’s own niece.

That exquisitely carved little girl barely reached Lu Shiyuan’s waist, yet she had nearly perished in the assault not long ago.

They had only just managed to save her, but Shang Si, deeming her cultivation too low and her self-preservation abilities nonexistent, had promptly tossed her into the Ye Capital Secret Realm.

“The Devil Realm was crippled a century ago by a joint assault from your Human Realm’s major immortal sects. They haven’t reopened their realm gate since. Who’s left to stir up this much trouble if not those big-shot demons?” Picking up on Lu Shiyuan’s words, Shang Si let out a soft chuckle. The cold edge faded from her brows and eyes, blooming into the seductive petals of a mandala flower. She lowered her voice. “Tell me, Shiyuan—do you really think those ancient monsters in the Human Realm would come knocking on Yedu’s door for no good reason?”

“. . . You’re right.” Caught short by Shang Si’s sharp insight, Lu Shiyuan fell silent for a moment before breaking into a grin.

Putting herself in their shoes, she had to admit humans were unlikely culprits.

Whether in her past life or this one, she knew human nature all too well.

Those profoundly cultivated immortal sect elders all wished for world peace on one hand and for their descendants to flourish on the other.

Most of them were already wealthy and long-lived, spending their days sipping tea, tending flowers, and occasionally descending the mountain to slay a stray demon or two before lounging in supreme comfort.

Such pursuits were etched into human DNA. Who among them had the spare time or energy for cloak-and-dagger schemes? When trouble reared its head, they scattered like roaches—why would they ever seek it out?

By process of elimination, the Demon Race emerged as the prime suspect.

Moreover, they had gone to such lengths, planting a hidden curse on the gravely injured Shang Luo.

With that realization, Lu Shiyuan turned to glance at the radiant beauty beside her—the very one who had nearly fallen victim to that curse while healing Shang Luo.

It wasn’t some fearsome spell. It simply amplified the seven emotions and six desires, roiling a person’s feelings and clouding their judgment, leading to disastrous choices.

On an ordinary person, it might only sour their temper or heighten their lusts—nothing catastrophic. But on Yedu’s ruler? That was a different story. A sovereign above all had to grasp the big picture and remain ice-cold calm at all times. One misstep, and the entire board crumbled.

The one behind the curse had clearly used Shang Luo as bait, weaving a grand gambit in the certainty that Shang Si would never abandon her kin.

The moment Shang Si fell under the curse and made even a single errant decision, shadowy hands would fan the flames, thrusting all of Yedu into the eye of the storm.

Their ultimate prize? Either the Million Resentful Spirits sealed beneath Yedu’s earth or the Reincarnation Pool entrusted to them when the Underworld met its end.

Whichever fell into malicious hands would shake the Three Realms to their foundations and plunge the world into chaos.

The matter was of utmost importance. It was precisely because of this that Shang Si decided to play along and hold a grand wedding with Lu Shiyuan. She would use the marriage as cover, tricking the one who had cast the curse into believing she had fallen victim to it—her desires endlessly amplified, driving her to this absurd act.

After all, the Ye Capital Female Sovereign had spent many years in her youth traveling alongside a senior cultivator of extraordinary power. Their bond had run deep.

This was no secret anymore.

Lu Shiyuan knew her own appearance closely resembled that senior from Shang Si’s memories.

She was far from the only one. Nearly everyone in the Three Realms who had reached a certain age knew it too—even those who had laid eyes on that senior before her disappearance.

The schemer pulling the strings from the shadows knew it as well. That was why Lu Shiyuan had the dubious honor of becoming such a pivotal piece on this chessboard.

But what of it?

Lu Shiyuan lowered her eyes. Tiny flecks of starlight danced within them, bright and compelling, as if a galaxy had been poured into her gaze.

She didn’t care. As long as Shang Si helped her repair her spiritual root and restore her cultivation, nothing else mattered.

Heaven had dropped a powerful backer right into her lap for free. Only a fool would pass that up.