The Upper Realm. The Jiang Family Estate.
"What?! Jiang Che isn't dead?!"
A roar of shocked fury exploded through the grand but oppressive main hall like a thunderclap, rattling the spirit lamps suspended from the ceiling beams.
Jiang Rushan, the former head of the Jiang family, surged to his feet from his rosewood chair and slammed his broad palm against the desk. Fine cracks spiderwebbed across the jade surface.
His face was dark as a thundercloud. There was no joy in his eyes at the news of his son surviving, only rage at being defied and deep revulsion.
"That abomination! He actually dares to still be alive?!" Jiang Rushan's voice was like ice scraping stone. "Back then, his heart was twisted with jealousy. He repeatedly snatched opportunities that should have been Huai'er's, making our family the laughingstock of the Upper Realm, humiliating us beyond measure! Such a rebellious son deserved what he got. His death would have been a house-cleaning! Now he clings to life without remorse, and still has the audacity to exist in this world?!"
Standing beside him, Li Mengdie, the still-beautiful and richly dressed former madam of the house, had long since dissolved into sobs. Tears had ruined her careful makeup, and her entire body trembled as she clutched at her husband's dark robes like a drowning woman grasping at a lifeline. Her voice was ragged, broken, and filled with a mother's raw instinct.
"Rushan! Rushan, listen! It is our Che'er! He is still alive! Our Che'er didn't die. I knew it. I knew he wouldn't fall so easily. I need to find him! I have to see him with my own eyes! This time, no one will take him from me again!" Her cries wove together a frantic joy at his return with the agony of years of grief.
"Father, please calm yourself." A steady, moderate voice broke through. Jiang Huai, the current head of the Jiang family, stepped forward.
He appeared to be around thirty, strikingly handsome, with a warmth in his brow and eyes that put others at ease. His posture was impeccable, his brocade robes lending him an air of dignified authority. The deep, measured aura radiating from him made it unmistakably clear: he had already attained Saint Realm power.
He gently steadied the nearly collapsing Li Mengdie and spoke in a soft, comforting tone. "Mother, please do not overexcite yourself. Since Che-er is safe and sound, that is the greatest blessing. If you make yourself ill, he will only worry when he sees you."
Jiang Huai. The Jiang family's former adopted son. After Jiang Che's "accidental demise," he had leveraged his adopted status, with Jiang Rushan's full backing and Li Mengdie's tacit consent, to gradually seize control of the family. There had been initial grumbling, but once he revealed extraordinary talent and ultimately broke through to the Sage Realm, every voice of dissent vanished.
Now, his words and deeds were beyond reproach, the perfect picture of a filial son and reliable family head.
"Care? If he truly knew how to care, he wouldn't have done those despicable things all those years ago!" Jiang Rushan scoffed. But looking at his weeping wife, his tone softened slightly, though it remained hard and unyielding. "Hmph. If he still knows he carries Jiang blood in his veins, then he should crawl back immediately, kneel before the ancestral shrine, and beg forgiveness from our forebears! He must apologize to Huai'er!"
Ji Yunshu, who had been standing silently at the lower end of the hall, nearly swallowed by this family storm, finally spoke in a low voice. "But... Jiang Che, after all these years, does not seem willing to return."
Her voice was barely above a whisper, heavy with emotions too tangled to name.
"Unwilling to return?" Jiang Rushan laughed as though he had heard the world's greatest joke, his sharp gaze sweeping toward her with a pressuring intensity. "Then what is he doing now? Cowering in some corner, clinging to life by his fingernails?"
Ji Yunshu took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm. "He is currently an elder in a sect in the Lower Realm called Xianling Holy Land."
"The Lower Realm? Xianling Holy Land?" Jiang Rushan let out a contemptuous sneer. "A measly little fish of a sect from the Lower Realm, one I've never even heard of? And you call it top-tier? Truly a frog at the bottom of a well, talking nonsense! The Jiang family has stood in the Upper Realm for ten thousand years, with depths of heritage that no backwater could ever rival. He would rather wallow in such a place than come back and beg for forgiveness? He is beyond saving!"
He turned and gripped Li Mengdie's shoulder, his tone decisive and autocratic. "Rest easy, my lady. Tomorrow, I will personally take you down to the Lower Realm. That rebellious son, even if he has grown wings, I will drag him back! This time, he will not be allowed to throw his tantrums!"
Li Mengdie seized upon this hope, nodding through her tears. "Yes, yes. Go find him. This time we must bring him back. I cannot lose Che'er again. I cannot."
Jiang Rushan nodded, his tone magnanimous, as though granting a favor. "Do not worry. As long as he sincerely repents this time, kneels and admits his wrongs, and promises to behave and stop competing with Huai'er, we are not without mercy. We will give him a chance to redeem himself and rejoin the Jiang family."
After Jiang Rushan led the emotionally overwrought Li Mengdie out of the hall, the lavish but cold space held only Jiang Huai and Ji Yunshu.
The mask of warm concern vanished from Jiang Huai's face in an instant.
He paced toward her unhurriedly, carrying himself with the lazy confidence of a cat toying with a mouse. He extended one hand, his fingertips nearly brushing her pale cheek. His voice was low and magnetic but laced with an icy chill.
"What is this? Now that you know he's alive, you won't even let me touch you? Hm?"
Ji Yunshu jerked away as if dodging a viper, her gaze cold and guarded. "Jiang Huai, don't push it."
"Push it?" Jiang Huai laughed softly, the sound echoing through the empty hall with an eerie chill. "Ji Yunshu, do you really still need to play the devoted and penitent lover in front of me? Back then in the Valley of Ten Thousand Souls, you were the one who handed him that tea of dispersed cultivation with your own hands. You watched him drink it. Where was your hesitation then? Where was your deep devotion? Now that he's somehow survived by sheer luck, you suddenly want to build yourself a monument of virtue?"
"I didn't! I never thought he would truly die!" Ji Yunshu recoiled as though struck by a poisoned needle, her head snapping up, her eyes full of pain and struggle, her voice sharpening with agitation. "All of that was you! You deceived me! You told me it would only..."
"Only what?" Jiang Huai cut her off, a cruel and amused curve forming on his lips. "Only temporarily strip him of his competitive edge, so I could claim that secret realm's inheritance? Ji Yunshu, do not forget: you were the one who nodded. You were the one who served the tea. We are accomplices, you and I."
He pressed closer, his Saint Realm pressure hovering around her like an invisible shroud. "Tell me, what is his cultivation level now? How wretched has he become? I imagine he has not even recovered to Longevity Realm, has he? Compared to his peak, he is probably less than an ant."
Ji Yunshu bit her lower lip, her face draining of color. She said nothing, and her silence confirmed his guess.
Jiang Huai smiled in satisfaction, a handsome expression that nonetheless sent chills down the spine. "Look at us now. I am a Saint Venerable, master of the Jiang family, admired by all. And him? Scrabbling for survival in the Lower Realm, his cultivation in ruins. Times have changed. Even if he returns, what can he do? I would crush him in the palm of my hand without a second thought. Do you expect him to take revenge on me? Or do you expect him to take you away?"
Ji Yunshu's head snapped up, a desperate fire blazing in her eyes, her voice stark and firm. "This time, I will protect him! I will never let you hurt him again!"
"Hahahaha!" Jiang Huai laughed as though he had heard the funniest joke in all of creation, his voice dripping with mockery and disdain. "With what? You, a woman whose Dao heart is shattered, whose cultivation has stagnated? A pitiful creature who cannot even protect herself? Ji Yunshu, stop deluding yourself!"
He laughed again, flicked his sleeve, and strode away without a backward glance.
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