Chapter 46: The Great War

One sentence after another fell from Shang Si’s lips, her expression calm and unruffled, but Lu Shiyuan could clearly detect the sour edge in her tone.

She felt a headache coming on. This was already the second time Shang Si had taken issue with Yun Feng getting too close to her. “His legs are attached to his own body. If he wants to come, I can’t very well stop him, can I?”

Besides, everything they had discussed over the past couple of days had nothing to do with personal matters.

“Then should I break his legs?” Shang Si shot back, playing off Lu Shiyuan’s words with domineering whimsy.

That way, he wouldn’t be able to come at all, would he?

A dark glint flickered in Shang Si’s eyes. Though her words sounded like a joke, they carried a real chill beneath the surface, and Lu Shiyuan knew she meant it.

“A Si.” She stepped forward a few paces and gently tugged at the other’s sleeve, just as she always had, her voice softening to a tender murmur. “You know perfectly well I have no feelings for him. Why make such a fuss?”

Shang Si let out a soft hum and turned her face slightly aside.

Lu Shiyuan got the message at once. She tilted her head up, eyes curving into delighted crescents as she leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of Shang Si’s mouth.

“Better now?” she asked, her voice laced with amusement.

That single kiss melted away the last traces of displeasure in Shang Si’s heart. She reached out and clasped Lu Shiyuan’s hand in return with perfect naturalness, finally dropping the matter of Yun Feng. “Then let’s get to business. Having Shang Luo come in my place this time was a necessary ruse to throw off suspicion.”

The two found a quiet spot to sit, and Shang Si began to explain at a leisurely pace. “Before you came out, your sect leader must have told you. For this meeting, all the major sects have to rally under Kunlun’s leadership to settle scores with the Demon Realm and force the Jiao Dragon Clan to account for everything that’s happened in recent years.”

Yedu would apply pressure to the Demon Realm as well—that much was inevitable.

A few months earlier, the Fire Phoenix Clan had finally sent word to Shang Si. That single clue had led her straight to the Jiao Dragon Demon, which had been lurking beyond everyone’s sight.

Jiao Dragon were dragons.

Dragons had nine sons, and the jiao was one of them. In a certain sense, this branch was the last race in the Three Realms that could truly be called “dragon.”

Unfortunately, Jiao Dragon were wicked by nature. This powerful demon race had inherited nearly every flaw of the ancient dragons.

Lustful, bloodthirsty, cruel, and quarrelsome above all—most critically, they possessed overwhelming strength. Though their bloodlines weren’t pure, their numbers were vast, making them the mightiest clan in the entire Demon Race today, outstripping even the Fire Phoenix Clan.

Their innate gift was the ability to conceal their auras, allowing them to roam freely throughout the Three Realms. They could even hide and survive right in front of foes several times their strength.

“Qin Lan says Qin Hongchou struck a deal with the dragon demon behind her clan’s back. Kunlun, Purple Firmament—all the Extermination Grand Arrays discovered beneath the major immortal sects in the Mortal Realm over the past half year were laid by the Jiao Dragon Demon sneaking in alongside Qin Hongchou. And the Nine-Headed Birds were in on it too.” The Demon Realm’s top clans had joined forces: Jiao Dragon for concealment, fire phoenixes to deploy the ancient Extermination Arrays, and nine-headed birds to harvest souls and clean up the aftermath.

It was a flawless synergy, enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.

This was a grand plot against humanity, spanning decades—perhaps even a century.

The only misfortune for them was that the scheme had fallen apart by sheer accident, when Shang Si, seeking medicine on Kunlun, had stumbled upon it.

Thus, the Spirit Void Palace Centennial Meeting was no mere quest for explanations or simple negotiations, as everyone assumed. Shang Si intended to excise the Jiao Dragon Clan—the festering tumor of the Three Realms—once and for all.

She wasn’t alone in this. The major sects had sent their young disciples as representatives precisely to lull the Demon Realm into complacency. In reality, cunning old foxes like Lin Xiao had long since slipped in among them.

“So the two realms are going to war.” Lu Shiyuan’s expression shifted through a storm of emotions as she absorbed the tale.

Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides. In those few words, she could already envision the chaos engulfing the Three Realms, the rivers of blood and mountains of corpses.

Of course, all that would only come to pass if their plan didn’t go off without a hitch.

“Not quite,” Shang Si replied. “At least Qin Lan says her Fire Phoenix Clan wants no part in this mess. But thanks to Qin Hongchou, they’ve promised to lend a hand this time.” Qin Hongchou was an elder of the phoenix clan, after all. Without some tangible action, Qin Lan wouldn’t be able to talk her way out of the reckoning afterward, not even with ten tongues.

The joy of their reunion had been utterly buried beneath these world-shaking concerns, leaving not a trace behind.

Lu Shiyuan looked utterly dejected, the weight on her shoulders growing ever heavier.

“I’ll head back first. Give me some time to think it over.” She rose to her feet, her slender hands slipping free from Shang Si’s grasp.

Lu Shiyuan couldn’t afford to be away for too long. Spirit Void Palace was crawling with eyes and ears. If she vanished for an extended period, it would raise suspicions—especially now that she knew just how much risk Shang Si had taken by revealing herself today.

If things fell apart because of her, wouldn’t she become the sinner?

The woman’s departing figure was lonely and desolate, her slender frame standing tall and resilient in a way that inexplicably tugged at the heart.

“Shiyuan,” Shang Si wrinkled her nose, unable to hold back from calling out, “you don’t need to feel so much pressure.”

Lu Shiyuan’s steps faltered on her way out.

The moment she turned around, she shook her head, her voice dropping low. “A Si, before the Centennial Meeting officially begins, we shouldn’t meet in private anymore.”

Shang Si froze for a moment, then nodded. “I understand.”

Hearing Lu Shiyuan say it herself stirred an inexplicable sense of grievance in her, yet she knew this decision was the right one.

“Have my master and the sect leader arrived too?” Lu Shiyuan asked next.

This time, Shang Si offered no more evasions. She murmured an affirmative, giving as clear an answer as she could. “They’ll reveal themselves when the time is right.”

The confirmation brought clarity to Lu Shiyuan.

If her master and the sect leader had come, then a major sect like Kunlun must have dispatched plenty of experts in secret as well.

The immortal sects of the Mortal Realm had mobilized their full strength this time. A brutal clash was inevitable.

The thought of countless more lives lost in this conflict left Lu Shiyuan’s chest tight and heavy.

That night, she tossed and turned on her couch, sleep eluding her. Every time she closed her eyes, unfamiliar scenes of carnage flooded her mind.

Lu Shiyuan had no idea what was happening to her, but one thing was certain: these vivid fragments weren’t something she’d ever witnessed. The brutality wasn’t like a prophetic vision—it felt more like events from a very, very long time ago.

Over the next few days, the remaining sects and clans arrived one by one.

On the day before the gathering, the Demon Realm clans maintained their haughty air, taking their seats fashionably late.

The Human Realm side was different. The Demon Realm had sent the usual heavy hitters—clan leaders or elders.

These wily old demons sharing a table with youngsters like Lu Shiyuan couldn’t help but be overbearing and dismissive when hashing out terms.

Tensions erupted in an instant.

Lu Shiyuan couldn’t recall who struck first. All she knew was that before the spiritual energy exploded outward, she and the other young cultivators tacitly pulled back, leaving the main battlefield to their masters and elders.

Evidently, everyone had received word from their sects. They weren’t ready for a fight like this.

The Azure Frost Sword gleamed with brilliant blue light in Lu Shiyuan’s hand, its sword intent surging as it hummed with power.

But the unbreakable barrier erected by the assembled great powers was beyond her strength to shatter.

Inside the barrier, winds howled and clouds churned in chaos.

The battle unfolded far more smoothly than Shang Si and the others had dared hope, with almost no resistance.

Lin Xiao lounged in his usual carefree pose. The Youth Restoration Pill had restored his youthful looks, setting him starkly apart from the white-bearded elders around him, but his strikes packed serious power.

He joined Shang Si and an elder from Purple Firmament in a triangular formation, pinning the table’s most dangerous foe—the Jiao Dragon Demon—right in the center.

By seniority, this elder of the Jiao Dragon Clan had outlived them all by centuries.

Yet everything was going too smoothly. The thrill of imminent victory clouded their judgment, blinding them to the flaws in the setup.

For one, how could a clan leader from a great Demon Realm house let himself get cornered so easily?

“You aren’t escaping today, Cheng Qi,” Lin Xiao declared, gripping his spirit sword crosswise. Gravity ill-suited to his boyish, handsome face hardened his features as he called out to the demon in the center, now in its true form. “Not just you—every last member of your Jiao Dragon Clan here today stays behind.”

“Is that right?” The Jiao Dragon Demon’s voice rasped with age.

A flash of green light erupted, and Cheng Qi shifted back to human form.

His vicious gaze swept the room before fixing hungrily on that vivid splash of red. “When did the Shang Family of Yedu start colluding with Mortal Realm cultivators? All this effort just to lure us in.”

Shang Si kept her expression cool and distant, offering no reply.

To her, Cheng Qi was just babbling empty threats in his final moments.

“But what a shame… Does Ye Lord think we’ve walked into your trap?” Cheng Qi wiped the azure-red blood from his lips, his smile twisting into something sinister. “What if you’re the ones who’ve been lured?”

Shang Si’s brows knit tight, a creeping unease stirring in her gut.

Cheng Qi barked two eerie laughs, and strange spiritual light began to radiate from his body.

His gaze drifted meaningfully to Lin Xiao, just ahead and to the side, mouthing silent words across the distance.

This blinding radiance was the telltale sign of a demon clan’s self-detonation. Those nearby scattered like a receding tide.

But in that instant, Shang Si suddenly understood.

She deciphered the four words Cheng Qi had spoken to Lin Xiao right before his death.

—“You’re finished.”